Delicious Black Raspberry Smoothies

June 19, 2014February 14, 2016 | Allison

It’s the season for black raspberries – Yum! We picked black raspberries recently, and I thought a smoothie would be a great thing to use them in. I tried it, and sure enough, it was delicious! This smoothie got rave reviews from my family, plus it’s very simple.

Here’s the recipe:

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Black Raspberry Smoothie

2 cups of black raspberries

2 cups of vanilla ice cream (approximately)

1 cup of milk

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1. Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

2. Garnish with extra black raspberries if you like.

3. Enjoy!

Notes:

If you want your smoothie to be a little thicker, add some ice cream to it. You can also try putting it in the freezer a little bit to firm it up. If you want it to be more liquid, add some milk.

Try adding a puff of whipped cream to make it look (and taste) even better!

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***Allison***

Fun with Ivory Soap

June 13, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

It’s amazing what you can do with an ordinary bar of Ivory soap. You can explode it, smash it, make it into dough, or even make — who would guess?– more soap?

The idea of exploding Ivory soap was from Pinterest, but I made up some more fun stuff to do with the puffed up soap.

The fun begins with exploding the soap. (Sorry, I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures of this, but if you search for it on Pinterest or the web, you can find lots of pictures.) Put a bar of Ivory soap on a plate covered with a paper towel. Stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. There’s not a certain time limit, just take it out when it stops growing.

Watch the soap through the microwave window. It is AMAZING! The soap starts exploding and pieces of puffed soap stick out of the original bar. (Argh! I really wish I got a picture of this!) Anyway, when the soap stops growing, take it out of the microwave. Be careful! It can get pretty hot. Admire it for a while it cools down. When it’s cool, go ahead and touch it. The soap looks puffy, but it’s actually pretty firm. After you’ve exploded the soap, you can stop right there and use it as you would a regular bar of soap, or you can keep going for more fun.

The next thing to do is to pound it into pieces. Spread out some sort of floor cover,(tablecloth, newspaper, etc.) take a small hammer, and pound it to smithereens!

When it is pretty much powder, you can make soap dough. To make white soap dough, add a small amount of shaving cream to the soap powder.

Mix it up with your hands. Experiment with adding more or less shaving cream. The dough is about right when you can squeeze once and it holds its shape, but crumbles when you squeeze it again.

You can make towers, balls, handprints, maybe even a sandcastle with this stuff.

If you would like to make your dough colored, add a few drops of food coloring to the shaving cream before mixing.

After you’re done playing with soap dough, you can mold the dough into pretty soaps.

You will probably need to add more shaving cream to your dough so it holds itself together better.

If anyone is messy from all this fun, no problem. Just take your newly made soap and wash up!

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I think Ivory soap explodes best if it is freshly bought from the store.

This is a great activity to do with kids, but it can get a little messy. Make sure to adequately cover your play space, and you should be fine. Have a blast!

***Allison***

Polymer Clay Jewelry

June 12, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

You’ve already seen that you can make cute animals from polymer clay. There are lots of other neat things you can make with it too. Such as jewelry.

The doughnuts and the camera shown here were made from polymer clay. I inserted a loop of wire into the clay before I baked it.

These are the doughnut earrings. I inserted little metal rings into those green wire loops I made. I used a needle-nose pliers to open and close the rings.

I made this necklace for my aunt for her birthday. The tiny beads are seed beads, and the bigger clear beads are just… beads. The beads are strung onto thin wire.

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And that’s it! The brand of polymer clay I use is “Craft Smart”, and it comes from Michaels. So did the beads, the earring forms, and the metal rings. All of the supplies are pretty inexpensive too. So get crafting!

***Allison***

Make A Terrarium

June 6, 2014October 28, 2015 | Allison

So, we have this salamander named Petunia as a pet,

and she lives in a 10 gallon glass tank. Since I love to make terrariums and miniature gardens, I decided to make something similar for her to live in. She now lives in a terrarium. Why make a terrarium? Terrariums are fun, inexpensive(or free!), and make lovely decorations.

Now for the do-it-yourself part. Terrariums are very customizable, but you’ll at least need: some sort of soil, a container, and some plants. Some other nice things to add are: some sort of water, (refer to the picture of Petunia in her pond)

moss,

and pretty stones.

You could also add a little house or cabin,

and what about a little clay bird to occupy the “trees”?

There are all kinds of possibilities. A desert terrarium? A rainforest one? Be creative!

A terrarium is pretty easy to take care of. You basically just have to water the plants. Moss can be harder to keep green (at least for me), but it really adds a lush atmosphere to the terrarium if you take care of it.

So there you go! Now you know how to make your own terrarium, so get out there and have some fun!

Until next time…

***Allison***

A Beautiful Hike in the Mountains

June 3, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

We recently went on a hike with some friends. We decided to hike the Dark Hollow Falls trail at Skyline Drive. It was beautiful. The waterfall was gorgeous, and along trail we found lots of interesting things. We kids especially loved the little creek running along the trail, and we could hardly be torn away from it to keep on the trail. Along the creek we found some mini waterfalls which were quite pretty too.

We also found flowers,

Several pretty ferns,

Teeny tiny mushrooms,

Lots of lush green moss,

And some interesting creatures such as… a millipede,

A newt (or maybe it’s a salamander?),

And a snail.

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We finally made it to the waterfall.

The little creek that we had played in earlier in the hike turned to a roaring torrent of water. The rocks around the waterfall were mossy and green. If you leaned close enough, you could feel the spray of the water on your face. We paused for some refreshment on some rocks near the waterfall.

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On the return journey, we stopped at a small pool along the trail. The kids had lots of fun wading in the (freezing) water, and skipping and throwing rocks in the pool. It was fun to see the big splashes the rocks made.

Just as everyone had finished putting their socks and shoes back on, Jeff’s water-bottle decided to go on a sea journey.

Of course, Jeff had to take off his socks and shoes again to get it. With the water bottle returned to its proper place, we resumed our hike.

Near the beginning of the trail, the kids stopped to catch salamanders and crayfish at the creek. Well, we tried to catch salamanders and crayfish, but the little sneakers kept getting away. After the hike, we had supper at our friends’ house. It was a great end to a great day.

***Allison***

Miniature Animal Sightings!

May 29, 2014November 28, 2015 | Allison

There have been several sightings of very small animals around, and here are pictures to prove it.

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This picture shows the size of the animals. They’re quite small as you can see.

The following section includes each animal’s name, a picture of them up close, and a description of where they were found or what they were doing.

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Luke Lion: In the savannah

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Hannah Hippopotamus: Near water

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Tommy Turtle: Also near to water

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Peter Penguin: On the ice

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Penny Pig: Taking a mud-bath

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Polly Panda: In a bamboo forest

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Ben Bear: Near his den

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Oliver Owl: Perched in a tree

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Moses Monkey: High in the trees of the jungle

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Sam Snail: In a shady spot under the trees

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Sally Skunk and her friend Hailey Hedgehog: In the meadow

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Willy Whale and his buddy Olivia Octopus: In the ocean

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Carl Crab: Sunning himself on the beach

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Shirley Sheep: In the pasture

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Chissy Chick: Searching for grain.

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The Secret Revealed: The mystery has been solved. These animals (made by yours truly) are actually made of polymer clay and brushed with Mod Podge for shine and strengthening. The details (the black ones such as the eyes, but not things like the beak on the chick) were added with sharpie and, for the eyes of the sheep, panda, skunk, crab and penguin, a paint pen and sharpie were used. I also made the backgrounds that were in the pictures. A shallow cardboard box was divided into sections and made into different “habitats”.

***Allison***