Make Your Own Elderberry Syrup

This just might be by far the most “crunchy” thing I’ve ever done! I love making things on my own, I’ve recently been very into making my own elderberry syrup and broths- both so easy but broth is for another day. Today, we’re chatting about Elderberries! I’ve been using Elderberry syrup and gummies for years, I love the immunity properties it holds and its full of good stuff! A few things about elderberries you should know;

  • they are rich in vitamins & nutrients

  • relieves inflammation & supports immune health

  • rich in three types of flavanols — naturally occurring compounds in plants with antioxidant properties — they may help to improve heart health.

Elderberry syrup from the store is packed full of sugar and has other additives that I don’t want. Once you realize that and how easy it is to make it you’ll be doing it as well. It’s so easy to make and one batch makes a ton on syrup. I tried a few different recipes before landing on the one I use- it’s a combo of several I’ve tried. This is the one I make for my family. I’ll also link below some of the products I use along with the recipe, including of coarse the Elderberries!

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Elderberry Syrup Recipe

1 cup elderberries

5 cups filtered water

4 cinnamon sticks or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 cup local honey

Place your cup of dried Elderberries in your crock pot, pour water over them, add the cinnamon and let it cook for 8-10 hours! All day! This is very important that you let it cook for this long, it removed the lectins from the berries - and lectins can harm the gut. It also removes the bitter taste from the berries as well. If you are using dried cinnamon instead of the sticks you’ll want to wisk all that together and let it cook.

After it’s cooked for the amount of time you’ll add the cup of honey. I suggest using local honey for it’s allergy benefits- but if you can’t find that use a raw organic honey that you can find. Add that to your elderberries while it’s still warm then wisk together. If you want your syrup to be sweeter, then you can add more honey to taste. Turn off your crock pot, and then begin to strain the elderberries out. Make sure you use a fine mesh strainer to get them all out. I’ll link one below I use.

Once all your berries are out, you can pour the syrup into glass bottles for storage. I link the ones I have below, you’ll store your syrup in the fridge for up to 3 months.

For dosage, I like to use these stainless steal shot glasses and line them all up in the mornings for all of us to drink when we take our daily vitamins. So easy. But a general rule is 1 tablespoon, once a day.

That’s it! So easy and like I said one batch makes so much! I love this because it is way more economical than buying it from the store and you get all the benefits without added sugars and junk! Everything I mentioned and use is linked here:

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, if you end up making it let me know how it goes! Hope you enjoy.

*affiliate links used.

Amazon Prime Wardrobe Haul | Vol. 1

Hey friends! Today we’re chatting Amazon Prime wardrobe! If you haven’t tried Prime Wardrobe before, you must- if you’re a Prime member it’s free. You get to choose 8 articles for your wardrobe and it can be a mix of clothing, accessories, shoes, etc. You choose what you want, it gets shipped in 2 days and you get 7 days to try everything on at home, and send back what you don’t want and pay for what you do.

It couldn’t be more easy, and a great way to try things out without being charged first. You don’t have to deal with annoying returns since you only pay for what you want to keep, and then you are charged. This is my third prime wardrobe haul and I thought I’d take you along- everything is linked below.

This prime wardrobe haul was inspired by me needing new jeans. I’d ripped a hole in my fave pair and needed some new ones. I ordered 3 pairs this go round, and I’ll share my thoughts. The rest were sweaters and cardigans to compliment my new need for a “winter” wardrobe. Since moving from Phoenix to Iowa a few months ago I’ve realized that I need more winter gear. I’m so excited for cozy Fall threads.

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top & jeans

Boyfriend jeans, they are from an Amazon brand called Daily Ritual. I really like this brand and wanted to try other cuts they offered. I liked these but the cropped fit made me feel even shorter than I am. Loved this top, it’s so soft!

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Amazon Prime Day Deals | 2020

Happy Prime Day everyone! Prime Day is usually in July each year, but because of Covid it’s been moved! This is a great day to get amazing deals on some great products! The best deals are going to come from Amazon branded products, especially in the tech category. There are also some great home deals too! Let’s get started!

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4. dutch oven | 1. ring door bell | 2. ring door bell + echo dot deal | 6. echo dot | 5. kids fire tablet | 3. softest sheets ever

Many of these items we have in our own home, and they’ve been tried and true products for us. These sheets are the softest ever, they are under $40 and I have two sets for my king size bed!

I think a dutch oven is an essential for any kitchen, I got mine two years ago and I use it almost every single night to cook! It’s great for soups, and pasta and really just about anything. You won’t regret this purchase, and this is a good deal on one. Plus, this one comes in a few colors to choose from.

We have had the Ring door bell on our last house, and then we got another one for our current home and we love it and the security of it! This one is a great deal, and if you want a good bundle get the one that comes with the echo dot here.

We love the Echo dot in our home, and this one is under $20 - making it a great Christmas gift! I love that you can sync them together if you have them in different room and they can become an intercom. We love using them for alarms, streaming music and podcasts- there’s so much you can do with these devices.

This back seat cover is a life saver, we love ours for protecting our seats. We use it with our kiddos more than anything. My blue light blocking glasses are on sale 2 for $12. Grab them here.

A few more deals I saw that I loved and thought were a great deal but don’t actually own are:

These leggings are highly rated, and an amazing deal. These packing cubes for travel are a great deal for Prime Day too.

For my party peeps, I’ve had my eye on this electric balloon pump for a while and it’s on major Prime Day Sale!

Check out all the items I love on Amazon by visiting my store front here, I always save all my faves that we have in our home here.

  • all links are affiliate links. You are not charged more or less for using these links. However, a small portion does come back to this blog. Thank you for supporting my blog.

Introducing Basic Invite for a Truly Customized Invitation.

This post is brought to you by Basic Invite, all thoughts are my own.

With my son’s birthday just a few months away, it has me thinking about all the party planning and small details that I love about parties and what makes them great! When planning a party I always think of a theme first, and looking at party invitations helps me get those ideas going. I firmly believe your invitation choice is your guests first glimpse at what your party will be about and the theme. I also believe in sending out traditional paper invitations, especially for life’s big milestones.

Today I’m excited to share with you Basic Invite, a company that specializes in truly custom invitations. In addition to their extensive line of party invitations they also have stationary and websites you can build and make custom.

A few things that make this company different are;

  • you can customize the colors of your invitation with just a click, with over 180 colors to choose from you can truly create something one of a kind.

  • you can order custom samples of your designs.

  • with address capturing services you can important your addresses in a snap and have them printed for you, saving you so much time!

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Basic Invite has 40 different colors of envelopes to choose from to easily match your theme and events, and the envelopes are sealed with easy peeling off adhesive. They have an extensive product line including 21st birthday party invitation, graduations, wedding, different types of parties, and baby just to name a few ensuring that you’ll have access to the best invitations all within one site. I already mentioned their custom party invitations , check them out for a truly custom look.

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I love when a company gives you so many options to make them your own, I’m excited to share this company with all of you. Right now they are offering my readers a 15% off discount, use code: 15FF51 at check out when placing your orders.

They even have Christmas card options for you to choose from for the upcoming holidays, including my favorite foil options. Their foil colors come in gold, silver and my personal fave; rose gold! Customers also have the choice of choosing flat or raised foil on their invites. See, I told you so many amazing options for a truly customized experience.

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One product that really caught my eye, that I thought was so different and unique are their clear business cards! Have you ever seen anything like this? I know I haven’t and I’m always looking for ways to help my business stand out among the rest. With many design options and ways to customize your business will look different than the rest.

Oh, and in case you were wondering I found the perfect invites for my son’s dirt bike/monster car themed birthday party!

Connect with Basic Invite on their social channels and visit their website here.

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Our Backyard Patio Makeover

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Today I’m excited to share with you our completed backyard patio makeover! We’ve been working on this space for a few weeks now. We had a few requirements for this space; one, we wanted more seating for this patio. Enough that would fit our larger extended family when they came over. This was the biggest, and we found a patio set we loved but it took forever for it to come back in stock- it was well worth it we love out patio set!

So we cleared everything off of it, gave it a good clean and then got to work. Here’s the before:

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We moved the Treager to the other side of the patio so that we could make room for the patio set. We also moved the white chairs to our shed for the time being.

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And now we have a beautiful after to share! I love how everything turned out, we already had the black and white stripe rug and the umbrella too. I knew I wanted to keep them so we brought them with in our move.

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I love the contrast of the black and white with the grey patio set! One of the neat features of this patio set is that it comes with covers, the set stacks neatly on top of the other and then you place the pillows and everything inside and put the covers on. It’s already passed the rain test, and a few weeks ago with our Iowa land hurricane we had- this set held up so well and no damage came to it! If it can survive that - it’s very durable!

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I also wanted to take a moment to show you what the backyard looks like with the lights all plugged in, twinkly fairy lights are just so magical and beautiful at night! See what I mean?!!

If you’re interested in any of these items that we used to makeover this backyard patio space, everything is linked below. Thank you for reading a long and sharing this fun makeover with us!

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Grab the look // items in this post:

Links used are affiliate links, you are not charged more or less for using these links. However, by using these links a small commission goes back to this blog. Thank you for choosing to use my links and helping support this blog.