Fresh Face Botanicals

If you’ve ever noticed, a lot of women get to a certain age with grace and laughter- there’s a secret to that.

The secret is that we have, out of necessity, learned not to take ourselves too seriously.

When you’re closer to 60 than to 30 you go through some changes.

You start growing hair in places you NEVER had it before and the last thing you do before leaving the house isn’t checking your teeth for lipstick, it’s checking your chin or cleavage to make sure nothing unexpected is there.

The hair that is where you expect it is not doing what you expect it to do. It’s suddenly wilder. It wants to stick up, or develops a wave, or it seems distributed differently.

Laughing too hard or sneezing is suddenly an act of courage in public.

Your skin changes.

If you’re like me, you wind up in that place between wrinkles and zits, with skin that is entirely too sensitive and prone to dryness for the things they make for teenagers, and too acne prone to use the stuff your grandmother used.

A friend that I trust very much developed a line of products that works hard, but gently.

My favorite thing in the Fresh Face Botanicals™ line up is the AHAmazing Exfoliating Facial Cleanser.

It’s gently exfoliating, it won’t scrape and tear delicate skin, but it does clean and smooth skin. Using it daily helps your skin look healthy and not dull.  It’s got tiny microbeads of jojoba for scrubbing action, it has glycolic acid for exfoliation and revealing your best skin and pumping up the collagen (yay! Less lines apparent!), your skin feels soft, clean, and not dried out using this stuff.  It rinses clean and easily.

You could get by with just this cleanser and the toner. Of course, using the whole line maximizes the benefit.

For bad hair days? My own method of dealing with them is using a bit of pomade and hair sticks to put my hair in an easy updo.

Most of my hair sticks are handmade, my current favorites are the willow hair sticks my children made for me, and will start making for sale soon.

Disclaimer: The owner of Fresh Face Botanicals is a personal friend. I did buy her products to try them out and this is based on my personal experience with them.

Sun and rainbow coloring page

Look up to the sky

You'll never find rainbows

If you're looking down.

-Charlie Chaplin

My plan was actually to do an affirmational word coloring page, but this is what happened instead. I hope you enjoy it!

To download and print this rainbow and sun coloring page- click the small images below.

Small jpg version:

Large transparent png:

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cherry Fudge Recipe Featuring Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

Fudge!! Oh how I love fudge. My family has been using Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk for generations.

Fudge is one of those last minute things that is going to impress if it's got a silky texture and it's really easy to make it fancy and on trend.

Today we made a nice big pan of a subtly two toned fudge to give as gifts- or at least as much as my husband will allow out the door. I suspect he's going to decide a lot of people get cookies instead! The first thing he said when he tasted it is "It's not grainy, it's perfect fudge!"

Ingredients:

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup caramel chips - I used Ghiradelli brand for all the chips.
1 stick butter (8 Tbs) + extra for buttering the waxed paper for easy release
2 cans Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 jars of maraschino cherries- my own preference is for Tillen Farm's cherries with no artificial colors or flavors
2 tsps. vanilla
Caramel sauce
Nice flake salt- I used an Alaskan sea salt that's made small batch in Sitka.

Supplies:
9x13x2 inch pan and wax paper to line it
1 large sauce pan
Spoon and silicone spatula

Line the 9x13 pan with waxed paper, and butter it lightly

In the sauce pan, combine
1 bag semi-sweet chips
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup caramel chips
1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 stick (4 Tbs.) butter

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it's all melted and combined. Remove from heat, stir in 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour into pan, spread it evenly.

In the same pan-

the rest of the bag of milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel chips
1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 stick (4 Tbs.) butter
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it's all melted and combined. Remove from heat, stir in 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour into pan, spread it evenly over first layer.

Put the cherries on top evenly spaced. Chill.

Add a drizzle of caramel sauce, cut into cubes, and put on a lightly sprinkle of salt.

Check out Eagle Brand to find a lot more recipes.

This post was sponsored by Eagle Brand- all opinions are mine.

Holiday tree to color

It's that time of the year again!! I hope you enjoy this printable coloring page of a decorated tree.

Click the images below for large versions to print and color.

small jpg version:

large transparent png version:

If you're looking for last minute presents, please consider buying my self-published coloring book featuring some of the best of the mandala coloring pages posted on this site-