Make ahead Sangria with Sangria Cubes!

I'm an insane person when it comes to planning ahead. I took my husband on a surprise picnic recently. I cooked and prepped in secret while he was at work and stashed the food in the fridge. I'm lucky we never use the veggie drawers. If I put veggies in them, I forget they're there and they go bad. It's sad.

frozen fruit rainbow

Anyway... I wanted to make a few things more than a day ahead. The day before I made shortbread, caramelized onions, and focaccia dough, I didn't want to spend all day chopping fruit too. So two days before the picnic I chopped up the fruit for the sangria. The problem with cutting fruit ahead of time is that it gets brown, of course. I was using apples and pears too which do not stand up well to storage when cut. I popped my chopped fruit into and ice cube tray, covered them with fresh citrus juice, and froze them until the next day. This worked perfectly! Freezing helped break down the fruit and make it softer and I didn't have to chop up fruit on my really busy prep day.

I think this technique would work well if making sangria for a summer bbq or any sangria occasion really. I would still combine it all the day before to let the flavors really meld. I just popped out the cubes, added wine and sugar and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Yum! I find chopping fruit really tedious and I like getting as much tedious stuff out of the way early when event planning. I get too spazzy to do tedious things when I'm really pressed for time. I hope you liked this trick. Let me know what you think.

Best,
Anna

Chair transformation

I turned this:

into this: 

Do you love the cute little owl print? It took 4.5 coats of primer to get it white. I was dealing with a very thirsty chair. Do you like it? Are you inspired? I bet there's a Goodwill chair just waiting for you to reupholster it. 

Stay tuned to see what I do with this: 

Happy refurbishing,

Anna

I'm Back... again

Hi y'all out there in blog land. I stepped away from the blog for a while. I had some trouble with my camera and some other excuses. I wasn't really making anything that I considered blog caliber.

I think I found my true calling: refurbishing furniture! I bought a cheap chair at Goodwill and I'm in the midst of painting and reupholstering the seat. I also bought an old sewing machine and table at a flea market. I think it might be from the 40s, but I won't be surprised if I'm wrong. Before and afters to come soon, unless I totally drop the bloggy ball again.

See you soon,
Anna