Where was God?

Product Review: Bake Shop Butters!!!

Well I'm back again with another great product review that I am SO excited to be blogging about y'all!!! Let me first start off by saying that I was not paid for my review nor am I in any way affiliated with this company. =) So let's begin...about maybe the middle of November a fellow Youtube vlogger *NUREKAD* asked folks if she should sale her homemade body butters that she makes herself. Of course her response from people on YT were, HECK YEA!!! LOL I didn't respond because I KNEW that it was gonna happen. ;) So she launched her website on November 30, 2012 and she sold out super fast of her favorite scent, which is "lemon cake". With that being the scent that I wanted, I had to wait a couple days for her to make more to add to her website. I had no problem waiting because after seeing the reviews on YT about how great the body butters wer, I knew I getting something of quality! Her butters are made with organic products which in my opinion is great since it will be going on the skin.

Fast forward to today.....and the excitment I had when the mailwoman dropped my package off!!! I felt like a kid waiting in line at Disney to get on a ride =) I ordered the Lemon Cake 8oz. size and received a sample of the Vanilla Buttercream. Before I could even get the sealed package open all the way, I got a whiff of something sweet that reminded me of my Lemon Pound Cake and my mouth began to water like a baby that is teething :-D I had to close up the container because I was so tempted to taste it!!! The smell is right on point about being Lemon Cake and the consistency is like a thick, but soft butter that melts and absorbs into the skin and leaves your skin soft and moisturized.

She says that her Lemon Cake brings all the boys to the yard, so I must see if that is true! hahaha ;-)

My package came with with a personalized note which made me feel even more special. I love when people go the extra mile for their customers and make them feel special, because you never know who's day you may change. :) And for that very reason I will always buy from her. Her website information is http://bakeshopbutters.storenvy.com

She offers 6 different body butters. Snickerdoodle, Lemon Cake, So Fresh & Clean, Vanilla Buttercream, Coconut Vanilla Cupcake & Key Lime Pie. And 3 different sizes. 4oz for $7, 8oz for $12, and 16oz for $20. The prices are not considered high seeing that she makes it herself and uses organic ingredients. The shipping is a flat rate of $7, but if your order is over $45 the shipping is free.


Please visit her store/website and make a purchase of some of the 6 scents that she has, your skin will thank you. Until next time, stay blessed!!

Worldwide Culture Mini-Swap for the holidays

A week ago we signed up to take part in the Worldwide Culture Mini-Swap for the holdays. This will be our first mini-swap since we did our big swap last month with Canada, England, Australia & Texas. For this swap we were paired with a family from South Africa which is really awesome because we have studied South Africa in homeschool recently. So my son was thrilled when I told him what country we were paired up with. :-) If you are a little lost as to what a mini-swap or a regular swap is, then head over to worldwidecultureswap.com to sign up. In a brief description it is a swap where 5 families are paired up to swap packages amongst themselves. Two of the five families will be from the US and the other three from different countires. You choose how ever many items describing what it is like to live in your state/country. It can be whatever items you want to choose that would represent your state/country well. I don't remember much of what we included in our swap and I forgot to take pictures before packing them up. So hopefully when one of the families receive a package they will post the pic so I can upload it here.
So for our mini-swap for the holidays here is a picture of what we sent. It was supposed to be between 3-5 items showing how your family celebrates Christmas, but with Christmas being our favorite family holiday, we added a little more than what was asked. ;-)

This is what we included in our swap!!
1. Letter from the family

2. The Christmas Story

3. Family favorite Christmas songs

4. Holiday kitchen towel

5. Mini snow globe

6. Mini candle

7. Jumbo holiday ink pen

8. Christmas pencils

9. A light-up snowflake

10. Christmas candy - holiday peppermint wreath, pop rocks, legend of the candy cane poem & Christmas tree-shaped krabby patties

11. 2 homemade Christmas ornaments by little one. It's a reindeer & snowman :) & 1 mini nativity ornament

12. Santa & snowman bendable figurines

13. 2 hot cocoa packs - family favorite is the peppermint hot cocoa

14. bell-shaped cookie cutter

These swaps are really fun to be a part of and I hope you sign up too. Until next time, Be Blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wordless Wednesday

Image from www.christart.com

How to re-fill spice bottle on the cheap

So being Jamaican we cook with lots of thyme and I am always running out. Well the last time I purchased thyme in the glass jar at my local Sweetbay, it was well over $4.00. I even tried the fresh thyme, but it would go bad before I got to use the whole bunch. So last month while I was in Sweetbay picking up a few items, I happened to walk by a small "spice island" and saw that they had thyme and alot of other spices/seasonings for really cheap. So I got 2 bags of thyme just to try them out, and you could never taste the difference in brands. Here are the pictures of how I re-fill my spice/seasoning containers on the cheap.

This is the empty jar of McCormick Thyme priced well over $4.00!!

This is the bag of Thyme cost $0.69

This is my jar filled half-way with the Badia Thyme. I think a bag and a half will fill it completely up.

This is the jar and the extra bag of Thyme. So for $1.38 I got a jar and a half of Thyme :-) Until next time, Be Blessed!!

November 2012 CurlBox and why I canceled

Hello readers!! How is fall in you neck of the woods? Well I can say living in Florida has it perks this time of the year. We get the cooler nights in the high 60's to the low 50's and the days in the high 70's to low 80's, which is perfect weather for us!! But on another note, today I received my CurlBox in the mail and was a little dissapointed with this month. I know you guys are probably saying, "wow she was so excited about last month!" Yea but I have had a change of heart after reading some of the negative/nasty comments that the owner of CurlBox has been leaving in response to others comments about the CurlBox. I feel that if you are an owner of a company, any feedback that is coming in to you weather it be positive or negative should be responded to in a profesional way, because you never know who may be watching or reading how you respond. I won't post what was said, but I will not be spending my hard earned money on a company who is not considerate of it's clientele. I have since took my business to CurlKit and hoping for a much better outcome. So here is the picture of what was in my box this month

As you can see from both pictures, I received 5 samples and 2 full-sized products. Out of everything in this month's box, I will only use the Palmer's protein pack, the Hawaiian Silky Argan Oil - which I plan on mixing in with a deep conditioner and using, and maybe the nuNaat Treatment - I may give this away to my niece since she has naturally curly hair. The rest of the stuff I gave to my mom, who felt that for $20 this box was not worth it. I so agree with her, so till next month.....stay natural and Be Blessed!!!

Product Review: Curl Care Nourishing Conditioner

So as some may have read that I received my first Curlbox last week Friday in the mail. Well one product that I received in my box was the Curl Care by:Dr. Miracles Nourishing Conditioner which was a full size item. I was excited to get this in my box and even more excited to co-wash my hair with it. So Monday came and I decided to do a henna gloss(not the one in this month's box)before using the conditioner. I applied the henna and rinsed it out after like 30 minutes till the water ran clear, then I rinsed with a cheapy conditioner. I then applied the Curl Care conditioner and my head felt so cool and tingly from the menthol in the product! =) I then put on a plastic shower cap and let it sit for a few hours before rinsing it out. The smell is very minty and might be too strong for some, but it didn't bother me. After rinsing the conditioner out my hair felt soft and very moisturized and smelled great. My scalp even felt clean! I really can't say much about it holding your curls for 12 hours because I blow-dryed my hair(I know bad me) lol, but I did notice some curls on my new growth after I rinsed out the conditioner. I would reccomend this product to others who are natural, transitioning, and also with relaxed hair. It contains no sulfates, parabens, sodium & phthalate. And I just recently found out that there is a leave-in-conditioner by the same brand that I can't wait to try. Until next time, Be Blessed!!!!

Curlbox October 2012

Well guess what came in the mail today?? My Curlbox!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!!! I signed up for Curlbox last month when the list opened up. Curlbox which is a monthly subscription you pay $20 to receive a box with 5-7 hair care roducts. This is a great program for "product junkies" so that you can be able to try out different products every month. When the list for new subscriptions opens up, it is like ants on a piece of candy! lol the website crashed a few times last monthe on the 22nd from what I read, but I was lucky enough get my curlbox in 3 minutes, some had to wait for for over 30 minutes. The best way to ensure that you will get one is to log onto curlbox.com create an account, and get on their email list that way when the list opens up, you will be one of the first to know about it. So lets get to our box: This month the theme was "For Colored Girls....when boring hair is enough". I was kinda dissapointed this month not with the products, but because I would have thought the packaging would have been pink in honor of breast cancer awarness month(the tissue inside is pink).

The products I received in my box were:

Reshma Femme Henna Hair Color Natural Highlights-HK 6A 2.12oz.
Curl Care by:Dr Miracles Nourishing Conditioner 12oz.
African Pride Shea Butter Miracle Bouncy Curls Pudding 15oz.
4 Twists 'n Locs Shea Butter Organic Leave-in Conditioner .5oz each
Lustrasilk Moisture Max Keratin Amino Acid Leave-in Creme Conditioner 1.75oz.
Eden Body Works Jojoba Monoi All Natural Hair Milk 2oz.
I also received a pack of Bodycology Body Cream in the scent wild poppy .25oz. my mom already claimed that pack lol

I'm so excited about the suspense of next month to see what is in the November Curlbox

I'm a henna-head!!

Since I decided to go natural, I have been researching my little fingers and mind off!! lol I have come across some of every kind of thing or heard about some kind of product. I have been watching youtube videos and noticed that alot of people who are natural/transitioning use henna. So I decided to look a little deeper into what henna was and the side effects of it.


From Wikipedia.org "Henna (Lawsonia inermis, also called henna tree[1]) is a flowering plant used since antiquity to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather and wool." Henna has been used as a cosmetic hair dye for 6,000 years. In Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra and Nefertiti were known to have used it. It was commonly used for many centuries in areas of India, the Middle East, and Africa. Henna is known to be dangerous to people with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD deficiency), which is more common in males than females. Infants and children of particular ethnic groups are especially vulnerable."


I heard great things about the cassia, and was tempted to buy it. But decided to go with the henna, knowing that it would change the color of my hair, but I was okay with that. So wash day came this past Monday and I washed my hair with the Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo(will do a review on this soon, and conditioned my hair with Proclaim Olive Glossing Conditioner because I needed to use it up. I then towel dried my hair and divided my hair in 2 sections and applied the henna in small parts by finger-parting my hair. I left it on for 3 hours and rinsed for like 20 minutes until it was rinsing clear. I then checked my hair to make sure it was all out before applying my deep conditioner(Herbal Essences Hello Hydration). I let the DC sit for an hour(will let it sit longer next time), and rinsed and applied the Shea Moisture Conditioner. I noticed that my hair has just a small amount of red and that my gray hairs were coppery orange. I styled my hair with flexi-rods and flat rope twist, and put on my silk cap then went to sleep. The next morning I took out the rods and my hair was so soft! I even noticed that it loosened my curl pattern, but not by much, it just made it easier to comb. As the days went on, I noticed that the red is showing up more. This is something I will most likely do every other month. The brand of henna I used was the Godrej Nupur 100% Natural Mehendi with the goodness of 9 herbs that I purchased from Amazon.com for like $4.00 a pack.

Re-Launch of influenster.com

Hey readers! I just wanted to tip you guys off on the NEW re-launch of influenster.com I have been a member of this site for a couple of months now, and I absolutely love it. They are in the process of re-launching their new website as I type. ;)
What is Influenster you may ask? Well it is an online community where people can go to share their honest opinions for different products that they have used. There is no sign up fee, which is a plus for me seeing how I'm on a budget. And to top it all off, they give voxboxes full of free goodies for people who qualify for one based on your Influence score.
I would have to say that I like this new site more because it gives more people an opportunity to qualify for a voxbox. There is nothing I can complain about the new site. Hope to see you there!!

Product Review - Shea Moisture Shea Butter Conditioner

I wanted to do a review of this product since hearing great things about it, but none of my local stores sold this. So I waited, hoping that my local CVS would soon be carrying it, so I could purchase it there. Well, to my surprise I saw that it was advertised in the CVS sales paper, but didn't get too excited because my store has such a small section of African-American/natural products. So I decided to stop by there one day and saw that they did carry it, and it was on sale buy 1, get 1 free!! I purchase 2 of the Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioners and tried it out on my hair since Monday's are hair washing day, and it worked great!! It can be used as a wash out or leave in conditioner, so I used it as a leave in.

PROS:
The smell!! It smelled like honeysuckle
It's Organic
Sulfate Free!
No Mineral Oil!
I Love It!!!

CONS:
The size of the bottle, wish it were bigger for the price. I purchased the 12oz.
The locking of the pump when you are trying to get some out, but no biggie.

The Verdict:
I will continue to use this because it left my hair soft and shiny and not weighted down with a greasey feel. I plan on purchasing more from this line in the near future. =)

All coconut oils are not created equal

For some time now, I have been using coconut oil for my hair. I have used it as a leave-in moisturizing spray and hot oil treatments. The brand I originally purchased was this brand of LouAna coconut oil with the green lid.

First off I loved the scent, it has a very nice coconutty fragrance that you can still smell once you wash it out with shampoo. The way I applied it was only as a hot oil treatment that I would leave in from 1 hour to overnight. The results were soft hair that was moisturized without the need to add hair grease. I also noticed that my hair had no tangles when it came time to comb it. =) I also noticed less hair shedding and that my hair had grown a little past my shoulders and was getting thicker. A couple years pass and I was given this brand that was okay, but it left white build-up on my hair it seems to attract lint! So I found my self having to wash my hair much often when I used this one. I would use this as a hot oil treatment as well.

The smell of coconut is there, but I just did not care for this brand. So a few years pass and I need to buy more coconut oil so I head out to my local grocery store just to find that the packaging has been changed, so I figure, well it is still made by LouAna so the product should still be the same. BIG MISTAKE!!! I guess along with the changing of the label the company decided to change the ingredients of the oil. It has no coconut oil smell whatsoever, which is what I was hoping for. I have only used it in a spray bottle mixed with some distilled water and purified water. I dont know, it could just be my hair, but I noticed that when I used it as a leave in moisturizing spray it seemed to dry my hair out more and frizz it.

I will however try using it again as a hot oil treatment to see if the results will be different. I will keep the post updated, since I have now started my own hair care journey into going natural! I had my last relaxer on June 21, 2012 so I am transitioning since I don't want to make the BC as of yet! I am also looking for great products that keep the hair well moisturized to avoid alot of breakage during this time. So if you know of any good ones, please let me know.

Hey mom! What's for dinner?

How many of you have heard this being asked almost everyday? I know I have! My son ask everyday "Hey mom, what's for dinner?" So today when he asked I said I don't know, that was until I remembered that I had picked some eggplant from the garden a couple days before. So I said eggplant lasagna, keep in mind that I had never made nor ate this before, so I was clueless as to how to make it. So I just winged it and it turned out wonderful! My whole family devoured it, including my son who kept telling me that there was no eggplant in it because he doesnt like eggplant. He had never eaten it up until then, so its a good way to sneak in veggies ;) The recipe is below. Hope you like it. ENJOY!!








Eggplant Lasagna

1 medium size eggplant, peeled and sliced
1 lb. ground turkey, pork, beef or chicken (I used pork)
2 jars spaghetti sauce, any kind
1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese, use more if you like
2 tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 small onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 heaping tbsp minced garlic


Instructions:
In a large skillet brown the ground meat, onion, garlic, pepper, salt, black pepper & italian seasoning. When it is done, drain off the grease and add the 2 jars of sauce along with the meat to a pot to simmer on low for 10 minutes. During this time you can peel and slice the eggplant. To assemble add a layer of eggplant to the bottom of your 9x13 baking dish, spoon the meat sauce over and sprinkle with cheese. Continue doing this until you are done. Sprinkle top of lasagna with the remaining cheese. Preheat oven to 350*F and bake lasagna until a fork or knife test that the eggplant is done.

Garden Update!!

Hi folks!! =) This morning I tried to do a video update using my cell phone, but I got interrupted! =( So I decided to post the pictures of what I have been able to pick from my garden. The pictures are a few days old, but here they are. This is the first thing I picked from my garden, a nice sized bell pepper. I sliced this up and put it in the freezer since we didnt need it yet.

This is my green beans that I picked. it was probably about a cup once I got them washed and cut into pieces. They smell SO FRESH!!! I froze these also because we still have bags of frozen green beans that were store bought.

This is the picture of my little zucchini, nothing compared to the ones in the picture below hehehe, but still I washed and froze this one too.

And take a look at these GIGANTIC Zucchuini that our pastor blessed us with!!I have never seen such massive things before in my life! =) I washed them and cut them up so I could freeze them for different kinds of recipes

The biggest one was close to 17"!! And just to think my child was 20" when he was born hehehe

Products of the month April

Disclaimer: I PURCHASE EVERYTHING WITH MY OWN MONEY. I DO NOT DO THIS FOR MONETARY GAIN. I AM IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH THE COMPANIES WHOSE PRODUCTS I REVIEW. Okay I decide to start back doing my products of the month. I really enjoy doing them because I give my honest opinion on the items. This month I decided to do a review on beauty products. I have somewhat acne prone skin, especially around that time of the month. Using Coast bar sop on my face when I'm in the shower was causing my face to break out more and become very dry. In the past when I was younger and going to my dermatologist he prescribed some acne cream that dried my skin so bad that it was coming off in pieces, almost similar to what the Coast bar sop was starting to do. So since I dont wear makeup, just lip balm I wanted my face to look fresh and clean, without caking on tons of foundation to hide my acne blemishes. So one day I was at Walmart shopping and decided to give the Equate brade version of Dove sensitive skin body wash a try Let me just say that I am hooked! It is so sensitive on my skin and it does not dry my face out nor cause a breakout, like some other soaps can. All you need is a dime sized amount, lather it up in your hands and rub it on your face and then rinse it off. I also have been using Neutrogena Rapid Clear 2-in-1 Fight & Fade Toner on my face as well. I spray this on my face when I get done washing it. My fae looks so much better, even spots that were on my face from old blemishes are now gone. If I feel a breakout coming on I simply spray my face and within a day I may have only 1 pimple on my face. The price for the Neutrogen is about $6.50 and the body wash is about $3.50 that is not alot seeing how it will last for a long time. Update: I was finally able to upload the picture!!

We FINALLY started our garden!!

I can't believe that it has been a little over a month since I started my garden. I planted everything (except the eggplant & jalapeno transplants) in both beds on (3/22/12), but the very next day I had ants in bed #2. Apparently they were VERY hungry because the ate every seed I had planted, but left the transplants un-touched! I thought we (my sister & I) had did something wrong like planting the seeds too deep, but all the seeds were planted according to the pkg/book. So I thought well I have to find a solution to get rid of the ants first without the use of pesticides and chemicals, so after searching the net I found DIATOMACEOUS EARTH which is a non-toxic organic pesticide and it got rid of the ants in 2 days!! I did have to replant bed #2 (4/4/12), but I was glad because I was able to plant other things that I did not originally plant. And let me tell you, everything is growing so good. We had prayed over both beds when we first planted and gave them to God, even our church joined us in prayer (Matthew 18:20). I told my mom the other day that the garden is starting to look like its on steroids =) because it has grown so high and full. I had to prune some of the zucchini and squash vines because the were reaching out well over 2 feet out of the 4x4 beds. Not to mention my beans that are all over 5 feet tall!! Here are some pictures that were taken last month

This is #1 bed with the two jalapeno transplants!

This is bed #2 with the eggplant, romaine lettuce & bell pepper transplants!

Bed #1 maybe 3 weeks after planting seeds!

Bed #1 jalapeno plant!

This plantet box had strawberries in them, but they didnt seem to be doing anything so I pulled them out and replanted with corn to see how it does!