Amazing Ice-Cream, and a Wardrobe Challenge!

This is the start of something big. (lol, that's the jingle for a new mascara line from revlon or something) I've discovered something deliciously amazing, as well as easy, that tastes like ice cream but has the health benefits equivalent to eating a banana. It's cream-less banana ice cream!

Recipe:

One bananner, cut into chunks and frozen in freezer.

3 frozen strawberries

One TB cocoa powder

dash o' cinnamon

dash o' bee barf (honey. :P)

Put ingredients in food processor or blender, and blend for a few minutes, (it's actually kind of a while) scraping down the sides when needed. When the consistency is exactly like ice cream, it's done! And it tastes like a yummy smoothie-ice cream-hybrid-power snack. Enjoy!

CLOTHING CHALLENGE ALERT

I just heard about this new "clothing challenge" which is a sort-of study that some people are doing. I don't even remember the name of the website or what kind of people are conducting this experiment, I know. I'm lame. But I remember what is was, and I'd rather conduct it on my own, anyway. What the challenge is: Pick six clothing items, (not counting accessories, like belts and jewelry and shoes. Those are actually encouraged.) And you can only wear those six clothing items for a month. It seems really hard to me, considering I can go without doing laundry for a month and still have plenty of clothes to wear. :)

What 6 items would you pick to wear?

I'd pick:

A black t-shirt, my tie-dye linen long-sleeve shirt, my purple cotton skirt, my new over-alls from GAP, a pair of cut-off jean shorts, and my tie-dye tank top. In case you didn't tell, I'm a tad obsessive about tie-dye currently. It's so easy to make on your own!

Chords and Me-Time

Ugg, my computer's getting all funky on me again. :( Every two seconds it decides to "reload" the page and goes onto random internet dating sites and pet stores. Weird mix, huh? Anyways, I'm going to re-try uploading a picture when I'm done posting, and maaaaybe it'll work, but if it doesn't, apologies. You'll just have to use your creative imagination.
So, a bit ago my brother and I went in on a NICE acoustic guitar, which also doubles as electric, and I felt like sharing my love, so I'm turning it into bloggy-love. Ok. So, the purpose of this post is for me to inform you all about a new source of awesomeness just discovered by yours truly. It's called, ME TIME! In the past, I thought I knew what 'me-time' was. Unfortunately, I must of been imagining things, because I found out what the true definition of me-time was. Before, I'd say, "Hey! I"m going to write in my journal for two minutes before bed and call it me-time, eh?" or I'd label a day as me time, stay home, and then miss my friends all day and end up calling them by nightfall.
But the truth is, when you find your inner"you" and have some me time with yourself, you'll know when you've found it. And you won't let anyone get in the way of it. It's beautiful, because it's like a mental refresher, and you feel connected to mind, and calm. Here are some steps to finding it:
1.) Find a piece of paper, or a notebook if you have one, and force yourself to write a page on how you feel on relationships lately. Have you any friends? Are things working out with your family? Are you stuck in a group of mallrats? These are some things people rarely talk about with themselves, and you might discover you have harder feelings than you thought.
2.) Find your favorite album, any style of music, and listen to it with your eyes closed, lying on your back with your feet on the ground and your knees up. This will align your back, making it easier to breathe and to promote better posture.
3.) Find some sort of musical instrument in your house. A kid's toy guitar in the back of your closet? A dusty piano? Or maybe you're really good at the saxophone, and haven't played for a while. Or get some pots and pans and a wooden spoon. No joke. Now play WITHOUT reading music. Make up random melodies. Play sounds that describe how you feel. It doesn't have to sound good, it just have to be your voice projected out through something else. Feel your fingers. Hear the sounds. And sing, please. Or hum. It's proven to raise happiness-levels!
4.) Send an email or write via snail-mail to someone you love and haven't talked to in a while. Great-Grandpa who's probably going to die soon. An aunt in California. You cousin on the other side of town. It can be short and sweet. Just let them know you thought of them. The best part? They'll probably reply back, and then you can read their words.

Yesterday, I played piano all day long, went to a flute lesson, and played guitar after dinner. It was amazing. I didn't sound very good at all, and I'm no musical genius, but renewed, as cheese-ball as it sounds. And, it's still not letting me upload pictures, so I'll show mi guitarra another day...

What the &%@# is a ROMPER?

If any of you have walked around outside near a gaggle of young people, you've seen this new phenomenom. IT can be sorta cute, sometimes EXTREMELY unflattering, and very confusing to those of us who do not wish to partake in this style of dressing, however "in" it may appear. (Note: Kids, do not try this at home unless you are no taller than 4 feet and weigh about as much as a small dog. Otherwise you might get some looks. Just sayin'.)

Some styles of the mysterious romper look like baggy jumpsuits, others look like diapers paired with an oversized tank top. Some are actually quite adorable, especially when they're a dark color with a small floral print.

Also from these wonderful ladies-in-rompers picture from the internet: I'm liking the bottom two girls in the brown sandals. They're quite adorable- much more adorable then the silky fabric barely covering their lady stuff. So how 'bout it? Are you with me on the sandals? Do rompers look like diapers? Have you tried to pull one off successfully? (and yes, some people can. I saw one at rock the garden and was going to take a picture of her, but thought that was a TAD TO CREEPER of me. :)

Random food for thought: Do you like people watching? Or do you hardly notice anyone in your path? (If you've never people-watched at big public areas, take advantage of your summer free time and do it! It creates wonderful fashion inspiration, i kid you not. I love that saying. )

Concert Review

So last night I had the amazing ability to go to the Rock the Garden concert at the Walker museum for FREE! (people connections come in handy, don't forget that.) Four bands were playing: Retribution Gospel Choir, who was kind of a classic rock-ish band. I'd never heard of them and really liked their music. I managed to get right up front at the foot of the stage for the whole shebang, so it was nice to really be able to hear the bass and see the expression on the goofy guitarist's face. :) The next group was OK Go, and they have a slightly Prince-esque sound, extremely danceable, and extremely uplifting! Went I get my hands on some money, I'll be looking to buy these guy's album. After OK Go, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were up. They had a longer set by about a half hour, and Sharon Jones was as strong voiced and jolly as ever. I already have a bit of their music, and was happy to sing along as I danced in the hot afternoon sun. I unfortunately forgot sunblock, so as well as sore feet, I've also got some pink cheeks. Oh well, it was definitely worth it! The Dap Kings, who back Sharon Jones as well as write their material, have also backed Amy Winehouse on one of her albums. I loooove Amy Winehouse's music, and especially love the horns she has in her songs. The coolio part is that those same horns are backing Sharon Jones! When I figured that out about a year ago I was all smiles. After a Haagen Dazs dulce de leche in a waffle cone break, my brother and I squeezed our way up to the front again to hear one of the biggest bands lately, MGMT. One of their songs was featured on an apple ad, (so if you don't recognize the band name, you DEFINITELY recognize the song.)They also had a fairly large spread in Rolling Stone magazine a couple of months ago. Their music is a little electronic, a little dance-y, a little falsetto, and a little acoustic! It has a great, happy-go-lucky feeling to it, and I was glad they had the longest set out of the other bands. When it got dark, everyone suddenly started dancing like no one was watching, and some slightly (or not so slightly) tipsy people decided it was the right time to go crowd surfing. Fortunately, I had no beer spilled on me, but the guy who was consistently smoking cigarettes next to me kindly puffed his smoke right in my face every two seconds, so I'll be doing some laundry of the homemade tie-dye shirt I decided to wear. Don't smoke, kids. It makes you stink like a monkey, turns your teeth yellow, makes a everyone around you annoyed when you blow your smoke everywhere, and not to mention the biggest winner, LUNG CANCER! But as long as I didn't have sticky beer-feet, I was a happy camper. Plus, I got to dance my heart out at the foot of MGMT's yummy-ness, so 'twas alllll good. This was the third year I've gotten to go to Rock the Garden, (which is put on by the radio station 89.3 The Current) and it's well worth buying the tickets. Or going for free, in my case! I wonder who's in the lineup for next year?

Food for Thought:if you've never listened to 89.3 FM, give it a try!

Grub of the Century

So now I have two followers. I am amazed, even if they are close friends of mine, but this is a cause for celebration! And I have celebrated with vegetable stir-fry, the easiest and possibly most yummiest instant snack/meal that sounds hard and hopeless, but is easy-squeezy.
Can you guys see my loverly herbies on my deck in that picture up there? They don't taste so well in this recipe, but they taste good in homemade pasta sauce. But that's another recipe, for another day.
Vegetable Stir-Fry! Recipe as follows:
1.)Around 2 cups, or however much you want of chopped cabbage, kale, or some kind of thick green vegetable found in the bottom drawer of your fridge. Broccoli and carrots also flatter my taste buds as well.
2.) A couple tablespoons soy sauce, or to taste.
3.) About a 1/4 teaspoon of ground or fresh ginger. (again, put in as much or as little...whatever floats your boat. Mine floats with a lot of ginger.
4.)Sesame oil. If no sesame oil, canola/vegetable/olive oil works too.

So: Chop all vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Heat a TB or so of the oil in a big fry pan. After a couple seconds, toss in the veggies, mix around with a wooden spoon, and put a lid on it while they soften and steam. After about 5 minutos, take the lid off, add soy sauce and ginger, and *stir* while it *fries*
Watch the vegetables. This is the best part: The vegetables that are green, (especially broccoli) will turn this amazing, vibrant, fresh mowed grass color, and it's so amazing that you may be forced into taking pictures, as I do regularly. And then you turn off the flame, (very important) fill up a big 'ole bowl, and BON APPETIT.
In case you didn't notice, vegetable stir-fry is about as versatile and vegetarian-bounty-full as you can get, perfect for all veg-heads like me! FUN FACT: leonardo da vinci was a vegetarian. And, as you can see in my hate-filled sink picture, dirty pots and pans don't quite get along as well with me as the food does. But the good cook rule goes as follows: Clean up as you go, so there's less of a mess at the end. I don't really follow that rule, but I hope I will someday. :)
Food for Thought: If we're allowed to eat cows, why aren't the cows trying to eat us?? Nothing against you non-vegetarians, I'm just sparking debate in my own head. And now it's on my blog.

Pictures

These are things that inspire me, filling the nooks and crannies of my little room

First post! Hip hip HOORAY

Ahhh this feels so amazing, you have no idea. It's actually funny how no one besides maybe 2 people will read this blog more than once, but I admire all bloggers and suddenly realized, I want to be one too! I love writing and photography, so put it together, stick it on the web, and you've got a blog. I'm a Libra, (hence the blog name :P)and Libra's are very passionate in things they love. I'm passionate about music, how I dress myself, my wonderful friends and family, and the changing earth around me- hey, if you don't now what your astrological sign is, you should check it out. I'm normal COUGH *(bordering on obsessive) * COUGH about astrology, so if you've got me some questions, I've got you some answers... enough describing myself with words. I'm going to try to do it with random pictures of things on my walls now.