Pear and Avocado Smoothie

Just another smoothie recipe, NBD.  Made this this morning, and it was yummy and satisfying.  I pretty much like avocados with fruit anyway, but this was especially a winning combination.  I thought about adding some kale, too, and that would have been great, but then I would have had to add another banana or some agave to sweeten it a little.  As it was, the sweetness level was perfect for me.

Avocado and Pear Smoothie (serves 2-3)

blend:

the flesh of one medium ripe banana (frozen or not)

the flesh of one medium avocado

two small organic pears, cored and cut into chunks

about 1 1/2 cups coconut milk or almond milk

a couple of handfuls of ice cubes

Enjoy!

Such a pretty color and refreshing flavor to start a day that is sure to hit 90 degrees and include at least four hours of volleyball.  Now if only I could get my sewing projects started, I would feel like an accomplished blogstress.  

Camera Dump and Christmas Projects - three months late!

I'm a bad blogger, and I'm sorry.  Yes, my last post was in October.  I can explain.  I've been busy.  I got a part-time job (Any guesses where??? That's right, Trader Joe's!).  We had our Halloween party (Next year I'll post some how-tos for that.).  We did Christmas.  I made some projects and cooked a lot of food.  I've made some new recipes, mostly from blogs I found on Pinterest.  But nothing original, although I have lots of ideas spinning in my head.   Life happened.  School, work, doctor's appointments, blah blah blah.  And then I'm trying to deal with the sad fact that our church that we've been going to for almost 15 years is crumbling right before our eyes.  I haven't felt like blogging.  And I feel guilty for still having Thanksgiving pictures on the camera and not having done anything with them.

So here is the camera dump:

I was a sugar skull for Halloween, and I did my makeup with the help of some temporary tattoos.

We made our Hexenhaus at Christmas, and some glue snowmen that dried weird so I may try again next year to get them right.

The handmade portion of DD's Christmas gift was a set of play teabags for her tea set and this cute little bracelet purse.  I got the inspiration for the teabags from here, and the tutorial for the purse here.

For DS's gift, I made him a stuffed penguin (yes, still the penguin thing!) loosely based on this chicken, and this cool two-sided superhero cape I upcycled from a thrifted P.E. shirt.  The shirt was already two colors, and I added felt appliques with a tight zigzag stitch.  

All in all, I paid hardly anything for these gifts, because most of the fabric, except for the muslin for the teabags, was already on hand.  I felt pretty good about making some cool toys for next to nothing.  

 Of course, the kids liked each other's presents, maybe better than their own, and DD is off to save the world.

I will try to be a better blogger this year, but that means I need to do some original things that are worth writing about.  Hmmmmmmmm...

Penguin Party Recap

Only one month later, but not my best turnaround time.  Sorry.

Okay, so you've already seen these... a little card stock and crepe paper.

Here are some black paper lanterns that got tissue paper faces as well.

Here is the gorgeous cake, made by the lovely ladies at 'Tis So Sweet.  Note the little sugar-coated marshmallow ice blocks.  :)

We had a penguin waddle race,

musical ice blocks,

and a somewhat macabre bludgeoning of the piñata.

Poor little guy.  You can see the tutorial here.

Here's the food table, complete with one of those really loud toy rollercoaster thingies, where the penguins hop up the stairs and then go down the slide, over and over, with obnoxious carnivalish music playing.  DS loves it a little too much.

SO ANYWAY, I put fish sticks and hot dog squid in food safe metal pails to resemble penguin feeding time.  There were veggies and fruits, too, with emphasis on the orange accent color.

I made a small army of these guys,

and then rolled a bunch of sushi.  Some people call me crazy, but really, my three-year-old asks for sushi for his birthday?  I'm not going to refuse such a healthy request!  And besides, what else would penguins eat???  Well, sashimi, if you are being technical.  Whatevs.  No raw fish this time, though...  California roll is DS's fave.  Shrimp nigiri was DD's request.  Cucumber and carrot rolls were included for the unadventurous.  I love making sushi, and it's really not that hard!

I'm not sure why I don't have more pics of the desserts, but here you can see the birthday boy enjoying his cake with his dairy-allergic BFF eating blue jello cubes intermingled with Swedish Fish.  There were also rice krispie squares, made with coconut oil instead of margarine, of course!

This party was laden with food allergies, which is why we were almost entirely gluten, egg, and dairy free except for the cake itself.  There were a few other small things, but enough choices that everyone had plenty of penguin-related partying.  Allergy-friendly goodie bags are tough, though.  In the piñata, we had enough treats for everyone to get a lot of candy that they could eat,  but the goodie bags were mostly handmade prizes.  The one food item in there was Trader Joe's kettle corn... yummy for everyone, and beautiful packaging, too!

 Here are the recycled crayons I made, inspired by this.  The sticker on the baggie says "Arctic Art."  I got the fish shaped ice cube mold from IKEA, and the crayons were free because we already had them.  The mold is okay to use because the oven temp is pretty low.  I know a lot of people who get crayon molds from the dollar bin at Target.  I will say, though, that once you use a silicon mold for crayons, you probably can't use it for anything else after that.

Then I made play dough and added glitter for "Snow Dough."  (Please note:  play dough is NOT gluten free.  The kids I made it for are old enough to not eat it.  Use caution for younger kids who might "accidentally" try some, or for those who have contact allergies!)  I added a penguin eraser that I got at Party City.  Also in the goodie bag were black and white paper blow-outs.

Did I forget anything?  We are pretty penguin-ed out.  Or maybe that's just me.  I did obtain a penguin game at a yard sale two weeks ago, so keeping the penguin thing going is really pretty much my fault.  O.o

And then the week after the penguin party, DS started preschool, and he got to be the popular kid who brings a treat on the first day.  So this happened:

unscrewed "Joe's O's" cookies for faces and wings, molded orange Starburst candy for beaks, and candy eyes bought from the cake isle at the craft store.  Maybe I am just a little crazy.

Dear Universe, You Are Welcome!

I am still regaining my energy from the party in order to post about it, but in the meantime, I will offer this quick tip:

Please, for the love of all things holy,

USE ORGANIC EXTRA VIRGIN COCONUT OIL INSTEAD OF MARGARINE IN YOUR RICE KRISPIE TREATS!!!!!!

There, I said it.  It is amazing.  You might eat a whole pan by yourself.  Not that it has ever happened that way here, oh, no...