It’s graduation season and we had two parties to go to last weekend. The minute I saw this great idea on TheLetter4 I knew I had to make these adorable soda graduation caps to bring to these kids.

This was so fast and simple! I cut out card stock squares – I found 2.5 inches worked best – and a length of gold embroidery floss. I tied a knot in the floss and then glued it to the card stock with a glue gun and then I glued the mini mortar board to the bottle cap. I used black card stock for the soda with black bottle caps and white card stock for the soda with white bottle caps. I could only find Jones Soda for sale as singles so I used a galvanized bucket for the boy’s party and a plastic pail for the girl’s party. I put a card with some money in each one and I think they made a really cute gift.

The other thing I did was make more of those graduation candy caps. I’ve made these before and blogged about them but they are so adorable that I have to show them again anyway.

They are definitely time consuming – and even a little expensive – but they are so cute and so worth the effort. My friend was pleased that I made these for her daughter and everyone admired them on the table and told me how clever I was. That’s something I always love to hear!

And now you can all go be clever, too. DIY Graduation gifts are a very good thing.

Like many of us in the cyber world, I’m enjoying the heck out of Pinterest. I’ve read about it in a couple of magazines lately and it’s clearly become a very popular site. Here’s the thing, though, about Pinterest: it makes me want to make all the things. Most times, this is a good thing and I’ve had great success making homemade vanilla, pinwheels, paper garlands and more. Last Friday, though, I had failure of epic proportions. Let me explain.

I saw this chalkboard serving tray and immediately decided I wanted to make one. A few weeks ago I got myself a cheap frame at Michael’s and I bought some chalkboard paint in a bottle. After I bought that paint, though, I read that chalkboard paint is also available in a spray can and that’s what is recommended for creating a chalkboard from a piece of glass. I had to go back to Michael’s to get supplies for the Super Bowl cookies anyway and while I was there I found the right kind of paint in a can.

Last Friday afternoon I decided to try this project.  It was a beautiful day and I figured it was a good opportunity to do this project outside. I started in the kitchen, though. I got out the frame and took it apart. I sanded the piece of glass with a piece of fine grade sandpaper. I read the directions on the paint can and then tried to remove the plastic cap. It wouldn’t come off. I saw a diagram on the top of the cap and the words underneath said, “insert screwdriver and rotate.” It did not specify whether to rotate the can or the screwdriver so I tried both. The cap still would not come off. I got a bigger screw driver and tried again. Can you see where this is going?

The bigger screw driver went right through the opening in that cap and it hit the spray nozzle and knocked it off.

And black chalkboard paint started spraying wildly around my kitchen.

I will pause for a moment while I let you contemplate those words.

I reacted as quickly as I could and threw the can in the sink but it’s hard to do anything but scream when chalkboard paint is being sprayed about your kitchen. And of course once it was in the sink it just started spinning crazily around and turning my white porcelain sink completely black.

Completely. Black.

By the time I got a zip lock bag out of the drawer the can was just about spent but I shoved it in there and surveyed the mess. My hands, including my diamond solitaire and wedding ring, were covered in black chalkboard paint. There was paint on the side of the refrigerator, the side of one cabinet, the Keurig, the K cups, the kitchen counter and of course there was the mess in the sink.

I started working frantically but damn that stuff dries quickly. I scrubbed and scrubbed. I threw my rings in the jar of jewelry cleaner. I got out bleach and scouring pads. I took a quick break and googled “how to remove chalkboard paint” but there wasn’t much of anything on accidentally spraying your kitchen with this crap so I went back to scrubbing. An hour later I looked up from my work and decided the sink was passable. The porcelain gave up the paint relatively easily except for where there are tiny scratches in the surface. This sink is 15 years old so I’m sure you can imagine that there are lots and lots of those scratches. I couldn’t see them before but now that they are filled with black paint they are more, errrr, noticeable.

It’s almost a week later and the sink is looking slightly better each day. Dale spent some quality time working on it with turpentine and a rag and that helped a lot. The side of the cabinet and fridge still have little black drops of paint on them that just won’t budge. The counter is mostly better but I removed the finish in a couple of spots with my desperate scrubbing. My rings are fine and it’s worn off my hands but it’s still under my nails in some spots. Oy.

I guess I’ll just keep putting my cheese on a regular serving tray. Honestly, some of those ideas on Pinterest are probably best left alone.

You remember the homemade vanilla that I made a few weeks ago, right? The time has come to start distributing this deliciousness and I want to show you the labels that I made for it.

I got round printable labels at Michael’s and then went on the company website to download a template for them. I played around a bit with the font and color and finally settled on a design I liked. I had to actually tape the strip of labels to a sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 paper in order to get it to feed correctly through my printer but once I figured that out it went very quickly.

I am very happy with how they look and I had fun taking a few glamour shots of the bottles. Now I can’t wait to try the vanilla!

A few weeks ago on Pinterest I started seeing lots of pins for homemade vanilla. I immediately decided this was something I wanted to do for Christmas.

I got right on the stick and I ordered vanilla beans from Beanilla (I chose the madagascar ones) and bottles from Specialty Bottles.

And then I sort of forgot to get the vodka. And I kept forgetting to get the vodka.

The other day, though, I finally remembered and I made the vanilla the next morning. It couldn’t have been simpler, especially since I followed these directions.

I started by cutting each vanilla bean in half and then cutting each half into a V-shape. I laid all those little vanilla bundles out on my kitchen table and inhaled. Man, did that smell good.

I put 5 vanilla bean halves into each bottle.

And then I filled the bottles with vodka. They need to be stored in a cool dark place for 6 weeks and they will grow up to be vanilla.

Of course, these are Christmas gifts and Christmas is in less than 4 weeks, but whateverrrr. My friends will understand.

And if they don’t then NO VANILLA FOR YOU! (said in my best Soup Nazi voice).