Strawberry Shortcake Freezer Pops

Pinterest is crack. If you're not on Pinterest, hit me up and I can "invite" you, but prepare yourself. It will suck you in. Hours will go by and you will not know exactly how that happened.

Anyhow, I stumbled across this photo/recipe on Pinterest over the weekend and I had.to.make.these.now. We seriously dropped everything (aka laundry, hanging out with our dog and reading) to run to the market for the 3 ingredients needed to make these Strawberry Shortcake Freezer Pops. Well folks, it was worth it. If it is all snowy and wintery where you are, then perhaps wait until summer, but seeing as how it was in the high 70's and we had spent the day at the dog park, this was the perfect weekend snack.


PLUS, I got to use my baller new food processor that the world's most amazing brother gave me for Christmas. BONUS. So alls you do is blend up some nilla wafers in your processor. Dump some in the bottom of some dixie cups (the recipe says to mix this in with the yogurt but the idea of that texture kind of made me want to vomit).


Next you dump in some of your favorite yogurt. J went with strawberry (wise choice) and I tried out the soy vanilla. I was fearful this wouldn't freeze right, but it did my friends. And I was pleased. Next you let this layer freeze for abour 40 minutes.


While that's freezing you get to use your food processor again for the strawberries. Florida strawberries are truly impostor berries of the sweet nectar of heaven California variety so we had to add a little agave nectar. Whatever floats your boat, am I right?


Let that freeze, throw on some more yogurt and top with more crumbled nilla and you have got yourself a dreamsicle. These solidified after about 2 hours but even the half frozen ones were DELICIOUS and so easy. We couldn't for the life of us find popsicle sticks so we went with these weird BPA free potato-plastic spoons. They were alright to use, but if you have the sticks I would probably recommend using that instead.


Voila! This picture doesn't make them look all that appetizing but I am telling you they are so good. For me, the best part of these is that a) i can eat them and feel like i'm having ice cream and b) because they are huge and frozen they kind of take forever to eat so you are giving yourself an excuse to eat dessert (if not a healthy-ish variety) for like an hour.


Enjoy!

Glamping Dream Adventure

So, our second wedding anniversary is right around the corner (if you can believe that) so Jonathon and I have been looking into romantic adventure options on a budget and we came across something we were a little TOO pumped up about. Glamping. Ya heard of this?

It is exactly what it sounds like. Glamorous camping. And before you get all high and mighty about serious camping, recognize that a) we both love true outdoors naturey roughing it b) we ain't as young as we once were and c) wait until you see these pictures and all of your arguments will be deemed invalid.

The first set is from the Fireside Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And the answer you are looking for is, yes.


They also have cabins that sleep 4 - 6. Wouldn't this be a super fun place to reunite with all of your old married friends who now live a million miles away???


Next is The Resort at Paws Up in Greenough, Montana. Both of these places also have luxury cabins and more but they also offer glamping options.



Sign you up? I thought so.

Cruisin the Glades

Last weekend Jonathon and I went on a road trip adventure to South Florida including a fan boat ride in the Everglades! We drove down to Sawgrass, Florida and took a boat tour with Everglades Tours, who also boasted not one, not two but three mini-zoos on their property.


Visiting the Everglades was one of the "have to do this before leaving Florida" things on our list, and although we did technically visit the everglades on this trip, the boat tour was slightly underwhelming due to it's similarity to lake tours up in Orlandi. We went on an overcast day so there wasn't much wildlife to see but we also didn't go too far away from civilization. I would suggest going on a longer, swampyer tour if you're looking for true Florida. We may just have to go big one day before we leave and do a real swamp tour. (Side note: we aren't "planning" to leave but we are not from Florida so it's always in the back of our minds that this is a temporary home).


The handsomest:


The three "mini-zoo" areas were broken out into reptile, bardyard and jungle cat areas. This was one of the biggest (and smelliest) gators I have ever seen.


I was really impressed with the beautiful peacocks, as you can tell from the multiple photos taken from every angle. I just couldn't stop.




Of course no trip to the Glades would be complete without joyfully holding your own baby gator. This lil guy was supposedly around 3 years old and he just loved to cuddle. I just LOVED to give him back to the handler. Jonathon refused to hold him, he was really above the whole thing (direct quote: "Any interest I have in holding that thing is trumped by my interest in not using hand sanitizer afterward." He is the cutest). I, however, look super comfortable here, it was no biggie. :)

Valetine's Date Night

Hurray, it's almost the weekend! Well... half way there, right? It's my professional opinion that we should all have the entire month of February off for one long vacation. Isn't that what Europeans do? Don't they live like 3x longer than us? Or is that the Japanese?

Ok, I'm clearly confused but I'm sure we could all do with more relaxing, less stressing and more eating of delicious foods and lying on beaches with people we love. The important thing to keep in mind is that there was SO much chocolate to be had at my office yesterday that it was kind of like a mental vacation to Willy Wonka World. This was only part of the insanity:


Later, mother nature was feeling the romance herself and put on a beautiful pink and purple sunset for us, fit perfectly for Valentine's day. This picture truly does not come close to doing it justice:


Annnd of course my sweetie outdid himself with beautiful red roses, one love letter to rule them all (i mean, the world's sweetest letter that he wrote to me) and a romantical date night out. He is so wonderful and he loves me and that is just the best there ever was. :)



Hope you had a sweet day yesterday too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Day of Sweets loves. What will your day hold?

Candy?


Flowers?


Home made sweets?


A love letter?


Did I say flowers?


A romantic dinner out?


Some tunes? Whatever it may be - I hope it's with people you love. I know mine will be :)

You Can Find Me

See you next week, friends. This is where you can find me for a few:

Renninger's Flea Market

A couple of weekends ago I trucked it up to Mount Dora to Renninger's: Florida's Largest Antique and Flea Market. Dudes, IT WAS BIG. One sides is a sprawling indoor/outdoor flea and farmers market and the other side is a sprawling indoor antique mart. The antiques were beautiful, but they weren't awesomely priced.

I decided to try my luck in the flea section and I gotta tell you, I was slightly disappointed in the offerings and the prices. Whenever I have gone to flea markets in the past it has been for the deals, but the Renninger's sellers weren't budging on their costs the morning I went.

They did have SOME really cute homey stuff in the flea section:


Wouldn't this be sweet in a garden with flowers planted in it?


I kind of fell in love with this outdoor furniture for a little girl. It's hard to tell in the picture but this is a mini collection, all ready for an outdoor tea party with teddy bears and dollies.


Yep, that's me trudging through the not-yet-uncovered items. This candle- chandelier for an outdoor space was so pretty and only like $35! That was a good deal but we don't have much of an outdoor area in need of chandelier's at the moment. :) This piece also needed some paint, but that could be a fun project for the right person.


I loved these mini-arches, especially to hang on a skinny, bare wall in your home. They were $25 - $30 each though and the largest one couldn't have been more than 18 inches. Fail.


There were so many buckets...


And a thousand birdhouses. There is a cute home near Jonathon's grandma's house with about 100 birdhouses in a bare tree out front of their home, which I think is a really sweet idea. These cuties were only like $5 each, so sweet.


It was pretty chilly out the morning I went out to the Market and I was there pretty early, so I'm sure that affected the "mood" of the place. I definitely plan to try my luck again under different conditions, hopefully soon!