Sunday, January 7, 2018

Our Guest Today is author Ellie Mack

Welcome, Ellie, to our blog. So glad you could join us today.



Ellie received her BS in cartography from Southeast Missouri State University. Since leaving the corporate world for the title of MOM, she has pursued her writing dreams. Nowadays, Ellie charts unmapped territory through her fiction and humor writing. Formerly a columnist for a local paper, her weekly column received a lot of attention. She lives near St. Louis, Missouri with her husband of thirty two years and their college-aged daughters. When she's not writing, she can be found bullet journaling, crocheting or cooking. Ellie loves to hear from her readers and may be found at the sites listed below.



One phone call can change your life...forever.

I've heard it said many times, and I get it, especially if you are a ballplayer waiting for that call to the majors, or if you are waiting for the call that you got the job you were hoping to land. I always thought, however, that most people were just being overly dramatic and using it as a cliche statement.

What if you didn't get that job, but instead got a call from a different company that ended up being a better job?  What if, as a ballplayer, you never get called to the majors, but stay in the minor leagues and wind up being a top-notch coach? What if that call was the worst thing that could happen?

It's always been my view that there are multiple paths that our lives could take. There are numerous opportunities that are presented to us and that one phone call bit was a bunch of hogwash.

Until today.

Until I received that one phone call that changed my life...forever.


Friday, January 5, 2018

Systems of Magic #ourauthorgang

By Rich Feitelberg

Regardless of how you decide to limit magic or the rules of operation you make up for magic, you want some sort of organizational principle for it. I see this all the time. For example, magic spells could be grouped by their effect. So fire related magic go in one bucket and spells related to enchanting items go in another. If you choose this approach, you’ll want to work out all the different types of spells there are so you can account for each grouping.

Another approach is group spells by how powerful they are. So beginning spells are in one category and expert spells go in another. This approach requires knowing all the possible spells so you can put them in a category.

Or perhaps there are no spells at all and all magic is improvised. A variant of this is there are no groups of spells, what matters is how the wizard does his conjuring. For example, perhaps he or she just speaks the words. Or perhaps the words have to rhyme. Or the words also need to be sang — with or without music. Perhaps the mage has to dance first or draw an image. Or some combination of these.

Color is another organizing principle. You hear about white magic and black magic all the time. But magic can be green or red or brown, if you like. Again, you’ll have to work out which spells go with which color.

Above all don’t forget that alchemy requires materials to work, as does rune magic. Be sure to include that your planning.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Winter Skin #OurAuthorGang

My secret to prevent dry and itchy winter skin

I studied Natural Healing and my philosophy as a Naturopath is that “If you can’t eat or drink it safely, don’t put it on your skin either”. 

Unfortunately what I do for my skin doesn't make me this beautiful, but it keeps my skin well nourished, supple, and I don't suffer from constant itching in the winter.

I USE THIS EXFOLIATING WEEKLY FACIAL MASK:

To remove dead skin, refresh the deeper layers of the skin and promote cell turnover, mix:
2 tsp of oatmeal flour.
1-2 tsp water or yogurt.
1 tsp of honey to make a thin, but not watery consistency paste.
You can add one or two of the following according to your skin type for increased vitamin and mineral intake:

Skin types:
Normal skin: smooth and supple, clear in appearance, firm.
Use banana, watermelon, egg yolk.
Dry skin: dull textured, dehydrated, tends to tighten up in wind or cold temperature.
Use avocado, banana, pear, peach, raspberry, watermelon, apricot, egg yolk.
Oily skin: shiny with large pores, tendency for blemishes.
Use whipped egg white, cucumber juice, tomato, grapefruit, lemon or white grape.
Mature skin: expression lines, slackness around the eyes, less elasticity.
Use egg yolk, banana, cucumber juice, apple, watermelon, apricot.

Apply to your face except around your eyes.
Leave it on for 10-15 minutes.
Rub the mask off gently with your fingertips, rinse with warm water.
Moisturize your skin.

BI-MONTHLY FACIAL PEEL WITH NATURAL INGREDIENTS:

Base mix:
2 teaspoon oatmeal flour
1 teaspoon yogurt
1 teaspoon honey to make medium consistency paste

Alpha hydroxy acids reduce wrinkles, spots and other signs of aging but using them in our moisturizers every day in synthetic form is not without danger. Using them daily leaves the skin vulnerable to sun damage and infections. By adding natural alpha hydroxy acid containing fruits or vegetables to your every third-week face mask ensures the removal of dead cells without the side effects of the synthetic acids.

You can add any of the following to your base mix:
Lactic acids: buttermilk, yogurt, powdered milk, sour cream, blackberries, tomato.
Citric acids: lemon, grapefruit, orange.
Malic acids: apple.
Glycolic acids: brown sugar from sugarcane.

For stronger peeling effect you can use papain by adding papaya or bromelain by adding crushed pineapple to the mix. These are not recommended for sensitive skin, a patch test should be done before using them.
Apply the mixture to your face and neck, except around your eyes.
Leave it on for 15-20 minutes.
Rinse with warm water, moisturize.

THE CHEAPEST & BEST SKIN SCRUB:

Very messy, so I recommend using it weekly before you clean your shower.
Mix:
½ cup sugar, pour almond, pure olive or coconut oil on it to make a thick honey consistency paste. You can add 4-5 drops essential oils from the list mentioned above, according to your skin’s needs. Shower with your usual soap, rinse and then rub the sugar-oil mixture on your body with a circular motion. Rinse it off and pat-dry your skin.

What do you use to moisturize your skin?

Let’s just talk about creams and lotions a little bit:
When you try to read and understand the long list of the ingredients on creams and lotions, I bet you give up after reading the second line.
We’re so careful nowadays with what we’re putting into our stomachs. What about our skin? Everything that we apply to our skin goes right into our body as well. The long list of chemicals can affect not only your skin but also your organs by creating yet unknown chemical bonds and reactions as well as hormonal changes. Nobody would suspect an innocent looking moisturizer 15 years from now as a cause of some of your health or autoimmune problems.

They say, don’t put oil on your skin, but the truth is that in order to make a cream, you need base oil, stabilizer, and preservative to cook it into a cream. So, you have been putting oils on your skin, just not the right ones. The chemists today are doing a wonderful job of replacing natural ingredients with unpronounceable chemicals in order to make the creams and lotions presentable and acceptable. The truth is that all most creams and lotions do is just strip the natural sebum and dead skin from the top layer of your skin and add a thin layer that gives you the feeling of soft and moisturized skin. However, as soon as you wash it off or just stay in a dry room for some time, your skin becomes dry and thirsty for moisture, because below the top layer, your skin is dry.

Next time I will tell you about the natural ingredients I use as moisturizer.

For now, take a few minutes and take a look at my books:


COMMENTS

Erika M Szabo via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
My secret to prevent dry and itchy winter skin
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Erika M Szabo via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Winter Skin #OurAuthorGang
My secret to prevent dry and itchy winter skin Erika M Szabo I studied Natural Healing and my philosophy as a Naturopath is that “If you can’t eat or drink it safely, don’t put it on your skin either”.  Unfortunately what I do for my skin doesn't make me th...
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Nikki McDonagh

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I use cruelty free and mainly just coconut oil. Great post
 
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Mary Anne Yarde

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Fabulous!
 
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Toi Thomas

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I love these all natural skin tips. I may try them, but with sensetive skin, I'll have to be extra careful. Awesome post!
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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Erika Szabo shares tips for keeping your skin beautiful - even in dry winter air.
 
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Ruth de Jauregui

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Thank you! I'm cursed with very sensitive combination skin so either I'm breaking out or oozing oil or sporting red blotches from the latest "but it won't hurt your skin" moisturizer. Ugh. And stinkum makes me wheeze.

I am looking forward to your next post!!!
 
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Rebecca Tran

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Erika Szabo shares her tips to great skin.
 
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Rebecca Tran

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
What great tips
 
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Joe Bonadonna

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Great tips, Erika! My skin needs all the help it can get in winter.
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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Today on A Small Gang of Authors, Erika M. Szabo​ gives us her secret to preventing dry and itchy winter skin.
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Rich Feitelberg

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Good info. Winter is the time when my skin dries out the most.
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