I Made a Coffee Bar

When you have a large family, any flat surface becomes a catchall for kid's stuff. I've seen everything from the usual papers, pens, and pencils, to stranger things like dirty socks, shredded candy wrappers, and baseball gloves sitting around.

Now that the buffet (as we call it) has been turned into a coffee bar, there is little space for all that "stuff."


I am not a coffee connoisseur. I drink pretty much any kind of coffee. Although, I do try to buy fair trade coffee as often as I can. I do however, like my fancy teas. I love the chai teas, as well as dessert teas. My least favorite teas are the fruit teas. I'd rather eat real fruit thankyouverymuch. The girls love their hot chocolate as well as a variety of teas. Nathanael's tastes run pretty similar to mine. Murray, on the other hand, will drink most hot beverages -- coffee being the exception -- if you hand it to him.

The country crocks are from my mom, as is the biscotti jar on the far right. Sorry! I think there has only been biscotti in it once. I do believe all of them were purchased at thrift stores.

I fell in love with these prints by Melanie of Vision City Paper. I have my eye on a few more that I would like to purchase in the future. Go on and check her out!

This beautiful tray is from Winners and handmade in the Philippines. I couldn't resist not purchasing it a few years ago already. The teas are from Epicure, David's Tea, and Teavana.

My little honey pot is also from Winners. 

 The plant is fake. :o) Really! I found it at the grocery store.

 My Epicure teapot is behind the "glass". (It's actually plexiglass, replaced by my dad after a kid fell and destroyed the original glass and soldering pattern. Thankfully the child was uninjured!)

The first teapot I have ever owned that doesn't leak and keeps our tea hot for quite awhile too! (It apparently makes a great mirror too! Haha!)

My coffee maker is a Cuisinart. I wanted a coffee maker that had a hot water option. This was the only company that had this option -- at least in my price range. I waited until it went on sale at Canadian Tire. There are mixed reviews about it, as with any product, but so far we're very happy with it. The only thing we struggle with is filling the water reservoir for the coffee. It's at an odd angle and inevitably I spill some water almost every time. 

The best part about the coffee bar? There is very little room for junk stuff to collect! They still try, but I'm much quicker to convince them to put it away in the proper place.