Tinkerblue

How Cute Is This?

 

 

Zico Chocolate Coconut Water

Have you jumped on the coconut water band wagon? I haven't. I tried it last summer. Andrea and I bought some to take to the beach with us. Neither of us were too impressed. I didn't like the texture or the taste.

I know it's supposed to be healthy for you. Especially after a run. It can rehydrate like nothing else. It's full of potassium and electrolytes , including sodium**. It's lower in sugar, acidity and cholestrol than most other sport drinks.  And the ingredient list is pronounceable and recognisable.

100% natural coconut water from concentrate, cane sugar, coconut cream, cocoa, vanilla, carrageenan

Well except carrageenan. I had to look that one up. It's a seaweed extract. It's used instead of cornstarch  or gelatin to thicken or emulsify liquids.

 

 

On my latest visit to Trader Joes, they had Zico chocolate coconut water. I thought I'd give it a try.  A way better idea than plain coconut water. I think next time I'll try blending it with a banana and a scoop of protein powder and have that after my run. I wont be drinking too much of it. Zico is expensive, so unless it shows up in bulk at Costco, it'll be a treat from time to time.

 

**I often get leg cramps at night after I've been for a workout earlier in the day. Cramps can be caused by dehydration and lack of sodium. I drink lots of water but my sodium intake is low.  A diet high in sodium has never been a problem.

Shoe Storage - Plastic Shoe Boxes

Continuing on with the clean up my wardrobe theme. Oh how exciting my life has become. I can see my mum and hubby rolling their eyes. Actually I can hear my mum, "Only you could talk about shoe boxes/coat hangers/insert appropriate word here."

 

We keep most of our shoes in the closet at the front door. If they don't fit in the closet then they live on the floor, or in with the hot water tank and Christmas decorations.

 

 

Until now. While shopping in the States over the weekend I picked up a box of boxes. 20 boxes on sale for $29.80. That's $1.49 a box. If they didn't work for shoes, I'd use them for crafts or hubby would use them at the hangar. 

 

 

They worked. I can see all my shoes. And the mess is gone from the floor. Can't guarantee it will stay gone.

 

 

And hubby's Blundstone's are all lined up under the bench. Well not all of them. There are still some in the closet and I'm assuming that he has a pair on his feet right now.  He has so many pairs that I found a pair with the tags still on. He's never worn them. He has black, brown, red elastic, steel toe, black dress and 2 pairs of sandals. All Blundstones. All made in Tassie. He hasn't bought any since they moved the factory to Vietnam.

 

 

Ironic isn't it. I have so many pairs of shoes, but I prefer being barefoot.

 

Huggable Hangers

Over the weekend I was reading Sara's You, Me and Anthropologie blog. She was giving a tour of her new closet. She mention that hanging space was at a premium. Several commenters posted that she should try the huggable hangers - they take up less room and clothing doesn't slide off them. The originals are from The Container Store ($9.99 for 6). Amazon ($25.00 for 50) and Target ($19.99 for 34 piece combo pack) both have versions of them to.  I kind of thought that would be nice but didn't give it much thought after that.

 

Then I was in Costco, just outside of Seattle, and they had a box of 50 for $12.00. So I thought why not give them a try. For $12.00 if they don't work it doesn't really matter.

 

Today I swapped out most of my assortment of  wood and green and white plastic hangers for the black velvety huggable hangers. Guess what? They actually appear to take up less space. I even hung up stuff that that had been relegated to a drawer. And there's still a chunk of closet at the back that is empty.

 

And I like that all the hangers are the same. Now I want another box so I can remove the rest of the plastic hangers.  I like the symmetry. Get over it. 

 

Skirts will be next. Yep, I own a crap load of skirts. Who'd have thought. Anyone want my old plastic hangers? There's about 50 of them.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

 

I said I wasn't going to go and see it opening weekend. Too many people. But I'm back out on the train tomorrow and won't be home until late Thursday night. So no chance to see it during the week. I caved and went tonight.  I really enjoyed it. For me it lived up to the hype. The audience actually applauded in a couple of parts - when Neville jeers at the Death Eaters and when Molly Weasley finishes off "that bitch." And there was an audible sigh of relief that it ended as it did.

 

 

My favourite characters throughout the books and the movies are Hermione, Luna Lovegood and Severus Snape. Harry Potter actually kind of annoys me. 

My iPhone Got Wet - How I Saved It

I had a bottle of water in my bag along with my wallet, camera, iphone and other crap. The water bottle split. The lid was securely on, but the seam of the water bottle split. Water everywhere. Apparently my leather Coach bag holds water. No drips nothing. I wouldn't even have known the water bottle had broken except I went to grab mints and my hand went into about 2" of water. Great. I was in the middle of a shopping mall. I stopped right where I was and emptied my bag. Out came everything. Then I dumped all the water into a rubbish bin. I sales girl from the Barnes & Noble store brought out some towels for me. She helped me dry everything off. 

Then we noticed water in the screens of my camera and iPhone. Crap. Lots of water. Sloshing round inside the screen. The iPhone had this message on the screen. Not good considering I wasn't using any accessories.

 

I powered the iPhone off and took out the SIM card. I took the battery and SD card out of the camera. That was all I could do at the time.  (oh  yeah, the girl from Barnes and Noble also gave me an iced tea and a chocolate chip cookie. Must remember to send feedback).

 

 

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at Fred Meyer's and bought ziplock bags and rice. I put the iPhone in one bag and the camera in another and covered them in rice. They stayed there until I got home 24 hours later.

 

 

I could still see water in the screens, so I left in them rice for another 24 hours. I moved them from ziplock bags to square containers. For no other reason than to make me feel like I was doing something.

 

 

 

The camera is still in it's container full of rice. I don't think it's going to be saved. The iPhone? Appears to be okay. Everything I read on the interwebs says to leave it for a week. Yeah, I'm not that patient. I took it out of the rice this afternoon and charged it.  It seems to be working. I've sent emails and texts. Although I haven't had responses, so not sure if they went through. The camera on the iphone is the only thing that seems to be shoddy. Any photo I take is really grainy, I know they're only phone photos but they never used to be that bad.

In my research, here are some other suggestions for drying out your iPhone (or any phone or electronics). 

Fill a ziplock bag with silica gel packets. They're usually in shoe boxes etc. Keep them. Better than rice, because rice has a fine dust that you have to clean out of all the nooks and crannies.

Blast with a hairdryer - not a good idea, you want to dry out the phone not fry it.

Soak it in 90%+ alcohol.

Use a Bheestie Bag. Hubby has one of these somewhere, but not sure where it is.

 

 

Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels

Whenever Hubby goes away I always, always say "Don't forget to bring me back a gift." He pretty much ignores me. I don't mean he has to spend a ton of money. 99.999999% of the time I go away I bring him back a gift. Let's see I've gifted him pens, soap, airplane chocolate, t-shirt, shoe shine mitt...Sometimes they're freebies from the hotels, othertimes I find a cheapie gift at the airport, and occassionally I spend real money. But at least I think of him. He's in Saskatchewan now and then Yellowknife. He'll be gone for 2 weeks. Wanna bet he doesn't bring anything back. 

I went to Seattle for a couple of days. I brought him back a pressie, even if he's not here. It'll be waiting for him when he gets home.

 

 

A huge ass jar of peanut butter filled pretzels from Costco. Don't be eating them all at once.

 

I Need a Sunny Vacation

Just to I can wear this Esther Williams Beach Blanket Bingo swimsuit

with this Hello Sunshine hat

and these Kate Spade Franca sunnies (need to find me a look a like pair that are less $$$$)

 

while I lay on this Smile beach towel

 

to finally read the Hunger Games Trilogy

 

I'd pack the towel, books, water bottle,  snack and sunscreen in this Roberta Rabbit Roller beach bag:

 

I just need to find me a cute cover-up and some thongs (flip flops). When are we going to Hawaii or Mexico? I want to go now.

Maggie

What to give a little girl whose turning one?  After rummaging through all my craft boxes I found this:

 

and these:

 

Obviously I'd been saving them for something or someone.  I had the letter forms in an A, C, E, G, and M.No idea what that combo was supposed to spell out. I'd long since forgotten who they were for.  Now I just needed an I and a G. A quick trip to Michaels solved that.

 

A bottlle of decoupage glue, a hot glue gun and a lot of mess later, I had a birthday present for a one year old. They can be hang on a wall or left free standing on a shelf or ledge.

 

 

Salted Chocolate Caramel Cookies

I used this recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod.

 

Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Sea Salt

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Cook Time: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 7 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt (I used plain Greek yoghurt, not in some misguided attempt to make a healthier recipe, but because it was what I had in the fridge)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Soft caramel, rolled into little balls. (I used Werthers Chewy Caramels)
• Sea salt - I used raspberry sea salt on half and Murry River Pink Flake Salt on the other half.

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºf;  line 2 baking sheets with baking paper, lightly coated with cooking spray. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Sift together flour, soda, and salt; set aside.

 

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand).

 

Add yoghurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Wrap the chocolate dough around the caramel balls. Place balls on cookie sheets and sprinkle with sea salt.

 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

 

There were 24 caramels in the bag of Werthers. I used 1 per cookie. Yeah, that was a mistake. Should have cut them in half. That was too much caramel and in some cookies it leaked out everywhere. Still tasted good. We'll be making these again.