Life Is Sweet

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    Smoothies are a perfect way to have the sweet, cold dessert that you're craving while still watching those calorie and sugar counts. Even without adding any sweetener, these great drinks are a delicious treat! Ever since a Vitamix lovingly entered my home, I have really been splurging on my concoctions . It's really fun to experiment and create my own recipes. My favorite is what we normally call a Triple Berry smoothie, but instead of using ice and regular berries, I use a mix of frozen berries. I make sure they are always organic.

      I'd like to share my love of smoothies in a little list of recipes. I have tried to include ingredients that comply with common food allergies and sensitivities.



 **For more yummy smoothies, shakes etc., click on the Blendbook tab at the top of the page.

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Nési's Triple Berry Smoothical
    Ingredients
        ~1 bag of frozen mixed berries
        ~1 1/2 cup of plain or vanilla yogurt (Dairy Free: 1 cup of ice and one cup of almond milk)
        ~a splash of orange juice
        ~1/2 of a banana

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Cover Art The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

C. S. Lewis is a really unique author. I love his writing style and his characters, they somehow feel real as well as having a sort of fictional quality about them. 

    I think that even though this book is very short and easy, it is delightful. I like C. S. Lewis' creativity in establishing this fictional world. I consider the Chronicles of Narnia very entertaining. However, through another author I realized that C. S. Lewis lacks humor in his stories. Matilda, protagonist of Roald Dahl's children's novel Matilda (my all-time favorite book) says,

 " ‘I liked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,’...‘I think Mr C. S. Lewis is a very good writer. But he has one failing. There are no funny bits in his books.’....
....‘Do you think that all children’s books ought to have funny bits in them?’ Miss Honey asked.

‘I do,’ Matilda said. ‘Children are not so serious as grown-ups and love to laugh.’

    Matilda's wise words ring true to me even today, it's nice to laugh more than once in a while. Sometimes it's fun to read an easy book, childrens' novels are very enjoyable when you let your imagination run wild.  :)

Grace-ful Mia

   Mia Grace Richardson is a talented dancer. I have had the pleasure of knowing her since we were both much younger. She is now around 17 years old and a dedicated ballet student. I always knew, from those fun hula-hooping and tap-dancing moments, that Mia would get far with her art. I was delighted to see her featured in an Ula Sport video spot. My family and I were emotional to see how well her hard work has started to pay off. 

    Ula Sport is a brand that expanded on the idea of the usual "yoga attire". They use super fine cotton and silks from all over the world. The designer has created many styles with the purpose of devising the feeling of a "second skin".  Ula Sport has clothes that are made for anything where you move. They promote their brand by taking talented performers of every kind of dance, yoga, gymnastics or martial art and making videos of them wearing clothes from Ula Sport. 

Click below ↓ to watch the video of Mia Richardson in Times Square. 

Click the link to see more videos on the Ula Sport Website!

http://www.ulasport.com/videos#!prettyPhoto[movies3]/11/

The Language De L'amour: Vanessa Paradis

    One of my favorite languages in the world is French, I love how it sounds in music especially. When I first heard of Vanessa Paradis I immediately became a fan of her music. She debuted her first song, "Joe Le Taxi" , which made it to the top charts, when she was only fourteen years old. I don't understand everything she's saying in the lyrics, but it is about a taxi driver named Joe in Paris. Now in her early 40's, Vanessa Paradis still performs. Her voice is much more mature and she still sounds beautiful. My favorite of her more recent songs is "Il Y A", which translates to "there is".

    Vanessa Paradis is very famous around the world not only for her musical career but also as an actress and model for Chanel. Many other well-known artists have done covers of her songs. Here, listen to "Joe Le Taxi" and "Il Y A" . Click on the videos below. ↓

                                                                Joe Le Taxi

Il Y A

Sweet Poetry

     Although I would not call myself a chocolate person, I enjoy eating Chocolove. My mom and I discovered it at our local Health Foods Store and we both couldn't stop eating it! I prefer dark chocolate and it surprised me how many options I had to choose from. The two chocolate bars pictured are my favorite, especially the coffee crunch.

    A special feature of Chocolove is the love part. On every wrapper there is a different love poem. All of these poems are unique, some are even from famous romantic plays and writers. I have included a picture of the poem from the Almonds and Sea Salt bar below. ↓ The surprise factor is always great, you never know what poem you're going to get and which poet you are going to discover.  If you would like to see all of the different flavors and sizes check out Chocolove at their website: https://www.chocolove.com/

Click to read the poem. Thanks! <3

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

Cover Art Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

    This book was a really cool find for me because it is different from a lot of other books like this. Instead of being the normal sob (but understandable) cancer story, this book tells it from the older brother's point of view. Steven is a middle schooler that has a hard time telling anybody about his little brother's condition while trying to lead a normal life. I like how this story doesn't center completely around the cancer, but it symbolically shows Steven's struggle to get control of his life, trying to support his brother (Jeffery), but also working on his own things and social life. This story was narrated in the sarcastic tone of a 14 year old boy who earns a lot of wisdom over a span of one school year. 

    I was pleasantly impressed by Steven's compassion for his younger brother, he would do anything for him. The "conflict"  or "obstacle" of the story was not caused by Steven's lack of perception for Jeffery's condition, but because of an internal self- acceptance that he is forced to learn. 

I really loved this book, I would recommend it to readers of any age.