April 2022 Issue

Issue 1 – Volume 3

This Issue’s Contents

• Poem of The Month
• Drawing Prompt
• Book Review
• Empowering Activity
• Sustainable Fashion
• Main Article
• In Full Bloom Photo Collection
• Recipe
• Extra Resources

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Poem of the Month

The Awakening of Spring

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Drawing Prompt

Try to Practice Understanding Light and Shadow

For this month’s drawing prompt, I felt like challenging myself and learning something new. While I usually love drawing more cartoony illustrations, I tried to get more realistic and really focus on the lighting and shadowing of the face. I followed a tutorial and reference for how each plane on the face reflects light. While I know that my drawing is not exactly perfect or hyper-realistic, I’m glad I took some time to learn more about art and I highly encourage you to do the same! You can send us a picture of your process of understanding lighting by sending us a picture at sandazine@gmail.com!

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Book Review

This Poison Heart – Kalynn Baron

This Poison Heart follows the journey of a teenager named Bri who grapples with the dangerous and mysterious effects of her magic ability. When she inherits an estate, her magic intensifies as she finds herself caught within a web of secrets about her family and the eerie town in which the estate is located in. This book blooms with adventure, fantasy, and a bit of romance as well. You can buy the book here.

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Empowering Activity

Write a Poem About Something you Appreciate

One of the best things in life is gratitude. Not only does it make you feel greate, but it’s also been proven to reduce stress and increase your lifespan. So why not find things to be grateful for and express it in the form of a poem? The best thing about poems is that there are no rules to them— you can really write whatever you think of in the moment! We’ve taken this advice by writing our poem about spring and including a new Poem of the Month section in volume 3!

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Sustainable Fashion

An Outfit Styled With Girlfriend Collective

Girlfriend Collective is a sustainable clothing brand primarily focused on sportswear and leggings for women.

Relaxed Fitted Sweatshirt – $54

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Main Article

Six Easy Ways to Honor Our Planet this April

With Earth Day coming up on the 22nd, it’s a good idea to stop and think about some ways to help keep our planet clean. There are many ways you can help on a larger scale like donating to charities and purchasing fuel-efficient, sustainable products. However, it’s also important to continue to do small acts of kindness for the Earth. In this article, we’ll go over 6 affordable ways that you can do your part to protect the environment.

Use Beeswax to Wrap Food Items

Perfect for packing lunches or storing food, this cloth made out of beeswax is sustainable and convenient. It can be reused for up to a year and can be cleaned by washing it with cold water. Beeswax cloth is also a much better alternative to plastic wrap and Ziploc bags because they take much longer to decompose and often pollute the environment. (Organic Beeswax Food Wrap – $7.89 – Etsy )

Bike or Walk As Much as Possible

By skipping driving your car or riding on public transportation, you can reduce your carbon emissions greatly. The average American drives 14,263 miles annually. For every mile driven, about 404 grams of CO₂ are emitted into the atmosphere. All of this driving starts to add up considering how many people drive in America. By biking and walking, you are barely emitting any CO₂, which is a drastic improvement from driving. To top it all off, getting outside is proven to be good for your wellbeing.

Recycle

Everyone knows that recycling is beneficial to the environment, but did you know that only around 35% of people actually recycle? This statistic clearly shows that even though people have heard the advice to recycle, most people disregard it. However, recycling can help prevent plastic from entering the oceans and harming marine life and has many other benefits as well. So remember the next time you have something that can be recycled that you have to help play your part to ensure that you are not contributing to the excessive waste and pollution in a landfill.

Bring Your Own Bags to Stores

Many stores use plastic or non-recyclable bags for products, so using your own bags can be a better option. We already mentioned how plastic is very bad for the environment because it does not decompose easily at all. Plastic also can end up polluting many different ecosystems. The ocean in particular has an enormous amount of tiny pieces of plastic that greatly damage marine life populations. Bringing your own reusable bags is a very easy way to prevent contributing to mass pollution in the form of cheap plastic bags.

Plant a Tree

Sure, this seems stereotypical for Earth Day but trees help filter out pollutants in the atmosphere and provide clean, fresh air. Also, collectively, trees can help reduce a city’s temperature by nearly ten degrees. Even if it takes a long time for the tree to grow, it will eventually help absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Make a Bird Feeder or Animal House

Using reused or recycled items such as milk cartons and cardboard, create a habitat for animals. This is a fun craft when you’re looking for something to do. It can also help provide for animal life in your area.

Just by switching out a few products, changing bad habits, and doing small acts of kindness, you can help make a conscious effort to preserve the delicate balance in our environment. We hope you try to make some sort of change this Earth Day— and every day!

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Photo Collection

In Full Bloom

This month’s weather has brought a wide variety of breathtaking plants and flowers. Here are some gorgeous plants we discovered (and photographed) this spring!

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Recipe

Smoothie Bowls

Smoothie bowls are the ultimate breakfast. (Although they really can be eaten at any time of the day.) Not only are they very easy and customizable, but they are also absolutely delicious. Because of the way they are prepared, smoothie bowls have a dreamy texture that makes you feel like you’re literally eating ice cream. However, smoothie bowls are also just as healthy as your typical smoothie. I’m sure once you try making one, you’ll love it!

Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 cup of frozen fruit of choice (I used mixed berries)
• 1/4 cup of liquid of choice (I used almond milk)
• any other mixins you would like to add like chia seeds, protein powder, or flaxseeds
• any other toppings you would like (I used raspberries, blueberries, chia seeds, and coconut flakes)

Directions

1. Start by peeling and cutting your bananas into pennies and freezing them overnight. Make sure you cut your bananas into small chunks so that it is easier to blend through. You can also freeze the other fruits you want in your smoothie or use frozen fruit.
2. Put your bananas and liquid of choice into the blender. The tricky part about smoothie bowls is getting the right texture, if your blender cannot work through all the banana chunks, blend a couple at a time until you get a creamy texture. The bananas are what mainly help create that ice cream texture.
3. Then, blend in your other fruits and mixins. Don’t be afraid to stop blending and mix/scrape down the sides to help your blender out.
4. Transfer to a bowl and top with whatever you’d like!
5. Enjoy!

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Extra Resources

Links to Support Ukraine

With an ongoing war in Ukraine, millions upon millions of citizens have been forced to flee their homes because of danger. As Russian military forces invade the country, violence is almost inescapable. Ukrainian refugees need your help now more than ever, so here are some resources to support those who have or still are facing traumatic experiences due to the war. 

Support Ukraine & Ukrainian Refugees During War https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/support-ukraine-resource-list-creative-industry-030322

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Questions or Comments about S&A Magazine?

Contact the editors at sandazine@gmail.com