I Designed my Own Keep Cup

(This is not a paid review, I'm just very easily excited. All links are meant to open in new tabs if you're on a computer. If any don't do that, let me know and I'll get cross with them).

When I first wanted a reusable take-away coffee cup, I wrote all about it on this blog. I wrote again when I found my perfect cup. You can read about that cup by following this link. I told that link to open in a new window, so it had better... Anyway, when I got that cup, I loved it. You know what? I still love that cup. and its twin. I'll tell you a little bit about those two cups, and then get on with what you came here for.

The first cup, the one featured in the linked blog post, was free with any Nescafe purchase from Coles. That's one thing that made it the perfect cup for me at the time: I had very little money indeed as I had no job. My second reusable cup, that one's twin, I got soon after I moved to Brisbane, when I found it beside the footpath when I was walking to the bus one day... or home from the bus, I forget which. Anyway, I found it, and it didn't look like it had ever been used, so I adopted it. It's not weird.

Anyway, those cups are about six years old, now. They're still perfectly usable, because I generally only use one of them once a week or so. If I used them every day, they would be getting very old and would definitely need replacing.

Recently, my mum was in hospital in Brisbane and, since I was the only person that lived close enough, I was going to visit her every day. That's when I decided I needed a third reusable take-away cup, and when I decided that should be a Keep Cup.

Why did I decide I needed a third cup? Well, one day, both of my reusable cups were dirty and so I needed to get a paper take-away cup. Since it only happens rarely, this is fine. It is an unfortunate truth that sitting at the hospital requires coffee. The problem occurred when I heard "cappuccino" and just grabbed it and left. I had grabbed the wrong cappuccino, a simple mistake, since all the paper cups look the same. It would usually have been insignificant, but this cappuccino had vanilla syrup in it. I don't mind flavoured coffee, but flavours are for lattes, not cappuccinos, so obviously my day at the hospital was ruined!

And why did I decide my new cup had to be a Keep Cup? Well, that is an excellent question, which calls for photos!

The lids of my two old cups are like this:

It has two little holes in it: one for drinking through (the most important one), and one tiny little chimney one, which, to be fair, you probably don't actually need since the steam can probably get out the other one. These holes are both open all the time, which is great when you're drinking out of it, as it allows this to happen. When you're finished your drink and want to stick the cup back in your bag, however, it is not good. You either need to rinse your cup in a public bathroom, or wipe the inside of the cup and lid with a paper napkin, which creates waste.

In contrast, this is a Keep Cup lid:

WHERE IS THE DRINKING HOLE!?

THERE IT IS!

It safely hides away under a little plug, so that you can put it in your bag and carry it home to wash, even if you don't have a spare plastic bag, or a stockpile of napkins.

I ordered my Keep Cup from the company's own website. One reason I did this was so I could come up with my own colour combination. Obviously, I chose a different colour for every piece of my cup.

The package arrived today (Monday the 30th of April). I was impressed that there was no excess packaging, the box was just the right size for my cup.

I opened it up, and stared at my beautiful little cup for a while.

Honestly, I already want to order another one, just so I can put four new colours together...

All the standard colour combinations on the Keep Cup website have cool names, like "Kinetic" or "Zephyr", so I have named my colour combination "Gladys", which I feel is as good a name for a colour combination as any.

If you want to design a Keep Cup in Gladys, choose "Punk Pink" for the cup, "Acid Plum" for the lid, "Sunflower" for the plug, and "Satsuma" for the band. YOU'RE WELCOME!

Anyway, obviously the first thing I did was compare this Keep Cup to the  reusable take-away cups I already had.

Initially, I thought the Keep Cup was slightly larger and was a little upset that I'd obviously been marginally overcharged for my hot drinks for six years, but to check, I performed the very scientific experiment of filling the old one up with cold water, and pouring it into the new one.

I did spill a bit, because I am slack and clumsy, so taking that into account, they're actually the same volume, just different dimensions. SCIENCE!

I haven't used it out yet, since I just got it today, but here I am using it at home:

#SELFIE!

I promise I'll brush my hair before I use it in public. Probably.

You can buy your own Keep Cup here. If you design one in Gladys, let me know and we can be twinsies! If you design one in a different colour scheme, let me know what you call your creation!

If you don't want to design your own, I recommend this one that is modelled on the dog man from the Star War, or if you want everyone to know you're a good person without having to tell them, you can go for this Sea Shepherd one over here or that 1 Million Women one over there. No, but seriously, Sea Shepherd and 1 Million Women are both organisations close to my heart, which I will talk more about some time when I'm not talking about cups and myself instead.

Lots of love,

Cassandra Louise.

This post has been shared on the May "Snapped Up" Linky Party

And on Deep Fried Fruit's Lovin' Life Linky Party

Mocha Smoothie

This smoothie is an experiment. I'm making it for the first time as I write this post. I got myself a drink bottle blender from Kmart to try to trick myself into eating more healthy things. It's worked so far. I'm starting to get cocky... I mean creative. Let's get down to business!

Ingredients:

One Weet-Bix... Weet-Bik?? What's the singular of Weet-Bix? Anyway, pop one of those bad boys on in there.

Add about 200mL of unsweetened almond milk.

The idea is to make the Weet... thingy all soft.

Add five tablespoons of caramel yoghurt OR use natural yoghurt and half a teaspoon of brown sugar. I have caramel yoghurt because I made it, I'm not even sure if it's something you can get made-up already. Someone confirm/deny.

One slightly heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder (obviously any brand is fine, I have this one because the week I bought it I was pretending to be posh).

Roughly 100mL (half an adorable froggy cup) of coffee and all that's left is blending. I see no good reason why you can't use instant, filter, whatever. Even decaf if you can find one with a taste that doesn't make you cry.

Blend all that together in whatever blendage device you have handy and drink that sucker.

Well, I just had my first sip and basically what's happened is, I'm a genius. You're welcome.

Enjoy!

Cassandra Louise.

Re-energising Face Mask

OR, if you want to pretend to be posh, "masque".  Everything sounds more posh in French.

First: Welcome to March!  First day of Autumn in the southern hemisphere, although someone really needs to tell the sun about that...

Moving on.
Today's post is a "beauty" recipe.  Benefits of this mask may include: better circulation to the face; less dry skin; less oily skin; less pimples; more "awake" looking skin; reduced puffiness; through-the-roof "touchability" of the skin.

You will need:

• Olive oil or apricot oil
• Instant coffee

The reason you need to use either olive or apricot pil is because these are the closest in viscosity to our natural skin oil (sebum).
The reason you have to use instant coffee is because of the way it behaves when wet, ground roasted coffee just doesn't behave the same way.

**Important note: caffeine can be absorbed through the skin, so this will count towards your daily caffeine intake**

Method:

Warm one tablespoon of your chosen oil over a cup of hot water, or your tea (microwaving the oil can change its properties)

Add one tablespoon of instant coffee into the oil.  After a few seconds, all the oil should be absorbed into the coffee.

Stand over your sink (I use the kitchen rather than the bathroom) and rub the coffee mixture all over your face and down your neck.  It is safe to use around your eyes, but try not to get it in your eyes.  Don't rub hard, as you should never scrub your face vigorously, and the instant coffee will be slightly crunchy.  When you are done, you should look like this:

Except with your face instead of mine.  You won't get my face by using this mask, sorry (it would be too confusing for my mum if everyone looked like me.  I'm sure you understand).

Leave the mask in place for 10-15 minutes, or while you drink that tea.  You can't hurt yourself by leaving this mask on a bit longer.

Stand over the sink and wash the mask off with just water, then go sit down for a while and touch your own incredibly soft face.  You may even like to make other members of your household come touch your face.  You will feel amazing (to touch.  Emotional state will vary).

The reason using an oil close to your own sebum can correct both dryness and pimples is because dry skin is caused by not enough sebum, and this replaces that, whereas oily skin is caused by too much sebum.  By putting a "sebum replacement" on your skin, it thinks it's already made some and doesn't bother making more (or at least as much) and the bacteria that causes pimples can grow in sebum but can't grow in olive or apricot oil, as long as it's a 100% pure oil.
The caffeine in the coffee has a "warming" effect, which is code for "brings blood toward it", so it will temporarily increase circulation to your face and improve your complexion as a result.
My disclaimer for this post is I'm totally not a real scientist, not a beauty expert and I only know what I've been told, but this mask does feel lovely.

Happy... ahh... masking??

Signed with love,
Cassandra Louise.

I love my cup!

When I first wrote about my search for a reusable cup here, I promised a follow-up when I finally found one.
This is it!
I found one!

I found the perfect reusable travel cup!

(Please imagine beautiful flashing lights around that)

After all my deliberation, I didn't order one online, didn't get a Keep Cup (although I really like them and may get one in the future) I got one from my local supermarket.The reason I got it from the supermarket was, honestly, because it was there, and it was quite cheap.

This is my cup:

When I wrote the first post about reusable cups, I talked a lot about my reasons for wanting a reusable travel cup, but I didn't know you guys very well back then, so I left one little thing out:

I really wanted a cup with a lid so I could drink my morning cup of tea in the shower to save time, so to "test out" my cup, that's what I did.

My lovely cup of tea in the travel cup:

And the closest thing you'll get to proof that I had a cup of tea in the shower:

Of course that was all in fun.  The main reasons I wanted the travel cup were of course waste reduction and my fidgety personality, and so I present to you beautiful, wonderful, fluffy cafe hot chocolate in my reusable travel cup!

And I did indeed leave the cafe before I was finished and take it with me.  It was a wonderful feeling, and I was the only person walking down Adelaide St in Maryborough drinking hot chocolate. :-D

My travel cup lives in the wonderful world of my handbag (no picture of that, I don't want to scare you guys!) so I always know I have it with me... unless it's in the washing up.  Hmmm... I really need two... :-/

I love you almost as much as I love that sprinkly chocolatey stuff,

Cassandra Louise.

Not a disposable cup

Ok, I told all these links to open in new windows so you can have a look at them as we go.  If it doesn't work, let me know.  I'm not a computy-type person.
Here's something you already know about me: I hate waste.  Here's something you may know about me: I think about waste and waste reduction strategies almost all the time.  Here's something you probably don't know about me: I absolutely love both tea and coffee!  I'll often have a tea or coffee when I'm out somewhere, usually a cappuccino since someone else is making, but I really try to only go to cafes which will give me a ceramic cup.  I don't want to drink from a disposable cup which will end up in landfill unless it's some sort of cappuccino emergency (which I can't think of what that might be).  The problem with this system is that I am a very fidgety person and my mind never stops.  I may decide I need to absolutely be somewhere else right now when I'm not finished my drink yet, so, since it's in a ceramic cup, I can either drink it all down really quickly, burn my throat and not enjoy it at all, or leave some and feel like I wasted milk, coffee, sugar (yes, I do.  What of it?) and a percentage of the money I spent on the drink.  I have decided the only real solution to this conundrum is to bring my own cup.  But first I need to buy one, and what kind do I want?  Let's see:
I had a little explore in internet-land and found that there are all kinds of reusable travel mug and cup, and you don't have to look far at all to find a cheap one, a sturdy one, a plastic or metal or ceramic one, but that's not all that's important to me.  I looked into environmental impact; materials, packaging and transport to me.  I really like the idea of Oxfam's "not a paper cup", even though it's traveled a long way to get to me, but it is ceramic.  When I was doing a little research into the Oxfam reusable cup, I found another not-paper cup which has a very nice design, but is also ceramic.  Even though it looks awesome and would last a long time as just a normal kitchen cup, I don't give it long in the den of horrors that is my hand bag.
I really like the idea of helping a charity through the simple act of buying something I'd buy anyhow, like the Oxfam cup, but I still find myself researching where things are made and how they were shipped to my area.  My searches led me to these Animal Rescue reusable cups, some of which look really great and I'd be proud to carry one.  That is a US site, though, so I kept looking and also found Breast Cancer Awareness travel mugs.  These are only some examples.  Your own searches will take you wonderful places!
Too far away, too big, too expensive... a comment on my last post here suggested Keep Cup, so that is one I looked up specifically.   Keep Cup is very popular, and I had a lot of fun on the site designing my own over and over (oh my gosh you guys!  I made it so pretty!) but haven't actually bought one, yet.  I will, of course, let you know when I do.  I found this review of Keep Cup really helpful and informative, (and it basically said everything so that I don't have to) and I actually really liked a lot of things on the blog, so it's in my "stuff I like to read" section, now.  I was a little skeptical about a plastic cup, but it's only made once.  It can be used for four years (or more) and then can be recycled.  That's pretty awesome!  Think about all the disposable cups you could not-use in four years!  Personally, I'd not-use 208 or more!  Very awesome.  I hope to be telling you about my reusable coffee cup in the near future.
I hope I didn't ramble, but looking at the clock and noticing the time, I'm sure I did...

Love you all, really I do!
Cassandra Louise

Just a tiny update...

I want to tell you wonderful people about something awesome other than my garden, so I'm currently researching reusable travel coffee cups.  I will post a real update with my findings within the next week.  If any of you know about a good reusable cup, do let me know, please!

Lots of love to you all,
Cassandra Louise.