Kat Johnston

Tag: coffee

  • Creativity is a cup.

    Creativity is a cup – or at least it is when only half awake with only 40 minutes to midnight.

    It runneth over with the devine inspiration of the ages, unable to contain the sweet honeyed necter of the artful touch. Or not. It’s currently forty minutes to midnight, and I have entirely forgotten to have something up before now for today. So then, for the moment at least, creativity is a cup.

    I did actually consider letting it tick over… but I have been throwing something up each day for months now, and I do rather think that it would be unfortunate to set such a streak aside for simple laziness. I’ve thrown something up each day, even when it was just some really horrid little thing done in paint because I had not wacom, nor scanner, nor even digital camera to call to hand in order to put up something slightly more significant than that. Why then would I put all of that effort aside for an early bed-time? I’m just thankful that I remembered before it was too late.

    ‘So’, you ask, ‘Why a cup?’ Tis rather simple, really… even if I should really have probably called it a mug, rather than a cup. The most recent thing I enjoyed food or drink-wise was a cup of coffee, brewed by my loving and adorable husband. It was simply the first thing to pop to mind. Therefore… a cup.

    And look, look! I am even drawing inane and boring things in this teensie little sketchbook, and not giving a damn about how it really looks. I’ve even written about here in there, on that page, and it doesn’t worry me a bit. Yes, it sounds like such a silly little thing… but seriously, I find it awesome that I have been able to set aside my fear of ruining the perfectly good pages of that little thing and just draw, well, whatever. Its nice. Its wonderful. Its rather liberating and I deserve a big pat on the back for it. Yay me!

    Ok… I really shouldn’t write up posts with half an hour to midnight to go… night all.

  • The saga of the coffee.

    Kat Johnston Sketch – Mmmm, delicious coffee is delicious. Probably even more so when you know it is probably going to be one of only two cups for the day. Damn lack of milk…

    This is a picture of a steaming cup of what is meant to be coffee. To understand why I felt the need to draw a picture of a cup of coffee, read on.

    I woke this morning and dredged myself down to the computer to perform my daily morning rituals… a glass of water, a quick check of the e-mail, the more recently added ‘first twitter of the day’ and so forth. I had mint dark chocolate for breakfast… not exactly the breakfast of champions, I suppose, but damn it tasted good. It was then that I dragged myself back upstairs and threw together a coffee.

    As the water was coming to the boil, I grabbed the other essential coffee-making tools: a teaspoon (you can never have enough teaspoons), the coffee itself (sorry, it was instant) and milk. I should never be shocked to see that there is little milk in this household: my partner drinks milk as if he were entirely made of calcium… perhaps the need for milk accounts for all the bull sometimes too. Did I really make that joke? Why yes, I believe I did. Zing, Mister James. Zing.

    Anyhow, long story short, after this coffee, there is only actually enough milk for one more coffee. It got me to thinking… who was the first person to put milk in coffee? Why? Were they mostly out of water one day and went ‘huh, let me try it with this bovine secretion, perhaps that will taste ok’? Perhaps that is taking it a bit far – I realize that, as with sugar, somebody probably went ‘you know, it might be a bit more drinkable if it has something a bit sweeter in it’, but there is another step to this thinking. I’ve never really tried coffee with a range of other liquids. Liqueurs, milk, cream, ice-cream, all yes… but not, say, orange juice, or pomegranate juice, or creaming soda. Perhaps I am missing out. Probably not, seeing as I don’t see many ‘coffee and creaming soda’ drinks out there on the open market, but you never know.

    I think I’m going to do some experimentation later… probably much to the disgust of my adoring husband who thinks I am crazy when I pick up a random drink from the Asian grocery store and go ‘you know, I think I’m going to try this’ even though I can’t even make out the words on the label. But as with picking up random drinks at the Asian grocery, while some may be absolutely horrendeous, you never really do know when you are going to stumble on something out of this world. Who knows? I might start a whole new coffee-drinking trend.

    Oh, by the way? I drink my coffee white, no sugar.