by Krista | Dec 1, 2012 | Bits 'n' Bobs
I love getting new body products. The luscious lotions, soaps, and scrubs smell so good and always make me feel spoiled and special.
What I do not like are the toxic chemicals and perfumes they often contain. It’s rather dreadful to have saved up for a special jar of something, only to discover it burns, itches, or stings.
Recently I’ve been studying how to make my own and it has been so much fun. 🙂 I feel like a little girl in kindergarten mixing and brewing, stirring and sniffing as I experiment.
My recent favorite bit of pampering is a Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub.
Essential oils are wonderful, healing, soothing, restoring, and all manner of good things. Although I’ve chosen peppermint for this one, you can choose any essential oil you like, from lavender or eucalyptus to rose or bergamot.
I like peppermint because it feels Christmasy and cool and is an excellent oil for easing sore muscles, clearing sinuses, and taking away headaches.
You can use any pure extra virgin oil for this recipe, but I prefer apricot oil because it is so wonderful for the skin and is easily absorbed.
The nice thing about this scrub is that it can be made in less than five minutes and looks like snow in the jar, a perfect Christmas project.
Do you ever make your own body products? What is your favorite scent?
Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub
Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/4-1/2 cup extra virgin apricot oil
10-15 drops peppermint essential oil
Directions:
- Pour sugar into medium-sized bowl.
- Add apricot oil a spoonful at a time, mixing well after each addition, until mixture resembles wet sand or slushy snow. You should be able to form it into shapes that hold together.
- Add peppermint essential oil and mix well.
- Scoop mixture into clean glass jar, tamping it down so there aren’t any large gaps.
- Top with 1-2 spoonfuls of oil to keep moist.
- Seal and store until ready to use.
by Krista | Nov 30, 2012 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“It is important from time to time to slow down,
to go away by yourself, and simply be.”
Eileen Caddy
I love a rainy afternoon.
Especially when I have time to sit on the back porch with my dog Luna and hear the drops plummeting onto the tin roof, watch them build into glossy puddles in the yard, and feel them spray my face when the wind gusts a little too hard in my direction.
I had that sort of day yesterday and it was such a gift.
As you know I’ve been very ill for several months. Initial tests revealed, among other things, that I am immunocompromised and my body is not absorbing nutrients. At all. Yipes! 🙂 Thankfully I have an amazing team alongside me – doctors, counselor, Reiki practitioner, nutritionists, kindred spirits – who are doing wonders in helping me get healthy again.
But some days it’s hard.
It’s difficult to build a beautiful life when each day is marked by severe exhaustion, intense pain, and a host of other unpleasant symptoms. It’s hard to be yourself when your new self functions so differently than the one you’re used to. And it’s hard to pursue good health and thriving relationships when just making it through each day is cause for celebration.
But I’m determined to keep trying. 🙂
One word has helped me above all others:
slow
Although I’m not a healthy lass yet, I can still live a good and soul-affirming life if I do things slowly.
I can’t run or lift weights or any of the other things that keep a body fit and strong. But I can walk slowly and steadily and say, “You go girl!” each time I add five minutes to my regimen.
I can’t do all the work around the house and farm that I’d love to, but I can sit on the back porch in a rain storm and dream of the things I WILL do when I’m better. And in the meantime I can do the dishes or a load of laundry and cheer loudly for each project that gets crossed off the list.
I can’t rush around cooking up a storm, doing crafts and filling my freezer with freshly baked cookies. But I can do little things like one jar of pickled beans, one small batch of rhubarb ginger sauce, or one bowl of peppermint sugar body scrub.
That makes me happy.
What is one small thing you’d like to do this weekend to make your life a bit more beautiful?
“Always remember to slow down in life;
live, breathe, and learn;
take a look around you whenever you have time
and never forget everything and every person that has the least place within your heart.”
xo
by Krista | Nov 26, 2012 | Bits 'n' Bobs
Hello dear ones. 🙂
It is my birthday today (38 years!!! :-)) and I’m so happy to celebrate by hosting a giveaway for the gorgeous new Daily Truths art book from the Brave Girls Club: “A Little Bird Told Me (30 days of beautiful words and beautiful art for your beautiful soul)” written and illustrated by Melody Ross.
all images copyright The Brave Girls Club
If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you know how much the daily emails from the Brave Girls Club have meant to me on my own journey of healing and restoration. (Click here for one such occasion) So I was thrilled to bits when The Brave Girls Club gave me two copies of this beautifully bound volume filled with messages of hope and truth – one for me and the other to share with one of you.
I love Melody’s forward in the book:
“Dear beautiful, phenomenal girl,
There was a time in my life when I was very very very broken…a time when I truly believed that I would always be broken. So many lies ran through my head and my heart, breaking me even more.
One day I closed my eyes and asked…”What is the truth about who I am?” and “What is the truth about the painful life situations I keep finding myself in? What do they mean about me?”
Inside of this book are the answers I received as I spent many days in solitude asking those questions over and over again.
I wrote these messages down because I knew they were not just for me, but for every single girl alive.
These are messages from ‘a little bird’…an all-loving little bird who really knows a thing or two about the truth…and about you…and about me.
My biggest hope is that you will really let yourself believe all of the words in this book…because I know that they are true about you…I know it without a single doubt.
You are so very very very loved.
xoxo
melody ross
To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment here, on Facebook, or send me an email (ramblingtart at gmail dot com) with two things:
- The name of a brave woman who inspires you.
- One brave thing you’ve done this year.
I can’t wait to hear about the courageous women and choices in your life. 🙂
The Brave Girls Club Giveaway will run from November 27th to December 3rd. All names will be placed in Bear’s baseball cap and swirled around and he will choose one winner. Please make sure you include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win. The winner will be announced on December 3, 2012.
(If you’d like to purchase your own copy, click here to place your order)
Wishing you a beautiful week as I leave you with a few words from Melody Ross:
“You know so much more now than you used to know. You have gained so much more strength than you used to have. You are so much more courageous than you used to be. You are so much wiser than you used to be.
How did you get there? Well…probably by making some mistakes and learning from them, falling on your face and getting back up, enduring unfair and painful circumstances that you were not expecting, and by deciding to make a horrible situation into a positive one.
Because you see, dear friend, that is how we learn. That is how we grow, and that is how we become who we are meant to become. So if this is one of those days when you are wondering “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?” and “HOW DID I GET HERE?”, just know for sure that you are going to get through it all just fine, because you have felt this way before, you have done hard things before, and you have MADE IT through it all before.
And you came out stronger, better, wiser, braver, and smarter than you were before it all happened, just like you will this time.
You are doing a WONDERFUL JOB at living your life and being you. Keep up the great work.
You are so very loved. xoxo”
by Krista | Nov 20, 2012 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“Behind our unremarkable front door waits the little world of our own making,
a place of safety, exploration, comfort, and love.”
Gretchen Rubin
I’ve loved old doors for as long as I can remember.
They’re so heavy and sturdy and somehow always make me feel safe, even if I’m on the outside looking in. I feel happy for whoever lives behind them, thinking it must be awfully nice to have that big ol’ door between them and the outside world.
I like seeing the front doors of people I love. Smiling at the sight of their familiar house number or door knocker or grotty old mat that has been trodden on by innumerable feet and paws.
Pulling up in front of their house or flat gives me a little thrill of excitement, that delicious assurance that soon I will be enveloped in the arms and hearts of people who cherish me as much as I treasure them.
And of course my favorite front door is my very own.
I love coming home after a time away, whether a journey to some far flung locale or simply a day spent running errands in town.
Trudging up worn wooden steps, shooing chickens out of the way, juggling grocery bags while a hyper puppy leaps all over me with unfettered joy at my arrival.
It fills me with inestimable comfort knowing I am home at last. I am where I belong.
Where are your favorite doors?
by Krista | Nov 19, 2012 | Bits 'n' Bobs
After a wondrously stormy weekend with house-shaking thunder and sky-dancing lightning, I’m still in that peaceful, cozy frame of mind that inevitably comes with rainy days at home.
I’m craving quietness, that deep quietness that comes when TV, computer and music are turned off and all you hear is the wind rustling the poplar leaves and the contented clucking of chickens searching the ground for seeds they might’ve missed.
It’s a bread and jam sort of day.
Slices of chewy artisan bread with a floured crust topped with soft cheese and strawberry preserves.
Or maybe homemade fig jam with hardly any sugar so you can actually taste the figs.
And even though it’s the simplest of fare, a pretty plate is essential, a pretty plate on an old wooden table set by a window letting in soft light. A window that lends itself to leisurely breakfasts and dreamy thoughts.
I love windows like that.
I’m grateful for these quiet moments. Being ill for so long does have it’s perks! I have lots of quiet moments to breathe deeply and dream, filling notebooks with ideas for all the things I’m going to do when I feel better.
One of those things is making homemade preserves. I’ve been so inspired by my friends Ann and Jackie who make glistening jars of delicious things like Burnished Marmalade and Beetroot Relish, Apple Sage Jelly and Pear, Blueberry and Star Anise Jam. Mmm.
I’ve been poring over preserving books from the library, marking recipes that call out to me like Piccalilli (the name alone makes me happy!), Sweet Ginger Mustard, and Peach Chutney.
Have you ever done preserving? What is your favorite homemade preserve?
by Krista | Nov 13, 2012 | Bits 'n' Bobs
“In the garden I tend to drop my thoughts here and there.
To the flowers I whisper the secrets I keep and the hopes I breathe.
I know they are there to eavesdrop for the angels.”
Dodinsky
I love the serenity of a beautiful garden, especially a wild one planted by birds and nurtured by the sky.
I love a crumbling stone wall overgrown with ivy and moss, like this lovely one by the side of a mountain road in Southern Italy.
“It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark
so that all its shy presences may haunt you
and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought.”
James Douglas
As I mentioned last time, I’m not doing so well these days, but lots of rest has built up my strength and today I got to take a little walk through an Aussie garden.
It was completely different from these photos of Italian ruins and wildflowers, but still a wonderful place to amble slowly through the grass, breathing deeply of sun-warmed blossoms and freshly-watered earth.
Wildflowers are my favorite – scarlet poppies, cheery daisies, even bright yellow dandelions. They look so carefree sprinkled throughout a meadow, swaying in the wind.
And is there anything better than a garden with a ramshackle stone cottage begging to be fixed up and used for a garden shed or a splendid little hideaway?
Where is your favorite place to go for a quiet walk?
