Hippie Healthcare: Body Butter

Hi there! SO I have a recipe for body butter that has changed my life.

(That may be slightly difference, but really, it’s wonderful!)

I adapted the recipe from several different sources and ended up with one that was perfect for me! It made about 2 and a half cups full so I keep a little pot full in my bathroom and top it up when needed – a little goes a long way though due to the use of coconut oil.

       the end result

I chose to use rosemary essential oils as I adore the smell and it has wonderful calming properties, as well as being great for skin and hair. I have also been using it in my weekly avocado hair-mask, but that is another post for another day 🙂 For now, here is how to make this sumptuous body butter!

You will need:

1 cup organic raw shea butter

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup almond oil

Drops of essential oil (whichever you choose and however much you need). I used 10 drops.

How to make:

• First, melt coconut oil and shea butter in a double-boiler (or a pan in a pan if, like me, you don’t have one!). Remove from heat and let them cool for half an hour.
• Then stir in the almond oil and whichever essential oil you chose.
• Place in freezer until oils start to solidify, at which point remove and whip until a butter-like texture is achieved.
• Place in a pot or jar and enjoy your soft, lovely smelling skin 🙂

There are no nasties in this recipe – all good, wholesome ingredients that will nourish and care for your skin. It feels amazing and the scent really lasts as well, which is lovely, and you know there is no way you are polluting your pores with anything yucky! I really can’t recommend this enough 🙂 Hope you give it a try!

Peace 🙂 x

Cousin Collaboration

My wonderful cousin and I are starting a blog!

This is us on holiday together!

For as long as I can remember my cousin Tori has been my best friend – I’m incredibly lucky to have her. Growing up as we did on the island of Jersey, and being of adventurous dispositions (as we were), our days were filled with exploring and laughing. I can’t imagine happier times with anybody else, really!

We found secret caves and beaches and went rock-climbing for hours to be like Marco Polo; we scrapbooked our way through holidays and ran about so much we ate like starving people! We channelled Swallows and Amazons and trekked through woods and wastelands (parks) and everything seemed so exciting and full of life. She’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever met and if you asked me to tell you everything good about her I’d be here for years and years, so I’ll stop 🙂

The blog will be full of recipes and arts and crafts. I’ll be providing the vegan recipes and she will be sharing her amazing home skills with plenty of colourful photographs I’m sure.

You can find us at http://www.orchardhome.wordpress.com – please drop by! Our first joint post will be this Saturday.

Peace x

Choices

Mini me

The last few days, I can say with complete honesty, have been some of the hardest days of my entire life. I have had to make some very emotional and serious choices and cut someone very important out of my life. Even though I made this choice for my own good and in the knowledge that the person was unhealthy for me, it still made me feel incredibly low and guilty…normally I’m very much a ‘put others first’ type of girl.

I have learned the hard way that sometimes things just aren’t going to change, and you have to accept them and move on, but it is easier said than done. Forgiveness can be a vicious circle!

I promise though, I’m not just moaning and trying to ruin everybody’s Wednesday – I have a point, and it is a positive one 🙂

The answer to making good choices is to know yourself and be honest with yourself.

If you are uncertain of your own needs and goals then you will never be able to justify a difficult decision, because you won’t see past the immediate consequences; you need to think ahead and have confidence in yourself. I have happened upon this theory quite late in the day and it certainly would have been useful earlier on, but I’ve made mistakes and I’ve learned by them.

I chose this weekend to be happy! After I had made that conscious decision everything else fell into place and (even though it was really, really hard) I put myself first. I said things I’d always wanted to say but had never been brave enough to this person and I told them I couldn’t be around them anymore…and that was that.

Afterwards I felt shell-shocked and as if someone was wringing my stomach like a dish-cloth…but it was worth it. I feel cleansed and strong now, just two days later! At the beginning of the post I wasn’t going to go into detail, but I feel I can be honest and I will say that the person was my biological Father. He left my mother and I when I was four years old and moved thousands of miles away, leaving us in heavy debt. My Mother is an incredible woman and she worked hard and long to make a solid, happy life for us both, but he did nothing. He has never paid anything towards my life or happiness and made very little effort to keep in touch. When I was younger I still idolized him even though I didn’t remember him and occasionally he would telephone and be his funny, charming self, promising me the world…except he never came through for me. I can recall many times when he’d told me he had booked me tickets to visit, I’d tell all my friends and then a week before I was meant to go he would phone saying something had come up. It made me feel so small and worthless that I would just cry and cry after I’d hung up the phone, and this happened far too often – it wasn’t healthy.

Nothing changed as I got older except, little by little, I began to see his true colours and realise it was his fault and not mine. He is flaky and unreliable and he is a coward. This weekend, as I’ve said, I told him I wanted nothing more to do with him after he let me down yet again, and I know it was the right thing to do.

SO. That got a bit deep! Sorry!

What I’m trying to say is this: You are important and worthwhile. If you are faced with a tough decision and are scared you won’t be able to stay strong – you can!

Sometimes you have to fight to be peaceful

x