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Well friends, please bare with me as I do a little experimenting. For about a year now, I have been slightly obsessed with reading over blogs, research studies, and books concerning natural health and living more simply. Most articles I read were very convincing, yet it has taken me a while to take the next step and actually implement these ideas. I think living in Portland, amongst all these hippies, has given me a bit more confidence and "you've got nothing to lose" mentality.
With that said, please know that I have found something that sparks my interest and I wanted to share it with you. I don't expect all of you to do the same and agree with me fully, I just want to take you on this journey with me. :)
A couple days ago, I went to Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Safeway to pick up these items....
I actually already had a few of them in the pantry, but still needed the essential oil, Borax, virgin coconut oil and Apple Cider Vinegar. These items, along with some water here and there, will be my household cleaning products, deodorant, and hair cleaner until they run out... so I hope they work well! All in all, I have a little less than $30 invested.
My first adventure: the "'Poo Free" Method. Shampoo strips the hair of natural oils that keep it healthy, shiny, and strong. When I learned there was a way to clean your hair without using shampoo, I was obviously intrigued. This is a frugal, non-toxic, and extremely easy way to care for your hair. (If you want to read more, this site was helpful to me, as well as this one.)
Here's my new hair-care routine:
1. Use a squeeze bottle or an old shampoo bottle. Mix 1 Tablespoon baking soda to 1 cup water. Shake well.
2. Soak your hair completely with water. Squeeze some of the baking soda mixture onto your scalp. Massage it in, mostly concentrating on the scalp, and adding more of the mixture if needed. (This probably goes without saying, but you won't get suds like with normal shampoos... I noticed a more gritty texture. Just now it's doing its job.)
3. Leave in for 3-4 minutes, then rinse.
4. In another bottle, mix 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar to 1 cup water. I also added 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract and about 10 drops of Tangerine essential oil to mask the vinegar smell.
5. Squeeze a little of the vinegar mixture onto the ends of your hair (away from the roots) and let it rest for about 30 seconds. (If your hair is like mine and rests on the oily side, make sure not to use too much of the mixture.)
6. Fully rinse, and you're done!
Isn't that simple! I was a little concerned that my hair would smell bad afterwards, but Heath said it smelt lovely. :) The apple cider vinegar made my hair feel so soft, and my hair still has the same body it did before. Though it should take my hair around a month to get used to this method, I am already impressed. I'm really glad I tried it... I'll post an update in a month to give you my final verdict.
When you run out of shampoo and conditioner like I did recently, try it out and tell me what you think!
hello there. Just wanted to give you a brief update on the Newton household....
We've been on vacation now for two, beautiful, short months and it has been so wonderful. I'm glad Heath likes to explore and travel as much as I do! We went on 9 hikes, 10 walks through the city (with our walking and hiking books), tried lots of new cuisine, and explored the Oregon and California coast. Awesome. We also had the lovely Newton family come for a visit, as well as my mom, who left yesterday. Pictures will be posted soon.
Heath just attended Pacific University's orientation for the grad program, and will personally meet his professors and fellow classmates on Thursday. I am so proud of him and excited for him to learn more about his passion. Pacific is lucky to have him.
I just applied for a job yesterday, and am working on applying for three more tonight and tomorrow. One job in particular has really caught my eye, and it's an organization that I am very familiar with... even better, it's located less than 5 miles from our house. Keep this in your prayers please! I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but have started to become excited about job opportunities. that's good, right!?
Also... starting tomorrow, my Etsy store will finally be open for business! It's called "katie's handmades" (I know, I know. So creative.) and I am so happy to finally begin listing items. Most of you know, I love to create, but rarely actually complete the projects. Maybe this will be the end of that bad habit. Anyways, I'm going to post my upcycled address files, flower hair pins, bakers twine, upcycled Anthropology envelopes, and embossed notecards. I'm excited! I'll post a link for the store tomorrow.
Last but not least... I got my haircut last week. It's short and fun. So much easier to handle than my long hair! Maybe next time I'll cut it even shorter :)
Have a lovely day friend
I married my best friend. (Sorry, this post is a little late!)
August eighth was a wonderful day, and I'm happy to say that I remember much of our wedding day. Thanks to my mom, Julie, maid of honor (Katie B), and lots of other family and friends, the day went smoothly. :) I often think back to walking down the aisle with my dad by my side, seeing Heath's face the for the first time that day, looking out into the crowd of beautiful, smiling faces during our ceremony, and singing "Be Thou My Vision" together. These are just a few of my favorite moments, and I will forever cherish them.
In establishing our anniversary tradition, Heath and I decided to do several things. First, we decided to watch our wedding video. (This was kind of a no-brainer.) While watching the video, we realized again how meaningful our ceremony was to us. Our minister, Jason Anderson, was Heath's youth minister for several years; though I have only known Jason and his sweet family for a year and a half, he words made the ceremony so personal and sentimental to us both. Thank you, Jason. You did a wonderful job. :)
Now comes the second tradition... celebrate by eating a fancy meal. The picture below was taken on our honeymoon, in Riviera Maya, while sharing our lovely "Special Honeymooners Dinner". So, we would really like to celebrate every Anniversary dinner at that same table, in that same location, even eating the same food. But alas, we are young and a bit on the poor side, so we cannot. smile
Fast forward.... this picture was taken at Andina, one of Portland's finest Peruvian restaurants. The food was incredible and very adventurous for us! We had "tapas" which is basically ordering 4-6 appetizers for your table and making that your meal. We tried cheeses from around the world, filet with a quail egg on top (no, we weren't that adventurous...), and two different types of fish that were to die for. I'm salivating as I type. Heath and I had so much fun trying these new things together. At the end of our meal, we had the restaurant to ourselves (our reservations weren't until (9:30p.m.) and our waiter treated us to free dessert! It's that sweet. Apparently it was mousse and chocolate of some sort imported from the Amazon. delicious!
Please note that I'm wearing the same black dress. Hope I can wear it for a few more years! :)
Our third tradition is eating asweet treat. Yes, I know the tradition is to eat your wedding cake topper on your one year anniversary. Heath and I had our gone about a month after the wedding. We cheated a little bit, but it was sooooo good. So instead of the cake topper, we visited a local cupcake shop for our sweet treats. If you are in downtown Portland, visit Saint Cupcake. We recommend the coconut cupcake with cream cheese icing. yum!
Our last tradition is to go on a vacation. This is my personal favorite. It doesn't have to be to somewhere faraway and fancy, just someplace new. Our adventure to Portland has brought so much growth to our relationship. I love traveling and exploring with Heath; I'm so glad I married my best friend. :)
So, to celebrate our one year, we headed to Oceanside, Oregon. We rented a house overlooking the coast, and even saw whales while eating dinner out on our balcony! It was beautiful.
The Oregon coast is much different than any other beach I've ever been to. The water is much too cold to play in, and it seems that small rocks take the place of sand. We had fun walking though, and just enjoyed the peaceful ocean sounds and breeze. I also took about 1,000 pictures... I'm trying to put together a "stop-motion" video of our time here in Portland. It's a bit of an undertaking, but I'm excited to put all the pictures together.... check back in 2 years for the final product.
All in all, our time in Oceanside was a perfect getaway for Heath and I. It provided time to grow and learn more about each other. I'm thankful for this past year, and everything we have learned. I'm excited for the years to come.
With one year down, does this mean we are no longer honeymooners? :)
Hello all. It's been a while! This past week has been fairly busy, and I have been a bit exhausted. I think it's somewhat due to our heat-wave here.... yesterday, we hit a high of 86! I know, I know. Tennessee and Texas have been close to 100 lately, but I'm to (and very much prefer) the cooler weather. My "perfect" temperature is 68-75. :)
Anyhow, I am now faced with the past 15 days of activities, and I have no idea how to share it all with you. So, I'll just choose my favorites.
First up... We conquered the Lookout Mountain hike! (Remember that one time we failed miserably on our first hike? Well, we tried the hike again; only this time, we drove our car up the majority of the mountain, and only had to scale 1500 feet. It was great!) Along our hike, we played in the snow...
On the summit, we could see 7 mountain ranges. Adams, Rainer, St. Helens, Jefferson, Three Sisters, Diamond Peak, and Mt. Hood, which was only 7 miles from us.
And, Heath stood somewhere where I will never stand... This terrified me, it made for a good picture though.
After this hike, we headed ten miles down the road to Tamanawas Falls. This has been my favorite thing so far! Hiking next to the spring provided a cool, refreshing walk, and the falls turned out to be sooo much better than expected.
(I'm glad my camera has a self-timer.) I also came across the largest dandelion ever! It made me happy.
On wednesday, our family came in for a visit! It was wonderful. I think Heath had been anticipating their arrival for weeks. :) We went to the Saturday Market, walked around downtown, ate from a food cart, visited the local farmers markets, and shared our church with them. It sure felt nice to share our home with family.
We also visited the Washington Park Rose Garden, of course!
And we finally visited Canon Beach! As you can tell from my over-exposed picture, it was very sunny thankfully.... recently, the coast has had temperatures in the low 60s, so we went on a great day.
We've visited several farmers markets in the last month, and I have grown increasingly anxious to buy a bouquet of flowers. Well, Saturday was my lucky day! While visiting PSU's market, I purchased these beauties. Aren't they lovely?
Last but not least, I wanted to add a sneak peak of our apartment. This is my favorite wall, found right above my craft/sewing desk. I'll try to post the rest of the apartment soon.
Though I do not have a picture to show for it, I watched a top-notch 80's movie on top of the Hotel Delux in downtown! Had a lot of fun with new girlfriends who have been so welcoming and nice to us. It was wonderful.
Sorry for the long post! Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of posting weekly...
Hope you have a lovely, relaxing weekend
