the rosemary club

Since I made my rosemary simple syrup, I've been brainstorming drinks which would be good with that rosemary flavor.  We still had some gin left, and I remembered my favorite summer drink from last year, the Clover Club, and I wondered to myself what it would taste like if I replaced the grenadine with rosemary simple.  Well, it tasted lovely.  I like grenadine a lot, but the rosemary in this drink gives it a much more subtle and sophisticated disposition.  The botanical flavors of the gin really mesh well with the rosemary.  I love the texture that egg white gives a drink, but you could always omit it if it weirds you out.  If you're looking for the rosemary simple recipe you can find it here!  I promise no more rosemary drinks, but watch out because Dan and I just made a new infused simple syrup and it. is. awesome.  I already have a drink recipe for it and it is the bomb.


You'll Need:
2 measures Gin
1 measure Rosemary Simple
Juice of half a large lemon
1 egg white
Ice
Cocktail shaker

Pour all the ingredients in the cocktail shaker and shake with ice for about 30 seconds to make sure the egg white is thoroughly incorporated with all other ingredients. Strain into a glass and garnish with a slice of lemon. You could also garnish with a sprig of rosemary, which I think would look pretty.  I didn't have any more fresh rosemary on hand, though, so I settled with a slice of lemon.  This drink is kind of plain looking without a garnish, so I definitely recommend adding something to give it a little curb appeal.  

rosemary old fashioned

I made a batch of rosemary simple syrup for another drink recipe and had a bunch leftover, so naturally I started branstorming other drinks to make with rosemary simple.  Dan really likes Old Fashioned's so we usually have the ingredients in the house and bourbon seemed like a great pair for the rosemary.  I tried this at first with our homemade orange bitters, but the orange flavor overwhelmed the rosemary too much, so I went with the standard angostura bitters for this recipe.

I made some brandy soaked cherries for this recipe, which are super delicious.  I got some cherries (in syrup, looks like fresh ones are hard to come by this time of year), and just soaked them in brandy in a mason jar overnight.  I didn't want Maraschino cherries, I didn't think the flavor would go well with brandy, so I went with Bada Bing cherries from Metropolitan Market here in Tacoma.  They're amazing!

Rosemary Simple Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 sprigs fresh rosemary

Over medium high heat, mix together the water and sugar in a saucepan and place rosemary sprigs in the mixture. Bring to a boil and boil for about 1 minute or until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture and place in an airtight container. Store in refrigerator for up to 1 month.  If it starts to smell funky, throw it and make a new batch.  You can always add more or less rosemary to the mix if you like it more or less potent.


Rosemary Old Fashioned

2 teaspoons rosemary simple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters
~3 ice cubes
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger bourbon whiskey
1 sprig rosemary, orange peel and brandy soaked cherry for garnish

Pour the simple syrup, and bitters into a whiskey glass. Stir to combine, then place the ice cubes in the glass. Pour bourbon over the ice and garnish with a rosemary sprig, orange peel and brandy soaked cherry.

Enjoy!


I'm also over at Design*Sponge today sharing another rosemary drink using this same simple syrup recipe, so head over to get more ideas for rosemary infused beverages!

Q + A // retro decor that doesn't clash

The main thing when you're going for a retro aesthetic is to decorate with a color scheme in mind.  Pick two to three colors you like and work with those, and then incorporate neutrals (beige, white, etc) to keep things from getting too crazy.  There are lots of vintage color schemes (pink, turquoise, avocado, mustard, orange, mint, and more!) that you can go with.  Instead of buying vintage stuff willy nilly, make sure to pick out vintage items that have a simliar color story.

If you already have a few favorite pieces, pick out the main colors from those and work with that color scheme.  If you haven't started decorating yet, start brainstorming what color scheme you'd like your room to have.  Start a pinterest board to get all of your inspiration together!




Create little vignettes to give your room some focal points.  Having focal points in your room will help to keep things from looking too crazy and overwhelming.  The eye naturally will want to find a place to rest and if everything in the room has equal visual importance, your eye will bounce all over the place trying to figure out where to rest.  For a living room, a couch or hearth are natural places for a large focal point.  For a dining room, a table works great at a focal point.  The bed in a bedroom is a natural focal point.  Once you've defined your main focal point in your room you can work on creating smaller vignettes for the eye to move on to.  The eye does like to move, but it likes to know how to move.  It wants to know what the most important thing in the room is to look at (your main focal point), but then it wants to explore other areas, so help it out by giving it interesting areas to go.  Create a little gallery wall with art prints, decorate a shelf with cute knick knacks, make a cool corner where you have your record player and albums displayed.

If you're afraid of having things look too clashy and crazy (vintage stuff has lots of prints), maybe go with one statement printed piece and then have everything else be solids.  Have a crazy vintage couch with a bold floral pattern, but then keep the rest of your furniture simple.  Don't feel like you have to have everything be truly vintage.  It's pretty easy to find modern pieces that can fit seamlessly into a vintage inspired room.  And remember that thrift stores are your friend.  You may have to go thrifting a lot in order to score great pieces, but there are often some amazing gems to be found at great prices!


 


The retro aesthetic is naturally pretty busy and visually dense, but that doesn't mean your room has to look like 1973 threw up in there (unless you want it to!).  Vintage style is pretty popular these days so there's lots of inspiration online.  The ladies at Oh So Lovely have a great decor category where they share their home decor and other inspiring rooms with vintage decor (and some tips for vintage decor).  You can also find some good retro-modern home inspiration at Smile and Wave (Rachel also made a great home decor e-course if you want to sign up!), Thompson Family (and Danielle's pinterest), A Beautiful Mess and sometimes at Design*Sponge.

top two photos via Thompson Family, third and last photo via Smile and Wave.