Holy Toledo…summer came and went in a dang flash!!! I had SOOOOO many big plans for this summer and…well they are still in the planning stage…haha!! Oh well…There is always NEXT year:)

What is new this week??

What is happening at Orchard Slope?! Well we are getting ready for BACK TO SCHOOL over here if you can believe it!!Even though it is 100 degress outside, FALL IS ON THE WAY!! Over on Instagram this week I shared a super fun and easy BACK TO SCHOOL TABLE idea. How cute are those apple plates???

I often worry that my kids are getting too old for cute crafty things, but my teen assured me that this was even cool enough for high schoolers. SOOOO I will just keep on being crafty until they tell me to quit. I honestly think anything that I can do that make the kids feel special, is a win. There is so much that is dark and ugly in the world…that I think it is nice for our kids to just feel special and loved…even if it is just an apple shaped plate!!

Everything except the tablerunner is a free printable from A GIRL AND A GLUEGUN and was sooooo easy to just cut out and plop down. The tablerunner is just a roll of brown paper from Lowes and hand written lines and numbers. Easy Peasy. Even with the cutting I think this entire craft only took about 40 minutes and I was making enough for 8 people.

I also have a complete blog post with 15 Fun Back to School Ideas over HERE. I have tried a few of these over the years and the graham cracker pencils are for sure one of my favorites!!!

Wanna try the EASIEST salsa recipe EVER!?!

My friend Marcie NEVER leads me astray with recipe or food advice…she is the expert. When she shared this salsa recipe, I KNEW it was for me. I immediately added the ingredients to my grocery pick up!! The original recipe can be found HERE and is from Tastes Better From Scratch…which has soooo many amazing recipe to try btw. Why I loved it?? Well first of all TASTE…it is amazing. Just the perfect restaurant style salsa with soooo much flavor packed in. Second…IT IS SOOOOO DANG EASY TO MAKE!!! I don’t even have a food processor, so I just used a blender and my old reliable tiny hand pump food processor and it worked GREAT!! Third…IT MAKES A HUGE BOWL FULL. This is a recipe for a party…or for my family…haha. We all just pulled up to the counter with a bag of chips and started digging right in. And Fourth…it uses ingredients that are simple and easy to find and takes NOOOO cooking talent AT ALL to make!! I actually used minced garlic and a bottle of lime juice instead of fresh and got everything else in cans from Walmart…SUPER SIMPLE!!! This is a keeper for SURE. Head over to TASTES BETTER FROM SCRATCH and print this one off now…you will thank me…and my girl Marcie…and Lauren who wrote the actual recipe:)

WORDS FOR THE WEEK…

It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.

Jane Austen–Sense and Sensibility

Speaking of a world full of darkness and just plain ugly wickedness. Now more than ever I think we need to let our little lights shine. Sometimes I am guilty of just letting the loudest voices be heard, but I am slowly learning that if all of the quiet voices join together…those loud voices are not as loud as they once seemed. I think we need to all step up and BE the change we need to see in this world. And now I step off my soap box and head back to my bowl of salsa!! Happy Saturday. Let’s chat again soon. JESS

You can find more of my favorite recipes HERE and HERE. Or check out more of my favorite Cherry Picking posts HERE, HERE, or HERE!!!