Lip Balm and weird goo

I was researching lip gloss recipes online for my day today.

My sister in law came over to make stuff. I am packed pretty full of soap right now, so I suggested we do the chap stick I have been wanting to make, and the lip gloss she has been wanting. I asked her if she had a recipe in mind and she said "No.". So I figured it was my job to supply one ( I don't mind the responsibility).

So in my research  I realized that there are very few gloss recipes that do not involve petroleum jelly. I wanted to make a natural lip gloss, so that would not do at all.

I found one that involved aloe, olive oil and coconut oil. Perfect. In the directions it said if I did not have aloe gel, but did have a plant just to pop one of those babies open and scrape out the gel. So I did.

Have you ever done that? I didn't take a picture, but it looked like snot. And felt like snot. Smelled kinda weird too.  

My poor aloe plant....

We made the gloss and it did not want to come together very well. I believe the person who came up with this recipe never actually used raw aloe before.

I chunked it. It did not turn out like something I was willing to slather on my lips every day.

I altered the recipe and made a version with 1/4 teaspoon beeswax, 1Tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon shea butter, and 4 drops orange oil.

I like it. It is shiny and smells good. Not snotty at all :)

The chap stick recipe came from a blog I love.

It is:
1 1/2 tsp beeswax
1 7/8 tsp coconut oil
1 1/8 tsp coco butter (I used shea butter because that's what I had, and I was too cheap lazy to go get anything else)
3 tsp olive oil
3 vitamin E capsules (Optional)

5 Empty chap stick tubes. (She swore it filled 7, but I only got 5 out of the recipe)

Mix everything together in a heat safe, pour-able container (I used my measuring cup) except the vitamin E (I made a batch with orange oil, if using any essential oils leave these out too)

Microwave for short (15 second-ish) intervals until all have melted together. Then mix in the vitamin E and essential oil (Both of these are optional) and pour into the containers.

That's it!

Rocks, doesn't it?

A different way

So my honeysuckle infused oil did not work out the way I was hoping. I think the oil I used had too strong a scent to really pick up the honeysuckle.

So I made a po-dunk still.

Yup.

Hehe...

I understand the basic mechanics of a still  (Umm, mostly).
So I used my tea kettle, put a decorative can on the end to gather the steam, which has a pour spout to direct the condensed steam into my dish. Then I put a bag of ice on the can to help the steam condense quickly. The honeysuckle blooms are inside the pot simmering (try not to boil, it destroys some of the nice-ness) releasing their oils and infusing the steam.

Yup, po-dunk but it worked!!!

Now I just need a lot more and I can make my own honeysuckle lotion! Hopefully I will get a little better at it and I can extract the oil from my honeysuckle scented oil/water.

I find myself writing here less and less. I read other blogs religiously and think about this one all the time. However, I notice I more am jealous as I read the other blogs. Oh, why didn't I think of that first. That blogger has so many more readers then I do. They must have an easier life then me.

Blah blah blah....

Pity party over here.

I know that this is not true. They simply have been more dedicated to blogging every day. Either they find it therapeutic to blog, or are making money at it, or feel they have a responsibility to their readers to provide them with something to read everyday. 

I have decided to blog 5 days a week. Even if I do not feel like it, even if I am too busy, even if I think I do not have anything interesting enough to say. Here I am and Here I will be. 

I think it will be good for me. It shall (hopefully) improve my writing, and aid me with way to organize  my thoughts. Keep up with the things that are going on in my day-to-day life, and give me something to look back on in later years. A way to remember these times in my life that are floating by too quickly, never to return again. 

I may just be feeling a bit too emotional right now. Who said that you get everything you want the first time you try for it. Some times these things are hard won, sometimes they pop up accidentally. Sometimes great things are discarded. 

Yes, I believe I am in a bit of a mood today. Not a pleasant one either. This too, shall pass.

Dear Saturday,

This Saturday finds me striped with sunburn and very happy.

Yesterday was our first full day on vacation.

So far we have been out to eat once, worked out twice (first time I managed to make myself workout on vacation. Yep.... pretty impressed with myself right now) and been to the store three or more times!

I love the full kitchen. We have bought enough food to feed us well this entire vacation for the amount we would spend going out to eat once. We will supplement it with some fresh seafood for HH. That is about all the money we have to spend!

This is about as thrifty of a vacation as we can manage (not that taking a vacation is thrifty to begin with, but sometimes a girls has to have some good old fashioned singing on the beach kind of fun:)

We had a sunset dinner on the balcony last night too.

We went to sextons fish market and bought a hunk of tuna and some shrimp for HH.  For 20 bucks he was able to eat a ridiculous amount of incredibly fresh fish.  

See?

-------------

I have been a little lazy about getting this post up, it is now a few days later... Hehe...

I wanted some more pictures before I posted, however it took me two days and two close dolphin sightings(Sooooooo cool) before I finally remembered to bring my camera out.

The first day we saw the dolphins they were about 30 feet off the shore line. As soon as I realized they were dolphins I ran and jumped in the water and tried to swim with them. I didn't make it in soon enough, or they just didn't want to swim with me. Either way when I started looking around I realized everyone else chose to get out of the water when they saw the dolphins, and that I was the only one to get in. Those people are crazy.... ; ) I can not imagine missing an opportunity to swim with wild dolphins.

Hehe...

I will have my camera on me today and tomorrow which will be our last days. Hopefully there will be a repeat performance!

We have done very well on our budget vacation. We hit happy hour when we wanted to go out, and have cooked in the rest of the time.

We went to a movie, but hit the matinee and smuggled in candy in my purse (shssh.... don't tell)

We did walk down the beach yesterday to buy onion rings at a beach restaurant, the back porch. The only place I know of that welcomes swimsuits and bare feet. Its tradition for us.

I hope you all are having as good of a week as I am!

I'll see you again when I am back in Alabama.

Rainy days

Look at my beautiful fence! HH is diligently putting it up, even in the rain:)

It has been  a while since I have posted.

I have been cleaning for out of town visitors, cooking for a baby shower. (kinda fun)

Interviewing and searching for new jobs, considering my options for more schooling.(Miserable, though HH seems to think I should be excited about this for some reason)

Making honeysuckle infused oil (awesome fun)

and preparing for a vacation.

We are leaving for the beach on Thursday (yay!!!)

We are falling off the budget wagon to take a vacation, but HH pouts (okay, okay, so do I) if we do not get to take one. So we are doing it on the cheap. We got a great deal on a condo, and it has a kitchen in it! It is where we stayed last year. We had a wonderful experience so I hope we do this year as well.

The kitchen makes a big difference in how much we spend. We will probably go out to eat once. Other then that we will pick up some seafood to cook at the condo. We'll grill out one night as well.

The view from the condo last year. We are higher up this year (And paid less!!! Yippee!)

Next time I talk to you this will be my view :)

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone!

Have a blessed and joyful day!

Cute, huh?

Kombucha Kombucha.....

I finally did it.

I made kombucha. What is kombucha?

Good question. A month ago I had no idea either.

Kombucha is  a fermented sweet tea health drink.

Weird? Yep. Tasty and good for you? Yep.

Kombucha is known for its pro-biotic and detoxifying qualities. There are many other health claims, but as to how accurate they are that is up to you to decide. I personally enjoy it. It keeps you, ehem.... going. You know, regularly....

And it is not sweet. I enjoy a good bubbly beverage but get tired of sweet stuff. This , like my husband said is good if you are a beer drinker.

It is not an alcoholic drink. Even though the process is very similar to that of beer making. (According to wikipedia it has an alcohol content similar to that of a non-alcoholic beer. Which is less then you get from your morning mouthwash).

My quest to make and try kombucha started when I first heard of it here...

Seeing as I prefer to make things myself, and can not see spending 3.50$ for a 16 oz bottle every time I want to drink it I had to go about making my own, which includes growing my own scoby.

S-C-O-B-Y- Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast.

Here is the scoby. Icky looking, huh?

The baby scoby

The scoby is necessary to make kombucha. I did have to buy a bottle of raw, organic commercially produced kombucha to first of all, try it and make sure I would drink it. Then to get the strands of the culture to grow my own scoby.

How to grow a kombucha scoby-


Buy, or inherit a "baby" scoby from someone who just made a batch of kombucha (there is a new one every time)

Or like I did, buy some commercially made kombucha, raw and organic, original flavor. Pour into a jar, add some sweet tea. Cover with a  cloth and leave at room temperature until its grown. Its neat to watch the process.

How to make Kombucha-


Now that you have your scoby, you can begin making kombucha!

Brew a gallon of tea (black tea, or maybe green. Stick with the basics first).

Sweeten with 1 cup sugar. Allow to cool completely.  Put in a food grade container (A very clean, sanitized container). I used my 2 gallon crock. A large thermos could work also. Then add your scoby. Cover with a cloth to keep out dust and other undesirables. Do not cover air tight. The fermentation process produces gas with could cause it to bust if covered air tight.

Let ferment somewhere undisturbed for a week or two.

Gather together some bottles. Glass or plastic, but make sure they previously held a carbonated beverage. Or else..... no explosions of stickiness please :)

Make sure the bottles are clean too,  by the way.

Pour liquid in bottles leaving in about an inch of head space. Move the scoby to a cloth covered jar with some fresh sweet tea in it. That will feed the scoby until you are ready to brew some again.

Add either a teaspoon of sugar (no more) or a tablespoon of your preferred juice (I used grape and much preferred it to the plain. It just turned out better) for a 1 liter bottle. More for larger bottles, less for smaller.

Leave bottles to the secondary fermentation in room temps for a few days. Then stick in the fridge, cool and enjoy! I usually strain mine when pouring it from the bottle through a fine metal strainer to filter out any baby scobys that are floating around. They wont hurt you, but I prefer not to drink them.

It takes a few sips to grow accustomed to the vinegary bite of the drink, but I have come to really enjoy it!