I Made This: Wine Cork Trivet

Wine Cork Trivet

I've been collecting wine corks for a long time now for various crafting endeavors. Finally, I made my first wine cork craft: the Wine Cork Trivet Kit from Wine Enthusiast. Unlike many crafting kits, you get complete artistic choice. They provide the frame, you decide on the pattern with little to no guidance. 

However, no matter how you slice it, the dimensions of the frame are NOT a multiple of standard wine cork sizes. Trust me, I tried a TON of configurations using a variety of cork sizes and hit the internet to see if anyone else encountered the same issue (they did). 

No matter what, there was always awkward spaces to fill. This was the best arrangement I came up with. Although the spacers around the center bother me, I liked how I got to highlight the cork from our friends' anniversary celebration in the center.

I Made This: Christmas Cards 2012

Three very different collections of Christmas Cards this year. Crafted up a storm!

I Made This: Vanilla Extract

Every year I try to do a DIY Christmas Gift for friends and family. It's a good excuse to do a craft and I *hope* they find the unique gifts interesting and thoughtful. This year, I've been crazy busy so needed something that wouldn't be too involved. Luckily, I already had the idea to make Vanilla Extract, so come October I took an hour to do all the prep work.

I ordered some vanilla beans from Amazon and stopped by the liquor store to pick up some booze. All the instructions I found had varying concentrations of how many vanilla beans to parts liquid so I read a bunch and came up with the range 3-8 beans per Cup. Since the amount of time to let the mixture sit also differed wildly (2 months to a year) and it was already October, I decided to err on the stronger side. I also read varying accounts of using vodka and rum, so I decided to do a batch of each. I picked up one 750ml of rum and one 750ml of Absolut vodka and returned home for the next steps.

Again, there was a lot of variety in terms of next steps, but since I knew I only had 2 months, I decided to take the extra time to ensure stronger flavor.

• Empty booze into pot.
• Sliced open the vanilla pods lengthwise, scraped out the seeds, and added it to my empty booze bottles. 
• Warmed up booze in pot on the stove.
• Added warmed up booze back into bottles.
• Recapped and gave it a hearty shake, then put in closet where I shook daily for the next couple of weeks.

Finally, the time came to prepare my gifts for giving. I ordered mini bottles and Avery round labels off of Amazon (my fave). I strained the liquid through a coffee filter and strainer to remove the seed debris, then funneled my liquid into the bottles. For an extra step of fancy, I cut some of the remaining pods into small pieces and placed those in the bottle too. I thought it would look cool, but in reality, you can't see them since the bottles were so dark, so hopefully it will just make the vanilla that much stronger.

You may recall that I used both Vodka & Rum. They were definitely different, but I honestly didn't think one was "better" than the other, probably just a matter of preference. I was hoping to keep a bottle each for myself so I could bake with them as the final test, but I didn't mark the bottles and wound up losing track of which was which. Oh well.

Back to the labels, thanks to Avery's software, it was pretty easy to design and set up the printer to make super cute labels, so I slapped those on and finished it off with a little bow of baker's twine. Overall, I was incredibly happy with the way these turned out!

Theatre Review: One Man, Two Guvnors

Took my Mom and Grandmother to see One Man, Two Guvnors tonight. We got there early, which is very unusual for me, but I was super glad we did because the band performs pre-show. They set the 60s mood with their boyish charm and matching suits- very early era Beatles-esque.

Not too long into the performance, James Cordon pulls a couple of blokes (see, I'm in the British mood now) from the audience on stage to help him with something. This is where things got weird for me. One of the guys was dressed so ludicrously that I simply could not believe he wasn't a plant. This continued to color my perception of the show as more audience interaction occurred.

Then, I watched the first gentleman talking with his girlfriend and going to the mini-bar during the intermission and I realized that he was 100% genuine. This is also when I realized that James Cordon is in fact such a ridiculously good improviser that my mind just could not accept it. Tony well deserved, Sir.

I was able to relax and enjoy the second act a bit more once I wasn't carefully observing all the audience "plants". It was a classic, slapstick farce- silly and delightful and just a good old fashioned good time. All three generations of my family got a huge kick out of it and it turned out to be the perfect evening out.

I Made This: Cards

Had a very productive card-making session this weekend using a couple of kits my Aunt Debbie gave me. Added to my greeting card stockpile so that I'm always ready to go!

I Made This: Toilet Paper Roll Wall Decor Part 1

I was inspired by the toilet paper/paper towel roll crafts I saw on Pinterest and decided to give it a try for myself. 

First I cut up the toilet paper rolls in to 4 pieces and then cut the paper towel ones into corresponding sizes. Next I layed out the pieces in a variety of patterns until I found the ones I liked best. Finally, I hot glued them together to get the above.

As much as I liked them, the unfinished brown paper made them unmistakably look like toilet paper roll crafts, so I wanted to finish/paint them. I also read on Pinterest that you can mix some acrylic paint and water in a spray bottle to make DIY spray paint.

The problem with this approach was that to get it enough paint coverage I wound up saturating the  wreath and it basically disintegrated leading to the mess pictured below. FAIL. Luckily, I was a bit wary of this approach so only tested on one of my creations. Next time I will try actual spray paint to see if they hold up. Stay tuned for the results!

Update: Finally posted Part 2 here!

Theatre Review: Jesus Christ Superstar

Having never been a fan of this show I wasn't super interested in it, but I read a couple interviews with Sir Andrew Lloyd-Weber claiming that this production "got it right" and heard good things from a coworker, so decided to grab a discount TKTS and check it out.

This show wound up being absolutely worth seeing, but ironically, Jesus (Paul Nolan) was NOT the Superstar of the show. That honor went soundly to Josh Young who blew everyone else out of the water as Judas. Check him out in his fancy blue suit. He stole the show and my heart (for a couple of hours, until I got home to my fantastic husband of course)....