His and Hers.

The other night, I was making myself an after dinner drink and asked E if he wanted one. He said "Sure. Whatever you're having." I was having my own concoction of sparkling pink lemonade and vodka with a maraschino cherry garnish. I had a feeling he'd want something else. In the end, I made him a vodka tonic, but that little moment inspired this latest painting. I think I feel a series coming on. Underwear. Tennis shoes. Razors. Lunches. The possibilities are endless. (Details here.)

Make Your Own Linen Spray! (It's Easy, I promise!)

Lately I'm rather obsessed with making my own bath products, thanks to the lovely set of essential oils E gave me recently. (Such a thoughtful fellow!) I love linen sprays, but not paying ten dollars a bottle, so I thought I'd have a go at making my own. Turns out, it couldn't be simpler.

You will need:

Vodka to act as an emulsifier

Distilled Water

Essential Oils

A liquid Measure

A spray Bottle

I used Bergamont and Eucalyptus for mine since I love fresh, green scents. Just combine 1/4 cup of vodka with 3/4 cup of distilled water and a few drops of your desired scent and pour it all into your spray bottle.

Add a pretty label with a little ribbon and it's gift ready. Make sure to include instructions to shake before using. I've paired my homemade linen spray with Martha's Ginger Bath Soak and My DIY Sugar Scrub to make a little mini pampering kit. I'm planning on giving out a few of these to the teachers I've worked with this year. Heaven knows they could all use a little relaxation and pampering this summer!

What have you been making lately?

Arranging Tropical Flowers with the Donkey Mill Art Center

Though my Dilly Lily days are but a distant memory, I still adore fresh flowers. The problem here in Hawaii has been figuring out how to arrange with the wild and exotic plants in my backyard. They are NOTHING like the dense, lush, gardeny flowers I worked with in Chicago.

They are all bold color, spikes, and drama!

So while my Mum was here I signed us up for a crash course in Floral Decadence with Scott Seymour over at the Donkey Mill Art Center. It was lots of fun and we learned a great deal about arranging with asymmetry.

One of the secrets was shaving the oasis into curving shapes that extended well beyond the container itself.

I created this trio of madness in matching silver pots to celebrate Easter.

Another secret was a "cocktail" for the cut flowers. He mixes 1 capful of vodka (as cheap a brand as you like!) with 1 gallon of cool water. Put it in a spray bottle and mist them gently as you are arranging and every day afterwards. It helps to preserve the flowers and gives them a little "lift" so to speak. (Wonderful stuff, vodka!)

Do you ever splurge on fresh flowers? What's blooming now in your neck of the woods?

DIY with The Fab Miss B: Make Your Own Vanilla Extract!

All you need to make your own vanilla extract is a bean, a knife, some booze and a bottle!

Did you know it's easy to make your own vanilla extract? I didn't until we visited The Hawaiian Vanilla Company and they told us how to do it. All you need is a cured vanilla bean, an 8oz. bottle and alcohol of your choice. (Rum and Vodka are most common.) Momma D gave me their little kit to try and we had fun preparing it together.

Simply split the bean in half with a knife to allow the seeds to infuse the liquor. No need to scrape or mash the bean- the liquid does the work of pulling the seeds and flavor out.

Slip the bean in the bottle and fill it with the booze. Let it sit in a dark cool place for three months and you'll have your very own home made vanilla extract! I can't wait to try mine, which will be ready around when I come back from New York.

Isn't it fun to discover that something you thought you had to buy is very simple to assemble yourself? I've learned how to make my own granola, bread, croutons and even chocolate sauce, and it's fun to taste the difference in food without chemicals and preservatives. Next on my list? Making authentic maraschino cherries myself! 

Loved this Label!

I know I'm hardly the first to make a purchase based entirely on the packaging, (they say that's how 60% of people choose wine!) but isn't this label wonderful? It feels very 1930's to me. From the inestimable Trader Joe's. Now, who has a good vodka cocktail to recommend?

Uganda: The Good, The Bad and the Kampalicious.

1) The weather here is fantastic. The days are full of gorgeous roasting hot sunshine, that melt into cool nights. Here and there, the sky clouds over and opens into a powerful torrent of rain that produces wild, lush, green foliage everywhere. Not sure what the rainy season is like; it might be unbearable. All I can say is the little bit we’ve enjoyed has been heavenly.
2) The potholes here are astonishing. It goes far, far beyond the worst potholes I’ve seen in Minneapolis. Sometimes, entire sections of road have been completely washed away. When you ask people why they haven’t been repaired, they just laugh and shake their heads. The construction companies are largely fronts for corrupt officials to siphon off money.
3) In the markets the pineapples are piled up in little wooden trolley carts, and the smell is sticky sweet and palpable. They only cost .75 cents and are exquisitely good, juicy and a little citrus-y.
4) Flowers here grow with complete abandon. Yesterday, I came across an entire tomato plant flourishing in a sidewalk cracks in the middle of downtown Kampala. There are orchids growing in the ditches and papyrus going wild near the Nile.
5) Trash collection is non-existent and litter is abundant. Plastic grocery bags are floating around in the street, the bushes, people’s yards, the markets, the mud. They are everywhere, everywhere and never decompose. Apparently, in Rwanda, they have banned them because they have become such a nuisance. Some Ugandans want to do the same.
6) Women here wear a strange and wonderful national costume. It is a long tunic top with huge puffy sleeves and a voluminous skirt tied at the hips with a Japanese looking belt that hangs down the front. It looks so uniquely African and ladies who wear it look so lovely and dignified.
7) Taxis are cheap, cheap, cheap, even when you are getting scammed. The most we’ve spent so far was $50 and that was a two hour ride over deplorable roads. Eric and I once spent that in Chicago just to get home from the airport.
8) Electricity can be spotty. Generators are needed in every hotel and restaurant.
9) Dawas are a fabulous drink made with limes, ice, vodka and honey. Simple, delicious and my new favorite cocktail.
10) I’m far away from some of the people I love, but that’s true no matter where I live. Someone is always somewhere else.
11) The internet connections are terribly slow. Even the places with wireless connections seem to eek along. No downloading here!
12) Amazing birds are abundant. There are some living in the trees outside Casa Linda that have a very distinctive call. They sound at first like chattering monkeys, and it quickly devolves into something resembling crazy human laughter. They are black and white and have long tails and short beaks.
13) Samosas are delightful little fried pastries filled with potatoes and spices or meat and onions and they often come three to an order…perfect! One for me one for Eric one for Chris. Apparently they are an Indian invention, but every restaurant seems to sell them. So much for the Africa diet.
14) You’ve got to bargain for everything. There is a mzungu price and a black African price. We pay a premium for being white, but this is easy to be philosophical about. If I were the taxi driver, I would charge me more too. Besides, even if they charge me an extra thousand shillings, that amounts to about .50 cents. I think we can swing it.
15) They sell DVDs on the street corner. Six movies to a disk for two dollars depending on how well you can bargain. So far, we’ve enjoyed the Harrison Ford collection, the Colin Ferrell collection, the Nicholas Cage collection and the fourth season of “Twenty Four”.
16) Hot water by no means guaranteed. If choosing between being dirty or cold, I usually choose dirty.
17) There are gates and walls everywhere. Almost every building has a gate and guards who stand there all day just opening and shutting it for cars and people. Even the restaurants have security guards standing out front.
18) Five words for you: Six dollar full body massage. Word to the wise though, full body massage does not exclude breasts or bottom…
19) The Nile is an inspiration, you start to think about where it comes from and where it is going and everything that has happened and is still happening along its banks, and you can’t help but feel small and ant-like in the scope of time and place.

Sometimes it is as simple as: Life is good.

Yesterday we had one of our final Chicago bashes and everyone showed up (Save Mr. Prigge and the famous on again off again Chicagoan and aspiring New Yorker Ms. Ankeny) We had a lovely time drinking and talking and watching that mentos and diet coke video. So cool! Eric was busy pre-selling big ticket items in our house...I think my bicycle, the sofa, a lamp and possibly one of my paintings was sold last night (Although, Mr. Moon, I will let you off the hook if you are having regrets on that one given the amount of vodka you had consumed before negotiations began).

This morning E and I are making crepes (our Saturday morning staple of late) with blackberries and yogurt and a big pot of coffee. It is supposed to be a sweltering day, but we have the A.C on and a Turtles Album blasting on the record player, so life is good. I'm going to miss Chicago. We've had so much fun here...but it is time for a new adventure. Something to make us into new people all over again.

Hurrah for Vodka Gimlets! Hurrah for being a twentysomething Urbanite! Bottoms Up Darlings!

We are back in Chicago at last. Minneapolis was lovely, we took care of a lot of wedding details, and visited with all our friends and family there. We had tea with my grandparents that was especially enjoyable and dinner with our old friends Clark, Elise and Mike which was an absolute riot. I haven't had such a fun night out in a long while, I just laughed non-stop. We also saw Brent (E's eldest brother) and Alison's new house, which is gorgeous. Hardy congratulations to them on a very exciting purchase.

In the wedding department we chose a cake and a band and reserved some hotel rooms for our guests and did some research on rehearsal dinner spots. I think that when you utter the word "wedding" the price for whatever it is you are looking for basically quadruples on the spot. Of course we want the rehearsal to be fun and enjoyable, and I think a little practice quite helpful in making sure the big day runs smoothly. My thinking is that in our case the rehearsal should be pretty casual because we are hosting another spectacular bash the very next day (you know, our wedding!). I was thinking a pig roast, lots of beer and wine, little towers of cup cakes everywhere and maybe some touch football on the lawn if people are feeling up to it. We could just have it in a park or my mom's backyard, just like my graduation party. If it rains or gets cold, we can move the party inside and it will be a fraction of the cost and a lot more low key. But all that can wait for a bit now that we have the main pieces in place.

Last night Chris (Eric's Chris) cooked us steak with hollandaise, potatoes and sauteed veggies and key lime gimlets to wash it all down with. I think they might be my new favorite drink. We all waddled over to Cleo's Bar for more drinks and his roomie Helen joined us. It was a very kitschy place with leopard print tables green overhead lights and a gigantic bouncer who really took his job quite seriously. All in all its been a very decadent couple of weeks. Lots of food and drinks and friends and party planning. I feel like its time to get down to business, but not until Monday I suppose. Thats when I'll need to begin channeling Mary Poppins full force. Until then, I'll enjoy my self-centered hedonistic twenty-something moment. There may not be another chance for a long while.