DIY Cocktail Napkins

As I promised, I am continuing my little wedding gift series of tutorials.  On Monday I posted the Jolly Rancher Vodka and today what would go better with flavored vodka than little Cocktail Napkins?

These napkins were made from a dish towel.  I loved the fabric of this dish towel and, to tell the truth, I am not a fan of most fabric in my local fabric stores.

Cut your fabric about 6 x 12 inches.  I just used the size of my measuring thing (my high school teacher always told me never to use the word "thing" - sorry Don).

Fold the fabric in half with the front side in.

Sew up the two sides that do not have the fold or the opposite of the fold (you want to be able to turn it right side out).  Make sure to leave space at the open end.

Shear your sides that you just sewed up.

Turn the napkin right side out and tuck in the open edge.  Make sure to poke in the corners so they are square.

Sew all the way around the napkin with a bright thread.  I sewed it about a 1/4 inch from the edge.

Next, mark the corners of your more showy stitch (ok it is just a zigzag, but hey, I can pretend to be fancy).  In the image above, I marked the zigzag stitch 1 inch from the first, but I changed the rest of them to 1/2 an inch.  That looked much better.  My poor friend has one napkin with zigzag a little different from the rest (that way she knows I made it, haha).

Stitch to the little pencil marks you made (see above) turning on the little pencil spots (I'm watching a British shows and starting to use more British words).

Tie it up with a ribbon and you have a great little present.

This is a easy project for beginner sewers.  Just be sure to sew in a straight line.  Mine are not perfect I have to admit.  I'm kind of a beginner myself.

House Cleaning Tips from 30 Years of Experience

This post has been six months in the making.  Finally, Janel over at Hating Martha encouraged me to write this post.  So here goes.

I worked as a house cleaner for all of one month.  In truth, I'm too educated to clean houses for a living.  I just felt that I was not using my expensive education to do the grunt work of cleaning other people's houses all the time.  Also, it was really hard work, for not very much money.  So I went back to subbing.

While I was house cleaning, I got a lot of great tips on how to my boss cleaned the house.  She has been a house cleaner for 30 years and we had it down to a science.  I'm pretty sure she knew what she was talking about.

1) Have all your supplies in one bag.  We used two paper bags nestled inside each other.  That way you can put your wet gloves and sponges between the bags to dry.

2) Have a paper bag for garbage (or sometimes, because we don't have many paper bags - I recycle - I just take my little garbage can around) and your roll of paper towels.  My boss would tear off the paper towels by two sheets and layer them, but I don't find this helps much.

3) As Janel recommends, start at the top of each room and clean down.  We had a feather duster for the ceiling, then counter-tops, sides of furniture and cabinets, and the floor last.  As soon as I learned this I realized how great this tip was.  As the dirt falls you can clean it up.  Brilliant.

4) Because people tend to straighten up before the house cleaners come over, I do that first in my house.  I run around the house putting stuff away and generally straightening up.  I try to do this every day even if I can't clean.  I don't use baskets or anything because I use the process of straightening up as extra exercise.  the more times I run up and down the stairs the better shape I will be in (right, makes sense?).

5) Unlike Janel's house cleaning plan, I always start with the kitchen, as suggested by my former boss.  The reason for this is that the kitchen is usually the dirtiest room in the house so it is good to get it out of the way.

6) I like to use all natural cleaners, but it all depends on my mood.  I have tried a lot of different cleaners.  Shaklee, Myer's, Vinegar, Baking Powder, Bleach, you name it.  So far I like Ms. Myer's Geranium spray and Pledge (citrus scented).

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Both these cleaners make the whole house smell wonderful.

7) The Pledge is great for so many surfaces and dusting.  I learned to use it on the cabinets in the kitchen.  Kitchen cabinets do need a wipe down and a little pledge and elbow grease makes a big difference.  I also use the pledge on all wood surfaces and leather.  Everything sparkles with pledge (and smells good too!).

8) As you move from room to room you bring your bag of cleaning supplies, garbage bag, mop, and vacuum along with you.  I start in the kitchen and work through the house.  The only problem with this is that I usually lose steam by the time I get to the last two rooms, the bedrooms.  I figure I can just close the door if I have to and hubby and I don't care if it is not too clean.

9) Things I don't clean: windows, inside light fixtures and walls.  I really should clean my windows but it is just too much work.  You know, remove screen, get ladder, spray, wipe ... ugh, it is endless.  Every morning I wake up and look out my dirty skylight and think "I should clean that!" but I don't.

Oh and last but not least....

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10) Put on loud, upbeat techno music.  I was born in Goa, India, the birth place of Goa Trance, so I love me some techno.  I plug in my mp3 player with lots of music my brother (who is a DJ) gave me and let it shake the house.  I'm really glad I don't have any neighbors nearby because I love to blast the music with so much base you can feel it even with the vacuum running.  I have to clean when my husband is out of the house too because it distracts him.  Now, this is not a tip from my former boss, we cleaned in silence (sometimes there were customers in the house).   

I hope these techniques are helpful, they work for me.  If you are a long time follower, you will know I posed a plan for housecleaning over a year ago, but it did not last.  It is a good plan, but hard to execute, because some days you just don't like to clean.

How do you clean?

Jolly Rancher Vodka by Chance

I love Weddings.  I missed  a bunch of them while living in India and now make every effort to attend all the weddings I do get invited to.  So when my old friend from Scotland told me she was celebrating her new marriage I convinced hubby to drive 9 hours to attend.  We had such a blast.  I knew I wanted to give her something special, so I dug deep into my creative psyche and made her a gift that was designed especially for her.  It was Designed by Chance (ha, had to throw that in there).

I will be sharing all the crafts I made for this special gift over time.  Today, as the title indicates, I will show you how I made Jolly Rancher Vodka.

Nothing could be easier than Jolly Rancher Vodka.  I used the tutorial found at Mix that Drink but used cheaper bottles (they still look great, I think).

First we separated the Jolly Ranchers by flavor.  Hubby helped with that.

Then just put 9 Jolly Ranchers in each flask (the flasks I bought were 7 ounces).

Add vodka:

Then wait for the Jolly Ranchers to break down and flavor the vodka.  I added hand made labels with my blog logo and the flavor on the back.  It was all tied together with baker's twine in my friend's wedding color (red).

Put all together, they looked amazing.

Now, of course, I made myself a batch as well.  I can attest that the flavor is really nice.  Not too sweet.

Be sure to check back for some more tutorials and all the other components of the gift.  

Do you like to make handmade gifts or go with the registry?  In this case, there was no registry, so I didn't have to make that choice.

Well, Well, Well, We Fixed Our Well.

Sorry for the cheesy title but I could not help it.  The title was screaming to be written.

But yes, we fixed our well.  Let me just say it was bad.  My two tenants on the property both called to complain.  I don't blame them.  The water pressure was really low, there was dirt in the water, and half the time only air would come out of the faucet.

Lucky for me, I found a great company to do the work.  They were professional, dependable and very nice.  I wrote about our estimate in the Fate of Our Well.  Now they came to do the work.

Eight in the morning, early for me, they knocked on my door and trudged through my basement to turn off the water.  They then they took out the heavy machinery.

I really did not know what a well looks like in this country.  In India, the wells look like wells, they are a huge hole in the ground with a stone circle that you can look down into (most even have a rope and bucket too).  But here in the states things are much more "civilized."  The well is underground and the only part you see is a pipe.  I guess when they dug the original well they only put the pipe so far and left a hole above it.  Well, (ha, sorry, could not help myself)  that hole was then the depository for people's garbage over the years.  We found all kinds of weird stuff down there, including a little toy buggy that I might clean up and keep for fun.

That's the hole in my yard, before any work.

The guys at Titan Drilling (they were so great, have I said that yet?  Just letting my stand there and take pictures was nice, but then they were joking and talking, it was fun)  decided to dig down to the pipe, and raise it up so it would be above ground and not get stuff in it.

They used this huge machine, I don't know the name, some three year old will have to tell me (my brother knew all the names of all the big machines when he was three), anyway this machine dug down about 9 feet.

Then the lackey, or young man, had to dig around and find the pipe cap.

Can you see it?  It is dirty and rusted but in tact.

I was told my well was shallow, but that is how deep the pipe for the water goes down.  That is about 70 feet.  Looks impressive to me.  

That, above, is the old pump.  We don't know how old it is, but we decided to replace it.  Now we don't have to worry about it.

After a short break to go get a longer pipe (they guesstimated too short, we had a good laugh over too short, too long jokes) they soddered the new pipe to the old one...

...cut off the extra, put a cap on it (not pictured) and we were done.

Now all I need is that little wishing well to put on top. The guys at Titan said that was fine as long as they could move it.

I am happy to report that our water is clean, clear, and has no air.  I'm supper happy.   


Some people refuse to move into a house with a well because they are afraid of the hassle it will cause, but with a company like Titan I am pretty happy with mine.  I can take all the baths, long showers, and plant watering trips around the garden I want and don't have to pay a dime.  I even think I have some of the cleanest water in the country (but I have to double check that, hehe).  


How do you feel about wells?  Lets have a discussion.

Front Porch Fix-Up

We never use our front porch.  The front door leads to right in front of the stairs and it is quite awkward, so we always come in and out of the house by the back door (just like the country folk we are).  But I wanted to improve our "curb appeal" (I put it in quotes because you can't see the front of the house from the road, see my berm post here).  Nevertheless I really wanted the few people who do come to our front door, mostly Jehovah Witnesses and people looking for my neighbor, to have a nice view.

In general our front porch is pretty neglected.  It has some loose steps and lots of debris, but I thought some flowers would improve the general look of it.

Last year Hubby and I were at Ikea (a long trip from home) and found some huge white planters for $5 each.  We loved them, we loved the look, the color, and the price.  So we brought them home.  Only to realize that the planters had no drainage holes.  They sat in our basement for the next year.  But just a couple of weeks ago I convinced my Hubby to drill some drainage holes and let me splurge at the nursery.

Hubby put a bunch of nice sized holes so my little plants would not drown.

I then added rocks and plants.  I went for yellow and white plants because I want to one day paint the house blue and white and the yellow flowers would look good.  Of course, these flowers won't be alive whenever we actually get around to painting the house, but that was the plan at the time.

After a month of growing in my planters they looked like this:

That's my kitty in the window, she missed me.

The pops of yellow and white really brighten up my little deck out there.

Now, as my dear friend requested, here is a wide shot of the whole front of my little cape.

While taking pictures I came across a little bumble bee hiding in the lilies:

Isn't that precious?

Next you have to see my back porch, it is improving, maybe by the end of the summer I will actually want to take pictures of it (still have some pillows to make.  Don't we all?)

How do you like to spruce up your outdoor decks and patios?

Where I party:

Book Club Party Ideas

I'm so excited.  This weekend I will be hosting my first night of my new Book Club.  We chose a book (over a month ago) and picked a date.  It has not been easy to work around all of our schedules but it should be a fun evening.  I'm hoping this will continue monthly.

So for our first meeting I want it to be special.  We are going to trade off who hosts each month and I made it clear we are not trying to show off our hosting skills.  Each host can do as little or as much as they want and there will be NO JUDGING!!!  I'm big on that.  I just want this to be fun.

That said, I also want to have some nice food and drinks ready for my friends.

Here are my ideas for the evening.  I started my brainstorming with Pinterest (follow me, I pin a lot!!!) but each photo will be supplied with a link straight to the source (if I can find it).  I think that each sourse deserves full credit.

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I found this great recipe for a pink grapefruit margarita.  It is a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa, which totally had me sold.  The recipe is for a large pitcher so I can just make one drink and let the girls help themselves.

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Of course, I will also have wine.  I want to make these simple wine charms because, by golly, I'm always losing my wine glass.  I'm a little nervous about cutting the cork, but I will figure it out.  *wink wink

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I'm so excited to make these.  I have seen them for the longest time and now is the perfect time to make them.

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This hummus is great.  I made some a couple of weeks ago and decided this is THE hummus recipe for me.  With some whole wheat pita it will be super yummy.

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Quiche is so yummy and light, I can't wait to try this recipe from Down Under.  (You can read about my trip there too.)

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What better to go with quiche but a light salad (although mine might have some more stuff in it)?

And last, but NOT least, dessert.....

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This cake is SOOOooooo good.  I'm sorry about all the "Os" but it really is deserving of them.  This is strawberry season in New York and the perfect time for this amazing strawberry cream cake (Oh did I say it was good?  lol)

I really hope the girls all come because this will be a fun night.

P.S.  We did read a book, Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, but reading it is not required.  lol  I wish I could invite all of you, my readers, but you all just live too far away.  

The State of Our Well

Hubby and I were gardening one day and we found a hole in the ground.  I mean a HOLE!!!  It was deep an quite scary.  So we covered it back up and called up the local well drillers for an estimate.

This is what they uncovered:

Looks like three of the walls to this well fell in.  We even found a little spider too.

After digging around a little the workers said the could fix it.  And the good news?  They did not have to dig a whole new well.  They are just going to raise up the pipe so it is above ground.  Then I could put in one of these little wishing wells.

I know, it is a little silly, but so cute.  We have a guy down the road who makes them, I would love to give him some work.

For less than we thought, we will have a new clean well, WITHOUT, the dirt in our pipes.  Yay.

Ah ... being a home owner is a lot of work.  I can't wait to get rid of that hole and clean up the yard.