I looked in my cabinet this spring and noticed that I had about 20 different varieties of tea. I decided right then and there that sun tea was my drink of choice this summer.
In case sun tea is just a Minnesota thing and I'm totally unaware of it, here's how you make it. get a large clear pitcher, fill it with water, throw in tea bags to your taste (I use about 10 in a gallon jug), put it in the sun, throw a lid on it to keep the bugs out (a paper plate works nicely for most sized pitchers), and wait several hours, pour over ice, enjoy.
I've lived up to that by constantly having this awesome gallon pitcher in my fridge full of sun tea. I've had mostly winners and only a couple losers (Orange spice and Raspberry/Mint I'm looking at you.) but one winner in particular was Celestial Seasons Candy Cane Lane tea. (It's a holiday one, obviously) It had somehow gotten stuffed in the back and forgotten. Which is a feat because I LIVE for holiday tea flavors. I bought it because it had the most lovely scent, like sugary, marshmallow, minty candy canes.The taste as a hot tea is delicious but nothing extraordinary. But as an iced tea... Oh My! Best mint tea I have ever tasted! It has a very sweet, subtle mint taste, like you soaked candy in your tea. Actual candy canes have a much stronger mint taste then this tea, so don't expect it to be super minty like Bigelow's Plantation Mint, which is extremely minty. You can easily throw a couple extra tea bags in your sun tea pitcher and it won't overpower it. But in the end it's my most favorite tea. I had resolved to stock up next christmas when it comes out again but when I looked it up I discovered you can buy it online year round! Pretty sure I'm placing my order today. You can buy your very own right here. It's amazing and you will love it if you love mint tea. Bigelow's Earl Grey tea is AMAZING iced as well. It's one of my most favorite teas, hot or cold, so I ended up with an economy sized box and decided I needed to make sun tea with it. the result was so delicious it should be illegal. Once in a while I'll make a single cup and pour it over ice when I don't feel like making an entire pitcher. Ok, when I'm too lazy to make and entire pitcher.
The second thing I'm in love with this summer is Bath and Body Works Tangelo Woods body wash. It's like Orange Earl Grey tea in a body wash. It has mandarin and bergamot oils in it and it's amazing. The scent explodes in the shower and makes the entire bathroom smell fantastic but it doesn't linger on your skin, and I love that. I hate taking a shower and 10 hours later still smelling a faint hint of the soap I used mingling with my perfume. I like the scents in my shower to stay in my shower. I like that my shampoo and conditioner scents don't linger as well. I have far to many lovely smelling goodies to have to compete with a body wash. Also Tangelo Woods reminds me of a manly smell so it might be a tad strange to wander around smelling like a men's cologne all day considering I'm a woman. But I used to use some kind of awesome soap from Lush that made me smell like patchouli all day long and when I was married I used my husband's deodorant to the point where I bought myself one so we didn't have to share, so it wouldn't be the first time I wandered around smelling a little manly I guess.
I'm obsessed with the new L'Oreal Magic Lumi Primer. I mix this shit with my foundation and it's magical what it does to my skin. I have constantly rosy cheeks (thank being a ginger for that one I suppose), so I really just wear foundation to even that out and make me look like a normal human being, not some creepy overly rosy cheeked doll. This just makes everything go on super smooth and adds just a touch of "light". I wouldn't say a shimmer but just something special to my normal make up. It looks more dewy then anything. Very lovely. If you wear make up, I highly recommend this.
Fructis sleek and shine shampoo, conditioner, and the smoothing milk have changed my life for the better. If left up to it's on devices my hair looks like a cross between a stray long haired cat, a wolf, an alpaca, and Side Show Bob from The Simpsons. No joke. It's awful. This whole little "system" has calmed my ungodly thick wolf hair down so much it even amazed my mother. I've never worn my hair down in it's natural state, and thanks to Fructis and lets give a little credit to Merida from the upcoming movie Brave, I wear it down and natural all the time. Summer time is not a time that I want to spend an hour and a half straightening my hair just to look presentable, so this is a rather lovely addition to my whole routine. And it smells like apricots! Which is a plus plus check in my book, such a wonderful smell!
I've got to throw in Super Miracle Bubbles brand bubbles. Because I can get them at walmart in GIANT jugs for like $2. No joke, I found a gallon, a freaking gallon jug of bubbles for $2. If life gets more fantastical then that I don't even want to know about it. Especially since me and the nugget are massive bubble blowing freaks. Once in a while in the winter we bust them out and blow them in the kitchen, but then it ends with me having to mop so we don't do it as often as we do in the summer. I love being able to blow bubbles outside with the kid!
There are also the usual summer favorites, watermelon, popsicles, China Glaze nail polish in Pink Voltage (of which I buy 2 bottles every single spring to last me through the summer), sprinklers, the electric clipper for the dogs, and painting outdoors (FINALLY!). OH! And this super amazingly delicious pasta salad recipe I discovered somehow, but that'll be in the next post. The suspense!
**I purchased everything I talked about in this post with my own money. I always state my honest opinions on products and do not get paid to give good reviews.**
No comments:
Post a Comment