I'm BACK...and I Brought my Clothespin People!

I'M BACK FOR THE SUMMER!!!!!!

Today I made bookmarks with my mom and my brother.  The bookmarks look like actual people (well, to me, they do).  They are made out of clothespins and sharpies. You don’t have to draw people.  You can make your own creative designs, like polka dots, stripes, or squiggly lines.  It is your choice.  All you have to do is draw whatever you want.  You don’t have to glue anything or cut anything.  It's really easy!

My favorite bookmark is Lily.  She loves dogs like I do.  When she grows up she wants to be a teacher. She’s 8, like I am.  Her favorite book is Lulu Walks The Dog.  

If you like reading as much as I do, try reading LuLu Walks the Dog.  It's a great book!  The illustrations were really cool and the book was really funny.

Making clothespin bookmarks is an easy and fun project!

Cut up Your Brother's T-shirt (That's What We Did!)!!

The t-shirt bag is a bag that does not need to be sewn. If you want, you can sew it, but you can do it my way. Let me ask you a question. Would you throw away a toilet paper roll that is empty or use it to make something like a sculpture out of it? I would rather recycle and make something cool. I decided to take my brother's favorite t-shirt and make this cute bag.

First, get your favorite t-shirt that you don't need anymore. 

Then, get chalk or a washable pen or marker and draw your handle.  So, draw a line below the neck hem and a line inside the arm seam.  I folded my t-shirt in half so the two sides would be even.

Cut out where ever you drew.

After, get a safety pin, a ribbon, and scissors.  Use the scissors to cut a small hole in the bottom hem. Then, attach the safety pin to the ribbon and slide the ribbon all the way around the hem.

Once you get the ribbon all the way around, pull the two ends tight and tie a bow.

Now your t-shirt bag is done!

You can use it to put your notebooks in when you go back to school or bring your favorite toys on road trips. 

Homemade Hummus

Hummus is a really healthy snack.  It tastes delicious with bell peppers, cucumbers, baby carrots, and pita chips.  You can also try it with veggie chips and pretzels.  You can buy hummus at the farmer's market or you can make it at home, like me.  I will give you the recipe at the end.  If you haven't tried it yet, you should.  Trying new foods is a great thing to do.

The hummus I made is a bell pepper hummus and it tastes really beany, sweet, and it has a tiny, tiny little spice.  If you haven't tried it before, it may be a little dry.  My family and I like it and Penelope likes it too!  (If you've been reading my blog, you know who Penelope is!)

Here's the recipe:

1 red bell pepper

2 cans of garbanzo beans (15 oz cans)

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of tahini paste

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cloves garlic

1.  Seed and cut up the red bell pepper in 4 to 6 pieces.

2.  Place the bell pepper with the skin side up on a broiler pan.

3.  Stick the pan in the broiler and leave it in until it's charred.

4.  Put the bell peppers in a Ziploc bag and leave it in there for 20 minutes.  The steam will help remove the skin.

5.  Remove the skin from the bell pepper.

6.  Rinse the garbanzo beans.

7.  Add the bell peppers, the garbanzo beans, and all of the ingredients into the blender.

8.  Blend until smooth.

Voila!

Stick on, Washi Tape!

Today I used washi tape to decorate my pencils.  Washi tape is a cool way to design a pencil because you can swirl it, put it on straight, or make a lot of other awesome patterns.  I made a few pencils.  My mom and brother made some with me too.  I think the pencils look best with one color, but they also look good with whatever design you like.  Either one looks good.

I am taking these to school in September.  I'm going to use them alot when I need them.  I won't really use any other pencils that much because they look so much better.

Go Away Germs!

I'm obsessed with hand sanitizers and hand sanitizer holders. Why am I really obsessed?  It's because I like the smell and I like having something that I can hang on my backpack and lunch pail.  Also, it's useful because it can kill germs.

I made this holder out of Rainbow Loom bands.  There's a video on YouTube that I watched to make it.  If you want to try it out, the link is here.  It's really easy.  It's just a triple single attached to a hand sanitizer bottle and a few straps, plus a charm.  I chose to make a strawberry charm and I used a different video.  You can find it here.

This summer, I'm taking this hand sanitizer to the beach because once I get dirty, I'm going to use it.

Hey, Penelope!: A DIY Ragdoll

Let me introduce you to my new friend, Penelope.  She likes the color pink.  Her favorite animal is a cassowary (that's a colorful bird, just in case you didn't know that!).  Her favorite hobbies are building sandcastles and swimming in the ocean with whale sharks.  She likes to collect roly polies, worms, and seashells.  She set a world record for collecting 101,659 bugs in one day!

In my imagination, she is real and she really does all these things.  I made her with pieces of fabric, fabric pens, thread, and stuffing.  On a white fabric, I drew her face and her torso.  I picked out colorful fabric for the arms, legs, and back.  My mom sewed the doll together and I stuffed her.

This is what it looked like before we started sewing.  My brother drew a soldier and my mom made a little girl.

My mom's doll is not done because we ran out of stuffing.  I will post a photo of hers later.

Penelope says bye.  She's traveling to Machu Picchu!

Wake Up Coffee Cake!

My mom and I made a coffee cake.  I found out something interesting about coffee cake.  It isn't made of  coffee!  It's called coffee cake because it goes well with coffee or your favorite drink.  I'm saving this piece of coffee cake for Yai Nit and my Uncle Dick because they take good care of me and take me out to eat.  My Uncle Dick's favorite drink is Diet Coke and I think it would taste good with the cake.  I don't know why I call Uncle Dick uncle?  I should call him Grandpa Dick because he's the oldest guy I know.

Here's a little joke about coffee:

What do you call a cow who's just given birth?

de-calf-inated

We got this yummy recipe from a Cooking Light cookbook.  Here it is:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 1/3 cups low-fat buttermilk
cooking spray
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Combine flour, baking powder, soda, and salt and whisk.
3.  In a separate bowl beat granulated sugar and butter on medium until well blended.
4.  Add vanilla, egg, and egg white to the sugar mixture.
5.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the sugar mixture.  Begin and end with the flour   mixture.  Mix after each addition.
6.  Spray a 9" baking pan with cooking spray.
7.  Add half of the batter into the pan and sprinkle one cup of blueberries evenly over the batter.
8.  Pour the remaining batter into the pan and sprinkle the remaining blueberries over it.
9.  Sprinkle the turbinado sugar evenly over the top.
10.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until cooked.