Some birthday month wrap-up treats

Last week, some girlfriends and I met for lunch at our local Chicken Salad Chick, and to my surprise, I received some lovely birthday gifts, including a new tea-themed puzzle and a new tea I'd never heard of!

This darling puzzle, a gift from my friend Beth, is titled Potted Teapots, and it is so pretty. I have been slowly cleaning out a spare bedroom that I want to decorate with a Blue Willow theme, and look what's in the bottom-left corner of this puzzle—a Blue Willow teapot. I love using puzzles as artwork and think this would be nice to give a pop of color to the room, and since this puzzle has just 500 pieces, maybe I can actually finish this one.

My friend Paige came bearing what looked like a wine bottle carrier, which sort of threw me, but inside was a thermos of hot water so that we could all try the tea that she had discovered, this Butterfly Boba, a green tea with butterfly pea flower and pineapple! This is from Pinky Up, whose loose tea I've tried before, but I'd sure never heard of their tea bags with tapioca pearls in them.

This tea, tinted blue from the butterfly pea flower, had a natural sweetness to it that I just loved, and of course anything with pineapple in it gets bonus points. It was so fun getting together with the girls, and to enjoy an impromptu tea tasting as well was simply delightful!