As soon as the weather starts warming up, I like to always have a jug of iced tea in the frig. I use a large mason jar and make a batch a couple of times a week. Several years ago when we were vacationing in Sedona and the Grand Canyon, I had Agave Nectar at a health food restaurant. I loved the flavor and have been using it ever since, plus it’s liquid so it dissolves easily in cold drinks. Lately, I’ve been making simple flavored syrups. It is super easy to make, dissolves in cold easily and can add an extra punch of flavor. Yesterday I made lavender syrup, it adds an interesting subtle flavor.

To make the syrup use equal amounts of sugar to water – you can use raw sugar or white whatever is your preference. I usually do 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water. Put that in a pot to boil with whatever flavor enhancer you want to add. Some ideas: basil, mint, vanilla, almond, rose, dried lavender, etc. Get creative! A small handful usually does the trick. You can add more or less of the flavor to your taste. Boil for a minute or two to make sure the sugar dissolves completely, then set aside to cool and steep the flavors. Once cooled strain into a container and store in the frig for up to two weeks. Enjoy!

1. Cash and gift cards – This gift is always appreciated by grads. They will need gas money if they will be taking their car and gift cards to Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Target, the local grocery store, etc. will be well used. For fun give them a check written out for the year, $200.13. Check Costco for some great gift card options.
2. Gear from the college they are attending. Go online and order them a sweatshirt or t-shirt or get a gift card to the college store.
3. Laundry Gift Basket – Fill it with small size detergents, stain removers and softeners and include a couple of rolls of quarters.
4. Food – Give them a basket filled with granola bars, power bars, instant coffee and other essentials that won’t go bad. That way if they get the midnight munchies they won’t have to hit 7-11.
5. Personalized gifts – A personalized frame, bulletin board, towels, etc. make a great gift.
6. Your Favorite Book – Is there a book you love that you want to share, write a meaningful message inside and include a check.
7. Depending on where the student is heading to college get a gift that is local. My son is going to San Diego State so surf lessons would be fun or a gift basket with sunscreen and beach supplies.
8. A charging case for their iPhone. They may spend long hours in the library and classes so running out of juice is a pain.
9. Plane Ticket – If they are more than a few hours away this a is a great gift whether to visit family, friends or their girlfriend they will truly appreciate this gift.
10. Got a younger grad? Head on over to Frecklebox.com and check out our personalized school products for a sweet gift or a personalized book or coloring book. You can’t go wrong.

I’m working on a new collection today that includes a bunch of doodles we did for a corporate client. The client didn’t end up using them so why let them go to waste. I’ve just started tweaking them for licensing. I think I will bring this one home to show my girls, I am sure they can add a bunch of fun stuff. I know I am missing some hash tags and yolos in there. What else should I add? I’ll show you the final version when I finish it but here’s a sneak peek of where I am now.

We did design another doodle collection called Rockin Rainbow that is on lots of fun products at Frecklebox.com, check them out or see my previous post about the collection!

The last few weeks we’ve been doing a lot of gardening. I am an amateur gardener at best. I try lots of stuff and see what works. A few years ago we took out our kids play structure and replaced it with garden boxes, a bench and a fire pit. We were totally excited to start planting. What we didn’t realize is the big beautiful tree that shaded our kids area also made growing veggies more difficult. Live and learn! What I have found is that some veggies like the half shaded area. We grow cauliflower, strawberries, broccoli, leeks and a few other veggies here. Tomatoes didn’t do so well so we plan to set up another box on our super sunny side yard. I’ve also recently started tucking veggies into pots with flowers. On my front porch I am growing jalapenos and rosemary. I have a separate flower box that I’ve planted mint. Make sure to plant mint separately otherwise it takes over the whole garden. I have seedlings for basil, cilantro and chives that I plan on adding amongst flowers. I hope this year I finally figure it out and have a very bountiful season! If you have any gardening tips I’d love to hear them!

We’ve been busy lately with getting ready for SURTEX and designing new collections, but we are always designing new stationery throughout the year. Here are a few of our new birth announcements that will be coming out shortly. These designs will be on SimplytoImpress.com. If you have not ordered from them yet you should try them out, the designs are great, the paper quality is fantastic, customer service is awesome and best of all they go the extra mile with their packaging and shipping. If you’ve ordered from them you know what I mean. I posted some pictures quite a while ago on our Facebook page if you want to check it out.

The end of school and start of summer is so close! This last month of madness when every school play, soccer tournament, finals and reports are all due gives way to the relaxing, lazy days of summer. I can’t wait. I know there are parents that love when their kids are in school, I am not one of them. I hate all of the paperwork and buying of supplies, the endless homework and projects. I just want to chill with my kids and go to the beach or park. I appreciate that they can carry an intelligent conversation so I know that school is important, but I sure do love summer! Why not celebrate the start of summer with a BBQ party?!

1. Invitation 2. Paper Plates 3. Straws 4. Cookies 5. Pulled Pork 6. Banner

Silhouettes and animal prints are totally on trend and we combined them in this sassy holiday collection, Wild Holiday. It was licensed for greeting cards by Design, Design but it has a lot of potential for holiday decor as well. Here are a few of the items we thought would be great with this design.

Come visit us at SURTEX
Booth 412, Jewel Branding
May 19 – 21, 2013

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
New York, NY

If you are going to SURTEX or NSS leave a comment on our blog and we’ll have a sassy gift waiting for you at Booth 412!

I love making French Toast Casserole. It’s super easy and everyone loves it. Paula Deen has a great recipe that can be found here. Make the day before, refrigerate it overnight and then top with the praline and cook it the next morning. Yum!

We also make a cold, spicy pasta dish. Make the day before to let all of the flavors get absorbed. It’s a great dish to bring anywhere since it is served cold.
Ingredients:
1 lb. spaghetti
1 T crushed red pepper (less or more to your taste)
2 T sesame seeds
1/4 C vegetable oil (I use slightly less)
1/2 C sesame oil
6 T honey
6 T soy sauce
1/2 C cilantro
3/4 C peanuts
Cook spaghetti according to directions. Rinse with cold water, set aside. Heat oils and red pepper over medium heat for 3 minutes, add honey and soy sauce and heat for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and toss with spaghetti. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, add remaining ingredients, toss and serve. You can also add cold chicken or shrimp or make it gluten free. If you go the gluten free route do not make the day before as the pasta tends to harden too much.

If its warm enough to fire up the grill you can try grilled chicken with peanut sauce. They are super easy to make and great finger foods. I like to put the peanut sauce in the bottom of a clear plastic cup and include a couple of chicken skewers. Easy to eat and walk and also the kids tend to love eating food that is on a stick or in a cup. You could also serve them with a yogurt cucumber sauce and pita bread.

For more recipe ideas check out our Pinterest boards, try not to drool on the keyboard! I love using Pinterest to store recipes, so much easier than saving pages out of a magazine. Now I just need to get my act together and figure out a gift!

I was searching the internet for sarcastic phrases last week because SOMEONE ACTUALLY PAYS ME MONEY to do stuff like that and I happened to come across these amazing handmade earrings that say “In one ear, out the other.”

I fell in love with these sassy earrings, the rest was a big phat bonus.

As luck would have it, I have my credit card number memorized in case of an emergency, and well, duh. So I sent in my order and commented to the ArtistQueenOfAllThingsResin that these were the best earrings ever. So I was already excited when my package arrived (quickly and inexpensively) and then I opened it and first there was this completely fabulous pillow box with a lucky number attached AND A BONUS NECKLACE with my second favorite word on it. Did she read my mind? No, because the necklace probably would have said f*ck instead of duh. But still. Oh, AND there was a coupon for my next purchase.

So if you are looking for a gift for you mom, your sis, your friend or yourself (but not your mother-in-law) go to Etsy. And start with Resin8ingDarkness because if this post entertains you, then so will the jewelry in this awesome store.

Have you ever visited the site Damn You Auto-Correct, if not head on over there ASAP! It is hilarious. A great way to get your day going or perk up an already bad day. I’ve included a couple examples of the cleaner versions, but be warned auto-correct can be rated R!

On Monday, I was picking up my middle daughter and her carpool group from soccer practice when my younger daughter texted me about dinner from her soccer carpool. Since I was driving I told my daughter to text back and let her know that we were having burgers. The rest is pretty funny. I didn’t realize they were texting back and forth until later that night in bed when I looked at my phone. I had quite the laugh! My kids love to talk in hash tag sentences as much as possible to annoy people, so whenever we are having dinner there are at least 10 hash tag yolos in our conversation. The other screen shot is when my son was texting and it auto-corrected yolo to tool. So appropriate! Can we come up with a new symbol to add to our vocabulary? How about the dollar sign or ampersand?