daily diary doodles

My love for doodling has returned in the form of #dailydiarydoodles {search for the tag on Instagram and Twitter}. I do love doodles and can be lost for quite some time on Instagram pouring over some and wishing I had the time or notion to doodle again. Well, I found some time a few days ago and loved it! 

I created my first doodle on a postcard that I've included in a #happymail to one of my new penpals. I had the perfect sketch book to use for this new project... my monologue A6 hard back sketch book, it's so luxurious! The cover is bright orange and has a suede like texture. The paper is fantastic! I've used various pens / inks and nothing has leaked through!

The generous people at Grandluxe / Monologue sent me a wonderful package of books to review, I really do love them all... each one I use I decide there and then it's my new favourite {until I try the next one}. A full review of them all will be coming to the blog real soon.

Here's a snippet of my #dailydiarydoodles

Do you doodle? Show me!

A x

teapigs {spiced winter red tea}

I was relaxing in sunny Tenerife when the lovely people at teapigs emailed and asked if I'd like to review their 'spiced winter red tea'... eventhough I may have been sipping a San Francisco Cocktail I emailed straight back to say yes! I've tried a few different varieties of teapigs tea before and have loved them all thus far!

The package arrived today, perfect timing as it was a chilly -4 outside! I so wished I could capture the scent and let you all smell it... think berries, cinnamon, snow angels, warmth, smiles, Christmas....yes all of that, it smelt delicious.

I {im}patiently waited the 3 minutes whilst the tea temple infused then it was time to hug my mug... whilst me and the littlest watched Beauty and the Beast {I love that film}. The tea didn't disappoint in anyway what so ever, I thought I might just have been blinded by the fact that it was a nice warm drink when it was so chilly outside so I had another cup just to be doubly sure...I love it!

It's not fruity {I'm not a big fan of fruit teas}, it's more a warm, soothing, lightly spicy tea. Perfect for this time of year. It would make a perfect gift for your favourite tea drinker. The Christmas Shops is now live on the teapigs website and there are some great gifts... some of my favourites are:

pick n' mix sample packs... this is a great way to try out the different varieties without buying the bigger boxes and it's a great price too. I might just be purchasing this for myself and to share with some of my Postcircle friends, I think we all love tea!

I have far too many cups / mugs but I love this afternoon tea for two gift set {Santa, are you reading this?}

Oh yummy festive teas how lovely you'd be in my stocking!!

And you can buy the spiced winter red tea here... 

A treat for all you lovely people... if you enter the code XMAS13 at checkout you'll get a whopping 20% off {excludes cheeky deals, mix & match and matcha kits}... code valid until the end of December! 

Well that's my cup empty {I may have had 5 cups of this delicious tea today but not to worry it's naturally caffeine free}...

Let me know if you try it and what you think?

A x

The lovely teapigs people sent me a box of spiced winter red tea to review. 

This review is my honest opinion of the product.  

{Cafe Ceramico}

We had such a fun day yesterday. An impromptu day off together (once we'd jumped on the bed to waken the Mr from his night-shift sleep... he didn't mind!)

We arrived at Cafe Ceramico around 12pm. We hadn't been before but I had read a review from Glasgow Mummy and it looked like heaps of fun! I had emailed Cafe Ceramico in advance to ask if the activities would be suitable for my littlest as she's just turned two. One prompt reply later Simon assured me that it was all about having fun and that it was!

When we arrived we were greeted by friendly staff who talked us through what to do. We chose a ceramic to paint... this took some time as there was so much to choose from. We chose a dragonfly as it was just the right size for the littlest to hold. We sat at a big table where a family was already painting their ceramics, everyone was having a great time. We put on an apron and got to work painting away.

Little one has such fun, choosing colour, painting dots, then painting over them all and starting again... 'more paint Mummy'. Once we had finished a member of staff took the dragonfly away to let it dry and to coat it with some shine and glitter. We headed down to the cafe area and ordered some lunch. We had toasties and coffee and littlest had a toddler lunch which was a ham sandwich, juice, crisps, chocolate fingers. It was great value for money.

There is also a small soft play area. This was a perfect size for a two year old! We're not regular visitors to any soft play so littlest took a few attempts to climb up the platform, but once I showed her how to hook her foot she was off and had great fun! By this time there was only another 2 or 3 kids there so it was nice and quiet.

Here's the finished piece...

We'll definitely be visiting again, it was a great activity for a rainy day!

You can visit Cafe Ceramico website here and Like them on Facebook here

A x

Smitten {Matcha Style}

Can I just say... we're going on our haw-lee-days tomorrow morning! Just a little excited! OK, now I've got that out my system.. I'm linking up with Glasgow Mummy for Smitten Saturday, pop on over and join in!

The lovely people at teapigs sent me some Matcha Tea to sample for their #MatchaMay. When it arrived it looked very much not like tea... it was a green powder!  But an information booklet and note were provided and it explained the process for producing it AND the health benefits so I was looking forward to trying it!

There's lots of ways to serve your Matcha Tea but I opted for simply adding hot water and whisking until smooth. It was a dark green in colour and had a much stronger smell than normal green tea but it was really nice!! I don't think it's the type of tea were after a hard days work you'd rush home and make a cup to relax...I think for me it's more of drinking a cup with a main meal or early morning knowing the health benefits.

teapigs Match Tea

I am a huge fan of teapigs and I love their green tea with mint. I am considering buying some Matcha Tea as I imagine it will help me focus as I have such a busy lifestyle. It is quite expensive but when you break it down per cup it's not so bad. You can even add the powder to baking / cooking!! Take a look at the links and see how amazing this tea sounds! I still have some of my sample left, which I'll keep to kick off my healthy eating once I return from my {all inclusive} holiday in the sun {have I mentioned that yet?}

So there you have it.... I'm Smitten with teapigs, such a cool brand! If you pop over to www.teapigs.co.uk and use the code BLOGGERS12 you can get 15% off, you can also sign up for their newsletter!

Don't forget to check out Glasgow Mummy page and link up and tell us what you're Smitten with.