To Peel or Not to Peel

I've recently joined the Pinterest social network.  I have to admit its "Pin interesting!"  I suspect that most of the world can be found in there if one has the notion to look.  The menu consists of music, art, sewing, foods of all things imaginable, humor, design, some...umm...shall we say, interesting clothing whists, crafts, child rearing tips, ....need I continue??  While one can become rather absorbed in the pinning world, I find myself wondering if some of these things really work.  Today I put myself out on a limb for all you pinners of natural beauty tips.  After all, if I'm going to happily pin away, I really want to know if these things are worth the whittling away of my time. 


Today's lab experiment was definitely..."Pin interesting!"  This one came from this blog post   http://petitelefant.com/how-to-pore-strips/  I'm not quite sure why she refers to it as pore strips, because there aren't any strips involved, unless she was referring to the strips of skin that are peeled off.  The treatment only uses two ingredients:  unflavored gelatin and milk.  How bad can it be?  


I just jumped off the cliff with this one.  After several seconds of microwaving, (and I suggest here that although she says to work quickly, one might want to wait a nano-second for it cool off a tad) I worked to cover most of my face with the stuff.  She put it all over her face, so why shouldn't I follow the instructions.  (I CAN do that occassionally.  Well....almost.  I didn't exactly measure the ingredients - I have a pretty accurate eyeball.)

Lovely isn't it?

I learned that:
- Perhaps working with a smaller area would have been wiser.
- When she says "you’ll know it’s time when you can’t talk for fear of breaking something,"  she means your face.
- Do not use a eyebrow brush to get it out of the crease between your nose and your cheek.  It hurts.  There is not a single brush in your makeup bag or drawer that will be appropriate.  Trust me, I tried.
- Don't  - DO NOT - get it in your eyebrows.  It hurts.  Do not pull.  Get a warm wet washcloth and soak your face in it.
- Maybe if you wait longer, it peels of in larger strips like her picture.  Mine was reminiscent of peeling sunburned skin.  After awhile, I decided that the washcloth idea was genius. 
- Use plain water to wash your face.  Soap stings.  Yes, even something mild like Neutrogena.  You have just peeled off a complete layer of your skin.  Refer to the sunburn remark.


Would I do it again?  Maybe.  A smaller area.  If my pores are screaming, "Please, oh please, clean me!"  Like that's going to happen!


Gratitude for:
- The Italian Pasta Bake from Pinterest that we had for supper tonight was easy and yummy.  AND... it made enough that I was able to freeze two smaller containers for future nights!
- My vacuum cleaner is back home, and repaired.
- Any day I get to sew a little is a good day.  Today was a good day.   

It's Only Wednesday

Monday evening I met Hubby for dinner.  Mondays are usually one of my more tired days, and I had been cleaning so we had a relaxing dinner out.  On my way into town, there was a work truck - towing a trailer with equipment - two cars ahead of me.  Just at the edge of town he loses a tire!  I slowed way down and pulled over a little to the right and watched carefully because you never know where those things are going to go.  There was quite a bit of traffic from both directions and I was anticipating a bounce.  A SUV got hit with the tire despite the driver's valiant efforts to avoid it.  I pulled completely off the road at that point and I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO STOPPED!!   The poor woman had just gone through a divorce, and the first thing she needed after the settlement was a decent car.  She had just purchased the SUV - brand new - not even license plates yet!  She kept it together, but was shaky.  I'm sure if it was from being hit, or out of anger, but I was glad I stopped because she sure needed support!  The truck was from a business here in town so at least  she was able to go to the office with the driver and get the information she needed. (Of course, the driver had a minimal english vocabulary - but he was responsible.  I'll certainly give him that!)

Yesterday we came home after our haircuts to discover that we had no water.  Thankfully it was fixed by this morning. The city sent an e-mail to tell us that they worked until midnight to get it fixed.  Like I really care.  Isn't that their job???

Today was an early morning Dr. appointment.  On my way, I noticed a  light helicopter hovering low over a field.  There wasn't anything that I could see that he could be possibly interested in, so I guessed that maybe he was a student. (We have a helicopter flight school close to us.)  A wee bit later I saw a SWAT team!!  They were a team of eight creeping through the grass toward the bridge that I was about to cross.  The first person had the shield up, they all had their weapons drawn....and I sped up to get over the bridge as fast as I could!!  Later I noticed a police van in a park with it's side door open. I haven't heard anything about it yet, but I'm really curious to know what was going on.  Since I live in the country, this is not something that happens often!  There is a drought right now, but I wondered if they would be burning anything in the future, and if maybe I should wander outdoors on that day and take a deep breath............

Before I go.....For those of you with smart phones, I found a few apps that might interest you.  There are two free yard sale apps.  I haven't gone on a yard sale adventure yet, but they looked interesting:

                                     1- Garage Sale Rover

                                     2 - Yard Sale Treasure Map

Then there is the free Clorox my Stain app.  It will not only solve your stain issue, but they have included a "take a spin" component for all you casino junkies!

Most important is the Jo-Ann app and the Quilters Club of America Quilt Shop Finder.  The Jo-Ann app has coupons that you can just show the cashier at checkout to get the discount.  It works.  I've used it!  No more "I left them on the counter at home." or bringing the expired ones instead of the current ones. I was skeptical, but it was easy peasy.

 

Gratitude for:

- Starbucks and a donut after bloodwork!

- coupons for free Victoria Secret panties

- Clean running water at my finger tips.  We forget that there are many places in the world where this is not so!

New Growth

You might think this picture was taken in the spring given the new buds on this branch.  In actuality it was taken this morning.  Two weeks ago I never dreamed we would see such life.  Two weeks ago we were raking up the leaves from this tree.  Not picking up, mind you.....raking up.  We had been watering just as we normally do in the summers, but it just wasn't enough.  This summer has just been....well.....record breaking!  My husband and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and said, "Well, we're either going to have to pay for more water, or pay for new landscaping.  We better decide which it will be."  We chose water.  It appears that we made the right decision. (We have, however, not recieved our newest water bill.)

I have been keeping a close eye on this one too.  For Mother's Day this year, Hubby bought me this lemon tree.  It is my baby.  As you can see, it has a lemon.  It looks more like a lime, I know, but it is a lemon.  At least that is what the tag said when we bought it.  The tree only has this one lemon.  When we bought it, it had several blossoms, but in it's shock from the transplant process to a new pot with better soil, all them dried up.  Sometimes a better environment is just not enough I guess. (I will leave you to think about that comment on your own.)

More cafeteria ecology.........  We receive, as I am confident that pretty much everyone does, lots of catalogs.  In the bleak days of winter it seems that the volume of catalogs increases.  I think it is a marketing ploy because we're all so tired of nothingness that having something new or dreaming of what we're going to plant in the spring is what keeps us slogging through the gray days.  It works!!  This past winter I started thinking about rain barrels.  We live in an area where we can have deluges, but then go without rain for weeks.  I kept watching for a good deal on a barrel as they are rather expensive and I knew my accountant husband would give me one of those looks.  You know, kinda sideways, one eyebrow up, no smile......yep...that look.  One day - Eureka!! I found one.  Fairly inexpensive and collapsible so that if he still had the look after it came, I could at least hide it.  To my surprise, he was actually okay with it, so I ordered it.  It did have to sit in the garage for a few weeks until it warmed up enough that I wanted to set it up.  The day finally came that I dug it out of the box and put it together. (It's collapsible remember.) It went together rather easy and I was really proud of myself until I got to the part in the directions that said, "Next, cut your downspout...."  Uh Ohhhhhhh.  I was pretty sure that was something I was going to need help with, and I certainly wasn't going to be able to hide it.   The rain barrel sat on the patio, unattached, for a few days.  I kept looking at it, but eventually I was going to have to talk to Hubby about it.  We reviewed the instructions together.  It really didn't look that hard, but taking a hack saw to your downspouts does require a little courage.  Onward and Upward.  It really was easy, and something we did without even grumbling at each other!

As luck would have it, it rained the next day.  We stood with our noses to the window watching to see if it would really work, and how high the water level would be.  It was incredible.  The rain barrel not only filled - it overflowed.  We only had an inch of rain or so, but we had 60 gallons of water in the rain barrel!  We now have two rain barrels.  The plants are loving the rain water vs. the chemically treated city water, and we are loving that we don't have to pay for water for our plants that are in pots.  That reminds me.....I need to go water!

Today's Gifts
- wet, cool grass on my bare feet in the early morning.
- sending Hubby off to the trenches with a kiss and then rolling over and sleeping in a little later than normal.
- the smell of clean sheets fresh from the drier.

Wrinkles Be Gone

I am a self proclaimed cafeteria ecologist.  While I enjoy reading and hearing about ideas that would enable me leave a much smaller footprint on the earth when I vacate it, I usually enter such conversations with a certain (usually somewhat hefty) amount of  skepticism. Sometimes I will see an unusually tempting article and jump right in.  Those moments are fleeting and mostly unsuccessful.  I find that for me, some period of contemplation is necessary -  usually amounting to a couple of days of inner, "Are you crazy?" and "Everyone is going to think I have moved to an alternate universe."  After those first days of insanity, I come to the moment of decision whether or not to bring up the subject to my husband.  Most of the time my excitement is met with a rather large sigh on his part.  He has learned over the years though that I can be very persistent and so, with much trepidation, gingerly comes on board.  (Although, I have to interject here that more often than not he confesses that I have actually come up with a good idea!) Then there are the things that I can thankfully keep secret about until I'm completely ready to let the world know what I"m up to.  This is one of those moments.

  For several months I have come across articles, e-mails and TV segments about DIY skin treatments. Hmmmmm......

I have never been one to spend a lot of time at the make-up counters in those high-end stores at the mall. I really hate using all that chemical stuff that I can't pronounce.  Although there is no way to completely avoid those ladies waiting to steer me onto a stool in their quest to make my wrinkles go away, I choose to briskly walk through, head turned, getting to the shoe department as quickly as possible.  That is mostly because I would rather spend my money on shoes than expensive cosmetics. Now that I am - uh ahem - more mature, I do find that acne and flaking at the same time is rather unattractive and annoying however.  There seems to be a large variety of homemade facial scrubs, wrinkle creams, teeth whiteners, shampoos, deodorants, etc, etc, etc.  There is a consensus, however, concerning several ingredients for facial treatments.  Citrus, honey, and olive oil (Seriously??  I want to put olive oil on my face?  Don't you remember that I have red stuff on my face already?  Acne is such a horrible four letter word!)  Since I had no commitments in the coming few days that would require inspection by anyone outside of my house, I  decided to give it a try.  After all, what's the worst that can happen?  The cat doesn't care, and unless I become a hideous monster overnight, my hubby won't care either!  (Especially if I don't tell him what is going on.)  Shhhhh......my secret...... Begin the experiment!!

With some minor reservations I mixed up equal parts of honey, oil, and fresh squeezed lemon and spread it on  my face with my fingers.  Yes, I know....never touch your face with your hands.  That's never going to happen.  I let it do whatever it was going to do for about 10 minutes before I stepped into the shower to scrub it off.  Ten minutes is a very long time without glasses and nothing to do.  Anyway, I spent the ten minutes after the shower examining my face.  I didn't really see that it made a difference.  In a good way, I guess.  My face hadn't swollen or turned an even uglier blistery red.  I withheld judgement for a couple of days.   Then I thought, "Maybe I'll do it again."

As of this post, I have slathered this concoction on my face twice.  It's actually making a huge difference!  I love this stuff.  Hey, and bonus - it's cheap!  Excuse me - it's inexpensive.....and I have the ingredients in my fridge.  I'm sold!  Next stop DIY deodorant and cold showers.  I think not!!!


Thanksgiving for the gift of
-Freedom won for me at the sacrifice of others much braver than I.
-Children's laughter reminding me of simple joys I often miss.
-Living in Paradise! I don't go to sleep listening to gunfire and wondering if my child will be an innocent casualty of war.