Sunday Brunch with Beermosas

Posted in Food by peppermintsandhoneybees

So I can’t take credit for this lovely meal because Ben made it, but since I haven’t posted any recipes lately or drink recipes um…well ever, I thought I’d take a picture. Last Saturday was Valentines Day so Ben took me out to brunch at a beautiful little spot in in Chicago called Trencherman where we had beermosas and amazing food. I had the lemon pancakes, yum! Ben wanted to see if he could recreate the beermosas and he did, using 1/4 a grapefruit juiced mixed with 1 tablespoon of honey combined with an IPA beer. We used Anti-Hero by Revolution Brewing, but you can use whatever you prefer. Just mix the honey grapefruit juice mixture in with the beer and that’s it. I usually don’t like IPA’s and I am not a fan of grapefruit but for some reason these things mixed together taste amazing to me! Just give it a try if you are reluctant, I was at first too but I found my new favorite way to drink beer!

The sandwiches are also by Ben, he’s such a good cook! 🙂 He made cheese omelets and put them on wheat toast with tomatoes and kale. It was a perfect brunch for a chilly morning. Now we’re off to go to a Blackhawks game. We’ve never been to one and Ben got tickets at work so I think we’re off to a fun day!

21Feb2015

Make a Camera Strap Cover

Posted in diy, Sewing by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’ve been wanting to make a cover for the strap of my camera so I don’t look like a tourist with the factory strap. I had some time since we got all that snow so I sat down and made one, which didn’t take much time at all! If you make one you’ll have to measure out your strap. Mine is a Nikon and it was 20 1/2″ long and 1 1/2 ” wide. I cut the fabric out 22″ long so I could fold it over twice on each side and sew a 1/4″ hem. I made it 4″ wide so I could fold in in half and sew the seam. For whatever reason my machine would only sew a zigzag seam so yeah…, oh well if that’s the worst that happened! After everything is sewn use a safety pin to turn it right side out by pining an end and running it through to the other side. I also used a safety pin on the end of my camera strap to feed it through the cover. I made mine fit snug on the ends so that it wont ride up when I’m using it, but you can make yours however you want!

I had some fabric left from my kimono that I liked so I used that and then made another one out of some peppermint fabric that a friend had given me. I was saving it for the perfect project but I tend to do this with things and then they never get used! I had originally planed to make a pocket for my lens cap, but my cap is quite a bit wider than the strap so it would have to really stick out. Maybe I’ll add one later, we’ll see, but again up to you!

4Feb2015

DIY Kimono

Posted in clothing, diy by peppermintsandhoneybees

If you are somewhere where theses lots of snow like Chicago I hope you’re staying warm and safe! As seen in the pictures I made this the day before the snow hit and it has me dreaming of warmer weather to wear it out in.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my eye on the kimonos I see in stores, not so much for winter but as the perfect breezy coverup for summer. I am a lizard woman and even in the Summer I’m always cold, especially in air conditioning! I love kimonos but am not a fan of the prices I see So I found this handy tutorial by By Hand London which after searching seemed to be about the easiest to follow , but of course made a few changes to mine. Everyone’s will be different depending on your size or how big you want it but for mine I bought 5 feet of fabric. Now I wanted to use something with a little stretch or something light and breezy but I couldn’t find any I liked so for my first kimono I just used regular cotton cloth.

Start by folding your fabric in half with the back showing. I cut mine down a few inches so the sleeves wouldn’t be quite as long but of course it just depends on what you want. From there I took chalk and marked where to cut the sleeves. When I was ready I folded the fabric again to cut both sleeves at the same time.

Sorry about the bad pictures but my craft room is pretty dark and I tend to do most of my stuff at night, which in the Winter starts about noon. So these are the measurements I used for mine. After you pin the sides and bottom of sleeves, sew them up and zigzag the ends so they don’t fray. Roll the ends of the sleeves twice so they are about 1 cm. and sew.

Measure the middle and mark 8 cm on each side for the neck hole. find the middle at the bottom and mark up to the neck marks at the top. remember to only cut the top layer for this cut. Sew just like the sleeves and there ya go! I added pom pom ribbon to the bottom of mine but this is optional. Fringe would also look awesome! It’s a little too cold for it now but I have a feeling I’ll be wearing it a lot this Spring and Summer! I’ll probably be making more. 😉