Four

Four cups of tea

October Doily in May

Remember Graceful Autumn?  Well, it's finished now!  This is actually my first ever piece made completely from a pattern, from start to finish.  Usually I'll start from a pattern and then freehand when I get bored or something doesn't go well.  In fact, I didn't actually use the correct size hook in this case (in my defense I started it while on vacation and only had one size crochet hook with me) and towards the outer edges it does tend to get a little but ruffled.   But overall, I am very happy and excited to have made a proper doily, all by myself.

See?  It looks just like the picture!

It's so Hot

The past few days have been very warm.  I've been making small batches of iced tea so that I have something cold to drink:

As you may know, I like jars,  and mason jars make nice large sized drinking glasses.  I've found that 4 teabags work well in this size.  Before I pour in the boiling water, I'll rinse it out with hot water from the sink to warm the glass; I let the teabags steep for 15 or 20 minutes (depending on the type of tea I am using).  I like the small batches because I can make multiple flavors.  On the left is rooibos, and on the right is green tea with blueberry.  

Tea Time

The book is called Best American Humorous Short Stories.  The foreword is very interesting.

Greasey likes the milk and has no qualms about drinking it right in front of me.  If I shoo her away, she'll come right back.  She will drink anything I leave out if she can reach the liquid, and sometimes if she can't.  I caught her once drinking orange juice by reaching her paw into the glass, dipping it into the juice, and then licking it off.  She also likes to knock things over: sometimes she gets angry that the water level is too low, and she'll push the glass of water off of the table.  I keep telling her "that's why we can't have nice things," but I don't know that she listens.

teapot collection

Yesterday we went to the MOMA and saw the bauhaus show. It gave a much better insight on the purpose and goal of the Bauhaus than anything I learned in art history classes. But what I loved were the metalwork pieces by Marianne Brandt. She became head of the metals workshop at the Bauhaus in 1929 and her work is fabulous:

She creates beautiful forms out of a very few shapes:

Oh. . . and the teapot. The shapes are all so simple. Circles and right angles--but look what they do when they come together.

And then we got to see this set by Nikolai Suetin:

He was a Russian Suprematist, which is part of that early twentieth century avant garde rebellion against any form of decorative flourish. This set is upstairs with the German expressionists. (I don't know why).

But I do love this teacup:

And the teapot:

This plate--and look at the other teacup in the corner.

And, while I'm on the subject of fabulous tea sets:

I. Want. This.

It's from Paint Chip Diaries' etsy shop and it's fabulous.