Little Things Thursday - Jolly Lollies

Perhaps if I assign a different topic/subject for each day of the week, I'd get better about blogging. Although I do not have a subject for each day of the week just yet, I thought that Thursdays would be good for "Little Things".

Today's "Little Thing" - Jolly Lollies! (Please excuse the poor picture quality. My little camera has suffered from abuse and it's about time to replace it. )

I first found this idea at the Decorated Cookie blog. Her pictures are waaaay better! This was a fun little project to do with my 3 year old. We're big candy fans around here! And eating Jolly Ranchers this way is much safer for little ones. Yes, I know..horrible for our teeth, but every once in a while, treats are nice.

Here's how it's done -


First, find the candies you want to use to make your lollipops. We used 3 Jolly Ranchers for each lollipop. My dd chose which flavors/colors would make up our "Jolly Lollies". Place a layer of foil and a layer of parchment paper on a baking sheet.


Arrange 2 or 3 candies side by side on the parchment paper. On our cookie sheet, we were able to fit 4 lollipops, leaving room for the lollipop stick to be added later.



Move the oven rack to the top. Place baking sheet in an oven preheated to 275 degrees. Bake for 6 minutes. Keep your eye on your lollies or they'll melt down too thin.



Remove from oven and quickly add your lollipop sticks. We unfortunately didn't have lollipop sticks at our place, but bamboo sticks worked great! They can be cut down easily enough. Just place on bottom portion of your lollipop and roll around to coat the top of your stick.

Let cool and enjoy!

2 Jolly Rancher Lollipops

These were a big hit at our house, even with my dh! They reminded us of the Jolly Rancher sticks that we ate growing up.

Thank you, Meaghan, for sharing this great idea!

It's a Boy! (...and he's now 3 weeks old.)

Sad, sad...I'm just not very good at blogging yet here. Meet our new little man! "M" is now 3 weeks old! Time has flown by. One thing I can say - whether or not you're getting any sleep, time flies by. Last night, my dh and I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. :| And with two other children to keep me busy during the day, there's no time for napping.

But....it's so worth it! He's such a cute little guy and is very much loved here, especially by his big sister and big brother.

For each of our 3 pregnancies, we've waited to find out whether our baby was a girl or boy. Each time we've guessed wrongly. We were VERY surprised to find out we had a little guy. I have no idea what it will be like to raise 2 sons, but I'm sure it'll be a blast!

Sheeple is FREE today!

For those of you who may have missed or ignored my earlier post about Sheeple, please read on! In efforts to get the word out about the iPhone/iPod touch puzzle game my husband and I created last summer, along with recent help from a couple of local artists, my husband has been featured on freeappaday.com. We're hoping to get bumped into the top 50 free app list today, so if you know anyone with an iPhone, iPod touch, or even an iPad, tell them about Sheeple. It's free today (and for the next 10 days), so try it out! (Oh, and an update to fix the bug on the iPad is currently in review. Should be approved in the next day or so.) Thank you!

Little Slow with Posts

I have yet to become a daily blogger. Please forgive me. With two weeks to go before baby #3 arrives, it's been a bit crazy at our house. Between my husband starting up his business, my daughter turning 3, my 1 year old son learning how to take his pants and diaper off at naptime, a little nesting taking place, and company coming in from out of town, it's been a bit nuts to say the least. Hope to be back with y'all soon!

Burlap Wall Art

(For those who have expressed interest in purchasing one like this, please email me: andrea at lemonadespring.com.)


A few weeks ago, I was getting carried away with various burlap projects. This one I did very much like the Burlap Silhouettes in that I created my image on the computer, this time in Word, printed it off, arranged and taped down my pieces (I used an old poster, still wrapped, as my work surface), covered my work surface in burlap taping it to the backside for stability, then traced each shape (word) with a small craft paintbrush. I then filled in each letter with paint until the job was done. After my work had dried, I stapled it to a frame my husband had made for me a few years ago that had just been wasting away in the garage. Although I still haven't found a good place to hang it in my home, I love how this project turned out. It was a nice and relaxing project to work on.

Friday Flashback - Sofa Slipcovers

One month before our now 3 year old daughter was born, we moved into a bigger house. I had a lot more space to fill up with furniture. My husband gave me a budget, enough for a new sofa. I wanted to make that money stretch and fill up the other rooms that needed furniture. That's when I jumped into the world of craigslist.

I looked for pieces with the right shape, ones I could work with as I found time. I found a sofa/loveseat set for $150 and thought this was a steal. The set even came with an extra set of sofa cushions that hadn't been used.

With a 9-month preggo belly and then a newborn, it took me a little longer to get around to finishing this project, but it did get done. For slipcover materials, I had to get a deal. I liked the look of matelasse, but couldn't afford to make two slipcovers from the real deal. Thinking back to some of my grandmother's catalogs, I visited Blair's store online. There I found blankets that had the right look for $25, any size! Yep, I recovered my sofas with king-size blankets and lots of piping. I bought 4 blankets, but in the end probably used 3 of them for that project. The floral pillows were made from Waverly cloth napkins I had found on clearance at Target. I splurged on the red fabric for the other pillows and the backs of the two middle pillows were from a fun furry-like fabric find at Joann's in the remnant basket.





2 years and another child later, the slipcovers are holding up well. This past Sunday, I discovered an old sippy cup of milk that my little girl had forgotten about. Although I was happy to finally figure out where the unpleasant smell was coming from, I was sick to my stomach to think about what was to come of my hard work and what additional hard work was at hand for this most holy day of rest. Our loveseat underwent a little surgery (thank you, Todd!!!) and the carpet had to be steam cleaned.

After some ingenuity on my husband's part with the loveseat and an online search of getting rid of the sour milk smell in fabric, we've managed to save ourselves some money and hang onto our loveseat. The fix that worked (and removed the old stains!) - Pour one cup laundry detergent and one cup dishwashing detergent (we used lemon Cascade) into washing machine. Hot water setting. Agitate to mix solution. Add stinky fabric and let soak in the hot water overnight. Run washing machine the next morning. Add 1 tablespoon white vinegar during the rinse cycle. Apparently this takes out the stink. (And it did!!!) Rinse a second time to get rid of extra detergent residue.

I had tried washing normally my first time, but the stink and stains were still there. When I tried this method, I was amazed at how great the slipcover looked and smelled! Just thought I'd pass this tip along in case you find yourself in the same boat some day. For your sake, I hope not!

Friday Flashback

On Fridays, I'll try to feature projects I've done in the past. Maybe some of them will help you out or even inspire you in your own project adventures.

For today, I'm featuring a bed frame redo. This spindle bed was an anniversary gift from my husband about 7 years ago and I thought it was a great find for $100 at a consignment store. It just needed a little TLC.


I stripped the frame. I wish I could remember the name of the stuff I used!!! It was awesome. It was a spray on stripper that had a citrus smell to it, so it didn't knock me out.


I then sanded the frame. :| It was quite a job in itself and I'm so thankful that my husband pitched in when I'd run out of steam.


After a good wipe down, I used Minwax's Ebony wood stain to give the frame the dark wood look I was going for. I then used polyurethane to seal the frame and love how it turned out!


Soon after refinishing the bed, we moved across the country. Can you imagine how nervous I was about that frame getting scratched up?! It then sat in storage for nearly 2 years. :| Sad, I know. After using it in our guest room for a couple more years, we moved across the country again. It now sadly sits in our garage as we do not have an extra room to use it in. I've often considered converting the frame into a bench, but haven't figured out how I could get away with not painting it after cutting it up to make the bench.... And painting it now is not something I'm willing to do. Yet it sits, collecting dust and cat hair. Someday when I no longer have preggo brain, maybe I'll be able to think straight about what to do with my beloved bed. Until then, maybe you have some suggestions? I'd love to hear them!

iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad Anyone?

No, unfortunately I'm not giving any of these away, but I thought I'd put in a little plug for another creative project undertaken by my husband and me. We created the little game "Sheeple" for the iPhone and iPod Touch the end of last summer. Today we got word that "Sheeple HD" is ready for sale for the iPad coming out this weekend! So, if you're in the market for a fun little puzzle app for your phone or the iPad, please consider checking either of these games out!

Tomato Factory:Indie Game Studio
"Gaming Fun for Everyone"

Burlap Silhouettes

I'm so excited to learn that some of you ladies have a love for your children AND for burlap. In this project, I combined the two. I had these great frames on my wall with sorry, too small for the frame, old vacation pictures. The vacation was great, but the pictures didn't do much to add glamour to my walls. Being a mom of two toddlers with another on the way, I don't have a lot of time to think about home decor or upload my million pictures to winkflash to place an order during one of their great sales.

One evening, the idea came to me. Why not paint silhouettes of my sweet kiddos on scraps of burlap I had covering my sewing table to put in those frames?! This was such a quick and simple project, one I highly recommend to anyone who loves their children and burlap, classic and a little shabby.

Here's how I did it -
I found/took profile pictures of each of my children.
I opened them in an image editing program. In this case, I used Gimp.
I used the lasso tool and clicked around the profile I wanted to create the silhouette of. (Sorry, I'm not a professional graphic designer, so I don't know what the technical jargon is for clicking around the image using the lasso tool.)
I then created a new layer and flood filled the selected shape black. Then, I hid the original image/layer.
Saved new image and printed. (I actually imported the image into Word to get my proportions right, then printed.)
I cut out the pieces of burlap I'd need and taped my printed paper and burlap onto a cookie sheet. The great thing about burlap for this kind of project is that it's pretty transparent. I used a small paint brush to trace around the silhouette's outline, then used a larger brush to fill it in. For this project, I used a craft acrylic paint. Cheap. Could this project be any cheaper?!


After drying, I framed each silhouette and love the new look!

A First

Welcome to the blog of Lemonade Spring! For years now, I've had a private blog to share news and pictures with family and friends. It's time to meet some new friends with similar interests, hence the debut of Lemonade Spring. For a couple of years now, I've quietly visited blogs of super creative ladies. Thank you ladies for your inspiration, tutorials, linkedin parties, etc! You'll never know what an encouragement you've been to me! There are few people in my little world that share a passion, let alone interest, in homemaking, sewing, burlap, thrifting, creating, or in any kind of DIY project. I'm so grateful to have a husband who encourages me to create and dream, and even obsess over ideas and projects. I want to be the kind of mom who encourages my children to be creative, inventive, resourceful, and good stewards of the many gifts they've been given.

I look forward to getting to know you better and share some things I've come up with when I'm not chasing, teaching, or training my little ones.