kattitudes

Materials Needed:

1/2 cup almonds
1 cup dry oatmeal
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and mashed

Place almonds in a blender or coffee grinder and grind until coarse and not too fine.

Mix almonds and oatmeal and place in a glove or muslin mitt.

Scoop up avocado and rub on your body with mitt.

Rinse off with warm water, pat dry and moisturize.

We love toiletries. We love them. We love the fussy little bottles and jars and labels and pretties and such. But we hate. the. prices. Hate them. Cannot abide them.

And more than that, we hate the chemicals! As we are getting older, we are getting more sensitive, in that our skin and our bodies just cannot take what we used to, and starts to freak out when we layer chemical after chemical after chemical on top of each other.

What we have found is that if we go back to nature literally - go back to things that grow from the earth, our skin forgives us, and suddenly treats us like we were young again. So we liberally toss the expensive and beautiful labels that we spent way too much on, and replace them with mixes from our kitchen, fresh from the garden. Our skin thanks us, as does our budget. Try it. Your skin might just be sending you a message that you need to hear too.

Materials Needed:

* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 1 carrot, cooked and mashed
* 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and mashed
* 3 tablespoons honey

Combine ingredients in a bowl and spread over face and neck. Relax for 15 minutes, then rinse with cool water.

A single potpourri classically consists of several layers of fragrance. There is the main scent which is what makes a potpourri smell primarily spicy, fresh, floral or more specifically like roses or oranges, for example.

The next scents are the blenders which “ground” the potpourri. These back up the main scent and can consist of things such as wood shavings, dried berries, spices, fruit peel or a few drops of an essential oil that will compliment the main scent. Some oils that make good blenders are frankincense, myrrh, light musk, synthetic ambergris or lemon oils.

Finally, there are the fixatives which preserve the scent of the potpourri. While they do not lend their own scent to the mix, they keep the potpourri smelling fresh and new. The most commonly used fixative is orris root, which is the powdered root of a particular Iris variety. Powdered orris root is widely available.

Using a mixture of herbs, flowers, woods, oils and spices from the same family of scent is a good place to start. You can bulk up your potpourri with pretty unscented objects like pine cones, dried flowers and even sea shells. If your potpourri gets dusty from sitting around, place the potpourri in a muslin sack and shake it for a bit, Add a couple of drops of essential oil, give it a few more shakes and it is as good as new.

One enjoyable potpourri recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

* 4 ounces coriander
* 4 ounces orris root
* 4 ounces rose petals
* 2 ounces mace
* 1/4 ounce cloves
* 1/4 ounce table salt
* 1/4 ounce oil of lavender
* 1/4 ounce oil of cinnamon
* 1/4 ounce oil of clove
* 1/4 ounce oil of rose
* 1/2 ounce tincture of musk

Mr. Massey’s Favorite Potpourri

The following recipe is Mr. Massey’s favorite potpourri. Mr. Massey is half founder of Caswell-Massey, well-known supplier of scented bath supplies and scents. Caswell-Massey also has mail order where potpourri supplies and oils can be ordered.

To 4 ounces each of coriander, orris root, and rose petals, add 2 ounces of mace, 1/4 ounce each of cloves, table salt, oils or lavender, cinnamon, clove and rose. Include 1/2 ounce tincture of musk.

Materials Needed:

* 2 sprigs fresh thyme, crushed (or 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme)
* 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
* 1/2 cup boiling water
* Juice of half a lemon

Mix thyme and fennel seed in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Add lemon juice and let steep for 15 minutes.

Strain infusion and store liquid in a jar. Keep in the refrigerator.

School has already started here in Georgia state, and with school comes the inevitable concern about the condition of our skin. Heck, being concerned about the condition of our skin is not limited to the school aged. One needs only to look to the bazillion dollared make up etc industry to know that. Save a few of those dollars for yourself by making some of your skin care products yourself and end up with a thing of beauty…you!

Materials Needed:

* 1 tablespoon dried savory leaves, crushed
* 1/2 cup boiling water
* 1/2 cup cranberries

Place dried savory in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to steep for 15 minutes, then strain liquid and set aside.

Place cranberries in a blender and puree. Strain pulp out of liquid, discard pulp and combine the liquid with the savory infusion.

Soak cotton pads or a washcloth in the liquid and leave on face for 15 minutes. Try to avoid the eye area. Remove pads or washcloth and rinse with warm water.

As with all things, reason is always helpful. If a product is irritating your skin, stop using it and see your doctor.

This is yet another entry into the extremely inexpensive, extremely simple, no chemical, not tested on animals body scrub. If you purchase organic oil and sea salt, then you have yourself an all organic body scrub also, in addition to the knowledge that you have an incredibly healthy and earth friendly gift on hand.

Materials Needed:

* 2 cups coarse sea salt
* 1/4 cup apricot kernel oil

The point of body scrub is to work on the surface of the skin, not the underlying tissues (so no scrubbing until you see raw flesh). After the entire body has been scrubbed and exfoliated, gently shower or rise off the mixture using a sponge or loofah and a mild bath wash. Pat dry.

These are so fabulously easy to make and while they seem so simple, everybody uses soap (or at least they should!). You can be guaranteed that this is a gift that will be put to use. At first we thought what a over simplified gift, but the more we tried it, the more we realized we loved this little number. We put them in the guest bath and it makes single use washes so easy. We use silk wedding rose petals when we want to gift these and we use our own rose petals when we want to get fancy. Each time, these turn out so well. You simply cannot go wrong with this particular gift.

Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup clear glycerin soap
* 20 drops of fragrance of choice

Wash silk rose petals and allow to dry.

Melt glycerin in microwave. Add fragrance after melting and carefully mix. Using tweezers, dip the silk petals into the melted glycerine soap.

Set each petal on waxed paper to dry. When dry, put in storage container of your choice.

Soap use: pluck a single petal with which to wash your hands.

This is another entry into the phenomenally inexpensive, incredibly simply no chemical all natural perfectly organic (if you use all organic ingredients of course) facial care items. With three ingredients that most people keep in their kitchen all of the time, you have the makings of a very healthy and very simple facial masque that will help draw out impurities in ways that might surprise you!

Materials Needed:

* 1/2 cup oatmeal
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk

Finely grind oatmeal in a blender or food processor. In a small bowl, combine honey, yogurt and ground oatmeal. Mix thoroughly until it has a paste-like consistency.

Smooth over face and neck and leave on for 15 minutes. Rinse off with warm water and pat dry.

There is no need to be spending a lot of money on beauty care or facial products nor is there a need to spend the many many dollars that day spas would have us believe that we need to spend (and believe us, we are the first in line to spend both time and money at a day spa, so we see the irony. But we just don’t want to spend the money). This lemon mint toner is wonderful for the skin and inexpensive and so quick and easy to whip up at home. Five minutes and you have a quick easy tonic to make you glow.

Materials Needed:

* 1 peppermint tea bag
* 1 cup boiling water
* 1/4 cup witch hazel
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Place tea bag in boiling water and steep for 15 minutes. Discard tea bag and allow liquid to cool.

Add witch hazel and lemon juice and store in a glass container in the refrigerator. Apply daily after cleansing the face.

As always, use reason when working with the delicate skin on your face. If your skin reacts, stop use immediately and see your doctor.

We have done fabric covered boxes in the recent past, but there is just something about velvet that really spices up a project. The nap on the fabric catches the light just so and makes everything so beautiful that you just want to touch it.

The ribbon and trim on these boxes are simple to add, but really make the project pop in the details. And because of the relative size, it would not be that expensive to purchase additional trim to finish off boxes like this. In fact, you could most likely just keep the end pieces and scraps of ribbon trimmings from other projects and mix and match to make a fun and festive hodge podge of season appropriate colors and celebration.

Boxes like these could be done for any holiday, any birthday, event, occasion or everyday use under the sun. Autumn colors for Thanksgiving. Red white and blue for a patriotic theme. Pastels for some beautiful Easter basket replacements. They could be used for storage, for your jewelry, for your sewing kits, for your office supplies or for bathroom beauty works. Pack one with new baby supplies. As with so many ideas on Kattitudes, you are limited only by your imagination.