A proper Irish tea....and sweets!

So what if it's 85 degrees out! I brewed me up some lovely Irish Tea; Tetley tea to be exact! Through a swap on swap-bot, I made a new friend named Claire who lives in Northern Ireland! The swap was to visit other people's blogs to get inspiration and to gain exposure. Claire's blog was one of the blogs on my list and I felt totally inspired! First of all, I "borrowed" her human calendar idea and struggled to make it work (thanks to Debbie I was able to make it work!!!!), then I scrolled down and found some other stuff that got the gears turning.

One of the things that really stuck out was Claire's completed "wreck this journal". I've heard of it before, but never really got the concept. After contacting her about a private swap, we struck up a little friendship. We decided to make our own altered journals using the "wreck this journal" as inspiration. Since the journals would take a while to create, craft, magically happen etc. we decided to swap sweets & munchies in the mean time!!! Claire apparently LOVES unique filled Oreo cookies, so I found a bunch to ship to her. Since Oreos have so many varieties ( I found at least 5, not including the oreo straws and handi-snacks) I picked out the 3 best ones to send to her. I would have sent more, but international shipping is OUTRAGEOUS (even using a flat rate box). She also mentioned that she would like some Lucky Charms as they are a wee bit pricey over in Northern Ireland. So I crammed the large flat rate box FULL to the brim with fun local treats!

In return I received this fantastic box full of yummy goodness!!!! It had: Jameson Irish Whisky fudge, Jameson Milk chocolate truffles, Bushmills whiskey dark chocolate truffle bar (OMG), Guiness dark chocolate Caramel bar, Guinness Fudge bar, O'Neills all butter shortbread cookies (is your mouth watering yet?), a bag of "proper" tea (Tetley), Irish flag colored candy stick, and 2 BEAUTIFUL postcards! I had no idea that booze companies made candies too?! What's a girl to do? Brew some tea!!

I know you all think I dove for the chocolate first, but the words "all butter shortbread" almost gave me a heart attack. I tore open the box immediately. Luckily the cookies were wrapped in 2's so it helped me to ration what I have (sorry mom, I'm not sharing). Since the cookies were so rich, I needed something to wash them down with and my eyes flew to the bag of tea. I opened the bag and was greeted with the most wonderful aroma. It just wafted out and made my mouth water even more. I don't know what kind of crap we have here in America, but it ain't tea! Granted I grew up on mint sweet tea (a southern thing), but this tea was different......it was just richer.

Per Claire's instructions, I made some tea with one sugar and milk. I wasn't sure what "one sugar" meant as I don't have cubes or packets, so I just used one spoon full. People, I cannot tell you how amazing this tea was. It was smooth, strong and yet subtle at the same time....a perfect compliment to my cookie (the last of which was just gobbled up as I type this).

All I have to say is: Thank you, thank you Claire! I love everything. I'm excited that I have tons of chocolate that will (hopefully) last a while, but I can assure you the tea and the rest of the cookies will be gone by the end of the week!

As for the journal, it's coming along great! I'm finding inspiration everywhere. I haven't devoted 100% to it as I have my Mermaid's Trousseau project being wrapped up, but when it's finished I'll post a bunch of pictures of it! It's going to be fabulous people!!!!