Poco Mountain Girl

I did an experiment over the last two months that I’m blogging about today. Get ready:)

After kind of a challenging year, I could see the effects in my face. I felt like it was getting thinner and more tired-looking, and going slightly downhill in general, LOL. My facial collagen seemed to be evaporating day by day, and it was pretty disheartening.

I decided to do something for myself, took some extra money I had made, and ordered a “Beauty Bundle” from the Beautiful on Raw online shop. Everything they make is natural and free from parabens, pthalates, mineral oil, and other yucky stuff you find in most beauty products. I was mostly interested in the bundle because it included day cream, night cream, a green clay mask, shampoo, conditioner, and nourishing hair serum.

A little book of facial exercises was also included, as well as an exfoliating face brush. I thought the exercises were funny, but decided to give them a try. The author said you would be able to see a difference within two weeks of consistently doing them, and you would reap the most benefit after two months.

I just completed two months of exercises. Along with the exercises, I also used the exfoliating brush, creams, and mask.

I couldn’t see much of a change in my face during those two months, and was pretty sure the exercises hadn’t made a difference. But when I compiled my Before and After photos, I realized there was a slight change. My face became a little wider, rounder, fuller and tighter.

Before pics are on the left, After pics on the right. Can you see the difference?

Before, and after two months.

After 2 weeks; after 2 months.

After 2 days; after 2 weeks; after 2 months.

Some of these pics aren’t very flattering (hello, deadpan face), but I tried to use ones that give realistic and honest comparisons with similar facial expressions. If you study them, you can see a difference in my facial muscle tone and face shape, especially if you squint. It’s small, but substantial enough that I’m pretty psyched about it, and feel like the Beauty Bundle was worth the cost ($150).

Although I love the creams and mask, I really feel like the exercises made the most difference, since they affected the underlying structure of my face. The exfoliating brush was awesome, too–the gentle daily brushing has helped tone my skin. I also LOVE the nourishing hair serum, and just replenished my supply. I have a lovely little halo of new growth on top of my head, and I think it’s partly due to that.

(If you’re interested in Beautiful on Raw products, but don’t want to spend $150, you can buy each product in the bundle separately. Tonya Zavasta, the company’s founder, also writes interesting info about natural beauty on her website.)

The whole exercise regime was especially satisfying to me since I haven’t been able to exercise or even do my daily walk for the past four months, while dealing with some lung problems. I felt like I was sort of wilting with all that downtime, and this has made me feel like I could at least improve a small part of me, haha.

Let me know what you think of my facial exercise review! (Even if you only find it hilarious) 🙂

Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid for this review and I’m not affiliated with Beautiful on Raw. I’m just a happy customer:)

P.S.

And…I just got my hair done, and the color is a lot closer to where I want it. I’m also rocking my salon-straightened hair for a few days before I bring my curly head back to life. When David came with the kids to pick me up, Zia gasped, “Mama! You look like a real woman!” LOL!!!

Happy birthday to our little Chub. It seems like you were just a baby, and suddenly you’re a big boy. You’re strong and fiery and independent, but you love to snuggle and kiss and give sloppy puppy licks when you’re really happy. You make us laugh more with each year of your sweet life, and you also make us relearn over and over again all we thought we knew about raising kids–because the rules are just different with you. I wonder what you’ll be someday, and I know I have to just stand back and watch you go. Happy birthday, Cashy Boy. May all your dreams come true. 🙂

Monday we got home from an 11-day road trip. We drove through Kansas to Missouri, up across a smidgen of Iowa, through Nebraska, and back home. Kansas City, MO is our old stomping grounds, and we have friends there whom we hadn’t seen in years. We made the trip to see them, and also to meet the new tenants of our little house (where we lived when we first got married, and where Zia was born). 🙂

After the 11-hour drive, (and after sleeping) our first excursion was to Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead in Overland Park. I used to take Zia there when she was tiny, and it has expanded since we’ve been gone. The kids took pony rides, bottle-fed baby goats, hand-fed lots of animals, played on playgrounds, ran through the splash park, watched a goat’s hooves being trimmed (how come they never watch when I trim our goats’ hooves?) rode the tiny tractors, and had ice cream from the new ice cream parlor. It was “hand-scooped,” LOL. Well, whoop-ti-do. We’re in the real Mid-west now, folks–where they scoop their ice cream by hand! 🙂

It took 3 1/2 hours to partake of all the glories of the farmstead, and it was roasting. Kansas City was like a sauna the entire time we were there. Oh how I love Colorado.

We spent time with our friends, including Javier (who David used to work with) and his family. We also saw Luke and Ricci, whose basement I rented when I was single; Will, who has been our good friend since before we were married; and Cindy, who was like our mama-away-from-home, and was at both Zia’s and Cash’s home births.

Seeing the people we love and miss was like a long, cool drink at an oasis in the desert. It has actually been a little lonely up in these mountains, even though I like to tell myself I’m not really a people-person, haha.

We drove out to Lawrence, KS about mid-week. I’ve never been there, but we were on a hunt for Birkenstock sandals for David, and I kind of wanted a new hippie dress. It’s a cool little college town, and we found the sandals and some sweet boho duds for me. There was a giant toy store the kids loved, and we had lunch at a little pizza joint. The pizza was humongous and the kids barely put a dent in their slices.

Saturday we left KC and headed to Nebraska, where our friends the Hosiers live. We had never been to their little farm, and it was amazing. They live in a 100+ year-old farmhouse, have three lambs, lots of chickens and ducks, guinea hens, two farm cats, and a dog. Zia and Cash had a blast with their four kids. Darci is one of my top two friends, LOL, and Chase is about that high on David’s list.

We hung out at their farm, went to the original Cabela’s with them, ate lunch together at another pizza place (where they served me the hugest salad I’ve ever seen in my life–and that’s saying a lot. I could only eat a layer off the top). We went to a local splash park where the kids played for hours, then back to the farm where we helped (sort of) with barn chores, egg-candling, and picking and preparing veggies for dinner with grass-fed beef steaks. Darci has a big garden that made me wish it wasn’t so hard to grow things where we live.

We drove back home both happy and sad, but very full and contented. It was so good to be away, but so good to come home, too–with enough memories to last us another seven years in the mountains, as David says. 😉

I had such a nice birthday, at home with my very own people. In the morning, I found a Papyrus card from David, handwritten with words that always make his cards the best presents ever. 🙂

The kids had signed it, too, and Cash gave me all the juicy info about it last night. “Just so you know, I wrote ‘Happy Birthday from Chub, Dadda, Mia, Caleb, Zia, the Whole World, and Chub.'”  In a few pen scratches, of course.

I wore my Johnny Cash shirt the other day (he has one, too) and he noticed. “Is that your Johnny Mia shirt?” he asked, a clever little gleam in his eye. I guess if his shirt says Johnny Cash, it only makes sense mine says Johnny Mia, haha. 😀

Happy birthday to our baby girl–who somehow, someway, became a nine-year-old today.

We went to White Fence Farm in Lakewood for lunch. They have a home-style restaurant, gift shops, a little petting farm with goats, a playground, and a stagnant brown pond that sports a sign with something about “natural flow water.” 😉

The restaurant food was grandly overpriced, but kind of interesting–the grandpa at the table behind us ordered liver and onions–and the place was mostly patronized by the 70-and-over crowd.

Still, there were plenty of kids, and ours loved it. I’m glad they had the experience, because if it’s up to David and me, we just might never return, LOL. Or at least, not to the restaurant. The outdoors part was really pretty nice (aside from the stagnant pond), and they even had an “aviary” which consisted of a peacock and peahen. Peacocks are just awesome.

Our birthday girl’s day was punctuated by us checking on the fire in Nederland every so often. The wildfire has been raging since yesterday, and 600 acres are in flames. There is 0% containment, 2000 people have been evacuated, and homes have been licked up practically right where we lived less than three years ago. Here is the view of the smoke from our front deck in Black Hawk:

It has been so hot here–91 degrees in Black Hawk when we came home this evening, which is pretty abnormal. Also windy, which of course has contributed to the rapid spread of the wildfire.

We headed home after our shenanigans at White Fence Farm, and David and I set up Zia’s treasure hunt, which ended in a puppy pinata and presents in the goat shed.

She asked for mostly “homemade presents” and here are some things I made for her:

She’s into red foxes these days, so I sewed up these pillows for her new loft bedroom. (The moon chair was a present, too–but not homemade.) The “Happy Place” fabric was a standard pillowcase I got at Target and deconstructed, then added a fox print envelope backing. The others I made from scratch, using ideas I found online.

A set of hooks–this was quick since I bought the hooks already attached and just painted the animals and background color with acrylic paints. It was a last-minute gift–I wanted her to have a place to hang her growing collection of necklaces.

Speaking of necklaces…

I carved this wooden fox necklace for her from basswood.

And here’s another little carved fox, which turned out to be her very favorite present. 🙂

I painted both of these with my artist oil paints, since I liked those colors best. They took weeks to dry, ha. I’m glad I started them both in May.

Zia baked this decadent chocolate cake by herself, and I helped with the frosting and chocolate-covered strawberries. The whole thing was her idea, inspired by a chocolate-strawberry cupcake she found a picture of online. She also put in an order for root beer floats.

I tacked a strawberry cashew-cheesecake onto the mix–I made it early and saved it for my birthday, but I really wanted a piece tonight, so I had one (or two). When you’re almost 41 you can make executive decisions like that. Besides, it just doesn’t matter to me much if I serve my birthday cake with a missing piece.

Happy, happy birthday, baby girl. I can hardly believe you’re nine years old already! (It seems like it was just yesterday when I was nine, haha.) You’re growing so fast, and you’re so funny, smart and lovable. I miss those days when you were tiny and everyone said you were my little “mini-me.”  But I also love seeing you grow into your very own person–so different than me, so unique and original. I hope you have an awesome year (your tenth!) and I know it will fly. I’m trying to slow you down and keep you just slightly smallish, but it’s most definitely not working. So fly–and I’ll just try my best to keep up.