Homemade perfume recipes

Perfume need not come with a heavy price tag. Many forms of body fragrance can be made at home without special tools. Once you have bought that gorgeous antique perfume atomizer, try one of these homemade perfume recipes to fill it!

~~Rose water~~

This simple solution not only smells wonderful but also moisturizes skin. Combine three tablespoons rose soluble, two cups distilled water and two tablespoons of glycerin. Place in a spray bottle for spritzing skin all over or use as a splash after bath.

~~Aftershave soother~~

Sooth away shaving burn with this spicy solution. Combine two cups rubbing alcohol, one teaspoon glycerin, and one tablespoon each dried lavender, dried rosemary and ground cloves in a lidded jar. Refrigerate for three days, shaking twice per day. Strain liquid into lidded bottle. Splash cool liquid on face, neck, legs or underarms. Store in refrigerator up to two months.

~~Eau de cologne~~

You can substitute any essential oil into this recipe to suit your personal tastes. Combine one cup rubbing alcohol, one-half cup dried lavender and one tablespoon olive oil in a lidded jar. Store in refrigerator for two days, shaking twice per day. Strain the liquid and stir in one cup distilled water and three drops of bergamot oil.

~~Citrus eau de toilet~~

While taking longer to cure than cologne, eau de toilet will last longer on skin. Here you have the opportunity to experiment with other similar essential oils. Mix one teaspoon each lavender and lemon oils with two teaspoons jasmine oil and three teaspoons bergamot oil. Add four drops each clove, cinnamon and neroli oils with two teaspoons tincture of musk. Mix oils with one-half cup vodka. Gradually add another two and one-quarter cups of vodka and five tablespoons rose water, stirring constantly.

Bottle tightly and let stand for one month, shaking every three days. If cloudy once mature, strain through a coffee filter until clear.

~~Perfume~~

A classic fragrance of the Victorian era has never lost its appeal. In a small jar, combine one half cup rubbing alcohol, one quarter cup whole cloves and one teaspoon orrisroot. Age two days, shaking three times per day. Strain liquid into atomizer to spritz or small bottle to dab.

Making your own fragrance can be your own little secret. After trying a few of the basics, your imagination, and your nose, can be your guide to homemade perfume recipes!

Creative game: 1000 Blank White Cards

The name of the game is 1000 Blank White Cards. The rules… that’s where hings get fun.

The game is played like this. The host of the party buys a pack of index cards, lined or unlined, it doesn’t matter. Then, five cards and a pen or pencil are passed out to each player. The players create cards, add them to the deck, and dealt again to each player to start the game. Rules? There are no rules until you make them.

Card creation goes like this. The card has three components; a Title, a picture, and a purpose. The title can be anything from fun to serious. The picture can be stick figures or a Renoir painting (it’s not about drawing ability.) And the purpose explains what the card’s function is. For example, you can create a card called “MONKEY ON THE LOOSE,” draw a picture of a monkey and state, “A wild monkey steals your cards. Discard one random card.” Easy, right?

There are three different types of cards. The first is point cards. These award points to players, either yourself or another. The next category of card is the challenge card. These cards allow players to challenge others to win points. The challenge can occur on any battlefield, depending on how the card is made. Lastly, there are event cards. These cards change the way the game plays. You can create a card the states all players must switch hands with the person to their left.

The game ends when one player has no cards left in their hand. The winner is decided by the total of points. Highest points wins the game. However, that can change if a player desires it to.

At the end of the game, the community of players votes on the best cards from the deck. They can decide on a number of cards to keep, and these are added to the deck for the next time. However, upon the start of the next game, players make three cards each instead of five. (However, they can make five each if all players decide to.)

1000 Blank White Cards is a great party game that can have an unlimited number of players. What also makes the game is that no two games are ever the same. The rules change each time, and with it the fun factor changes. And, in case anyone 21 years old or older was wondering, yes, it can be a drinking game.

Recipes: Potted beef

Potted meats and pats are simple and quick to make and much, much cheaper than buying them. They are a good way to make a little meat go a long way.

Here’s one recipe for potted beef:

500 g (1 lb) of stewing steak or other cheap cut of beef

125 ml (1 cup) of any stock you have, but preferably beef or vegetable stock. (If you like, replace 1 or two tablespoons of this with sherry, vodka or brandy)

60 g (2 oz) butter + 1 tablespoon melted butter

1/2 tsp mace (or blade of mace)

1 clove (or pinch of ground cloves)

salt and pepper to taste

Place the meat in a stewing pan or saucepan with the stock and seasonings. Bring to the boil and simmer slowly until the meat is thoroughly cooked (at least 1 hour). Strain the meat, reserving the stock. Allow to cool slightly, then place the meat in a blender and blend with the butter until smooth. Add a little of the reserved stock as necessary to make a smooth paste.

Press into small pots or mini-rammekins and cover with melted butter, then refrigerate.

Very tasty on hot toast (no butter required).

Energy drinks: Negative health effects – Part 4

Energy drinks like Red Bull, V Vitalize Energy Drink, …. etc and more are pretty popular among teenagers and young adults. The consumers of these drinks declare feeling full of energy after drinking them. Even if some scientists says that this may be partly psychological, the truth is that these drinks are loaded with caffeine, sugar and stimulants like ephedrine, Guarana, and ginseng. They sometimes contain three to four times as much caffeine as a regular soda, and some like Coca Cola already alarm the medical community.

The big problem with these kind of beverages is that the amount of caffeine contained in them is not always mentioned on the cans, so it makes it difficult to gauge how much you consume. Some contains as much caffeine as a cup of coffee but some have several times this amount. How much? We don’t really know. And as they are soft drinks, this amount is absorbed much more quickly than a cup of coffee or tea.

The people who are sensitive to caffeine, or have heart problems should definitely avoid these drinks. They could make you suffer from anxiety, palpitations, irritability, difficulty sleeping, and indigestion even with relatively small amounts of caffeine.

The bigger danger though, according to doctors and cardiologists is to mix them with alcohol. They think it may cause a racing heart beat, elevation of blood pressure and even potentially a heart attack. Plus, people who ingest a lot of caffeine, a stimulant, with a lot of alcohol, which is a tranquilizer, don’t realize how drunk they really are. And then they may drink more alcohol than they would in normal circumstances.

As both energy drinks and alcohol are very dehydrating, your body is less able to metabolize alcohol which will increase its toxicity, and therefore the hangover resulting from it. Actually these drinks are forbidden in some countries in Europe because of their composition that doesn’t match regulations, especially for the caffeine rate which is too high.

But don’t confuse these energy drinks that shouldn’t be consumed while doing sports, with sports drinks like Gatorade, which are designed to help people stay hydrated during exercise.

Poetry: Feeling lost

“Circus Highwire Act”

Balancing on an anorexic string

Located up towards the top of the tent

Fraying from years of roadside chaos

and one too many bouts with Mother Nature

Remaining positive when the odds are against it

Surviving one show at a time

Even though the string’s life span is shortlived

and guaranteed to be overshadowed by tragedy

Memories of deathdefying acts will always remain

No matter who is walking across it

The strings always tends to nearly break

When any unsuspecting soul steps onto to it

Wobbling ever so slightly when pressured into

doing responsible decision such as an office job

that is destroying the ability to be an individual

Forced to be a mirage instead of an actual human being

Always obstructed by mounting medical bills

and faulty eye glasses with weak lenses

Muscles stiffened when the string’s pressure increases

Ready to buckle with all the excess luggage

Got to know this insurance form and that one

Needing to find a dentist who won’t empty my checkbook

Searching for a man who can accept my roller coaster moods

And laugh at my jokes, even the terrible ones

Obsessed with success and forgetting through

alcohol heavy martinis and Tequila shots

Wanting desperately to wash the stress away

No longer researching who my new dentist should be

Focusing now on the temporary delights of

Liquid dreams and a wicked hangover

To chase life’s crap away

At least until when the hangover subsides

And reality returns to bite me in the ass.

Online video game reviews: Turbo Subs

The trial version of Turbo Subs opened with a couple of pages of comic books, in which Aunt Rhonda was giving her niece and nephew, Rebecca and Robert, a subway car. This is the second game of a series; the first was Turbo Pizza, a kind of Archie comics’ third or fourth generation running a pizza joint.

In Turbo Subs, the kids open up a sandwich business in the subway car. Game play is easy on the lower levels. I had no trouble slamming those subs out, drinks, what have you, a nice slow pace of customers really. Then the oven toasted version started up. I could handle it, but I couldn’t make that cute waitress run and do other things, zippety-zip, while the sub was heating. Rebecca actually was running, but not fast enough, Robert was lazily making subs, no multi-tasking for him. At this point I was still having fun.

The turbo charge button to help Rebecca move faster was just within my grasp when the game ended. Employees can be hired and equipment purchased to increase the profit margin. I don’t really remember the sound much, I was so busy working, but I think it was restaurant sounds, maybe music, but I can’t remember. The graphics were colorful and detailed enough to put me in another little world. There was almost a Barbie doll feel to it.

Then, customers started coming around like nobody’s business, faster and more of them. And just like in real life, only one waitress was present, no matter how much work there was, forcing Rebecca to nearly fly. It was somewhat irritating at level 5 with the waitress not being able to move fast enough. The toaster oven was way too slow. Customers were walking out. Or maybe my mouse was the problem. I was clicking insanely in all directions by the end of my one hour trial. 60 levels total, I didn’t get anywhere near that.

I honestly would play Turbo Subs again if it was in front of me and I would give it a 4/5; although I probably would not buy it for me; I might give it to a preteen or a teen. The customers are always the same, although more are added as the level increases. I learned to hate coffee drinkers as they generate no income and it is a time-consuming hassle for the waitress to wait around for the coffee to be made. Patience is not the answer, multi-tasking is.

Child through adult is how I would rate it, a family game. Turbo Subs might be a good teaching tool for adolescents, a taste of the real world. Or it might be developed as a learning exercise for sixteen year olds who are thinking about getting jobs. It has its parallels in the work world, when you become competent, work comes at you. All that mad dashing around, for very limited money, is an eye-opener. It’s a stay in school message. It was fun, there was an understandable goal, and there was quite a bit of detail about restaurant work, leading me to seriously crave a toasted sub.

Cocktail recipes: Slippery Nipple

Don’t know what to prepare for a young people party? Try the Slippery Nipple, an easy to make, great to taste, all gender’s favorite alcoholic cocktail. When it’s done right it should be smooth and creamy, with a sweet taste disguising a rather strong drink. The girls generally like its sweet taste, and the boys can’t resist its name and wicked nature. And it’s easy to make and quite hard to mess up, so give it a try. Here is the classic recipe:

You need: white Sambuca, Bailey’s Irish Cream, whipped cream.

The cocktail is half white Sambuca, half Irish Cream and topped with a spoonful of whipped cream. What counts is the order of ingredients.

So, here is how to do it:

Pour white Sambuca in a glass. Then slowly (this is the trick, REALLY slowly) pour over the Irish Cream. Pouring it slowly will ensure the great appearance but also the enticing taste of your cocktail. Then add on top of it a floating little island of whipped cream (yes, that is the “nipple”.)

Serve as it is and enjoy.

And for those of you that like to experiment, here are a couple of variations on the same theme:

1. After the Irish Cream add also a splash of Vodka. Take care, this is even more of a killer drink than the classic!

2. Use a tall glass and fill it first with ice. Then add as before first the Sambuca, then slowly the Irish Cream and at the end a bit of whipped cream. It’s for a really hot summer day, a bit less creamy and less aggressive in the end.

3. Some prefer it also with a fruity taste. After the Irish Cream, add a splash of grenadine. It will give not only a fruity twist but also a color change to your cocktail.

4. You can also just pour the Sambuca and then the Irish Cream without bothering to do it slowly and put everything afterwards in a shaker. However, keep in mind that this way there will be not much left of its original insinuating appearance. Add at the end the floating whipped cream and serve as it is or on ice.

5. If you don’t have or don’t like the white Sambuca, you can replace it with a butterscotch liqueur. Don’t expect it though to taste exactly the same. This variant is also known as Buttery Nipple.

Finally, enjoy this drink with moderation. Despite its great looks and sweet taste, it’s a strong drink and it can get you before you know it. And you just want to enjoy that party, not to sleep it away, right? So savour it, but prepare also more moderate drinks and lots of snacks. Cheers!

Drink recipes: Tom Collins – Part 1

The Tom Collins is one of the most dynamic drinks in the book. The relatively simple recipe leaves nothing to be desired as it satisfies ones palate with a wonderful balance of sweet and sour. When ordering or making your own Tom Collins I recommend that you use a high quality brand of gin to insure a good drink. Cheap gin tastes a little like disinfectant to me, not that I make a habit out of drinking disinfectant. Nonetheless this is a pleasant fizzy drink that goes down smooth and will keep you coming back for more.

The Tom Collins

1 1/2 oz gin

the juice from 1 lemon

club soda to fill

Simply fill a Collins glass with cracked ice. add the ingredients and stir. Garnish with a stemmed cherry.

You will more than likely encounter a plethora of cocktails with the surname Collins. This indicates that the drink is made with the same recipe with different alcohols substituted for gin. For example, John Collin’s is made with whiskey, while a Vodka Collin’s is made with… You guessed it – Vodka. So tamper with whatever in your liquor cabinet and who knows maybe you will give life to a new member of the Collins family.

Drink recipes: Vesper martini – Part 1

Vesper Martini Drink Recipe.

James bond favorite martini has a name the Vesper Martini.

It was first introduce in the original 1953 “Casino Royale”.

The origin of the Vesper Martini come from the beautiful love story of Bond with the very beautiful Vesper Lynd, a Treasury operative sent to keep Bond funded in his match against Le Chiffre’. She’s also a double agent working for MI6 and MVD (Ministerstvo Vnutrennkh del or if you prefer Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs)

Vesper Lynd was James Bond first romantic interest. Unfortunately she commits suicide, leaving a note pledging her love to Bond.

Bond’s feelings for Vesper are not totally extinguished; Bond makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-les-Eaux to visit her grave.

According to James Bond In the new “Casino Royale” when Vesper asks Bond if he named the drink after her “because of the bitter aftertaste”, Bond replies that he named it for her, “because once you have tasted it, you won’t drink anything else.”

Here is the recipe;

3 part of gin

1 part vodka

part Lillet Blanc also know under the name of Kina Lillet

Lemon peel or and olive for garnish

Shake the gin, the vodka, the Lillet Blanc with some ice, then strained and served “straight up” without ice in a chilled cocktail glass, and garnished with either an olive or a twist of lemon.

Enjoy, “shaken, not stirred”

Drink recipes: Bull shot

The Bull Shot is a drink intended for those with a strong stomach and a taste for spicy drinks. It is the sister drink to the Bloody Mary; being that it’s ingredients are very similar with the exception of using beef bouillon instead of tomato juice. The Bull Shot can be served warm in the winter and is believed to be better when served before a meal. Or, in some cases, the heavier drinkers may prefer to make it their meal.

The Bull Shot is also considered a drink to be reckoned with when using it as a hangover cure. Of course, in my experience, any alcoholic drink when consumed in excess of two or three drinks in one sitting will become a cure to the most vicious hangover, keeping in mind the first drink is always the most difficult to get down.

Vodka is the alcohol of choice when making a Bull Shot. It’s important to remember that the quality of the alcohol increases the quality of the drink. In addition, the quality of your bartenders ability to make a perfectly mixed cocktail will also make or break the taste of this spicy delight.

Simply add the following ingredients into a cocktail shaker, over ice:

2.5oz Vodka

5.0oz Beef Bouillon

.5oz Lemon Juice

One dash Worcester Sauce

4-6 Drops Tabasco

Pinch of Celery Salt

Salt & Pepper

Shake & strain into a low-ball cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon wedge.

Enjoy!

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