{Guest Post} Day 8: Pina Colada with a Tweak.

Today on the blog I am excited to have Jayne from Writing Without Pay guest posting for me! I haven't tried this smoothie yet, but I have added pineapple and shredded coconut to my shopping list and can't wait to give it a go.

 

One of the great things about green smoothies is that they can be tweaked to suit just about anyone’s taste. We all have our favourite leafy greens, fruits, we have allergies and dietary requirements or we’re just plain fussy.

My blender gets quite a workout, particularly in summer when the kids don’t fancy a heavy cereal breakfast. In our house we have one fussy eater (banana or strawberry smoothie, hold the spinach thank you very much), one vegetarian who can’t abide a dairy free option but will drink anything else I can throw into a smoothie, and myself (affectionately known as The Weirdy Vegan).

As a vegan I’m often asked where I get my X, Y and Z nutrients. People show concern where they might not if I was omnivorous, and that’s okay. The truth is, it’s not hard to find everything I need in a plant-based diet. The only supplement I take on occasion, because it’s found largely in animal products, is vitamin B12.

Most plant-based milks are calcium and protein enriched, and often contain vitamin D (unsweetened almond milk in particular has calcium, vitamins D, A and E, plus it’s super creamy!) And if you’re really worried about your protein intake, most smoothies are forgiving and allow you to add a spoonful of nut butter without affecting the overall taste.

I most often use a leafy green base of spinach to ensure I have a decent iron, B-complex vitamin and Omega 3 intake and always, where possible, use bananas at sweeteners. Bananas are loaded with potassium (hello healthy blood pressure!), anti-oxidants and vitamin C. Both spinach and bananas are a rich source of many other minerals too.  This is where my knowledge of nutrition ends and I just write etc. ;)

The Recipe

Original recipe from here.

2 tightly packed cups spinach

2 cups almond milk

1 large banana

1.5 cups frozen pineapple chunks

2 T shredded coconut

1 T ground flax

Blend the spinach and almond milk first, then add remaining ingredients and blend. The recipe makes about a litre.

Serve in a mason jar with a daisy cut pewter lid and paper straw and not only do you have a smoothie that tastes great, but also looks pretty awesome too.

 

When she’s not faffing around on the Internet, Jayne is a writer of Young Adult fiction, an amateur art journaller, a mouthy vegan and an animal rights advocate. She’s mum to two teenage girls and is a collector of stray cats and art supplies.

You can find her blogging irregularly at http://www.jaynewatkins.com

On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/WritingWithoutPay

On Twitter https://twitter.com/jay_latte

And Instagram http://instagram.com/jay_latte/

{Guest Post} The way you craft, you live

Crafting takes some organising for most people. Or maybe you throw the stuff on the bench and just go for it; slips of paper or scraps of fabric flying in every direction. Gung-ho one minute bored the next. Whatever your crafting style I think it says a lot about you. 

My Mother, for example, is obsessive. She scrapbooks with gusto, an all or nothing approach. She collects new papers and adornments as if they were the air she so essentially breathes. She loves it and will often find herself awake in the middle of the night to do just one more page. And that about sums up my Mum. She loves like that, works like that, eats like that... With gusto! 

While I’m the bull at a gate type. A must do it now type! Now, now, now.  And then I’m over it. Something else catches my attention and my efforts are diverted. I’m the two year old of the crafting world. Oh shiny things... Wow. Check that out. In a lot of ways that’s me in real life. I love a good plan. And I love to make a new one. Over and over again. Believe me it surprises no one more than me that I get anything done. 

Now each crafter has a style, as unique to them as their genetics. I love to watch. To try and make myself conform to a new way of creating and it never works. My focus is limited. I love an idea more than I love a finished product. I drive my Mother batty. So I work on focus and try to finish what I’m doing. Maybe one day I’ll be Queen of crafting...

Now that you think about it, do you craft like you live life? 

Melissa blogs can be found over at Suger Coat it, or on twitter as sugercoatit and over on facebook here.  

Image from here

{Guest Post} Cooking Alphabet Soup

I am thrilled to be guest posting here on MahliMoo, Me and Three today. My name is Deirdre Smith and I am visiting from my blog JDaniel4’s Mom. My blog is about raising a very inquisitive four year old boy, the adventures we have, the special meals we create, the crafts we create, and the learning we do.

While Amy usually shares wonderful recipes that you can prepared to share at a family meal, I hope you won’t mind my sharing a recipe of cooking up a wonderful learning activity called Cooking Alphabet Soup.

Like most soup recipes this recipe starts with a large soup pot, a lot of water and, a ladle to stir the ingredients. Unlike regular soup recipes this one calls for foam alphabet letters and plastic or rubber treasures that will match up with the letters you put into the pot.


Here are the directions for the soup game:

-Dump all of your plastic and rubber treasure into the pot of water.

-Dump in foam letters that will match the treasures into the pot of water.

-Stir the objects up with a large ladle.

-Have your child scoop up an object for the pot with the ladle.

-Identify the object name of the letter or treasure..

-Identify the sound the letter makes if it is a letter or the sound the treasure begins with.

-Search the pot for the letter or object that will match the first object you scooped out.

-Start a line up of the letters and matching object on the ground or table top.

-Continue the process until all the letters and objects are matched up.

　

If your child gets frustrated with not finding a match quickly or the game seems to be taking to long, you can just have your child scoop out all the objects in the pot and line them with their matches all up at the same time.

The idea of the game is to have fun working with letters if the game stops being fun you can always just play with the objects in the pot. Your child can just scoop them up and plop them back into the pot.

After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, Deirdre Smith became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. She and her husband are the proud parents of J. Daniel the 4th and the blog is named for him. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page

{Guest Post} Quilting with Kids

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been surrounded by craft and creating. My mum is a sewer. Her mum is a sewer. My other nan is a knitter. My great aunt spins wool, and makes booties and coat hangers, traditional fair of the country weekend markets. My linen press is full of items from my glory box, lovingly crocheted or embroidered by my great grandmother. Really, it’s no wonder that creating runs thick in my blood. Mum always had craft supplies available, and very rarely a school holiday went past without at least one craft workshop. My own children, in turn, adore crafting. From colouring in, to cutting and gluing any scrap of paper they can find, to their latest wish. Learning to sew. I’ve posted on my blog previously about my eldest son’s quilting adventures, but of course, what big brother does, so must little brother (and tiny sister, it seems). Boy2 is 3.5, and I thought we had no hope of it going anywhere nearly smoothly, but I was surprised! So if you’ve been thinking of maybe sewing with your little ones, I thought I might share our process. It’s lots of fun, not totally accurate, and what I think is a wonderful way to introduce some basic sewing principles!

We started with an A5 piece of paper, as it was pretty well the right proportions (our finished piece would be somewhere around the size if an A3 piece of paper, give or take). Sitting down at the table, I passed Boy2 a pencil. “What would you like your quilt to look like?” “not MY quilt, mummy, Cookie Monster’s quilt!” “ok. How do you want COOKIE MONSTERS quilt to be? Can you draw it for me please, just with straight lines, k, baby?”. And completely unaided, this is what her came up with:

From there I fudged, er, translated a rough pattern, and using fabrics that he selected, started cutting. I would claim he chose the fabrics himself, except he was somewhat biased and used the exact same fabrics as his brother’s quilt. He did, however, choose the placement of which fabric was where.

With the pieces cut out, I laid them out on the desk for approval. Approval was forthcoming, around the same time his enthusiasm waned, so there they stayed for another week or so. Then he was keen to get stuck in, so we trundled off to the studio, and started sewing. Being three and a half, I didn’t expect great things, but I had him beside me and explained about lining up and pinning, and then he sat on my lap, and hands under mine, we started sewing. The last couple of long seams I let him guide the fabric himself, with my hands hovering nearby, and my foot only *just* on the pedal so we were nice and slow. It was tricky trying to convince him to keep him the fabric butted against the piecing foot, but wonky as it was, the seam was done, and the pride on his little face was just adorable. This step, obviously, varies by child. Our five-and-a-half year old can now under close supervision, use the machine completely independently, even if I do have to keep reminding him to slow down on the pedal!!

The finished quilt top, pinned and ready for quilting: 

We went to Lincraft on a recent holiday, and he happened to spot some Sesame Street fabric, a fat quarter of which made for a perfect backing: 

Of course, now the 19 month old has decided she should have a go to!! I do love sewing with my little people, even if a certain someone has a half-quilted dolls quilt on the needle and I can’t finish my own current projects! What’s the favourite family creating projects at your house?”

Rachel blogs as Little White Dove about creating on her own and with her three small children over at http://thedovenest.wordpress.com. A photographer and obsessive crafter, and unable to limit her creating to just one artform, she paints, knits, sews, crochets, scraps, draws, and has a go at almost anything, including launching her very own fabric line (http://etsy.com/littlewhitedove). She also has a personal photo blog at http://rachelmeszaros.com.au/explore, and can be found on Facebook at http://facebook.com/thedovenestand http://facebook.com/rachelmeszarosphotography

{Guest Post} Why I don’t sign my blog with my full name #SpeakOut

I wasn’t going to speak out. I'd rather have forgotten.

I wasn’t going to read any of your posts either. But I did. They made me cry. They also made me realise that some of you didn’t want to tell your stories either. But sometimes stories have to be told. So here is mine.

When people ask me how I ended up in Australia I usually try changing the topic as quickly as possible. I came here because of a guy. I met him while I was working in the US. I should have seen the signs then. I think I did. But I followed him to Australia anyway.

I was in a new country where I knew no one. He told me he didn’t want me to talk about our relationship to my friends and family. He felt that it was something between me and him and by talking about it I was betraying him. I didn’t want to betray anyone. I lost my support.

He’d get angry and swear at me, or he’d stop talking to me for 3 days because I had forgotten to turn off the light in the bathroom and that was a sign of disrespect for his parents (we were living at their place at the time). When I tried explaining that I hadn’t been anywhere near the bathroom and it hadn’t been me who left the light on, he’d stop talking to me anyway, because I was trying to make excuses for myself.

He was moulding me into what he wanted me to be. I was to anticipate his every wish because that was what true love was supposed to be all about. He knew better than me what I wanted and I was meant to be grateful when he was thoughtful enough to buy me a coat (with my own money, because he wasn’t working). And yes, he was entitled to my money, because he had sacrificed his income for me – if he hadn’t been with me, he’d have been able to get the dole. I didn’t know anything and I couldn’t do anything right. Oh, and everything he did was for me, and if I ever disagreed with him it meant that I didn’t appreciate it.

Then I got pregnant. He didn’t want the child and convinced me to have an abortion. I’m still not sure how he managed to do it. I remember him threatening me that he’d call the Immigration Department and tell them that we weren’t together anymore and they should deport me (he was sponsoring me for my visa), but that alone wouldn’t have been enough. I remember him promising me the world and how we’d have many more children once we were ready. He made sure he was present at the compulsory pre-abortion counselling rightly suspecting that if he hadn’t been in the room I’d have broken down and told everything as it was.

A few days after the abortion it hit me. I had done something I’d never thought I’d do, something that went against my every instinct, against everything I believe in. In a way life got easier. Something in me had died and I just didn’t care anymore. I suspect I was depressed but he wouldn’t let me seek counselling because that would be involving a third person into our relationship and I would be betraying him.

Fast-forward a few years. He cheated on me and we broke up. Even though it felt like it was the end of the world, in reality it was a blessing in disguise. I was free to rebuild my life.

I’m now re-reading my post and I realise just how ridiculous it all sounds. Did it even happen? Am I just making excuses for myself because I still feel so guilty and ashamed? Why would a young, beautiful and intelligent woman, who could take on the world, put herself through all this?

You see, people like him have gift to convince you that what they want you to believe is logical and the only way it should be. And when you have no other support to fall back on and when you hear the same thing again and again from the one person you hold dear, you start believing that he’s right and there’s something wrong with you for not understanding all these simple things by yourself.

It is the kind of emotional abuse that Dorothy from Singular Insanity talks about – she’s chosen to talk about it and I didn’t want to remember. My story was going to stay buried forever until the Speak Out campaign made me see things in a different light. If my post helps just one person recognise emotional abuse for what it is then it will be worth the discomfort.

Some of you blog anonymously because you don’t want strangers intruding on your family. I don’t sign my blog with my full name because I don’t want him being able to Google me, find my blog and gain insights into my life. As much as I want to believe that I’m now strong enough to stand up to him, there is still this fear in me. What if he gets into my brain again?

Tat is now a mum of two and in a happy relationship. She blogs at Mum in search about parenting, self-discovery and all those things that make us feel good about ourselves. 

Editor: Thank you to Tat for sharing your story with us. I am honoured that you allowed me to publish it here.

{Guest Post} Tutorial: Flying Geese Quilt Block

I am really pleased to have a very special guest post on the blog today. Shell from The Crafty Little Fox is sharing with us how to make a Flying Geese Quilt Block. I only heard of this type of quilt block through her blog, well I had seen them before but had no idea what they are called! I am a complete beginner at quilting so I am always learning something new. Anyway, I asked Shell if she would like to share with us how to do them and was so excited when she agreed. 

So without further ado, over to Shell...

What is a girl to do when she has designed a quilt that involved a Flying Geese border? Flying Geese blocks make me cringe. How do you work out what to cut and how much fabric you need?  Do you want to know how to make four at a time with minimum wastage?

First you need to decide on your fabrics.  Your ‘geese’ fabric is the fabric that will make up the middle triangle and the ‘sky’ fabric is the two corner triangles.  You will need one large square from the ‘geese’ fabric and four small ones from the ‘sky’ fabric. 

The large square needs to be the size of the finished width that you want the flying geese unit to be plus 1 ¼” and then four small squares that are the height of the finished block plus 7/8”.  For example, to get a 2” by 4” finished Flying Geese block, you will need a 5 ¼” geese square and four 2 7/8” sky squares.

Now to construct!  Lay your large square on the bench with the right side facing up.  Put two of the smaller squares on top, with right sides together, on opposite corners.  They will overlap a little bit but that is okay.  Draw a line from one corner to the other.  This is the cutting line.  Sew a scant ¼” either side of the line and then cut on the line. Press the seams out on the two halves. 

Half way there!  Take another one of your smaller squares and put it on top of the larger triangle of ‘geese’ fabric.

Repeat the process you did before: drawing a line diagonally across the square, sewing a scant ¼” and then cutting down the drawn line.

Press the seams open.  Ta Da!!  Two finished Flying Geese blocks!!

Repeat for the other half and you will have made four Flying Geese blocks all at once.

Just a couple of hints though.  Don’t make your seam allowances too large.  Make them on the skinny side of a ¼” other wise your finished blocks will be too small.  I also just checked with the ruler to see how square the finished blocks were. When you have made all your blocks cut the little ‘tails’ off.  This will make it easier to piece them together.  Hope this helps and that you make lots of great Flying Geese blocks.  Happy sewing.

Thank you so much for sharing Shell! I already have my fabric picked and will hopefully be making a few of these next week!