2016: Savage to the End

Two Faced

Here we are in December, and if your winter is anything like mine it's been cold, and dry (dryer than usual for these parts, at least) so, I thought I'd share two of my favorite face recipes that help keep my skin from freaking out this time of year, or looking dull and grubby.  Ok, first up is...

Baby, I'm a Star Anise Scrub

Might not know it now, Baby, but I are!

Here's what you need:

• Organic Coconut Oil
• Aluminum Free Baking Soda or Diatomaceous Earth
• Anise Seed Essential Oil
• Frankincense Essential Oil
• 8 oz Glass Jar
• Electric Hand Mixer (optional)

Here's what you do:
 In an 8 oz glass jar combine softened coconut oil, and aluminum free baking soda in a 1:1 ratio (if using diatomaceous earth you'll want to use less due to the finer grit of the substance, so try for a 2:1 ratio).  Next, add 60 drops of anise seed essential oil, and 10 drops of frankincense essential oil, and with a small whisk attachment for your hand mixer, blend until the consistency reaches a smooth creamy texture.

Use:  I reach for this scrub about twice a week (don't use it too often, the goal is to still have skin), and use it pre bath or shower, do a casual rinse, and then hop into the tub since I'm not someone whose skin needs a ton of moisturizing.  Post bathing, my face is clean, and left with just the right amount of coconut oil to feel moisturized but not greasy.  I love using coconut oil in my beauty products, and routine, but you have to write yourself a different set of rules than the ones you're probably used to following with store bought products.  Nevertheless, this has become an absolute staple in my cabinet, it's also awesome on hands, feet, or if you find your elbows are getting a little neglected and rough.  A word of caution (or excitement, depending on your stance) anise seed essential oil is well-known as a possible "skin irritant" which, technically, could mean any number of things, but what I have found is that it will diminish the size or completely remove spots and moles from your face and body.  My mother discovered this quite by accident after mixing up her second batch of face and hand cream (her own creation), when the only change she made to the recipe was the addition of anise seed oil, and much to her surprise her sun-damage spots and other moles were vanishing from her face, hands, and arms.  I've since begun to use this essential oil neat as a spot treatment for pesky moles that look a little questionable, or in an inconvenient place, and it has worked in removing them.  For me, they just sort of dry up, and flake off.  I'm not sure if they will come back once I've stopped using the spot treatments, but if anyone has any experience with this, I'd love to hear from you, hit up my email on the sidebar!  Next up...

Get ready to make everyone green with envy!

Masque Envieux

Here's what you need:

• French Green Clay
• Water
• Lavender Essential Oil
• Non-metal Dish / Bowl
• Measuring Spoons

Here's what you do:
In a small dish combine
1 Tablespoon of French Green Clay, and 1 1/2 Tablespoons (or a little more if it's too dry) of water and mix with a non-metal utensil.  As the mixture forms a smooth paste, add a drop of lavender essential oil, and fold into the paste.

Use:
First of all, it is wise to do a patch test on the upper inside of your forearm to see how your skin will react to the clay.  Once you know everything's cool, slather your face with your little green creation and let dry for NO longer than 15 minutes.  Remember, while these are pure ingredients and safe for most people to use, they are not cut with other useless ingredients that water down their effects like many store bought items we're accustomed to.  So really, if this is your first time using your home made clay mask, this is not the time to experiment with leaving it on an extra 5 minutes unless, of course, you're into that whole inflamed-face-look.

What's with French Green Clay, anyway?  Why do people use it?  This clay has been used to treat problematic skin, and inconvenient digestive issues since ancient times from Egypt to Rome, it's mineral rich, and aids in cell regeneration ... What's not to love?  A quick Google search of "French Green Clay history" will give you more information than you ever wanted about it.  Basically, it's the annoying overachiever of the clay world, but totally deserving of all its accolades.

So, now you know my winter beauty secrets aside from eating well, and drinking a ton of water, this is really all there is to it!

xoxo

Affiliate Disclosure

Yodel-YAY!-Ee-Hoo

Vintage cornucopia found: here

Stand up and take chard of your holiday appetizer tray with this recipe for Boatyard Chard.  Move over Spinach Dip, there's a new spread in the slip!  The warm flavors of ginger root, and garlic bring a cozy heat to this otherwise mellow starter.

Here's what you need:

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1-2 Inch Piece of Ginger Root (grated) 
• 1 Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/4 Cup of Water
• 1-2 Bunches Swiss Chard (sliced into 1/4 - 1/2" pieces be sure to use some stems too!)
• 2 Cups Ricotta Cheese

Here's what you do:
Heat oil in a medium sized pot over medium heat.  Add garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes, and cook for 4-6 minutes (just long enough to get fragrant, don't burn it!).  Add chard, and water, cover and cook until wilted and tender - another 4-8 minutes.  Season with salt.

*HINT* If you're going salt free, however, use more diced chard stems in your recipe, they give a great salty flavoring to your dish.  The stems also contain glutamine (amino acid) that aids in tissue recovery in the body, so they're great to have around after injury or surgery!

Once your greens are nice and wilted, combine them with two cups of ricotta cheese in a baking dish, and pop into your pre-heated oven you set to 425° and bake for 12 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.  Serve with crostini or crackers of your choice, it's perfect straight out of the oven, or chilled overnight!

I stumbled upon this flavorful, yet gentle recipe when I altered, and combined one of my favorites (coconut chard) with the directions for a dip recipe that involved ricotta cheese, at a time when I had to engage in a brutally restrictive diet.  My body wasn't playing nicely with all of the other foods on the playground, or maybe it was the other way around, but this was one recipe that was a bit of a peace-maker, especially through the holiday season.  So, I thought I would share it this year for anyone dealing with food allergies, or mega-restrictions, or even weight loss, and diets that are leaving you with rather less-than-palatable options these days, because nobody wants to be unable to eat, and enjoy family gatherings, forever banished to loser-table ... it's a lot like the kids' table, but with no crayons.

xoxo

Rise & Shine!

The Leonie Dawson Shining Year Biz & Life workbooks are finally here for the masses (no memberships or pre-orders to fuss with and forget required).  For all of you swept up in the latest agenda craze, these workbooks, are weekly planners on steroids!  Mine are still in the mail, and this will be my very first year trying out Leonie's system for keeping all of my goals and deadlines on track.  I'm admittedly a little nervous (is that event the right word?) about diving into this packet, I am a complete and total minimalist when it comes to this kind of thing - like, 19¢ one subject notebook and black ink pen - minimalist aside from my old zip up calendar / address book with (ugly as hell) refillable pages from college. Almost nothing about the image above speaks to me on a personal or intuitive level, if I'm being perfectly honest.  No joke, it was like pulling teeth for my art instructors to get me to even entertain the idea of a sketchbook, and I kept maybe one and a half diaries during my entire childhood so, I am definitely not the constantly journaling / doodling / vision board-ing girl. I have, however, discovered this year that I work more efficiently when I have worksheets to check back with, and I already know that I closely follow the calendar to help keep me on task, but what drew me to this was the notion that I was missing a step in my planning that could push my productivity, and execution to the next level.  So, here I am giving it a whirl!  I'm curious to see how this all works out exactly.  If you are too, pounce on the images (hey, hey! They're links!) and snag a set that fits your life, or business goals, and see what all the hype is about!  I also recommend shaking a leg, these tend to sell out quickly, and thanks to successful pre-orders some stock is already running a bit low.

Seriously, people are bananas for this chick's products, and swear up and down that she has completely changed their lives and business, it's still too early for me to tell, but she just may be turning me into a believer.

And as always, you can check out some of Leonie's free goodies over here!

 xoxo

Ready for a Little World Building?

Alright gang, my annual Worldbuilders winter fundraiser post is coming out a little earlier than usual this year.  In years past I've posted about Patrick Rothfuss' end of the year charity extravaganza where geeks from all walks of life come together to change people's lives through Heifer International to kick off the holiday season around here on December 1st, and also help spread the word of a final two week push to the donation finish line.  This year things are a little different, Worldbuilders has announced that they have the ability to match donations made in 2016 up to a million dollars, meaning if anything near last year's total is achieved, TWO MILLION USD will be given to Heifer International to completely transform the lives of people in our own country and around the world who have been affected by the most devastating poverty imaginable.

So, how can you join in all of the merry-making, you ask?  Go HERE and check out Pat's charity launch post for an in-depth description of how this all works.  The basic idea is that there are three ways to help out: Auctions, Lottery, and Donate, but as the fundraiser goes on madness ensues with new stretch goals added, and new lottery and auction items thrown into the mix, so it's great to check back in with his blog between now and the end of the fundraiser **DEADLINE EXTENDED!!!** DECEMBER 19, 2016 11:59 UTC-11 to see what other shenanigans have cropped up that you might feel you need to be involved with.  If you're feeling generous this holiday season, or looking to deviate from the usual gift giving of this time of year give it a peek and maybe drop a few dollars to help someone out!

xoxo

Enjoy, Boils & Ghouls!

Six Word Story: Going too Far

She demanded his soul.  He complied.

-Stormy Peterson

Rebecca Steele

Update October 23, 2022:

I'm several years late in making corrections on this post, and I see that it continues to get hits quite regularly, and has been uploaded as a story on Ancestry(dot)com, and while I don't want to be precious, and fussy about asking permission first or anything, I haven't even shared this post in my own tree.  Allow me to explain: Rebecca Steele is a hell of a gal to pin down, and while I've made this post as factual as I possibly can with the information I had available to me six years ago, please do not treat it as gospel, and please continue to research her and gather evidence of the life she lived; we need all we can get.  The fact is, she did exist, but where exactly she fits in several of our trees is much more difficult to be precise about - her parentage is also heavily debated as several of us have her birth year recorded as 1625, which would only put her at 37 at the time of her hanging, while others have placed her birth at 1590, and that makes her about 72 years old at her time of death, which is a lot more in line with first hand accounts (Rev. John Whiting, minister of the First Church in Hartford) describing her appearance at the time of her cofession as being a, "considerably aged woman," but makes her a lot less likely to be the mother of her sons Micah, and Moses that we know she had with Jarvis Mudge, and would place her on the birthing bed at 60, and 62 years old, respectively.  The fact is, there are pieces of Rebecca's past that are still a mystery today (as far as I'm aware) so please, when you read this post just let it be a fun little tale until the appropriate corrections, and documentation can be made.  Thanks so much, and enjoy!

Hanged as a witch in January 1663, she was reportedly lewd, foul-mouthed (I like her already), emotional, and possibly mentally ill, or just really fed up with her thieving husband's (and everyone else's) sh nonsense ... But a real witch? Probably not.  She was, however, the last-ish person in Connecticut to be executed as one.

Three decades before Salem, Massachusetts put witch trials on the colonial map, Hartford, Connecticut found itself ground zero of a witchcraft frenzy all its own between 1647 and 1663 beginning with the sentencing, and execution of Alse Young, a woman whose trial we know next to nothing about.  In the next seven years, four more executions would follow: Mary Johnson, John & Joan Carrington, and Lydia Gilbert.  A fourth, and final wave of hysteria swept Hartford in early 1662, according to court documents, the fuss originally centered around a little girl in the throes of illness crying out accusations of witchcraft in her demented state.  The child subsequently died, and all hell broke loose. By the time 1662 had rolled around, my 7th Great-Grandmother, Rebecca Steele originally from Devonshire, England, and the widow of two (by all accounts I have found) upstanding men (Abraham Elsen & my 7th Great-Grandfather Jarvis Mudge) who had the misfortune of tying up for the third time with a certain Mr. Greensmith, a man that according to probate records seemed to have a difficult time with drunkenness, battery, truthfulness, and keeping his paws off other people's property, had been fully, and thoroughly dragged into the witch hunt.  The couple kept the company of a colorful motley crew comprising of blasphemers, thieves, liars, adulterers -- your basic rabble of undesirables from a Puritanical point of view.  It appears that this, and their late-night merrymaking under a tree on the green near the Greensmith's house which included drinking and dancing (gasp!) was a great jumping off point for neighborhood suspicions.  So basically they were those neighbors ... Every 'hood has that one house where they install a portable hot tub on their front lawn, get absolutely trashed, and then proceed to fight and yell loud enough so they can hear each other's insults over the constant thrum of jacuzzi jets ... Wait, what?  I can't possibly be the only person so richly blessed!  To be perfectly honest, if witchcraft accusations held the same weight as they used to, and I could get away with it, and depending on how much sleep I'd lost due to the "merrymaking" I dare say, I'd be tempted.  I mean, I get it ... And so it turns out that my grandmother, Mr. Greensmith, James Walkley, and Goodwives Ayers and Seager were those people, and the other villagers were sick of it and wanted them gone, granted, they went about it in a pretty savage way.