Wow... Being busy sure takes a lot of time!

I have been unbelievably busy since my last post.

I've made a home made moisturizer mostly based on a recipe I found here (I less than three "One Good Thing by Jillee"), I'm still dabbling with the laundry detergent jelly out in the garage, I tweaked the recipe for home made dishwasher detergent, I've dyed my hair (and made a mess), I've cleaned my dishwasher, I clean my washing machine every time I do a load of laundry (thanks to my home made liquid fabric softener which features white vinegar), I've combed through a goofy amount of household cleaning tips for ones I've used to pass on, I've combed through household cleaning tips for things I'd like to try (and then pass on). I ran my crystal ball through the dishwasher because it had spent a year on top of the fridge, and was coated in grease and oil! Blech... It came out beautiful thanks to my home made dish-washing detergent (Lemi-shine, Borax, washing soda, and Dawn original dish soap all Ninja'd together to make a powder that only uses 2 tbsp. to do a load of dishes in the dish-washing machine). I've seriously been so busy, I haven't really wanted to take family time to update my blog!

Once things settle down, and I get a bit more used to all of this activity I'll be sharing recipes and pictures with you! Until then, feel free to follow some of my Pinterest boards. You can find them here!

My first blogging FAIL. ::headdesk, facepalm, and all that jazz::

Friday was a crazy hectic day full of pain and body wash experimentation. I didn't catalog my activity on Friday mainly due to the small fibro flare up I unwittingly caused in my attempt to increase my activity stamina. In the chance that you are just now learning about me, I have fibromyalgia. It runs in my family and developed due to a scoliosis that has weakened my discs at the L-5 to S-1 (my tailbone, which is more like a tail than anyone else I've ever met :~/). I had a disc herniation and was laid up two weeks before my 30th birthday. I've been home bound since, and am only now learning how to live with the constant muscle tension and pain I experience. The fibro is one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog.... I've been on the couch for too long. I'm not going to let the pain rule my life, but I am willing to give it a healthy respect and learn the parameters of my "new body".

Friday, I decided to try the homemade body wash recipe I found on "One Good Thing" by Jillee (I love most of her recipe's by the way!!!). Although, instead of using Dove as a base, I decided to use Ivory. 0.0 What an adventure! I had already tried and made the body wash by grating a Dove bar and nearly killed my upper back with the grating, so I thought I'd try Jillee's no-grate recipe with the Ivory. ::facepalm::

I had a lot of fun microwaving the Ivory! I had to stop it every few seconds and "deflate" the soap as it started to bloom in the glass measuring cup. But it was a fun process to watch (just not one fun enough to repeat with Ivory). This first step is where things started going wonky.... Check this pic out to see what I mean.Despite the awkwardness, I decided to soldier on!

The next step was boiling the Ivory in 2 cups of hot water. Btw, since I was testing this recipe, I only used 1 bar of soap and 2 cups of water (although I think I'm ultimately going to go back to the dove recipe). So, after a period of boiling I realized that a decent amount of the water had evaporated! So, in a bit of a panic I added more water, which cooled the temp of the soap down and solidified it a bit more. :~/ Blarg!

The Ivory eventually dissolved, and a few hours later I found myself with semi-cloudy soap jelly in a jar. (I didn't get any pictures). Since I realized that this attempt was a marginal failure, I stopped taking pictures of my process and just started playing. But before I started playing I did a bit of internet research and learned that the Ivory wasn't acting like the Dove due to the fact that Ivory is *just soap* and needs fat added to get a creamy texture. 

I put the set up jelly stuff into my ninja food processor and added some vitamin E cream (that I picked up at a dollar store) and some olive oil. I think I added probably about a cup of the vitamin E cream, and about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil.... It started to look like a mousse, so I decided to stop the process there and check on it in the morning. Saturday morning, I woke up to the most disgusting sour cream I had ever seen!

See? Wonky melted Ivory soap.

It seemed to be a fluffy jelly consistency. It wasn't too bad, until I attempted to get the "body wash" out of the jar! The images are rather dark, but I'll post them anyway. I ended up adding about 1 c. of hot water to the schtuff and mixed it in. I have yet to test it, but that is one of the objectives I have for today! Right along with "massaging" two soap recipes and mixing up a dishwasher detergent dry mix.

Wonky Ivory soap after the microwave.

It finally started to dissolve!

Most disgusting sour cream EVAH!!!

It kinda sorta kept its shape... Ewwww!

This is a more different view of the creamy soap jelly I ended up with Saturday morning (I had to use a spatula to get it out!).... Creamy soap jelly is disturbing.

Day 2

I was going to make another batch of body wash, but it would have to stay in the jar it cools in (as I'm out of 8 oz. applicator bottles atm). Which means, I *might* do that tomorrow.... We shall see!

Today I performed a spiritual cleansing ritual, for my friend (later tonight I'll be cleansing the house). Rituals don't have to be big and complicated, they can be rather low key and simplistic. It all comes down to intent. My friend, J, has her spiritual roots in earthly energies, and has had a bit of a rough time as of late. So, when she saw I was going to be doing a house cleansing, she spoke up about wanting to participate in a cleansing ritual for her spirit. We talked a bit and I found out that she's alot like me in that winter is just so dark and dreary that it's hard to stay positive. Spring is her favorite season, and as the Spring Equinox is right around the corner. Actually, according to The Farmers Almanac, "Spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20, 2012, at 1:14 A.M. (EDT)". 12 days away is more or less around the corner, in my mind.

To get back on track, I thought I'd share how I did the ritual and what components I used *just in case* you might be interested to do a bit of your own spiritual cleansing! If you're a bit uncomfortable with the idea that this is a spiritual ritual, no worries! It's still effective when done as an aromatherapy treatment with no spirituality involved. Anyway, back to the cleansing!

First, we'll take a look at the different ingredients:

 Hrmmm... sorry it's a bit fuzzy. Also, please pay no attention to my Oogie Boogie slippers... Actually, that's a bit too fuzzy for my taste. Let's see... Ah! This one is a *bit* better (I suppose):

Either way, what you're looking at here is the green box of a cheap cedarwood incense I just happened to have picked up (remember, quality ingredients are always best, but nothing beats intent when working rituals...). Why cedar? This is why. So, we have our cedar element for spiritual and emotional harmony. I've been burning cedar incense all day long, as the cleansing is going to take a while (we have a rather big and open floor plan... I wanted to smell the cedar no matter where I was in the house. Next up, the oils:

I used the lemon oil as the base for the oil mixture. I added a bit of sandalwood, and finally a dash of lavender. I had J smell the oil while it was in my soapstone oil warmer (seen below), but before I put it to heat as I wanted to make sure the mixture I was using would work for her. Luckily enough for me, it did. If it hadn't, it would have just been a matter of adding a bit more here and there until it smelled right to her. Remember, intent. I wanted to help J invigorate her own inner strength to assist the breaking up of the bad, icky, stale winter stress she felt she was carrying. I went with lemon oil because it's a clean, uplifting scent that helps us let go and accept change. The sandalwood oil was used because it is a sacred scent that has crossed several nations and been used in many spiritual practices around the world. Sandalwood is great when you need to center your mind, body and spirit. I used it for it's calming effects as well as it's spiritual properties. And finally, the lavender. I find that I really less than three using lavender. I've been making "sweet dream" aromatherapy sachets to help folks fall asleep at night... So, right. Lavender. I used the lavender oil to help ease any seasonal depression she may have picked up over the season as well as to assist in the calming of her energies.

 *pssst..... This is my soapstone oil burner!

Once I had the mix right (according to J's nose), I put the burner next to us and closed the "cage" underneath once I had put a lit candle inside. Now, we had the cedar incense going as well as the oil heating up to add it's scent to the air. I put a small dab of oil on each of J's wrists and a bit at her temples. I was, more or less annointing her with the oils. I was letting her pulse carry the scents. By doing so, I was employing (if you will) her own body to assist with the relaxation that was necessary for a spiritual cleansing. Which brings me to the final element of this small ritual. The herbs:

Ingredients: Sage, Marshmallow, Rosemary and Queen of Meadow/Meadowsweet, and a pinch of Lavender.
In general, I chose these herbs because:
1) I already had them and 2) they each added a bit of calmness, self-assurance, emotional flexibility, protection, strength and I could go on. It boiled down to intuition and intent. I've only started using herbs in the last year, so much of what I do with them is more gut instinct than anything else. So, I filled my tiny cauldron (that I bought specifically for smoldering herbs) with some purple sand and lit my charcoal disc. Once it had started to turn white/grey around the edges, I used my altar broom to "sweep" away the "ick on the surface" and to imbue her with the herbal properties she needed to start the cleansing process. Here's a pic of my tiny cauldron and broom that I use for smoldering:

I had her lay on the floor with her head cradled on my thighs as I symbolically took the broom through the smoke and made sweeping gestures over her head and body. This was a lot of visualization as my go-go gadget arms aren't *that* long! After the ritual (I just used three or four pinches of the herbal mix total... Fyi, don't put too much on top of the charcoal disc, or you may snuff the charcoal before you can get any good smoke off of it!) I made a small vial of her oil mix and gave it to her to dab on her pulse points and temples three times a day! Her 2 year old daughter watched us nearby, and gave me a cuddle when her mom and I were done with the ritual. I've always done my rituals on the fly (with a *bit* of research before hand, of course. I'd hate to accidentally use an herb for smoldering that could be poisonous), so having her little one didn't detract from the ritual at all. I believe in everyday magic and the amazing power of positive thinking. I could have done the ritual for her without the items I used, but it's a bit awkward to silently go through a ritual for someone else. Participants should be able to do just that, participate if they feel so inclined.

All in all, it's been a wonderful day so far (even though it's taken me about three hours to get this blog post written)! I'm looking forward to tomorrow.... 

Day 1

Right. I've never had a blog before. I've used LiveJournal in the past, but I really just used it as an on-line diary and as a way to keep up with what was going on in the lives of my friends. However, I've been doing a lot of DIY "beauty" treatments and have *lots and lots* of domestic tips and tricks to share. And I'd like to share them in one place. So, here I am.

A warning, if you will. I  use commas as a short pause in my speech, and ellipses for long pauses.Why should you care? I suppose you don't have to care, I just wanted to let you get used to hearing my voice in your head. I tend to type like I speak, which means sometimes you'll find grammatical errors.... Sometimes. Luckily enough for all of us, I know how to use spell-check! XD

Where was I? Oh yes, the reason for this blog. I would like to start doing one creative project a day. Nothing too big, just something to motivate me and help me explore my creativity. For example, I made my own body-wash yesterday. I used this recipe as a guide line to come up with my own recipes. However, I didn't take pictures all throughout, so we'll save that project for another day.

Today, I have all ready engaged in a creative endeavor by making and using a hair treatment with avocado, egg and olive oil (and it's not even noon yet, how awesome is that?!). And this time, I took pictures!

Isabella's avocado hair treatment

Ingredients: 1 ripe avocado, 2 eggs, 3 or 4 tablespoons olive oil (sorry, I just eyeballed it.... I'll try to measure next time)

Look ma! Here's a pic of the ingredients! What do you mean I should have shown the ingredients *before* I used them? I'm still new to all of this so I appreciate all the patience I can get....

Btw, perhaps now is a good time to warn you, I may *suck* at creative writing, but I suck even more at photography with my semi-smart phone.>.<

So, the avocado was peeled and had the pit removed. Then I tossed in two eggs and a few tablespoons of olive oil (you can always substitute mayo for the eggs and olive oil). I then turned on my food processor and begun the process of making the hair treatment smooth. It took just a few minutes for it to look like this:

Again, crappy picture. But I assure you that it was disgustingly creamy. Why disgustingly? Because the next step has you coating your hair with this concoction. As I was putting this on my ridiculously thick hair, I couldn't help but remember two of my favorite shows as a kid.... Nickelodeon's "You Can't Do That On Television" and "Ghostbusters" (or more accurately the cartoon... The slime in the movie was much less opaque). Srsly, take a look for yourself:

Doing this on my own, was not fun. I'd suggest an assistant if you have long and thick hair like mine. Luckily enough I only dropped a tiny glop on the sink and two on the shoulder of my sleep shirt. You should see the shower stall after I get done treating my hair with color! O.O Anyway, after I slopped the goop on, I covered my hair with a shower cap:

And to add a bit of heat for extra conditioning, I grabbed a hair towel that we had laying around (actually, my girlfriend and I have a bunch of them... Which is odd since neither of us use them). My hair is usually too long and too thick for the hair towels, but since it was just going to cover the shower cap, it fit my needs perfectly! I just ran the kitchen faucet as hot as possible, got the hair towel wet, squeezed as much water out of it as possible and then put the hot, damp towel on muh head, like so:

I set the kitchen timer for 25 minutes and sat down to create this blog! When the towel started getting a bit too cool, I just stuck it in the microwave for close to a minute. WARNING: putting a wet towel in the microwave can cause the towel to heat up more than you might expect. Be careful of your ears when putting a hot towel on your head!!!!

When the timer went off, I got in the shower and first rinsed my hair with tepid water to remove the avocado mixture. Once the water ran clear, I shampoo'd my hair with Aveda's Brilliant shampoo and followed the shampoo up with a vinegar hair treatment (we'll get to that recipe another day). After a final cool water rinse (to close the hair follicles), I towel dried my hair for a few minutes and applied a bit of hair oil. My hair is a bit frizzy, but it is zomuhgosh soft.