Monday, July 22, 2013

Singing sewing fashions!!!

Hello everybody!!! I got a request for a singing sewing fashion video and I thought, why not? Might be fun to do….. and it was!!! My two very favorite things to do, singing and sewing fashions together!!!
This is another dress I made this summer 2013 (the date is more for me than you so I will know how old the dress is looking back.) This fabric was sooooo elegant I just needed to make it long. Will I ever wear it anywhere??? Probably not…...I may wear it to a wedding coming up IF I don’t cut it shorter first…and don’t worry I won’t lose the design on the bottom, I know how to fix it so that the design stays!
Was this video hard work? You bet your boots it was!!!!!! I hope everybody in the world watches it and appreciates it because video editing is HARD work!!!!!!lol  I lost track of how many hours I put into it.
Now don’t forget that I’m only an amateur but having fun doing it. So be nice!! lol
Watch my video!!!

Here is some pictures, it’s from a different day than the video and so my accessories are different.
This dress was not hard to make. This is a 4 way stretchy fabric with a beautiful pattern on the bottom. I took an old well fitting tank top to use as a guide for the size and measured the length that I wanted. I folded the top part in about 5” or so and it is tight enough that you don’t need an elastic. I then took some of the bottom and folded it in half and sewed it like a tube and then I joined it to the sides to make the halter straps.

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I love the way this picture turned out!!! How great would this have been as a jumpsuit???!!! Fabulous I think, Don’t you??!!!
Makes my head swirl with visions of jumpsuits!!! hehehe
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By the way, I made the necklace too! The earing's are old and I can’t remember where I got them but the flower is from Wal-Mart in the craft department.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

My garden revamp dress in blue, black and white

,Hello everyone, I have made another revamp dress. This was a dress that I made a couple of years back. I never wore it. I just don’t go to places where I could wear this dress. It is too clingy for church and so I never wore it. Why did I make it you might ask?…well I don’t know… I guess when I made it I never pictured what it would look like on or where I would wear it. I just wanted a new dress lol . Anyways I now revamped the dress and I can wear it anywhere and have already wore it to church and I feel more comfortable in it. It’s a great dress to wear!
This is what it looked like before
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This is what I did to it! This is the scary part….you think,what if I cut it the wrong place??..
Well it doesn’t really matter if you are not wearing it anyway and there is always ways to fix your mistakes, it only takes a bit of creativity. Think outside the box!!
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I added a peplum skirt to the bottom
and this is what it turned out like. Watch my video!!
In the garden, Annapolis Royal, NS

Again my husband took the photographs, I think I’ve turned him into a photographer and he is doing a good job!! He took lots of great pictures!!
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I love this angle, it makes me look so small!!!
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a new necklace I got at superstore on sale for $7.00
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Into the roses
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Not all of my pictures turned out good…..
Some were fails
Here they are
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ewwwwww lol


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Yikes!! I’d better stop telling him what to do!! lol
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When is the last time YOU hugged a tree!??? hehehe

It was a fun day, the weather was hot and beautiful and the gardens were beautiful too.
Until next time
Lee Anne xox
P.S. Never give up on what you believe but always be open minded

Friday, July 5, 2013

Healthy strawberry popsicles

No refined sugars

low calories

low fat

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Hello guys,here is my recipe for healthy popsicles!!!

Now to start off, I researched how popsicles are made….it SAYS that they are 90% water but I believe that that’s hogwash…It’s taste more like 50% water and 50% sugar, syrup and food coloring I’d say but that’s just my opinion… and it’s a good one! lol

It also says that it uses a stabilizer. The sugars and stabilizers cause the pop to soften in the air so it is edible, instead of melting and dripping like an ice cube. Flavouring is highly concentrated and is usually some traditional fruit flavor and color.
So knowing this information, I did not want a popsicle that would drip like an ice cube and then all the flavoring would settle to the bottom and it would be half ice and have flavouring. I started thinking about what I could use as a healthy stabilizer and what else but the famous CHIA SEEDS!! I figured if it works for smoothies why not in popsicles!!! And so I used it!!

Here is the recipe I used, now this is the first time making them and they turned out good but I still want to tweak it a bit. I think the next time I would add more water as it didn’t drip enough for me. I would probably add a bit of fresh blended herbs and a bit more honey or stevia for a stronger taste although there was nothing wrong with the taste I just feel like I would want a more powerful taste instead of it tasting like strawberries only.

In a blender add 1/2 quart of fresh ripe strawberries and puree

peel and slice 1 apple and puree along with the strawberries

Add the juice of 1/2 lemon

2 Tablespoons of chia seeds.. you can get these at health food stores or super store in the health department. I know you can get them at Cosco’s in Halifax NS.

2 Tablespoons of pure unpasteurized honey

1/2 cup of water

Blend everything together well and pour into your popsicle molds

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Oops I ate one!! lol

 

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You can see the chia seeds in this one!! They gel when you soak them in liquids

The texture of the popsicle is in between a popsicle and sherbet with a slight crunch. Taste like strawberries with a hint of apples. I think they turned out pretty good for my first try. Being use to eating sugary syrupy popsicles they are hardly sweet enough for me but I could always add stevia since I now have my own herb garden!!! woohoo!!! I’ve got lemon basil which is delicious in smoothies. I have fennel, 2 types of mints, lavender and savory. I just planted them yesterday and I hope they will grow before I use them all up!! hahaha

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If you were wondering what the little spout was it is too drink the popsicle while it melts!!! Isn’t that a great idea??! I bought them at Wal-Mart!!!

Let me know how they turn out if you try them!!!. I will be updating this page whenever I tweak my recipe!

later alligator

P.S. I think I might start making large men’s shirts…there seems to be a need for it, not that it’s really my cup of tea but….hey

P.S.S. I’m trying not to put so many pictures but I love pictures don’t you???  I never know which ones to pick!!! By the way, I tried to keep these pictures rated G!!! lol  There’s just something about food…….anyway we won’t go there! hahaha

Coming up soon…..NO POO!!!! Yup that’s right!

Excellent moist healthier alternative banana bread!!!

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Hello everybody!! I’ve been creating recipes lately for the simple fact that I’m running out of stuff to eat!!! lol With trying to eat healthy you have to be doubly creative because you can’t find anything much at the grocery stores that isn’t laden with fat and sugar or GMO’s or God knows what else!!! Good Lord, it’s time for things to change and people to start demanding that the food that we buy be better for our bodies and minds, yes minds!! All that junk clogs up your brain so you can’t think clearly!!! Let alone what it does to your internal organs is awful!! And besides that it loads up fat on your body like you wouldn’t believe but I’m sure you believe if your not eating healthy and you look in the mirror and you see the blubber hanging around. I know because I looked in the mirror and did NOT like what I saw about 3 months ago. Most of my life I have been very slim and muscular and not an ounce of fat on me but I was a smoker and I  uhm well smoked instead of eating, cough, cough, cough…lol… until I quit that bad habit about 14 years ago and started eating everything in site to fight the cravings with an added 30 pounds or so, yeah maybe more… Yikes!!! I can’t believe the nerve of that food!!! How dare it do that to my body when I am loving it so well!!!??? ha
Anyways to make a long story shorter, I was not feeling well at all, I am talking barely any good days at all, in bed sick a lot of days…. SOOOOOO I thought it was time to try something different than medicines that was doing absolutely zilch for me, actually just adding some more unwanted symptoms that I didn’t care for as I am very sensitive to drugs. So it was time to change.
Change is good but with most change there is an adjustment period. A time when you are not used to something and it doesn’t enter your brain naturally because you are not used to thinking that way. Like when you are used to eating certain things and when you take them out you are like freaking out wondering what you are going to eat now!!!!?? So you have to become creative in order to find things that will satisfy your taste buds AND be healthy for you. The way I have been eating these last three months is NOT a diet, it’s a way of life. I don’t have to TRY to lose weight, it is just coming off naturally. I do not have to count calories, or points or whatever. I just am trying to eat as healthy as possible by eating foods that are in their natural form as God made them and trying to figure out WHICH HEALTHY FOODS are GOOD for ME as not everyone can eat the same foods because you may have sensitivities to certain ones. By doing this I have regained more energy, and I have a LOT more good days than I was having previously. I’d like to say I am totally cured but I am still having some problems and I am still trying to figure it out by eating or not eating certain foods. I have lost about 20 pounds so far and I am really pleased with that!!! I would still like to lose another 24 pounds to be at my goal weight of 140 pounds. This would be my high BMI for my height. If I went for the low one of 120 pounds I would look anorexic!!!  I know I am really heavy! lol Solid is the right word! hahaha  Thank God that I gain weight evenly over my body!! I can get away with more weight than most!!
I am trying to create and have been searching for different healthy recipes and hoping that you’ll get on the bandwagon and join me and others and turn your life around to have a richer healthier life and  make a better you. We can always try to improve on this mentally, physically and spiritually.
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I couldn’t wait, I cut this when it was still steaming hot!! AND I ate it!!!!
Here is my recipe for an excellent moist banana bread. This bread is cake like in texture, very moist and ohhhhhhh so good!!!! It is fairly light not really heavy, it is sweet but not too sweet, it is bananary too especially if you use over ripe bananas!!. (Taste like bananas for you translators)
*No refined sugar
*gluten free
*much healthier than a regular banana bread recipe
In a large bowl add
1/3 cup of butter and about 1/4 cup of olive oil mixed together
  (You could use all olive oil but it may change the taste and you would have to add more flour to soak up the extra liquid, probably about a few tablespoons of flour more. ( I haven’t let go of all my dairy products yet…) That is my goal though.
1 apple pureed or chopped really small and put it in a 3/4 cup measuring cup and fill the rest with pure unpasteurized honey or sweetener of choice. NO refined sugar.
You could probably use all apple puree if you wanted to and use stevia to sweeten a bit more if you cannot tolerate much sugar again you may have to add a tad bit more flour as the apple might be more watery than the honey.
1 egg
You kind of need something to hold everything together. I’m not sure what kind of substitute you could use if you cannot have eggs. You could try just omitting it and adding extra banana…it probably would work.
Mix everything together well with a mixer.
Add this to your mixture
3 mashed bananas  (around 1 cup or so)
1 1/2 cup of flour  I used 1/3 cup coconut flour, 1 1/4 cup all purpose gluten free flour
1 tsp. baking soda without aluminum, found at the health food store.
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of good quality salt
I added another 2 tablespoon of all purpose gluten free flour to get the right consistency.  Consistency should be like thick oatmeal.
Mix in given order and put in a greased and floured loaf pan.
Bake at 300 degrees F. for an hour. Start checking at about 45 minutes. Check with toothpick and if it comes out clean when you stick it in the middle it is done.

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Looks like it is uncooked a bit but it is only because it was still so hot!
If you like a banana bread that is moist you will love this one! Even my husband loved it and he isn’t really watching what he eats.
Let me know if you try it out!!!
Have a great day!! ‘Til next time