2024 Wall Calendars for Different People

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these calendars in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you still use wall calendars? I love having them. We actually use quite a few. I have one in my classroom, one near our desk computer, one in my sewing room and my husband hangs one in our bedroom too. Plus, he has one next to his desk. I always love seeing what different calendars are offered and I also think of them as great gifts. The pictures are often beautiful or fun and it helps to have the paper calendar to check dates, appointments, etc. Last week I shared two Page-A-Day calendars that I will use in my classroom, but today I am sharing two wall computers based on some of my favorite things: birds and teapots. The first calendar is Audubon Kids Birding Calendar 2024 by National Audubon Society, and the second is The Collectible Teapot Calendar 2024 by Sarah Archer with photos from Betty Shin Binon. 

Holiday Shopping Recommendation

Disclosure: Uncommon Goods sent me some sample gifts in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Can you believe it? We have only 7 more Saturdays (weekends) until Christmas! Wow, time is flying by. Have you started your shopping yet? Do you have those people on your list where you just don't know what to buy? I think all of us do. I discovered the great place to find gifts for everyone on the list. It is Uncommon Goods. Have you heard of it?  They have an amazing Holiday Lookbook to get you ideas for anyone on your list. They have gifts for men, women, significant others, and so much more. The people I struggle most with are my husband, Steve, and my teenage nephew. They have a section for gifts for teens (over 15). I always have my nephew tell me what he likes at Uncommon Goods because I know it will be something different for him. Otherwise I'll be giving him a check. This year he wanted the Charging Cord Bracelet. 

Our Japanese Tea Party -- Exploring Japan with Tea Parties Around the World

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.


So last month our plan was to have a Japanese tea party for Tea Parties Around the World, but life interfered and our tea party happened in May instead, but this is perfect since it is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. So through April and into May we have been exploring Japan. Now Japan is known for its tea ceremony. It sounds so fancy and has an interesting history. To learn more about the tea ceremony we read Tea Ceremony by Shozo Sato. 

How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Between my Tea Parties Around the World Series and National Princess Week Resources and Giveaway (have you entered yet?) How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea by Kate Hosford and illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska found its way to me.

Irish Tea Party with Book Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

For March we thought we would explore Ireland as St. Patrick's Day is in March (this Friday). We also received a book to go along with our exploration of Ireland that I will share here. Yesterday New England was hit with Winter Storm Stella, so it was the perfect day to have a tea party. Hazel and I both had a snow day while poor Steve got the overnight shift and went in early so he would not have to drive during the worse of it.

Indian Tea Party: Chai and Henna -- Tea Parties Around the World -- Exploring India

This month we decided to explore India with our tea parties. India seems like a good one to mention when exploring tea around the world. It was after all a big part of the British trying to grow tea somewhere besides China. When the British were able to smuggle some tea plants out of China they ran into the problem of needing the correct environment to grow it in. They decided on India and began to colonize there. In my British and Chinese tea party posts I shared great resources to explore the history of tea, so I am not going to repeat it all here. Of course tea is so sensitive to environment, methods of processing and even methods and times of picking, so the tea in India was even different from the tea in China.

Chinese Tea Party -- Tea Parties Around the World

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  

Now a series of Tea Parties Around the World would not be complete without looking at Chinese tea. Let's face it, the China is where tea began. January seemed like the perfect time for us to look at China since we were looking at the Chinese New Year already. I will admit writing this post has been intimidating me and I keep putting it off. How can I do the long history of tea in China justice? I have decided just to share with you my references and what we enjoyed as we looked at China and the history of tea. 

English Tea Party -- Tea Time Around the World

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Now that we are almost half way through December I am going to take the time to share the tea party we had in November. In November we looked at England. To do this we read some books, watched some DVDs from the library and also have some fun books to share with you. Some are for the little ones and some are for the older ones. We will start with learning a bit about England. It is a country in the United Kingdom. It's capital is London. Now I always have had a fondness to England since my maiden name is a town there. However I do not know a whole lot about the history of England besides little bits here and there. To learn a bit more we started with The Tudors: Kings, Queens, Scribes and Ferrets! by Marcia Williams.

Boston Tea Party Themed Tea Party Around the World

Yesterday I introduced my new series, Tea Parties Around the World. Today I am going to share our first tea party by looking at a historical one and having a tea party with that theme. Our theme is the Boston Tea Party. (After all we might as well start local.) To start we read some books about the Boston Tea Party. Did you know there were actually four tea parties in the colonies but Boston's became the famous one? These are a few of the books we found at our library. There are a lot out there!!

Tea and Tea Parties

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Did you know that tea is the second most popular drink in the world? Water is the first. Hazel is going through a stage of loving tea parties and always wanting to have one. I decided to combine all of this into our cultural studies of various countries and start a new series: Tea Parties Around the World and you are cordially invited to all of them!! Before celebrating a party I thought I should learn more about tea itself. And thanks to my friends at Quarto Books, I am able to share with you The Art and Craft of Tea by Joseph Wesley Uhl and some of the information I found out about tea from it.