Help for dry winter skin

Every fall and winter, as the weather gets colder, my skin gets drier.
It seems the older more mature I get, the worse the problem.

I'm so excited to have found help for my dry skin this year!
Believe it or not, I didn't find this idea on the internet.
I found it in my own little noggin!

Now I'm sure someone else has already thought of this but they didn't tell me about it!

Here's my cute little partner in my fight against dry winter skin.

 

This chubby little fellow that used to dispense the sweet honey for my morning oatmeal is now filled with vegetable oil.

He sits on my shower shelf waiting to help moisturize my dry skin during my nightly shower.

 

After washing my face with a washcloth and just plain water, I sqeeze a little of the oil onto my washcloth and rub over the rest of my body just like I would when using soap.

That's right - no soap used!

 

I get out of the shower feeling so clean and moisturized.

I just pat dry

and say,

 

Goodbye Alligator skin!

 

 

I need to insert a word of caution here:

 

Be careful of a slippery shower floor if you try this!

 

Another help for dry skin (that I did find on the internet) is dry-brushing my skin before showering.

You can find lots of instructions when Googling this.

I bought a natural bristle brush something like this one found at Drugstore(dot)com.

 

 

I got mine from my local Walmart for $4.00.

 

I think using the brush before taking the moisturizing shower helps but I have to admit I don't use my brush nightly.

Why?

For one reason, I forget about it until I get out of the shower.

But the main reason is because by the time I take my shower, I'm usually too lazy tired.

I just want to get my shower, wrap up in my fuzzy housecoat, and snuggle in for the night.

 

There you have it, my cure for dry winter skin.

It's working so well for me that I just had to share it with my friends.

Please let me know if you try it.

I'd love to hear if it works for you.

 

I hope you have a great day!

 

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Homemaking

I've got a lot of plans for the new week and most of them involve home.
I hope to spend many enjoyable hours this week getting our home ready for the upcoming Christmas season.

I plan to start in my kitchen.
It could use a good scrubbing down; top to bottom.

I'll fill my sink with hot, sudsy water
 and scrub the counter tops, the cabinet fronts, and I even plan to delve into the depths of the fridge during my cleaning frenzy!

Then after the kitchen is clean, I'll move on to the other rooms; the breakfast room, dining room, laundry room, living room, den, bathrooms, and bedroom.

I look forward to getting the wash done up and hope the weather is cooperative enough that I can hang the laundry on the clothesline.   

I'm planning a week of simple meals, breakfasting on hot oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon, easy lunches of sandwiches made from left over Thanksgiving turkey and ham, and suppers of soups and homemade bread.  I might even take the time to make one of my favorite rolls one night:

 Golden Potato Rolls

1 pkg yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
8-8 1/2 cups plain flour, divided
2 eggs, beaten

1. Dissolve yeast in water; set aside.
2. In a saucepan combine; milk, butter, and potatoes; cook and stir over low heat just until butter melts.  Remove from heat and place in a large bowl with sugar, salt, 2 cups flour and yeast mixture.
3. Add eggs; mix well. 
4. Cover loosely and allow to stand 2 hours (the dough will look like a sponge).
5. Stir in enough of remaining flour to make a soft dough.
6. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic ~ about 6 minutes.
7. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled ~ about one hour.
8. Punch down and divide into thirds.  Roll each portion into a 12" circle.
9. Cut each circle into 12 pie-shaped wedges.  Roll up, beginning at wide end.
10. Place rolls, point side down 2" apart on a greased baking sheet.
11. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until nearly doubled.
12. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.                                                                    Makes 3 dozen rolls

  

The rolls are melt-in-your-mouth buttery goodness! I even love them for breakfast with butter or cream cheese and my homemade apple-cinnamon jelly. Yum!

Now that my plans are made and my to-do list is filled out and on the side of the fridge waiting for Monday morning, I'm going to take a nice hot shower, put on my fuzzy housecoat, and cozy up in front of the tv and escape to Mayberry for a while with my sweet hubby before crawling into our warm bed. Our electric blanket is a true friend.

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Weekend anticipation

Ms. Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound has suggested we share our weekend plans and link our post up to Pink Saturday this week.  So here's my overly-exciting plans.  :)

The weatherman has predicted sunny days with temps in the low 70's for our part of Alabama.  Does it get any better than that?  So I plan to spend some time at my favorite place. 

My front porch!

 

It's The Best place to sit down with a good book and a cup of something hot.
I enjoy many treasured moments here.  On the beautiful fall afternoons we've been having, I love to put a casserole in the oven to bake, open the dining room window so that I can hear the timer (or smell smoke:), and go out on the front porch with a cup of something hot and a book while supper cooks.  It's my favorite "room" of our home.

Other hopeful plans for the weekend include strolling hand in hand with my sweet hubby on our city's walking/bike trail.  The overhanging trees are beautiful right now.  We shared a three mile walk last weekend and I've relived the memory daily.  It's kept a smile on my face all week.

Another hopeful plan is to visit a new little shop right here in the country near our home.  It's called The Corn Crib , because, well, it was a corn crib in its before life.  The owners had it moved next door to their home this summer and stocked it with fresh garden vegetables, local honey, beautiful plants, etc.  I've not visited it yet but look longingly at it as we zip by on our way to town.  They're having a Christmas Open House that I hope to attend this Sunday afternoon.  So just maybe, if I can remember to take my camera, I'll have pictures I can share with you later.
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  One more place that I always include in my weekend plans is church. It's the place I go to for a refreshing of my spirit and filling my heart with joy.

  

 I especially look forward to Children's Church, where I always learn something and come away with a smile and a new sweet story to share with my family over lunch.  (My favorite story from last week was about the three year old cutie in my class that was looking for the "plaid" colored pencil in the box.  He wanted to color his coat craft just like the plaid one in our story book.)
Kids keep us young, don't they?

What about you, got any special plans for the weekend?  Hope you'll share them!
 

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Color my World

On this beautiful fall morning,

I'm

filling my mind with warm, positive thoughts

and

my senses with the colorful beauty around me.

 

From the colorful peppers I chopped up for our fajitas tonight...

 

...to the happy-faced pansies I'm planting in our flower beds...

 

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...to the flaming Sugar Maple out by Neil's blacksmith shop.

 

God's beautiful gifts bring peace to my soul

and

a smile to my face.

 

 

 

I hope you're finding beauty in your world today.

 

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Post link added to:  Outdoor Wednesday 

 

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smile

Via: http://happythings.tumblr.com/

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Great answers for my question

In my last post I asked a great philosophical question : )

What do you do with your long fall and winter evenings?

And I got some great answers.  I knew my wise blog friends would come through for me!

 

Here is a sampling of your activity suggestions:

crafting

hand-sewing

puzzles

computer time

crochet/knitting

housework

cross-stitch

quilting

listening to audio books while crafting

cooking

getting a head-start on wrapping Christmas gifts

 

I personally think all of these are great ways to spend a winter's eve.

However, if any of the activities involve actual work, such as cooking or housework, you can count me out.  I often say when the sun goes down, I go down.  I'm soooo not a night owl.?

 

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But I am a morning person so the best suggestion to fit my personality was Pom Pom's:     We go to bed early! We get up early, too. I love the quiet mornings with lots of down time before I dash off to school.

     Now Miss Pom Pom, why didn't I think of that?  No, I don't have a daily job to dash off to, but I can still use the freshness of the very early morning to get my household chores done before delving into more fun activities or going out to one of my volunteer jobs.

So, I have been trying my routine out over the past week and would like to say it's working out great!  Even the dreaded time change wasn't so bad yesterday.

 

I actually celebrated the time change this year instead of bemoaning it. 

 Here's what I did last evening:

• I left hubby in front of a Netflix movie last night while I took a little "me" time. 
• I rearranged my closet a little, making it a little friendlier to peek into while selecting my next day's outfit.  
• I exfoliated my face (with just a little baking soda on a soft washcloth).
• I hummed around the bedroom while listening to quiet songs on the radio and putting things in order so we could wake up to a peaceful room this morning.
• I checked today's weather and chose today's outfit accordingly.
• Then at about 8:30 p.m. (!) I crawled into our electric blanket-warmed bed with my current read and enjoyed some quiet time until my sweet hubby joined me.

And you know what?

I found this morning to be a breeze for me to wake up early and start my day!

I even got in my morning exercises before seeing Neil off for his workday.

 

Now I just seem to have more hours in my day.

I do  have more productive hours.

And I've been using them too!

 

Here's a few things I used those new wide-awake hours for last week:

• I finished All my weekly household chores.
• I was able to volunteer one day at school, one day in a food pantry and one evening at my church.
• I met friends for lunch.
• I visited the public library.
• I had more time for walking~ and that brought my weight down two pounds!
• I sewed.
• I cooked a warm meal for my guys each night Mon-Fri. ( I don't cook on weekends :)
• I completed several at-home puttery projects.

 

Everything I've done hasn't turned out wonderful but I've had a wonderful time doing them!

 

Here's one of my projects:

 

I bought the black and white Casual Corner blouse (picture on right) at a thrift store a couple of months ago.

My loving husband told me as soon as I tried it on in the store that the black and white stripes made him sort of dizzy.

But being the independent (stubborn) girl that I am, and seeing as how the blouse was sooooo soft and comfortable (and cheap), I bought it anyway.

But every time I've put it on to wear, I look in the mirror and find myself swaying with the dizzying stripes (just like Hubby said).

 

So, I decided to dye it.

I could picture the white stripes dyed a soft gray with the black stripes still there but just a little less of a contrast.

Why doesn't my dye jobs ever turn out like I expect?

That's just one more reason to never dye my hair.

 

Back to my story...

I couldn't find gray Rit dye in any local stores so I checked my at-home stash.

I had pink....hmmmm...no, better not.

Well, I do have black.

I could make it a weaker concentration and leave the blouse in less time than the instructions say.

 

After only five minutes in the dye bath, the blouse was looking pretty dark so I pulled it out.

Oh, my.  My black stripes had disappeared!

I threw the blouse in the washer and spying a jug of bleach, I decided to give it a little extra help.

The results?

 

I'm not sure how much you can see in the above pictures but it turned out a rusty brown color with black stripes.

Not what I intended but as Bob Ross, the painter, used to say,

It's a happy little accident.

Because, now it matches my black pants/skirts and my brown skirt.

And the best part, no more glazed over eyes when Neil sees me in it.

 

Well, I gotta fly now.

 

I'm volunteering in kindergarten class today.

It's 50's day and I'm in charge of making the Coke floats!

 

P.S.

I have another question for my wise blog friends.

Neil is going on a business trip to Memphis, TN soon and I'm tagging along  accompanying him.

We would like to visit Elvis' home, Graceland, while there but it's so expensive!

I would love to find discounted tickets.

 

Got any ideas for me?

Direct links would be great.

(I was so overwhelmed when I Googled it!)

Thanks!

 

                                            

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