Conquer Your Skin

I have something that I have wanted to share for quite some time. Something that I feel is important. Something that could change your life like it did mine. Have no fear; I am not trying to sell you anything. I have had enough of companies selling me their product, promising me the moon and the stars. And, sure, sometimes it works, but let's get something straight: They only work for a short time before the problem is back and it's left scars behind in its wake. 

I am talking about acne: The dreaded break outs, the fear of touching your face and causing the problem to get worse, but most of all the fear of oily skin.

The reason I feel obligated to share this is because of the lack of confidence I see in young girls and women today. The way their hair covers most of their face or the pounds of makeup they wear.  I know how you are feeling right now. I have suffered through the embarrassment of my skins’ betrayal. Or at least I thought it was my skins fault. That it was maybe my genetic make-up. But it's not. This was not my fault and it is not yours either. It is the big money industries fault for your skin breaking out.

I have used almost every product on the shelf to no avail. My mother had spent hundreds of dollars on skin care products that showed promise only to eventually fail. I noticed after a while of using over the counter acne treatments my skin wasn’t healing. It was causing the acne to scar my skin as well as bleach it. I thought that if it burned then it must be working. I didn’t realize just how wrong I was.

I was once like the girls I see in the mall or walking by me down the street. I covered my face in makeup in an attempt to cover the blemishes, in hopes to disappear or blend in. I didn’t want to stand out. I didn’t want to be noticed. I was so embarrassed that someone would see. I would avoid looking into the mirror when I passed by, I would hide from cameras, I would sleep in my makeup because I didn’t want my fiancé to see me without it. I would cry almost every night. 

Until, finally, I had had enough. 

I didn’t want to hide anymore. I wanted to actually do something about my skin. I wanted to take control. I knew that the acne treatments I had been using weren’t working. I knew they were causing my problem, making it worse. It was a sham that the big corporations were in on. We all know that their number one goal is money. They are corrupt! They didn’t care about my skin. All they wanted was my money and if they “cured” my acne then they would lose my money. If I had no more acne, I would have no need for acne products.

I started to do some research when I stumbled onto another woman’s blog. I owe her a huge thanks for saving my skin. At first I was apprehensive, but as I did more and more research I figured, what did I have to lose? My skin couldn’t possibly get any worse. 

It is one part Castor Oil and two parts Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO). It is affordable and all natural. No added chemicals. 

The Castor Oil is an anti-inflammatory which is great for break outs. It also softens the skins which is a bonus.

EVOO is full of vitamins A and E. So don’t be afraid to use it. Your skin needs oil to keep itself healthy. You don’t want to strip your skin of it with all those over the counter products. You want the oil to heal and keep your skin soft and supple and acne free. EVOO has been used for centuries all around the world as a beauty aid. 

Before bed, I rub the mixture into my skin. I get a hot wash cloth and lay it over my face to steam. I stay there for a minute or until the wash cloth cools. Then I rub off all the makeup and dirt of that day. After, my skin feels refreshed and soft and new. I get compliments all the time on how beautiful and flawless my skins is. My confidence has significantly improved. I’m not afraid to go up and talk to people. It’s helped me in the work force and my personal life. I hope it does the same for you.

I wish I had been strong enough to take photos of my skin before I started this process, but I never took any photos without makeup.  However, I did find some that I wished were never taken.

NOW

NOW

Before EVOO

Before EVOO

Before EVOO

Reference:  

http://www.mariaandlisa.com/mariaandlisa/184

http://www.livestrong.com/article/122517-benefits-using-extra-virgin-olive/

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12242/5-reasons-you-need-castor-oil-in-your-medicine-cabinet.html

Part 2 of Witching Hour

After completing my witch's hat I experienced some Spontaneous Craziness yet again. I decided that a hat was not enough to complete my look. In fact, it wasn't even close to enough. My costume was missing two very essential things. However, I had depleted my resources for my costume. That meant I had to get really creative. Ah, Creativity, thou shall save you in a pinch!

Now, I had my eyes open wide searching everywhere and everything for anything that would prove to be useful in this endeavor.  As I was walking my son to school, I had a AH-HA moment when I laid eyes on a stick. Yes a stick, ladies and gentlemen! The perfect stick, I might add. The gears in my head started to click into motion as it mentally went through all of my Halloween Pins before I got an excited cackle that it had found something suitable.

A wand that took me approximately ten minutes to make. So easy and so cute. I had all I needed for it. It cost me nothing but the gas to get back home so I could revel in the spontaneous-ness (even though that is not a real word, it works). 

What you will need:

1. Stick of your choice
2. Hot Glue Gun
3. Paint Brush
4. Paint (I chose a cherry brown)
5.  Ribbon, Optional

The stick I used had a lot of nobs on it which worked great. I used the hot glue to make the nobs more pronounced and all the way around the stick. Think Dumbledore's Elder Wand for all of you Harry Potter fans. I did this all the way down the wand. Towards the end where I wanted the handle I left enough space for between the nobs to fit my hand. Once the glue was dry, I started painting it. I had to make sure that I got all the nook and crannies of the glue painted too.

Since I was really impatient and excited to get it finished I sat it out in the sun to dry when I was done painting it. It dried in minutes. Now, the next part is optional. I used the ribbon that I had left over from my hat and wrapped it around the handle of the wand. When I glued that down, I decided that it wasn't enough. It needed a little something more. Something more feminine. Just because I was going to be a witch didn't mean I couldn't be cute too.

So I tied and glued down the most perfect bow ever! Now it was ready to start casting spells and charms.

The last item on my Spontaneous Craziness list was a broom. I mean really, what witch is without out her broom? I suggest for this project to go walk along a river, lake, or something of the like. Enjoy the fresh air and just relax. Take your spouse or friend with you. You will need the extra hands. Take a look at what is around you. You will find everything that you will need. I sure did. I found two large branches that would be perfect for the broom handle. I only had to decide which one to use. In the brush along the trail, I found a ton of dried grass or straw. I picked that on the way back. Be careful though, it was very brittle.

Before I even got home I knew what branch I was going to use. I slowly began to pick off the rough bark. I didn't want that to get caught and snag my dress. When that was done my fiance used a damp cloth to sand down the branch. I didn't have any fine sand paper and we thought it would look even better if we didn't loose the dark brown coloring of the wood. We did use a little sand paper to sand off the ends though. The ends of the branch were really rough and the cloth wouldn't work on that part.

For the next step, I thought it would be awesome to make a saddle for it. The branch had a perfect spot to sit upon. I used some of the extra felt from when I made the hat. Cut a rectangle to fit the area. Hot glued some yarn to the back side of the fabric. Then tied it onto the broom.



I saved the straw for last because I didn't want it to all break apart while I was doing everything else. I used four zip-ties. I only have small ones so I had to connect two to make one long one in order to make them fit around the straw and broom handle. This part is messy, so beware. I got the zip-ties as tight as I could without breaking the straw too much. I was going to use more of the felt for this part, but I didn't lay right so instead I used some more black yarn to wrap around the straw and to hide the zip-ties.  I also used some black ribbon to tie around the straw on top of the yarn to keep with the bow theme.



Now my costume is finally complete. I think....

I also made a a graveyard this year. I had bought some tombstones from the dollar store earlier in the month and remade them. I spray painted them black. Then hand painted the details with a silver paint to make it stand out. I also mod-podged them in hopes to keep the water and dew out of the Styrofoam so they they would last longer. So far so good.

Everything was bought at the dollar store or I already had.

Witching Hour

Halloween is right around the corner! One of my family's favorite holidays. You know, other than Christmas or their birthday. Last year, my son decided that he wanted us to go as the Mario Brothers. So naturally, the four year old got to be Mario, Daddy was Luigi, and I was Princess Peach. And I sewed the costumes (Other than my dress. I scored and found it at a thrift store for eight dollars). And lucky I did. A child's Mario costume was over 40 bucks! I was flabbergasted. Could you imagine how much an adult Luigi costume would have cost? Yikes! I didn't even want to go there to find out. In the end, I think we spent less that 30 dollars on all three of our costumes. The only downside of making the costumes last year was that we waited to long to decide what to do. In fact, I sewed Daddy's costume the night before Halloween! Talk about pushing my luck.

This year, Bubba has his heart set on being a zombie. I don't understand what their fascination is with zombies, but apparently my boy is not the only one. Thank goodness. Now, I don't know about your husband or significant other, but mine L-O-V-E loves zombies. And if he is going to be a zombie, he is going to be decked out. From visible intestines to eyes popped out of the sockets. All the way down to the shambling walk. I know as much as Bubba loves to play zombies, this would scare him and I would never get him to sleep again. And I need my sleep. So Daddy has been forbidden to be a zombie for Halloween. At least for a few years. No need to traumatize our little guy, right?

So this year I was thinking Munster style family costumes. You know, how Mr and Mrs Frankenstein have a werewolf for a boy? The grandpa's a vampire? You get it, right?

Daddy costume - Undetermined. We have a few ideas, but nothing set in stone.

Mommy - Witch

Bubba - Zombie

So seeing as last year, I was really behind on the costume making. I thought I would get a head start. So I started making my Witch's hat. It took me a total of one hour and rounding up towards 12 dollars to make. I was inspired by the hats I saw at the Halloween store. They were 15 dollars plus tax and in my mind, poor quality. I could see the hot glue quite clearly! To me, it was only worth about five dollars. If it looks crafty, I might as well make it myself and really love the outcome. Don't you agree? So here is what I came up with

It is made out of felt. I bought two yards for about $6
The tulle was $1.69
Two flower bouquet from the Dollar store
A spider and Light up skull also from the Dollar store
And some ribbon I already had on hand

I stuffed the cone of the hat with some pollyfoam I already had and Daddy brought and cut the cardboard I used to support the brim. I tied the tulle on the hat with the ribbon. I used some pliers to cut the roses from the stems and hot glued the roses all around the cone of the hat. I also used the rest of the bouquet which consisted of the leaves and branches. Then glued everything else down. I really think the skull makes the hat with the light up eyes. All in all, Mommy is happy with the outcome. Totally better than store bought!

Stroke of Genius - Quilting Style

First ever sewing Project

I have been sewing since October of 2013. Not a very long time. And I am all self-taught. My very first project was sewing Bubba's and my fiancé's Halloween costumes. Bubba is obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with Mario Brothers. I’ve sewn a few skirts, hemmed some pants, fixed holes in pants, made a seat-belt pillow, and even preformed surgery on a few well-loved stuffed animals. One of the things I wanted to learn was quilting. So far I am on my third quilt where a reoccurring problem has presented itself to me on all accounts. I haven’t seen anything about it on Pinterest and for some reason that brightened up my day. So with a little experimentation, I have developed a way that combats this problem quite effectively and I wanted to share it with my readers and see if you have come across the same travesty and if this process works for you.

Now, a lot of people tell me how much they hate quilting and what a long process it is or how boring they find it. I find it quite relaxing and enjoyable. Yes, it is tedious, but there is something about it that makes me feel good. It is probably the same reason why I love sewing. I love the feeling I get after I completed a project. It is as if I am filled with euphoria. I feel quite under-appreciated most of the time so when I do finish a project and it is recognized that makes me feel good. And I get really proud of my completed projects as it should be. We should all be PROUD of what we have accomplished.

                               

Centimeter gap - Eww

After cutting out all the little squares and sewing them all together while leaving a 4^th of an inch seam allowance and ironing each strip with the seams going left then the next strip going right is when we finally get to the step where we sew our strips together. The problem I have been facing is that while my strips are not yet sewn together, the squares line up perfectly. However, when I started to sew the strips together my squares would be off (sometimes by an entire centimeter) no matter how perfect they were when I pinned them together. I don’t know about you, but this makes me beyond frustrated where I just want to scream and throw in the towel.

But there has to be a way to fix this, right? There are quilters who have been quilting for years and have such beautifully perfect looking quilts. Is there some kind of secret for this? Are they robots? Is there some rule in the Quilters Secret Society where they teach you this secret, but make you swear upon penalty of death not to divulge said secret? There’s got to be and if so I might be up on the chopping block tomorrow.

Wrong!

My findings are this: Pinning down your strips is in fact working against you. I have seen many tutorials online i.e. Pinterest, where they show how they pin in this manner. And it was the same mistake (yes, mistake) that I was making. When you pin your strips this way it gives your fabric space to move away from where you lined up the seams. “But I used a thousand pins!” Doesn’t matter. The fabric will still move along the pins as the fabric goes through the sewing machine. The number of pins you use will not stop this from happening.

However, there is a bright side to all of this blasphemy. I have noticed that this mistake can be easily rectified by this So-Easy-I-Cant-Believe-It-Is-Not-Already-On-Pinterest solution. Whew, that is a long name. I’m going to have to come up with something simpler. 

Seams all lined up

So are you ready to know what the solution to this huge problem is? It’s really quite easy. Just pin down the seam of each square. “Are you serious? All that build-up for just one easy little step?” Yep, that one easy little step. But of course, you have to make sure your seams are lined up properly. And be sure to leave room to sew from the pin to the edge of the fabric. I get an almost perfect line up each time from this one little step. This is a far cry from a whole centimeter, don’t you think? Go ahead try it yourself, see if it works for you or if your secret method is better. If it is better let me know. I want to try your way out too. I promise I won’t tell anyone about it. *wink*

Right!

This mommy can come up against any problem and with a little brain power can do it all!

~See, Perfect~

Captain Bubba Turns 5

It hit me that my baby boy isn’t a baby anymore. He is officially five years old and for some reason that makes him a big boy. Maybe it is because he’s going to be starting school this year. Or perhaps it is because he keeps telling me that “I’m a big boy, Mommy!”

Mommy and Bubba

Either way, I don’t like it. I remember the first time he crawled, his first steps, his first words, holding him in my arms with him sound asleep. And now a new chapter in his life has opened and I am afraid that I won’t be his best friend anymore or he won’t get upset when Daddy kisses Mommy before kissing Bubba when Daddy comes home from work. Or what if he doesn’t want me to tuck him in at bed time? But as the tears roll down my cheeks, I recall what I have always said: Even when you are forty years old, Bubba, you will still be my sweet baby boy. Hopefully, for the time being this will placate me until his next step in life.

Bubba’s Pirate Party was a huge success. I was so happy that it was a lovely, sunny day. We had been having some crazy weather lately, so the sun was a welcome guest to this Shindig.

This Mommy managed to pull through the tears, frustration, and eventual excitement. For there were tears, well, almost tears. I thought for sure that the Pirate Ships were not going to happen and I was half right. The original plan was to have two pirate ships and a cannon ball fight. But I completely failed at making just one pirate ship. I called my fiancé at work almost in tears because I couldn’t get the stupid thing to stand right. I suggest to any mommy who wants a pirate ship at their child’s party to just acquire the cardboard boxes and let your man figure it out. I should have done that from the beginning, it would have saved me time and I wouldn’t have stuffed my face with chocolate afterwards. But all in all, Daddy did a fantastic job, he even figured out how to make a mast for the ship. I had bought spray paint at Wal-mart for ninety-six cents a bottle and we went to town. I also sponge painted on the skull and crossbones. The Jolly Roger (flag) I’ve had since I was a teen, had finally found a purpose. Not many Jolly Rogers get to be hoisted up on a mast anymore. We also had a Walk The Plank set up next to the ship.

 

 We also have a fifteen foot trampoline in our back yard and it didn’t take long for the kids to find that. They were all running back and forth to the ship then back to the trampoline. They even had sword fights on the trampoline.

 

Great Grampa

The hats went over great with the guests, kids and adults alike. Most of the hats left with the guests too, which was awesome! What am I supposed to do with twenty-five pirate hats after this? It was quite funny to see Daddy’s grampa with a pirate hat on which he wore the entire day.

Daddy

We had a potluck for lunch. My mum made chili, nachos, and homemade meatballs. My fiancé made homemade turkey burgers, which were delicious. And the rest of the family brought tons of more food which has currently taken up residence in both of our fridges. We won’t need to go grocery shopping for a while.

The cake turned out pretty amazing. My future-mother-in-law even said it was Pinterest worthy which was a huge compliment for me, big Pinterest fanatic that I am. Although, I did have some issues when making the cake. My cake was so moist that it crumbled as I was building and frosting it. My best friend’s mum told me to freeze it before building and then it won’t crumble; Just a heads up for anyone else who might try it. I got the lay out of the cake here. Mine did not turn out like hers because of my mishaps. But it worked out all the same.

 

 We closed up the day with presents. A big THANKS to everyone. It was like Christmas for our little boy. Be expecting our thank you cards soon. We had such a wonderful day among family and friends. I was overjoyed at how many people came to show their love for Bubba and for helping us celebrate him turning five. And thank you to my friends who came by early to help me set up, you really saved my skin and made it possible for this Mommy to do it all.

Kati, Mommy, Cherae

Ahoy Mateys!

My son’s birthday is coming up and I decided to have a theme this year. I’m a little nervous that I bit off more than I can chew. However, I’ve been getting a lot of help from friends and family.

‘Avast Ye Mateys!

Yes, this year, Bubba is getting a Pirate themed Birthday party. It didn’t take me long to figure out that Pirates were the way to go. I was sent to the Dollar Store to get invitations and ran across theses beauties, which of course sparked my spontaneous craziness.

Once home, I instantly sat myself in front of my computer and pulled up Pinterest. There is a ton of stuff on there for Pirate Parties. I pinned everything I found. Thus, I quickly became overwhelmed by everything I decided to incorporate in Bubba’s Pirate Bash. Luckily, I have friends in high places or at least places where they could help me. Bubba’s uncle was able to bring me huge refrigerator and washer boxes from his work. Can you guess what I needed those for? PIRATE SHIPS! I’m making two of them.

I found blow-up swords for 99 cents at Party City. You bet I grabbed a few of those. I thought that they were much cooler than the foam swords you can find at the Dollar Store.

Now you absolutely cannot have a Pirate Party without Pirates now can you?! For the last couple of days I have been working on Pirate attire for the party goers, children and adult alike. I had been pricing for a while and refused to spend two bucks a pop on plastic pirate hats that barely fit Bubba’s blonde little head. I mean, really!

So I headed off to Walmart. I know, OMG! Walmart! But Walmart is close by and their fabric is cheap enough and would serve my purpose perfectly. I got three yards of black felt and one yard of white. Spending a grand total of… Drum rolls everybody… $15.88. I found a Pirate Hat tutorial on Pinterest. Skimmed it, and then went to work. I ended up making TWENTY-FOUR hats and EIGHTEEN eye patches. Let me tell you 15.88 is a far cry from almost sixty bucks that those hats and eye patches would have cost me at Party City or even the Dollar Tree. And Bubba seems to like them that much more.

I have so much more planned for this party. It’s is going to be crazy. Hopefully this Mommy can do it all.