What I’ve Been Eating

Breakfasts
Tuesday, July 26th

July 26th, Breakfast

Steel cut oats with almond milk, blackberries and raspberry honey.

Thursday, July 28th

Thursday, July 28th
Thursday, July 28th

Pancakes!

Lunches
Saturday, July 23rd

The Freshest Salad
Non-Stop Arnold Palmers

salad with romaine lettuce, arugula, pea shoots, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, peas and cheese; Arnold Palmers

Monday, July 25th,

July 25th, Lunch

Cheese and heirloom tomato on mini ciabatta buns, toasted.

Dinners
Tuesday, July 26th

Roasted veggies & cheese.

Wednesday, July 27th

Wednesday, July 27th

Chickpea salad with spicy lemon pepper dressing.

Snacks
Sunday, July 24th

Raspberries

Fresh raspberries; John Dalys

Wednesday, July 27th

Wednesday, July 17th

White chocolate chip orange cookies.

I’m Still Here

Still Sick

I feel like recently this blog has been pretty low on the Tanie content, but that’s only because I’ve been having basically the worst time of my life. A couple of weeks ago I got sick with a terrible summer cold which coincided PERFECTLY with throwing my back out; back when I was seventeen I messed it up breaking into my Crackton apartment (don’t ask) and every few years it goes wrong again.

I can’t go from standing the sitting, sitting to laying down, or laying to standing, I can’t step up onto things and I can’t bend over or pick things up off the floor, which goes really well with a job where I have to carry heavy toddlers around. Fun fact: I’ve been picking small objects up off the floor with my toes because it’s easier than using my hands right now.

Adding to the total misery is the fact that every time I sneeze or cough I send my back out again. Every day I have to get up and decide which is worse: the back pain or the cold, and then take the appropriate medicine for the one I choose, since obviously I can’t take both. Fortunately my cold seems to be on the wane, and has now segued from fever and sneezing/coughing to an endless sinus headache. Yay

So that’s where I am. Not doing anything fun, wearing my hair in a messy topknot 24/7 and never changing out of my pajamas, and basically just weeping softly into a plate of cookies every day.

Susuwatari Infestation

This day is a big drag. I’ve basically been up to my elbows in temper tantrums, diapers and baby formula spit-up all morning. I needed to do something cute and dare I say whimsical to get me out of my work-funk, and with Sym leaving tomorrow morning to spend the long weekend with her grandparents I thought a cute surprise for her would do the trick.

Susuwatari

This was left outside her bedroom door. But what’s inside?

Susuwatari

Soot sprites! (or susuwatari.)

Susuwatari
Susuwatari

Easy to make with just black tinsel or glitter pompoms, small googly eyes and glue. Tie them up in green tissue cut into leafy shapes and some twine and you have a small present sure to delight any little Studio Ghibli fan!

Susuwatari

One Hundred Percent

Today this little blog of mine reached 100 subscribers. I know that’s not a lot but it’s a milestone for me, so I’m going to celebrate the only way I know how. A big glass of gin, and a…

Giveaway Banner

THAT’S RIGHT IT’S GLITTER BANNER GIVEAWAY TIME AGAIN!
You can win your very own totally free custom glitter banner with up to 12 letters and/or shapes in the colour or colours of your choice! These banners are basically awesome, but don’t take my word for it, listen to these testimonials from satisfied banner owners:

“I GOT MY BUNTING YESTERDAY AND I LOVE IT THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH :’3” -Sara

“O M G I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you so so so so much!! she is going to be so excited to see it” -Jessica

“OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL” -Georgeanne (previous giveaway winner)

To enter:
• leave a comment and tell me what you’d want your banner to say for one entry
• tweet “I entered @taniewanie’s glitter banner giveaway on http://unicornpara.de/2011/07/25/one-hundred-percent/” and leave a separate comment with a link to you tweet for two entries
• make a post on your blog or tumblr mentioning the giveaway and linking to http://unicornpara.de/2011/07/25/one-hundred-percent/ and leave a separate comment with a link to your post for three entries

The giveaway will run until midnight PST on Monday, August 1st, so you all have a week to get your entries in! And as a special bonus I’m also offering a 15% discount on all the buntings and banners in my shop, including custom work, when you enter the code UNICORN15 at checkout.

Sundays With Symphony

Symphony Pikitis

Recently Sunday evenings have become a “special” time that Sym and I spend together. During the school year we only have a little while to hang out after her dad drops her off and before she has to go to bed, but now that it’s summer vacation I can let her stay up late and we have the most fun together.

We’ll watch a movie, or a bunch of iCarly, or more recently Parks and Recreation. Usually we paint our nails, although I’m giving mine a break from polish this week (hence the no Manicure Monday post) so last night we worked on crafts together. We ate cookies and veggies for snacks and drank more of Taylor’s giant jug of Arnold Palmers.

Symphony has been so great so far this summer, I’m so happy I decided (ie was too broke) to send her to day camp. She’s been a big help around the house and with the kids, comes up with great ideas for activities for us/is on board with my ideas and hardly ever complains about being bored- although she does still spend a significant portion of every day asking for food! On Friday she helped me gather hundreds of bluebell seeds from the front yard and on Saturday we planted them in the garden. She’s excited about the Sailor Moon-themed craft swap I’m doing with Rhiannon. She’s still super into reading the Harry Potter books with me (we’re currently on Goblet of Fire). Basically she’s just the best kid in the world!

Farmer’s Market Haul

Last Saturday I was in a huge snit (because I tripped over everything in my foyer: shoes, dogs, dog crates) and smashed my FACE into the door frame) so I sulked in bed all day and missed the farmer’s market, including my FAVORITE vendor, Bean Boy, who isn’t gong to be back until August 20th 🙁 This week I was determined not to waste the opportunity to grocery shop right outside my house (I hate going to the grocery store, remember?) so I took out cash on Friday night and hit the stalls bright and early Saturday morning.

July 23rd Farmer's Market Haul

clockwise from top left: cauliflower, broccoli, arugula, peaches, honey sticks (for Sym), raspberries, peaches (the first of the season), long English peas (I used these in the salad I made for lunch and they were SO GOOD I went back out and bought a huge bag of them!), cheese, rainier cherries, mint, heirloom tomatoes and whole wheat berry muffins.

One thing I’ve noticed this year is that the market by my house is becoming more of a “get here super early” event, definitely more so than in previous years. It’s on from 9am to 2pm, but a lot of stalls are running out of produce at on or even noon! I like to walk my dogs past the market at 8:30 BEFORE I go to shop so I can “pre-plan” what I’m going to buy, and yesterday there were people lining up at some of the stalls already! The early bird gets the tomatoes, I guess.

Popsicle Party

Popsicle Party Banner
Arnold Palmercicles
Arnold Palmercicle

For those of you who don’t know, an Arnold Palmer is half lemonade, half iced tea (and if you add vodka it’s a John Daly and it’s delicious). Taylor recently became obsessed with them and has been making twelve liters (or four gallons for my American friends) at a time. See:

Too Much Arnold Palmer

I wish I could say I made these popsicles but brewing some organic loose leaf black tea and squeezing another twelve lemons, but I’ve been sick and suffering from crippling back pain, so it was all I could do to fill my popsicle mold. Maybe next time!

Glitter Fever

mini new etsy banner

I’ve made some new custom glitter banners recently that I’m SO happy with. Making these is so fun and they’ve all turned out so pretty!

For Ting of Acidzip Jewelry, the center cat is based on one drawn for her by Jessica of The Disaster Life.

For Sara of Cunt Sparrer, the “best all-girl lo-fi Cock Sparrer tribute band in Southern California (and maybe even the world).”

For Jessica of Vegan Mini-Me (now that I’m not eating/cooking meat I wish she’d start posting again HINT HINT) & Pretty in Punk Boutique.

You can order your own awesome sparkle sign on my etsy– I have some new colours of glitter, so check it out!

What I’ve Been Eating

Dinners
Friday 15th

Spaghetti & Tofu with Red Pepper & Tomato Sauce

spaghetti with tomato & red pepper sauce and tofu, salad with butter lettuce, celery & carrots (not pictured)

Tuesday 19th

Veggie Wrap Unwrapped
Veggie Wrap Fixins

veggie wraps with Mexican ground round & red peppers, cheddar cheese, pea shoots, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pineapple salsa and sour cream

Lunches
Saturday 16th

Tomato & Havarti Sandwiches

havarti & tomato sandwiches

Snacks
Saturday 16th

White & Milk Swirl Chocolate Chips

milk & white chocolate swirl chips
Saturday 16th

Salt & Vinegar Roasted Chick Peas
Alaea Hawaiian Salt

salt & vinegar roasted chick peas made with alaea Hawaiian salt
Wednesday 20th

Kale Chips

organic kale chips

Pupdate!

Normal Nose Dog

Georgie’s sniffer is back up to snuff! I think she must have been bitten by a small spider or a mosquito or other non-painful bug, because a couple of hours after my last post the swelling started to go down and now she’s just about back to normal. THANKS GOODNESS!