Thursday, June 13, 2013

38 Weeks

I'm going to be an aunt any day now. And I'm not talking about the Asian aunt, where everyone and anyone is called "auntie". My brother +Van Tran  and sister-in-law +Cynthia Chau are expecting their first baby girl and we are all so excited. They already picked out the name, but they've been very tight-lipped about it. All we know are the total number of syllables! But we'll all find out soon enough! I was adamant that we capture some photos of this cute baby belly before baby Tran decides to make her appearance so here's one of pictures I snagged earlier this week. 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Homemade Cream

I found a recipe for homemade eczema cream on Pinterest a while back and decided to give it a go since I have miserable eczema on both my shins. I read a lot of the comments and was skeptical about the ground up oats in the recipe, but there were enough positive comments that I went with it anyways. I'm never one to follow instructions exactly so I ended up using: 
- organic coconut oil (4-5 large tablespoon scoops)
- olive oil (a quick swig in the pan)
- shea butter (a tablespoon?)
- ground oats (1/4 cup unground)
I melted everything down in pan and poured the mixture into various jars I had laying around. As others had mentioned, the oats all settled to the bottom so I gave the containers a good shake every so often as it was setting. This worked like a charm to keep the oats suspended in the mixture. Unfortunately as I was using this mixture, I soon discovered that I absolutely hated the ground bits of oat. It felt like I had sand all over and since I used it right before bed, I constantly had to de-sand myself before climbing in. After a few days, I gave up and put the jars over my heating vents and the oats all settled to the bottom as the mixtures melted. I have since used up everything I made and I made a second batch. This time I altered it a bit just to see what else would work well with my skin. 
- 4 parts coconut oil
- 1 part petroleum jelly
- 1 part shea butter
- a swig or two of olive oil
The petroleum jelly gave the mixture a very soft clear consistency, almost like a very warm jelly. What's been amazing about it so far is that once you apply it, the greasiness literally disappears! It's fascinating! Even Jamie commented that it wasn't oily feeling like the first batch. I gave some of this new mixture to my brother and dad, both who have eczema on their shins (inherited much eh?). My eczema has been improving but is nowhere close to being cleared. If something miraculously clears up my legs, I'm patenting it!