Local Business: Pollen Tea Room

I mentioned the other day that this is not a food blog. What I meant to say was, this is not a blog about eat places. There are so many amazing people out there talking about food in Hobart, where to go, what's new... I don't need to fill that space. However, I am happy to talk about growing food (as that's all part of having a garden and working towards sustainability - but I'll talk about that more another day), and I am always, ALWAYS happy to talk about tea. Drinking tea, making tea, the cool things to put tea in and accessorise tea... few things are better than a cup of tea. 

Which is why I am going to talk to you about Pollen Tea Room. Tucked into a beautiful old building on Hampden Road in Battery Point, I hear that Pollen Tea Room has been around for a while. I also have no idea why I've never heard of it before, but I am so grateful that I did! 

So my weekend involved my first visit, and it won't be the last. A warm atmosphere with a lovely outdoor area, Pollen Tea Room are more than just another cafe. Their tea menu is the most extensive I have ever seen, and showcases their own blends, with a priority towards organic and ethically sourced, as well as a focus on chai - my favourite!

The food menu is really pleasant, once again focusing on organic, seasonal and local where possible, and most intolerances/allergies catered for. 

Pollen Tea Room is the perfect spot for a quiet moment, or an intimate catch up with a good friend over the best thing in the world - tea. 

This is the blend I took home!

Even better, if you love the tea you've had, they sell all their brews in take away packets, and you can order online as well. There's also a beautiful range of handmade teaware you can purchase from their website. 

As always, I only mention a business on here that I love, I'm not getting paid or anything out of this review except for sharing something awesome with you! All pics except for the first one lovingly stolen from the Pollen Tea Room website :)

Refreshed Office!

I've been meaning to show you this for a while... the photos weren't coming out amazing (it's a small room) but hey, I'm fairly pleased with how it's all come out so here it is anyway!

Unfortunately I wasn't very good at taking before photos, so just imagine boxes of junk surrounding a tall roll top timber desk with random things blu-tacked to the wall... and that's about it. 

I sold the roll top desk and for the same price bought this white desk from a friend. I love that it has lots of storage and the rustic paintjob means I don't have to worry about the surface if I'm painting or cutting!

Did you know it's really cheap to make your own shelves? I purchased the brackets on sale at a local hardware store for $5, and the timber cost about $4 - so under $10 for a shelf exactly the size I want! I painted the shelf with left over paint from my window frames (a warm white gloss). I really liked the industrial type look of the brackets.

The floor lamp means I don't have to use bench space for a lamp, and it's adjustable for projects that need a little more light. The frame is actually from our engagement party decorations and the poem is:

"The sun brings forth beginnings,
The moon holds in darkness,
As above, so below,
For there is no greater magic in all the world
Than that of people joined together in love"

Cute huh?

On the wall, the wire organiser I found on ebay, and the J is also from our engagement party decorations which I bought from Typo! In the frames I have a cute little postcard made by a local artist to Bruny Island, which I picked up when I was over there about a year ago. If you have never been to Bruny, I highly recommend it. Beautiful beaches, great places to eat and so much inspiration! We camped for a week along a river right near the sea and it was lovely, I didn't want to come home... "Linger" is handwritten by me as a reminder to take time to be in the moment, relax and just enjoy the right now. I'm not very good at this, always looking into the future, the next step, and thinking about the ways I can make things better... but sometimes the truth is that life is pretty perfect right now, there is nothing wrong with the here and now so it's my little reminder of that. The third frame is actually a piece of wrapping paper! Its embossed metallic copper which I just love, it wrapped a gift for our engagement from my mum so not only do I love the paper but its a reminder of all the things that my mum has given me, and how even though I might not see her as much as I would like she loves and cares for me always. The little compass I have had for years, I love compasses, they remind us that no direction is the wrong direction!

I realised when doing this post that I haven't done a very good job of taking a photo of the shelf but as you can see I have my lovely print block purchased from A Creative Lifestyle and my timber pencils from Trees 4 the Wood. Also the brass scales from the market are up there too!

It's not finished yet, I want to get a board to clip up inspiration things (the frame won't be staying) and some more items for the shelf... I want to stick with the grey/black/white theme my house has but I'm feeling like its missing something. What do you think? Do I need colour, or a plant, or just some more things? 

Weekend Moments: Tea, flowers and fans

Have you had an amazing weekend?! I did! It was a long weekend here in Hobart, Monday being a local public holiday because of the Hobart Cup and Regatta Day. I didn't go to either (I don't support horse racing and I'm a little old for show rides) but what I did do was a rare treat - I was home alone for the weekend! My lovely man was off to Melbourne for a bucks weekend, and so I happily did my own thing for a couple of days.

When was the last time you had some time at home on your own? Can you remember? I know that for some people the idea of being home alone, especially overnight, can be a bit daunting - and maybe for some people they wouldn't know what to do with themselves without partners, kids or other people in the house - but I highly recommend spending some alone time at least a few times a year, because its amazing! You can work with your own energy levels, do exactly as you please and appreciate the peace and quiet. Of course if you have cats like I do, company is never too far away anyway, but I just love flitting between this and that, balancing housework with hobbies, sleeping with the curtain open so I can see the stars and watch the trees in the wind...

Now I don't want to turn this into a food blog (it's on my list of what this blog is not about - food!) but I'm making an exception for Pollen Tea Room. Have you heard of it? If not I'll tell you all about it later in the week - the image in the top left of my weekend moments box is of a lovely organic earl grey I had there.

Also, I can't wait to show you some photos of the amazing flowers I purchased from the farmers market!

Plus, I was lucky enough to come across an amazing market find in the most unlikely of places. More on that later too. 

Anyway I hope you had a magical weekend! Don't worry, by the time my lovely fellow was due back I was sick of my own company and ready to share my space with someone again - no ideas of batcheloretting it up for me that's for sure (which is lucky seeing as we just booked in our wedding in February 2016! Eeeeee!!)