It’s 2023 ! I’m excited to start this year off with a shop update that will be super fun! For this month’s shop update I have 2 things to share!

Camellia Sinensis Tea Cups
For a long time I’ve been trying to find a way to get one of my designs on teaware. I love creating the gaiwan enamel pins but what if I could actually get one of those designs or a similar version printed on a gaiwan?! Well, so far I haven’t been able to find a way that was feasible for the size of my shop currently but I did come across a ceramics supplier who could do cups! I’m really excited to be releasing 50ml porcelain tea cups with my camellia sinensis design on them! These cups have a decal of my design high temperature fired on them. I hope you’ll enjoy using them!

Galentine’s Swap
I’ve mentioned a Galentine’s day swap earlier this fall and I’m doing a test run this year to see if it’s something I want to continue doing. In the past I’ve done Galentine’s day swaps and there was always the issue of someone not following through with sending something to their partner. After one year of way too many of non follow throughs I gave up doing the swap. Since then I’ve thought about it more and participated in a few others with other brands and I’m ready to try again!

Galentine’s day was a concept I first learned about from Parks and Rec where Leslie Knope deemed February 13th Galentine’s day, a day to celebrate the women in your life that you love like your girlfriends!

For this swap, you will be signing up to send a small package to a partner and also purchasing a gift box for yourself from my shop. The point of the gift box is to have something for yourself in the chance that your partner doesn’t follow through for some reason.

I have a limited about of spaces for the swap since I am testing it out. There will be 20 slots and you will get the box at a discount. The last 10 boxes will be available for purchase without participating in the swap but won’t have the discount.

If you sign up for the swap, you need to use your full name, correct address and email so that I can contact you and so can your partner. After you sign up, I will send out a short survey that you must complete. This will help your partner decide what to get you! Once I have all the surveys I will put people together in pairs and send you the information of your partner.

For the swap, try to really understand your partner based on their survey and get them something or a few smaller items that you think they’ll love. Don’t go overboard on spending but it would probably be good to spend between $10 and $20. It doesn’t have to be complicated, think of it as sending a fun package to a new friend! Package their gift in a fun way and write a card! You want this to be a fun surprise to open :)

If you’ve never shipped a package before, the easiest way is to pack it up, put the recipient name and address on the box by writing it or printing it on paper and taping it to the box and also your return address then take it to your local post office where they can help you ship it.

Remember that the heavier your package is, the more expensive it will be to ship!

The goal is to ship the package to your partner so that it will reach them in time before 2/13 or 2/14 !

The gift boxes I’ve created do have 2 teas in them but the other items are not necessarily related to tea. I tried to take some of the suggestions that people gave in a survey I sent out. There will also be 2 edible items but they are vegan, gluten free and use transparent and ethical trade.

Ya Shi Xiang Cakes - Now releasing in February!
Something fun that I’ve been working on with Rainy of Serene Tea is designing a cake wrapper! If you’re a fan of Duck Shit, I will have 200g Cakes of Duck Shit in my shop wrapped in a wrapper that I created! I will have 30 total. The first 10 will be available at a discounted price and then the other 20 will be available without the discount. I wanted to create something that had a duck as the main feature of the design but also some background landscape.

These are being postponed and releasing in the shop in February alongside Rainy from Serene Tea who has a few of my cakes and also more of the same tea cake with a different wrapper design that she created. Stay tuned!