spacer

How to Turn Your Daughters (Back) Into Witches

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 10, 2012 - 46 Comments
filed under Food For Your Soul

spacer

Traditionally witches were those folks, mostly poor &/or older women, who just didn’t fit in with their medieval neighbors. Their crimes included healing with herbs, having pets & helping birth babies. Oh, & “enchantment.”

Naturally, they needed to be killed. No need to stir up controversy in this post by suggesting otherwise.

I do submit, however, that little girls may be born witches. In a sweet, weirdo kind of way.

read the full article ...

Homemade Ginger Beer: The Happy Birthday Drink

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 9, 2012 - 33 Comments
filed under Household

spacer

I wrote this when I was 36 years old.

By the time you read it, I will be 37. In mere hours, I will have aged an entire year.

It’s high time we start marking our passing of time not in years, but in minutes. The passing, then, will be less significant – less of a badge to where, whether it’s honor or shame, depending on your outlook.

Numbers become significantly less important the higher they are. Take the national debt for instance; 15 trillion means nothing to you, really, does it? It’s just a crazy big number to which you might attach anger, but really it means nothing to your brain.

Instead of 37 years old, maybe I’ll be 324, 335 hours old. (Holy frick! THAT is old.) Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.

To mark my new year-that’s-really-only-a-few-hours-when-you-think-about-it, I wanted to make a cocktail that was a little bit crunchy, and a lot a bit fun. So I tried ginger beer (to which I will add rum and lime juice, and it will be the ubiquitous Dark & Stormy).

read the full article ...

5 Fresh Ways to Use Ginger in Homemade Beauty

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 8, 2012 - 22 Comments
filed under Food On Your Face, Home Remedies, Natural Beauty Recipes, Skin

spacer

During the winter season, my house is never empty of ginger. It’s a must-have for cough and cold season, as well as any tummy upsets that might sneak up. Also, it’s delicious. And spicy.

Spicylicious.

It looks like toes, though. Don’t you think?

read the full article ...

Synchronicities and Happy Coincidences: Have You Noticed the Magic Lately?

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 6, 2012 - 28 Comments
filed under Food For Your Soul

spacer

Claire, if you’re reading this, please continue to pay attention. You, especially, will enjoy this story.

“According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.” – Deepak Chopra

Now, I’m not even remotely claiming to be anywhere near enlightenment. That whole “chop wood, carry water” thing just sounds like a whole lot of muscle aches and blisters. Although, one time when I was 24, I meditated and saw the oneness of everything. Some people call it nirvana. I thought it meant the rest of my life would be spent in a blissful, self-actualized state.

And then I discovered Jagermeister. For the next three years.

read the full article ...

Your Behind-the-Scenes Look at a DIY Blog Post: Or Why You Should LOVE Your DIY Bloggers

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 3, 2012 - 72 Comments
filed under Are You A Crunchy Betty?, Food For Your Soul, Life, Consciously

spacer

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a million times more. Crunchy Betty is blessed with the best readers ever to grace the earth. Not a day goes by that I don’t receive a sweet, thankful email that melts my heart.

And you guys support and help each other in ways that make me proud to be a part of the human race. Let’s be honest: Not many places like that exist on the internet. We’re pretty drama-free. This is good news. (TAKE THAT AND SHOVE IT.) (Just kidding.)

But recently Stephanie sent me a link to this blog post titled Why Your Readers Hate it When You Make Money. And number 9. Oh, number 9 really hit home. It was: “Because most stuff in our society is mass-produced, people tend to undervalue other people’s time.” (Not that I think any of you don’t want me to make money, but just the exhausting stuff that goes into writing a DIY blog tutorial.)

And you want to know, don’t you? You really want to know what all goes into writing DIY blog posts, and this might explain why sometimes I feel like I’m a little bit too crazy tired to respond to emails and questions on a weekly daily basis. Let me take you into the world of DIY tutorials for a moment. I promise to return you to sanity when we’re done.

read the full article ...

How Chickens Lead to a Better Life

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 2, 2012 - 20 Comments
filed under Household

spacer

Today we have a special treat from Bonnie at Hungry Chicken Homestead. I first met Bonnie at a local community swap, and she’s a vivacious urban homesteader with an infinite amount of homesteading wisdom behind her. Here’s an insightful introduction into how she made the choices (and chose the chickens) she did. If you’d like to hear more from Bonnie and how she manages her chickens and crunchy lifestyle, let her know in the comments!

“Are you happy with what you’ve given up?” Crunchy Betty posed this question to her readers once. Living a Crunchy lifestyle means revising your priorities. We have to make space in our lives if we are inviting something new.

When I gained my flock of chickens, I gave up a corporate job and salary to make space for them. I no longer wanted to work hard at a job I did not enjoy so that I could buy things I didn’t have time to make myself. I could see this confirmed in the choices I made when the birds and the job were not compatible.

read the full article ...

Moisturizing Bath Candy: THE Hot Valentine Craft

crunched by Crunchy Betty on February 1, 2012 - 23 Comments
filed under Natural Beauty Recipes, Skin

spacer

Timing is really everything, isn’t it?

Were it not for timing, a delicious sequence of events that brought you to a special place in time, you wouldn’t have met your significant other or even your best friend. Without the right timing, with your moods and your perspective on life, your favorite book or blog wouldn’t have meant nearly as much to you.

Without timing, this fantastic bath candy might not have happened on Crunchy Betty. The exact same day I received two emails requesting a crunchy idea for Valentine’s Day, I received my Secret Santa gift from Hilda Blue. Within it contained these magnificent creations (all her idea, straight from her beautiful brain – stop by her blog and tell her thank you)!

I played around with her idea and mixed things up a bit, but it was all her epiphany. Crunchy goddess, that one.

read the full article ...

Community Question: Where’s Your Moderation?

crunched by Crunchy Betty on January 30, 2012 - 62 Comments
filed under Are You A Crunchy Betty?, Household

spacer

Somewhere around 10 years ago, the saying “everything in moderation” probably meant something different to most of you than it does now.

Back then, “moderation” was eating low-fat chips and drinking nonfat milk while eating low-sodium soup, maybe stopping by the drive-thru one less time a week, and opening up a can of veggies with most of your meals.

Now, it seems, things are different. We’re wiser to the ways of nutrition and the foods we put on our plates and in our mouths (at least, if you’re a regular Crunchy Betty reader you’re probably at least a tiny bit more conscious than you were 10 years ago).

But the world of moderation is still a scary place sometimes, especially in light of all of the conflicting information out there about what’s healthy and what’s the-silent-killer-that-will-strike-you-dead-if-you-so-much-as-look-at-it-three-days-in-a-row.

Take salt for instance. Once shamed as a deadly ingredient and its use banished for those with high blood pressure, studies are now coming out that show strict low-sodium diets are actually detrimental to your heart health. (Why has no one thought to give credence to the saying, “worth it’s weight in salt?” Couldn’t there be some kind of historical wisdom in the importance of salt?)

read the full article ...

The Great Grapefruit Scouring Scrub

crunched by Crunchy Betty on January 26, 2012 - 55 Comments
filed under Household

spacer

Imagine if you took the amazing cleaning power of grapefruit, combined it with the kazowwy wowwy magic of baking soda and added in some supercalifragilistic borax? (Yes. This is my interpretation of a cheesy cleaner commercial. Live with it.) What would you get? WHAT WOULD YOU GET?     This blessed little cleaner came about [...]

read the full article ...

Crunchy Angels – Help This Man Heal His Cancer

crunched by Crunchy Betty on January 25, 2012 - 34 Comments
filed under Life, Consciously

spacer

You’ve been affected by cancer. In some way. Haven’t you?

Maybe it was your mother, or your best friend’s uncle, or you dealt with it personally, undergoing rounds of chemo and wondering when it would end.

None of us are exempt from the experience – whether indirectly or directly – any longer. It’s everywhere. But frighteningly enough, the regimens used to treat cancer can often be as scary as the cancer itself.

Chemotherapy and radiation both, in fact, are a cause of cancer. Your disease is being treated by a very thing that causes it. Add to it the myriad other side effects of mainstream treatment, and you’re not only facing the fear of death via your initial disease, but the potential of a very excruciating life for months (if not forever).

It’s a terrible position to be put in, and from every side of you doctors and medical institutions are screaming, “There is no other way to treat cancer! You MUST do it this way or face certain death!”

So you look to nature, and you wonder. You research, and talk to other people who’ve chosen the alternative. Your mind changes …

But deciding to take a different route, an alternative one, is met with derisive sneers or complete frustration by the doctors who really just want you to be healthy (and I believe most of them really do). Some of your friends and family will be baffled by the choice. Some of them won’t support it. You feel as if maybe you’re a little crazy, in the face of all the decision making.

read the full article ...

How to Make Felted Wool Dryer Balls

crunched by Crunchy Betty on January 23, 2012 - 50 Comments
filed under Household

spacer

Fickle.

I’m pretty sure that’s what I am. Fickle. Because at some point, I said that this was my favorite project, and this, and then probably this. Really, you can assume that any project in which I don’t totally screw things up is my favorite.

AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM!

Felted wool dryer balls – to help dry your laundry faster, keep it free from static, and to give it a little something to play with while it’s rolling around in the machine.

To be honest, I didn’t expect this one to work out so well, because I fudged a bit and didn’t follow the tutorials I found to the letter. You’ll see why in a bit.

But let me tell you something, sister, these are amazing. I’ve done three loads with them now, and my clothes are soft, wrinkle-free, and I’m pretty sure they came out poppin’ fresh long before they ever have in the past.

read the full article ...

Wp Plugin by capn3m0

gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.