Tag Archives: perfectly flawed

Thanks so much for following this new segment, Natural Living Tips which you’ll find here on Tuesday’s. My friend Rosemary Nickel (Motivating Other Moms) and I have paired up to bring you these weekly tips on living a more natural life. They will be fun, quirky and informative, just like us, ha. We hope you join us here weekly for a new Natural Living Tip! Enjoy!

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Finally, I made laundry detergent, yay! Part of my delay is that I wasn’t completely satisfied with the recipes I was finding on-line. Most of them called for either a bar of Fels-Naptha, or the use of Dawn dish detergent. These products do not sit well with me. Why?  I did, in my excitement to purchase all the products, purchase two bars of Fels-Naptha. I was in and out quickly without thought (this is bad), and I hadn’t even returned home when I could smell the overbearing perfumey odor in the car. UGH! Yep, the Fels-Naptha. It says it right on the label, Perfume. Nice. Well, I knew right away that wouldn’t work for me, my head was already swelling with the ickiness of the fake chemical scent. Since then I’ve also found out that the Dial Co. says it should not be used directly on the skin, it’s an irritant. It also contains some ingredients which are known to contaminate the oceans, lakes and to harm wildlife. Not my thing. You can read more here.

The other recipe I was seeing on-line was non-grate version which calls for Dawn dish soap. Nope, can’t do it. It comes in plastic, (you know I’m trying to eliminate plastic as best I can) and is loaded with cra*, like the sulfate sisters, and It’s owned by Procter & Gamble, a company that I don’t particularly approve of (trust me, I have enough trouble with arm & hammer, still test on animals, but can’t yet find an alternative), lol. So…. Anyway, many of you won’t be quite as picky as me, ha.

Armed with this information I knew I needed to slow down and get the right bar soap. I wanted something a bit more natural. I found this soap called Verve at Whole Foods. It’s vegetarian (no tallow or other animal ingredients), cruelty free, fragrance free, no BHT, comes in planet friendly packaging, perfect, and the price was right too, $3.99/3 pack.

*No Whole Foods nearby or don’t shop there? Many of these recipes I’ve seen use Ivory Soap as well or you can use a natural herb bar soap found at many farmer’s markets.*

So, natural bar soap it is! Here’s my recipe:

1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
1 bar natural soap (grated)
75 drops essential oil (I used 50 drops sweet orange, 25 lavender) You can have so much fun creating new natural fragrances here.  (I did find that I didn’t smell this upon drying, so I may eliminate the essential oil all together in future batches.

Mix together, viola!

Yields about 32oz. I placed the mix in empty  Charlies Soap (a wonderful alternative to home-made) containers, my previous laundry detergent.

Use 1-Tbsp per load or 2-Tbsp for heavily soiled laundry.

Note: I have a HE front loader. This recipe worked fine, it’s low suds and no problem. I’m also on a septic line, it’s fine for this too.

Peace!

So, it seems I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from the blog. I’m regrouping to pull all my segments together and be more organized. The kids and I are going to Disney the next few days, PFMan and I have put together a really cool scavenger hunt through the World Showcase of EPCOT, our favorite Disney park. So anyway. I’ll be back starting Tuesday May 1st with Natural Living Tips. For now, I hope your Earth Month has been green:-).

Peace!

This here is the Perfectly Flawed weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

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Natural Egg Dying, Factory Farming & OWL Love!

This week has been totally BLAH in the food department.  I did manage to make butter though, we were out.

We welcomed in Spring this week:-). I wish it felt like spring here, it feels like the first week of summer instead, Boooooo. Preparing for a long, hot one.

Spring - Cornelia, Italy 2010

Collecting kitty & owl love on Pinterest! Check out some new cuties here, here, here & here:-).

Continuing my passion for Natural Living here are two natural ways to dye Easter Eggs this year. ONE, the “I want to go natural but have limited time” way and the “I will devote a Saturday or Sunday to dying naturally” way, lol. Enjoy either way!

I’ll leave you with a couple of thought provoking articles that are near & dear to my heart! This ONE is about legalizing the reuse of jars in our grocery stores for bulk items. It’s not new news that throwing away glass & plastic containers is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, I have many others. But, I see no reason to do this when there are so many ways to put them to use. Please read, some very good information here.

And THIS ONE about how much you should tell your kids about Factory Farming. Would love feed back people:-).

Peace!

Thanks so much for following this new segment, Natural Living Tips which you’ll find here on Tuesday’s. My friend Rosemary Nickel (Motivating Other Moms) and I have paired up to bring you these weekly tips on living a more natural life. They will be fun, quirky and informative, just like us, ha. We hope you join us here weekly for a new Natural Living Tip! Enjoy!

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The last few weeks I’ve been researching the benefits of Coconut Oil,  there are many.  I do promise to cover them in the next couple of weeks, but I’ve been distracted by all the yummy things you can make with other coconut products, the milk, water and juice.  These also have many health benefits including they’re loaded with Lauric Acid which is naturally found in mother’s milk. Lauric acid has been shown to have negative effect on many microorganisms in the body including yeast, fungi, and bacteria. It also has anti-carcinogenic and anti-viral properties.  You can read more about the benefits of coconut products and lauric acid at The Weston A. Price Foundation.

Here is a wonderfully refreshing way to add coconut to your diet.  This coconut tonic is also a nice substitute for cows milk if you’re sensitive to lactose or simply trying to reduce cows milk in your diet.

This is so easy peasy! You can purchase Coconut water and/or juice in most grocery stores or health food stores, as well as the coconut milk.  These two products are very different. The water is found in a young coconut, it’s the liquid you hear when you shake it. The milk comes from the white meat of the nut and is so yummy to cook with.

You simply take a can of each, dump them into a blender and blend. Viola!  Store in the fridge and serve over ice.  They may separate a bit, so give a little shake before serving.  Use this tonic to make the following green smoothie I found on Pinterest by Delicious Obsessions.

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado
1 cup Coconut Tonic
1/2 cup coconut water or juice
handful greens (I used spinach)
honey or other sweetener of choice – optional

First pit avocado and scoop out flesh. The easiest way to remove the pit is to whack it with a knife and twist, it pops out.

Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

Warning: If not used to drinking coconut milk smoothies, they are extremely filling, you’ll want to share the love!

Peace!

I’m chomping at the bit to write about a couple of things today, but Fadra’s prompt is, “How do you feel about where you live?”, and I have opinions about this too, so here we go.

My family moved to Florida when I was four. Aside from a short stint, 18 months, in Las Vegas with my husband, I’ve lived here since then. There are a lot of things to love about Florida, the beautiful beaches, flip flops all year, we don’t have to shovel snow or scrape ice off our car windows. For me though, I’ve never gotten used to the humidity at the levels we have. I soooo dread the summers, this one more than others as we’ve had NO winter this year and we hit 86 today, UGH. When we lived in Vegas, even when it was in the 90′s I could handle it because of the low humidity levels, you could go into the shade to escape, you can’t here. There are some who love the warm, wet blanket that wraps their body as they step outside four to six months out of the year, not me.

A couple of years ago we were set on moving to Colorado, the mountains, we love mountains, mountain lakes, streams, etc. That didn’t work out, still here, we found a wonderful house in East Bradenton on seven acres. We’re surrounded by old Florida, lots of beautiful oak tress dripping with moss, they’re lovely when the sun shines through. It’s so quiet out here and our neighbors are organic dairy farmers/ranchers. Such a great addition to our already natural lifestyle. This is our compromise until it’s the right time to say goodbye to Florida.

Ultimately for me, home is where my husband, two children & our furry babies are, on the road, here, anywhere, as long as we’re together.

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

This here is the Perfectly Flawed weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

Butter, Uganda & Road Trippin’!

Earlier this week I stumbled upon this perfectly funny blog post. Do you, would you, could you? Hee hee!

After the very dramatic day of posting the Kony 2012 video, I found a very beautiful way to help support the women of Uganda in a much less political way!

Oh yes! White butter:-)

I made butter with my kitchen aid. Beginning with fresh cream from the Dam Ranch, our neighbor. It’s whipped until it collapses, pour off the buttermilk (use it in home-made pancakes:-) then add ice cold water and re-whip until the liquid pours off clear. Look it’s WHITE!!

A goal in life is to have a pantry like this, NO plastic!

My friend Rosemary and I launched our new blog segment Natural Living Tips this week. We even made videos, check out our debut on how to make a home-made coconut oil body scrub, then try it yourself! What essential oil combinations do you love? (See her blog here)

Have been continuing the planning of the kids and I’s Summer 2012 road trip, 8000 miles, 60 days. It’s starting to come together. Here’s a peek, it’s not complete. Makes me want to have one of these or these someday, well I’ve wanted one for a long time actually, ha.

Summer 2012

I’d love some must see’s, if you’ve done this before, tips, etc. Thanks!

And since I’m thinking of travel, I’ll leave you with this!

Happy Weekend,
Peace!

Thanks so much for following this new segment, Natural Living Tips which you’ll find here on Tuesday’s. My friend Rosemary Nickel (Motivating Other Moms) and I have paired up to bring you these weekly tips on living a more natural life. They will be fun, quirky and informative, just like us, ha. We hope you join us here weekly for a new Natural Living Tip! Enjoy!

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Coconut Oil Body Scrub

In my never ending quest to be as plastic-free as possible, I’ve been taking a closer look at the products our family uses on a daily basis. Which of these, if not all, can we DIY to eliminate the need to purchase yet another plastic container? Well, while researching the endless amounts of things that one can do with coconut oil, I came across this recipe on Pinterest for a Body Scrub. I decided to tweak it a bit and go for it!

Ingredients:

1 cup organic raw brown Turbinado sugar
1/3 cup dead sea salts or other sea salt
1/2 cup organic coconut oil
2 tablespoons almond oil
1/2 tablespoon Vitamin E Oil
1/2 cup crushed Lavender Flowers (optional)
5-7 drops Lavender Essential Oil

Combine sugar and salt, then add in oils one at a time checking for consistency. If too dry at the end, add a bit more coconut oil. Then mix in any dried flowers and essential oils. I also love to combine Sweet Orange essential oil with Lavender or for a pick me up scrub use a combination of Peppermint and Rosemary!

This scrub is wonderful in the bath or shower, use it on all your edges and rough parts. Or by the sink as a nice hand softener. Just rinse with warm water and you’ll have yummy soft skin.

Watch Rosemary and I make the scrub:-).

Have fun!

I’ll start by saying this is not a typical Stream of Consciousness. I’m breaking the rules by adding this video link, and many others, to something I came across yesterday. It’s called the Invisible Children, you may know it as Kony 2012 or you may not know it at all. If you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to watch the video first. Yes, it’s almost 30 minutes long, but I believe it’s well worth those minutes for several reasons.

Here a link to the video:

Ok, now that you’ve watched the video, maybe you’ve already heard of the campaign, have an opinion, maybe you’re saying “Yes, old news, this has been going on for years”? Maybe this is completely new to you and you’re currently bubbling up with frustration over what you just watched and asking “how can I help”? Either way I’m glad I was able to bring it to your attention because old news, new news, it needed to be seen again.

There is much criticism out there over this particular campaign and I’ve done my research and have my own opinions. You should do your own research too. I can help by providing you with some links:

Here’s Invisible Children’s rating and information on Charity Navigator. They currently hold a 3/4 overall, and here you can read the conversation on Reddit between Noelle at Invisible Children & members of the public with strong opinions. IC defends off concerns. I’ve read it all. More articles here, here and Africom is here. And please go to Invisible Children’s blog and read the director’s response to this article in the Washington Post and IC’s response to the criticism.

After all my reading, a lot of it, I’ve come to my own conclusions. Is this charity, Invisible Children, sensationalist? Yes, maybe, but that’s the goal here! This film was produced very well. They had to make it understandable to the masses to get a movement heading forward and quickly. The LRA and men like Joseph Kony, things like this have been going on for decades, longer even, this IS old news. I remember being fired up over these topics over 20 years ago. Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Darfur, the list goes on both then and now.

I posted this campaign on Facebook yesterday, because though I know about things like this happening, I hadn’t seen THIS video yet, THIS campaign, Kony 2012. My husband works in the media and he hadn’t seen it either. Apparently over three million people have, but we hadn’t and it moved us to remember that this is going on. While we’ve been self-absorbed with our own lives, our own agendas here, this kind of thing is still happening in Africa. It was a harsh reminder and you know what, I don’t care what campaign reminded me of that, reminds us all, the important thing is that we were reminded. The important thing is the MOVEMENT! The movement to make things like this stop.

This campaign by Invisible Children, if this works, goes viral and this man is brought to justice, it’s a great thing whether you believe in Kony 2012 or not. It means that this new thing called social media worked in powerful, positive ways, it means I can have hope that people when joined together for a common cause can move mountains.

I like this quote from a poster on Reddit “I’m behind this organization for the simple fact that it empowers youth unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Imagine what this will do to people if it becomes successful and makes millions feel like they did something to help”.

I support the Movement, I believe it’s never too late, you have to start somewhere!
Peace!

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.  – Only today I made an exception!

Want to try it? Here are the normal rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

I haven’t yet used any Fadra’s optional topics of the day, but this one I can’t pass up: Where are you lacking trust in your life? (examples: church, government, work, family, etc.)

This past week I’ve been very emotional, mostly due to the rollar coaster ride of feeling of my cat Matilda disappearing for six days and my old man kitty having to be put down on on Wednesday. It would be an understatement to say I was a basket case.  Well, in this emotional state I talked to a couple friends and my hubby about the state of the country, mostly the state of our food supply because it at time enrages me.  I’ve educated myself for years about our food, it’s a really long story that I will only touch on, but it began with my passion for animals almost 20 years ago and I wanted to learn exactly how our food got from farm to table.  That was bad news….  A lots happened since then (the part I won’t get into here) but now there is so much more I know about food as  a whole and it sickens me what our government (FDA, USDA, etc.) allows in our food system.  I absolutely have NO trust in them AT ALL to feed us healthy food.  Right now heads of Monsanto are running the FDA and USDA, this is very sad and scary and we the people are going to have to take matters into our own hands by seeking out locally grown fruits and vegetables, finding our local farmers and ranchers for our grass-fed, free roaming meats and dairy products to ensure they are nutrient rich and not laden with chemicals, pesticides and hormones.  Many other countries have banned these things from their food, yet the US will not. I don’t know what the reasons are, we can speculate a number of things from lobbyists to big business to not wanting to change due to layoffs. Whatever.  I just feel that EVERYONE in this country should have the ability to walk into any grocery store and not have to worry about what’s in their milk, on their oranges. To me it’s very sad.

This is just a snippet of how I feel on this topic but you can clearly see that I don’t listen to the government about what’s good for us in the food department. Better re-think those Got Milk ads!

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

So, I’m 40! I’m not too surprised that I’m embracing it with love, I have been working towards this acceptance after all. I wanted to ring in this next decade in a BIG way, so off to Northern Cali I went. My first three days were spent alone in the Redwoods between Carmel and Big Sur California, one of my favorite places. Landing in San Francisco around 12:30 my first stop was Baja Fresh for lunch. I can’t help it, ever since PFMan and I lived in Vegas, years ago, I have loved BF and don’t miss a chance to eat the veggie burrito. Then down the coast I go. HWY 17 is spectacular, a curvy, tree-lined drive, just breathtaking. I arrive in Carmel to do some shopping for my stay. I’m determined to go veggie while I’m here so I stock my cart with organic produce, strawberries, asparagus, & pistachios. I’ve brought my herbal teas from home as well, oh and chocolate with sea salt:-). I turn down Palo Colorado Rd. to head to Don Loui’s. This image above is the point where Palo Colorado Rd. meets the Pacific Coast Hwy. Turning off down Palo Colorado was magical. See I’m a dreamer in the sense that I love environments that transport me, and when you turn onto this road you are placed immediately into towering redwoods, like a land of fairies. You twist and wind amongst the quiet giants, houses placed into the sides of the mountains like they’ve been there forever, all blending in with the trees, completely part of the forest.

Here I have my bag of goodies, camera & backpack (which was packed in my luggage and now used to haul only the few items I’d need for this portion of my trip), and up the mountain I go. Not too bad, about five steep switchbacks, with little treasures at every corner. Then the Dragon House appears, unbelievable! I’m through the Dragon house tunnel and onto the Rainbow House where I’m staying. Don, the innkeeper, is an eccentric. He’s been on this property since 1983. Then it was him, the land and a tent. The Rainbow house he built first. Yes, him and his son. Previously he was a contractor and landscaper by trade and it shows. Today there are 4 buildings, The Rainbow & Dragon House (rentals), his own home and an octagon above the rest with windows looking out over the mountain and Pacific Ocean, used for yoga and/or meditation. Beautiful, peaceful! He’s created many trails all around the property as well.

Though I highly recommend staying here alone, as a couple or small family, this is not for everyone. Forget a warm shower and none at all in the Rainbow House. Luckily I like going rough and dirty, ha. There is no oven and only a propane burner for stove top, and it’s QUIET (aside from the very loud frogs and owls at night:-). I like to think of the house like a tree house on crack, seriously! And since I like being transported, it was perfect for me, like a kid again.

So what’s a girl to do all alone in the mountains? Hike, hike, eat at her favorite restaurant in Big Sur, play words with friends, ha, take lots of pictures and hike some more. To my chagrin there was no big AHA moment or anything, just time with myself which in itself is a BIG deal for me. In my past being along has been very difficult. A good friend of mine text-ed me while there questioning how I was doing alone. He said he talks to himself a lot when alone, lol. Me too:-). And I did, much of it in my head, some out loud. But I was comfortable with it, the oneness, and that’s a BIG deal!

Please enjoy some of the many photos I took while on this part of my trip and look for a post on me joining the girls in Wine Country soon:-)!

Peace!

Previous trip to Big Sur with my honey:-)!