Camp has gotten off to a fantastic start for my kids.  Girlie loves her camp group and did a great job of picking a club that really suits her – nature!  She’s been able to pet goats and feed worms to a baby alligator!  At least, I think that is what she was telling me via FaceTime tonight.   I’m in Connecticut this week working on a Salesforce implementation and am missing all the fun.  Little Dude has a drop-off meltdown every morning due to his separation anxiety issues, but somehow going to camp with a driver and being delivered by this relative stranger to his camp group is a lot more bearable… go figure!

Anyway, I promised some random-genre posts during the summer lunch-lull and I’ll kick that off with a show and tell on a recent pinterest project: DIY Vanilla Extract! I pinned that to my gift ideas board a few months ago and finally got around to using the idea for end-of-year gifts.  The original post goes into more detail, but for me, the project entailed the following steps:

• I ordered vanilla bean pods from amazon.com.
• I bought oil and vinegar bottles from the dollar store.
• I bought a giant bottle of vodka!
• I took the lids off the bottles and washed them thoroughly.
• I sliced the vanilla bean pods down the center and placed two sliced beans (4 segments) in each bottle.
• I filled the bottle with vodka and put the lids back on.
• I went to Michaels for scrapbook supplies and mod podge to decorate the bottle and make the labels.
• I made labels with PowerPoint and printed them on my printer. I’ll send you the files if you want them!
• I enlisted my husband’s help to cut the scrapbook paper and do a nice job with the mod-podging (is that a verb?).
• I wrote a nice thank you note to each teacher and bought them Williams Sonoma gift cards (for baking supplies) and put that all together to give to them on the last day of school.

Ok, actually that sounds like a lot of work!  It really wasn’t though because it was fun and involved some shopping!  Here is the final product:

DIY Vanilla Extract in the Bottle I decorated.

DIY Vanilla Extract Labels

What do you think?  I made a bottle for our family to keep too and I can’t wait to try it.  Have you tried this recipe before?  Do you like to make teacher gifts?  I like to go hybrid when I can… something homemade to be thoughtful and a gift card for something practical.