winter – Belle Antiquarian

Lemon Ginger Honey Tea

This tea is made using fresh ingredients. All of these ingredients are known to boost immunity, and what better time to enjoy a warm drink than during the cold and flu months of winter?

For this receipt you will need organic ginger, organic lemon, local honey, a small jar, and some kind of utensil to use to get the honey from one container to the other. I used a small rubber spatula and a wooden stirrer. I’ll explain below why you want to use organic, instead of regular lemons and ginger.

First, you will need to wash and thinly slice the lemon. Next you need to peel and thinly slice a finger length of ginger. The easiest way to peel ginger is to use the edge of a metal spoon and scraped the peel off. After everything is washed, peeled, and sliced, start layering your ingredients in your jar. You can either add honey in between layers as you go, or you can fill of your jar at the very end. (I layer the honey as I go.) Did you know that honey is the only food that will never spoil, as long as it is kept sanitary? If you don’t know where to get local honey, some Costco locations sell local honey.

At this point your “tea” is done. You can keep it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Each time you want to make tea, simply scoop a spoonful of the mixture, including some lemons and ginger, into a mug and fill it with warm to hot water. You don’t want to use boiling water because it will remove some of the healthy benefits of the mixture.

A few tips before we get to the printable recipe: The lemons and ginger need to be organic. Otherwise, a) the lemon will be coated in a preservative that you don’t really want to be brewing and ingesting, and b) the ginger won’t contain the healthy yeast it is known to have if it is organic. An alternative to putting your jar in the refrigerator is to allow it to ferment on the counter for 2-4 weeks before putting it into the fridge. Fermenting requires other steps, like burping the jar daily. I do not have experience with fermenting the mixture, so if you want to do that, you should do a quick Google search to find some directions.

Lemon Ginger Honey Tea

Difficulty: easy
Print

A soothing tea made with fresh lemon and warming ginger.

Credit: BelleAntiquarian.com

Ingredients

1 small organic lemon, thinly sliced
1 finger of organic ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
local honey to cover and fill your container
a clean small jar

Directions

Wash, peel, and slice the ginger thinly.
Wash and slice the lemon thinly.
Layer the honey, lemon, and ginger in a small jar.
Refrigerate your mixture until you’re ready to use it.
When you want to make a cup of tea, scoop out some of the honey mixture, including some lemon and ginger, and place it into a cup. Fill your cup with warm or hot water and mix together. Don’t use boiling water or it will eliminate some of the health benefits of the ingredients.

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January 14, 2023

AbbyLeave a comment

Style it Saturday, Red Coat

Welcome back to another edition of Style it Saturday…on a Wednesday?

It’s that weird week in between Christmas and New Year’s, when no one really knows what day it is. So I decided that it was perfectly acceptable to post a Style it Saturday on a Wednesday! 🙂

Today I am sharing 3 ways to style a red coat after Christmas. During the holidays there are countless ways to wear your red coat. After Christmas comes and goes, it doesn’t have to stay in the back of your closet! Red coats are fun to wear all winter long. (As a reminder, you can find all of the exact items featured today by clicking on the photos and following my commissionable links. You will also find other suggested items that would work in different price ranges.)

First, I am showing my favorite way to wear a red coat after Christmas. I love wearing a red coat with a blue and white button-up shirt. Paired with these trouser jeans and neutral accessories, this is a sophisticated and timeless look.

Click the photo above or HERE to find these exact pieces.

Next, I am showing how you can wear a red coat for a fun night out! Red + leopard print is always a YES for me. Add in some faux leather pants, and this just became a sexy date night outfit. You could swap the leather pants for jeans, and it would be equally cute!

Finally, here’s a fun way to wear a red coat while running errands or having lunch with your gal pals! I linked a lot of other shirts that would also work well with this casual look, so be sure to click the photo for more ideas.

That’s all for today! Be sure to subscribe below so that you never miss a post. (You can unsubscribe at any time.) You can also follow me on LTK, Instagram, or Facebook.

December 28, 2022

AbbyLeave a comment

Cheerful, Winter Bedroom

Hello, friends!

Oh boy – it’s another chilly, gray winter day here in north Georgia. We may not get much snow (if any) during winter, but our winter days can be summed up with one word – BLAH. Do you get the winter doldrums? The seasonal scaries? Or maybe even seasonal depression disorder? The weather that seems magical during Christmastime gets down right moody when we take away the twinkle lights and greenery. In a blog post coming soon I will be sharing a list of simple things you can do to keep your own winter bright and joy-filled. But today I want to feature changes I made to our bedroom to chase away the gray.

The first thing I did was to add flowers. I’ve added bright, real flowers because I feel like it brightens things up during the cold, gray winter days. These were $4 roses from the grocery store. I’ve put them in a vintage sandwich glass that I picked up from the thrift store and tied it with a scrap of ribbon. If you change the water every 2 days, these will last 10 – 14 days. When these flowers need replacing, I will replace them with more bright, yellow flowers since that ties in with my color scheme. (I move the glass to the opposite, back corner when I go to bed so that I don’t accidentally knock it over during the night.

The next thing I did was to change out the throw pillows. I am using 3 pillows with yellow in them to keep the ambiance light and bright. If yellow doesn’t work in your room, try going with another color like bright pink, soft green, or orange. (Think of spring flower colors!) I know a lot of people like to use white, creams, and other neutrals right now, but if you are intentionally trying to cheer up a space, then you need to go with something much brighter!

You may remember that I had a wreath over each of our nightstands. I replaced it with a blue willow plate, which makes me happy. Find something you really love and decorate your space with it.

Finally, Ken’s side of the bed didn’t call for flowers, so I relocated this little horse deco piece there. It has some yellow on it that ties in with the yellow pillows and yellow flowers. I picked up the horse a couple of years ago on the clearance rack at TJ Maxx.