Happy Chinese New Year! Today’s martini is the Zentini! A mix of green tea, green tea simple syrup and passion fruit vodka!

What you need:

♥ Two green tea bags

♥ Water

♥ Sugar

♥ Passion Fruit Vodka – I used Smirnoff

♥ Step one: Make a pot of green tea and let it steep

♥ Step Two: Put 1 cup of tea and 1 cup of sugar in a pan and heat until it boils and sugar is dissolved. Allow syrup to cool. It should be thick like pancake syrup. Put the rest of the green tea in the refrigerator.

♥ Step Three: Put two shots of passion fruit vodka, ice cubes, 1 cup of iced green tea and 1/4 of a cup the green tea syrup.

♥ Step Four: Shake and pour!

Bottoms up baby xoxoxo

I decided to start with Neil Gaiman because his New Years quote was pretty inspiring. Since he was the first person to inspire me in 2012, he wins the first slot.

Who he is:

Neil Gaiman is an award winning British author of novels, short stories, comic books, graphic novels and films. He writes for readers of all ages. Some of his more well known titles are American Gods, Neverwhere, Coraline, The Sandman, and The Graveyard Book. He currently lives in the U.S. somewhere close to Minneapolis (though he seems to always be traveling) and he is married to the equally talented and sexy, Amanda Palmer. They are by far my favorite famous couple.

Why he made the list.

Up till a few years ago I didn’t know who Neil Gaiman was. One day the Hub mentioned he was coming to speak at the Cleveland Library and suggested that we attend. Lady Linzi insisted upon it. I am always game for adventures, so we went. We waited in a long line and got really good seats. I don’t think it even took 5 minutes before I professed my love. Because well…first of all,  Mr. Gaiman is dreamy, but even if he wasn’t he’d still be pretty fucking rad. He read some of his stuff that day and then he stayed until everyone who wanted an autograph received one, which was pretty much everyone. I was so happy we went.

I hate to admit I am not the biggest reader. Not because I don’t enjoy it. I just never make time for it like other people do…I’m working on this… but I have read a couple of his things and I find his stories are very compelling. They are somehow both at once sweet and eerie. which leaves you with a very energized feeling…not sure exactly how to explain it. You just like you witnessed something special.

He also is big in social media. He tweets a lot and responses to fans which I find endearing. A couple weeks ago we went to a play at Cleveland Public Theatre. It was part of their Big Box series. It was “October in the Chair” which was an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman short story. It was a great piece.  So HOW awesome is Neil Gaiman? In true Neil Gaiman form, he tweeted about it!

This man is insanely talented, but what makes him so inspirational is that encourages others to share their talents.

Read his blog here

Follow him on Twitter

When I was younger a local coffee house had a drink called the cinnamochanilla. As you can imagine it was a mocha with cinnamon and vanilla syrup. I thought it would be fun to recreate this drink in Martini form. I’d say it’s a solid 9. Try one for yourself and tell me what you think!

What you’ll need:

♥Hot cocoa mix

♥Espresso Vodka- I used Van Gogh Espresso Vodka

♥Vanilla Vodka- I used Smirnoff Vanilla

♥Cinnamon

♥Sugar

♥Water

Here’s what you do…

♥ Step 1: This uses the frozen hot chocolate method we used for the Frozen Hot Chocolate Martini. Boil the hot water. Prepare hot cocoa according to instructions. Mine said 6oz for each packet. Stick hot cocoa in freezer

♥ Step 2: Make a cinnamon simple syrup by combining 1 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar in a small pan. Allow sugar to dissolve and add a few shakes of cinnamon and stir. Allow cinnamon to dissolve. Turn off stove and allow to cool.

♥ Step 3: Combine all 6 oz of frozen hot cocoa, 1 shot of espresso vodka, 1 shot of vanilla vodka and 1 tablespoon cinnamon simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Shake and pour.

Makes one big or two small martinis

♥bottoms up baby! xoxoxo-kitten

I had a blast of reality this week. A work friend said he was sick of living for the weekend. That he was “too old to waste that much time.” It got me thinking.

In 2012 there are 366 days (It’s a leap year.) That leaves us 52 Saturdays and 53 Sundays. 105 days our 366 is a 28% of your year which mean if you “live for the weekend” you are wasting 72% of your year.

Just a little food for thought.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”- Neil Gaiman

Do you ever notice how sometimes suddenly, and for however brief, everyone and everything seems to be on the same wave length. This Neil Gaiman quote is exactly how I want my 2012 to be. Full of experiences and more importantly experiences I can learn and grow from. For the past several years I have written posts summing up the major lessons I have learned. Over the years some lessons have had to be relearned. Hell some lessons have taught me that I may have been wrong about past lessons learned…. in any case I have found that an important part of learning lessons is being able to identify what they are. So that being sad, I bring you 11 lessons I learned in 2011.

The best kind of drunk is an Absinthe drunk- March was my birthday and as you may know from reading this blog Absinthe was served. What that night taught me is that chasing the green fairy is a pretty fun ride. It does not make you sloppy or mean like some drinks. It makes you feel like you are floating  through space. Which makes this video make so much sense.

How to buy a car- The first car I owned was a hand me down from Lady Linzi. It died in like 6 months, but it was a car and it was free…so I can’t complain. The Second car I owned was a college graduation present. Up until this year I had NO idea what was involved in buying a car. I was SO freaked out. My stomach was in knots for days. I enlisted the help of a work friend and with her advice I got myself a Kia Soul. The exact car I wanted. It made me feel like a real adult.

Things have a way of working out- Even the most dire of circumstance has  a solution and it may not seem like this at the time, but sometimes your better off for it.

I’m a bit of a control freak- I have a terrible habit of thinking that things need to be my way or the highway when it comes to the way my house is kept and the way I do things at work. I am guilty of doing things for other people because in my crazy control freak mind I will do it better. What happens I end doing way too much. I also end up resenting people because clearly if they knew how to do things “right” I wouldn’t be so inconvenienced…Now that I’m aware of this ridiculous behavior maybe I finally stop this unproductive self destructive pattern.

I want a house- I have grown really weary of apartment life. I want a place I can call my own. A place I can decorate. I place to store all my stuff. Where I don’t have to pay 3 dollars a load to do laundry or haul it over to my parents house. It doesn’t need to be big. A small bungalow where I can have a garden and  a craft area, and a garage….I’m clearly getting old….oh and I want a dog.

Being 30 kinda rocks- I swear I’m not pulling one of those “trying to convince myself” statements. I really honestly feel that my 30s have been pretty good so far. I feel miles away from my 20 something self. I mean that in a good way. I feel like I’m on a good path.

I’m really lucky that I have the gift of creativity- My mother, who is an artist is often too self critical of her art. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s important for people to b critical of their art, but I think artists need to be more thankful for their abilities. Everyone has the ability to be creative, but not everyone taps into it. Not everyone enjoys it. Not everyone excels at it. If you do, then you should be very proud of yourself. This year I took a look at my art and my crafts and said to myself, “self, you made something outta nothing and that is awesome.” I actually didn’t say this, but I did think it. I’m creative…not crazy…ok I’m a little crazy.

Ignorance is NOT bliss- Knowing is always better then not knowing. Denial may work, but not for long. This year was the first time I found out what my credit score was. I was always so scared of what it could be. I always pay my bills on time. I thought that my credit score was probably a good one, but I didn’t know for sure. So when it came to getting my new car I knew I was going to have to confront my demons. The doubt and fear sat in my stomach for weeks. Finally  I checked out my score… All that worrying was for nothing. It was a pretty good score. Hey sometimes what you don’t know can be good and sometimes it can be bad, but it’s better to find out then to waste your time worrying about which one it is. Problems can always be solved or at least managed, but not if you don’t confront them.

Sometimes you have to be uncomfortable- You can’t have the rainbow without the rain. Seriously. You can go your whole life producing average outcomes with zero to limited effort, but you can not produce something Amazing with out giving a little more yourself then you maybe be comfortable with. They mean it when they say that NOTHING in life is free.

There is a big difference between a healthy pushing of boundaries and insanity inducing misery- I used to tell myself that my job made me a better person. That even though I wasn’t happy with it, that be enduring it I was going to pay off for me in the end. Experience, even if it wasn’t in my field of choice, would lead me to where I needed to be professionally. 6 years later it has gotten progressively worse. This year it has reached an all time low. I have finally realized that all this job has done is wear me out. I have been in the same position for 6 years with no sign of advancing. Each day attempting to achieve the unachievable. This year I finally reached my breaking point. It made me feel like a failure. I felt like I was doing something wrong. Was I a freak because I would have, what eventually daily breakdowns ? Was I doing something wrong? Was I too sensitive? I started to feel guilty too. There are people out there without jobs, people out there that make less money who don’t have health care etc…I realized that these thoughts and feelings are the thoughts and feelings of a person in a toxic relationship.  Placing blame on yourself? Guilt? These are the reasons that people in abusive relationships give when people ask why they stay. Eventually my boss, who understood what was going on with me or at least pretended to helped put in a good word with another department.  In a few weeks I will be transferring to that  department doing I’ll be doing a fraction of the grueling work that I currently am responsible for and there is more chance for advancement. I’ll actually get a lunch and breaks. I might still hate it…who knows, I’m still a little jaded,  but I’m hopeful that this is my chance to advance and have my hard work pay off.

You can do anything…but not EVERYTHING- First off I’d like to say that people are capable of doing anything they set their mind to. Ok, forget for just a second about yourself and your doubts about you can do. Now re-read that first sentence. People are capable of doing anything the set their minds to. You as a person can therefore do anything you put your mind to. You can learn Mandarin, start your own business, become the foremost authority on Cirque de Soleil, read 365 books in a year. I personal know people who have done these things. It’s possible to do any one of these things, but it’s not possible to do all of these things. Sometimes I want to do so much. I make these long to do lists. Lists that include things I want to do, things I have to do, and even things I hope to do.  In the past when I didn’t cross everything of the list I would feel like failed. The thing is I am setting myself up to fail by creating these hug lists. I realized this on Christmas eve as I was busting my ass all day to finish my to do lists and at 7:00pm I realized if I kept going I was still never going to finish and my Christmas Eve would be over. So instead I stopped and enjoyed the traditions that my husband and I have and I was a happier person for it. I probably will never learn to cut down on my to do lists, but I will tell ya I learned…or I should say, I’m starting to learn that it’s OK if I don’t get to EVERYTHING. I think that once you understand this you can start to weed out what your priorities are.

This evening the hub and I had a date night. We saw Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy at the Cedar Lee (a local art movie house in Cleveland Heights). I liked it… but it lacked a certain urgency that is essential to a good spy flick… I think it was because it was British….but I digress! After the movie we went over to Melt Bar & Grill for dinner. Since I knew I’d be getting home late I decided to get Melt’s drink of the month and report on what I though and post the recipe so you can try one for yourself…though if you’re in  the Cleveland area you can go get one for yourself at Melt. I am not a fan of the taste of a Manhattan, but I have a soft spot in my heart for them because they were my grandma’s drink of choice. The first time I ever had one was after her funeral. Let me tell ya I was very disappointed. I had hoped I’d like it. So why did I order this drink this evening… well I was curious. Curious if a Blood Orange Manhattan would be tastier then a regular Manhattan (this seemed kinda obvious but you never know) and also I had been thinking of my Grandmother the other day and it felt like a sign. Below is the list of the ingredients that Melt used. I used a some what standard Manhattan recipe and kinda tweaked it since I do not know the exact recipe that Melt used

What you need:

♥ Bulliet Bourbon
♥ Gran Gala Orange liqueur
♥ Dry Vermouth
♥ Bitters
♥ 1 blood orange or 2 oz of blood orange juice
♥ Maraschino Cherry

♥ Step one: Cut blood orange in half and squeeze. You should produce about 2 oz. Pour into a cocktail shaker.
♥ Step two: Add 1.5 oz of Bulliet Bouurbon, 1.25 oz of Gran Gala orange liqueur, .25 oz of dry vermouth, 1-2 dashes of bitters into the cocktail shaker.
♥ Step three: Add a few ice cubes, shake, and pour.

♥ bottoms up baby xoxoxox

Hope you had a lovely Holiday season. We made it! This week’s Martini Monday is the perfect way to use up that left over Champagne

What you will need:

♥ Pineapple juice

♥ Vodka

♥ Champagne

♥ Grenadine

♥ Step 1: Combine 60z of Pineapple juice and 3 shots of vodka and some ice cubes in your cocktail shaker and shake.

♥ Step 2: Let the juice and vodka settle for a minute ( it will be frothy and you do NOT want to add Champagne when it’s like that. Once it is settled add 1 cup of Champagne. Do NOT shake. Champagne is carbonated (obvi) and you do not want a mess.

♥ Step 3: pour a very small of grenadine, say a teaspoon, in the bottom of your martini glass. Then pour your vodka, pineapple, champagne mixture.

You can garnish with a maraschino cherry if so inclined. The store was out of them when I went if you can believe it!

♥ Bottoms up baby! xoxox

January

Beer Floats at Lilly Handmade Chocolates in Tremont! Yes you read correctly beer floats! Ice cream and beer. They make a delicious combo. They had an espresso stout and some sort of orange beer to choose from. I can’t remember which one I got but it was yummy!

February

I chose this picture because it was during February that I did a lot of Project Restyles . I finished two big ones in February just in time for my birthday celebration in March. This table and my TV stand. My coffee table is one of my faves. I kinda stopped doing the Project Restyle in August, but I’d like to start back up because it was really fun and is a great way to improve the decor around you while helping the environment.

March

March is the month I turned the big 3-0! I celebrated with a Marie Antoinette Champagne & Absinthe party. We had red velvet cake pops, rainbow cupcakes, baked brie and other cheese and crackers, “Let Them Eat Cake” shots and of course loads of Champagne and Absinthe. It was awesome. The next day sucked, but that night was worth it.

April

Two of my best friends Lauren and Mike got married in April. It was a cute wedding and Lauren looked beautiful. I had the honor of creating her hair piece that she wore in place of a veil. It looked fantastic in her hair… of course I didn’t get a picture of it because I’m dumb. However I did snap an Instagram photo of the lovely bride and groom during their first dance as husband and wife, as pictured above.

May

In May the Three Shillelaghs (me, Jimi and  Lady Linzi) made our way back to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a relaxing weekend. This is a picture of “Jacob.” Jacob is Jimi’s “second personality”. He wears glasses and can wield a mean shillelagh. The story of Jacob is a sort of long story, but basically my husband, Jimi, likes to introduce himself as Jacob at parties  where we do not know many people. He does this because he thinks it funny. I don’t know whether it is indeed funny, but it is certainly weird. One year when we were up at Gallagher Gate, Jacob made an appearance and “killed us.” By “killed us” I mean we laid down on the ground as he mimicked bludgeoning us to death with a shillelagh while one of us took pictures…I swear we are not insane…ok maybe a little.

June

June marked a really exciting time for me. I worked for 4 months on my costume for Parade the Circle and I was so excited to show it off. That’s me in the gigantic purple pompadour wig and blue star dress. I made everything from scratch. My friend Dave took this picture.

July

In July we saw one of our favorite bands, Patent Pending, play at Peabody’s ( a local club). They are a great live band and really sweet guys. They cam back in September, & December as well. We can’t wait for them to come back in Spring

August

My car was a victim of a hit and run in August. I was at home a sleep in bed on Thursday/ Friday morning. When I woke up to go to work my car looked like that. The pictures I took did not do it Justice. Sadly I had to say goodbye to Edgar (my car). It turned out to kind of be a blessing in disguise since Edgar was starting to cost a lot in repairs, but I had a lot of memories in my old car and I miss him. I’m thoroughly enjoying Ernest (my new car) though!

September

Labor day weekend the Three Shillelaghs went to Geneva on the Lake for some kitschy fun. We enjoyed the arcades, food at Eddie’s Grill and a rousing game of mini golf. September was also the month I started to sell Haus of Kaboom stuff on Etsy. I haven’t been as diligent with it as I want to be with it, but I hope in the coming months that it will get stronger.

October

Halloween of course! Jimi and I went as Westley (as the Dread Pirate Roberts) and an R.O.U.S ( Rodent of Unusual Size). I made the costumes. I love Jimi’s mask. It was a blast to make. One of my favorite couple costumes of all times!

November

In November Lady Linzi turned the big 3-0 and her party was even better than mine! Her’s was Great Gatsby themed. Champagne & St. Germain, Pimms and ginger ale. yum!

December

In December I made A LOT of crafts. It kept me busy, it calmed my anxiety, and made me happy during a very hectic time both at work and at home with the holiday craziness. This picture is me in the crocheted Santa hat I made.

If you did a year in review post on your blog (with or without pictures) I’d love to see them. Happy New Year everyone!

♥ My arrow ring!
♥ My donut maker
♥ My new tee shirt from Lady Linzi
♥ Egg nog
♥ Snickerdoodles
♥ My mom’s Christmas bread
♥ Scrooged
♥ My cute cardinal plushies that I made by tweaking this DIY tutorial. It’s no Skunkboy Creature, but I think they’re cute.

♥ Starting to run again. This time I have a partner! My husband is doing it with me.
♥ My fox pillow- I named him Fox Mulder

♥ My Betsey Johnson leopard print Betsey Beddy bye bootie slippers
♥  Sleeping in
♥ Not having to work

This blog is starting to look like 1. the way it looked when all I would do is post CoNfEtTi FrIdAys and 2. Like I drink an awful lot, which is really not the case.  I really need to learn to blog more during the week. But I digress. It’s monday once again and it would be bad form to miss a Martini Monday this soon in  the game. So here I am at 11:15pm trying desperately to get this post posted before midnight… I will probably fail. As my ginger snap syrup is cooling in the freezer ( to speed up the process) let me tell you what you will need to make one of these festive drinks.

You will need:

brown sugar water

cinnamon

nutmeg

ginger

all spice

ground cloves

pear or orange vodka I used pear, but I imagine orange would be good as well.

Amaretto

To make the gingersnap syrup:

Step One: Put 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup water in a pan and bring to a boil a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Once sugar is dissolved lower heat so that syrup is a simmer

Step Two: While the syrup is simmering add a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, all spice and ground clove. I actually used pumpkin spice which contains all of these except the ground clove and then I just added my own ground clove. A few dashes is all ya need. Stir for a minute or two. Then remove from heat and allow to cool to room temp.

To make the martini

Step Three: In a martini shaker add 1 part  pear  or orange vodka, 1/2 part Amaretto, 1 part ginger snap syrup and ice cubes. Pour and enjoy! I did not garnish in the interest of time, but you could garnish using a cinnamon sugar rim, a crushed ginger snap rim or a slice of crystallized ginger.

bottoms up baby! xoxoxox