Green Smoothies and Face Packs?

There have been quite a few changes going on around here... I am not the greatest one for change, but I must admit these have been great changes! We have been starting to slowly introduce more raw food into our diet and it really is tasty:) Jenna has taken an interest in raw food preparation and has been helping me make all sorts of yummy dishes, on Sunday we tried raw spaghetti and a white sauce, I had no idea it would taste SO good! Every morning we make a smoothie and we are always coming up with different recipes to enjoy:)  Here is one below that we have been making:

Smoothie:

1 Pineapple

2 Pears

1 Apple

1 Orange (peeled)

4 Seedless dates (to sweeten)

1 Handful of Pak Choi

Cut up your fruit and blend it all together and if it is too thick, just add a little water:) Enjoy

A few posts back I asked asked if anyone could share raw food links and some amazing links were shared, their blogs are also wonderful too:

Dawn sent in   http://happyfoody.com/

Sarah sent in http://muckbootsnaprons.blogspot.com/

Jen sent in http://catherine-et-les-fees.blogspot.com/

The other day when Richard took Erin to baseball, Jen and I had some mama daughter time together:) We decided to make a face pack. It was wonderful and gooey and once we washed it off, our skin felt amazing! Life is so incredibly hectic most of the time, it is really important to pamper yourself when you can, to plan time for yourself, and to honour who you are... So face packs it was for us!

Here is what we did:

1 Avo
2 Tablespoons of honey
4 drops of Jojoba Oil

Mix it all together and when it is lovely and smooth, rub it all over your face. Sit and relax for about 20 minutes to half and hour and then wash off with warm water. Your skin will feel amazing!

A few people have asked me to share how I added a 3rd column to my blog, it was really easy, Blogger has an editing website called Blogger In Draft, where you can edit your blog and make all the changes you want without affecting your current blog:) Once you have made all the changes you want, you can apply them to your blog, just make sure you save a copy of the template you are using at the moment, just in case you want to revert back to it:)

Here is the link, it really is wonderful.

Here is a peek at a new pattern I will be sharing soon: Sunner Ladybug:)

I have also been featured over at the Rhythm of the Home Blog, for How to Make a Sun Tea, pop over and have a look see:)

Happy Tuesday to all,

Warmly

Linda

Gulf Coast Oil Spill and How We Can Help

Even though our family here in South Africa, lives so very far away from the BP oil spill that is ongoing in the Gulf, it is incredibly sad for us to witness this tragedy for marine life and all those whose lives have been touched in a negative way by this crisis...  We wanted to help in some way... I came across an amazing web site this morning called Craft Hope. They have found a way for all of those who would like to help in any way that they can. I am so excited and inspired by this... Craft Hope has partnered with The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and are going to help them with the clean up of the marine animals that have been affected by this oil spill. What they need are cloths, wash rags 10 x 10 size or hand towels that are 14 x 27 and can be cotton, terri cloth, knitted , crocheted etc...

To sign up to help and for more details like where to send you cloths and suggestions on what to use to make them, please visit here.

Even the smallest gesture will make the world of difference:)

Warmly
Linda

Re-use, Recycle a Tree

I have been working on my blog yesterday and today and I am so excited to have discovered how to add a 3rd column! Now all my tutorials are on the right hand side for everyone to enjoy:) Early last week we discovered our beautiful Cypress tree was leaning quite dramatically towards our house. We had so much rain  at the end of our Summer and early Autumn and this poor tree just couldn't withstand the moisture in the ground. It started to lean more and more and eventually its roots were lifing out of the ground. We new we had to have it taken out, as it would definately fall on our home(I hate cutting down trees) but in this case we had no choice, we couldn't support it in any way, so it had to be taken down... We did however find a way to reuse and recycle our tree:)

There was great excitement on the day when the tree felling company came. All our children stood at a safe distance and watched for any little birds that might be nesting in the tree, luckily there were none:)

This lovely tree will not go to waste though, we had a few ideas for it:) All the small branches were put into piles and will be dried out and reused for woodwork and firewood. Parts of the bark are a rich red colour and I am sure will give us a beautiful colour in the dye pot. We are going to make planters with some of the pieces, Caiden and Jenna are looking forward to hollowing them out with a wood chisel, there were so many wood shavings and we used these for a mulch for our plants and lastly, everyone got together and designed an obstacle course to enjoy! So even though our lovely tree is not standing in the corner of our property anymore, we have found many wonderful uses for it!

Happy Saturday everyone:)
Linda

Creative Friday

Welcome to Creative Friday old friends and new! It is so wonderful to see all the creativity that finds its way here each week:) Thank you so much to everyone who shares the love and posts their links to their amazing work:) Please feel free to post your links to anything you have created and would like to share, it can be a recipe, sewing tutorial, knitting tutorial, felting, crochet, crafts, art, spinning, weaving, working with fibre...etc...

I also love to hear from you, so if you have a moment, please leave a comment:) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent with us! Just add the name of your blog to the widget and then add your blog link with the http:// at the beginning of your link address:) I have added a Creative Friday button on the sidebar of my blog, please feel free to add it to your blog for Creative Friday and link it to http://www.naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ so others can find this space and share their creativity too:)

Have a wonderful weekend:)

Warmly

Linda

Rhythm of the Home, Bluebird of Happiness

Today you can find me over at Rhythm of the Home, I feel very honoured and blessed to have been invited to contribute to this amazing publication! There you will find such amazing creativity from so many talented people and my pattern and tutorial for my Waldorf inspired Bluebird of Happiness seen below:)

Happy day to all of you,

Thank you so much to all who visit this space and leave your wonderful words, I do appreciate you all so much.

Warmly

Linda