Life at a "Swell's" pace

How to soothe dry skin into the spring season

Cold, harsh winter weather can wreak havoc on our skin — especially babies' sensitive skin. Spring may be knocking at our door, but all around the U.S., the weather outside is still a bit frightful. Thankfully-to the rescue-Honest's Deeply Nourishing line of personal care products and Honest organic healing balm. Made with coconut, olive, sunflower oils and shea butter. This versatile, nourishing balm is the perfect salve to soothe dry, chafed or sensitive skin all year long.

*This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

When the harsh, dry weather wreaks havoc on my skin in the winter, my go-to solution is Honest organic healing balm. It's made with certified organic, plant-based botanicals known to soothe, calm, nourish and moisturize the skin, including coconut, olive, sunflower oils and shea butter.

I use it on my hands, feet, elbows, and cuticles before I go to bed, on my lips for a bit of extra moisture; and even on my hair to fight frizz!

What I also love is that it's gentle enough for The Bean's sensitive skin. It almost immediately soothes him when he has a rash or chafed knees from climbing trees or riding his bike.

The Mr. loves how soothing the Honest organic healing balm is on his dry heels and its light scent can be used on almost any small cut or graze he gets at work.

The Honest organic healing balm isn't all we use during this time. We also love the Honest Deeply Nourishing Products.

The products in this line include:

•Deeply Nourishing Face + Body Lotion (below): Apricot oil-enriched lotion that will nourish even the most delicate skin from head to toe.

•Deeply Nourishing Shampoo + Body Wash (below): This 2–in–1 nourishing cleanser leaves skin and hair feeling touchably soft and smooth.

•Deeply Nourishing Conditioner (below): This enriching conditioner is made with a lightweight and hydrating formula that helps soften hair and eliminate frizz, leaving hair feeling silky soft and easy to manage.

•Deeply Nourishing Bubble Bath (below): Honest's nourishing bath with super foaming bubbles cleanses and helps retain moisture for delicate skin.

Along with the Deeply Nourishing line there's also Perfectly Gentle line-infused with the sweet smell of orange and vanilla to brighten their spirits and the Ultra Calming line-with the soothing scent of lavender. Bath time and bed time just got better!

Honest's new line of personal care products brings calming, gentle nourishment to your bed and bath routine.

If you're looking for an ultra-gentle, yet highly-effective products, I definitely recommend trying out the Honest Company products. Your whole family's skin will be healed and happy. And don't forget, these products make great gift options, too. Honest's new bed and bath products are great for baby shower gift, birthday gift, or just every day gift.

You can check out the other great products from The Honest Company.

What happened this time last year?

Five simple things

Another Saturday is here. We had quite a great week. Although my yoga teaching classes have come to a close with the Yoga Center, I've decided to take another road and teach privately with a girlfriend. We've even moved around furniture in our home to make way for this. The dining room has become our living room and our front living room is the studio, while the back living room has become the dining room. Crazy to imaging, but I will do a walk-through soon. The bedroom has become the classroom and the upstairs is all bedrooms. I love the new layout and it helps me forget that we still want to move from the Hiatt house, but all in good time. I'm pretty excited about my private practices and I've even thought about giving private trombone lessons on the side (yes, I play the trombone-pretty crazy, right?) Lots to share in the next few weeks, but in the mean time, I hope you're enjoying your weekend and here are the things that made our week awesome! *BY THE WAY, don't forget to celebrate Earth Hour tonight. It starts at 8:30 p.m. your local time.*

1. This New Faucet.

It's a major upgrade from the one we had. I was so over this faucet, so it was nice to be able to get a faucet that can fill a stock pot without spilling half the water when you pull it out of the sink.

Our old one was in when we moved into the Hiatt House and I have been wanting to replace it for awhile. It's old, awkward, and just plain ugly. I finally found one that I like that wasn't priced way over the top.

The boys got to work and the Bean was able to help out the Mr. a lot with this project.

The sink needed a bit of cleaning and scouring once the faucet came out. As you can see from the back splash, things in this house are really outdated.

The Mr. had things out and replaced in less than an hour. The new faucet works great and the best part, I have a side sprayer.

Moen Bradbury faucet with side sprayer (notice The Bean's jar with the growing celery in it)

2. These Items

I've shuffled all jewelry to my new Etsy shop called Love Bus Jewelry. The Peppermint Bee will now just handle herb products and other household items like decor and aprons. I've pretty excited about this new venture and can't wait to list all of my inventory and even new items I've made. Now you can order items straight from our Facebook page.

3. These Socks

I needed something for keeping my feet warm and these were perfect! I've had these socks as part of the Home Sweet Homespun box I ordered from Birchbox, but have had the tucked in the back of my sock drawer for awhile. I think they have become my new favorite and I can't believe I didn't use them before now. You can snag these socks here.

4. This Door Valet

We needed something to The Bean's room and this was perfect for what we were looking for. Doesn't take up much space and holds all of his hangup clothing. Snag it here if you need one too.

5. This Geocache Trackable

It's our first trackable that we were able to place into our Geocache container. It's been a lot of fun for us and it's a great way for us to get outside and spend time together.

Extras:

These curtains are on my want list.
Want to start your own juice bar?
At Home in Arkansas Magazine. One of my favorites!
Bummer this listing sold. (Scroll to the bottom to see it)
Letterboxing is just as fun as Geocaching.
Will you be celebrating "The feast of the Annunciation" that's held on March 25?
Her goals page makes me want to make and be accountable for my own each year.
Young House Love items at Home Depot. This drawer pull is amazing!
These Maxi Dresses. Meow!
Potted Jasmine. Something to consider to provide privacy where we live right now.

Have a wonderful weekend.

What happened this time last year?

Road Trip: Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda

A month ago, for Valentine's Day (our anniversary), we loaded up the dogs and headed straight for Pacific City. In Pacific City, Your Little Beach Town as they call it and beautiful all its own, there's a place called Cape Kiwanda. It's a small area, but such a lovely place. Although, the area is absolutely breathtaking in summer, going in the winter months made us appreciate a different side of the area. We have been here before, and driven past it many times headed to Tillamook and other places, but we've never stopped until now. We stayed at the Inn at Cape Kiwanda and our room was on the second floor, which is kind of the third floor from how the building was situated on the land. We had a sliding glass door that lead to a balcony off our room and slept with it open the entire time. We were directly across from the Pelican Pub & Brewery and smelled the wonderful smells of their food all weekend long. The view of the ocean that weekend was amazing!

Three days before our trip The Mr.'s phone alarm went off for the reminder of the trip and it got us all excited to take off.

Pelican Pub & Brewery

A few of the other cafes and restaurants around the area. We loved the Grateful Bread & Bakery for morning breakfast.

Inn at Cape Kiwanda

This area of the Cape is almost like a little village town with it's own life going on. Surfers headed out to catch a wave, even this time of year. It was such a nice getaway and it only rained on us a few times, but it was perfect timing when we were in the room watching a movie we rented from the lobby, or eating lunch. The Bean enjoyed taking the dogs out to walk around the property and the Mr. and I enjoyed sitting on the balcony watching the seagulls, The Bean, the tourist, or even when it was so quiet you could only hear the ocean waves.

I can't help but show the room off. It was set up so pretty and there was chocolates on the pillows and a nice anniversary gift from the staff waiting on us.

We had champagne and champagne glasses on the table with a lovely note from the staff that read, "Happy Anniversary." It was the first time, in 13-years, the Mr. and I actually got a nice anniversary note on a trip and it made me tear up a bit. Of course, this is the first year of our annual anniversary trips to come. We've decided to take an annual trip in February every year. It is something I am going to look forward to so much!

There was a kitchenette and the bathroom was in a modern beach decor theme.

We walked along the beach a lot, but the view from our balcony was really wonderful. I can't keep talking about the wonderful aromas coming from the Pelican Pub & Brewery across the way. Seriously, it was the most wonderful smells drifting around in our rooms all day and all night.

Baz and PITA enjoyed the getaway too. Baz was always eager to go out on the balcony and sniff the air and PITA was fascinated with the black bunnies that were hopping around the property of the Inn. The Inn had little bags of bunny food you could by in the lobby to feed them and The Bean loved feeding them from our room balcony.

This edge of the cliff here is a hang glider launch spot and the plaque on the ground was dedicated to well known hang gliding pilot named Dick Gammon. Respectively this launch point is named Gammon Launch in his memory.

In Ocean City the houses on the hill were interesting. All along the Pacific Coast there's houses up on the edge of the ocean side. I am always fascinated by these houses because it seems that there's so many houses in one area, facing the water. Everyone is wanting to have an ocean view, it seems.

One drive we made during our trip was to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We just had to get our hands on a few bags of squeaky cheese.

And the sunsets each night were different each time, but so pretty and bright each time. I still miss those sunsets.

On our drive back we drove on the Old Pacific Coast Highway along Otter Crest Loop. It's an interesting stretch of road because it's only one lane. It takes you over the bridge pictured called Ben Jones Bridge.

We also drove through Depoe Bay and Newport because well, why not? If you're a follower of SNS you'll remember that Depoe Bay is the same town where the annual Pirate Treasure Hunt takes place. Every time we head to the coast we take a pass through the bay fronts of both places. There such great areas.

Views of the Pacific Ocean from Whale Cove. This viewpoint is a great place to watch whales during their mating season in the fall.

Water spouts in Depoe Bay, Oregon. It was fun to sit and watch the waves come into the divots in the rocks and watch it spout up like a whale spout. The Bean enjoyed it a lot and we were all were sprayed with sea water as we watched. The spray gave just enough mist to create tiny rainbows all around where we were standing.

We were happy to see the sunshine when we got into Depoe Bay. It rained on us a little on the drive there, but the sun was shining hard and bright once we arrived. We stopped and got us some caramel corn and some taffy for the ride home. Depoe Bay always has the best caramel corn and salt water taffy, in my opinion.

I can't help by mention the nice Valentine's Day gift we received from Grandma Cheryl when we returned. She always throws in some of the cutest items and the popcorn mix was heavenly!