you can touch everything

Hello! Yesterday morning, I put on an old favorite song while my daughter was eating yogurt and raspberries and then she said I want to dance too! So we danced together - it was really sweet. I’ve been drinking a new tea, an herbal blend that a friend brought me from Italy.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at Happier Grocery (365 Canal St) from 1-3 pouring Masha Tea (they stock our matcha and a few of our blends.) Please come say hi if you’re able to!

Last week, I hosted a tea tasting for Co Star (the astrology app) and was telling some people about my Substack, but said that it’s not really about tea. And then someone asked Is it relationship advice? Which - TEA FOR TWO is a fitting name for that - so if you’d like relationship advice, please feel free to send questions. You can always send from a burner email if you want anonymous advice (or i’ll just write your initials.) When I lived in Portland, my friends and I had a zine called UPDO and I believe there was a section in there called ask a mom, where you could ask relationship advice to one of our moms. I am now a mom and am here for it! It doesn’t have to be romantic advice - it can be your relationship with your health, with your house plant, your career..

One of the best parts of Masha Tea is making custom blends for partnerships like this :)

Admittedly, I used to read astrology a LOT and now I rarely do — the the first piece of press that Masha Tea ever received was a Vogue story by Laura Regensdorf I believe co-written by astrologer Chani Nicholas on what to gift people based on their astrological sign. Masha Tea was in there for Capricorns. (Lot of Capricorns in my life.. my husband, dad, father in law, many small business owner friends.) I should also mention that that story came out before Masha had a website or instagram - it was completely unexpected and gave me a lot of confidence to keep going with the brand when it was very early on - I think that’s an example of press at its best.

The Co Star office has this cool machine where you can ask open ended questions and it prints your answers (and photo) in real time based on your astrology.

Needless to say, I re downloaded the app after this - just opened it + it says you should give yourself more credit.

Spaces are starting to fill up for the Masha Tea writing retreat - info below :) Email m@mashatea.com for more details!

July 1-6 is our second annual Masha Tea writing retreat at Maraviglia, an organic olive oil farm in Tuscany. The day to day will be vegetable forward, healthy organic meals together prepared by the personal chef on site. We will also have daily pilates with Kayla Principato and I am working on a journaling prompts book with Moonlists, specifically for this retreat so there will be self guided prompts to refer to throughout the course of your time there. I am including a massage with a local therapist into the cost of the retreat :) The vibe is rustic, healthy, and creative.

This retreat is best for those who are looking for a change of scenery to focus - it could be to focus on a specific writing or creative project, but it could also be space to focus on yourself or focus on sharing time with another if you do choose to come with somebody else. The retreat is structured to be flexible, with the added support of writing prompts, movement, swimming, and healthy food.

We will start every breakfast with a Masha iced tea of the day. In the heat of the afternoon, we recommend taking breaks at the infinity pool. There is plenty of space to work on creative projects - in the rooms, but also in hammocks, around the pool, at the yoga shala, or under the shade of the many olive trees.

There will be an option for a vineyard visit and in addition to our daily group pilates, Kayla will be available to book private pilates sessions with (with a focus on posture and your body.)

At the market this week, in line with a pussy willow wreath (shown here hanging in the living room) the guy behind me pointed at it and said spectacular! Those kind of exchanges are one of my favorite things about the market - it’s like why I love museum gift shops. You can touch everything.