MULLING SPICES GIFT and FREE GIFT LABEL PRINTABLE

Hello. Hello! How's it going?  Happy holidays to all of you!  Have you decorated yet?  Not much has happened here yet this year... Why?? Well, it seems we spent too much time lately redoing a room I am bursting at the seams to show you.  I will, I promise.  It's just not quite done yet.  

This fall has been a super busy one for us.  It started back in October when the hubs and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary and visited the NY Finger Lakes.  It was an amazing trip! Here's our cheeseball picture of us - not bad for a cell phone selfie, right? I love this guy!

One of the many things we did while we were enjoying the beautiful views, was visit a few wineries.  There are so many amazing ones around each lake, and it was cool to taste many and get to take a few home with us to enjoy.  

That is the inspiration for our gift this year to our neighbors, friends and anyone on your list (that is an adult, of course)!  While visiting one of the wineries, they gave us a sample of their mulled wine.  Wow, I really loved it. It was warm, and made us feel super cozy - perfect for a winter day!

I wrote down the ingredients for the mulling spice and bought a bottle of the wine they suggested.  It is a semi-sweet red wine, but really you could give mulling spices with apple cider as well. 

We also found a local bulk food store outside of Penn Yan, NY and bought most of the spices.  Do you have a bulk food store in your area?  Holy cow, was this one neat.  Amazing prices for so many great things- just weighed and priced per pound.  (I totally asked around and found out we have one in our area here too! Score!)

Here's what you will need to make the mulling spices:  Whole Cloves, Whole Allspice, Cinnamon Sticks and dried orange peels.  You will also need cheesecloth and baker's twine.  (They were out of dried orange peel at the bulk foods place so I just peeled a bunch of oranges and used my food dehydrator to make my own)  

Place a pinch of each in a square of cheesecloth and tie in a knot.  The wine cork is tied to the spices to help them float in your crock pot.  Just make sure to purchase a bottle of wine that has a cork for your gift!  The instructions are included below.

Now the fun part!  I created these fun {FREE!!} labels to add to your wine bottle and a tag to hang on the mulling spices with instructions.  I just love the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and couldn't resist including it for this gift.Just click here to download them.  There's 2 per sheet. 

This is the label for the front of the bottle - it's 4 X 6.

The below is the tag for the mulling spice.  Just cut it out, fold in half at the middle and punch a hole for the twine.  

I know you are thinking to yourself, would this be yummy?  It really is! As soon as I made this first bag of spices, we used it right up.  I was so excited to try it, I forgot to take a picture of the bottle of wine before I poured it in the crockpot.  Darn.  I had to run to get another one..... oh well ;).   

Don't forget that the mulling spices could also make great home scent by just adding the spices to a pot of water and heating on the stove!

Here are the instructions as they are printed on the tag above:

Instructions for Holiday Cheer:
Remove cork from wine bottle and tie to mulling spice bag.  Mix the following ingredients in a crock pot and warm on low.  
1 bottle red wine (semi-sweet) 
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1 1/2 cup water
package of Mulling Spices
Steep Mulling Spices for 45 minutes.  Serve warm.  Enjoy!

I love this gift - and can't wait to hand it over with lots of holiday cheer!! What are you giving this holiday season?  Anything to warm up down to your toes?  I'd love to hear about it!  Leave a comment, post up on Facebook - spread the Christmas spirit!  Thanks for stopping over!






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