Insights from a 7 year old

I went on a field trip with my son's class today. As I was driving down the road I felt like a fly on the wall of their conversation, it was amusing. But I also heard some practical insights that the adult world could benefit from. One little girl said, "I believe in monsters, and it scares me." Another little girl said, "then stop believing in them." I chuckled out loud and thought, "could it be that simple?" In this case surely it is that simple. But think of the things we are afraid of. How often are the fears that we have really just imagined threats to our security, like a monster living under the bed? It's just a thought ...

Ravenous for greens

My doctor recently turned me on to green smoothies. It has turned my taste buds upside down! I'm like ravenous for greens now. Over the past several years I've noticed that I feel my best when I'm eating lots of leafy greens. But I usually get tired of chewing a salad before I get full of it. So this simple approach to adding more greens to my diet has really given me the energy boost I needed to get through the holidays and now the January funk that usually follows the flury of holiday activity.

To get me going on the green drink, my doc recommend Victoria Boutenko's book "Green for Life". I highly recommend this book, a great read, full of great information about how and why to consume more greens. She mentions that soon after consuming more greens she started looking at greens differently. I've had a similiar experience. When I walk to the produce section I get excited about experimenting on the next green drink. She explains the importance of using a variety of greens in her book. So trying new things all the time is definitely the way to go. I look at a handfull of carrot tops, you know the green part, and think, "I wonder how this will taste in my smoothie".

It took me a while to get started because I felt like I needed to read the whole book and get to the recipe section. But now I realize how easy it is. So I thought I'd let you know what I've discovered as three simple steps to more energy. Take your blender, add two cups of water, one piece of fruit, and two large handfuls of greens. Blend. It's that simple. I feel great when I drink it regularly. I look forward to discovering what the next smoothie will taste like depending on the fruit or greens I have available. And I look forward to shopping for the next load of greens (and shopping is something I really detest). My favorite smoothie is pear and spinach with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. Also, most of the recipes I've seen have more fruit than I use, so if you're just getting started and want to sweeten your smoothie up a bit add more fruit.

For more information on Victoria's book go to http://www.rawfamily.com/index.htm

Idaho Mossmint

Soap with moss in it? Yeah it's kind of weird, but I LOVE it, and it's getting rave reviews from my customers, that is, they're buying it!

The story behind this soap is simple. I saw a soap with moss in it and thought it was cool. When I discovered moss growing on the trees at our favorite campspot I was inspired. The camp spot is on a secluded lake on privately owned land; my family has been going there for thirty years and it still looks much the same as it did when we first started going there - rugged, pristine, serenely beautiful. This camping experience represents everything I longed to return to Idaho for, the quiet beauty of the outdoors, largely untouched. So for me, making Idaho Mossmint soap is all about bringing the outdoors into my bathing ritual.

More on Idaho Mossmint Soap: I add spearmint and rosemary essential oils for incredible uplifting aroma. The moss creates beautiful lichen green highlights throughout the soap and feels like a very soft loofah. In all of my recipes the highest percentage of oil is olive oil, which produces a very gentle bar of soap, but to this recipe I also added safflower oil, and I've noticed this bar seems to produce larger creamy lathery bubbles than some of my other soaps while maintaining the same great gentleness.

Painting my world

I don't know how many days it's been since we've seen the sun in Boise ... at least a week ... going on two. But really this is getting dreadfully depressing!

I'm so thankful I talked my husband into a painting project over the holidays. Color is so uplifting!

Today I made a batch of Orange Oatmeal Soap. Customers have requested that I share the story behind each soap I make. I decided that today is a good day to write about Orange Oatmeal. Orange essential oil is amazing! I was seriously down yesterday with a migraine too. The bright spot of my day was receiving an order of essential oils. I quickly opened the package and inhaled deeply the bottles of spearmint and orange essential oils. My daughter looked at me and said, "Mom, are you getting high off your oils." It was an attempt to be sure. According to Susanne Fischer-Rizzi in Complete Aromatherapy Handbook, "The essential oil of the orange is sweet, warm, sensuous, radiant, and alive. The oil is wonderful to use when we take everything too seriously and forget how to laugh - when we feel tense, nervous, and withdrawn." She also states that orange essential oil's "influence on mood is positive and joyful; it harmonizes feelings and awakens creativity." Making orange oatmeal soap today has been the best antitode to this inversion yet. I'm continually amazed at the effect that essential oils have on me, especially orange. By nature I tend toward the melancholy side of mood, but especially with the icky gray clouds looming over me, day after day, I've sunk into this aimless sort of existence. But today, I made soap, now I'm blogging, and I have a new outlook despite the gloom outside.

Back to the soap, I also add lemongrass essential oil to this recipe, it too has refreshing and mentally stimulating properties. An infusion of annatto seeds in the olive oil gives this soap it's radiant sunshiney glow, and to all that I add oatmeal for mild exfoliation. This is a great morning wake me up soap. It's kind of like having oatmeal and oranges for breakfast. Only in the shower, it is mentally stimulating, the orange essential oils really does make me happy.

This brings me to an important point, I started making soap as a creative outlet for me. But I soon discovered that having my family test the soaps was creating shared experiences and as my test subjects they were soon lending their creative ideas to the process. This led me to what has become the underpinning of my goals with making soap and bringing it to the consumer: to create soap that provides multisensory goodness on three levels. I want the aroma to be inspiring and revitalizing, the color to be soothing and of course match the aroma, and I want it to feel rich and luxurious on the skin. Because each of us is unique, I make lots of soaps with the hope that you will find one that will nurture a unique you. But honestly I use them all, and I have anywhere from five to eight different soaps in my shower, primarily because I test everything before it heads out the door, but secondarily because aroma and color have such a powerful effect on my brain, I get to pick the one or two I need for that day.

I am grateful for my husband who partnered with my in coloring my kitchen world so that when I'm in that room my mind is soothed. But since changing the color of my kitchen every day is not so feasible, picking the soap of the day is a way for me to color my world with aroma and color that nurtures my mind and body. So that's my tip for the inversion blues, pick up Orange Oatmeal soap, or if you don't have a bar, pick up an orange and take a good sniff.

If you'd like to get your hands on a bar of Orange Oatmeal Handcrafted Soap go to http://www.lavandedebois.com/

Peppermint Craze

I went on a peppermint craze over the holidays. It began when I made my first batch of Candy Cane soap in September. When I took it out of the mold it smelled so awesome I immediately walked over to the pantry and took out a Candy Cane left over from the past Christmas ... and ate it. By the time I sold out of my 70 plus bars of Candy Cane soap I was making Peppermint Bark Lip Balm, Purifying Bath Oil, and then took the craze a little further to food, and made Peppermint Bark Popcorn. I gave the homemade popcorn away with a lip balm as lip smackin' treats to friends and family. Anyway, I'm posting the peppermint bark popcorn recipe here because several have asked for it. It was scrumptious and addicting. http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/643885-peppermint-bark-popcorn

Yesterday I used up the last little bit of my very last bar of Candy Cane soap and wondered if I would be able to wait until next September to make more. Peppermint essential oil has become one of my surprising new favorites. The aroma is intoxicating! In any case, you'll probably see peppermint appearing in more of my products soon.