Nayu's Craft Time #135 Busy weekend + Hello Ramadan!

Sadly not my photo, but I am drinking chamomile tea with peppermint right now! Tasty & relaxing. Picture source

I am now through my busy weekend of seeing friends and family, and squeezing in enough rest. Ended up with a headache on Saturday, which turned into a migraine Saturday night. Thankfully it disappeared by the time I woke on Sunday, leaving me with the usual post-migraine fatigue. 

Today's a day of doing various tasks that need doing (sadly craft isn't on the agenda until this evening - but it will then happen! 

I'd like to wish those of you who celebrate it a happy Ramadan! It starts today for some (like me) and tomorrow for others, but as one person said on Twitter we may start on different days but we all have the same destination! 

I will be doing info posts about Ramadan soon, just not today as I've a stack of things left to do and don't want to be finishing too late this afternoon so I can rest and get crafting!

Nayu's Craft Time #113 Drinking Water Tips

We can't live without this wonderful source of life (Picture source)

This possibly seems an odd topic to discuss, as surely the answer to drinking water is to simply drink it, right? That's correct, but I've got a few tips on how to enjoy drinking water. 

What's your favourite fruit juice/squash? (Picture source)

We are all encouraged to drink more water. This can be in the form of fruit juice. I think fruit juice is an occasional drink, due to the sugar content. I'm not the sugar police, not by a long shot, but fruit juice and squash is one thing I drink moderately. Apart from lime cordial (I know I should just add limes to water but I adore the cordial sometimes), I try to stay clear of any squash. The ones I've seen are almost always from concentrate, although they may not have added sugar they do have naturally occuring sugar in them. 

Take advantage of different nutrients and drink a rainbow!

The drinks in the above picture look like smoothies, which is another option for drinking water not discussed in this post. Here are links to my carrot, orange, + tomato smoothie and my blueberry green smoothie. My preference for not from concentrate applies to fruit juice too: when I buy juice, I only buy not from concentrate as it means it's the whole fruit, not processed through I'm not sure what. Just my personal taste! Often for budget reasons juice/squash from concentrate is the only option, which is fine. 

A small selection of the incredible variety of both tea and coffee

Water can also be drunk in tea and coffee form. However, both of these have caffeine which is dehydrating, so it's best to drink other liquids as well as these beverages. There are decaffinated version, although I've heard that they aren't 100% caffeine free. Caffeine in tea/coffee disagrees with me so I stick with herbal teas, which are 100% caffeine free. 

Go herbal tea!!!

My favourites include peppermint, spearmint, nettle, camomile, milk thistle, and a cherry compote blend exclusive to Nothing But Tea who I'm currently buying my loose tea from. I don't benefit by point you in the direction of their site, I just adore their tea!

Great source for loose tea!

  Drink as much herbal tea as you like, be it the more herbal flavours or the fruity ones. They are mega low calories, and are often great cold too! 

Simple, pure, and sometimes a bit dull.

Then there's water, which is where I got the idea for this post. Water is obviously the best form of water there is. Depending where you live you may need/prefer filtered water (water filters are inexpensive) rather than drinking straight from the tap (which I do), as it helps takes out natural impurities that aren't harmful but can make the water taste weird. I know there are some countries where it's safer to drink bottled water, so do whatever's best for your circumstances. 

It's fun to add citrus fruits like a slice/wedge of lemon/lime/orange to some chilled water. The colder water is, the better I like it. I seem to drink more if it's cold than if it's room temperature. 

The final tip is what you drink the water from. Yes, you can use a plain glass, your favourite mug, or

but you can also use a fun bottle/cup like this one! 

My family got it for me as a present, I think it was from Sainsbury's. It's pink, has a bunny, and is super cute! I'm a visual person, so since I adore all things kawaii (cute in Japanese) drinking plain water from this makes it way more enjoyable - I want to keep seeing the bunny so I keep drinking! It's easy to clean, although I'm not sure on the dishwasher compatibility as we don't have one. The straw is durable, thick, and what you can't see is that it has a ring around it at the bottom so it can't come out of the bottle. Not that you need to tip the bottle, because if you do the water comes out - yes I've had this happen to me recently in one of my clumsy moments. 

In summary to help you drink more water you can: 
drink fruit juice/squash in moderation

drink tea/coffee in moderation

drink as much herbal tea as you like, with a wide variety of herbal and fruit based teas in loose or tea bag form.

add citrus and other fruit/vegetables into plain water for a refreshing drink

put the water in a favourite cup/mug/bottle. 

I'd love to hear how you drink your water, and if you're inspired by some of the ideas I've chatted about today in the comments! 

Drink me!

Nayu's Product Review #1 Nothing But Tea sample order

 As promised yesterday, today I'm talking about tea! It's not a sponsored post, simply made because I love the tea I've tried! Here's a review of the 6 herbal teas I ordered from Nothing But Tea. 

Tada!

I ordered samples of the following flavours because I wanted to know how each tasted before buying 100g packets: Peppermint, Nettle, Milk thistle, Spearmint, Chamomile, and Calendula. I haven't done the clever thing of naming them in the order they appear in the picture...

It arrived in a neat little box. Each 10g packet is easy to reseal (think ziplock bags),

Close up of Spearmint packet - can't remember if this is before or after I cut the top off to get to the seal: wasn't easy enough to tear it open.

This small packet provides quite a few cups of tea, although due to weak hands sometimes it can take me a while to get into them, even after cutting above the seal to get into it. 

No flowers in spearmint. Couldn't crop this photo as it then made everything out of focus.

 I like how on the back there is a set of brewing instructions, and that experimenting with different combinations and brewing times is encouraged. There are further instructions in the leaflet which was included with the order (see top photo), although there is all you need on the packet itself. I guess the leaflet is useful if you store the tea in a different container to the packet supplied. Haven't quite figured out where I'll keep my tea, I have until the next order arrives to decide a permanent home!

I'm making my way through them all. I love seeing actual little flowers for the tea - somehow it feels like 'proper' tea, even though teabags are awesome and convenient.

The teapot looks mostly like this.

It really doesn't take long to put a teaspoon of tea in the mini teapot's filter thingy (yes I found the teapot was easier to use). I can be fussy with Chamomile but I enjoyed it plain, without adding peppermint. The Spearmint is definitely a favourite, with not much left in the packet placing a non-sample order is fast becoming a necessity. One of my family use a different tea company, but for me Nothing But Tea are simple, non-fussy, and easy to use with PayPal being a purchase option. It isn't openly shown that they use PayPal, but they do. They offer many non-herbal tea varieties too!

What kind of tea do you enjoy?

Nayu's Craft Time #104 A pink post

Sadly not my cute cloud pillows, but they cheered me up when I saw this pic online.

Finally I'm starting to be less tired than a hibernating dormouse. I even managed 20 minutes of crochet yesterday! It's wonderful having marginally warmer weather. I also think sheer determination is granting me a smidge of energy too. As nice as it is watching dvds all day long, I'm glad to have the energy to do some things.

Craft wise I'm still working on my experiment, so nothing to show you there. I've done so little on the rest of my projects that it's not worth showing you anything. Tomorrow I plan on chatting about the lovely tea samples I bought from Nothing But Tea! So stay tuned, and put that kettle on!

If you hadn't guessed today's post has a cute theme ^o^ Sady this isn't my kettle. Maybe one day!

Nayu's Craft Time #103 Time for tea!

A lovely cup of herbal tea - wish I had a glass cup and saucer like this!

So far today I've worked a little bit more on my check blanket, which I chatted about yesterday. I've also looked into and ordered some samples of loose herbal tea. I stick with herbal because caffeine doesn't agree with me, it hasn't for a few years now. I'm partial to Twinings, especially anything with nettle, peppermint, spearmint (yes there is a difference between the two), nettle, and chamomile. I've discovered that Marks and Spencers tea is usually around the £1 mark, and other supermarket brands at similar prices.

One of my favourite blends!

However, loose tea has been on my mind for a while. Other members of my family use loose tea. I confess that anime is the reason why I'm looking into using loose tea. In an episode of Aikatsu, the key character Akari seeks out Sumire's sister to discover her blend for easing a sore throat, so Sumire can recover from her cold. 

A selection of herbal tea can look like this

I do enjoy the pre-blended tea bags, but I'm starting to get interested in creating my own flavour combinations, not just for when I'm ill but for the sheer fun of experimenting. It took a long time online to find a store that stocks my main flavours, but I've ordered some samples to see if I like their range. Yes samples are a little pricey, but better than spending even more money on something I'm not sure I like. 

My nemesis!

Loose tea usually necessitates using a tea strainer of some sort. There's a wide variety on the market, and my family have some in the kitchen I can use. Yet I'm probably not going to use them. I've tried using the little ball infusers, but with me the tea always came out of the ball while it brewed. So I'm just going to try putting the tea directly in the cup (or, if I can be bothered, my mini teapot), letting it settle and drinking it. When a teabag has torn I haven't minded having the leaves in the cup, as they soon settle down to the bottom and don't affect the taste. 

Who'd have thought this spikey, ouch-inducing plant could produce such a refreshing drink? No dock leaves required!

Speaking of taste I've heard online that loose tea is a better quality than bagged tea. I've no idea how true this is, but I know I like both methods which is all that matters. I'll keep you posted on my tea experimenting! 

I'd love to know what type of tea you drink!