I Love Your Blog and Heart for Nature!

I am delighted to announce that Bailey of "I Know All The Words: Everything You Need...You Just Don't Know It Yet" has awarded me with the "I ♥ Your Blog Award!" Yippee! So, the rules state that I need to post the award on my blog (check!) link back to the person who gave it to me (check! and make sure if you aren't already to follow her blog!) and finally, I need to pick 15 other delightful bloggers and pass the award on to them. When you decide to share the love with your favorite blogs don't forget to follow these rules and add the "I ♥ Your Blog Award!" button to your post.


In addition to "the rules" I have decided to select my favorite bloggers that have a love for nature like I do! Here it goes, in no particular order:
1. Little Gray Fox
2. The Homesteading Apartment
3. Sweetie-Scraps
4. Dee's Kitchen and Bath
5. Krishenka's Vintage Treasures
6. Photos by Rosie
7. Southwest Sky Jewelry
8. Second Wind Vintage
9. JCB Design Studio
10. Wilde Designs
11. Heaven Baked Sweets
12. Pink Dandy Chatter
13. Freaky Keen
14. The Tea Bag Compost Pile
15. Vegan Craftastic

Mario Star Birthday Cake for My Hubby!

My husband Joe's 27th birthday was August 1st, but since my sister's birth of her new baby boy Bobby was on the previous day, we have been pretty busy. So we celebrated his birthday this evening. We ate at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant called "Osaka's" (absolutely delicious), and came back to Joe's mom's house (Beverly) to play old Mario games and eat cake...such a wonderful night! This "Mario Star" birthday cake has 27 candles on it!


This cake was so much fun to make; it's a "from scratch" chocolate cake with homemade butter cream frosting! Yum yum! :-D I love my Joe!


All of the ingredients in this are all-natural...I achieved the color of the frosting by using turmeric spice (about 2 teaspoons...you can't really taste it because the sugar in the frosting over powers it)...and the eyes are made by mixing cocoa into the butter cream frosting. Therefore this frosting has no artificial colors and is 100% natural! Yellow is a very affordable color to achieve by using turmeric...for other colors my sister has purchased a twenty dollar package of natural food colorings to get pink and purple. We have to use the entire bottles to get just a little close to achieving red and blue, so we just make pink and purple accents to our yellow cakes...like we did in my mother-in-law Beverly's Big Bird birthday cake last year:

The Joyous Birth of My Adorable Nephew Bobby!

I am officially an Aunt! My superwoman twin sister naturally delivered Robert Clay Scott III yesterday at 3:30 p.m...and I was in the delivery room to experience one of the most joyous moments of my life! I love my sister and best-friend; she and her loving husband Robert received a wonderful gift and blessing yesterday! Today (August 1st) is my darling husband Joe's birthday...he's a very handsome twenty-seven year old!

Vintage 60's Playboy Vargas Pin Up Girl Prints!

I am now selling two Vintage 60's Playboy Vargas Pin Up Girl Prints in my Etsy shop!

Check them out in my "Vintage Treasures" section in my Eco-Friendly Freckles shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ecofriendlyfreckles?section_id=7225358

Clear Away Acne and other Skin Blemishes with Petitgrain Essential Oil!

The therapeutic properties of Petitgrain essential oil are anti-infectious, antiseptic and tonic. It is most useful in clearing up skin blemishes and acne skin, while helping to with calming, toning and revitalizing the skin!

Petitgrain essential oil has a very fresh woody and slightly floral smell and is pale yellow to amber in color which adds to the beautiful, natural golden color to my All-Natural Golden Goddess Soap.



Petitgrain Essential Oil is distilled from the leaves and sometimes the twigs and branches of the tree whereas Neroli essential oil is distilled from the blossoms and Orange Essential Oil is typically cold pressed from the rinds of the fruits.

Please check out my All-Natural Golden Goddess Vegan Soap in my Eco-Friendly Freckles online shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ecofriendlyfreckles?section_id=6962890

Our First Delicious Homegrown Heirloom Tomato!

This evening Joe and I worked in our inspiring organic, heirloom garden and we picked our first homegrown tomato: a delicious heirloom "Plum Lemon" (pictured above); it was rich, juicy, and had a perfect tomato flavor with a hint of lemon!


Our tee pee style hand-made trellises made out of bamboo tied together with yarn...I think they are fun and kind of asthetically pleasing.


These photos were taken before we did a lot of "de-weeding"...we're getting a new riding lawn mower...yippee! :-D


Our flourishing bean plant growing up some bamboo...


This is our "Roman Candle" heirloom tomato plant...that yellow one is just about ready to pick!


...a cluster of our Heirloom Tommy Tomatoes!


We have a few of these adorable and very fragrant Basil plants.


This is our Heirloom "Black Beauty" eggplant...that pretty flower is going to be a ravishing eggplant soon!


We think these might be "Nebraska Wedding" heirloom tomatoes...but were not sure yet.


This is our WILD heirloom cherry tomato plant...this plant just popped up on its own; it must have grown from a seed from last year's garden.


Our heirloom yellow squash plant...


Working in the garden is so peaceful and fulfilling...it is so much fun spending time in the sunshine with someone you love, connecting with nature, and reaping the benefits with a homegrown harvest!


I think these might be some of our Marglobe Supreme heirloom tomatoes.


Heirloom "Green Zebra" tomatoes!!!




Our little baby heirloom watermelon...


...is just a part of our enormous watermelon vine! :-D

A Functional Art Piece for the Baby's Nursery!

I gave my twin sister, Andrea, one of my hand-painted, upcycled decoupage creations for her sweet baby boy's nursery at her baby shower. She absolutely adores it and I am so happy to see her not only displaying it in the baby's room but she is also utilizing it as a functional piece of art. This is what she says about it:

"This was the best, most personalized, and handy gift I could have received at the baby's shower. I love this artful baby's organizer/canister! It holds all of my washable cloth baby wipes just perfectly. I think it will come in handy a lot once the baby arrives. Jessica did so well on the design! I love how it features colorful baby blocks and a smart toddler with his nose in a book; I can only hope for my baby boy to turn out this cute. He has the greatest aunt there ever was. Thank you Jessy. xoxo"

Love - Andy