Green tip #7 - Glowing skin

Tip for glowing and healthy skin :

Almond can do wonders to your skin, hair and general health.
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This nut is antioxidant rich, high in vitamin E, fat and protein content along with containing many essential nutrients. The daily usage of this wonderful home ingredient can treat many ailments and treats various beauty and hair issues.
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Applying almond oil to skin helps in removing itching and moisturises your face. It is an excellent emollient (softening and soothing to the skin) and also helps the skin to balance water loss and absorption of moisture and is suitable for all skin types. If you are looking for a natural solution to get rid of dark under eye circles, almond oil is most suitable. Simply apply the oil before going to bed and allow it to work while you sleep. For optimum results do so regularly for a couple of weeks at least. The treatment will help you get rid of dark circles as well as reduce dark eyelids and crow’s feet.

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Almond oil can be applied neat to the skin, as it acts as a carrier medium when using essential oils. It is an excellent oil to use for both body and facial massage and helps to increase the health and vitality of the skin.
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Almond oil is rich in vitamin A, B and E, which are great for skin health. In fact, most skin care products have these vitamins loaded in them. The oil helps maintaining moisture levels of the skin and gets absorbed in a jiffy without blocking the pores. 

Almonds are one of my favourite nuts. Almonds are packed with vitamins, minerals, protein and fibre, and are associated with a number of health benefits. Just a handful of almonds, approximately one ounce, contains one-eighth of our necessary daily protein. The health benefits of almonds have been documented for centuries and modern research is backing up many of the claims - there any many goods reasons why you might want to consider including them in your diet.

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Vintages - A touch of lace

The depths of most people's understanding of lace is of the nosy, suburban housewife tweaking the lace curtains aside to see what the neighbours are up to.

Those dust, net horrors are but the sad, machine-made remnants of what, for 300 years, was an extraordinary fashion in the decoration of clothes and household goods. A fashion that saw the creation of some of the most exquisite treasures in the history of textiles. Treasures that, in their time, were prized above jewels or silks. Men were robbed and killed for a lace handkerchief and thieves were as ingenious as any in Gauteng today. They slunk up on coaches, slit open the leather backs and snatched the wigs from women's heads as these were festooned with costly lace. (Women were instructed to sit with their backs to the driver in order to foil criminals.)

Four layers of rouched fabrics were added to cutwork lace panels to make these exquisite window draperies.

The labour that went into making a few centimeters of lace is almost incomprehensible to us in an age of mass-production and rampant consumerism. How could anyone spend a year making a mere 600mm of lace? Yet thousands did, by the light of candles in uncomfortable places such as cow byres, where the moist warmth from the cows below kept the fine flax thread supple and prevented the hands of the lace makers from becoming stiff with cold.

 

A vanity table dressed in lace with antique dresser accessories arranged around a collector plate and a vintage red-velvet jewelry box.

The glorious era of lace ended with the French Revolution of 17809. Gowns were suddenly simple and untrimmed. Lace was used only for state occasions and people became puritanical about its expense and frivolity. Large collections were cast out by families to their waiting-maids. Fear of death may also have played some part in this destruction, lace being associated with aristocrats - and aristocrats with the guillotine.

 

A glimpse of vintage ladies' fashions ads its old-fashioned charm. Between the dresses is an antique hair-ribbon holder.

Most cast-off lace was wasted by deterioration or by cutting up and wearing out. Old pieces were worn again during the 19th century, when it became fashionable and people began to assemble collections, but the lace soon wore out and there was nothing new, or of equivalent quality, to replace it.

Serious collectors will, of course, keep their lace packed safely away, kept flat between acid-free tissue paper, mostly unseen, but there are many people who buy old lace to decorate their clothes and furnishings, knowing that they will be wearing something old and rare and quite unique.

A bouquet of dried hydrangeas and cockscomb, accented by silk flowers sits high on a wicker plant stand covered with a pink damask throw. Rich drapes of vintage lace adorns the vanity and footstool. The Oriental rug delicately complements the softly muted tones of the room.

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Today is such a day

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On a day when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open

and the world is full of beauty.

Today is such a day.
- Rumi

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Trust the process

When everything seems as if it is hopeless and going nowhere... trust the process. If you trust the process of life, your dreams and the life that you want and deserve is within your reach. Dreaming is great. But take your cue from nature and slow down, calm down, don't worry, don't hurry - just trust the process. As surely as Spring follows Winter, so surely will your dreams come true. Sometimes it’s as simple as saying and believing, “I’ve just got to trust the process. I’ve just got to trust the process. I either believe in what I am asking for or I don’t.” 

It really is that simple.

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