Hearts have been played.
Friends have been lost, but not forgotten.
Lives brought together or maybe torn apart.
Dreams remain unfulfilled, unchanged, unspoken.
And yet the sky is still blue, and the stars remain the same.
We wonder, we ponder, and we hypothesize.
We pay less attention when it counts.
Chance left behind for what we can quantify.
We’ll lose our faith in everyone we know.
And yet we will forget that no one wants to die alone.
All animals find a variety of insects to be annoying. The bites from these insects can also be unhealthy. Fortunately there are natural solutions that are mild, but effective. Even people can benefit from these easy to make pest control sprays. Mosquitoes and black flies can be chased away using these sprays too.This recipe makes about 32 oz of flea spray or insect repellant.
32 oz Water
2 tablespoons Polysorbate 20
2 teaspoons Catnip essential oil or Essential oil blend
1 teaspoon Neem oil
Combine the essential oil blend and Neem oil with the Polysorbate 20. Slowly begin to work the water into the Polysorbate 20 / oil blend. It may appear cloudy, but it will not separate. Package in Plastic or aluminum bottles equipped with spray misters.
Enjoy a pest free day!
http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/form_petfleas.html
I was standing in line at a certain Seattle based coffee shop and I noticed that everyone had their heads down, staring at their ‘smart phones’. None of these 15 or so patrons were there with a friend having coffee, or even acknowledged the person taking their order. They simply muttered their order to the barista—without looking up at her—then handed her a credit card. It was all very cold, detached, impersonal, and a little sci-fi movie scary to be honest!
Now, I am not saying that it is necessary to have a 5 minute conversation with a stranger about their life, especially when I am behind you in line and in need of my coffee fix. However, since when have we become so detached from human interaction that we no longer give someone the simple common courtesy of looking them in the eye…?
Just think about what we are missing out on by being so distracted by our tech… As a case in point, this particular barista was about 23 year’s old, long brown hair, petite, hazel eyes, and a nice smile. There were at least 3 decent looking guys without wedding rings on, and they didn’t even realize that this young attractive female was standing right in front of them. Since when has checking email become more important than flirting with a cute coffee girl?
We sit at a bar with friends and everyone has a phone in their hands. We check our Facebook status more than we check our mailbox. Our thumbs are stronger than our calves because we spend more time texting than we do walking. We email, IM, and video chat so often that we’ve actually convinced ourselves that this is just as effective as a phone call or actually being face-to-face with a friend.
Are we becoming too comfortable with the idea of minimal human interaction…?
Clay Masques  Clay masques can provide deep cleansing as part of your regular beauty treatment routine. Use once a week to refresh your face. Two types of clays are usually used in masques. Swelling clays have three layers and can trap metal ions and other materials between the layers. These tend to hydrate as loose slippery materials without much body. They include bentonite, Green montmorollinite (French green) and Rhassoul clays. Since the kaolins and illites hydrate on the surfaces, they are less absorbtive but will provide body to the masque. Both types are usually combined to create a balanced product.
Clay masques are also a very effective way to apply many active anti aging ingredients. Add them to the water that is used to hydrate the clays. Since clays are natural minerals, it is difficult to predict the exact amount of water that they will absorb. Add the water and mix until you achieve the correct consistency. Be prepared to add more as the clays swell over time. Wet masques must be properly preserved. Adding over 10 % glycerine will prevent microbes from growing and help hydrate the skin.
Refreshing French Green Clay Masque
Combine 1 tsp horsetail herb, 1 tsp lemongrass herb, 1 tsp chamomile herb and 2 to 3 crumbled white sage leaves in a heat seal tea bag. Steep for 10 minutes in 16 oz of boiling water combined with 4 tablespoons of glycerine. Allow this mixture to cool before adding other ingredients. Add 1 to 2 tsp SDF Hydra and 1 tsp Marine collagen. Add 1/2 tsp Panthenol and mix well. You can also add Kojic acid and/orDipotassium glycyrhizzate to work on age spots. Start with 1/4 tsp and work up as needed since these ingredients may be irritants at higher use rates. Use this water mixture to hydrate the clay mix. Look for these anti aging ingredients in the following article.
Combine 1 cup of French Green Montmorollinite clay with 1 cup ofKaolin clay. You may combine 1 to 2 tablespoons of Jojoba oil with the clay if desired to help treat dry skin. 2 tsp of Seabuckthorn oil and 1 tsp of Vitamin E oil may also be added to help nourish the skin. Add up to 2 tsp of fragrance or essential oils as desired. Add the water mixture slowly and mix well to form a medium thickness paste. It may take several hours for the clays to swell. Be prepared to adjust the mixture to an easily spreadable consistency. If more water is required, add 2 tablespoons of glycerine to 8 oz of water to finish the hydration. Package in jars.
Steam your face using a herbal tea to open pores prior to use. Spread a thin coat of the masque over the face and allow to dry for about 15 minutes. This masque will remain slightly flexible due to the glycerine content. Wash the masque off thoroughly using a natural soap. You may finish with an herbal astringent if desired, but this treatment alone will leave your face clean and refreshed.
Enjoy!
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As I sit here with my big class of cheap red wine (not suitable for anything but a hard & fast buzz and the Sunday gravy), I find myself reflecting on the events of the past few weeks. I am early into my 3rd decade of this journey we call life and I am wondering if anything of significance has really changed. Or is it just the same old story…different chapter.
We are supposed to make smarter and wiser choices, based on the proverbial “lesson learned” adage, but do we? By now we’ve been expected to step into line, but do any of us have a clue as to what that looks like and what its coordinates are?
We have big plans, we use big words, we think deeper and harder, and sometimes we even know the answers. And yet we often find ourselves as lost as we were on our first day of school!
If you’re sitting there thinking that I’m full of shit and you’ve got it all figured out, then my friend, you need to write a book!
If our mistakes are the same—just tied up in a different bow—how can we change the outcome? By definition, that would make us insane!
Chances are you know someone who served our country; have you thanked them? Far too often we fail to recognize what really matters in this world. We take for granted our “creature comforts” without ever really stopping to think about why we have them. We can go to the store whenever the mood strikes and buy whatever we want or dine out in a 5 star restaurant because a solider fought to give us this right. We live in a capitalist society that allows us these luxuries because someone’s husband, wife, brother or sister laid down their life to give us the right. We are basically free to do what we want and it is because of the brave men and women who fight to protect us and our freedom!
I met someone last weekend that inspired me with his selflessness and bravery. His sheer willingness to enlist in the army just to ensure the safe return of the men and women of the United States Military made me believe in humanity again!
With all the news of wars and people killing each other under the banner of God in order to gain control and make more money than they need, I can’t help but feel that the fate of mankind is bleak, but because of people like this brave solider I have hope once again!
After hearing this man’s incredible story, I’ve decided that I can no longer sit and just listen to these stories on the news and feel heartbreak and anger. My new motto in life is “Be the change you wish to see”! If these soldiers’ are willing to lay down their lives to protect me, I am going to do everything I can to make sure they know how much I appreciate what they have done for us!
As some of you may know, I will be turning 30 in a few days. As my only birthday wish I am asking all my friends to pay it forward. I have done some research and found two wonderful organizations that you can make a small donation to. The details of these organizations and the wonderful services they provide for our troops are listed below.
Thank you for reading and I do hope you can help me in my quest to make a difference in the lives of those who put themselves on the line.
Give peace of mind and help a soldier stationed overseas talk to their loved ones by clicking here: http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/shippingLabel_generic.html
Donate A Phone
It's simple and FREE! Every phone you donate will help increase the amount of talk time we're able to provide to our troops!
Cell Phones for Soldiers hopes to turn old cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops stationed overseas.
Help to keep the USO in the business of sending care packages and providing other types of assistance by clicking here:
Can there be more than one earth shattering, soul shaking love that feels as though destiny is giving you another chance? Or is it that the love you had was just to prepare you for the next level of enlightenment?
Do we simply fall in love way too easily and what we often feel and recognize as love is nothing more than an emotional upheaval of past experiences. Are we longing for a “story book fairy tale” and so we perpetually seek out the careless whispers and what we believe to be an unfounded connection to one another-- in an attempt to mask the pain of heartache and heartbreak?
Is there any validity to the theory of a soul mate? What if you have found your soul mate in someone other than a lover? Is it possible that your soul was split into several pieces, therefore giving you more than one soul mate? Or do we just have a propensity to continually fall down the proverbial rabbit hole until we can no longer stand to be so dizzy?
Can you believe enough in love to understand that maybe love is earth shattering and soul shaking not once, but several times, because what we feel with another may just be what we had lacked with the former?
Is there more than one true love out there because the needs of your heart have changed and love is willing to adapt to that?
This nourishing all organic oatmeal and sugar scrub is rich in essential nutrients and contains clarifying ingredients to help exfoliate and protect the skin from free radicals, harmful UVA/B rays, pollution, and poor nutrition that we expose ourselves to daily.
Combined with the Oatmeal &Avocado Oil bath gel and body lotion with SPF 100+, your skin will thank you for a lifetime.
¾ cup organic raw sugar (see recommended brands below)
½ cup steel cut oatmeal
¾ cup cold pressed organic avocado oil
¾ to 1 cup (or to total saturation) fixed oil of choice (recommended :Babassu, Karanja and Sweet Almond)
1/4 tsp Essential or Fragrance oil of choice (optional) Jasmine or Lavender absolutes work nicely (see recommended brads).
Mix the sugar and oatmeal together in a large bowl. Slowly combine the oil in with the dry mixture. Mix well. When all dry ingredients are saturated and sink to the bottom of the bowl, add the essential oil and/or fragrance oil to the emulsion. The mixture is now ready to be bottled and stored for use.
Poor mixture in to your container of choice (a six or eight ounce wide-mouthed jar works nicely).
Recommended Use: For optimum results, use up to three times per week.
Recommended Brands:
Raw Organic Sugar: Sugar in the Raw http://www.sugarintheraw.com/
Essential Oils (Lavender): English Lavender http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/english_lavender_eo.html
Essential Oils (Jasmine): Jasmin graniflorum (India) http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/essentialoils_2.html
Essential Oils: Avocado, Babassu, Karanja, and Sweet Almond http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/fixedoils.html
*May be stored for 24 months at a temperature not exceeding 77°F (25°C ) from the date of manufacture.
It has been a while...
Since we last spoke… So much has happened that I really don’t even know where to begin!
My business partner left without even so much as a goodbye… Lance stopped all contact with me for about three weeks, this last may. He called me while I was visiting family and working on finding investors –in Memphis. He told me that he decided to take on another opportunity and that he would stay on “the team” as a consultant. He promised to complete the work he started, as well as make sure the art work that my branding agent (his college friend) had done, was returned to me. Well, lets just say for the sake of keeping it short and moving on, that was our last and final contact! Of course I tried for months to reach him, but got nothing! I am not too worried though, as I am a huge believer in karma!
So much has happened since May and what I like to call the “Dark Era”. I am back in school, busting my ass trying to pass this semester I started 5 weeks behind. I found a new job working for a certain State Chamber that does not wish to be recognized as such. Personally, I feel like we would get more respect and make more money if we did call ourselves “The State Chamber”, but what the hell do I know…I am just a lonely MBA student trying to make her way!
I stopped working on Siren, and I guess it was a mourning period for me, but I am back and determined (more than ever) to make this dream a reality!
In short, things are great! Life or the “Universe”, as I like to refer to it, has shown me yet another reason why I need to fully pursue my passion for entrepreneurship. And my educational aspirations!
Siren is back on track and so am I. Keep those requests for informative discussions coming!
Love you, Dolls!
Round Three: Overcoming Demons
I was in a dark place and decided that the best course of action was to act like everyone else my age and hide behind drinking and partying. I lost sight of who I was and what I wanted out of life. I was acting in a negative way and therefore negative things happened in my life. I got involved with the wrong crowds, stayed out late, worried my poor mother almost to an early grave, and did not pursue my goals I had set as a young child to become a doctor. I was wasting my life and then… I finally snapped out of it and not a moment too soon. A lot of the people that I was hanging around with got involved in illegal activity and most of them ended up in and out of jail.
That was my wake up call and so I decided to get serious about my life. I was twenty and started dating this guy who seemed sweet and sincere. He had great eyes and an infectious smile which was almost the end of me. I had this idea to start a line of fragrances’ and he was quick to jump on board with the idea. We started out small and then became somewhat successful. He was the biggest mistake of my life- long story short, he stole money and left me homeless, and then he took his own life. After that, I gained a huge amount of weight due to stress and depression so I moved to Cleveland to live with my Aunt and get my life back on track once again. I tried everything from walking to running in order to lose the 60 pounds I gained, but there was one thing that eluded me and that was the concept of eating right. I was working out and not losing a pound, in fact I was gaining weight. I continued to walk to work every day and had all but given up until I met Joe.
Joe had the body of a Greek God! Some say that he looks like an anatomy chart and it is kind of true. He was gorgeous and I thought I had a less than zero chance. I just stared at him from a far every time he would come into the store I was working at. Then one day I noticed he was coming in for no apparent reason. He would just come up to the counter and talk to me for hours and my boss finally had to tell him to ask me out or buy something and so he asked me out. We hit it off and unofficially dated for a few months before I moved back to Colorado. Once I got settled back home he came for a visit and one thing led to another and he moved out to Denver.
He was what I like to call the” Fitness Nazi” and it was exactly what I needed. He taught me about eating well and working out regularly and it wasn’t long until I was back in great shape and feeling good about myself. This time it was different, I finally started to accept myself for who I was. I started to embrace my curves and love my body for everything it was and wasn't. I had finally gotten to a place where I was truly happy with the way I looked and I had decided that I looked pretty damn amazing despite what "mainstream" deemed as sexy!
After two and a half years we ended our relationship, but we still remain the best of friends. I kept my body in shape and worked out regularly for a while until I lost that drive and became complacent with where I was at. We all do it because it is easier to accept what is there rather than striving for what is better. We get lazy and fall back in to old habits or whatever the excuse that makes us sleep better. If I had known that I would gain back half of that 60 pounds in less than a year, you bet your ass I would’ve continued to work out and eat right. It is so much harder to gain back that momentum once you have let it go!
To be continued.....
Round Two: Negative Self-image
My tween/teenage years were a nightmare, I was already developed in certain areas (wink-wink) and I still had my supermodel strut which made me a huge target for other kids to constantly pick on me. Being beat up and called names everyday takes a toll on a girl. I was back to my ways of being self-conscious and hating my body and the way I looked. I had curves and was tall and I thought I was fat and ugly because I let all those people get inside my head. I remained reclusive and didn't talk to people much because I was afraid of what they thought about me.
It wasn't until I turned 18 that I decided I was going to get in the best shape I could and I couldn't give a damn what others thought of me. I had a whole new set of friends and I was finally coming in to my own. I started to embrace what I had, but it wasn't long before I tried to convince myself that I needed to change my body to conform to what the magazines and mainstream media deemed the “norm” of what a woman looks like. I was kidding myself, I have never been nor will I ever be a size zero. I am just not built that way, but I thought I had to look that way to be accepted. I tried everything short of bulimia to look the way I perceived as being beautiful. This was all enough to send me into a terrible downward spiral of depression and horrible negative self-image issues. And even though I was in the best shape of my life I hated my body……
Round One: Self-confidence Learned at an Early Age
As requested, this is my confession of being totally obsessed with my weight! It’s true and if you know me then I am sure I have asked you at some point “Does this make me look fat?” I can’t help myself and I have no one to blame but me, but the good news is that I made it to a point in my life where I can finally embrace my curves and say with conviction that I am sexy as heck….!
I guess the best place to start is from the beginning.... So here it is!
It all started one perfect January afternoon back in 1990 in California at a brunch for my grandmothers birthday. I was discovered by the man who, at the time was the head of the Miss California Pageant Organization. Jeep Jones (head honcho), was staring at me from another table and my grandmother, who (if you know her then you this about her) is a spitfire that ya just don’t want to mess with, stood up and walked over to his table demanding an explanation as to why he had his “creepy little eyes all over her granddaughter”. He stood up and extended his hand with a look of horror in his eyes and introduced himself. Needless to say she was bright red in the face. She took his card and returned to the table too embarrassed to finish her meal.
After several months of preparation I entered the first of many pageants. It started with Miss San Bernardino County where I took 3rd princes and Miss Photogenic. That was enough to qualify me for the next round which was Miss Inland Empire where I took 2nd princes, Miss Photogenic, and Most Potential. Not to mention several hundreds of dollars in scholarship money. I qualified for the nationals held in Anaheim which was the beginning of the road to Miss California and eventually Miss America. I did not place in the Nationals, but I did receive Girl of the Year, Miss Photogenic, and Miss Congeniality. And I won several divisions including western wear, prettiest eyes, smile, and face. That was enough to send my self-confidence through the moon and as a tall lanky child who was constantly teased, it was much needed.
My family was transferred to Waycross, GA several months later where I entered one pageant and actually won the title. It was America’s Cover Miss USA and it came with some great prizes and more money. My southern beauty pageant career was short-lived as we eventually moved back home to the great state of Colorado.
A few months in to being back home (where I was born) my mother received a call out of the blue. It was one of the judges from the nationals in Cali. She was also a talent agent for the children’s division of Elite Modeling Agency. She wanted to sign me but I had to go to a modeling school where they could help me lose my pageant ways and become more marketable for print and runway work. I did just that and it started out great until they started hounding me about my weight and nitpicking about everything else. My mother saw the effect this was having on me and so being the wise woman that she is, she yanked me out and that was the end of my life as supermodel.
I was devastated and my family and friends spent the better part of a year trying to convince me that I was beautiful both inside and out. My mother always taught me that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that being a good person was far more important than being “ Really, really, ridiculously good looking” LOL! How true those words are but it took me 15 years to really embrace it.
High market growth rates and the absence of official standards are leading to many pseudo-natural products being launched. The proliferation of organic & natural personal care products is making consumers scrutinize the ingredient composition and demand products with high levels of natural extracts, ethical and certified organic ingredients. New entrants like Clinique and Estee Lauder are launching products certified by organizations like Ecocert and Soil Association. Other companies are making products that contain USDA certified organic ingredients.
There is something to be said about the grieving period of a dead relationship. I, however consistently make bad decisions in that arena and so , true to character, I decided to dive head first back into the proverbial dating pool. I am not sure what was worse, spending the entire evening comparing the sweet new guy to the old “not so sweet” but oh so desirable ex, or the burnt turkey burger he (sweet new guy) served me on an over-processed generic white sesame seed bun…!
While my head is still in compare and contrast mode…. Shall we?
Guy A: Sharp shooter who is defiantly into breaking hearts and thinks the world revolves around him. A self-serving hunter with a sleazy one-track-mind! Often, there was little space left for me after he and his ego entered the room. Defiantly has a chip on the shoulder, but when we were alone he was the sweetest man you could ever hope to share the company of. Driven and ambitious with a heart of gold that I often said was surrounded by the great wall. Which was appropriate since the majority of our relationship was spent with him living in China! Tender, kind, and sincere until he got hungry or something else pissed in his Fruit Loops!
Guy B: Not the one, but a nice break from all the bullshit. He is nice on the eyes, cute smile, and salt & pepper George Clooney hair, which I am a big fan of. If Chris Daughtry and Timothy Olyphant had a baby…! He really is yummy, but seemingly lacks ambition, direction, and goals. On the plus side he is adventurous, but he also said he was good in bed. And any self-promoting “sex God” usually isn’t… ugh! He invited me on a camping trip in Napa Valley, but….. Wait for it…..with his parents! OY VEY!
Guy B scored major points with me when he asked me if I wanted to go on a walk through the park… cute, right! Short lived because when I got there he nixed the walk and decided we would hang at his place and drink wine (we all know what that means)! He might have had a chance if he played is cards right, I’m just sayin’! I decided that since I got all dolled up I would indulge him. If I had known that I would be served a burnt turkey burger on over-processed white sesame seed bun with generic cheese and a side of spinach with stale tortilla chips I would have stayed home. Hell, I have four pounds of turkey burger and a fabulous salad chillin’ right here! He was filled with great conversation though and again, easy on the eyes, which almost made up for the lack of originality on our first and probably only date!
My conclusion, this dating thing is overrated, until I meet that man who shakes me to the core, if he is out there… back to the drawing board.
Goodnight and sweet dreams!
The process of starting an organic and eco-friendly bath and body products company like Siren of Serenity is research intensive. The research conducted on the internet, based on market trends, showed that the market place is on the brink of a new age. The market place research showed that 60-70 percent of the population is concerned about the products they are putting into and on their bodies, as well as, what effects they have on the environment.
There are good reasons for people to be concerned, when most of the bath and body products used are not eco-friendly and have a number of dangerous chemicals in them, such as:
· Acrylamide: Used to manufacture contact lenses, soaps, and cosmetic products.
· Ethlene oxide: Used to sterilize cosmetic, food, and medical products manufacturing equipment.
· Nitrobenzene: Used as a substitute for almond essence in perfumes’, lotions, and soaps. This chemical is also used in shoe and metal polishes.
· Perfluorooctanoic acid: Once used as a pesticide this chemical is now commonly used as coating for non-stick cookware, stain-resistant coating for rugs, furniture, clothing, and of course as a compound for cosmetics.
· Urethane: Utilized as a solvent for organic materials and co-solvent in the manufacturing of pesticides, fumigants, and cosmetics.
According to the Silent Spring Institute in a report published in 2007 titled “Environmental Factors in Breast Cancer” (Silent Spring Institute, Newton, MA, 2007) the above chemicals have been linked to causing mammary gland tumors in animals. The report cited that there are over 200 chemicals to be known environmental factors in causing breast cancer and that a large amount of these chemicals are used in our personal hygiene and beauty products. The Silent Springs report also noted that when these chemicals were administered in the drinking water of lab rats they were shown to induce mammary carcinomas and tumors in the mammary glands. In some cases both sexes were affected. The vast majority of these chemicals are used in a variety of products that range from cleaning solvents to pesticides. When the consumer uses a product, like lotion for instance, it is expected to be moisturizing and generally good for the human body – not something that doubles as insect poison. In the same study it was stated that, from 1973 to 1998 the breast cancer rates in the United States increased by more than 40%, “identified breast cancer risks cannot account for this escalation” (silentspring.org).
Since these ingredients aren’t ingested into the body, there is very little regulation on what can and cannot be used to make skin, hair, mouth, and nail care products. Some mouth washes have been linked to increased mouth and throat cancer. Chemicals in deodorant can greatly increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Other chemicals may cause asthma, ADHD, hormonal problems, and even decreased fertility. Removing these chemicals from personal hygiene products leaves the consumer with essential oils, vital nutrients, and healthy compounds that can be trusted to produce a healthy outcome from everyday use.
