Where is a Spring?!

It has been raining here since Friday afternoon. Today when I looked out the window it was sleeting! The wind has been wild for the last week or so. I ask you Mother Nature...where is Spring??! It is now March 31. The clocks have been "sprung" for weeks now, and the first day of this season was 10 days ago. I am going stir crazy trying to entertain an 8 month old inside every day. We've been watching a bit more Mickey Mouse than I care to. Honestly, after reading and playing with toys there's only so much to do! I have this awesome three wheel stroller, as well as a nice Snugli hiking pack for the babe to be on my back. I would like to use these things!!

Along with this weather comes sickness. So far our house has been sick-free, but as of yesterday my poor hubs has been out of commission. It began with a sore throat and feeling tired. Today he has been very achy, feverish and has had no real appetite. We try not to take much medicine in our house. He likes to use Airborne but you can only take so much vitamin C you know? I had him take a bath, then I used some baby Vicks on his chest to open up his pores and let some of that Eucalyptus in. I also made him chicken soup with like three huge garlic cloves simmering. Garlic is known to be good when you have a cold. He ate a little bit but has gone to bed early again. I hate when he is sick. I have been searching for home remedies for a fever, but I think the best we can do is have him pop some Ibuprohen and ride the fever out. I'm not sure if many one else is dealing with colds or illness but here is one thing that pops up a lot on Pinterest. I have heard good things about it, and I think the next time I go grocery shopping I'm going to grab the ingredients.

http://montanahomesteader.com/natural-remedy-for-the-common-cold/

Couldn't hurt to have it here for the next time.

Here's hoping for warm weather, sunny days, windows open and laundry on the line!! 

**UPDATE**

Ok, so if you have stumbled upon this blog and noticed every single post is from today lol, let me explain this. I started my blog on tumblr.com, about a month ago. After being on it for a little while I realized I didn't really care for the set up. It is limited in customizations where as this domain lets me do a little more as far as layouts and templets etc. When I decided to switch, I tried looking for an easy way to transfer my posts. I was hoping I could do something quick and boom...from there to here. Unfortunately  I couldn't find anything. I'm sure there is a way, but I didn't feel like googling any more. So today I just simply copied my posts from tumblr and posted them here. Voila!

I will write an actual post later on today. For now I just wanted to get it up and running here. If you are just seeing this, please read my first post. It's an introduction. If you have similar interests please read and comment! Or if you have a blog of your own, please post the link so I may follow:) I know this is a new blog to the world, and there are many that talk about the same things. But this is MY only blog and I want to have fun with it.

Xo!

A Little DIY...

So I started a project I have been wanting to do for a year now. I finally painted my kitchen chairs! I love the idea of the different colors. It gives the kitchen a sort of chic feel. I recently painted the kitchen a pale yellow, and now these colors are really going to stand out. They yellow chair needs another coat, and the blue could use some touch ups. I love it though! I have to find a light pretty green to paint the bench seat and table. I think I will keep them the same color so it’s not too crazy. Next thing will be changing the curtains bc now they don’t really go. I’ll probably just do a white curtain, and in fact I found some inexpensive cute one at Christmas Tree Shop. I think I will grab those if they are there in a week.

I still have not received my mascara from my earlier post. Hmmm….not impressed there! If it’s not here by this week I will be calling. I still want to try it out and post a before and after for anyone that wants to try it as well.

So far washing with coconut oil has been going well! I have had no breakouts, and my skin seems to really soak in all the oils. The smell of it is so great! I literally just breathe it in when I’m in the shower lol. I highly suggest giving it a try. The link to the way I’m doing it is in the post before this. Or I’ll just share here:

1. Take about 1-2 tsp of Organic Unrefined coconut oil in your hands ( mush it into liquid if it’s in solid form) and swirl it gently over your face til it’s covered,
2. Take a face cloth and put it under hot water. ( not scorching hot, hot enough to stand though) and drape it over your face until it reaches room temp. About 30 seconds to a minute. This helps open your pores and absorb the oil.
3. Rinse the cloth in hot water and gently rub your face to remove any excess oil. It is ok to leave a thin layer on your face to help keep it soft, it will absorb eventually. You just want to get off any thick layers.

That’s it! I do it every night:) Now I have read that some people don’t care for it. It’s trial and error and up to you to decide if it’s right for your skin. This is from my experience, and so far it’s been positive. Please see my Pinterest for more ways to utilize this wonderful oil :)

Not much to report today. It’s rainy here in CT. Maybe spring is around the corner???

Xo

Products I love pt.2

Everywhere you look coconut oil is becoming a hit. I always cook with olive oil because out of the many choices, it seemed to be the healthier alternative. I used to see coconut oil in the store, it was solid and white, and I thought there was no possible way it was going to be better to cook with. Well, after doing some research and reading the ingredients I decided I should give it a try. If using coconut oil when cooking my chicken was going to make it the tiniest bit healthier for us than I’m all for it. The kind picture above is Dr. Bronners brand. It was purchased at a a Co op in Maine a few weeks ago. I have not seen that brand in my local grocery store. Anyways, the first thing I cooked with it actually was French toast of all things! Normally I melt a little butter in the pan, but then of course we put butter on the toast after plus the maple syrup. I figured this would be a better choice. Talk about delicious! First of all the smell! I love coconut anyways, but the smell of it cooking was wonderful! Part of me was nervous that my food would taste coconutty…which is ok sometimes haha but my hubs wouldn’t be a fan. It had a very slight hint of coconut to it. Not over bearing at all. I would say if you do not like coconut, don’t use it.

Another reason I want to keep this wonderful ness on hand is because you can use it for body care as well. I have an 8 month old son who I’m sure will see a diaper rash or two in his day and I’d like to try this in place of those creams and ointments. It’s also supposed to be good for dry skin, which we have this time of year because we burn wood. At some point I’d like to try it in my hair. I know, sounds awful right? How the heck do you rinse oil out of your hair?! But I have pinned a few hair remedies using coconut oil and when I’m feeling brave one day I’m going to try it.

Unrefined Coconut oil is basically extra virgin. It’s the purest and least processed. It’s the kind that will give you that coconut taste and smell.

Here is a link to one way I plan on using my oil…

http://bigserious.hubpages.com/hub/Clean-Your-Face-Naturally-and-Organically-Using-Coconut-Oil-Resulting-in-Calm-Beautiful-Glowing-Skin

I Heart This Life!

I’m super excited! I got picked via Seventh Generation to host a Healthy Baby Party! My kit came in the mail today and it is full of so many goodies:) Coupons, samples of detergents, wipes, natural allergy relief, etc…you can see in the photos there was quite a bit. I love Seventh Gen. products, but they can be pricey. I print coupons online often. My favorite so far is the Lavender dish detergent. It works great and smells just as good.

What a great way to begin Spring!!

The other exciting thing is it’s almost time to begin gardening and get our chickens! I am in my best mood when spring comes back. This winter has been so long. I cannot wait to open my door and feel warm air and sunshine. We have had chickens in the past and loved them. Our favorites were four Rhode Island Reds we had. The Golden Girls:) they laid the most beautiful, big brown eggs. We had so many eggs we had to give them away just so they wouldn’t go bad. Truly organic :) Something fun too in going to the coop to take out the eggs:) I loved doing that. We had to give our girls away a few yrs ago bc of our new neighbors. (Family) that didn’t want the chicken in their yard bc of germs. We let our girls free range. So now when we get them again we will make a giant fenced in area attached to the coop. It will be a good thing actually bc our newest dog will try to eat them. I can’t wait for our eggs!

Bottom Photo:

As for our garden, we have a very nice compost pile seeping into the soil. We have been building it since last summer. Compost is a great way to get rid of food scraps and other items that take up room in your trash. If you don’t do do it already, give it a try. We have a big glass bowl in our kitchen where we throw scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, etc. ( no meat) Once full it’s dumped in a pile out back. Once it’s time for planting, our vegetables will be along side the compost pile. We will stick to salad fixings as well as various types of squash. We made our last garden way too big and a lot went bad before we could use it. But ohhh fresh vegetables!! I look forward to a big garden salad!

How are you welcoming spring?? Does anyone else have chickens? Gardens or compost? Please share!!!

Perspective

Succulents are so pretty. I am up in Maine this weekend with the hubs and babe visiting my mother in law. She is a professional gardener. She LOVES plants. There is not a corner or window in this house that does not have a plant. It amazes me how she keeps them all alive! This picture is of one of my favorites. The colors that succulents can be are so beautiful. I do not have a green thumb, its more of a yellow “wants to be green” thumb. My husband got his from his mother.

This is also where he got his appreciation of organic living. Thus rubbing off on me. Every single thing in this house is made of natural or organic products. Every piece of food as well. My MIL is very “granola” as they say. She has a local co op that she gardens for so she gets a great discount there. I wish we had one closer where I live. Its a 25 min. ride to get to it. Anyways, its all locally grown organic produce, spices, baking items, dairy, body care, etc. It’s wonderful.

I don’t particularly need to be as hardcore as she is, but every time we come here it makes me realize I can do better, and that I should do better. Not only in what I buy for my family but how I think about things. Politically we differ in our thoughts big time…but spiritually my mother in law likes to live a Buddha-esque life style. She tries to focus on positivity even if things are not going right in her life. She can pull a positive from a negative and really make you re think things. Of course in my mind its ok to be a little negative sometimes, and to want more out of life…but I also realize I should take a moment at times to reflect on the good things in my life, because there is a lot of good. I need to refrain from selfishness, greediness, (which I am not often, but can be) and other things that are toxic to life. I want to have a positive life!

I think when we get home I am going to buy my own succulent and start there:) It will be my own symbol of positivity and a reminder that even though it’s not perfect, my life is pretty darn good:)

Time to Refresh

Ugh the last couple of days have been nothing but house stuff. Yesterday consisted of trips to stop and shop and Lowes. Thankfully the hubs took the babe and I was able to walk through the isles, referring to my list/coupons and NOT forget why I was there.

So the photo at the top is a shot in my kitchen. I started painting it yesterday afternoon and will finish tomorrow. The color before was an olivey green, but I wanted to brighten it up. I chose the color Hawthorne Yellow after seeing multiple examples of it on my Houzz app.

It is so pretty and even with the snow everywhere it makes me anxious for the Spring weather. Once I have some extra cash I will take a trip out to Home Goods or Christmas Tree Shop and find some wall decor.

Well I just wanted to share the reason I didnt post yesterday. This post is short as I am finally getting to sleep. Its been a long day.

If anyone has any thoughts on accent colors for my walls please share!

xo

For the love of Smoothies!

I have been on a smoothie kick lately. I blame pinterest for part of it because every time I go on there is a new delicious recipe being posted! I own the oldest blender in town I’m sure, the blades no longer crush ice but it still blends! Anyways…I wanted a simple banana/strawberry smoothie for lunch today so I threw what I had into my blender and it came out pretty dang good!

Here’s what I used:

1 Organic banana
5 Organic Strawberries (more or less depending on size…mine were larger) 
1 small container of Fat Free Organic Yogurt. ( I used Stoney field Vanilla) 
1 big handful Organic Spinach
About 1/2 C Orange Juice
1 tsp Organic Ground Flax

Just threw it all in and blended. The consistency was perfect. I added ice after bc like I said…my blades don’t touch em. If you like your smoothies thicker you can add more yogurt or ice. For me this came out perfect. After 2 glasses I am full. Exactly what I was hoping for:)

Feel free to share your best smoothie recipes!!

Good Eve All!

Today was a good day here in the ole quiet corner. The weather is still pretty cold, have to run from house to car and back to house just to warm up my ride. I managed to get some home stuff done since my baby randomly decided to take another two hour nap. This is so new and probably a fluke. He is not a napper usually. The kitchen, living room and a load of laundry got finished. I even had time to make myself a delicious smoothie as a reward! Haha.

Anyways, I tried a small workout yesterday which I am feeling the after effects from today. Thus sparking the idea for this post. I am almost eight months post c-section and have not done much in the exercise department. A lot having to do with this weather. I want to be able to do things outside like jogging and walking or hiking and swimming. Ugh the winter slump sucks! So I found this work out a few weeks back and decided I wanted to give it a try. Just want to ease back into working out. With the baby awake during the day I don’t get much time. So this is pretty perfect. It is only 9 moves, and you do one right after the other. It works your abs. BOY does it work them! After only one day at it I am sooo sore today. The woman doing it is beyond adorable and she makes it easy for you to want to follow through. Not only by what she says but by her cute little body. I thought I would share the link with you. If you are in a workout rut Iike me this may be a good way to get back into it. Just start every other day. Trust me your muscles will need the break!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HrpW5PliIdU

If anyone tries this I’d be interested in your thoughts afterward:)

Quick post tonite, take care!!!

The Pretty Price to be Pretty/Apps that I Love

I decided to order and test out a few new makeup products. I am in desperate need of a baby free night out. What better excuse to make my face right? I am on the hunt for a rockin all natural mascara. There is an app that I use that I have fallen in love with, and if you are a girl I highly recommend it. Ill talk more about it in a minute. There was a post earlier about seven non toxic mascaras that the writer has tried and will be trying. I pinned a couple and will be doing the same. This is the first product I will be experimenting with:

Eco Bella Flower Color. No parabens, alcohol or shellac. As with most healthy/good-for-you/organic/natural anything…the price is STEEP for mascara. At almost 18$, it is much more than I would normally ever spend on makeup. But for the rare times when I do actually decorate my face…it will most likely last. So, I should have this in within the next couple weeks and I will post a before and after photo with it on my eyes. After a day of wear Ill give it my review.

Ok now about that app. It is called All Women Stalk. It is a free download.  There are so many categories with new posts in the feed daily. Its quickly becoming one of my most used apps, right there next to pinterest and instagram. From health, to beauty, to inspiration, travel, etc…it is a compilation of free lance writers postings. In fact, one post was MY inspiration to finally sit down and begin a blog. Like I said I have been wanting too for the longest time, but I needed a shove. The post I read was from a woman who felt the same as me. She wanted to write, talk about her interests…so she just started writing. Now she has a ton of followers and does free lancing as well. My favorite thing about the app is you can FAVORITE posts and they save on your account so you can go back and re read them, comment, and read others comments.

Check it out!!

Lastly, this post is ending up a little longer than planned, but speaking of apps…here is one more that I am loving. If you have not heard of Groove Book, I encourage you to try it out. It is a photo app that costs 2.99 a month. ( you can cancel anytime if you do not want to keep it) What you do is upload photos to the app, and every month you are sent a book of all your photos! I love having pictures on my phone, but I love having prints more. And with upgrading phones there is always that risk of losing your photos. This is a great way to save pictures.  I tried it out using a promo code for the first book. I really did not know what to expect. Fuzzy photos, dark photos…I figured they would come in looking kinda crappy to be honest. But they did not! I got my book in yesterday and they looked great! The app prefers you upload 40-100 photos for their books. I uploaded 100 you bet! I wanted my moneys worth. The best thing is the pages are perforated so you can remove the photos and do what you like. The size I believe is about 4x6? You can take them elsewhere and scan for bigger sizes or make multiples etc…In fact there is an option in settings to have more than one printed. If you wanted 100 prints of one photo…you can do it! It starts the day you sign up and begin uploading. It will tell you when your book is about to close and if you need to upload more pictures before then. Its great! I have a promo code that if anyone sees this and is interested in a free book for a trial, you can use! pass it along. The code is : YOUNG1054  Just download the app and follow the instructions. Enter the code and upload your photos! I will def. be keeping this app and paying the little monthly charge.

Enjoy your Tuesday!!! I’m off to get the waking babe!

Meatless Mondays

Good Monday! Today was bitterly cold here in CT. I have had enough of winter. I like the snow and the the scenery is pretty…but it’s so cold that we can’t even really enjoy it. Being a stay at home mom stuck inside with a baby who wants constant change is tough. I cannot wait for screen doors, tee shirts and an excuse to break out the ridiculously nice stroller we have. Anyways….needless to say i stayed inside today. I did not put on any make up and maintained sweats for the majority of the day. I thought about excersizing…I didn’t. I did get some cleaning done but that’s where it ends.

I am trying this new way of menu planning for the week because let’s face it, if I don’t plan ahead I’m scraping ingredients together to make some sort of concoction to eat. The hubs isn’t a fan of that much. I went through my Pinterest boards and did some organizing and adding of new boards to make it easier to find recipes. Monday is now “meatless Monday” Saturday will be some sort of seafood, Sunday will be soup or sauce ( Italian tradition is pasta and sauce on Sundays…but pasta every week is a little much) once a week we will have breakfast for dinner, and then your typical random meal in between. It makes it more fun to create a menu this way I think. If you would like to follow my Pinterest boards you can find them athttp://www.pinterest.com/dyoung8184/.

The photo is what was for dinner tonite. Spinach, goat cheese and tomato Quiche. It was super easy to make and it was made with all organic ingredients. Except the pie crust. Delicious ! If you enjoy goat cheese you would enjoy this. It just melts in your mouth. You can find this recipe in my Meatless Monday board.

I hope you had a nice weekend. Only four more days til the next one!

Product Love

Ok so here is my first product post, thought I would take advantage of my napping babe. I will be totally honest, growing up I hardly ever used a soap on my face. Ehhhhk I know sounds gross right? But every type of face wash I used did nothing but dry my skin out. I went through most of the hyped up brands, Nutrogena, Clearasil, and Clean and Clear to name a few. I did not care for any of them and just decided that I would stick with plain old H2O and facial toner. For whatever reason I hardly ever broke out. Of course the more I began wearing makeup the more I knew that I needed to actually cleanse my skin. On my path to a more organic and clean way of life I decided to try some natural facial products. Why was my skin so dry after all those washes? Because the crappy chemicals in them stripped my skin of all that’s holy! I have tried Aveeno brand washes, and the Burts Bees…but I have to say that right now this brand is winning the battle for a favorite product. It is called Nourish Organic as you can plainly see. A pinterest stumble upon, I researched their website and read the ingredients. NO signs of any type of chemical/toxin/crappy crap. As luck would have it they were having a great promo so I took advantage. I am Italian and have very combination skin. Dry in the winter and oily every other season. I wanted a cleanser that would not add to either. I decided to go with the Ultra Hydrating Organic Facial Line. It came with everything you see in the top left photo. Face cleanser, Serum, Cream and Lotion. I am still in trial mode as this is the first time using it and I still have some left. The cleanser is lovely but comes out quick! You do not need a lot so you have to be careful how you squeeze the bottle. I will admit that right after I wash my face it feels a little tight…but after a good dry pat I apply a tiny bit of the serum followed by the face cream and my face feels super hydrated and refreshed. (FYI that is the night time ritual) During the day I use the face lotion. Please visit their websitehttp://nourishorganic.com to read up on the difference in ingredients. Im sure there are other products out there, and I may order a new set after I finish these to see if one is better than the other. But so far these have been wonderful.

The deodorant I actually bought for my husband. I have been using Toms of Maine for years. Aluminum free for me! My hubs however thinks he needs the manly men deodorants like Old Spice to keep him from smelling. I CAN NOT SLEEP next to him when he puts that stuff on before bed. It burns my nose…that cant be good! So i asked him to please try the Nourish brand. (Toms does not work for him) He actually likes the smell of this one. Win for me! Can’t really go wrong with anything that has vanilla in it:) It is not cakey either. I highly recommend this for your stinky man, or your stinky self. There are other scents too as well as unscented.

That’s my rant for today…enjoy your Sunday!

Brief Intro...

To start, my name is Danielle. I am thirty years old and married with a seven month old son. I live in a quiet little corner of north east Connecticut. Over the last seven-ish years or so I have become more and more interested in the ways of a natural life. From changing my eating habits to mostly organic, to paying much more attention to ingredients in my personal care products, I have taken it one day at a time in hopes to better my own way of life as well as that of my little family. Currently my husband and I have decided on my staying home with our baby. For financial reasons among others. As you can an imagine, and may very well know…living on one income can be difficult. It takes some time to sit down and figure out a budget. Certain things we have to go without, certain things have to be paid in increments, coupons become your friend and of course…spending money on things like organic foods and products is tougher. Like I said, these are things I am passionate about so I am here to share how I do it and keep it affordable. Somewhat.

I know there are a bazillion blogs out there covering the same topics, and for right now this is just for fun and for my own personal escape from mommy hood a couple hours a day. Who knows…maybe you will read my posts with interest. If not that is ok. I am not here to become a famous blogger with a million followers. I love to write…I enjoy writing. I also enjoy trying new things. So along with a new blog, I’ll try to keep the focus on natural and organic beauty products that I am using and reviewing, along with a little life randomness here and there.