Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

20% Off Vanilla Beans Through March 30!

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When vanilla beans are offered at 20% off at Olive Nation, we have to take advantage! They always offer free shipping on vanilla bean orders, so that’s a great bonus.

Read here about how to make homemade vanilla extract.  I mean, why else would I suggest you buy a bunch of vanilla beans?! :)

Making my own vanilla has saved me so much money over the years. Plus, I know that my vanilla is absolutely pure. Olive Nation is the only place I purchase vanilla beans. Their quality and prices are best. I just took advantage of this 20% discount so my savings is even greater than normal. Super exciting!

vanilla_beans

Find the discounted vanilla beans on this page at Olive Nation. Use the code EAST20 for the 20% discount to apply. Get your homemade vanilla started and love the deliciousness! (Coupon code expires March 30, 2015.)

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Vanilla Bottles and Beans – Free Shipping, Plus a Vanilla Bean Discount!

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How’s your batch of Homemade Vanilla Extract coming? You are making some, aren’t you? It’s too fun and too delicious not to try!

How To Make Vanilla Extract

Here is a picture tutorial on how to make homemade vanilla. I always buy my vanilla beans from Olive Nation because their prices and quality are the best. So here’s this week’s scoop on bottles and beans:

~~ Olive Nation loves Heavenly Homemakers readers, so they give us an exclusive discount. So nice! If you buy vanilla beans from them and use the code home, you’ll get a 10% discount. Shipping is always free on their vanilla beans.

~~ Through March 18, Olive Nation is offering free shipping on everything else in their shop. This means you can buy the vanilla bottles you need to finish your homemade vanilla project and save big bucks on what it typically costs to ship them to you. For this, use the code MARCHFREE.

$$$$$BONUS MONEY SAVING TIP$$$$$

You can only use one coupon code per order. If you need both bottles and beans, I suggest placing separate orders so you can get free shipping on your bottles plus 10% off vanilla beans (which come with free shipping anyway). Make sense?

Enjoy making (and using) your homemade vanilla!

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2-Ounce, 4-Ounce, and 8-Ounce Vanilla Extract – For Sale Now While Supplies Last

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It’s time! We’ve got our Homemade Vanilla Extract bottled up and ready to send you. As you can imagine, our house smells delicious. :)

vanilla_two

We always encourage you to make your own batch of vanilla extract. It’ll save you lots of $$ and give you the most delicious and pure vanilla ever! If your batch isn’t ready yet or you don’t want to make your own, we are excited to offer ours twice each year. The timing for this sale is perfect for holiday baking and gift giving. We have plenty of 2-ounce and 4-ounce bottles as these are perfect stocking stuffers, teacher appreciation gifts, gifts for neighbors, gifts for co-workers….yes – these make awesome gifts!

The prices below include all shipping and handling fees. There will be no charges added to the amounts below. We do have to limit this sale to U.S. for shipping purposes.

Ready? When we run out, we run out, so don’t wait if you want some! We’ve sold out within only 5 hours before – that was one crazy morning! I try to keep this post updated when the supply begins to run low.

Have fun. We can’t wait to get this liquid gold in the mail to you. Mmmmm, deliciousness!

2-ounce bottle
$8.00
Add to Cart

8-ounce bottle
$29.00
Add to Cart

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Time to Bottle Your Vanilla!

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Did you make homemade vanilla extract for Christmas gifts this year? Your friends and family will be so blessed!

If you’re ready to bottle it up, I wanted to share my favorite online resources. If you live in a big city, you may be able to find something less expensive. Since I don’t have that option, I take advantage of the good ol’ internet.

olive nation bottles

I’ve shopped around online quite a bit, crunching numbers, adding in shipping costs (ouch!). If you only want 4-ounce bottles (and I have found that this is a great size for gift-giving), then Olive Nation is your best price. This is because they offer free shipping if your order is over $50. See, it’s the shipping cost on these orders that can really make the bottles expensive. If you can swing ordering enough from Olive Nation to get free shipping, this will save a lot of money. (The price ends up being just $1.26/bottle.)

If you want 2-ounce or 8-ounce bottles, I recommend Mountain Rose Herbs.

Don’t let the cost of bottling your vanilla discourage you! Your homemade vanilla is still an inexpensive gift, especially when you consider the quality of what you’re gifting!

Also, don’t be afraid to ask the recipient to save the bottle to give back to you. Most people have given their bottle back to me without being asked (and some beg for a refill – of course!).

For those of you who haven’t jumped into making Homemade Vanilla Extract, you’ll be excited to know that we have a big batch of our homemade vanilla almost ready to bottle up and share with you. This will be just in time for your holiday baking and/or gift giving needs! Mark your calendars for Saturday, December 6 so you won’t miss out.

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Get 15% Off Vanilla Beans (plus free shipping) Through Wednesday

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I was so excited to see an email this morning letting me know that Olive Nation – my favorite source for high quality vanilla beans – is offering a 15% off coupon!

I very much encourage you to join the fun of making Homemade Vanilla Extract. It’ll save you a lot of money on this pricy baking item. Plus, your vanilla extract will be pure and so, so, so delicious. We’ve been making our own vanilla for over five years now.  I’ll never go back to store-bought.  Plus, Homemade Vanilla Extract makes great gifts!

Read details here about how to make homemade vanilla. It is incredibly easy! Take advantage of the 15% discount from Olive Nation. They are the only place I trust to deliver great quality beans, every single time. The added perk is that their prices for this quality are the best (and believe me – we’ve done the research on this). Even better – they always offer free shipping on vanilla bean orders.

So go get your vanilla beans!! Use the code VANB15 for the 15% discount. Free shipping is automatic on vanilla bean orders.

How To Make Vanilla Extract

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How to Finish Your Homemade Vanilla Extract

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How To Finish Your Vanilla Extract

I’ve talked about making Homemade Vanilla Extract just a little tiny bit on this site. You’ve seen:

Just in case you need MORE reasons to make your own Vanilla Extract, here’s a post about All the Nasty Stuff Found in Most Commercial Vanilla Extracts.

But for some reason, I never shared with you how to finish off and bottle your homemade vanilla extract. Sometimes I forget important details, such as the names of my children and telling you how to finish off your homemade vanilla. What’s his name – my youngest son – helped me bottle some vanilla last week and we took pictures. Finally. (Malachi…his name is Malachi.)

Once your vanilla beans  have been sitting in the vodka (or other alcohol of choice) for 4-6 months, it’s strong and ready to be bottled. Begin by lining a colander with a coffee filter or thin tea towel.

Place lined colander in a pot to catch the vanilla. If you don’t, you will have excellent quality homemade vanilla extract running down all over your kitchen table and floors. Your kitchen will smell great for months, but that will only be a long, sad reminder of the wasted vanilla. Put the colander in a pot.

Pour contents of your jar into the colander so that the coffee filter can strain all of the tiny vanilla specks out. The vanilla specks won’t hurt anything, but it’s nice to have speck-less vanilla extract.

Use a funnel to bottle up the strained vanilla. I have found amber bottles (recommended) Mountain Rose Herbs.

I, also, love these pretty labels! They are customizable, and there are several designs to choose from!

Lay your used vanilla beans on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to dry. You can then put them into a container of sugar for 4-6 months which will turn that sugar into Vanilla Sugar!

Finally, FINALLY I have shown you how to finish up your vanilla. And now, if I can figure out how to call my children by the correct names without running down the list of all four boys before I get to the right one, I’d be all set.

This post was originally published November 28, 2010.

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Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract – For Sale Today While Supplies Last

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As you know, we very much encourage everyone to try their hand at making  Homemade Vanilla Extract. It saves money and produces the purest, most delicious vanilla possible! For those of you who don’t care to make your own, or who are currently making some but waiting for it to finish up, we are excited to once again offer a big batch of our Heavenly Homemakers Vanilla Extract for sale today.

Keep in mind as you see the price that this amount covers our expenses, including shipping – and the most important thing:  You can use half the amount of vanilla called for in recipes because this vanilla is so pure and strong. Therefore, this bottle of vanilla will last you twice as long as a typical bottle! Read more here about how to make your own vanilla extract.

We have a limited supply, so this is being offered while supplies last. Typically, we sell out within just a few hours – so act fast if you want some! These prices include shipping, so what you see below is the total you’ll pay. We are only able to ship within the U.S.

4 ounce bottle (only 2 left)
$16.00  
Add to Cart

8 ounce bottle
$29.00 
Add to Cart

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A Reminder: Vanilla Extract For Sale This Saturday!

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Don’t forget! We’ve got a big batch of Vanilla Extract ready to sell this Saturday, June 14 beginning at 8:00 CST. Our supply usually sells out quickly, so if you’re interested, mark your calendars and check in here right away that morning.

Would you rather make your own vanilla? You’ll find all the info here that you need so you can get a batch going. :)

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Want to Give Homemade Vanilla For Gifts This Christmas? Time To Get it Started!

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vanilla

Yep, it’s that time of year again. It takes 4-6 months of brewing time to get a really good, pure vanilla extract. If you would like to give Homemade Vanilla Extract for Christmas gifts this year, it’s time to get your supplies together and start a batch!

Here is all the information you need about making homemade vanilla. Be sure to take advantage of the 10% discount offer Olive Nation gives us here at Heavenly Homemakers. Use the code home to receive the discount at check-out. I love their vanilla beans, their price, their quality and their free shipping on this product!

Important Announcement!  We have a batch of our Heavenly Homemakers Vanilla Extract ready to bottle and sell. If you would like to give it a try while you wait for your own vanilla to brew, or if you simply don’t want to make your own, we are thrilled to offer you a bottle of ours! We plan to offer this batch for sale on Saturday, June 14 beginning at 8:00 am CST. It will only be available while supplies last, and the supply typically only lasts a few hours. So mark your calendar and be prepared to stop by our site to snatch some up if you’re interested!

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Have You Written Your Sponsored Child(ren) Lately?

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This is one of those tasks that falls into the same category as “shake your vanilla extract,” “dust your ceiling fans,” and “sort the piles of paper on your desk.” We know we need to get around to it, but other pressing to-dos – like “make sure everyone has clean underwear” – keep pushing those down on the list.

Here’s a friendly reminder and challenge for us all this weekend:  Write a letter to your sponsored child.

It will only take a few minutes. It is always enjoyable. Your kids can be involved. And you know, without a doubt, that your letter will bless the child who receives it.

Here’s our little girl, Gladis, holding a package from us last summer. How excited she must have been to know that everything in that envelope was hers!

gladis with package

We’re so thankful to know that One Child Matters is taking such good care of these kids. Our monthly donation plays a big part in that. But simply throwing money at someone isn’t enough. We want to communicate with our sponsored child how much we love and pray for them. A few simple words on paper, along with a colored picture or photo of our family means the world to these kids. Write your sponsored child this weekend! (Next week, I’ll share some ideas for little gifts to include with your letter.)

If you’re not yet sponsoring a child, please join our ministry here at Heavenly Homemakers! You’ll be amazed at what your monthly donation of $39 can do to meet the needs of a child. And your prayers specifically for them are huge. Let’s all be a part of this rich ministry together.

Now, to all of us who already sponsor a child, go start writing your letter – before you forget or become distracted. Then, after you finish, dust your ceiling fans and shake your vanilla. We’ll all feel so accomplished. ;)

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