Delicious Iced Coffee

This tasty recipe comes from Food52 via good ol' Pinterest. My goal is to actually try to make some of the things that I pin so here's one of hopefully many more.

Sweet Cinnamon Iced Coffee

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

2/3 cups coarsely ground coffee

1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups water

3 tbsp dark brown sugar

milk, half and half, cream

Mix ground coffee, cinnamon, water, and dark brown sugar in jar that holds at least 3 cups of liquid.

Cover and refrigerate overnight to let all the goodness blend together.

Pour the coffee mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Strain back into the jar.

Fill a glass about halfway with ice. Pour in coffee and add milk/half and half/cream to desired taste.

Enjoy! My sister, who was in town for the weekend, and I enjoyed ours together.

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Berried Treasure

This may quite possibly be one of the easiest and most amazingly delicious recipes ever. It's great if you are having company over and want to make a quick, easy, dessert for everyone. Make it. You won't be sorry. If you don't make it, you will be sorry.

BERRIED TREASURE

Crust:

1.5 cups graham crackers crumbs (1.5 sleeves of graham crackers crushed)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter - melted

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well. Press firmly in a 9x13 baking dish and bake for 8 minutes at 350. Cool (you can stick it in the fridge to speed up the process)





Put the graham crackers into a large ziploc bag. Use a rolling pin or wine bottle to crush.






I mixed the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl then spread and pressed into the baking dish.

Filling:

One 8 oz. cream cheese - softened

1/4 cup of sugar

2 T plus 2.5 cups of cold milk

16 oz. cool whip - thawed

1 pint of strawberries – halved

1 pint blueberries (you can use any kind of berry you want)

6.8 oz vanilla instant pudding (I used two packages of the 3.4 oz boxes)

Beat cream cheese with 1/4 cup sugar and 2 T of milk until smooth; fold in 1/2 of Cool Whip.

 Spread this over the already baked and cooled crust and arrange the strawberries (and other berries if you want) on top as the picture below.



I've found that using a plain old spoon works best.

Mix the pudding packages (6.8 oz total) and 2.5 cups of milk; beat 1-2 minutes, or until pudding consistency.

Use two 3.4 oz instant vanilla pudding packets with 2.5 cups milk.






If can you notice here, the mix is still very liquidy. Just keep stirring until it is a pudding consistency. This could take anywhere from 1-4 minutes.






A nice, thick pudding consistency.



Pour the pudding mixture over the strawberries/berries and chill for several hours or overnight.





Spread with remaining Cool Whip before serving. Garnish with berries if desired.

Mmmm, MMMM!!! This would be the perfect dessert for the upcoming holiday weekend! Or if you just feel like eating a little piece of heaven.

You can print off the recipe here.

Thank you, Kari, for making my life better by introducing me to this recipe. Click here to see where I love to share my recipes and creations each week!

Costa Rica Vacation

Life has been busy lately and with the weather starting to be perfect, I just haven't been around to blog. I have some things to share though and summer break is just about here for me so I think that I'll be around a little more. For now, I just wanted to share some of the photos from our trip to Costa Rica in April. Enjoy!

My AMAZINGLY Talented Sister

I am one proud sister! My "little" (she's 25 so she's really not that little) sis, Emily, works as an assitant designer for Carter's in Atlanta. She is just so darn talented and her first solo design that she was working on last summer hit Target stores a couple of weeks ago. I went the second that I could after returning from our trip to Costa Rica (more on that later).

Here's my beautiful sister sitting next to her masterpieces.



After standing in front of the display of 9 onesies (actually, they're called creepers), I decided on six that I wanted even though really I could have bought them all. I was totally bragging about my sis to the check-out lady and when I went back a few days later I was again bragging to an expecting mama who was considering buying a few. If you see a crazy lady in Target standing next to this display and saying "My sister designed these!" then that's probably me!

Head on over to Target which I'm sure most of you out there frequent at least once a week and show my sister some love by purchasing one or two or three. I don't even have kids yet and bought four for myself!




As if these creepers aren't cute enough from just the front, they also have a cute graphic or ruffle on the bum. Love it!



Cute, huh?

Vacation Mode!

Hi friends! I've been a bit MIA lately and that's because I've been packing for our trip to Costa Rica this week! I'm super pumped about it. We've been running around all weekend trying to make sure we have the things we need. I think I've packed and repacked my suitcase about 5 different times trying to eliminate the things I don't really need. We only take carry-ons whenever we travel so its a challenge (though a fun one in my opinion) to make it all fit and only take what we need.

Can't wait to get some R&R, do a little hiking, ziplining, horseback riding, and eating. I'll share some photos upon my return.

Have a great week!

Yarn Wreath Tutorial

Today I will be showing you how to make a yarn wreath with felt flowers. This is a super easy project, that I recommend doing with some girlfriends, putting on a chick-flick, pouring some vino, and making a fun night of it. I myself enjoyed sitting outside in the 70 degree sunshine. A rare treat for March in Chicago.

Here's what you'll need:

1 wreath (mine has an 8" diameter)*
1 ball of yarn (You'll use about half)
1/4 yd felt in the color(s) of your choice (1/4 yard should get you about 8-12 flowers)
hot glue gun/sticks

*I originally made the wreath using an idea I had seen on Pinterest where you buy gray pipe insulation from Home Depot and duct tape it to make a DIY wreath. It didn't work. At least not for me. The wreath began to droop and I was slightly annoyed. Just buy a wreath from a craft store. It's only about $3-$5 more at Joann's or Michael's.

The How-To:

Start by tying a knot around the wreath. This will be your starting point. Add a dab of hot glue to hold it in place.

It's best to wrap the yarn in sections using about 4-5 feet of yarn at a time. Any longer and it may get tangled and keeping it attached to the ball of yarn wasn't working well for me. How you wrap is completely up to you and your style, but I wrapped and overlapped. There was really no rhyme or reason.

After you finish wrapping your yarn, keep it in place with a dot of hot glue then continue on with the next section. Continue on with this until the entire wreath is finished. This took me about 45 minutes to an hour. Again, it'd be super fun to hang out with girlfriends and chit-chat while doing this to make the time pass.

Now it's time to make some cute felt flowers. You can use a DVD or CD to trace a cirle on the felt. I just cut a circle the best I could without a stencil.

Start cutting the felt into a spiral. When you are almost to the center, leave a cirle about 1-2 inches wide. You'll eventually glue this onto the bottom of the wrapped flower to hold it in place.

Starting where you first cut, begin twisting the fabric around itself tightly. You could add a dab of glue here and there, but if you are twisting it tight enough and supporting it with your fingers well you shouldn't need to. Why risk burning yourself with the hot glue gun anymore than you need to???


As you're spiraling your flower, give the fabric an occasional twist to add depth and texture. This is what I did.


Or, you could just keep winding it up without any twists and this is what it would look like. It's just a personal preference.


When you get to the end of your fabric with the circle, add some hot glue to the circle and press it against the bottom of the flower to hold is all in place.


Do this for however many flowers you like. Usually an odd number of flowers look best together. Figure out an arrangement for the flowers on your wreath then hot glue them on. Finally, add a pretty ribbon and hang it on your door!

I'm a neutral color girl but I do love pops of color. I chose more neutral colors for my wreath and decided that the color of the ribbons could be switched for the different holidays and seaons of the year. I think this wreath would look gorgeous with a burnt orange ribbon for the fall. I made this one for my mother-in-law whose birthday was the day after mine. I may just have to make another one for myself!

I would LOVE to see your yarn wreath if you end up doing this project.

Click here to see where I like to share my crafts and recipes each week.