GIVEAWAY ENDS SOON ENTER TODAY-- 5 things making me Hippie Happy right now

Oprah has her favorite things but she has those amazing cooperate  sponsors paying for her audience to walk away with all that swag. I am not so lucky. But you may be.

 For the next month, I will be running a contest to win DANY'S HIPPIE HAPPY THINGS. See the lovely rafflecopter below for some amazing hippie happy things that can be yours.


5. Noxema- When I was a little girl, my momma used this product herself regularly. But she would use this on me to get off Halloween makeup or when I had a sunburn. The smell and the good tingly feel on my skin is a great memory and current experience all in one. Now this product has become part of my daily regime along with my Konjac sponge.

4. Kickstart- Lets start with the best part of this drink only 80 calories and tons of caffeine. Low calorie, no aspartame and its not filled with all the crazy ass shit in the normal energy drinks and did I mention tastes great. I like to have one to kick start my day. It is the best thing since Jolt.

3. French Press Coffee Maker-- This is the only item on my top 5 that I did not initially pay for myself, and I did receive this item free for review from Francois et Mimi. I reviewed this product a few weeks ago here

2. Yatra - Natura Incense - Parimal Mandir-- Since I quit smoking cigarettes over five years ago, my sense of smell has sharpened and I get a great rush of hippie happy when I smell things that tingle my nose's fancy. A yummy candle, a savory meal, a smell from my childhood, or a new exotic smell that I have never encountered before. This incense was introduced to me by my brother and since then I have bought two cases of this and passed it on to a friend for her to try out. I was a big fan of Nag Champa for years but this was a whole different take but with hints of some of the same notes.

1. Herbal Essences Rose Conditioner-- This is a memory in a bottle. Every time I use this product, I think of my college years at Antioch College and it is by far the best conditioner expensive or low end I have ever used.

Bonus Hippie Happy Item:
Michael Sealy Guided Meditations and Hypnosis on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelSealey
I have been a person who struggles to fall asleep without a tv on and when we moved into this house my husband and I decided not to have a tv in our bedroom. But I was cheating and just watching Netflix and Hulu on my tablet. I was thinking for almost two years how proud I was of myself for not having a TV in my room-- I fooled myself long enough and then I remembered a trip I took to Washington DC with my TAG class in 5th grade. My teacher brought a cassette with a guided meditation where a calm male voice talked you through relaxing each body part and I listened to it on my Walkman. In preparing for my own daughter's trip to DC I thought of this and I thought to Bing guided meditation male voice and found many different options on YouTube. After a few weeks of listening to some I liked, some I changed after only a few moments and then I found Michael's videos. Now I use these videos every day for the last two weeks and I have never felt better. Now to be fair this added meditation did align with my removing of Lyrica from my body. I like to think these meditation/hypnosis have helped me avoid all withdrawal from the Lyrica, increase my productivity mentally and physically as well as improve my moods. Can't include this in the prize pack but you can get this now for free on Micheal's YouTube channel.



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One of lifes greats-- a cup of coffee is back in my life again

When the letter-cup single serve coffee craze began, I was so stoked. I struggle with making a consistent cup of coffee. It was either too strong, too weak or I would just get sick of the whole filter coffee struggle. If the coffee maker was on the cheap side chances are the filter would fall down and I would end up drinking more grounds than ended up in the filter. Ugh. Then my hubby bought me the coffee maker that takes those cute coffee cups. And I loved that, perfect cup every time. Then it didn't. I started getting grounds and the single serve cup was all busted open when I opened the top. In the news single serve coffee machine started exploding opening, now I never got burned but my machine did start popping open. The Letter-Cup coffee company did replace the first one that had issues. When the second one started having issues, I was done and I think it was right about summer time when my letter-cup brewer died so I replaced my coffee habit with a new kick in the head drink by Dew of the Mountain.

Then for Lent I gave up my Kicks in the head and I cannot afford to drink four dollar coffees, especially if you have more than one cup of caffeine in a given day. Then Tomoson had an opportunity to review Francois et Mimi 50oz Glass French Press, I jumped at the chance to try a new way of having coffee. My Aunti is a full fledged hippie and my source for all things awesomely natural and organic. She is a healer, masseuse and was the first person I ever knew to have a glow that draws people in and in the last thirty some years that glow has only grown brighter. I digress, wink. So the only time I have had experience with a french press is when Aunti has made me coffee in her french press. It was great, rich, but sometimes grinds got through but with enough sugar it was yummy enough.

So when I opened the box, I was happy to see a single piece of equipment, strange that there was not any peanuts or styrofoam, just a plunger inside the glass coffee carafe. To be honest my first batch was a little weak, mostly because of my ability to grind my coffee beans. I am working with the fine-ness of the coffee to find the richness of the taste of the joe. The Francois et Mimi Glass French does not allow any grinds to get through so far. It says it is dishwasher safe, but I have only hand washed mine-- mostly because I don't want the kids to have the opportunity to eff it up.

But after just a few weeks with the press I feel a nice comfort with it that I think will only grow that I am glad that makes me feel good about the less processed version of coffee. Sort of primitive simplicity in life that makes me smile. #hippiehappy


I received this complimentary in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Ardenne Farm Gluten Free Chocolate Cookie Mix Giveaway

I have received for free this product for an honest review and for the giveaway. I am blaming my epilepsy meds and the flu that I did not start this giveaway last week when I should have. Hope some great people enter. I will complete my review of the product tonight after work. But I needed to get the giveaway going. Please enter. I need a WINNER and I know you are a winner. Wink, wink.

I made the cookies tonight and they were ten times better then the premade cookie dough I bought from Pillsbury. Those were not even a little good. Now I had some trouble with the size of my cookies and they meddled together took up the size of the whole pan. Now I did not really look at the size of my spoonfulls and when the amount of cookies should have been twenty and I only ended up with maybe 14 scoops I knew I was in trouble but I shrugged it off.

Well, they still tasted yumtastic considering my total disregard for the rules of the measurements of the spooning. I know you will be more "ocd" than me.

Good luck and happy eating to the winner. GF all the way baby!







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Longing for Rabbits and Resurrections ( Or the waiting for Spring as more snow falls) Tips for Fun WAYS to MAKE IT SPRING in GREY weather

I get all my best writing ideas while I am driving. I know what great ideas, I am still waiting to hear a nugget of funny or usable info. My train derails a lot. The driving idea today was about how we can do little things to "make it spring" for us even with the snow falling. (started this blog post when we were in our snowstorm, a member of my family went into hospital, my brain frizzled so now I finish, Yippee)


Here are some FUN ways to MAKE IT SPRING while we long for Rabbits and the Resurrection of Easter Sunday...


1. See the world through rose colored glasses- literally, or for me blue colored lens. Go to your local Charming Charlies or Claire's boutique and grab some cheap but helpful Point of View changers. The sky is whitish grey, as is the snow covered hills,

2. I carry in my purse what I call cucumbers in a bottle. I am not shitting you, pardon my French, they would pardon me if they were here. You will see. I received from the Tomoson company a Amara Total Repair Eye gel to try. Now, before you think ugh, another plug. STOP. This stuff rocks rough n stuff with its afro puffs. I have made my husband use it, even the kids. It takes away the bags from your eyes-- YES> but it does so much more than that. It is literally (not using this word wrong like a teen with her eyes on her phone saying she's literally gonna die if she don't get Beaver Beaber tickets) like putting cucumbers on your eyes. The smell, the experience, the sensation-- ITS a salon moment in a bottle. This is only the 2nd product I have been sent that I will buy when the bottle is empty and it almost is. Maybe I should not have been so generous? Did I mention how Hippie happy this stuff makes me? If I am down, I will put a little under my eyes and the smell makes me smile and I love to look in the mirror and not feel the need for make up. That makes me smile even bigger. HIPPIE HAPPINESS achieved.

3. I have busted out my runners, no I do not, have not and will not be a runner of any sort this spring. But I do walk a fair walk. Okay,to be honest its a little more like a casually stroll to my post office stopping to smell the roses and looking at the intricate architecture of the houses in my small village. I do have on my Adidas, yoga pants *with my parts tastefully covered as not to get my pants banned in my village* and whatever shirt is comfy. I don't break a sweat unless its like over 90 degrees. So I think I have a few months, oh this is Ohio, it could be 90 tomorrow then snow that same weekend. Why do I stay here? I digress.

4.Pull out those summer clothes we got on clearance just a few weeks ago. I reached for the stash of shopping bags I had squirrelled* away in of the top of my closet. I layered them up, put them together on hangers and now I am hoping to find a sweater to wear these Hippie happy tanks from Maurices. I put on a whole outfit on just to feel that summery feel. Capris, tanks and flip flops. I can already hear my husband, are you wearing that again? YES. I went years not able to comfortably where skinnier clothes, you drop 5 pant sizes and see if you don't find a fave style that formerly was unavailable to your body type, ie layered thin hippie tanks.

5. At home or at the salon Pre-spring pedicure: we may not be able to wear those sandals yet but we can make our piggies look cute and we can be prepared for the first day.I find it hilarious that women will spend twenty to forty dollars on a pedicure then slip on those bad boys flippers from Old Navy we picked up for $2, knowing they only cost two cents to make and we get made in June when the first toe thong pops out like a button on a marathon eaters pants. Forty dollar foot massage and paint job--two cents keeping our feet from scorching hot pavement. Only in America, and the countries we want to be like and the countries begging to be our friends on the playground. France, we told you last week. You don't get to pull our hair one week and bring us chocolate filled croissant the next. No, fair. Don't they know I am gluten-free?

*I did not intend to insult any squirrel readers/followers I may have. I merely was implying they are good at being prepared for the next season and was not intended to imply any sort of hoarding behaviors at all. My apologizes to the squirrels that took that the wrong way.

Naturalico Vitamin C 20% Vitamin E Hyaluronic Acid Professional Anti-Aging Serum Review (and a mini ANTI- AGING rant)

How many facial products can tout the following? Its made in the USA, not tested on Animals,Certified organic, highest levels of Vitamin C allowed, professional grade? Well with with Vitamin C Serum by Bella Naturals that is exactly what you get. The ingredients read more like a shopping list of organic herbs than the normal unpronounceable chemicals of most products you find in the big box stores.

Then you have the guarantee that it is not tested on animals, we all remember the first time you realized that some of our makeup and facial products were being forced into the eyes and other openings of cute little bunny rabbits. For a mother trying to go green and to make the world a little better for my kids, here is another way we can do so. Showing them that even if we feel we need products to make ourselves feel positive about ourselves we do not have to kill to do so.

I love being able to give my body vitamins both internally through the yummy foods we eat and also through the organic serum and lotions I have chosen to put on my skin. Vitamin C Serum by Bella Naturals gives me a smooth even feel to my skin. But this product also got me to thinking about my stance on Hippie Happy vs. Anti-Aging (especially since it was my birthday last week).

Can one be Hippie Happy and use Anti-Aging? Well my answer is DUH. I do not use any of these products to deny my age. I am thirty-eight and very happy with my age. I truly believe that age is how the world keeps track of my years on earth that my soul feels very little difference between my thoughts and feels of 22 year old Danyel and last week Danyel, more lessons learned, better perspective on things like parenthood, finances and what really matters in life-- Time. It is the only thing we can give someone selflessly.

But I digress (blame it on my mom's ADD) so I use Anti-aging because I am taking care of the temple God gave me and have some year of neglect to make up for. I would use the same product if they took away the ANTI-AGING. Nothing stops aging except death; and I have a shit ton of living still to do.