ah. It's so nice to have my laptop back. I spent the last week flitting between my old home desktop, the slow machine left at the ZOT office, and a desktop at Kirky's office. I've gotten versatile at taking over a machine to get work done but nothing compares to the old laptop. :)
Well, Kirky's gone out to CA for her sister-in-law's baby shower. I'm home alone until Monday night. I have this huge list of things I need to get done before she gets back including fixing a few things (ugg...I need to find a new plumber to fix a toilet), and cleaning the house. Kirky and I haven't really picked up the house since we got back from the conference. I have LOADS (no pun intended) of laundry to do and our house is still covered in a fine layer of horsehair plaster dust from when we took the wall down near the stairs. We talked about bringing in a cleaner but I'm going to see what I can get done myself.
*sigh* I have no motivation, I'm tired and I'm procrastinating.
I'm still a bit nervous about finding a new job and I'm trying to help Sally with some last minute work to pay off ZOT before we close up.
ZOT Group to Close: I suppose this makes it all the more official. *sigh*
Tonight's herbalism class was AWESOME. The subject was "Beauty & the Bath" and the premise was "Spend a delightful evening learning about one of life's simple pleasures - the bath. Explore the wonders of skin brushing. Formulate your own bath salts, sachets, and scented oils." As a male who showers and has decent skin, I didn't think I'd get anything out of the class. However with my wife gone, I needed to get out of the house or spend an eternity in hermitage until she returned. Plus, I know she likes beauty products like the foot salts and massage oil I made for her Valentine's Day.
Teri is such a fabulous teacher. She's a lot of fun and very laid back. Tonight was very hands-on and we made LOTS of goodies to bring home. We started with a "Feel Good Tea" which has lavender, rose, chamomile, hops and comfrey in it. It can be put in a bath and is very uplifting and relaxing...but won't put you to sleep if you're not tired.
Next, we made a "detox" scrub with some epsom and sea salts, borax (great for skin - softens without drying), clay and sesame oil. We added a few drops of wintergreen and rosemary for scenting. I put a little bit of the scrub in a nice little canning jar - it looks a bit like "Sloppy Joes" and smells like a rosemary tree. Next, we made "Foaming Honey Bath" - a little oil, honey, some liquid soap, and vanilla to scent. Honey is great for the skin. If it crystallizes, it makes a good little scrub.
We also made "Bath Fizzies" which had a little bit of baking soda, some citric acid, and cornstarch. Place in water, and the acid/base mixture starts it fizzing like carbonated water or pop rocks. We added some tangerine essential oil to the mix which not only revives and makes you alert as a citrus, but is also an aphrodisiac, (my idea - tangerine oil was in the lavender/vanilla/tangerine massage oil I made for Valentine's Day). Then we made "D Nile Milk Bath". Supposedly Cleopatra was fond of milk baths and bathing in this you can be in complete "denial" as you pretend to be Cleopatra on "the Nile" ;) - it has powdered milk, orange peel, lavender, and rosemary.
We finished the class off by making a simple Peppermint Bath Powder. A little bit of cornstarch and both some peppermint and tea tree oil. The peppermint is mostly for the scent, and the tea tree is an anti-microbal. The "smell" you get when you perspire actual deals with microbial build-up. You can use this powder as a deodorant. We discussed how a lot of deodorants are actually anti-perspirants. I never really thought about how when you perspire, you're cleaning out a lot of the toxins from the body. Heck, we are roughly 70% water as-is, right? Toxins that can't be handled by the liver have to go somewhere. This is often why we get rashes and acne. So when you use an anti-perspirant deodorant, you're stopping potential cleansing of your lymph nodes -since they have no other means for removal of toxins. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, because the Bath Powder has tea tree, it can also be used as an anti-fungal for things like athlete's foot. All-in-all, it was a great class. I learned a lot and even came home with two books - "Natural Beauty for All Seasons" and "Natural Beauty at Home". It looks like I'll be making X-Mas baskets for all the women in our families this year
I have to admit, I liked this class much better than the soapmaking. I worried incredibly about the lye and how careful and precise you need to be with soap. This was a lot more lackadaisical and fun. Plus, I can make everything from facial scrubs to bath salts to body powder and sprays. :)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
