Hi guys! Some of you have been writing to me and asking if everthing is ok after last night’s earthquake, and one of you suggested that I maybe just write a quick blog entry :).

All is good! Nothing even fell over. It wasn’t the strongest earthquake I’ve ever experienced, but it was definitely longer than the average rumble. This one was a 6.0 (I think? I didn’t check again today) out of Napa, which is a little bit north of us here in San Francisco.

The dogs were a bit scared apparently, but everything is 100% a-ok!

Love you guys!

I’ve been working on a fun re-cap of our trip to the Redwoods last weekend, and I’m also going to launch a new giveaway this week (hopefully) for a handful of crocheted baby Groots, because I don’t intend to sell finished ones, and a lot of you keep asking if I will be, but I do not have permission or a license to do so. Stay tuned!

Cindy, from A Little Geeky, who is one of my blog sponsors this month, sent me this really cute cheeseburger apron to show you guys!

She designed the yummy burger print and sewed up this lil half apron nice and sturdy. It has 3 big pockets, and as you can see, I can fit my iPad Mini in it to run my credit cards at craft fairs!

I can also stick pens in there, or, you know, a real corn dog for when I get snacky.

These are really handy for craft fair of flea market vendors, cuz table-space can be limited and get squishy, and you don’t have a lot of room to spread out all your doodads and gizmos! Now you can just have everything on you, and it’s super convenient!

It ties in the back with grosgrain ribbon. I snapped a photo of that, but it turned out super blurry! Sorry!!

We are currently offering a matryoshka apron in our August blog sponsor giveaway, but the apron also comes in lots of different prints, so you should check out her shop, too!

(p.s. this sweatshirt is by Lazy Oaf from a few years ago. I don’t wear it because it makes me too hot, and it also fits me really weird ((why did I buy a small?!!??))  but I just can’t let go of it yet! It would be a pretty simple hoodie DIY tho, so, I should get on that…)

Hi! It’s the 16th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! I know I usually launch these on the 15th, but let’s blame my friend Renee who is staying with me, and we ended up going to lunch and hanging out in Japantown and then running other errands all day/night!

Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive:

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(You have to watch this .gif while listening to Awesome Mix Vol.1) I saw Guardians of the Galaxy last weekend because Manda and our friend Ehren both wanted to see it.  A lot of my friends have been over the moon about it, but I’m really not a comic book person, and the trailer wasn’t really catching my attention. I said I would see it if someone bought my ticket :P.

My takeaway from the movie was that WE ALL NEED A BABY Groot, so here is your free crochet GROOTORIAL! If you haven’t seen the movie, Groot is this tree-like alien who is really big and strong and can grow stuff off his body and is basically like the Giving Tree on steroids.

I don’t want to spoil why there is a baby Groot and why people are going crazy about him if you haven’t seen the movie yet, so go see it and then it will all make sense!

I put pipe cleaners in his arms so that he could “dance.” I tried wiring his body, too, but was running into complications with figuring out how to put stuffing in him AND a wire….plus the pipe cleaner wasn’t really strong enough to support his head and body and pipe cleaner was all I had in the house… so I need to play with that more at some point! Anyway, now you all can have your own baby Groot! And I am sure you guys will each put your own little spin on him!! I used online images of the Funko bobble head as my inspiration, cuz I think it’s super adorable!

Also, here is a step by step video tutorial on YouTube to accompany the written pattern below.

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I have been smoothie-curious for a while and keep talking about how I’m gonna make smoothies all the time. I like eating veggies, and I like eating kale. My go-to breakfast is a toasted PB&J sandwich, cuz it’s fast and easy, but eating a PB&J a day is probably not that great for you. I will look at people’s smoothie photos on Instagram and think Hey, that looks healthy and delicious and fresh! BUT …. if you know me at all, or if you have read my blog for some time, you know that I am NO WIZ in the kitchen, and lots of food-prep-related things are really not my forte. There are things I can do, and things I can’t do, and preparing food is kinda on the “can’t do very well” list. Luckily, I’m not a super-picky eater, so even if I make something that’s 75% nasty, I’ll probably still eat it anyway.

My mom got me a small/personal blender/smoothie-maker thing for my birthday, and this really sent me over the “you must try to make smoothies” precipice. Part of my anxiety about smoothie-making was Will I get the right consistency? Will I make something that tastes nastier than nasty? Will I break the smoothie-maker? Is it too annoying to wash all those dishes?

Here’s what I put into my very first inaugural smoothie: frozen strawberries, rolled oats, half a banana, 1 big kale leaf with the ribs torn out, chia seeds, and vanilla coconut drink. I zapped this concoction around in my blender, playing with low and high speeds and the pulse function, and like, nothing was blending. I went to Instagram to ask for help, and as it turned out, I simply didn’t have enough liquid in there, so I poured in more coconut drink and also like half a cup of plain water. Things really started to whizz around at that point!

Ok ok ok. I know it looks like barf. It had sort of a light brown color and LOTS of green bits in it. Further google-searching has led me to believe that my blender may not be high powered or fancy enough to blend green bits perfectly smooth. Luckily, this falls under the “75% nasty” umbrella, and I can handle chewing through my smoothie a little bit. The flavor was fine, but maybe just a smidge too tart because of all the berries and no sweetener aside from the banana and the sweetener in my coconut milk/drink. The smoothie did end up runnier than I imagined in my head, and I repeated the same mistake the next day. Oh well!

This was today’s smoothie: some ice cubes, a banana, rolled oats, 2 TSP of PB2, 2 TSP of cocoa powder, chia seeds, a handful of frozen blueberries, coconut drank, and water.

As I mentioned above, it ended up runnier than I would want, but maybe this is just what smoothies are like!? I dunno. I’ll try to add less water, but I know if I don’t add enough, things just won’t blend at all. I am sure I will figure it out eventually! The flavor of this smoothie was interesting. I felt like it had kind of like, a fake sugar taste to it, which I couldn’t figure out. It might be my coconut drink, since I haven’t actually tasted it on its own yet, but it has cane sugar and no artificial sweeteners, so I’ll just blame the blueberries cuz I don’t usually eat blueberries… Also, I added honey afterward because it wasn’t sweet enough for me, probably due to adding too much water.

Anyway, those are my smoothie adventures so far! If you have favorite recipes, I’m happy to hear them! BTW, this is the blender that my mom got me. This is not a full endorsement, as I am sure there are better blenders out there, but this is the one I got! I like that you only have to clean two pieces (the cup and the blender-blade thingie), and it comes with a travel lid, so you can zap your breakfast and then take it in a car with you. All I need now is a washable/reusable straw!