Homemade face toner

I made some great facial toner the other night and wanted to share it. It is a super simple recipe, and you can busy with the million other projects you have going on while you are doing this. Not only does it save you money, but you also know all the ingredients that are in it.


Chamomile Lemon Face toner

Boil 1 cup water and steep bag of chamomile tea. *You can add honey to the recipe at this point if you wish. Honey is a really good antiseptic and natural anti-bacterial. I did not have any organic honey at home at the time, so I left it out.
Add 1/4 tablespoon of lemon juice. Using fresh squeezed lemon juice is of course always best. Citrus should be easy to find right now.
Add 1/4 cup of witch hazel


I like mine stored in the fridge. Keeps longer, and I like it cool when I use it.


Benefits of chamomile tea on your skin-

Lightening Skin

Using ChamomileChamomile has been found to be advantageous for lightening your skin tone. A bath in water mixed with chamomile tea works too.

Reducing Dark Circles Around Eyes

Chamomile tea has been found to help relieve eye fatigue and dark circles. A simple remedy is to dip 2 chamomile tea bags in warm water. After 5 minutes, remove the tea bags from the water and let them cool to room temperature. Then place them on your eyes at night as a compress.

Itchy Skin
Chamomile has been found to calm itchy or reddened skin.

Antibacterial properties
Chamomile has natural antibacterial properties. This is why it is used so often during colds. It also is a good wound healer. Another benefit for it on your face.

Note- If you are allergic to ragweed, you may find yourself to chamomile. Use with caution.


Benefits of lemon on your skin-

Exfoliating
Lemon fruit acids are ideal for gentle exfoliation

Brightening
It’s not a secret anymore that one of the best natural whitening products is lemon.

Pore cleansing
If your skin is oily, and clogged pores or blackheads are often a problem, lemon can help. Because of its exfoliating and astringent properties

Fighting wrinkles
Vitamin C stimulates collagen formation, using lemon juice in your wrinkle treatments can improve your results. A home made, hydrating wrinkle treatment is a solution made of milk and a bit of lemon juice. Apply it on your face for 10 minutes then rinse with warm water.

Neutralizing environmental damage
Sun, pollution and stress take their toll on your skin. Vitamin C is known to be a potent anti-oxidant that combats the effects of free radicals on your body.


Benefits of Witch Hazel on your skin-

An amazing anti-inflammatory and astringent.
Being a strong astringent, witch hazel health benefits include treating skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema. Witch Hazel benefits also include a natural remedy for insect bites, sunburn, puffy eyes, and itchy skin.

Banana muffins

Don't let that food go to waste!


We usually only buy a few bananas at a time, because we never seem to eat them quite as fast as we should before they get too ripe.  Too ripe for hubby and I = a few brown spots. It doesn't take long!  So after being given a couple of bunches of bananas I was impressed that it was only a few bananas that got too ripe before they could be eaten.


So to make sure they didn't end up in the compost pile, I decided to make some banana muffins.  I chose not to do the crumb topping, but you can do as you wish.  This recipe came from Betty Crocker.  (Great cookbook by the way, given as a wedding gift from my mother).



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Banana Muffins with Crumb ToppingAdapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook

Banana muffins:
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 large egg
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease bottoms only of a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper baking cups.  In a large bowl, beat together milk, oil, and egg.  Add banana and mix well.  Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, just until mixed.  Batter will be lumpy.  Divide evenly among muffin cups.  To make crumb topping, cut butter into flour and sugar until crumbly.  Top batter with crumb topping.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.  If baked in a greased pan, let cool 5 minutes in pan before removing to wire racks.

Makes 1 dozen.

Muscadine wine

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About seven weeks ago we were given a whole basket of NC Muscadines.  We ate a few- especially my little man, but a whole basket is hard to go through before they get too ripe, so what to do...wine!  We used a generic Muscadine wine recipe, and the result is yummy!  I hate when food goes to waste, so I was glad to use the muscadines.  Even better it was something so yummy!




Here is the recipe we used: 

6 quarts of muscadines
10 lbs of sugar (you can use less or more depending on how sweet you want it.)
18 quarts of water
2 packs of dry yeast