Burnt Out!!!

It's summer in the south and along with summer always comes family get togethers, BBQs, going to the pool, lake, pond, river (any water source that even remotely feels cooler than the outside air temperature). And of course another thing that always comes with summer and is the bane of anyone with fair skin, a SUNBURN.

I decided to do this one for my bf V. The girl is part vampire and freely admits it. (She's never tried to bite me but I can't say the same for anyone that has ever pissed her off :-p I love her anyways tho.) The sun's rays actively seek her out. About a month ago she was working on a project in her garage and still managed to get sunburned. Yesterday she was doing a grab and drive across several states (her man is on his way home...YAY!!!) and managed to get sunburned through the windows of her truck. Like I said the sun's rays actively seek her out. I'm sure that there are more people out in this wide world than just her with skin like that though. I am lucky in the fact that even being a redhead I only get burned one good time a year then it turns brown.

So for V and all the other half-vampires out there:

Sunburn Treatment

5 Black Tea Bags

3 Cups Fresh Mint

1 Quart Water

Boil the water. After the water has boiled turn it off and remove from the stove or microwave. Add the tea bags and mint.. Cover the pan or bowl and set it aside for an hour. Strain out the tea bags and mint into a 2 quart pitcher and refrigerate. Wait a few hours for the liquid to chill completely and then apply to sunburned skin with either cotton balls or by pouring the liquid directly on to the affected area. If you are gonna pour do it outside or in the tub or you'll have a minty, watery mess in your floor. I would even suggest putting the liquid into a spray bottle the way you don't waste any of it.

The mint will cool the sunburn and the black tea will draw out the heat. This combination restores the skin's natural acid balance.

I can't help you guys on the results of this one since I already got my yearly sunburn but I'll be more than happy to hear any of your results after you try it.

Happy DIYing Everyone!! 

Light Bulbs in the Sky

This isn't a problem that Rey tends to have to deal with.  The woman gets burned one day early in the summer, then from there on out proceeds to get progressively darker.  *mutters obscenities under her breath*  Me, on the other hand?  You'd think I was an albino the way I burn, and it never gets any easier to be in the sun, no matter how many times I burn.  I do eventually get something like a tan underneath the multitudinous masses of freckles that appear all over me like some contagious malady, but unlike some people *glares at Rey* that tan doesn't seem to offer any protection from burns.

There are all kinds of home remedies for burns.  The standard go-to that everyone has heard of is Aloe.  It's wonderful!  Especially if you can keep a plant of it growing in your kitchen for those "ah, hell" moments.  But unless your plant is spectacularly huge, that little plant isn't going to be nearly enough if you get sunburned on more than your nose.

So you go to the store and get one of those pump bottles of the aloe gel in the skincare aisle, right?  It's only a few dollars and usually lasts one summer.

Why?

Just go over to the baby supplies section, get an el-cheapo bottle of baby oil (I've found baby oil for under a buck) and slather it all over that sunburn.  If it's not a really bad burn, you won't have much soreness or tightness in the burn the next day at all.

Why it works:  the key to keeping a sunburn from being painful, tight, itchy and uncomfortable is -- yes I know, don't get one at all.  Hush you.  -- is to keep it moist.

You can do this in a lot of ways:  lotions, oils, ointments, creams, salves, balms, you name it.  Baby oil is cheap, never spoils, a single bottle lasts forever because it goes on so thin, and it's generally absorbed well by your skin and doesn't clog pores.  You could use lightweight cooking oils, if you're one of those that keeps something other than plain vegetable oil in your cupboard.  Olive oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, etc.  But, those cost an awful lot more than a bottle of baby oil, and you must remember that we're the Peasant and the Pea, not the Princess.  So forking out $13 for a bottle of extra, extra, extra virgin olive oil, pressed in the hills of Tuscany by the feet of only the most virginal virgin village girls just so we can slather it all over our sun-seared shoulders is not exactly inside our price range here.

So go grab a bottle of baby oil, and let that 98 cents work wonders this summer, and next summer, and maybe even the summer after that before you have to cough up another $2, because you know inflation....