Link Love Thursday

June 12, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Oh no! You may have noticed last week that my InLinkz was not working for my link party. So, I did not get to see your links. Link. Party. Fail.

Anyway, here are the features again from the previous link party:

Living Well Spending Less: Sugar Crusted Blueberry Cake with Sour Cream Glaze

Thread Riding Hood: Sew Much Ado Diaper Bag

Crafts for Kidlets: Fun Easy Father’s Day Gift Craft Project

Concerning Bugs: Teacher Appreciation Gift

Life Around the Loop: Homemade Welcome Sign for Porch

I can’t wait to see what you all have created!

Guest Post: Adding Healthy Seafood to Your Daily Diet

June 5, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

I’m so excited to have another guest poster today! Joel Cordle wrote the following post on adding seafood to your diet.

Joel Cordle is associated with George stone crab. At George stone crab you will get the best quality sea food, a Stone Crab claws. George Stone Crab packs and delivers the freshest stone crabs to your door, whether you live in Miami, NY or LA.

If you want to be healthy, you have to consider eating the foods that are needed in supplying the different nutrients needed in the body. The food that you eat determines how strong your immune system is. This is one thing that you should consider in order for you to get that motivation that you need for a healthy food preparation.

In your daily diet, you have to make sure that there is enough amount of seafood in order to make sure that you are getting the omega3 fat that your heart needs. Seafood can also help increase the amount of protein in your body. You have to remember that you are getting the perfect amount of nutrients from seafood in order to make yourself perfectly lean.

Here is a list of the different seafood that you can add to your daily diet:

Salmon. This seafood can be found in your local market and it can be served in different style. One of the best things about salmon is its omega 3 content that can help you develop a healthy heart that is far away from different complications. You can include one serving of this in your meal and you will surely get the right amount of omega 3.
Oysters. If you are looking for the category of seafood that is highly nutritional, you have to check mollusks. One of the best types of this seafood is oyster. This is one of that seafood that you can purchase as frozen or fresh. This is low in fat and calories. If you want to maintain a balanced diet in order to achieve the best body physique that you want, you can add this to your list of daily foods. This is also one of the best sources of zinc.
Other oily fishes. Instead of eating pork and chicken everyday, you have to consider eating oily fishes. This type of food is very helpful in maintaining a healthy heart. You can be sure that the bad cholesterol is being combatted with the help of this type of food. Balancing the fats and the cholesterol in the body is one of the best ways to help you get that perfect health.
Crabs. If you want to make sure that you are getting enough doze of protein from your seafood, you can include crabs in your meal. There are some types of crabs such as stone crab claws that are very rich in nutrients. With the content of this type of seafood, you can be sure that you will be able to complete the nutritional needs of your body.

The different seafood given above can be included in your daily meals. The nutritional content of each are very important to you and your family’s health.

Guest Post: The Pros and Cons of Corrective Eye Surgery

June 3, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Today I’m happy to have a guest poster! This is a guest post by Samantha, a freelance writer and health expert. She also loves reading and blogging.

The new thing in the world of eye health is eye surgery that can restore your vision to a perfect 20/20. For individuals who have worn glasses for decades, this can seem like news from heaven. But before you jump onto the eye surgery bandwagon, it is important to consider all aspects of the issue. Although there are many benefits, there are still some risks that are important to consider before you take the leap.

Take a look at these pros and cons before you make your final decision:

Eye surgery pros

Obviously, the biggest benefit to eye surgery is clear vision. It can be an amazing feeling to use your own two eyes to see anything around you. If you have suffered from poor vision for most of your life, it is like suddenly switching on a light and seeing things for the first time after surgery.

Surgery can also benefit you in other ways. One of the biggest advantages is the fact that you will never have to wear glasses or contact lenses again. If you hate having to hunt for glasses, switch out contacts, or pay money for clear vision, it is an amazing feeling to know you will never have to go through all that trouble again.

Eye surgery can also have an effect on your quality of life. If you participate in sports, have always wanted to become a pilot, are part of the military, or do anything else that was limited by your poor vision, eye surgery will complete remove those limitations. You will be able to do anything you want.

Eye surgery can also improve your appearance. If you suffered from a lazy eye, had squinted eyes due to poor vision, or simply didn’t like how you looked in glasses, eye surgery can correct all those issues.

Eye surgery cons

On the other side, there are also cons to having eye surgery. The biggest con is the risk of permanent loss of vision that can never be restored. If your eye is damaged during surgery, you may never have good vision again, even with glasses or contact lenses.

Eye surgery can also make you see double. Some side effects include holes in your vision, permanent glares, halos around the eyes, or permanent double or triple vision. Some side effects may make it difficult to see in dim light or fog.

The surgery can also fail. Some patients do not see any noticeable difference after the surgery.

Sometimes the surgery can affect your tear development, leading to permanently dry eyes. Other problems include blurry vision and constant eye discomfort and itching,

If you are on the fence about eye surgery, it is important to consider all the risks and benefits. The idea sounds wonderful, but just like any other procedure, there are risks involved. Before making any decision, informing yourself of all the facts will help you make the right choice for you. Once you take into account all pros and cons, you can then determine which is the right choice for you personally.

Link Love Thursday

May 29, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Welcome to Link Love Thursday! I’m so glad you joined this week! If this is your first time, please grab a button from my Link Parties page.

First, here are the features from last week:

Living Well Spending Less: Chalkboard Canvas Wall Art DIY

Coconut Head Survival Guide: Patriotic Food

Made in a Day: Jute Rope Mirror Ballard Inspired

Home Sweet Mommy: Calzones

Huckleberry Love: Fabric Kitchen Shades DIY

Go ahead and link up below. I can’t wait to see what you have for me this time!

Link Love Thursday

May 23, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Thanks for coming back to Link Love Thursday! Or, if it’s your first time – thanks for joining! As usual, there were some completely awesome links posted last week. I love looking through all of them – you all are so creative!

Here are the features from last week:

Pursuit of Functional Home: Roti Prata with Cheese and Chocolate

Enchanting Beginnings: Grandparents Need Presents Too

I Got This Martha: Grilled Eggplant Caprese Quinoa

Spoonful of Crafts: Easy and Quick Bookmarks

Made from Pinterest: Freshly Squeezed Lemonade

Please show off anything you have created recently that you’re proud of. You can link up crafts, recipes, articles, cat videos, anything family-friendly. If you haven’t yet grabbed a button, you can find the code for one on my Link Parties page.

Thank you so much for joining!

Bathroom and Laundry Room Reveal

May 22, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

I’m so excited about our recent, much needed, house renovations. For this post, I’m going to show our makeover in our bathroom/laundry room. I wasn’t able to get “before” pictures until the renovations already started, but you’ll get the idea of how bad it was from these pictures.

Before showing the whole finished room, I’ll show the details.

Here is our new ironing supplies hook. I love it because it holds everything we need to iron, and has a handy place for the ironing board.

There’s also a hook for the drying rack.

We got rid of the nasty cabinets above the washing machine, and replaced them with nicer looking shelves.

We found this towel rack, and the towels, at IKEA. I love the little hook on the hand towel!

This is not very exciting, but here is the new toilet, with the toilet paper holder. Hey, it’s the little things in life.

We also got this sink, vanity, and mirror cabinet at IKEA.

I do need to note here, however, that it’s pretty tricky to buy these from IKEA. As much as I love that store, all of their products that require plumbing are set up for European codes. European houses have water pipes that go straight into the wall. Because of this, we had to cut out sections of the drawers to fit around the pipes.

And here is the room, completely finished. I hope you like it!

Homemade Organic Bath Products

May 22, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Welcome to post 2 of my Make it Yourself Series! My first post was about making organic baby products. This post explains how to make organic bath (and after bath) products. I won’t get into all of the details here, but I would recommend doing some research on what is normally in these types of products and what they do to your body – it’s horrific!

I started off just using my own homemade, organic lotion and I loved how it made my skin feel. From then on, I could never go back to store bought lotion (and my skin would break out if I tried!). So I branched out and tried making some other bath products. Here are my “recipes” for all of these.

The next post in this series will be homemade, organic (non-bath) hygiene products, such as deodorant and lip balm.

I hope you enjoy!

Detox Bath

Items You Need: 2 cups Epsom salt, 1 cup apple cider vinegar, ½ cup bentonite clay (optional), 5-10 drops essential oils, 1 cup sea salt, 1 cup baking soda, 2 tablespoons glycerine (more for dry skin, less for oily skin) – this makes a lot, so I use this amount for 2 baths.
Mix all ingredients well in a bowl and pour into a jar.
Pour everything in your bath, and relax.
Drink a glass of water afterwards.
Go right to bed, and you will wake up refreshed!

Coconut Oil Lotion

Items You Need: 1 cup coconut oil; 1 tablespoon vitamin E; 2 tablespoons aloe vera gel; essential oils; 2 tablespoons cocoa butter
Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer.
Transfer to a jar, or an empty lotion tub.

Shaving Cream

Items You Need: 4 tbsp coconut oil; 2 tbsp cocoa butter; 1 tsp baking soda (purchase from a health store); 4 tbsp castille soap; 1 tbsp aloe vera gel; 1.5 cups water; 4 drops essential oils
Put coconut oil and cocoa butter into a mason jar.
Put the mason jar into a saucepan that is filled with 2 inches of water. Heat the saucepan on medium until the oil and cocoa butter has melted. Remove from heat.
Use gloves to remove the mason jar, and pour the mixture into a mixing bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix with an electric mixer.
Transfer to a jar, and it’s ready to use!

Bubble Bath

1 cup castille soap (use a little bit more if you have dry skin); ¾ cup water; 1 tsp liquid glycerin; 10 drops essential oils
Simply pour all ingredients into a jar and mix well. It’s ready to use!

Bath Fizzies

½ cup cornstarch; ½ cup citric acid powder; 1 cup baking soda (from a health store); 1 tbsp sea salt; 2 tsp olive oil; ½ cup witch hazel; 10 drops essential oils
Mix together than cornstarch, citric acid powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a small bowl.
In another bowl, mix together olive oil and essential oils.
Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients until they are combined well.
Pour the witch hazel into a spray bottle.
Begin making little balls from the ingredients. If they crumble, spray with the witch hazel until you get the desired consistency.
Place the balls into greased muffin tins. Press into the tin firmly, and let sit until hardened (about 48 hours). Store in an airtight container until you’re ready to use them. Please note: they should be used within about 3 weeks.

Bath Sugar Scrub & Exfoliant

½ cup sugar; ½ cup brown sugar; 1/3 cup sea salt; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbsp coconut oil, 10 drops essential oils
Simply mix all ingredients together. If you’d like a coarse texture, add more sugar and sea salt. If you’d like a smooth texture, add more oil.

Link Love Thursday

May 15, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Welcome back to Link Love Thursday! Thank you for being patient during my hiatus. This upcoming week, look for a continuation of the Make it Yourself series, and remodel reveals. I’m so excited about these!

Here are the features from last week. As always – such talent and creativity!

Pint Sized Treasures: No Bake Oreo Cheesecake Bites

Hoyby Crafts: Chalkboard Coasters

I Dream of Jeanne: Beach Theme Family Room

Busy Mom’s Helper: Homemade Fruit Leather

Brown Acre: Mobile and Curtains

Please link up anything you have created lately. I can’t wait to see what you post!

An Update for the Week…

May 8, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Hi everybody! I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I will not be having my weekly link party today. I have a conference this week, and I’ll be out of town next week (although I do plan on still having the link party next week, and will have features from last week’s party). I do have some upcoming posts that I’m very excited about, so come back to check those out!

I hope you all have a great week!

Link Love Thursday

May 1, 2013 by Easy Living Mom

Hi, friends! Welcome back to Link Love Thursday! Thank you so much for joining and linking up. If this is your first time at the party, here is some background: you can grab a button from my Link Parties page. Feel free to link up anything that you’re proud of – recipes, crafts, parties, articles – you get the idea. Also, please look around – there are always some awesome links here. If you link up and leave, you’ll seriously be missing out!

I’ve been staying strong at 75-100 links each week, which is right where I’d like to keep it I like to get to know the people who link up at my party, and have a chance to check out all of the links. Maybe down the road I’ll try to grow this link party a little bit more, but probably not anytime soon.