Salted Caramel Iced Coffee Recipe

I love iced coffee.

You know the really expensive kind you 

get at unnamed coffee shops?

The kind that tastes great until you step out into the heat

 and then you are just drinking a

really expensive cup of watered down,

sugary grossness?

Well here's the perfect solution! 

The World's Best Iced Coffee!

Well it's the best in my little world! 

It's cost effective, I know exactly what's going into it, 

and I know that I am supporting a great cause with every sip!

If you paid attention to our Mother's Day Giveaway, 

then you are not stranger to 

Madhava Natural Sweeteners.

If you're new here then please take the time 

to check out Madhava and they awesomeness that surrounds

their company! 

I just adore a company that not only cares about 

their consumers by offering only the best of products and ingredients, but also

cares so much for their #1 employees…

THE BEES!

So here's what you will need for this recipe:

Ingredients:

Madhava Organic Salted Caramel Coffee Syrup (buy it here!)

12 oz. Cold brew coffee (make in advance)

1 cup of almond milk

coffee ice cubes

sea salt

a handful of 12 oz Mason Jars (optional)

Step 1:

First you will need to cold brew your coffee.

This step takes about 48 hours.

My advice to you…

This 12 oz cup of coffee concentrate will make about 

4 cups of iced coffee.  

So I pretty much always have one in the fridge cold brewing.

In a 12 oz container, Mason Jars work great,

place 4 tbsp of coffee and fill with cold water.

Give it a good shake and place it in the fridge.

I have made a habit of giving it a good shake every time I 

open the refrigerator door.

Step 2:

After 48 hrs, 

it's time to filter our the coffee

using a strainer over a new Mason Jar.

This is now your coffee concentrate that 

you will use for your iced coffee recipe.

I can't stress enough that this is a CONCENTRATE!

Step 3:

Now add 1 tsp. off your 

Madhava Organic Salted Caramel Coffee Syrup

to your cup of almond milk.

I like to mix thoroughly to create a sweetened milk.

Step 4:

Now add your cold brew coffee concentrate,

your coffee ice cubes, and a sprinkle sea salt.

Enjoy

and 

Save the Bees!!! 

"You're the Bee's Knees Mom!" GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

You guys I am beyond excited for this giveaway!

Mom's work hard! 

You know who else works hard? 

Bees.

In honor of all things awesome about 

Moms and Bees

I have put together a very special giveaway.

The Grand Prize winner will receive the following:

A coveted bottle of Madhava Organic Salted Caramel Coffee Syrup

Madhava, meaning "Born of Honey", is a company that's 

beyond totally sweet!  

This Boulder, CO based company was founded on roots of a 

healthier living for not only us sweet tooths,

but also the Bee's.

Please take the time to check out their full story here!

Something to drink your amazing Iced Coffee in?

Absolutely! 

How about this sweet little mug 

with the recipe for the world's best iced coffee?!?!?

All hand crafted by your's truly.

Humble Bumble B Hats

has also chipped in beautiful little 

vintage style hat for the sweet Momma Winner!

Brenda designed this hat around her shared passion for Bee's and 

Madhava's bright and colorful packaging.

So technically you must wear this hat while enjoying your 

delicious Salted Caramel Coffees!

You must proclaim that you are officially

the "Bee's Knees"

with this custom 

Sparkle & Stone bracelet.

How cute will you be sipping away!

What's that? 

You can't see how stinking cute you look Mom?

Do you need new glasses?

Maybe some sweet (see what I did there with the Honey reference)

new Vintage inspired Cat Eye glasses!!!!

You know, to go with your bee hive and vintage hat! 

Well Firmoo, you remember how awesome they were before,

they are at it again! 

They are gifting the Grand Prize winner a 

$30 gift voucher towards your choice of frames 

from their Cat Eye collection! 

These glasses are so cute! 

I have my eye on a new pair!!!

They have the best styles and they are so completely affordable,,,

$30 off is practically a free pair of glasses people! 

So that's it….Grand Prize:

Madhave Coffee Syrup

Mug and recipe

Handmade Vintage Inspire Hat

Handmade bracelet

$30 Gift for new glasses

Not too shabby! 

How to Enter?

Find this post on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter

Leave a comment on the post telling me why your Mom is 

"The Bee's Knee's"

And share the link to the blog giveaway.

Each comment and share will give you additional entries.

The winner will be drawn at random on Sunday Night, May 11th, 9pm mnt time.

 Good Luck! 

and 

Save the Bees!

The Boys First Camping Trip

This past weekend the Trumble family set out 

for their very first family camping trip.

While the hubs and I have camped before,

we have never camped together and the boy had never been.

We headed out to Golden Gate State Park 

to meet up with some friends for a family fun weekend!

It was everything a camping trip should be.

Camp fires, marshmallows, and dirty little boys.

Above is a picture of a piece of ash that we found under a rock.

It reads: "Hear This"

It was pretty much a great reminder for the weekend to stop and take it all in.

The boys played so hard for three days straight.

Baseball, soccer, exploring, and a lot of make believe.

Oh! Yes! There was axe throwing as well.  

Lots of axe throwing.

And all the pups behaved as well.

Did I mention that it was also sweet Stella's first camping trip as well.

On our nature walks we talked about ecosystems and got close up on 

little bits of nature that we would normally just walk right past.

Beware of the attacking watermelon bandit.

All in all it was the perfect weekend filled 

with lots of laughter and a wonderful time! 

So much so that we planned out next adventure for this weekend.

The Children's Peace Garden

This past weekend we took our first trip out to 

Growing Garden's and The Children's Peace Garden

for the Kid's Bee Earth Day Festival.

We got up close and personal with baby goats.

Turns out they are a lot like puppies.

They want to play and snuggle and eat.

We also mastered the art of a "creative" butterfly mask.

The little girl in the background made it very clear to 

Ash that she didn't approve of his thinking out side the box,

BUT I totally dug his crazy mask.

We even got to dig into the earth in the great pursuit for earth worms.

We found none in the heat of the afternoon,

however we did find a millipede, a large part of a rib bone, and a small pool ball.

We even ran into some of our favorite friends,

and climbed and explored all the farm equipment for a while.

We learned about bee hives, and how we can help keep the bees healthy.

And then I learned that not only do I have one brave little boy,

but also the cutest dang bee keeper in town! 

After a stroll through the community gardens,

the hubs taught he boy how to use a magnifying glass to start a fire….

…and search for bugs in the plants.

We had the very best time and if you are local and never seen the 

Growing Gardens, I suggest that you go! 

Like them on Facebook to keep up with

their upcoming events

Like summer camps for kids,

plant sales, and cooking courses for the grown ups. 

I can't wait to hang out in the gardens more often! 

We will be hitting up their plant sale in the next few weekends as 

well as heading out in early May to help plant the 

raspberry and strawberry fields! 

Not to mention the magical 2 weeks of  summer camp 

that the boy get to spend their! 

DIY: hanging succulent baskets

At this point I don't think that I need to 

tell anyone who reads here regularly that 

I am jumping up and down for spring! 

In this house,

spring = plants... 

it also equals yard sales.

Two of my favorite things.

About a month ago I found this amazing 

vintage tri-level basket hanger.

You know the kind that hangs in the kitchens of 

hipsters and grandmothers everywhere?

I've been dying for one, and when I 

saw this one for less that $1

I had to have it, even though there was no where

in my kitchen to hang it.

That's where this project came from.

A way to have lots of beautiful succulents 

on our tiny apartment balcony….

all wrapped up in an adorable hanging basket.

So here's a simple gardening DIY! 

Hope you enjoy!

What You Will Need:

Some sort of hanging basket

Coconut husk liners 

cactus soil

enough succulents for fill your baskets

Step 1:

First I fit my coconut liners into the baskets.

This took quite a bit of cutting and manipulating.

I used a total of 2 liners for this project.

The middle liner needed quite a bit cut off that I

used in the top tier.

Step 2:

Then I filled each basket about 2/3 full of soil.

Step 3:

I next arranged each of the succulents 

in their respective baskets while there were still in

their individual containers.

I had a pretty good idea of 

where each plant was going to go when 

I was purchasing them,

making sure to get a good variety 

of tall and short plants

as well as getting some with some hang to them.

Step 4:

After breaking down each root ball

to allow the plants to breath a bit,

I carefully arranged each

plant into its new home.

I made sure to give the succulents some space

so that as they grow they can fill in the baskets.

Step 5:

After everyone was in their new homes,

I gave them a heavy spray down

with a water bottle. 

Took a few steps back.

And fell in love! 

Enjoy!

My Baby's 6 Months Old!

Obviously not my big baby! 

He's almost 5, which is another mind blowing fact.

The younger, sweeter baby which I am referring to….

Sparkle & Stone.

It struck me the other day, 

after my very first Colorado market,

that all of this crazy snowballing dream was really 

coming to fruition.

All of my hard work and literal bloody stumps 

and endless chipped and broken nails

were for a reason.

Something was really happening here,

and people were actually liking it.

Thinking about the fact that it's only been 

6 months since our very first market makes my jaw hit the floor.

While it seems like just yesterday, it also feels 

like we've been doing this for so much longer.

 

But the point of all of this isn't to 

boast about how awesome the past 6 months have been.

(although they have been pretty fucking awesome!)

The real point of all of this is to recognize the 

real reason behind all of the success.

First and foremost,

I have to thank my husband.

Not only was his choice to shake up our family 

dynamic a huge catalyst for me finally 

getting off my ass and chasing down my dream,

but it was also a great use of his free time to be my 'do boy'.

This man has run the gamut for me.

I have had the craziest of request 

for construction work on table displays.

He has sat countless hours at markets by my side 

selling things to all kinds of crazy bitches.

And all the while with a giant smile on his face,

most likely cursing me through his teeth, 

but a smile on his face none the less.

If it were not for him,

I literally couldn't do this.

The second person, 

my original baby, Ash.

This kid is a champ.

I will leave out all of the bribes and threats 

that I've delved out to this kid over the past 6 months,

and say this….

All those long hours and shit eating grins,

the boy has done 'em too.

Not many kids could pull it off like he can either.

Trust me I've seen it.

He's become quite the salesman,

and loves nothing more than being my 

"assistant" on market days.

You can tell by the crazed look in his eyes

in the picture above that sugar is involved.

Lots of sugar.

Lastly, You guys.

All my Bitches.

(I mean that in the least threatening kind of way.)

The people that love me and support me 

are really the reason that 

all of the time and work has become a success.

I have met some really amazing people in the past few months.

You guys are the inspiration and the drive.

There isn't a single market that goes by that I don't 

leave with a new friend/customer.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I can't thank you all enough for all of this.

While I am throwing out thank you's,

I also have to give a great big shout out to 

a new friend/customer, Lauren Defilippo.

Lauren is also new to CO,

descending from NYC.

As soon as I learned this about her,

found out she was a photographer,

and realized how totally awesome she was,

I knew we had to be friends.

Lauren was at the Denver HaHo,

photographing the event and was so kind to share these 

images that she captured of our booth.

Thank you so much Lauren for capturing something that I 

never have time to, and for being totally RAD!

Check out her website…

www.laurendefilippo.com

...and while you are perusing the inter webs…

click the "SHOP" button above to head over to 

Sparkle & Stone