Add some “Zing” to your afternoon: An easy DIY iced green tea latte recipe

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I have a confession to make: I’m not really a morning person. Or even an afternoon person. If I could stay up all night and sleep until 5PM every day, I probably would—but most of the world doesn’t operate that way, so I work during the daytime. Crazy, I know.

My number one staying awake during the day strategy probably won’t surprise you: Caffeine. Delicious, energy-giving caffeine. Strong coffee is usually my choice in the mornings, but afternoons require something a bit gentler in the caffeine department (assuming you want to eventually fall asleep at night, anyway). Lately I’ve been enjoying iced green tea lattes as a mid-afternoon pick-me-up—they’re caffeinated, cold (important during this late summer humidity), and sort of like a sweet treat and drink in one. Even better, they’re extremely easy to make—and today I’m going to share how I make mine!

Tips For Throwing a Great Last-Minute Game Night

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Game night has always been a popular activity amongst my friends and I. Board games give us a chance to hang out and laugh and connect without being glued to a screen the whole time—something most of us probably do too much of these days. Problem is, as we get older it becomes more and more difficult to schedule these sorts of hangout sessions... folks are busy with their careers or kids (or both) and it's hard to get away. But once in a while, a glorious window of opportunity will present itself—maybe the kids are sleeping at grandma's house. Or you finished work early for once. And just like that, it's GAME NIGHT TIME! But how to throw a memorable little party at a moment's notice?

Today I'll be sharing a few tips for throwing an awesome, low-stress game night at the last minute. Less time prepping, more time for playing!

Bespoke Post - Slate Box Review & Unboxing

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Looking for a holiday gift idea for a dude or foodie in your life? Today I'll be sharing a review of the Bespoke Post Slate box, which I think would fit the bill quite nicely for both of those parties. Or for me. Please send this box to me, strangers on the internet. Chomp.

10 Favorite Foodie Uses for Coconut Oil

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Ah, coconut oil. My Pinterest feed is inundated with posts professing its muli-tasking, beautifying abilities: You can use it as conditioner! As makeup remover! As a natural mouthwash! And so on. While some of those things are definitely true, I still tend to think of coconut oil as a cooking ingredient more than anything else, so today I thought I'd share a few of my favorite foodie uses for the stuff. (And if you want to steal a spoonful for your hair every now and then I certainly won't oppose.)

Fork It: A Quest for the Tiniest Microwave Oven

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I was always one of those people who was adamant that they didn't need a microwave oven. "You can reheat things on the stove or eat them cold!" I'd proudly say. Maybe this is just a sign of getting older, but lately I'm just not patient enough for that sort of thing. Also, I've been eating a lot of crappy food recently (ramen 4 life) because I don't have the patience to watch a solid frozen block of homemade soup from my freezer slowly dissolve in a saucepan. So I decided to suck it up and finally join Microwave Nation. Problem though—this is the only available counter space in our place:

This little nook is about 12" wide and typically occupied by an electric kettle, small toaster, and 90% empty bottle of Canadian Club that's been there since last June. (Sorry, I'm not a total drunkard.) All important things, but they're small enough to be moved elsewhere. Problem is, this little counter is a few inches too narrow to fit even the smallest of standard microwaves—ahhh! What's a gal to do? Getting a small rolling cart to keep it on is also an option, but it would have to be very small so as not to block off access to everything else in the kitchen. (Apartment life, yo.) So with that in mind I went on a quest for the tiniest microwave I could find—behold my fascinating results below!

A Scrumptious Adagio Teas Haul + Some Shopping Tips

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I haven't done a haul post in ages because (a) I haven't really done any major hauls recently and (b) I'm mostly using Instagram these days to share my gloatpiles of loot. But hey, guess what? I like tea. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me rambling about tea last week. Guess what happened? I went on the internet and bought a whole bunch from Adagio Teas. Want to see what I got?

It's a pile of tea, in resealable bags! That doesn't look so exciting. Way, way back in the day, Adagio used to include little tins with your purchase, but now you have to pay extra for them. Insert fist-shake at the passage of time. Anyway, I thought I'd share what I got with a few notes on the ones I've already tried, plus a few tips for shopping Adagio's site should you choose to purchase from them yourself. And a couple of macro tea shots I just took because those are fun. :)

5 Random Juices/Sodas: A Tasting Session

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Hey, do you remember that 30 Before 30 list I made a couple of months ago? Well if you forgot I don't blame you, because I've been really negligent in blogging about it. I have done a bunch of things on the list, though my birthday is less than three weeks away so some of the tasks may end up being added to a "31 Before 31 list"... shh, don't tell. Anyway, last week I completed #21 on the list ("Get 5 juices/sodas I've never tried before from the supermarket and conduct a tasting session") so I thought I'd share my results with you! Behold the beverages:

10 Holiday Gifts Under $50 I'd Actually Want to Receive

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Hey guys - I don't know if you heard, but the holidays are coming up. Yeah, really. Have you bought all the stuff yet?

Image source: Grant Cochrane @ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Personally I'm still second-guessing some of my gift ideas. I have no trouble thinking of stuff that I would want, but I'm not shopping for myself, now am I? Well, sometimes I am. But not right now. Today I thought I'd share a few things that I've been coveting, because if I'd enjoy receiving them as gifts that means somebody else probably would too, right?