Updates, Natural/home made gifting, and a Tell New England Kickstarter!

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all enjoying the start to your Holiday season! I personally love this time of year because I love giving gifts, making gifts, having parties, and especially love spending time with the people I care about – that’s what’s most important!

I hope you’ll enjoy this next post filled with goodies. I’ve gotten really into making my own gifts this year combined with my recent love of herbology and exploring the avenues of healing through plants and the natural world. My personal philosophy in the things I buy, what I eat, and what I put on my body has changed a lot over the years as I’m sure it has for many others. If it’s made from this Earth, I’ll take it!

FIRST and foremost. If you haven’t heard already, I have launched a kickstarter with my friends and colleagues who I work with on T.e.l.l. New England. We are trying to go to print and are really excited about it! We need YOUR HELP! If we don’t reach our goal we don’t get anything, so spread the word, become a backer, and in turn you’ll get some really great things in return!

Please check out our kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/28639116/tell-new-england

Alright, so now it’s about time I did some personal work after such a busy season! No complaints, it’s just fun to do your own thing every once in a while and a good way to practice and play around. I hope you’re hungry :)

After wanting to shoot for a while, I decided upon a recipe from the book Date Night In by Ashley Rodriguez. A deliciously easy crostini with peas, bruschetta, and ricotta cheese. SO good.

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Next up is a new fall favorite – an autumn sangria! I wanted to make an all local drink, meaning I bought everything from local businesses in New Hampshire or New England. These days I try to make an effort to buy something locally first, if I can. It’s important to me as a small business owner to support other small businesses in my community. I feel better about where my money is going and it’s freshness. I changed this one up from the original recipe and added some spiced rum from Flag Hill Winery (Lee, NH) to go along with the cider (Massachusetts) and wine (also from Flag Hill) The apples were picked at Sunnycrest Farm in Londonderry, NH.

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And lastly! I’ve been busy making Christmas gifts for friends and family who will probably read this but oh well, haha. For a while I’ve been making my own chapstick, deodorant, and cleaning products because of the harsh chemicals that are put in commercial products. For example, most common deodorants contain aluminum which is toxic to humans and has been linked to breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Think about it, your arm pits are packed with lymph nodes. I’m not trying to freak people out, but I think it’s important to be aware. It’s also extremely easy to make your own products and somewhat cheaper. Win/win. Get rid of that stuff you bought the other day unless it’s from a natural food store or something. Read your labels, it’s all right there to see.

Below you’ll find home made soaps, a sugar scrub, deodorant, and chapstick! All very easy to make in your own kitchen with products you can get most anywhere. Cheers to healthier living!

–Soap Recipe (mine have lavender, lemon, olive oil, essential oils, and rosemary added)

–Sugar Scrub Recipe

–Original chapstick recipe – mine is made with some secret ingredients now ;)

–Deodorant Recipe