Monthly Archives: February 2015

DIY Sugar Lip Scrub

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scrub 1

Sugar Lip Scrub

Here is an easy as pie beauty recipe. It’s a sugar lip scrub. Great for those winter weary dry lips. Scrubs are easy to use, just rub on your lips, gently rub several seconds. Don’t rub to hard you don’t want raw lips. Rinse. Now apply your favorite lip balm.
Sugar Lip Scrub

You will need:
Brown sugar
Granulated sugar
Honey
Almond or olive oil
Flavoring (optional) I used raspberry

You can make a small batch that has enough scrub for two or three treatments or a larger batch that you store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Mix equal parts brown sugar to granulated sugar. Mix in enough oil to moisten the sugars. You don’t want the scrub runny. Add the honey, it will thicken up the scrub if you use a good quality honey. If you are adding flavoring add now, a few drops will do. If the mixture is too runny add more sugar to thicken a dash more oil if too thick.

Now is the hard part: don’t eat it. Seriously. Once you rub this scrub on your lips and get a little taste you will want to devour the rest.

scrub 2

Dolls Gone Wild

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lead

Drunk Cake for 21st Birthday

My demon child turned 21 recently. Being the awesome mom I am I decided to make her a drunk Barbie cake. If you look these up on Pinterest you see Barbie is usually bent over a toilet vomiting sprinkles. Cute, but I wanted to do more of a Barbie Gone Wild theme.

Normally I would bake the cake myself but this time I cheated and bought a small cake from our local grocery store.

I bought a swimsuit Barbie doll, the swimsuit would be her underwear. She had to have dark hair to match my daughters.

I hit up the ABC store to grab a few shot bottles. Once home I emptied a few of them. I will let you speculate on how.

I tried to gently sit the doll upon the cake, she kept wanting to fall off the cake. She’s such a drunk! I ended up just pushing her rump down into the cake. I placed the liquor bottles on the cake and the 21 candle.

Bam! Done!

My daughter LOVED it! She had a great birthday and Barbie had a really really good time.

 

Before the booze got to her

Before the booze got to her

the cakego home barbie you're drunk

We did not let her drive her dream car home.

We did not let her drive the dream car home.

Smores Cupcakes

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Happiness

Happiness

Some time ago I saw on the aisle at the grocery store a box of Smores cupcake mix kit type thing. I looked the box over. A light bulb went off. I could do that, I had all the ingredients I needed at home.

First I must confess, this was some time ago. Like beginning of summer. Yes I am a slacker to wait this long to share. But the worst is yet to come, I was so excited to try this I did not even think to take pictures until things were almost ready to go into oven. So pictures are scarce and we must rely on my memory from that day. In short we are doomed!

Here is how I recall that day.

My dad who at the time was on this kick of buying me cake mixes when he saw them on sale. There was this one mix that was, double chocolate or something like that. I just remember it was more chocolate then your average chocolate cake mix. So it was to be sacrificed in this experiment.

I mix the cake according to package directions. Now time for the graham cracker crust to be our foundation. I made a guess on how much I would need to line the bottom of the cupcake liner. So graham cracker crust is something I do make on a regular basis , I did not measure I eyeballed, cause you know my extensive experience would never lead me astray . I put some graham crackers in my little generic cheap version of the bullet thingy (technical term). Once I had crumbs I began adding melted butter till it was moistened. Well I made way too damn much. So I am going to make a guess and say you need 1 to 2 cups. Not a bowlful as I ended up with.

I pushed this mixture done firmly into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Now goes a thin layer of the cake mix. Here is the part that had me wishing I just bought the darn box kit to make this as I‘m sure the company has found the best way to handle this part. I needed to transfer my marshmallow cream into a baggie to squeeze the stuff into each cup. I first tried just using a spoon and putting a spoonful of cream into each cup but I was getting the stuff everywhere but the center, you know how sticky that stuff is. I went to the squeeze bag method.

Marshmallow cream is messy. Maybe it’s just me but that stuff fights me. So after fighting it into the baggie I snipped my corner and squeezed. Worked much better than the spoon. I then covered the cream with another layer of the cake mix. Into the oven to cook following the cake mix temp and time.

As I stood up from putting the pan in the oven I noticed the disaster of my kitchen and myself. My kitchen and my arms, hands, front of shirt and have mercy, even my hair had cake mix and marshmallow cream on them. Again I felt I would have been better off buying the box kit.

FYI: coconut oil will help get marshmallow cream out of hair.

As I finished cleaning up my timer let me know my cupcakes were done. I took them out of the oven. I wanted so badly to bite into one right then but I had this vision of me biting into one and marshmallow lava erupting all over me. I let them cool down while I took a few quick pictures. They were cooled down enough to taste test.
I finally took my first bite.

Holy Mother of Cupcakes. I don’t know how the box kit of this stuff taste but this, this was cupcake heaven. No icing was needed. At all. Now I had enough of everything to make a second pan but I was not fighting the marshmallow again. EVER.

You know you want to bite me

You know you want to bite me

SMORES CUPCAKES

Ingredients:
Chocolate cake mix from a box or your favorite recipe
Items needed to make the batter (eggs, oil, etc)
1 to 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
Enough melted butter to moisten the crumbs
1 jar of marshmallow cream or fluff as some people call it.
Strong baggie or icing bag to pipe out cream/fluff
Coconut oil to get that stuff cream/fluff out of your hair

Mix batter according to instructions on box or your recipe.
Moisten crumbs with butter, put a spoonful of crumb mixture into bottom of each cupcake liner. Press down until bottom is completely covered.
Next put down a thin layer of cake batter.
Pipe in a small amount of cream/fluff into center of the batter. Try to avoid it spreading to the edges.
Cover with another layer of batter.

Bake according to box/recipe instructions or until toothpick comes out clean. Avoid doing this to the center you will just hit the cream. Let cool, eat as is or cover with chocolate icing.

Now remember I made my own using ingredients I had at home. If you have to buy all the items it just might be cheaper to buy the box kit instead. It’s on the grocery store baking aisle with the cake mixes.

Don’t want to use the box kit? My recipe to vague? Hit Pinterest and search. I know there’s a recipe out there. Trust me when I say, if it’s not on Pinterest it doesn’t exist.

Warning: marshmallow cream is sticky and messy

Warning: marshmallow cream is sticky and messy

Honey, I Shrunk the Pores

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Cleanser, toner and face cream

Cleanser, toner and face cream

 

Today I am sharing with you my 1,2,3 skin care regimen I use on my face.

Over the years I have spent a good bit of money on face washes and lotions. Only to face extreme breakouts and rashes. The only thing that did not break me out was Noxzema, which is a great product. But as I began to age my skin began to dry. Badly. I suspected at one time I was beginning to mummify because my skin was so dry.

So I had to say goodbye to my beloved Noxzema and search for alternatives. Luckily my search was short. I researched natural beauty products and singled out a few ingredients I knew my sensitive skin could handle.

Step 1 is the sensitive skin cleanser.
Step 2 is a toner
Step 3 is an anti-aging cream

Before we go any further lets talk about shelf life. After researching natural skin care I have learned this: shelf life is a tricksy thing. Some people believe these products have a shelf life of three weeks other three months. Yes that big of a difference. I just make small batches of these recipes so I know I will use them up sometime during the 3 week to 3 month range. Now each product on it’s own seems to last forever but once mix together that changes. I don’t know why. Maybe they don’t play well together?

Step 1: SENSITIVE SKIN CLEANSER
I’m going to share some information on the Sensitive Skin cleanser, which I found on Pinterest which led me to Beautyandthefoodie blog. Check her out she has some great DIY beauty recipes. Here is the recipe located on her blog. Sensitive Skin Cleanser.
I have been using a few weeks now. Just twice a week and eventually three times. The other days I wash my face with coconut oil.
So far I am liking this cleanser. It is gentle yet you feel like you are getting a deep clean. The recipe does call for raw honey, I used some honey I bought during a trip to Asheville, NC. It is that dark amazing tasting honey. So good. I’m sure you can find a good quality honey at your local farmers market.

face cleanser

Step 2: SKIN TONER
The toner I also got from Pinterest but as sometimes happens you pin then next time you try to visit the site it is blocked. Luckily I wrote down the recipe, I changed some amounts because I felt the amount of one item was too much for my aging dry skin.

Skin Toner
1 oz distilled water
½ oz apple cider vinegar
10 drops tea tree oil

Just mix. I store in an amber glass jar. You can also use 10 drops lavender essential oil instead of the tea tree oil. The vinegar has a strong odor but will be gone by the time the toner dries.

Step 3: FACE CREAM/OINTMENT
The Face Cream or Ointment. It does look more like an ointment instead of a cream. I concocted this recipe from products I researched and had on hand. This stuff turned out to be amazing. AMAZING! I use it at night before bed. A little goes a long way. Sometimes I use a dab in the morning after my shower. Once a week I heavily slather this on my face, let it sit for an hour then use the cleanser. I love this stuff.

What you need

What you need

GOTHA’S FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH OINTMENT

¼ cup almond oil
2 droppers full of Argan oil
2 tbsp coconut oil (solid)
2 tbsp beeswax pellets
1 tbsp Shea butter
10 drops lavender essential oil

Use a large glass measuring cup, that is sitting in a water bath on the stove (medium low heat). Add your two droppers full of Argan oil. Pour in ¼ cup almond oil. Add the coconut oil, beeswax and Shea butter. After everything has melted and stirred well remove the glass measuring cup or whatever you are using from the heat. Add your lavender oil. Mix well. Pour into your storage containers. Let cool completely before putting on lid. Store in a cool dark place.
You can add a few drops of vitamin e oil when you add the lavender. It would just make this great cream even better. I do not use vitamin e oil because my skin tends to itch when I use it.

Freshly poured magic

Freshly poured magic

Fountain of youth?

Fountain of youth?

Just for your 411: when you begin to use natural products your face may experience a breakout or two as your skin releases built up toxins and anything yucky lurking about. Now if after a few weeks you are still experiencing breakouts this stuff may not be for you.

I buy everything but the coconut oil off of Amazon. Only because that’s where I find the best deals.

Now let’s talk common sense. If you begin to break out in hives or your skin begins to experience a burning sensation STOP. WASH OFF PRODUCT! As I always say, research all the ingredients before using them. Know what is going on your skin!

 

Gotha’s Chocolate Coconut Bombs

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Too damn tasty

Too damn tasty

I have added coconut oil to my diet in hopes of helping my dry cracking itchy skin. I am trying to heal my skin from the inside out because in my 40 something years nothing has helped my skin from the outside. If I had back the money wasted on lotions, I wouldn’t be rich but I’m sure I could pay a few big bills off.
I first became familiar with coconut oil from Pinterest when I was looking for natural hair treatments. That sparked my interest about that amazing oil, so I researched the many uses and benefits of the awesome coconut and the oil it produces.
What you must first understand is the oil is solid like lard. Fortunately it has a low melting point of 76 degrees. Which makes it easy to use on the hair and skin. Now getting it inside the body is easier for some but not everyone. I fall into the not everyone category.

I have tried melting the coconut oil and just slamming it down the hatch like a shot of liquor. Nasty doesn’t even begin to describe that process. Some Pinterest pins suggest just eating it by the spoonful, solid. That ended up with gagging like a cat trying to upchuck a fur ball. I have added it to food and drink with some success.

When done properly coconut oil in coffee is a great tasty way to get it into your diet. But when you have stomach issues like me, coffee every morning is a no-no.

Much by accident I came across several pins about coconut bombs.
What are coconut bombs you ask? Just a tasty way to ingest good ole healthy coconut oil.

There happens to be a few ways to make these bombs. Some recipes just have you mix the solid form of the oil with some tasty ingredients. Some call for you to melt the oil before mixing.

Ingredients added to the oil varied also. Some people used ground cinnamon, some cinnamon with chocolate and others used just chocolate or cocoa powder. None that I found had shredded coconut in the recipe. What?
Now my version is one of many. You may not like it. No problem. Go to Pinterest and search ‘coconut bombs’ you will have so many recipes you are sure to find one you love.

Here is my version:

What you need

What you need

Gotha’s Chocolate Coconut Bombs for Smoother Skin

1 cup of melted coconut oil. (about 60 seconds in microwave handles that)

A small handful of chocolate chips, about 25. Semi-sweet, milk chocolate, basically whichever floats your boat.

One tablespoon cocoa powder.

1 cup of shredded coconut.

Here is the easy peasy way to build your bombs:

Add your chocolate chips and cocoa powder to your melted coconut oil and stir. Stir a lot. It took some convincing for the chocolate chips and oil to decide to become one. After that mix in the shredded coconut. Your mixture will be runny. Just toss it in the freezer for two minutes. While your bombs are cooling lay out some wax paper on your counter.

Remove mixture from freezer, stir well. If it’s still too runny pop back in freezer for another minute. Once cooled and slightly hardened use two spoons or a melon baller to shape bite size bombs. Place on wax paper to set up. I ended up with 25 bombs. You may get more or less depending on how you size them. I have most at a two-bite size.

This is from a smaller test batch. The recipe makes much more.

This is from a smaller test batch. The recipe makes much more.

Adding the coconut. Yum

Adding the coconut. Yum

I store the bombs in the fridge. Remember coconut oil has a low melt point. My house is HOT!
The husband thinks we live in the artic and keeps our heat on what I call the tropical setting. I have had to go outside in 20 degree weather wearing shorts and a t-shirt to cool down. True story. Neighbors must think I’m having menopausal hot flashes. So I feared my coconut bombs would react like Frosty the Snowman on a tropical island and turn into coconut puddles.

Tasty. This is a skin treatment that can spoil a girl.

Tasty. This is a skin treatment that can spoil a girl.

Right now I have two bombs a day. One at my first break at work the other during my second work break. If in a few weeks I feel I need more coconut oil I will add a third bomb. And yes I do yell, “Bombs away” before eating one. (UPDATE: with two per day for two weeks my skin still looks dry, but man it feels soft. So it is helping. I will now add a third bomb to see where that takes me on my dry skin journey).

How do they taste? Like an Almond Joy minus the almond. But without almonds it’s a Mounds you say. Nope. Mounds uses a dark chocolate which changes the taste dramatically. Don’t argue I’m a ‘robust’ girl, I know my candies.

Now some people use coconut bombs for weight loss. Does that work? I don’t know but you might want to omit the chocolate chips from the recipe if you are trying to watch your weight. I have not lost any weight but I have noticed that after eating a bomb I do feel full plus do less mindless snacking. It’s the late evenings that kill me with the over eating. I will soon tackle my food issue. First I am focusing on being more active. Which with my Vivofit is working well. Small changes, not all at once is my plan.

A note on buying coconut oil. My first suggestion is do your research so you can make an informed decision. After trying several, some refined some unrefined. Some virgin some not so virgin. Some without taste others with a coconutty taste. As of right now my favorite is a unrefined virgin coconut oil from Target. It does have a coconut taste. I still try other types/brands as I find them so one day my favorite might change. So, research, try a variety, maybe look at some brands on Amazon and read the reviews.

Are you a coconut oil user? If so please share with me, I am always looking for new ways to try this amazing oil.

UPDATE: I have tried this a few times adding extra ingredients. After research I have discovered Cacao Nibs are a nutritional powerhouse. Brazil nuts may help my Thyroid issue. So I added 1 tbsp of the nibs and three chopped Brazil nuts to the recipe for my bombs. The bombs are still great with the add ins.

 

A Hairy Situation

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I am in a hairy predicament. All because of my hair.

My hair, my sad, sad hair.

 

This stuff that sprouts from my head is thin with just enough curl to make it look like an unbrushed rat’s nest, when it is freshly brushed in the morning oh the frizz! Also because I have a thyroid condition my hair tends to fall out more than your average everyday hair shed. Then you add the medicine I take for the thyroid which has a side effect of causing hair to fall out. You see my dilemma? What hair that doesn’t fall out is a hot frizzy untamed mess.
I discussed this hair falling out situation with my doctor. He was a total ass to me plus offered no solutions. Now to give him credit he is also an ass about everything else ( I am in the process of finding a new doctor).
I was in a hairy situation. So as usual Gotha protocol off to the internet and Pinterest I went to look for a solution.
After researching I decided what was needed was something that can treat the scalp plus help what hair I have left.
After a few weeks of research I came up with a recipe. You have things in it to help improve hair and scalp plus some things that are suppose to increase circulation to scalp which may/may not help the hair to grow.

The magic formula?

The magic formula?

I also added some vitamin/supplements to my diet that claim to improve hair growth.

I have done this for a few months now. I am pretty sure my hair has grown a good bit but I can’t tell because as the condition of my hair improves the more it curls. So it looks like my hair has gotten shorter when it really has grown. Ha-ha, great cosmic joke there. Now as to my hair getting thicker, I can’t tell if it has or not. If it has it’s not been enough for me to get excited about.

Sadly I will never have thick hair. I will always have excessive hair loss due to my thyroid. BUT what hair I do have is growing a tad faster then before, also it’s pretty darn healthy looking and curly.

If you have similar hair issues and have some tips, hints or a miracle please feel free to share in the comment section.
Gotha’s scalp and hair treatment

½ cup coconut oil. Melted.
1 tbsp. sweet almond oil
1 tbsp. olive oil
5 drops rosemary essential oil
5 drops tea tree oil
10 drops lavender oil
15 drops peppermint oil
1 tsp. beeswax pellets
Place a glass jar or glass measuring container in a small pot that has four to five inches of water in it , a water bath. On medium heat melt the beeswax and coconut oil. I find that the beeswax pellets like to be difficult melting on medium heat, so you may have to increase your heat for a few moments. Stir often during the melting process.
Once melted completely, remove glass container from heat. Pour in the sweet almond and olive oil. Mix well. Add your essential oils. Stir.
Since I tend to be impatient I pour the mixture into my storage containers and allow them to cool for 10 minutes in freezer. I then take out give each container of scalp treatment one final stir then allow to set up completely on my counter top. Once set, place lids on the containers and store in a cool dark place.

Container lined with wax paper. Makes storage and clean up easier.

Container lined with wax paper. Makes storage and clean up easier.

I added the beeswax to the recipe during the second batch I made. You want the oils to melt quickly as you massage into scalp and throughout hair, but you don’t want the oils to melt in the container just from the heat of you holding it. So I added to beeswax to stabilize it slightly.

How to use Gotha’s Scalp and Hair Treatment

Scoop a small amount into hand. Massage into scalp. Once the scalp is covered well massage the oils throughout hair till the ends. Thickness and length of hair determines how much of your oil mixture you will use. My hair is thin so I use very little.
Cover or not cover with shower cap, it is your choice. I have used both methods and find the shower cap is only necessary if you’re applying heat with a blow dryer as part of the treatment. Some people like to heat their hair treatments but with this I think since it’s mainly for the scalp heat is not needed.
Leave on 30 minutes to 2 hours. Shampoo, probably twice is a good idea.
IF after drying your hair looks oily next time leave the treatment on for a shorter period of time or during the first shampoo leave shampoo on hair a few minutes, rinse then shampoo again. No need to leave shampoo on long during the second go.

You can omit some or all of the essential oils from this recipe. Just so you know each one brings great things to the scalp party, but are optional. As always: before making or using any home treatment RESEARCH all your ingredients. It’s your scalp and your hair so be fully informed about what is going on it.

Teaser: I have made and been using an anti-aging ointment for my face. IT IS FRICKING AMAZING! I will share this with you soon.