The Juicy Beauty Word

I was excited to try Goddess Garden Natural Sunscreen. It's an organic sunscreen that gets high ratings from the Environmental Working Group and I love the name! I like to avoid chemicals on my skin and my daughter's skin (especially chemicals that penetrate through the skin into the blood stream) whenever possible so this organic sunscreen is right up my alley. Plus, my daughter's skin is very sensitive. She has gotten hives and rashes from many sunscreens.  Goddess Garden uses non nano titanium dioxide and zinc oxide which means the particles of t itanium dioxide and zinc oxide  in the product are big and don't penetrate through the skin into the body. That's a good thing because small nanoparticles can penetrate the skin and cause damage to the cells in our bodies. Many sunscreens contain nanoparticles of  titanium dioxide and zinc oxide to prevent the white film that  titanium dioxide and zinc oxide  leave on the skin. I purchased the 6 oz. Everyday SPF...

On my continuing quest to find more joy, I discovered a wonderful garden center called Terrain in Glen Mills, Pa. It's a truly magical place! I would live there if they would let me. There are plants, statuary, pots, outdoor furniture etc. for your garden. The amazing gift shop is filled with beautiful things for your home and aromatherapy personal care items. There is also a fabulous garden café with a seasonal harvest menu. My friends and I got together to celebrate our dear friend's birthday with a lovely brunch at the café and it was an absolutely perfect day. Good friends, good food, good shopping and gorgeous weather. Joy! Here are some summery decorating ideas for your home and garden. The prices are a bit high at Terrain but there are unique items that aren't commonly seen other in places. This mantle is creative art piece beautiful. The tiny fairy lights are mystical! I would love to try and create something like this for my mantle.  Just...

The Summer Solstice. It's the day with the longest amount of sunlight. It has to be one of my favorite days of the year! We will need to apply a lot of sunscreen with all those hours of sunlight. We know too much sun exposure is not safe, but is sunscreen actually safe? Summertime is when we really need to step up on our sunscreen usage to protect our skin from skin cancer and premature aging. I have heard and am hearing again that chemicals in your sunscreen undergo changes when they are exposed to UV rays. You may have seen an article about it recently, too.  Some ingredients oxidize and release damaging free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules with unpaired electrons that attack normal molecules to steal electrons they need. They turn a healthy molecule into an unstable free radical starting a chain reaction damaging cells increasing the risk of cancer. The link below is an article about research done on zinc oxide and how it changes when exposed to sunl...