Resistance Bands For a Quick, Easy and Super Cheap Workout at Any Level

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

If you've been following me all of these years, you know I'm a bit of a health nut or just nuts depending on who you ask. Hehehe...I had some severe pain going down my right, thigh and went to visit my new osteopath to see if he could help me out.

This kind of therapist is a must have in your health address book. They move and manipulate your body into healing. Sometimes they rub and massage your feet to help with your shoulder and all kinds of other crazy places that might seem unrelated to us lay people.

I had a back injury that no therapist could fix and finally after years, my doctor suggested an osteopath. I had no clue what that was, but to make a short story even shorter, I was completely cured after 2 sessions! He cured (When's the last time you were cured by a doctor?)my painful jaw (most probably from grinding my teeth) in 3 or 4 visits as well. I have hip issues for several years now that seemed to be giving my original osteopath a bit of trouble. So, I figured I'd try another one. Sometimes it just works out that way, right?

The new guy worked largely through massage. Painful fricking massage! Let me tell ya, people. These massages do not feel good most of the time. In the beginning you may even want to cry, but as they keep digging and prodding, the pain lessens more and more. Shoo! Anyway, the muscle manipulation techniques were not helping at all. He suggest a dry needle which I quickly declined. Another therapist tried it and it was a kind of pain I did not wish to revisit.

Then we tried resistant bands. The little ones known to some as mini resistant bands. The exercises started working right away. Yay! Even better, I could take the band home and on my crazy Scandinavian adventure which rendered me homeless for just under a month.

(I gave my mo-la the easiest one. It's not pictured here, but it's pink.)

My band didn't take up any space at all in my backpack. You can even slip the mini ones in your pocket if necessary. They don't cost anything either. I got a pack of 6 for under ten Euros and those were what seemed to be the good ones. I also recently ordered the larger, clothe-like ones for even more resistance.

I stayed true to a lousy 20 repetitions in 2 sets, daily and the pain is vanished. For shits and giggles, I used the band in an all body workout. When you wake up at 5 am, you don't want to make a lot of noise. I could stay in my room, hotel or wherever I was staying and do my simple exercises. To my amazement, after just two weeks, I stopped sleeping on boobs! The dangling daisies have risen to new heights. Hehehe...My arms and legs are a lot more tone and the slack skin and cellulite are minimal.

Readers, I don't even think my workout takes 10 minutes! I try to do it every single day, but I may miss 1 or 2 out of 7 days.

There are many other bands to choose from and no, I'm not affiliated to these companies.

To be completely honest, I may not be able to attribute all of my positive physical changes to the bands, but the leg injury and boobs, for sure. I did a lot of walking on my trip and didn't drink nearly as much alcohol as usual. It's way too expensive in Norway! That's an easy way to sober up.

Back in the day, I was a body builder. So I knew how to workout with these things. I recently looked up some videos and shorts on You Tube to see what other people have come up with to do with these bands and you can too.

The bands are practically free. My first ones broke all of the time. So not all bands are created equal. This new set I bought is still in order. The bands have different levels of resistance which is great for the different parts of your body you want to workout. The legs will need more resistance than your arms, etc.

Space isn't too much of an issue. The space I need for yoga is about the same.

See how easy all of them fit in the bag and in my hand?

There are more videos out there than one can possibly follow. Find a person you can tolerate and see if they have different videos according to body part or even how much time you spend that day. I breezed through the shorts because I don't want to dedicate too much time to this kind of workout. I keep up with strength training, weight training, walking and yoga.

See if it's for you? Again, the cost is insanely low (under $10). You don't have to be in any kind of shape to get started. It's so easy, you may even ask yourself if it's actually working and you don't have to do it long at all if you do't want to. I'd recommend if you want to keep the workouts short, then do it more often. I roll out of bed and start my workout. Unless I really have to pee. Then I do that, first. Hehehe...

Check out this channel to get started? I couldn't find just the perfect channel for my fans, but this one seemed professional and thorough. Don't let these buff chicks put you off. Here's another channel you can try from someone who I would consider a lot more normal in body type for the overall population.

I've been plugging away at finishing up some of the books I've started and want to try and get published. Of course, the gardening, DIY natural products for us and the house and pimping up our old house in Germany is taking up a lot of time. There are so many things I still have to share with you like my amazing trip around Scandinavia this summer, what we did with our bumper crop of cherries, window accessorizing, my blog on last year's Christmas baskets and I want to share some digital holiday goodies in the near future as well. Stay tuned, dearest readers and take care!

A Cute Little Fairy Door Made with Stuff from Around Your House

Welcome to the Cherry On Top.

I'm plugging away at our making our 100 year old house a little more nice and cozy. The outside and inside need a lot of work and there is not a lot of money. So the creativity needs to be in over drive. We have these two holes on the outside of our house and out building.

My carpentry skills are limited to glue and zip ties which is only just a little better than what the previous owner did with the holes which was fill them with newspaper. One of the holes was full of walnuts. As you can see below, I used one of the nuts that was eaten at one end and used it as a pot.

Let's look into the details of my house I built in about an hour with a bunch of stuff I found around the house and yard.

The base is an old plank that I sawed off to fit over the hole. It took forever! Hehehe... It probably took longer to cut the plank than it did for the rest of the project. Attached to the plank was a metal piece that I just left and repurposed to hold the little sign.

The door is composed of small branches, held together with craft wire and regular school glue. (I have bought a glue gun since.) You can see the tiniest piece is just another piece of branch. I cut it with regular yard cutters.

The window is again, branches glued to the plank. I purposefully chose pieces with the colorful fungus for contrast. I added a touch of gold paint to fill in where the window should be.

The sign is simply a flat piece from a branch. I used more of the craft wire around the ends and made to hang it. It's all the same piece.

The roof is a piece of bark I used from our firewood pile. It's nailed simply with small nails. The moss is from the backyard and glued on with regular craft glue.

The mushroom is insane, right?! I found it in the old chicken coop, all petrified. I ate all of the fresh ones. Hehehe...What a treasure that was! I glued the shroom down as well. I thought it looked like a tree.

As you can see, I put some tiny pine clippings in the nut also glued down.

This is one of the holes. I filled in the bottom with tiny rocks and used spackle to adhere it to the house. This portion of the out building is covered. So my house doesn't have to withstand a lot, if any rain.

I perused Pinterest for inspiration, as usual. Here are a few from Pinterest that may inspire you as well.

Maybe not all natural, but pretty darn cute.

These are so adorable. Add it to your little house, Christmas tree or wreath?

It's a quick one, today! Thanks so much hanging with The Cherry! Scroll back and find other fun DIY projects, free digital designs, scrapbook inspiration, amazing travel stories, pics and tips. This is a popular one on cozying up your place for nothing or next to nothing.

What to do with All of Those Peaches and Some Free Printable Peach Designs

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

I started this blog, last year around this time and never got around to finishing it. As I'm currently picking up the fruit that falls from my weinbergpfirsich (wine mountain peach) tree (I know, right?!), I'm cutting out all of the nasties, chopping and either using immediately in oatmeal, yogurt or a baked goodie or I'm freezing them in different sized zip locks. Of course, you can can them as well.

Last year, we had thousands of peaches. I gave most of them away. This year they were very sparse. We rarely pick our fruit, letting it stay on the trees. Otherwise, I'd never stop cooking, canning, etc. One of these days, I should go around our tiny yard and take pictures so you can see just how much food you can grow on a tiny space. Prices these days make this a very smart option, right?

We do nothing with our food in regards to fertilizers and pesticides and I mean nothing. The most I'll do is pick off pests or possibly spray the crap out of them with a mix of dish soap and water. The end. We are inundated with chemicals all around and on us, the heck if I'll add even more.

Most of our fruit is imperfect and we still have way more than enough. We just cut out the brown spots, scoop out the worms and eggs, rinse and prepare as necessary. We ain't dead yet. Hehehe...

As you can see, these are small peaches with a dark pink to purple flesh. Our peaches are fairly sour. You can enjoy them raw, but the skin and the slightly sour taste isn't all that delectable. Once, on a walk, I picked up one of these peaches that was laying in the road and it was delicious. So, not all trees are created equal. Pictured above is our plums as well. We hardly had any at all this year. My mother told me they skip years in regards to yields. 

Our cherries were the most insane, this year. We've had our two, small trees for nearly 20 years and this was the first time we had more than a bowl full. On a little side bar, as we were planting our trees, several neighbours warned us that they would never grow, but y'all know how stubborn I am. I guess I should blog them and all of the stuff the guys did with our huge harvest while I was doing my Scandinavian tour. We literally had buckets and buckets full.

As I mentioned, most of our fruit gets "ruined" from pests. It's easy to find the entry point. The little critters go right to the center or core of the fruit because that's where all of the good stuff is which is new information to me. I'll also have to write about that sometime more in detail or you can look into it yourself. Apricot pits, grape seeds and so many other fruit centers have almost magical type properties that are just great for us.

If I want to give away extras, I put them in recycled bags and pots and place them out front with a "free" sign. They never last! I guess I might piss off some neighbors that are trying to sell theirs, but I don't have enough room for some of our harvests and the fruit is rarely perfect. So why would I charge for that?

I'm getting another cook book together, Ultimate Oatmeal. Above, is an image of the peach, apple and plum. They're all ready about the same time which is usually end September, but this year the fruit was falling in August. The apple or a banana is a great way to add extra sweetness to your recipe. Oatmeal is a favorite of mine. You can put nearly any kind of fruit and or fruitable in there.

A decent harvest after a night of rainfall.

Peach butter! Even better than jam?

Below, is the hubs with one of our apples. Take a look down our driveway. It isn't really all that long. Pictured, you can see 3 apple and two pear trees. Growing  in between are raspberries, a bay leaf plant, mint, pumpkin, herbs of all kinds and somehow, there's a fig tree growing there now, too? I have no idea how that happened, but I'm over the moon about it. We've been trying to grow a fig tree for years and God only knows how the heck a fig tree is growing in the middle of the brick driveway? Divine intervention?

Bare with me through this. I'll have a sweet design for ya, a list to refer to and a lot of links to get you going on your whopping harvest.

Zip Locks Rock!

Pictured are apples, but I do this with all of our extra fruit and veg. Pack up your extras in different sized bags and freeze. If you want to bake a cake, you'll need a bigger bag, but if you only need a bit for some yogurt or oatmeal, you'll need the little guys. In another blog about having too many tomatoes, I shared the idea of putting tomato paste in ice cube trays, then once frozen, empty them into little ziplocks like this. Gee! I could have sworn I blogged about green tomatoes? They are crazy sweet and when mixed with red tomatoes and even a bit of the leaves from the plant, they are beyond delish. Cook'm, first or pickle them. I mentioned it in this blog which you may love.

Let's move on to our list and links so you can get going! I found a list, but after reading a few recipes saw it wasn't whole food. Darn! Y'all do not need to be eating food from boxes and premixes. Ugh! I am not at all a fan of mixing fruit with meat and vegetables, but a lot of people apparently put peaches in salsas, on the grill and on sandwiches. Call me old fashioned! You can find those recipes on your own. Hehehe...

Cobbler (We also do crumbles which are crazy easy.)

Peach Bellini (My mom's favorite. You could just add your peach juice to cava, prosecco...)

Peach Ice Cream and Sorbet

Jam

Oatmeal

Yogurt (blend plain yogo or kefir with peaches)

Smoothies

Cakes, Muffins, Breads and Pancakes

Fruit Salads

Granola (I dice fruit, heap on yogo or kefir and top with granola.)

Peach Iced Tea (Super yum!)

Peach Fritters (???)

Peach Cookies

Peach Popcyles

Lemonade with Peaches

Cinnamon Sugar Baked Peaches (Sounds delish!)

Peach juice and wine (Check out how easy it is to juice on this blog.)

Goodness, y'all! I just did a search in Pinterest and I can't wait to get to the kitchen.

Here's your free design. I downloaded the clipart from Design Bundles. They've got so many awesome designs, including those in our shop. Here's a few of my favorite fall stuffs from our shop, Kreative Design Studio.

Enjoy 2 free printable or digital papers and a pretty peach tag.

Seasonal goodies from my shop:

Thanks for hanging with The Cherry!

Swelling and Pain After a Fight with a Rose? Try this Natural Remedy and Grab Some Beautiful Free Rose Designs

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

My apologies for not being consistent. The world is really on its head for a bit and shows no signs of uprighting itself. Hehehe...No worries, I've got so many blogs still planned including free designs, free templates, more fun travel blogs, cooking (peaches are next) blogs and more, more, more! Just hang in there.

Y'all! Before I could even finish this blog, I yet again, got an infection from a brush with a rose thorn as I was picking up my dog's poop. My finger was nearly twice its normal size. This time, I knew right what to go for. Unreal?!

Recently, I barely bumped an old rose bush while working in the garden. It really was just a quick, little prick and not deep at all. I sucked on the wound and carried with my work. I've had many a row with a rose and never ever had issues, until now. Ugh!

I couldn't even sleep that night! The pain was terrible. In the morning, I saw my knuckle was really swollen and red. By the next day, I couldn't see two knuckles from the swelling. I considered going to the doctor, it was that bad.

So read further to learn what I did to stop the pain on contact, grab some pretty rose inspired designs and check out some of my roses from our gardens both past and present. They are nothing fancy because I am not at all a fan of roses, even less so now. Hehehe... Right click and download the designs.

 

I went online to see if I could find any answers and as usual, what I read nearly scared me half to death! When will I learn?! So there's a thing called sporotrichosis. It's a fungal infection that spreads to bones and joints and boy oh boy were my bones hurting. I had burning, throbbing pain in my pinky as well and it was spreading really fast. Great! I tried all kind of stuff. Of course, washing and antiseptic spray. Then some coconut oil and none of that worked at all.

Here's a variety of roses in our tiny front garden from a former house. I could't just rip out these really old roses. Besides, you can eat the petals, make tea and I love refrigerating my rose water when the temperatures rise.

Ice helped a bit with the swelling, but only temporarily.

I knew that tea tree oil was an anti-fungal and that it needs a carrier oil. So, I went with castor oil which is anti fungal, anti bacterial and anti viral. If y'all still ain't got this in the medicine cabinet, get on it. 

I put a few drops of each in the palm of my hand and with my index finger, dabbed the mix on the infected area. People, I had immediate relief. Thank the Lord above because I was needing relief. How crazy easy is that?!  I used my mix three times a day. First thing in the morning, sometime in the afternoon and right before bed.

I had no sign of any injury at all after just two days. I was dumbfounded. If you've been following me all of these years, you know how granola crunchy I am. Experiences like this is all the encouragement one needs to continue on this path.

Of course, this is not medical advice. I wouldn't dare! I'm simply sharing a story and while I'm at it, I'll link you up with another blog where tea tree oil saved the day. There's this one and how it was the only thing that got rid of our lice dilemma after years of turmoil. I also used it to eradicate my toenail fungus. Again, nothing worked! It did take a really long time. I recommend not using toenail polish at all, ever. Since I treated my tootsies with the tea tree oil and stopped using incredibly toxic nail polish, my nails are beyond fab. I will spare you photos! Hehehe...Take my word for it. The little ridges and lines are gone and my nails are so nice and white, they look like they had a French Manicure.

This rose came with the house along with many others around the back garden. I left this one in the pot it came in and moved it by the door. I added some other plants all around the outside to help fill in the pot. I should definitely take some pics.

I blogged about container gardening and it's a big hit. Did you miss it? I just love container gardens! Click the image below, for some serious inspiration and wait until you see the next blog dedicated to it. My planters never cost more than $20 to design. Some can even cost nothing. I've been hitting up our green dump and the green container at the cemetery. Is that not a cool thing to do? I don't know. I just can't stand when people throw out a perfectly good plant!

Grab a few more free designs with a vintage vibe and roses. Grrr...Hehehe...I'm pretty sure the below design might be a sticker.

So apparently, roses can have a mold like residue on them. Those are the ones ya wanna watch out for! You can treat this mold with neem oil. Just two tablespoons in a gallon of water and spray the crap out of infected areas. If you've got aphids, spray a mix or water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid. You'll have to do it a lot, but it totally works and it's non toxic. That's our thing at The Cherry. If having two kids with Autism taught me anything it's that we live in a very toxic world. So, our little world, our bubble we live in, needs to be as toxic free as possible and let me tell you, folks, natural remedies almost always work and I will be back with more. I've cured myself of so many things using CBD oil, black seed oil and DMSO. The results were so unbelievable, I have to tell you. I wrote it down on my short list. So come on back in the next month or so and perhaps cure your reflux, allergies and other not so nice ailments.

How do you use your roses? Did you know, if you are cutting them for scent, it's best to do it in the morning? If you have roses with large petals, you can candy them and charge a frig'n fortune for them?! Sell them for fancy parties and weddings! I love rose water. It's crazy easy to make. You'll kick yourself in the fanny for not doing it ages ago. Put a pot on the stove, get it good and warm, chuck in some petals, maybe a good handful either dry or fresh, turn down the heat, let it simmer about 10-15 minutes and strain. Duh, right?! I put my cooled liquid in a recycled, spray bottle and keep it in the fridge. When I get overheated in the garden, I come in and spray it all over. I use it to tame my frizzy mass as well. It costs, literally nothing! Don'cha just love that?! Totally Cherry!

Here's your last design. It all can be found in Design Bundles. Yes, I'm still holding on to this shop. Goodness gracious! It changes as often as I change my dern underwear! The whole thing is different. It's all membership, now and the designers get some kind of minuscule percentage of sales, but $20 a month is better than $0, right? This is the collection where some of the goodies come from.

Thanks loads for stopping by! May your day be filled with health and laughter.

Orchid Lice What is it? How to Eradicate It? A Free Pretty Mini Scrapbook Kit

 

If you accidentally got here looking for hair lice, no worries! I've covered that years ago as well. Click the link to get to the post and safely and naturally get rid of that darn lice.

Just look at my gorgeous baby. Allow me to introduce, Henrietta. (My grandmother's name.) I don't even know how old she is. 18 years old? She's an absolute dream. A beautiful cloud of plant heavenliness adorning my enormous picture window for well over a decade. Isn't she a jaw dropper? She blooms year round, non stop. She didn't always bloom year round, but she has been for a few years, lately.

I have no idea what I'm doing! I just love her so much. She was a gift from our neighbor and found herself right at home quickly. I was smitten! She must really feel the love I have for her. I was horrified to find this dusty looking, sticky stuff all over her, one afternoon while cleaning out the window sill. My poor baby!

She got infected by a recent plant purchase. A really, really crappy plant purchase, I might add. I often buy discounted, half dead plants because I feel sorry for them and this happens. Ugh! (Reminds me of a recent vote I made. Thought I was doing the right thing, only to find out I voted for yet another parasite.)Needless to say, those plants are gone. In my research, it says I should trash an orchid that's repeatedly infected?! As if?! There's no way in H...E...double hockey sticks I'm throwing out grandma! Banish the thought!

So, for months, I dug into treating Henrietta with a watered down dish soap spray, a toothpick and cotton swab. Can you see that little monster? Heebie jeebies!

It took some serious searching and a lot of reading to find a good article on how to combat this terrible pest. Here's a really good one and I plan on trying the alcohol, next if this is still a problem.

Just look at all of this filth! I literally worked like an hour to remove every trace that I can see. Little did I know about the roots, until just a few minutes ago. Ugh! She's already in the one of the biggest pots I own. After reading, I should take her out and clean the roots really well, put all new soil/orchid mix and a new pot. She's just huge. Like a bush! So, it will not be an easy task.

This infection was really, really bad. You have to literally, check every centimeter of your plant and by all means, get that plant out of reach of other plants. Unless, you want them to die or become infected. Sure enough this got to all of my orchids. What a load of work! Each time I treated my plant, there were less and less traces of the lice.

See that concentration under the flower? I very gently scrape with a cotton swab or toothpick and then spray the crap out of it with my soapy mix.

They just love the nodes! You'll need a toothpick to get them the heck out of there. Zap'm with a hefty squeeze of your spray.

Just look at that! Even the tiniest of crevices!

In the seems of the leaves...

If you really love your plant, don't give up! First line of action is to get it away from other plants. We got this horrid infestation from a totally different kind of plant. It was not an orchid OR perhaps we got it when I orchid sat for my mother-in-law?! Oh! I just thought of that. Either way, remove it and treat it in whatever way you choose. Purchased insecticidal soaps, the rubbing alcohol or my way which is probably the least damaging for the plant.

Here's more evidence on another orchid. I read somewhere that a struggling plant often encourages pests. So try your best to have healthy plants.

This little guy was a lot easier to treat.

This one was not infected.

I found that misting my plants on occasion helps a great deal with those scale bugs. You know, the ones that look like a solid drop of honey? Aphids as well.  I carefully scratch them off if I see them and spray a bit of the dish soap water over the plant. I've had no serious infestations since. 

Enjoy some pics of some of my other orchids.

This is just one branch from Henrietta.

Your FREE Mini Kit with Tag, Papers and Graphic Designs

I know! It's nothing like I used to design. This software problem is the issue. Also, there are like a ton of other things I'd rather be doing than designing. Like many other women out there, I change my mind like the wind. I get bored! I've dove into DIY everything from home repairs to cosmetics and it is consuming a lot of time. Maybe you read about my Scandinavian adventure? There is still so much to share. I also plan on blogging some of my experiences restoring this old, German house on a dime. I thought about calling the series, Paint, Duct Tape and Zip Ties because I'm totally fixing up this house with next to no budget or skills for that matter. Just a lot of practice and You Tube videos! Hehehe...

I hope you come back for another visit. This blog is kind of like an orchestra of all things helpful (the drums), making things pretty (the wind instruments), travel (the strings) and saving money (the conductor).

May your day be full of magic and laughter!