(don't) forget your lunch

I’ve been finished school for about a week now but I’ve been taking a much needed rest so I haven’t made bento in quite a while!  And I haven’t got one for you today either, but I finally got a job (start tomorrow!) so I’ll be making lots more this summer for sure.

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Way back at the beginning of March I signed up for oh hello friend’s collection swap and I got paired with a lovely lady named Anna who runs a food blog called Blondie’s Cakes where she shares some lovely recipes and beautiful, clean photographs of what she makes.  You should take a look!  I love the way she writes - it’s so friendly.

But, I have to apologize to her because at the end of March when we were due to send out our packages I was kind of at the end of my rope, school was insanity and I was not sleeping so my package was not as full as I had wanted!  I’m sorry Anna!  I did take some time out to hunt for a pretty teacup to add to her collection - I hope it got there in one piece.  Anyway, when I got Anna’s package I was dumbfounded - it was filled with so many lovely goodies

O.o so pretty!

She made that card in the top right hand corner herself!  It’s so pretty :3  And all wrapped up in the center is homemade jam.  HOMEMADE - my goodness. <3

I knew immediately I had to send her a thank you card and some more goodies and I remembered that I had planned to made some tea bags filled with some of my favourite tea.

I also busted out the polymer clay and made a cake.

I may or may not have also made earrings for myself :3

Anyway - there’s something in the mail for you Anna!  I hope you’ll forgive me :)

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Heart shaped handmade tea bags

I can’t promise that this is a quick project - but it’s kinda nice on a rainy day!

Cut a heart out of cardstock and trace it on to prewashed, very lightweight muslin.  You really don’t need very much.  Use something that gets wet really easily!  I traced a couple hearts in a row and then folded the fabric underneath, pinned and cut about 10 out at the same time.  

Sew them leaving a hole on one side near the point and then turn them inside out and iron them.  Seriously, iron them - if you fold in the seam allowance from the hole (it’s annoying, I know) it’s a lot easier to sew shut.  I sewed them on my machine but you could hand sew….if you really want to…

Fill with tea and sew shut.  I used a small running stitch, but you could whip stitch or stitch in the crease, it looks nicer but only if your stitches are small and its kind of annoying.  I filled these ones with dragon’s well green tea from China with osmanthus flower from Taiwan (I brought these back from my trip last year).  I made another set filled with Ali Shan oolong tea from Taiwan.

Then I made some tags and attached them with thread.

Then I packaged then in cello bags and made a sticker for a label.  Ugly picture, sorry!

Of course I had to make one extra to test out. :3

<3

Maybe a good mother’s day present?  I would make some more for my Mom but she has so much tea already.  Well, at least there’s lots of rainy days coming up if you wanna make some of these too…heh.  Happy Spring everyone!