Holistic Feathers

Some mornings you wake up and there appears to be nothing fabulous about the day ahead …

Today was one of those days – my accounts are still hovering over my head like a big, bad rain cloud and I want to do fun stuff, not look at figures!

But it’s turned into an absolutely fabulous morning after stumbling across Be Fabulous – the site tagline is “Be whoever you are, whenever you want – Be Fabulous”!  Isn’t that just great?

So I’ve signed up and really looking forward to spending a little time there at coffee break … and their tagline really summed it up for me – I can still have fun while doing accounts because keeping on top of the business admin MAKES ME FABULOUS!!!

Yayyyyyyyy!

So why not visit them and see what they are about – it’s free to register and I’d love to know what you think …

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We use flowers all the time in skincare and infused oil preparations, so we were thrilled to see this article in Natural News this morning!

Thanks Sheryl for another great read!

* * * *

People have been eating flowers almost since the beginning of recorded time. Who knows what prompted the first floral snack? It could be that the flower looked so tasty somebody tried eating it. We can be glad, for flowers still provide a delightful addition to a healthy diet. Let’s explore some of the more popular edible flowers.

There is scant research related to the nutrient density of edible flowers. Most commonly known is that many, like roses, contain good amounts of Vitamin C. Dandelion petals are also high in Vitamin A. Flowers are about 95% water. Because of the water content, it is doubtful that flowers are nutrient dense in any way. They are pretty to look at and many have an interesting flavor. Nasturtiums, for example, have a peppery flavor, while blue borage flowers are quite sweet.

The ancient Romans used violets and roses in their diet; the Chinese prepared daylilies. Asian Indians have long eaten rose petals and the Hispanic culture contributes use of squash blossoms.

The most important consideration in the use of flowers as edibles is to know your source. Flowers you grow yourself are probably the safest. You know they don’t contain pesticides. Never eat flowers purchased from a florist as they have many unhealthy additives.

Flowers are best when picked and prepared within a few hours of eating. In most cases only the petals are used. The best known exception to this is saffron. After washing your flowers well in a salt water solution, they may be stored for a few hours in a glass of water in the refrigerator.

A lovely recipe for daylilies:
* 8 cups daylilies, sliced
* 2 medium-size carrots, grated
* 4 celery stalks, grated
* 1/2 cup raw cashews

Sauce:
* 3/4 cup drained silken tofu
* 1/4 cup dark-colored miso
* 2 tablespoons curry paste
* Juice of 1 lime
* 1 tablespoon kudzu or arrowroot

To prepare:
In a large salad bowl, mix the daylilies, carrots, celery and cashews.
Then make the sauce by combining tofu, miso, curry paste, lime, and arrowroot in a blender. Process until smooth.

Pour the sauce over the mixture. It can be served with brown rice.

Dandelion tea is another edible floral recipe.
* 4 cups dandelion petals
* 4 cups water
* 3 (1/4-inch) thick slices lemon
* 1/2 vanilla bean, split in half
* 2-1/4 cups raw honey

To prepare:
Pick dandelion flowers during the daylight while in full bloom, remove petals, then measure petals only.

Place petals in a heavy saucepan along with the water, lemon slices, and vanilla bean. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 6 hours.

Strain dandelion tea through cheesecloth. Discard all solids. Add raw honey to sweeten.

Sources:
Yzabal, Maria D.T., et al. Oct 1995. The Mexican Gourmet. (Thunder Bay Press)

Brill, Steve “Wildman”. May, 2002. The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook. (Harvard Common Press)

Shomp, Virginia. March, 2005. The Ancient Chinese. (Scholastic, Inc.)

(c) Sheryl Walters – www.younglivingguide.com

Discovered at Natural News

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Twitter is an amazing resource and I was intrigued to come across a question about skincare from @beautyscientist the other day … here are the results from his quick Twitter survey – including our response (Moonpoppy is our Twitter ID) …

Is the credit crunch affecting the way you buy your beauty products?

If you look at the numbers, the financial chaos sweeping the globe hasn’t yet had much impact on the the personal care industry. Although its fourth quarter sales were down, overall L’Oreal managed a very respectable sales growth of over 5% in 2008. The outlook for 2009 is not as rosy, but it seems very unlikely that any company in the sector will be asking any government for any bail outs. Speaking to some of my friends in the industry I pick up almost a sense of complacency. They point to the ‘lipstick effect’ – lipstick is an affordable treat you can have guilt free if you can’t afford something bigger. I have been through a couple of recessions before and I have to say that in the past no matter what the economy is doing it has been pretty much business as usual. And so far, none of the companies I am involved with seem to have been affected very much yet in this recession.

So am I happy? Not really. I think this recession is different to ones I remember, and that they are a poor guide to what is going to happen next. I think that as the squeeze gets worse inevitably the way we buy beauty products is going to change. Nothing is going to be unaffected. With less money in people’s pockets they are going to have to buy less often, switch to lower cost brands or change their purchasing habits completely. What are people going to do. I heard an intriguing story from someone who follows supermarket spending closely. It seems that so far people have not really switched their food purchases to lower cost outlets or to lower quality food items. In fact the opposite is the case. Sales of pre-packed meats are down. But sales across the delicatessen counter are up. It seems that people are buying only what they need. Buy one get one free offers, the mainstay of bargain hunters for years, are being shunned. People want discounts, but they don’t want to buy stuff they might not use.

I found this interesting. Does this, I wonder, suggest that rather than switching brands people are going to simply buy smaller quantities of their current favourites? I didn’t have any data, so I thought I would try out Twitter to see if folk on there could give me a clue. I asked the question

“If you are short of cash, would you rather buy a cheaper personal care product, or a smaller pack of your normal one?”

To my delight I got a whole load of answers really quickly … (to find out the replies, please visit Colin’s Beauty Page)

(c) Colin’s Beauty Pages

:: Follow Colin on Twitter

:: Follow us on Twitter

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Strawberries have more antiaging vitamin C per serving than oranges or grapefruit and research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that people who eat foods rich in C have fewer wrinkles and less age-related dry skin than those who don’t.

Vitamin C helps fight free radicals, which damage cells and break down collagen, leading to those dreaded fine (and not-so-fine) lines.

For smoother, better-hydrated skin, apply a natural-berry mask like the one below once or twice a week, and eat C-rich foods daily, says Ramona Ionescu, primary aesthetician at New York City’s Cornelia Day Resort.

Sip it: Strawberry Smoothie Mask
In a food processor or blender, combine 1 cup frozen or fresh strawberries
(or a mix of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries—they’re all antioxidant stars). Stir together blended berries, 1 cup vanilla or plain yogurt, and 11⁄2 tablespoons honey (a great moisturizer) in an 8-ounce glass. Enjoy smoothie, setting aside enough to coat your face.

Smooth it on:
Apply remaining smoothie (from recipe at left) to your face over a sink (it’s a little drippy at first, but a smooth layer will stay put), and leave it on for about 8 minutes before rinsing off.

By Rachel Grumman
from Health magazine

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A mini-version of my notes appeared in Natural Health magazine, December 2008 issue – page 19 within Jini Reddy’s article “How to heal your broken heart”.

Holistic Healing

Callie Carling, founder of Holistic Feathers offers some tips on how to heal a broken heart

:: Meditation – help to connect you with your high heart, your spiritual heart which gives you compassion, balance, patience and unity, connecting with your spirit and soul. Meditation will also really help to ground you at a time when you need to “come out of your head” and harness the power of Mother Gaia.

:: Tap into the healing power of crystals – there are many available to really help you to heal your broken heart: aventurine, chrysocolla and rose quartz will all work directly with your heart chakra, helping to gently heal you. The following crystals are also great for helping you to become “whole”again – citrine (for self-esteem), kunzite (for synthesis) and moonstone (balancing your emotions). If you really are not drawn to crystals, then a great way to help clear patches of negativity and restore balance to your energies would be to use a little crystal bell and just tinkle around your heart, head and shoulders whenever you feel tired or sad.

:: Reyad Sekh Em (Egyptian healing) - helps to gently bring your soul back into balance, nurturing and empowering you in addition to gently draw the pieces of your broken heart back together again while angelic energies surround and work with you, feeling and healing your pain as you regain your inner strength.

:: Heart Balm and Heart Rescue Spray – I always use Heart Balm on my hands when conducting treatments and have used it on plenty of occasions when I have felt my heart literally breaking, as I tried to come to terms with past hurts (in this life and in previous lives). The gentle properties of rose, geranium and ylang ylang oils carry the blessings of love to nourish your body and soul. Rose essential oil is for unconditional, angelic love, Geranium provides motherly, nurturing love and Ylang Ylang helps us to reconnect our bodies and minds to our hearts, loving our bodies which is one of the first things that tends to shut down at times of heart-ache; the beautiful aroma will help encourage you to “love yourself just the way you are”.

All products are stocked Holistic Feathers – www.holisticfeathers.co.uk & http://holisticfeathers.vstore.ca

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Who we are

The Million Women Rise Coalition is a diverse group of individual women and women representatives from the Voluntary and Community Sector who are united by our outrage at the continued daily, hourly, minute-by-minute individual and institutionalised male violence enacted against women worldwide.

We believe that every woman and child has a right to live free from violence and that ongoing violence devastates not only the lives of the individuals directly affected but also the communities of which they are part. We have come together to organise a national demonstration against violence against women.

The Coalition has no formal or informal links to any particular or specific feminist or political networks. The Coalition is not partisan and brings together women who want to highlight the continuation of all forms of violence against women and demand that steps are taken to put an end to this.

Why march?

Women’s right to live free from violence and / or the fear of violence has not been achieved. Women continue to be attacked and violated in many different ways, in our homes, on our streets, on our public transport, at our places of work. The government, the TV and newspapers do very little to address this issue; instead they often blame women for wearing the wrong clothes or being in the wrong place.

If you think this needs to change, then join us on a public demonstration to show those in power that it’s just not good enough! We need to show our mass dissatisfaction; we need to be strong together and in large numbers.

Unity is strength; the voices of many are louder together than a single voice. If you want to see change for yourself, your children, your families, your communities then come out and say no to violence against women!

SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2009

12PM MEET AT PORTMAN SQUARE, W1H (Nearest Tubes: Bond St, Marble Arch and Baker St)

MARCH ROUTE: OXFORD ST, REGENTS ST, PICCADILLY!

RALLY AND CELEBRATION: 2.30- 5PM: WATERLOO PLACE (Nearest Tube: Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Charing Cross)

COACHES, BUSES, MOBILITY ACCESS DROP OFF: PARK LANE (PARK SIDE) AND BAKER STREET

PICK UP: PALL MALL – WEST REGENTS STREET CENTRAL LONDON

TOGETHER WE WILL END MALE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

In sisterhood and solidarity

Million Women Rise

http://is.gd/jXtD

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A Place For Worries and Fears

There are times when our minds become too full. Our to-do lists, worries, plans, and dreams may be so crowded together in our heads that we don’t have room to think. We may believe that we are somehow taking care of our desires and concerns by keeping them at the forefront of our minds. In maintaining our mental hold on every detail, however, we may actually delay the realization of our dreams and the resolution of our worries because we won’t let them go. At times such as these, we may want to use a surrender box.

A surrender box allows us to let go of our worries and desires so the universe can take care of them for us. We write down what we want or need to happen and then place the note into a box. By writing and placing our thoughts in the box, we are taking action and letting the universe know we need help and are willing to surrender our feelings. We give ourselves permission to not concern ourselves with that problem any longer and trust that the universe is taking care of it. You may even want to decorate your box and place it in a special place. Your surrender box is a sacred container for your worries. Not only do you free up space in your mind by letting go of our worries and desires and dropping them into your surrender box, but you are giving your burden over to a higher power. Once we drop our worries and desires into the surrender box, we free our minds so we can be fully present in each moment.

Surrendering our worries and concerns and placing them in the hands of the universe doesn’t mean that we’ve given up or have been defeated. Instead, we are releasing the realization of our desires and the resolution of our worries and no longer concerning ourselves with their outcomes. It’s always fun to go back and pull the slips of paper out of the box once your requests have been granted. And it’s amazing how quickly problems go away and dreams come true when we finally let go and allow a higher power to help us.

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