When Life hands you Cherries, and Raspberries, and Strawberries...

...make lemonade!

Hulled strawberries, raspberries fresh off the vine, pitted and sliced cherries,combined with lemon juice, sugar syrup and blended (I love my immersion blender!), mmmm. 

 No recipe here, no measurements-- use what you have on hand and make it "to taste."

Serve over ice, add sparkling water. 

This calls for some fancy glasses-- and ice cubes! You can strain it if you like, though that is a lot of trouble (the glass on the right in the above photo holds the strained lemonade). If you leave it "rustic," give it a stir before serving-- the seeds will settle to the bottom but you want the good stuff all throughout:)

New Card and a Tip

I enjoyed making this card from StampTV recently.

I like the glossy embossed images-- I like how the whole project turned out!

Now for a tip-- some of you smart people may not need this, but I found it helpful!

I bought some envelopes that were not the usual size I use. In order to remember the new dimensions to cut my card pieces by, I wrote them on an index card and taped them to the box.

Popsicle Molds from Plastic Containers

It was getting hot outside, and the demand for something cold and icy was more than the supply. And the local dollar store ran out of popsicle molds! What to do? Though spoons in cups are my usual remedy, this solution is a bit nicer.

I used: little freezer containers, wooden popsicle sticks, a screwdriver and a hammer.

With the lid on the container, pound the screwdriver in the center of the lid just until it goes through.

My screwdriver was a bit small, and I was able to widen the hole with a popsicle stick. The sticks fit snugly in the hole and are at the same time easy to remove.

Wash containers and lids before use.

They freeze into rather chunky popsicles! But they'll do!

Here's another idea regarding using popsicle molds that was recently passed on to me: when the pops are frozen, unmold them and wrap each one in plastic wrap. Then re-fill the mold, and use popsicle sticks in them. You can make a huge supply this way so they are always available. 

McGuffey's Revised Readers Hardcover Set Review (and How to Break in a Book Tutorial)

I posted a while back about the Revised McGuffey's Readers reprints that I found on Christianbook.com. I bought my set and I am very, very impressed with them!

First of all, they LOOK and FEEL like "real" books! The embossed covers are just like what you would expect of an antique book, and they fit snugly in their slipcover. 

The content is mostly the same as the Mott Media Christian School versions that I grew up with, including the beautiful engravings. 

Amy dawdled 'til dinnertime, and all the other children picked the berries before she got there. 

One of the stories I did not recognize from our Mott Media paperbacks, which was a letter to Santa, but that is the only difference I have found so far. 

I hope these books last many generations and can be passed down! I would love to buy a set for all my family.

The books fit snugly in their slipcovers, and can be hard to get out at first. Remember to grasp them the right way to pull them out-- never from the top edge!

 How To "Break In" A New Book

I was taught that you do not just crack open a new book to read it. Here is how I open a new book, to "break it in" without breaking the binding:

 Start with the covers. Hold the pages up in the middle, and run the edge of your hand up and down in the corner between the cover and the pages.

Then do the other side.

Now take about 1/8 inch of pages or so, fold down to one side, and smooth with the edge of your hand, gently with very slight pressure. Switch to the other side and do the same. Alternate sides this way, until you have folded down all the pages to the middle. 

Give the middle a gentle smooth, not to heavy handed! You don't want to smash it.

Ta Da! Now you book lays flat and the pages turn nicely, without having to turn it almost inside-out  to make it do so (which just makes your pages fall out eventually!). The binding and signatures will be happier and serve you well if you use this method!

I am an affiliate with CBD and also have written a review on their site similar to this one. I was not sent this product to review. It is worth buying!