Lemonade Lust

The hubs and I are big fans of Chic-Fil-A lemonade. Their diet lemonade has a sticker on it that said something along the lines of, "only lemons, water and Splenda." Instead of driving the 30 minutes to our closets CFA (and since they're closed Sundays) I decided to give it a go!

Enter lemons:

It makes me think of summer, even though it's not even double-digits outside. I got a bag of 18 smaller lemons from Costco. I cut them each in half and juiced them:

Side note: the hubs was the one really craving lemonade, and he's been hounding me for years to donate the juicer we 'never use' to goodwill. I think the juicer gets a reprieve… for now.

I ended up with almost 2.5 cups of lemonade. I split that between two pitchers and added a heaping 1/2 cup of splenda to each. I did a quick whisk to get the Splenda really dissolved.

I added 6 cups of water to each. The mix is still pretty bitter, so if you like a sweet lemonade, I would add more. I would play it safe though, and error on the side of less water. Then, based on your tastes you can water it down more.

It was definitely refreshing, and will be a staple in the summer when we're grilling on the patio!

Guest Post

I'm over on A Zesty Bite with a guest post on how to make some really cute Valentine's pillows.

Come back next week for a tutorial on the chair!

No Sew Curtains

Curtains are one of the easiest projects to tackle yourself - no sewing required! You'll need fabric, an iron, and hem tape.

First, decide the length of your curtains. You can measure the window, or use an existing curtain/liner as a guide. Since I didn't want the liner peaking out from behind the curtains, I made them 4 inches longer (also, so they would graze the floor).

The fabric had a white edge I could use as a guide to iron an even edge on the sides.

Enter magical hem tape! Even if you're sewing-inclined, sometimes you don't want a line of thread down the side of a project. You slide the tape between two pieces of fabric and iron... they stick together and you're ready to go!

Once the sides were done, I made an inch hem at the top. I angled the corners in, so there would be a clean edge at the top of my curtains. 

I then folded the top over 4 inches to make my rod pocket. I carefully laid hem tape down to stick my first hem to the back of the curtain.

Because the fabric was thick, I turned to iron the back to be sure the hem tape fully melted and stuck the pieces together.

Taadaa! Rod pocket complete. Notice the folded in corner? That way you don't see the fabric peeking out from the front of the curtain if it hadn't lined up perfectly.

Instead of creating matching hems at the bottom, I lined up the tops to make sure both panels were the same length. No surprise, they weren't. 

So, with the tops (already with rod pockets) lined up, I laid out the curtains straight to see how off my cutting was at the bottom.

I folded the ends and did a quick iron to make a crease to use as a guide when making the bottom hem.

Not precise, but closer than if I had just put a 2 inch hem on the bottom of each.

I ironed and hem-taped the bottom of each panel using my crease as a guide. Notice how the hem size changes? I'm not very straight with the scissors... 

I flipped the corners in, so the front has a clean look. If you're curious, you can see the fabric name below. IKEA baby - cut your own fabric! 

Curtains hung! Forgive the bad iPhone picture (nursery #2 post coming soon)!

I got enough fabric to do two panels and extra to do bolster pillows and whatever my brain thinks up.

At Home CrossFit Gym - Building a Plyometric Box

With baby 2 coming, the hubs cancelled his CrossFit membership and offered to workout in the basement to save time. I decided to make that a bit easier for him - and give him some of the tools he needed. 

I decided to build him a 'jump box' which is one of the basics of CrossFit.

I got wood glue and 5/8" screws:

I also got a 4'x8' 3/4" Plywood sheet and waddled my 8-month pregnant self to the cutting area and gave my best, "Oh, please help little ol' me." I gave them my exact cuts so they didn't have to think about how to fit them on the sheet. He decided he knew how they would 'fit' better, and ended up using 2 sheets - but only charged me for 1!!

I carried them one at a time to the car and then out to the yard where they each got a few coats of spray paint (and a final 2 coats of non-skid clear spray):

I slowly assembled the box with wood glue and a screw every 3-4 inches. The yellow sides fit INSIDE the other sheets:

You can see my screw width isn't precise:

Lots of wood glue! This thing is starting to look like a box:

Taadaa!! Have box - will jump. There is a 30" side, a 24" side and a 20" side.  I also got him a kettlebell, a jump rope and a few medicine balls to throw at the wall.

It will be nice to have him downstairs instead of down the road once the baby is here - it will also allow him to get in some 'quickie' workouts without the guilt of going to the gym.

Nursery #2

It was fun to design a nursery for baby girl. With babe #1 we didn't know we were having a little boy. We decided to make the nursery feminine, but not too girly; here is the result:

As soon as I knew we were having a girl, I wanted to base the nursery on a poster I purchased while living in Spain. The stars hanging above the crib are also goodies I brought home from Spain.

The bright yellow was a starting off point, and I came across the fabric for the curtains at Ikea. It was perfect with pops of soft and bright pink with the bold yellow and blue. Look for an upcoming no-sew curtain tutorial. I also used the same wall color as we did in the first nursery (Dorian Grey).

We never purchased a changing table for babe #1, so his dresser is still being used in his room. We purchased another dresser from Ikea, but this one is a bit higher. It's the perfect height to change baby on. We are using the same cloth diaper system (see this post and this post) as we did with #1.

As with all things Ikea, you need a patient and skilled helper (dad did most of the build):

It is nice that we are able to reuse the rocker, crib, rug, and changing pad from the first room... one of the perks of staying gender-neutral with a first baby! We are also using the same Angel Care monitor that is on my must have list.

I didn't hang as many pictures/shelves as I did in our first nursery. I got tired of dusting all of the time, so we are staying minimal. There are a few family pictures in the room, so baby girl has loving faces watching over her.

I'm sure I won't spend as much time in this nursery as I did in the last. The days of sitting quietly for hours on end are a thing of the past - now I will be running around keeping up with a spunky toddler!