Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

I don't think I ever made freshly squeezed orange juice. We bought a big box of oranges from our food co-op and juiced a lot of them. I think we had fresh orange juice on Saturday mornings for quite a few weeks.

My youngest daughter especially enjoyed squeezing the oranges and lemons for lemonade. And my son enjoyed making a mess :)

Other Projects from July-August

Very random...some little projects completed. I've got to take pictures of other projects and then I'll add them.

I created this collage for Melodie in photoshop. I framed it for her as a gift along with a picture I took of her completing one of her Marathons. The collage lists all of the places she's ran half and full marathons. She's incredible!

Turned this old picture into a chalk board. It's pretty big!

Added black pom-pom trim to the nursery lamp. Love the "pop" of black. It goes well with the Mary Poppins art.

Sailing the Ocean Blue

My oldest really wanted to build this sail boat as shown on frugal family fun blog. I showed it to her and she immediately wanted to make it. We got the easle and drew the sun, birds, ocean, etc. Then we made oars with golf clubs, cut out cardboard and duct tape. We made looking glasses (binoculars) out old wrapping paper tubes. They had fun pretending to sail the ocean blue.

Learning New Homemaking Skillz

This summer has been such a blast. I hate to see it go. Some of the fun has been learning new homemaking skills. That sounds cheesy, but there are few things I love more than creating things for my family and friends, and our home.

Here are a few new things I learned this summer, that I loved making!

My husbands favorite pie is cherry pie. Not the kind you buy in a box at the grocery store, but real cherry pie.

My friend Rachael brought over lots of cherries and a pitter and we spent the afternoon with our kids pitting and dehydrating cherries. Then I made a cherry pie from scratch. It was DELISH!

I even tried braiding my homemade pie crust. Ya, I definitely need more practice! The thing in the middle is supposed to be a cherry decoration. haha.

I told Rach that I really want to start collecting pretty cake plates. She found this at the D.I. for me. It's gorgeous. The cloak has flowers etched into the side of the glass. And it's tall enough to fit a 3-4 layer cake inside. LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I also made jam for the first time by myself. I used the sure jell that calls for less sugar. Woa baby it's still a lot of sugar. I want to plant blackberry and raspberry bushes next year. Can't wait for raspberry jam! My favorite.

Dried apricots. I used to love eating these in Ukraine. I didn't love mine as much. I'm hoping to learn more about dehydrating food!

And last, but not least....the cake I made for Tom W. (you'd really have to know Tom W. to understand this cake). My dad was laughing until he was crying. I LOVE when dad does that. It was quite the hoot and so much fun to make. I was cracking up the whole time. I just drew on the body with a straight tip, and used a grass tip for the hair. The hostess snowballs added the perfect touch. Oh and don't forget the chocolate chips.