the third annual advent tea swap

Here we go for the third time, tea-lovers! It's time to collect up a few extra bags of your favourite teas, ready to send, and then watch your post-box for weird and wonderful teas arriving from around the world!

What you'll need: 25 bags of tea. (20 to swap, 5 for yourself)

What you'll do: You'll be paired up with four other tea swappers, and send each of those people 5 bags of tea. 20 bags of tea will arrive for you -- paired with the 5 you kept for yourself, you'll have enough for one bag of tea for each day of advent, and a one for Christmas Day.

You can make yourself a tea wreath or calendar to display your advent tea, or just keep all your teas in a nice pot by the kettle!

How to join in: Send me an email at astrid@redredcompletelyred, before Monday, November 12th, including your mailing address, so that we'll know where to send the tea!

(Note: if we have enough local interest, Bryan/College Station folks, we can have a separate swap group without the need for postage)

photo credit

{a year of graces}

This year, I got myself a free little calendar, with space to fill in one good thing about each day -- a moment of joy, a small, beautiful something. You can print your own over at Ann Voskamp's site.

 I love the simple photos that accompany each month -- a nice reminder to be thankful for the eggs in your fridge, or the view from your window.

Also nice is that if you do forget one day, it's really rather easy to go back and fill in the days before (as I did ten minutes ago...). So far this year, I've been grateful for:

•  a New Year's Eve that reminded me that you can still have great nights with friends after you have children, 
• a bit of last-minute inspiration that turned into a make-it-the-night-before birthday present for Justin, 
• and a day of enjoying all of Justin's favourite foods -- chocolate chip waffles, Taco Tuesdays at Rosa's, macaroni and cheese with bacon, and finally, peanut butter brownies (and we'll shortly be enjoying time at the gym to pay for all that...)

Hope there's been lots of joy in your year so far, too!

Linen Calendars

Okay, I admit, I didn't quite give you the whole story when I said that Justin's Grandma gave me a box of quilt scraps. The truth is, she really gave me about six boxes, each loaded with new and exciting things. I thought showing you all of them at once might be a bit of vintage-treasure overload, so instead you'll get them one at a time, just like I did. 

In box number two, rolled up neatly like so many scrolls of ancient wisdom, was half-a-century's worth of linen calendars. The oldest, I think, is from 1960, and though a few years were missing, most are here, still beautifully colourful, on gorgeous heavy linen.

My favourite of them all is this folky mustard-coloured calendar below, from 1980. The figures seem like they could have popped right out of a Hans Christian Anderson story!

Now, I can't promise that these calendars will be reincarnated quite as quickly as the patchwork scraps, but they are here, waiting for inspiration to strike, ready to cast off their old dates and take on the new year!

Adventure

This year, advent kind of snuck up on me. Sure, I had our sweet little advent train out on the counter, but it hadn't occurred to me to buy any treats to put in it yet.

So, yesterday, I was rummaging through the cupboards trying to find something to stick inside. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, (the only chocolate in our cupboard) unfortunately, do not fit.

So, I went healthy... almonds. They fit just fine, but Justin was not impressed to open the little door and find a nut!

"Where are the Hersey's Kisses this year?"

I guess I'm off to get some today...