Giving the watermelon a spin today

This now concludes my relentless posting about smoothies. For now. :D

My life just got 1.88% better

Attach a mason jar to your blender for personal size smoothie making!!

You have no idea how redunk excited I am to come across this! I spent my whole day looking for a replacement for my glass blender jar that had chipped. It was going to cost me $28 bucks to have one shipped from the manufacturer. Then I thought I could probably just buy a whole new blender for that price. Lo and behold I saw a personal size blender on Amazon for a disturbingly low price ($14.69). Trying to resist buying anymore cheap plastic crappola for my home, I restarted my glass blender jar search hoping for a better deal. And THEN I stumbled across this idea! Apparently this concept is an oldie (40-50 years old!?) but looks like it is making a comeback due to the popularity of the "Magic Bullet" type blenders out there.

 

I ran around the apartment looking to see if any of my glass jars fit my blender base. I took a TJ's tomato sauce jar out of my recycling bucket, ripped off the label, washed it out, and twisted it on, it fit, sort of, but wasn't deep enough to include the rubber gasket. I moved on to an empty instant coffee container and it fit gloriously with the gasket and all.  I gave it a test run with some water to check for leaks. Everything was A-O-K. I then proceeded to have a horror-movie-flash-vision of the glass shattering and flying all over the place and impaling everything in its path. Soo...I decided to run to my parents house and get one of their tempered glass canning jars to play it safe. I made my smoothie and drank it straight out the jar with my stainless steel straw and it was awesome! A little white trashy....but awesome! I am going to save so much time/sink space not having to clean my large blender jar and an extra glass! If you try this make sure you only fill it halfway and don't use anything hot because the steam might make it explode(not good).

Penny thoughts

Sometimes I tape up coins and use them as spacers when I am transporting wet paintings, when I was un-taping them I noticed this gnarly one from 1958. It must of had such an interesting life! It probably has been done already, but I think it would make a cute movie to see the life a penny or any coin has lived. Judging by the green patina this one looks like it was drowned for a while, traveled across the US and then got ran over by cars thousands of times. If metal retains energy maybe a psychic~medium can get the story out of this lil' Lincoln.

Major shoe-gery.

Right when I was nearing the finish line to this pair of sandals (working on these a little at a time since the last week of January) I realized that if I continued with this design I ran the risk of TOE CLEAVAGE exposure! I can sense you are horrified as well. Who could prance around town carefree with the looming fear that people might think that their feet are slutty? I definitely do not want my toes to send the wrong message. I am a good catholic girl. [insert halo shine effect]

Here is the original sketch:

I'm extra sad because it was starting to develop just as I had envisioned. In the top photo you can see I have already unstitched the toe cap and piping and added a piece of leather to the vamp. The sandals are currently in rehab receiving a modesty overlay and hopefully will get soled next week so I can move forward to a new project, start prancin' (hopefully), and do better next time.

No such thing as a design mistake, just a design opportunity. Right?

Smoothie time

Nice and thick with Greek yogurt. Yum!

Loving artisan profile films!

Bottled History from Smith Journal on Vimeo.

Breaking news from my scalp!

I have a weird one for ya! I have/had a few white hairs growing for the last couple years and I noticed yesterday that a couple started to turn brown again! If hair typically grows about 1.5cm a month the re-pigmentation correlates to the time I started paying more attention to what I was eating. At the end of November I started incorporating banana/berry/spinach smoothies into my diet. I wonder if this is it?

CCC's...now with more height!

Here's my less sugary version with a combo of semi-sweet and unsweetened chips. I also added 1 tbs of cornstarch and beat the sugar and butter way longer. I used an ice cream scoop to divvy up the dough. These new elements produced a much thicker chocolate chip cookie, closer to the original inspiration cookie!

Just what I need!

Sewing Pants from my own pattern- Round 2

Testing out my 80's prom dress neon pink fabric on a modified pattern. The waist is much more comfortable and there is less of the "front butt" situation, but unfortunately still suffering from "wenus projection" (censored in the photo for your protection).  Next round I will try a front zippered fly and figure out exactly where I have to deduct from to get the projection under control.

Making believe we are at starbucks with an erasable marker. "Saul"didn't think it was funny.

My first pants!

 I guess these are my first "proper" pants. In the past I've made leggings for my Blythe doll, and a pair of leggings out of my sweatshirt jacket for me, so these are the first dressy-ish pants. They came out okay, a little snug on the waist after I added the waistband in the inside, and unfortunately I drafted the front piece too high so it looks like I have 2 butts. If 2 heads are better than one, maybe 2 butts are better than one as well?

Meh... back to the drawing board! I will have to modify the pattern today and try again. I definitely want to make another one with side pockets and use the new neon fabric I purchased to make piping. My seam binding tape actually got used for binding seams, which was very exciting. I usually just use it for wrapping packages!

Sugary breakfast ~ Italian style

Nutella on homemade white bread, espresso beans from Upright Coffee in Greenpoint BK and my sad attempt at making a heart with demerara sugar (molasses-y sprinkles for grown-ups)

So sweet and inspiring! A shoemaker from my area.

Neon Orange lining

Deal of the day~ $1.99/yd neon orange lining fabric from a local mom&pop fabric shop.

jumbo chocolate chip walnut cookies

The last one of the batch, gonna save it for my sis-in-law to see if she likes it. Based on a Levain Bakery copycat recipe found online. It came out too sweet and chocolate chippy for my taste. I used a combo of cake flour and AP flour. Next time I want to use less chips and do a mix of semi-sweet and unsweetened chips.  If you are ever near one of the Levain Bakeries, you should definitely try one of the originals!

I want to try...

 Wash-A-Way thread. For lazy basters who don't want to pick out their basting stitches. Not to be confused with lazy bastards who don't want to pick out their basting stitches.


Bach Flower Remedies

 

I just heard about this stuff this week (it has been around for 80 years!) and am curious to try it. It is supposed to be good for treating emotional distress.

They sell a version that comes in a spray pump, so if you encounter a person that is stressing you out, you spritz it in their face, they get disoriented, and it gives you a couple minutes to get away from them.

Well, semi-seriously, I feel like I suffer from post-PARTY depression.  After I come home from a party I feel anxiety that I have said something weird (a definite) and offended someone. This feeling can last for days and it is hard for me to get things done! I ordered the Rescue Remedy, which uses a combo of flowers, to try out.  Also, I love the look of the wooden case, this would be fun to own and have the whole set to test out on all your friends and family. Depression, anxiety, and hors d'oeuvres party coming up! 

To amuse myself last night, whenever Sal said something that started to make my blood boil, I made believe I was spraying this in my mouth and guess what...it worked! So I think by just taking a second to distract yourself will derail the train of negative thoughts! The only side effect of this is that you will look like a TOTAL NUT-JOB making believe you are spraying something in your mouth and then giggling. Whatever, it's free!