Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles and big news!

For my birthday, well I guess really for Aria's birthday, but in my mind it was for my birthday, my parents gave her me a Hamilton Beach Fast Pop Maker.  Have you guys seen these or used a similar brand?  It is so flippin sweet! (pun unintended, but I'm keeping it).

I didn't exactly like the recipes that were in the booklet so I made up my own since I had a ton of lemons and a ton of strawberries on hand and wanted to use them.  Please excuse the iPhone pictures, I have been crazy busy cleaning getting the house ready for showings!  That's right!  The big news:  The house is officially up for SALE!!!  Let the offers commence!  (Well, at least in my head they are all vying for the house, even if that isn't true in real life).

Anyway, here is the recipe I made up.

Strawberry Lemonade Popsicle Starter

1.5 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (I know I could have used something else here, but I was in a rush and knew I had it on hand)
1 package fresh strawberries, washed and tops cut off
plus some extra cold water

In a saucepan heat the water and sugar and cook until dissolved all the way.  Once the mixture is dissolved, let the pan cool.  After it has cooled, add in the lemon juice.

While the sugar water is cooking, put the strawberries in a processor (I used Aria's baby bullet) and puree them up.

Add both solutions together in a pitcher and add cold water until the pitcher is full (not exact science for this one, the more water you add, the less tart it will be later though).

Let it chill in the fridge.  This works out because the pop maker needs to freeze for 24 hours before making the pops.

juicing an endless sea of lemons

we just made two...at first

waiting 9-11 minutes

Brad releasing the pops from the mold

action shot

Ta Da!  Delicious homemade popsicle!

So as far as the pops go, you just add the juice to the pop maker and let it sit for 9-11 minutes, use the gizmo to pop the popsicle out and voila, strawberry lemonade popsicle!

Brad liked them a lot and asked for some different flavors.  He thought it was a bit too tart, but I liked them the way they were.  The batch will most likely make a ton of popsicles since we have made 4 and it hasn't really made a dent in it.  I will most likely add some more water to the mixture so that Aria doesn't have a pucker face the whole time when we make some for her tomorrow.

One really cool feature with this one is that you can immediately freeze another batch, which of course we had to  try out.  They turned out as delicious as the first!

There are a ton of other maker gizmos out there and are actually quite affordable, especially when they are gifts!  Thanks Mommy and Daddy!

Fabulously Free Earrings!

When I was in Girl Scouts, we each had a bead box full of embroidery floss.  When we got to a meeting early or went camping, we got out our boxes and made friendship bracelets.  It was so much fun to go to the store and pick out new colors and make bracelets for my friends.  Fast forward almost 20 years (what, the what?!) and in true Cathy fashion, I still have all the leftover floss.

My floss stash - so many memories! (It is in a pipette tip container that I saved from the trash at work, talk about upcycling!)

Late one night I saw found this blog, probably through Pinterest, but once you start clicking links, it is hard to keep track.  I really wanted a new project that wasn't painting and was easy (so I knew I would actually do it) and this fit the bill.

I made these to match my outfit for Aria's first birthday party.  I love that they use the floss that I had as a kid.  It makes it have more meaning to me than just a pair of earrings.  Plus I had the paperclips, gold hook part (I have sensitive ears), and two findings on hand.  Free = Awesome.  I also used scrapbook metal finding glue which dried clear.  I'll let the pictures speak to how easy it was to make.

Behold!  The awesomeness that is 15 minute earrings:

Step 1: Open paperclip and glue ends together.  Step 2: Wrap with string, gluing the ends with clear glue.

Step 3:  Wrap a pattern around the earring.  I added glue in a few key places to make sure the strings stayed put when a 1-year-old terrorizes them later.

Step 4:  Add earring hooks.  I attached mine with findings since they didn't open by themselves at the bottom.

My inspiration piece from Evie S.

I can totally see stringing a few beads here and there, two-toned with a different "nest" string and an outer string or different designs.  Maybe a black/grey web for Halloween and put a little button spider on it or make a solid pattern to make it look like a candy corn?  Or a green one to look like a Christmas tree with some "ornaments" for December?  The possibilities are endless!

What do you think?  What type will you create?