One Half Buddhist, One Half Christian, One Half Pagan

Tonight I strained both the lavender and mint jars, and mixed them together along with some water and sugar.

The ratio was:
1 part Lavender-Vanilla vodka
2 parts Mint vodka
1 part water
1/3 part sugar

I had leftover Lavender-Vanilla vodka, so I bottled that up too. They're now sitting in the basement waiting to be tested in a month or so.

Approximately 1/3 cup lavender blossoms
1 mexican vanilla bean, cut open
1 cup sugar
3 cups vodka

All of that is currently in a mason jar in the basement.

Tonight I'll add about half a cup of fresh mint leaves. I haven't quite decided if I'll add it directly to the jar with the lavender, or if I'll steep it in a separate jar and add the resulting mint-vodka later. Either way, I don't have any fresh mint in the house, so I have to go out and get it. It can wait until after supper.

In a separate mason jar:
approximately 1/2 cup fresh mint
1/3 cup sugar
1+ cup vodka

I'll shake both jars every few days, and strain them in about a month. At that point I'll also taste, and decide how to blend them.

Edited at 10:15pm, 6/24/12

uawildcatgirl asked me "What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?"

That's a really easy one: I read.

I read books, my Kindle, LJ's, blogs, fan fiction, and magazines both physical and online. I read packages, instruction manuals, encyclopedias, dictionaries, web comics, newspapers, and online forums and discussion groups. I read anything I can get my hands on. I've been known, when there was nothing else around, to read cereal boxes.

I usually have one book going on my Kindle and a couple of dozen tabs open on my computer, each with a different site on it.

A close second would be making things. I knit, embroider, use both a lucet and a kumihimo to make cord, collage, cook, bake, and make my own liqueurs. I'm learning to tablet weave, finger-loop braid, garden, and make my own household and personal cleaning supplies. I have the bad habit of making something because I think it would be cool to try out, but then either getting bored and leaving it 90% finished or finishing it but not having anything to do with it once I'm done. Or I buy lots of tools and supplies but never do it enough to justify them.

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I'm trying to post more often, and am looking for writing prompts. You can help by asking me a question or giving me a topic. Anything you want as long as it's safe for work. No promises I'll actually be inspired by your idea, but I'll do my best.

I've been listening to the podcast Dinner Party Download lately, and it sort of has me wanting to try making cocktails.

Yeah. I need another project like I need a hole in the head. On the other hand, it's something else I could do with the cordials I've been making.

Added: Semi-relatedly, I think I need to track down some of the 151-proof vodka made by Boyd and Blair. They've gotten all sorts of praise, and since it's a potato vodka I could make a cordial that is safe for my Gluten Free friends.

This was a very full, fun weekend.

It started Friday. Sometime during the afternoon I learned that one of my favorite blues performers would be at the Helsinki club in Hudson on Friday night. Over dinner Tom & I decided we'd go to the show. I waffled a little, doubting that we'd be able to get there in time or that there'd be tickets left if we did. Tom didn't let me talk myself out of it. :)

The opening act was Scrapomatic. They were very good, but didn't quite cross the line into great. I think their biggest weakness was not enough variety of mood in the songs they chose.

The main act was Shemekia Copeland who put on a fabulous show. A good mix of up-beat and laid back songs, and she and the band seemed to be having just as much fun as the audience.

Saturday we got a (relatively) early start, and headed out to Brimfield, MA for one of biggest antique shows in the country. Mostly we just wandered about looking at all the cool old stuff. I bought a couple of pretty decanters for my cordials, and some old skeleton keys for crafting with. Tom bought some old books of the "how to fix anything" varity.

Getting dinner on the way home Saturday night was more effort than we wanted it to be. Nothing really sounded good, and finally we ended up at Arizona Pizza in Lee. It hit the spot.

Sunday I took as a lazy recovery day, doing a little dishes but not much else, but Tom kept running around. He did laundry, went rock climbing, and got together with some buddies.

This weekend Tom & I are going out to the Brimfield Antique Show

I'm not exactly going to be looking for anything particular, but there are a few types of things I'll be keeping my eyes open for:

- Household tools that are in good enough shape to still be useful, and are useful to me. Preferably ones that can still be used for their original purpose. Last year I got a great 5 quart casserole dish that I use semi-regularly.
- Pretty (food safe) bottles. I can put cordials, flavored vinegars, or bath oils into larger ones, and perfume oils into smaller ones.
- Scent lockets, or any pendant that can be adapted for the purpose.
- Tools for embroidery, knitting, or any of my other crafts. Again, I'm only really interested in ones that I could actually use.
- Ephemera that is in bad enough shape that I won't feel guilty about destroying it for collages or decoupage.
- Interesting coats or jackets. Again, only ones that could actually be worn in real life.

Tonight:
- Lowes or Home Depot and get a window box, whatever hardware I need to mount it, and appropriate soil.
- Grocery store for milk
- make supper

Tomorrow:
- co-op and/or farmer's market for veggies, meat, sprouted plants if they have any I want to try growing
- decant some peach/whiskey cordial into a smaller bottle
- make supper

Sunday:
- Easter w/Tom's older brother(s?) and family

I finally got back to the peach and plum cordials I started back in August.

Tom helped me with the tasting, and this is what we ended up deciding on for the peach cordial:
.75 cups water
3 cups peach-whiskey
3 cups sugar syrup (a 1:1.5 syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
This filled up 2 1-quart bottles, one of which will be upstairs for immediate use and the other will be in the basement aging.

The plum was much simpler, and was just equal parts plum-vodka and sugar syrup. Again, half will stay in the apartment and half will age in the basement.

I need to get a new funnel, and a saucepan with a lip for pouring.

I finally got back to this one, almost a month after I planned. Oh well.

I filtered the blueberries out of the vodka, and played with ratios until Tom and I agreed that it tasted right. The final combination was: 1 part plain vodka: 2 parts sugar syrup: 4 parts blueberry vodka. Normally you wouldn't add any plain vodka, but it just didn't taste right with only the syrup and blueberry, and water didn't help.

I'm going to let it sit at least a month before I try serving it to anybody.

Body: Both knees are bothering me.

Book Review: I read World Made by Hand: A Novel over the weekend. It was good but... superficial somehow. For all that the topic is pretty serious, the author seems to only touch the surface. 6 out of 10.

Hearing: Nancy Pearl Book Reviews; This American Life (Episode 400 is not one of their best, although the last story was pretty good); and Dan Carlin's show Common Sense. This episode of Common Sense is pretty depressing (starting with "honor" killings in the middle east and going on to human rights in general and what we as a nation can really do about other nations not living up to our standards), and I think when I'm done with it I'm going to put on my "Good Mood Music" playlist and cheer myself up.

Etsy Find: Etched Silver Carpe Diem necklace.

Project Follow-up: I got a little bit of cordialing and a little bit of knitting done this weekend.

Randomness: If you could meet a character from a book, who would it be? Why? What would you want to ask them?