It Is HOT!!!

-- Let's Keep It COOL!!!

This is the 15th of August - which means it's the day for the Dueling Darlings to post this month's cards.

If you aren't familiar with the Dueling Darlings, we are a group of online friends who have a bit of a challenge each month. We are two teams - the Divas and the Dazzlers (I'm a Dazzler). Each month each team has a hostess and the two hostesses choose a theme for that month and then send out kits to their team members. Kits include images, papers, and embellishments. The team members create and we all post on the 15th. It's great fun to see what each Dueling Darling creates... and to see the items each team has to work with.

This month Paola was the Dazzler hostess and Judy was the Diva hostess. They gave us the theme IT IS HOT!!! LET'S KEEP IT COOL!!!

Paola sent us the most incredible kits... so many mny goodies with with to play. I tried, but I simply could not use all of them, there were so many. Thank you, Paola, for making the August round so much fun!!!

I decided to try something really different for my card this month. (I'm not sure I like the outcome, but one never knows unless one tries, right?)

My card is a bit of a mystery card. LOL! I created a band that wraps around the card and put the fun beachy designer paper and the vellum sentiment on the band, which actually covers up about 1/3rd of the card front.





When the band is removed, you get to see the entire card which includes the adorable image of a chick floating along in the water.

I thought you might want to see a closeup of the image.

Paola gave us a challenge along with our kit. We were instructed to share a fond memory of our favorite way to keep cool during hot summer days. For me, it would be to stay inside (where it's air conditioned) and stamp the day away. LOL! Does that count, Sweet P?

Paola also asked us to share our favorite cool drink and a recipe, too, if we are willing. Truthfully, we drink a lot of iced tea at our house - year round! So that is the beverage I enjoy most often when trying to stay cool. However, my favorite treat is a Starbuck's Frappuccino (why is no one surprised by that???)... and currently, my favorite flavor of those is the Mocha Coconut Frappuccino. It's really a very good thing that the nearest Starbuck's is well over an hour away... otherwise I'd gain a lot of weight and be much poorer, too.

I have done some searching (I love google!) and have discovered a copycat recipe, which I do plan to try very soon. Here it is:

Mocha Coconut Frappuccino Recipe

Ingredients
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup double strength coffee
1 cup low-fat milk
1/3 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup
2 cups ice
whipped cream

Instructions
First things first, prehead the oven to 300 degrees F. Spread the 1/2 cup of shredded coconut on a baking sheet. Put in the oven to toast. In order to get the coconut evenly toasted, you will need to stir the coconut around about every 10 minutes or so. It should take 25 to 30 minutes to get the shredded coconut a nice light brown. Let it cool.

Now to make the double strength coffee. It's really quite simply. Use your drip coffee maker but use twice as much coffe as you normall would. This means use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for each cup of coffee that you wish to make. Chill coffee.

Now, on to the fun part of actually making the drinks! In a blender combine 1 cup of cold coffee with 1 cup of low-fat milk, 1/3 cup of toasted coconut, 1/3 cup of chocolate syrup, and 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Blend for 15 to 20 seconds in order to dissolve the sugar.

Now, add ice and blend until the ice is crushed and the drink is smooth. Pour the contents of the blender into two (2) 16-ounce glasses. Garnish each drink with whipped cream. Drizzle chocholate syrup and add a pinch more of the toasted coconut to top off the drinks. Enjoy!


Now, let's go see what the other Dueling Darlings have for us...

DAZZLERS

April

Darlene

Debbie

Melina

Michelle

Paola

Terry

DIVAS

Barb

Carol

Jamie

Joan

Judy

Kelly

LJ

Tami

I must give my sincerest apologies to Paola (and to all of you viewing this post, too). I'm sorry, but I cannot find the product list, so I can't tell you what items were used for this card.