Creative Team

The Best Homemade Strawberry Lemonade

2 · Aug 15, 2013 · 4 Comments

Homemade Strawberry Lemonade // Happy summer day Whipperberry friends, it’s me Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs! I’m so happy to be over here again today sharing some summer love with you!

Since summer is not over yet, I’m keeping this sunny season alive as long as I can! (Trust me, in my part of the world where summer lasts 2 months, you hold on to the last, most desperate glimmer of summer hope!) But I hope you are enjoying some fantastic weather where you are too, so you can sip on this amazing summer drink!

For me, there’s just nothing quite like lemonade…and I mean the real kind. The fresh, homemade, squeezed from real lemons, lemonade. And to make this drink even better, I’m adding fresh strawberry puree! Ah. Maze. Ing. And simple. Totally worth the effort.

Ingredients

6 lemons, juiced
4 cups water
½ – ¾ cup sugar (depending on how sweet or tart you want it)
1/4 cup pureed fresh strawberries

Instructions

Juice your lemons. (I just use a hand juicer.)
Add the sugar to the lemon juice and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Once the sugar is dissolved, add the water and stir.
Stir in the strawberry puree.
Garnish with a slice of lemon and a slice of strawberry.
Serve & enjoy!

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How pretty! These are gorgeous for family & friend get togethers or lazy days on the porch. Sip & enjoy!

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If you get a chance, pop on over for more yumminess! I love friends! 😉

Cedar Planked Brie Bites | Butterscotch Oat Drops | Easy Camping Recipes

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Thanks so much for reading & have a delicious day!

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Ruffled Apple Pencil Holder // Back to School

1 · Aug 11, 2013 · 3 Comments

Back to School // Hello fabulous Whipperberry readers! Jenn here from Clean and Scentsible! I am back today with a cute and easy teacher gift idea for you. Yes, unfortunately {or fortunately for some of you!} it is almost back to school time!

One of my favorite projects from last year were these ruffled pumpkins. With just a little change of color and a few different embellishments, this idea was easily able to be adapted into this ruffled apple pencil holder.

Materials

4 inch Styrofoam ball
straight pins
red felt {I used approximately 10 8.5 x11 inch felt sheets}
green material or felt scrap {big enough to cut two leaves}
hot glue {optional}
pencil or pen
3 inch punch or other circular shape to trace for the felt circles
mini-chalkboard {optional}

To Do

Cut out or use a paper punch to create a circular template that is approximately 3 inches in diameter. If you are using the 8.5 inch felt sheets like I did, you may want to trim this down just a bit so you can get 3 circles across.
Cut out your felt circles. I'm not sure exactly how many I did but definitely over a 100. Place 2 or 3 sheets of the felt together when you are cutting so you can cut out multiple circles at one time. It's a great mindless activity to do while you are watching your favorite television show! 🙂
Using a knife, cut a small sliver off the bottom of the Styrofoam ball so that it will sit flat.

Using a pen or pencil slightly larger than your pencil width, poke a hole through the center of your ball. {this should run the full diameter of the ball}.
Take a felt circle, fold it in half and then fold it in half again. Place a straight pin through the pointy part of your felt circle and pin it to your Styrofoam ball. Start at the top of the ball and work your way down and around the ball overlapping your circles as you go.

The last row of pins on the bottom of the apple were a little loose and a couple of them were starting to pop out so I hot glued one more circle over top to cover the pins up and ensure that they stayed in place. It gives it a much more finished look as well.

I have had these mini-chalkboards lying around in my stash forever and I can't remember where I purchased them from. I just used one for my picnic caddy and had one left over. I just used a little stain to darken up the wood and added the teacher's name with a chalk pen. I used another straight pin to attach it to the apple.

Cut out a couple of leaf shapes from the green material and pinch at one end. The "pinch" will let it stand up more. Pin to your apple near the top.

Now just add your pen or pencil and you are all ready to go! It's a unique and functional gift for your kiddos to give to their favorite new teacher!

For those of you that are already looking ahead to fall, here are a few ideas to get you started….

Ruffled Pumpkin

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp
Pumpkin Soap

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope you all have a smooth Back to School transition! 🙂

Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream

1 · Jul 30, 2013 · 3 Comments

A couple years ago my sister in law introduced me to the flavor combination of strawberries and basil. Sounds odd at first, but they compliment each other beautifully! And I recently found a love for a frozen treat put plum and basil together, so when I was assigned to make one of the flavors of homemade ice cream for a family reunion, I knew what I wanted to do! Considering that one of my husband's uncles was hesitant to try it because of the basil, but then asked for the recipe later, I'd say it was a success.

Homemade Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream

Yields: 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 lbs very ripe plums, pitted and chopped, with skins (I used 4 large plums)

7-8 strawberries, sliced

2/3 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup agave (or 3/4 cup sugar)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped and bruised

In a medium pot, cook the plums and strawberries over medium heat, stirring often. Continue until the fruit softens and the plums start to break down — about 15 minutes. Pour into a heat proof bowl (I used a 9×13" glass pan to cool it down faster), add blueberries, then cover and refrigerate until the mixture is room temperature — about 30 minutes.

Pour the cream in the pot you just used for the fruit, and add the agave (or sugar) and basil, which has been finely chopped and bruised by pressing it with the flat part of the knife to release the oils. Warm the cream mixture over medium-low heat, stirring often. Cook for about 5 minutes (if you use sugar, make sure it has dissolved), then remove from heat to let steep — about 15-20 minutes.

Pour cream mixture through a strainer into the bowl (or 9×13" pan) with the fruit mixture to strain the basil, make sure to press the basil leaves with a wooden spoon to release any extra liquid and as much flavor as possible. And if you really like the basil flavor, like myself, you can put a spoonful of it back in. 🙂 Stir the mixture, then cover and refrigerate, until the ingredients are very cold — 1 to 2 hours, or more.

Pour ice cream into an ice cream machine and freeze/churn until desired consistency. You could serve immediately, or place in a freezer container and freeze for another few hours to harden it up. The lovely fuchsia color comes from the plum!

** If you don't have an ice cream maker, go here for great directions on how to make/freeze ice cream without a machine.

Thank you again for having me Heather! Hope everyone is enjoying an extra sweet summer!

xo,

Haley

Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza // DIY Sillhouettes on Canvas // Tuxedo Zucchini Bread Muffins

$2.00 DIY Beach Bag

0 · Jul 25, 2013 · 3 Comments

Hi Whipperberry readers! It's Jenn from My Fabuless Life back this month to show you a super simple, super affordable little beach bag I threw together for a recent family vacation. Literally, if you have five minutes and a five dollar bill, you can make this–you don't even need a personal cutter! And what's extra awesome about this project is that you can use this method to "screen print" just about anything that's fabric!

Our family recently went on vacation to the beautiful Oregon Coast and this trip meant two things for us: LOTS of time in the car (we drove from Utah to Oregon) and LOTS of time at the beach. I always pack my 3 year old daughter a road trip bag and a brand new bag to hold all of the goodies is part of the fun. For this trip, my $2.00 bag pulled double-duty by holding all of her stuff during the car ride and then all of our treasures and toys once we got there and were ready to spend our days on the beach.

To make your own bag you'll need:
Freezer paper
Craft paint + Fabric Medium
A cloth bag (I got mine for $1.99 at Hobby Lobby without the 40% coupon)
Iron

Find the image you want to use: for this one, I just Googled "Whale Silhouette" and found one that I liked. Click on the image so it shows up on your screen like this (in Google, you can also click "view original image"):

Zoom in or out on the image until it's the size you want and then just lay your freezer paper right over the computer screen and trace GENTLY! Let's not go ruining any computer screens here, since that would sort of negate this whole $2.00 project thing. You should be tracing on the freezer paper shiny side down (pencil marks will be on the dull side).

Next, just cut out the image with an Exacto knife. Make sure to leave plenty of room around your shape to "slop" your paint so it stays on the paper and doesn't smudge all over your fabric. Make sense? If not, you'll see what I mean below.

I wanted this to be sort of "kid chic" so I left the cute little face off of the whale–not to mention, it makes it that much easier to cut and paint. Next, iron your freezer paper onto your fabric shiny side down. Make sure to iron it down good and tight so your paint doesn't bleed underneath (I do it with my iron on the highest setting). Also be sure to iron your bag or shirt or whatever you're using prior to painting it. Painting on wrinkled fabric will not give you pretty results.

Next comes paint: mix the paint and medium according to the instructions on the bottle of fabric medium (which can be found with the craft paints). I used gold paint (like I said, I was going "kid chic" here and it glitters in the sun–BONUS!) and my fabric medium ratio was 2 parts paint to 1 part medium. This gives you a softer finish on the fabric once the paint dries. You can do this without the medium, but your paint will be stiff and won't soften as much in the wash. YES–you CAN wash it!!

Apply your paint (you can use a brush or a dobber), let the paint dry a little and then pull the freezer paper off and let the paint dry overnight. DONE & DONE!!

This is such a fun easy way to personalize gifts. Onesies for baby showers, book bags for kids, team t-shirts for little ones…the possibilities are really endless. Later this week over at MFL, I'll be showing you what I filled this bag with for my little one and my favorite tips for LONG road trips with kids so make sure to stop by!

diy screen printed team shirts // summer printable // memories in a jar

Creative Team

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