How Does Your Garden Grow?

There is a wonderful service out of Orcutt, California called “The Seed Shrine” (www.theseedshrine.com), enabling you to grow commercial-grade seeds in your own fresh produce garden and delivered on a monthly basis right to your door!

A recent Seed Shrine packet that we received included Red Radish, Green Cabbage, Onion and Cilantro seeds, all perfect for including in salad preparations and other dishes. The Seed Shrine membership is an affordable $12 a month, including free shipping. Company founder Liz Miles is dedicated to providing her members with the most unique varieties of seed available on the market in the hopes that more and more people will recognize that the food they consume contributes greatly toward good health. Monthly Membership in The Seed Shrine also makes a great holiday gift!

The Seed Shrine Monthly Membership — Gotta Love It!

Book Pick of the Week May Save Your Life

If you or anyone in your family and friends circle has suffered a stroke, or you want to know the best ways to prevent one, you need to investigate Amytis Towfighi and Laura J. Stevens excellent guidebook, “What You Must Know About Strokes” (www.squareonepublishers.com.)

This guidebook covers the full gamut of topics related to strokes, including speech therapy, rehabilitation, suggested foods, including an anti-stroke diet, and a comprehensive resources section. Although much of the healthcare focus today is on Covid-19, strokes are among the key preventable healthcare emergencies that can not only be prevented but also minimized.

“What You Must Know About Strokes” by Dr. Amytis Towfighi and Laura J. Stevens – Gotta Love It!

Otamot Goes Beyond Traditional Tomato Sauce

Otamot Foods (www.otamotfoods.com) offers home chefs a delicious way to add more flavor and nutrition to dishes ranging from breakfast omelettes to pasta creations, casseroles and meatloafs.

Otamot goes beyond traditional tomato sauce with a recipe that includes 10 organic vegetables, including bell peppers, red beets, sweet potatoes and squash. You can even use it to replace pizza sauce in recipes that substitute English muffins for traditional pizza dough. Add Otamot to your favorite meatloaf recipe or anyplace you normally use tomato sauce. Check out their online store for varieties available, and use the code REUP for 20% off.

Otamot Sauces – Gotta Love It!

Happy Anniversary, Garrett Popcorn

Popcorn and movie watching are the perfect marriage. To celebrate its landmark 71st anniversary, Garrett Popcorn Shops (www.garrettpopcorn.com) , a Chicago-based staple since 1949, is offering a special price of only $19.49 (regularly $33)  for a tin of their all-time favorite Garrett Mix of crispy caramel and cheddar cheese popcorn. 

This is not popcorn that you wolf down by the handful. It is so flavorful, crispy, delicate and delicious, that you feel satisfied eating it just one beautifully popped kernel at a time.  This special anniversary price only lasts through September 6, so why not treat yourself, your housemates or far-away family and friends to a mail-order of Garrett Popcorn!

71st Anniversary of Garrett Popcorn Shops — Gotta Love It!

Artist Captures Bravery & Heartbreak of Pacific Northwest Refugees

If you’ve never been uprooted from the place you call home, you are likely to marvel at the stories of refugees painted both in word and watercolor by talented Seattle artist Karisa Keasey in her book, “When You Can’t Go Home” (www.karisakeasey.com).

Her recounting of the journeys and experiences of 10 brave refugees offer the reader a poignant look at what it means to be an immigrant and an outsider and how World Relief efforts are helping to turn trauma into triumph for displaced individuals from around the globe on a daily basis.

“When You Can’t Go Home: Portraits of Refugees in the Pacific Northwest” by Karisa Keasey – Gotta Love It!

Just Breathe

One of the best books anyone can read this year during this devastating pandemic is one newly released by authors Meera Kerr and Sandra McLanahan called “Take a Deep Breath” from Square One Publishers (www.squareonepublishers.com).

This valuable guide offers the reader a very instructive overview about the importance of the lungs, how they work, and how they aid your ability to increase oxygen intake into the body and how that affects good health. And more importantly. this book gives you specific steps to take to help prevent or minimize respiratory disease and illness, along with simple exercises you can even do while seated to improve and increase your ability to breathe!

“Take a Deep Breath” by Meera Patricia Kerr and Dr. Sandra A. McLanahan – Gotta Love It!

Better to Light One Candle…

Candles have an amazing way of adding not only light, but a sense of coziness, peace and calm into our lives. If these are the feelings you have been searching for in these truly dark and uncertain times, check out The Spa Girl Life’s assortment of soy candles (www.thespagirllife.com).

We recently tried the Moonlight Reflections Candle for Transformation and found it had a wonderfully even burn. The use of pure, natural ingredients in its creation helps to infuse the air with a soft and subtle  fragrance that can help to calm frazzled nerves. The flames glows bright and even and each candle burns for 40 hours. Each candle is designated for a specific purpose, such as bliss, compassion, peace or transformation and comes with two meditative crystals. Treat yourself or someone you love to a sample pack so you can enjoy a variety of experiences.

The Spa Girl Life Luxury Candle — Gotta Love It!

 

An Amazing Life with the Big Cats

Many people know the cinematic work of actress Tippi Hedren, probably most famous for that haunting and very scary Hitchcock thriller, “The Birds.”

But many people don’t know that her travels and subsequent encounter with lions, tigers and other wildlife inspired a lifelong dedication to learning more about these amazing big cats, wonderfully  recaptured and described in her autobiography,  “The Cats of Shambala” (www.amazon.com). This makes for riveting reading as through the daily trial and error of living with assorted big cats and other wildlife, she and her family ultimately created a movie (“Roar), and a wildlife sanctuary, The Shambala Preserve, still operating today (www.shambala.org) just north of Los Angeles. Hedren has also done tremendous work over the past decades in the area of animal preservation and protection.

“The Cats of Shambala” — Gotta Love It!

 

 

 

Exercise Your Right To Vote this Fall!

The man pictured above is running for President and in our opinion, is the country’s best hope for getting us out of the horrendous mess we find ourselves in. We’re sure if he could send each of us a personal message, it would be to vote on November 3rd and make it easy to do by requesting a mail-in ballot from your state election officials.

Are you registered to vote?  Good, if not, do so today. Did you know you can also request a mail-in ballot so you don’t need to leave the comfort and safety of your home to exercise your right to vote! Since every state varies, check https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote to get the process started. Just one vote can have an impressive ripple effect in helping to save our democracy. It’s your right, voting my mail is NOT a fraud, and voting can help to remove the current toxic trash that has piled up in the oval office of the White House!!

Registering to Vote and Requesting a Mail-in-Ballot — Gotta Love It!

 

 

Join in for Growing A Greener World

While channel surfing over the weekend, we came across a PSB series that focuses on one of the fastest growing interests and activities since the pandemic began, the art of gardening. 

“Growing a Greener World”, (www.growingagreenerworld.com)  now in its 11th season, is hosted by the genial and very informative expert Joe Lamp’l . The segment we watched showed viewers how to gently and humanely protect the fruits of your garden labors from deer, rabbits, moles and voles.  Lamp’l has also introduced an Online Gardening Academy so you can learn how to encourage your very own green thumb, right from the safety and comfort of your home office, living room or family den. When you visit the website, pick up your free Home Composting Guide!

Growing a Greener World on PBS — Gotta Love It!