Afternoon tea is one of our favourite things, so we were thrilled to discover there is an entire week dedicated to celebrating it. 

To mark the occasion, we decided to slow things down a little bit and take some time out of our busy week to grab some cosy knee blankets and settle in with a cup of tea and a tasty treat. 

Sometimes afternoon tea can be overdone, with so much emphasis on the glamour and not enough on the coming together. We want to encourage you to use afternoon tea as an opportunity to put some extra mindfulness in your life. 

Here are our top three tips for a more mindful afternoon tea.

1. Pause as you brew your tea

How many cups of tea do you drink in a day? If you're anything like us over at TBCo., it's a lot. But, how often do you pay attention to making your tea?

Mindfulness can (and should) be applied to our simple daily activities, and drinking tea is no exception. Instead of going for whatever is always in the cupboard, occasionally slow things down and choose a nicely flavoured loose tea.

This week, we mixed things up with a flavourful cherry blossom white tea. Brewing loose tea in a glass teapot allowed us to pause and watch as the leaves opened up and the water changed colour. White tea is shown to have even more antioxidants than green tea, also making it a healthy option.

2. Choose local treats

Think about the yummiest cake you've ever tasted. Chances are, it didn't come from your around-the-corner supermarket chain. 

Choosing to buy from a small, local business not only means you're more likely to discover your new favourite scone, it means you're supporting your community. What could be more mindful than that?

For our afternoon tea, we enjoyed a delicious raspberry mousse from La Cerise, a sweet little Leith cafe across the road from our HQ.

3. Get cosy & take your time

We've developed a poor habit of always rushing, and too often we fail to slow down and enjoy a meal with the people we love. 

As you sit down to your freshly brewed tea and tasty local snacks, take the time to get comfortable and truly enjoy your afternoon tea. Having a soft wool knee blanket on hand for each of your guests encourages you all to snuggle up, take your time, and enjoy each other's company.

Our favourite thing about summer? The endless blue skies that make an appearance whenever we see a little sunshine on Leith. 

The TBCo. team is all about slow living, a huge part of which involves bringing our favourite bits of nature indoors. We've created this colour edit to inspire you to bring soft blue shades inside, so your home is always styled with a little bit of summer.

A subtle hint of blueish-grey can really make other colours in your home pop. Our Grey Lidded Ceramic Pots are ideal for keeping loose tea fresh, or for storing your jewellery. 

Go for a marbled look to evoke the look of wispy cirrus clouds. Our Light Grey and Dark Grey Marbled Pots make the perfect new home for a green succulent or for popping in your favourite scented candle.  

The colour blue kindles feelings of coolness, serenity, and calm. Soft blues, in particular, are meant to soothe the mind and boost concentration. Snatch up a cosy new wool blanket in Duck Egg Blue Herringbone, Purple Sage Illusion, or Duck Egg Windowpane to make your desk or reading nook extra zen.

A favourite among our lovely customers, Stewart Muted Blue Tartan brings together the summer's most beautiful colours: sky blue, muted forest green and bright sunshine yellow. Choose lambswool for extra boldness or recycled wool for more muted, rustic colours - perfect as autumn approaches.

Feeling inspired?

We would love to see how you style your home with soft blue tones. Send your styled images to hello@tartanblanketco.com, or tag us with #tbco on social. 

If you were to ever pop by our Leith warehouse, chances are you would find a few members of The Tartan Blanket Co. team sitting at their desks bundled up in one of our recycled wool blankets. We think they're a perfect size, and the fact that they prevent unnecessary waste makes them even better!

Whether cosying up with them at home or using them to add colour and warmth to an outdoor wedding, it seems our customers love them just as much as we do.

We love that our customers always want to know more about our products. Here are answers to the most frequent questions we receive about our recycled wool blankets. 

1. What are they recycled from?

Most of our recycled blankets are made with a combination of wool and material from old clothing and other products that would otherwise end up in landfills. This means there will be some polyester in your recycled wool blanket, though the blanket's exact makeup differs with every batch. 

The exception would be our Recycled Wool Blanket in Random Tartan. These blankets are made with offcut wool scrapings from our mills, which is why they come in a never-ending variety of colours. Our weavers always go through their recycled wool to find the most complimentary colour combinations. 

2. What's the wool content? 

All of our recycled wool blankets in a specific tartan are 70% wool, while the other 30% is made up of other fibres from recycled material we previously mentioned.

Our Recycled Wool Blanket in Random Tartan is 100% wool.

3. Where are they made? 

We work closely with a wonderful group of suppliers who understand our dedication to quality. Our recycled blankets in random tartan are made right here in the UK. Our other, named tartan recycled wool blankets are made in Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India, and are shipped to us from Mumbai.

4. What do they feel like? 

So cosy.

Because of their wool content, our recycled wool blankets aren't quite as soft as our 100% lambswool and new wool blankets. But, that doesn't mean they aren't perfect for snuggling.

5. Can you wash them?

We always recommend dry cleaning your wool blankets, as they're easy to shrink if washed incorrectly. 

Be sure to give your blankets a good shake before popping them in the machine to remove any loose bits of debris.

You can machine wash your blankets if you have a gentle wool or handwash setting. Be sure to use a speciality wool detergent at a low temperature, as heat and friction can shrink or distort your wool's shape. 

Wool settings tend to be pre-set at 40 degrees, but be sure to reset it to 20 degrees or colder to avoid shrinkage. 

Air dry your wool blanket for best results, as using the tumble dryer or placing your blanket on the radiator can also lead to shrinkage.

Every machine is different, so we can't guarantee that washing your blanket will be problem free - but, we've tried this method ourselves and our recycled wool blankets turned out just lovely.

6. What tartans can I choose from?

All our recycled wool blankets are available here. If you can't decide, you can even have us choose a random tartan for you! Some of our most popular tartans include Stewart Muted Blue and Buchanan Antique.