Homemade Bourbon Vanilla Extract

I am officially obsessed with using bourbon in my cooking. I don't particularly care for the taste of bourbon alone, but with other things I love the flavor it gives. Last week I made several batches of Bourbon Pickled Jalapenos and gave them away to our friends and family as gifts. They were a huge success so today I made little jars of Bourbon Vanilla Extract to give away. In my opinion,homemade Bourbon Vanilla Extract is more flavorful and less expensive than the store bought kind. This is a great gift for someone who loves to bake. It is also a lovely Christmas gift. The longer the extract sits, the more flavorful it becomes. Have a great evening and thank you so much for stopping by!

Homemade Bourbon Vanilla Extract

recipe adapted from Southern Living 

1 cup bourbon 

1 vanilla bean

Cut the vanilla bean crosswise and place in a small clean jar, or you can split the bean and scrape the vanilla beans out and place those into the jar. Cook 1 cup of bourbon over medium to high heat in a small saucepan for 5 minutes, but no longer. Pour the bourbon into the jar and let cool to room temperature for about 30 minutes. Place the lid tightly on the jar and let sit at room temperature. Wait at least 1 week until using and shake once daily. 

Hints of Spring

Spring is in the air around our house. The weather has been perfect, I mean absolutely gorgeous! Over the last few days  I have been working on getting the house ready for the upcoming season. Here are a few photos of what I have been up to. Do you spring clean? What do you do to get ready for spring and summer around your house?

Style Resolutions - Organizing Kid's Art

I am going to be really honest. I am not one of those mother's who tapes her kid's drawings and art all over the walls and the refrigerator. It tends to look cluttered and messy. The art of four children can take up an entire space relatively quick. This is my OCD getting the best of me.......again. I didnt want all of their creations to just sit in a drawer. I wanted to display them proudly. So I found the perfect solution at Ikea. This is so great for our family. The kids picked out what they wanted to put on the wire and then we also found a few photos to display .

Next week we are going to make valentine hearts and cards to hang there. I may be having more fun than our kids with this.

Style Resolutions- Pillow Covers

Our living room, entry, and hallway are all painted the color Stonefence by Behr. Depending on the time of day it either looks a bit more blue or more gray. During Christmas I had red cable knit pillow covers on a few pillows scattered around the living area. With the red pillow covers, the room looked a bit more blue. I wasnt really pleased with how it looked. I wanted something a bit more neutral and toned down to match the overall decor of the living space. I love neutrals. So while we were making all of the other changes around parts of the house, I purchased new pillow covers for the living area. I found the  ikat patterned cover and knew I had to have it. It worked very well with the gray + tan cover I already had.

I already had this velvet pillow cover but didnt like just having one pillow on our oversized chair. It needed something. I found a  linen hopsack cover at PotteryBarn on sale for $18.00. I ended up buying another blue one and a white one.

Now our living space is complete. Are you working on a style resolution? Maybe around your house or maybe even a wardrobe change?

Style Resolutions - Kitchen

As I mentioned before our kitchen is galley style and a bit small. The house was built in 1983 and the kitchen is in need of an update. We remodeled the eat in part of the kitchen, but not the main kitchen area. Last year I received a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, but it was too large to fit on the counter. The more I used it the more it became a pain to drag it down from the cabinet. Well the problem is now solved! While shopping at Ikea I found a butcher block kitchen cart. I dont know why I didnt think of this sooner? Now I have access to my mixer at all times. Its pretty and functional. The bottom shelves are great storage for my cookbooks or extra wine bottles.

It also has rollers so I can move it when needed. Hopefully, we will get to start on the real kitchen renovation soon. Until then I think this will work just fine.

Style Resolutions

This year we are doing things a bit differently in our house. Not only are we working on our personal resolutions, we are also working on a few style resolutions as well. I will be honest, the style resolutions are much more fun. With the holidays being over, I wanted to give our home a fresh new look by making small changes in each space of the house. The first changes were made in the living room. I finally purchased the console table I had been wanting. I cannot believe I didnt get it sooner. The white garden stool was an accidental find while in search of something else. It adds additional seating without taking up too much space. Very pretty in front of the window paired with the console. I wish I could have found another one to go with it.

 Fresh flowers are always a nice touch to any room. Hydrangeas are my favorite. I also bought a new mercury glass lamp for the table. Our other lamp wasnt the right height. We went to PotteryBarn last weekend and I found a few new votive candle holders. The one shown above is my favorite. An old photo was placed in a new frame to complete the look.

I may have mentioned this before but I love lanterns. Love love love them. So I could not pass up the opportunity to buy this one from the new Spring collection at PotteryBarn. The orange one provides a nice punch of color. A few books and another votive completes the new look. Over the next few weeks I will be posting more of our style resolutions. Are you renovating a space in your home right now? Do you have any style resolutions?

New Things Around the House

This weekend we purchased a few new things for the house. Some needed, some wanted. It will be a few more months before we can fully redo our kitchen so we bought a few things to update it a bit. The dining part of our kitchen has been remodeled, well everything except the floor. Now we just have to start the remodel of the actual kitchen. I didnt want to spend a lot of money to do the updates so I searched for bargains and think I did pretty well. We bought new oil rubbed bronze door knobs for the french doors (this was a need). Then we bought this wreath by Allen + Roth at Lowe's to add a holiday touch to the kitchen. I hung it with burlap ribbon I bought a few months ago.

I bought this new gray chevron print rug at Ballard Designs. This was a steal at only $40.00. I am very into gray right now. I originally saw this rug in a dining room in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I knew I had to have it!

We do not have a formal dining area, and our kitchen is too small for a hutch so I had to think outside of the box a little bit. This weekend we went to Ikea and I found this plate shelf for only $70.00. It fits perfectly on the wall and allows me to display my white platters and dishes. Pretty and practical!

I have always loved the schoolhouse lights like this one. I could not justify spending $140.00 on lights that may or may not stay when the kitchen is remodeled. I looked around and found something similar at Home Depot for $29.00. I love the way they look in the kitchen. I loved them so much we bought three of them.

I bought this sign the day I found out I had melanoma at a little boutique. It used to hang in our kitchen but I put on the mantle of the fireplace. I love what is says. It's something old put in a new place.

Fall Finds

A few days ago I wrote about our trip to San Marcos, and shopping at the outlets. We usually go at the end of July, but this year we went a little closer to fall. I am so glad we went later because I found some great items to start off the new season. I am practically giddy about it! i found some wonderful new things for the kids, the house, and my husband and I. The best part is everything I bought was on sale!  Here are a few of my favorites.



I found this bag at Aldo. I love the shape and black is classic.

The mixes from Williams Sonoma have always been very good so I thought I would try the vanilla bean cupcake mix. Vanilla bean is my favorite.

The beginning of the season is a great time to stock up on basics like this artist boatneck tee I found at JCREW.

Baking is my favorite thing to do so I had to have these fall cupcake stencils from Williams Sonoma.

This is probably my most favorite purchase. This Staub Cocotte was a steal for only $99 this weekend! Staub is an amazing brand, and a dutch oven is a fall/winter cooking essential. I have three of them.


Photos are from: pinterest.com, williams-sonoma.com, aldoshoes.com, jcrew.com




Bargain Find

A few days ago I blogged about the three new things I want to purchase for my living room, and a ceramic garden stool was one of them. Guess who found one today? Me. I found this green garden stool at TJ Maxx for $30.00. I could not pass it up, and I was afraid if I didnt buy it today, it would be gone tomorrow. I am so proud of myself for finding such a good bargain because anyone who knows me will tell you I am not a bargain shopper. My mother used to tell me she would take me to a store when I was younger and I would somehow manage to pick out the most expensive thing. My husband would agree so he will be extremely happy about the money I saved today. I kind of have champagne taste on a beer budget, but I am slowly learning to be a more savvy shopper. What is something you have purchased for a steal lately? Happy Friday everyone.