Grind it baby, round and round

I thought life couldn't get better than my French press coffee maker. It makes me feel like my coffee is better than electronically brewed, something about taking out the electricity and going rustic brings out a flavor and richness that I never experienced from an electronic coffee maker even from letter-cup coffee maker. One of the first things the instructions for your french press coffee maker suggests is to use fresh ground coffee beans. I did not have a coffee bean grinder so I used the food processor which worked to grind the beans but it went against my rustic loveliness of the french press.

Brillante Manual Coffee Grinder was sent to me for review and I thought this is perfect. And it lives up to its name, Brillante. I was worried that it would make my arm sore or tired. And even for a pot of french press I was not tired. The size of the grinder is smaller and I have to fill up the grinder twice to create enough coffee to make a pot in my french press but the ease of grinding was like winding up a Jack in the Box. The only negative is the size of the grinder makes it that I have to fill it up twice, but truly there is nothing negative about that. Though my hubby did find a couple whole coffee beans on the floor that must have jumped out of the coffee bag. This product made me super #hippiehappy! This will be part of our home for years to come.

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.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.