Can I get an AAAWWWW?

Fingerless gloves... Heck yeah!

 I decided to teach myself to crochet via the interwebs with videos and such. This site is awesome and helped me tremendously.
http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/tp/crochet-for-beginners.htm
     After watching a video, I practiced a chain stitch and a single crochet stitch.  I was ready to make SOMETHING!! So there was a pattern for fingerless gloves. They sounded pretty sweet.  After about a hour of attempting to read the secret language of crocheting I grew frustrated and thought screw it, I will make my own pattern.  I do that at times. So here we go. 

Fingerless gloves pattern:
25-35 chain stitches for the first row... adjust for the size of your arm. Leave about 12" of yarn at the beginning knot for stitching the sides together at the end.
17- 25 rows of single crochet stitch... depends on the length you want them.
Last step is to put the two ends together. Using the yarn you saved earlier, weave the ends together.  Make sure you leave an opening for the thumb.  Turn to the right side and there you go a fingerless glove. Repeat for a matching set.  I decorated mine with buttons and ribbons.  Have fun!

 These are my girlie gloves.

These are my blue jean gloves.

These are my bubba gloves. They were first pair I made. I have no clue how they ended up a camouflaged pattern but the yarn looked really sweet when I picked it out. This is how the ribbons and buttons came into to play, to girlify my bubba gloves a bit.




 

Are you saying.......

I LOVE This!

ARE YOU AWAKE???

There's something wrong here....

Mint infused Vanilla Soda.  No calories!

 

Ingredient List:

3 Vanilla Bean Stalks

1/4 cup fresh Mint

3/4 cup Splenda

4 cups Water

Sparkling Seltzer Water

Ice

 Sprig of Mint

 

So I played in the kitchen quite a bit today. I tried out a homemade Ginger-ale recipe I saw floating around Pinterest.  While I was doing this I decided to experiment and make a vanilla based syrup for a vanilla soda. I was hit with a heavenly idea.... Add MINT! So I trotted out to the garden and snipped 1/4 cup of fresh mint. I pulled out 3 vanilla bean stalks from my secret stash. 

I chopped up the mint and cut the Vanilla stalks in half. I then sliced the vanilla bean stalks. I scraped out the goody from the stalk threw it, the Vanilla stalks and mint into a small saucepan. I added 4 cups of water and 3/4 cup of Splenda.  

I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for a hour. I then turned the heat off and let the vanilla syrup cool. After it cooled, I strained it through cheesecloth into a glass jar for keeping.  Make sure to refrigerate the syrup.

I added 3 Tablespoons of the syrup to 8 oz of sparkling Seltzer water.  You can buy Seltzer water at most grocery stores. I tossed in some ice and a sprig of mint and YUM!  Taste just like creme soda but with no calories! Enjoy!