A homemade chai latte is actually a great fit for the setup you already have: electric kettle, infuser basket, strong black tea, and probably larger mugs. The main difference between regular tea and chai is:

Much stronger tea

Warming spices

Milk (or milk alternative)

Sweetener if desired

Traditional chai is closer to a simmered spiced milk tea than a delicate tea ceremony drink.

Basic Homemade Chai Latte Recipe

Tea Base

Use a strong black tea:

Irish Breakfast

Assam

English Breakfast

Since you already found your breakfast blend a little weak, Assam-heavy blends are ideal for chai.

Spices

Classic chai spices:

Cinnamon

Cardamom

Ginger

Cloves

Black pepper

Optional:

Star anise

Nutmeg

Vanilla

Ground spices work, but whole spices taste smoother.

Simple One-Mug Version

Ingredients

For about a 12 oz mug:

1½ to 2 teaspoons strong black tea

1 cup water

½ cup milk

1 cinnamon stick (or pinch ground cinnamon)

2–3 cardamom pods

Slice of fresh ginger

1 clove

Tiny pinch black pepper

Honey or sugar to taste

Method

Bring water to near boiling

Around 200–205°F is fine for black tea.

Add spices first

Let them steep/simmer 3–5 minutes.

Ginger + cinnamon especially need time.

Add tea

Steep another 3–4 minutes.

Add milk

Heat gently.

Don’t aggressively boil after milk goes in.

Sweeten

Honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, or vanilla syrup.

Strain into mug

You end up with something much richer and fuller than ordinary breakfast tea.

The “Coffee Shop” Texture Trick

The creamy café-style texture usually comes from:

Frothed milk

Extra sweetener

Concentrated tea

A cheap handheld milk frother works really well for this.

Easiest Beginner Shortcut

If you want the fastest route:

Buy:

Strong chai concentrate OR

Masala chai loose tea blend

Then just:

Brew strong

Add steamed/frothed milk

Some very good blends:

Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice (not traditional chai but rich and comforting)

Rishi Masala Chai

Tazo Organic Chai concentrate

Oregon Chai concentrate

One Thing Most People Don’t Realize

Real chai is usually stronger than people expect. If your earlier breakfast tea tasted weak to you, your chai will probably improve dramatically if you:

use more tea

steep longer

use less water

and let the spices actually simmer

That’s why chai often tastes better made on the stovetop than simply pouring water through an infuser.

A Great “Studio / Reading” Version

Given your interests in ambient music, notebooks, and slower rituals, a nice setup is:

smaller ceramic mug

concentrated chai

refill in smaller batches

tea warmer or insulated pot nearby

That avoids the “huge mug gets cold halfway through” problem you noticed with black tea.

Why Mockingbirds Copy Other Birds

Northern Mockingbird imitate other birds, animals, and even mechanical sounds primarily for:

• Attracting mates — males with larger song repertoires may appear healthier, older, and more intelligent.

• Defending territory — complex, varied songs make the bird seem more dominant and constantly present.

Interesting Behaviors

• Learn sounds by listening to nearby birds while young.

• Repeat phrases several times before changing patterns.

• Can imitate frogs, dogs, alarms, phones, and other urban sounds.

• Some scientists believe varied calls may create the illusion of multiple birds occupying one territory.

Musical / Artistic Observation

Mockingbird songs are not random noise. They often contain:

• repetition

• rhythm

• variation

• transitions

• structured phrasing

Their singing can resemble improvisational collage composition or sampling in music.

#Mockingbird #Birdsong #Nature #AnimalBehavior #Birding #SanDiegoBirds #Soundscape #NatureObservation #BirdCalls #MusicInNature #Composition #FieldObservation #Ornithology

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Hi,

You have some nice classic designs going on here, very modernist constructivist - kind of that late turn-of-the-century Bauhaus classicism using those geometric forms - works every time :-)

So I would say overall, the designs have potential. I think what holds them back is the presentation? You'll notice the poor lighting, kind of a rough edge in the craft area. I'm not sure what happened there. And it looks like you're working with limited colors of paper. Presentation will always be one of the most important things for your work in life. I would put it up there with the actual quality of the work. You can have the greatest design in the world, but if it's poorly photographed or there's some other distracting element then it's a dealbreaker.

So these are things that you can work out throughout the course, as we work out the kinks :-)

Your written component is thoughtfully put together and that's important.

You mentioned going with the symmetrical piece and I think that's a great selection and what I've done below is presented some options for you to consider. It gives us the opportunity to talk about a number of different things.

1. Focal point. The focal point is the geometric object at the top of your construction, that circular object. Since it's the focal point, it's extremely important to really nail it. And you can see below in those three small thumbnails my approach. First I clean up the photograph. Second I start considering what the focal point should look like. I just went with a circle and I made it a slightly different value.

   I think the difference is clear. And this is where you can have fun selecting, just the right shape and just the right color. Keep in mind that since it's already the focal point you don't need to make it the brightest color.

   The other thing was the distance of the focal point to the border. You want it to be equidistant, or the same as the shape below, centered. If you look at your original design, it's kind of floating up and it gets stuck on the top edge. So what you can do here is just have your eye go around the composition and make sure that things are equidistant and equally placed.

2. Range of values and color. Since you're transferring this into illustrator, you have the opportunity to make very subtle changes. You can see those three beige rays at the bottom. Nothing keeps you from making the center one just ever so slightly lighter. This fluctuation and subtle variation of values creates visual interest, engages the viewer. And the beauty of digital media is that you can do it on the fly.

I think I'll leave you with that. Summarized as:

Presentation
Focal point
Range of values
Placement and orientation

I look forward to seeing what you have for us!

Best,

Jeff

OK, let's see there's a lot to unpack here. First of all it's a nice drawing and I'm sure this is going to come out great in illustrator, the shapes that you have there are perfect for the vector shapes that illustrator was created for. And the standard figure in the middle gaze confronting the viewer. It's something we see all the time and it's kind of standard consumption fare meaning we don't question what we're looking at.

But I think sometimes we want to question what we're looking at and so I'm going to throw out some ideas and it looks like you've already played with asymmetry in your sketches, but I'll be coming back to that.

You talk about perspective, but I'm not sure what you're meaning… What I see here is pretty flat and graphic - nothing wrong with that – and it doesn't take me back into space so you could probably clarify that for me.

Looking at it now, I kind of see a mirror mirror on the wall kind of space where we see a frame, and the bow and in the face is set back. Now, one thing I noticed immediately was the texture on the bow or the pattern I should say to me conflicts with the pattern, floating around her and one way to maybe make them feel less the same would be to make one of them larger size pattern and if you can imagine those biomorphic shapes floating around her being much bigger so that they wrap around that frame. I think that change up in scale would be interesting.

Are you familiar with the idea of the gaze in art history? There's a long history of it. It took hundreds of years before we actually saw female figures in a painting that would dare to confront the viewer and there is often a narrative implied. What is this figure confronting the viewer with?

Finally. Below. I'm pretty used to almost every single self portrait that is presented being symmetrical or the figure being centered. It's just human nature apparently. But we are studying asymmetry and the rule of thirds. It would be nice to implement it into our designs so we can practice using it.

I just moved you over to open up space to the right. I super imposed a grid of the rule of thirds and you can see I lined your face up with that vertical line in the grid. The rule of thirds doesn't have to be used all the time. But it does provide a framework for good placement of focal points and horizon lines that would accentuate either the area above or below. So your face is lined up with the vertical line and I darkened that lower third just to make it stand out. As it is presented here, the the upper 2/3 of the composition is emphasized.

Off to the right there's another rule of third focal point and I placed the small bow there and then colorized it. I like small focal points. I think they're more powerful than large focal points. We also see the large bow overlapping the small bow so I can say in this instance I've created depth in the composition through overlapping. I also had the large bow go outside the picture plane to reference a larger space. You did the same thing in your original submission by having the borderlines get increasingly large until they leave the composition and that infers a larger space which I think is more interesting than a little box.

What I'm showing you here is not how I want you to change it by any means. But I am using your composition to discuss 2D design elements and principles and how you can utilize them in your compositions.

Here, for example I could say

I used the rule of third grid for a focal point placement that allows for a balanced composition and dynamic movement moving from one focal point to the other. I used scale with the small bow and the large bow because different size shapes creates a visual interest and then incorporated overlapping to create depth because I wanted more of a deep space rather than a shallow space.

I would go on like this, describing structurally what's happening in the composition utilizing as many elements and principles as I could. And that leads me to the narrative, which is or should be the most important part of the composition.

With all of these compositional elements, hopefully, I've slowed down the viewer so they can then land finally upon the larger, main focal point, which is the face and I can talk about the expression and what I'm confronting the viewer with. What is the feeling I want them to come away with after they viewed the composition? The compositional elements can create an environment that gives them clues about the nature of the person that's being presented. And then, of course, the expression on the face is ultimately what conveys to the viewer whether it's hope, surprise, friendliness, apprehension, moodiness, shame, bashfulness, confrontation, etc..

It's looking good! :-)

Let me know if you have any questions

I look forward to seeing what you have for us

Best,

Jeff

Hi,

I think it's looking good! You've got a narrative developing with some bold figures and a nice development of foreground mid ground and background.

Below, suggestion: the gaze. You'll notice in arts or photography or anything that has people or animals that we follow their gaze to wherever they are looking. In your original draft, both of the birds are looking off to the left. And for me, that's the possibility of an unfinished narrative like, what are they looking at?

One solution is below. If you turn one subject so that it's looking in the opposite way, the gazes balance one another out. You could even play with having the mother looking down at the baby bird. But it's something to think about because you are directing people through the composition and right now you're directing them very forcefully off to the left. Really it can be anything that directs the viewer back in. It could be a tree branch. It could be an opening in the trees shaped like a triangle with the point pointing us back in, but I think of these elements as visual brakes and pointers.

I super imposed a rule of thirds grid. It's very light. But you can see you did a good job of developing the foreground so that it rests in that lower third and that in turn accentuates the upper 2/3 of the composition.

Usually, I look at the intersections of the rule of thirds for places to put focal points and you can see there's one directly above the smaller Hawks head.

As you develop the composition and take us back into the composition, you can think about that area and incorporate atmospheric perspective. Perhaps there's something a branch or an opening in the trees. It can even be an opening in the trees that reveals some hills and whatever is back, there can be very amorphous and in distinct, but in that way, you can really play with working the idea of depth and space.

I look forward to seeing what you have for us :-) best, Jeff

I Ching Hexagram 34 → Hexagram 32

From Great Power to Duration

Hexagram 34 — Great Power / The Power of the Great

Core Summary

This hexagram speaks of strength, momentum, and the feeling that energy is building. You are not powerless — in fact, you may have more force, urgency, or determination than usual. The challenge is not whether power exists, but how it is used.

This is a moment where action wants to happen. You may feel pressure to push forward, solve something, confront a situation, or regain control.

Key Meaning

Strong inner drive

A turning point requiring courage

Energy that wants expression

The need to act with restraint rather than force

Power guided by wisdom, not emotion

Pertinent Interpretation for Your Situation

This hexagram often appears when:

A person feels challenged physically, emotionally, or spiritually

Circumstances demand endurance

There is frustration at limitation

One senses a need to reclaim agency

The message is not “fight harder.”The message is:Use your strength carefully.

Great Power warns against:

Overpushing

Acting from anger or fear

Forcing outcomes before timing is ready

Mistaking intensity for effectiveness

Symbolic Image

Thunder in Heaven

The image suggests enormous energy gathering overhead — not chaotic, but potent. A storm has force, yet it follows natural timing.

Reflection Questions

Where am I pushing too hard?

Where do I still possess strength that I underestimate?

What can be guided rather than forced?

Is my power being spent wisely?

Page 2

Hexagram 32 — Duration / Endurance

Core Summary

The changing hexagram reveals where the situation is moving.

Hexagram 32 shifts the emphasis away from bursts of strength and toward steadiness, consistency, and long-term adaptation.

This is not about dramatic victory.

It is about learning how to continue.

Key Meaning

Persistence over intensity

Stability through repeated effort

Long-term patterns

Endurance rather than quick resolution

Developing sustainable rhythm

Pertinent Interpretation

The movement from 34 → 32 suggests:

You may begin from a place of urgency or powerful struggle, but the deeper lesson is learning to live through the process rather than conquer it immediately.

This reading often appears when:

A challenge cannot be solved instantly

Healing requires patience

Life demands adjustment rather than domination

Strength must become sustainable

Important Shift

Hexagram 34 says:
“I have power.”

Hexagram 32 says:
“Can I maintain myself over time?”

Symbolic Image

Thunder and Wind

Unlike sudden force, this pairing suggests repetition — rhythms that continue season after season.

Practical Guidance

Pace yourself

Build routines that support recovery or stability

Avoid emotional extremes

Focus on small repeated actions

Trust gradual progress

Overall Reading — 34 → 32

Theme:
From Power → To Endurance

This reading suggests:

You possess strength, even if you feel depleted

The issue is not whether you can push harder

The deeper question is whether you can sustain yourself wisely

Momentum must become rhythm

This transition is often associated with:

Recovery

Long-term healing

Adjustment to new realities

Learning patience without surrender

Closing Reflection:
Use your strength carefully now so that it can carry you through what lasts.

that’s exactly the one people rave about. The price looks high at first glance, but that’s actually:

• 160 tea bags total

• about 14 cents per bag

And because Barry’s is much stronger than what you just brewed, one bag will likely make the kind of tea you actually want without doubling up.

Barry's Tea Gold Blend

$25.55•Walmart - Gourmet on the way LLC + others

4.8 (1.5K)

$25.55•Walmart - Gourmet on the way LLC + others•

4.8 (1.5K)

What I’d probably do in your situation:

• Buy this once

• Make it properly strong

• See if this is your “daily tea”

For your taste:

• boiling or near-boiling water

• 1 bag

• 4–5 minutes

• maybe a splash of milk

That’s the classic Irish/British style this tea was designed for. Barry’s itself describes it as a rich, refreshing blend using teas from Rwanda, Kenya, and Assam.

One other thing:
You may discover you actually prefer strong tea bags over expensive loose leaf breakfast tea. A lot of longtime tea drinkers do for everyday drinking. The loose leaf world is often more about nuance and aroma, while Barry’s is about “good solid cup of tea.”