Thoughts from the Bus Stop

The Tea Song

This is The Tea Song (from Yorkshire Tea), full of amazing FACTS about the healing properties of the cup that cheers!

Portrait of the Artist as a Tea Drinker

All images (c) Kristen Bailey 2013

Today I stopped off at the hospice shop's cafe for a brew. Sat by myself, I was gazing round the room when I suddenly noticed my own reflection in my steel teapot! I don't usually like taking my own picture but here I am almost unrecognisable... and I love that my teacup is in the shot. I *am* a pretty dedicated tea drinker :) 

* SONG OF THE DAY: Elbow - Mirrorball *

 

Storm in a Teacup

 
Storm in a Royal Delft Teacup, by John Lumbus (c) Laikingland

I would LOVE this teacup automata - turn the handle and and the golden boat rides the mechanical waves, while above the stormy clouds reveal a shining bolt of lightning.

It's by artist John Lumbus, who has worked with the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in Covent Garden. Why don't you put the kettle on, wet the tea, and while it brews, watch this video of a earlier version in motion?

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Fortunes - Storm In A Teacup *

Tea and talk

Spotted this ad for the Mental Health Foundation's Tea & Talk campaign, at Victoria Station (London) last week. I thought it was lovely - both the graphic and the sentiment. I've suffered from depression at several points in my life, and during those times I always found meeting with a friend to talk (sometimes about what was troubling me, sometimes about anything but!) was good medicine.

It takes you out of yourself, stimulates your brain and refreshes your perspective on life. Conversation: to be taken several times a week, either in person, over the phone or online.

Cup & Saucer Posy mosaic by Anna Tilson

I have totally fallen in love with this beautiful (or beaut-tea-ful?) mosaic by Anna Tilson, spotted in her Etsy shop. It's made with fragments of rose-printed crockery and is just... LOVELY (sigh).

It's £120 so a bit out of my reach, but maybe if manage to save, or get a surprise commission, I'll be able to make it mine! Or I could treat myself to a mosaiced letter 'K', like this £45 letter 'E'.

I went to a mosaic workshop at Hove Museum run by Anna a few years ago, and she helped us all make something we were proud of - but I still really really want a Tilson original!

Also: MADE: Maker of the Week - Anna Tilson

Both images (c) Anna Tilson

'Fancy a brew?' asks Mr PS

  
Images (c) Mr PS

These tea-themed mugs and teatowels from Mr PS (Manchester-based Megan Price) are fab - especially the ones with the 'greasy spoon' cafe menus. Available from the Mr PS shop.

Thanks to Anne at the ever-wonderful 'I Like' for flagging them up!

Make Time For Tea: The Eve Appeal

 

I picked up this lovely little teapot keyring at the till in Boots. They're £2 and every penny goes to The Eve Appeal, the gynaecology cancer research fund.

March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and The Eve Appeal has launched the Make Time for TEA campaign. They're asking people throughout the UK to organise a tea party to raise crucial funds and awareness about ovarian cancer.

A recent study has shown that drinking two or more cups of green or black tea a day could lower a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer.

 

Image: www.eveappeal.org.uk

Tea with Julien MacDonald

 
Kimono cup and saucer by Star by Julien Macdonald for Debenhams

I love the 'diffusion' ranges by well-known designers at Debenhams, particularly the Star by Julien Macdonald range. Aesthetically it's right up my street - and a bit more affordable than a Julien Macdonald couture frock!

This Kimono china, in a pink or a green colourway, is beautiful, and I wanted to buy just one piece. So I waited till it went the sale, and pounced!

This cup and saucer is my motivation to drink more green tea and less 'builders' tea! I make a whole teapot of green tea, which looks so pretty my new cup and saucer, and pour cup after cup after cup. Adding a touch of glamour makes it seems less like a compromise!

* SONG OF THE DAY: T'Pau - China In Your Hand *

   

Knitting for UK Charity: World's Biggest Tea Cosy

 

"Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation are attempting to set a world record for the biggest ever hand knitted Tea Cosy and we need your help.

We are asking you to knit a 6” width strip, as long as you like of any colour or pattern you like and send to our friends at 'I knit London' who will make your knitted strip part of the world’s biggest tea cosy. The wool can be any colour you like and you make your strip as long as you can manage, all we ask is that it is 6” in width (approx 28 stitches), double knit yarn, and 4mm needles."

Details on the Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation website.

Spring Harvest: The best bits

My first Spring Harvest - quite an experience. Am still exhausted! Being an evening person, I didn't make it to any of the morning 'Big Start' worship at the Big Top, or any of the morning teaching/debate. I tended to rise later, watch the Big Start on the chalet telly then spend the morning wandering round the exhibition stalls in the Skyline, or out in Minehead. I took in a few afternoon seminars, and loved the evening celebrations in the Big Top - especially on the Sunday - taking communion with thousands of people was a very moving experience.

Highlights:

* Going to see the effervescent Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda.

* 'Discovering' Mark Greene of the LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) - I already get the LICC's daily emails, which are usually really interesting - but I hadn't heard of him. I went to one of his seminars (on integrity and evangelism in the workplace), which was great, and really enjoyed the talk he gave at one of the evening celebrations. He's intelligent, funny and speaks in a language I can understand - and makes realistic suggestions for ministry and evangelism. Hurrah! (See Amazon: Thank God It's Monday by Mark Greene)

* The worship songs led by Graham Kendrick - including some new ones I grew to love.

* Going to see Adrian Plass ("Evangelist: Someone who has only had problems in the past.")

* Seeing Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury give a lecture and later on be interviewed by Ian Coffey in the Big Top. Apparently his family love watching The Simpsons and his kids enjoy My Dad's The Prime Minister (he fears they see parallels with their own lives).

* Spotting Daniel Bedingfield in the wings of the Big Top just before Steve Chalke announced him and telling my friend (who hearts Daniel), who got terribly excited and tried climbing over the seats. (She later received a text from her bemused husband, enquiring, "So, how was David Bedington?") Daniel was there to help launch the Stop The Traffik campaign against human trafficking, which has been planned to culminate on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. He also led us in singing Refiner's Fire (Purify My Heart).

* Comedian Joe Fisher ("He's funny nearly everyday...") and his Splendid Sweaters slot.

* Asking for a cup of tea and an Eccles cake at the lovely cafe in Minehead's pretty Blenheim Gardens and being charged £1.25.

 

(L-R) Daniel Bedingfield singing in the Spring Harvest Big Top, Blenheim Gardens cafe in Minehead

In these shoes? I don't think so...

 

Clearing out my flat in preparation for our move, I came across these shoes, which were part of my work on my Art & Design foundation course (twelve years ago, when I was 18!). They've been on display in most of the places I've lived since then, but they'd been in a crate for two years and our new place doesn't have much shelf space, so I thought it was time to snap them for posterity and bin them.

If you'd like to try making these at home, kids... get some old shoes (preferably suede or fabric, although leather does work) and paint them in layers of acrylic paint. The 'tea and biscuits' pattern was applied in acrylic paint, the monochrome pattern was added with a black bullet point permanent marker over a white acrylic background. The monochrome shoes were coloured inside with black marker. Varnished the finished articles with PVA glue. Once dry, you can't walk in them as the paint cracks, but they look do nice on a shelf.