Iced Coffee

Coffee...it is my morning joy and a frequent afternoon friend.  And yet, would you believe that my husband, amazing in so many ways, is defiantly anti-coffee?  In the almost 3 years that we've been together, I have not managed to wear him down.  Until...

Enter iced coffee.  It's all the wonders of coffee in cool, convenient summer form, & it's a form that appears to sneak past David's coffee defenses.

Yes, I know it's turning into fall, and hot mugs of coffee are more suited to the current season.  But the past week here has been sunny & actually kinda hot so iced coffee was clearly called for.

Iced Coffee 
I developed this recipe after consulting various sites around the Internet.  It's a hot-brewed pour-over method, if you're up on all that coffee lingo.


32 ounce (4 cup) glass jar
paper coffee filter
clothes pins
2 cups boiling water
~1 1/2 trays of ice cubes
1/2 cup medium-fine ground coffee


1.  Fill the jar about 3/4 full with ice cubes.

2.  Attach the coffee filter to the top of the glass jar with the clothes pins.  Fill the filter with the ground coffee.

3.  Slowly pour some water over the grounds, making sure that they all get wet.  Then, continue to pour water slowly over the grounds until your jar is full.  Remove the filter.

4.  Fill some glasses with more ice.  Pour in the coffee, add milk & sugar, & stir.

Makes (obviously) 4 cups of iced coffee.  With this method, the coffee is brewed stronger to account for dilution by the melting ice cubes.  The extra will last about 2 days in the fridge. 

Painted Ceramic Trivets

David & I spent Labor Day weekend celebrating the wedding of one of my best friends.  It's always fun going to a wedding.  Marriage is such an awesome gift, & now that I'm married too, it's even more exciting to see someone I love get to have this great gift too.

For a wedding gift, I made these painted ceramic trivets to match the couple's new kitchen.  They are pretty enough to display but fully functional to protect your counter, table, etc from piping hot pots & pans of food.  So you won't be wanting to eat today's post, but you will definitely want to use it while cooking.

Painted Ceramic Trivets
Inspired by this Design Sponge DIY tutorial

6in x 6in white ceramic tiles  (47 cents each from Home Depot)
6in x 6in cork squares  (JoAnn's sells these in a 4 pack)
double-sided tape  (the cork squares came with this included)
contact paper
x-acto knife
scrap cardboard
can of spray paint
can of glossy finish spray

1.  Decide on a design for your tiles.  You'll need something that you can easily cut out.  Feel free to copy my design.  (right-click on the image then click "save as...")

2.  Print out your design directly onto the contact paper.  Make sure that it's formatted to print out in 6in x 6in size.

3.  Cut out the stencil with the x-acto knife.  It's helpful to cut on top of a piece of cardboard.

4.  Adhere the contact paper stencils to your tiles.  Use both the positive and negative images.

5.  Spray paint your tiles.  Do this preferably outside or at least in a well-ventilated area.  Let dry for 30 minutes, & paint another coat.  Let dry again then remove the contact paper.

6.  Spray the tiles with the glossy finish.  Again, do this outside (the fumes are not good for you).  Let dry completely for proceeding.

7.  Adhere the cork squares to the back of your ceramic tiles with double-sided tape.


Makes 2 painted ceramic trivets.