An Afternoon Cousin Tea Party

Yesterday afternoon two of my cousins, Daniel & Jay, came to visit Romy for the first time. My Mum & Sister also joined us and we had the loveliest afternoon tea party. The boys brought a delicious almond meal cake topped with dried figs, rose petals and pistachio nuts, and it was seriously one of the most amazing cakes I've ever had! I finally picked up my teapots, tea cups & T2 teas from my parents house where they have been living since my baby shower two months ago for our afternoon catch up. The last time I had seen my cousins was at my sister's wedding two years ago, so our catch up was much over due! 

Tea For Three

My sister Ashleigh, Myself + My cousin Sarah

Today has been a pretty lovely Friday, even though the weather has been horrendous. Luke had a late start this morning so we got to have breakfast together. We bought some coffees, and came home so Luke could make French toast for breakfast. After I drove him to work, I went to the shops and bought some new Spring dresses. An old friend whom I hadn't spoke to in a while called while I was dress scouting, and believe me when I say that trying on clothes while holding a phone up to your ear with your shoulder and maintaining concentration about a serious topic is hard! My cousin is visiting us this evening and we're having a little family dinner together at my parents house. I haven't seen her since she last visited late last year. Most of my family live in Gunnedah, so there is always large gaps in-between seeing them all. Ashleigh, Sarah & I had a late lunch date at Two Birds Gallery, which is one of my favourite cafes on the Central Coast and is conveniently a block away from my flat. And afterwards came back to my place for cups of tea. I finally opened the Vanilla + Mint Tisane I bought from T2, and if you have the chance to buy/try it, I suggest you do so! 

Tea In Bed + Giveaway Winner!

Sunday evenings are by far my favourite night of the week because Luke & I both don't work, and its one definite evening we have during the week that we get to hang out. We usually either make dinner together and then go to the movies. Or we go out for dinner at this neat little restaurant near our house. This Sunday it was a miserable cold night so we rented dvds and watched them in bed with pots of tea. While we were in Sydney last week we picked up some new teas at the T2 store, Vanilla Mint Tisane & A Creme Brûlée Black Flavoured Tea. We've made a dint in the Creme Brûlée box already!

Oh, and the winner to the $20 Store Credit for The Sapphire Bee's online store is..

Lauren from My Happy Thought!

If you would like to host a giveaway that is suited to the content on Tastes Like Love, I'd love to talk to you about it! Send me an email -  laurenemily[at]y7mail[dot]com

I Enjoy Mondays The Most

I know a lot of people don't like Mondays, but I've started to really love them! For most of last year I hated them because I had a Monday - Friday office job, and the year before that I studied. So its really nice to have Mondays as the day I enjoy the most. I would usually sleep in, but today I had to run an errand for work which got me out of bed early for the day. I picked up morning lattes and when I got home Luke was making eggs for breakfast. We never usually get to see each other for meals, particularly breakfast because we work different times so it was especially nice this morning. I drove Luke to work and came home and tidied our flat and washed a ridiculous amount of clothes. It has been raining on and off here for almost two weeks and our washing was starting to grow legs. I listened to records today for the first time in ages and broke my National record in for the first time! I also worked on a paint chip frame for a friend, and organised my Twinnings tea collection. I like to buy their ten tea bag sample sizes, and they recently had a collectors tin available so I bought that to store all of their different teas in it. I now have so much more room in my tea cupboard for new tea! 

After I finished doing my morning jobs I went to the shops to get some more shirts to wear to work, and some stockings and a new black long sleeved dress that I've been eyeing off for a few weeks. When I got home Luke was on his work break so we had lunch together, and then I dropped him back to work and paid a quick visit to my parents. After I got home I started a custom illustration that I've been really excited to start, and I'm really excited to share it in a couple of days! Luke finished work early and he made dinner while I danced around him singing songs. And to finish my Monday, we watched How I Met Your Mother with cups of tea. I didn't quite cross everything off my to-do list, so I'll have to get onto that this Friday!

Read Your Book In Bed/Easy Photo Editing

For a while now I've been lusting after a wooden tea tray, and at the start of this week I found one I liked enough to introduce to my tea drinking paraphernalia. It was broken in quite purposefully today, which was an especially cold and reading-a-book-in-bed afternoon. 

One of my goals this year was to make more of an effort/spark my interest with photoshop, so I tried out a super duper easy photo editing tutorial to give your photos a vintage feel. 

1. Open your desired photo in photoshop
2. Set colour palette foreground colour # value to ff0000, and background colour # value to 00ff00
3. Duplicate layer
4. Select new layer, & select Gradient Map in Images>Adjustments
5. Select layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. In pop up box set blend mode to colour and opacity to 50%
6. Flatten image
7. Add noise filter by selecting Filter>Noise>Add Noise, set amount to 2%, select distribution as Gaussian & tick the monochromatic box
8. Done!

I played around and adjusted the tone and contrast levels on my image afterwards. For a more detailed step by step explanation click here. Alternatively, you could just use instagram!

Afternoon Tea

My babefox friend Holly came over on Friday afternoon to visit my new flat, and to have cups of tea and much needed catch ups! Holly is one of those effortlessly fashionable ladies. We used to work together at the start of the year & every day her outfits were always perfect, neat & girly. Her boyfriend just lives around the corner as well, so hopefully that means we'll get to see each other more now!  I made cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, fresh cherries, and had some biscuits to go with a pot of Russian Caravan tea, and a pot of French Earl Grey. I was also the lucky receiver of these wonderful treats as a Christmas present - a sweet pea & gardenia fragrant candle, hand stitched Rifle Paper Co. floral notebooks & the cutest damn little coin purse I've ever seen! I can't wait to put my pennies in that and take it with me on my travels! Holly is the biggest sweetheart, and I can't wait to have more cups of tea with her in the new year!

Coffee Date & Cups of Tea

Today Luke & I ventured to Newcastle for an 11am tattoo appointment. Luke got the hottest tattoo of his child hood crush, Velma from Scooby Doo. I dropped him off at his appointment & met my dear friend Elisa at an old coffee house haunt for lattes and catch ups. It's been a month or two since I saw her last, and she's gone and got herself a cute straight fringe, and was sporting the most amazing nail polish, OPI crackle polish(check out her fingerrrr). She's one of the biggest babes I know.


After catch up lattes, I visited my lovely best friend Lara for cups of tea. We had two pots of tea; cinnamon & apple, and rosehip tea. They both were delightful, the cinnamon & apple would make for a perfect cup of ice tea. We spent most of the afternoon out together until Luke's tattoo was finished. We met up with Luke & checked out the controversial Laman Street Figs. Across from the art gallery in Newcastle is the most beautiful row of fig trees that provide the most picturesque city park, it truly is a beautiful spot. And for the past year or so there has been great controversy surrounding the figs as the council deems them a hazard, and therefor need to be removed. The figs are quiet a prominent Newcastle feature and the Newcastle Folk really do not want to part with them, and have so far been successful in saving them, however, last week they began turning them into wood chips. The overwhelming amount of protesters caused the demolition to cease action for a while, and since the first few branches were destroyed there have been peaceful demonstrations to encourage fig support. So we went down to the figs and there was a committed bunch of fig folk encouraging Newcastle drivers to 'honk' if they like trees. There were horns going off left, right & center! 


Afterwards we picked up some take away lattes & Luke & I made our way back to the coast in peak hour traffic. We finished off our lovely day with a pick-a-little-plate for dinner and drinks.

Date

A couple of days ago Luke & I had a charming little date which entailed mid morning cappuccinos & a sneaky slice of pecan pie at Cafe Macaw. Then off to the movies to see 'Conan The Barbarian' - Luke's choice. I won't fib, it was a lot more intriguing than I thought it would be. Luke persuaded me to go with a promise of a new dress afterwards, so I went. Because he is such a nice husband, he also bought me Peter Bjorn & John 's, 'Gimme Some'. Afterwards we made a quick stop by Mad Mex for dinner & came home to finish our day off with cups of tea!

Tea Parlour

It needed its own post because of how amazing it is!

Tea Parlour blog //  Tea Parlour Facebook

Weekend Delights pt.2

This weekend was quiet a lovely couple of days from a not very nice week.

Friday was a little hectic at work as we were finishing up a competition with prize money, so everyone had hyper spirits and mite. It was actually kind of fun. I came third & picked up a cute $40. My luscious friend Lara was bursting at the seems with gossip & called me mid afternoon to share, which brightened my day considerably. I could go into a whole gourmet gossip session & spill milk on it, but I think thats a little tacky almost. The most important thing though, is that I drove home with the nicest taste in my mouth!

I had a dinner date with Ninny, we had a nice spicy batch of minestrone & baked vegetables & a quick catch up before I had to dash off to pick Lara up from work. We had a cute little sleepover in her new house, with her new little kitten Kernel, some delightful cocktails & a funny drive around Newcastle. In the morning Lara had to clean her old house, and I had breakfast with my friend Elisa, who drips cuteness. We had our date at this new cafe on Darby Street. I thought it was going to be more ridiculous than it was. They had the nicest dinning table that was a bright pastel beach blue with bright red chairs. I've made a mental note for my future dinning set. And afterwards met up with Lara again for coffee.

Afterwards, I made my way home in a tiresome state, and had cups of tea with my sister & Ju. And finally broke in my 'Daria' boxset & finished my Saturday off with a big nap.

Sunday I neglected to sleep in like I really wanted to, and awoke to do washing & have cups of tea with my family. I went to the shops to exchange a plain black skirt, for another plain black skirt, look for a new handbag, and spend more money I should be saving. I found a bag that is just right, but might be a little too small. But I think that could also be a win as I tend to let my bag house unnecessary things, eg. paper toilet seat covers. I finalllllly got myself a much needed pirate patch! At last I lashed out and picked one up for a whole dollar! And, a zebra face mask!! I'm going through a mask (literally, not metaphorically) phase. And to finish off a pleasant weekend, Luke & I made pizzas & watched Daria with cups of tea!