WINE MULLS....THE PERFECT HOME MADE GIFT!

Mulled wine is truly a unique holiday wine drinking experience and wine mulls are probably my favorite thing to make and give at Christmas.   These are so easy to make and one mull with a bottle of red wine, makes a perfectly elegant and inexpensive gift.

I have been known to keep a basket of them by the front door to give to holiday visitors and party guests.  So lovely, don't you think?

Guess what?  If you have friends who don't drink alcohol, these are perfectly wonderful in warm apple cider as well. 

The following recipe makes just two mulls, but it is as easy to make 10 or 12.  Just multiply the ingredients accordingly.

Wine Mulls
1 med. orange
1/2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar 
1tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
2 (2") cinnamon sticks
12 whole cloves

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut orange in half lengthwise and scoop out pulp. Place a ball of aluminum foil in each half.  (This helps distribute the heat evenly as well as helps the orange half keep its circular shape as it's drying.)  Place halves on baking sheet and dry in oven 4-5 hours. Remove foil and dry an additional 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg. Pack half of the mixture into each orange half. Decorate tops with cinnamon stick placed down the center (press into brown sugar a bit) and place 3 coves on each side. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, tie top with a pretty ribbon and include the following Mulled Wine recipe.

Mulled Wine
1 wine mull
1 (750 ml.) bottle of red wine
Pour wine into pan. Unwrap mull and drop into pan with wine. Heat through. (Do not boil.)

I made this tag, hole punched it and tied it to the top of the mull wrap with pretty ribbon.

A few notes on making these wine mulls.....
I juiced my orange halves and then scooped out the pulp.
(Bonus!  Fresh squeezed orange juice to drink while you are making these.  I recommend adding a little vodka to that juice!)
The orange halves shrink a lot and get hard and dark orange when drying out.  Don't freak out.
Dry time depends on the size of the oranges.  I used medium sized oranges and it took about 4 hours. 
I made the aluminum foil balls big enough to fill up about half the space in side the orange.  
I used a Dremel to cut my cinnamon sticks to make them fit perfectly inside the orange half.

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EASTER PEDESTAL INSPIRED BY "THRIFT MY HOUSE"

I made this Easter pedestal project last week.....

 When Sherry from Thrift My House did a guest post for us at the Inspiration Cafe on DIY Cake Plates and Pedestals, I was just in awe.  It was such a great post!  (I must not have been the only one who loved it, because that post has had over 3,000 pageviews at the Inspiration Cafe!)  Check out some of the projects she did a for us in that tutorial......

Stunning, right?  She is so talented and really, if you're not following her at Thrift My House, you are missing some great stuff!  The pedestal that caught my eye was that blue one, right in the middle.  Not because it's blue, but because I had a vase shaped just like it...and a rogue candlestick as well.  After following Sherry's easy tutorial, I gathered my newly made pedestal and a few supplies.....

.....a bag of moss, and some river stones.  I began to layer the rocks in the pedestal and tuck in some pieces of the moss that I had cut and decided to add a few little pieces of some faux floral buds for a splash of color.

I made sure I had a little level spot near the top to put  a rabbit figurine on......

.....and added a floral bow to the bottom for some spring color.....

Easy as can be and a fun addition to my own DIY Easter decor, which is rapidly growing.

So...hop on over to the Inspiration Cafe and see the post on DIY Cake Plates and Pedestals, and then head over to Thrift My House and follow Sherry so you don't miss any of her awesome and inspiring projects.  Thank you Sherry....you rock!!!
Oh...and if any of you think you might like to guest post for us at the Inspiration Cafe...let me know, we'd love to have you and who knows?....maybe your post will get 3,000+ page views!

Linking up to any or all of the fine parties listed at the bottom of this page and HERE, as well as....

SHAMROCK WALL DECOR Mystery revealed and Tutorial

I asked yesterday if you could guess what this is made of..... 

If I had told you that it could be found in your dairy aisle at the supermarket, it might have been too easy to guess.

A few of you guessed it....
The Feral Turtle - who has one of the most amazing recycle projects I have ever seen!  See it HERE. 
Distressed Donna Distressed Donna Down Home - killer vintage makeovers and cutest tags EVER!
What We Keep - Tina actually  got out a ruler and measured a package of this cheese to be sure! Gotta love that!
Del's Shells - who makes fabulous jewelry with some amazing shells.  (I know because I have some of it.) 
Pondered Primed Perfected {P3} - who just made the coolest Lazy Suzanne..see it HERE. 
Thanks for all the fun guesses everyone!

Yep, those cute little wedges of cheese come in the most awesome cardboard circle box that I never really thought about until the other day.(I think in some places it's also called "Laughing Cow Cheese".)  Here is something I never noticed about them.....

 Uh-huh...they have these two little holes already punched in the side of them.  I have no idea why, but I did instantly have an idea of what to do with them!  A St. Patrick's Day Wall Hanging!
First I had to cover up the labels.  I decided on some fabric, because I have a lot of green fabric...it's my favorite color.

I cut some circles out of some green fabric.  If you want a great tip on how to make fabric stiff enough to use in crafting without fraying and still be pliable, you can find it HERE.    
I attached the circles to the front and back of the container with a little ModPodge.  

I also cut a couple of smaller circles out of some pretty contrasting paper and applied them to the center of the fabric circle.  I made a little shamrock template out of some plastic, traced around it on yet another piece of fabric and applied it with ModPodge as well.
Pretty much ended up looking like this....

Now before I put the front and back of the box together, I needed to figure out how to hang it.  Enter this awesome Goodwill score

 Oh yes...green silk corded tassels.....and on half price day too, making them a quarter each!  Perfect!  I taped the end of one off, cut it, slid it through those two strange little holes in the box and made a loop for hanging.  Then I covered the sides of the box with a couple of strips of fabric that I cut notches into to accommodate the cording.

 

Just a touch of bling around the edges and I'm finished!

  Not too shabby for something that was about to go in the trash bin.

Linking up to any or all of the fine parties listed at the bottom of this page as well as HERE and:

 

ST. PATRICK'S DAY DECORATION ...CAN YOU GUESS?

St. Valentine's Day is over and St. Patrick's Day is on the horizon and this is my first project for it this year.   

 This is truly a trash to treasure project because I was just about to throw the main part of this little treasure into the trash bin when the crafter in me took a second look at it.  
I'll show you how I made this in another post, but can you guess what it's made from??
Here is one more picture and I'm not going to give you any clues.

 Okay, maybe just a few clues.....it's about 4 1/2" across and 3/4" deep and I had just finished lunch.

Now can you guess what it is made from? 
It's not "a lid" and part of my lunch came in this container.

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