Homemade Kahlua Experiment - Part 1

I've been cruising the internet for gift ideas and stopped when I came to a blog post titled, "12 days of Homemade Gifts" with a recipe for DIY Kahlua.  I've been thinking about making Kahlua and this recipe looked perfect - I had most of the ingredients !  There are so many versions and my guess is you can't go wrong with any of them.  I mean how could you with rum, vodka, sugar, coffee, chocolate - what could possibly go wrong?

First, what to use to mix and store all this goodness?  I had a stroke of genius - or what passes for genius in my world.  Behold the jar:

This jar of pickles was $3.47 and just the right size.  I pitched out the nasty pickles (not a fan of dill pickles and these were particularly nasty limp things) and scrapped off the labels.  Just to be sure there was no lingering eau de pickle, I pried off the silicone seal inside the cover.

Ingredients all assembled.  Out came the vanilla beans and cacao nibs that have been waiting for perfect recipe.  And here it is from Yum Sugar:

1 750 ml bottle vodka or white rum

1 1/4 cups dark rum, like Pampero

1 1/2 cups sugar3/4 pound whole coffee beans1 vanilla bean1 cinnamon stick1 tablespoon cocoa nibs, optional1 slice of orange peel, optional

DIRECTIONs

         Combine all of the ingredients in a resealable container. Shake hard to combine.

1. Label with the date and let sit in a cool, dark place for three weeks. Shake or stir the mixture several times of week.
2. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer into a clean vessel. Use like you would Kahlua or any other coffee liquor.

I omitted the orange peel - not sure I want orange interfering with the coffee/ chocolate/ alcohol goodness, but that's just me.

Here is my jar all all filled.   I covered the ugly pickle lid so I can keep the jar on the counter and watch the magic.  (I did shake this pretty vigorously and the sugar still settled to the bottom.  More shaking in the days ahead).

Now I need to find some jars to decant my liqueur into and make some labels.  Stay tuned!

Estate Sale Treasures

I love estate sales - real, honest -to-goodness estate sales, not the kind where folks put out junk that should just go to the dump and think a sign proclaiming it an "estate" sale classes it up.  No, I mean the genuine estate sale in which the contents of the entire house,  and even the house is for sale.  Being naturally nosey curious, I love wandering through other people's houses.  You can tell so much about people by things they have keep.  I love seeing people's passions reflected in their surroundings - art, book, hobbies, photos - it all tells a story.  I have gone to estate sales at houses that had no personality - nothing to give a clue about who lived there and what they loved.

Estate sales are also sad.   I always wonder about the people who lived in the home, why their treasures are for sale and what happened to them.  There was a beautiful picture of the owners at this week's estate sale - the first time I've even seen personal pictures at a sale.   Not sure if this picture made me feel worse or better about going through their things, but I was glad to see how happy they looked.  Now I can fantasize that they were selling all their stuff to simplify their lives and are sitting on a tropical beach, enjoying drinks with umbrellas and each other.

Estate sales make us think about our own mortality and the people who might end up pawing through my stuff.  Do you suppose anyone would think it odd that I have enough small plates to feed lunch to a small town?  Or that I have hundreds of stamps?  Or that the Captain and I have hundreds of books?

The estate sale home was filled with things that brought joy to the people who lived there  - pottery, dishes, books, art, travel memorabilia and fiber arts supplies.   That and two chairs on the river bank - think they sat there and enjoyed drinks and each other, too.

This was a great sale - clearly the woman who lived here and I share a love of pottery, dishes, and art.   The kitchen was filled with gorgeous stuff - including some really pricey pieces, like hand-painted desert plates from France for $800!  But, check out these great pottery finds that were within my budget:

Berry bowl

I''ve been looking for some pottery goblets - love these!

I love finding art supplies!  The woman who lived here was a weaver and had all kinds of yarn.  I'm not a knitter or weaver, so I forced myself to walk by all those gorgeous skeins.  But then I found this box full of yarn samples - yippee!  I love punched edges and punched edges WITH fibers - swoon-worthy.

Apparently Ms. Weaver sent away for all kinds of samples, so in addition to great fibers, there is wonderful fiber-related ephemera.

I found this handmade script monogram in another box.  It doesn't matter that these aren't my initials; the design is beautiful.

I made this fun card for a friend.  See,  I knew those fibers would work with paper !

(stamps from River City Rubberworks)

Fall Fantasy

(here)

It's no secret that I struggle with the whole fall thing- you know I've gone on about it here before.  This year I'm making an effort to appreciate the colors - not just the gorgeous fall leaves, but the grasses, marshes and berries.  I've been taking some pictures as I drive around as part of my fall appreciation program.  I pretend I'm a tourist - it helps me see things I usually overlook and appreciate the little details I like to focus on when in real tourist mode.

I made some fall leaves in my journal, based on a technique by Renee Zarate in the April/May/June issue of Stamper's Sampler.  She made some gorgeous cards using water soluble crayons as stamping medium.

I started by painting a rough Gesso rectangle on my journal pages.   Then I scribbled water - soluble crayons on a craft sheet:

and spritzed the scribbling with water. (Somehow the green looks really blue here).

Stamp into the watery crayon:

I love the water color look from this technique!

I think this technique works best with bold stamp images as any detail quickly gets lost in the watery color mixture.  I'm going to try making a wood-cut style stamp and stamp with that next.

Happy fall!  Happy coloring!