Natural and Holistic Living

Readers of this blog will know that I cover a range of subjects that have to do with alternative/holistic living--whether it's down-home recipes, health, emotional well-being, natural living styles, natural beauty methods or crafting ideas.

I grew up in the West Kootenays and in that area there are many people who have embraced a natural approach to living, from those who live in straw bale houses to organic gardeners, from home-schoolers to artisans who create unique homemade items.

People who are into holistic living find that it embraces living simply but living well, living in harmony with their surroundings and at peace with themselves.

In today's post, I'm including links to articles that will help you on your journey to natural and holistic living.

Craft Ideas
The Ancient Art of Tatting--create your own distinctive looking lace--easily, inexpensively.

How to Create a Christmas Scrapbook--Preserve precious yearly holiday memories by creating an album you can add to each year.

Hearty Food
Taco Beef Pie--if you enjoy Mexican food, this spicy hamburger pie topped with a biscuit crust is an easy-to-make dinner dish that will satisfy hearty appetites.

Homemade Sesame Crackers--these homemade crackers are soft and satisfying. The addition of sesame seeds give them a unique flavor.

Homemade Noodles--this has been one of my most popular recipes. These noodles have a velvety soft texture and are a wonderful addition to meals.

Green Living
10 Tips for Green Parenting--create an eco-friendly environment for your children.

The Advantages of Communal Living--is communal living right for you? What are the advantages to this living style?

Mental Health
Holistic Self Care Planning--does your approach to health embrace important aspects of healthful living?

Natural Treatments for Anxiety--how to combat anxious feelings naturally.

Natural Beauty Boosters
Vitamin E and Younger Looking Skin

Olive Oil Beauty Tips

Living naturally and holistically can open a window on so many gratifying ways to spend our days on planet earth.

Christmas Crafting Ideas

Christmas is just around the corner!

As the Season gets underway, stores are displaying more and more of their Christmas wares.

Many people are giving thought as to what to buy, who to buy for, and how they will spend the holidays.

In today's post I'm including links to a couple of my articles detailing Christmas crafting ideas.

Christmas Crafting Ideas
In How to Make Homemade Christmas Ornaments, I describe how you can easily make your own budget-friendly Christmas decorations. Homemade Christmas ornaments are fun to make and will keep little hands busy and young minds entertained. Your kids will have memories of making homemade ornaments that last a lifetime.

Homemade Christmas ornaments can be used to decorate your tree, they can be fixed to wreaths, and can be tied with a ribbon and used to decorate presents. Imagine a string of brightly colored gingerbread men gracing a mantle!

My next article: How to Create a Christmas Scrapbook gives insights on preserving your Christmas memories in a unique Christmas scrapbook. The album can be added to each year, so that you have a record of your family Christmases, captured in photos and keepsakes.

I hope these Christmas crafting ideas add joy to your Holiday Season!

Precious Feet Pins and Necklaces Save the Lives of the Unborn

In a recent post I discussed Precious Feet pins and necklaces, items you can wear to invite discussion and to get the word out about abortion.

Precious Feet pins have saved the lives of the unborn.

If you want to act to help to curb abortion in countries around the world, wearing the Precious Feet pins is a low-cost way of raising public awareness.

* Those who feel that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body, may not be aware that as early as 12 weeks, an unborn baby feels pain.
* Those who would argue that an abortion is the only approach to safeguard the mother's well-being, may want to take a deeper look at how inflicting pain and fear on an unborn child as it struggles in its death-throes may be showing a lack of concern for its well-being.

Many mothers are unaware of the actual abortion methods used to destroy the developing child. These methods inflict pain and suffering on the unborn.

The Precious Feet pins and necklaces have helped expectant mothers to research what will actually happen to their unborn baby during the abortion process. Many mothers have decided against abortion as the only alternative to a challenging and troubling situation.

This post is dedicated to the unborn. I hope and pray that mothers inform themselves before acting.

Further Reading:
* Silent Scream
* Ultrasound Video

Where you can get your own Precious Feet pins and necklaces

Nutritious Pancakes

Pancakes can be a good staple food--especially when you enrich them with wholesome ingredients. If your family loves pancakes, why not prepare them to be nutritious as well as tasty?

Ideas for Nutritious Pancakes
* Grind your own organic wheat or kamut for incredibly filling and delicious pancakes
* Add in chopped nuts
* Include berries
* Use almond milk or soy milk
* Replace 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of oats
* Add in flax seeds
* Replace some or all of the flour with whole wheat flour

My all time favorite recipe for pancakes is a recipe I use called farm pancakes, which results in perfect pancakes each time I make them. Using this recipe, I substitute some or all of the flour depending on the type of pancakes desired.

A time-saving measure is to pick up a package of organic, finely cut 9-grain cereal and replace some of the white flour with this to make nutritious pancakes that are also filling.

Making nutritious pancakes is another step to ensure that your family gets adequate nutrition.

Precious Feet: Save the Unborn

The other day I came across something that I just have to share with readers. I'm so impressed with this idea and feel it will go such a long way in saving lives.

I'm talking about the lives of the unborn.

There are now available Precious Feet pins and necklaces. The Precious Feet are the exact size and shape of an unborn baby's feet at 10 weeks of life.

The Precious Feet pins and necklaces help to spread awareness that unborn babies are just that--humans with human appendages, not "tissue" as some expectant mothers are told.

Precious Feet Help to Save Lives
Have the Precious Feet helped to save lives? Yes! One young girl who was being pressured to have an abortion, saw the tiny feet--and couldn't believe her eyes. Based on what she saw, she researched what would be happening to her unborn child and decided against abortion. An innocent life was spared!

Check back at this blog if you are interested in obtaining your own Precious Feet.

Further Reading:
9 Reasons Why Abortion should be Illegal
Abortion Methods--an unborn baby, at 12 weeks feels pain. Imagine its suffering when you read of the horrific and inhumane abortion methods used to kill it.

Pumpkin Carving Ideas

Halloween is here and you may be looking for ideas for your pumpkins. Here are some excellent tips for making the process easier.

Lena Gott offers some great tips in her article: Free Pumpkin Stencils.

Lena gives good information on where to find free pumpkin stencils that make the job of "facing" and carving your pumpkins that much easier.

The stencil designs can be printed from a home computer and used each year.

Lena links to designs for Disney, creepy, and cute stencils so that you can create a pumpkin face depending on the Halloween theme you adopt.

Additonal tips are offered for carving your pumpkin and where to find alternatives to pumpkin stencils.

Make this holiday a happy and safe time, taking neccessary precautions so that your pumpkin carving is an exciting undertaking.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Credit: mensatic

Women and Weight Loss: How to Tone Your Arms by Ken Gack

Today's blog post comes to us courtesy of powerlifter Ken Gack. He discusses strategies to target unwanted fat that many women find accumulates on their arms over time.

Ken provides workable strategies to reduce unwanted arm fat.

Women and Weight Loss: How to Tone Your Arms
Toning your arms is a problem for many women. Balancing diet, exercise, and strength training for muscle toning can be the key to shaping attractive arms.

I'm asked frequently by women for advice on toning their arms. This seems to be a problem area for many women. Building toned, attractive arms is not as simple as doing a few sets of curls and tricep kickbacks at the end of your workout. To make a significant difference, you need to attack the problem from two angles: reducing your body fat and seriously training the muscles in your arms.

Trimming the Fat:
If you've seen the infomercials, you've likely heard it said that everyone has six-pack abs. You may, however, need to lose weight and remove some body fat so that you can see them. The same is true with your arms. Sporting attractive, toned arms starts with dropping your overall body fat percentage. Where your arms are concerned you can do countless curls, but if you maintain a high body fat level, all your hard work will go unnoticed.

Weight loss and dropping your body fat is a balance between a reasonable diet and an increased activity level. You're going to find the greatest long term success by selecting activities you enjoy doing. If you have a gym membership, you have plenty of options, aerobics classes, treadmills, and elliptical machines just begin scratching the surface. If none of these options sound appealing to you, try bicycling, jogging or walking, or another outdoor activity you like. The key is to find an activity you do because you want to. If you find that exercising is a chore, you will likely be less successful sticking with it.

Notice I said reasonable diet. I personally believe you can eat the things you enjoy, as long as you exhibit restraint in your portions, ensure you are getting the balance of nutrients your body needs, and manage the calories you take in against those you expend exercising. Paying attention to when you consume those calories is important as well. Eating a high dose of empty carbohydrates before going to bed, for example, is a bad idea.

Hitting the Weights:
As I considered writing this article, I asked a personal trainer friend of mine what she thought about toning her arms. Without hesitation, her response was to train your arms like a man. Although strongly worded, the truth is you have to work your arms aggressively. In addition to toning, this will build muscle that will result in burning more calories.

Many women are concerned that if they lift weights, they will begin to look too muscular, and therefore less feminine. Women, of course, do not have the same testosterone levels as men do. Typically you have to work much harder, or use some type of "enhancement" to gain significant bulk.

Don't be intimidated by the thought of lifting hard. You don't have to spend endless hours in the gym. You should, however, stick with a few key concepts:

* Begin your workouts with more intense compound, multi-joint exercises
* Select weights that force you to work very hard to complete all of your repetitions on your latter sets
* As you improve, increase the weight you're lifting to maintain the intensity of your workouts

If you're not sure where to start in the weight room, try out some of the exercises below. For details on how to perform the exercises, and how to incorporate them into your workout, click the links associated with the individual exercises.

Tricep Training:
* Close Grip Bench Press
* Dips
* Skull Crushers (it's not as bad as it sounds!)
* Tricep Cable Extensions

Bicep (and back) Training:
* Pull-ups (or Chin-ups)
* Barbell Rows (or) Dumbbell Rows
* Bicep Curls
* Preacher Curls

Training at Home:
Even if you don't have a gym membership, try some of the exercises below. With minimal equipment, you can still effectively work your arms.

* Pull-ups or Chin-ups
* Bicep Curls (consider buying a small number of dumbbells)
* Push-ups
* Dips

Building attractive, toned arms does require a fit and active lifestyle. It doesn't, however, mean you have to spend every free moment at the gym. You may find that relatively small adjustments to your daily routines will have a significant impact on the shape of your arms.

See more of Ken's articles

Sesame Seeds and Diet

Sesame seeds are so tiny! While diminutive in size, the seeds offer a treasure trove of healthful substances which can help to safeguard health.

* Sesame seeds contain sesamin, sesamolin, and vitamin E, substances that are believed to help protect the heart and guard against high blood pressure. These factors alone make sesame seeds a good dietary choice.

* Did you know that half a cup of sesame seeds offers more calcium than half a cup of milk? Three times the amount, in fact!

Sesame Seeds and Diet
How do you include sesame seeds into your diet? This may be easier said than done. Many of us toss the seeds into stir fry but that's usually about it.

* I now top my homemade bread with sesame seeds, which gives the loaves a wonderful crunch and boosts flavor. This is an easy way to add the seeds to something I eat regularly. When I place my dough in the pans, I press sesame seeds into the top. The seeds could also just be added to the dough when kneading.

* I recently tried a recipe for homemade sesame crackers. These were delicious. Making sesame crackers is another easy way to include more sesame seeds in your diet. The crackers taste great and can be tucked in with lunches or eaten as a snack.

Further Reading:
Health Benefits of Sesame Seeds
Hearty Homemade Bread

Walnuts and Melatonin

I was reading tonight about walnuts and melatonin. In addition to all the other goodies the nuts offer, they may also help with sleep difficulties.

New research, in fact, shows that walnuts contain the antioxidant hormone melatonin. The research was conducted at University of Texas Health Science Center and published in the September issue of Nutrition.

Walnuts and Melatonin
Melatonin is associated with inducing and regulating sleep. In the US, melatonin supplements are used by people experiencing sleep difficulties.

Researcher Russel Reiter reiterates: "Our studies demonstrate that walnuts contain melatonin, that it is absorbed when it is eaten, and that it improves our ability to resist oxidative stress caused by toxic molecules called free radicals."

* For those experiencing sleep difficulties, a handful of walnuts may help to combat sleeplessness.

* Melatonin production decreases with age and age-related sleep difficulties are common.

Walnuts offer a synergistic effect: omega-3, melatonin and other nutrients, giving walnuts the edge over a supplement containing just one element.

Further Reading:
Walnuts and Omega-3
Walnuts and Cholesterol

Halloween Crafts

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it fitting to include article links pointing to Halloween craft projects.

Halloween Crafts
Halloween can be a fun and creative time of the year, whether you attend fall festivals or make Halloween crafts to decorate porches and verandas or hold your own Halloween parties. Halloween especially appeals to kids who love the bright colors, the drama, and the chance to create scary-looking objects. This year, help your kids to get in on the action with creative Halloween craft projects, using using everyday easy-to-implement items from home and garden.

Pumpkins and Gourds Make Good Craft Items.
Pumpkins can be used to fashion animals associated with the Halloween season. Author Jennifer Copley discusses how to fashion interesting creatures such as spiders or cats using pumpkins and gourds.

In her next article, Jennifer discusses more great pumpkin crafts and details use of templates for same. She points you to a website offering free templates for your goblins, ghosties, and creepy critters.

Barbara Gibson offers sound advice in Quick Halloween Ideas. She discusses how to use common household items to make Halloween decorations and costumes.

Halloween Craft Items
Witches hats
Scarecrows
Masks
Slime
Cobwebs
Brooms
Worms
Bats
Ghosts
Spiders

Halloween is a great diversion before the cold winter months hit. Making Halloween crafts can be an exciting way to observe Halloween.

Further Reading
Halloween Party Food for Kids

Credit: Somadjinn

Hiking Partridge Island

I've always had a yen to explore an island. It somehow fires the imagination.

I'm fortunate to live in Nova Scotia because living near the Bay of Fundy naturally gives one access to coastline and to islands.

One of my favorite places is Parrsboro. It's in the Minas Basin and is one of the most scenic areas of Nova Scotia. You can see the tides come in and look out on islands that dot tidal flats that, at low tide, stretch out for miles.

One of my favorite islands is Partridge Island. It was an actual island until a ferocious storm created an isthmus, allowing people to cross the sandbar without having to worry about getting caught unawares by the tide.

Partridge Island makes a perfect day-hiking adventure. This past weekend, I had the chance to climb the trail to the top, where a look-off gives views of the Bay of Fundy. We watched as the tide turned, which was a neat experience!

The trail was reasonably easy and I stopped and rested on benches that are placed along the way.

If exploring an island appeals to you, you may want to consider Day Hiking on Partridge Island.

Nova Scotia Adventures
* Nova Scotia's Victorian Lavender Festival
* Exploring Cape D'or, Nova Scotia
* Exploring Historic Parrsboro, Nova Scotia
* Visiting the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Nova Scotia

Summer Recap: Sight-Seeing in Nova Scotia

Hello Everyone,

As I sit and look out of my office window, watching the autumn leaves blowing around in my backyard and seeing rain drops spattering against my window, I console myself against the reality of the coming winter months by remembering the great places I visited this summer.

I traveled around to different spots in Nova Scotia and learned more about the Maritimes.

There's nothing like spending time out-of-doors, whether you spend it enjoying flowers in your garden or sight-seeing in other areas.

My sight-seeing resulted in some great pictures and I wrote a series of travel articles, which, I've discovered, I really enjoy doing!

My Travel Articles
Exploring Cape D'oR, Nova Scotia
I loved the rugged red-colored cliffs (or capes, as they are called) of Cape D'oR. I could just picture a pirate ship drifting into one of the coves. I thought the Dory Rips were interesting, as well.

Historic Parrsboro
I always enjoy going to Parrsboro. It's such a great little town and the people are so upbeat. There's always something happening in this quaint town of high tides. The Rock Shop is a must-see.


Visiting the Joggins Fossil Cliffs
My boyfriend and I had a chance to visit Joggins and if paleontology is your particular oyster, this is a fascinating spot, which, by the way, has just earned UNESCO World Heritage status.







Truly, it was a great summer--all-be-it too short--filled with a rich panorama of sites and sounds. When the cold gets a little much, I'll remember those summer sight-seeing jaunts!

Tender Dumplings

Hello Again Everyone,

I hope that this fall weather finds all of you well and making plans for fun-filled autumn activities.

Some time ago, I included a recipe for dumplings over at Suite 101. I've been continually surprised at the response this recipe has evoked. Page views are at an all time high.

I guess many many people like dumplings and are looking for a good recipe for tender dumplings.

The recipe came from my grandmother Dorothy. Her dumplings weren't exactly stellar. I modified the recipe to produce light, tender dumplings. Her method made for dumplings that seemed a bit claggy. A friend revealed the secret for light dumplings and I tried it and became a believer.

If you enjoy dumplings and want a fail-proof recipe, this may be the fit you've been looking for.

Please let me know if you like this easy dumpling recipe.

A Charming Look at Newfoundland

The other day, I was reading through some Suite 101 articles. Since I'm a writer with Suite 101, I always enjoy seeing what others have written.

My boyfriend comes from Newfoundland and I did a search to see what information was available.

I came across an article by Suite 101 writer Mary Williams entitled: Newfoundland Nature.

I was captivated! Her charming description of Newfoundland's wildlife had me in its spell.

Mary describes how visitors to Newfoundland can experience nature up close and personal, with Grey jays that land on your hand or wild turkeys that gaggle and strut when you approach.

Mary talks about the capelin fish and how at certain times of the year, you can lower a bucket into the ocean and scoop them up. Talk about an easy catch!

No trip to Newfoundland would be complete without a sighting of a moose. Of course, this is one creature you don't want to come in close contact with.

This is a delightful article and if you are a lover of wildlife and wild places, step over into Newfoundland by way of Newfoundland Nature.

Old-Fashioned Recipes

The other day, I had some contractors in my home to do some work to prepare it for winter. I'd made cinnamon buns and had these sitting on my kitchen island. I offered some to the workers.

One of the men commented that he didn't come across many people who made homemade cinnamon buns these days. He seemed taken aback.

This didn't surprise me. Often, I'll have homemade bread sitting to cool and someone will comment that they rarely come across someone who still makes bread.

Hmmm . . . These foods are such a treat and well worth making. I'm always very busy but homemade bread and homemade cinnamon buns are two things that I don't plan on giving up making anytime soon.

For those who are still interested in hearty homemade foods, I'm including links to these recipes below.

1) Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

2) Hearty Homemade Bread

These recipes are keepers and you'll find yourself making them again and again.