Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Natures Healing Gold

Honey

It's smooth, thick, sweet and sticky, it comes in all sorts of flavours making sure there is at least one favourite for everyone - it's honey!

Honey is an amazing product. I know that if I have a sore throat, I instinctively go in search of the honey pail, if I am feeling like I need an energy boost, I head for the honey, if I want to soothe and help heal a skin malfunction I head for the honey and if I want to pick myself up and give myself a luxurious pampering treat, yes, I head for the honey!

Honey is super antibacterial. This fact makes it great to use on wounds, ulcers and even burns, and this is why hospitals use honey on surgical wounds, as honey is known to overpower even super bugs that don't respond to antibiotics. Best of all honey doesn't have any side effects, it's all pure and natural!

Did You Know: a great way to help heal cracked nipples is to smear them with raw unprocessed local honey when not feeding. Smear it on generously and put on a breast pad to protect your clothes getting sticky..wipe it off before feeding.

Honey is only made by honeybees. Honeybees have been around for more than one hundred million years. The honeybees collect nectar from thousands and thousands of flowers. They can work up to almost 24 hours a day and are eternally faithful to their Queen, and for all this the only thing that e honeybee asks for in return is its minimal food collections. Aren't they amazing!?

Disease threatens honeybees now though, and we need to look after them because if the honeybee dies off, we won't have this amazing product to help us in so many different ways in our lives, and that would be terrible, but even worse their demise would seriously affect our food supply as honeybees are also our pollinators for our plants. Two very Important jobs.

Honey is a wonderful ingredient to use in our cooking, from roasts to desserts, the ways you can use honey in your cooking are unlimited. There are many recipes online if you would like to google them. 

Did You Know: that the amount of honey a honeybee makes in its lifetime is about only a tenth of a teaspoon, so next time you are about to throw out your honey jar - stop - think of ways to use those bits of honey clinging to the sides of the jar..because one honeybees lifes work is resting there, and we want to respect every one of them by using ALL the honey. A good way to use up the dregs of honey in the jars is to add some milk to it, shake it up well and then take it into your bathroom and fill your bath with lovely warm water, pour that jar of milk and honey into the water and get in, lie back and relax for 20 minutes and let the milk and honey mixture work wonders on your skin!

The following are some of the ways that I like to use honey, I hope you enjoy reading them and if you have any ways that you like to use honey, I would love to hear them!

Honey - raw unprocessed honey, is good to use on your body to help heal things like burns and sores. Just make sure your sore part is properly cleaned, then apply honey to the gauze/padding you will use to cover your wound and apply this gauze. Use bandage to keep the padding/gauze in place and change it once a day (we like to change it at night because you are still at night and with a fresh treatment on, it gives it a better quiet time to rest, I am not sure if this matters really, but it makes sense to me! lol).

Did You Know: honey healing can also be used on your beloved pets the same way we use it on ourselves. Smear generously with honey and wrap in bandage to hold it on, change the bandage daily. 

We use honey to help keep colds at bay or to a minimum. You can have the honey any way you like it, and you can have as much as your body tells you it needs. A good way to have it is with meals, so honey on cereal or toast for breakfast or maybe with yoghurt as a snack. Honey is soothing and healing, so it works well for a sore throat too, just lick a teaspoon of honey anytime your throat is feeling sore and you will feel it being soothed immediately, it's antibacterial benefits linger to kill off the germs as well.

If you can't sleep try mixing 2-3 teaspoons of honey into a glass of warm water (milk works nice too if you like warm milk), drink this about half an hour before you head to bed and you should sleep well.

One thing I love about honey is that it only takes about seven minutes after eating some to give you an energy hit, so it's really good to have when you still have kids to look after and you are tired and running on empty. It's a sorted so quickly into our system because honey is a living food. This means basically that it has been pre-digested by the honeybee and that really means that it makes it easier and quicker for it to enter our own bloodstream. So it gets to us quicker and it also lasts longer for us to enjoy the benefits of it. Sugar also gives you that kick of sugar hit but once the sugar hit is over so is everything else..it burns off just as quickly, making honey better for us.

Did You Know: one of honeys healing secrets is its sweetness. Honey is packed full of simple sugars and they suck out the water from bacteria and moulds.  Water is the most important part of all living things so when the water is sucked out of them, they are destroyed. 

The following are a few recipes using honey that you can try that I love using on myself:

Milk and Honey Bath
This simple treat isn't for cleaning your skin, it's for use after you have bathed.
Fill your bath to about half full of warm water. Put two cups of powdered milk into a jug and add water to mix well. Add this to the bath water, stir it in well, then add about half a cup of honey and stir that in. Step into the bath and relax in the water for as long as you like. When you get out you will be relaxed and your skin will feel luxurious and moisturised. 

Milk and Honey Facial
This is similar to the above formula but it's used on your face.
Into a small bowl, mix two teaspoons of milk powder and two teaspoons of honey to make a smooth paste. Brush or smooth this mixture over your face and neck and allow to soak in for 15 minutes before your wash it off with warm water. 

Did You Know: Honey is a humectant, which means that it attracts moisture and holds it within it, so this is what makes using honey on your skin work so well at keeping it soft and subtle and helping it to restore its elasticity.

Honey Body Scrub:
This is an easy body scrub recipe that uses ingredients found in your pantry.

Into a small bowl mix a cup or two of sugar (any type is fine) with half a cup or more of honey, enough to form wet sand consistency or there abouts. Rub in small circular motions onto damp skin and rinse off to reveal smooth, soft, glowing skin. If you would like the formula to be less sticky, make the honey portion half honey, half edible vegetable oil (olive, sunflower, rice bran etc). If you would like the scrub to be cleansing as well or wash off easier, just add a dash of shampoo or dish washing liquid to it..easy!

So..how do YOU like to use honey?

Amanda xox

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

DIY All Natural Lip Scrubs


I wanted to talk about lip scrubs today, why, because spring has finally sprung and after the long cold winter winds, our lips need a bit of tender loving care to be their best for stolen kisses while watching the sunset!

The reason we scrub our lips, like we do other parts of our bodies, is because by doing so we help the delicate skin there retain moisture better, which in turn helps them to resist chapping. It also gives us a good smooth base to wear lipstick and help it stay on longer and makes those tiny lines around our mouths, that come with age (and if you are a smoker, smoking), less noticeable as well.

By choosing to make your own lip scrubs you have more control over what goes into them as I mentioned before, but also you can make them fresh each time you use them and they only take a few simple ingredients and they can be as fun as you want to make them, using what ever ingredients you have on hand at any time.

Because we are looking at making lip scrubs I would suggest that we look at things that we like to eat, so maybe salt won’t be the best exfoliant to use in this area as you will taste it when using it and salt can also be irritating to the sensitive skin on our lips.

So lets have a look at some simple lip scrubs to give you some ideas for what you can use yourself:
 

Lush Type Lip Scrub:

1 teaspoon of castor sugar

1 teaspoon of jojoba oil

Drop of flavour oil or essential oil such as lavender, spearmint, peppermint

Just mix together in a small bowl, adjusting the consistency of your lip scrub to suit your taste.

To use, rub a small amount on your lips and either lick it off or wash it off.

Apply a naturally made lip balm with no added petroleum products for best results.

 

Honey Lip Scrub

1 teaspoon castor sugar

Drizzle of raw honey

1 teaspoon of olive oil

Just mix together until you have a consistency that you like.

To use, rub a small amount on your lips and lick it off or wash it off.

Apply a naturally made lip balm with no added petroleum products for best results.

 

Fruity Lip Scrub

1 strawberry, mashed

1 teapsoon of castor sugar

Simply mix and use

I hope these simple lip scrub recipes give you more ideas on what you can use to try to make your own lip scrubs.

 

So have a look and see what you have in your kitchen to use as a lip scrub. It doesn’t have to be a sweet scrub like the ones I have suggested above, they are just a few of the types that I like to use. If you don’t like the sweet scrubs or you don’t like to taste the scrub at all, feel free to use other ingredients and experiment, some other idea’s include the following:

 

Honey and Almonds

A little bit of raw honey

A teaspoon of ground almonds

Mix and use straight away, rinse off with warm water or wipe off with a damp cloth then apply lip balm to keep the moisture locked into your lips. Raw honey is anti bacterial and soothing, the ground almonds will give a gentle exfoliation.

 

Yoghurt and Bicarb Soda

Mix a little of each in a small bowl and rub onto your lips. The bi carb soda in this recipe is the exfoliant and the yoghurt has good things for your skin in it as well so an added bonus!

 
What is your favourite ingredient for Lip Scrubs?? Please share so we can all have a try as well!

 
Amanda xox

Sunday, September 2, 2012

The Wonders of Bi-Carbonate of Soda!



Bi-carb soda is one of my most favourite ingredients to use around my house!


In our house we use bi-carb soda in many ways on various cleaning jobs and also in our bath and personal care routines, you can even use it safely on your pets.

Bi-carb soda is a cheap and easily obtainable, environmentally friendly and kid safe alternative to many of your everyday cleaners and on top of all that it wont hurt your health!

We know bicarbonate of soda here in Australia under a few different names such as :- Bi-Carb, Bi-Carb soda or sodium bicarbonate.

Here are some everyday uses I find for bi-carb soda –


Keep a little shaker container  or bowl of bi-carb soda under the sink, when you have tea stains in your coffee cups or on your spoons or pans, simply shake onto damp utensils or dip your damp sponge into the little container of bi-carb and wipe over the stains to remove them.
To keep your washing up cloths from becoming smelly, rinse them in a bowl of water to which you have added some bi-carb soda, then put on the dish rack to dry thoroughly over night.

If you have badly burnt on food in your pots or pans it can be easily removed by sprinkling the area with bi-carb soda and a damp scouring pad, but please don’t ever use this on non stick cookware! I have included these images I took the other day of how well bi-carb soda works with burnt on cookware, this was all clean in a few minutes!


Baked on from frying chicken this morning. This had already been soaking with morning fresh for hours, and washed up.
Still damp from washing, i sprinkle bi carb into the burnt on grunge in the pan and leave for only a minute..
 
I wiped this out with my stainless steel ball thingy on this side..just wiped off mostly. A few spots needed a bit of a scrub but in less than two minutes it was this clean! The outside i just did the same thing but used a normal scourer and it worked as well
If you run out of detergent  for your dishwasher you can always simply mix two tablespoons each of bi-carb soda and borax (also found in your local supermarket, it is a water softener) to the dispenser and use as usual.

When your chopping board is smelling a bit iffy and needs a spring clean, sprinkle about a 1/3 cup of bi-carb soda on it and add enough water to make it nice and moist. Leave it to soak for 10-15 minutes and then give it a good rub, rinse it clean and let it air dry.

If you have been filleting fish or peeling onions, you can get rid of the odour by rubbing bi-carb soda into your damp hands then rinsing off.

No more smelly lunchboxes – just sprinkle the containers with bi-carb and top them up with hot water. Let this sit for the day and rinse it out and air dry.

If you get those annoying limescale deposits around the bottom of your taps, sprinkle the area with some bi-carb soda, then spritz on some vinegar, when it starts to fizz and bubble, scrub the area with an old toothbrush. Leave this on for around half an hour to do its job and then rinse the area clean and wipe down, this also works on your glass shower doors (I just use an old nail brush instead of a toothbrush for larger areas).

To clean your toilet just sprinkle it with bi-carb (I like to add a few drops of essential oil to mine), leave that sit for an hour or so, then give it a good scrub with your toilet brush and flush, all done. By the way bi-carb soda is good for septic tanks as well if you have one.

Sprinkle bi-carb soda onto your carpets and rugs to remove odours and freshen them up. Just sprinkle them with bi-carb and go to bed, in the morning, just vacuum them as usual.

You can sprinkle bi-carb soda onto your dogs coat and brush it through to give them a dry bath (really good in wet weather) to get rid of that doggy smell. It can also be used on your dog if it has any skin problems, just fill up your pets bath, add a few tablespoons of bi-carb to the water (you can add a dollop of their shampoo if you really want to) and wash as usual, then rinse thoroughly.

If you are using kitty litter, shake bi-carb onto the bottom of the litter tray before adding the fresh kitty litter. The bi-carb works like an odour eliminator, so be generous when using it.

Gosh..see why I really can’t live without my bi-carbonate of soda!?? These are just ways I use it around the house in my everyday cleaning, I have not even touched on how I use it for acne breakouts, facial exfoliating, teeth whitening amongst other things!

I will sign off for now though as I am sure I have given you enough to think about already this time round. If anyone is interested in reading how else I use Bi-carbonate of Soda, simply put a comment on the bottom of my post.
Also I would LOVE to read how you like to use your bi-carb soda at your house, and if you have any handy hints and tips – PLEASE SHARE!

Have a great week!

Amanda xox



Tuesday, August 14, 2012

DIY Oven Cleaner

Its a job we all have to do at times and if you are like me you will put it off until you really have to get down and do it..yep..cleaning the oven!

I have tried so many types of oven cleaner over my lifetime, the ones from the supermarket in the aerosol cans work really well IF you can stand the fumes. Some DIY ones have worked about as good as throwing pure water into the oven then shutting the door!..so my search continued for a good DIY, fume free, oven cleaner that was also good for the environment (and ME)

As you can guess its time for my oven to have a clean, so again I went in search for a DIMyself formula that would be easy on my pocket, easy on my nose and clean well..I think I have found it.

If any of you are interested in trying this new recipe out with me and posting here with  your results..hints, tweaks and improvements if any..I would love some company!

Here you go...I found this recipe in one of the Sydney Essential Oil Companies Newsletters that were sent to me in the mail.

Oven Cleaner

1/4 cup borax (found in the supermarket)
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup bicarb soda (found in the supermarket)
5 drops rosemary essential oil
5 drops lime essential oil

Dissolve the borax in the hot water, add the bicarb soda and the essential oil.

Use a cloth or sponge to apply the mixture to the walls of the oven.

Leave for as long as possible to let the cleaner do its work, then wipe clean with a fresh damp cloth.

from the "A-Z of stain removal" - In The Kitchen section

I am going to try mine out this week..so go have a look in your oven and see if yours needs a clean as well and if it does..why dont you give this a shot with me!

Amanda

Friday, August 3, 2012

Hello Hello!

Hello Hello!


I know I have been away from my blog for quite a while now, but it was unaviodable as I went back to work full time after moving over to Perth, Western Australia!

I have now finished full time work and am looking at re-starting my blog and reconnecting with you all..which brings me to my first question...WHAT would you all like to see posted on my blog? If anyone is interested in making soap or other bath and body products or information on ingredients, then I can do that, if you would like to do online blog classes on how to pamper yourself from your own pantry..I can do that! If you would like me to do reviews, I can do that...if you would like me to go over weekly do-it-yourself projects of all types (crafts, home handyman issues, food idea's etc) well I can do that as well! lol..

So I am asking for input from you all on what you would like to see and we can go from there..I want this to be a very interactive blog, not just another blog where no one interacts or comments..as we grow I will again put up fun things to do for free gifts..cause if you are anything like me you will LOVE a free gift now and again, RIGHT??

Lets do it!

Amanda xo

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Pikinini Dolls

Pikinini Dolls - for the hearts of children by the hands of mamas!



These GORGEOUS handmade dolls are handmade in Cape Town.

As the children of the world are unique, each doll is unique and comes in the full range of skin colours.



The aim of Pikinini Dolls is to be as environmentally-friendly as possible, we only use non-synthetic fibres and are beginning to source and use quality off-cuts and 'waste' from the clothing industry.

Children need the opportunity to play with toys that are imbued with love and originate from human hands as conscious creations, as opposed to their factory-made, plastic counterparts that are produced at the expense of the earth and its people. All our dolls and toys are safe and ideal for all inner children of any age and gender.




Integral to Pikinini Dolls vision is the channeling of their toys to children who have fallen outside of the family structure and who are especially in need of the therapeutic power of play. Play is essential to healing as children play with their hearts. Pikinini Dolls pledge that out of every ten dollars made, one will be given to a child in the state welfare system.

Pikinini Dolls are all about the creation of quality handmade dolls and toys through empowering a small group of mothers with marketable skills and employment.



These mothers make each individual doll with great love and care, while executing much of their work with their children around them.

A little about the creators of Pikinini Dolls..



Jade has been making dolls and teaching doll-making for 8 years. She is a single mother to Luca and runs a playgroup in Muizenberg. Her passions are hand-work, children and the environment and all these came together in starting the business and the creation of the toys.

 Elinah is a young mother to Paul from Zimbabwe. She is an assistant at the play group and is currently studying early childhood care and development (educare). She will be a partner in this small business.

 Catherine is South African born and bred, married to a Zimbabwean. She is 38 and has six children and six grandchildren. Brenda and Ester are her daughters.


Brenda is a 23 year old mother of two boys with another on the way.


Ester is 16 years old and a single mother of one little boy.




 The quality of these dolls is undisputed and they all have their own character!



They are an environmentally friendly business with an environmentally friendly product.

Currently their studio is based at a small playschool in Muizenberg, Cape Town.




Pikinini is all about quality, love and the supporting of women and children in a variety of ways.

They aim to have a wide range of environmentally friendly handmade toys that speak to the hearts of contemporary children.

Their dream is to see their facilities and team grow and consolidate in order to supply their product locally as well as internationally.



These absolutely STUNNING dolls are the only ones available at this time. As I mentioned earlier they are all UNIQUE dolls and are all from a limited edition and numbered. If you would like one of these gorgeous dolls please email me at info@bodelicious.com.au and let me know which one. First in first served! They are a bargain at $35.00 each. I receive NO money from these dolls, it all goes back to these women..I just thought I would help them get their name out there!

Have an excellent day!

Amanda xo



Monday, December 20, 2010

THANK YOU ALL - for your support over the last year!

I just wanted to pop on and let you know how much I appreciated your support over the last year here on my blog.

Next year we are changing our blog over to be more informational and also have some weekly DIY skincare and bath tips and pantry pampering recipes for you to try in the comfort of your own home anytime you like, so we hope that you will enjoy that and join along for some pampering fun!

We are re locating to Perth, Western Australia at the very begining of the New Year and it will be then that I re open my blog, so keep us bookmarked and if you have any suggestions or comments on what you would like to see on the blog next year, just drop us a line at info@bodelicious.com.au and I will work on that for you as well.

So for now I will sign off and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Amanda
http://www.bodelicious.com.au/
 
Guilfoyle's Travels. Design by Exotic Mommie. Illustraion By DaPino