Diffusing My Way To A Happy Me

GreenAir Spa Vapor+
Ultrasonic Oil Diffuser

I ordered myself a birthday surprise from Amazon. It's a GreenAir Spa Vapor+ Ultrasonic Oil Diffuser, and I paid ONLY $29.99 for it. I love my sister's diffuser & bought one just like it. The light is blue, green, red & purple & changes color every few seconds. It's very calming to watch the diffuser changing from one color to the next. I filled it up with water & added 3 drops of peppermint essential oil and 2 drops of rosemary essential oil & turned it on. Instantly a vapor started coming out of the top & I smelled the incredible oils. I need to focus & concentrate this afternoon & these essential oils will help me do just that. I love my diffuser and the incredible Aromatherapy benefits I'll receive from using it every single day. It's fun knowing that I can use my essential oils to enhance whatever feelings I want to bring forward. It's amazing. So easy to use AND beautiful to look at. I love my birthday gift. Thank you me. You always know exactly what I want. You're the best.

Make Your Own Foaming Hand Soap. It's EASY!!!

A few months ago I read on the internet that you could make your own anti-bacterial foaming hand soap. I was very skeptical, so of course, I had to try it. But there was one major problem. My bottle of foaming hand soap was brand new. So I set out to accomplish PHASE 1 of my foaming hand soap adventure, which was to use all of the soap in my freshly-bought foaming hand soap bottle. But, alas, my memory is faulty and I would go days without using the foaming hand soap and my super plan to make more once the hand soap was gone was delayed quite a bit. So, in saying, it took me about four months to use all of the foaming hand soap so I could try my experiment...on to PHASE 2.

PHASE 2:  I got my empty foaming hand soap bottle, put one inch of hand soap in it and filled the bottle up with water. After I put the lid back on the bottle, I gently turned the bottle upside-down, then right-side up a few times to mix. And PRESTO!!! I have a new bottle of foaming hand soap. I never believed it could possibly be so easy to make, but it works perfectly. Try it! I think you'll be happy with the outcome also. I'll never buy foaming hand soap again.....well, I suppose when my bottle finally gives out I'll have to buy a replacement bottle. But just think of the money I'll save in the meantime. Yea me!!!

No shampoo or towels on MY hair

I hated my hair. I mean, I REALLY hated my hair. It was dry, frizzy, and just plain horrible. I always felt more like I was born with some kind of weird fur instead of hair. BLAH!!! Then in December, my sister told me to stop using shampoo and towels on my hair, and to leave the conditioner in my hair. I found this rather odd, so I got online and researched how to wash frizzy hair, and she was right!
I discovered that your hair will look healthier and less frizzy if you:
(#1) do not use shampoo while washing your hair, just use water (if you feel like you need something, then use a little conditioner instead of shampoo).
(#2) leave the conditioner in your hair, (do not rinse).
(#3) use an old T-shirt to dry your hair (Towels dry out hair and make frizzy hair even more frizzy).

Now I use ONLY water to wash my hair, and if I feel like I need to use something to wash my hair, I use a little conditioner. After I "wash" my hair, I put a little conditioner in my hair (I don't rinse out the conditioner) and wrap an old T-shirt around my head. After several minutes, I take the T-shirt off and fix my hair the way I always did.
I've been doing this every single time I wash my hair since December 18, 2013 and my hair has never ever looked so healthy...AND I don't feel like I have fur on my head anymore. I actually have HAIR!!! I'll never use shampoo or towels on my hair again. I threw all of my shampoo away so I wouldn't accidentally use it. Thank you Vannoy Fite for the good advice. :)

Oh! And I learned that you can make your own leave-in conditioner by adding 1 or 1 1/2 teaspoon of your fav conditioner to a spray bottle, then fill it up with water and shake. I made some and it works very well. I've saved tons of money on NOT buying shampoo and making my own leave-in conditioner. Yea me!

Homemade Ladybug House

I've wanted to make a ladybug house for months but I just haven't done it yet. Ladybugs kill aphids and all kinds of other little bugs and worms in your garden and it's a very organic way to control pests. Today I got in Pinterest and made myself a Ladybug House board. Then I pinned a bunch of ladybug houses. They're so cute and I really want one but I keep forgetting to get some kind of tube at the store to make one. After looking at those houses, I realize you can use anything to make a ladybug house. So here's what I did.

 First, I got a red valentines bucket I bought last year that has a lid with a slot in it. Then I wrapped Sisal twine around the handle to make it more stable while hanging in the tree. I cut four 2 1/2 foot long pieces of twine and tied to the middle of the handle so I could tie it to the tree.
I went outside with my pruning sheers and cut a bunch of wood of different widths into 4 inch long pieces. I also cut bamboo, cane, and strips of bark from my dead mimosa tree in 4 inch long pieces. I stood all the pieces of cut wood, cane, and bamboo up in the bucket. Then I shoved in the pieces of bark in between the wood/bamboo/cane to make more places for the ladybugs to go.

I put the lid on the bucket and hung it in the tree by my herbs. I quickly realized a potential problem. The back of the bucket was lower than the front of the bucket and when it rained it would fill up with water. So I untied the bucket and got a screw driver and popped a few holes in the bottom side of the bucket and I also put a hole in the bottom of the bucket so the water could drain out after it rains.

Then I hung it back in the tree. Perfect. It's so cute. Then I had one more thing to do to make my ladybug house complete. Hunt for ladybugs to put in the house to hopefully draw in more ladybugs. I searched for a long time and couldn't find a ladybug. I can't believe I can't find one. When I don't need a ladybug, they land on me. When I neeeeeed one, I can't find one anywhere. Oh well, I'll keep looking, and as soon as I find one, in the house it goes.

While I was tying the ladybug house to the Crape Myrtle, a big butterfly landed on my Beebalm flower so I took that grand opportunity to take a picture of him. It was pretty windy so this was the best pic I could get before it flew away.

My Heart Needs Cacti To Survive

These are my small cacti that don't stab/stick/poke me. Using
a letter punch set, I made each of my cacti a name stake that
has their Latin name, and their common name listed. Now I'll
never forgot what kind of cactus they are.

I'm totally and completely obsessed with cactus and I've been deeply and madly in love with them for about 38 years. My dad bought me my very first cactus when I was around 15 or 16 years old and that was all it took to get me hooked. Since then, I've been poked, stabbed, scraped and gouged a thousand times. I've spent many hours trying to get tiny cactus spines out of my hands and arms. I've re-potted so many cactus that I can't possibly remember them all, and I got my fair share of battle wounds in the process. But still, I love cactus. I've become an expert at potting the prickly little things, and have developed my transplanting technique so well that I only get stabbed a few times while placing each cactus in its new pot. But the end product is well worth the pain.

This is Godzilla. He's a Stetsonia Coryne, (A.K.A. Toothpick
Cactus). My husband bought him for me in august 1992. I've
raised him in the house since I got him. Last year I finally got
brave and put him outside in my fountain and in the Spring he
was 31 inches tall and was a single column cactus. By the time
I took him in the house last Winter, he was 35 inches tall
and had three new arms. Imagine my surprise when he
suddenly grew arms, of all things. I was stunned. I can't wait
to see how tall he grows this year...and how many more
arms he grows. (If you look at my blog post titled "Babies
and Spikes" on June 17, 2012, you'll see Godzilla when
his arms were tiny nubs). Proud mama here.

Over the last couple of years I forced myself to really toned down my cactus affection and completely stopped buying new cactus. During the last few years, when I would love my cacti too much and they would subsequently die from over-watering, I haven't been replacing them. Last year I realized I only had six cacti left, and, oddly enough, it really hurt my heart. So I decided to do a little heart therapy and went to the store and bought a cactus. Now, a year later, I have 27 cacti and I'm happily contemplating another one...or two...or ten...I can't get enough. I completely forgot how exciting it was to play with my cactus and move them around the yard. And I forgot how fun it was to go set by them and just look at them and appreciate their beauty. Or how beautiful they were when they got their very first flowers of the year.
Now I'm in a dilemma, as I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these cacti this winter because they can't stay outside, which is the main reason I stopped buying cactus in the first place. They'll all have to come in the house.

My fountain. Godzilla is at the back left. I have 15 cactus
in my fountain right now. The rest of them are on the porch
or in hanging baskets. If you can't tell, I also love rocks. I
can't get enough of them.

What I need/want (and this is the reason for this post) is a greenhouse. That's my dream, a cactus greenhouse. If I had a cactus greenhouse, I'd spend half the winter in there staring at my babies, and I'd even try my hand at growing cactus from seeds. I'm determined to have a cactus greenhouse this winter, and I know I'll have one. Now I just have to convince my husband that a cactus greenhouse is an urgent necessity, because he'll be the one building it after all. Luckily, he likes for me to have what I want almost as much as he doesn't want all those cacti in the living room for months, so it shouldn't be too hard convincing him. Wish me luck in my endeavor.


 

I'm sooo ADDICTED!!!

The Greatest Juggling Act On Earth!!
Self Portrait: Me, Bret Michaels, and
my new best friend...my Nutribullet.

I never thought it would happen to me, and I've said so many time that I'd never do it. But alas, it's happened. I'm proud to say that I've joined the ranks of Nutribulletism. OMGosh! I'm so in crazy love with my Nutribullet. It's my most fav thing I own.
I'm ecstatic that it's spring because my Nutribullet has brought my herb garden to a whole new realm of possibilities. Just imagine all of the tasty drinks I can make using all of my incredible herbs this year.
Now that my herb garden will be a definite victim for my Nutribullet, I need to have a whole new perspective when I buy new herbs to plant. I need to go shopping for herbs that will not only be nutritional and full of vitamins and minerals, but will be tasty too. Heck, using that as a basis for my herb buying happens to include almost everything I already have growing in my herb garden. But I positively need more peppermint, spearmint, stevia, sage, pineapple sage, lemon balm, thyme, savory....ooohh, I need a lot more of everything to support my Nutribullet addiction.
I've always loved my beautiful herb garden, but now I LOVE MY HERB GARDEN and can't wait for everything to grow so I can drink it. I feel like a mad scientist rubbing my hands together and giggling gleefully with all of my herbal expectations.