Summer Scoops: No Churn Strawberry Ice Cream

Welcome to my my Summer Scoops series celebrating my favorite summer sweets!



What You'll Need

2 cups of heavy cream
14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
8 ounces of strawberry jam


What You'll Need to Do

In a large bowl, whip heavy cream until it forms stiff peaks (about 3 minutes).
In a separate bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and strawberry jam.
Fold whipped cream into the strawberry mixture.
Pour the mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan.
Cover and freeze immediately for 4-5 hours or until firm.
ENJOY! 



The Healing Benefits of Aloe Vera



Use it to soothe minor burns, including sunburns. Spread a layer of pure gel extracted from the inside of an aloe vera leaf over the burned skin to help relieve the pain and inflammation. Aloe gel is 99.5% water making it very moisturizing!

Use it to fight acne. The aloe plant had antibacterial properties. Use pure aloe vera and apply it generously to your face in place of your cleanser. It boosts the blood flow in your skin helping to kill off harmful bacteria. You can also use to it spot treat breakouts! Leave the aloe on over night and wash it off in the morning. It will help reduce redness and irritation. The aloe gel from the aloe plant also contains salicylic acid, an exfoliant used in many man-made acne remedies that unclogs pores and acts as an anti-inflammatory on acne-producing oil glands.

Try eating the raw aloe vera gel straight from the plant. The gel may help help inhibit fungi, bacteria, and viruses, and could help reduce inflammation in the body. Do not eat aloe beauty gels or lotions. Learn more about eating aloe vera before you go for it!

It may improve oral hygiene. Studies have shown that aloe is effective in killing the plaque-producing bacterium Streptococcus mutans in the mouth and well as the yeast Candida albicans. Swishing and spitting 100% aloe juice can help reduce the plaque build up and help treat canker sores.

Always remember - it's best to stick to the gel right from the plant or a product that is 100% aloe vera gel (such as Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera 100% Gel).



Weekend Wins



We ate at a restaurant!



Have you heard of Loving Day? Loving Day is observed on June 12th in the US marking the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws in the remaining 16 states in the USA. It was brought to my attention by one of my college roommates (also named Ashley). Read more about Loving Day, Loving v. Virginia, and The Lovings now!



Kiss press on nails for the win!


Scout is a week out from his haircut now and starting to look a little better. By the time the groomers opened up here he was 2 months overdue for his bath and cut. Because of that he ended up pretty matted and had to get a fairly short cut. I'm just glad his hygiene has greatly improved. My little old man:


I finished this book and it was really good (3/5):



More wins for times to come: 

Meeting in person with my book club tonight after having virtual meetings in March, April, and May!

Salons and spas open today! I have a hair appointment on June 22nd and need to get my eyebrows threaded ASAP!

Heading back home the last week of June and getting to see all my favorites! The county in PA where I am from/going to is still in the 'yellow.' I'm hoping it goes 'green' by the time I arrive! 







HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!








Tips for the Perfect Picnic


Try a picnic backpack. Baskets can be bulky and awkward. Picnic backpacks are a very popular option as your food, cutlery, and drinks are neatly stowed. Most even come with a corkscrew and cutting board! It also leaves you hands free to ride your bike to your picnic destination!

Pack baby wipes. Keep baby wipes on hand for spills, sticky hands or faces, or to clean dishes. They already come in portable packaging!

Use a waterproof picnic blanket. Look for a PVC-coated, waterproof picnic blanket. It's great for days when the ground is moist and also for any spills or unforeseen rain showers.

Keep your drink bug free with mason jar sippers or another cup with a lid. The sweet, sticky drinks of summer are havens for bugs and bees. Keep them out by using a cup with a lid and a straw. Perfect for kids too!

Use frozen water bottles as coolers. Make your beverage of choice do double duty! Freeze your water and use the bottle to keep your picnic items cold.

Buy screw top wine. Packing a corkscrew can cause extra bulk (if you don't have a backpack that comes with corkscrew). Save space in your picnic basket by buying and packing a wine with  a screw top.

Summer Scoops: Homemade Lemon Italian Ice

Welcome to my my Summer Scoops series celebrating my favorite summer sweets!




What You'll Need

2 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of fresh lemon juice (about 4 large lemons)

What You'll Need to Do

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. 
Stir over medium heat while bringing to a boil and until the sugar melts.
Remove from heat.
Stir in lemon juice.
Allow mixture to cool at room temperature.
Pour mixture in to 9x5 loaf pan.
Freeze for 3-4 hours, stirring with a fork and breaking up ice crystals every 30 minutes.
Serve and ENJOY!





What I Read in Quarantine



The Guest List by Lucy Foley



On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It's a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the lux party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. 
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsman begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride's oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn't wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

Characters that are intertwined in unexpected ways and unforeseen twists! You never quite know who's going to turn up dead and what actually happened until the very end. Read it!



Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin



After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agreed to a gig as a playgroup musician for over-privileged infants on New York's Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy.
There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the bring of social media stardom and just needs to find a way to keep her prefect life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses and opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the cool women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix.



Quick read. Love the NYC setting. I was happy the author included back stories on the women. So witty - get a copy now!


Regretting You by Colleen Hoover


Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young. Morgan put her own dream on hold. Clara doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn't  have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult co coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris - Morgan's husband, Clara's father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expected to, and Clara turns to the one boy she's forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstanding make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.

Family drama at it's finest! Throw in young love, rebellion, and betrayal and it's another interesting, moving book by Colleen Hoover. Put this on your to-read list!



The Life Lucy Knew by Karma Brown



One woman is about to discover everything she believes - knows - to be true about her life... isn't.
After hitting her head, Lucy Sparks awakens in the hospital to a shocking revelation: the man she's known and loved for years - the man she recently married - is not actually her husband. In fact., they haven't even spoken since their break up four years earlier. The happily ever after she remembers in vivid detail - right down to the dress she wore to their wedding - is only one example of what her doctors call false memory: recollections Lucy's mind made up to fill in the blanks from a coma.
Her psychologist explains the condition as honest lying, because while Lucy's memories are false, they still feel incredibly real. Now she has no idea which memories she can trust - a devastating experience not only for Lucy, but also for her family, friends, and especially her devoted boyfriend, Matt, whom Lucy remembers merely as a work colleague. 
When the life Lucy believes she had slams against the reality she's been living for the past four years, she must make a difficult choice about which life she wants to lead, and who she really is.

Really interesting topic that made me stop and think - what if this happened to me? I enjoyed following the character through her journey and waiting to find out what decisions she was going to make! Worth a read!


Last Day by Luanne Rice


Years ago, Beth Lathrop and sister Kate suffered what they thought would be the worst tragedy of their lives the night both the famous painting Moonlight and their mother were taken. The detective assigned to the case, Conor Reid, swore to protect the sisters from then on.
Beth moved on, throwing herself fully into the art world, running the family gallery, and raising a beautiful daughter with her husband Peter. Kate, instead, retreated into herself and took to the skies as a pilot, always on the run. When Beth is found strangled in her home, and Moonlight goes missing again, Detective Reid can't help but feel a sense of deja vu. 
Reid immediately suspects Beth's husband, whose affair is poorly kept a secret. He has an airtight alibi- but he also has a motive, and the evidence seems to point to him. Kate and Reid, along with the sisters' closest childhood friends, struggle to make sense of Beth's death, but they only find more questions. Who else would have wanted Beth dead? What's the significance of Moonlight?
Twenty years ago, Reid vowed to protect Beth and Kate - and he's failed. Now solving the case is turning into an obsession...

Part mystery, but mostly contemporary fiction about fractured family relationships and inner demons. Entertaining with an exciting twist! Pick it up if you have the chance.


Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes


In the wake of WWII, a grieving fisherman submits a poem to a local newspaper: a rally cry for hope, purpose... and rocks. Send me a rock for the person you lost, and I will build something life-living. When the poem spread farther than he ever intended, Robert Bliss's humble words change the tide of a nation. 
Decades later, Annie Sawyer is summoned back to Ansel-by-the-Sea when she learns her great uncle Robert, the man who became a refuge during the hardest summer of her youth, is now the one in need of help. What she didn't anticipate was finding a wall of heavy boxes hiding in his home. Long ago memories of stone ruins on a nearby island trigger her curiosity, igniting a fire in her anthropologist soul to uncover answers.
She joins forces with the handsome and mysterious harbor postman, and all her hopes of mending the decades old chasm in her family seem to point back to the ruins. But with Robert failing fast, her search for answers battles against time, a foe as relentless as the ever-crashing waves upon the sea.

There was a really good story underneath it all somewhere. I ended up skimming through it, but felt I hit all the important parts elements. It had the potential to be so good which made it so disappointing. Skip this one.


Currently reading...

Only Ever You by Rebecca Drake


Jill Lassiter's three-year-old daughter disappears from a playground only to return after 40 frantic minutes, but her mother's relief is short-lived - there's a tiny puncture mark on Sophia's arm. When the doctors can find no trace of drugs in her system, Jill accept she'll never know what happened, but at least her child is safe.
Except Sophia isn't. Someone is watching the Lassiter home in an affluent Pennsylvania suburb, infiltrating the family's person and profession lives. While Jill struggles to balance building her photography business with parenting high-spirited Sophia, and David is distracted by the pressure to make partner at his law firm, both of them are holding on in a marriage that's already been rocked by loss.
Three month after the incident in the park, Sophia disappears again, but this time Jill and David become the focus of police and media scrutiny and suspicion. Facing every parent's worst nightmare a second time, Jill discovers that someone doesn't just want Sophia for her own, she wants to destroy the entire family.






Summer Trend: Tropical Prints


The best way to ease tropical prints into your summer wardrobe is with accessories! Add a pop of tropical to any outfit with a printed clutch, bag, shoes, or hair accessories! 
Tropical prints can be worked in to wedding guest attire, day wear, or casual evening wear. Choose feminine touches such a chiffon, pleats, ruffles, and fabrics that flow!
The best way to a tropical print in to your casual every day wear is to choose a more muted palette. Skip the bright prints and go for patterns with earth tones.
And last, but not least, the easiest way to wear tropical prints this summer is with a tropical print bathing suit!