Art, Smoothies, and Arctic Chill

So yesterday I had such a moment of inspiration. I've been trying to think of where around the house our various pieces of art and pictures in frames would look best. We have a lot of large, blank, white-ish walls (as usual) and it was time to start getting some things up on them. Last Christmas (or the Christmas before that?) my mom gave me a hanging trapeze picture frame that I had wanted. I had some family pictures in it when it was hanging on a wall in our apartment in Massachusetts and had even thought of a pretty good place to hang it here, except I was having a really hard time finding something to hang in the "dining room" (term used quited loosely). Then, a stroke of genius (if I do say so myself :). I've had some very nice, high-quality wrapping paper saved for a long time. My Grandmother had wrapped a gift for me in it years ago for one of my wedding showers I think. So I've been hanging onto this wrapping paper for probably about 6 years because I thought it was so beautiful and one day I would come up with a good way to use it. Last night, it hit me. After doing some careful planning, I cut three pieces out of it - an 8x10 and 2 5x7's - and framed them in my trapeze frame and, voila! We have dining room art! This morning I hung the frame with our kitchen clock above it. I'm pretty pleased. You tell me how you think it turned out (it really is level - it just doesn't look it in the picture):

In other news, in the absence of Jamba Juice I have perfected the homemade Razzmatazz smoothie. Here's my recipe, for inquiring minds who want to know :) --

1. Place three handfuls of frozen raspberries in a blender. Let them sit for a little bit to thaw some.
2. Top with a layer of fresh, halved strawberries.
3. Add 1/3-1/2 of a banana, depending on the size, sliced (about 3"-4" of banana).
4. Top with several generous scoops of orange sherbet.
5. Blend well, pour into a 16 oz. glass and enjoy!

One of these days I'll blend just the strawberries and raspberries together and strain out the seeds prior to blending in the rest of the ingredients because it is kind of seedy, but nevertheless it is delicious and tastes pretty darn close to the real thing. No ice necessary. I have not yet come up with any 'Juice Boost' formulas, however :).

And finally, for today's post, I would just like to point out that South Lyon schools were canceled today. Do you want to know why? It's too cold to safely be at school. Do you want to know how cold it has to feel outside (meaning air temp + wind chill) in order for them to cancel school? -30!! That's right. Thirty degrees below zero. You Californians better be relishing that 80-degree weather, keeping in mind it feels 110 degrees colder here. You could practically cook something in 110 degrees!! That's all I have to say about that :).