Watermelon Salad Recipe

Watermelon has always been the quintessential food for 4th of July weekend for me. Every year, we go to my grandparents' house and always have watermelon. Sunshine, family, and watermelon. Here's a recipe that has an interesting blend of sweet and salty. Very easy and very refreshing. Super fun salad for the 4th of July. What do you think?

• 1 (5 ounce) package salad greens
• 8 cups watermelon cubes (I used a melon baller)
• 1 (7 ounce) package feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing

Toss together, add some freshly cracked pepper if desired. Enjoy!

Sun Protection Factor

Protecting yourself from UVA and UVB radiation is very important during these hot sunny summer months. UVB rays are the rays responsible for tans and sunburns. UVA rays are sneakier because they don't cause reddening but do contribute to cell damage and aging. SPF (sun protection factor) of sunscreens only measure your protection from UVB rays. Zinc oxide is considered one of the better protectors against UVA rays. The SPF tells you how much longer you can stay out in the sun without getting burned. So, if you apply SPF 10 before going outside, you can in theory stay out 10 times longer before burning. If you normally begin to get pinkish or red after say 15 minutes, then SPF 10 allows you 150 minutes of exposure before reddening. This is not a perfect system, however, and depends somewhat upon your skin type, the amount applied, frequency of re-application, activities which might involve sweating or rubbing the sunscreen off, and the time of day/angle of exposure.
In addition to skin cancer concerns, the sun is responsible for many signs of aging, and protecting your skin from its rays helps keep your skin looking younger. Some foundations and facial moisturizers contain sunscreen to help you protect your face daily. I have very fair skin, so in addition to makeup with SPF 15, I also apply a separate sunscreen to my face daily. In the summer, I also apply sunscreen to my arms daily as part of my morning routine. This has helped me on many occasions when I ended up out in the sun longer than anticipated.
Tanning yourself does not give you a "healthy glow", it is a sign of sun damage. Glowing skin comes from taking good care of your skin, and also your "inner glow" shining through! If you are blessed with naturally darker skin, your natural skin color provides a little more protection. For those of us with lighter skin...protect your skin and stay out of the tanning beds! Pale (think porcelain or dewy) can be beautiful, too.

The Positive Effects of Youth Sports

Sometimes finding the activity or activities that really connect with your child can take a few tries. I remember when my son was 4 years old, I took him to a preschool soccer camp at the YMCA. He had a good time, but no interest in doing it again the next year. The next summer I enrolled him in karate classes. At first he was psyched, then the excitement wore off for him after a month or so and he was done with it. Wasn't his thing he told me. I took him to swimming classes and while he was glad to know how to swim better he wasn't into it was a sport. When he was almost 6, I signed him up for tee ball. And BINGO. He *loved* it. Every summer since then, he's played little league baseball. Now at 14, when he ran on his school's track team this year, he was still dedicated to playing baseball and endured the hectic schedule that occurred from slightly overlapping seasons. He's a real team player in this game, and it seems to fit him like a glove. He coaches his teammates (some who have never played or have only played a couple of seasons), he encourages them from the sidelines or from the field, and he is showing himself to have the capacity of a good leader. He has no idea, of course, since when I mentioned to him what a great inspiration he was to his team he shrugged it off as just something that he should do...something he said he seemed to only be able to do on the ball field. Watching him grow into a young man, I have seen how being involved in team sports has helped him flourish. It has taught him what it means to be part of a team, to encourage each other, to lead when called upon, and to work toward a common goal. Through the twittermoms site (http://www.twittermoms.com), I just learned of Liberty Mutual's Responsible Sports program. This program helps educates parents and coaches of the positive effects of sports in the lives of children. There's lots of good information on their website for parents including tips for helping your kids get the most out of their sports experience, and help with issues that sometimes arise. You can check out this great resource here: http://responsiblesports.com/
Have you found sports helpful to your child's development? How did you encourage them to find the activity that "clicks" for them?

Wordless Wednesday

The Crochet Hamburger Dress

Browsing around some of my favorite sites and blogs looking for some crafty crochet type things for a certain yarn loving sister of mine, I came across this Crochet Hamburger Dress. I love this! So creative and fun! Joy Kampia O'Shell is the artist behind this dress. She also has an Ice Cream Cone dress and a Sundae dress in her line up of fantastic wearable art. Check out all of her delicious and fun creations at her website: http://joykampia.com/

Easy Pasta Salad

This is the recipe from the Salad Supreme container. I've made it so many times over the years, and always love it. Great for summer picnics, Fourth of July Barbecues, anytime you want to add a bit of punch to your meal. Add whatever vegetables you have on hand. I especially like to use the tricolor pasta, but didn't have any this time.

Mix together:
1 lb. cooked pasta
8 oz. Italian dressing
4 TB McCormick Salad Supreme
Assorted chopped fresh vegetables

Store in refrigerator. Gets even better overnight as the flavors have time to fully integrate.

The Feminine Mystique 2009 Style

Lately, I've been reading the fascinating book "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan. Written in 1963, Betty broke the silence about the "problem with no name". That is, the problem of a culture filled with bored housewives discouraged to use their minds and trapped at home for a lifetime of cooking, dishes, and diapers. Though womens' roles for years had certainly been dominated by the role of homemaker, it was specifically during the post-WWII era of the 1950's and early 60's that "career woman" became a dirty word and a growing media culture through television and magazines more severely limited what it meant to be a woman. Not only at work, but things like politics and world affairs were deemed far too much for American women to handle. In fact, there were many articles and at least one book dedicated to the notion that too much education was making American women frustrated in their roles as women. Along similar lines to this book, I just watched a movie called "The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio". A great movie based on a true story about a 1950's mother of 10 (yes, 10 kids!!) who earned extra money for the family by entering literary contests. At the time there were lots of contesting opportunities that involved jingle writing. Brilliant on the part of the advertisers, and also very beneficial to those bored housewives who could finally get an outlet for their creativity and flex their mental muscles. So, after getting a pretty good picture of the plight of women in post-war America, I started thinking about how much progress we've made...and yet, how much still needs to be done. I think as women today, we are still struggling with our roles...what do you think?

Herbs Glorious Herbs

I love plants. I love having them around the house and yard, I enjoy them for their greenness, their prettiness, their usefulness. But my family members consider me famously bad at tending to them. My biggest weakness is forgetting to water. Some plants even with regular watering still die at my hand, and I really don't know what's up with that. But my sister-in-law knows how badly I want to be able to have plants and keep them growing, so for my birthday she got me a pot of herbs she carefully got started for me in a "self-watering" type pot. It has a reservoir at the bottom you fill with water and it keeps them happy for a week or so. I've done well so far! And I'm really enjoying having the fresh herbs around. We've used them for cooking a lot already, and so far even my trimming hasn't hurt them. Here's a picture of my herb pot on the deck...placed front and center so I can't look outside without seeing it and remembering to keep it watered. In the pot is some lavender, dill, rosemary, basil, and lemon thyme. Do you have any tips for helping me keep my herbs lovely and alive?

Limited Edition Brown Sugar Pecan Hearts

One of my favorite scents, now in a Limited Edition sweet little heart. Made with the same formula as my other cold process soaps. See, it turns out that my nifty new mold (featured in a previous post) holds a bit less soap than the one I'd been using. I was a little off in my soapy containment calculations, and realizing my mistake only after I poured into the new mold, I quickly poured the leftover soap into some nearby heart shaped molds. It's a good thing I had those lying around handy. I think this is one of those mistakes that turned out ok, because I really like the cute heart soaps. I hope someone else will like them, too, and give them a nice happy soap dish home. :)

BelaDonna Jewels

I am so excited to report that I won this ~lovely~ "Key to My Heart" necklace from BelaDonna Jewels! The pale pink heart stone is so pretty and delicate next to the bright silver key. The vintage look is girlie, yet the right amount of fun and funky at the same time. As soon as I opened the package, I put the necklace on immediately. It just so happens that it looks great with my outfit today, and in fact goes perfectly with my daily style! This lovely necklace was made my designer Anabela, a truly multi-talented lady. She is a graphic designer as well as artist in many mediums. Adorable wooden Japanese Kokeshi dolls, polymer clay sushi rolls, origami, to name a few, and of course jewelry. Anabela makes her jewelry using stones, semi-precious stones, glass, swarovski crystals, pearls, vintage finds, lucite and more, bringing a very elegant touch to her designs. Check out more at the BelaDonna Jewels Etsy store here: http://beladonnajewels.etsy.com and her blog (with monthly giveaways!) here: http://thebeladonna.blogspot.com/

Shrimp Lemon Pepper Pasta

Need ideas for Monday night dinner? This one's quick and easy to make, and really yummy. I was going to take a picture of the finished dish, but we ate it before anything like that could take place!

• 1 (8 ounce) package pasta (I used penne)
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 9 to 13 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and saute garlic about 1 minute. Mix in chicken broth, wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat, and simmer until liquid is reduced by about 1/2.
3. Mix shrimp, butter, parsley, and basil into the saucepan. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until shrimp is opaque. Stir in the cooked pasta, and continue cooking 2 minutes, until well coated.

Serves 4
recipe found at allrecipes.com

Summer Crafts with Kids

Looking for great craft ideas to keep the kids busy this summer? Now that my son's a teen, our summers are mostly things like Mom chauffeur, theme parks, swimming trips, movies, yard work, and runs for ice cream treats. I try to throw in some cooking with him, too. He is also a big reader and writer. I remember doing lots of crafts with him in summers past, but he's moved on to "bigger things". However, for those with younger kids, there are some great craft kits over at And Then Crafts http://andthen.etsy.com. With all the supplies gathered for you, and instructions included, all you need to do is set aside a little time to craft with your kiddo. I would have loved these for my little guy, all the planning and research is done already! Check out this adorable Fish Aquarium kit! So cute! There are lots more to choose from at http://andthen.etsy.com. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun with my new soap mold

Trying out my new soap mold has been a blast! The mold I was using was made by my husband, but aside from the sweet factor, I was beginning to have issues with it. These issues were making it more difficult to put the mold together each time, get the soap out of the mold, and then get it cut decently, resulting in some funky looking batches. I ~was~ getting that handmade soap look, but I wanted something easier to use, as well as nicer looking bars. So, enter the fancy pants new mold. Super easy to get the soap out, no problems getting the mold together and apart, easier to cut, and sure enough I got better looking bars (soon to be showing up in my store). Here's a peek at some Brown Sugar Pecan soap when it was still in the mold.