China from Japan

My mom, while cleaning out her closet, found some old china that my grandpa brought back from WW2, from the various places he went.

This is my grandpa Howard in France he's the one on the left. There is a whole tea set from Japan, including saki cups! Every piece is just so interesting, they are made of glass and have like unglazed dragons on them, even the tiniest little cups. These are my favorite. There are two of each. The vase and candle holder, also from Japan. they are made of a metal of sort and have a gorgeous sketching on them embossed in gold. The cherry blossoms are so cute on this um... dish of some sort? It says it was hand made in Imperial Nippon on the back so I think that means occupied Japan This plate, my grandpa brought back from Germany. It says, Father lion grinned, "you young rogues!" said he. "come along".

I'm not sure why it's not written in German. It's kinda cute, kinda creepy, and just strange for a child's plate. I mean try to eat your food on a plate that has a lion about to eat baby elephants and kittens on it. Well, I think that's what about to take place.

Purple Bananas

I'm sure you all know the feeling when you see that your fresh yellow bananas have gone a little too mushy and brown for human consumption. About that time we all pull out are trusty banana bread recipe. You all know the one; never failing, always perfect, family favorite. Well, I have been so sick of ours for so long I've been experimenting. By now you should all know that my experiments in cooking are always..... interesting. I first tried the banana cookies which were a huge hit. But me no, I can't make the same trusty recipe for a fourth time now can I? So I pulled out an old Rachel Ray mag and found this recipe for caramelized banana loaf cake. It looked gross to begin with in the picture so I was a bit hesitant, but we had all the ingredients so I went ahead. You first have to like saute (fry?) the halved bananas in sugar and butter (umm). Which was an interesting process.

Tip; soak the pan when your done, sugar kinda hardens quickly I found out.

Next you lay the now gushy bananas on the bottom of a pan and dump the rest of the caramel on top. This is when I really started hearing complaints from family members.

"that looks gross, I wont eat that"

You then make a generic banana bread mix and put on top, bake, and walla it looks like every other banana bread! But then after ten minutes of excruciatingly waiting it was time to turn it over on a pan and.......Purple bananas? I have no clue how yellow bananas turn pink and purple (with a mix of yellow and brown) But they did. My brother Luke refused to try it, my mom scraped off the top, but dad and I ate it, and surprisingly we thought it was actually really good!

So the question is "would you eat it?"

Oh, so boring

So, I was looking at my blog and wondering "why is my blog so boring?". Is it because I don't stick to a single subject, like clothing, crafts, or cooking? Maybe it's just because I write only about normal daily things that every one is sick of because they live with the same things? Is it because the people who mostly read my blog see me on a constant basis and are just plain bored with my ramblings? Do I always say and do the same things? Do I not post enough? Is my life boring?

Well, I been thinking about this for a few days now (don't worry I haven't been obsessing) and I still haven't come up with an answer. So here is a few steps for you all to help me.

1. Please, please, please, give advice.
2. Don't be shy in your opinions and comments. I love to read what people actually think.
3. Vote on my new pole on the side. (I'll allow multiple answers)

Thanks

Almond

This time of year when all the snow is melting and the sun teases us by poking through every so often, my skin goes reptilian on me. My feet, knees, and hands especially. My mom once got this lotion from a friend, but she didn't like it so she gave it to me. I love it. It is my new favorite lotion. I'm not normally an almond fan but the smell is instantly calming. The lotion is the perfect consistency, not too greasy but will last all day as a subtle reminder of almond. They also sell it in coconut which I really want to try sometime.

You can find it at www.desertessence.com or at health food stores.

Sorry

Hi, I just wanted to thank Nora and Hannah for tagging me! Unfortunately my blog wont let me copy things to post, so it's really hard for me to do tags (I have to retype everything). So it's not that I don't appreciate being tagged, it's just hard for me to find time to get around to it retyping it.

I'll leave you all with (what I think) a really cute pair of flats from ModCloth

Twister

I found this sight off a buyer on etsy. You all should take a look if you like funny clay pictures or squid.

(Just go to the side bar and click on a year to see all her pictures)

http://articulatematter.com/