Homemade Pine Needle Facial Toner

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Before you throw that real pine Christmas tree out or dismantle those lovely natural pine wreaths and garlands you put together for the holidays, gather some pine needles* (or you can cut off fresh pine needles from a living tree anytime of the year) and make a homemade batch of facial toner using just three ingredients. Pine needles, witch hazel and water.

Let's consider the three ingredients: Pine needles are high in vitamin C and helps improve circulation and complexion. Witch Hazel is an astringent produced from the leaves and bark of the North American Witch-hazel shrub. It tightens the skin, reduce swelling, helps repair broken skin and also fights bacteria. Water - It's best to use filtered water or distilled water where the impurities have been removed.
Combine the three ingredients and you have a wonderful fragrant natural facial toner.

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Here's how to make the perfect natural toner:

Place 2 cups of green (fresh) pine needles and 1 cup of filtered or distilled water in a small saucepan.
Bring to boil and then remove from heat. Allow to cool completely.
Strain water and discard pine needles. Stir in 1/2 cup of witch hazel and pour into a small capped bottle.
Apply to face with a cotton ball after cleansing and let dry.
Store in cool, dry place.

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This is a mild fragrant, refreshing homemade astringent toner that's cool to your face, helps to shrink pores and firm your skin, giving it a radiant, luminous look that you can make anytime of the year.

To see more: http://plumperfectandme.blogspot.com/2014/12/homemade-pine-needle-facial-toner.html

A Chef's Guide to Young Living Essential Oils

https://www.facebook.com/ChefsGuidetoYoungLivingEssentialOils/photos/a.226946814079616.49843.226934970747467/724213587686267/?type=1&fref=nf

Cooking with essential oils? Enjoy the delicious power of essential oils from the inside out!

We’ve compiled some of our favorite tips for using essential oils in the kitchen. Add these delicious tips to your repertoire!


Breakfast
1.Waffles: Add 1–4 drops of Orange essential oil to wet waffle mix.
2.Oatmeal: Add 1 drop of Cinnamon Bark and 2 drops of Orange essential oil to a bowl of oatmeal or oat bran, and then sweeten with Blue Agave.
3.Lemon with Berries: Add Lemon essential oil to berry protein shakes or to plain yogurt and top with berries.

Snacks
1.Cream Cheese Spread: Put cream cheese into a bowl and mix in Lemon essential oil to taste.
2.Olive Oil: Add various culinary herb essential oils to your olive oil, such as Rosemary. Pour over a plate of balsamic vinegar and use foccacia bread for dipping.


Dinner
1.Tomato Pasta Sauce: Add 2 drops of Basil essential oil and 1 drop each of Rosemary and Thyme essential oil to tomato sauce base.
2.Olive Oil Dipping Sauce with Young Living Rosemary Essential Oil; Potato Salad: Add 1–2 drops of Dill essential oil to potato salad.
3.Rice Pilaf: Add 4 drops of Lemon essential oil to water before adding rice.
4.Salad and Fruit Rinse: Use 3 drops of Lemon essential oil in a bowl of water when rinsing lettuce, grapes, berries, and greens.
5.Tuna Salad Sandwiches: Add 2 drops of Lemon essential oil per can of tuna and mix with mayonnaise and freshly ground pepper. Spoon onto bread and serve topped with alfalfa sprouts.

Beverages
1.Hot Lemon Tea: In 1 cup of hot water, mix in 3 drops of Lemon essential oil and Blue Agave to taste.
2.Horchata with a Twist: Add 1 drop of Cinnamon Bark essential oil to a tall glass filled with ice and vanilla rice milk.
3.Vanilla Protein Shake: Add 2 drops of Lemon or Peppermint essential oil to any vanilla protein shake.
4.Flavored Water: Add 1 drop of Peppermint essential oil to your gym water bottle.

How Coffee Grounds Can Fix Your Furniture Woes

http://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/Coffee-Grounds-Fix-Furniture-Scratches-31845041

When you've got a scratched table, coffee grounds can make it better. Simply mix together coffee grounds, 1/4 cup warm water, and 1/4 cup vinegar to create a helpful stain that naturally fixes scuffs. Shake the mixture up, and let steep for at least an hour before using.

Simply rub into scratches, applying as often as needed. The result is naturally fixed furniture that's absolutely glowing.

Apply a quick coat for lighter woods, while the coffee stain can sit on dark-wood scratches for up to an hour before wiping away.

10 Habits you should pick up from your grandmother

Modern life benefits from a few reminders from times gone by. (Photo: iravgustin/Shutterstock)

Some of us romanticize the past, some of us brush it off altogether — but either way, there’s some good wisdom to be gleaned from generations that weren't bombarded with consumerism, surrounded by chemicals and discombobulated by the crazy pace of the digital world. Yes, we’re talking about the “grandma era.” Known for its wealth of practical solutions, clean living and common sense, the women who forged the road before us were smart cookies. Here are some are some of our favorite grandmotherly habits that are too valuable to be lost.

1. Go for a walk

Urban inhabitants and habitual walkers may know this, but for the rest of us it’s good to remember: Walking is fantastic for both body and soul! If you can walk to do your errands, do it. If you live in an area that requires driving, resume the grandmother tradition of taking a walk after dinner. The health benefits from just 40 minutes of walking a day are impressive; from decreasing your risk of stroke, diabetes and breast cancer to sparking up your sex life and saving money at the gym. Whenever you have the opportunity to walk somewhere, take it. 

2. Cook from scratch

Of course we were going to include this on the list; it’s one of the basic rules of grandmotherdom. Even if you get home late from work or you don’t know how to cook or any other number of reasons, we’re telling you, give it a shot. It doesn't have to be labor-intensive (slow cookers and quick recipes abound), it is cheaper (by a lot), it is generally healthier (you can control the ingredients), it can be relaxing and pleasurable (some of us find it quite sensual, actually), it tastes better (once you get the hang of it), and feeding people something you've cooked provides the chef with the profound pleasure of nurturing loved ones. If you’re intimidated, read this: Why do people think cooking is hard?

3. Nurture a garden
And by this, we mean anything from having a giant plot of flowers and vegetables out back to having a pot of basil on your windowsill. The size doesn't matter, the essence is being able to nurture something in the soil and raise it until it can be harvested to eat, make tea, used in a natural remedy or put in a vase on the table. Along the way you will save money, enjoy a therapeutic hobby, have something natural to consume, and revel in the simple joy of self-sufficiency.

• 10 vegetables to grow in your garden
• 5 herbs that belong in every kitchen garden
• 10 amazing healing plants from your garden

And then of course, put things in jars.

4. Don’t eat fake things

Photo: AnikaNes/Shutterstock

OK, for this one we’re going to jump back a few generations of grannies and offer some advice from modern food writer extraordinaire Michael Pollan, who says:

Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Imagine how baffled your ancestors would be in a modern supermarket: the epoxy-like tubes of Go-Gurt, the preternaturally fresh Twinkies, the vaguely pharmaceutical Vitamin Water. Those aren't foods, quite; they’re food products. History suggests you might want to wait a few decades or so before adding such novelties to your diet, the substitution of margarine for butter being the classic case in point.

Right? What would your great-great-great grandmother think of Cheetos or Cheez Whiz? Your reaction should be similar.

5. Write letters

It’s been so long since someone around here (not mentioning any names or anything) took up a pen and wrote more than a few words that their once-precise penmanship is now about as legible as ancient Phoenician. But personal misgivings aside, we should just all write letters on a regular basis. Not emails, not texts, but honest-to-goodness handwritten letters using a pen and stationery and slipped into envelopes and put in the mailbox. This serves many purposes. First of all, think of the poor U.S. Postal Service; it needs letter writers! But also consider how it forces you to slow down, ponder your thoughts, carefully select words you want to commit to paper ... and how the simple act of written communication works as such a good practice of mindfulness. Plus, the recipient of your letter will be grateful to receive something in their mailbox that isn't a bill or a catalog. (It will also ensure that you don’t forget how to form alphabet letters with little strokes of that thing that dispenses ink.)

6. Use natural remedies

If grandpa had a cough in the middle of the night, did grandma get up, get dressed, drive to the 24-hour pharmacy and plunk down $10 for a day-glow concoction of synthetic chemicals? No. She got up and gave grandpa some honey (and in fact, studies show that honey is more effective in treating a cough than cough syrup!). Why would you want to spend a lot of money on questionable chemicals to treat your woes when you have a whole natural medicine cabinet right in your pantry or garden?

For starters refer to the following for basics:

• 10 natural cough remedies
• 10 health benefits of honey
• 13 surprising home remedies for acid reflux
• 12 health benefits of apple cider vinegar

7. Take care of your clothes; mend when needed

Maybe your grandmother didn't actually darn socks but surely she did some mending. In this disposable culture so many things are tossed at the first sign of wear or tear, and that’s sad. And expensive. And just wrong! Paul Dillinger, the head of global product innovation at Levi’s, tells us to treat our clothes like flowers, and he’s got a really good point. With care and nurturing, our clothes will last a lot longer and will love us back. And if they start to flounder a bit, don’t be afraid of a needle and thread or of turning them into something else.

8. Turn off some appliances

Photo: nata-lunata/Shutterstock

We are grateful that laundry day doesn't involve a washboard, but that doesn't mean we have to rely so incessantly on our appliances; they cost money to use and they use power that increases your carbon footprint. Two great places to start are with the clothes dryer and the air conditioner.

• Dry your clothes on the clothesline
• Air conditioning is not the only answer

After that, challenge yourself to figure out what other appliances you can not use from time to time. If you’re feeling brave, try the TV and other electronics. We’re not suggesting you become a Luddite, but being conscious of your appliance use can be liberating.

9. Use your things until they die

Granted, styles changed less frequently and things lasted longer back in the days when our grandmothers bought stuff, but still. Would your grandmother commit a perfectly good white refrigerator to die an ignoble death at the dump just so she could replace it with a trendy stainless steel one? She wouldn’t think of it, and neither should you. Use your things until they die, then try to repurpose or upcycle them; you will save money and you will alleviate a bit of the stress on our overburdened landfills.

Likewise, apply the habit to food as well and reuse your food scraps until they have nothing left to give; see 20 uses for leftover fruit and vegetable peels for ideas.

10. Clean your home with things you can eat

Wise grandmothers did not reach for highly toxic products like corrosive drain products, oven cleaners, and acidic toilet bowl cleaners or things so laden with synthetic fragrance that they cause respiratory irritation and headache. No, they headed to the kitchen and broke out the baking soda and vinegar. These things are cheaper, safer, and better for the environment in oh so many ways. And they clean effectively, too! Start a nontoxic cleaning kit with the following goodies from your pantry, and if you accidentally get some in your mouth, you won’t have to call the poison control hotline.

Read more: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/10-habits-you-should-pick-up-from-your-grandmother#ixzz3BRQ2xn00

What is Rabbit Tobacco?

Though it is strongly aromatic, it has no narcotic properties. 

Research shows that most, if not all herbalists, past and present, deem it OK to inhale the smoke to treat colds, flu, asthma, sore mouth and throat, and congestion. The herb can be placed in a saucer and lighted, and the smoke drawn into the lungs, smoked in a pipe or rolled into a cigarette. My take on it is that one should use it when needed for the above mentioned medicinal needs. One can also use the plant to make tea, bring to a boil and breathe in the vapors to good effect. The Cherokee people are reported to have used it in this way.  It can also be used to season many dishes, as desired.

Rabbit Tobacco (also called Life Everlasting) has a long history of use by early American settlers and several Indian Tribes. In spite of its name, this marvelous organic herb is not in the tobacco family and is not addictive.  

EFFECTIVE AS AN INSECT AND SPIDER (arachnide family) repellent.

This organic plant makes an excellent herbal tea, with the added bonus of being medicinal. Use either leaves or flowers; both give you a superb product.  

". . . A spoonful of the dried leaves steeped for five minutes in a cup of boiling water will soothe coughs, open up the sinuses and act as an expectorant. Swallowed, its’ healing astringent nature is particularly beneficial to inflamed tissues of the stomach and intestines. . ." 

Darryl Patton, M.A., M.H.

Director - Coltsfoot College of Natural Health

http://rabbittobacco.homestead.com/Articles.html

Rabbit Tobacco

Family:    Asteraceae

Genus:    Pseudognaphalium 

Species: obtusifolium 

Taxon:    Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium

This wonderful herb is also known by other names: Sweet-everlasting, Life-everlasting, Indian-posey, Old-field-posey, Cherokee-tobacco, White-balsam, Fussy-gussy, Life-of-man, Sweet-scented, Sweet-white-balsam, Fragrant-life-everlasting, Catsfoot, Sweet-cudweed, Blunt-leaved-everlasting.

Strew or place Rabbit Tobacco Strips in the below areas to combat pests such as these.

See Disclaimer below.

WINDOW SILLS
CLOSETS (Where Clothes Moths & other bugs often take up residence)
UNDER BEDS
UNDER MATTRESS SLIP
UNDER CHAIRS  & COUCHES
IN AIR VENTS
UNDER & BEHIND APPLIANCES
UNDER KITCHEN SINKS
ATTACH TO INSIDE BOTTOM OF DOORS
GARAGE
UNDER LAWN MOWER COVERS
UNDER DASHES AND SEATS OF VEHICLES
OUTDOOR BUILDINGS
SLEEPING BAGS
TENTS (Place strips at ground level)
BIRD HOUSES & CAGES (If birds accept the aroma they will have less mites to contend with)
DOG HOUSES & BEDS (will help combat fleas if your pet/s will accept the aroma)
CAT HOUSES & BEDS  (will help combat fleas if your pet/s will accept the aroma)
IN MAILBOXES (Where Black Widow & Brown Recluse spiders often take up residence).
         UNDER AUTOMOBILE SEATS & DASH (First, place the rabbit tobacco in silk stockings).

These strips can be used in many other areas, such as industrial sites, health providers, hospitals, clothing store storage, restaurant food preparation areas, and the like.

Disclaimer:  We do not guarantee that all insects, spiders, scorpions, moths and the like, will be eradicated by the use of rabbit tobacco. However, based on its use at selected homes (one of which is mine) and outbuildings, this herb has proven to be very effective. Put it out and leave it for a few weeks.
http://www.rabbittobacco.com/

Gnaphalium obtusifolium. Unmistakable by its creamy appearance in the still green background of the early fall meadows. Leaves long, elliptical and silver green colored. Plant up to one meter high. Unusual fragrance. Can be smoked for respiratory ailments or made into a relaxing tea. A common tobacco substitute used by children in rural areas. It is said to have a mild sedative effect.
Contrary to popular belief, rabbit tobacco is not marijuana.
Rabbit tobacco can be used medicinally in several ways. Smoking the leaves is good for sinusitis, head colds, and congestion. In hot teas, it is used to treat sore throats, fevers, diarrhea, colds, flu, pneumonia, asthma, and coughs, as well as a mild nerve sedative, a diuretic, and an antispasmodic.

It is know by many other names: life everlasting, sweet balsam, white balsam, sweet cudweed, cat's foot, fragrant everlasting, Indian posy, etc.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rabbit+Tobacco

Gnaphalium spicatum, shiny cudweed, develops from a distinct round silver-white rosette of leaves that grows flat on the ground. Gnaphalium purpureum, purple cudweed, has the gray-white narrow leaves along the stem that you probably think of as rabbit tobacco. All cudweeds grow as annual or biennial plants. The best way to propagate more is to collect seeds from mature flower heads now and plant them in spring.
http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/rabbit-tobacco/