Vanilla

I work with a woman who finds a way to mention the fact that someone else referred to her as beautiful EVERY SINGLE DAY. I'm not joking. It would be sad if it wasn't so funny. And I don't even think she's overcompensating. I think she really does feel beautiful, and likes to share her many, daily confirmations that she's right.

Well, I'm about to pull some of that same shit right here. Except nobody told me I was beautiful (assholes). And all of the congratulatory business is self-generated. Okay, so maybe not exactly the same, but there will be bragging, so it's close.

This here is what I made to give as gifts to the adults in our lives this year.

Did you know you could make vanilla extract? The only hard part is securing really excellent beans. And then remembering to start the extract early enough in the year. And then getting the beans & the extract into those cute little bottles. And then designing labels that don't feel all "grandma's kitchen." Okay. I guess it's kinda hard.

(I kid, I kid. It was super easy--steep a shit ton of split, good-quality vanilla beans in a big old jug of vodka for a few months, pour into bottles, add a couple of beans into each bottle & voila.)

I wanted to give a few recipes along with the extract, so people would be inspired to use it, not just let it get all old and sticky on the shelf. 

I wanted them to be easy, and I wanted one of them to involve hooch. Because I'm me. You can find the other two recipes here & here. (Feel free to print them out onto card stock & give away your own self).

So. Vanilla extract and recipes is cute and fun and possibly useful, but I like a theme. And I like things that come in threes. So the obvious next step would be to design and make Vanilla Ice tea towels. Obvs.

I am not an arteest, but I did have a new set of micron pens, a big sketch pad and several bottles of Wite-Out. How could I fail?

And here is the finished tea towel. I printed the fabric at Spoonflower on their linen/cotton blend. Four towels fit perfectly on one yard. Once the fabric arrived, I hemmed the edges & sewed on a little twill loop for hanging. 

Word to Your Mother.