Thursday, July 26, 2012

Thrifty Thursday - Upcycled Hard Arnold Palmer Caddy

My Big Craft Challenge entry along with the drink that inspired it all.

Unless it involves knocking a ball through a windmill while avoiding having it sink into the depths of a miniature pond filled with exotic koi, I'm not really a fan of golf. But I am a fan of half-tea / half-lemonade drinks, like the Arnold Palmer. Because we live in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia we have the advantage of buying limoncello from a local distillery.

This place is the bombdiggity.
When going to see the multi-talented Jennifer Maghan play live music there a few months ago, the guy behind the bar suggested we mix the 'cello with their lemon ice with Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea flavored vodka for an Arnold Palmer that was out of this world. The recipe goes something like this:

Limoncello + Sweet Tea Vodka = Hard Arnold Palmer
This drink was pretty spectacular, enough that we decided to keep the ingredients stocked with the other kitchen essentials. However, our kitchen space is very limited so we had to find a way to store the ingredients so they'd be on hand without cluttering up the kitchen counter. Enter the Big Craft Challenge.

For my entry, I found a vintage metal shower rack. Throw on a couple of coats of hammered black spray paint, use a guitar string as wire to add some beads (some of them made from rolled-up strips of magazine pages), and tada! I now have an Arnold Palmer caddy! Here are the photos. What have you created lately? I'd love to see!

Detail of bead work.
With a bottle of Relax wine for good measure. The basket will hold lemons and limes, while the hooks below will hold corkscrews and other drinking-related accessories.