Neighborly Christmas Gifts;-)

Gift ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Ideas

Here's just a few ideas for wrapping, gifts, food, etc.

Homemade Vanilla

Scroll to bottom for recipe.

As we all know, pure vanilla extract is super expensive...but if you make it yourself it doesn't have to be! And you can make a lot at a time.

All you need is, a glass bottle, three vanilla beans, and some alcohol (either vodka, rum, or bourbon)

(for those of you are freaking out right now because of the alcohol, don't worry because you are using this in really small doses, just like you would regular vanilla extract, and they alcohol content will cook out of your recipe anyway.)

Anyway, I purchased a vial of three madagascar vanilla beans for $8.99 at Penzey's spices here in Clackamas...however I'm sure you can get them at more places. Online would probably also be a great place to get them. As for the alcohol, you can pretty much use whatever you want because you won't taste that much of it anyway.

You'll need to take the vanilla beans and slit them all the way down with a knife, that way the flavor will infuse the alcohol. Then pour in your alcohol, and that's pretty much it. It will need to sit for at least three weeks, giving it a good shake every few days.

The vanilla beans will be good for approximately one year, so you can keep pouring in more alcohol up until that time, waiting about two weeks each time you use it again.

I hope you all enjoyed this!

Gift Idea

So sometimes I have a hard time deciding on what to get people for birthdays and holidays, etc. I came across a really cool photography blog and this girl made books for her relatives...so I thought it was worth a shot! It seems like it was pretty decently priced too. 

The website is called blurb, ie www.blurb.com 

I know that you can also make books through shutterfly...however I've never compared the two of them before. 

Anyway here are the results of my book. I got a 20 page 8x10" paperback book.

I Love Wrapping

I love jazzing up packages! And this was nearly all homemade. Got a HUGE roll of the white paper from IKEA. -it's really supposed to be for a little kid's drawing easel- and the "confetti" stamp was just a pencil eraser. And the baker's twine I made by wrapping regular cotton string around a 3" piece of card board and putting stripes on it with a marker. And there you have it!