No more insomnia!

I received this item for free or at a discounted price in exchange for my honest review.



The Zen Bamboo® Pillow came in a super cool roll, kind of like a yoga mat. It took about an hour for it to fully fluff back up, but once it did, it was super soft! I loved the way it smelled, so clean compared to the standard pillows you get in the stores. The removable cover was super smooth feeling and the pillow itself was very comfortable to lay on. It fit perfectly around my head and gave me fantastic neck support. I slept great and didn't wake up in my usual hot sweat. I woke up feeling refreshed and relaxed.

It's so comfy that even my husband and cat keep trying to steal it from me! I might have to get a couple more of these! Get your own by clicking here!

Silicone Cupcake Pan Review

I received this item for free or at a discounted price in exchange for my honest review.

These cupcake pans are much nicer than the silicone ones I got in the store. They are extremely flexible, and very lightweight. They were easy to use both with and without cupcake liners.




Clean up was a breeze! There was almost nothing left behind and what little residues and crumbs were left just wiped away! They are fantastic and I absolutely love them! Click here to get them for yourself!

I made a batch of brownie bites and blueberry muffins to sell at the farmers market and they were a total hit!

And The Phoenix Rose From The Ashes

Well it's been a few years since I've haunted my blog! So Readers Digest version; we got chickens, then we built a raised garden bed, then we got ducks, then we got a goat, then we added 3 more raised beds with the help of GRuB. We now have a crazy farm with a cat, 13 chickens, 28 Muscovy ducks, and a Billy goat. We have spent the last 3 years working to convert our country property into a self sustaining farm, and we should have it to that point by next year!

Anyhow, hubby and I are back at our old fast food jobs while we work to rebuild our lives after a series of unfortunate events that left us broke and struggling for survival. We're also building our It Works business (you can check out the products by clicking the link above for The Wrapping Holtrys).

We are going to be working on keeping this blog updated as well as posting some reviews of some pretty cool items! So bear with us while we work on coming back to the 21st century!

Natasha

Sorry I'm Lame!

Yeah I know, it's been like a year since I posted on here! I really suck at the whole maintaining a journal/blog thing! Part of it is the fact that I feel like when I post on here, it needs to be something long and thought out and crafty and awesome! When in reality, my life is never thought out, crafty, and awesome... well sometimes it is, but it's rarely worthy of a long post! Anyhow, I'll try to be more vigilant about posting on here, but most of the action takes place on Facebook where I feel ok with posting little quips and bits and random pictures! So if you want to link up to me there you can do so by clicking this spot right here ---> {My FB Page}

I promise to post some amazing recipes, crafty fun, and some cool pics of our little farm we're slowly building! I do have a couple of posts in the making right now, but they aren't quite ready. Soon though!

Homemade Rose Water

• Give your skin a glass of water and make your own rose water.
  Rose water is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals. It is itself a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume and is used to flavour food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations.
  
  
  Instructions:
  Place three handfuls of petals into a pot
  Pour water over the rose petals
  Cover the pot and place it over low heat.
  Let it simmer until half the water is left (about 15 minutes).
  Let it cool
  Discard the petals
• For a more potent version: Add 5 drops of essential rose water oil
• Pour your rosewater into a BPA-Free glass bottle
  
  Rosewater has many beneficial properties when applied to skin:
• Hydrates
• Reduces inflammation
• Cleanses and tones
• Helps maintain pH balance of skin.

Pumpkin Aftermath!

Ok so after all of the pumpkin carnage that took place yesterday, there were some leftovers! We roasted the pumpkin seeds with sea salt (I've been munching on them all day!) and with the flesh that we scraped out, I am making pumpkin soup!

First I had to boil some chicken to make some chicken stock for the base! I added 1 bay leaf, coriander. parsley, and thyme to the pot. I let that boil for about 1 1/2 hours. I pulled the chicken and bay leaf from the pot and added in the 8 cups of pumpkin flesh, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, 1 diced Walla Walla onion, 3 tablespoons of seasoning salt, 1/2 stick of butter, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, and 2 teaspoons of ground white pepper. 1 hour later, once the pumpkin was soft, I pureed the soup with a handheld blender.

Then I took the chicken and sliced it into 1/2 inch pieces and put that in an oven safe cake pan. I then cored and sliced (into rings) 1 Honeycrisp apple and put a layer over the chicken. Covered in foil and will put in the oven until chicken is hot and the apple rings are tender.

These will be served with yummy yeast rolls, for dinner tonight!

Pumpkins!

We carved our pumpkins for Halloween today! 

  Both boys were very excited! Nicole just wanted to eat them!

 Jamie, Ramsey and I gutted the pumpkins into a clean bag. After we got them all scraped out, we outlined our patterns onto the pumpkins! 

 I finished mine and Nicole's first, so while Jonathon continued to work on his and Ramsey's, I helped Jamie work on his!

I selected something a little less traditional. For those unfamiliar with it, this is the symbol for "Om"

 

Jamie opted for Wreck-It Ralph

And Ramsey chose a spider and web!

Not a bad bunch if I say so myself!