Aubergine

Make This At Home: Bowl of Soul

There’s a new coffee company that has exploded onto the Santa Cruz scene recently. A scene, mind you, with no shortage of already established coffee houses. But somehow Verve Coffee is shouldering its way into the crowd and making waves.  They have three shops now, as well as two or three other cafes that have some sort of lease and training arrangement to sell their coffee (beans and drinks).  I hear tell you can also buy their coffee beans as far east as NYC. They are active in the competition scene (did you know there was a barista competition scene?) and many of their baristas are award-winning. 

Their coffee is very good, but I’m not writing about coffee today.  What I’m writing about is the drink I’ve recently fallen for on their menu called a Bowl of Soul.  

Now I should say that this coffee company is really hip.  The interior design of their shops is all recycled industrial, with walls covered in large paintings by local artists that I don’t really get (and I’m an artist!).  The music is just the right amount of loud but not artists I recognize. There are only a handful of things on the menu and the baked goods are displayed like art.

At my ripe old age of 39, I’m probably a good 15 years older than their average customer.  I’m never sure if me drinking coffee in a Verve shop is increasing my hipness quotient or decreasing theirs.  So it took me a few visits before I had the courage to admit to the person taking my order that I had no idea what a bowl of soul was.  She was very nice and didn’t laugh at me. She said it was tea steeped in warmed soy milk with honey and cinnamon. She said normally it was made with chamomile tea, but they could make it with any tea on their menu. I ordered it that day with the Art of Tea cinnamon fig black tea they carry, because I needed to be awake, not lulled to sleep.

And it was awesome. Rich and just barely sweet in a big enough mug to sip while I worked.

Now it is one of my favorite drinks. But since I can’t afford the bar(ista) tab of drinking my tea out all the time, I have recently been making it at home.  This is so simple a recipe it is kind of silly to call it a recipe, but if you don’t live within range of a Verve cafe, I do recommend you try this drink at home!

 

Verve’s Bowl Of Soul

 

Heat enough soy milk for a large latte cup.  

In the cup, place your tea bag, a spoon of honey, and a cinnamon stick (or 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon).  

Pour in the soy milk and let steep for 2-5 minutes. Stir and enjoy!

 

You can make this with a range of teas, so try your favorite!

 

Low-tech toddler toys

With kids returning to school the last couple of weeks I'm  seeing a bunch of posts on homeschooling blogs about how to keep toddlers busy.  It makes sense - the big kid and the parent need to do lessons, but what is the little kid supposed to do? 

There are no big kids being homeschooled in our home, but this parent still needs chunks of time during the day to do other things.  Sometimes just time to make dinner! I noticed recently that I have been turning more and more to iPhone and iApp games to distract The Bean when I needed a few minutes, but I have mixed feelings about doing that.  The science on the subject is unclear but what I see happening is that she gets hyper-focused on the screen.  She doesn’t respond to my voice or other things going on in the room. The more she uses the device the more she wants it, but the more time she spends playing games the more quickly she loses interest in them.  Not that she wants to put the device away, she just wants it to do more, something else, something more interesting. And when it doesn’t she gets very frustrated. This all looks like addictive behavior to me and I don’t want to feed that.  It is one thing when I'm sitting right next to her and interacting with her, but when I'm trying to get my hand free this just doesn't feel like the best way to do it.

So I’ve been reading up on toddler busy bags (check out my Pinterest board where I’ve been collecting ideas) and various activities appropriate for a smart and curious 19 month old. I’ve been specifically looking for things that I can make with stuff I already have around the house.  I few weeks ago I made an I-spy bottle out of an old water bottle, some rice and some plastic farm animals, which was only semi-successful.  She carries it around the house sometimes but hasn’t quite figured out how to manipulate it to see the different animals. 

Last night, after she was done with dinner but not ready for bed yet (but mama was!) I pulled a plastic tub out of the recycling and cut a hole in the lid.  I got a handful of various-sized puff-balls and showed her how to fit one of them through the hole.  That was all she needed!

This simple toy entertained her for more than half an hour - ages longer than any iDevice has kept her attention!

First she put all the little balls into the tub.  Then I showed her that the lid came off and she dumped the puffs out and fed them back through the hole again.  Then she spent some time figuring out how the lid worked.  Then she started sorting the puffs into different parts of her highchair tray.  Then she put them all back in the tub by the handful and pouring them out again.  Then we talked about what colors the balls were and how some were bigger than others.  She selected her favorite - a large purple one - and put the rest back in the tub.

At that point she was finally ready get in pajamas so I put the toy away, but she carried that little purple puff ball all the way to the bedroom and still had it clutched in her fist when I moved her, sound asleep, from my lap to her bed.

Have you found simple ativities like this that your toddlers love?  I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Handmade gifts: 5 gifts to make (in less than an hour)

Whether you are running out of gift-making time or just want to make some simple gifts, this group of crafts are quick and (mostly) don't require any special supplies.  

1. Felt rose ring

This is a great little quick project.  The tutorial is for a ring made from the little felt flower, but like the tee-shirt flower in last week's list, you could use the flower on a hair clip, a hair band, a pin, etc.

2. Baby sock coin purse 

In last week's round-up, I suggested you make an owl softie from socks that have lost their mates.  Here's a great little coin purse you can make from a baby sock that has lost its mate.  Any house with a baby has a few of those!

3. Crayon monogram

I love this.  Such a sweet, simple idea to make a monogram in a shadow box out of broken crayons. I love this for a baby shower gift, too.

4. 10 Christimas gifts in a jar

 Would it really be Christmas without a gift in a jar?  Here are recipes for several different options beyond just cookies and hot chocolate.

5. Soy candles in baby food jars or tea cups

These are *really* easy, if you use the pre-mixed soy wax and wicks from a craft store.  Scent them with essential oils to make a set in baby jars, or use one lovely tea cup and saucer for a sweet gift for someone special.

I'm totally enamored with re-using baby jars these days.  They are so small and cute!  Here are a bunch of other things you can do with them.  I love the spices with chalkboard-painted tops.

If you need some great (green!) ideas for ways to wrap up your lovely handmade items, here is a post over on Simple Mom with lots of creative options. I love the baby food jar as a container for a necklace!

 
Happy holiday crafting!

 

Handmade gifts: 6 gifts to make (in an hour or more)

This was going to be a weekly feature in November, but life happened and I got interrupted.  So where was I?  Oh, right, making gifts in every shortening periods of time.  Here is a set that I think will take a bit over an hour, but hopefully less than three.  An evening's work, after the baby is in bed - that's how I measure my time these days!

1. Folding travel tote

Can you believe I have a Martha Stewart tutorial on a list of "just about an hour" crafts?  Truly, though, this one is pretty straight forward.  Though intended as a travel tote for gadgets and cords, it could be used as a journaling kit, a wrap for jewelry or an on-board drawing kit for a child.

2. Tee-shirt flowers

That is, flowers made from tee-shirts, or any other knit fabric.  Apply them to clips or a headband, apply a pin-back to make a brooch, or group them together on the side of a cute bag or on a belt.  The possibilities are endless!

3. Sock owl softie

This is the re-use edition of this series apparently.  Make a cute softie owl from a sock!  Gotta love cleaning out the onsie socks and making gifts at the same time!

 4. Lip balm

I've made lip balm for gifts a couple of times and they have always been really well received.  This can be a time-comsuming project, so I recommend you split it in two parts.  Clean and set up your containers and prep the ingredients in the first session, then do the heating, mixing and filling in a second session.  Use essential oils for scent.  Try some fun and unusual combinations - chocolate and rose absolute, or grapefruit and mint.  Yum! 

5. Bandana cowl

You'd have to be a fast knitter to finish bandana-shaped cowl in an evening, which I am not particularly. But knit with bulky yarn, it will go pretty fast.  It is a nice unisex pattern, too.

 6. Jacket hooks from cool knobs

This last one is not a tutorial, just an idea, so I'm counting it as a bonus.  I love this jewelry-hanging rack made from knobs attached to a board.  I'm envisioning it scaled up, though - cool old door knobs for a jacket hanger.  And really, who doesn't need an excuse to take a field trip to Anthropologie or Restoration Hardware to look at cool drawer pulls?

 

Handmade gifts: 5 gifts to make in a weekend

On my way to Halloween festivities this week I drove by a guy hanging Christmas lights on his house.  There's no denying it, the holidays are right around the corner.  And if you are someone who likes to make gifts from scratch, like I do, that means it is time to get to work.

This month I will be running a series of craft tutorial round-ups.  Things that have caught my eye and some things that might just end up wrapped up under my own tree.  Since we have a full 50 days until Christmas still, this week I have some crafts that may take a while.  If not a whole weekend, at least a part of it.  I'll have quicker crafts for you procrastinators (I'm talking to myself here) as the month goes on.

 

1. Tote bags 

Skip To My Lou ran a round up of 10 tote bags last year that I really liked. Several feature re-use of fabric items and all are quick and free.  Love that!

 

2. Fabric memory game

Purl Bee is one of my favorite places to get gift ideas.  Unfortunately even their "easy" projects are generally time-consuming.  This fabric memory game is no exception, but at least it is within the realm of reason for a gift for a special kid or a family of kids to share. Reading through the pattern I wonder if it would be a little faster to use fusible interfacing to adhere the pattern fabric to the felt block rather than cut a window out of the felt, but I'm like that with the cutting of corners.  

 

3. Bleach pen tees

I love this idea: Using a bleach pen to draw a design on a colored shirt. The Show, Tell, Share Blog uses freehand folk designs, but you could write words, trace patterns or drawings, or whatever your heart desires.  She also includes a link in the post to other bleach pen craft ideas.  

 

4. Faux antiqued glass vases or votives

This Design Sponge tutorial is by far the most complicated in this set, but the elegant results are worth the effort.  This is a great way to re-use some of the nicer glass jars I've been hoarding.

 

5. Rosewater body lotion

This delicious lotion is another Design Sponge feature. It is actually quite easy, hardly a weekend's work, but if you were going to make it in a big batch the set up and clean up might take you a bit.  If you are giving the lotion as a gift (rather than hoarding it all for yourself, not that I would do that or anything), it would be a good idea to use the suggested preservatives.  Check the comments for sources for the ingredients and those cute Weck jars.

That's it for this week.  Next week, projects that you can make in just a few hours.