Vegan Cuts January Beauty Box

Here is what came in my Vegan Cuts January Box:

NuStyle organic detangler– Perfect timing. I was just thinking I needed something like this! Winter weather and too many hats have made my hair a little tangled at times. The smell is good and it works well at detangling, as intended.

Ofra Cosmetics–lipstick. This is probably one of the 1st vegan cuts things I don’t like that much. It had a funny smell to it, which isn’t that great with lipstick, and it’s very much like a stain and not creamy or glossy enough. It was hard for me to spread on.

Primal Pit Paste–I gave this to my husband for when he needs a bit of deodorant in a pinch. Someone must have told Vegan Cuts that I stink because I’ve gotten a lot of deodorant from them over the past 9 months or so of boxes. Hope I smell better now! I’m using one of their little sample bars on my trip this week and it’s quite handy.

Dew Puff– I was also  just thinking I needed something like this for my legs since winter weather is taking it’s toll. It’s made of konjac. Upon use, it just seemed like a regular sponge, not very exfoliating, it’s actually quite soft. Interesting material.

Biao Beauty–night cream–I tried this and I love the smell of anything rosewater. It was a nice cream, not to thick. Unfortunately my skin freaked out a little (bumps) and I cant tell if it was from this. One of the dangers of trying a few new things at once.

Better Botanicals–scrub and cleanser. I tried the scrub. It was a thick scrub that scrubbed well, but I wasn’t too fond of the scent.

Disclaimer: I paid for this box with my own money (well actually it was a gift from my husband) and was not paid to review it.

Overall, not the best box ever but some good finds. And always fun to explore and unwrap my surprises each month. A lot of it is the fun of anticipation.

Valentine’s Day is coming up so I thought I’d shamelessly self-promote some of my new Etsy Items: glasses cases, chocolate bar gift bags, heart mini-totes, magnets, playsets and more. Use coupon code VALENTINE14 for 20% off your order over $10. A great deal!

Go to Time Travel Tabby Cat to see more!

Liver Helper Juice

Ever since I had issues with my gallbladder, I still get some pains in my liver. It went away for a few months, and I was very happy, but now it’s back. I’ve been trying to take extra good care of my liver and feeding it beet juice helps. The lemon and ginger are also good for beets, and help with the flavor as well.

Liver Helper Juice

ingredients:

• 2 small or 1 large beet
• 3 stalks celery or a cucumber
• handful of fresh parsley
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 lemon (peeled if not organic)
• 1 small apple

Push all ingredients through juicer. Strain if desired.

I’ve also been adding some more items to my Etsy shop. Check it out!

Creative friends

Some of my fellow lyme friends, blog friends, and other folks who have chronic illnesses are writers, creators, or artists. Since it’s the holiday season and you may be out shopping anyhow I thought I’d give you some ideas to support small businesses.

My friend Lauren is passionate about health and wellness and is recovering from intestinal surgery. She blogs at Ginger is the New Pink has a CafePress store. I love her T-shirts and other logo-ed items. (GMO to Hell cracks me up!)

My friend Angele is a Lymie like me and is an excellent photographer. She has some digital downloads in her etsy store and at Red button you can make her gorgeous photos into cards. Her cats are adorable.

My friend Scarlett Jade writes romance novels, including Beautiful Downfall and September Tango. You’ve been warned: Prepare for spicy reading! They are available on Amazon in digital or paperback.

My friend Sharon Rainey wrote a book called “Making a Pearl from the Grit of Life“. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but it’s on my to-read list! .

My friend Dana crochets hats and she just started up at Etsy too.

I have more people in my life that are very creative but I’ll save that for a part 2.  Happy December!

If you have a shop, book, or business, and you’d like to post a link, please do so in the comments.

Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Chili

It’s very cold here. Chili weather calls for chili on the stove. My husband made a great chili last weekend so I asked him to write down the recipe for you.

It may come in hand if you need a quick meal after the holidays or get tired of Thanksgiving-type food.

Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Chili

ingredients:

Sweet potato,  peeled and cubed

Red pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

3 cups Black eye peas, cooked

Hot pepper, 1 small (we used mild local one)

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can diced tomatoes, plus liquid

2 cups Water or broth

salt to taste

2 Tbsp Vinegar

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

Sautee the onion in a large soup pot. Add red pepper, sautee. Then add everything else and bring to a boil. and let simmer at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

We chopped up a bit of spinach to add to the chili as we heated it up (it made a big pot) for greens.

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I also found these cookies that are gingery delicious and very seasonal. Gluten-free and vegan. Not sugar-free.

Speaking of gingerbread men, I added some new items to my etsy shop.

And until Dec 2nd, I have a Black Friday offer of FREE SHIPPING for purchase $15 or more, use the coupon code FREETABBY.

Have a happy, compassionate, and safe Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.

Gingerbread Cat

Welcome to Caturday!

Since my life is filled with felt lately, I decided to do Caturday in felt. Here is my version of a gingerbread cat. I may be doing more cats or adding a version of this to my Etsy store, but I’m not sure yet.

My lunch today was Miso broth with toasted nori and a red kale salad with carrots, cukes, hemp seeds, my mustardy-balsamic dressing with some Beyond Meat strips for protein. I just realized I forgot to put the pea shoots in there. It felt fine at the time but it was a little light so I had to have a snack of….cookies.

Which were delicious. I used the recipe for Oatmeal Raisin, one of my favorites, in Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar  and de-glutenized it with all-purpose GF flour and instead of regular brown sugar, I used part xylitol and part coconut sugar. I also add a little dash of cardamom too.

I think the next cookies ought to be gingerbread, don’t you think?

Hope you had a very happy Caturday!

My new Etsy shop

I’ve been sort of busy this week! Not busy from blogging obviously. I took on a few projects and one kind of spun into more than I thought it would be but I’m ok with that. I’m still adjusting to some of the treatments my doctor adjusted last week. But I’m still doing a lot better. It’s weird, you think being sick so long you’d be so happy to be better, and yes it’s true. But, it’s also overwhelming because I always had so many things I wanted to do and now I feel overwhelmed with how to do them all. I still have limits, even if they are not as many as before.

So, my exciting news is that I opened up a little Etsy shop. Last year I got into making ornaments and this year I wanted to try to sell some to help raise funds to help pay for other art lessons and for a lyme conference I want to go to this winter. So I appreciate the support! Some of them I am donating a portion of the proceeds to charities.

On the food front things have been very simple so not much interesting lately. Many thanks to my husband who shares equally in dinner creation.

breastfeeding gingerbread mama

I’d appreciate your spreading the word about my shop and giving it a “heart” on etsy if you like it.

I also started a twitter account @TimeTravelTabby if you’d like to follow me there.