Homemade Slurpees

Homemade Slurpee's are so easy to make and a lot less expensive than 711. Did I mention less sugar too? Talk about awesomeness!

First you need:

-A blender

-Kool-Aid packet

- 2c. Club Soda

- 1/2c. Sugar

- 2 1/2c. Ice

First add 1 cup of club soda, Kool-aid packet and sugar. Blend until the sugar is dissolved.

(Note if you have a fancy blender like my mother in law here you can do everything all at once)

Once the Sugar is dissolved add the ice and blend until it starts to get stuck and won't mix up. Then add the final cup of club soda. Mix until it looks like the picture above. (About 1 min)

After it is all mixed up pour into glasses and put them in the freezer for 30 min.

Then take them out and let your kids decorate the glass with fun straws and Enjoy!

(Note the Slurpee didn't change colors... this is grape flavor and the flavor above is mango!)

Spray paint those old ugly plastic lawn chairs

I had a couple of white lawn chairs that were looking pretty UGLY!!

After many years of use around the fire pit, they were really dirty and it wouldn't wash off no matter how hard I scrubbed them.   I was going to get rid of them, but then I thought maybe I would try to spray paint them-- I figured I had nothing to loose!  So this is what I did...

First I took a can of cheep black spray paint & painted them with that, then I used the Rust-oleum hammered finish brown spray paint that I have used on the jars I've been making. 

and this is how they turned out.... I love them, I figure it cost me about $4.00 a chair. So I can live with that, I haven't priced new chairs, but I'm sure they are aroung the $8.00- $10.00 dollar range.  And I like the fact that I re-used something that I already had instead of sending it to the dump!!

Here is a picture of the spray paints I used-- you could use any color, I tried a yellow color I had first- but it didn't cover up the black marks on the chair.   The black as a base coat worked well.  So there ya go get out there and find something to spray paint today!!! 

Home Made Liquid Laundry Soap

I have been using a homemake laundry detergent for a few months now--  and I have loved it.  But it was a little time consuming and tricky (well tricky isn't the right word- the girls were helping me make it last time & MESSY is the better word... as in the pot of soap boiling over all down the stove & floor.  Haha good times!!  It was great laughs!!  I'll just say "I wasn't the one in charge of watching the pot!")   Anyway getting back to the process of making the detergent...you had to grate a bar of soap and cook it down on the stove with other ingredients & then when it cooled down it thickened too-- so you had to shake it up before using it everytime.  It wasn't that bad.. because it really did work well and saved so much money.  But I decided to try something else this time, and I am sooooo excited!!!!! It works just as good as the other one and is so much easier to make.  I have washed 4 loads with it, and it works great. So let me show you how.

Into a gallon container pour: 

 3 Tablespoons of Borax

3 Tablespoons of Washing Soda

2 Tablespoons of Dawn dish soap

4 Cups of boiling water

10-15 drops of essential oil  (I used Lavender)

Swirl- don't shake the ingredients-- until everything is dissolved, then let it cool....  

You can use any kind of Dawn soap- there are different sents if you want to do that instead of using the oil to make it smell good. I chose to use the blue Dawn because it works really good on grease, so I thought it might clean tough stains better. But it doesn't smell all that great- so I used the essential oil. 

after it has cooled- then fill the gallon container up with water--I put the container in the sink, turned the water on low and allowed the suds to over flow out of the container...

And this is what you end up with... a gallon of laundry soap ready to go.  Add a 1/2 Cup to each load,  I have a front loading HE washer and it works great in it too.

Oh yea and totally off the laundry soap topic.. yesterday morning I went for a bike ride-- and ran into someone that said she had made the crock-pot yogurt I had posted a few days ago!! --- I was so excited ... sometimes I wonder if anyone is out there, or if I'm just talking to myself!!  :) Haha-  Thanks Christine, you made my day!

Freeze string cheese

Did you know you can freeze string cheese?  Yes you can, and it doesn't crumble like some of the other cheeses do when you freeze them.  They have had string cheese on sale lately-- when the kids were younger & at home, I use to stock up when it was on sale and put it in the freezer.  It's a great snack and if you have kids that take their lunches to school- put them in their lunch boxes in the morning FROZEN and by lunch they will be ready to eat!!!   

Strawberry Jam with a fourth of the sugar

We've got strawberries!!  I picked a whole bowl full from the garden-- oh there is nothing like fresh home grown strawberries.  So sweet....  I decided to make jam with them, I love this way I have been doing jam for about 5 years now.  It used to kill me to make jam because the recipe calls for 4 cups of fruit and 8 cups of SUGAR!!!!  Yikes-- that is way too much sugar.   So let's get started here and I'll show you how to make the best jam using 1 1/2 - 2 cups of sugar.

First wash your fruit really well....   

 I found this great little tool a couple of years ago at a kitchen store.  I think it is used to remove the green tops from tomatoes, but I thought it would work great on strawberries- and it does!!

so after you have washed the strawberrys- remove the stem & green part on the top.  Haha it looks like I have been doing a little garden work today, I really do have a GREEN thumb in this picture! :)

 The jam I made today is freezer jam, but you can make regular processes jam like this too.  I follow the recipe on the pectin package-  you will need:  4 cups of crushed fruit, 1 1/2- 2 cups of sugar (depending on how sweet your fruit is) 6 tablespoons of fruit pectin and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Ultra Set.  That is the key ingredient here!!  I bought mine at kitchen kneads.  It is a modified corn starch- I have seen it at the grocery store too, but I'm not sure what name the box had on it- but it did say it was a modified corn starch.  So ask at the store if they carry it.  Do NOT follow the directions on the ultra set package for making jam-- just ask my friend Kristy.. :) 

 crush your berries up- my family likes the pulp in the jam, so I just put it in my blender on pulse a couple of times.  Then measure 4 C. into a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl combine your sugar, pectin & ultra set.  (add 1/4 cup of the ultra set first) and mix them together.  Then pour the dry mixture into your berries and mix well, make sure you dont have any clumps of the dry mixture in it.  Then let it sit for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes stir to see if it is as thick as yo want it-- if not sprinkle more ultra set into the mixutre until it gets as thick as you want it to be.  The ultra set thickens pretty fast, so after about 10 minutes it will be as think as it is going to get- If you want it to be more like a berry butter use 1/2 cup of the ultra set.

 then ladle the jam into containers-- I use whatever I have, plastic or glass jars work great.

 then put the lids on them and put them into the freezer.  You wont be able to tell that there isn't as much sugar in it-- it tastes so good, and you can feel good about having a healthier jam for your family.

A day of GAMES and SUCKERS

It was play day Thursday, and boy did we have FUN!!!!   This is what we transformed the pasture into....

You can't see it very good, but at the end there is one swimming noodle standing straight up in the air with 4 flags tied onto it...

to make the swimming noodles arch we pounded stakes( I cut a piece of pvc pipe into 12 inch stakes) into the ground and then take a swimming noodle and put one end over each stake to form an arch--

then add a couple of soccer balls- and you have a race, to get to the end and grab your flag from the pole!!!  The little boys had so much fun with this, I think we are going to have to figure out some other games to play with this set up. It was a beautiful HOT summer day, so .......

 of course there is nothing better than to cool off with water & squirt guns!!! It's their favorite thing to do in the summer...

 These suckers were easy to make & taste so yummy..... first get a package of Jolly Ranchers and unwrap the color combinations you want to use...

lay them onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet, we did some with 3 colors and some with 2 colors.  Then place them in the oven @ 250 degrees for about 6 minutes.....

 watch them close and as soon as they start to melt pull them out of the oven place a sucker stick into the middle of each one and then really quickly & carefully pinch the melted part onto the sucker stick... be very careful because they will be hot.  Let them cool a few minutes, and enjoy them or.......

wrap them in plastic bags for a treat later.  If you like Jolly Ranchers, you will LOVE these.. I know the little boys did.  And so did their Grandma!!  :)

Wedding at the Barn

A few weeks back I posted some pictures of cupcakes I was frosting & tissue paper pom-pom balls I was making for a wedding I was helping with.... I never posted any of the pictures yet, so here are a few ... it turned out so darling-- I LOVED the yellow!!!