Compulsive buying

Some of my closest friends and family members are compulsive shoppers and buyers. They seek the thrill of the purchase, and sometimes there can be a lingering effect of pride for the item. But that feeling fades and one must buy again to keep themselves happy. Cruise lines are a great example of a money making powerhouse which feeds off all nationalities of people with little regard to humanity and the environment. Just buy, eat, buy, eat, buy!

How can you tell if someone is a compulsive shopper?
They have bigger closets than living rooms, more shoes than friends, spend their time going out of town to shop, or are compulsive cruise line sailors. They have 10 pairs of watches but only one wrist to wear it on. Freezer, fridge and pantry stocked with the same items, half expired due to always eating out.

But they don't need a lot of money. Those with a lower income are the cupon seekers, the sales event shoppers, and I am guilty of the thrift store shopping (although I limit myself to once a month.) A majority work long hours and enjoy the comfort of their couch or computer chair at home. Highly processed foods fill the shelves because who wants to keep up with fresh food and spend time cooking their own meals, especially when it just tastes so great! Add water, pop in microwave and presto! Delicious home cooked meals in only 3 microwave minutes.

I started eating healthy when I was 22. Maybe even 23. After working at an organic foods store I began buying from there because of my discount. I learned how delicious healthy food was and best of all- how it make me feel. When working at a hotel I got paid very little and worked part time so I got my food from a food bank. Once a week you could get a bag of fresh veggies, and a bag of fresh fruit. Once a month a box of the monthly supplies- grains, canned foods, meats, dairy. The breads were from local bakeries including Panera Bread, and the veggies were not only from grocery stores but local farmers who had too much. So I got to experiment with a different foods I normally would not have chosen...
Now I am a compulsive label reader. After having a job which required weekly date checking of the entire store I go through my parents pantry and refrigerator for expired goods about once a year.  Sometimes things will sneak by.. like 4 cans of beans expired 2 years back...
And these highly processed potato stix... cant be worse than potato chips right? WRONG!
18g fat, 8g TRANS FAT in ONE serving~ the entire can.
My dad was bring these to lunch.  After having a foot of his colon removed due to colon cancer, I thew all of those cans in the trash...  Read those labels!  Even if it says 0g it can have up to .5g and read '0'.  So read the ingredients too, make sure there are no hydrogenated oils, unless you like to cover your heart with a nice layer of fat...

Spring Garden

I've got a broccoli crown that is just started to grow, carrots that can be harvested to make room, or wait until they get a bit larger, pea & cucumber seedlings ready for transplant next week, & strawberries starting to grow. A friend of mine mentioned pollinating the strawberries as he had a hard time with them before, but we have so many bees buzzing around our plum trees out back it hasn't been an issue.
The plant seedlings were not organic, but the growing methods are. I know that still does not make my food 'organic' but I feel better knowing my food only needs a good rinse when it comes out of the garden.

Bees- they buzz around, collecting pollen and sometimes stinging people. There are usually bumble bees out buzzing around me while I garden, and I make sure to give them space. They are tending to my plants making sure the flowers get pollinated. I have always liked bees and since I eat a lot of local honey my allergies aren't even half as bad as my boyfriend's-who hardly sweetens stuff.
If I ever reach my goal and live on my own land my main priorities will be my garden and my bees. I want to keep bees to extract their delicious honey in the spring and fall. I have read up about bee keeping and it seems like something I would really enjoy. Not only that but it will definitely be an income earner for my 'farm' and I can focus on having a garden purely for sustaining my 'family' and not having to stress and mess with large quantities of organic produce.

Easy Beeswax Lotion

'Nana Puddin'

I wanted to find an easy lotion to make that required few all natural ingredients, and after searching I finally found on A Sonoma Garden blog.
I cut the recipe in a quarter as I don't go through lotion too fast. I also used Jojoba oil instead of olive, but I think a mixture of the two would be lovely. Mine came out very yellow so I call it "Nana Puddin" cause it looks like banana pudding.

Its really as easy as 1-2-3

Ingredients in Nana Puddin~
1/4 cup Organic Jojoba oil (purchased on ebay)
2 Tbs Organic coconut oil (Earth Fare)
.5 oz Organic Beeswax (purchased in 1 oz bars on Amazon)
2 caps Vitamin E oil (any store)
5 drops essential oil

I mixed the lotion already in the glass Ball jar by placing a wire rack directly over a pot of boiling water. You can also try a double boiling method and pouring into your container, or follow the directions on A Sonoma Garden. Once its all melted and combined, remove from heat and allow to cool until room temperature. Whip it with a fork every 15 minutes or so to keep it all combined. Once its at room temperature add the vitamin E oil and essential oil for fragrance.

The batch I made today has 5 drops of Sweet Orange essential oil but usually I leave it scent free and enjoy the honey coconut scent it naturally has.

I chose jojoba oil because it supposedly has properties similar to oils naturally found on our skin, so its easily absorbed and good for sensitive skin. So far its great for my skin, which can be very sensitive.

DIY Toothpaste

6 parts baking soda + 1 part hydrogen peroxide + 1 part vegetable glycerin + flavor

I used peppermint extract. Brushing my teeth with this makes them squeeky clean, when I ran out I felt duped after brushing with a commercial brand~ I still felt plaque on my teeth. After using this recipe I do not have any plaque on my teeth after brushing, same tooth brush and all.

Broccoli FTW

I did very well with growing broccoli this winter. In the deep south this mild winter rarely lead to freezing temps. The 4 broccoli plants I grew from young plants at Lowe's yielded a large broccoli crown each, and very many florets. Some of them flowered and I still ate them raw in salads and on veggie sandwiches. I read that once they flower they are inedible... but when ate some like this and I was fine... The broccoli leaves are also edible and I've found a few recipes online but have not tried. Now I have 9 very happy young broccoli plants growing in my potting mix and compost I got from a neighbor. Strawberries are also surviving the cool nights well in the middle of the broccolis, and a young carrot harvested was delicious and told me they still need another month or two before they're full grown.
I also planted a tomato today, the small cherry kind because those did best in the buckets last year; and 5 bell pepper plants.

We may be on the road again soon. And when that happens I don't want to abandon my garden. So I am looking at buying a trailer and building up sides, drilling holes in the floor and putting my soil and garden in that. I will garden in square feet so I can easily determine how much I can grow. I have a design laid out and seeing on craigslist the one I'm looking for can come inexpensive so I look forward to practicing (on a small scale) a gardening style that was practiced successfully by native Americans.

Zuni Gardens, Curtis

Soothing Deoderant

I've had a deodorant recipe from the Bust magazine sitting around for about 3 years, so I finally made some. I ordered organic cocoa and shea butter online, the rest I had at home.

In a double boiler melt 3 Tbsp Shea butter, 3 Tbsp baking soda, 2 Tbsp. cornstarch or arrowroot powder, 2 TBsp cocoa butter and 2 vitamin E oil gel caps together. Mix it together good and when its liquified remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator. When it is at room temp (before it hardens) add essential oil of your choice I added 15 drops, you can add anywhere from 10-20.

Be careful with changing the recipe to a smaller amount. I scaled it down to a quarter amount to put in a decorative tin I had. I must have squeezed a little bit too much vitamin E oil as my armpits turned red and irritated. This did not happen with the above batch. Vimatin E and the essential oils act as preservatives, which can irritate skin (esp sensitive skin) if used too much. I've had the above batch a month and a similar recipe found online yeilded about 3 to 4 months of freshness. So I would scale it down to half if using alone, and to the full amount if sharing.

My first batch a mixed 10 drops Eucalyptus with 5 drops Lemon grass for an androgynous scent which both my boyfriend and I enjoy.

Tuna juice & handmade cards

I've been a busy bee lately. I have made taken the canned tuna (Remember: that "Tuna" is a name for the Pricky Pear Fruit) syrup and been mixing delicious drinks out of it~ some syrup, lemon lime soda and either tequila or vodka! white rum may even be good too~ or coconut rum! The possibilities are endless. If someone were to have a ladies night sort of party this would be a PERFECT drink to have mixed up.
I have also been taking the juice, which I have in a mason jar in the freezer, scraping some "Tuna" ice off and mix lightly into drinks to add a pink pizzaz! Then I took the thawed juice and added a bunch to some orange juice I had from concentrate. It is so delicious, but Trey won't drink it! I think the fabulous fuchsia turns him off. Adding just a tiny bit of the juice adds the color, but not so much the flavor. So you could add it to orange juice for an interesting twist on the orange color of orange juice, with only adding a very slight hint of another taste.

you've heard of pink lemonade~ but pink orange juice?

I got some cardstock from target ($7 for 75 colorful scrapbook sized pages) along with patterned gift wrap for a $1 a roll. I got a bit of gift wrap from my parents too (for embellishments). I used a glue stick to glue the wrapping paper on the folded cardstock (I was able to get 4 cards from each page: 2 large and 2 small). I hand painted some with "noel" and "joy" while others got a Santa. One got a snowflake my friend made. I went through magazines I got for free and found pages that had little to no words and were pleasing to the eye. These ones went to some of my family members in Massachusetts.

I still need to photograph the rest of the cards and their envelopes. Now I can make nice cards for an occasion from wrapping paper, magazines, old posters... the possibilities seem endless!
Oh and I harvested some broccoli and lettuce~ yum!