A Whole Lot of This and a Little Bit of That

Hi! Both brandings are now over. The rest of the summer is left to live. Wanting to remain purposeful, intentional, and real, I'm focusing on enjoying everything, the simple pleasures of daily rhythms as well as moments of the unexpected. With weeks of warmer weather left to savor, iced beverages are relatively simple and inexpensive to experiment with.

Of course I want to try the recipes I post on the blog. How awful would it be to share a really nasty recipe? That being said, I've been enjoying iced coffee and cappuccino the past few weeks. My favorite part, besides the drinking, is watching the colors of the milk and coffee swirl around together. It's like art in a glass. Haven't tried the cold brew coffee recipe used in these iced drinks? It's right here.

With two brandings and several hot days under our belts this summer, there has been iced tea in abundance around our house. A tip gleaned from online searching has proven accurate. I'm not sure why this works, but adding a pinch of baking soda when brewing the tea does improve the flavor of the tea and makes it last longer before souring.

Apparently I have had drinks on the brain because I also made my own gingerale recently. I added ground ginger to a basic simple syrup mixture. After cooling and straining the syrup, it was added to 
carbonated water until the desired flavor was obtained. What did I think of it? Well, it was good. However, I think using ginger root would be even better. Since I didn't have any on hand I went with what I had, ground. All in all, it was good but not great. Using the root instead of ground ginger might bump it up into the great category. Guess I'll have to locate some and find out:)

Brandings may be over, but the celebrations are only beginning. With at least four more gatherings yet to come this summer, there are a few more drink ideas left to try. For Giggle's August birthday, there will be strawberries floating in pint canning jars of lemonade. Mighty Man of God's birthday is a few days before Giggle's. I'm going to try making my own fruit sodapop for his celebration. Find a couple recipes here. If I can come up with enough empty iced coffee bottles, the fruit-flavored pop will be served in those recycled containers. After the jars have been washed:)

While simplicity in celebrating is important to our family, we still like special occasions to be, well, special. This year I am experimenting to see how much I can do with very little financial output. The tentative plan is to utilize paper and fabric already in my "stash" as much as possible. Be looking for future posts documenting how it all turns out. Hopefully I haven't planned more than I can reasonably accomplish.

Not sure what happened. I had this post in my head ready to be typed up. Now it is gone. Poof! Vanished! Where did it go? Oh well, it's time for me to get lunch on anyway. I'll be popping in later on with one of the very best baby toy ideas I have ever seen. This one is not only extremely easy to make, it would be an excellent use of leftover or excess fabric. Have any fabric pieces that are too good to throw away, but you honestly don't like? This baby toy idea is perfect for those pieces. There are also a few money-saving thoughts, ideas, and tips to share when there's more time. Gotta run! See you later! and don't forget to be intentional and real, intentionally real. Lots of love being sent your way!



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