Novel-Tea: Part 4

This isn't a novel, so I know it's going against my novel-tea rules. What it is - a freaking funny and eclectic jumble of musings from my favorite talk show host ever. Ellen!

I love her show, and when I was unemployed for several months last year trying to finish my novel, almost every day I'd watch her show in the morning from 10-11 and then write. Now that I've joined the workforce again, I DVR her. I love her dancing, pranks, and surprises.... especially when she helps those who are facing troubled times.

I've never paid attention to who I hear in my head when I read. Throughout this book, I heard Ellen's voice, like she was reading the book to me. It was a nice distraction from hearing my own voice, which is how I normally read. I don't make up voices in my head unless I KNOW the voice. Speaking of...was anyone else soooo relieved to finally hear the first time someone said "Hermione" in the Harry Potter movies? Did anyone else call her Her-me-own?

Did you find that last paragraph annoying? If so, you might not like this book, because it's written as if someone crawled inside Ellen's head with a computer and just started typing the contents in random order. It's all over the place, but I really liked it, and I think most people would. It made me laugh out loud more than a few times.

I wanted to pick a tea that was bright and uplifting to match Ellen's spirit. I needed some black tea for when I require a caffeine boost. Lately I've been tending towards herbals and rooibos which are sans caffeine.

Meet Paridise Found from DavidsTea.

It's so pretty!

I've only had it hot, but can't wait to try it iced.

The color on my nails is OPI -  Hopelessly in Love.

The weather in Halifax was CRAZY HOT this week. We had two glorious days that shattered all temperature records. Do you know what I feel compelled to do when I'm faced with 27 degree weather in March?

Buy something summery.

So I did.

American Eagle skinny jeans

However, it's now back to normal here (cold).... so stay tuned for the next heat wave to see how I incorporate colored denim into my wardrobe. Thanks for the tease Mother Nature.

XOXO
Glitterary Girl

Novel-Tea: Part 3

The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares was one of those books that contained phrases so powerful that they left a lasting impression. You know by now that it's not my style to reveal too much about the book for those who want to read it, so I won't get into specifics. The story takes place from the viewpoint of multiple characters, and there is some unrequited (or seemingly so) love involved.

And according to Charlie Brown: "Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."


For anyone who has been in this agonizing emotional state, you'll relate to this story. The main character made me mad in the middle of the book, but I forgave her by the end.


Ann Brashares wrote The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series too, which was awesome.


Tea time!


I'm not going to review a tea this time, but a tea accessory (you know how I love accessories). I bought a Timolino travel mug from DavidsTea recently. I loved the color and was told the colored ones sell out fast so I scooped it up. They always carry the black and silver, but I think the colors are a lot cuter.

It has a loose leaf infuser in the lid, so you boil water, pour it in the mug, put the tea in the infuser, then screw the lid on and steep it.

Pros of this mug:
1) Keeps the liquid hot or cold for hours. I mean HOURS. The first time I used it, I actually scalded my mouth because I drank the hot tea a half hour after I steeped it. Lesson learned. When I take tea to work, it's still hot at lunchtime.
2) Comfy and ergonomic.  It fits my hand really well and the rubbery stuff that lines the rim where you drink from is nice.
3) There's a hidden compartment in the lid that holds extra loose tea. If you want a second cup, just find some boiling water.
4) Easy to clean. It all comes apart so you can throw it in the sink. It's not dishwasher safe or microwave-safe.

Cons of this mug:
1) You can't grab it and go right after you put the tea in unless you have somewhere to dump the leaves. Or unless you like crazy-strong tea. Most teas take 4-7 minutes to steep and I doubt my fellow commuters into Halifax would appreciate me pulling off to the side to shake my leaves out the window. Not to mention, that's littering. So I have to make my tea in time to empty the leaves at home before I go.
2) The enamel scratches easily. Mine scratched the first day I had it. I put it in a side pocket of my lululemon work bag and it was rubbing against a snap. Now it has scratches all over it. Sure, it was dumb of me to put it against somethng that could scratch it, but in reality, people are going to throw their mugs into bags where there are scratchy things like keys, coins, and zippers. If anyone has any ideas for disguising my scratches, let me know! Stickers would wash off and nail polish would just scratch off again. I might put tape over my snaps so it doesn't get worse. Or I could just wait til the scratches all blend together and create a white stripe!

See the scratches about 1/3 of the way down?

I think the pros outweigh the cons and perhaps by the time mine needs replacement they'll make them more scratch-resistant.

Yesterday was my birthday.... so let's have some Birthday Cake Oreos! Happy 100th birthday Oreo (I'm glad I'm not as old as they are). I might save the bag just so I can smell it. Dee-lish.

To the left, you'll see my birthday present from Sephora. If you're a Beauty Insider, you get a free treat that you can pick up two weeks before or after your birthday. There's a Sephora at Halifax Shopping Center, lower level. 

This year's gift is a set of two mini Fresh Sugar lip treatments. One is clear and one has a your-lips-but-better rose tint. Both are awesome, but the full sizes are way expensive ($23 I think).  

XOXO
Glitterary Girl

Novel-Tea: Part 2

When there are movies made from books, I must read the book before I see the movie. I can sit through a movie knowing the story, but I can't bear to spend the hours and hours (and hours) it takes to read the book if I know how it's going to turn out at the end.


I waited much too long to read this book.


I'm not going to ruin the story for those of you who haven't read it yet. Without giving anything away, I'll tell you that it's inspiring, funny, heart-wrenching and a darn good read. It's in the top 5 for books I've read in the past year.


It took a few chapters for me to totally get the dialect, and I admit I sometimes forgot who was telling the story as it was told from the perspectives of three characters, but overall it was an amazing novel. Hugely important was that it's Kathryn Stockett's first novel. I love me a super-successful debut.

I watched the movie last weekend. It was great, but if you're a reader, wait to see the movie til after you read the book.  They left some things out of the movie and changed stuff too. The Mississippi scenery was amazing (yes, it was filmed there, I checked).


Skeeter was supposed to have bad hair - her trademark in the book.

Well, this is what MY curly hair looks like on a very good day.  Hollywood, I am so offended.


Speaking of amazing curly redheads (her hair is seriously spectacular), I have a friend who writes a book blog. She's the one who introduced me to the Harry Potter series a dozen or so years ago, and I will be forever thankful to her for that. Check her out at:
http://shereadshesaid.wordpress.com/

And because you can't talk about The Help without reference to the infamous pie incident, you knew my DavidsTea was going to be a chocolate one...

Dessert in a mug. Tastes like a mild After Eight. NO caffeine, so you can guzzle a few after dinner and won't be up all night cursing me.

XOXO
Glitterary Girl

Novel-Tea

"So, what's your book about, Jen?"

I get this a lot.

It's kind of hard to take a 300 page book and squish it down into a few paragraphs! I used amazon.ca to browse the bookjackets of some of my favorite novels and tried to model my synopsis after them.

The title is Losing my Anchor... but from what I've read on the process of selling a book, the publishers can rip up your title and call the thing whatever they please.

Imagine you're in a bookstore and there's a book sitting on the shelf in the chick-lit section. Men: you are here to buy a book for your wife/girlfriend/sister/mom... or you're super-cool and don't care if the people on the bus judge you for reading a girl book. Note: If you're on the bus, you must not be from Halifax as we're in the middle of a transit strike. Anyhoo....you pick it up the book to see if you'd like it.

You flip it over (because for a first novel to get hardcover with an actual bookjacket is like a one in 5 bajillion chance). This is what you read.....

Penny Parker is a lucky girl. She has a good job in a new town, a supportive family, and a handsome boyfriend. She’s sure Corbin is going to pop the question at any moment - and when he does, she already has an amazing honeymoon planned to a far away destination.

Just when she’s sure her life is headed in exactly the direction she wants it, everything is changed when she learns Corbin has been keeping a secret from her.

Not content to simply tread water when she could make waves, Penny escapes and starts fresh. She takes a dream job in an unconventional setting and meets a crew of friends who each have their own reasons for wanting to avoid reality. She has moments when she’s thrilled with her new life, others where she feels she’s in over her head, and the tides turn when Penny discovers her heart is more anchored in the past than she thought it was.

Do you frantically run to the check-out, knocking over a display of mints-in-tins, and clotheslining yourself on the canvas divider and posts intended to organize unruly bookworms into a line? You do? Yay! I hope you didn't hurt yourself.

And because books and tea go so splendidly together... read on for a tea taste test.

So, me and cinnamon hearts had a bit of a falling out when I was in grade 8. My grandmother gave me a whole jar of them for Valentine's Day and I took a large handful to school with me. I kept them in a sandwich bag inside a zippered pocket in my binder. All day long, I slipped one after another of the hot and sweet little devils into my mouth. By the time I got on the bus at the end of the day, I couldn't feel my tongue. Weird, but no big deal.Well, the next day I woke up to a mouth FULL of canker sores. I was barely able to eat for the next few days. That was the end of my love affair with cinnamon hearts.

Imagine the nostalgia that flooded over me when I took a whiff of Hot Lips a few days ago. A liquid form of cinnamon hearts that won't turn the inside of my mouth into burning pain? Yay!

This is what it looks like brewing. The  tea is bright green, much more vivid than the picture depicts. Thanks Parents for the steeper pot. It has a magic bottom that empties the tea out when you place it on a mug.

I love love love the smell of this but I'm not a huge peppercorn fan so I heart the scent more than the taste. Hmmm... maybe I'll pick the peppercorns out.

XOXO
Glitterary Girl