Day12: BLUEberry gathering

Went blueberry picking today and there is TONS still growing, and they are in perfect season right now:))(well at least in Ontario) but hurry before they are all gone! Its fairly cheap and you can stuff your face before you even take them home!!!AWESOME

BENEFITS OF BLUEBERRIES:

Contain nutrients which include lutein, zeaxanthin, resveratrol, vitamin C, fiber, flavonoids, ellagic acid, and quercetin. Similar to the previous nutrients, these nutrients support retinal health, lower LDL cholesterol, boost immune system activity, support healthy digestion, improve calcium and other mineral absorption, fight inflammation, reduce tumor growth, act as an anticarcinogens in the digestive tract, and limit the activity of cancer cells.
Blueberries are a nutritional bonanza of health enhancing compounds ranging from antioxidants, anthocyanins, ellagic acid, to phenolic acids

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."

DRINK OF THE DAY: Coco-Blueberry MilkShake
-cup of blueberries
-spoon of coconut oil
-peach
-banana
-1/2cup coconut milk
-1/2cup milk
-tsp vanilla

Day11: Baby Bulletin

Found these AWESOME useless cork boards at IKEA, and put them to good use:)! I found this DIY to be very simple, and it ends up being a cute little project as well:

 Materials needed: Cork boards(obviously), plastic circles(got them at the craft store, but I'm sure even cardboard might work), hammer, super glue, nails, fabric, and your good!

 Trace your fabric around your circle, leaving one inch in width all around.

 Glue the fabric down in the back with super glue, or tacky glue, try to flatten it out as much as possible.

 Glue cork ont top of fabric with fabric glue( I used Elmers Carpenter glue), and nail through the plastic circle on too wall.

Tadaa!! Small but cute:), looks even better with a few of them together.


Drink Of Day: Date-Worthy Smoothie

- A few pitted Dates
-peach
-banana
-cup milk
-frozen mango

Day10:Reeeee..laaaax

"Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind."
Reading in the summer is one of the best things in all of summer! Who says you need to pay loads of money to entertain yourself? I found this awesome book:

Its really an Eye opening story full of hope, fear, and injustice and love!!! Written in beautiful language both from a sixteen year old Nigerian girl, and a British journalist. Speaks the truth and uncovers a story about a Nigerian refugee escaped to Britain in a strange way, and meets a women that changed her life on a beach, two years ago. I don't want to ruin the story(as it says on the back cover of the book), so read it and find out!!

Drink of The Day:Banana Liñda

 -cup almond milk
-1/4cup coconut milk
-banana
-spoon shredded coconut
-spoon agave nectar
-tsp honey
-cinnamon
-vanilla extract
-frozen mango chunks

Day 4-9: Yoga Ashram

"For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve."

So we decided to go on a break, and somewhere that was relaxing and cheap, and I remembered a place that I had went to as a kid; Sivananda Yoga Ashram! This place was beautiful, and really great if your loooking for a spiritual retreat, and a place to practise your yoga! These Ashrams are located all around the world, so you might find on nearby, or not so near actually( we drove 8 hours), but it is worth going if you find one. Filled with Lectures on health, balancing mind and body,LOTS of yoga, and also a taste of some Hindu culture. For us it felt like a whole different country situated within our own country, the people were deffinately alot different, and more intelligent, the workers there were volunteers, and lived off of the food, and rented spaces. Karm yoga was very popular as well, instead of hiring cleaners, and cooks, everybody helped around to improve their "karma", and  too be good people, kind of like one big family! Anyways, we stayed in a tent that was located in a forest type deal, and we walked around barefoot, like true Yogis. The diet is strictly vegetarian, and yummy currys, lentils, and other spicy Indian food, so its hard to be a picky eater around there;)!! Definately a good palce for summer vacation, and relaxation:
http://www.sivananda.org/locations/ashrams.html


Drink of the Day: Lemonade With a Twist
-half a lemon/lime
-3tsp Agave
-tsp coconut
-water
-tsp honey
-cup carbonated water

Day 2:Buckwheat Silk Pillow

"Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to create"

This was fairly easy to make. For the stem of the tree I braided string with yarn, and added wooden beads, and for the leaves, I cut out circles of silk, and carefully sewed them on with a  ”picnic” stitch, so the ends wouldn’t fray.  The pillow itself is stuffed with buckwheat which I found at Bulkbarn, since regular pillow stuffing is WAYY too much too afford, $13.00 for a pillow? No way!

Drink of the Day:Green Tea Latte

1cup soy/almond milk

1tbsp cream

1cup ice

1tbsp honey

1tsp powdered green tea (just grounded)

whipped cream

Mix all ingredients in blender, and put whipped cream on top! Mmmm this stuff is so easy to make, and lovely because its so frothy, and not too sweet(wayyyy better than Starbucks;)!

Day 1

Summer came rolling along very quickly, and feels like its been here forever! But it will pass just as quickly as it came, so we want to make the most out of it this year. Although no the title isn't referring to the first day of summer, it will be the first day of summer blogging! I've decided to do a day-to day blogging schedule, keeping my fellow bloggers posted with things to do, make, see,read, or create.
So here it is... Day1: Zumba

This funny, and fun activity is a really good way to start off your summer. I took this class this very morning, after my sister dragged me in, we came into a small room with three other old ladies, in their sixties. I was kind of thrown off, and lost hope of this being a fun class. The ladies probably thought we were weird coming into an adult class, and wearing our matching little booty shorts, but we were about to show them up! Basically Zumba is a kind of exercise dance, where the students follow the teacher, as she makes up the moves. The women was a belly-dancing gypsy women, with a curly blond bob, probably around her late 40's, but with the energy of a 16 year old! She loved hip movements, and occasionally would shout "Work it girls!" to pump us up...or make us feel uncomfortable shaking our hips. Latino dancing, Salsa, Belly-dancing, Indian, and African dancing all were made to look very simple...The movements themselves were fairly easy, but it went quick, and made you sweat quickly as well. Without any rhythm in your body this may be hard to do, but it still suits all women who love to do crazy exercises, and it DEFINITELY beats spin classes any day! So anyways, if you have a local gym, try out a Zumba class, but make sure you go with friends or family, so you can share a good laugh about it's ridiculous dance moves;)

"Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental state"

Drink of the Day: Almond Milk-Shake

-1 cup freshly squeezed almond milk   
-1/2 tsp. coffee
-tsp.cinnamon
-1 tsp. cocoa powder
-vanilla extract
-1tsp. honey
-1 tbsp. coconut

Mix all ingredients in blender, and enjoy! I'm not one to follow recipes, so you can mix and match by putting more or less of each product in!
-CharMar:)

Easy peasy (no money sqeezy) deodorant!

So you're probably thinking...no WAY am I going to try some kind of deodorant that is
1. home made
2. organic
because most people just do not want to take that risk, it's not like shampoo, or facewash, this is a big thing we're talking about, I mean nobody really likes to smell bad in public.
But here's the thing, it is just TWO simple ingredients! Doesn't sound too good to be true... but it totally is!
Mix one tablespoon of baking soda, and five of cornstarch, in a little container, and shake!
To apply, use cotton balls, or cotton pads, and gently put it on.
It works like a charm! The reason is because baking soda, (a.k.a Sodium Bicarbonate) is a very good antibacterial agent, I really do not know why, it maybe because it is a base, and reacts with the acidity in your skin? Who knows... I'm not very good at chemistry, but it seems to clean EVERYTHING well: teeth, hair, countertops,toilets, skin, clothes. The cornstarch in the mixture is also an antibacterial agent, except for the baking soda is so strong,( I heard it causes rashes, when concentrated) so the cornstarch balances it out.
xoxo, Mar

(sorry about the bad quality of the picture, but thats the container I put it into)