Strawberry Pink Lemonade Slushies

If you were me, your mouth would already be watering after reading that title. Good thing I'm the one that already knows how to make these. But you soon will too... No worries.

The best part? You don't have to measure. 

I'm pretty sure all ratios of strawberries and pink lemonade taste good.

But this is my secret that makes this better than it normally would be: pink lemonade ice cubes.

 You only need two ingredients to make this delish little treat: frozen strawberries and pink lemonade.

And some pink lemonade made into ice cubes, so plan a little bit ahead for that. And a blender.
I use my lovely little Magic Bullet, courtesy of my mother via my last birthday.

I usually add about 4-6 strawberries and 3-4 ice cubes.

Then I add the liquid pink lemonade, about enough to cover the top of your frozen ingredients. 

The less you add the more frosty your slush will be, but it can be hard to get everything well blended if there's not enough liquid. The batch I made below was a little bit too thick to blend completely, so judge accordingly.

Now you just need to blend it up!

Happiness in a slushy.

Enjoy!

peace&love,

Jill

The Wedding Files #2: How to Pick a Color Palette

 

Let's be honest. I didn't just pick these colors. I've known I wanted them for about a year now.

So these are my colors:

I'm going for a very vintage-y vibe with this whole shebang, and this is the perfect palette for that, in my opinion. A lot of people expected me to throw some green in, but I resisted. Barely.

Plum and ice blue are our base colors for a very special reason. Plum is my favorite color and light blue is hubby-to-be's. And they are so great yet unexpected together, just like us, I like to think. They will work well for a summer wedding, but they aren't what you see everyday, both of which are aspects that were important to us.

My opinion is that the colors should represent both parties. There is nothing that gets under my skin more than weddings where you know that the bride picked everything and the groom's input was probably completely ignored, if he felt like sharing any at all. The common idea that the wedding is "for the girl" is ridiculous. If a guy can put his heart on the line to ask a girl to marry him, he should at least get to have (or want to have!) some input into the party that results. It's the start of a new life together. This has been important to John and I from the beginning because we want it be our wedding, every step of the way.

So back to colors: Think about your favorite colors, what looks good on each of you, what colors look good together. Think about suit colors and favorite flowers. And yes, consider what colors you will be able to find bridesmaid dresses in that won't cost an arm and a leg. But here is my biggest piece of advice:

DON'T JUST PICK TWO COLORS.

You need a palette.

I design for theater a lot and if it has taught me anything it is that designs work when you have core colors surrounded by things that compliment them. For my palette that means we start with the plum and ice blue, richen it up with a purple with more grey in it, and add the grey, burlap, and ivory neutrals to keep everything simple with an old world feeling. Now when I'm looking for decorations, flowers, and other things, there's some flexibility. I know what ALL my colors are.

More to come!

peace&love,

Jill

Home Sweet Home

 I'm in a new house at college now, for my final semester, and my gosh I love it.

 Cooking everything is a little intimidating, but I like it. 

Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Now if we can just get fiance up here everything would be pretty great.

Just one more week!

peace&love,

Jill

Favorite Things

 

This is what I'm loving right now. Click the photos for the links to the buying info.

The Wedding Files #1: Planning Your Wedding Yourself

 

Some of my wedding planning board over on Pinterest. Click the pic to see my whole board.

For me, a wedding planner wasn't even an option. I know what I want, and I think I can make it happen a lot more effectively if I'm at the wheel. I am blessed to have a fabulous maid of honor and the best groom a girl could want, as well as supportive family and friends to help me plan every step of the way.

One of the first things I did when I got engaged was to look up wedding to-do checklists because I realized:

I had no idea what to do.

I came across this one, which has served me well so far. At the very beginning, however, I went through the whole thing and crossed out everything that didn't apply to me so that I wouldn't be stressed out by lots of unchecked off items in each time bracket.

Then I headed over to Pinterest. Now, I've been dreaming about my wedding for a long time, so my wedding file was already pretty fat, but I added a lot to it over those first few weeks. Now it is serving as my home base for wedding planning and it's nice to be able to just send my mother and my maid of honor to my Pinterest page instead of trying to describe things to them. It is also helping me to cut down on the ideas coming in and figuring out what I am actually going to do vs. what is just adorable. I would highly suggest it. So whether your engaged or not, it's always a good time to request a Pinterest invite. It comes in handy when you're planning anything: even just your outfit for work tomorrow.

Extra points if you can guess my color scheme from the pictures... I'll warn you: there are some misleading pins. Cheers!

peace&love,
Jill

Packing for College

 

Yeah, I had to fit this all in my car.

Luckily I'm already in the throes of unpacking, but for those unlucky among you who still have moving to do, check out my post on College Fashion: Packing Shortcuts: 6 Tips for Bringing Your Stuff to College. 

peace&love,
Jill

Back to School Crafts: Button Thumbtacks

Aren't these just darling? I had so many buttons that were cute, but not quite cute enough to be ring material and so they became these sweet little button thumbtacks!

And here's the tutorial:

Buttons + E6000 Glue + Thumbtack = Button Thumbtack.

Please leave a comment if you're interested in more detail than that.

(In all seriousness, please comment. I will not judge you, I promise, and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.) 

I found that it was easiest to push the thumbtacks into something (I used the cardboard they came in, but a cork board would work too) while I glued the button on to the top so that the glue didn't seep through the button holes, but after that glue started to set up I took the tacks out of the board and laid them button side down so that they would fully dry straight.

 

And that's it! Enjoy!

peace&love,

Jill