Oat & Honey Face Mask

Looking for more winter skin care options? Check out our pumpkin + honey face mask, winter face oil, and coconut + rose makeup remover and evening oil.

Hey there! Happy New Year!

Popping in with a quick and simple DIY face mask that’s the perfect fix for dry winter skin.

About a month ago, my skin was really suffering from the dry Colorado air. It was dry and tight, and starting to break out. After ignoring it for about a week, I realized that I needed a fix, but I wanted to keep it simple, and with only three ingredients, this recipe fit the bill.

Oat & Honey Face Mask

As you’ll see, precise measurements aren’t necessary for this recipe.

  • ground whole oats
  • water
  • honey

Use a blade coffee grinder to pulverize about 2 Tbsp of oats. If your coffee grinder is dirty from coffee or other spices, you can easily clean it by grinding up a small amount of rice before grinding the oats.

Place the ground oats in a small bowl and add enough water to make a thick paste. Mix thoroughly to break up any oat lumps.

Add some honey, about equal to half of your oat paste. Stir until blended, and then it’s ready to use!

Apply the mask to your face and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Just before it’s starting to get hard around the edges, wipe off and apply your favorite moisturizer or serum. I use our DIY face serum.

Because this is so easy to make, I recommend making a small amount, about enough for one or two applications. Or you can grind a bunch of oats to have on hand for the next time that you want to make more. I don’t recommend mixing a large batch because it may go bad before you use it up.

Wishing you a happy new year and some healthy winter skin! xo

Good Stuff: Podcasts for Kids (and adults!)

Interested in some podcasts for adults? Sarah shared her master list here.

Do you listen to podcasts with your kids? I love it as both a form of entertainment (screen-free entertainment!) and as another medium for learning. For all of the podcasts on this list, the kids think of these as purely entertainment, and I just love that the learning is a by-product.

This is a round-up of our absolute favorites after years of listening. We definitely can’t rank them, because that list would change daily. Over that time, our interest in the different shows ebbs and flows depending upon the boys’ interests, but we always come back to the podcasts on this list.

The episode length for these podcasts may be anywhere from 7 to 30 minutes long, which is great for listening when we’re running errands around town. When we’re going on longer road trips, I like to put on an audiobook because the playtimes are much longer. We’ll share some of our favorite audio books in another post.

Myths and Folktales

Nature and Environmental Science

General Science

Debate w/ a Variety of Topics

Historical Figures

Music

2022 New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year! It’s 2022 or maybe 2020. Who knows. What is time? Anyway, we love a good calendar flip and tend to create goals and resolutions around it. Here’s a reminder of my New Year resolutions from 2021 and Katie’s resolutions. Just to be clear, I typically don’t accomplish all of my goals, but I enjoy making them! I even enjoy admitting defeat, so here are a plethora of 2022 New Year resolutions.

Continue reading

Coconut + Rose Evening Oil & Makeup Remover

If you’re interested in more DIY skin-care potions, check out these posts.

Today we’re sharing the recipe for a super simple evening face oil.

This potion is much simpler than our winter face oil. As explained in that post, our winter face oil calls for a blend of different carrier and essential oils, each with their own beneficial properties from firming the skin to lightening aging spots.

With only three ingredients, today’s potion is much easier to make, but that doesn’t detract from its usefulness and indulgent properties. This oil smells amazing, and it’s is something that I like to use in the evenings because it does double duty: removes my makeup and moisturizes““““““““““` before bed.

Continue reading

Snowshoeing

Have you tried snowshoeing yet?

snowshoe_aspens

snowshoe_kate_alex

We believe that spending time outdoors is important year-round. Yes, even in winter! I know that instincts tell us to hibernate when the weather gets cold and the days get short, but that’s when it becomes important to spend some time outside recharging our souls, resetting our state of mind, and burning a few calories.

If you’re new to the activity, snowshoeing is a great way to spend time outside. Once you get the shoes strapped on, just start walking. It’s that easy! Continue reading

Gift Idea: Great Coffee Table Books

We love books. If you know us, you know this. Today we’re sharing some last minute, but golden, Christmas gift ideas: Great Coffee Table Books. I cherish a big and beautiful book, but it is one of those items that is harder for me to justify purchasing for myself. That means it’s a beloved gift when received!

A few things to ask yourself before you gift a great coffee table book:

  1. Does your recipient live in a tiny home? If so, do not get them a book. Do not get them any items, instead take them to a nice dinner or buy an experience for them.
  2. What topic or subject area does your recipient like? Start by thinking broadly by interest for instance, travel, nature, hobbies (surfing or mountainbiking?), design (interior, architectural, or graphic?) subjects (history or geology?), or artform (weaving or oil painting?) and then you can go deeper within that frame.
  3. What medium do they enjoy? Photography? Illustration or painting? Maybe they’re a big reader and would like something with a robust written narritive?
  4. To narrow down your choices even further, think about your answers to question 3 & 4 and travel a little further down those lanes. When thinking about someone who likes travel, do they love a particular destination? For instance, if I know someone is a Paris fanatic, I would ask myself if they also have a love for architecture, food, fashion, or maybe modern art? I would also think about their current artwork, interests and where they find inspiration to try to nail down if I’m seeking out a photography based book or something else. If I know they like street photography, Paris, and using pops of color in thier home, this book, Paris in Color, may be the perfect gift for them!

Continue reading

Gift Idea: Cyanotype DIY + Book

The inspiration for this gift idea developed a couple of weeks ago when I was scanning the library shelves and came across the book called The Bluest of Blues about Anna Atkins and her use of cyanotype photography. That is one of her images above.

If you’re still looking for a gift for a great kid in your life, we may have just the thing.

Continue reading

Waste Less Wednesday: Read Used Books

Many Wednesdays this year we’re checking in to share how we’re reducing our environmental impact. Some of these ideas are big and require a bit of effort. Others are super small and simple, like this one. But we believe that they all make a difference.

Today I’m comin’ at ya with a simple suggestion: read used books. Whether you’re a book worm yourself or you love gifting books to others, we encourage you to purchased used books from small, local retailers.

Why buy used? Used books are EVERYWHERE! Some folks keep each book they read, but most are capable of shedding books they didn’t love or don’t need anymore. Buying used books helps to reduce waste both upstream (waste you don’t see that’s produced in the production, transportation, and packaging of books) and downstream (household waste that we throw away each year).

Continue reading

See the Larches at Blue Lake + Washington Pass Lookout – North Cascades

We often detail day hikes – check out our full archive here.

live seasoned blue lake hike-26

If you live in Washington, it’s time to pencil in a weekend to see the larches! If you’re not familiar with larches, they’re the bright yellow pine trees in the photo above. Larches are deciduous conifers meaning they have needles instead of leaves and although they are conifers, larches are deciduous trees that lose their needles during autumn. Pretty neat!

I hadn’t seen a larch until I moved to Washington state. They are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains further south. Larches are among the dominant plants in the boreal forests of Siberia and Canada.  In the U.S., you can find larches in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, here in Washington.  In Washington, you can typically count on larches being in bloom at the end of September and the beginning of October. The vibrant color varies each year and is different depending on the time and elevation, so your best bet is to get out there early and often. Larches can grow to be big boys – sometimes reaching 150 feet tall.

If you’re looking for a nice walk with bright autumn color, any old hike will do ya, but I highly recommend hiking to Blue Lake. Note there are at least six lakes named ‘Blue Lake’ in Washington (and another Blue Lake that Kate visited in Colorado!). I’m referring to the one just off of Highway 20 in the North Cascades. Blue Lake is an amazing Seattle weekend getaway destination. This beautiful 4.5 mile out and back hike features towering granite peaks, evergreen forests, meadows and slide areas with wildflowers and foliage, and of course the most beautiful blue mountain lake.

If you’re traveling from Seattle, it will take you about two hours and forty minutes to Blue Lake. Blue Lake is a sparkly gem surrounded by sheer granite peaks and it would not be a stretch to say it’s the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen and way up there on my short list of best hikes. That’s no giveaway coming from someone who has been hiking and backpacking since the age of eight. Someone who has hiked across mountain ranges in Nepal and through jungles in Thailand, this hike was freaking amaze balls. If you’re within a three-hour radius, grab your boots, drive to Blue Lake, and start walking.

live seasoned blue lake hike-17

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say we also caught Blue Lake at the best possible time of year. Before setting out on this hike (back in 2018!), I had no idea the larches were in bloom. I actually had no idea what larches were, but now I plan weekend adventures around these beauties. You have to catch them when they change color before the needles fall. You’ll be ooing and aahing every step of the way. Just for reference, this hike to Blue Lake was during the last weekend in September, on the 29th to be exact.

Continue reading