There's so much to love about summer - the lazy days filled with nothing but relaxation, spending countless hours at the beach, soaking up the sun, indulging in colorful, seasonal fruits - and so much more!

My ideal summer day would be 75 degrees, sunny, and a light breeze. However, sometimes it can get scorching hot during this season. It's so, so important that you remember to stay hydrated and keep your body nourished with plenty of water.

The perfect way to stay hydrated while adding an extra bit of taste to your water is infusing it with fruit! Not only does it taste delicious, but infused water has so many nutritional benefits to offer. Adding fruit to your water will give it an extra boost of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are all essential to your health and provide you with a natural source of energy throughout the day.

I get questions all of the time about how to "make" infused water but it's actually really as simple as it looks.  Simply add whatever fruit you like to fresh, purified water. A few of my favorites to use are:

- Mint leaves
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Lemons
- Oranges
- Cucumbers

Once you've added your fruit to the water, give it some to infuse and to allow those awesome antioxidants to release themselves into your drink. You can put your water in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight to infuse and cool. However, if you wish to drink it right away you can mash your fruit a little bit to get a stronger taste, add some ice cubes, and you're ready to go!

I found this awesome giant mason jar dispenser at AC Moore on sale for 10 bucks - seriously you CANNOT beat that! I was sooo excited when I got it and have been using it just about every day since then! You can find them just about anywhere now and I've seen them at a ton of different stores - Michael's, Home Goods, Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Target, Walmart, etc. Go get'cho self one!

In case you didn't notice, I clearly have an obsession with paper straws and have a nice little collection goin' here ;) I just love them and always get so excited when I find new colors/designs! You can find these at all of the stores I previously mentioned. Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Target are my top faves and they always have some of the cutest ones. I have just about every color of the rainbow, as well as ones for every holiday - stars, stripes, polka dots, hearts, snowmen, snowflakes, etc. - yeah I have a problem.

So, for this particular infused water combination I used strawberries, mangoes, lemons, and mint leaves. This is one of my favorite go-to combos and tastes phenomenal. It's the perfect mix of sweetness, tanginess, and minty fricky-fricky-freshness.