We’re bringing you another activity from Finding Stuff Club inspired by our travels in Portugal. Costa Nova is a popular seaside town with a small stretch of striped waterfront houses. In this activity, you’ll create cardboard vases inspired by these colorful homes—a perfect gift or activity for Mother’s Day! Follow along for instructions on how to create your own Costa Nova inspired flower vase.
Step 3: Trace your vase templates on cardboard. You will have to trace two sides and two fronts for each vase.
Step 4: For the house shaped vase, score the side of the vase where the dashed line is indicated.
Step 5: Tape your pieces together side by side. Try to make the tape cover the full edge.
Step 6: Flip over and fold your vase. For the house shaped vase, bend and tape the sides flush to front pieces. Tape all the edges together to reinforce.
Step 7: Decorate your vases with paint, stickers, or crayon.
Step 8: Color your flowers and cut them out. Place flowers in their corresponding vases.
The finished product should look something like this:
Don’t forget to tag @teacollection and @findingstuff.club on Instagram so we can see your beautiful vases! Stay tuned for more activities like this, and check out our latest styles inspired by Portugal here.
You may remember our good friends Martin and Taryn of Quartier Collective and their globetrotting kids, Tilly, Francis, and Viggo, from their guide to Lisbon and our trip to Greece last year. They worked the magic behind the lens for our Portugal collection and shot breathtaking photos around this seafaring country. During their trip, they nestled into a campervan and took a beautiful road trip down the Algarve coast. Read on to learn more about their adventures.
We picked up Salvador, a vintage VW campervan, from a dusty little shop in the hills outside Faro and spent the next week bumping around the Algarve with Bob Marley on the radio and big smiles on our faces. You can’t drive very fast in these old buses, and for the south of Portugal, a slow roll is the perfect speed. We explored the Ria Formosa, an expanse of lagoon and barrier islands stretching from Faro in the west to the charming fishing port of Tavira. We bumped down a dirt track—built through tidal mudflats—to the end of the road where we met our friends for a big walk out on the sandbars. We forgot about the tide and ended up in our undies, ferrying the kids on our backs past flocks of pink flamingos across the rising rivlets and back to Salvador.
Olhao is adorable—white cubist houses tumbled in a maze of narrow alleys. We’d start the day with fresh OJ and pastries from the cutest shop called Santa Maria Madalena and finish with grilled fish and gigante beans from Cha Cha Cha. Praia do Faro has calm, consistent surf in the winter months, plus you earn instant street cred with all the campers when you show up in a vintage beauty like Salvador. But our favourite beach was Praia do Barril. We’d park Salvador and take the cute little train across the estuaries and mudflats to the sandy barrier island. The train is like something from a long-forgotten theme park—clattering and belching smoke, its wooden railings polished by time. There are a few cafes out at the beach and, the most curious sight, a cemetery of enormous anchors from the tuna boats that used to work the area. The anchors lie half-buried in the sand, row on row, rusting in the sun and salt breeze.
One day, we took a small ferry from Olhao to Culatra, one of the further barrier islands. Though the islands are busy enough in the summer, they were nearly abandoned when we visited with sand covering the sidewalks of the tiny town and drifting up against the doors of holiday homes. After a good swim, Marty, barefoot and just in his undies, went exploring with the hope of finding some more drinking water. He found the only thing open on the island: a kiosk serving cold beer to a handful of local fishermen. This is the moment when you want to be able to say a few essential phrases in Portuguese like, “Could I please have some water?” and “I’m sorry, I forgot my pants.”
Want more stories like this? Be sure to follow Quartier Collective on Instagram @quartiercollective, and don’t forget to check out our latest styles inspired by our travels in Portugal.
At Tea, we’re committed to providing the highest quality children’s clothing that can be passed down from kid-to-kid. With each piece of Tea that gets a new life, one less piece of clothing ends up in our landfills. Through the years, we’ve developed a dedicated community of Tea fans who stand by our quality as much as we do. This Earth Day, we’re sharing a story about how one Tea fan used vintage Tea (some as old as 10 years!) to do something special for a friend. Read on to learn more about Marya’s story.
I was first introduced to Tea Collection via catalogs arriving in my mailbox when my daughter was an infant. At the time, I could not afford the clothes, but was instantly drawn to the unique styles, patterns, comfort, and world influence in the designs. I made my first Tea purchase during the 2010 Memorial Day Sale, picking up pieces from the Korea line that today immediately remind me of my eldest daughter’s toddler years.
A couple years later, I discovered a budding online Buy/Sell/Trade Tea community on Facebook and realized I could afford to purchase more of the clothes I had fallen in love with so many years prior. The greatest gift of joining this community, however, has been the long-term friendships I’ve made. To me, Tea not only represents globally-influenced clothing, style and comfort, but also the connections I’ve made with other women from a myriad of backgrounds and geographic locations.
A few years and a pandemic later, one of these friends expressed her frustration over ill-fitting masks. Having sewing knowledge, I offered to attempt to turn her Tea clothing into masks for her and her daughters. I was sent a package full of gorgeous prints that brought back so many memories and proceeded to do the unthinkable: I tossed them all in the dryer in preparation to be cut and sewn into masks.
After some trial-and-error, I was able to successfully create an array of masks using both the woven and knit materials of the Tea clothes I received. Each mask is made with three layers, often using the linings of dresses if they had one. I paid special attention to pattern placement and particularly enjoyed creating masks that retained special features of the dresses they came from—embroidery of the Bali Ubud Ikat dress, the gathering and pleating of others, the plackets on some, the contrasting sleeves and patterns from standout pieces.
Just a few years ago, I would never have envisioned myself chopping up our beloved Tea pieces, but this pandemic has changed the way I see things. I loved having the opportunity to once again appreciate each piece, recalling the fond memories associated with each one, then breathing new life into the fabric. The Tea clothing we’ve all loved is serving double duty—keeping us all safer, and hopefully bringing a smile to the face of a dear friend made thanks to a shared love of Tea.
Want more inspiring stories like this? Be sure to follow us on Instagram @teacollection. Love Tea as much as Marya? Join our Tea Insiders Facebook group here for sneak peeks, exclusive offers, and a shared love of Tea.
Did you know Portugal is the number one manufacturer of cork? Celebrate Earth Week with an eco-friendly activity from Finding Stuff Club inspired by the sunny beaches of Portugal. In this activity, learn how to create a fun beach scene using materials you likely have around your house.
Step 1: Gather your materials.
Printed template on pages 2-4 of the printable instructions
Optional: pom-poms, googly eyes, etc. for decorating your cork
Step 2: Print out the templates on pages 2-4 of the printable instructions here.
Step 3: Color your templates.
Step 4: Cut out your templates.
Step 5: Color the back of your templates as needed.
Step 6: Fold and glue as indicated.
Step 7: Decorate your cork using paint and paint brushes. Get creative with your cork characters!
Step 8: Assemble your beach scene.
The final product should look something like this:
Don’t forget to tag @teacollection and @findingstuffclub on Instagram so we can see your final creations! Stay tuned for more activities like this inspired by our travels through Portugal, and check out our latest styles here.
We’re teaming up with our friends at Finding Stuff Club on a series of fun, interactive activities inspired by our travels in Portugal. Finding Stuff Club is on a mission to find the best stuff on the internet that will engage kids (and adults, too!). Together, we’re hoping to bring a slice of Portugal into your home.
In this first activity, learn how to make a sardine stamp out of a sponge. Sardines are popular treats in Portugal, and we’ve created two versions of the activity for you and your kids to do together—one basic version designed for ages 4+ and a more advanced version designed for ages 10+. Download both versions here and read on for step-by-step instructions with photos.
Canvas tote, construction paper, or other object to decorate
Step 2: Using the craft knife, cut out the printed stencils labeled on the instructions.
Step 3: Place your stencils on the desired area of your tote bag, construction paper, or other object you’re decorating and dab a sponge with paint to create the sardine shape.
Step 4: Have fun with mixing colors and creating designs by layering on the pattern stencils.
Step 5: Peel back the stencils to reveal your patterns and designs.
Step 6: Continue the process until you have a design you love. Let air dry before use.
The final product should look something like this:
Don’t forget to tag @teacollection and @findingstuffclub on Instagram so we can see your final creations! Stay tuned for more activities like this inspired by our travels through Portugal, and check out our latest styles here.
Kids’ masks are finally here! These soft fit, reusable masks come in a variety of original Tea prints so you can pair them with your favorite Tea outfit. Made from lightweight, natural fabric, you’ll receive two masks with each purchase.
100% of profits will benefit the Global Fund For Children’s COVID Relief Fund aimed at helping children impacted by COVID-19.
Shop new kids’ and adult face masks here. Bought a pair? Don’t forget to share your kiddos in them for a chance to be featured on our Instagram!
This Earth Month, we’re teaming up with Kidizen to invite you to take part in the REWEAR challenge.
For the entire month of April, donate your gently-used Tea clothes on Kidizen and we’ll send you a special discount just for donating one or more items of clothing. It’s our way of thanking you for getting involved and helping one less piece of clothing end up in the landfill. Learn more about the initiative here.
Profits from donations sold on Kidizen will go to the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing sustainability as an integral part of K-12 education.
Kidizen is a marketplace to buy and sell kids’ fashion. As an official member of their REWEAR Collective, Tea shares their mission to make a difference for future generations by creating quality products that stand the test of time.
