Spring Gardening Fever

I wish my garden looked like Tintinhull Gardens. I lived in the southern part of England for six years and really enjoyed seeing as many gardens as I could. At one point I could name almost every plant by it's Latin name...that is how "into" horticulture I was. When I came back over here after my divorce...I did not have too much time to garden as I was overwhelmed with just trying to survive as a single parent. But, I did manage to hold on to some of the passion by at least having a small vegetable garden every year and some flowers in pots.

Now it is absolutely necessary to grow vegetables just to save money on my grocery bill!

It helps that my boyfriend let me borrow his John Deere riding mower...instead of it taking me three days to complete the lawn with the decrepit push mower....it will just take me about 30 minutes! Now I actually have more time to get my hands into the soil and plant for a RRREAALlly GOOOOOd ShOOOOOw that Ed Sullivan would be proud of.....if you remember him then you might be in the same age bracket!

Hip Hip Hooray on Ex Getting Married!

Three cheers for my ex getting re-married in Florida! I am so thrilled for the happy couple! Here is a picture of my daughter (with her half-brother and cousin) all dressed in a lovely red dress and her nails were done up...can't see them in this picture but I know as she sent a separate pic with just her hand!

It's been almost 15 years since the divorce, so people will probably wonder why it has not happened for me yet. I guess it's really hard to find a really good man these days. Now that the economy has took a bad turn, it will be even harder to find a guy that has the disposable cash to take us women out on proper dates! We all need to hold ourselves to higher standards, but we don't want to be gold diggers either. Sometimes the problem comes from thinking that we will just "bump" into our potential man in the grocery store or at the gym.....maybe that works for less shy people as I don't just strike up conversations in the meat department...no pun intended!

Not everyone is suited to marriage anyhow. I quite like the fact I can go where I want to go, see who I want to see, do what I want to do without someone nagging me about these things. But, when the time comes to take the plunge...I am certainly not going to lower my expectations just because my former other half has beat me to the whipping post alter!

Homemade Sunscreen

Getting ready for another round of summer and cooking up a batch of sunscreens. Here is a recipe you can try at home:

Screen out the Sun, Cream

Water Base: ¼ Cup Aloe, ¼ Cup Water, Pinch of Natural Borax, Pinch Green Tea Leaf Powder, 3 Tbsp. Zinc Oxide Powder

Oil Base: ¼ Cup Olive Oil, 2 Tbsp. Organic Coconut Oil, 3 Tbsp. Natural Wax Pellets, 2 Tsp. Stearic Acid (Thickener), 10 Drops Vanilla Essential Oil, 6 Drops Geranium Essential Oil, 6 Drops Carrot Seed Essential Oil

Cook the water base ingredients separate from the oil base ingredients, both can just be on medium low. Sprinkle in the Zinc Oxide slowly while stirring. Cook the oil base just until all the wax melts down. The water mixture can be strained to get the Green Tea particles out. The stearic acid melts down with the oil ingredients and makes the oil emulsify into the water, plus it is a natural thickener.

Remember to put the essential oils in last (in the oil) before you mix with the water base, as you want them to stay fresh in the recipe and not get overheated. Put the water mixture in a glass bowl and trickle in the oil while beating on medium.

The trick is to keep both the water and oil at same temp. as you are mixing them so you do not get coagulation which is a separation of the oil and water. It helps to have two temp. thermometers and have the batches at between 90-120 degrees to prevent coagulation. Do not microwave this as it reduces the effectiveness of the ingredients.

Olive oil and Coconut Oils filter out the suns rays between 20-30% naturally, Aloe and Green Tea prevent cellular damage, Carrot Seed and Geranium Oil also filter the sun's rays, and Zinc Oxide provides a UVA/UVB protection.

Don't worry if your formula has bits of zinc that don't sink in immediately like the brands on the market, just keep rubbing until the water in the mix evaporates and it will smooth out. If you are particular about this you can always grind up your zinc particles more in a mortar and pestle. You are getting the benefits of more available nutrients for the skin rather than being "cancelled" out by the damage the chemical ridden brands will cause.

Using this formula will create a natural SPF of approximately 20-30

Have fun!

Brow Beating the American Woman

Would you believe the new study that came out today that states that if woman who exercise ½ hour per day is not doing enough and should be doing an hour? What do they think we all are...rich and have our own Hollywood personal trainers with time to spare to do extra Pilates?

I think it requires some reading in between the lines. What they are trying to say is that we are eating too much overly processed foods and junk fast food that it takes that extra 30 minuets to rake the extra flab off. But, of course they don't want to hurt the food industries profits by broadcasting that flame broiled information on the morning news and pointing the finger at the shameful state of our food. Lets just brow beat women some more.

The conspiracy theorists will say the information is to insure that people who are already struggling to do 30 min per day...or maybe only 30 min per week....will surely give up on their routine. In turn, we will get sicker and fatter thicker, and then the pharmaceutical industry will get a sturdy profit this year from just one untimely announcement on the Today Show. So don't listen to all that nonsense and stick with your normal routine and add more organic and live foods to your diet.

Bedouin Desert Necklace

Got some crafting done. My skin looks old today as its dry from soldering and using oxidizing agents on my jewelry. Now I look as antiqued as my jewelry!

I was pissed yesterday 'cause my micro torch broke and I had to use my clunky soldering iron instead. I just got the bloody thing a couple weeks ago....was all excited....and capooowy...it kicked the bucket. I must have hit the switches hundreds of times saying all the while...it got to work...its got to work....its got to work...click click click click click click Even filled it up with butane several times even though I knew it was filled.

At least that has a year warranty! It feels like my own frail human warranty is about to expire after that episode.

Chanting

I've been meditating for 2 years now and have just recently added Om Mani Padme Hung as a chanting verse while I am concentrating on breathing. I've always wondered what it sounded like when a Buddhist chanted it and spun a prayer wheel.

This Buddhist has got an adorable smile at the end.

Love this!

Namaste.

My Facebook Breakthru

Above are all the weird people who visited me as soon as I opened my Facebook page today. Just kidding. However, I am kinda waiting for all the riff raff to show up eventually. My daughter says that I should not allow so many people to see my pages, but the whole point of it for me was to social network more as I felt I was not doing enough of that.

I guess I will just shut more areas down and just allow for friend access only. I guess my curiosity is getting the best of me to see what will happen. Yes, I do watch the news and know what happened to that poor kid when that preditor found her on that site.

Anybody reading this have any weird stories to tell about Facebook besides getting in touch with people they have not seen in years?....like what happened to me today. Someone that I knew 20 years ago is living in Vegas and will be coming back here soon. No way would I have known that without Facebook!

Way Cool! I think....