DIY mouthwash- no cancer-causing alcohols included

I read somewhere that the alcohol in regular mouthwash can cause cancer in the mouth tissues. Plus, Listerine is bright green because of 'D&C yellow no. 10' and 'FD&C green no.3'. And the active ingredients are eucalyptus extract, mint extracts, and thyme extract. Hm! Sounds like I could make it myself!

My recipe--

2 drops peppermint oil
2 drops tea tree oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup warm water

Mix in a cup and stir with a spoon to mix up oils and water. Enough for two uses. It is colorless and tastes more salty while in your mouth, but afterwards you feel the peppermint and tea tree tingly sensation.

ANDAND if you use this homemade mouth wash, you will protect the oceans from pollution. The two ounces of mouthwash you use everyday might seem like nothing in the grand scheme of things, but imagine the supermarket aisle of mouthwash- a whole wall of green chemical-laced alcohol. Each bottle will eventually get bought, swished, and spit out into a drain that leads into the ocean. Iono about you, but I'd rather be swimming in a little peppermint oil than alot of 'Poloxamer 407'.

I gots ladybug pupa on my guava tree!!!

Thanks to Kyle Meyer for tipping me off on what they are- I have a fear of anything with an exoskeleton (except for butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, and bees, to some extent) and probably would've allowed my parents to spray soapy water on them and wash 'em out. Here they are!


Well, thats only one of them, but multiply by two on one cute little leaf =) They will be ready to emerge in about a week!

We also have ladybug larvae in lots of different stages and ladybug eggs on a leaf or two. I'm really excited to watch the eggs hatch. How exciting! ... I'm getting excited over ladybugs. Typical =)

BUTBUTBUT some other insect has also chosen my guava tree to host its young. The eggs are everywhere! I'm scared that its some tree-destroying insect or a threatening species to Southern California. Can anyone help me identify?

omgosh this picture gives me the absolute heebie jeebies. that yellow egg looks alot like a lady bug egg, but those insects dont look anything like a ladybug larvae at any stage. seems like there is a larvae right in the midst of them, and seems like those little white things are eggs.. eggs that have been hatched out of?

I noticed one climbing over my hand after these pictures and stifled the 'scream and run' instinct to take a picture. My guava tree BETTER love me!



this one had lost one of its fake back *antenna*

HALP!!!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies! {featuring guest chef, Ms Elise Smith}

So, I have gone strict pescetarian, which means no milk, no meat, and no eggs. The only animal products I eat are fish and bee products. Its for environmental reasons, if you're interested, I will talk your ear off about it =)

But anyways. Most cookies, cakes, muffins are off limits for strict pescetarians + My main sweet tooth is for baked yumminess = Marilyn's face looking like :'(

so I crossed dietary lines and asked Elise to teach me her vegan cooking secrets

in case you're wondering.. there is only one because turned cookie monster on my batch before ever taking a decent photo

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon, however much you want
vegan chocolate chips (dark chocolate, fairtrade is delcious =) )
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup canola/veggie oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

1. Mix Dry ingredients
















2. Mix sugar and oil so that sugar absorbs oil (very important! or else you will end up with oily, thin, burned cookies! learned that the hard way..).

3. Mix in vanilla and water to sugar-oil.

4. Mix in wet ingredients to dry.

5. shape into cute little blobs on an ungreased baking pan.

6. Bake for 9 minutes in an oven at 350 degreees. You can flip them over at the halfway point, but mine were all squished and pointed and I wanted to keep them that way.


These cookies are of the drier, crispy kind- perfect for my cookie-dunking ritual involving soy or homemade almond milk. They taste like french toast plus chocolate when you dump in alot of cinnamon.


We began our sugar highs with driveway chalk art


and rode it out by teaching Elise how to ride my Arbor sustainably made longboard



fun day!