summer sips

Two Christmas holiday's ago I was inspired by a friend's homemade irish liquor which was gifted to me. He and his girlfriend have been making the liquor since their first Christmas together with the recipe steaming from their family's backgrounds in Ireland. The blend was absolutely divine and I instantly started wondering how I could put my own spin on the idea. Since summer is one of my favorite seasons in the city, I was influenced by all the fresh fruit in my local grocery market. I found this simple recipe and have been meaning to share it for some time now. The raspberries I used can be replaced with just about anything. Note that I am absolutely not a fan of typical flavored vodka but this recipe flavors it in a way that is perfect with just a splash of soda or additional juice over ice. I am going to prep blueberries and strawberries this weekend. Recipe below & cheers!

Materials
large stock pot

spatula

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1 whole bag fresh raspberries

4 cups reasonable vodka

food processor (you can do this by hand with a knife without an issue)
cheesecloth (you can also use a coffee filter, see below)

large very clean glass bottle or steeping jar with lid

4-6 or more small decorative bottles with lids to hold the finished liqueur (only if you are giving these as gifts)

Instructions
1. Pour water and sugar in large stock pot over medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves and water looks clear. Let cool.
2. Place raspberries in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add to the cooled sugar water and then add vodka. Stir. If you don't have a food processor just mince up the raspberries by hand, I did this myself and it worked fine.
3. Pour into large steeping jar or bottle. Seal and store in cool dark place. Steep for 2 to 3 weeks, shaking every other day. (I put mine in the back of our kitchen closet)
4. Pour mix through strainer to separate solids. Using cheesecloth will remove more impurities. You can also use a coffee filter!
5. Use funnel to pour into small individual bottles, tie ribbon around the fun red liqueur and voila! Makes 4-8 gifts depending on bottle sizes. Cost is about $5 to $10 dollars per gift depending on vodka and individual bottle cost.
Other fruit options include but are not limited to: vanilla bean, simply slice in half and place in storing. I recommend steeping this a month. Orange or lemon peel (avoid rind). The bottles store for one year.

listen hear

Have you ever played the date game? Sitting close to a couple whose body language and conversation says they've recently met. So what's on the table for conversation? Background/the run down? First date most likely. Friends and light jokes? Second to third date. When you first meet a new person, friend or love interest, do you lay it out on the line or do you withhold? I personally withhold but I've found that most of the time people tend to divulge a lot of information in me surprisingly fast. This makes me feel good knowing that others trust me with their "truths." These truths can be described as secrets, obsessions, interests, loves/hates, and extreme opinions on others. This is something that since elementary school has been a common factor in all my friendships and relationships. I am the secret keeper. I am pulled to coffee, sleepovers, girl's nights out, beer with the guys, walks and phone conversations which begin light but always end up in confessions. There is no gift to this but there is an understanding; I don't hear you, I listen.

Because I listen I usually learn much more about a person but just doing so rather than diving head first into a conversation that may or may not involve me. I am also genuinely interested in what makes people tick and react. You really hate something? Tell me why, how and what. Get specific, give me details. Just like my collection of tangible treasures, I collect secrets. I think acquiring this relationship with people early in getting to know them makes them either do two things, become a friend for life or feel too vulnerable and stray a bit. Simple, silly, deep, dark, useful and useless, they will never leave my lips.

routinely regular

"At two o'clock we go to the sitting room"

Some of us, more than others crave consistency in our daily routines. While some days may fly by with meetings, deadlines and to-do lists, some days slowly tread on without much to look forward to. What if at 1:00 in the afternoon everyday you had the option of heading to the beach to relax or at 5:00 in the early evening you routinely gathered with friends over small plates and decadent desserts? Doesn't that sound much better than having to rush lunch while quickly answering emails? Below are a few routines from the past and present that different parts of the world consistency take part in. I would love to hear more if you'd care to comment and share!

Spain - a siesta or midday nap usually in the early afternoon after lunch due to high afternoon temperatures and a heavy lunch. Originally this nap concept was put in place so that people could take time to hang out with their friends and family, how nice!

United Kingdom - tea time which originated in England is accompanied by light sandwiches, scones, cakes and pastries. Low tea or afternoon tea is taken between 2pm-5pm while high tea is taken between 5pm-7pm.

United States - one of the only routines American culture takes part in during the week is happy hour. Originating from the prohibition era, drinking prior to dinner served as a way for adults to hide cocktail parties at a speakeasy before heading to dinner where alcohol was illegal to be served.

Islam - the daily practice of prayer called salah is performed five times a day. Each prayer is performed at a prescribed time of the day.

collector's edition

How do you note your life? Do you scrapbook, keep a journal or take tons of photos? I am a collector. I wish I had time for a scrapbook, the patience and eye for photography and while I do keep a journal, it's full of writing but lacks visuals. Open my bedside table and you will find several small boxes. These boxes contain various clips from places and moments. Rather than getting caught up in how to perfectly display vacations, weekend events and everyday treasures, these small boxes allow me to easily keep things that I love in one place. Below is an example of what you might find if you spy into these small boxes which are adornments in themselves;

Boxes - perfume, jewelry and candy. Part of being a designer is being in awe of perfect printing techniques and new and different constructions of various containers. Even these boxes were selected carefully to keep my items safe.

Tickets - movie, train, plane, social event, sporting event, museum, etc. Events that shaped moments and memories special and unforgettable to me. Looking at these make me remember those past places, events and people I shared them with.

Perfume Slips - papers, tabs, stems and ribbons. I've always been obsessed with smells which trigger memories for me so easily.

Notes - friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, family and strangers: Things to remind myself how wonderful the people in my life are, present and past.

Tags - clothing, ribbon and gift certificates. Again a design obsession with printing, packing and branding.

Mini Perfume Bottles - I don't have nearly enough of these but I do love them.

Et Cetera - Matchbooks, business cards, specialty papers, fortune cookie slips, stickers, magazine clips of wanted wardrobe items or hair and makeup how-to's and random 3D objects such as a worry doll, animals, buttons and beads.

Maybe you have one of these boxes too. Some of your might refer to this as your "junk drawer" but mine's a bit to organized and contained to be labeled as such. Ideally I'd like to transfer all of these items into a vintage trunk to be kept in my home. But without the trunk or space currently, these boxes will have to do.

cry baby

Everyone shows their emotions differently; you scream, jump up and down, become silent, smile or frown and everyone, from time to time, cries. Whether from sadness or joy, why do we cry? When faced with troublesome news, the stress of the day or maybe just lack of sleep, we find ourselves with our faces in our hands and with tears streaming. There are three types of tears. Basal tears keep our eyes moist. Reflex tears cleanse our eyes of irritants, in the case of allergies or when cutting an onion for example. And finally, emotional tears are hormonal induced. The same nerves responsible for reflex tears reach deeper into the brain to the cerebrum which deals with emotional responses. When emotions hit in the cerebrum, hormones are released which trigger glands behind your eyes to produce tears. The emotions are triggered most commonly by stress. The positive or negative stress of good or bad news floods each of our systems differently causing various responses. Those more "sensitive" therefore produce higher levels of hormones to be released causing stronger responses, like crying.

Have you ever been in a situation which you don't really want to cry it out right there and then? Because of the hormones, holding back tears actually produces more stress making it even harder to hold in. The release of tears by crying acts as a physical release of hormones which is why, you really do feel better after letting it out and crying. Next time try focusing on the process rather than the reason to calm yourself down. Now we know, it's proven - cry it out and you'll feel better.

up in smoke

Remember the kids who used to smoke under the bleachers in high school? And in the present, people who stand outside bars in the dead of winter to take long drags of their skinny cigarettes? I was never one of those people. Today however, as the day slowly creeps by, I wish I had the excuse of smoking to be able to step outside. There are other times that smoking seemed appealing to me such as being an intern and witnessing Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the first time and realizing that everyone was smoking around me while dressed up like it was Halloween in mid-July. When I pass a model on break who looks straight out of a Calvin Klein ad looking ultra bored and flawless in Soho. When "got a light" serves as a pick up line that never sounds cheesy because it's a legit question that leads to a conversation. While drinking a martini at a swanky city club. And finally because it actually does look like it warms you up in February when everything is dead and cold around you. I find no appeal to it other than the superficial, silly reasons above but it would give me 10 minutes outside every few hours to enjoy the sunshine.