KOMBUCHA 101: Day Two of the Best Homeschool Experiment Ever

If you didn't see my previous blog on Kombucha 101  - you may want to check-it-out prior to trying to follow this post. 

 Things you will need to start your Kombucha the way we are making it:

• 1/2 Cup Kombucha Starter (you can get this at your local health food store. Just pick up any bottle of kombucha that you see chunky / slimies floating in - make sure it is unpasteurized)
• 2 qt. boiled filtered water
• 1 Cup organic cane sugar (didn't have this so we used regular)
• 4 qt. filtered water (room temp)
• 2-4 tea bags depending on strength of tea

So today we start our 2nd day of Let's Make Kombucha. First we needed 2 quarts of  filtered water brought to boil. (so right off the bat we had opportunity to re-visit conversion)  

After the water was brought to a boil we put it back into the glass measuring bowl to add the sugar.

So in it goes... 1 Cup O' Sugar.

Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Next it is time to get the lovely little tea bags a brewing in it. We have a girl (middle daughter 19 yrs old)  in our house who has a bit of a tea addiction. Our local tea house knows her well by now. So we always have an eclectic variety of teas in adorable glass jars. After some official sniff-testing we decided (against common Kombucha suggestions) to use a white blueberry tea (they say to use green or black). We did toss in a plain old bag of black tea to the mix. Just in case there is a scientific reason for one of the two types suggested. 

We put in 3 bags of the white tea and 1 black tea bag to steep in the hot sugar water mixture.

For this phase you leave the tea seeping until the water cools - approx 15-20 minutes. 

Once the water has come close to room temperature it is time to add 4 more quarts of filtered water to the tea mix. Now comes the time to toss it all together in a BIG glass jar.

add the Kombucha Starter: How much will depend on the weather in your zone and the temperature in your house. It needs to stay at a minimum of 65 degrees. If your home is on the cooler side you will need more kombucha starter - if it is on the warmer side  start with a little under 1/2 cup. 

We tossed in all we were given in this batch. 1 - it is winter and stinking cold. 2- it is winter and we live in a house with a REALLY BAD draft problem - so it is stinking cold. We didn't measure it but I would guess we had between 2/3 &  3/4 cup of the starter kombucha.

Now you are ready to add a few layers of cheesecloth over the top and secure it tightly with a rubber band....and now you wait. They say if you started with a  mature scoby that you would have a completed batch in 12-14 days. However since we started with a batch of starter without the scoby we will see just how long it takes.  Can't wait to see the growing little slime fest happening in our concoction. Photos to come as they develop.

NOTE} You may notice this glass jar has a small opening. This IS NOT a good idea. Once the scoby grows it will be trapped inside the bottle with no chance of harvesting it to multiply. We started the project while one of our eldest daughters was running to get the LARGE wide mouth glass jar. Guess what? Yep - no one had it. They were out of stock at the two store where they usually carry them. This particular batch is going to take quite a long time to grow so as it is in slow-start mode we have time to get the proper container. We will post a picture when we finally have our little hands on it.

DIY Tutorial: Monogrammed Burlap Runner & Sack Cloth Kitchen Towels

{Source: HGTV}

BURLAP

It is showing up everywhere, isn't it? I think it is because of the great texture and inexpensive price. There is also something rustically chic about it too. 

Before the holidays I was looking for some quick, fun, unique and inexpensive craft projects I could make into gifts for friends and family that would also be considered useful.To be honest the more time I spend in Africa the harder it is for me to get excited about making something just to look at. Somehow it tugs on my heart as wasteful. Still, I really like to be creative, I love to do arts and crafts projects. So my search began for something fun, practical and creative. Pinterest is frequently a starting point for me and in my search I was seeing a lot of burlap. I had also been looking to no avail for towels with some charm for my kitchen.

When I stumbled upon many Burlap Table Runner projects they stirred my creative juices and I decided to create another product as well. Personalized Kitchen Sack Cloth Towels. If you have been following my blog you are having an aha moment right about now. Yes, indeed this is the follow up tutorial I promised you all from the Scribbles & Dots: Kids DIY Family Art Project for Gifts post. Here we go...

Lets start with the runner first.

 Monogrammed Burlap Table Runner Project.

Materials you will need:

-Burlap Table Runner Material 
 Burlap table runner as seen below (avail at craft stores or online) It comes in a variety of colors and     widths. So you can pick whichever width / color of burlap you prefer.
-Heat Transfer Iron-on Sheets - available at office supply stores, Walmart. They come in light or dark background - for the burlap table runner and my other DIY project I was planning I chose the light background.
-Iron (no STEAM setting only)
-Scissors
-Computer w/ design program
-Ink Jet Printer

Step 1.  Cut your burlap runner to the length you desire for your table. If you would like to sew under the ends you can - or I frayed the edges by sewing in about 1" from the edge then pulling 5 or 6 burlap strings out leaving the fringe look.

Next I needed to create my designs. I use CorelDraw to design - simply because I grew up in an industry using it over 25 years ago. There are several options for designing - photoshop or whatever you usually use to design with. I also found this amazing FREE Monogram Making site where you can design your own image and colors for FREE. Wedding Chicks has some really cool monogram designs that would be great for Weddings, stationery or home decorating projects.

I decided to create my monograms and my future project, towel designs, at the same time to avoid wasting material. The "N" you see on the right was designed on the Wedding Chicks site.

So once you have your designs ready to go it is time to set up the print page. Make sure you mirror your image either on the screen or within your print instructions. (In other words it will look backwards until you iron it on.)

Finally you are ready to print away. Once printed you will want to trim your image to within a 1/4" of the printed area. Once you design is all trimmed it is time to place it on the desired area and iron it on. (Follow transfer paper directions closely) no matter what brand you have purchased you never want to use steam setting. So make sure your iron is bone dry. 

Let cool briefly and peel. (Again follow directions on transfer paper instructions)

I LOVE the way this one turned out. It was SO EASY and inexpensive. 

I made this table runner a bit long because I knew we would be putting in a leaf for entertaining. 

 I think I have about $10 total in this table runner. Now that is cheap and super fun! Now to place the table decor on top of it! 

Personalized Sack Cloth Kitchen Towel Tutorial

The process is pretty much identical for the Kitchen Flour Sack Dish Towel Project as it was for the Burlap Runner.One of the main differences is you will want to make sure to wash and dry your towels prior to applying your iron-on transfer image. 

You print out your designs onto the heat transfer sheets just as mentioned in the Burlap Runner instructions. Then you want to trim it to the same 1/4" border.

Iron towel to remove wrinkles. Place graphic printed iron-on in place on towel and iron as directed in instructions. Do not slide around.

Cool and peel.

VOILA...

These ended up so cute. I wish I would have had a finished photo for you of the final presentation. My daughter had crocheted colorful cotton dish rags and we wrapped the folded towels, dish rag and a wooden spoon with natural twine for our gift giving presentations. They were charming. 

I wish I would have stumbled on this site before by Blissfully domestic. They have a fabulous post on the many ways to use a sack cloth towel. It would be a fabulous idea to attach a "Ways to use" instruction tag that is cleverly dressed. 

I hope this not only gives you a simple step by step tutorial to follow but that it also inspires you to create a new project of your own. There are so many opportunities to monogram, personalize and BEAUTIFY! 

-Simply Sublime