{MIY} MAKE-IT-YOURSELF MONDAY! All Natural Body Scrub

For those of you guys and gals that enjoy finding ways to pamper yourself at home during those rare, quiet moments you get during your busy week, this is a wonderful way to do so that is inexpensive and tantalizing to your senses. This body scrub is a wonderful way to relax yourself before a sweet nights slumber or to awaken your energies in preparation for a productive day. Wild orange, peppermint, lavender, melaleuca; whichever scent pleases your mood can be infused into your all-natural body scrub.

Here's what you need:

Glass Container

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sugar

Essential Oil(s)

First, fill your container 3/4th's sugar.

Next, fill 1/4 up with your EVOO and mix as good as possible.

Then add the essential oils of your moods choice. (side note: Gauge the consistency as you mix the oils and the sugar. You don't want it to be oily because once the water in your bath or shower mixes with it, the sugar will dissolve and it will thin out too quickly.) An ideal body scrub is thick with enough exfoliation and becomes uber invigorating to your senses. Now you have yourself a beautiful, all-natural body scrub! :O)

If you are making a body scrub as a gift, you can decorate the jar to make it uber spancy! :O)

I hope you enjoyed the project this week to treat yourself during one of your rare "me-time" moments.  :O)

Sending you uber loads of Love, Laughter and Light!

~Cassie

PUMPKIN HUNTING & SEEDS ROASTING

My two favorite loves + good food + some creative time = recipe of a perfect time together.  Several weeks ago we went to Ruibal’s at the Downtown Dallas Farmers Market and picked up a few pumpkins to hack away on.  Oh boy was that fun!  We picked out a large, medium, and small pumpkin; different ones to represent each of us.  When checking out, we grabbed a pumpkin carving kit to aid us in our adventure.  The key to carving a phenomenal pumpkin is the pumpkin carving kit.  Truly, it worked like a dream! 

It was so nice to be outside soaking up the nice weather and fall colors.  After picking out the perfect pumpkins we had a nice dinner on a patio while the sun slipped away to slumber.  Once our tummies were singing from being nourished, we headed to my condo to start de-gutting our pumpkins.  Sounds morbid, but it was so much fun!  After clearing out the insides, I separated the seeds and roasted them in the oven, like this:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

What you need: 

Fresh pumpkin seeds

Olive oil or coconut oil (I used a little of each)

Sea Salt

Pepper

Cumin

Thyme

Rosemary
Garlic and Herb mix (salt free) from Sprouts

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the pumpkin seeds on a foiled cookie sheet.  Coat them with olive oil and/or coconut oil, mixing them together to distribute the oil evenly.  Then sprinkle on the above herbs/spices to your taste.  Some of you might like more of certain spices and less of others.  Gauge it by what you know you like best.  OR, you can just do small pinches of each one.  Mix them all up together to distribute the seasonings evenly then place them in the oven for about 40 minutes.  If you want them toastier just keep them in a little longer and keep an eye on them. 

They are uber yummy, so enjoy!

Our pumpkins turned out uber fantastical too!! :O)

Sending you lots of Light & Laughter!

~Cassie

{DIY: ALL PURPOSE CLEANER} Ah-Lah-Naturel...

USING ESSENTIAL OILS TO CLEAN YOUR HOME

Do any of you have a hard time being around chemicals when cleaning your home?  It has always been a challenge for me to find an all purpose cleaner of good quality that doesn't make me feel like I'm suffocating while cleaning my home.  Using chemicals of any kind can be toxic, especially when cleaning enclosed spaces, such as restrooms, because there isn't an outlet for the fumes to escape so you're breathing them all in!  (insert scrunchy, pinched bleh face here) There have been times when I've had to leave the room because I couldn't breathe!

I decided to take matters into my own hands, BOOM!  I've been talking about it for weeks, so I finally buckled down this weekend and made my own all-purpose cleaner using simple ingredients I already had at home that are non-toxic, affordable, and anti-bacterial.  A close friend of mine and I have recently jumped into the pool of using essential oils so I decided to utilize some of the ones I have at home to create it, and it smells UH-mazing!

Ingredients you need are:

Distilled Water

White Vinegar

Lemon Essential Oil

Tea Tree Essential Oil

Lavender Essential Oil

Peppermint Essential Oil

Spray Bottle

First, fill the spray bottle with 8 parts distilled water and 1 part white vinegar.  Vinegar is a natural disinfectant to sanitize what you're cleaning, however, it does NOT smell pretty.  SO...adding the essential oils not only makes it smell prettier but the oils are also chock-full of health benefits for us! (I'll explain the benefits of each below)  

Next, add the essential oils: 20 drops of lemon, 10 drops of tea tree, 10 drops of lavender, and 15 drops of peppermint.  

Last note, SHAKE BEFORE YOU SPRAY!  The distilled water/vinegar mix will not mesh with oil since oil & water do not mix, naturally.  Be sure to shake before you spray to get a good mix out onto what you're cleaning.  

Eureka!  You've got yourself an all-natural homemade, non-toxic, all-purpose cleaner!  :O)  Not only does it disinfect, but it smells superb and adds an aromatic mental pick-me-up while you're cleaning, giving you the energy to actually WANT to be cleaning!  In my book, that is an A+!  This is something you can definitely be proud of, knowing you created something that actually protects you and your loved ones from breathing in toxic fumes of unnatural ingredients.  

If you're curious about the essential oils, here is some information about each oil that I used for you to know the full extent of the benefits you're receiving while you're cleaning:

Lavender essential oil

Properties: Lavender essential oil can be calming, sleep inducing, analgesic, disinfectant, antiinflammatory, antiseptic, and antifungal.

Health benefits: This oil is beneficial for treatment of issues with the nervous system, insomnia, pain relief, urine flow, respiratory disorders, skin care, hair care, blood circulation, indigestion, and immune system health.

Lemon essential oil

Properties: Lemon essential oil is an antiseptic, antiviral, astringent, aperitif, bactericidal, disinfectant, febrifuge, haemostatic, restorative, and a tonic.

Health benefits: This oil protects from wounds becoming septic, while inhibiting viral and bacterial growth, strengthening gums, and stopping hair loss. Furthermore, it lifts skin, induces firmness in muscles, stops hemorrhaging, fights infections, and cures fevers.

Peppermint essential oil

Properties: Peppermint oil is used as an analgesic, anesthetic, antiseptic, antigalactogogue, antiphlogistic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, cephalic, cholagogue, cordial, decongestant, emenagogue, expectorant, febrifuge, hepatic, nervine, stimulant, stomachic, sudorific, vasoconstrictor and as a vermifuge.

Health benefits: It is commonly used in the treatment of pain relief, as a way to induce numbness, protect against sepsis, reduce milk flow and discharge, relax spasm, strengthen gums, stop hair loss, and lifts skin. Also, it induces firmness in muscles, stops hemorrhaging, removes gas, is good for brain and memory health, and promotes bile discharge, clears congestion and eases breathing. Furthermore, peppermint essential oil relieves obstructed menstruation, expels phlegm & catarrh, reduces fever, is good for the liver, nerves, and stomach, while promoting perspiration and slight contraction of the blood vessels.

Tea Tree essential oil

Properties: Tea tree essential oil is antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, fungicide, insecticide, antiseptic, balsamic, cicatrisant, expectorant, stimulant, and sudorific in nature.

Health benefits: This oil is often used to inhibit bacterial, microbial, and viral infections, while also killing insects, protecting wounds from becoming septic, promoting absorption of nutrients, speeding up the healing rate of scars and after marks. Finally, it can cure coughs and colds, and it stimulates systemic functions and appropriate discharges.

I hope you enjoy this recipe for a wonderful, safe all-purpose cleaner that you can be motivated to clean with knowing it won't harm you or your loved ones!  Please share with me any recipes you've created, I'd love to try them! :O)

Love & Light to all of you!

~Cassie

TREE POSE....GO!

My love for living au naturel is an interesting and fun journey.  Learning to love myself right where I am, precisely as I was created, and the desire to take care of this vessel that I have been gifted with is growing :O)  It’s been a joy to try new raw foods and products to soak up all the good nutrients I can to feed me energy to live life well.  Exploring my yoga practice and expanding my knowledge of it to strengthen my body, mind, and spirit gives me a confident boost into the future, healthily.  

I was eating an apple one day and decided, instead of throwing the seeds out, I wanted to plant them.  So I did, HA!  And eureka, 3 of the four seeds I planted are actually growing :O)  Fast forward a few weeks:  one day I had a gut-hunch to use The Google to find out how to grow an apple tree from seeds…I was amazed at the personal involvement required to raise a fruitful offspring of apples (or any other fruit).   Grafting is the key.  You plant the seed into soil, water it, and love the little seedling until it is about 30 – 60 cm high then it undergoes a process of grafting it to a healthy parent tree in order to produce good quality fruit.  (Some of you might already know where I’m going with this).  If you desire to grow deliciousness-in-your-face quality fruit, you choose which species of apple (or other fruit) you want to produce (scion), then cut a stem of it at a steep angle.  You do the same to the seedling’s rooted stem that you raised.  Once you have them cut at steep angles that will fit like a glove, you then align them together where the thin greenish plant layer just under the bark of the scion and your beloved seedlings stem touch each other.  You then use cling film and masking tape to keep them in place.  Within 10 – 15 days, if aligned properly, you will see little shoots starting to bud from the grafting seam. If they are not aligned properly, the graft will fail and chances for fruit production are slim.  If you choose not to graft it might be 5-6 years up to 15+ years before seeing any fruit and if so, the fruit will more than likely be bad, whaaaaa!

My “Wow!”, “Ah-ha!” and “Thank you, God!” moment came when I was thinking about this whole process the other day while watering my little seedlings (that are growing nicely, by-the-way).  I was reminded how important it is to choose what I am grafting myself to.  If I choose to graft myself to what others expectations (or put-downs) are over me, pop-cultures do’s and don’ts, or past events in my life that I have chosen not to release,  then the fruit I produce in my life will taste awful (insert crinkle face here).  I’d be reeking of bad fruit and I’d be releasing confusion, frustration, bitterness, anger, jealousy, etc.  But if I choose to graft myself to be one with God, then the fruit that exudes from my core will be so much tastier!  I will be releasing into my sphere of influence a heart of service, joy, peace, confidence, direction, and encouragement, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera!  In my humanness I tend to default to the former, so this visual helps me to remember to be proactive in what I choose to graft myself to.  

 

 

I’m highly enjoying exploration in my yoga practice to keep myself centered with God, learning how to release anything that I need to release, so I produce better fruit now and onward.  Hoping to encourage others along the way to do the same :O)

Ever heard the saying, “You are what you eat?”   Yah, me too!  I’ve been experiencing the beautiful benefits of eating raw, fresh veggies, fruits and other wholesome goodness.  Incorporating more raw/natural products into my everyday routine has been UBER rewarding!  Thankful for food and products that have greatness oozing from my happy, healthy being :O) Chow! 

Lots of Love and Gratitude,

C