Petrified Larva and a Little Christmas Cheer

This past weekend Prince Charming had his annual guy weekend hunting.  Which is my cue to watch chick flicks, eat chocolate, and just maybe feed the kids cereal for dinner. I am not saying I did but I could if I wanted since there are no other adults around to give me the eye if I decided that is what we will dine on.

What??! It is part of balanced diet you know!

We had a busy soccer day on Saturday but Sunday I left it wide open so I could get up, stay in my jammies and get my craft on.  I didn’t stay in my jammies since we decided to workout with a friend but I sure as heck wasn’t trying to please anyone.  

Every year by golly I say I am going to start early on my Christmas gifts.  This year I finally did!!!!  Yay me.  Right after I but all of our creepy stuff up I got to work on some Christmas gifts.  Nothing puts you in the Christmas mood like petrified  larva and giant hairy spiders. Ha!

I am making homemade Mexican Vanilla Extract.  I love, love Mexican Vanilla but I don’t really get to Mexico much and it is super expensive.

You can make your own vanilla too but you do need to start early.  It will take at least 6 weeks to make but the longer you can wait the better!  You will need glass jars, vodka (the cheap stuff is fine) and vanilla beans.  You can choose any variety of beans you like.  I purchased mine on Ebay they were about .72 cents per bean which is very inexpensive as far as a gift goes.   I snatched these adorable jars out of the charity pile.  You will need about 4 beans per cup of vodka.  Mine jars hold about a 1/2 cup so I used two beans.  You simply split the bean length wise, put it in the jar, add the vodka and wait.  Easy and awesome!  Shake it every now and then, it will get darker and darker the longer you wait. 

My mouth is watering thinking of the delicious sugar cookies I will make this Christmas with my scrumptious homemade vanilla!!

Edited to say:  One should never blog in a hurry!  Sorry there were a million typos in that!!!