Boost Your Health With Kombucha!

The delightful image above is an original oil painting titled "Lightness Becomes You" by fellow Etsy Recycler's Guild member Adrien Art.
Feel energized, detox your body, and boost your health with kombucha tea!
Kombucha Tea is a biological active product fermented with a living culture ("scoby") to become a natural living food high in enzymes. Scientific research shows the benefits of Kombucha, whose high concentration of probiotic-rich acids can provide a powerful energy boost, as well as detoxify and cleanse the blood of disease-causing toxins, allowing the body to alleviate a wide spectrum of ailments and conditions; from the mildest indisposition to the most serious diseases.

Drinking Kombucha tea regularly has been shown to benefit the human body by:

* balancing the metabolism
* cleansing the blood and regulating pH levels
* improving liver, gall bladder, and digestive function
* detoxifying the body and enhancing the immune system
* raising overall energy level
This summer while the heat is intense and you're enjoying some fresh air, have yourself a cool, refreshing glass of kombucha and detox while you hydrate!

If you are interested in making your own kombucha at home, I have organic kombucha scobies in my Etsy shop for making this delicious and nutritious probiotic beverage; with this kombucha scoby all you need is some black or green tea and you are on your way to kombucha-making success. Also, with each order of my kombucha scobies, I send a step-by-step picture tutorial that I have made to assist you in making your first batch of kombucha tea!

Free Gift of Shakespeare Tea with the Purchase of My Art Piece

Special This Month: My darling sister Andrea's Etsy Shop, Storybook Artifact, is offering a free gift of her Shakespeare Tea Blend (packaged by the ounce in a decorated wax-sealed bag), with the purchase of my hand-painted upcycled decoupage canister "Shakespeare's Muse" (a wonderful combination gift)!!! Please note that this is a limited time offer: good through the month of May.You can view her Shakespeare Tea Blend and my "Shakespeare's Muse" decoupage canister here:

Shakespeare Tea Blend

"Shakespeare's Muse" hand-painted upcycled decoupage canister

Also, please check out a recent treasury my sweet sister Andrea of Storybook Artifact created that was inspired by this offer and features my "Shakespeare's Muse" decoupage canister titled "Within the Mind of Shakespeare".

May's Featured EtsyBlogger is Nancy of NanjoDogz!

Congratulations fellow EtsyBlogger Nancy of NanjoDogz for being this month's "Featured EtsyBlogger"!!! I absolutely adore this Little Polymer Clay Bookworm Bead that I found in this delightful Etsy shop! It reminds me of cute bookworm mascot from my small town local library...he encouraged me to read so many books. What better thing to do for summertime leisure than to read a good book! I have created a treasury featuring this NanjoDogz item titled "Summertime Leisure"!!!
Speaking of a good summer read, I love this vintage book collection of the little leather library titled "Victorian Literature Collection" that my sister, Andrea, has in her Etsy shop, Storybook Artifact.Andrea also has an adorable hand-painted bookmark that is called "Princess Story-Bookmark Original Oil Painting" which I also feature in the treasury above.

Recycle, Repurpose, and Reorganize Your Spring Cleaning - EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival

Does your Spring Cleaning need some eco-friendly pizazz?! Do you need a decorative storage place to keep your craft supplies and other odds and ends? Well, I think I have the perfect thing for you: a beautifully hand-painted upcycled decoupage canister or tin from my shop Eco-Friendly Freckles! Here is a picture I took of my work desk; I am using two of functionally artsy upcycled organizers from my shop "Sunshine on a Rainy Day" (as pictured above) and "Paulie's Confession".Since I use a lot of magazines with my decoupage art, I needed a place to store my magazines that was tidy, functional, and decorative...because I knew that whatever I would come up with would probably end up out in the open, and the last thing I want is an eyesore. However, I am also quite frugal and creative so I didn't want to go purchasing some decorative storage boxes...I wanted to figure out how to make my own. So this is what I came up with:
...I made a few of these decorative storage boxes since I have a gargantuan stash of magazines. The only materials I used to make these were: used cardboard boxes that I recycled from my work at Akin's Natural Foods Market (funny thing is, these boxes originally held our Akin's Healthy Edge Magazines...so I knew my magazines at home would fit perfectly), tape/glue or any desired adhesive, a box-cutter to trim off the top cardboard flaps of the box, a pair of scissors, and any large piece of decorative paper (wrapping paper works best; I cut a piece of see-through lacy embellished paper...I like the look of the natural brown from the cardboard popping through the lace decals). Just wrap the box like you would a gift and adhere the paper to the inside box so it is secure...and vwa la, you have created a recycled, repurposed organizing storage container that looks lovely!

Cha Cha Cha Chia! Raw Chocolate Chia Pudding Trifle Recipe!

Chia Seeds are so very healthy for you...they aren't just used to grow cute chia pets! They are a favorite staple ingredient amongst raw foodists...Here is an informative video clip telling you all about chia seed and it's health benefits:

http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=F99BA7CA912165275467CC90764F2738
I LOVE chia seed; it is AMAZING! It is great for my digestion and it makes some delicious and nutritious desserts (it is also a great ingredient to implement into many different recipes). We use Nutiva brand Chia Seed found here:

Here is the recipe for a "Raw Dark Chocolate Chia Pudding Trifle with Strawberries and All-Natural Vanilla Wafers" that my husband and I made this weekend!


Raw Dark Chocolate Chia Pudding Trifle with Strawberries and All-Natural Vanilla Wafers

Ingredients-

Pudding:

1/2 cup chia seed
1 1/2 raw goats milk (any milk will work for this recipe)
6 tablespoons raw cocoa powder (any cocoa powder will work for this recipe)
3 raw egg yolks; preferably from local farm fresh pastured (NOT pasteurized!) eggs
1/3 cup - 1/2 cup chopped dates (or as sweet as you would like it; "to taste")
1 - 2 tablespoon raw local honey (or as sweet as you would like it; "to taste")
2 tablespoons coconut cream concentrate (We got ours from Tropical Traditions)
1 ripe banana
1/4 tsp. sea salt
A splash of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum (optional)

Meringue:

3 raw egg whites ; preferably from local farm fresh pastured (NOT pasteurized!) eggs (we used 4 egg whites because we wanted more meringue for layering)
organic cane sugar ("to taste"...we used Organic Florida Crystals)

Trifle Remaining Layering Ingredients:

sliced strawberries (preferably organic)
all-natural vanilla wafers (we used used Organic Vanilla Wafers from Country Choice)

Instructions:

Add the milk to the chia seed in a medium sized mixing bowl, stir, and let sit until the chia seed absorbs the milk and has a gelatin consistency (about 10-15 minutes). Add six tablespoons raw cocoa powder and stir into the milk and chia mixture. Separate three egg yolks from three egg whites and add the egg yolks to the chia seed mixture; set the egg whites aside for meringue. Now you can pour the chia mixture into a blender or Vita Mix, and add coconut cream concentrate, banana, sea salt, and honey...slowing add the chopped dates while pulsing the blender (add a splash of spiced rum if you want...we did!) and then blend the pudding up til smooth.

Make meringue by beating the three (or four) egg whites with the sugar until the mixture forms soft peaks.

Layer the bottom of your trifle dish with all-natural vanilla wafers, putting some decoratively propped up on the sides of the dish as well. Then add a layer of your raw chocolate chia pudding, then a layer strawberries, then meringue, then repeat the layers until you reach the top and put meringue and sliced strawberries on the very top. Vwa la...Enjoy!!!