Sewing for summer

I've been spending time this past week sewing up Mary Grace's summer wardrobe.  I've settled on  precious little peasant dresses and lazy days skirts with matching tanks.

Both of these are super simple patterns that go from cutting to ribbon encased hem in 30 minutes or less.

 (Depending if I'm fueled by sweet tea or not!)

They are the perfect light summer outfit for helping in the garden, playing around the house, 

Or watching big brother's baseball games!

Links to patterns here:

Peasant Dress

Oliver+S Lazy Days Skirt

Lucky boy!

Our church bazaar was this past Sunday.  

Doug handed John Paul a ticket and he won a cake.  

Doug gave him another ticket and he won a plant.

We are kicking ourselves for not letting him pick Powerball numbers and are currently thinking of taking him to Vegas.

(He did the exact same thing last year!)

Lemon Verbena Jelly

I love lemons ~

 the scent, the flavor, that happy yellow color, 

EVERYTHING! 

 I won't have lemons to harvest for a few more months

 but I will have the next best thing, 

lemon verbena.

My lemon verbena plant got a little crazy in the herb garden, so I decided to giver her a trim and make some jelly with the fragrant leaves (thank you PINTEREST for the idea!).

I used the exact same recipe to make this jelly 

that I did for my rose petal jelly :

2 cups of packed lemon verbena leaves

3 cups of water

juice of one lemon

1 box of powdered pectin

4 cups of sugar

Start by gathering and rinsing your leaves.  

Place the leaves in a saucepan and add 3 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Allow this tea to steep for 10 minutes then strain into a large measuring cup.  If you don't have exactly three cups of liquid when you're done, add water.

Add the juice of one lemon and dissolve 

the powdered pectin into the mixture.

Return this mixture to the saucepan, and on the highest heat possible, bring to a rolling boil while stirring continuously.  Add the sugar all at once and bring back to a rolling boil.  When you get to the rolling boil, stir constantly for two minutes.  Remove from heat and ladle into hot, sterilized jars.  Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes six half pints.

I have to be honest, 

I thought this would taste like lemon Pledge!

I was wrong.

This is the lovliest, lightest flavored jelly.  

It has just a hint of floral taste, 

and then deeper tones of honey and lemon.

  

IT IS DIVINE!

Now to go search Pinterest 

to find a scone recipe!

DIY Hummingbird feeders

You know I'm all about the PINTEREST!

So when I happened to see wine bottle hummingbird feeders, 

I had to give them a try.

They are extremely simple to make.  All you need is a wine bottle, some heavy gauge copper wire, wire cutters, and some stopper/feeder tubes (I got mine off of Amazon:  HERE)

It's a simple as wrapping the wire around the wine bottle and making a hanger at the top.  You can make swirls, curls, or just criss cross like I did.

Then fill your clean wine bottle with a sugar and water solution.  Use one part sugar to four parts water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  No need for any of that red dye stuff.

Hang your feeder and you're good to go!

This feeder is right outside my kitchen window.  I love to watch the little guys while I'm cooking and doing dishes.  It may take up to a week for the hummers to find your feeder if this is the first time you're putting one up.

I made three feeders from old bottles I had stashed.  I'd love to make some for friends and family, so you know what that means.....I better get to drinking some wine!

You know, for the hummingbirds, 
'cause I'm a giver!

And while I'm sipping on that wine,
enjoy this little video we made of our hummer feeding frenzy!