Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Purex Fabric Softener Sheets

I was lucky enough to be able to try the Purex Fabric Softener Sheets. I received a box of the Sweet Lavender Scent.

 These dryer sheets helped with static as well as made my laundry smell great. 

For more information on the Purex Fabric Softener Sheets you can check out their webpage or their https://www.facebook.com/purex

Monday, August 19, 2013

Peach Butter

I love making homemade jellies and butters. Our local farmers market had a special on peaches, buy one box and get one free. I ended up with about 4 lbs of peaches for $3.



I went to the farmers market to get the peaches because I wanted to make peach butter. I made this years ago, and of course could not find the recipe I originally used. I ended up searching online and found one that sounded good. I saved it to Pinterest for anyone else that wants to try it.

I started by peeling the peaches. The easiest way I've found to do this, is to drop the peaches in boiling water for 30-45 seconds. Then plunge them in ice water. The peels pretty much fall right off. I then pitted and chopped the peaches. I used a big pot and added the peaches, water, and sugar. 



 After about 20 minutes of cooking, I pureed the peaches in my blender. I did this in three batches. Then you put the puree back into the pot and cook for 30-40 minutes until thick. I ended up with 5 - 1 cup servings. You can can this, but I chose just to use the freezer containers. I kept one for myself and gave four away to lucky friends and family.




My favorite way to eat the peach butter is on a toasted English muffin. 



 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Frozen Banana Bites

I've said it before, I always have an over abundance of bananas in our house. They are usually ones that need to be used soon, or ones that are too ripe and I freeze for making muffins or bread later.

I saw this pin for frozen banana bites and thought they looked interesting. I had everything on hand and thought they sounded like an easy snack.  I decided to just use one banana, even though the recipe called for four. I didn't want to use that many in case I didn't like them.

They were really easy to make. I sliced the banana into slices that were a little less than an inch thick. I just made sure to have enough slices to make sandwiches. You then spread peanut butter on one slice and cover with another. Freeze the little sandwiches for about an hour. Then dip in chocolate and freeze again.





I thought of a couple of things while making these that would make them easier. I found the peanut butter kind of hard to spread on the slices. I think freezing the slices for 15 minutes or so might help with that.  I would also wait to take the sandwiches out of the freezer until the chocolate was melted. By the time my chocolate melted, one side of the bananas started to thaw and it made it really hard for the chocolate to stick on the last few that I dipped.

You can tell the ones where they were thawed just by looking at the picture :)


I was really surprised with how these tasted. They actually had an ice cream consistency, I felt like I was eating a little mini ice cream sandwich.  Addison also really liked these.  I will definitely make these again trying my changes.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

You Are My Sunshine

We had a Hobby Lobby open up an hour away from us. Addison and I were in that town for some doctor and dentist appointments and decided to check out the store.  Of course we couldn't leave empty handed, but I also didn't have a craft in mind before going into the store.

While browsing, I found a two pack of canvases.  I remembered a cute picture I saw on Pinterest.  We quickly picked out paint and some foam brushes so we could make it when we got home. The original pin was just a picture, so I just looked at the paint color to pick out the hues that I liked best. 




Addison absolutely loved this project. She was so excited to paint on the large canvas, instead of just paper.  She is so goofy sometimes and decided she had to wear her hood from her winter coat while she was painting. 



We used two different shades of blue and one white acrylic paint for the background.  I picked up a four pack of foam brushes, so we would have a separate brush for each color.  Once the background was dry, I painted the inside circle of the sun with yellow and orange acrylic paints. Then I painted Addison's hand with the yellow and orange, about half and half. We then pushed down on the canvas around the sun to make the rays. 




I then used a pencil to free hand  a rough outline of the words. Then I used a paint brush and black acrylic paint to paint over the pencil marks. 


I love how this turned out. I think it is one of my favorite projects we have ever done! I have this hanging at the end of my hallway. It makes me smile every day. 




Friday, August 2, 2013

Purex 31 Days of Fun!

Purex has launched a mega sweepstakes for the month of August. This sweepstakes is really fun. They are giving away awesome prizes every day for the 31 days of August!



In order to be eligible to win these prizes, you do need to be a fan of the Purex Facebook page. My favorite things they are giving away are:
  • Apple iPad Mini
  • Patio Furniture Set
  • Swing Set
  • New Fall Wardrobe 
You can enter for your chance to win 31 different prizes here!

I'm also hosting my own giveaway with this promotion for a $10 Amazon Gift Card! For this giveaway you will need to share the 31 Days of Fun Sweepstakes on your own social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, your own blog, using the URL above that you used to enter the sweepstakes. Once you have done so comment on my blog that you did so and let me know how many followers you shared the sweepstakes with. I will be choosing a winner on August 23 from the comments!

Good luck on both of the sweepstakes!