Happy Friday!

Yes, I'm bringing First Friday back. This is where I make a featured cocktail to share on the First Friday of the month, pick a soap or product to feature in the shop, talk about it and offer it at a sale price, and finally talk about projects and favorite things from the past month. So here we go!

Let's start with the cocktail, and this month, I’m making a Gin Fizz. With the weather finally warmer, a Gin Fizz is the perfect light and refreshing cocktail for the month. A little history about the Gin Fizz - I found that sailors started drinking gin and lemon juice as a therapeutic drink to fight scurvy; later, sugar and soda water were added. Henry C Ramos, a famous bartender in the 1800s, added egg white and shook it to give a frothiness, making it a popular drink in New Orleans, where Henry C Ramos was bartending. I leave the egg white out.

To make a gin fizz, you need:

Cocktail Jigger, Cocktail Shaker, Lemon Juicer, and highball glass

Cocktail Jigger |Cocktail Shaker| Lemon Squeezer | Highball Glass

Ingredients: Gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, soda water, maraschino cherry and lemon wedge for garnish

Combine one shot of gin, half a lemon juice, and 1/2 oz simple syrup over ice in a shaker. Shake vigorously. Pour over ice in a highball glass, top off with soda water, garnish with a cherry and lemon wedge, and enjoy.

For a mocktail version, skip the gin and shake the lemon juice and simple syrup. Pour over ice, top off with soda water, and garnish.

Soap Feature: Spring Spice

This month's featured soap is Spring Spice. This soap smells so good; it has a subtle earthiness from cedarwood essential oil and a sweet freshness from orange essential oil. It is cheerfully colorful with orange and yellow, reminding me of sunset and warmer days. You can find this soap in the shop now. Use fuse Code JUFIRSTFRI to get it 30% off.

Monthly Winner!

One of my favorite parts of First Friday is announcing the monthly winner. This is a shopper from the past month chosen randomly. As a thank you for shopping, I am sending some soap. This month's winner is Deborah G. I'll be sending you some soap goods!

My favorite recent project

Painting our deep blue fireplace; I did this in March. I've wanted to do this for a while since moving home.

My favorite purchase

The frame for our TV. It is from an Etsy shop, and I absolutely love it. The best part is that you don't need a Samsung Frame TV; check out their shop. They may be able to make one for your TV. If you have a smart TV, you can get art on YouTube to display on your TV, or many TVs have art apps you can ur, like our Roku TVs has Backdrops. Check out this post to see the frame I made.

Check out the Etsy shop I bought the TV frame from here.

My favorite TV shows

1823, which I liked but was a little slow. Hacks on Max is so good. Did you watch those, what are your recommendations? I'm also looking for some good summer book reads. What shows are you watching that I should check out?

I'm also looking for some good summer book reads

Some books I've recently read and loved are The Women by Kristin Hannah; I enjoyed this story and reading about these women at that time in history. There is heartbreak, acceptance, and victories, so much to keep me invested in this story. Here One Moment, Lian Moriarty, is a great story with a storyline that was new to me. And Someone Else's Shoes, by Jojo Moyes, is a great story with characters that I loved reading about and how their story unfolded.