Del Shannon: Runaway

Aynaria 4 Comments

This was a little before my time when this was a hit in 1961, but I still love the song!

 

Del Shannon: Runaway

As I walk along,
I wonder what went wrong,
With our love, a love that was so strong.
And as I still walk on,
I think of the things we’ve done
Together, a-while our hearts were young.

I’m a-walkin’ in the rain,
Tears are fallin’ and I feel the pain,
Wishin’ you were here by me,
To end this misery
And I wonder–
I wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder,
Why,
Why, why, why, why, why she ran away,
Yes, and I wonder,
A-where she will stay-ay,
My little runaway,
Run, run, run, run, runaway.

I’m a-walkin’ in the rain,
Tears are fallin’ and I feel the pain,
Wishin’ you were here by me,
To end this misery
And I wonder–
I wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder,
Why,
Why, why, why, why, why she ran away,
Yes, and I wonder,
A-where she will stay-ay,
My little runaway,
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
Run, run, run, run, runaway.
Run, run, run, run, runaway.

Natural skin care business: Light at the end of the tunnel…

Aynaria 4 Comments

The past few weeks have been busy as I’ve been rounding up items needed to reopen my natural skin care business.  I had a small natural skin care small business up until the time my daughter was about two years old. It’s something I’ve missed immensely. I did a lot of research and experimentation and created natural skin products that truly made me proud.

kids experimenting

Within the next few days, I’ll be experimenting with a few of my old recipes; sunblock and toothpaste. I have plenty of  eager guinea pigs that I know will give me their honest opinion of whatever I grace them with. They’re the same folks I used the first time around.

skin care tubes

If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen my post about  the lip balms. I made some this past weekend. You know what? Lip balm tubes and deodorant tubes are the perfect container to dispense your hard butters. They keep fingers out of the mixture and much less messier (and more sanitary I might add) then dipping your finger into a jar.

unrefined organic coconut oil

Tomorrow I should receive a large order of  unrefined extra virgin coconut oil, zinc (non nano) and a few other goodies. This Friday, my daughter, her best friend and I will be having fun with soap making. I’ll be making several pounds of liquid castile soap. No this isn’t one of the partially prepared soaps since I’ll be making the real thing. I have plenty of sodium hydroxide aka lye available. It’ll be a nice learning experience for my daughters friend and fun time for everyone involved.

It takes about a month for cold processed soap to cure, so this soap won’t be available to use immediately. But the results make it worth the wait. I do believe some of the soap will make it’s way into Christmas gifts.

Corn Chowder and potato chips…

Aynaria 4 Comments

The two chowders (potato and fish) were a big hit with my daughter and so last week I made some more.  This time, I made a corn chowder…

 

ground spices.10.12.13

 

I pulled out my beloved mortar and pestle and ground up the herbs and a variety of spices. Once that was finished, I set the freshly ground spices into a small stainless steel bowl and ground up my garlic and ginger until it made a smooth paste. I set that aside.

fresh sweet corn_2

 

And cut the corn off the cob. The corn was freshly picked and really sweet. This would be a mildly sweet chowder.

Shiitake mushrooms.10.07.13

I still had some of the shitake mushrooms that Kenny of Veggie Gardening Tips had given to me, and so I chopped them up and added to the corn chowder. We love mushrooms…

Chowder.10.12.13

I put everything into my pressure cooker and cooked with the lid off for about ten minutes. The corn and mushrooms were added two minutes before I turned it off.  The chowder smelled divine and filled the kitchen with its delightful aroma.

The freshness of the ingredients added extra flavor to the chowder. You won’t find that in your store bought processed chowders.  The chowder I served did not last too long, but since I’d set aside eight cups of the chowder, to put in the freezer, there was more for other days.

Chowder makes awesome comfort food. To accompany the chowder I also made potato chips. My daughter had been craving something crunchy. I normally bake my potato chips, but this time I pan fried them in a skillet.

homemade potato chips_1.10.11.13

I could have used my Mandoline slicer to neatly slice the potatoes, but I opted to chop the potatoes finely with a knife and toss them into the skillet. These potatoes came from our garden.

homemade potato chips_2.10.11.13

 

Once the chips were brown, I laid them on paper towels. I blotted off the excess oil. In the above picture, I’d made about three layers of chips. You can only see the top layer. I ground up some sea salt in my mortar and pestle and placed that in a tiny condiment bowl for my daughter. I had already made a homemade ketchup so I brought that out too.

The homemade potato chips turned out crisp, crunchy, and much better than any store bought chip I’ve had. Since I made them myself, they are much healthier and devoid of the extra junk our bodies do not need.

Using a dermaroller to target a few dark spots and wrinkles…

Aynaria 6 Comments

DermarollerAbout a month ago, I started using a derma roller on my face. I stumbled upon the derma roller by accident when I was looking for additional ways to clear up my few dark spots. The procedure is also called “skin needling” or “micro needling.”

I must say, I thought it was interesting that people were actually using a roller with tiny needles to puncture their skin. Say what? That sounds painful! Still, I was fascinated… I do have a high tolerance for pain but after rolling, I found out that it was not too painful. I don’t have too many problem issues with my skin; a few dark spots and wrinkles on my forehead. But I will say that I have seen improvements since adding it into my routine.

Before trying it on myself, I did a lot of research, watched a lot of videos so I’d know how to use my derma roller effectively.

The Dr. Roller site says…

Skin Needling (or Micro-Needling) is a form of Collagen Induction Therapy which stimulates collagen, significantly improving the appearance of scars, fine lines, wrinkles, stretch marks and acne scars.

The process of skin needling is carried out by a small hand-held roller covered with numerous micro-needles. As you roll it on your skin (much like the way you would with a paint roller), these needles penetrate the upper layers of the skin (only as deep as the Needle Length used), causing a very minor trauma to the skin, just enough for it to perceive it as damage, and signal your body to release new collagen and elastin – two of the key building blocks of skin.

 

Recently, I’ve stepped up my skin care routine by using my electronic skin brush, homemade vitamin C serum and the derma roller. And now my skin is glowing again!

Besides putting more thought into my skin care routine, I know that there are other contributing factors to my healthy skin; such as reducing my candida symptoms and successfully eliminating my  digestive/constipation issues. Also, I’ve upped my daily intake of drinking freshly juiced vegetables and fruit.  All these factors have done wonders for my skin and is gradually returning it back to what I’m used to seeing.

To give you an idea on how the derma roller is used, I’ve posted a few videos that I’d watched on You Tube. The ladies featured in the two videos I’m showing mainly used the derma roller to target their acne. I never had acne issues, but the derma roller does work for other skin care issues such as dark spots, wrinkles, stretch marks, etc.,

 

Who knows… maybe I’ll have my daughter videotaping me while I use the derma roller on my skin.

I will say, over the past few weeks I have received a lot of compliments. A few people knew instantly what was going on and others had no idea they just knew something about me was different.

In fact, I’m getting ready for another derma rolling session. I just finished making a skin butter for my face. It has cocoa butter, vitamin E and a few essential oils added to the blend. I’ll be applying this after I finish derma rolling.

Resources

  1. Dr. Roller: What is Skin Needling?
  2. The International Dermal Institute: Skin Needling: Hurting or Helping?
  3. DermaNet NZ: Skin Needling: What is Skin Needling and How does it Work?
  4. Pub Med: Percutaneous collagen induction therapy: an alternative treatment for scars, wrinkles, and skin laxity.

Furbaby Adventures: Spay surgery for Gracie

Aynaria 4 Comments

A few days ago, I made an appointment for Gracie, our lionhead rabbit,  to get spayed.

Because of her laceration surgery, I had to hold off a bit longer to ensure that she was completely recovered from her laceration surgery. I’ll be curious to see how she does after the surgery. If she’s like Oreo, our Netherland dwarf rabbit, she’ll be subdued for the first 2o+ hours. Part of me does not think that will happen, her personality is much different that Oreo’s… but we’ll see!

Of course, I pray that she heals quickly, and has many happy bunny years in our household.

Expanding what we do at our local Homeless Shelter

Aynaria 2 Comments

It’s been a busy few weeks but thank goodness, I’m starting to breathe… just  a bit. At last evenings board meeting, I had a wonderful conversation with the director of the Homeless Shelter Ministry that I coordinate. I mentioned doing more things besides providing home cooked meals for the guests. He was very interested. I chatted with him for quite a while talking about the ideas I have and am looking forward to seeing some of them finally coming to fruition.

More on that later…