Recipe: Clementine Smoothie

I am almost embarrassed to admit that I purchased a bundle of clementines for the first time EVER last week. I had never tasted a clementine before, and boy was I missing out! My mother-in-law had some during my recent visit and I didn't even know what they were (gasp!). She told me how delicious they were, and now I'm telling you. If you don't already know.

Clementines have all of the wonderful qualities of an orange without the fuss. They are super easy to peel, there's no seeds, and they're all cute and tiny with perfect bite-sized pieces. I noticed there are surprisingly few recipes using clementines on the web. But I have a few ideas I want to try, and a smoothie was first on the list.

What you'll need:

2-3 clementines, peeled & juiced (should equal about 1/2 cup of juice)**
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup milk
1-2 tbsp white sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
maraschino cherry, for garnish

** I don't own a juicer so I improvised by pulsing my clementine pieces in a food processor and then straining the juice over a bowl. It worked just fine.

In a blender combine juice, yogurt, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Cover and blend until smooth. The sugar amount may vary to your desired sweetness. I personally like mine a little more tart.
Top with a cherry or two because it's pretty and it adds a little flavor!

DIY: Fabric Panel Sweater

Last week, I ordered a really nice gray cardigan from Piperlime. And guess what? It was FREE! Clearance + 30% off coupon + $15 reward = Adorable cardigan for the cost of nothing. Even shipping was free. (I know!) So I was pretty stoked about that and couldn't wait to get my adorable free cardigan. But alas, when the package arrived what I received instead was this frumpy gray thing. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't what I ordered. I was a little confused, and bummed, and so I hopped online to figure out what the H happened!?! The cardigan I ordered was now sold out, so there wasn't much chance of getting one. I don't know how/why they sent me this sweater instead of just sending me an email that my item had sold out, but I felt a bit silly calling to complain since it cost me absolutely nothing to begin with.

I decided if I was going to keep it, it needed to be MUCH more interesting. As you can see in the 'before' picture, it already had a stitching detail down the front that created a sort of panel. The first thing that came to mind was cutting that out and replacing it with a pretty fabric. Easy peasy! I was a little hasty so my stitching came out just a wee bit off. Don't judge me. I wore this to work yesterday and did my hair in a side braid over my shoulder-- it hid that little error just fine ;)

What you'll need for this project:

A sweater or tee of your choice

Fabric

Scissors

Needle & thread or sewing machine

A fluffy puppy to lay on your project when you try to take pictures (just kidding, that is not required)

1. Determine how wide you want your fabric panel to be, then cut a strip of fabric 2 inches wider than that and 2 inches longer than the length of your shirt from neck to waist.
2. Cut your shirt up the middle and pin the fabric in place on each side, leaving the neck and waist unpinned. If you want to keep your original shirt neckline (like mine), do NOT cut through it! Stop cutting about an inch before you reach the neck.
3. Flip your shirt inside out and sew inside the pins.
4. Now sew your neckline, and hem the waist. The hem was easy enough, but the neckline can be tricky so take your time folding the fabric inward and pinning around the curve. Sew slowly and don't be upset if you have to rip a few seams and start over! I had to.