Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tea Tree Oil: Magic Potion or Poison?

DIY, Environment, Gay, Green, Homemade, How-To, Latina, Lesbian, Review, tattoo, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

tea tree oil

So the other day we noticed that we have in our home tea-tree oil infused goodies. Our shampoo, our conditioner and we use tea tree oil for unwanted, unhappy pimples. And it really does work! I had heard this little essential oil had many purposes, but who would have known it was crazy useful for everything! From pimples, to cleaning to Woohoo! Everything… Maybe I should ditch everything in my medicine cabinet and buy a lifetime supply of tea-tree oil!

So where does it come from? Australia. From the plant Melaleuca alternifolia.

tea tree oil

What can it be used for? A MILLION THINGS!

  • Analgesic
  • Antibacterial
  • Antifungal
  • Anti-infectious
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Antioxidant
  • Antiparasitic
  • Antiseptic
  • Antiviral
  • Decongestant
  • Digestive
  • Expectorant
  • Immune stimulant
  • Insecticidal
  • Neurotonic
  • Stimulant
  • Tissue regenerative

tea tree oil

Got Acne? dilute with water and use for an overall treatment, or dab a very small amount on acne breakouts.

Got Allergies? You can massage it into the chest, abdomen or “the reflex points of the feet”

Stinky Feet? A couple of drops and soak your feet in, or massage directly.

Canker soar? Apply a dab!

Clean Freak? Add a couple of drops  to your home-made everyday cleaner.

Stuffed nose and congestion? Boil some water and inhale steam infused with some oil. Minty smell will clear you up!

Cuts, Scrapes or Burns? Disinfect it with a slight diluted solution and cleanse infected areas with a one drop to one cup of water mixture.

Getting Pierced or a Tattoo? Use it undiluted to avoid infections.

Anything else? Yes! Also vaginal infections, warts, wounds, nail infections, dandruff sunburns and rashes!

BUT…I ran into this article that says that tea-tree oil might be potentially toxic for your cats and its bad bad bad…so I decided to look into it a bit more.

poison

Yes, if you swallow and ingest a slight amount of this oil, it could harm you.  The National Capital Poison Center says they get twice as many calls regarding tea-tree oil poisoning than any other oil. Yet, they are not specific about their statistics so its hard to compare.

There are two statements that they make that I think are significant and should be taken as precaution when using this mighty oil.

1.

“Tea tree oil and pets: Veterinary toxicologists have reported that large amounts of tea tree oil applied to the skin of cats and dogs caused poisoning. Symptoms have included muscle tremors, weakness, difficulty in walking, low body temperature, and excessive salivation. With pets, as with people, following label instructions is essential.”

2.

“Non-medicinal uses: …  “natural” does not necessarily mean “non-toxic” or “non-poisonous”; tea tree oil is irritating to some people and is poisonous to swallow….There is some scientific evidence that tea tree oil can be effective for certain skin conditions. It is poisonous if swallowed and so should not be used in or around the mouth at all.”

The second point should be taken with more consideration because when I did my research I ran into information regarding its use as a mouthwash, canker sore, cold sore and cavity prevention oil. Many people have used it around and within the mouth and promote such uses, so I don’t think that the likelihood that you will turn up dead will be high….BUT I would use it with precaution if you are allergic to any other oils, if you are pregnant and if you have other conditions which you already need to take extra care for.

So is it a super oil with multiple amazing uses? I’d say so!

Am I going to party hard with my cat and take shots like it’s peppermint schnapps?  Probably not….

fashionable cat

Does it smell very very good and is better than buying fifteen different products to cure many things? YES!

If you would like, you can check out some sources below to get more descriptive and detailed uses for this mighty essential oil as well as people’s concern with it.

Sustainable Baby Steps, Medicine Net, General Info, Toxic to Cats

What!? What!?

-Mensa

 

3 Ingredients: All Natural Every Day Cleaner

DIY, Environment, Green, Homemade, How-To, Latina, Lesbian, Recipe, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We made our own all purpose house cleaner with 3 ingredients we have at home. It will save us some $$$ and it is super environmentally conscious, AND its as easy and cheesy as 1, 2, 3!

One:

Dont throw away your old cleaner’s spray bottle!

Keep it, and fill it half way with white vinegar.

vinegar

TWO:

Fill the rest of the bottle with all-natural tap water! ; )

water bubbles

THREE:

Add about 5-10 drops of essential oil. We used peppermint because it smells oh-so-fresh, but you can do anything from lavender to patchouli!

Peppermint essential oil

THAT’S IT!

You can use this anywhere and everywhere, and according to The New Homemaker there is dozens of combinations that you can use vinegar with to clean everything from your laundry to removing stains and odors!

So why bother buying “green” cleaners when we can make them at home!?

So do it now!

love,

-Mensa

Oh-Organic Marshmallow Fondant, Where art thou?

craft, crafts, DIY, Ecuadorian, Environment, Food, Homemade, How-To, Latina, Lesbian, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Feliz cumpleaños Micaca y Isabela!!!

This birthday cake is dedicated to my crazy cool sister who turned the double douces a week ago…An easy to make fondant added a little color to this delicious chocolate cake, and who doesn’t love fondant? You can really make anything you want with it because its almost like play-dough!

The fondant was ridiculously easy to make, and because of the hype with the marshmallow-fondant recipe, I got caught up in the moment and used ingredients that were not so wholesome for our health. So sorry hermana!

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So the ingredients I used?

Marshmallows= High Fructose Corn Syrup and who knows what  bits and pieces of chicken parts…

Powdered Sugar= I didn’t use any organic or unbleached product…my bad.

Food Coloring= Need I say more?

So here’s the deal. I did a little research and Organic Marshmallow Fondant IS possible.

I found a couple of recipes, yet each of them always had something “off”. So i combined all my research and I think it will be as easy to make an organic fondant recipe without the extra hassle.

So here’s the recipe…

8 oz of mini VEGAN marshmallows (about 4 full cups). They do exist!

1 tbsp of water

1 pound bag of Wholesome Organic Icing Sugar..plus a little bit more for when things get sticky!

1 tbsp of Organic Light corn syrup

1 tbsp of lemon juice

Natural Food Coloring

Organic Butter

* For the Food Coloring there are MANY options. You can buy organic and natural good coloring like Maggie’s Naturals which are made of all natural plant based sources. Your local natural food store should carry some. If you want to experiment and make your own colors you can virtually achieve any of them with any product at the store. Red? Use some beets! Orange? Carrots! Yellow? Tumeric or saffron flowers. Green? You can use spinach or even buy a natural food supplement called liquid chlorophyll. Blues and Purples? Cabbage anyone? Its doable! You might just have to experiment with the recipe.

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The HOW TO:

Add the water to the marshmallows. It usually calls for a minute in the microwave. Skip this step and the extra radiation and heat it the old school way. I will update this recipe when I try it in the oven, but I would start by testing it at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes in a bowl.

Use a WOODEN SPOON covered with butter. This will make the marshmallows stick less to everything and will make it easier to mix. Make sure all the clumps are gone until you have a pretty smooth marshmallow mixture, and add the corn syrup and the lemon. The corn syrup helps make it a bit more flexible so it does not crack and dry so fast, while the lemon reduces the intense sweetness it has.

Start adding the icing sugar bit by bit, and continue mixing it well into the marshmallow mix. Slowly it will start to clump up and it will become hard to keep going further with the spoon. Once you have gone through 3/4 of the sugar, you can transfer the mix to a clean surface and use your hands.

Knead and keep adding the powdered sugar until you have a smooth and malleable dough. If it’s too sticky add a bit of sugar, if it’s too dry then splash water into your hands and knead again.

To prevent it from sticking to the table and the rolling pin, I greased the surfaces with a bit of butter which made things much easier.

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I made some flowers and leaves. Pretty easy! For the leaves I just cut two different shapes and with a toothpick added the lines. For the flowers I used a long flat triangle and started to curl it up from the smallest end. The colors look extremely bright, because they are extremely fake.

So now that I have the recipe and sources, I will make a second attempt to live to what I preach, and make a HEALTHIER and more CONSCIOUS birthday cake, with beautiful organic and natural colors!

image-7

 -Mensa

Re-potting and Re-loving your Plants

DIY, Environment, Green, How-To, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I must admit. I need to be better about taking care of our house plants. So today I got serious! I decided to re-pot them, mix the soil around, add new soil and a little home-made plant food.

The How To’s:

1.Making the Plant Food:

Since we recently started composting, I figured that instead of buying any plant food from the store, I had to put our compost to good use.

image(7)

In a blender I added some coffee grinds, a couple of eggshells, and some compost (which included apple cores, carrot peels and other goodies). I added a healthy amount of water and blended it.

A word about plant food:

Many home made recipes call for a mixture of  Epson Salts, baking powder, regular salt, and household ammonia. Whatever rocks your boat. Personally, adding ammonia, which is considered to be a toxic substance, to anything seems a little crazy to me. Its a natural and organic compound produced and used for growth of many plants, but having a jug of ammonia in the house does not seem like the best and most eco-friendly solution. (If it gets in our water ways it can be extremely harmful). So sticking with all-natural, non-toxic, home-made plant food seems like a better solution to me.

image(5)

2. Mixing the soil

I took old soil from plants that had died due to extreme heat in our kitchen (whoops) and mixed it with new soil in a bucket. I tossed it and added a bit of the juicy plant food (mostly the water part) to moisten the soil. I added more water to the mix in order to have the soil thoroughly moist.

3. Re-potting your plants

***The most important thing I did through out this whole process was talking to my plants! Call me crazy, but I really felt like they needed to know what was going on. Imagine being pulled out of your warm comfy home and abruptly placed in a new pot! So as I did this I explained the process, was really gentle, made them feel more at ease, and made ME feel like I knew what I was doing (even though it was my first real re-potting experience!)…So it helped us all : )

-Start by having everything ready and clean. I made a mess, so cleaning as you go is definitely recommended.

– Prep your flower pot with a little dirt at the bottom. If there is a hole you can cover it using a shard of an old broken pot making sure you don’t cover the hole completely. Add a bit of the plant food that you have prepared.

image(6)

-I took my first plant and flipped it gently until it loosened and came out of its pot. I dug a little around the edges and it helped to get it out. I untangled the roots a bit and watered them slightly and placed it on the pot.

-I covered and filled the pot with dirt and half way through I added a bit more of the plant food. Then I covered it completely, making sure I stayed at least half an inch from the rim (if not when you water it, it can overflow).

-Use a spray to clean the leaves of your plants if they have dirt on them, so they can breathe!

Tell your plants that they are awesome and that this is for their own good even if they hate you… ; ) Sun, water and love will make their day!

Now they will grow stronger than ever and produce beautiful blooms and strong green leaves!

-Mensa

Easy Hummus Yummus Recipe! (Without Tahini)

DIY, Food, Food and Wine, Gay, Homemade, Latina, Lesbian, Recipe, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday morning I cleaned my kitchen and realized I had a can of garbanzo beans in the pantry…So what can I make? Well what else but HUMMUS!

I looked up a couple of recipes and realized that one of the main ingredients, tahini (sesame paste), was not in my pantry…

So I IMPROVISED! And it turned out better than delicious!

This is an easy recipe for a home-made hummus. I usually eat it with carrots, sugar snap peas and crunchy anything. The combination is the best!

IMG_1992

Here it is:

-1 can of garbanzo beans

-1 lemon for its tangy juice (use less depending on your liking…I ❤ lemons!)

-salty salt (about a teaspoon or more also depending on your tastebuds)

– Olive Oil

– a little cumin

-1 tablespoon or so of pine nuts (These replaced the sesame seeds/tahini)

-1 clove of garlic

Add garbanzo beans (making sure you drain all the extra water from the can), about a teaspoon of salt, a good two tablespoons of olive oil, the garlic, a couple of “shakes” of cumin, and the pine nuts all in a food processor. You can also use a blender of course, as long as you blend it to a smooth consistency. I eye-balled the recipe, so amounts are about what I think I put in. A little more, a little less will only make it YOUR hummus recipe :]

IMG_1983

I tasted it and thought it needed a bit more olive oil, so as it blended I poured a bit more in to give it texture. I transferred it to my own tub and now I have hummus for the week!

And it only took about 10 minutes!

First time hummus making…a delicious SUCCESS!

-Mensa

DIY Body Art

Art, crafts, DIY, Gay, Latina, tattoo, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Things are done better, with more love, and more rewards if you at least try to do them yourself (as opposed to  having something pre-made). So why not design your own tattoo?!

So for Mushpa’s birthday, one of the things she asked was to design something to compliment the tattoo she already has.

some beginnings

Here are a couple of sketches of the soon-to-be-tattoo!IMG_6876

Why not draw something that only you imagine in your head? It is a fun process, and you get to have more of a say in every detail possible, and it is only yours!

(Ps. This sketch has already changed a bit since this post!)
(Ps. This sketch has already changed a bit since this post!)

Want some art in your body? Do it yourself! (Starting at least with the design part of it all! We can move to tattooing later…)

: D

Keep on making,

-Mensa

The Case of the Tablet – Part 1

accessories, Art, craft, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Gay, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is our most recent creation. A tablet case. Wooden buttons, hemp string and felt made from recycled plastic bottles! Perfect… Except for the tablet that could potentially goes inside…image(1)

I will let Mushpa (aka IT Phenomenon) take over on what makes tablets and other technological goodies a choice of ethical consciousness.

I have been guilty of buying into the Apple craze, but my iPod did not come from the best of the environments, and the workers that made my little music player work, have not been treated too well either…

So Mushpa, do you mind filling us in on why it is that inside this new case there should be, according to current research, the best choice of tablet currently in the market?

image

Meanwhile, check out our new product at our Etsy store,  and remember, we can always custom make you case with your colors of choice!

-Mensa

Don’t Judge a Wine Bottle by Its Cover…Or Should You?

Art, Food and Wine, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So of course you don’t want to judge a book, a person, or a wine by its cover, but we all do it to some extent. It’s a fact of life. (If you believe you don’t then more power to you.)

We recently bought two bottles over at Trader Joe’s, and I left there, like always, very happy. Great selection and variety for really affordable prices, and sometimes you might get really lucky and find some delicious gems without the outrageous price! Just sayin’…

But on our recent trip over there, we bought two particularly aesthetically pleasing bottles. Mushpa picked the Dearly Beloved I Thee Red Wine, which describes itself as having “aromas of dark cherry plum and spicy vanilla oak [that] vow to pair perfectly with bluberry, black currant and toasted vanilla bean flavors.”IMG_6696

I myself went for the Liberté Cabernet Sauvignon which “delivers an exceptional bouquet of blackberries, autumanl leaves and baking spices followed by opulent flavors of clove and marzipan.” Honestly I don’t know where they got the marzipan notes, but since I am no wine expert I will trust the house, Familia Nueva’s palate.

Both have exceptional art and depending on your style, your attention will go to grabbing either bottle off the shelf. The Liberté has a beautiful label with what I believe is an Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau painting, which I particularly enjoy. When I first saw it, it reminded me of Henri Privat-Livemont poster for Absinthe Robette.

I really really like Art Nouveau…So beautiful!

The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red has an image of a skull formed of leaves and flowers surely influenced by indigenous mexican art which commonly uses skulls and skeletons in order to represent death, life and resurrection (and it is silkscreened onto the bottle!).

IMG_6693

I have to confess: I judged both bottles by their beautiful covers. I thought my lady in tan with leaves on her head would deliver a much more satisfying wine than the one with the skull. I’m sorry Mushpa, I apologize I judged your wine too harshly, thinking that for such wonderful art I would have to compensate by drinking a mediocre wine…

Oh how wrong I was!

The Dearly Beloved was spectacular! It filled my nostrils with sweet aromas and when I took the first sip it almost fooled me into thinking it was as sweet as dessert wine! So sweet…until you finish letting it go, and it delivers dearly with a beloved final kick. It had been a while that I had tasted a wine that I truly enjoyed!

And I must say that my Liberté was an alright pick. I am not going to judge it with fancy words because I am not an avid wine connoisseur, but I do have a palate and I know how to taste. I will say that next time I need to buy someone a gift, I would most definitely buy it again for the art! :]

I also ran into this amazing site called the Wine Proof Collective. They keep it real and part of their amazing journey to love and live wine is their Wine Projects, and they get artist and wine makers together to design some of the most beautiful wine labels I have seen! To put it in their own words: “these packages were not made to look good on a computer screen, but rather to be at home in a natural habitat. These wine bottles look best on the shelf, in your hands, in your refrigerator, and on your best friend’s dinner table.” And that, my friends is what art is all about- to keep it close, for your viewing pleasure.

Screen shot 2013-02-14 at 4.10.24 PM

So to all artist, dead and alive, thank you for combining these two wonderful things together! And next time you are shopping for wine, and the bottle is more beautiful than what you expect the wine to be, I say don’t be scared and give it a try. It might surprise you, and if not, you might just have bought yourself a fantastical piece of art!

Cheers y Salud!

-Mensa

Vertebral: T-shirt Collection

Art, Clothes, craft, crafts, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Gay, Knitting, Latina, Lesbian, Queer, Small Business, Stuffed Animal, T-shirts, Uncategorized, Woman Owned Business, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So what can we add to an already awesome t-shit to make it extra nice?

image-4
trippled-yarned back.

Well, how about some vertebral funk!

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a big bow

Yarn, scissors and a little creative juice

makes these the first set of T’s we have revamped with lots of love!

four little bows...
four little bows…

Testing! Testing! so they are not for sale……yet.

Let us know what you think!

❤

-Mensa

Ps. Gracias Mushpa for the absolute patience when trying these on!

“Mama Earth” Soon-to-be Design

Art, Clothes, Ecuadorian, Etsy, Fashion, Gay, Latina, Lesbian, Small Business, Stuffed Animal, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SNEAK PEAK:

Starts with a mama and ends with a cure. Que es?! It’s one of our new crazy cool t-shirt designs! We have received our screen printing materials and are ready to star scanning some designs to begin the screen printing process.

image

Hey Mushpa. What do you think about posting soon a how-to introductory screen printing blurb? We want to make art accessible for people, so what do you think about posting  instructions on how to do it yourself? Although, disclaimer folks… it might not be as cheap as a pencil and paper, but it sure will be fun!

All done with much love,

-Mensa