Natural cosmetics anyone?

I had a fun day yesterday albeit the dreary weather. Guess what? I finally let loose the creative monster in me and went for a day's workshop in soap making at a local aromatherapy school. Who knows if this will lead me to something truly entrepreneurial in the future? The goal for now,however,is to create my own economical personalized natural cosmetics (includes soap and skincare products), the commercial cost of which have progressively taken a toll on my budget in the past. My sensitive skin tends to be picky with the stuff that I use on it you see; and curiously it knows how to violently react when I'm using low-grade products!

Anyway, it was fun swirling or doing the figure eight on the mixture of vegetable oils and having to be creative with the additives (e.g. essential oils, chocolate, coffee, flower petals, etc.)that will give flavour to the basic soap. I learned essential stuff like when exactly tracing occurs and troubleshooting techiniques for typical soap making booboos.

Overall, it was really interesting and I can't wait to wear my googles, relatively unused apron and kitchen gloves for my first ever handmade skincare products made of the finest natural ingredients around. Sounds, like a sales pitch huh? Oh well, we'll see...:).

Last piece....take it or leave it? Hmmmm....

So what's my idea of a relaxing cold autumn Friday night?



Here goes:

Take a long warm bath or shower, slather myself with Johnson's baby cologne, lotion and body powder right after, wear my oldest oversized t-shirt and pajamas,take a couple of large soft pillows and a freshly scented blanket; draw my curtains to get a view of the starlit sky, feed my DVD player with some heart-melting romantic movies, snuggle up in my sofa, and watch the movies while nibbling on some huge fresh from the oven macadamia nut choco-chip cookies and sipping hot lemon tea ....*sigh* 'must tell yah, it's divine!

The night before Thanksgiving Day, I finally acquired a toy I should have had a long time ago - my own sewing machine! Oh well, as you can probably tell, it's a bit vintage. I've been searching the net for what year the White model was actually manufactured, to no avail - my guess is between the '30's and 50's as based on the following information in the company website:

Toward the end of the '30s, White brought to the market the first sewing machine that was not the traditional black. Manufactured of magnesium alloy, this lightweight, full-size sewing machine featured a green cast plus a built-in sewing light. This portable new machine known as the "Featherweight" was only 18 pounds and remains popular within today's sewing market. Also of significance during the depression era was the organization of a second subsidiary in 1929 when White Sewing Machine Products Limited was established in Canada.

Yep, my machine is single stitch, of light green cast with a nice built-in sewing light. And nope, on the contrary I find it heavy, especially the metallic (what seems like wrought iron) base.

Last night, my sister brought the toy which apparently has been collecting dust in her place for years now - the machine being an unsolicited hand me down from a friend. I guess the timing of my acquisition of this tool is very significant - Thanksgiving Day. I really thank the Lord for tuning in my mainstream of thoughts to His will that our journey through time be filled with "joie de vivre" as we manifest in full what He has created us to be.

Sis and I had a good laugh when she noticed I was pedalling the electric steady foot presser like a treadle of a manually operated sewing machine. Well, what can I say? My brain was still programmed to operate our old machine from childhood years (yes the one that I used to scare my brothers with - with great success, ha ha - as I gave them the notion that it was pedalling on its own).

I sure am on my way to pursuing my passion in design and first step is to learn basic sewing!

Welcome home, sewing machine!

Just came back from Indigo Bookstore along Bay and Bloor. 'was terribly famished and as usual whipped up something (resembling some type of Korean noodle cuisine this time) in haste. Well, most of the ingredients were bought from a local Korean grocery store anyway. I'm calling this my very own Yami Green Tea Noodles.

The ingredients are:

Green beans with stripped onion leaves sauteed in organic cocunut oil (add a pinch of sea salt while cooking)
Green tea noodles immersed in boiling water (drained and doused in cold water to preserve suppleness; thoroughly drained afterwards)
Boiled octopus cutlets quickly fried in my very own Yami Sauce:

two and a half tablespoons of organic ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons of soy sauce
1/3 teaspoon of Korean chilli pepper n'oil
2 teaspoons of organic apple cider vinegar
a tablespoon of organic cocunut oil

Was it good? I'd say yeah, if you like your cold noodles tangy with a hint of sweetness, and spicy at the same time. The drink (iced spritzy blend of cranberry, raspberry and grape juices) was a refreshing cooler to my constantly burning mouth. In Tagalog, puwede na masarap siya :).