I spent New Years in London visiting friends and sauntering around the city’s various neighbourhoods. I forgot how large the city was.  I swear you could walk for days and days and still not cover a quarter of all there is to see.

Despite this past weekend’s rather “moist” weather, we layered up and waterproofed ourselves to the best of our ability so not to miss out on the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of London.

On a particularly gloomy and wet afternoon, we stopped by London’s Design Museum looking for some lunch at their Blueprint cafe. The cafe was unfortunately closed (odd holiday hours) so we popped into the Design Museum shop to dry off and warm up.

Knowing how much I love tea and tea related items, my husband surprised me with a tipping tea cup.  As I write this blog post, I have a cup of green tea in front of me and I am having a blast tipping it back and forth.

I nicknamed the cup the Tipping Teacup.  Its real name is the “Magisso Teacup.”  It was designed by Laura Bougdanos and Vesa Jaasko for Helsinki’s Magisso and it received a Red Dot award in 2011.

What makes the cup so much fun (and well designed) is its triangle bottom and built-in removable strainer.  Depending on which way you tip the cup, you can adjust the strength of your tea. Tip one direction and the water moves towards the tea leaves. Tip the other direction and the water moves away from the tea leaves and stops brewing.

What is making you smile these days?