All Things Pin: December 2015

Diaper Bag Essentials: 6-12 Months

Know that you are watching your little ones grow up into beautiful beings, you must pack extra stuff for them so that you will always be prepared.

When going anywhere, you need the must basic of things to toll around with.

Essentials Needed:

1. Diapers: Have at least 3-4, depending on how long you are planning to stay out you might need more.

2. Wipes: Wet baby wipes.

3. Changing Pad: If you are changing in a public changing area, you will need this.

4. Baby Powder: To powder your baby's bum.

5. Sanitizing wipes: Besides the obvious which is that you the mom/dad will need to sanitize your hand or any surface area your baby is going to be exposed to, you will also need to sanitize your baby's hands after a strangers or anyone touches your baby before your baby puts their hands in their mouth or face.

6. Lotion and hand sanitizer: For the mom/dad.

7. Extra Outfits for the baby: Never know when your baby will have an "accident".

8. Formula and bottle: Never let your little ones go hungry.

9. Burp-Rag: Just because you never used it before doesn't you should omit this. Babies are unpredictable in their acts.

10. Bottle of Water: Either for you to drink or in case of emergency where you have no water, you can use it.

11. Pacifier: Great for a public silence time. Always bring at least 3 in-case one falls.

12. Healthy Snack For Baby: Now that your angel is big enough to eat solid food, a healthy snack is essential.

13. A Book for Baby: this is not only to entertain your little ones but to start developing their minds. Pack at least 2.

14. Toys for Baby: this is for their entertainment, so bring along their favorite ones. Pack at least 2-3.

Read the previous post Diaper Bag Essentials: 0-6 Months

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, by Jessica Fairweather

New Year's Eve

How to Plan a Last Minute New Year's Eve Party?

New Years is the time for new resolutions, expectations, celebration of life and the embracing of new life. This last minute party is perfect for persons who love to do things last minute and on a budget.

The Plan

You can take less then half a hour to figure out what your budget will be. In your budget it must content the decorations, food, the bar contents and a contingency.

After figuring out your budget then you can move on to figuring out what theme you want to do. Knowing the theme you are going to do, you can then figure out the set up and decorations.

Next you want to figure out what you are going to serve. What food you want to serve and what alcohol and non-alcohol beverage you want to serve.

When doing any last minute parties, it is important to have a checklist on hand to ensure that you cover all of what you have to do.

Invitations

You don't have to go all fancy with the invitations. You can do it face-to-face with a reminder text or email or you can just send a text message or email. To make virtual invitations visit EVite.

The Bar

If it is in your budget, you can hire a bartender but if it isn't, you can mix your own specialty drinks and punches. To save on time, mix all drinks ahead of time, if you don't have a bartender. Make sure you have non-alcoholic beverages for underage and none drinkers. Make sure you have all of your champagnes, punches and mix drinks on ice before and during the party.

The party drinks rule is four alcoholic beverage per person and 4 gallons of non-alcoholic beverages per 25 persons.

Recipes:

1. Pineapple Rum Punch

Fresh pineapple chunks

3 cups pineapple juice

3 cups Canada Dry ® Ginger Ale

1 cup Malibu rum

2. Chocolate Cake

3/4 oz Stoli vanilla vodka

1/3 oz Godiva chocolate liqueur

1/2 oz Frangelico

Food

Everyone will be still full from their Christmas dinner, so the food you are serving should be light. Go for finger food, nibbles and hors d'oeuvres. This will give your guest time to mix and mingle with one another while indulging in great food.

Even though your food is light, it should still pack a punch. If it is in your budget, you can hire a caterer or you can make the food yourself.

The party food rule is 12 pieces of each dish served per person.

1. Pineapple Bacon Bites

1/2 " cubed pineapples

halved thick cut bacon

honey barbecue sauce

-Wrap pineapples in bacon

-Coat in barbecue sauce

-Bake for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees in preheat oven.

2. Cheese Stuff Biscuits

1 container Flaky Layers Biscuits

16 Fresh Herb Mozzarella Balls

-Stretch each biscuit to twice its size.

-Place 2 mozzarella balls in the center.

-Bring each side together then pinch to close up the biscuit.

-Bake for 14-15 minutes at 350 degree in preheat oven.

-Let it cool for 3-4 minutes before serving.

Decoration

You can do some quick and easy changes to go with your theme like changing out your curtains, dim the lights, switching out some of your décor to go with your theme, string balloons and switch your light bulb to pink lights to give a welcoming feel.

For DIY inspiration check out this Pinterest Board

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, by Jessica Fairweather

Christmas

Christmas Q&A

1- What is your favorite Christmas scent?

My favorite is Cinnamon and Ginger Bread man.

2- Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

I seek and open them Christmas Eve or I try to guess what is in them but I "Officially" open them Christmas morning.

3- Have you ever had a White Christmas

Kind of saw snow last year when I was in Philli

4- Favorite Festive Food

Definitely Coconut Christmas Cookies and Christmas Pudding.

5- Do you prefer giving or receiving presents?

Lets be real, what is better that giving?....receiving. Don't get me, I like giving but I love receiving!

6- Favorite Christmas Film?

Elf, Four Christmases and Polar Express

7-What tops your tree?

The brightest LED star light that sings.

8- Christmas Wardrobe Essentials?

Fluffy knee high Christmas socks and the Christmas sweater.

9- Where do you dream of visiting over Christmas?

Call me crazy but I would love to visit the North Pole...Santa here I come.

10- Best part of Christmas?

Spending time with the family and the food!

11(bonus)- What you dislike about Christmas?

I hate removing the decorations from the Christmas tree. Every year a new package of Christmas ornaments are bought and best believe every one of them goes on the tree, so all you see it decorations...you would be lucky to see a branch!

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, by Jessica Fairweather

Health

Hormonal Imbalance in Women

What causes Hormonal Imbalance in Women?

There are many facts that can affect a woman's hormones at any age. There are things like menopause, lifestyle, pregnancy and medications.

What are the Signs of Hormonal Imbalance in Women?

1. Belly Fat and Loss of Muscle Mass

When your endocrine system is under a lot of stress, whether it is from your lifestyle, medication or pregnancy, it does not produce enough of certain hormones while it over produces others. This will result in your body storing most of the fat for future use thus increasing your belly fat.

2. Constant Fatigue

Throughout the day you feel tired, sluggish, experience a foggy memory and scattered. Even after a nap you feel exhausted and tired. This could be a lack of thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism), which controls the body's metabolism. When this hormone level is low, all the body's systems slow down (digestion, heart rate and mental functions) thus allowing you to feel exhausted and mentally foggy.

3. Persistent Weight Gain

When undergoing hormonal imbalance, it is hard to maintain a health weight. Your adrenal system can become fatigued then it will signal your thyroid that there is a problem and your thyroid will slow down your metabolism. Your pancreas will respond by conserving fat in your mid-section and love handle areas.

4. Vaginal Dryness

This is caused by a reduction of the estrogen levels in the vaginal walls thus making the vaginal feel dry. This can be very uncomfortable during intercourse.

5. Breast Changes

High levels of estrogen can cause your breast to feel tender and sore, which can lead to cysts, fibroids or lumps on the breast. It is importance to have an annual screening mammogram. Keep in mind that not every breast changes is a sign that you have cancer but it is best that you seek a medical professional to be on the safe side.

6. Sleeping Disorders and Changes in Sleeping Patterns

Sleeping disorder or changes in your sleeping patterns can indicate physical stress, an increase in cortisol levels or a sharp drop in your progesterone hormone. The progesterone hormone has relaxing properties to help you relax before sleeping.

7. Acne

It is normal for must women to break out before their periods because of a hormonal shift in their bodies. However it you suffer from cystic acne during your hormonal imbalance, this is due to androgens. The testosterone stimulus excess production of sebum. The sebum, which is oil, can get trapped underneath the skin combine with acnes causing bacteria and dead skin cells, which leads to the clogging of the pores.

8. Cravings

The common signs of cravings and excessive eating are insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue and other hormonal imbalances.

9. Foggy Memory

Foggy memory and fatigue goes hand in hand, which could be related to hormonal issues. If you have been expecting extreme amount of stress, sleeping problems and experiencing fatigue then your body is producing high levels of cortisol (stress hormone).

10. Low Libido

One of the most noticeable signs of hormonal imbalance is a low libido, which begins with sleeping problems. This is due to a reduction of the production a estrogen.

11. Digestive Issues

Stress hormones can not only affects you in your head but in your stomach too. Cortisol production is naturally high in the mornings which helps you wake up but women who chronically stress, their adrenal glands overproduce cortisol which will result in their cortisol production being low in the morning when they wake up.
Slow digestion, bloating and gas can be signs of hormonal problems. When you have problems with digestion your body can be robbed of nutrients during the extraction process.

12. Headaches and Migraines

If you suffer from headaches and migraines, it is good to keep a record of when it happens and why. This will help you to knw what is triggering these episodes.

13. Depression and Mood Swings

Anxiety, irritability and depression are signs that you might have hormonal imbalance, this could be due to stress, work overload, toxicity in the body and some case of mal-nourishment. Must of these signs could be linked to menopause.

14. Night Sweating and Hot Flashes

Many times your emotional state can trigger an increase in your internal temperature, especially during your hormonal issues. Hot flashes and night sweat is due to your body having too much estrogen and too little progesterone.

For 10 Ways on How to Treat Hormonal Imbalance Naturally click here.

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, by Jessica Fairweather

Christmas

DIY Christmas Tree for Small Spaces

This DIY Christmas Tree is an alternative for a small space that is basically cheap and easy. It adds a rustic element to you space by bring the outdoors in.

Materials:

Dried branches
Sisal Rope
Embellishments (pom poms, snowflakes shaped LED lights)
Stick Star
Double-sided Tape

Methods:

-Wash and thoroughly dry branches to remove any debris.

- Lay them out and make a gradient size pattern, from smallest to large.

- Tie each branch to one another, going down, on each side.

- Add embellishments.

NB// Add light weight embellishments so that you do not put much strain on the structure.

- To hang to the wall, add double-sided tape to various parts of the back off the branches then hang it up.

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, by Jessica Fairweather

All Things Pets

Christmas Pet Safety Guides

Securely anchor your tree, your pets are curious creatures remember that.

Avoid decorating the tree with tinsel, string, ribbons and chains where your pets can reach them. They tend to ingests things when you aren't monitoring them.

Keep edible, breakable and glass ornaments far from your pets reach.

Keep your pets from drinking the tree's stand water but if you cannot do that make sure you do not use any toxic tree preservative products.

Sweep up pine needles to prevent ingestion or your pet getting struck by them.

Aviod giving your pets human food instead you can make healthy pet Christmas recipes.

Don't give your pets a surprise gift.

Remember that must plants are poisonous like amaryllis, mistletoe, Lilies, holly and poinsettia, so make them far from your pets.

Loud, sudden sounds can make your pets panic like balloons and champagne popping, poppers, fire works, etc.

Small decorations that are easy to swallow should be kept away from pets.

Remember chocolate is toxic to almost all pets so avoid giving them.

If you are traveling with your pets make sure they have a seat beat to keep them safe. Car accidents increase during manger holidays like Christmas.

Protect electric cords and flashing lights from pets so that they don't attack or chew on them.

Remove all wrapping paper and plastics from the floors so that pets would play or chew on them.

The most important guide is make sure you have information on a 24 hour vet here you, in case of any emergency!

Check out Basic Pet First Aid Kit

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, by Jessica Fairweather

Fashion and Lifestyle

The Truth About Wearing Heels

For years heels have been apart of women's fashion. Most women love it and can't live without it, while others can't stand it. But the truth about the effects of heels on our feet isn't pretty. We are doing more harm then good.

Many females who wears heels develop feet problem and pain. Heels can cause torn ligaments and stress fractures.

1. The EXTRA inch makes a difference!

With every inch that you add to your heels, the more your toes are being crammed into the point of the shoe. This will develop into corns, hammertoe, bunions, permanent nerve damage and poor circulation in the foot.

2. Do you FEEL off balance?

By wearing heels, your body is forced to try to keep you balanced and upright by bending the hips and spin forward and causing tension in the hips, leg muscles and back. Excessive pressure is then placed on the balls of your feet and your knees.

3. Don't you go RUNNING in those heels!

Running in heels like to catch a cab or to catch up with someone, will give you arthritis pain or permanent arthritis. This puts a strain on your knees because it increases the lateral movement. So your knees are working twice as much than usual.

4. What are you REALLY doing to your spin?

Heels knock our backs out of alignment which in result leads to cramping, tingling and chronic lower back pain. When we walk, our bodies natural sits in a S shape to absorb the shock waves thus reducing the shocks to our body. But heels causes the spin to go forward which decreases the body's ability to absorb the shock of walking.

Ways to reduce heel damage:

Wear insoles with your heels to help with absorbing shock when walking.
Do yoga stretching for your foot and calves everyday.
Limit your heel high to no more then 2 inches.
If you do wear heels higher than 2 inches, wear a thick heel to help distribute your weight more evenly.

After knowing all of this, will you stop wearing heels? I think not...

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, by Jessica Fairweather

Christmas

Jamaican Christmas Pudding

In Jamaica there is no such thing as a 'white' Christmas, so we don't serve our Christmas Pudding or Cake hot. The prunes, raisins, dates and currants are usually soaked in real Jamaican rum (Red Label Wine) for months or years.

This recipe makes approximately 4 lb. of cake, that is enough to fill a 9" baking pan.

Ingredients:

4 cups mixed dried fruits soaked in rum (prunes, raisins, dates and currants)
1 cup white rum
6 oz bread crumbs
6 oz flour
1/2 lb. butter
1/2 lb. dark sugar
6 eggs
1 tbsp browning
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tbsp cinnamon extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp lime or orange rind
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

-Line the baking pan with grease paper and / or shortening.

-Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

-Mix in browning, almond, lime juice and rind, cinnamon, vanilla.

-Add eggs one at a time then fruits.

-Mix breadcrumbs, flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice in bowl.

-Combine both mixture and rum by folding in.

-Pour into baking pan.

-Bake for 1 hours at 350 degrees (Emerge baking pan in a 1" of water in the oven).

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, by Jessica Fairweather

Hair and Beauty

Benefits of Natural Hair Oils

The right oils are soul food for your hair. They have so much benefits and they all lock in that moisture for your natural hair.

1. Argon Oil

Restores smoothness, repairs damaged follicles and prevents hair loss.

2. Avocado Oil

Helps in maintaining moisture inside the hair cuticles, revives damaged and dry hair.

3. Coconut Oil

Prevents split ends, strengthens hair shaft and improves elasticity.

4. Jamaican Castor Oil

Thickens thinning hair, seals in moisture,reduces frizz and acts as a humectant ( retaining or preserving moisture).

5.Jojoba Oil

Great for many scalp problems like dandruff, helps repair heat damage and adds shine.

6. Olive Oil

Rich in Vitamin E, prevents dandruff, promotes growth and healthy scalp.

Also check out, How To Make A Stimulating Essential Oil Blend For Hair Growth .