Down A Healthier Path

As I have continued down my weight loss path we have made a lot of food changes. We have become a much more active family. And in doing this we have also found a wealth of information that takes us further into the rabbit hole of healthy living.

It is really quite surprising how simple one can live healthy. Step number one is definitely what you put into your body, that is the foundation. Step number two is what you put ON your body. Step number three is what you expose yourself to around your body. Lastly, what you put into your mind.

All these elements in, on, around, are what greatly affect your overall health. I am talking full physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. These aspects work cohesively together. When one part is down the rest get down.

When it comes to the body though we are doing ourselves so wrong. As I took away the chemicalized and processed foods from our diet I started looking more and more into the chemicals in other things around us. That has led to yet another shift in thinking.

Our skin is the body's largest organ. And we put chemicals on it. Every day. We wash ourselves with chemicals, we clean our homes with chemicals, we wash our clothes with chemicals. It is baffling how much out there is just....I don't even want to think about it.

Then we use different products to compensate for other things our body is missing. Low fat diet? Dry hair? Get whatever new chemical is going to give you softer hair. I am being 100% sarcastic there by the way.

While I am in no way perfect with any of this I can trying very hard to seek out as much information as I can on more natural and DIY living. Luckily living in the time of the amazing internets there are thousands of like minded individuals who I can learn from.

A massive change for me was discovering the Village Green Network. It was like I stumbled upon an amazing collection of bloggers. For realz. That is exactly what it is. A group of bloggers that share recipes for all things natural and DIY living. I am on the road and they have the map.

So far I have learned the following things:

-Essential Oils are the bomb yo
-Baking Soda rules
-Vinegar rocks

Funny enough with those three things you can replace pretty much every cleaning chemical in your home. While essential oils do carry their own risks by their nature alone when used properly they can be used in AND on the body. I am still in the research phase but the other day I washed my floor with water, baking soda, and tea tree oil and WOW it was the best thing ever.

I am also in the phase of discovering the amazing properties of coconut oil. While I LOVE it in all things baking I haven't ventured with it too much into what it can do for the body with topical application but there are many, many suggestions on how to use it (deodorant? toothpaste?). You can make body and cleaning products literally good enough to eat.

On the docket for my first DIY projects are going to be some basic household cleaning products, getting some soap nuts for laundry, making our own bath bombs, plus a whole host of other ideas. Even the fact that I can knit (sort of) and sew (again, sort of) fits quite well here. Some of these are even going to be great homeschool projects. I'm a modern pioneer over here.


So if you are asking yourself what you can do to improve your health in these areas I say get rid of anything and everything synthetic. That means foods, cleaning agents, unnecessary medications, and anything else that is causing you more harm.

Heal your body and mind and home. These are things that are making me very happy.

The New Kind of Fluff

EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!

I was so excited to look out my window yesterday and see a brown box sitting at the front door. I KNEW it was my box of new fluff. And no I am not talking about the cloth diaper kind.

Before Christmas a very dear friend gave me a most generous gift certificate to Knit Picks which is an  online knitting store that we have been coveting the goods of. I very carefully planned out what I needed for yarn and needles for my next few projects and then clicked submit order.

I received the shipping email on the 27th and followed the tracking religiously (I'm a bit obsessive that way). I jumped for joy (almost quite literally) when I saw that it was in my city and then I did a happy dance (very literally) when I saw it was out for delivery.

When I saw the box out front I quickly threw on my coat and boots and went out to get it. I then ripped into it as carefully as I could.

Here are a few peaks at what I ordered...

All packaged up

A box fulla fun!

The whole shebang laid out

My yarn choices (Brava Worsted in Rouge, Dishie Multi in Orbit and Cottage, Stroll Hand Painted in Cartoons, Swish DK in Moss X2 and lastly Stroll Glimmer in Dragonscale).

 The needles sets (Try IT set, Harmony Wood Circular, Zephyr Acrylic Tips, and View Sizer which I like to call a sizermathingy but it's correct name is a needle gauge).

I can't wait to dig into all these things but all in due time. I still have one project on the go and I won't start the new ones until I am ready to roll on them. Each project that I chose to order for will help me develop certain skills. For example the wooden circulars are for making Evelyn's leg warmers with the Brava Rouge and my first time knitting in the round. The Dishie yarns are for making both bath (Orbit) and dish (Cottage) cloths. The cartoons yarns is for making cute little ankle jingles for the kids and will be my practice at knitting and purling. The dark green Moss is for making Max some "Hulk" fingerless gloves. 

My pet project out of it all will be using the lighter green Dragonscale. I will be making a lovely scarf for myself. One Row Lace Scarf is the name of the pattern. I think it will be perfect in the light green for spring. 

Now if you'll excuse me I have some knitting on my current project so that I can wrap it up and start on these new endeavours. 

Learning to Knit

Not even a month ago a few ladies decided to start a knitting club on Facebook. Apparently all sorts of these clubs exist. Most often know as a "Stitch and Bitch" club. Even my mum knew of this lovely little nickname. Somehow along the way I decided that I would join up in this little venture. I already had a few sets of needles that once belonged to my lovely Grandma Edith (rest her soul) so I figured I just needed to buy some basic yarn, see how it goes, then take it from there.

So far I am hooked -if I were crocheting that would be a good pun;). 

I did a lot of practice and tearing out and practice and tearing out. Nothing really came from my first attempts. I just wasn't sure where to go with it. One of the ladies though suggested we do a KAL (knit along). She chose a very easy and basic pattern (thankfully). Basically just knit a ton of rows that were about 20 stitches wide. Then stitch your ends together. Do a snazzy fold over. Wrap with yarn and voila, you now have a homemade headwrap/headwarmer. 

I have so far made one for myself (matching hand warmers are on the horizon) 

as well as a little one for Evelyn. 

I am also working on some as Christmas gifts. You can find the exact pattern for this little number here.

So now I have an account on ravelry.com. I have seen a few patterns on there that I would love to try. I need more practice and I also need to extend out of my comfort zone of head warmers, lol. 

I have also opened an account with a very intriguing site called knitpicks.com. I have yet to place an order but once the craziness of Christmas has passed I will be on it. I am really hoping for some Christmas money to fund my new habit. There are some luxuriuous looking yarns that I would love to try and I for sure want some new needles, more specifically these and these. 

I have also added a new Pinterest board. You can check out my Stitch B*tch board to see some of the projects and accessories and yarns that I really want to try. 

If you would like to try your hand at knitting I highly recommend knittinghelp.com. There are a lot of great how to/tutorial videos there. So far I have learned how to cast on, knit stitch, and bind off. Next up is the purl stitch. 

That is where I am with it now. I am a very green newbie beginner but I am finding it addicting. I keep saying, "just five more rows" whenever I have to do something else. I've also begun to master that balance that is knitting while breastfeeding. Once I get my courage up I may even pop down to a local yarn co-op. 

And with that...I must go knit. The Christmas countdown is on and I have gifts to finish.