Blair was in town for Little Winter (it was so fun meeting all the amazing artists at this show!) and so I had extra motivation to get these together early as a little gifty for her and Melissa. I don't have them all done yet, but at least I got two sets made.
I have been consciously doing a little less around here lately. Taking it a bit slower and just asking myself if I really want to cook/bake as much as I do. Sometimes I feel like it's all I do. It tends to get a little crazy in the kitchen from now until the end of the year, mostly because I make an insane amount of cookies to give away and have been doing this for years. I make them and freeze them and it's fun, but with each additional child, it's become harder to have fun with it, so this year I am trying to do it differently. Usually I have been making and freezing dough for a few weeks now, and this year I haven't even started. Not to sound all Stuart Smalley but I am totally okay with this, it feels good.
I am still going to bake, because it is fun in small amounts, just not when I feel like a crazy cookie robot. I think this time bar cookies are going to be making a strong appearance, as are brittle and fudge, and for some friends, this little gift set of vanilla extract and spice mix will be perfect for them to use before the holiday craziness and to make them happy while baking. It seems a shame to wait to give these out when it seems most useful to have them now. I am still collecting bottles and jars for these.
some info:
- The spice jars are from at New Seasons here in Portland.
- The jars for the vanillla I purchased at Mountain Rose Herbs
- The vanilla extract recipe I used is from Vanilla Review (I finally made some this last spring!)
- The pumpkin spice recipe is here.
- I designed teh lables in Illustrator and they are printed on plain paper, cut-out, and stuck on with a glue stick. This makes for easy label removal with warm water when re-useing the bottles.
- And searching apothecary on etsy is pretty fun. I love these jars for vanilla from Eyespidar.
