summer – Page 2

04/29

How To Make Healthy, Green Cactus-Shaped Ice Cubes

I’m pretty basic when it comes to what I drink. It’s coffee in the morning, water throughout the day and wine in the evening (some evenings). I love to add lemons, cucumber and mint to my water. You know what else I love to add? Chlorophyll. Sounds weird, right? Why am I adding the same pigment that give plants their green color in my water? Because it’s boasts healthy benefits, and I love it’s refreshing taste of mint.

Our mom introduced us to Chlorophyll when we were younger. Now, my own kids love a squeeze of Chlorophyll in their water, too. Water is a lot more fun for kids to drink when it has color, and it’s a lot better for moms when it’s not unhealthy green food coloring that turns it the color green. It’s a win/win for my family.

I recently saw a cute cactus ice cube mold at WalMart, and couldn’t resist. So, we made cactus ice cubes, and sipped water all afternoon. Young kids would love water with green lego or frog shaped ice cubes. Just think of the water they would want to drink, instead of those sugary sodas.

To make the ice cubes, add about 20 drops in 1/4 cup water. You can either use a dropper to put them in the ice cubes, or pour them in. Freeze, and that’s it. When I don’t have any ice cubes made, I follow the directions on the bottle and enjoy a nice green chlorophyll and water cocktail anyways.

*We are not doctors. Ask a doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have before starting a supplement. While this is something that works for us, it may or may not work for you. This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It’s just a fun (and healthier) way to make your ice cubes green, and enjoy a glass of water.

posted by three j. sisters Leave a Comment
Filed Under: inspiration Tagged: cactus, chlorophyll, green, sip, summer

06/26

Delicious 3-Ingredient Fruit Dip

Easy and delicious is one combo we can’t resist. If your looking for a yummy recipe to share at your next BBQ, or a festive side on the 4th of July, we’ve got an amazing recipe for you. Our grandma always has a tray of strawberries with this amazing 3-ingredient fruit dip every Easter. We devour it. We love anything with cream cheese, so it was bound to be a favorite from the beginning. Place it on a tray, pack it in a jar, dip strawberries or take a spoonful – whatever you do, make it! Yum.

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
Kraft jet-puff marshmallows, 7 oz.
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix all ingredients with a mixer in a bowl, refrigerate and serve with a large tray of strawberries. It’s that easy!

posted by three j. sisters Leave a Comment
Filed Under: lifestyle, recipe Tagged: cream cheese, fruit dip, july 4th, party, recipe, strawberries, summer

05/24

DIY Chalkboard Planters For Summer Herbs

It’s planting season again. Our favorite herbs to plant every year are Basil, Mint, Rosemary and Italian Parsley. We are not known for having a green thumb, but we always try and hope for the best each and every summer. Our luck (and planting skills) have better odds every year we try, right?!

This year, we made DIY chalkboard planters. Now, we’re not going to forget what we planted, and if the plant does happen to wilt and die (we are going to do our best to prevent that), we can easily change the name of the herb on the planter. It’s gonna be a good thing for us, and you, too. These planters are fantastic gifts for friends, teachers and neighbors, too!

Find the full tutorial at Momtastic.

Find the complete tutorial at Momtastic.

posted by three j. sisters Leave a Comment
Filed Under: diy, gifts, lifestyle Tagged: diy, Gift, herb, summer

05/02

DIY Pool Bag: Hello Sunshine

We love to spend our summers at the pool. We did it growing up with our mom, and we do it now with our kids. Jessica is a swim team mom, so she is at the pool earlier than she would like during the summer months, but she’ll take the summer over winter any day!

We made a DIY pool bag that just screams summer, and sunshine and tropical vibes. Tutorial for the bag is below. We’re also sharing some of our favorite summer pool essentials we fill our pool bags with.

Materials:

Pool Bag, Target (we found ours in Spot’s Bullseye’s Playground, but this one works)
Vinyl, yellow
Silhouette CAMEO electronic cutting machine

Directions:

Step 1: Find a cool file on Silhouette Software, like our pineapple one.

Step 2: Follow Silhouette directions to cut the vinyl with your machine. If you don’t have a machine, you can find cute pre-cut vinyl on etsy.

Step 3: If you don’t have transfer paper, line up Painter’s Tape along the pineapple cut out. Once the pineapple is covered use a straight edge over the pineapple, and then lift up the tape. Your entire pineapple should be stuck to the tape. Now, place in the exact spot you want the pineapple on the bag (tape down), and use a straight edge again to smooth out bubbles. Pull off the tape, layer by layer to reveal your pineapple. You can use a straight edge to move any bubbles, too!

Now, on to what’s in our pool bag.

POOL BAG ESSENTIALS

Solar Recover, Every Day Moisturizer: We can’t say enough about this spray. It smells heavenly, and it’s so cooling for the skin. We’ve used on burns, and it helps heal them. We spray our entire bodies everyday after we get out of the shower, whether we’ve been in the sun or not. It’s a must buy for the summer!

Sun Bum Sunscreen Spray SPF 30: We love the smell of this sunscreen, plus it’s fantastic brand of sunscreen. We love that it’s paraben-free, oil/PABA free, hypoallergenic, Oxybenzone free, Retinyl Palmitate Free, Vegan, Cruelty and Gluten Free. For those of your with babies or toddlers, Jenna loves this Babyganics spray sunscreen for her boys.

Sun Bum 3-In-1 Conditioner: Our hair gets so tangled after we get out of the water. This is a delicious-smelling 3-in-1 conditioner detangles, conditions and protects hair! Great for girls, too!

Sun Bum Lip Balm SPF 30: It’s so important to protect lips, too! This lip balm smells amazing, and feels good on the lips.

Quay Sunglasses: These aren’t in our bag, but we really want them to be. It’s on our must-buy list for summer style.

Beach Towels: Bright colors and tropical prints are what we’re loving for beach towels. If pink is your thing, try this. If cool blues are more your style, go with this towel.

Fun Pool Toys: We always keep extra pool toys in our bag for pool fun, and entertainment!

YETI Insulated Rambler: Something cold, whether it’s spike or not, is essential at the pool. Hydrate, hydrate!! We love Yeti ramblers because they can go in the dishwasher, and they keep liquids cold or hot for a long time.

Snacks: We don’t go anywhere without snacks for us and our kids. We are snackers. We are obsessed with Bobo’s Bars. They are made in our home state of Colorado, and so so yummy. Plus, they are gluten free.

Hats: Now that we are aging, we know more sun on our face means more wrinkles. So, we travel with our hats. If your more of a baseball cap lady, this is for you. If you want more coverage and style, go with this Do Not Disturb option.

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means j. sorelle receives a small commission from the sale of certain items; however, the price is the same for you, whether it’s an affiliate link or not.

posted by three j. sisters Leave a Comment
Filed Under: fashion, lifestyle Tagged: bag, diy, fashion, pineapple, pool, Silhouette, summer, sunscreen, tote

07/27

Throw A Sing Party for Kids With A DIY Outdoor Stage

Last year, the kids were mermaids and sharks. This year, they took center stage at a Sing inspired party. There was a DIY mini stage, good music, DIY candy microphones and characters from Illumination’s Sing. Fun was had by all, including the adults who took to the stage, too.

Once again, Jessica shopped Oriental Trading for most of the party’s decorations and favors. Shop OT for the red fringe curtain, gold stars, microphone trophy, white favor boxes, glow-in-the-dark bouncing eyeballs, Inflatable guitar s and star disco ball necklace.

Here’s how you can throw a Sing party for all your future super stars.

Materials:

Clear tall round craft tubes
Candy, Gummy Bears, M&M’s and Skittles
HUELE handheld stage, windscreen foam microphone cover
Plastic toy microphones
Puff paint
Large, metallic gold stars
Microphone trophy
White favor boxes
Glow in the dark bouncing eyeballs
Star disco ball necklace
Sharpie oil-based paint markers
Silhouette CAMEO

Directions:

Step 1: Visit Momtastic for the full DIY mini stage tutorial and materials needed. All the details are here, including the stage, Buster Moon and the moon and the DIY speakers. It’s totally affordable, and the fun can last all summer (and next summer, too) in your backyard.

Step 2: Make the DIY candy microphones. We can’t take credit for this idea. We found it here. Fill the clear tubes with candy, add the top to the tube, and then top it off with the colorful foam microphone covers. This was a huge hit with the kids, and we can foresee a classroom holiday gift with this one. To display the candy microphones, Jessica spray painted a box (from a recent Amazon purchase) red, and cut small holes on top with an X-acto knife. Make sure the holes are not too big, and not too small – they need to be just right (and snug) to hold and secure the microphone tubes. Next, paint or add white letters to the red box. We used a comment in the movie from Buster Moon, the koala. When a contestant was nervous, he said to, “Just…sing.”

Step 3: Prep the favor boxes. Make tags with characters on it with Microsoft Word and jpg’s of the characters online. We gave the kids bouncing eyeballs in honor of Miss Crawly’s, the chameleon assistant in the movie, bouncing eyeball. Another fun favor was the Star disco ball necklaces, trophies (see below) and toy microphones.

Step 4: One must have a trophy for a singing competition. Luckily for our guests, they were all winners, or Sing champs. We made custom labels on the Oriental Trading microphone trophies with vinyl and our Silhouette CAMEO electronic cutting machine. We designed the words, Sing Camp, and put the vinyl on each trophy.

Step 5: Hang the gold stars. Use a white Sharpie oil-based paint marker to write all the guests names on the stars. Hang the stars with string. Jessica used a piece of cardboard, and her Silhouette machine to cut out RISING STAR letters with Astrobrights Paper.

Step 6: Every singer needs a microphone. We had a karaoke machine, as well as toy microphones with everyone’s name on it. Use puff paint to add the names. White shopping Target, Jessica found an empty box with holes in it (used to store another toy on the shelf). She added it to her cart for $0, and wrapped it with wrapping paper. Each microphone fit perfectly inside each hole.

Step 7: Sing and have a good time.

Oriental Trading sent us some items of our choosing for this post, free of charge. We’re so happy they did! All opinions are honest, and our own. No other type of compensation was received. Thanks for supporting the companies that support j. sorelle. We love Oriental Trading, even before this post.

This post contains affiliate links.

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posted by three j. sisters Leave a Comment
Filed Under: diy, kid, party Tagged: candy, diy, kid, microphone, party, sing, summer

How To Make Healthy, Green Cactus-Shaped Ice Cubes

Delicious 3-Ingredient Fruit Dip

DIY Chalkboard Planters For Summer Herbs

DIY Pool Bag: Hello Sunshine

Throw A Sing Party for Kids With A DIY Outdoor Stage

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