Hey everyone! I hope you all are staying happy and healthy. Today I want to share with you a very simple yet tasty ginger tea recipe to support your overall health and wellness. Ginger has long been known to be used in treatments anywhere from the common cold to cancer and over the last few years, scientists have begun to really study ginger and all of its benefits. Like all things in life, ginger should be used in moderation and this tea recipe is the perfect way for you to reap its benefits!
Here is what you will need:
~ 1 tablespoon of grated ginger
~ 1 tablespoon of honey
Half of a lemon (squeezed)
Cup of water
Instructions:
First heat the water – can be done in the microwave or on the stove top.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon into the hot water
Stir the honey into the hot lemon water
put the grated ginger into my steel tea infuser and place into into the cup
Hey everyone! I just wanted to get on here and share a recipe I have for a super simple green smoothie that is creamy and TASTY. When I decided that I wanted to make a “green smoothie” I just threw a bunch of fruits (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries) into a blender with spinach and as it turns out…that will result in an unappealing brown colored smoothie. However, the smoothie still tasted good. So if the brown color doesn’t bother you then by all means, throw it all in the blender!
If you just can’t stand the look of a brown smoothie, but you still want to add spinach for the nutrition content, you can make a GREEN smoothie. What you need for a green smoothie are spinach, and fruits that are lighter in color such as mangos and bananas. These lighter colored fruits will allow the green color of the spinach to overtake everything else once blended.
So here is my super simple Green Smoothie recipe:
~ 1 cup of spinach
~ 1/2 cup frozen mango
1 frozen banana
A splash of coconut milk (or almond milk)
A splash of orange juice
Blend it all up, and VIOLA! There you have a serving of your greens for the day…and it tastes good too!
Think about it, if you go online to buy a product and the pictures used to promote it are subpar at best, you probably won’t be too confident in making that purchase. You might not even make that purchase at all. A lot of times people buy with their eyes, and if what they’re seeing isn’t great, they might move on to another seller with more appealing product photos. Taking quality photos isn’t difficult really. All you need is to buy a few simple items from the craft store and BOOM you’re in business…literally. I took the photo below using marble print contact paper that I purchased from Joann Fabrics and some fall décor I use around my house at Thanksgiving. I use an app called Camera +2 and take the picture from different angles to see what looks best. The thing that I like about the Camera +2 app is that it will auto correct to straighten and sharpen the picture which makes it very user friendly.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short, is a means of bringing more traffic to your site by increasing its visibility through things like product titles, product descriptions, and tags. Try to capitalize on this by adding specific words that you know are popular or frequently searched for. Sometimes it will take a while for you to figure this information out. For my shop, this was Harry Potter. My top selling products were anything Harry Potter, so I always added that to my tags, titles, and descriptions. Along with specific character names, Hogwarts Houses, items from the movies etc… You are allowed 140 characters for your titles and 13 tags, so make the most of all of those opportunities!
Marketing
After you have become familiar with your SEO, you might want to try out some marketing options for your shop. I chose to use both free and paid for options. The free option was social media. This proved to be more work than the paid for options (obviously). But even with the extra work, it was worth it. I was able to host giveaways and put my new products out there for the public to see. By doing this I would direct people to the “link in my bio” so they could check out my full Etsy shop and all the products I had to offer. Another way to market your products is to pay Etsy to do it for you. This is where I found most of my marketing success. Basically, what Etsy does is place your product at the top of a search when someone types in a product description that matches one of your listings. This may be a good idea to bring more visibility to your products when launching your shop. Additionally, I just recently read that Etsy is now only charging for advertised products that are purchased. Before, they would charge simply when someone clicked on your listing, even if they didn’t purchase the product. I lost a lot of money that way and I’m sure others did too so you can imagine my excitement for this new development!
Make Multiple Products
This one is simple really, the more products you make, the more likely your shop is to get noticed by different types of people. If you are trying to make money off of your shop, try to open your mind to products other people would like, not just what you would like. Or don’t. Your shop, your choice.
Customer service
I was HUGE on customer service with my shop. I always tried to treat people the way I would like to be treated. If I messed up an order (which only happened one time because my computer autocorrected a name and I didn’t notice – gosh darn it) I offered to fix it immediately. I even threw in something free because I wanted to make sure that person was completely satisfied. I know a lot of other Etsy sellers would not throw in something for free, so I did it to stand out. And guess what? I got a 5/5 rating from that person. In fact, I got 5/5 ratings from every customer that left a review. This is very important because customers monitor reviews hard core. I sent a personalized thank you note with each purchase to include the buyer’s name because I wanted them to know how much I appreciated their business. In the note I asked them to leave a review on my Etsy page, or post a photo to Instagram and tag me. The more good reviews you have, the better! Try to keep yours squeaky clean so the customer has nothing to worry about when considering your product.
Be original
There are sooo many products out on Etsy right now. Try to make your product original. Make it stand out from the rest in some way. I made dog bandanas, but instead of making them tie bandanas, I made them Velcro bandanas. This made mine stand out from the rest, and the fact that it was low maintenance was a good marketing angle. A lot of my customers mentioned that in their reviews of my products.
Enjoy making your product
This might seem silly, but if your product starts to sell, you’re going to be spending a lot of time making it. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, you probably won’t be selling on Etsy for too long. My shop supported my Starbucks obsession and provided an escape from the anxieties of my everyday life. I also loved seeing my finished products on my customer’s doggos!
My garden is FLOURISHING. I absolutely love it. Working in the garden and the yard everyday has become my new norm because my fiance, Eric, and I are getting married next month! All of our family and friends will be coming in from out of state and I want them to see the house in the best condition possible.
Here are some pictures and descriptions of what I have growing:
First of all…my peach tree. This is my absolute favorite plant on my property and it is in full bloom. All I have to say is WOW. When a peach tree blooms, it sprouts little pink and white flowers that eventually become peaches. It is a truly beautiful process to watch. 🍑
Blueberry Bush. I got this bush a few months ago when my parents came to visit. My dad loves to work in the yard so I got a lot of things outside done. By the way, if anyone needs to know how to create a french drain off their house, I can help with that. This blueberry bush is doing exceptionally well. I should also say that I put Jobe’s Fruit & Citrus fertilizer spikes around the peach tree, the blueberry bush and my lemon/lime bush. It is really helping with the growth and health of these plants. 💙
Papaya Tree: This little guy is trying his hardest to grow. It seems to be very sensitive to heat and sunlight, which I was not expecting. When it gets hot outside the leaves on the tree begin to droop. Water doesn’t help the situation, but shading the tree does. I knew I had become a crazy plant lady when I found myself propping up an umbrella to shade my little papaya tree. Anything for my plants! 🧡
Strawberry Plant: This plant has actually grown surprisingly well since I didn’t plant it ideally. I read online that strawberry plants love to be planted on a mound, and watered by an irrigation system. This is how all the strawberry farms in the area plant their strawberries. I planted mine directly in the ground and water every other day with my hose. 🍓
Watermelon: I was so excited to buy this plant because watermelon is my favorite fruit. Ever since being planted, it has grown a lot. I’m sure it will keep growing and just take over the entire garden, and that’s fine. It hasn’t blossomed yet, but I’m sure it will happen soon! I have faith. This is the part where I say a little prayer for all my plants. 🍉
Cucumber: This is actually a hybrid cucumber plant that I bought from Lowes a few months ago. Like the watermelon, this plant has grown to be huge and is beginning to take over the garden. It has started blooming and I can’t wait to try it! 🥒
Green Peppers: For some reason, one of my pepper plants was viciously attacked by bugs, but the other pepper plant wasn’t. I am trying to nurse my poor poor pepper plant back to life. Meanwhile the other plant is thriving and producing many peppers for my table. 💚
Tomato Plants: I am so in love with my tomato plants. Both are doing well and blooming. Can’t wait for the day I can pick the huge beefsteak tomatoes from it’s vines. Lifehack: Tomatoes love to be spritzed with Epsom salt water. Mix one tablespoon Epsom salt with 1 gallon of water and spray it on the leaves. 🍅
Herbs: A few weeks ago I bought 3 terracotta pots from Lowes, then I painted and distressed them. Then I planted an herb in each pot; basil, dill and cilantro. Love my little herb garden. 🌿
Over the past year I seem to have developed a succulent obsession, as many other women have. At my Florida bridal shower, every guest was given a baby succulent in a tiny terracotta pot. It was a huge hit. Since my obsession with these tiny treasures began, I have been trying to propagate succulents. (this means grow them). I started with about 20 leaves and 3 survived. God bless them. I am now in the process of trying to get the roots from the new plants to take root in the soil. 🌵
This was a hard week. A few things came up that challenged my character and my patience at work. I was able to get through it, but not without a lot of deep thought and complaining to my close friends and family. Sometimes you just have to vent. Am I right? Anyway, I experienced a situation at work that I did not feel was handled properly. A pretty big decision was made that involved me, but no one mentioned anything before hand so I was somewhat blindsided by the news. I felt shocked and belittled, like no one cared to ask my opinion on the decision OR even mention it to me. It sucked. I ended up leaving work three hours early because I was so upset and just slept the rest of the day.
Right after I heard the news I asked the people involved why I wasn’t told about the decision. I was met with sarcasm and push back. I decided to take a break from the situation, and think before I said something I would regret. The worst part was someone told me that what I say doesn’t matter because of my job title. Who knows, maybe they’re right. However, that is not going to stop me from speaking my mind.
I used to be afraid of other people when I was young, then I grew up and realized what a strong woman I am. If I’m really passionate about something I am not afraid to speak my mind and fight for what I believe is right. I don’t go looking for problems by any means, but I certainly don’t run from situations that I feel are unfair or immoral.
When my fiance called my dad and asked him if he could marry me my dad said to him, “I hope you know how independent and strong willed she is. She’s not afraid to stand up for herself.” That being said, I’m glad Eric has put up with me thus far.
I was inspired to write this because of all the women who recently stood up for themselves and chose to be brave.
My point: Don’t let other people intimidate you or make you feel like you’re not strong enough to defend yourself. You can be strong enough, stronger even. If you truly believe that what you’re standing up for will change things for the better, don’t hesitate. Even if you don’t think things will change or you’re being met with sarcasm and push back from others, be brave. Do it for yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. So in conclusion, practice kindness, but take no shit.
Whenever I have a break from school I usually choose a book to read. Over this break I have 4 weeks that I don’t have to study so I chose 4 books to read 🤓 1 book for each week.
I’m at that point in my life where I’m excited about the future, but I’m praying everyday that I’m making the right decisions to get me where I want to be. Normally I lean more toward the happy books. The books that make you feel good and make you laugh. This time I decided to go for books that I can learn from and will get me thinking about my own future and what I truely want for myself.
Here are the books I plan to read each week:
1. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
I was drawn to this book because I know how important it is for young women to be heard and be brave enough to stand up for what they believe in. Even if they are facing strong pushback from others.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Reading about this book I feel I can learn much about life struggles, acceptance and handling guilt.
The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck
This book talks a lot about confronting and accepting problems we may experience in our lives.
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
When I first saw this book I noticed that a lot of the stories focused on how short life is and that we need to make the most of the time that is given to us. I also read that the author of the short stories (Marina Keegan) passed away tragically in a car accident shortly after college. This really made me realize just how short life can be.
Hey everyone! I’m in a really good mood right now. I just finished my fall classes so I can focus all my attention on the holidays. In a few weeks I fly home to Michigan to see my family. I can’t wait to bake with my mom, hang with my dad and brother, go to church on Christmas Eve, and see all my besties at my bridal shower.
I actually began my holiday festivities the night before thanksgiving this year when I baked 2 pies for dinner the next night. I stuck with tradition and made a pumpkin pie along with a pecan pie. So much YUM.
I just love this time of year. Everything seems to be right and good in the world. I could give Hallmark Channel a run for their money when it comes to Holiday cheer. Yep, I’m that Christmas cray cray.
I actually put up the Christmas decorations a few days before Thanksgiving. Yes, I am (as my hair dresser likes to refer to me) one of those people. My Christmas tree means a lot to me though so I like to put it up as soon as possible. This tree reminds me of how far I have come over the past few years. I bought this tree when I first moved to Florida and I didn’t have much money, so I bought it for 30 dollars at the local Walmart. I didn’t have much money, but I had the holiday spirit. The tree was sparse and it didn’t have many gifts underneath, but it was mine and I loved it. I still use this tree, but this year I dressed it up a little more.
Side note: my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has discovered that it is really fun to unwrap all the gifts that I put under the tree. I came home from work a few days ago and it looked like a 4 year old had been unleashed on Christmas morning. Needless to say, the gifts have all been wrapped again and are now living on the kitchen counter until Christmas. She has also made several attempts at the stockings hanging above the couch, but I won’t get into that right now.
This year, since we are planning and paying for a wedding, I made a lot of Christmas gifts for friends and family.
Making gifts for people can help save money and it’s so much fun to add a little bit of yourself to each present. I pride myself in getting gifts for people that I know they will truly enjoy. I DO NOT like buying a gift for someone just to buy it. I always put thought into it, that’s the fun part after all!
For Eric’s Aunt and Unlce, who are HUGE Auburn fans I made a wreath with a sign in the center that says “Mr. and Mrs. AU”
We also got them some Michigan State drink koozies because, you know, I always have to add my school in the mix. And I knew they would enjoy it.
For a couple of my patients and co-workers I made cookies in a jar. It’s a fun gift that they can make with their family and enjoy for the holiday season.
About a week ago, Eric’s mom and I made 4 different types of Christmas cookies for the neighbors and I delivered them to their doorsteps. I think it put them in the Christmas mood.
So today is my dog, Cubby’s birthday. She’s 2. I love her so much and her life deserves to be celebrated today and everyday. She makes me want to be a better person.
When I was in elementary school my parents bought my brother and me a golden retriever puppy. She lived to be 14 and she taught me so many things about life as we grew up together. Here are some of the things I learned from her:
1. If you don’t like the way someone is treating you, move away from them
2. Don’t hold grudges (I try not to)
3. Unconditional love
4. Be nice to everyone
5. If you want the food, eat it
Those are just a few things my first dog, Zoey, taught me. If it weren’t for her I may not have wanted to get my own dog so badly. When I finally got into a position at my job where I could afford a dog I went and got one! Day after day I stopped by the local animal shelter and every time I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the dogs had already been adopted. Even though that meant I had to keep looking. I ended up adopting a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy from twin sisters who were in college and couldn’t afford a dog after all. As my mom said when I facetimed her and told her not to get mad at me “NO YOU DIDN’T! YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED A CAVALIER SPANIEL!” She was happy and couldn’t wait to meet her. As it turns out, I met my fiancé at the dog daycare I was taking Cubby to. It was like a “must love dogs” type of situation 💗
Butttttttttt raising a puppy is hard work! And I don’t think I will do it again until I have kids so they can learn the lessons that come along with raising and caring for a dog. I stayed up many nights, cleaned up numerous accidents (thank God for tile floors), and endured the incessant barking at the tv when an animal comes on the screen (how dare they). However I will say this, the harder my life gets, the more I can’t wait to get home and spend time with the dogs.
I don’t think my dogs will ever know how much I love and appreciate them, but I try to show them everyday. So for my little Cub Cub’s birthday, I baked her a cake. It didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it, but since she eats leaves on a daily basis I didn’t think she would be too judgmental. Don’t worry, our other dog Floyd got some cake too! ❤️
I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the hurricane that recently came through the northeastern Caribbean islands and eventually made a turn further north to hit Florida.
To start, I would like to say that I have been living an extremly comfortable life here in Florida over the past year. I just bought a house, got engaged to my love, started my second bachelors degree, work full time at a wonderful hospital, got involved at church, and am the proud mother of 2 beautiful rescue dogs. When news of the hurricane began circulating about a week ahead of the storm, people started to get nervous. I was particularly worried because, being from Michigan, I had never experienced such intense weather conditions. I was getting more and more worried that my comfortable life as I knew it would be taken away from me.
About 3 days out from landfall most floridians had accepted the fact that we were all going to experience some part of the storm. Gas stations sold out of petrol, grocery stores sold out of water and canned foods and people all over the state were evacuating.
On Friday, the hospital I work at had a meeting to announce that they had created their A-team and B-team groups. The A-team were the people who were scheduled to go in to work and spend Saturday night through Monday night at the hospital. The B-team were the workers who would relieve the A-team on Tuesday. I was scheduled on the B-team. Hurricane Irma was predicted to hit Florida on Sunday and move through Monday.
When I left work that day I got a frantic call from my mother saying that “the storm had shifted west and it was definitely going to hit my area and I needed to leave right now!” Seriously, I will buy you a plane ticket home, she said. I told her that wasn’t necessary and I would call her later that night. (My dad spent a lot of time calming her down at that point.)
When I got home we started preparing for the storm. I didn’t realize how stressful this situation was until I snapped and yelled at my fiancé for some small reason. I also got sick, and later got an uncontrollable nose bleed which I have learned can be brought on by large amounts of stress. I heard what Irma had done to some of the islands it passed over and it was devistating.
We didn’t have boards to put on the outside of the windows, so Eric went to the store and bought a mass amount of cardboard to tape to the inside of the windows. He was so sure of this method, but it proved to be ineffective when we (spoiler alert) came home after the storm and the house was fine, but all the cardboard had fallen off the windows onto the floor. 😆😆😆
Saturday around 5:00 pm, after we had covered the tv’s and moved everything we cared about to the bathrooms, we left to go to Eric’s parents house down the road. We wanted to go there because of the huge oak tree in our front yard that has not been trimmed for some time (our bad). My worst fear was part of that tree falling on our house or one of the neighbor’s houses. When we got to his parent’s, they told us they wanted to go to Orlando because it would be safer. I wasn’t excited about this idea because we all had dogs. They had secured reservations at a Disney resort, but it wasn’t available until Sunday morning. I did not want to be on the road for a long period of time on Sunday because I didn’t think it would be safe. It was at that time that I contacted my friend Rosie.
I asked Rosie if she and her fiancé, Toney would be gracious enough to let us stay at their house Saturday night. She said yes! We were so grateful. We got in the car with the dogs around 7 pm and there was no traffic on our way to their place. It couldn’t have been more perfect. We stayed up until around 2 am talking and getting to know them. That is something good that came out of this storm. ☺️
The next day we packed up our stuff again. We said goodbye and thank you to Rosie and Toney, and headed down the road to a dog friendly hotel in Orlando. The hotel was great!
On the way there we were able to get gas, and a little more hurricane food before the storm hit that night. It’s worth noting that everywhere in Florida looked like we were in a zombie apocalypse. I’m actually really happy that everything was closed so the workers were able to prepare for the storm and be with their families.
My mom was calling me every hour to make sure we were still alive. I re-assured her that we were safe in our cozy dog-friendly hotel room. At one point I went out to the lobby to get some coffee and there were a bunch of people talking and playing board games. That instilled a sense of calm in me.
Later that night the winds really started to pick up and the storm had shifted toward our area. Eric and our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Cubby slept through the whole storm. And snored too! I personally don’t know how they could sleep. Floyd, our Jack Russell/Beagle mix and I stayed up until 4 am listening and watching the storm. He would bark and growl when he felt the winds were being too loud.
Irma: The beginning
The winds calmed down a bit around 4:30 am and I was able to drift off to sleep. A few hours later around 8 am the dogs woke me up and we took them out to go to the bathroom. The winds were still at tropical storm force. I checked my car to make sure nothing had fallen on it. All was good. We went back inside and down to the lobby for breakfast. I have never seen a longer line for a waffle maker in my life.
We checked out around noon after the storm had calmed down a bit. There was a lot of traffic on our way home. I was bitting my nails (and getting yelled at by Eric to stop) the whole ride back worried about what we were coming home to.
Mass electrical outages, trees down and flooding. Just a few of the fears running through my mind. When we turned down our street I couldn’t look and I told Eric to tell me if it wasn’t too bad.
NOTHING. A few small branches and plants down but other than that, no damage. I couldn’t believe it, I was so relieved. We went inside and surprisingly still had power. Unfortunately a lot of people have been without power for almost a week after the storm passed. We put everything back in the house, and have been trying to get back to life as usual.
It wasn’t until 2 days after the storm that my emotions came out. We were sitting in a work meeting and my boss was talking about how great everyone was during this stressful and freighting time. One of my co-workers who had to work through the storm away from her family, began to cry…and a lot of us started to cry. We all experienced fear, adrenaline and a sense of being totally out of control.I think that is what bothered people the most was feeling out of control of their own lives, and fear of the unknown.
There is some good here though. We have been witnessing help for those who need it. I received many calls from friends and loved ones asking if we are okay. It’s the little things that count. The governor ordered a stop on all tolls throughout the state and all hotels were told to accept dogs. The outpouring of love and support was just…endearing. My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of those who lost their lives.
There is a lot of good with bad. Sometimes you have to search for the good…but it’s always there. ❤️
Today Sprinkles Cupcakes donated 100% of the pupcake proceeds to Houston Pets Alive! Earlier today my friend Joy stopped by the house with these little treats for the doggos. Such a sweet thing to do ❤️ Cubby and Floyd sincerely appreciated the treat. Doggies love cupcakes too!
Passionately Curious 