Natural Sinus Relief

Last weekend, some friends, the hub and I took the kids to Mahoney State Park.  They have this really cool water park with slides, a wave pool, tons of things to climb/slide around on for the kids.  Yes, my friend and I wore our bathing suits.  Yes, we looked like beached whales, but that's beside the point, LOL!   Never let it be said that I let my own vanity stand in the way of my kid having a blast!  We didn't get any pix because we didn't want to get our phones wet.  Trust me, you probably wouldn't want to see those anyway, lol.

We had a great time, but a few days later, I could feel the affects of all the skanky pee-riddled/germ-infested pool water in my sinuses.  WHY I didn't use my sinus rinse the second I arrived home is beyond me!  Anyway, fast forward a few days and I have a sore throat and aching sinuses.  My ears are even starting to itch a bit.

It could just be allergies, but I like to blame the pool water instead.  What I didn't want to happen was to have this flare-up turn into a full-blown sinus infection, then into the dreaded bronchitis that seems to plague me ever since I had a really bad case of it 4 1/2 years ago!  It's been a year and a half since my last one (knock on wood), so I'm hoping my healthy diet will help stave it off.  But just in case, I decided to do something I saw online at the Healthy Home Economist's web site.  On an ironic note, I just told my friend Mary I haven't had any trouble in ages.  (So I'm not gonna put raw onion around the house like she saw online, ha ha ha.)  Go figure.

You will need the following:
A sinus rinse kit, such as Neil Med
Distilled Water
Neil Med Sinus Rinse packets (or a combo of baking soda and sea salt)
One Probiotic Capsule

Start by filling the bottles with distilled water and microwaving for 50 seconds.  Your microwave WILL VARY, so use caution.  I usually do it for one full minute, but figured I'd better err on the side of caution so I don't kill the probiotics in the capsule. Dump in a packet of the sinus rinse into each bottle.  Trust me, you do NOT want to do this without it.  Your sinuses will BURN like they're on fire.

Open a probiotic capsule and add half of it to each bottle.  If you only have one bottle, just add all of the capsule contents into it.

Put the lids on, place your finger over the holes, and shake WELL.  I shook mine for a good minute because I found that the probiotic powder wanted to float on the top.

Use sinus rinse as directed.  Couldn't take pix of that.  You wouldn't want to see that anyway.
Gently blow your nose. You don't want to send that water back into your eustachian tubes.  The idea here is that the good bacteria in the probiotics will kill off the bad bacteria brewing in your sinuses.  I've even heard some people say they open a capsule and sprinkle it on the back of their tongue.
That's it!  Interestingly, my sore throat went away IMMEDIATELY.  I was really surprised to find that.  I'll let you know in a few days if this little trick really works!  Stay tuned!

From skanky to swanky in 15 minutes

Have you ever looked at your feet and suddenly thought....OMG!!!  How did my toenails get so horrendous?!  Chipped nail polish aside, these look like bear claws!  Although you're probably distracted by my sexy flip-flop tan lines!  You know it's true!

If you're like me and don't have the money (or lack of common sense) to pay $40 for a pedicure, then do it yourself at home.  Your feet will feel so good and you'll feel pampered.  It's a nice little way to take care of yourself.   Here's a quick rundown of how I do mine when I'm pressed for time, which is all the time it seems.  


Run a few inches of hot(ish) water in the tub and add in some cheap shampoo for bubbles and a nice smell.  When I have more time, I use my foot spa thingy dingy and let them soak a long time with the massaging/vibrating feature on.  Hea-VEN!

Remove your chipped nail polish.

Plop your feet in the hot water for a good soak.  If you have really tough calluses, let them soak for quite a while to soften them up.  It'll make them easier to remove later.  Sit back and play a game of Words with Friends on your phone.  I swear, I have upwards of 7 games going at any given time!  So fun!  Don't drop that phone!

After a few minutes, use a foot pumice stone/bar to slough off the dead skin.  Note the toe ring.  I got this 15 years ago with an old boyfriend.  Don't tell my husband.  That boyfriend was killed in an accident and I've just never had the heart to remove the ring even though I'm certain I'm probably too old for it. 

I found this awesome little pumice thing that's shaped like a sponge called Mr.Pumice.  It's really lightweight, unlike the old fashioned pumice stones. It gives a little when you use it and doesn't take off tons of skin.  It's gentle enough to use every day or two (or when I remember), and only cost about $3.00 at Sally Beauty Supply.  Love that place!

Next, I scrub my feet and calves with a cream that has some little seeds in it for exfoliating.  I believe this is called Raspberry Pomagranite Body Scrub by Queen Helene.  Also from Sally Beauty Supply for a few bucks.  Be sure to get your ankles and between your toes really well.  You'd be surprised how much dead skin is hiding there.  Ack!

If you're feeling up to it, you can give your hands a quick scrub, too.  They're going to be wet from rinsing your legs off in a second anyway, so have at it! You can just rub your hands together now, or use the cool little kit below.  My sister-in-law gave me this little hand scrubbing kit from MaryKay several years ago and I love it.  I save it for when my hands look really bad and it works like a charm every time! 

Pat your legs and hands dry and apply some lotion.  I didn't take a pic of that cuz my hands were greasy, but I'll just be confident that you know how to do that on your own. :)  I highly recommend extra virgin coconut oil.  Nothing compares to it in the skin softening department!  Once you try it, you will never want to go back to regular lotion with all of its chemicals and nasty stuff.

Next, trim your nails.  They'll be nice and soft now.  Ack!  Mine are all stained from my old nail polish.

File.

Clean beneath your nails.

Use a cuticle stick to soften up your cuticles. Coconut oil would probably work for this, too.  I bought this years ago and have finally used the last of it.  Love this little thing.  I'll be keeping my eye out for another one soon.

After a few minutes, you can use the rubbery end of the stick to push the cuticles back and even scrape away some dead skin...ewwww.

Wipe off any excess cuticle cream as it kinda has a waxy-ness to it that repels the nail polish.  Sometimes I'll even run some remover over my nails again.  Paint your nails as desired.  I always use a nice red as I think it looks good with everything.  It's funny because I seldom paint my fingernails unless it's a special occasion.  When I do, it's a natural color.  But RED toenails are just....purdy!

Ahhhhhhhhh!  Sit back and admire your pretty new feet!  Doesn't that feel better?  

Knowing you've saved a good hunk of money doesn't hurt either!  Whoo hoo!

Facial Hair Removal

I finally got my hair cut, whoo hoo!  It has been soooo long!  I got a lot taken off...about 6" off the back and it feels so good!  I know it looks crooked in the pic, but it's really not.  It might have something to do with the fact that I took the pic in my car directly afterward.  (Why does it look like my face is missing?  Sometimes that's a good thing!) It's kind of a layered bob and seems to suit my ever-thinning hair well.  Anyway, every time I get my hair cut I think about the hair on my face and say, "Ugh, I need to wax!!!"

I always wax my brows at home.  Sometimes I even do my upper lip, not that I have any hair there, ah-hem.   I'll just do it to make you feel better about your sasquatch mustache, LOL!  No, really, it was bad!  

I have a few different wax kits at home, but they all involve heating the wax in the microwave or being plugged in.  After getting a really bad burn a few years ago that literally took the hide off of my lip, I've really been wanting to try something different.  I can't use the depilitory creams because they always seem to eat my face off!  And I don't even have sensitive skin!  So, when I saw this one, I was pretty sure it was something I'd like and I was right!

You'll need a wax kit like the one shown below from Veet  

(I took the papers and the little plastic stick out so you could see)

A cup of very hot tap water

A towel 

Rubbing Alcohol (or other cleaner of choice)

Cotton Pads/balls

Start by soaking the little tube in a cup of hot tap water.  No microwaving involved!

In the meantime, clean your lip with some rubbing alcohol and a cotton pad.  If this bothers your skin, you can just wash it thoroughly.  I'm sure rubbing alcohol probably isn't the best thing in the world for our faces. 

Then do your brows and between your brows.  Be careful not to get any in your eyes.  I apologize for having no makeup on.  Well, maybe some day-old mascara remnants.

Take the little tube out of the water and dry it off.  Water makes the sugary 'wax' stuff ineffective.  Smear across upper lip working in the direction of the hair growth.  I got it a little too thick here.  You really need very little with this kit.

Place one of the papers over the wax, then smooth downward in the direction of the hair growth.

Then take the bottom portion of the strip and pull in the opposite direction of the hair growth.  You should hold your skin tight, but I didn't have enough hands to hold the camera and do that.  Egad!  What an awful picture!   I swear my skin doesn't look like that, lol!

OMGawd!!!!  I was walking around with THAT on my face?!  Why didn't anyone tell me?!  Arghhhh!

Then do the same thing with your brows.  Don't forget the little fuzzy white hairs in the center of your brows that look like little downy feathers.  They're kinda hard to see, but they're there!  Here's where you can use the little plastic stick to smooth the wax exactly where you want it.

Now, most of these pictures have just come out totally crappy and the one below is no exception.  I'm trying to demonstrate how smooth it is between my brows, but all you can see is pink.  My face was NOT irritated by this at all and didn't turn red at all.  I even went to my son's Tae Kwon Do class an hour or so later and you couldn't tell I'd done it at all.  Normally, I'd do this two or three days before a special event so I didn't have red marks on my face.

If there is any wax left on your face, you can run the alcohol-soaked pad over it to remove it quickly.

I was really impressed with this stuff.   It was $10.00, which is a lot for a tiny tube.  But it beats the price of just having your lip waxed one time at a salon.  I used just a few drops, so this should last a good while.  Especially since I don't wax often.  I have heard about homemade 'sugaring' before, so I may try that when this runs out.  Anything to conduct a good experiment or to save money!

DIY French Manicure

I'm not a high-maintenance gal in the least, thank God.  But sometimes you feel like making your nails look a little nicer than they usually do.  If you don't have the money to spend at a fancy schmancy salon, what is a frugal gal on a tighter-than-a-girdle-budget to do?  Do it yourself at home, of course!  Here's what you'll need...

Nail polish in white and nude  (or colors of choice, but one must be transparent)
Nail polish remover
Orange Stick or Q-tips
Cotton ball or pad

Now, you might be saying to yourself...well, you already have a French Manicure kit (from the 1990's)...why not just use that?  Well, I could, but I won't.  I have never gotten those little strips to sit right on my nails and they always looked messy and crooked afterward.  Besides, people nowadays are doing them with all sorts of colors and I don't want to limit you, so use whatever polish you like! (even though I think it looks weird when people have purple or red nail tips, lol)  So, how do we go about this?

Start by pouring a little bit of your nail polish remover into the cap.  Be sure to pour a bunch on your counter, like I did.  Actually, don't do that.  Be very careful where you do this as that nail polish will eat the finish off of lots of things!  Someone found that out the hard way by setting a bottle of nail polish remover on their sister's veneered dresser and received a thorough flogging. But I wouldn't know who that was.

Take your orange stick and pick up a few fibers of the cotton, then twist it around like cotton candy.  We're not looking to get a lot on there, just a very thin layer.  

Twist it and smooth it out with your fingers to make any stray fibers lie flat. Set aside. 

 Before we start painting, be sure your nails are cleaned and trimmed/filed. If your cuticles need trimming or conditioned, now would be a good time.  Using the white nail polish, paint the tips of your fingernails that extend past your finger.  If your nails are really short, you can just do a small, curved line across the top.  Avoid going straight across the top.  That just looks weird and I can never figure out why people do that.  It looks so unnatural.  As if perfectly white fingernails look natural, right?  LOL!  Anyway, just do a sloppy job of it.  We're gonna clean that up in a minute.  

Your nails will look something like this.  I ended up doing a second coat because they were a little streaky.

Now, dip the cotton end of the orange stick into the remover.

You might want to dab a little bit of the excess on a paper towel first.  Take the stick and rub it back and forth over your nail in an arch, essentially removing the unwanted polish.

When I do the others, I fold my hand over like this because it's easier. Continue with the rest of your nails.  It's always hardest to do the other hand.  This would be a good time to have a friend/family member help you.  They won't be perfect, but the nail salons are never perfect either.

 Wait until dry, then put a coat of your lighter color over it. 

When dry, you can go over it with a nice shiny clear coat if desired.  Work quickly and use more than you need because it will smear your work if you go over it too many times or take too long.  Here's how it looks afterward.  I eventually did a 2nd clear coat for durability.  I figured I'd at least make it last a few days.  OMG, whose old, fat crepe-y hands are those?!

I don't know how much a French Manicure costs at a salon, but I'd wager to say that I saved myself a good $25 by doing it at home.  Funny, people nowadays seem to think that a manicure is a necessity rather than the luxury it really is.  People have become such pampered pooches that we've forgotten how to do anything for ourselves and I think it's kind of sad.  I see young girls (12-13 years old) every day that have professional manicures and highlighted or dyed hair. (I know because of the fake nails and the too-good-to-be-done-at-home highlights....are you kidding me?!?) This annoys the tar out of me.  Maybe it's just me and I'm an old fuddy duddy or jealous because I don't even have that luxury myself, but I can't help but think these people are setting their little princesses up for disappointment in life.  I also can't help but think of their overly-high expectations of their future husbands, who will be a dismal disappointment when they can't afford these luxuries.  When they get in the 'real' world and have 3 screaming kids and a husband that works long hours, the focus is more likely to be getting in a shower that day, let alone the manicure they'll never be getting, lol.  Why start them out headed for disappointment?  I've never met a man who wanted a high-maintenance woman, in all honesty, but all men want women who keep themselves looking well-groomed.  We can keep ourselves looking nice by doing our own hair and nails, even on a limited budget with limited time.  This literally took less than 1/2 hour and cost me just pennies. Give this a try yourself and let me know how it turns out.  Okay, rant over.

Curling your hair with a sock!

Are you sure you read that title correctly? Yup, I said curl your hair with a sock!  Here's how:

First, you need an old sock.  I used one of my son's that no longer fits.  Cut off the toe.

Then cut the rounded part off of the toe, creating a little band.

It will look something like this:

Use the band to put your freshly washed and dried hair up into a high pony tail up high on your head like this:

Take the sock and roll it down into a little donut kinda like they used to roll down socks way back when.   Slip it over your pony tail and bring it down to the base.  Forgot to take a picture of it, but you need to lightly spritz your hair with water.

Then pull it up toward the ceiling, stopping just short of the ends of your hair.

This next part is kinda hard to explain, but you're going to try to wrap your hair downward around the sock and roll it down into a bun. 

 As you can see, a few stray hairs tend to fly about.  It does take some practice.  Once you get them tucked in, you can just roll it all down like a bun.  

You don't even need to use anything to hold it in.  It stays in by itself!

Then just go to bed!  It's so comfy to sleep in because it's at the top of your head.  No bulky curlers to lay on!  Ouch!  The next morning, gently unroll the bun.

Rake your hands through your hair and be shocked at the volume and curls!  My pictures were really dark and you couldn't see the curls, so I had to mess with the brightness and contrast, hence the crappy photos.

Here's what it looks like with a clip in my hair.

And here's what my hair normally looks like.  It actually doesn't take up a lot of the length like normal curlers would.

This looks really nice on people with longer hair.  It gives that loose ringlet look that is so popular, but with minimal effort.  It is also ideal for those who bathe at night.  I can't really get away with that as my hair starts smelling oily half way through the day, but it was a nice change!