A Farewell to Caramel



All the boxes they had

I thought about An Ode to Caramel but "ode" implies praise.  I'm not praising caramel right now.  As many ideas as I have for different flavors of caramels, they're going to have to wait.  I am totally and completely OD'd on caramels right now.  I was still obsessing about caramels when I went to bed Tuesday night.  And then I had this spine-chilling thought:  what if I went to Hobby Lobby to get boxes on Wednesday and they didn't have any?  I nearly caused myself an anxiety attack. 



One box down, nine to go



Hobby Lobby did have candy boxes.  Not very many though, and I bought all they had.  Fortunately, I had a few left from previous caramel endeavors.  What I didn't have enough of though, were the little padded sheets to put between the layers.  I ended up having to use parchment paper between layers for the boxes of samples.  C'est la vie.



Now all I have to do is get them there



It's time to turn my short attention span to other projects.  We have a peony plant here that bloomed on Mother's Day.  For some reason I had it stuck in my head that it had beautiful, red flowers.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  They're beautiful, snow white flowers.  Peonies are probably my most favorite flower of all.  Beyond the fact I think they are absolutely gorgeous and I love how they smell, they are also very nostalgic to me. 



Mother's Day bouquet



Until I was about 4, I lived with my grandma and grandpa.  Grandma had two peonies (she called them pineys) flanking the walkway, a pink one and a deep, dark red one.  They always drew my attention and she always let me cut some to bring in the house.  I cut some to bring in on Sunday and have been enjoying being greeting by their fragrance every morning when I come upstairs and I always think of Grandma.  Isn't it amazing how scent can evoke such powerful memories?

The disappointing thing about peonies is that the don't last very long.  So I'm going to try another round at making perfume in order to try and "preserve" the peonies.  This time, I'm going to skip the water and oil methods.  I'm going to for the booze method.  One of the articles I found recommended using vodka as a base.  I'll be stopping at the liquor store after mailing the caramels this afternoon.  And yes, it's quite possible I'll be leaving with more than vodka for my perfume.