The Do's and Dont's of Making Raspberry Syrup

So I went out and bought a bunch of healthy food. Of course I had to get some berries! I wanted to try that soaking them in vinegar water to make them last longer thing. So I did, only we don't have paper towels (bc I hate buying them). And the trick is to get the berries completely dry before putting them in the air tight container...well that just couldn't be done with the raspberries. I ended up with a soggy pile of berries that were already turning into mush. [Next time I will soak the strawberries and raspberries seperately and have paper towels] 

Since I already had raspberry mush I decided I'd try and make raspberry syrup for my lemonade!

So I took my raspberries and really turned them to mush with a spoon.

Next I made simple syrup with 1/2 a cup of sugar and a whole cup of hot water. Then added in the raspberry mush and stirred it all up. [Next time I will try only using a half a cup of hot water to make the syrup stronger]

And here's where it got experimental. (I suggest using a mesh strainer, this will make this process very quick for you). I on the other hand had to strain a couple different ways. All of the big chunks were floating on top so I skimmed my spoon over the top to get some of it out. Then I put a vegetable steamer over a glass and poured the mixture through which got most of the mush part out.

Then I poked holes into coffee filters and fastened them to a glass. This took forever. I ended up having to stand there and poke new and bigger holes with a straight pin because the seeds would get caught. Over all this took me about an hour haha. And I ended up with a little over a cup of Raspberry Syrup.

I also tried to make a little filter pouch, but the mush was too heavy and this ended up being very messy.

To sum it all up DON'T do it my way and DO do it with the correct tools. Either way you'll get some yummy syrup to put in your lemonade or other drinks!

The Bennett Garden : Stage 1 & 2

I have wanted a garden for years now. These last two years we attempted it but the first year we started too late and last Summer was so hot it faught to keep my few plants in containers alive. This year we are doing it right!

I made my DIY seed starters about two weeks ago. I tried leaving them outside and I think they got too cold so I did a second round about a week ago and have them in the window in my craft room and taking them outside on nice days.

{You can find the How To for my DIY Biodegradable Seed Starters here.

Thankfully my Mom works at Home Depot who was having a Black Friday in April sale and we got our 15 landscaping timbers for $25! We then went back and bought a bunch of Miracle Grow Garden Soil, Top Soil and Cow Manure on sale as well. So far we have just put everything where it's supposed to be. Phillip is going to bolt everything down Tuesday and I'm going to start tilling up the land today. Here's some pictures of our progress so far!

I marked the bed with sticks so we wouldn't have to remeasure everytime we moved them.

We picked these head board pieces down the road from our house on a walk one day. We got the idea to possibly use them at the end of the bed. We are going to make a fence around the garden to keep Houdini out (he loves fruits and veggies!)

[While Phillip was home on his break we discussed the fence some more: I really want to be able to lean over the edge and work; with a fence I wouldn't be able to do that. So I think we are going to try it without the fence, at least till the plants mature. I'm thinking the edging will be enough to keep him out...at least till they start bearing fruit.]

Next step : Till the ground and add in our Garden Soil, Top Soil and Manure. This is going to be a feat because we are doing it by hand. But we love a good challenge and I believe the more love and hard work you put into the ground the better your garden will be. Well I'm off to start tearing up some dirt! See you guys soon!

It's a Start!

Tonight was soo GOOD! After Phillip got home we spent the evening outside enjoying the lovely weather. While he was at work I went and got the 1"x8' wooden planks we needed and as soon as we got home we went to work! He mowed the grass while I nailed the planks to the railing of our porch and strung the lights across the awning of the house using a cool lil cheat I found at thefamilyhandyman.com, clothes pins go right into the vinyl up there. After he mowed the yard we strung the lights together; and then he built a fire while I painted the planks each a color of a rainbow. Then we ate pizza around the fire and soaked in the cool night and our lighting success before coming inside to watch some Supernatural and go to bed. This weekend has been productive and inspired: my heart is full :)

A Life Cheat to Blow Your Mind

I quit wearing make up a couple of years ago; partly because it was a pain in the ass and partly because I like to rub my eyes. Which means that I get quite a few eyelash hairs stuck in my eye. One night at work I was fighting with said eyelash and my boss asked if I had a book of matches. Puzzled I said no and he said he'd look for some, because when you tear the match from the match book the end that you tore is frayed and soft enough to grab the annoyances stuck in your eye!

This blew my mind! How brilliant and unlikely! Well a few days later Phillip got something stuck in his eye and remembered seeing some match books in the nook of the backseat of our car. I told him about what Mark had said and he agreed to let me try it out! And guess what!? It worked! I touched it to his eye and it didn't hurt him AND it grabbed on to the contaminate out of his eye! I know! Crazy right!?

And Happy Spring! I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as I am! I got my orchid tattoo on my wrist on the first day of Spring five years ago this week. It's crazy how time flies! I, also, got to break out my Teva sandals the other day to do some serious stick picking in our backyard to prep for the awesomeness that will come! Here's the picture I shared to my Instagram.

Houdini : Our Pit Bull

Hey guys! I've been a very very busy bee because my little sister is getting married in less than a month and I threw her her Bridal Shower yesterday! Oh I am soo excited to share it with you guys! It turned out great! Unfortunately I got there late (because I'm the kind of person who can't seem to make it to anything on time) AND none of my help were there to help me decorate so I got it done right as everyone was showing up so I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of my own. Once I get them all round up I'll post them here, but for now here's the post I've been working on when I had some free time. It's the story behind our pit bull!

Just about two years ago we went to visit some of Phillip's family in Texarkana. His cousin was staying with some of his family on this huge plot of land that had horses, a pond and few pit bulls. We came over to shoot some guns in his field and that's when we met Houdini, our pit bull, for the first time. He and another pit were living outside without food or water anywhere in sight and were covered in mange. These poor babies were so bad off that much of their hair had fallen off and they were covered in sores and dirt. I silently cursed the asshole that could allow this to happen and followed the boys out into the field to fire off some rounds (this was also my first day to shoot a gun!). Houdini, or Bruiser at the time, followed us out as well and was begging for affection. Even miserable and mistreated this poor thing had no hate in him at all. I kept carefully petting him and telling him we would take him home and get him fixed up and fed and give him what he deserved. At this point I was mainly joking. We had been talking about wanting to rescue a pit bull for a little while then, but I never imagined this would happen. After we shot through the ammo we started heading back to the house. And this is when we met the aforementioned asshole. He got out of his big suped up truck with this beautiful groomed pit bull following him. I was pretty upset before, but this really pissed me off. Why does this dog get to be not only taken care of but spoiled, while these other two have to suffer and fight to live outside. I was outraged! But me being the introvert that I am and being around his family I held my tongue. Until the owner of the dogs came into the house saying " I wish someone would take these damn dogs!" and I looked at Phillip (who gave me the silent confirmation I needed) and I told him we'd take the black one. And that was that, on our way out of town we picked him up. He was so starved that when we stopped for gas he ate our road snacks before we got back to the car and drank two bottles of water at a rest stop.

(This is the first picture I ever took of him, it's at the gas station we stopped at before we left town. Doesn't he already look like our dog?)

We didn't have a collar or anything but he didn't try and run away, he didn't cause any problems in the car either. He just laid patiently in the back seat on the two hour ride home while we tried coming up with his name. It took us nearly the whole two hours to come up with it. They were calling him Bruiser, which is a testament to how well they knew him, that had to be changed. We wanted a good powerful name that fit his personality. There were a few names we really liked but sounded too mean. We kept asking him about the names and we think he liked Houdini too; he was answering to his new name by the second day.

Our yard at the time had a gated fence that neither of our little dogs never got out of, but Houdini managed to get it open the second day we had him. We had left the house to go to the store and we left him in the backyard. When we got home the gate was wide open and Houdini was laying by the door on our front porch. I knew from then on that he was definitely ours and was going to end up being a great dog. And I was right; he's a perfect fit.

He loves to go on walks and explore. We walk the neighborhood quite a bit and he just walks by my side.

Sometimes the boy comes with us!

He's a great trail finder! He has found little trails that lead to creeks on several occasions while walking around the neighborhood. Like us, He'd rather be out walking in nature than in the neighborhood. With him there is nothing left unseen: he wants to walk down every road, see the end of the creek or the other side of the mountain view or the other side of the pier haha.

He also loves being a Mtn. Doo. That's what we call him when we are going to or on a mountain (one of his nicknames is Doodle, which is where the "Doo" comes from), if you ask him if he wants to be a Mtn. Doo he gets all excited and goes to his leash. Once we get to the top he just loves sitting with me and the boy and watching everything that's going on below us.

He is definitely our dog and I am so thankful for him and all that he has taught us. He's got this protective stance that he does where he goes to sit down beside me while I'm standing and swings his but around till it hits my legs and he stands up straight as close to me as he can get and it just melts my heart. He is always by my side, he even follows me through out the house. The only time he's not in the same room is if he's checking out the backyard from the bedroom window. When I get out of the shower he's there laying on the other side of the door. "I got ya girl, ain't nothing going to get you ever!" 

The love that radiates from him is truly amazing.

It's such a shame that the law would rather him be "humanely destroyed" just because he's a pit bull. I have met many many pit bulls and I have yet to meet one that is anything more than a big o baby. I hope that one day this stigma will be lifted and everyone can see what a blessing these dogs can really be.