Thyme Simple Syrup

Fresh organic thyme herb from the garden with a lil' sugar!

One Sunday afternoon I picked some crowded thyme plants to use in my cooking. 

Well, cooking takes too long... so instead I made a thyme simple syrup!

I just had my big "Dirty 30" Birthday and my sister got me a SodaStream because I have been obsessed with club soda and making lovely concoctions with it! I don't like cola or anything of that sort, just club soda.

Thyme's refreshing smell is so uplifting, airy and clean!

Simple syrup is exactly that... SIMPLE!

Ingredients:

3 cups water

2-3 cups sugar 

15 twigs of thyme (mine were short so I used more)

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, add all the ingredients and bring to a slow simmer and whisk to fully dissolve the sugar.

2. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Remove thyme (I reused these, continue reading)

3. Pour your syrup in a glass jar.

To create the thyme soda:

I made some carbonated water in my SodaStream. You may buy Club soda at the store.

For 8 oz of soda, I added 4-5 teaspoons of thyme simple syrup. Pour on top of ice and enjoy this amazingly refreshingly clean beverages!

Other Uses:

• Sweetening tea, lemonada
• Creating lovely cocktails

The cooked left over thyme

All the extra cooked thyme that I had leftover from the syrup making, I spread out on parchment paper.

While the twigs are still damp, pour some sugar and rub into the twigs.

Place in freezer. Once it's all hardened, you can place in a container and keep in freezer.

Ana + Luna :: Maternity :: Riley Trails :: Sunset Barn

Had a lovely photo shoot with a lovely person and her little angel, Luna.

We started the golden hour at Riley Trails in Holland, MI. Mother Nature offers us some beautiful scenery to surround some nice backdrops. Sun creeping through the tall pines, nice greenery to cover the grounds, and a nice cool breeze to finish the evening.

We had a premium session, 3 hours and 2 locations. Ended on my property which I call The Sunset Barn. Some of you may know we have some awesome sunsets and we have a white barn to set the tone!

Thanks to Ana's sister to help assist in this session. She was so enthusiastic and helpful.  The importance of an assistant who is a friend or a family member not only helps the photographer but makes the subject feel more comfortable in this scenario.

Here we go!

Infusing Vinegar For Great Smelling Cleaning Products

DIY Cleaning Products Without the Strong Smell of Vinegar

I love making my own products! Knowing the ingredients of all things I use is so important to me and I want to share this process! This winter I wanted to create my own cleaning products using vinegar. As we all know, straight vinegar is not a pleasant smell to have around. So, I decided to infuse it with whatever I had available!

This is the 1st step in making a vinegar & baking soda cleaning solution.  There will be a follow up blog post that take you through the steps  and recipes to make the actual cleaning solution.

You can use this solution to clean just about anything and it cuts out grease!

I filled mason jars with distilled vinegar and stuffed them with the infusion ingredients. 

My first infusion, I decided to add lavender.  I had dried lavender bouquets left over from my wedding so I used the buds to fill it. You can see in the top photo how much lavender I put into a small mason jar. I suggest you put MORE than that. In the end, it still turned out a little vinegar-y.

The second infusion I used was leftover twigs of my Christmas tree! Hoping to give it  a nice evergreen smell, you would be surprised what it actually smelled like when it was in concentrate.... KIWIS!!!

Infuse your vinegar as long as you fit need once you are happy with the strength of the smell. Remember, you will not be cleaning with straight vinegar, you will end up diluting it in the cleaning solution recipe. Since this will be a concentrate, I suggest making the scent stronger than you intend.

I infused mine 3-4 weeks.

You may leave out your infusions any where in the house as long as you have some light on it.

Lavender Infusion after one day. I ended up adding more vinegar to fill my jar!

Lavender Infusion after 3 weeks.

Once your infusion reached to a desirable scent strength, you are ready to make your solution! It's  SOOO EASY!!!
This part will be on my next post!