-:- pinterest weekly - at home workouts

Never in my life have I been good at getting out to go to the gym. Regularly, anyway. Or for more than one week at a time. These days, though, Mr. and I have both been craving a bit more physical activity. We have just felt like we need to move more.

Mr. does pretty well with getting to the gym, and I might start that habit sometime soon too, but until then, I've been making sure I get out to walk Louie at least once a day and working out at home with some good routines from Pinterest.

These are some of my favorite videos and routines:
Good Morning Yoga
7 Day Arm Challenge
Tracy Anderson's Arm Workout (no weights)
Ballet Barre Workout
Squat Challenge

I try to do some kind of yoga every morning (sometimes Wilbur joins me) and pick two routines to do every other day. I also add crunches, jumping jacks, and calf raises to whatever routines I do. The 7 Day Arm Challenge link includes some tabata workout videos, which I love and throw into the mix at least once a week.

I wouldn't mind getting into the gym habit just to work in some more cardio, especially since it's going to get harder and harder to walk Louie as it gets colder - but until then, this has been a great way for me to jumpstart getting back in shape.

By the way, I'm thinking about renaming these posts to pinterest semi-weekly...

I think that's a bit more accurate!

xox

-:- pinterest weekly - warming ginger drink

Sometimes I pin things on Pinterest that just sound so good to me, without ever going to look at what they're all about. It's part of my addiction. This warming ginger drink is one of those pins.

I'm not sure what I was picturing when I saw it - some kind of delicious, complex, herbal brew that I could drink all day while I work. I also have a hard time keeping my hands warm, so the thought of constantly holding a warm mug was so appealing. So I repinned it and planned to make it very soon.

However, when I looked at the recipe, I realized I already do this.

This thing that sounded so appealing to me is something I make every time I get sick. And it's something I force Mr. to drink whenever he's sick. I felt so silly for pinning it in the first place.

But here's the thing - I only ever make warming ginger drink when someone is has a sore throat or a cold or a stomach ache. And pinning it helped me think about this recipe in a different, everyday sort of way. It's delicious and good for you even if you're not sick!

So this pinterest weekly is less about accomplishing something brand new and more about rethinking existing habits or practices and making them fresh again. It's all good. 

And how about that name? Warming ginger drink.

Warning: I find myself saying it as much as possible. You could almost play a little herbal tea drinking game with this post. That would be so much fun.

-:-

Here's what I do:

Put a pot of water on to boil. (Or a kettle if you're fancier than we are. And by fancy, I mean normal.) Peel and chop a nice chunk of ginger. My mom once told me that the easiest way to peel ginger is with a spoon and she was right! You should try it.

Put the ginger in a container (mug or tea pot - or measuring cup) with some honey. This is buckwheat honey, which is especially therapeutic for sore throats.

The instructions from my pin also instructs you to add lemon to your warming ginger drink - which I think is great - I just didn't have any on hand.

Pour your boiling water over your ingredients and let everything steep for at least 5 minutes.

Since I have been drinking my warming ginger drink throughout the day, I've zapped each new cup in the microwave for a bit to reheat it. And this obviously gets spicier with each cup since the ginger keeps steeping while you nurse your warming ginger drink.

And I never measure anything here. This made about 3 cups. You can also scale everything down and just make one cup at a time. Roughly speaking, I think I add 1-2 tablespoons of ginger for each cup - but don't quote me on that.

Warming ginger drink.

xox

-:- pinterest weekly

I love making homemade household products,
but because we have never lived in a place with a dishwasher,
I've never had the occasion to make my own dishwasher detergent.

Until now.

I have used this once just to see how it works (we still need to use up our store-bought stuff!) and it's pretty awesome. In fact, I couldn't tell the difference between this and the other.

I used this pin as a guide and just quadrupled the recipe.

I would have liked to make more, but container of citric acid I bought only holds about a cup. So that's where I was forced to stop.

Still, though, this is a lot of detergent to get through at a tablespoon per load.

And it's formulated to work well with hard water - an added bonus for us.

I'd call it a success.

I also made laundry detergent - from this pin, but I used one bar of Zote instead of the Fels Naptha. Now that it's safe to go down to the basement again, I washed Mr.'s load of (really) stinky hiking gear with just one tablespoon of this stuff.

Worked like a charm.

Two successes in one post? I'd call that a third success.

xox

-:- pinterest weekly

Last week's pinterest project was inspired by this.

The stick I used was hand mouth-selected by Louie from the backyard,

colors inspired by autumn.

I've had weaving on my mind since Sister Visit 2012 when we saw the tapestries of Helena Hernmarck at the American Swedish Institute. I would love to try to weave a picture - but in the absence of a huge loom, thousands of pounds of custom-dyed yarn (I have a lot, but not that much), and time, I made do with what I had and made something that looks slightly like a fox.

Or a badger.

Can you see it?

xox

-:- pinterest weekly

One of the things on my list of things to do before my next birthday is to do something pinterest-inspired once a week - and I'll be keeping you updated on my progress with my pinterest weekly posts.

This week, since my skin has been giving me trouble, I was inspired by the aspirin mask.

The Painted Ladies blog has a great post about this mask that you should definitely read before you try it. She explains why it works and provides warnings about who should do this mask and who shouldn't - basically if you can't take aspirin as a medicine, you shouldn't be doing this mask.

I decided to decrease the amount of aspirin I used and added a couple of other ingredients that I know are good for my skin: raw honey and cinnamon. All three ingredients are antibacterial, the honey is very moisturizing, and cinnamon is an anti-inflammatory.

Here's what I did:

First, I dissolved my aspirin tablet in a couple of drops of water.
Then I added a spoonful of raw local honey...

and enough cinnamon to make a thick paste.



I plastered this all over my face and left it there for a little over an hour. When I washed it off, I rubbed the cinnamon and aspirin into my skin a bit more to help exfoliate.

This is definitely a sticky mask, so make sure to put your hair back before you start - and don't glop it on too thickly or you'll start to drip thick blobs of honey mixture everywhere.

Despite the potential for mess, this is so good for your skin, especially if you're acne prone. My skin felt so soft afterwards and my problem spots were less red. But if you're looking for something less messy and much faster, check out the original post on the aspirin mask and have at it!

xox