Tea for Two

I am of the belief that one can never have too much tea, too many tea pots, or cups, mugs, and saucers on hand. I grew up a bit of an Anglophile (*ahem* I still am), so over the years I've kept my eye out for tea-related items. I have been fortunate to find a number of things, which can be evidenced by looking around my home and in my cupboards. At one point Andrew nearly had an intervention when he realized that at that point, we had about 7 tea pots. I should say "we" as in "I", because he certainly wasn't the one amassing kettles in a hope chest before we'd met!

I know, I know...seven teapots sounds a bit horder-esk, but in my defense, a few were for decor/display, one was on the stove to boil water, and another one or two were to brew loose leaves. That doesn't sound so unreasonable. Does it? Regardless, while I have greatly pared down on the "collection", my love of the beverage and it's accoutrements lives on.

Today, at one of my newly discovered treasure chests thrift stores, I found this beauty:

A friend of mine has one nearly identical and I've always admired it. It holds a good deal of water; more than enough for two people. As I confessed above, I already have a teapot that holds loose leaves, but it's very small, holds only enough water for 1 person, and isn't very well insulated. Who wants luke-warm tea? Not I, said the Tea-tress.

Yes, I just made up that word, but I rather like it. I can just see it in the dictionary... "Tea-tress: A woman who enjoys tea, and it's related articles." Has a nice ring to it, don'tcha think?

Anyway...for a teapot, it was adorable and I just couldn't pass up it up for a mere $3. Imagine my delight when I looked up the retail value on my phone while driving got home to the safety of my computer and discovered the retail value to be $30. Thrifting win, tea-lovers! It's a nice feeling. A deceptive one that makes you feel like you were given the item for free, but in reality still forked over some dough. My consolation is that as I've been on a house de-cluttering rampage (a post on that to come soon), I figure on using it for a while and if it begins to collect dust, then out it goes. The perk with thrifting is that when you buy something on the cheap, you can usually get your money back out of it, and or it's no great loss if it ends up at your garage sale.

As I previously blogged, I am determined that this season will include sipping tea. This lovely ceramic find certainly helps me on my way, and in style, too. Now to wash the little gem, assess it's ability to retain heat, steep leaves, and make friends with the other tea pots.

Feel free to confront me if you think I have crossed the line and am digressing into hoarderdom. You can come to my house. We will talk, and have tea while you try to confront me. You will be so overtaken by the scent of freshly brewed mint and chamomile from my garden, that you'll forget what it was you had to say.