Make Your Own Labels for Home Brews or Store Bought Beverages!!

This post is SOOOO late, but you know what the say, “better late than never”! Over a year ago one of my best friends got engaged, and about a year later this resulted in an amahhhzing batchelorette party, and eventually an absolutely goegeous wedding. Today I want to talk about something I did for the batchelorette party that was a great hits. I got each guest’s favorite wine, and got personalized labels made that were within the theme of the wedding. It was super easy and the girls loved it. Since the holiday season is coming on quick I wanted to share with you this easy process. Seriously, it’s so simple, and it is a great gift idea for holiday gifts for co-workers or friends or even a great thing to bring to holiday parties!

So, where to start….

Step 1: Visit The Studio Pub and choose the label of your choice and go buck wild personalizing it. The Studio Pub is an amahhhzing website that allows regular folks like you and me create customized labels for store bought beer snd soda bottles, wine bottles, and especially home brewed beers! I think those doing the home brews (or even homemade wine) can definitely agree that having some personal labels is the way to go!!

When you’re on The Studio Pub, remember that there are different size labels. Some are for beer bottles, others are for wine. I ended up choosing a nautically themed wine label because that was the basic theme of the wedding, and I knew the bride would appreciate the anchors!

Step 2: Purchase your beverage of choice. Whether its beer, bottled soda, wine or champagne, whatever you choose will taste even better with your awesome personalized labels. Word from the wise (aka me), if you’re planning on purchasing wine, make sure you ask the package store about a discount. Most local package stores will offer a discount if you purchase a case or more, even if you are choosing all different wines! This is a lesser known fact, and often times not advertised or offered if you, as the customer, don’t ask, but in my personal experience, I’ve never been turned down when I’ve asked for this special treatment.

Step 3: Make sure you have the means to remove the labels off each of the bottles you purchased. **Make sure that you add a post-it or piece of tape to each bottle before removing the label because merlot and cabernet look exactly the same once there are no distinguisting labels…trust me.

I recommend getting goof off or goo gone. Nail polish can also be useful and a butter knife can help with some of the stubborn labels. I’ve found that each bottle can be different. Some labels peel right off, and others have to soak in warm water and goo gone before there is any chance of getting them off. The nail polish remover helps with any residual stickiness that is left on the bottle after the label is history.

Step 4: Wash and dry each of the bottles. You want to make sure to get each bottle lean and dry before adding on the new label. you don’t need to wash them with anything special, just rince with water.

Step 5: place the labels onto the bottle. From personal experience I recommend that you do not remove the label completely from the backing before placing it on the bottle. A best practice would be to peel just one side, left or right, and stick it to the bottle and then roll the rest of the label on while simultaneously peeling off the backing. This will be the best way to make sure that you don’t end up with any bubbles.

Step 6: Gift away! all your family and friends will certainly be impressed with your craftiness and to make things even better, in my case at least, you can enjoy some delicious wine! Hooray!

Remember to contact Ben Quinn at ben@thestudiopub.com or checkout the website HERE!!

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Loving Lizards and Much, Much More.

So I’ve been in Florida for approximately 36 hours and if I can tell you one thing, I’m not disappointed by the 90 degree heat.  Especially when it’s approximately half of that where I’m from.  OK, maybe in CT its slightly more than “half” of 90, but basically anything under 75 is too cold for me.  Anyways,  when I got into my hotel room I looked out back and saw a medium sized pond and I was delighted to see a couple of pretty big turtles swimming around a few more sunning themselves on a partially submerged log.  So I did what anyone would do in a situation like this and went outside to take some pics of the cute little reptiles, but pop, pop, pop they were back in the water as soon as I was about 20 feet away.  Sheesh, whoever said turtles are slow DEFINITELY has not met FL turtles.  I was able to get a pic later of just one of them, but jeeze, those guys are fast!  It was cool to seem them up close, but I think it might have been even cooler being able to seem them swimming around in the water from my room.

Check out this big guy!

Anyways, I decided to walk along down the trail a minute and the BEST thing happened!  I hear this “plop” into the water and look over and guess what it was…the biggest iguana I’ve ever seen.  Truth be told, I’ve never actually seen an iguana in real life before, but this one was definitely a good size – over a foot from what I could tell.  I told both my mom and my dad about this creature separately and both of them insisted that I saw an alligator.  So, if you were also thinking that, let me tell you – it was NOT an alligator.  I watch Swamp People and Call of the Wildman.  What I saw was a run of the mill Florida iguana. I never knew those suckers could swim, but then again, I guess I never really thought about it.  I looked it up before writing this post and turns out, they actually good swimmers.  Who ever knew?

In addition to these first two gems, I have seen a bunch of cool bird, including the “duck” below that basically looks like the offspring of a turkey and a duck.  It was white with what looks like the turkey’s “gobbler”.  One odd duck if I do say so myself hehe.

Bird drying its’ wings

Turkey Duck

 

I’d have to say that hands down my most favorite thing about Florida, animal-wise anyways, is the little lizards that run around everywhere.  I love them so much.  I wish I could take a pic for you, but since they are as fast as laser beams and relatively small I can’t really catch them on my stupid camera phone…bummer.  I’ll definitely update you with a pic if I do happen to get one before I leave though, don’t worry.

To sum things up, I’m already getting depressed about going back to stupid CT and only seeing stupid New England animals like bunnies and squirrels.

Utilize YOUR Rights!

2012 is an exciting year!  We will  get to elect or re-elect the president of the United States!  I know most Americans will follow the election, but for those of you who haven’t been following, take a moment or two and look below at the two main candidates’ stances on some of the most important issues that the new president will have to deal with.  It is SO VERY IMPORTANT for every eligible American to understand the issues going on in our country and to utilize your right to choose.  I’m not writing this post because I want to put my own personal opinions on anyone, but rather to give the raw facts and allow you to create your own opinion.

Details	Barack Obama	Mitt Romney
Website	BarackObama.com	MittRomney.com
Party	Democrat	Republican
Running Mate	Joe Biden	Paul Ryan
Religion	Protestant	Mormon
Background	Politics, Law & Acadamia	Politics & Business
Age	50	64
Education	B.A. Political Science, Columbia University J.D. Harvard Law School	B.A. Brigham Young University J.D. Harvard Law School M.B.A. Harvard Law School
Spouse	Michelle Obama	Ann Romney
Number of Children	2	5
Economic Issues: Unemployment	Help businesses access capital in rural areas to expand jobs/training and double exports to foster job creation.	Make American Businesses competitive by opening markets abroad for American goods/services.
Economic: Social Security	Protect and strengthen Social Security and guarantee basic benefits.	Encourage individuals to create private accounts.
Economic Issues: Tax Reform	Povide tax cuts for the middle class and working Americans.	Expand tax deductions to those who buy their own healthcare to encourage individuals to purchase their own health insurance.
Economic Issues: National Budget Plan	Set clear rules for financial marketplace to protect American families from manipulation.	Return fiscal power to states and their people.
Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act	Uphold Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (click here for an easier-to-understand wikipedia explanation)	Repeal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Same-Sex Marriage	Approve	Ban
Abortion	Pro-Choice	Pro-Life
Death Penalty	No Stance	Allow
Sex-Education in Schools	Against Abstinence Only Education	Supports Abstinence Only Education
Marijuana	Legalize	Outlaw
Stem Cell Research	Supports Stem Cell Research	Against Stem Cell Research
Foreign Affairs: Oil	Set stricter standards for exploration to avoid spills. Explore domestic oil for US energy option. Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.	Ensure Energy independence for America through oil drilling, biofuel, and nuclear power. Support subsidies for corn-based ethanol for domestic energy production.
Foreign Affairs: National Defense	Rebalance defense capabilities for 21st century. Strengthen military partnerships and alliances.	Modernize air/naval forces, weapon systems, and equipment including nuclear weapons. Grow the number of troops and ensure that funds go to their needs and care. Halt efforts to cut military budget.
Foreign Affairs: US role in the world	Work with multilateral organizations and allies to achieve objectives.	Build a foreign policy that announces American exceptionalism.
Foreign Affairs: Afghanistan	Withdraw troops within the next 2 years.	Bring troops home according to orders of US generals.
Foreign Affairs: China	Encourage cooperation on economy and trade. Expand consultations on the end of non-proliferation.	Increase regulations on Chinese businesses involved in US/China trading. Condemn China’s one-child policy.
Domestic Issues: Healthcare	Ban insurance company discrimination of patients by preexisting condition. Lower health car costs and guarantee more choice.	Repeal Obama’s healthcare plan. Initiate market-based reforms that empower states and individuals to cover their own health care costs.
Domestic Issues: Immigration	Increase border security Uphold the DREAM Act.	Oppose resident collect tuition and driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. Eliminate chain reaction to families immigrating to join their family member who is a citizen.
Domestic Issues: Environment	Establish clean energy standards for securing America’s energy sources. Innovate new clean energy possibilities.	Oppose EPA regulation of greenhouse cases.

Remember, every single vote matters, and no one person should have any more pull than another.  We live in a wonderful country that allows each of us to put in our two cents in the form of a ballot, so take advantage of it!

The Trouble With Americans

I love America.  I think it’s a great country and I feel lucky to live here.  That being said, I have some pet peeves about how so many Americans are so LAZY and not only that, but we are a country that not only encourages it, but also facilitate it.  Go ahead, eat 2 Big Macs everyday for lunch and grab a pizza on your way home for dinner to scarf down with your 2 liter of Mountain Dew.  Don’t worry about the repercussions that it will have on your health because America will accommodate you.  They will make seats larger for your expanding ass, they will make clothing bigger for your expanding gut, and they will give you an “easy way” to get your sexy back.  And if something should happen to you because of your health, whether its a heart attack or safety harness snapping don’t worry, there’s millions of people out there that you can sue to get what “you deserve”.

Where is this coming from?  Well I was listening to the radio and heard an ad for Laser55.  Laser55 is a “non-invasive” method to lose weight quick. You know what else is non-invasive?  eating healthy and exercising.  But unfortunately even the thought of that is too painful for many to bear.  The part about this whole ordeal that I find entertaining is that all of the pictures on Laser55’s website show sexy ladies who probably weigh 105 lbs, and have probably not eaten a carb since they were 14.  These people likely didn’t go through the Laser55 Lipotherapy because they are already stick skinny.  All the fatties out there thinking they are going to magically look like this by just sitting through a couple of lipotherapy sessions during their lunch break are in for a rude awakening.

Before and After Pic

As you can see from this picture, though there is a slight different, this woman still looks much different than the woman shown above.  Is there a difference?  Certainly.  Is there more of a difference than if this woman spent her lunch hour walking and having a healthy salad or sandwich rather than spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, getting a non-surgical laser weight loss solution?  Probably not.  And without continuing to receive these expensive treatments, she will either continue to look the same, or plump back up to the picture on the left.  Remember the results are “staggering” and the before and after pictures I see, I can only assume are the “good ones”…and that’s not saying much.

Hey, whatever you want to do with your life is completely up to you, but in my own experience it is much more rewarding to work hard and earn your result  than just pay for them…wait, isn’t that called cheating?  What was that saying?

Winners Never Cheat…and Cheaters Never Win.

Think about it.

Modern Furniture

I get about a million emails for random things and today I came across this email for some modern furniture that made me realize how much I HATE modern furniture.  I hate modern furniture almost as much as I hate abstract art.  Call me crazy, but I just prefer things that make sense.  Below I’m going to show you exactly what I mean:

Modern Pink Couch

In addition to how obviously hideous this couch is, how impractical is it?  Seriously…what do you do on this couch?  can you lean on the back parts of it? I don’t know.

Hard Living Room Chairs.

Do these chairs seriously look comfortable to anyone that isn’t part of the Jetsons? Unless you have a robot maid named Rosie, or you are seriously trying to deter your friends from wanting to come over to your house again, these chairs do not belong in your house.

Weird Couch

I’m assuming this is a couch…but honestly, I have no idea.  Is it a couch?  Is it a jungle gym or some sort?  I don’t know.  What I DO know is that this monstrosity would NEVER come through the doors of my home.