Joy!

While pondering what to post about today, I was talking to my sister about how fun/exciting my day was! Sooooo I figured it's time for another... JOY POST! 
Good things lately: 

• Last week I played photographer for my mother and got paid!! Woot woot, money in the bank! 
• I used that money to start (again) my savings account! It feels good to be able to put money away, ya know?! 
• Then today I got to play model! It was a lot of fun and a really great experience for me. I met this photographer on Model Mayhem and today we went downtown to shoot in the warehouse district. She helped me out with lots of direction (posing and what not) and I felt really good about it. Like a model! I can not wait to see how they turn out.
• I've been taking a fitness walking class (for about two weeks) and am starting to get back in shape! It's been a while since I've done any type of consistent exercising so it feels good to get back in the game. 
• That said, I've officially decided I'm going on a diet. And by diet, I mean I need to stop eating out as much (it's been happening way too frequently... like every day) and quit eating sweets multiple times a day. Thinking of my past week, I've been really bad. Time for some serious home cooking! 
• I'm officially caught up with homework which feels SOOOO good. 
• And I've been signing up for some shows around Houston to participate in! 
• I've also got a bunch of good Mingle Monday's comin' up! (Be excited!)
• And Halloween is just around the corner! 
• Speaking of costumes, we're going to CAMP at the Renaissance Festival soon and my brother, Brandon, and I are planning some pretty sweet costumes. Oh ya, we go all out. 

Oh and I've got a funny little story about Halloween. No matter how many conversations we have about how they aren't real, Eliza is not very fond of ghoulish, scary halloween decorations. My neighbors have these flashing eye balls in their bushes that just scare her silly! She's convinced they're ghosts that only come out at night. Anyways, a few days ago we went to the grocery store with my dad and they had this isle full of Halloween stuff. Well they also had two or three of these Eliza-sized figures that were dressed like mummy/ghost/scary dead things. My dad brought her over to look at them and when she saw those things, boy was she scared! She screamed and practically climbed right up my leg! She started trembling and crying and begged me to take her away! It was kind of funny (and cute in a terrible way) but I felt bad for the poor gal. She wouldn't even go within 5 isles of them and when it came time to check out, she had to be taken outside to keep her from going ballistic. Well fast forward to today, we had to visit the grocery store again. It was a different one but she was still scarred from the last experience. I had to drag her through the store, holding her hand and leading her because she refused to open her eyes. The WHOLE time. Can you just imagine? I'm pulling her along, trying to get things for dinner and she's got her eyes shut tight in fear of seeing those stupid figure things. I went around a got a few things and at one point had to let go of her hand to grab something. She proceeded to start running around in circles (still with her eyes closed) crying for me and blindly waving her arms around, bumping into everything. Like a chicken with it's head cut off. I stared at her for a minute (holding down a few giggles) and gently tried to coax her into opening her eyes but to no avail. She's a stubborn little girl, just like her mommy ;) . It was pretty insane, I've never seen her so scared! I ended up having to pick her up and checking out immediately. We went home, ate some dumplings and pigged out on some delicious peach pie... because someone definitely needed. I tell you one thing, I won't be taking her to the store with me very soon. That'll have to wait until after Halloween. 

Hope you guys had a great weekend! Are you ready for Monday? I strangely am! 

P.S. If you want to do a joy post of your own, go for it! Link back so I can check it out (: And you may use the picture above if you wish too!

DIY Fool's Gold Necklace

I did a guest post a while ago with this tutorial and thought it was time to share it over here! This is one of my favorite necklaces. In fact, I wore it today! This necklace was really easy to make. It's simple but awesome! 

So here's what you need: 

Needle nose pliers 

Needle Nose Pliers/Wire Cutter

Chain & hook attachment (if it is too short to slip over you head)

Stone (bought from Michaels craft store- http://michaels.com/)

An eyepin

1. Slide the eyepin through the hole in stone. 

2. Bend the eyepin to one side. 

3. Slide pliers to grip the eyepin right where it comes out of the hole. 

4. Bend the eye pin back around pliers so that it creates a loop (see picture). 

5. Remove pliers and cut the eyepin a few centimeters past where it curves. 

6. Grip the very end and bend it around towards the base of the loop (back towards the hole). This creates a closed loop.  7. Find center of necklace and open ring. Separate. 

8. Attach the open jumper ring (which should still be attached to one end of the chain) and hook it onto one of the loops on the stone. Close. 

9. Find the other end of the chain and open that ring. Attach it to the other loop on the stone (the one that is not in use) and close it. 

10. Now you have a finished necklace! Wear with pride (: You can see me where it here and here.

P.S. To any of you that read the jumbled mess that was posted earlier, sorry about that! It was scheduled to post today and I never got around to putting it together and thus it posted as a jumbled mess. If you read it, cool! If not, don't worry about it. I'll get around to it eventually! 

Food Cures/Remedies

Another lengthy, wordy, eco-friendly rambling post. I'm sorry. This is mostly for myself, to remember all this natural goodness but maybe it will find it's way to someone in need? This post is all about natural food cures and remedies for common ailments. I think it's pretty interesting! 
 Book I got this wonderful info from- RX from the Garden,101 food cures you can easily grow:  Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food -Hippocrates    A few common foods that cure:  Peaches- soothing to nervous system,  Lettuce- natural tranquilizer Onion/garlic- immune strengthening Hot peppers/chili peppers- relieve congestion Tomatoes- natural sunscreen (eat)   By ailments:  Anemia: potatoes, dried beans/lentils, pumpkin, arugula, spinach,  Back pain: chili peppers (contain capsaicin, powerful pain killer that provides quick relief), cherries, red grapes, mint Burns: cucumber- soothes and draws out heat (put on skin), poultices of onions or garlic can cleanse and prevent infection, may reduce scarring and regenerate the damaged skin. Apples, help heal burns, may not do much for pain.  Cancer prevention: garlic, onions, broccoli, berries, beans, chili peppers, rosemary, pumpkin seeds, red grapes, tomatoes, celery, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts,  Garlic- stops cells from becoming cancerous,  Canker sores, cold sores- chamomile, sage, raspberries, beets, tomatoes, sprouts, strawberries, green peppers Colds/flu- elderberries, hot peppers, bell peppers, butternut squash, cherries, garlic, onions, mushrooms, sage, echinacea Cuts/sores- garlic (antiseptic) thyme/plantain are antibacterials Dehydration- watermelon, cantaloupe, pears, peaches, tomatoes  Diarrhea- apples potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, leeks,  Dry skin- sunflower/pumpkin sees, carrots, sweet potatoes, green peppers, strawberries, citrus fruits,  ear infections- garlic, onion, oregano  Fever- blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, feverfew, borage, calendula,  Food poinsoning- garlic/onions, mint, raspberry-and blackberry- leaf tea (reduce nausea and diarrhea) Headache (migraine) pumkin seeds, spinach, mint  Headache (stress)- blueberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, cantaloupe, chamomile, catnip, Insect bites- prevention (crush some pennyroyal, roll up in bandana and wear around neck), rub plantain leaves on bite,  Nausea- peppermint for digestive calming, oregano- sedative and pain-relief properties, cilantro, coriander and chamomile if you need to vomit, fennel- indigestion relief, raspberry leaf, sage and rosemary- stomach-calming prop Pain relief- hot peppers, peppermint, oregano,  Stress-potatoes, celery, green beans, lavender (in bath water), borage (in tea) chamomile Sunburn- cucumbers, eggplant, potato, tomato, chamomile, cucumber paste to ease pain. Rubbing with cut potato will ease pain as well as a cool chamomile tea wash. Warts- rub with garlic or onion, eat spinach potatoes, dried beans
Happy Thursday everyone!   

Spanish Rice

I called this spanish rice because that's pretty much what it is. But I made it the way I make fried rice and I'm not sure that's how you're supposed to cook it? I kind of just whipped this together not knowing what I was doing but it ended up great! Ingredients:  A few tablespoons of oil 1/4 cup corn 1 cups worth of cooked rice (I used brown) 1 green onion 1/2-1 cup of chunky salsa Avocado Optional: onion, garlic, chili powder, black olives

1. Let oil heat up in pan. Add 1/4 cup corn (optional: add in onion, garlic, and chili powder)  2. Cook for about 3 minutes  3. Add in your rice 4. Cook for a minute (you might need to add in a little more oil if it's too dry)  5. Add in salsa, as much or as little as you want. Here I also added in black olives and green onions. 6. Cook for a few more minutes, adding in more chili powder/salt/pepper/other seasonings to your liking  serve with avocado on top  I've made this a few times since, it's so good. I've been using this hatch chili salsa I got from HEB, I highly recommend it. 

Man, oh man have I been swamped this week! All the sudden I've got loads of homework and am struggling to keep up with work. I don't know how it happened but it kind of feels nice to work a lot. Just the feeling of getting stuff done is really satisfying. We've been doing lots of talking and dreaming about where we want to go with our lives. I'm sure I've told you all but we're planning on a move soon and Brandon is going to quit his job. This means that I'll be bringin' home the bacon for a change! I've been trying to do some networking and reaching out which means I'm getting a lot of odd, little jobs coming my way. I don't mind though, I'm excited to put all that money into a savings account for our future plans. I can't wait to share with all of you what I've got up my sleeve. I'm really excited about it but I think I'll keep it a secret ;) 
Hope your week is going well. Oh and I know this is like a week late (I'm terrible with these things!!) but the winner for the floral headband is... Isaa!!! Expect an email from me!

Henna Hair Dye

Back in this post about Lush, I mentioned that I had gotten some henna hair dye. And then when I posted the pictures from my last outfit post, I realized I should probably go ahead and do it (helloooo fading hair!).  Soo this is what I got- Caca Marron Henna Hair Dye I decided to use 3 squares from the whole block. I just cut them off with a knife and then put them in a ziploc bag. I was going to smash them but I apparently don't have one of those meat hammer things so I tried banging the whole bag on the floor to no avail. I resorted to just taking out the larger chunks and cutting them with a knife. I should have just done that in the first place! So that's my advice to you. I wouldn't even want to ATTEMPT to grate this stuff. Just cut into the smallest pieces you can get.  So this is what it looks like all smashed up.  And then I boiled a few cups of water and dumped some in. I let it melt for a few minutes and then stirred it until pancake batter consistency (mine was still a bit chunky but I tried my best). They say "yogurt" type consistency soooo I just kinda guessed. I do know that you don't want it thick or it'll be hard to apply.  And this is what it looked like after mixing.  My next note of advice is to completely cover the bathroom in newspaper! Seriously, this stuff is MESSY. And you can't really help it. I'm kind of a hair dying pro and thought I would get by. I'm SO glad that I ended up putting the newspaper down though because I was definitely wrong in that assumption. Oh and speaking of that, wear gloves!! Here is me applying. I used an applicator brush from Sally's, so helpful. I started from the top, went down a side and then started back at the top and went down the other side. Make sure you get the back as well.  Then wrap your head up with seran wrap!! And look super cool (: I seriously tried to conceal this sucker but after trying about 10 different ways of hiding it, I gave up. It just made it worse. All hopes of going out like this were forgotten.  And here is some proof of the mess it makes. So I kept it on for 6 hours (which was about all I could stand) and then took a very long time rinsing it out. I used shampoo and conditioner. It took about 10 minutes but it wasn't quite as hard as all the tutorials made it seem. Ya, it has coffee grinds in it so it's not a piece of cake but it's totally conquerable. And then, to make sure it didn't stain the tub, I washed it with some tub cleaner. 

And here are the results!! I'm pretty stoked. As you could see in the first picture, I definitely needed. And this is kind of the perfect color for fall.  Henna=great success!
Let me know if you guys have any questions or if I left anything out! It was quite a process but worth it, no harmful chemicals were involved in this process (: 
Oooh! Also, next time I think I'll use wine to mix it with. I hear this makes it more red? 

Weekend Market Stuff

Last weekend I went to a few markets and it was a lot of fun! Eliza and I collected as many business cards as possible and I just had to share. So I came home and put all the links worth saving into this post! And then, I expanded that with a little research of my own. We'll start off with the couple of things we found there:    Ruby in the Dust Vintage Magpies & Peacocks
Eliza and I attended this essential oils seminar and it was very insightful! Eliza even enjoyed it! I'm really interested in starting to use essential oils in our daily life.... but they're a little pricey so it might be a while. We did learned a lot about all the benefits/ways of using them and I was really impressed. It was only a group of about 8-10 people and they were all so nice and welcoming. Even though Eliza was being... a 3 year old everyone was so accepting which made the experience even more exciting! One very nice lady even said I was a good mom (which is pretty much the best compliment a mom can get)! Seriously though, I can't wait to get my hands on some oils!  Cookery Club This was probably the second most exciting thing we saw. This lady had a booth of eco-friendly toys and of course, Eliza was drawn to this one like a magnet! She had a toy pieces that went along with it, some of which I've put just below. When I have the money, I would really love to get Eliza some of these. Now, THESE are the toys I would love for her to have. Eco-friendly, non-toxic and purposeful.  Assorted Fruits & Vegetables, these are SO cool! The two halves stick together with velcro and you can "cut" them in half. Eliza LOVED these. And the best part is, is that they are made from organic, recycled rubber wood. Fruit & Vegetable Play Set Gourmet Chef Cookware Cooking Utensils Tableware Set   Green Toys Tea Set Ever since Eliza has been drinking out of cups, she's had this weird thing where she likes to pour/dump the contents into other cups (or any object that will hold water). Maybe she saw us pouring things into cups and wanted to mimic us? Anyways, I think this would be a great toy for her. You know, to satisfy her pouring needs.  Shopping Cart And of course, how freakin' cute is this?! Seven Times the Sun: Guiding Your Child Through the Rhythms of the Day  I can't remember where exactly I saw this but it looks like a good read. I could definitely use some advice in this area!  And a few other links/sites I came upon in my searching:   Website to find vegetarian restaurants Pat Greer's Vegan Kitchen in Houston  Green Toys  Raw Food Resource Plan Toys

Man, another weekend come and gone. This one was a little less action packed, a very lazy (in a good way) weekend. Although some very important things happened like another cold front came through to rescue us from the 90 degree weather! And I had a really great talk with someone I had been afraid of confronting. It's nice to finally get things off your chest. And when they go well, it makes it even better!  

A Few Things: Minimizing and Toys

This is something that's been hard to figure out in my quest to minimize. Now-a-days kids have millions of useless toys and it is thought to be normal. But they only play with them for about a week and then move on. I've found that Eliza has more fun with things that aren't even toys (and some things she shouldn't even be playing with!). She's much more content doing things like painting or playing around with my gardening stuff or helping me cook than playing with some dumb toy from a store.

When I first started out, I got rid of all the toys she hadn't played with in over a month. This wasn't too hard, she had a lot of not so great, cheap toys. She has a toy box and usually the day would start out with her emptying the ENTIRE toy box out and then get tired of the mess and go play with something else. So I got rid of the toys we didn't need and then we were left with only the ones she DID play with (and a few that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of). To minimize the mess /dumping out issue, I allowed her to only have a few toys out at a time. I basically divided her toys in half and put the rest in a box up on a shelf. When she got tired of the ones she had access to, she could exchange them for a few in the box. This system works pretty darn well!

Then I took it a step further and put up a few more of her toys such as her train set and all the potato head stuff, basically the games/toys that required lots of pieces. She can only get these out when all of her other toys are away and if she decides she wants a different one, she has to pick up the one she had before. And let me tell you, this system has been AWESOME. Not only has she been learning how to pick up after herself but it helps so much with keeping my house clean and makes my job a million times easier. It also helps her stay entertained by only playing with one toy at a time and getting the full use out of it rather than dumping them all out on the ground and getting sick of it within a few minutes. It's so funny because I'll tell her to clean up and she'll go, "Man, I should not have made this big ol' mess!". Learning (:

That's really all I have to say. I don't like toys very much. I would much rather have her outside playing with nature (I think she'd rather that too) but we don't have a backyard or anything to play in so we're kind of limited. So we have toys.... for now.

Here are a few links I've saved up with thoughts on minimizing and toys:

Too Many Toys Why Fewer Toys Will Actually Benefit Your Kid Do Your Kids Have Too Many Toys?  How to Become A Minimalist 15 Clutter Busting Routines for Any Family 10 Ways to Simplify Without Becoming a Minimalist Now, if only I can convince my Dad that HE doesn't need toys! ;)