The Joyful Housewife

This had been the year of fruit infused vodka for my husband – ever since he read a post about it early in the summer on a blog called Punk Domestics He has made strawberry, raspberry, and peach flavors so far. The process really brings out the essence of the fruit.

It has been so cool to use organic local fruit from nearby orchards for this process, and to change the fruits with the seasons.

The process is quite simple. Just stuff a bunch of fruit into a jar and cover it with vodka (lately we’ve been using Tito’s Handmade Vodka for the value, but we first made it with Prairie Organic Vodka, after out Minnesota relatives visited, and that honestly tasted smoother) then agitate it twice a day for two weeks. To agitate, you turn the bottles upside down and then upright ten times. Then strain it through a cheesecloth and funnel it back into a bottle.

I know that pineapple infused vodka has been popular lately. Let me know if anyone tries any other off-the-wall flavors – like peppers or cucumbers!

I haven’t even started working on the dresser yet.

If I don’t post about it after a while, feel free to comment and ask me, “Yo, what’s up with you cleaning the top of that dresser off? Ever gonna do that?”

I posted about it because I want to do it.

Eventually.

We had a good weekend though. My husband had the whole thing off and we took the little one to the first Farmer’s Market of the season, in the rain. He ended up buying a bike rack for his new bike and I bought some empty glass jars and a few other materials and experimented with using food for facials. For the past few days, I’ve been slathering a sliced tomato, among other things, on my face. I’ll tell you all about it ~ perhaps tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here are some pics of the flowers we received for our fourth wedding anniversary (which, like my husband’s birthday, I forgot about) and for my VERY FIRST MOTHER’S DAY!!!

At last, something that works for ME! There have been a few really cool looking social websites that I’ve not been able to get into: Flickr, Polyvore, which I blogged about here, and Tumblr, which I’ve tried and failed to use for blogs.

Now there is Pinterest!

Pinterest is a social catalog service. Think of it as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can post collections of things you love, and “follow” collections created by people with great taste.

Here are some screen images of my Pinboards:

I’ve been using the easy image capture and save functions of Pinterest to save images of miniature foods made from polymer clay – something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time but have been too intimidated by – and miniature knits. This is the bookmarking site that I have been needing. I have been bookmarking various miniature food and dollhouse websites and blogs for a while, but this allows me to compile images from them and still save the source so I can go find them later. The images all put together are gorgeous and inspiring and can be cataloged in many different ways.

People are using the site for inspiration scrapbooks as well as for sharing their shopping ideas as in the holiday gift guides that people are compiling.

Ah! A beautiful new way to waste time!

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I saw this sign in a store in a small mountain town in Colorado this summer. It is reminiscent of Erma Bombeck or Fran Lebowitz. It is so brilliant that I worship whoever thought it up. It reminds me how much I don’t love other peoples’ kids, but I expect I’ll be more comfortable with and even grow to like my own. : ) As long as nobody gives them espresso or a free kitten while my back is turned.