Maybe this seems silly, or maybe it seems like it's not actually a thing, but it's totally a thing, at least in my house. We have tea in the afternoons. I absolutely love having a fancy little tea party at home with my mom or one of my girlfriends.

Giving up milk was really hard for me at first, because I was both an avid latte and tea-with-sugar-and-cream drinker. Black tea and black coffee just didn't do it for me at first, but after a little bit of training and a whole lot of time and commitment and espresso shots, I was fine with it.

The trick to changing a habit is to make the new habit really special. I do that with my mom's beautiful bone china tea set and really good local honey. And then one day I discovered So Delicious' Coconut Milk Creamer, and it was like the part of me that used to love milk had died and finally made it to dairy-free heaven.

YOU WILL NEED

+ tea

(lately I've been loving this vanilla rooibos)

+ coconut milk

(get the kind that comes in a little carton like half & half)

+ local honey

(we get ours at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op)

+ a Paleo treat or two (try these cookies)

  

It's pretty simple. But it can totally make your day better.

Who wants to come over for a cup?

My new friend Tony and I have christened 2013 "The Year of DIY."

I'm going to go to Goodwill and have dresses altered and paint things and glue things on things.

With that in mind, I've decided to try my hand at some "How To" posts this year.

Because I am an expert at a large number of very random things.

Let's begin with a Burger Party.

Burger bowls are pretty much my favorite dinner because it's quick and easy and Paleo and absolutely delicious! It's all about the toppings--mushrooms, sauteed onions and spinach, banana peppers, pickled jalapenos, tomato, avocado, lettuce, bacon, perhaps a fried egg! You can add whatever you want to it. Whatever you want!

Maybe I'm a freak, but most of the toppings I already have in my fridge on any given day. So the morning before I had friends over for what quickly became known as The Burger Party Extravaganza, my mom and I cooked the spinach, mushrooms, bacon, and onions so they'd be ready. 

Everything else just needed to be chopped. Then we put them in cute little bowls and covered them with plastic wrap, stuck them in the fridge, drank some coffee, woke up the boys, and went to see Les Miserables! When we got home from the movies, my brother put the burgers together and into the fridge they went, as well. 

(A word about burgers: you could obviously make whatever kind of burger you'd like. Turkey burgers would be good, maybe a crab cake if you don't do meat, and a veggie burger would do just fine, too. Ours are beef and come from my high school cross-country coach's farm just about twenty minutes away.) 

When you're having people over and feeding them, doing as much as possible ahead of time is huge. When my friends arrived that evening, I had a margarita pitcher ready and all that needed to be done was grill burgers!

Once everyone has a drink and is ready for dinner, take everything out of the fridge, grill the burgers, heat up the stuff that needs to be hot (onions, mushrooms, spinach), set it out on a counter! I got buns and cheese for my non-Paleo friends, so I set out both plates and bowls and let everyone DIY!

If I were trendier, I'd have little flags labeling each bowl with washi tape or whatever that stuff is called.

If you end up polishing off two margarita pitchers and end the night with a dance party, you've probably done it right.

Does anyone have a request for a future How To post?

I can curl my hair in about three minutes flat. It's become an almost-daily task in the morning, and I'm really fast. But, if I'm going out and have a little more time to get ready, I like to curl slowly and pin everything up while I get ready. I find that pin curls are bouncier and hold a lot better than a simple, hasty turn of the curling iron. Here's how to get the look!

  

1. Separate hair into sections and curl the first one under. Roll curling iron up as far as possible.

2. When the hair is hot to the touch, release it and carefully (it'll be quite warm!) roll the curl up with your fingers.

3. Pin the curl against your head. I think you could use bobby pins, but my hair is super thick and heavy, so I use those metal hair pins pictured above.

4. Repeat steps 1-4 all the way around your head!

5. Once everything is pinned up, give the whole thing a spritz (I use Redken Wool Shake).

6. Hang out around your house feeling glamorous until it's time to leave! (If I weren't taking photos for the world to see, I'd usually wait until this moment to do my makeup and put some clothes on.)

7. Take out the pins, shake your head around, and give the ends one final spray. Go forth and be fancy!