Monthly Archives: June 2015

Two Bits

by Katie | Leave a comment

We want to break down these internet barriers and invite you into our lives and we’re hoping you’ll do the same.  You are welcome to share a bit of your week or day in the comments, or if they’re better represented by a photo, tag us on instagram @liveseasoned.

 

Katie here :

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If you’ve glanced at the weather report recently, you may have noticed that Colorado is covered in one big cloud that’s sticking around through tomorrow. It’s wet and grey, and if we don’t look out, we could be carried off by a flash flood. This is a complete 180 from earlier in the week when our days were warm and sunny. On one of those nice days, we went for a hike in Chautauqua. Starting up the the trail and watching the line of hikers both in front of and behind you always makes me laugh. Going for a hike, at least close to the city, is not the peaceful, solitary activity it was when we lived in PA, but once you get up into the trees and the trails branch off, the crowds thin out. They never completely disappear, but you can begin to hear yourself think. I’m not complaining about the crowds, because it’s nice to be surrounded by so many like-minded people, but I still haven’t gotten used to it. That said, after about a year of living here, it was nice to get up to Chautauqua again (we didn’t do much hiking here throughout the winter), and this time have it feel so familiar and like home, as opposed to feeling like I was on vacation in CO, which is what I felt like for so long after having moved here. Has that happened to you? You move to a place that’s so different from where you grew up, that you can’t quite shake the feeling that you’re just on vacation? It’s also slightly strange to me that Alex and Luc are going to grow up in a landscape that’s wildly different form the one I grew up in.

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Mold & Mildew Shower Spray

by Katie | Leave a comment

This is the first of a multi-part series on using essential oils in the home and on your body. Excited to make some potions? We already have some essential oil uses in our archives, and you can see our introduction to essential oils here. Also, lemons are our ingredient of the season. You can find more lemony-fresh posts here.

Moving into our new house, I had one thing on my mind when it came to the showers : keeping them clean! Let’s be honest, they are never really squeaky clean, but I wanted to be sure that they stayed free of mold and mildew. We have three showers in the house, and they are all tiled and have glass doors, so there are a lot of grout cracks and door crevices to keep my eye on.

With the limited time I have, I knew I wouldn’t be in there scrubbing them each week, so I was on the hunt for a mold and mildew prevention spray that I could use between deep cleans. I found just what I was looking for in my new favorite cleaning resource, The Naturally Clean Home. That is a great book for anyone looking to rid their cleaning routine of chemicals, and it’s particularly helpful if you’re new to many of the natural alternatives as she provides a great overview of what the common ingredients used throughout the book.

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Today’s recipe uses two essential oils and a citrus extract. All three ingredients are powerful antimicrobials, helping to kill mold, mildew, bacteria, and fungus. All of the nasty stuff that you don’t want growing in your shower. Water is used as the diluting agent, because at full strength, the oils and extracts would cause damage to your skin and possibly to some of the surfaces in your shower.

Ingredients & Materials :

  • spray bottle, 16 oz or larger
  • 2 cups water
  • 8-10 drops citrus seed extract (commonly sold in health food stores as grapefruit seed extract)
  • 2 tsp tea tree oil
  • 4-6 drops lemon essential oil

Mix all ingredients together in the bottle and spray on a wet shower surface (a great time is immediately after you shower), paying special attention to cracks and crevices, especially those that are in the darker corners of your shower. I like to give the bottle a good shake before each use, just to be sure that the ingredients are well-mixed.

While this spray does an amazing job of deterring mold and mildew, and even killing the little colonies that start to grow, I’ve found that there are time when I have to add a bit of scrubbing to completely eliminate some spots. When I have them, I love to use magic erasers for this job. I find that at times they are even better than a traditional scrub brush at getting into small crevices and completely removing all signs of mold and mildew.

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When it comes to this potion, I always use the grapefruit extract and tea tree oil, but will vary which other essential oil I’m using depending upon the season. I’ve used peppermint, eucalyptus, and lavender in the past. If you do experiment, I would recommend sticking with an essential oil that has some antimicrobial properties, but off course, you could always add a few drops of other essential oils if you like their aroma.

Now, do yourself and the planet some good : ditch the bleach cleaners and start crafting your own shower spray with essential oils!

Using Essential Oils

by Katie | Leave a comment

This is the first of a multi-part series on using essential oils in the home and on your body. Excited to make some potions? We already have some essential oil uses in our archives.

Wherever I can, I’ve been trying to eliminate chemicals from our home, and introduce more natural alternatives, whether we’re talking cleaning products for the bathroom, cosmetics, or even pharmaceuticals. What I’ve found again and again is that essential oils are often recommended as a natural source for ingredients in many of my replacement recipes. The world of essential oils is vast, and I’m just starting to really explore all that these oils have to offer, but I thought it would be fun to start a little series this summer where I share with you what I’m learning and the useful resources I’ve found both online and off. As I’m just starting this series, I think it’s important to note that even if you’re buying high quality essential oils, while these are natural products, if used incorrectly they can be just as dangerous as manufactured chemicals.

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In this post I wanted to cover some basics about essential oils, focusing on what they are and a few examples of how they can be used. At the bottom of this post I share some of the resources that I’ve found particularly helpful. And we couldn’t end the day without a recipe, so in a second post this afternoon I’ll share one of my favorite potions for keeping our shower clean and smelling fresh.

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Wedding Crafts : Bunting!

by Katie | 2 Comments

Hey there! We can’t believe it, but four years ago in June, Calder and I got married! It was such a fun day, and whenever the topic of our wedding comes up, we always look back on it with fond memories. Just the other day we were telling new friends about our “meat and greet” line, where Calder grilled the steak and salmon and got to say hello to every guest as he served them their main course. While we can’t offer you a fillet of salmon, we thought it would be fun to look back at our wedding and share some of the other homemade elements that we incorporated into the big day.

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{I had to include the photo above, because when do you ever get to use the wedding outtakes?!… and sometimes they’re so cute.}

We had the wedding at my parents’ farm in central PA, and being the hands-on, crafters that we are, everyone in my family was excited to help personalize the wedding. My brother designed and printed our invitations, my mom made the cakes and hand-beaded the sash for my wedding dress, my sisters helped with homemade signage, and styling the dancing barn that our dad had just finished rebuilding, and the list goes on.

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Cannon Beach & Haystack Rock – Oregon

by Sarah | 2 Comments

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In honor of World Oceans Day (which was celebrated yesterday, but let’s pretend it’s a 365 days a year affair), I wanted to highlight a quaint little coastal town in Oregon known as Cannon Beach.  I had the opportunity to visit Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock in 2013 during a cross-country road trip.  Even though I only spent a few hours milling about in the shallow tide pools, Cannon Beach was one of my favorite pit stops of the seven week trip.  From the town overlooking Cannon Beach, everything appears to be a shade of gray, but once your feet hit the sand you start noticing little pops of colorful sea life all around.

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5 Tips For Taking Better Kid Candids

by Sarah | Leave a comment

Taking great kid candids is an important skill to have.  Give any parent a stellar photo of their son or daughter and you’ll be invited over for dinner often.  Throw all those kid candids in a photo album and BOOM you have the best mother’s day present ever, one that will never be duplicated or lost.  If you need more dinner dates or a great father’s day present (it’s already June!) than read on my friends, read on and charge those camera batteries because today’s post includes 5 Tips For Taking Better Kid Candids.

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Happy Saturday June Bugs!

by Sarah | Leave a comment

liveseasoned_summer15_hair-1-9Wowza. Can’t believe it’s already the first Saturday in June. Summer is here! I mean, not officially, but feel that sun, drink that iced coffee, am I right?!  I woke up feeling a little bit bummed this morning and I realized it’s because I would rather be at the beach! I don’t want to be home. I don’t want to be doing work. I don’t want to be cleaning my house. I WANT TO BE AT THE BEACH! After pouring myself a large iced coffee and talking myself off my I don’t wanna do this, I don’t wanna do that ledge, I decided to put on my new bathing suit and do a little bit of daydreaming down memory lane.

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Lemon Bars

by Sarah | 4 Comments

Every season we like to pick one ingredient and find a variety of ways to love it and use it. This summer it’s lemons! You can find our complete ingredient archive here.

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Lemon bars! Leeeemon Bars!! These are not for the sugar-free, but they’re oh so tasty. I love the tangy flavor and the soft texture of these lemon bars made with fresh lemon juice. Lemon bars are my new go-to party treat because a tiny square can go a long way. I actually halved this recipe because it’s waaaay too much for two people and even a lot for a family of four.

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Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars

Ingredients

  • Crust:
  • 1 stick of butter at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • Filling:
  • 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Instructions

  1. Grease a 9x13x2 inch baking sheet.
  2. Mix the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light.
  3. Combine the flour and salt and add to the butter until just mixed. It might seem a bit crumbly, but that is normal.
  4. Gather the dough into a ball inside the bowl.
  5. With floured hands, press the dough into a 9x13x2 inch baking sheet, building up a 1/4-1/2 inch edge on all sides.
  6. Chill in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven to 350° and bake the crust for 15 minutes or until very lightly browned.
  8. While the crust is baking, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, eggs and flour. Pour the mixture over the crust and bake for 30 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
  9. Cut into squares and dust with confectioners' sugar and top with berries if desired.
  10. *If you're making lemon bars for a crowd (six or more people) then double the recipe!
https://liveseasoned.com/lemon-bars/

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Whaddya say? Lemon bars for dessert this weekend?!

Welcome June

by Katie | Leave a comment

On the first Wednesday of each month we like to pause and take a look at what’s going on in the world around us, with a particular focus on animal activity, farmers’ fields, and environmental holidays.

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We finally made it to our favorite season! To be fair, we love them all, but there’s just something special about summer with its warm hot days, bbqs, miles of fresh veggies and fruit (particularly the ripe watermelons), and long nights on the deck. Last week was still a bit chilly up in the mountains, but I’m happy to report that summer has finally arrived! We’re planning our first camping trip as a family of four this weekend, and I’ve gone a little crazy making some homemade bug spray and sunscreen this week, but more on that in another post.

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It’s the Season

In researching animal activity for the month of June, this is what we’ve discovered : it’s time to get it on… and if you’re successful in that arena, it’s time to care for those young! We caught these ladybugs in the act last week, and it was around this time last year that we were keeping our eye on the osprey nest with freshly hatched chicks! By now, most migrating animals are in their summer homes (winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere); if they need a nest or den, they’ve built it, and now they’re just looking for a mate and raising the next generation. Want to hear more?

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Ingredient of the Season : Lemons!

by Katie | 2 Comments

Every season we like to pick one ingredient and find a variety of ways to love it and use it. You can find our complete ingredient archive here.

When we think of summer, one of our absolute favorite ingredients is lemons. Think of that first refreshing sip from a tall glass of lemonade. And there’s something so perfect about the tart bite from a lemon bar or a slice of lemon meringue pie at the end of a long summer day. While we like to work with ingredients that are in season, and we know that the primary season for citrus harvests in the US is during the winter, as you’ll see below, lemons sort of break that rule. So we thought they were ripe (haha) to be this season’s featured ingredient!

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