Giggle and Whine/Wine Wednesdays :-)

Giggle and Whine/Wine Wednesdays :-)

Giggle and Whine/Wine Wednesdays :-)

Giggle and Whine/Wine Wednesday :-)

I Didn't Know You Liked Beer!

Eyeball Highballs!

How much do you love the look of this "Eyeball Highball"? While I wish I had come up with this idea myself, all the credit goes to Martha Stewart, the queen of crafty coolness. Here's the recipe:

EYEBALL HIGHBALLS

14 medium radishes
7 pimiento-stuffed olives, halved crosswise
16 ounces gin or vodka
1 ounce vermouth

Directions
Trim stem and root ends of radish. Use a paring knife to scrape red skin from radish, leaving just enough to give a veiny appearance. With a small melon baller, cut a hole in radish, about 1/2 inch in diameter. Fit an olive half, cut-side facing out, into hole. Place radish in ice-cube tray. Repeat with remaining radishes. Fill tray with water; freeze.

Mix vodka or gin with vermouth; stir with ice. Divide eyeball ice cubes among four glasses. Strain martini; pour into glasses, and serve.

Cheers!
~~~Anne

Broken Glass Stars

I know now is not the time for me to take on any new crafting adventures, but these stars are so cool, I may just have to go shatter a window pane! Please visit The Courage to Create for the story behind how these stars came to be and an awesome tutorial on how to make your own.

This is one project that going to the top of my holiday craft list. I know there's got to be a soldering iron around here somewhere...

Cheers!
~~~Anne

Living Will?

Last night, my husband and I were sitting in the living room and I said to him, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."



He got up, unplugged my computer, and threw out my wine.



He's such an ass . .

How to Make a Candy Bouquet

This tutorial was originally posted on my first website, "When Pigs Fly". As I will be more focussed on crafts, food, and beverages on this site, I thought I'd re-publish the post as a teaser for the many NEW seasonal and themed candy bouquet tutorials coming up soon. Please enjoy the original post and "Follow Me" to make sure you don't miss my upcoming tutorials :-) (A Halloween themed basket will be posted soon!)

Original Post:

I've always wanted to try my hand at making a candy bouquet, but somehow my available time and a "candy bouquet" occasion never had a chance to meet. Until now! I enjoyed this project so much (it really didn't take a lot of time) that I am trying to come up with other "bouquet occassions" so I can do this project again. I'm thinking "theme" bouquets, maybe red, white, and blue with little American flags for Independence Day, all white and silver for a bridal shower, pastels for a baby shower, a Mexican fiesta theme, or a pirate theme, decorated with little gold chocolate coins and bandanas intermingled with the tissue. Too cute!

Here's the tutorial on how to make your own Candy Bouquet:

Assemble your supplies:

• Assorted wrapped candy bars, gum balls, hard candies, lollipops...
• Container for your arrangement (Mine was a plastic bowl and about 2" deep and 6" in diameter, but I'll bet a flower pot would work great for this!)
• Wooden skewers or dowels
• Silk flowers with leaves (Strip the flowers and leaves off the stems. Save the flowers for a future project.)
  Floral tape
• Floral foam
• Colored tissue paper
• Cool-temp glue gun
• Bow to decorate container

Directions:

Cut floral foam into chunks that fit your container. Floral foam is very light weight, so you will have to glue the chunks to the bottom of the container so they don't pull out due to the weight of the candy.

Poke skewers through the leaves you harvested from your silk flower stems. Make sure the leaves are pushed down far enough that you have enough "naked skewer" to run the length of your chosen candy bars. Wrap the bottom of your leaves and the skewer with floral tape to about 2.5 inches from the bottom. (Notes: Skewers should be cut to different lengths, tall ones go to the back of the arrangement, with lengths getting shorter and shorter as you come toward the front. For heavier candy, wrap 2 skewers together.)

For the taller stems at the back of your arrangement, fold tissue paper and poke the skewers through the paper as shown. This will help the tissue paper stand up to hide the backs of your "flowers" and the little fold at the bottom will cover your floral foam.

Begin creating your flowers by gluing your candy bars to your stems. Make sure the "naked" part of your skewer reaches the entire length of your candy, or the weight of the candy bar will cause them to droop or pull away from the skewer. (The picture above is how NOT to place the skewer!)

Here's a completed Reese's flower. I like the square shape in contrast to the longer, thinner rectangles of the other candy bars. I think York peppermint patties with their silver wrappers would also provide a nice contrast and a bit of sparkle :-)

For the "blooming" flowers, I glued the candy bars to a bit of cardboard for support. I then glued the cardboard to a stem.

Begin poking your stems into the floral foam. You'll see in the above picture that I have already cut some of my dowels and arranged my tissue to cover the foam. (Don't worry too much about placement at this time. Trust me, I poked and re-poked several times before I created my final bouquet. My foam probably looks like Swiss cheese!)

On a whim, I wired three Bit-O-Honey candies together to create a different flower. You'll see it in the picture below, as well as a bloom made of 4 pink and purple chewy candies with a gumball center. Cute!

Woo hoo! My bouquet is taking on a pretty good shape right now, but we still have a way to go. What shall we put in next?

Here's the stripped wire stem from my silk flowers. It was just laying on the counter looking lonely, so I decided I needed to incorporate into my bouquet. But how?

HA! I used floral tape to attach a gumball to each of the stems. I poked it right into the center of my bouquet and bent the wires to place these little balls of color randomly in my arrangement.

Aren't the colors pretty? The gumball stems added just what I needed to even out the bouquet. Genius, if I might say so myself!

We're almost finished. Looks pretty good, right? Keep poking your flowers into your foam until your arrangement is full of sweet goodness, and there are no bare spots. You might have to shorten some of your stems at this time to get the look you want.

We are done! Isn't the finished product fun? You'll see I've tucked in a few small pieces of tissue paper in between some of the blooms to cover any exposed foam. I also used glue dots to hold up some of the floppy folds of tissue at the back of the arrangement. Overall, this project cost under $10.00 and took about an hour to create. Best of all, I have a handmade-with-love birthday gift for a good friend. Happy birthday, Deanna!

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Want more candy fun? Click here to take a fun candy quiz from CandyAddict.com . It's harder than it looks. I only got 15 out of 26! How did you do?

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Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

The Bottle of Wine

THE BOTTLE OF WINE

For all of us who are married , were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married... This is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride.

With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman.

The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally. "What in bag?"asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said: "Good trade."

Summer Peach Margaritas

Not too sweet, not too fruity. This is the perfect way to enjoy the end of peach season.

Summer Peach Margarita

1 medium peach, peeled and cut into chunks
1 ½ oz. tequila
¾ oz. triple sec
½ oz. peach schnapps
2 oz. orange juice
1 cup crushed ice

Place peach chunks in a blender and puree. Add liquids and ice. Blend until smooth. Pour into glass, garnish with peach slices, and enjoy.

(Note: This is not a sweet cocktail. To sweeten it up a bit, add a teaspoon of superfine sugar to the puree and serve in a sugar-rimmed glass.)

Cheers~
~~~Anne

Crockpot Peaches

Here's an easy and delicious peach recipe for all of you crockpot lovers out there. It was submitted by my blog friend AudreyO at Audrey's Spot for Recipe Tips & Hints.

CROCKPOT PEACHES
2 cups mashed peaches
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup Bisquick
1/2 can evaporated milk
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix together the white and brown sugars. Add bisquick and stir. Add in eggs and vanilla. Stir again. Add in melted butter and milk. Mix again. Finally, add in peaches and cinnamon. Pour into crockpot. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Eat - Peach Muffins with Prailine Topping

Peach Muffins with Praline Topping

1 2/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar ( ½ cup for batter, ¼ cup for topping)
2 tablespoons molasses
½ cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cup chopped fresh peaches
¾ cup chopped pecans ( ½ cup for batter, ¼ cup for topping)
1 tablespoon butter, cold

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


2. Place liners in 12-hole muffin tin.


3. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the molasses and sugar until combined. Set aside.


4. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.


5. In another bowl, combine ½ cup of sugar mixture, milk, oil, egg, and vanilla.


6. Add wet ingredients to dry mixture, stirring just to moisten.


7. Fold in peaches and ½ cup pecans.


8. Fill muffin cups ¾ full.


9. In small bowl, cut together the remaining sugar mixture, pecans, and butter.
   Sprinkle over batter.


10. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Coming up next: Crockpot peaches!

How to Peel a Peach

It's peach harvesting time at my house, so get ready for a flurry of peach related recipes over the next couple of weeks. To help you prepare for this baking extravaganza, I thought I'd share a simple way to peel peaches. Ready... Set... Go!

1. Fill a large pot with water, maing sure water is deep enough to just about cover your peaches. Bring the water to a boil and gently drop in a few peaches. Leave peaches in water for about 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the ripeness of the fruit).

2. Using tongs, remove peaches from the boiling water and place them in a large bowl filled with ice water. The skin will easily slide from the peach with a bit of gentle encouragement :-)

3. Slice, dice, or bite... Your fruit is fuzz free and ready to enjoy!

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Tomorrow's recipe: Peach Muffins with Praline Topping

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Cheers~

~~~Anne