Andy's Idea Factory

Ever since the first time I saw one of these systems, I thought, "yes, one day you will have one of those."  The day has arrived. That first time was three years ago, when the Juice Plus Company first released The Tower Garden ® as their newest product of their short list of healthy living items, and a friend came in to the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council 's monthly meeting to show it off.  It wasn't just me. Everyone in the room went, "oooooh," "ahhhhh." Granted, this was a warm audience - a room packed with gardeners, local-foodies, and health nuts - but we oooh'd none the less. For lack of space in our previous quaint home, we held off even though the Tower Garden takes up a total of maybe six square feet.  But as soon as we moved into our new home in December I knew, come fall, we'd be putting together our first Tower Garden®.  And we just did. Let me backtrack a little; we love  to garden.  As soon as the snow melted thi...

(Continued from Part 1) Henna Gods, I am truly impressed. Granted, my mantra has been, "the Indian women have such beautiful hair..." so the results had to be good.  But even so, my hair looks awesome. A more natural shade of red than the chem dye- slightly lighter than my natural brown tone (is that possible? is that from the chamomile?)- than I've ever had in the four years that my stylist and I have been tampering with tubes of colors like Michelangelo. Not wine red, not Redskins red, not Mahogany-Obsidian red.  I had been shooting for my mother's red. Scottish/Irish red, a dark Ginger. I think I'm finally there, or damn close. So how'd we get there? Here's the last 48 hours: 10pm Monday Large ceramic bowl Mixed 300g of fresh organic Rajasthani Indian Henna powder with 3.5c of warm chamomile tea from distilled water, steeped for 20 minutes and cooled with 6 cubes of ice Covered with plastic wrap, left on counter 9am Tuesday No "red...

Disclaimers A) The topic Henna is clouded by volumes of misinformation, and B) I'm no expert. Background I have been on a quest to go 100% "all natural" (in all aspects) for a decade, and hair color just happens to be my last chem standing. I have been DIYing bathroom and kitchen stuff for inside and outside the body for a very long time... but specifically within the last 4 years I have been doing so to manage- and hopefully remedy- two conditions I have developed, one recently, one a long time ago: psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. I have tried gluten free, grain free, vegetarian, sobriety, urban farming... I have made DIY lotions, washes, cleaners, salves...  and because I believe others could benefit from what I've studied, I have been writing along the way ( arthritis , DIY , gluten free , grain-free, psoriasis , see list on page's bottom left for more). Topic So after a month's worth of extensive research on Henna, here's what I've found...

How fitting that this is posting as we're on our way to Sin City... Yes, I said poonani. And nothing's wrong with that, unless you're in a convent. I got approval from Craig to share this, so here we go.... I can't take full credit for this idea from the factory, but I adapted it, and in art, that means it's mine. :) The idea came from ABC's Cougartown , when Christa Miller's character Ellie gave a sex card to her husband Andy. Andy and Ellie have a newborn, so their sex life is latent. The theory is that Ellie has Andy wrapped around her finger so tight that he has to earn these sex cards to get any nookie (or in our house, poonani) at all. We don't have kids, but we've been together 10 years this year and married for four. I'm not ashamed to admit that just like everyone else, our sex life is great sometimes, and quite latent some of the time as well. So for Valentines Day this year, I made him some of Ellie's cards to give our sex ...

If you haven't been following along, please refer to our previous post for Part 1 of Make Your Own Face Products for making a facial toner. Today we're going to make the facial scrub to go along with it! This is another product we made on "Girls Night," and I've been using this for a year and absolutely love it so much that it became last year's Mothers Day present as well as a few Christmas Presents and I even gave some to a friend to try out. I haven't heard a bad report yet! My face always feels super clean but not stripped like products with sulfates can make you feel! This also comes from Healing Herbs , mentioned in the last post. Unlike the toner, this can be made and used instantly, so get to it! INGREDIENTS: 1 cup oatmeal (not instant) 2 cups cosmetic clay 1/4 cup almonds 1/8 cup dried herbs (see previous post, any facial helping herbs will do) Grind the oatmeal and almonds into a very fine powder and mix with cosmetic clay. Grind herbs if...

Since living on a "sustainable community" in Oregon I have had a very strict rule on body products and their usual "fillers" and preservatives; I use organic and natural products, from toothpaste to shampoo, and I don't budge on it. Thankfully now those products easier to find and even makeup can be found au - naturale , but it wasn't always so. Even still, those products are usually more expensive than non-natural products depending on brand name, and now is the time to consider shrinking your budget while you can. A great way to do this is to make your own face scrub and toner. I had this idea last February and hosted a "Girls Night" where we actually made it together, making it even more fun, and I still have "leftovers!" I'm going to break this Idea into two posts, so first, while that Valentines bouquet is just starting to wither, let's make the toner. I got this recipe from The Woman's Book of Healing Herbs ( Harra...

The best way to start pinching pennies out of your budget is to start small, and what better way than to find what doesn't seem to cost that much money and what won't be missed, and to remove it? Today I finally took all the cards I've saved over the past few years and recycled them. No, I didn't put them in the paper bin under my desk... these were cards I'd saved because they were either so beautiful, so cute, so catchy, and so memorable that I couldn't possibly throw them away. I'm not a pack rat, I'm crafty. This is one of the few things I'd saved, and I've always been a big believer in making your own cards. First of all, cards are expensive. You can spend from $2 to $6 on just one card these days, and although that doesn't seem so bad on one day, $4 for a friend who you rarely talk to, or grandma who doesn't have email, or to go along with that package you're sending. But those days add up, and if you count all the cards you bou...