Christmas in July ......................................

Last week while I was in the kitchen pickling peppers and making herbed vinegars , I bottled my homemade vanilla. I used recycled steak sauce and olive oil bottles to bottle it in. I'll be giving 3 bottles away as Christmas gifts , will add some pretty ribbon and a label to each bottle. I plan to make a cookie in a jar mix and add a bottle of vanilla to a gift basket. I'll be doing the same thing with my violet jelly , but it will include " Thumbprint Cookies " mix in a jar and the recipe. Yep , it's a bit early to be thinking about Christmas gifts , but I'll be glad I did when Christmas is upon us.

Thought I would share some recycling tips , since I mentioned recycled bottles. This might be helpful if you save and recycle bottles like I do. Keep a wad of aluminum foil by the sink for scrubbing your pots and pans ( except non-stick ). I also use it to clean labels off my recycled bottles , it works great.

This little recycled scrubby works good on those non-stick pans. Since I save everything I always have these items on hand. You'll need a net bag , so save your lemon , orange or onion net bags , twist ties ( I know you've got a drawer full of those (LOL) and a sponge. Put the sponge inside the bag and use the twist ties to gather it at the ends and snip off excess.

I made this scrubby about a month ago , as you can see I've used it alot , it's already got a hole in it. I was thinking this morning , these would make great Christmas gifts too , just team the scubbies up with some homemade cleaning products and add to a gift basket. Although you might want to make sure you trim the ends off evenly , thought I did but I think I pulled them out while scrubbing (LOL).

Anyone else thinking about " Christmas in July " ?

~ Simple Blessings ~

JoyceAnn