Curiouser And Curiouser

I am back from my lovely holiday spending Christmas with my friends and family. Sorry about the lack of postage, but the internet situation was not conducive to blogging. My parents are in the middle of moving so everything was in a bit of an uproar, but I am here now and ready to share all the things I have saved up!

More from all of my break later, but for now here are a few curious things I am excited about, to ring in the new year....

The first is that today at work (I work at the most adorable English style tea room called Chantilly) a group came in for tea and one of the girls (who was not a little kid) was dressed up like the Mad Hatter! And we are not talking just a hat here people, she had a full out costume including hat, wig, coat, and accessories. Unfortunately I did not get a picture, but that girl is my hero!

Second, I bought a vintage tea cup today (also from where I work) that will blow your mind. I had never seen one like it before so I had to buy it.

The little bridge across the top of the cup is to protect one's moustache when they are drinking tea! Is that not the funniest, randomest, I have to have that tea-cupiest thing ever? I almost wish I had a moustache just so I could get the full benefit. I love it.

The third and fourth curious things are two vintage items I got at this adorable store in Redmond, OR (more on that later). Look at this table cloth...

Notice anything strange? Now I haven't been to Florida much, but I am pretty sure they do not have saguaro cactus. It is like someone from far away who had never actually been to Florida made a tablecloth using whatever idea they had in their head of what Florida might be like. Love it! And I love the colors. And it works well here in the AZ because of the cacti. (One other curious thing: why my candles will never stay standing upright.)

And let us not forget the awesomest pillow there has ever been in the history of the world. I also bought this item because I had never seen anything like it. I believe the words "what the...!" sprung instantly to mind.

Is it just me or is it almost slightly threatening? Loves, loves, loves it!

Last, but not least, after returning from Oregon where it was cold and snowing, I was looking forward to the warmer weather of Arizona. However, I was a bit disappointed and also surprised, to find that it is cold and snowing here too! I mean I know AZ gets snow and I wasn't too shocked to see it on the mountains behind our house, but I was surprised when it was actually snowing at our house here in Tucson! Crazy weather.

Have a happy New Year lovely bloggy friends!

ps. I almost forgot one last, very curious, thing. In my hometown Bend, OR there is a house that has the whole front yard decorated with bones.

A little creepy, but I am totally on board as I have had a thing for bones ever since I was a little kid.

Happy Christmas From Oregon

Helllooooo! I am just checking in to say that I am now in Oregon for Christmas. I will hopefully still be able to post some, but do not know exactly what my internet/photo uploading capabilities will be, so we will see. I do have some pictures from the trip over to share though, so hopefully it will work out.

I hope I will see you very soon, until then have lovely holidays!

Sunday Loveliness

Yesterday I had the whole day off! No work (at either job), no homework, nothing that needed immediate doing.....lovely. So what did I choose to do with this whole day? Why spend it watching a Lord of the Rings marathon of course!

Yep that is right, all three Lord of the Rings movies, straight through. Oh yeah and they were the extended versions. That is over eleven hours of movie epicness. It was legen.......wait for it.....and I hope you're not lactose intolerant, because the next part of that is.....dary! (haha thank you How I Met Your Mother)

Anyway it was super awesome. And add to that day, pumpkin pancakes, popcorn with butter, a roaring fire, and candy cane kisses! Yum. Best day off ever.

And today I got my new camera in the mail yay! Mister B got it for me for Christmas. It is an inexpensive, small, point and shoot camera, which is perfect because the other camera I have is big and not practical to carry around in my purse.

I usually don't use the flash on cameras a lot because I don't really like that bright washed out look they usually give. So the test of whether this camera will work for me is a low light shot without the flash. Here is how it looks with a shot similar to the ones taken above (with my other camera) for comparison.

Not too shabby for sixty bucks! It is a bit grainy, but it came with a two gig memory card which means I can turn it up to the highest quality (this picture was only on the second highest) and it will still hold over 300 photos. I am quite pleased! And the best part is it is nice and compact so I can easily carry it with me everywhere. No more having to use my phone to take a picture because I don't have a camera on me!

Furry Love

It seems like every time I see my two furries cuddling together I have to take a picture. Even though all the pictures look the same I still take one every time because I can't resist the adorableness! I feel like other people would be like, "um why do you have so many pictures of your cats?" And I would respond "they are cuddling together, aren't they the cutest?!" and they would be like "yeah that's great Alia..."

Haha. Oh and have I mentioned how Cuppa Tea sleeps in the bed like a person? In the early morning he paws at me until I lift the blanket up. Then he goes under, turns around, and comes out just enough so his head is out and then he lays down and puts his head on the pillow next to mine. It is seriously the sweetest thing ever. I just want to squeal with delight every time! It actually makes it harder to get up in the morning because I just want to snuggle with him.

I am such a sucker for the cute things my cats do.

Here is a video I made for class. The assignment was to learn how to use Movie Maker so I made a cat video. Feel free not to watch it, since it would probably be boring to anyone but me!

Okay so the video isn't working. I can't get Blogger to upload it from my computer. Any suggestions? I will keep working on it.

Is anyone else a huge dork for their furries? I think some of you probably understand how it is!

Christmas Tea & Jamie Oliver

Dear Cooking Channel,
Thank you so much for bringing Jamie Oliver back into my life!
Sincerely,
Alia

I used to watch Jamie's show Jamie At Home all the time when it was on. he is absolutely my favoritest chef! He is super funny and charming, and the setting that he cooks in on his shows is his own adorable English cottage. I was quite sad when they stopped airing his show, but now, thanks to the new Cooking Channel, he is back! He has a series on right now called Jamie's Family Christmas, and it has all the wonderfulness of his old show, with the added magic of the holidays. I am just so happy about it!

It is also the perfect thing to watch while drinking Christmas Tea.

During their holiday open house I bought two new teas from Island Tea Company: Christmas Tea and Midnight Celebration. The Christmas Tea is basically Christmas in your mouth, it has yummiest aroma and taste of cinnamon, cloves, and orange, basically all the smells that remind me of Christmas. The Midnight Celebration is delicious too, it smells exactly like eggnog, but tastes much milder, more like vanilla.

Since it was for their open house they also included free samples and gifties, yay!

And speaking of eggnog, I now work at Chantilly Tea Room, which is the cutest English style tea room here in Tucson, and I love it! Anyway they have eggnog scones for the holidays, and let me tell you they are soooooo good. I brought some home to have with my Christmas Tea today.

It was perfectly festive with red and green.

And did you notice a few twinkling lights in the background? I am getting in the spirit and putting up my holiday decorations! Including the cotton ball garland I made last year from the tutorial over at A Fanciful Twist, thanks Vanessa!

Oh also, did you see the sugar bowl on my tea tray? I recently got a matching set of sugar bowl and creamer at Goodwill for fifty cents each! I was so excited, I love the color.

Thrifting is the best.

So that was me getting in the holiday spirit today. How about you? Are you starting to feel the magic?