Nifty Binders

I cannot truly express my horror at encountering the school supplies at Target yesterday! Ahhhhh! I ran away, as fast as my little red cart could go! I don't want to think about it yet, it's still summer people! It's only July...maybe we won't be attending school this year...so there! Anyway, since other people may decide to send their children back to school I thought I would share our nifty binder idea!

Last year, Lulu's seventh grade supply list included several three inch binders. We searched high and low for pretty ones...pink, lime green, lovely blue...we had expectations...girly ones! Every pretty binder we found was only two inches instead of three. We were getting frustrated and had been to several stores when the idea hit us! We could slide any beauteous piece of scrap book paper into the back and front of a plain binder and have custom made ones! And we knew just the right paper...

The Snack Stack! Thank you Jaime for introducing us to this glorious stack of sweet paper!

There are two sheets of each design in this mat stack so we bought plain white three inch binders, the ones with the clear plastic overlay so you can slide a piece of paper in the back and front. Lulu chose limes, raspberries and popcorn.  

We cut a strip of solid colored paper for the ends of the binders and spelled out the school subjects with letter stickers...

That mat stack is so much fun, I love the paper she chose and check out all the lovelies waiting to be used this year...

Love them all! Lulu was very excited about her unique and bright binders and a bunch of girls wanted to know where she got them...so maybe this year it will be the trend! I still can't believe it took us that long to think of it! Duh! ☺

 (Ummm...that green on the end where it says Science really does match, in real life it is the same color as the limes! Weird how colors look different in photos) ☺

I mentioned last Friday that I would share what I did with the blueberries that we picked, so here we go. First up are individual fresh blueberry pies...no baking, just a filling made on the stove and then mixed with fresh berries and spooned into store bought little graham cracker crusts. So happy!         

Measure 6 cups of blueberries and then mash enough to make 1 cup. Combine 1 cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of corn starch in a sauce pan. Add 1/2 cup orange juice and the mashed berries. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely. Fold in the remaining fresh berries (about 4 cups). Spoon into graham cracker crusts, refrigerate at least 3 hours. Make about 8 little pies, unless you just buy the six pack of crusts and you let your kids eat the left over filling! ☺

My second blueberry delight was a batch of Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars. These are oh, so delicious, kinda like cheesecake but with a cakey crust and lots of berries. The recipe is from the Kraft Food & Family magazine and it starts with a yellow cake mix. They are easy to make and...they were the best thing we ate this week!