Monday Mulling Spices

After going to a few wine festivals and craft fairs I decided to make my own mulling spices. Even my Mom who's not normally a red wine drinker liked the mulled red wine. Of course the mulling spices aren't just for us wine drinkers....you can put it in apple cider (rum or whiskey optional), maple syrup or vinegar to make a vinaigrette! It's super easy and inexpensive to make...they were selling each bag at the craft fair for about $3 and I made 8 bags for about $4.

This is what you'll need...

• Whole Allspice
• Whole Cloves
• Whole Nutmeg
• Whole Cinnamon Sticks
• Cheese Cloth
• Cotton String
• Paper Towels
• Hammer

The first thing I did was cut all of my cheese cloth. I cut a bunch of roughly 8 inch squares. My cheese cloth wasn't very fine, meaning the spaces between the threads was fairly large so I layered 3 or 4 squares of cheese cloth per mulling bag.

The next thing I did was get all of my spices ready. I took a paper towel and folded it in half twice. I put each spice in between the fold and BAM!! Hit it with a hammer!

I did this with the whole nutmeg, cinnamon sticks and cloves. I just left the allspice whole...

Whole Allspice                             Crushed Nutmeg

Smashed Cinnamon                              Pummeled Cloves

  

After all of the spices were thoroughly smashed, I put a pinch of each and 4-6 cloves (?) of allspice in each of the cheese cloth squares.

After all the spices are placed in the cheese cloth I measured about about 18 inches of cotton string for each bag I was going to make. I doubled each string (end up with 9 inches) and tied it around each square making a closed bag. In order to form the bag, I made an "O" with my hand and slid the square off the counter into my "O".

Once each bag is formed I tied the string around and cut the uneven top off. This made the bags more uniformly shaped. Which, as a high strung accountant, makes me very happy!!

Now for the good part....recipes!!

Spiced Maple Syrup

Simmer 12 oz of maple syrup with one spice bag over low heat for about 5 minutes. Cover and chill for 24 hours or until desired taste is met. Discard spice bag and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks!

Mulled Apple Cider

Combined 1 gallon of apple cider, cranberry juice to taste (optional) and one spice bag. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes. Serve warm or chilled.

Spiced Vinaigrette

Simmer 12oz of apple cider vinegar and a spice bag for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for three hours or until desired taste is met. Store for up to two weeks in the refrigerator!

Mulled Red Wine

Combine one bottle of red wine (any type), a spice bag and brown sugar to taste. Simmer on low heat for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm!

If you have any other recipes or ideas for mulling spice bags or uses please leave some comments below!! Happy Mulling!!

~ Sarah

Thanksgiving Madness!

Well I hope you all had a very happy and turkey filled Thanksgiving. I know my family did! We had a smoked turkey which was okay (I personally think it was a little dry) and a spiral ham (one of my favorite holiday meats). I made the mashed potatoes which came out really good. My younger cousins, Colleen and Claire, peeled them all and I mashed them. I added whipping cream and a TON of garlic and butter!

Anyway, for the last few years my Mom and I (along with other various family members depending on who's at our house for Thanksgiving) have been going Black Friday shopping with my good friend Amy and her Mom. This year was no different. One of the best deals I got this year was at Michaels. Everything was 30% off! I got some beads, wire and a bunch of findings...

I know I didn't take how to pictures, but here are some of the items I made over the holiday weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to go back and put up some how to instructions and pictures. For now, here are the finished products!

 

For these I used post findings (which I LOVE), a Celtic silver bead, a loop and a teardrop shaped bead. This are going to be a perfect gift for one of my aunts!

My Mom decided that she was going to take these earrings along with the next set of earrings and necklace. I made these with a single piece of wire, one round bead and two bead stops for each earring. I used a wire jig in order to bend the wire into the shape I wanted.

This is another set that my Mom claimed as hers. She did pick out all of the larger beads, so I guess it's only fair she got the first set. 

  

My cousin Colleen requested some feather earrings. I originally made her a pair that were just a single feather on a hook style earring back. Afterwards I started playing around with feathers and beads together and got this pair. It took a little bit of Gorilla Glue to get the feather to stay attached to the bead. The bead hole was too large for the bead finding I had so I just put a little drop of glue into the hole to keep the whole thing together. 

 

These are obviously Christmas inspired. I just took a medium sized round red bead and wrapped thin green wire around in a random pattern. This is what I got....which will make another great gift!

 

 These are similar to the ones above except I used a larger round silver bead and two colors of thin wire (red and green, again for Christmas).

 These were one of my favorites. Simple but I really like them. They are just an oblong bead with a piece of plastic wrapped wire bent around them. Easy to make and the look great!

Here's another pair of feather earrings that I made. Again, it was just a bead, a feather and the pin shaped finding with a flat bottom. This time the bead whole was smaller so no glue was needed.

Like I said, next time I'll put up how to instructions and pictures so you can make your own! It's easy and fairly inexpensive to get started. Anyway, until next time.....

Sarah

My first post....wish me luck....

So this is my very first shot at blogging....

I started because of course I was bored at work. I'm using my new favorite site, stumbleupon.com, thanks to my cousin Meaghan and I noticed that a lot of the crafty sites that I'm stumbling upon are personal blogs. Just regular people who like to make things and try DIY projects. That's me! Especially recently! So I decided to write my own blog about the things I make and DIY projects I try. Now for those of you who chose to follow my blog there are a few things you should know....

1. I'm an accountant....therefore I cannot spell or write very well. In fact I tend to write exactly how I speak....
2. Although the purpose of this blog is for crafts, recipes and whatnot I can almost guarantee that there will be posts about my dog, Puckie, and my friends and family's crazy antics.
3. I do tend to use some choice words. I'll try to keep it to a minimum, but sometimes shit is the only way to describe something!

Well I think that's about it for the first one. I guess I really should get back to work or should I say Stumbleupon.com....