rosemary gimlet

ife goals: be a full time cocktail photographer.  I'm sort of joking, but I don't know what it is about shooting cocktails, they're just one of my most favorite things to photograph!  Maybe I just need to publish a cocktail recipe book so I have an excuse to shoot a ton of cocktails, eh?  Yup.  Sounds like a plan.  At this point, though, this hypothetical cocktail book will have to wait a few months because I've got tons of stuff happening in the next couple months, ack!  
I'm super excited about everything planned, though, well, except taxes.  Taxes can suck it.  But other than that, the next couple months are full of some crazy amazing stuff!  I've got a bunch of styled shoots coming up that are going to be so much fun.  Our Adventures in Oz burlesque show is on stage again in April and this time we're doing two shows!  The next two months are going to be full of tons of practice, choreography, and costuming.  I'm doing a new part in the show this time and I'm giddy about it!  I'll give you a hint: my hair color is very apropos.  This march I'm going to California for a big website rebrand and launch, and it's the first time I'll have had outside help doing my website, I've always DIY'ed everything but I'm ready for a change and super excited about getting a fresh space that feels "me."  Then, the day after that, I fly to Texas to speak at TxSC Camp!  Holy whoa!  "Spring," March especially, is usually rough here in the PNW.  I always think it should be warming up and starting to feel more like, well, spring, but it's typically the most wet and grey part of the year, and drags on for far too long.  It'll be nice to have all this busyness to keep me preoccupied.  
Oh right, back to cocktails.  I've been having a gin moment lately.  I had one briefly in college, but haven't had much in the way of gin in the last five years.  I got a bottle a few months ago, though, and am appreciating the flavor quite a bit these days!  It's such an interesting spirit with a very distinct flavor that makes it pretty cool to pair with other flavor profiles.  I'm loving it with citrus, especially.  I've always been more drawn to smokier flavors, but gin is just so bright and fresh!  It's a nice change of pace.  



Rosemary Gimlet (recipe via savor home)
4 oz rosemary honey simple syrup
4 oz gin
3 oz fresh lime juice
1 tbsp sugar, for sugar rim
1 rosemary sprig, for garnish

First, get your glasses ready. Add sugar to a plate, run a lime over the rim of each glass and dip the rim in sugar to coat.

Fill your cocktail shaker halfway with ice, add simple syrup, gin, and lime juice.

Shake the cocktail for about 30 seconds, or until the shaker gets frosty and freezing cold.

Pour the cocktail into your rimmed glasses, and add a sprig of rosemary to garnish.  Recipe makes two cocktails.

blood orange rosemary gin cocktail

his is a somewhat tortuous post, since I'm currently still on Whole30 and not drinking any alcohol (or consuming sugar either).  Looking at these photos I remember just how delicious this drink was!  I'd never really had blood oranges, outside of those blood orange san pellegrino drinks (okay, those don't count).  I've seen plenty in photos and thought they were stunning fruit, the depth of the red is just so incredible!  And when you juice them, that red is maintained, such a rich color!  I think this drink would be a perfect cocktail for a Valentine's date or party, it's the perfect color and it's seriously so delectable.  One of my favorite little simple cocktails a few years ago was an Orange Blossom, with gin and fresh squeezed orange juice.  The rosemary and blood orange in this cocktail just take that to the next level.   I'll definitely be posting a follow up to my Whole30 experience once I'm done.  I've got about a week left of the 30 days and then after that is a week or two of reintroducing foods and seeing how my body reacts.  At this point I'm kind of tired of it, and not feeling any different or better, which makes it harder to press on and finish, but I will.  I suppose at this point I'm more interested in the reintroduction to see how those foods affect me than in the 30 itself.  One bummer: I'm not done with the 30 until after the Superbowl, boo!  If ever there was a time to enjoy a beer, that's it, especially with the Seahawks playing!  Enough Whole30 pity party though, are any of you doing it?  If so, how far into are you and how are you feeling?



Rosemary + Honey Simple Syrup:
1 cup water
5-6 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
First make the honey-rosemary simple syrup.  In a medium pot, and add fresh rosemary, water, sugar, and honey and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, remove from heat and let it steep for 6 hours. After the syrup is done steeping, remove the rosemary and store the syrup in the refrigerator.

Cocktail:
1/2 c fresh squeezed blood orange juice
1/2 c rosemary honey simple syrup
2+ oz gin (add more, for more gin taste and more kick!)
1 rosemary sprig + blood orange slice, for garnish
Add orange juice, simple syrup, and gin to a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice.  Shake until the shaker is frosty and cold.  Pour into a glass and add ice, garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary and/or a slice of blood orange.  Yield: Two cocktails

Hexagon Painted Wall Mural Tutorial

've been painting my living room slowly over the last year and a half.  The first thing I did was paint two of the walls white, then I painted my big chalkboard wall, but I still had one wall left.  It was still the boring, dingy beige that was there when we moved in.  I knew I wanted some kind of pattern or statement, but nothing too crazy because I already had a huge black wall.  When The Home Depot and ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape contacted me seeing if I'd be interested in doing a painting project in collaboration with them, I knew this was the perfect time to finally finish my living room!  I love how it turned out!  It's clean and neat, and a statement but not visually overwhelming.  I picked some muted, pastel Behr® paint colors so it wasn't too bold.  I'd already painted the door bright yellow so I wasn't sure if the muted colors would clash, but I love how the door stands out and is still in the same color family as the yellow hexagons.


MATERIALS NEEDED: ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape Behr® Premium Plus Ultra™ Paint - I used: I used: Glacier Bay #500A-1, Citrus Hill #200B-4, Bee Pollen #390B-5, Chocolate Froth #720C-2, and Simple Silhouette #790B-5 Wooster® Pro brush Scissors Pencil Cardboard

DIRECTIONS: 1. Decide on your pattern.  I used photoshop to mock up how I wanted my design to look on the wall and which colors would go in each hexagon.  This also helped determine how big I wanted to make my hexagon template.
2. Create your hexagon template.  It's pretty easy to make a hexagon, but you'll want to make sure it's pretty close to perfect so that your pattern doesn't get wonky.  I used this super easy little tutorial with a makeshift compass.  My hexagon ended up being 13 inches from tip to opposite tip (diameter of the original circle drawn). Cut the template out of some cardboard or other sturdy material to trace around.
3. Draw the outlines to the hexagons using a pencil.  Make sure your hexagons are level.  I leveled the first one and then outlined about 4 or 5 and checked the level again, just to make sure I wasn't getting off level.  In each hexagon I lightly wrote the color that would be painted inside.

4. Using your  ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape, outline the hexagons that aren't directly next to each other.  Since these hexagons are directly butting up against each other, you'll have to wait for the paint to dry so you can mask off the one next to it.  I masked as many hexagons as possible and painted the color that was written inside using my Behr paint.  Each hexagon got two coats of paint.
5.  Because I had to wait for each hexagon to dry before taping the one next to it, this project took a little longer, but I'm super happy with how it looks.  As soon as I painted the second coat on a hexagon I'd remove the tape and allow it to dry.  This project took three days to complete with the time required to wait for paint to dry.  I let the paint dry about 2 hours between coats, as recommended by Behr®.


I have to say I was skeptical about how good the Edgelock tape would really be in comparison to the regular painters tape I usually use, but I was super happy with how precise my edges were.  I didn't have to fix any leaks and the edges were so sharp and clean.  I used the Delicate Surface Painter's Tape, but ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape has a guide that can help pick the right tape for your project surface.

I am proud to be a 3M, Behr®, and Wooster® - sponsored blogger, and, as part of my responsibilities, I get the opportunity to evaluate products. Opinions are my own and additional product used in the project were selected by me. Thanks for supporting those companies that keep Delightfully Tacky alive and kicking!

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peppermint white chocolate cocktail

o, speaking of holiday treats, I wanted to share a little holiday cocktail recipe with you guys!  I put together this super easy Peppermint White Chocolate cocktail recipe for South Sound Magazine, so go check it out!  Really easy, only three ingredients and it's a really decadent little boozy drink, perfect for holiday parties.  And it looks pretty fancy with the peppermint encrusted rim!  Throw one of those baby candy canes over the rim too, for extra holiday points.  Head over to South Sound Magazine for the recipe!