Something to drink?

I'm cultivating a mild obsession with tea. Specifically, your victorian/edwardian variety. I'm not much interested in the other tea cultures I'm afraid, although I can thoroughly respect their merit. For me, the aesthetic of the victorian high tea is the thing.

I think it all started here:
I should note, that in my own tea party, the dishware is a touch less eclectic. Forgive me, as I combine interests. My tea set comes from The Village - otherwise known as Portmeirion.
I'm also a big fan of small plates. Which, if you think about it, is certainly a part of the tea party tradition. Not only can you sample a variety of teas but there are also finger-ready sandwiches and other confections for tasting.

Some resources:
Teavana
MightyLeaf
Blue Moon Tea
Tea Forte
A $1,750 Russian teapot, shaped like a pumpkin

Bittersweet (but mostly sweet)

I'm a fan of NOTCOT.com - it's my go to place for aesthetic stimulation: rest assured there's always a new piece of design delight.

One of their latest posts featured Bittersweet NY. I was browsing their website when I found these:

Maggot Charms.
That's right. You can wear gold or silver maggots, fashionably, around your neck.

It reminded me of a little doodle I did my first year of art school:

"crow sez ' i found a maggit'."

Moving!

I will (one day) back post about the wedding and honeymoon but at the moment we are moving!

Good bye Crofton and University Square!

Hello Wynfield Park!

(from my iPhone, waiting for the gentlemen to get back from the dump)

Honeymoon: Boston and Salem

Sam + June Halloween Wedding 2009

Thanks to everyone that took these snap shots (and all the others!)

Hallo-wine (and other tastey beverages)

Another assembly of descriptions and images to make you hungry/thirsty and make you eyeball aesthetics happy.

Gotham Wine
Something I've actually sampled! I bought it for the bottle (of course) but this actually a pretty delicious wine. We tried the Shiraz which has been rated the best Australian wine under $10.

Vampire Wine
For the name - I've never tasted this. The bottle is neat, right? The website is kind of hilarious ("Rumor has it that the Vampire Vineyards are actually owned by a circle of vampire" hee..) Also, how did they bag vampire.com for a domain name? Hm. I guess I'm not talking about wine... oops.

Night of the Living Red
This is more of a concept wine if you ask me - it really doesn't matter what it tastes like. The bottle is minimalist, but comes with a wickedly designed label that consists of some pretty excellent anatomical drawings and redacted information. Mysterious!

Trick? Treat?

It's the semi-annual gourmet Halloween Candy nom blog!
Here are some delicious selection I stumbled cross while being unscrupulous on the internet:

Chocolate Skulls
Last year I noted the chocolate skulls by Vosges Chocolate and they were pretty good but I MUCH prefer their exotic chocolate bar. These skulls are classic flavors with lots of spooky (and anatomical!) detail.

Pumpkin Patch Truffles
Creamy pumpkin spice something-or-other in chocolate. Delicious, and deliciously packaged. These I have actually eaten so I can attest to the tastiness.

Garlic Mints
GROSS right? But you can't deny how terribly clever this is - what better way to ward off vampires (if that's your thing of course). And the tin is nicely designed.

Trick or Treat Halloween Box
Seriously - listen to these flavors: anise buttercream, spiced pumpkin see toffee, persimmon pumpkin truffle. They sound (and look) delicious.

Vellies
My favorite thing about these: the colors. My second favorite thing: they're vegetarian. Better than either of those things: the ingredients - fennel, red peppers, sage, beets, more! Plus, it's fun to say. Vellies vellies vellies!

Peanut Butter and Honey Skull Truffle
I mostly love the packaging - long slender brown box, with a paper wrap of SKULLS. And I like the skulls printed on the chocolate. If you like chewie, this would probably be yum.

That's it! Before I start chewing on my screen.