summer flavor shots

 

Last summer I finally mastered a method of making delicious iced coffee at home. Which really helps the ol' change purse. The next thing to do was figure out a sweetener that would work best with a cold drink. I've been using raw sugar in my coffee lately because artificial sweeteners are always questionable. And the ones that are supposedly healthy taste awful in my opinion. (I'm lookin at you Stevia and Truvia.) And raw is always better than processed so raw sugar it is! Of course I use it in moderation and really only in my coffee so I'm not worried about it effecting my weight. And it hasn't, for the record. :)

So! The next logical step was to create simple syrup for my iced coffee. That way there's no grainy business at the bottom of the glass from undissolved sugar. Simple syrup is really, very simple. It goes like this..

Combine equal parts sugar and water in a small pot.

Boil until dissolved.

Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Bam. Liquid sugar.

And as I'm sure you've seen around the webs, people have found ways of making other syrups in different flavors, often to imitate popular delicious drinks from certain coffee shops. ;) Well I went and bought myself four of these olive oil bottles from target and decided I'd try four new flavors for each season. I made a list and decided to get to making the summer ones since it's absolutely iced coffee season. First up on the list - coconut, raspberry, vanilla, and a plain simple syrup for unflavored coffee.

This seriously took me about an hour one morning. I just kept cooking the sugar, adding the flavors, bottling, rinsing the pot, and repeat. Such a quick little project for so much tasty coffee. I can't wait until I get to the fall and winter flavors this year! This is gonna be good.

I'm sipping on some coconut iced coffee as I type this. I just need a little sand and some waves and I'll be all set. :)

What's your favorite summertime flavor? Hope you have a great weekend!

Check the recipes below!

currently

Stopping in before I'm off to meet my partner to finish up our presentation for tonight. If all goes according to plan I'll have an interesting how-to for you tomorrow. Well I think it's interesting anyway. ;) So for now, I'm borrowing this meme I've seen on Lariats and Lavender and Sometimes Sweet just for funzies.

fruity fruity fish and glowing hair at a recent video shoot

 Currently.. 

Obsessing over..
Homemade iced coffee. It's that time of year again! It's oh so refreshing in the morning.

Working on..
My presentation for class tonight. I finished the first one yesterday and now I'm trying to wrap up the second one but I have to meet with my partner to do that. Yea, two presentations in one night. That is exactly why blogging is sparse at the moment. :/ This is the toughest class I've had all of grad school. And it's really just because of a project overload honestly. Some nights I have three things due at once. But I knew it was coming because I heard about this somewhat infamous class from everyone who had it before me so I'm trying really hard to remain calm and just push through it.

Thinking about..
All the things I want to do this summer! I want to have picnics, go to the beach, see my brother, dust off the ol' beach cruiser and go for bike rides, make more ice cream, read for enjoyment again, try new juicing combinations with summer fruit, go for walks, plant more herbs and veggies..

Anticipating..
The start of camp! I don't think I've mentioned this yet but I got a job this summer teaching classes at an art and design camp for girls! I couldn't be more excited. I've been planning projects like crazy and digging through my inspiration folders for ideas. I'll do a post sometime on the projects I'm planning on doing. They're pretty fun!

Listening to..
Supernatural on the telly. :)

Eating..
Leftovers from dinner last night. Broccoli and ziti with garlic and olive oil. Yum!

Wishing..
My allergies would go away. Far, far away! They've had me miserable for a month!


What are your currently's? :) Hope your week is going well!

ps A big thanks to everyone who wished my piggy well and sent some good thoughts. It made me feel a lot better to hear that other people have been through similar things and they turned out okay. Also glad to hear about other piggy mamas out there! I don't think some people truly understand just how awesome those little guys are. :) Also, Walnut's eye is looking AMAZING. I keep up with the meds and it's gone down to almost normal size!

six weeks

Check out my post over at Silly Grrl today! Sarah, who put together this whole shindig, asked me to give some tips on how I take food photos for recipe posts. I'm no photographer or anything, but through trial and error, and quite a bit of help from a certain photographer boyfriend, I've managed to find a few things that help improve my photos. Check it out if you're interested! Also click through the other posts! Some really talented ladies gave a lot of great advice over there!

Oh yea, by the way, remember me? The girl who used to blog here? Talk about life going from sitting in a rocker to fast paced in five seconds or less. I was enjoying my break from classes and planning on doing a ton of things for the blog that I could bank for later (aka now) when I got busier.

Then suddenly I'm a live-in vet for poor Walnut, I think because I put the meds on her eye the day we got them so it was like "well you're good at it, this is your job now". Not that I mind at all, I just think it's funny. A little update on that.. we're pretty sure she has glaucoma, which isn't the worst thing in the world for a guinea pig. She still has sight in one eye and her bad eye looks like it may be improving. She may not be able to see out of it again, but we just hope the swelling goes down and it's less.. well I don't want to be too graphic so let's just say less infected looking. She's still acting 100% normal though so we think she may be okay!

Besides all the piggy care, I was subbing at two different schools this week, had a quick emergency design project, and started the summer class from hell. Yea this semester is going to be interesting to say the least. It's six weeks long so I may be a little reclusive during it but I'll try to keep this ol' blog running. Just know that if posting is sparse, that's why. And six weeks isn't really that long. I mean look how fast these first five months flew by!

Well, I hope your Memorial Day weekend is great. Go barbecue, be outside, and have fun!

piggies

I've been meaning to introduce you to some very important furry babies in my life, but being the perfectionist that I am, I was always going to take "better" photos. I took these just playing around once so they're occasionally out of focus or have a bit of motion blur. They get so curious when you bring something foreign into their world (like a camera) and never stop moving, smelling, running..

Anyway, the reason I finally organized these photos into a post is because one of our poor little babies, Walnut, is having some trouble. We ran around to a couple vets yesterday because, seemingly overnight, one of her eyes swelled up and got all infected. This could either be from a deeper problem or just be an infection. She got a few shots - which was terrible to witness :( - and some goopy stuff to put on her eye.

Now we just wait to see if the antibiotics work and what the next step will be. Sadly, if she needs surgery, we may not be able to afford it. And surgery for guinea pig is really risky to begin with because of how tiny they are. So we're really praying that she'll rally and any further care she'll need will be affordable.  For now though, she's totally happy, eating, and acting normal. Besides her eye, you wouldn't think anything was wrong.

So today I wanted to honor my favorite little furries and ask for some prayers and positive thoughts for our little Walnut.

That's Walnut! She was actually quite the surprise piggy. We didn't know when we got her that she was pregnant. So we added two more little piggies to our family a few months after bringing her home. :) If you've never seen a baby guinea pig, you're missing out. I mean like weeks old baby. I swear, they are just little heads with giant kangaroo feet. I die.

 Thirsty Walnut.

This is Suzi. She's the first pig we got, a little bit before Walnut. And she won't let anyone forget it. She's half old lady, half puppy. She hates being touched unless you pick her up and hold her. Then she'll practically roll over like a puppy and let you pet her. She can be a pretty big grump though and is definitely the alpha lady.

Suzi is trying to determine if the camera is something she can eat. After realizing it's not, she's over it.

Here's my little Pete! He is one of Walnut's babies, and since we couldn't have him staying with the girls and impregnating them all, I took him to college with me and we were best friends. It was my first time living alone and he was good company. Now he resides right next to the girls and purrs at them when they walk up to his cage.

Checking out what the girls are doing next door.

And finally, Peach, Walnut's other baby. This photo pretty much sums up Peach. Always looking over her shoulder, a little dodgey eyed. She hasn't gotten the idea yet that we don't want to eat her. However, she has the best butt-shake when you give her scratches. She loves her butt scratches.

Suzi photobomb.


I'm glad I finally got it together and showed you my babies. They all have such personalities and are big sweethearts. Even the grump. ;)

What furballs do you hold near and dear?

canvas + paint markers

Okay maybe a few words first and then it's wordless wednesday. :)

Did you ever take pictures of something and fully intend to use them in a post, only to completely forget and leave them sitting in a folder for months? That's what happened here. I went to this really cool art show back in December. A few friend's of mine and Charlie's that we haven't seen since college days were painting huge canvases at this sort of live art show thing. It was pretty interesting and was held in a bar on South Street with this really crazy 2nd floor that is covered in paint and stickers. Oh, and there were bumper cars for seats. Nuts! Sorry for the low quality phone pics but I still though they were fun. :)

I hope you're having a great Wednesday! I subbed pre-k today so I'll be looking for a drink soon. :)