Herbal Witch Hazel

As you may well know, I’ve been on a skin care kick. It’s involved a lot of research into raw ingredients and how my skin works with them.

One key base ingredient in the healing of skin is witch hazel – an astringent produced from boiling the leaves and bark of the witch hazel shrub with powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. This stuff is good for your skin. It helps with acne, bruises, swelling, and even an occasional ingrown toenail.

Pretty potent stuff, right? Well we can actually kick it up a notch by adding in some powerful herbal ingredients.

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(VIDEO) Green Juice: A Morning Ritual

I am just so jazzed to present this post to you today.

This summer, I’m teaming up with the talented Jamie Oliveira to bring you a series of short videos here on The Dabblist. We begin with today’s post on something I’m pretty passionate about and have made a major part of my life – juicing.

By far, my favorite day of the week is Saturday. Soon after we awake, my husband and I walk through our neighborhood to the local farmer’s market. We have our favorite vendors we go to every time. There’s the strictly Avocado and Dates couple sitting behind their little table, the Mushroom man who always wears a San Jose Sharks hockey shirt, we wave hello to the shy gentleman who provided the wild Protea flowers for our wedding nearly 2 years ago, and always visit the young guys selling Fair Trade coffee from the back of their bicycle cart.  I usually pick up a bag’s worth of farm fresh goodness and we head back to our place for the morning’s final ritual –  busting out the juicer and making some delicious, nutrient-packed juice.

 

This juice is a combination of ingredients I really enjoy. The freshness of the parsley combined with the strawberries and lemon make this juice’s flavor reminiscent of a strawberry lemonade. I hope you enjoy!

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Manuka Honey

I’ve never been that girl with the perfect skin. Since the age of 12, it’s been a constant battle to balance out my skin to prevent breakouts and dryness. I thought I had found a good system but, due to a recent medical procedure, my hormones went way out of balance and my skin reacted harshly with cystic acne for several months.

I was far from pleased. It’s not easy to hide the state of your skin from the rest of the world. My confidence dropped at work, and I was piling makeup on, which really only made the problem worse.

Then one day, I was reading a post from one of my favorite blogs that highlighted model May Lindstrom’s skincare line.  I ordered some of her products (which arrived with a hand-written note!) and fell in love with the ingredients and May herself. Following her advice to contact her personally with skincare questions, I wrote May and told her of my skincare woes. She wrote me back that day with a skincare plan to help me manage this skin reaction.

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Ode to the Bees: My Adventures in Beekeeping

So work the honeybees;

Creatures, by a rule in nature teach

The art of order to a peopled kingdon.

From Henry V, Act 1, Scene 2, Shakespeare

I may live in a one-bedroom apartment, but that won’t stop my dreams of being an urban homesteader. While I can make my own almond milk and grow wildflowers on my windowsill, I pine for the day when I can share with you the trials and tribulations of keeping my own chickens, harvesting lavender to make essential oil, and (the ultimate!) how my honeybees are faring in their homemade hive.

Last weekend on a sunny morning in San Francisco, I took an urban beekeeping class. I know I put the cart before the horse a bit (we’re hoping to move into a house with a garden early next year), but I’ve been dying to learn the ins and outs of keeping my own bees and what it takes to keep them happy and harvest their honey.

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Homesteading with Lauren: Homemade Baby Food

While the dreams of growing food and making it into baby food for my wee one have come close to true, mostly I buy produce and whip it up for the baby.  Making baby food…are you thinking that sounds hard? Like a lot of work? Maybe you don’t have a baby… never fear!  Let’s think about Hannah on Girls, that girl digs her some baby food (Season 2, Episode 7 anyone?).

Oh, and I promise you this is easy.  Have time to mash some avocado, boom you just made baby food.  Smash up a banana, wow now you’re a baby food making maniac!  Add some plain whole fat (organic) yogurt to that and you have several combinations right there.  You are a sweet and dear mom/friend/caregiver/snacker.  This stuff freezes well too, so large batch make and freeze.  Ok I’m not sure about the avocado or yogurt freezing…but you can experiment!

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