FANCY
FOOTWORK
Breakyour kids’ Croc
addiction by
Introducing them to
anequallyfun
custom-decorated
shoe. Pick up inexpen-
sive f
li p-f
lo ps at astore
like Target or Old Navy
and personalize them.
Cut fabricinto/4-inch
strips— or use
ribbon— and wrapthe
strap,startingwhere it
meetsthesole. Secure
everyinchorso with
craft glue. Then let
kids get creative with
puffy paint and
glued-on seed beads,
buttons,sequins,or
fabric flowers.
book swap
better
Start w ith
A Fizz
It’s hard to beat fresh-
squeezed lemonade,
but to mix things up, try
a
cucumber-melon fizz,"
says chef Gretchen Pelsma
of Boise, Idaho. Peel and
cube an English cucumben
and half a ripe cantaloupe
or honeydew, or
'A
of a
watermelon (or do a
mixture of melons). Blend
with store-bought limeade
in batches until slushy.
Pour into glasses of ice and
top with a little club soda
or lemon-lime soda
F o r pop sicles
Skip the club
soda step above
and freeze
the pureed
cucumber-melon
mixture. Use a
popsicle mold or
pour into Dixie cups.
F o r m o jito s Make
the fizz; add a handful
of fresh mint leaves
when pureeing. After
adding the club soda,
stir in 1 ounce spiced
rum and /2 ounce
Midori.
Star popsicle
mold,$i8 for
set of 6;
Martha
Stewart,
macys.com
The beach book. It’s a time-honored excuse to relax your literary standards
’ and dive into novels that you might otherwise shun based on cheesy
cover art alone. It’s easy to blow through a dozen by Labor Day, though,
which adds up to a chunk of change, not to mention bookshelf clutter (these
aren’t usually the titles you want to display in your permanent collection).
A fun solution: Start this summer off with a beach-book swap. Invite friends
to come over one afternoon for cocktails and appetizers and have them bring
all the easy-read paperbacks they want to unload. Arrange the books on
tables so everyone can browse and refill
their bags with new titles.
If you’d rather keep your trashy-novel
habit under wraps, you could join an
online book club like
paperbackswap
.com,
where you earn credits by
sending your used books to people
who request them. You then redeem
the credits to order whatever books
you want to spend quality sand time
with next.
246 JUNE 2009 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
