Eco-Friendly Beauty: Celadon Road Cream Cleanser Review and Giveaway!

Celedon Road’s Mission Statement

“Celadon Road is dedicated to promoting greener, healthier and more socially responsible living by offering our customers the highest quality natural, eco-friendly products for their everyday needs.  In following our mission, we inspire individuals to discover and explore their shade of green and to purchase with a purpose. We strongly believe if we all make small changes toward a greener lifestyle, collectively we can have a profound impact on our world.”

Last month Amanda Arkans, an independent consultant from Celadon Road, contacted me to see if I’d be interested in trying out an Age Defying Cream Cleanser. I was very excited to give it a try as I’m always looking for great natural, eco-friendly products to incorporate into my regimen.  I have been using the cleanser every time I wash my face now for the last three weeks and I have been very pleased with it.

I consider myself to have pretty sensitive skin so I was a little nervous that switching to a new cleanser might cause my skin to breakout during the adjustment period. Surprisingly did not at all and that tells me that this is an extremely gentle product. The cleanser is creamy and smooth and does not suds up, it feels very moisturizing as it is massaged into the skin and the scent is a very, very light citrus scent. If you have a weak sense of smell, you may not even smell anything.  I loved that about the cleanser because too much scent can give me a headache. After washing, my face is left feeling clean, smooth and hydrated.

Here are a few of the ingredients you can find in this face wash: organic coconut oil, organic jojoba seed oil, organic grape seed oil, organic carrot juice, organic lemon juice and organic hibiscus flower. Sounds great, right? It really is.

Other perks about Celadon Road: Gluten-free, Member of the Organic Trade Association, Not Animal Tested, Vegan and made in the USA.

Celedon Road is a direct marketing company. Consultants enjoy generous commissions and get to set their own schedules. If you are interested, let Amanda know you learned about this opportunity from Minnesota From Scratch and you’ll get a free cleanser of your choice if  you become a qualified consultant!

Would you like to win a facial cleanser for yourself? Amanda has generously offered to giveaway a full-sized facial cleanser OF YOUR CHOICE to one lucky reader. Follow the directions below to enter this giveaway. You must leave a comment for each action performed. Each comment counts as one entry for up to six entries possible.

To Enter:

Earn 1 entry by visiting Amanda’s Celadon Road website, click the “Shop Online” tab and leave a comment below letting me know which other product you’d like to try.

Earn 1 entry by signing up to follow MinnesotaFromScratch’s blog (Free entry if you are already a follower).  The sign up box is on the right side of this webpage. Leave a comment letting me know.

Earn 1 entry for signing up for Amanda’s newsletter.

Earn 1 entry for following MinnesotaFromScratch on facebook. (Free entry if you are already a follower).  Leave a comment letting me know.

Earn 1 entry for following me on Twitter.

Earn 1 entry for following Celadon Road by, Amanda Moser Arkans on Facebook.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for each action performed, as that is your entry into the contest!

The giveaway begins May 20th, 2013 and ends at 11:59pm CST on May 24th, 2013. A winner will be chosen and contacted on May 25th, 2013 via e-mail and will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail. Non-response is a forfeit and another winner will be chosen. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on Random.org. All entries will be verified before granting the prize.

Amanda provided the cleanser for this review and all opinions are my own.

Are you a Glutton for Gluten?

I think it’s fair to say that most people love, LOVE their breads, pastas, pizzas, pastries, and… (dare I say) beer.   I recently read a short article in the Taste for Life magazine that I picked up at a Whole Foods Store I frequent.  Although the article was short, it really got me thinking about the foods I am consuming and more concerning is what I’m feeding my son.   Keep in mind that I buy all organic, and assumed I was avoiding all the ‘bad stuff’.  And I’ve been gluten ‘curious’ for some time, but not really curious enough to endeavor.

What struck me was that the article stated whole-wheat bread when compared to white bread was like selecting filtered rather than non-filtered cigarettes – WHAT!

The problem lies in the crossbreeding and hybridization of the wheat which introduces chemicals to our diet leading to high blood sugar levels (diabetes), overeating (obesity), inflammation, irritable bowel, cancer, the list goes on…

So what’s the answer you ask?  Heritage wheat is available and is more like the whole wheat your grandmother (or your grandmother’s grandmother) used to bake with.  For me?  I have switched our sandwich bread and tortillas out for gluten-free products and plan to make my own gluten-free flour to bake with.  I’m not suffering from celiac disease or a wheat allergy, but I do believe that introducing gluten-free into our diet is an easy way to make our diets more diverse.  (Gluten is found in wheat, rye, and barley.)

I’m considering going gluten-free entirely for a month to see if I feel different.  In researching the subject it seems many people find they have more energy, are less bloated and just ‘feel’ better.  The challenge has been to find products that are both gluten-free AND organic.

What’s your experience with a gluten-free diet?

Kristin (not a doctor)

101 Things I Love About My Mother

I love….

1. Her thirst for travel
2. Her ability to talk to anyone
3. Her fearless attitude toward adventure
4. Her laugh
5. Her strength
6. Her resilience
7. Her bond with my daughter
8. The way she can connect with other people
9. Her always super soft skin
10. Her sense of humor
11. Her motivation
12. Her cooking without recipes
13. Her wittiness
14. Her knowledge about natural remedies
15. Her love for zip-up fleece vests… haha
16. Angie
17. Her willingness to always kick someone’s ass for me, lucky she has never had to   …yet.
18. That she was the first mate on the Nina
19. That she raised tigers
20. That she can be happy in luxury or a hole in a hill
21. Her green thumb
22. How when I need her, she is there
23. How she is always looking for a way to help others
24. How she can whip up a feast in 10 minutes when you think the cupboards are bare
25. Her honesty
26. That she has everything but needs nothing
27. How some of her awesomeness rubbed off onto me
28. Her creative side
29. Her handmade pottery
30. Her beauty, inside and out
31. How she bribes my daughter with Jelly Beans
32. How she will not put up with crap from anyone, ever
33. That I know she always has my back
34. How she gets along with my friends
35. How forgiving she is
36. Her stories, she should write a book – seriously, Ma
37. How she listens to what her dreams are telling her
38. That she believes in the other side
39. The way she dances, arms and all
40. That she knows how to sail
41. How she can tie knots that will not come undone
42. Card night
43. Her magnetic personality
44. How she loves to have a good time
45. How we have the same feet
46. How we both have the same wrinkly palms too
47. Our shared love for Asian food, Mexican food, Seafood and pretty much all food
48. How she supports me and my family
49. How she comments on every single blog post of mine
50. That even when she lived far away, I still felt close to her
51. That she moved back to MN
52. Enjoying apps and wine with her
53. How she helped my daughter learn her colors
54. That she does not give up
55. That she respects my opinions
56. That she always sides with my husband (jk… dislike!) But I do like that they have a good relationship
57. That she kayaks
58. That she can rig fishing poles up like a pro
59. That she knows how to do almost everything (at least it seems that way to me)
60. Her thriftiness
61. Her helpfulness with the family
62. Her love for animals
63. That she is not afraid of bugs, specifically spiders
64. That she eats off of tiny plates but will have 5 servings, cracks me up
65. That she is comfortable in her own skin
66. That she tells it like it is
67. Her intuitiveness
68. That we have 4 generations of Geminis
69. That she was a young mother
70. Our tightknit family
71. That she kept the subs in the car and occasionally enjoys rap music… grandma
72. That she admits her weaknesses
73. How she got me interested in homeopathy
74. Her generosity
75. Her optimism
76. Her bluntness
77. How I can tell her ANYTHING and I mean anything
78. How she pronounces Twitter “Tweeter” and WiFi “WeeFee”
79. How handy she is
80. Her blue eyes
81. That she has friends all over the world
82. That her friends are from all different walks of life
83. Her wild side
84. Her one of a kind qualities
85. How she makes hard tasks look so easy
86. How on April 27^th, 2005 she did not give up
87. How at her weakest moment, she was still positive
88. How we know firsthand Reiki works
89. Our connection
90. That we are Gemini’s
91. Kisses for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday… remember?
92. How good she is at Scrabble
93. Her hospitality
94. Her jerk chicken
95. Making gingerbread cookies
96. Talking to her every day
97. What a hard worker she is
98. Her healthy habits
99. Her uniqueness
100. Our friendship
101. That she is my mother

I love you, Mom!

 

Homemade Organic Clove and Sweet Orange Lip Balm

Here’s a great simple and quick lip balm you can make for yourself and others.  I found the recipe on Mountain Rose Herbs website a few years back.  They described it as “A warming lip balm with a delightful scent reminiscent of Orange and Clove Pomander Balls”.  All of the ingredients can be found at your local natural foods store or you can order them online at Mountain Rose Herbs (like I did). You only need a little of the ingredients to make 10 tubes or tins, but you can also use the beeswax and essential oils for making your own chemical-free lotion, all you need is some added  oil. I halved the recipe for this post; those measurements are in (parentheses).  Enjoy!

The Organic Ingredients:
Makes 10 lip balms (recipe halved)

1 TBSP Shea Butter (1 ½ tsp)

3 TBSP Sunflower Oil (1 T + 1 ½ tsp)

1 TBSP plus 1 teaspoon Beeswax (1 ½ tsp)

15 drops Sweet Orange essential oil (7 drops)

5 drops Clove essential oil (2 drops)

Coarsely chop the beeswax or use beeswax pastilles. Place beeswax, butter, and oils in a small pot or glass Pyrex measuring cup and gently heat in the top of a double boiler until the beeswax and butters have melted. Once melted, remove from the stovetop and add essential oils.

Immediately pour the mixture into lip balm containers. You can purchase lip balm tubes and jars, or you can reuse glass or plastic containers. I reused my night cream jar.

Allow to cool completely before placing caps onto the lip balm containers.

Your lip balm is finished!  Add labels and or decorate if you wish!

Thanks for reading!

-Kristin

A New Breakfast Juice Recipe, Enjoyed From A “Hillbilly Wine Glass”

A couple of weeks ago my friend showed me a photo of these “Hillbilly Wine Glasses” for sale online. They were on sale for  $25 for a set of two.  I couldn’t believe what they were charging!  I told him I could make them myself and so I did. I made him a set of 4 glasses, for a quarter of the cost of what he would have paid for 2 glasses and it took me about 3 minutes, literally.

Before I gave them away for good, I decided to enjoy my morning juice from a glass and they are actually pretty awesome to drink from. I thought they’d feel awkward but they didn’t at all. I am going to make two more for myself and drink out of them when I am canning from now on.

Here are the ingredients for the juice I made:

• 1 whole large cucumber
• 1 grapefruit
• 1 orange
• 1 apple

It made two servings and had a nice flavor. All produce was organic.

Painted Flower Pots – A Great Craft for Kids and A Thoughtful Gift Idea!

Last month I bought some terracotta flowerpots from our local hardware store in anticipation of Mother’s Day.  Over the last 6 weeks, I have let my daughter slowly work her magic on these pots that we will be giving as gifts for Mother’s Day.  She had a good time painting and I had fun helping.

Supplies:

• Terracotta pots
• Acrylic paint
• Paint brushes or foam brushes
• Foam stamps (optional)
• Glitter Glue (optional)
• A sealant for pots that are intended for the outdoors, such as Mod Podge – outside

On sunny days, we took this craft outside and that made it even more enjoyable.

I found some insect and flower stamps at the $1 store, as well as glitter glue.  I find that the foam brushes work best for covering the pot evenly with paint. The acrylic paint dries pretty quickly and then you can go back for a second or third coat.

We bought the flowers from a nearby flower shop and planted them. She is very excited to pass them out over the weekend!

Happy Mother’s day!

Celebrate National Train Day – Saturday May 11, 2013

Kids love model trains!

Young children (both boys and girls) are enamored by trains, as well as they should be.  Trains are fascinating and a big part of our history.  Trains, even model ones, are pretty cool for adults as well.  This Saturday is National Train Day (Amtrak). A fun way to celebrate this *holiday* with the kids is to visit your local model train museum.  If you’re not sure if you have one located near you, I’d be willing to bet that you do.  Train museums are typically all-volunteer -ran by model train enthusiasts and the layouts are donated for our enjoyment!

If you are feeling adventurous you could look for an actual rail to ride in your neighborhood!  Check out all of the celebrations happening in your area and make a point to celebrate part of history with your little ones!

The photos here are from the Twin Cities Model Train Museum’s Toy Train Division in Minnesota, which is a regular hang out for my son and I on a Saturday morning when we don’t have much else to do.  It’s always a hit!

Happy Train Day!

Kristin