The things smoothies are made from

I typically don't indulge in smoothies.  Don't order them out.  Don't make them at home.  I can't afford the calories.

I've mentioned this little problem before, ahem  ::  the lack of sugary snacks to eat in this house!  It's intentionally rigged to not have temptations that will make me gain weight.

Tonight my sweet tooth was talking to me enticing me to look for a fix.
I looked in the pantry.  Nothing.  You ate all the Iced Zoo cookies, remember?
Nothing in the fridge OR the freezer...pretty desperate. I did, however, find a bag of frozen mixed berries.

Frozen berries in the freezer; homemade yogurt in the fridge....those are the things smoothies are made from.  I tossed half the bag of berries into the blender and a container of my homemade yogurt.  As it puréed, the yogurt became frozen from the berries and in no time the blender was labouring.  So I added milk.

What a delicious purply-raspberry colour.  A taste test revealed it was tart and not satisfying enough for a sweet tooth.  To be expected with....unsweetened berries and unsweetened yogurt. So I got out the sugar bowl and added some sugarrr!

What a treat.  Utterly d-i-v-i-n-e!  I'll have to remember this healthy way to satisfy a craving.

Well traveled

This has been an interesting week. 

It's only half over.

It feels as if I've packed a ton into it already. 

I said to someone that it feels like a rollercoaster.... it's moving that way, up and down, just like the stock market.

Today I came home to find a package literally stuffed into my mailbox.  

There was that momentary euphoria one gets when you think you're getting {a nice surprise} in the mail and in a nanosecond you wonder :: 

Who's it from?  What can it be?

I flipped it over and it took a few seconds to register.  

OH NO!! 

It can't be. 

This is the little dress I made for Rebecca 

and mailed to Australia in July...

late and no way then to make it in time for her birthday.

My niece told me a week ago that it still hadn't arrived. 

I was starting to really worry.

I've had things to Africa get lost stolen, but Australia?

I was pretty sure I had the right address.

But no, I'm one digit off the street number.

Their mailman didn't figure it out.

Oy.

I'll be making a trip to the PO tomorrow.  

I'll do it gladly because I want it to get there this time.

As disappointed as I am, what a blessing that it's still making the rounds!

I sure hope it makes it this time.

With the correct street number, of course.

Daughter’s blog

Shannon has started a new blog called The Pied Kingfisher. She has lived and worked in South Africa for 3 years now, and says she has tired of her “ventures” blog. 

After being a somewhat sophisticated urban Chicago cook with fabulous grocery markets, gadgets and appliances, she now finds herself living on the corner of a Free State {province} farm, in a tiny 2 room house with minimal cooking utensils and a long drive to a decent grocery store.  She will blog about cooking with hard-to-obtain, fancy ingredients, making do with what’s available and using produce that she grows fresh in her little garden –  yet, still having a fulfilling culinary life!

She compares her situation of being an American returning to the South African fold with the pied kingfisher, a bird species that frequents the area where she lives.  Read thepiedkingfisher here.  

Some of Shannon’s work with the non-profit, Dramatic Need, along with her community organising and teaching can be viewed on her work blog here.  

Awesome shade of blue

If you’ve looked at a few postings in this blog, it’s no secret that I like love am addicted to shades of blue.  Blue just  tugs at something in my core.  Period.

When it came to painting my bathroom, I hit on an awesome shade of blue!  I keep pinching myself over the gorgeousness of it.  It’s not a big space for a master bathroom {what were we thinking when we planned and built this house?}  But today, for my limited $$, I’ve gained big bang by removing the dark navy wallpaper and painting, framing the mirror and replacing cabinet knobs, switchplates, the light fixtures and new tub fixtures.  I am over-the-moon happy with all of it.

It’s been ages since I made a shower curtain, and this one was very simple as I didn’t make tabs or a fold over ruffle, or anything like that.  Just a rectangle with a hem at both ends and 12 buttonholes evenly spaced at the top.  Let’s just say it was a cinch and didn’t take much more than an hour.

Note on the browns with the blue ::  I have taupe walls with blues in the adjacent bedroom, so I planned the reverse for the bathroom, and ahead of time bought these towels for a song at Marshall’s.   While I do still like them, if I had to do it over, I’d keep the palette to just white and blue.  I also bought the shower curtain material more than 4 years ago so I couldn’t justify going out and buying more.

The highlights in the bathroom {for me} are:

1. the wooden heart and bird cutout from Shannon, my gift she carefully hand-toted all the way from South Africa for Christmas;

2. the cubby hole where the medicine cabinet used to be – this was Susannah’s idea and backed with a mirror, it’s fun and pretty;
3. the beaded light bulb “spritzer,” for want of a better name, bought at Karoo Lamb in Nieu Bethesda, my last trip "home;"

4. blue walls!

:-D