Summer dress!

Man, who knew it was so fun having a little girl?! I've got all sorts of ideas of things to make for Emmelyn or buy for her. Unfortunatly, it's really hard to get through a store without wanting to buy her something, haha. The other day I went out looking for fabric to make her some summer dresses and found this adorable fabric! I thought it would make the perfect sundress! It was so easy to put together and took me less than 30 minutes! I bought another fabric pattern to make a second dress for her, but haven't got around to making it yet. I think this dress turned out great, especially since it was my first time making one! It's a little big for her now, but I can't wait to see it on her this summer.

Strawberry Jam, MmmMmmMmm!

Last summer I decided that I really wanted to try making our own jam so I went online and looked up some "easy" jam recipes. I ended up finding one for "Freezer Jam" through Betty Crocker. There are many different fruit options you can use to make jam for your family, but the only one we've tried thus far is strawberry. Mostly because it's our favorite and also because strawberries are cheap at the right time of year! We went through our jam from last summer before the summer had even ended, so this time I decided to make a double batch with the intentions of making another double batch in the fall. Here is the Betty Crocker recipe, but the pectin packages will come with directions for all the different fruit combinations.

Single batch ingredients:

1	quart (4 cups) strawberries, cut in half
4	cups sugar
3/4	cup water
1	package (1 3/4 ounces) powdered fruit pectin

Directions:

1. Mash strawberries with potato masher or in food processor until slightly chunky (not pureed) to make 2 cups crushed strawberries. Mix strawberries and sugar in large bowl. Let stand at room temperature 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Mix water and pectin in 1-quart saucepan. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Pour hot pectin mixture over strawberry mixture; stir constantly 3 minutes.

3. Immediately spoon mixture into freezer containers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe rims of containers; seal. Let stand at room temperature about 24 hours or until set.

4. Store in freezer up to 6 months or in refrigerator up to 3 weeks. Thaw frozen jam and stir before serving.
 
~ENJOY!!!!~