Birkenstocks, Nails, and DIY Wart Removal aka More Uses for Apple Cider Vinegar

(Whoa. That sure is a long title.)

So here are my feet today. Rocking the Birks, with my Ol' Faithful hemp anklet along for the ride. This anklet has seriously been a trouper. I made it at the beginning of the summer and literally haven't taken it off. I wear it in the shower, ocean, pool, everywhere. I'll do a tutorial later on the many different ways you can make hemp bracelets. But you say, this is a gross picture, there is a cut on your leg, I can't see your toe nail polish AND there is a bandaid on your ankle! Why is it there?! Well, gross as it is, I have a wart on my ankle. Had it there for awhile and no amount of wart chemicals could make a dent in it. But then I was introduced to Apple Cider Vinegar, and this stuff is seriously magic. I already got rid of a wart on my thumb with this stuff. Plus don't you feel so much better taking care of your body with all natural ACV than a bunch of weird chemicals? Yeah, me too.

This is the kind that I have. Make sure you get unfiltered, it has "The Mother" in it. Sounds like an alien pod collective intelligence right? But I promise it's not, you will be fine, you will not be part of the collective fellow earthling. Hah. Ha ha. This is a joke yes human?

Ahem.

You will need a box of Band-Aids, paper towels, Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) and about a week or so.

1. Fold a bit of paper towel/tissue into a tiny square the size of the wart.
2. Soak the square in ACV
3. Apply to wart
4. Change bandage daily
5. Wait.

It will start to tingle after a few days. This is good! Tingling, black spots and a scab means that the wart is dying. Just keep at it and it should be gone soon!

Here's a picture of my newly painted toenails. I am super super bad at keeping my nails nice and shiny. They were looking so rough yesterday that a guy friend of mine (and you know how bad guys are at noticing stuff!) commented that my feet were looking rough. Point taken Jeff, point taken. So I whipped out my yellow (Revlon Sunlit Grass) and now my feet don't cause women and children to run screaming. Pay no attention to the chunk of flesh that is currently missing from my toe. I really don't know how I manage to do these things.

Happy Sunday!

Fall and Germanic Mythology

From Teutonic Mythology by Viktor Rydberg: 
"Eitr means the lowest degree of cold and poison at the same time ... tongues were made speechless with cold. In Saxo’s descriptions of the regions of misery in the lower world, it is only the torturing demons that speak. The dead are speechless, and suffer their agonies without uttering a sound; but, when the spirits of torture so desire, and force and egg them on, they can produce a howl."

I don't know why but I'm kind of obsessed with this passage. I've been interested in Norse and Germanic for a long time and there is a rich bleakness about a lot of the world described in the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda. Maybe this is me getting ready for fall and looking forward to the cold?

What's cool is that "Eitr" is the mythical substance that all life comes from, is the word for poison, snake venom, anger and also the deepest purest cold. I think there are many things that encapsulate diametric qualities, life and death, chaos and order. Part of being human is deciding which is which, all based off our own perspective.
Goodnight and Happy Saturday!

Photo: Not Mine

New Journal

Da Vinci, Anne Frank, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Beethoven, Ernest Hemingway, Ben Franklin, Rockefeller, Lewis and Clark, Newton, Picasso, Thomas Edison, Virginia Woolf, Kafka, C.S. Lewis and Einstein.

What do all of these people have in common? If you answered: "They are all dead!", then you would technically be correct, though I wonder why you are so morbid on a Friday night. The real answer is that all of these great minds kept journals. I recently have come across a beautiful new journal. I look forward to filling it with thoughts and such. Not saying that I'll have anything of real importance to fill up the pages with, but maybe the journal comes first and the greatness after. One can always hope. Happy Friday!

Bangles&Bangles&Bangles Outfit Post

So, for some reason I am super un-photogenic today. I know that this outfit isn't the coolest, but I'm excited about my bangles! They were a gift from a friend who picked them up in Lebanon. And because you can never have too many bangles, I think I tossed a couple more in there, some antique ones that my grandma gave me. The skirt is a bodycon skirt and I picked it up at some little shop downtown. Tank is Ann Taylor Loft. Red lipstick, 2nd (maybe 3rd?) day hair. Face is mine.

Happy Friday!

Hair and Windows and Such

I'm particularly proud of this picture. I'm trying to get my photos better for the blog and trying to get my overall style better for...life? I guess? Anyway, I actually did this neat little hair thing after my 8am class. My hair wasn't behaving and this seemed like a good idea. I kind of came up with this way of incorporating braids into a headband. At least, I haven't seen it on the internet before, it may be. I'll be doing a post later on how to do it. Bonus, it only requires 2 mini elastics and a headband, no fussing with bobby pins!

Also, I'm pretty proud of my skin. This is no makeup. I've just been making sure to moisturize, put sunblock on everyday and take makeup off (when I do wear it) right before bed. This is my Batman: Wanted tshirt from Hot Topic, a cardigan from Ann Taylor Loft, my assorted rings and bracelets and a headband from Hot Topic. Jean shorts, not pictured. But I am wearing pants!

Walk around Greenfield Lake

Today I walked around Greenfield lake with a friend. However, we had to go back early because it was a lot hotter than we expected.  When we were walking back there was a 4 ft. long alligator not even two feet off the path! He swam back into the water before I could get a picture, but I did manage to get some good pictures of a pretty white Heron that was fishing nearby. A bit blurry from the zoom, but I think that it kind of looks like a painting!

GT's Enlightened Organic Raw Kombucha Review

So, today I was feeling a bit icky from the Domino's Pizza I ordered last night. My brother is 14 and so all he get's me are Domino's gift cards. They are still awesome though! Domino's is the only place that sells delivery gluten free pizza where I live. Anyways, I thought that some raw probiotics would be just the thing on this cold, rainy day and decided to pick up a bottle of GT's Enlightened Organic Raw Kombucha, in the Gingerade Flavor.

I have had the Mango flavor before and honestly I think I like the Gingerade so much better! (Of course I love ginger and put it in everything humanly possible.) The kick of the ginger blends well with the acidity of the Kombucha and it's light without being overly sweet. It also has very little of the dry mouth effect that I usually get from drinking Kombucha or eating yogurt. If you have a chance, you should definitely pick this one up!

More information about the product can be found on their website.