4th of July Recipes

Celebration Cupcakes

I'm taking this directly from MyRecipes.com. They sent me a link today with recipes that are all Red, White and Blue.

So I thought I'd repost for all of you. There are some really cute ideas for 4th of July fare.

Here are some pics to get you started...

American Flag Cheesecake Bars

All-Star Berry Tart

Red, White and Blue Ice Pops

Red, White and Blue Cake

So while I know these are all desserts I thought they were pretty cool.

Hope you enjoy!

Independence Day Crafts

I love the Fourth of July! It's seriously one of my most favorite holidays. There are no gimmicks, no toys to buy, no "fake" mascot .... just a lot of fun and joy in celebrating our country. I remember going to my dad's high school, sitting on top of the station wagon and waiting for the fireworks to begin. They would always play Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" song. I remember feeling such pride in my country at a young age. I still feel joy in the USA, but I also have come to love other countries as well. I think for the most part we all want the same things in life -- love, peace and happiness. And whether you're here in America or in Argentina or France ... there are good people everywhere around the world.

So to celebrate the independence of America from England here are some of my favorite crafts that I've found online that I want to do with my kiddos. I think it will make celebrating Independence Day extra fun. Oh, before I start -- I thought I'd share this link as well. It's a photography link on how to shoot Fireworks with your camera. It's very helpful. Hope it helps you as well!

For our first easy craft - I found this garland on Smilemonsters... LOVE IT.

She took large popsicle sticks, painted them red, white and blue -- added sparkle paint (of course) and then glued them into "star" shapes. She glued them to a long piece of jute. Super cute.

Sunset Magazine was my next inspiration. They have a whole spread online about decorating for the 4th.

Lawn Stars -- made with sifted flour

Star Luminarias

The lawn stars made me think of sidewalk chalk and how much fun it would be to decorate our driveway and front sidewalk with stars made out of chalk. A couple of different options with this one -- you can buy sidewalk chalk and make some stencils. OR you can make your own sidewalk chalk / paint and have your kids paint the stars. Either way seems fun. Here is a fun site on making your own chalk/paint.

Hostess with the Mostess blog did this cute idea as well.

She has a whole list of ideas to put on a great 4th of July party.  Take a look at these 3-D cupcakes that a friend came over and taught her... super cute (although I'll never make these myself, wayyyy too complicated for this non-crafter who is 9 months preggers!). But I'm sure there are many of you out there who could make these in a snap.

If you're still not sure about the 4th for your family and need some more ideas -- I got a lot of them from one of my favorite blogs, The Red Headed Hostess. She has some really great ideas and fun games for the whole family to enjoy (plus a quiz about the Declaration of Independence). Go check her out.

I'm off to Michael's right now to pick up some of these supplies. I'm also going to get some plain white T's and have my kids paint them with fabric paint in red and blue to make a fun personalized shirt for them to wear in our local bike parade for kids.

I hope you all have a very enjoyable Independence Day. If you live elsewhere I hope that your country is safe and sound.

Enjoy!

A Bicycle Built for... Four or Five?

So about three years ago my friend, Sally, showed me online these really cool bikes from Denmark. They're like mini vans, but in a bike form. You can really bike around town with your kids and do your errands at the same time. We were intrigued by them. But didn't know where we could find them. Well, I just found the answer!

Have you heard of a BOXCYCLE?

http://www.boxcycles.com/

These are amazing bikes. You can fit a child and an adult, 4 children plus they have an attachment in the bike for a 5th child. Can you imagine the workout?? Plus, think of the savings on gas.... incredible.

Here is a video that was on their site. I thought it was cute and want to share.


I wish they had a video of someone doing this in the city. I'm right off of a very busy street and so I can't imagine that there would be a lot of room for my boxcycle and the speeding cars. But maybe one day... until I figure that part out I could at least go down the hill to drop my kids off at school in it.

I did find this video, however, that shows how agile the bike is. Wow. This is really cool.


Maybe this would work in the city after all!

I think these are really cool. The only downside (okay, other than me being totally out of shape and not able to ride this up the hill by my house... I'd have to get off and push and that would be really embarrassing) but the only other downside is cost. They're a wee bit on the expensive side. Just a few thousand... that's all. EEKS. But when you think about what a car costs each year (not alone what you spent to purchase it).. I'm sure it's about the same.

What do you think? Would you want one? I want one.

Enjoy!

Biking Around Town

I loved this post from the blog: It's Everything I love.

I have always wanted a bigger bike with baskets to cruise around doing my errands. Not only would it save on gas, I'd get in shape and have fun. My only (and biggest!) fear about cruising around SoCal is that of cars while I'm on a bike. Cars and bikes don't really mix well. I mean, I know a lot of people bike with cars right next to them and we really all should learn how to share the road -- but I've just heard of too many horror stories for me to feel extremely comfortable riding around with crazy speed racers cruising by me. Does anyone else have this fear?

But this post made me rethink it. I love the pic of the chic in the fur coat riding around town. I would like that to be me. LOL.

Click on the link below to read the entire post. Hope you enjoy!

It's Everything I Love...: Cycle Chic Greenwich!: "My Husband bought me a new bike for Mother's Day so I can ride down to the beach and perhaps to the office..."

All Things Rootbeer

Okay, I'll admit it. I am in love with Root Beer. It tastes so delicious. Mmm mmmm mmm.

That said, I am picky about my Root Beers. For instance I cannot stand Barq's Root Beer. I find it horribly disgusting. And it bugs me that they added caffeine to it. Why ruin a good thing? I don't like drinking caffeinated drinks and I most certainly do not want my kids drinking it either. So thumbs down for Barq's.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite Root Beers. And since I think of Root Beer and Summertime as one and the same I thought I should share this before summer begins.

A&W Root Beer -- seriously good. I wish it didn't have any high fructose corn syrup in it. Then it'd be nirvana. But it's close. I like to buy the little 4 oz (or is 6 oz) cans. It's the perfect size for just a taste.

Trader Joe's  has a great root beer that I buy often. It does NOT have the evil HFCS in it and so I am more likely to buy this brand than the A&W. I just wish it came in the little bottles as well.

Boylan Bottling Co. has another one of my favorite rootbeers. It's definitely not too sweet and is also not sweetened by HFCS. Hurrah! I love having this as a special treat. Mmm mmmm

Dad's Root Beer Company - I was going to give them a nice review, but my "beef" with them is that they use HFCS AND on their website they have a whole section on "myths" about HFCS. So for this reason I don't think I can buy this brand anymore. Sorry, Dad's -- but HFCS is crap. I'll drink it knowing  that it's crap, but don't try to tell me it's not crap. That bugs.

Oh yes, Stewart's Root Beer - how can you forget a great classic? Love this brand. I also like their other flavored soft drinks as well. (Side note - I was single and living alone in L.A. when Y2K came around. I stocked up NOT on rice and beans... but on Stewart's brand Key Lime and Orange Cream Soda, Oreo cookies and ice cream. If I was going down - I was going down eating foods I knew I shouldn't!). So this company holds a special place in my heart (ha ha).

Okay, but my favorite part about this post is what I found online the other day. I'm so excited about this discovery! I found this blog called SmileMonsters and she has the cutest and most creative things on her blog! Seriously cute blog that I admire from afar.

She has some great ideas here and my favorite one (so far) is her recipe for

Root Beer Float on a Stick

Recipe:
1 12oz. root beer or 1 1/2 cups
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Mix root beer and sweetened condensed milk together with a whisk. If it gets to foamy set it in the fridge for a bit to settle down. Pour into popsicle molds. I prefer dixie cups and popsicle sticks. I let the popsicles set up(about an hour) before I insert the sticks.

OR you can try the Root Beer & Cream sicles that she created!

Recipe

The root beer mixture is the same. Pour into your cups or molds about 1/3 of the way. Freeze for about an hour.
For the cream layer mix together:
1/3 cup whole milk
1 Tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Pour that in even amounts into your molds and freeze another hour. Then top off with remaining root beer mixture. Freeze again but don't forget to insert your sticks once that top layer has gotten firm. This takes a little more work but they look super.
Tips:

You can decrease the amount of sweetened condensed milk for a more icy popsicle. Make up the difference with milk. Meaning, you want a 1/2 cup total of your "float" part of the mixture.

The sweetened condensed milk gives it a great creamy texture. To much will not allow your popsicle to freeze solidly though. So more is not better in this situation.

There are several molds you can buy for popsicle making, I have three. I still like the shape and size of the dixie cup.

See the holes in the popsicles in the top photo and not as many in the lower photos. That is the difference in letting your root beer go a little flat before you pop it in the freezer.

I can't wait to try these! They look divine and perfect for a hot summer day (if we ever have one of those again).

Hope you enjoy!

A Truly Organized House

It doesn't exist in my world, but a truly organized house is one of my favorite things. Unfortunately, it's a pipe dream right now for me. It's not that I can't organize my things -- it's just my other "helpers" around the house keep me from staying organized. Grrr.... It's super frustrating to me really. But I'm trying to stay relaxed about it. I want my children to grow up in a house that is nice, clean and tidy, but not so clean and so tidy they don't think that they don't live there (at this point I don't think this is a problem).

With all this in mind, though, I saw some great articles from REAL SIMPLE that I thought I'd share. They have some great ideas on how to organize belongings and reuse items that you already have on hand to get that way.

Here you go:

The Well-Organized Kitchen

Click on above link to read about organizing your kitchen

12 Organizing Solutions for Any Family

While I don't necessarily agree that all of these tips would work for any family -- here are my top two out of the twelve that I think would work great (at least for me).

File It

Loose-leaf binders in Lauri and Douglas's office hold schoolwork and drawings, organized by year, for each child. "My kids are prolific artists," says Lauri. "But when I walk into my office and there are stacks of papers, my urge is to chuck what's not brand-new. Having this system right next to my desk enforces discipline, so I make myself put things away. Later I go through the books with the kids and say, 'Do you want to keep this?' " A felicitous by-product of the system: The children can grab one of the binders themselves and instantly access work from last month―or last year―and celebrate the progress they've made. "It's nice to get perspective and feel proud of how much you've learned and achieved."

Think Commercial

Lauri found plastic cereal dispensers―"the kind you see at every breakfast buffet and college dining hall in America"―through a restaurant-supply company after a quick Internet search. She placed them on a low kitchen counter that the children can easily reach so they can serve themselves. They just grab a bowl from a stack on the built-in shelves, open the spout, and they're done, says Lauri. Meanwhile, she and Douglas get to steal the occasional sleep-in.

Cereal dispensers: For commercial units: $128 each, displays2go.com. For smaller ones: $30 each, kitchen-mart.com. 

Turn Clutter into Storage and Decorating Solutions

3 Clutter-Busting Concepts

These three key steps will get you on your way to making order in your home using basic everyday items.

1. Contain 

Enough storage space is, of course, the Holy Grail of any household. But solutions to the problem are probably littering your closets and cupboards right now. Use monochromatic boxes, wooden crates, berry baskets, and empty jars to stash anything from mementos to old files, paper clips to dried spices.

2. Repeat

Transform stray containers or collectibles into a decorative tableau by clustering like objects. Consistency produces a neater look than a random assembly does―and while one or two may look arbitrary, a group looks like art.

3. Repurpose

Although your lidless sugar bowl and your wobbly chair no longer serve their original purposes, they're far from useless. You can eke a second life out of idle treasures by assigning them new functions―and, in so doing, add style to the surfaces they grace.

Create Your Own Desk Organizer

Don't be limited by prefab desk organizers that don't have enough of the right-size compartments. Instead, use miniature loaf tins to design your own portable system.

To buy: Loaf pans, $1 to $3 at baking-supply stores.





 Well, this will definitely help me get started. I make little improvements here and there. It takes me a while to see what is the actual need vs what is really going on --- sometimes I'll have some clarity about a room when I'm in bed and just going to sleep (or waking up). It's like my own little AHA moment. From there I'm able to make the necessary changes. I've also gotten inspiration from friends and family members who have been over to my place. They're able to see it with fresh eyes (and no attachments) and are able to help me have a clearer vision about my place and my expectations.

I also really enjoyed the second article I posted (12 Organizing Solutions for Any Family) -- the mother gets a lot of her ideas from different stores. She came up with an idea for her family by noticing a display up by a cash register at a local boutique. Love that!

Well, as long as you don't expect my house to look perfectly organized you're more than welcome to visit. And if you do come over -- please give me some constructive feedback!!

Hope you enjoy!

11 excellent novels for summer reading

11 excellent novels for summer reading

I'm always on the lookout for new books to read over the summer. So I thought I'd share this reading list I saw in the christian science monitor. Most of these books actually look really interesting. Let me knw if you've read any of them or heard about them.

Enjoy!