During the last few days of December, volunteers show up by the hundreds to decorate the floats that will be on display during the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.  One of the regulations for the floats is that they must be completely covered in plant matter.  No paint, wallpaper, plaster or cardboard is allowed to show, only flowers, seeds, bark, leaves, stems, grasses, beans, etc. 

My family and I visited the construction barns only two days before the parade and the volunteers were hard at work.  Even ropes were being dipped in glue and then onion seed to turn them black and to qualify them to be on the pirate ship float.

The Port of Los Angeles had many parts of their float being assembled and we discovered that the beautiful white color of The Love Boat came from crushed rice.
That’s where appliance.net perked up and we asked how they crush the rice—BLENDERS!  It is a staff position to provide  massive quantities of crushed rice.  I tried to get the decorators to name a favorite blender, but they declined. 

It seems that blenders aren’t just for the kitchen anymore and that creative uses for our everyday appliances are around if we keep our eyes and ears open for them.   Who knew we’d find blenders at the Rose Parade?