Pages

February 5, 2013

BIRDS AND BEAUTY TREATMENT

Word for the Day  Being creative
Whenever we are posed with certain situations,
we can dig deep
for creative solutions.
Robyn

BEING ME   Being a mother
Being creative makes mothering so much fun!  
Realising that a weetbix box is a robot mask; 
that the just-washed sheets are a tent over the kitchen table; 
that a toddler can enjoy a formal afternoon tea with you; 
and that string tied between trees is a child's clothes-line!  

I am sorry that my grown-up children are now too big to play peek-a-boo with me!      

Moses' mother
Moses' mother's name was Jochebed. As an Israelite living in Egypt under a cruel Pharoah who had ordered that all newborn Hebrew boys were to be killed, she became amazingly creative 

Jochebed hid her baby for a time, but when this was no longer possible, she created a water-proof basket by using tar and pitch. She placed her baby in the basket in reeds near to where Pharoah's daughter bathed in the Nile River. When the princess saw the Hebrew baby, she loved him and decided to keep him as her own child, to grow up in Pharoah's court.  

But Moses' mother's creativity did not stop there - she sent her daughter to the princess to ask if the princess needed a woman to nurse the baby. Not only did Jochebed get to nurse Moses until he was weaned , but she was paid to do so!
This story is in chapter 2 of Exodus, Old Testament. 

 Garden plus   BIRDS AND BEAUTY TREATMENT
Perhaps you are wondering, "What have birds got to do with beauty treatment?"  Well, nothing really!   It is just that I have returned from my early morning stroll around our garden, enjoying being in the presence of our suburban birds, and now I am having to think about my beauty treatment for the next 7 days, but I will tell you about that after I tell you about the birds.

The garden was in a very welcoming mood this morning. A kookaburra laughed from a high branch of a gum tree on our front footpath. This kookaburra has a baby which one of our grand-children spied sitting on our fence a few days ago!  After the kookaburra had a good laugh at me,  in flew a flock of rainbow lorikeets to feed from a neighbour's tree. Then I spotted a lovely red bromeliad which must have flowered during the night. Near the bromeliad, I have an aloe vera plant, so I cut myself a large leaf for my seven-day-beauty-treatment, and came inside to start the day - and my beauty therapy!  

Now, why only a seven-day-beauty-treatment?  Well, I only have seven days to make myself beautiful for a TV production next Monday - exactly one week away!  This is how it all happened. We know a very lovely local real estate lady, who knows that one day we might think about selling our home. She was approached a couple of days ago by a producer of Raise the Roof Productions (a Channel 4 British production) who asked if he could see one of her houses which she had on the market to assess whether it might be suitable for the TV production Raise the Roof. The lovely local real estate lady wondered if he would also like to see our home even though it wasn't on the market.  So, along they come, and out of all the houses which the TV producer saw on the Sunshine Coast, he chose ours as one of the 4 homes for his show!  The TV producer has been to our home already to do preliminary filming, and will return in 7 days with the British migrants who are seeking to settle in this area, who will be taken to the 4 chosen homes, and will be given the opportunity to buy one of them if they wish. It's all fair dinkum and they even gave us a budget of $600 to do any upgrading within the next 7 days. Nothing like pressure!  And I only have 7 days to make myself beautiful.  Thankfully I have lots of big Aloe Vera leaves in the garden, a very big pot of raw honey which I bought at our local farmer's market some time ago, and our local Maleny Dairy produces delicious milk, all of which will hopefully make me beautiful in 7 days! 
   

Cleopatra was renown for her beauty. She seduced Julius Caesar and then Mark Anthony. That alone should be proof that she must have been the most beautiful woman in her time.
Beauty is linked to healthy skin.  Cleopatra and other Egyptian queens are known to follow beauty regimes that focus on giving them beautiful skin. Baths in milk and honey. The use of aloe vera for their skin. All these treatments result in smooth, beautiful skin.
Let's start with milk and honey. Cleopatra is said to have bathed in milk and honey baths. Milk contains lactic acid, a form of alpha hydroxy acid which you would find in today's beauty products. It exfoliates the skin, removing the dead skin cells, causing the younger skin to emerge.
Honey is a humectant. It attracts water which makes it a wonderful moisturizer.
Bathing daily in milk and honey would give you smooth, younger, softer skin. If you have a bath tub, you can indulge in a milk and honey bath yourself.
1. Fill the bath with warm water
2. Add 4 cups of full cream milk powder for a really rich milk bath. (I used one cup)
3. Add 1 cup of honey. (I used1/4 cup of raw honey. Not honey from the supermarket, which is pasteurised)
4. Wash yourself with soap and water and shampoo and rinse your hair before you enter the bath.
5. Relax and soak in the milk and honey bath for as long as you like.
(The milk and honey baths were simply amazing and I could notice the difference in my skin.) 

The other beauty treatment that Cleopatra is said to have used was aloe vera on her skin. So did Queen Nefertiti.
Aloe vera gel actually heals the skin from eczema or other skin diseases. It even clears the skin from acne, thanks to the sulfur and salicylic acid found in it. Both sulfur and salicylic acid are used topically to treat acne. Aloe vera itself is rich in anti-oxidants which are known for their anti-aging properties. That's not all. It has anti-inflammatory properties, anti-bacterial properties and heals the skin without leaving scars. Using aloe vera topically also leads to clearer, fairer and healthier skin and healthy skin is considered beautiful throughout history.


I  turned off the phone, locked the door, made an Aloe Vera Cocktail and relaxed in a deep warm bath containing honey and milk.


Aloe Vera  Cocktail  I concocted my own drink with pureed fresh aloe vera juice, some wine and a dash of ginger cordial. 
Cucumber & Aloe Eye Treatment  On my face, using my fingers,  I spread aloe vera juice straight from a fresh leaf,  and relaxed with a slice of cucumber over each eye.
Tantalising Foot Treatment 1 T olive oil;  1 t of a "carrier oil" such as a nut oil or wheat germ oil;  20 drops of peppermint Essential Oil; 20 drops of eucalyptus Essential Oil. I mixed the ingredients, added some to a basin of very warm water and gave my feet a soak.  (What I did not use, I put in the fridge to use as a bath oil. Smells heavenly!) 
Lip Gloss:  1/4 t  cold-pressed unrefined virgin coconut oil from the health shop.  
Click on this link for coconut oil skin treatment info.  http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/coconut-oil-for-skin.html

A book to read, a treat to eat,
While relaxing and nourishing

Face and feet. 

May each and every one of us feel beautiful - feeling beautiful from the inside!

from Robyn                                                                                         

 Robin in a flowering gum
Painted by Brenda, Robyn’s mum