olive cleanser and lemon almond hand cream

On the left is the Lemon Almond Hand Cream, on the right is the Coconut Olive Cleanser. I used the cleanser last night, and liked it. We'll see how it goes after using it several times.

Organic at Home

I just re-borrowed an awesome book from the library - Organic at Home by Dr. Judy Macleod. It's full of recipes and tips for everything from face cleansers to compost heaps. This evening, I made a bunch of things from it:

Simple Shampoo (I'll let you know how it works, Jen! It smells amazing!)
Lemon and Almond Hand Cream (Beeswax-y, kind of like the Burt's Bees hand salves)
Coconut and Olive Cleanser (My skin is combination and likes to be contrary)
Eye Make-up Remover (equal parts light olive and castor oils - super easy!)

Also, I used olive oil last night as a moisturizer on my face before going to bed. I found that just dipping the pad of my finger in it and then spreading it on gave me just enough and I wasn't greasy at all. And my cheeks felt lovely this morning!

no expectations

On Sunday afternoon, I learned from a 2 1/2 year old that the way to enjoy life is to have no expectations. We were out on the lawn enjoying the sun, and Ben was playing with a glider plane. Us adults had assembled the planes and when we threw them, were expecting the planes to fly at least halfway across the lawn. We ended up disappointed when they went a few feet and then nose-dived into the ground. Ben, however, would use his whole body to throw the plane, and his reaction was the same whether the plane went somewhere or fell at his feet. "Yaaaaaaaay!" he would squeal as he jumped up and down. Then the whole process began again.

I had a wonderful time enjoying other people's children on the weekend, and had one of my favourite meals ever at the Dockside Restaurant in Lunenburg. I don't mean the food, although that was excellent - the bacon wrapped scallops far exceeded my expectations. There were 3 young-ish couples and three children at our table - Ben, and two fabulous 7 month-olds. They totally dictated everything that went on, and it was great. We were noisy and laughed a lot and the kids threw silverware on the floor - it was the best warm-fuzzy feeling.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to all! Of course, every day should be Earth Day, but it's still lovely to acknowledge it today. Rather than focussing on all of the negative issues of global warming, pollution, blah blah blah, I've decided to take a positive spin on today. I've been thinking about it lately, and there are so many opportunities we have to choose to look at issues from the positive side and we still take the negative. I do, anyway. For example: grumble, grumble grumble about the price of oil. Negative 'solution': continue grumbling. Positive solution: find alternate sources of energy (we're buying a wood stove - I'm excited!), drive less, put on sweaters instead of cranking up the furnace, etc. I believe that rying to do what I can a little bit at a time (buying environmentally friendly cleaning products, drying clothes outside as much as possible, using a reel lawn mower) to be kinder to the earth is better than being defeatist about the whole thing. I'm trying to take that approach to work as well - doing all that I can and knowing that I've done that much, rather than thinking "Well, it probably wouldn't make a difference if I did that anyway." So, in the spirit of my positive spin, here are some links to some earth-friendly and interesting things:

Straw Bale House links:
The Last Straw
The International Journal of Straw Bale and Natural Building

Strawbale house links

Yurt links:
Rainier Yurts

(This article is a little out there, but interesting anyway) Yurts: Round & Unbound

Cleaning and house stuff:
Seventh Generation

Natural Home and Garden Magazine (my new favourite - it takes a pro-active spin on everything related to the house and garden, is beautiful to look at and a great resource)

Simply Clean A line of Canadian, fragrance and phosphate-free, biodegradable household cleaners which I love - the laundry detergent is amazing and has gotten out stains that I couldn't remove with Shout. They're available at our local Superstore and health food store.

And because there's always plenty of negative and saddening news everywhere, check out happynews.com and Cute Overload. Guaranteed to make you smile!

Happy Earth Day!