Cool Fruity Goodness

Mini Bee's Knees provided your visual for my post today. The reason I chose it is for the pineapple which is my most loved smoothie flavor.

My favorite way to cool off which is something we need to do around here from April to October is to make smoothies. They are cold and I hope relatively nutritious and I have them many times when it is hot for a meal at breakfast or lunch.

My favorite smoothie uses about a cup of crushed ice, a small container of light vanilla yogurt, about a cup of pineapple-orange juice and frozen pineapple chunks. It all goes in the blender to make thick icy goodness that tastes so good. This makes a very big smoothie and you can share it and have a wonderful drink to go along with any breakfast or light lunch.

You don't need to stop there however. I alway start my smoothies with crushed ice and vanilla yogurt. The combinations of fruit and juice after that can be anything you like. For fruit you can use fresh bananas or frozen strawberries, mango, peaches, raspberries, blackberries or mixed of any of them. I think I use about 1/2 of fruit but I don't really measure. For juice I like to use orange or pineapple but I have used white grape, cranberry or anything blended with cranberry or any of the Welch's Orchard blends.

Have fun creating your own combinations!
Leave a comment and let me know what you come up with.

Getting Caught Up

After a week in Kansas I am back home. Being away breaks the routines that are part of daily life. Silly things like what am I needing in the way of groceries? What do I need to replace and what else did Jim use up while I was gone?

Part of catching up was doing some hemstitching for Strawberrylane who has a shop on Etsy.

So cute and so useful! Watch for these burp cloths in her shop once she gets the edges crocheted on them.

If you are a crocheter and especially like to do thread crochet you need to know about hemstitching. I have a machine that will put holes in fabric so that it can easily be crocheted. You can see an example of what the machine does in the picture below.


Hemstitching is not just for flannel or baby things. I have used the machine to hemstitch fleece, quilts, tablerunners, pillowcases and more. You can look at the pictues at the top of this blog and see headbands and bandanas that use hemstiched fabric and a crocheted edge. I think it is a charming way to finish the edges of things and could be very nice way to accent collars, sleeves and hems on skirts as well.

One other new thing here are family links on the left. My son has started a blog about his family that is expecting an addition in early October. The other new link is to my daughter's Avon shop. Selling is new to her and she is excited by it. She is spending time learning all about the products available so that she can be helpful and answer any questions you might have. As a proud mother, if you like Avon products, I ask you to please consider following the link and shopping with my daughter.

For today and the rest of the week be safe, be happy, be well and be cozy.