In Response to a Sensitive Subject:

I wrote this in response to a post on one of the wonderful facebook pages that I'm following. It was about human sacrifice and Christianity. It was quite the topic, and generated 216 or so comments. I decided it would be a good idea to save my response here since it's also an update as to why I have been so darn busy! I thought it would be inspiring to someone, and a great post to look back on for myself for personal growth.

So here goes...

I try not to focus on the story of just one healer/teacher. I have room for the stories of many in my life. As for human sacrifice, it happens. It's called homicide or genocide. It's still going on all over the world. Right now I am working with some wonderful healers, and I am one myself. As for the myths and stories that are written in the bible, that's pretty much what they are...stories. We can take what we want from them. It's pretty much the same as Greek mythology, or mythology from any other culture. I'm not going to obsess over them either, but instead embrace them all. That is why I just started my studies in cultural anthropology. I have just always been so fascinated by culture and world history. You all will probably get a kick out of this, I am definitely not Christian, but I was raised going to many different churches and I sing gospel everyday! It is flowing out of me so freely and inspires others! My husband and a friend of ours are thinking about starting up a little group so we can all perform together and make beautiful music with our voices, guitars, a mandolin, and soon a banjo. I happen to love bluegrass, and my favorites are Alison Krauss and The Wailin' Jennys. :) I don't care so much for the words in the hymns (although they are beautiful and filled with joy and love), but I tend to focus on the ENERGY of reaching your voice out to the universe (Or God or Goddess, or both) as a form of prayer and rejoice. It's a beautiful thing! Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this, and I hope it gives you some good vibes and inspiration. Love to all of you! ~Amanda Star~

 

I posted one more comment to hopefully give some peace to all of the souls that contributed to the conversation. It was just a link to a song that I thought would be very suiting.

 

I hope you enjoy... <3

 

Down in the River To Pray - Alison Krauss

 

 

Homemade, Natural Orange Dreamsicle Deodorant

My latest creation is so, so sweet. I am just so thrilled at how this product turned out. This is the formula that I plan on using for the next few weeks, and longer if it turns out to be as perfect as it seems. I found the recipe online and decided to give it a whirl. Here's where I found the recipe.

Creamy Homemade Deodorant Antiperspirant

My first attempt was good, and the tea tree lime scent that I used was heavenly. It just didn't seem to do the trick. I could still smell sweat, and it wasn't good. I also didn't have cocoa butter, but I have to add that I LOVE cocoa butter. The smell of it reminds me of being pregnant with my sweet babies. Very fond memories. I plan on picking some up when I have some cash to do so. What I had to do is add baking soda, and now the product works.


Ingredients:
4 1/2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. beeswax pastilles (or grated beeswax)
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. baking soda
8 drops tea tree essential oil
20 drops orange essential oil
7 drops vanilla extract (if you don't have a dropper for this, use a spoon and let it drip off)


Materials:
small pan
pyrex glass bowl
metal spoon- for stirring and scooping
whisk- handy for mixing the powders in
clean, dry containers with lids- to hold product
~or~ wash out an empty deodorant tube.
measuring cup
measuring spoons

The Process:
~I made sure I had gathered everything I need.
~Put the pan on the stove on about medium heat.
~Fill pan with water part way, and put the pyrex bowl on top, so that the water heats the bowl.
~Heat the water hot enough to melt the wax, but not boiling. Always check to make sure the water doesn't evaporate.
~Add coconut oil and beeswax pastilles to the pyrex bowl, stir with a spoon occasionally, let them melt.
~Turn heat off or down.
~Add tea tree, and orange essential oils, mix well.
~Add the vanilla extract, mix well.
~Slowly add the cornstarch and baking soda, mixing well with a whisk.
~Scoop the mixture, carefully, into a little jar or container of choice (we didn't have a deodorant tube).

Notes:
I've found it's easiest to mix the powders into the melted coconut oil and beeswax with a whisk in the pyrex bowl. It's much easier than having to scrape the sides of a pan to get all of the ingredients mixed in.

The baking soda in this recipe makes it a little "grainy", but without the baking soda the recipe didn't seem to work well enough. If you want to make it less grainy, you could use less baking soda. It really helps to keep you dry, and that's why I used as much as I did.

The scent in this formula is quite gentle, and can be kicked up a bit by adding more orange essential oil and more vanilla extract. Do this gradually, so you don't add too much scent!



Warnings:

1. This is a natural deodorant with some antiperspirant properties. It probably won't work all the time. I tend to apply it a few times per day, just to keep it working. I have found that it works better than the Tom's brand natural deodorant that I was using, but it's not as fragrant.

2. This is made with coconut oil. It can stain your clothing. Please take that into consideration.

3. The essential oils in this recipe could be irritating to some people's skin. If you are sensitive to them, you can omit them from the recipe.

4. Please be careful using orange essential oil, or other oils that can cause phototoxicity, on skin that will be exposed to sunlight. It can cause damage to your skin. You can learn more about that here.

I will add pictures when I can...Enjoy~

~Amanda Star~

Photography and Budding Hellebores = Perfection

I'm dabbling into photography again. It's something that I love! Today I snapped these shots of the hellebores growing in our front garden. It's mid January and they are budding! They started to do that and then we hit a little cold snap, but they are very hardy plants. I feel so blessed to have such beautiful plants on our property.

 

 

 

I love how these pictures are the same plant, but they are captured so differently!

 

 

I hope these pictures both puzzle you and delight you the way they do me!

 

~Amanda Star~

Homemade Moisturizing and Exfoliating Hand Treatment...Yum!

The shower scrub that I was supposed to make turned into a hand treatment (which could be used in the shower, but I prefer it on my hands), but I am perfectly fine with that. I even showed my husband how to make it. It's so simple that pretty much anyone could do it right now with ingredients that they have in the pantry.

I used three ingredients:

organic sugar,
olive oil,
and lime essential oil.

*You could use a wide assortment of essential oils for this, it's your choice.

*You don't have to use organic ingredients, you can use regular granulated sugar.

Materials:

~a small dish (preferably glass) to mix ingredients in
~a spoon to mix with
~a glass container with a lid to store extra product

*I try to save jars that would work good for storing these kinds of things.

...and I have to show you this because it was so darn pretty. I noticed the reflection of the lace curtains in the oil. How neat is that?

 

 

I worked on mixing in a little sugar at a time until I came out with this. I added drops of lime essential oil to the mixture, stirring frequently, and making sure I didn't add too much by using this method: add a couple drops, mix well, smell, and go through this process until it was just right. I came out with this...

 

 

To use this stuff I simply just grabbed a little with my fingers, and started to rub it *gently* all over my hands. The sugar was quite rough, but I used it to scrub my knuckles and between my thumb and other four digits. I scrubbed for about a minute, and then added a little bit of water to my hands and just let the sugar dissolve while still rubbing gently. To remove excess product just use a very tiny amount of soap and wash your hands as you normally would. If you want to keep the treatment on, I suggest gently towel drying your hands and sitting back with a warm cup of tea, but wipe your hands enough to not have slippery hands!

Did you think I was going to *not* mention a cup of tea?

Now that you did it once, I would love for you to repeat this process. You should do it twice a day for a couple/few days. In between treatments, you should apply a lotion or oil to your hands to keep them soft.

Just grab that great smelling stuff and rub it on.

If you want to keep your hands smooth throughout the winter I would consider using a cream with beeswax or something similar. In case you are allergic to beeswax, there are alternatives. I also use a lot of things that are olive oil based, or some other oil base such as grape seed and jojoba oil. Oils are great!

We need oils inside and out to stay healthy. With that little tidbit, I bid you ado, and I wish yourself and your family great health and happiness on this cold January evening...and forevermore.

Much love,

~Amanda Star~

Natural, Homemade Lipstick!

I am very excited to try this. I would like to get to it soon, but sometimes things don't happen like that! I wanted to post the link to the recipe in case someone else was interested, and so I have a handy link to it. This looks like it would be so much fun trying different colors and consistencies.

Alright, so here it is! Enjoy.

Homemade Natural Lipstick Recipe at WellnessMama.com

I also have a post coming up about my homemade hand scrub moisturizing treatment. It's going to be delicious!

*Update - I haven't been able to upload pictures in a couple days. I'll try again today.

Spiritual Cleansing

It's coming up on mid January, and it's that time of year when spirits can get tired and need recharging. I have decided that I need to do as much cleansing as I can right now. The new moon is upon us, it's occurs tonight. Tomorrow we are planning on doing a big cleanse of our house, my husband and I. We will be using lavender flowers as incense and opening every window for a few minutes. Sage is great, but the lavender is not quite as strong. We happen to live in the "Land of Lavender" so it's very suiting, and smells so sweet. I save the sage for some really serious cleansing, but if you like it definitely use it.

The new moon is a time to put a rest to your magical workings (if you do them) and focus on yourself. Some examples of great things to do at this time would be:

~Take a spiritually cleansing bath or shower.
~Smudge your home or other living and working spaces you may have that need some work.
~Reassess your physical and mental health, and prepare to deal with any issues.
~Think about any grudges that you may be holding and make a plan to let go.
~Think about how you may apologize to anyone you may have hurt.
~Make some plans to work on your finances.

Sometimes we just need to sit back and think about what we can do to improve ourselves. How can we be a better friend, parent, or lover? How can you make one of your dreams or aspirations come true? It's time to make some plans and move forward.

The best way to do all of this is to WRITE THINGS DOWN. You could record your plans in a journal, notebook, or your blog. Whatever you have or want to use. However, I have found that lists on a single piece of paper always get lost. I have this blog and a pretty journal that I call my "Book of Shadows and Light". Find some time to yourself, even if it's just a few minutes and jot things down AS THEY COME TO YOU. Sorry about the caps, but I can't stress enough that this is such a crucial part of this process. If you put the sentence together it says "Write things down as they come to you". Perfect. Exactly what I'm getting at. It is so important that you get the things that are on your mind out in the open. It's the first step! Sometimes we just have too much going on up there, and we need to slow down and let it out. Writing is so very therapeutic, mentally and spiritually.

We are hoping to get some things done, separately and together. My husband, Chris, is working on his workshop, I will be working on mine, and in process we plan on having a meeting about organizing the house better and our finances. We are both hoping for a productive weekend. We have a babysitter. I have to add that!

I also plan on taking a cleansing shower. I just need to shed off some tightness and get my body moving better so I can accomplish my goals! I will post the recipe of what I end up using in my shower with pictures (not of me, silly). I always like looking at pictures in blogs. It's almost always inspiring.

Writing this was very therapeutic for me. I feel like I'm headed down a good path, and from now I just have to keep moving forward. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Ta-ta for now!

~Amanda Star~

Oh! I almost forgot. I wanted to post this link for anyone who might be interested in peeking at it.

Moon Phases 2013

We Pray

I don't do this very often, but today has been a hard day for my family. We are dealing with "princess" complex, and a torment of emotions.

I can say for sure that our day is not as hard as it is for the families all over the world and here in the states that are in pain and heartache right now. Today we will be praying and lighting candles for the world. If you wonder what pagans that do spellwork do, now you know. We pray, just like you. Today we will be doing that. We will raise positive energy and send it out to everyone in the world who needs it. I hope that you will join us and do that in your own way.