Summer. A time where you can sleep in, camp along the coast,and visit faraway places, all under the sun! These were just a few of the things my sister and I experienced this summer. Originally, we had a plan for this blog’s summer post: a summer bucket list. We thought of fun ideas to do this summer, expecting to have a lot of down time. Much to our surprise, our dad surprised our family with a trip to Disneyworld in Florida! It was great to have family time this summer. Along with that vacation, we also went camping in Carpinteria, CA with some family and friends. I had the opportunity to spend a week in Glorieta, NM with my youth group at a summer camp which was definitely a highlight of my summer! I also spent a week competing with my volleyball team in Phoenix, AZ. With fall just around the corner, we thought we should put some of our favorite things we did, saw,made, etc. from summer on the blog.
In June, my family decided to make homemade jam from all the apricots we got from Abundant Harvest. Abundant Harvest is a company that provides organic fruits and vegetables from local farmers. Everything always tastes so delicious! My family is always eager to get our weekly box full of delicious produce. If you want to learn more about Abundant Harvest, click here!
Here is the recipe for Apricot Honey Jam. This recipe came with our box. We doubled the recipe and made about 13 jars of jam that we were able to give as presents. (We kept some of the deliciousness to ourselves,though ;))
Apricot Honey Jam
Recipe:
- 4 lb fresh apricots
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 cups sugar
- 1⅓ cups honey
- 6 half pint jars and lids
Clean the apricots and blanch in boiling water for 90 seconds. Score the apricots around the middle and twist to remove the pit. Mash the apricots with lemon juice and add to bowl of sugar and let sit until they become juicy, 3 to 4 hours. Sterilize the jars and lids in hot water. Combine the apricot mixture with the honey and bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat. Continue cooking the jam until the sugar is dissolved and mixture is slightly thickened. Pour jam into the jars. Enjoy!
{DIY Nails}
Nessa here! My new hobby is nail art. The first couple times doing nail art was a bit tricky, but now, I am mastering the art of nail polish;) Here are two of my favorite summer nail designs. Both are summer themed, and pretty easy to do.
{Nautical Nails}
For these nails, I used blue and yellow. You can use whatever colors you want though ;)
First, paint all the nails one color.
Then, using an old eye liner (which works really well as a nail striper) paint lines across each nail except the one you want to have an anchor on.
To create the anchor, use a nail dotter to put a large circle at the top of the nail. Use the eyeliner to create a line coming down from the dot. Then, paint a semi-circle under the line using the eyeliner. At the ends, paint triangles using the liner. Lastly, use the dotter to place a small circle inside the larger one in a different color.
Finish with top coat!
{Sunset Nails}
For these nails I used yellow, turquoise, black and orange polish.
First, paint all nails a different color. Once dry, horizontally paint the remaining two colors on big toe (creating three stripes)
When that dries, use nail striper, or an old eye liner to create a black silhouette of a palm tree.
Hope you enjoy these nail designs!
{Summer Songs We Discovered}
There are a lot of songs out there, but we found a new artist(to us) who captured summer in a couple songs <3 so now we can get a taste of summer whenever we want!
Bring me the sunshine, Life is Rosy, and Sweeter by: Jess Penner
Her whole album is so cute, but we liked these three the best
Also, we love beautiful world (we’re all here) by Jim Brickman. It's not new, but we loved the summer feel-good aspect it had :)
We hope everyone out there had a great summer
{sprinkled with sweetness}
{sprinkled with sweetness}
Mina and Nessa
