Crafty Endeavors #WotW

Posted on by Astrid

This week was a mixed bag emotionally. I haven’t been as motivated as I was before, but, like I said yesterday, haven’t been depressed either. I have also been quite crafty over the past week. In fact, I have been exploring more creative outlets in a single week than I’ve done in a long while. For this reason, I’m choosing “crafty endeavors” as my word of the week.

Early in the week, I created the polymer clay tricolor “rainbow” pendant I showed you on Wednesday. Like I said, at first it wouldn’t cure in the oven, but eventually it did.

I also created the multicolor, layered heart I posted yesterday. Since my mother-in-law brought me a packet of sanding papers, I have been trying to sand this one a little. I only used grits 120 and 400 to get rid of the worst unevenness, since with it being multilayered, I don’t know how to sand the top two layers.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I have been busy with soap and skincare product making. I made a lavender and clary sage massage oil. Unfortunately, I used up all my lavender essential oil, so I’ve put that on my wishlist to buy when I feel I am allowed to spend money again.

I also created a lavender and rose hand cream and melt and pour soap. In the soap, I used real dried lavender and rose petals.

Lavender and Rose Melt and Pour Soap

I found the recipe here and, though I felt the use of crushed almonds was a bit strange, I just skipped that step. I really liked the soap.

Then yesterday, I showed it in a melt and pour soap making group on Facebook and was told by all of the commenters that most dried herbs and flowers will mold in melt and pour soap. I seriously had no idea! In fact, just a few days earlier, I’d seen another blogger post a recipe for calendula soap. That one is the one herb that won’t mold, but this blogger also included lemongrass. I’ve also seen tons of recipes for melt and pour soap that do include all kinds of dried herbs and flowers, so my next question obviously is how to sift through all the information out there online. In any case, some of the commenters on Facebook said I’m now officially a soaper for having made the same mistake 99% of melt and pour soapers make.

Then on to polymer clay again. On Friday evening, I made a flower. Then I saw an interesting video on YouTube on making polymer clay earrings and wanted to try it. Unfortunately, one of the colors of Fimo I used was way too brittle for in my extruder, so I decided to mix up the two colors. I’d used blossom rose and porcelain. The shade I got was a very light pink which was lovely. Unfortunately, I only had a tiny bit of it.

This evening, I may try more polymer clay, as I haven’t baked the flower yet and want it baked by tomorrow, but I don’t want to run the oven for just one piece.

Overall, despite this week not feeling as good as the past few weeks, I’ve done really well.

How would you sum up your week?

Word of the Week linky

Making Smoothies

Posted on by Astrid

Like I said a few weeks ago, a staff member at my care facility gifted me a smoothie maker. It’s a totally awesome thing! I already had a blender, but that one was rather huge and is now in the kitchen for the staff to make fruit mixtures with for the clients who can’t chew.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve regularly been making smoothies with the new smoothie maker. Despite its relatively small size, it’s pretty powerful. It blends smoothies within like ten to fifteen seconds. It also deals nicely with frozen fruit without me having to use the pulse function.

Last Saturday, the grocery store delivered some peaches to the facility at my request. We also still had blueberries in the freezer and soy milk in the fridge. I loved making a smoothie with these ingredients. I used:


  • 1 peach

  • A handful of frozen blueberries

  • 1 cup soy milk

  • A handful of oatmeal


Yes, you can actually use oatmeal in smoothies! I knew, but some foodies say you need to use instant oatmeal. Well, at least I didn’t.

Yesterday, a staff bought some food they’d forgotten to order from the grocery store. Among it was fresh spinach. That’s really tasty in a smoothie, so today I chose to make another smoothie. This time I used:


  • 1 banana

  • Fresh spinach (I took a large handful)

  • A handful of frozen blueberries

  • 1 cup soy milk


I didn’t use oatmeal this time, because I didn’t intend the smoothie to be too filling. I loved it though! You hardly taste the spinach. In the pic, it looks a bit weird, but believe me, it was delicious.

Do you like smoothies?

Oatmeal

Posted on by Astrid

Hi readers, how are you? I’ve truly been very active lately. Today I initially didn’t feel that motivated to do much of anything, but I eventually managed to read a good amount. I also walked for 30 minutes, albeit divided between a 10-minute walk together with another client and a 20-minute walk with just the staff. And now I’m looking through my drafts folder to start a blog post for today.

Last week, lots of ideas were floating through my mind. I couldn’t actually follow through on most completely independently, so I discussed some with my day activities staff. I wanted to do a cooking activity again. For some reason, I got thinking about trying out oatmeal recipes. So I went about and googled some simple oatmeal recipes. I cannot seem to find the one I used right now.

What I Used


  • 4 cups almond milk.

  • 2 large bananas.

  • 2 cups oatmeal (it’s just sold as oatmeal here, not rolled oats or anything).

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

  • Tiny pinch of salt (I didn’t think I’d like that, but it was in the recipe).

I had the staff mash the bananas with a fork. Then we threw all ingredients in a saucepan and brought it to a boil. Then turned the heat down and had it cook for a few minutes. I stirred constantly, so that the oats wouldn’t get crusty. After we removed the oatmeal from the stove, we added granola as a topping. That wasn’t in the recipe I used, but I thought I’d like it and we had lots of granola left over anyway.

My sister used to eat oatmeal for breakfast when she was little. I never quite liked it, but this was truly delicious! It was also very filling. I ate it for lunch and didn’t need anything else to feel full.

The staff gave some of the oatmeal without the topping to some clients who normally eat mashed bread porridge and they loved it too.

Next time, I’m going to try to make some overnight oats. I’m not going to let it sit in the fridge for an entire night, but most recipes I checked said two hours is generally enough.

Do you like oatmeal or other porridge?

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Smoothie Bowl!

Posted on by Astrid

Hi all, how are you? I had a better day yesterday than Monday. Didn’t sleep much at all Monday night, because I was so excitedly browsing sites for soap making recipes. However, I wasn’t really tired or grumpy at all.

Today was even better. On Wednesdays, the staff interns at day activities usually do a cooking activity with me, as most other clients are off to a weekly music performance in the assembly hall. I hate the music performance but love cooking, so that’s a win-win. One of the interns changed her schedule, so isn’t on on Wednesday anymore, but the other still is. Today, we made a smoothie bowl. It didn’t turn out as well as I wanted. Particularly, we used a little too much milk.

What We Used

  • 1/2 cup milk. The original recipe had us use 75ml of oat milk, but I thought that would be too little. Apparently not. Half a cup, so roughly 125ml, made the smoothie a little too thin. As a side note, we used regular cow’s milk.
  • 1 1/2 bananas. We used one for the smoothie bit and the other half on top.
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter. The recipe I used had us use two tablespoons, but I think that would’ve been way over the top.
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder. I can’t remember how much the recipe said we needed to use.
  • A handful granola. This is spread on top of the smoothie.

This made for one large bowl.

How We Made It

First,, I peeled the banana and cut it into slices. I had the intern do the half banana that would be used on top, as I doubted my slices would be thin enough. Then, I scooped the banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder and milk into a measuring cup. I then mixed it using an immersion blender. I have a regular blender at the care home, but had forgotten to take it to the day center. The intern poured the mixture into a bowl and we added the granola and sliced half banana on top. You can also add coconut chips.

How Did It Taste?

It was delicious! Like I said, it was a little too thin. I had expected the thickness to be like custard, but it was more like a milkshake. The chocolate and peanut butter tastes were really well mixed. The smoothie almost tasted like chocolate-coated peanuts. There were hazelnuts in the granola, which tasted extra good when combined with the smoothie. Overall, I loved the activity and the result.

Linking up with the Wednesday link party.

PoCoLo