Merry Christmas!!!! A gift for you.....

***UPDATE***  People are having problems  leaving comments so visit http://www.facebook.com/AromaticsAndHerbs for a new way to win this gift.

My favorite holiday!   I just love Christmas.  I love the magical feeling, I love the generosity and I LOVE giving gifts.    Sooooooo,  I'm going to give away a gift set.   All you need to do is leave a comment and make sure I can get a hold of you if you are the winner!!!       A winner will be picked on 12/15/2011 at 8 am.     If you are not a friend on facebook become one because there will be another surprise tomorrow!!!

Product Highlight: Wonder Water with DMAE and without

I'm 36.  We all know wrinkles happen and I'm ok with that.   However, I would love to stay as wrinkle free as possible.   Maybe it's vain but oh well. I like to look good.  When I look good, I feel good.   Not that wrinkles are not beautiful because I do feel they are, I just don't want to sport many until I'm in my 60s.    The probelm is I don't like putting stuff on my face that isn't natural and/or safe.  I've tried lots of different products, some claimed to be natural and once I got them that was far from true.  Some were natural but just didn't give me the results I wanted.   I decided to take my knowledge and create something that was perfect for me.    That's when the Wonder line was born.       The first product I would like to introduce is the Wonder Water.

Wonder Water is a toner that comes with or without DMAE.  If you have very sensitive skin I do not recommend the DMAE version.   You might wonder what the difference is, well the water with DMAE is more firming.   You can feel it working within seconds.  It's cool stuff.    

How to use it:   After you wash your face you apply Wonder Water with a cotton ball or cloth.  Apply it all over your face, neck and decollete. Go around your eyes but not on your eyelids and be careful not to get any in your eyes.   It could burn if you do.    Then apply  moisturizer.   I recommend our Wonder Serum.  If your Wonder Water as DMAE then wait 2 minutes before applying the moisturizer.  If you experience to much tingling from the DMAE that it's uncomfortable then it's not the right product for you.   Wash off with soap and water.

What's in it: All the ingredients are all natural and some are organic. You will never find anything that is unnatural in our products.   NEVER. 

Chamomile and Rose Geranium Hydrosol.-Hydrosol is a term coined by my instructor, Jeanne Rose.   It is the by product of making essential oils.   It's the water left over from steam distillation.  It contains the properties of essential oils but are much gentler.  We chose these two hydrosols because they are calming to the skin and anti aging.

Acai Extract- This is made from the acai berries.  Acai is known as a super-fruit.  Besides being tasty, they contail anthocyanins and flavonoids which are very important antioxidants. Not only that but their antioxidants remain high even after storage of long periods.

Pomegranate Extract- Another yummy super fruit.  It contains ellagitannins. Ellagitannins are powerful polyphenols that fight free radicals.

White Tea- I love drinking white tea, it's so good for you inside and out. It contains polyphenols and also helps protect the skin against stress.

DMAE-(only in Wonder Water with DMAE) It's real name is Dimethylaminoethanol. This is an interesting ingredient.  It is found in the human body and in nature. People take it as a natural antidepressant to help combat anxiety, because it's a precursor to acetylcholine. That's important to know because that why DMAE works as a firming agent for skin.   It reacts with they acetylcholine on your skin and contracts...firming your skin.

Interesting tidbit:  You can use the Wonder Water withOUT DMAE as a cleanser for cuts, clean off faces, and even as a cloth wipe spray(for cloth diaper mamas)

If you have any questions about this or anything else please feel free to contact me.

Peace and Love,
Heather.

Belly Aches

It seems some members of our family have caught their first and hopefully only belly bug of the season.  I thought I would take a moment while they are occupied to blog about two essential oil remedies we use during belly aches.

Before I go on, I must stress that you should NEVER ingest essential oils from just any source.  You need to be sure they are pure, therapeutic, food grade essential oils, preferably organic.   If you are not sure you have a good source please contact me and I can help you out.   Also, please check with your health care provider before taking any supplement.   One more thing, do not EVER just take any essential oil internally.  Just because they are natural does not mean they are safe.    It really concerns me the amount of people who use essentials oils who are not trained.    Ok, I'm off I'm soap box.  I could go on about this stuff forever, but that's not what this post is about.   It's about sick bellies.


As soon as the first person complains of sickies I put our 7 blend in the cool air atomizer.   That is our first and main defense for everything.   I can not recommend getting a cool air atomizer enough.   It's a great way to disperse essential oils into the air without destroying their chemical properties.  This is the one we use.

Then we add 1 drop of peppermint essential oil to 8 oz glass of water.    They sip on that through out the day.

We also do 1 drop of ginger essential oil to 8 oz glass of seltzer water.   Sip on that.


Pretty simple and pretty effective.    Both essential oils sooth the belly and contain properties to push those sickies away!

Peace and Love,

Heather

Christmas shopping is upon us....

I have started my Christmas shopping.  I'm actually almost done.  I start early because I like to barter for a lot of our gifts or I make them.  Now, don't get me wrong I do purchase some gifts but when I do I like to buy from small business, crafters and  from the USA.   I really hope this year, if you don't already, that you buy at least one handcrafted gift, one USA made gift and one small business bought gift.  Don't forget to handmake something for someone also!  Babysteps always make a difference!

Our Winter Regimen- Keeping the flu and other illness away

Nobody likes getting sick and I can't think of anyone who enjoys the flu.  Our family chooses not to vaccinate and we only use allopathic medication when it is essential (rarely).   What we do have is a winter regimen that has done us pretty good considering we have five children, three of them in school, spreading their lovely germs around the home.

So here ya go.  This is what we do from September through March.

Check with your physician or natropath before taking any supplements. 

Vitamin C    500mg for the kids 1000mg for the adults.  I personally take 3000mg. to help with inflammation.

Vitamin D   the kids take 800iu, I take 2000iu, and my husband takes 5000iu.   Get tested because everyone's needs is different.   You want your levels to be 60-80.

Influenzinum 30 c.    I like the one from Washington. We get it at http://www.abchomeopathy.com/   I will tell you why I like it.  Washington changes theirs with the flu strains for that year.  Hylands doesn't.   This is the way I use it.   1 pillsule once a week for 1 month.  Then 1 pillsule a month until March or April.  I watch to see what the flu trends are. 

Elderberry Syrup.   You can find the info on that here on my blog.

My Heal and Clean 7 blend.   This stuff is just awesome. It's available at Etsy.   I use it to clean the house,  I put it in a cool mist diffuser(not only does it clean the air but it smells great), I make hand wash with it and for a hand sanitizer.  
If you do no want to purchase our hand sanitizer you can purchase our 7 blend and add it to your own hand sanitizer or to aloe vera gel.  


Here's to a healthy, happy winter!!!!

Peace and Love,
Heather

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Sorry for the lack of photos but I really wanted to get this recipe up.  I promised my friend and congo mate for this about a month ago.   Ooooops.

I don't measure anything when I make my sauce so this is approximates.  You can add or subtract to taste.

Ingredients:

- tomatoes..In the summer I use my own paste tomatoes.    I take about 15 and throw them in my Vitamix whole.  If it's not summer I buy a 16 oz can of organic whole tomatoes. and mash them with a potato masher.

-2 chopped shallots

-3 cloves of garlic chopped

-4 tbsp olive oil

-1/4 cup honey

-6 basil leaves chopped

-1/4 tsp Cheyenne pepper (in the summer I throw 1 jalapeno in the Vitamix along with the tomatoes)

salt, pepper, oregano, thyme,rosemary to taste

In sauce pan heat up oil.   Throw in a piece of onion, if it sizzles it's ready.   Throw in the rest of onion and garlic.  Saute until onions are softened up.   Add your tomatoes until boil.   Add honey, basil, cheyenne.   Bring to a simmer.    Add the rest of the ingredients.   You can serve it like that or you can cook it down.   I usually simmer mine on the lowest heat for 3 hours.  The longer you simmer the thicker and sweeter it gets.  It's so yummy.   

You can use it for everything.  We use it for pasta, pizza, lasagna and I freeze it.

Here's my Lasagna featuring my yummy sauce. There's a layer of eggplant (from my garden) in the Lasagna.

Meditation Monday 8-15-11

Each Monday I will post an inspirational quote, a mantra or short guided meditation for you to start your week out positive.

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 "Experience is not what happens to a man, it is what a man does with what happens to him." ~ Aldous Huxley

~

Peppermint Essential Oil

Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) essential oil is really a great oil to have on hand for it's many uses.  

We use it a lot in the summer for ants.   We use it in two ways.    First, we take a spray bottle fill it with water and add about 10 drops of the EO.   We use this to spray around the perimeter of all the rooms, in the doorways and window sills.   On the rare occasion that we get ants in the house we spray them and the area and wipe up.   They flee fast when it's sprayed around them.      Second, we put a drop of the Peppermint EO in our steam mop.  Our house smells fresh and it helps keep the ants away.

Other uses for peppermint eo:
Use for flavoring in baking
Use for flavoring in coffee or hot chocolate.
Use a drop in water to settle an upset belly.
Smell directly from bottle or make a steam bath for nasal congestion.
Dilute in olive oil and rub into your temples for headaches.

Garden 2011

 I really love having a garden.  It's been such a learning experience and once I figure one thing out there seems to be a new mystery to solve.   I think my next post will be about what I learned about tomatoes.

Here's my spaghetti squash plant.  I thought I would try that in a pot.   So far only one fruit on it.  I'm thinking it's getting to much shade.   I did hand pollinate and still just this one squash.

 Here is a mix of goodies.  Marigolds, Lemon Balm, Parsley and a Cantaloupe.

 Watermelons are doing fantastic.  This is my first year that they have done this well.   So far I have 3 bowling ball size fruits and about 10 golf ball sized fruits.  I also have one eggplant in the same box.

 My only surviving pumpkin plant.  I had a white pumpkin, sugar pumpkins and Cinderella pumpkins.  They were doing fantastic, until the vine borers DESTROYED them.   I seemed to be able to save this one though.  I just noticed another baby growing so maybe I'll get two jack o lantern pumpkins for the kids!

 My favorite fruit ever is cantaloupe, which is a good thing because I thought this was a honeydew plant. As you can see it's not so I have 4 cantaloupe plants that are producing LOTS of fruit.   If you have any ideas of what I can do with cantaloupe let me know!

 Butternut squash are doing great also.  I planted to many of those too, however that I will freeze to use in mac and cheese through the winter and in other dishes.
Isn't she pretty.   I'm hoping to get some Echinacea tattoos soon.

 Tomato plants.....I can't even look at them.  So depressing.   That will be another post.

So besides the pumpkin thing and my tomato saga (which will hopefully end on a good note) I would call my garden another success.   I can't wait to start again next year.  In the meantime I'm going to try some cold weather crops this month and talk DH into a hydroponic tower for lettuce.

The tale of two oils....

I make my own infused oils to use in my formulations.  The oils must solar infuse for at least 3 months to satisfy my wants in an oil.  Anything over 3 months is a bonus.     The more it infuses the more healing properties in the oil.   Here is a photo of the oil I use for our diaper rash salve.

 It's a beautiful golden color.  It works beautifully, is rich and healing.   I love it.
Although, that is wonderful, with a little patience you get something that is breathtaking.    It has a rich, green hue.  The smell is stronger, but not offensive.  It's my already awesome oil pumped up a few notches.  Here it is.  One year in the making. 

Meditation Monday 8-01-11

Each Monday I will post an inspirational quote, a mantra or short guided meditation for you to start your week out positive.

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 And may we ever have joy and gratitude in our hearts that the great Creator of all things, in His Love for us, has placed the herbs in the fields for His healing.- Edward Bach

Long time no post....

I took a bit of a vacation.  As you can see I haven't posted here since November!!!!   That's about to change.  I'm about done with school and I'm finally getting use to my husbands new work schedule.  It only took over a year.    I'm ready to move forward and devote more time to Aromatics and Herbs.

So, here's a little catch up.   My garden is awesome this year but I'm so bad at photographing it.  I really need to get out and take some pictures even though half of it is gone now.    We got so many cukes.   I'll be posting a tute on the fridge pickles I made.    I had to rip up most of my squash/pumpkin plants.  The vine boarers got them big time.   I had a huge cinderella pumpkin too.  A borer made it's way into it.   I save it though and will take some pictures because it really is interesting.    Tomatoes are doing great but had some animal eat most of them.  I think I corrected that problem with some coffee grinds.  This was the first year our grape vine had grapes.  That has been a learning experience.  Next year we will need to net them.  The birds ate all 50 bunches.    Potatoes are awesome and we've been eating those.    I really just adore having a garden.

I started selling some food items again though the name "Back to Bliss Bake Shop."   I've been trying to figure out what direction I want to go with that and I believe I'm just going to stick to selling a limited amount of goods though Universal Mama. 

Kids are having a great summer.  We've been doing a lot of traveling around locally.   I feel like we are never home.   I love making positive memories for family.

I think that's about all for now.  Check back soon!

Peace and Love,
Heather