Homemade Lemonade In Recycled Glass Bottles

Do you ever make homemade lemonade?

It's such a nice treat for summer.

My kids love it.

So do I.

A friend just gave us a bag of lemons from her tree.
They're Meyer lemons.  The very best kind of lemons.
We desperately need to plant our own Meyer lemon tree.
They're that good.
And if you don't have a lot of space, you can get a dwarf one and plant it in a big pot.
These lemons are super juicy, they smell divine and taste even better.
They're almost sweet.
Perfect for fresh squeezed lemonade.

After Lilly and I mixed up a big batch, I decanted them into these glass jars.

They originally held sparkling lemonade.  I bought a few bottles for a party once.
(I think it was this kind.  but I got mine from Fresh and Easy and they were cheaper.)

I liked them so much, I hung onto them.  

You just can't throw away perfectly good bottles like this.

I mean, they're from France.

They say citron.

I like them lots.

I like the stoppers on top with the red, rubber seal.
And the metal clasp--so vintage looking.
Best thing is, they were about $3.00 each and I can use them for years.
I put water in them and put them out for parties.
So much better than small, plastic, water bottles with an ugly label, am I right?
It's all in the details.
Besides, doing it this way is cheaper and less wasteful.


So go on, make some lemonade this weekend.
And keep an eye out for glass bottles you can save and use again, all summer long.
Cheers!
Love from,
Greta

I used this lemonade recipe.  

It's super easy.

It's goooood.  

But I'd change the sugar amount to 1 and a 1/2 cups or even test it at 1 and 1/4 and then add a bit more.

I like my lemonade a little less sweet.

We still have some left.  I think I'll go have a glass right now.

Another Real Life Birthday Party: An Afternoon Tea

Our Lilly is almost 3.  For her birthday party, she had 2 requests, pink and a tea party.
I love to throw my kids birthday parties.
But my due date is 10 days before Lil's birthday, so I wasn't sure how we were going to work out having a brand new baby and hosting a birthday party.
In the end, I chose to do it almost a month early so that we could have a party for her before we began to deal with all the changes that are coming her way once the new baby arrives.
It was a good choice.
However, when you are planning a birthday party 2 weeks before your due date, you have to scale things down.
Especially when the night before you are walking through contractions in the hospital lobby.


So, here you go: 
Another Real Life Birthday Party: An Afternoon Tea

We set up small tables and chairs underneath the avocado tree. (some mine, some borrowed.  always ask around and borrow before you buy)
The tables were all set with our vintage, melamine tea pieces.  Melamine works so nicely for a little girl's tea party--it feels real, yet it is almost unbreakable.   You have to love those thrift store finds!
To dress the table, I used vintage table cloths or favorite pieces of fabric.  (un-hemmed--just folded and put on the table--works perfectly)

For napkins, I expanded on my "handkerchiefs as napkins" idea.  
My friend Alicia used vintage hankies for her daughter's tea party, (expanding on my idea as well) and when I found 10 gorgeous, vintage hankies at an estate sale for $1, I snatched them up and copied her back.  Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?
They looked so pretty on the table.
All different patterns and colors, but still beautiful together.

Lilly's love of pink and the turquoise teas pieces I had became my color palette.
For decorations, I decided to use pom poms again, just like last year.
I knew they'd be perfect hanging from the tree for the little girls to sit under as they had tea.
Here is the tutorial for how to make them.
They are so fun and festive.
And easy!  Aaron and his mom whipped them up for me an hour before the party.

The table was very simple.
I used as many of my turquoise and blue dishes as I could.
Those are colors I have a lot of dishes in (perfect for baby showers!) because I like to collect in certain color palettes. It worked out nicely.
We borrowed Lilly's cousin's fancy silver tea set for decoration.  (boy did Lilly love it--i think i know what to get her for Christmas)
The table cloth is from Target.  I've been waiting for it to go on clearance, and it did!  Score!

The food was very simple too.
Since I literally began getting ready for this party the morning of, and had to go to James' 2nd to last baseball game at 10:30, I did not have time for lots of food prep.
I served strawberries, crackers and brie, pretzels for the little girls who aren't yet brie fans, meringue cookies (thank you Trader Joe's!) and pink lemonade.
There were no tea sandwiches or lady fingers and no one seemed to mind.
Just keeping it real, friends.

The girls took their plates to the table and sat and ate and chatted.
Watching them sit there together was my favorite part of the party.
It made me want to have a little girls tea party with Lilly and her friends every month.

I loved the way napkins were spread in laps and dolls and bears came to the table, too.
It was just very sweet and simple, like a party for a little girl should be.

The one thing I did make from scratch were, of course, the cupcakes.
Lilly wanted pink.
So I made strawberry.  
I used this recipe and I think they are the most amazing strawberry cupcakes out there. 
Seriously.  Made with fresh strawberries, they are moist and sweet; you can't get enough.

The frosting is a butter cream with fresh strawberries added.
You are supposed to puree the strawberries but I did not have time (made the cupcakes and frosting hours before the party), so I just chopped them small and added them to the frosting.
It was chunky and, not super beautiful, but no one seemed to mind.  
The taste was the thing.  
And they tasted good!

After tea and cupcakes, we just let the girls play.
I didn't plan games or crafts because at 3, the most fun thing is to play house and babies with your best girl friends.
To climb up the crows nest on the play house and to get pushed on the swing.
That's what they all did and they had a great time.

When it was time to go home. everyone took a Hello Kitty coloring book and a couple of little lollipops.  
My mother in law tied them up for me with the cute pink bow.
It was an easy but still fun party favor.
Who doesn't love Hello Kitty?

At the end of the day, it felt like just the right kind of party for Lil.

It was just what I had hoped it would be for her.

Honestly, I did not do any preparations until the morning of the party.

I bought the non perishables the day before (coloring books, tissue paper, crackers, etc) but assembled nothing until Saturday morning.

I just didn't know if I'd be spending Saturday at the hospital or at home.

With a lot of help from my wonderful husband Aaron, who just kept saying, "what can I do next?", from the grandmas, who came a bit early to frost cupcakes and make tissue paper pom poms and from the grandpas, who kept the kids busy, I was able to throw this party together at the last minute.

I could not have done it without their help.

But, you probably won't be wondering if you're in labor the night before your tea party, so this is one party you can definitely throw for your little girl.

It's easy!

To see more pictures of the fun, please visit my other blog, Lilly and the Brothers.

If baby doesn't come today, I'll be back tomorrow with another nursery tour.  

This one is amazing.  You won't want to miss it.

See you then!

Maybe.

Love from,

Greta

Getting Ready for Baby Means a Room Redo

We are at 32 days and counting people.

As I have mentioned before, that means frantic cleaning and organizing of closets, drawers and especially the kids' room.

Yes, all 3 of our kids share a room.

That's 2 boys and 1 girl.

And before too much longer, there will be a fourth one in there.

Can you really fit all those kids in one room?

Yep.

Come see.

This was the big addition to the room.  The Malm dresser from IKEA.
We went shopping in Aaron's art studio to get it, which required a lot of rearranging in there for him, but it was his idea so he didn't mind.
I won't lie--not a huge fan of this piece of furniture.
I don't mind how it looks--clean lines and all that.
But the quality is sadly lacking.
It's IKEA and the truth is, $100 furniture just doesn't have the smooth gliding drawers, the heft, the drawer bottoms NOT made our of cardboard, that we all appreciate in well made furniture.
But we're making the most of what we've got and this is it.
Besides, it's big, it fits the space, has 2 drawers for each kid and most importantly, it got the clothes out of the closet and allowed me to re-organize to my crazy pregnant heart's content.


It also allowed for some redecorating.  
I'll give you a tour.


First, the dresser top.
Being that the room is for boys and girls, I have gone with a woodsy, foresty motif in here.
We all love being outdoors and trees and such, so it works.
Observe the vintage books about trees and insects.
Vintage books make great decorating accessories.

I've been collecting these animals for my kids since they were born.  They usually get one in their stocking and sometimes in their Easter basket of for their birthday.  Each one is marked with a date and name on the bottom so that when they have their own babies, I can pass them along.
I am kind of freakishly sentimental about things like that.  
I love the idea of passing things on.
And these are the kind of toys you can save for the next kids and the next and the next.
All the forest animals have been gathered for out dresser top.
And do you see the birds in the picture above?  I love them!

Here is a decoupage homage to the 3 most important men in my life.  

And that red owl is actually a bank, made from wood, from France.  We gave it to Lil for her first birthday.

Another pass-on present.

Except I kind of want to keep it for myself.  Would it be weird to get another one for me?

You can find it here.  (one of my favorite shops btw)

Moving Lilly's kitchen from this spot meant wall space opening up.
I went shopping in our poster collection and found this one we bought on a trip to Chicago about 10 years ago.
Not kidding.
Vintage reproduction of a Chicago railway sign.
Perfect combo of vintage, bright colors and woodsyness for their room.  
When I hung it, William came in and said, "Mommy, that poster looks great!"
And James said, "and I like how you used different color tacks in each corner."
Kids care about their environment--and it doesn't have to be all cartoon Transformers and Dora the Explorer just because they are kids.  Give them real, beautiful things.

There is also some other art that I made for them.
This collage shows more of the woodsy motif and also the color palette I chose for a boy/girl room.
Turquoise, orange, pink and splashes of red.
Bright, cheerful and so us.

The collage is made on part from photocopied pages of a favorite vintage book.
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is illustrated by Alice and Marin Provensen and it is one of my TREASURES.  
Found it at a used book sale for like a $1.  (see more of their work here)

Other woodsy "art" around the room.  

A birth announcement from a friend whose seriously talented brothers always make her awesome birth announcements, a vintage Sequoia pendant found at a garage sale, and a framed, vintage, squirrel post card which inspired the woodsy motif in the first place.

You can turn most anything into art as long as it looks good.

(one of my favorite decorating tricks--these colored tacks make hanging things with tacks look waaay cuter.  i use them everywhere)

I also like to display a vintage toy or 2.  Remember this one?
It kind of works still, but mostly I love the colors and the art.

Here's Lilly's corner of the room.

Here's her wall of art.  
Another collage made by me with photocopied art from another favorite children's book and illustrator.  (his books are so amazing)
Her birth announcement framed, red polka dot bird hook and a ceramic cuckoo clock from a garage sale.  She has a lot of bird stuff cause I love to put a bird on it!

Her tiny, Snow White and the 7 dwarfs bed is made up with vintage linens: the quilt was an estate sale find for $4 and the pillowcase was made by my great grandma.

I love that.

The boys get the bunk bed.

It's huge but solid and that's good considering all the wrestling that takes place on the bottom bunk.

Wrestling is outlawed on the top bunk.

The orange "packing style" quilts are from IKEA.  I like how clean they look and how easy they are for the boys to tuck into the sides of their bed when they make the bed.

(and yes, we try to make the beds every single morning.  it makes for a saner room and mommy)

I really want more art for their side of the room but have yet to figure out how to hang it along the bottom bunk--due to all the wrestling and feet on the wall all the time.

(do your kids do that?  drives me crrraaaazzzy!)

Laminated posters?

What would a room in my house be without a garland?  
(or bunting or pendants or flags or whatever the heck you want to call them.  i love them and they make me really happy)
Made from paper, not sewn, for all you non sewers out there.  Yes, you too can have a garland.
On Lil's side the garland has more pink papers, on the boys' there is more turquoise.

I also gave the boys a spot to display their Lego creations.
Right now it s makeshift, just the shelves on the top of Lilly's kitchen, but we're going to put up a few more real shelves so they can display their other treasures too: pine wood derby cars, vintage Star Wars glasses etc.

With the addition of the dresser, we had to re-arrange the kitchen pieces.  

The fridge now sits in this little spot.  I admit it's tight, but I think it works.

It is offensive to Aaron's sense of feng shui though, so it might not last.

The main reason for all the moving about and reorganizing was really the closet.
3 kids, all their clothes and most of their toys in one closet was a bit of a disaster.
The clothes especially.
We had them in baskets that were hard for anyone but my oldest to access.
Nothing stayed neat or the least bit orderly.
Thus the dresser.
Now there are just a few hanging clothes and everything else goes in the dresser.  The kids can find their own underwear and jammies, baseball uniforms and play clothes.
It is a better system.


That, I think is the key to having kids share a room.
1.  They can't have a ton of stuff. 
For example, my kids don't have a lot of clothes--I would love to buy them more, but they won't fit and truthfully it's not in the budget.  
And really, they don't need a ton of clothes anyway.

2.  Toys must be organized in some fashion
A lot of those baskets up top are empty.  We still have space for things as we need it.  Others are filled with toys they don;t use often, like the musical instruments.
They know dress up clothes, or weapons go in the baskets on the floor and so they can clean up themselves.
Their massive collection of tiny, Playmobil people and parts are organized by theme into different bins.
They are not supposed to take them all out at the same time.
I know, I'm a toy nazi.
But when you've got knights, pirates, animal trainers and construction workers all strewn across the floor at the same time, you'd turn into a toy nazi too.

3.  Use shelves in the closet for all they're worth.

Aaron retrofitted this closet with lots of extra shelves when we moved in.  By storing almost all their toys in the closet, it frees up space in the room for them to play.

Also, we can close the closet doors and the room is clean!

4.  Get those Legos organized
If you have little boys, chances are you have Legos.
Legos are the bane of my existence.  My boys have a gazillion because their daddy had a gazillion and he saved them all.
In a tribute to my neurosis, I organized them all by color and they are stored in these plastic bins from Target under the bed. (hey, it keeps me off meds.  get off my back)
It actually does work.
When they want to build a fire station, they pull out the red box and build away. 
It's easier for them to clean up by themselves too.
I'm all about helping them do things themselves, have you noticed?

So there you go.

3 kids, 1 room, and a mommy not losing her mind from the chaos that could (and still will) erupt in there.

We are 5, soon to be 6, people living in a not that big house.

We are always looking for ways to make it work without feeling like we are crammed in here.

And most of the time, I don't feel cramped.

Especially when I remember that to much of the rest of the world, we live in a mansion.

It's only here, in the land of the McMansion, that people say things like, "4 kids in a 1950s, 3 bedroom house?  How do you do it?"

I just tell them to read the book, The Color of Water.

Which, incidentally, you should read too.  
No really, I mean it. It's a reality check and it will move you.

Hey, it's almost the weekend!  
Time for me to work on our bedroom and the baby's corner.
The crib is up.  Do you know how hard it is to find turquoise crib sheets?
The hunt is on.

Love from,

Greta


PS.  Forgot to tell you the best part. Money spent on room redo: $0!!!  
Shopped my house.
I didn't spend countless hours at my parent's house last Saturday watching HGTV for nothing.  I learned stuff.  

Birthday Parties For the Rest of Us

If you spend much time on blogs or looking at magazines nowadays, it seems party planning is reaching the status of Olympic sport.
Or more so.
Like way, crazy more so.
Parties, especially kids' birthday parties, have gotten a little over the top.


Oh yes, they are inspiring to look at.  Beautiful.  Clever.  Adorable.  Sometimes even amazing.
And, truth be told, I do dream of throwing a party like that for my kids.
But, as I mentioned in this post, parties are expensive and time consuming.
I don't have a $400 budget for a birthday party.
I don't even have a $150 budget.
Nor do I have gobs of time on my hands.
I'm just a 35 week pregnant Mommy of 3, who is awfully tired every night, and working with a real life party budget, who still wants to throw a great birthday party for her kids.
Is it possible?
Yes.
Check it out: A Birthday Party For the Rest of Us


When my boys decided they wanted a space party, I perused the internet and some magazines for ideas.
There were lots.
But in the end, I came back to my tried and true party planning methods.


1.  Choose a color palette.
Turquoise and red seemed an obvious choice for a space party.  Lots of space themed things come in those colors.  But more importantly, I have lots of table ware, paper and other decorations in those colors. 
Choose a color palette you already love, then you won't have to buy new things.  
(i used the same color palette for Lilly's party last year--see here)

2.  Yarn and Paper make simple, inexpensive and fun decorations.
We always have yarn around our house.  It is good for a myriad of things.  Like garlands.
Making a garland with paper is faster and easier than sewing one.  Simply cut out flags or hole punch circles, and string on some yarn.  
I already had all of the paper on hand, because I look for paper in my color palette on clearance at Michael's or other crafty stores.  
After the party, I save the pieces for use at another time.  I can mix and match or simply re-use.

This garland I made from coasters by one of my favorite shops.  I found them in the clearance bin at a craft fair.  Since they were in one of my favorite color palettes, I knew I'd use them later.  
A hole punch, some yarn and photocopied 5s and 7s were all it took to make these up.


Aaron found this Nasa logo online, printed and laminated a bunch of them.
Again, a hole punch and some yarn and voila, badges for our guests.

 3.  Goodie Bags don't have to be extravagant

When you are making goodie bags for 20 kids, you can easily spend a small fortune.  I want to give the kids something to take home, but if I spend even $10 on each bag, I have far exceeded my budget.

To decorate the bags, I used plain paper bags for the goodie bags.  I stamped them with a 5 and 7 stamp I already had.  The Saturn stamp I found for $2 in a clearance basket at Paper Source.  I bought it, knowing it would come in handy some day.

Inside the bags, I put 3 small lollipops, because kids love getting candy in the goody bags, but parents don't love them getting candy in the goody bags.

These small lollies seem like a good compromise.

I also included a coloring sheet.   It's really a place mat my mother-in-law- gave the boys and I saved.  Again, knowing it would come in handy one day.  We just copied it, rolled it and tied it with yarn.

The other sheet is a paper airplane with directions to fold and fly it printed on the back.

I can't remember where we got them, but we have a ton.  James loves to make them.  But the other guests, parents included, found them a little challenging.  Oh well, the look cool.

4. Decorate with what you have

I admit this was easy for us. We seem to have a lot of space themed items around our house.

And a lot of them are vintage since we have quite the love affair with vintage.

I just went shopping around the house to find the other decorations for the party.

We put together little vignettes around the yard.  

Aaron made this one.  

The thermos is part of his collection and what says space more than an American flag? 

I also gathered together many of the space books we have on hand  and set them out for decorations and for the kids to read.  They were a big hit.

I used them to decorate the table, as well as some of the kids space themed toys.

5.  Don't go crazy with the food.
I saw lots of space themed food.  Some of it was weird and the kids would never eat it.  Or it was so time consuming you would be up all night making alien shaped, green sandwich cookies.
Just pick a few of the things you know kids will like best, some things the adults will enjoy also, and cut yourself some slack.
 I always make a big batch of my hummus and serve veggies.  Fresh strawberries are a sweet treat and feel more special than a bowl of grapes.  Potato chips and onion dip are a treat too, for kids and grown-ups alike.  And what kid doesn't like cheese crackers?
I serve lemonade and iced tea, along with water.  
I usually pick a couple items to make from scratch and purchase the rest.  Most everything else requires little or no prep.
That's helpful when you are getting ready for a party, right?

6.  Don't stress yourself out with the games.  

The boys wanted to do a shooting gallery with their Nerf guns.  Aaron found a bunch of space themed art, put point valued on them, printed and laminated them.  We hung them on the garage and throughout the party, kids just came up and enjoyed the shooting gallery.

It was easy and required little supervision.

 We had a couple other games planned, but it seemed most kids wanted to climb the tree, run around or ride the swing.  So we went with it.  
My dad, Aaron's dad and Aaron all put in a lot of time pushing kids on that swing.  
It's always a big hit.

7.  Sometimes you forget things
Usually, I like to make little flags or some other kind of decoration for the cupcakes.  But this time, I didn't remember until the morning of.  So the cupcakes got blue sprinkles.  (boys' choice)
I did make the cupcakes and the frosting, because I am kind of a stickler about that.
(fine--I'm a total freak--I hate frosting from a tub and will always make it myself.  so shoot me.)

8.  Don't wait for everything to be perfect or you'll never have a party.

This one used to be really hard for me.

I'd want to make sure that the whole house was "done", all the flower beds planted, each window sparkling and so on and on and on before we'd have a party.

Now a days, that just isn't realistic.  

We're in the middle of a lot of home renovation projects.  So yes, our back wall is still a bunch of colors.  So is our front wall.  (i'm sure our neighbors love us)  And maybe the bedroom windows did not get washed, but no one is really looking in there anyway, right?  

When I have a full staff on hand to help me prep for a party, everything will be perfect.

Until then, everything will be real.

I do love to have parties, for my kids and all other sorts.  

It is actually fun for me.

But it is more fun when I have a system and tried and true tricks that make it work.

Then it's a lot less stress and a lot more fun.

So tell me, what are your party planning tips?

I'm always on the look out for new ideas.

Love from,

Greta