I signed up for Influenster a few months back. A friend of mine posted a picture of her first VoxBox and I was oohing and aahing over the goodies. After checking out the website and reading a bit more I was convinced it was for me! Here's what Influenster is all about:
Influenster is a community of TRENDSETTERS, social media masterminds, and EDUCATED CONSUMERS who live to give opinions of products and experiences.
Influensters meet here to learn about new products from our favorite brands as well as review the products they already use in their day-to-day lives.
Influenster invites its most active members to participate in exclusive VoxBox programs where members receive complimentary products to test and review. In exchange, we ask our members to do what they already love to do: share their opinions with their friends & followers on social media.
But that's not all. We have a lot going on including digital challenges, twitter parties, & contests - take a look around!
So, after the initial signup I was dragging my heels. Or rather, I just totally forgot about it. Until a survey popped up in my inbox and I spent the 2 minutes filling it out. Well, what do you know! I actual am getting my first VoxBox! It's for Herbal Essences Naked which is right up my ally. I'm a total curly girl, always looking for something more GREEN, and what lady doesn't love free beauty products? I'm stoked! I'll be sure and weigh in and let you guys know what I thought of the box and the Naked products!
Fall is in full swing here in the South! We woke up to 38 degree temperatures, and our highs haven't been out of the 60s for a few days. I love the consistently crispy cool temperatures! I love the leaves changing colors! I love seeing little fingers wrapped around steaming mugs of hot cocoa while we settle in for a movie night! And I love love love all the beautiful fall decorations!
We started our decorating last week. We are going for a mostly Halloween look at the moment with spider webs and a skeleton, but I want to add several pumpkins. I found some beautiful green fall decorating ideas that I hope can inspire you to get in the fall spirit!
I don't think you can get more all-inclusive than this style! Food, and foliage, and gourds, and hay... BHG has incorporated nearly every nature aspect of fall here. The wreaths look easy to put together, and if you can get your hands on the wooden bushel baskets you're golden!
The Simplistic Look
Whether it's strung in a garland, surrounding a fragrant candle, used in making table-top topiaries, or simply piled high in a beautiful glass jar cranberries make the perfect fall decoration. Their deep red color just screams autumn, they are incredibly versatile, and did I mention they're beautiful?
And finally, another beautiful setup from BHG. I adore the look of all the pumpkins scattered in the walkway, and can you imagine the ambiance and warm glow that the jarred candles give the path at night? It's spectacular, and probably my favorite!
I love cooking and love trying new recipes, but baking is a skill that for YEARS has eluded me. I live in the south, so knowing how to bake biscuits are essentially required of a woman if she wants to wear the Southern Belle ribbon. After struggling since my teens to find a recipe that I love, my family loves, and can have it's excellence repeated I found my biscuit mecca. Paula Deen's recipe. Why didn't I start there? There is no one more southun (pronounced like a true Belle) that Miss Pauwla. Say it. Out loud. Southun Pauwla. Southern Belle certificate awarded.
There is no way to make a traditional biscuit recipe healthy. You can go green by swapping out whole wheat flower, but the truth is that my family doesn't go for that. I've tried switching out even a portion of regular flour for whole wheat and they all knew something was up. I have much better success with muffins, and this recipe is one that I just tried this morning. It's really easy to take a recipe like this, tweak a few of the ingredients, and have something much better for you. Enjoy!
GreenBlueberry Muffins
2.5 cups unbleached, organic all-purpose flour
0.5 cup organic whole wheat flour
1.2 cups pure cane sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup melted pasture butter (you can use oil if you want, but butter is more nourising and will keep you satisfied longer)
2 organic free range eggs (preferably local)
2/3 cup condensed milk (make your own with dry milk and water, skipping all the yucky additives in canned. Plus, you've already ditched your cans anyway, right? 1/3 cup dry milk, 1/2 cup water)
1/3 cup water
1 cup frozen blueberries
Preheat your oven to 400. Start by adding the dry ingredients to a bowl and stirring with a wire whisk to combine. In a large glass measuring cup measure out your milk and water together, then add your eggs, butter, and whisk to combine. Add your wet ingredients into your dry, stirring just until moistened. This gets pretty thick, so don't overmix because we still have to add the blueberries! Now FOLD in the blueberries. Using frozen berries helps not to demolish them, but still be gentle with your batter and berries.
At this point you need to put your mix in your muffin pan, but I want to say that a really easy way to go green in your baking is to get rid of the muffin liners. No waste. And they are completely unneccessary! So grease your tin with a little more butter, fill the cups to the top, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. These will be big, hearty, satisfying muffins. Make sure you smear a nice pat of butter over each one while they're still hot. Everyone here loved them. Checkout my Facebook page for the proof.
Kermit the Frog was really onto something here. He captures the melancholy and uniqueness that comes with the territory of being green. Let's take an in depth look at the lyrics of Kermie's song, and we'll see just how true his sentiment was... and still is.
It's not that easy being green Having to spend each day the color of the leaves When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold Or something much more colorful like that
Being green can most definitely be a challenge. Avoiding all of the colorful dyes that our foods and health and beauty products have become laden with can seem an impossible task at first. Not to mention that there is a reason people use and like them - they're appealing! They look pretty, they smell yummy, and most often they work great. When you've been using mainstream products your whole life it can seem like such a daunting thing to even begin a green lifestyle, let alone transition completely. It's not that easy being green... although cloth diapering can be colorful!
It's not easy being green It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water Or stars in the sky
Go Green Pocket Diapers
And he hits the nail on the head again. While there may be some controversy over the green movement itself, few people have drawn attention to themselves because of what they were doing on a day-to-day basis while living this green life. In my world, the steps I've taken towards a more natural lifestyle have resulted in lots of raised eyebrows, a few giggles, some name calling {anyone other Mother Earth's out there?}, and, my favorite, the ever popular, "I don't know how you do that!" That last comment is usually in reference to cloth diapers. And while no one looks glamorous sloshing a poopy diaper in the toilet, you might just get some sparkly water on you. har har har.
But that's sort of the point, isn't it? To get back to an organic way of living not only in the foods we buy, but in the lives we live. I laugh every time I hear people complaining about the new organic fac, and the usual follow-up about how there were no organics 40 or 50 years ago. Wrong-o. The fact of the matter is that up until 40 or 50 years ago ALL foods were organic, they just didn't need to be labeled because why would you need to tell someone that food is simply food? There was no need to classify it because it was as nature intended it to be. Natural pesticides have been used throughout our world's history, the most early one being sulphur, but it wasn't until the 1940s and 50s that synthetic pesticides began being mass produced. The 1970s saw the formation of the EPA and ever since then growing, selling, and buying organic has been an uphill battle. If only finding organics was as easy as spotting a star in the sky.
But green's the color of Spring And green can be cool and friendly-like And green can be big like an ocean, or important Like a mountain, or tall like a tree
Green is cool. The move towards organics, homesteading, homemade, and healthy has been gaining momentum over the last few years, and it's safe to say that the green trend is on the upswing. My hope is that more people, more families, will find how easily this lifestyle can fit into their homes and being green will be be big, important, and the norm! It will not be a choice, but simply the way of living. As obvious as a mountain, and ever growing in it's reach, like a tree. (Would you like some wine with that cheese? HA!)
When green is all there is to be It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful And I think it's what I want to be
Picture courtesy of www.environment911.com
For me, greenis all the there is to be now. I'm so far from perfect, and not every aspect of my life is cleaned, so to speak, but I am ever conscious of the way we live, the impact my family makes on our world, and the way the world we live in impacts us. When you know better you do better, right? And to toss in another cliche, with great power comes great responsibility. What greater responsibility is there than to be raising, training, teaching, nourishing the next generation of people? Everything I do, say, and give to my children impacts their development in some way. I can either make a positive impact or a negative one, and I choose to be a positive force in their lives. I also want to protect them in any way possible, and when you start to learn what is in the processed foods, and the super-duper-yummy-berry-blasted health and beauty products for kids you can't help but think twice before you make your next purchase. And each purchase we make is a choice. It's our voice in the market saying, "Yes, I want this." or "No, I refuse to buy that." Choose your words wisely my friends. And learn to love being green, just like Kermit. It's a beautiful, healthy, impactful, and responsible way to be. I think Kermie and I came to the same conclusion.... in the end, it IS easy being green.
