Mail box rush hour
So, this week I have realised that in the long run I won't be able to post every new tea swap I receive on this blog. This week only I have received six of them, with a total of almost 70 tea bags, and there's still one day left that could add even more to this! I'm incredibly happy of course, but sorting the bags amd adding them to my collection aswell as preparing and sending out swaps myself on my end is time consuming enough in these busy times of me trying to write my essay. The essay which will determine whether or not I will be a qualified Swedish teacher. That's why I will have to calm down a bit and let this blog find a place further down on my priority list at the moment. Surely, I will pick it up again and work on the design etc. later on when the essay is done and some time frees up.
This week's mail harvest, so far, has been absolutely wonderful! See for yourself :D
Teas arriving from New Zealand, Canada and the US (and also my feet are in the picture I realise when I take a closer look!). Thank you Stephanie, Beth and Angela! :)
A massive amount of tea bag wrappers from all over the world sent by Sanna in Finland. You're an angel for gathering up such a mass for me! Thank you! The tea bag down to the right, with the silhouette of a house mouse and a tea cup on it, has got such nice colours and I love just watching it. It's one of my new favourites : )
Another big load of exciting teas I've never encountered before has come from Lenka in the Czech Republic. These I haven't even tagged and sorted and added to my collection yet and examining them more closely is something I'm looking forward to. There are some tea bags here with the most wonderful designs! Like the one down to the left with a drawing of two fairytale bunnyrabbits on it. It looks like a tiny children's book and I love it! Thanks Lenka!
The swap-bot crowd is spoiling me rotten and I know it : )
This week's mail harvest, so far, has been absolutely wonderful! See for yourself :D
Teas arriving from New Zealand, Canada and the US (and also my feet are in the picture I realise when I take a closer look!). Thank you Stephanie, Beth and Angela! :)
A massive amount of tea bag wrappers from all over the world sent by Sanna in Finland. You're an angel for gathering up such a mass for me! Thank you! The tea bag down to the right, with the silhouette of a house mouse and a tea cup on it, has got such nice colours and I love just watching it. It's one of my new favourites : )
Another big load of exciting teas I've never encountered before has come from Lenka in the Czech Republic. These I haven't even tagged and sorted and added to my collection yet and examining them more closely is something I'm looking forward to. There are some tea bags here with the most wonderful designs! Like the one down to the left with a drawing of two fairytale bunnyrabbits on it. It looks like a tiny children's book and I love it! Thanks Lenka!
The swap-bot crowd is spoiling me rotten and I know it : )
Another happy unbirthday
Today I'm thanking Dawn and Christin for providing me with lovely surprises! They arrived yesterday of course, since today's Saturday, which means I've gotten mail every day this past week. If it's going to continue like this I will eventually be so spoiled I'll get disappointed every time I'm not greeted by a lovely smell of tea when I open my mailbox. And I say spoil away! :D
Note to self: Less swapbotting and more cleaning up around the house. Easter decorations must go!
Spring in my heart and mail
This has been one lovely day of tea, tea and more tea. And work of course, but that's not nearly as much fun to talk about! Since Sweden doesn't have any post offices in the true meaning of the word anymore (all those services are now handled by various grocery stores) I have today stuffed eight envelopes with a mix of individually selected tea bags and a note by the tables ment for filling out lottery and horseracing tickets. This caused a lot of curious looks from the vast croud of older men who, from the look on their faces, rarely stumble upon girls in that very masculine corner of the store and let alone a girl spreading her colourful envelopes, tea bags, notecards, stamps and girly stickers all over the place. Finally, after quite a while of possibly being the great surprise of their day, this lot was ready to travel the world to places like Denmark, Finland, Canada and various parts of the US.
Pulling up on the driveway outside our house, having dropped these babies off to begin their journeys to their new homes, the weather was my enemy. I took cover under the hood of my jacket and threw myself across the driveway into the house, pulled out an umbrella and set out to rescue the envelopes possibly in our mailbox. Was there going to be any? Were they going to be dry and safe in the wind and the rain? Yes, there were two of them and they were both safe and sound!
Today I'm thanking Mary-Caroline and Amy for adding in all five new tea bags to the collection. And they're nice too! At the moment I'm especially infatuated with the adorable snail card that Mary-Caroline sent me. By the way, can anyone spot something orange and sweet in the background? This mister is the master of the house and demands to be the centre of attention. Of course he found a way to infiltrate my blog aswell ;)
Pulling up on the driveway outside our house, having dropped these babies off to begin their journeys to their new homes, the weather was my enemy. I took cover under the hood of my jacket and threw myself across the driveway into the house, pulled out an umbrella and set out to rescue the envelopes possibly in our mailbox. Was there going to be any? Were they going to be dry and safe in the wind and the rain? Yes, there were two of them and they were both safe and sound!
Today I'm thanking Mary-Caroline and Amy for adding in all five new tea bags to the collection. And they're nice too! At the moment I'm especially infatuated with the adorable snail card that Mary-Caroline sent me. By the way, can anyone spot something orange and sweet in the background? This mister is the master of the house and demands to be the centre of attention. Of course he found a way to infiltrate my blog aswell ;)
A splendid welcome home
After a couple of days isolated for some rest and recreation in a ski hut in Norway, what is the first thing I do when I return home? Why, I check the mailbox of course, and not even the fact that our house was dead cold when I walked in could stop me from spending a few seconds with the lovely letter I had gotten. Ghosts in the heating system had to wait until I had at least a quick look at what was inside and smile happily! Right now I'm refueling with food, or something that bears a remote resemblence to it at least, and watching the heater closely as it makes up for quite a few hours of rest. In a moment I will dare to remove my thick thermo pants and park myself on the couch under a warming blanket to admire my pink envelope adorned with a wonderful Moomin stamp some more. And it's contents of course: two new additions to my tea bag collection. Yata! :D I'm very greatful to Sanna, the Finnish girl who's the sender of this little pack of happiness, who decided to add an extra bag although the specifications of the swap only required her to send two of the same kind. 
Sanna, you just made my day and I'm really looking forward to our upcoming one-on-one swap :)
My first swap : )
After having sent out four swaps (some to several partners which means there has been a lot of running to various post offices lately) I received my first envelope containing tea bags yesterday. Oh, the joy! This first letter came from the Netherlands but contained bags from both the Netherlands and Germany since the girl who sent it had a roomie from Germany who had brought those bags into the apartment from home. I am super happy and these new additions have already found their ways into the collection, neatly placed together with other tea bags of smaller brands from the same countries. Sorting and arranging is half the fun with this hobby^^
Even though I doubt Mariel (the girl who sent me the tea bags) will read this, I'd still like to thank her. So thank you Mariel! This was an entirely positive first swapping experience! :)
Even though I doubt Mariel (the girl who sent me the tea bags) will read this, I'd still like to thank her. So thank you Mariel! This was an entirely positive first swapping experience! :)
The discovery
As I was peacefully surfing the waves of the internet this afternoon, once again googling words like "tea bag" and "tea collector" and feeling a both nicely unique and at the same time a little lonely, it struck me that I should check out those websites I was told last weekend I really should visit. One of them was pinterest where I also went tea collector and kindred spirit hunting and found a photo that led me to flickr which then finally let me discover this wonderful place - swap-bot! The general idea is that you can swap just about anything with anyone anywhere. In my case this will hopefully lead to lovely tea swapping with people all over the world, collectors or just tea drinkers, and add quite nicely to my collection. And my friend's too, the only other tea collector that I actually know and haven't only heard about. I have a distinct feeling this has been a small step for the woman but a big step for that tea collection of hers :)
I've already signed up for three swaps and contacted some tea people (wow, I wonder if they look at themselves as tea people? Probably not!) to see if they'd like to arrange some one-on-one swaps too. Now all I can do is wait and not get too excited, in case this doesn't turn out as amazing as I want it too. But who am I trying to fool? Of course I'll let myself get carried away by the mere thought of dozens and dozens of tea bags in the mail. Otherwise I wouldn't be me : )
I've already signed up for three swaps and contacted some tea people (wow, I wonder if they look at themselves as tea people? Probably not!) to see if they'd like to arrange some one-on-one swaps too. Now all I can do is wait and not get too excited, in case this doesn't turn out as amazing as I want it too. But who am I trying to fool? Of course I'll let myself get carried away by the mere thought of dozens and dozens of tea bags in the mail. Otherwise I wouldn't be me : )
