All Natural Skincare with Cinnamon & Honey

I have somewhat dry skin. It wasn't until I was around 20 that I recognized this as fact. For years, I did what everyone else did: head to the drugstore, grab something with alcohol and/or salcylic acid, apply to face, and hope for the best. The results were never astounding.

Then there was this one tan summer when I sort of stopped washing my face all together (I thought this would make my tan last longer?) My skin was glorious. I wasn't walking around with shmutz all over my face -- I'd do a quick scrub with a damp towel after my shower to exfoliate a bit, then moisturize, but that's it. At some point though, you do need a proper clean & what I've learned about having dry skin is that traditional, commercially pushed products are a shitty idea.

And that's where this stuff comes in:

Note: I'm well aware that raw honey is more potent in its beneficial components than my Stop & Shop brand, but you know what -- it's all I've had around the house, and I promise you my skin feels amazing.

How to prepare your Cinnamon & Honey:
1. Squeeze out about a tablespoon of honey (into a little bowl, or your hand -- I'm partial to the hand so I don't waste any).
2. Add a few shakes of ground cinnamon  (probably 1 teaspoon or so)  to the honey and mix it up.

What to do:
Now you have a few options, you can use your honey & cinnamon for a quick face wash, or a 15 minute mask. The only difference in application is whether or not you start with a wet face.

Facewash
1. Wet your face with warm water.
2. Apply mixture to your face using gentle upward circular motions.
3. Rinse thoroughly with warm water.
4. Splash face with cold water to tighten pores.
5. Moisturize. 

Mask
1. Apply cinnamon & honey mixture to a dry face using gentle upward circular motions.
2. Leave mask on your face for around 15 minutes. (Do not expect it to dry).
3. Rinse throroughly with warm water.
4. Splash face with cold water to tighten pores.
5. Moisturize.

 *It is totally legit to omit the cinnamon for a super soothing honey-only facial cleanser, as Bohemian Kate explains in her post.

Why it works:
Cinnamon has natural anti-inflammatory, antibacterial properties & antioxidants. Along with the graininess to exfoliate when rubbed onto the skin. Honey has antibacterial, antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, and has been used on skin for thousands of years. It softens the skin by attracting and retaining moisture & contains alpha hydroxy acids which exfoliate and hydrate.

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I highly suggest you try this out! Not only do I find that it does wonders for my skin (the word "supple" keeps coming to mind, and kinda grossing me out at the same time), but it smells good, tastes good, and gives you the benefit of knowing exactly what it is you're putting on your face. It's a win, win, win :)

Oh, and I wrote about my foray into naturopathic remedies a few months ago -- with a garlic oil concoction for chest congestion that starts at your feet and moves to your lungs. Sounds ridiculous, but works like a charm -- you should check it out.

Caturday + Garlic in My Socks

Well, it's nearly 1 o'clock, so it's a little degenerate to say good morning. So hey -- happy Saturday! Gratuitous cat & boyfriend picture aside, I hope you're all out there having a great weekend. I've been fighting a terribleawfulnasty cold + fever the majority of the week, but I'm feeling pretty ok now. While I was more or less incapacitated, I took some over the counter meds to combat the shittiness, but also dabbled with a few all-natural remedies.

Turns out that I didn't have many of the ingredients needed for the homeopathic recipes I found online (apple cider vinegar, grapefruit seed oil...), and I wasn't about to venture out of the house. But, I did have garlic. Sweet, glorious garlic. You guys, it's amazing for chest congestion via, wait for it ---- your feet.

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I know it sounds insane, but it's honestly miraculous. I did it twice, thinking the first time might have been a fluke. It wasn't. It works.

Here's what you need to try it out for yourself:
garlic | olive oil | plastic wrap | socks

Here's what you do:
1. Crush a clove of garlic under a knife, then let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Put it in a little bowl & add enough olive oil to cover it up.
3. Wait a half hour or more, then slather the oil on the bottom of your feet.
4. Wrap your feet up in plastic wrap & throw on your socks.
5. Sleep, or don't, but try to leave the oil on your feet for at least 5 hours. The longer the better.

Within a few hours your breath you will stink of garlic, but the tightness/congestion in your chest should be gone. I kid you not. It's wild, and I highly recommend that you try it out.

Do you have any favorite all natural remedies for what ails?

DIY Hanging Baseball Cap Storage

Ok, E's got a little bit of a hoard of hats (and shoes... and black t-shirts...) I hate the visual clutter of seeing them all over the coat rack, and had to figure out a better way to get them out of sight while keeping them accessible for an ever-outfit-changing man. Here's the super easy solution I came up with: 

 Supplies:

• a rod of some sort (I used a shitty old broken blind from our bedroom)
• hinged craft rings (left over from some craft or another)
• curtain clips (extras from hanging the shower curtain)
• somewhere to hang the rod (I just happened to have the perfect space under the table for it to slide right in, but you can use hardware, or rope from hooks on a closet ceiling, whatever works)

Hang your curtain clips from your craft rings and slide them onto whatever pole-type object you're hanging them from. Install the pole, hang the hats from the clips, and there they are -- all lined up in a row! So easy, so cheap, and so out of my face.

Is anyone else out there constantly trying to reorganize their place for little to no money?

Nail Art // Dave Concert

Now that they're all been peeled off in a fashion consistent with my inability to leave polish on until I find myself where there are both cotton balls and nail polish remover... I miss my wild nails from last weekend's concert festivities very much (post on the whole weekend coming soon).

I used a few different techniques on these, which I'd gathered from Kaylah's nail posts over the past few months. She has such a great eye for color, and jazzes the patterns up so much with just some tape for the most part. I love them. I only get to my nails about once a week, toes even less frequently... But if I'm doing them at all lately, they're going to be at least two-toned. It's too much fun not to.

Supplies

Brucci - Tiffany's Tying the Knot

Brucci - Jan's Jazzy Ginger

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lickety-Split Lime

Scotch Tape

Clear Top Coat (nothing fancy)

How I Did It

Simple Triangles of the pink on the gold basecoat

DIY Nail Stickers (via The Dainty Squid) for the green lines

I'm due to paint my nails again this afternoon, but first I've got to swing up to mom and dad's to do some laundry. There's not quite much better than having them less than 10 miles away. I'm so spoiled. Is it still spoiled when you know you're lucky?

Comfort Food: Cream of Mushroom Soup

Fair warning: this is a little ridiculous.
But I couldn't bear to waste the pictures.

Wednesday afternoon I felt like crap. I needed to eat. Comfort food in particular. Luckily for me, there was one can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup left in the cabinet. I know a ton of people only use it for casseroles, but as soup alone, this has been my favorite, well, for as long as I can remember. 

There are 4 things that are paramount for getting it just right:

1. You need to use whole milk.

2. You need to skimp on the milk.
3. You need a funky whisk.
4. You need Ritz crackers.

1 & 2. Directions call for a full can of water or milk (I already mentioned, if you're gonna do it, do it right with whole milk), but make sure you do not top it off all the way. Less liquid equals creamier soup.

3. This whisk is old (see the grody wooden handle with slipping metal piece in bottom right picture?), but so very cherished. In the 20ish years I've been making condensed soup, I've never succeeded at truly incorporating the milk without it. The spring shape lets you press it down flat to the bottom and right to the edge of your pan so you can incorporate every little bit of yumness without lumps. These whisks work great for pan gravy, too. I'm serious, invest in one.

4. Crackers are essential. Saltines and oyster crackers are cool, but the combination of the butterysaltycrunchy Ritz is perfect with this soup. Expect to use half a sleeve (Yes, it's indulgent. I'm talking about comfort food here). I generally add two or three crumbled crackers at a time as I work my way down the mug.

In case anyone is curious, yes -- I can cook for real, too. Promise.

More on that another day.

DIY Renter Friendly Kitchen Backsplash

So, I love our little apartment, and when we moved in I had grand visions of how it would all come together. It was to be the stuff of d*s sneak peaks! I also thought it would happen instantly. We've been here 8 months, and I'm just getting around to tying up some loose ends (hanging artwork in our living room on our neighbors' bedroom adjacent wall being the loosest of all -- but that's for another post).

The kitchen's already been dolled up a bit:

tibetan prayer flags, upcycled chalkboard from sara+matt (calendar) 

fortune collection, photos, keepsakes, and quote. tie-dyed cheesecloth curtains!

bomb timer! (and dust), cook books, matches stored in a vintage sifter (stolen from mom) 

hanging mugs, task lighting via christmas lights and command hooks

Cute, right?

But check out all this ick white blah-ness where a back splash should be.

It'd been driving me crazy (not to mention picking up grime/splatters). Having gathered different ideas of how to remedy this, essentially because I'm a design/diy blog junkie, there were plenty of options - but I like to work with what I have. Just so happens I had a bunch of leftover picture frames from participation in a holiday craft fair.

I chose a few of my more vibrant prints, popped them in the frames, stuck some command velcro strips on the back of each, (waited the agonizing hour for them to set before I could put the pictures up), and voila!

An interchangeable, cleanable, and colorful addition to my favorite room in the house!