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Showing posts from November, 2016

Yucca's Not Yucky

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Most people know yucca to be that expansive, unmovable, bombarding spike plant in your yard that looks like it could poke your guts out. I personally think I've experienced pulling its roots out. I was helping a lady remove crabgrass from her front yard, and we encountered this nasty, gushy deformed root plop in the middle of everything. As we dug it up we found more and more and also that it had no reliable form. We would just randomly find more of it and it was so sickeningly disgusting that we didn't want to just leave it there. I noted that the only place in the whole yard that had crabgrass, was in an oval around the root spot. It made sense the a plant like yucca could have looked right in that particular spot. People say it's really hard to completely remove one of those things, so I suspect whoever owned the house previously pulled it up and planted grass around the spot it had shaded. Not knowing there were still some roots down there, left it. We later dis

Queen of Ethiopia Braids

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I had a lot of fun doing this hairstyle on Aziza. She remained me of an african queen (yea, in American clothes...ha ha). It was pretty easy because you are braiding in the flow of hair, which is down. It didn't loosen up or frizz nearly as bad either. The one disadvantage was that all the braids were pulling on one area on her head so scabbed up a bit there. I've seen this exact hairstyle, but they solve that problem by not starting all the braids in one area. I always thought it was just to elaborate, but now I know it was just practicality. This style is pretty self-explanatory, but here's how I did it: Wash, brush, moisturize and prepare the hair for braiding. Pick your center point and start from there. Part your sections however big you want and braid out. Once you have finished, braid the braids into a circle around the head immediately. Feel free to use ribbons and extensions, you can do some cute things with them!

Indian Makeup

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We have a Thanksgiving event coming up, and part of the fun is dressing up. I decided to be an indian, partly because of how many indian/southwestern pieces are in my wardrobe. Then I got the idea of doing some type of makeup thing to enhance the tribal look. You wouldn't believe how people out did themselves. I didn't want to plaster so much color on my face that it looked like a mask, so I picked the simpler ones to show, and they're pretty cute.

Nature is God's Canvas

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During my several visits to The Farm, I've found out the nature is not just beautiful, it's breathtaking. So I had the urge to take pictures of it. However, I have a really crappy point-and-shoot camera that aggravates me beyond belief. I'm hoping to get a much nicer one soon. I know what pictures can look like, and being perfectionistic, when I can't get a picture that a 600 dollar camera would take with 30 dollar one, I get frustrated. I guess I'm overestimating what my poor decade-old camera can do.

7 Ways to Relax Your Hormonal Symptoms

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Most women suffer from at least one these tormenting symptoms during and around cycling times. Cravings of unhealthy (of course) foods Breast pain Cramps- there is a wide range of how extreme Headaches Fatigue Irritability  Annoyance (this is a weird one of mine!) Pimples Bloating Mood swings... ... and other hormonal side affects that affect our everyday life. Trying to suppress these ailments can be a struggle, especially if you don't want to be on medication 24/7 2 weeks of the month. I'm really into natural and herbal remedies, so me and my dad have both done research on this. My dad did it for the benefit of the rest of the family. Ha-ha. This is what I got from various sources and personal experience. 7 ways to Relax Your Hormonal Symptoms  1. Exercise Your body will cry out for rest at some time, and most definitely don't ignore it. But, at some point, at least for me, you are kind of just sore bloated and cramped up. That's when it'

Making Salsa in Ann Arbor

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Recently, I went to a class on how to make salsa. It was especially interesting because the teacher owned a Latin American restaurant! I was expecting it to be more of a gushy, blended salsa but it was entirely different; more like a pico de gallo dip. She had us hand chop everything itty-bitty pieces and mix together. Unfortunately, she left the onions at home in a hurry, so we didn't have those. These were the ingredients: 2 roma tomatoes, chopped small but not tiny 2 cloves of garlic, minced Cilantro, minced Hot pepper, as much and big as you want Salt and pepper to taste Fresh squeezed lime to taste Red onion chopped small We mixed these altogether and ate with chips. It was amazing! I would suggest draining the liquid out the bottom if you are eating in the car like I was. You can imagine what happened! In all, it made about 8 ounces and our teacher provided cute little container to carry it home in. This is what it looked like but I mashed mine up a little and

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

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Yum! These tasty treats are chewy and crunchy at the same time; and even better, coated with the delectable... powdered sugar! I'm really starting to like making cookies now that the atmosphere of our house isn't steaming with heat! This is an old recipe, and most of the time that means the best. I actually followed the recipe, except that I doubled it.  This time I don't have a commentary on all the little details of how I made this, because I was trying to whip it up in 20 minutes for an event we were going to. They were one of the most popular cookies next to the white chocolate cranberry macadamia nut cookies someone brought. I didn't even get to taste them they were gone so fast. But only because there was such a little amount (I know, I know, I'm being boastful :-) I brought 8 dozen of mine. One girl ate like half a dozen herself! The recipe was conveniently stored in one of Betty Crocker's old cookbooks that used to be in binder form. That wa