The Oil Cleansing Method

I stumbled upon the 'Oil Cleansing Method' quite some time ago, which claims that using a combination of oils to cleanse your face will leave it free of blemishes and imperfections. The idea that I could clean my face with something so simple and inexpensive was very alluring. There are plenty of organic mass-produced, environmentally friendly beauty products out there but they're usually uber expensive and it's difficult to find ones that actually work and if they don't suit your skin you've wasted your money and the product just ends up going into landfill. So, my current fascination is with natural household pantry items, which usually consist of only one ingredient, that you can use on your face and body.

I would recommend using your oil concoction one a week or every fortnight; too often and your skin will feel dry and tight. The oil definitely doesn't make your skin oilier as most would assume. Conversely, it actually 'eats' the natural oil on your skin and washes most of it away when you wipe the rest of the oil concoction off your face.

Making the mixture is ridiculously easy; simply add 80% olive oil to a jar with 20% castor oil(which I bought from a pharmacy). All I did was put in four tablespoons of olive oil in a small jar, along with one tablespoon of the castor oil and then repeated this process until the jar was full.

To use:

1. Splash a little water on your face to moisten the skin.

2. Pour a roughly 50 cent sized splash of the mixture into your hand and rub your palms together to warm the oil.

3. Apply mixture to your face, gently rubbing in using a circular motion.

4. Lie a washcloth drenched in hot water over your face. The steam helps to lift the oil off your skin.

5. Wipe the oil off your face using the washcloth.

6. Rinse the washcloth and repeat steps 4 & 5 another 3 times to completely get all the oil mixture off your face.

The mixture really helps to get rid of impurities and with continued use your skin starts to become much smoother, clearer and fresher!

I love the oil cleansing method so much that I decided to make up a batch for my close friend, Chloe. A little preserve jar and a pretty ribbon made it a sweet present. I'd definitely recommend the oil mixture as a small birthday or Christmas present as it's cheap, practical and when presented in a cute jar can look very unique.

I'll be trialling a couple other natural beauty products in the coming weeks so it would be really great if you guys could test out these 'recipes' with me and let me know how they work for you!

The Ball.

I've never really expected much from my school, it's not the kind of place where all your high school dreams come true and it's never like it is on television. So I was quite surprised when I received a shiny envelope containing quite an elegant looking invitation. Of course it lacked the personal touch of my name being written on the front of the envelope but we won't focus on the negatives too much.

I had always felt my school ball was years away but then all of a sudden it seemed to be just weeks away and I was desperately rushing to get all the last minute essentials. I honestly did not realise how many embellishments there were to getting ready for a school ball. You have the coursage which has to be kept fresh in the crisper and picked up on the day on the event. There's the ring which has to be not to obtrusive to get in the way of your clutch but not too small that it goes unnoticed. Plus there's the matching earrings. You must then trawl through magazines to find a suitable hair colour and choose a hairstyle, something worn by a celebrity, of course. Next you have to find a decent hairdresser and book in appointments carefully timed so that your hair colour won't fade and so you won't have to wash your hair on the day and so that it will last the night. Next comes emailing makeup artists for samples of their work and booking that in around all the other engagements booked in for the big day, such as having your nails painted but not buffed because your manicurist forgets to do so.

Do you know how ridiculously hard it is to find a decent looking ivory clutch? Prior to searching I was not aware of this fact so I had assumed a couple of accessory store's worth of window shopping would do the trick. Perhaps if I had been searching for a black clutch or even a bright orange clutch things would have been easy but because I had already chosen ivory shoes I had to have my clutch match. After two shopping centre trips, a look in the city and several hours on etsy I discovered you can find the perfect one for less than $20 including postage on ebay in about 15 mins. Well, where there's a will there's a way - and there definitely was a strong 'will' involved.

I do think my dress was quite stunning if I do say so myself, but it was a tight squeeze to get the final alterations done in time. Just four days before the extravaganza the dressmaker had cut my floor-length dress in two pieces!

Things went fairly smoothly the day of the ball, except for the fact the first time I had my makeup done I looked like a ghostly porcelain doll. After going back to this salon to get it re-done it still didn't look a whole lot better as the beautician just caked on an extra layer of product, so much so that it was starting to crack. A tissue to wipe 50% of it off did the trick though.

Once I'd been dropped off at a friend's house for the 'pre-ball' I knew I could relax. It was lovely to see so many girls who'd normally be in bland school uniforms, dressed up like princesses in floor-length ensembles. I hardly recognized one friend who I'm used to seeing with straight hair and no makeup, have her hair curled up around her head and wear beautifully blended eyeshadow. It's nice to feel special every now and again, sipping fizzy pop and nibbling cupcakes while have 3 people take your photo at once. It may sound contradictory but seeing everyone all dolled up really makes you appreciate the fact that everyone is and can be beautiful and it's amazing how a fancy dress and a dash of makeup can do that.

5 o' clock came and with that so did two limos, one black and one white. I couldn't wait to get inside, I'd have time for my feet to rest; I haven't worn proper heels in years! After a quick stop at the city foreshore to have one photo snapped before realising that a couple of minutes more and our hair would be swept up with the wind- no matter how much hair spray one used- we drove to one of the city's major hotels for the gala event.

A huge commotion errupted as we arrived at the entrance and I can truly say that we all felt like celebrities as we stepped out of the limo, all eyes on us. It almost felt daunting walking up the steps to the other magnificently dressed belles and beaus, everyone looked so sophisticated. The classic tuxedos, the ridiculously puffed-out tulle skirts, the voluminous hair , the iridescent makeup and matching clutches- it was the definition of eye candy. And with each new group of students rolling up in their classic, vintage or modern hummer-style limos, the discussions got louder and necks were craned to take a peek at who was arriving next and to see the transformations that had occurred with each individual's new attire.

The ball itself was something I'll never forget, there was I unity I felt between these 300 plus young people that made you feel connected to those you had never uttered a word to prior. I guess that's what happens when you're surrounded 360 degrees on the dance floor by your peers who all seem to be having the time of the lives(many of the beaus seemed to enjoy crowd surfing and wrapping their ties around their heads while the belles swished around gracefully as much as was possible in dresses that fit as if made for statues).

A huge Eiffel tower replica and old-fashioned lamp posts really made the ballroom feel like a "Night in Paris" - the theme of the evening. The addition of a mime who went round to tables with imaginary salt and pepper grinders seasoning our dishes and who somehow managed to set off a huge game of tug-o-war with all the beaus, really heightened the theme. Not to mention the tealight candelabras at each dinner table(which was a twist of fate as the event coincided with Earth Hour) as well as the 'frenchy' circus-style music. smoke and balloons that flooded the ceiling as the door to the ballroom opened at the evening's commencement.

This fabulous evening cannot of course be relayed in words, so to emphasise the sheer splendor of the night I shall let the photographs do the rest.

(photo credit: all year 12 students at Woodvale Senior High School)

I'm alive....

...and snapping! I simply couldn't write another blog until I had a decent camera, here she is(taken with a lot of effort from my old camera):


A letter on its way to New Zealand, whoever could it be for?


And I received an invitation to what endeavors to be one of the most enjoyable evenings of my life!


More shortly!

I can't wait to read everyone's blogs and see what I've been missing in the blogosphere!

A treasure chair of goodies

I can be quite a messy person at times(well my mother would probably say all of the time) and I tend to leave any new things I've bought lying around the house, so my mother usually piles it all up and dumps it on my dining chair in the hope that I'll move it when meal time comes around but usually I just pile it all on the floor next to the chair(Sorry Mum!). A couple weeks ago this is what my dining chair looked like(minus the outdoor part), full of beautiful knick-knacks, including: a new Pyjama top and the accompanying adorable little price tag as well as a birthday present for a friend, something recycled, something reusable and something with a dash of blue. That assortment on the chair sums up how I'd like my own house to be in the future, full of beautiful, eco-friendly, kitsch and quirky pieces that will make my house, feel like a home.

That photo was one of the last pictures take with my treasured Pentax Optio S10 digital camera which conked out on me after only a year and a half of use. In the hope it might be fixable we took it to a camera repair shop but it was going to cost more than it was worth to have it mended, luckily though the man serving me was able to offer me a similar Pentax camera that has some new extra features and a slick exterior for the cost price of only $220. One hundred dollars cheaper than the current retail price, only problem is they have to get it shipped over and it's already been two weeks since I ordered it and I've yet to receive the camera.

On another note, remember this summer to-do list I wrote in November? Well unfortunately I didn't finish everything on the list but I am on my way to completing some of the other tasks: I'm about to start piano lessons this week, I've chosen the article I'm going to write, I've written about half of the song, I bought the fabric to make the piece of clothing and purchased some yarn for crocheting. So the list is still a work in progress. Rest assured I didn't spend my summer days doing nothing though, I've been preparing for school and catching up on note-taking and study from '09.

Back to organising everything for the start of a new school year then. Best wishes for anyone else starting back!


P.S. I also want to give a huge thankyou to Blaize for sending this award my way!



P.P.S With my new-found typing skills I touch-typed this whole post!

Can you spot the cat?

Milly The Cat

For the past two weeks we've been caring for an adorable little cat(for a friend of mine while her and her family took a trip to Bali), called Max, who is a girl cat. Being the feminine person that I am I couldn’t fathom calling such a sweet little cat … Max, so I changed her name to Milly as in Maxamillion(Who I think was some Roman/Greek god…? I only recognised it, as it was used in a film I watched recently). She’s been such a pleasure to have around and has really livened up the house, I’m really hoping we can get a cat of our own this year so I’m hopeful this ‘experience’ will persuade my mother.

Even though Milly is very girlie she can be quite mischievous at times, she scampers round the house, skidding on the slippery tiles(and has bashed into the glass back door a couple of times) and I’m pretty sure she's jumped onto almost every surface possible in the house, including:

The linens in the cupboard.



The top of the television cabinet, where she’s knocked down all the Christmas cards on numerous occasions.



The bookshelf and nearly the air conditioning unit.



The sinks.



Plus the piano, washing machine, dining table, kitchen bench(where she liked to drink water out of our glasses, when we had our backs turned), shower and the kitchen hot plates while one was turned on!(Luckily she didn’t touch the hot one and some aluminium foil along the edge stopped her from returning).

Did I mention she’s an indoor cat? So of course we took her for a daily walk with her leash and collar. She looked forward to going outside so much so she would whine and meow in the mornings until we took her out but she tried to do a runner a couple of times as she was able to slink out of the collar. She wanted to chase after bees; something that wouldn’t have ended well.



We did have a bit of a mini disaster occur when I went to go put out the washing once. You see, we have a fairly large gap at the bottom of our flyscreen door(from when we used to have rabbits that nibbled their way outside) and while the cat had been vacationing with us I always made sure the glass door was shut, as I didn’t want to risk her escaping but on this occasion I only left the flyscreen door closed and I started to have a mini heart attack when I noticed it open as I was about to come back inside. My first thought was that the cat had escaped as she’d been following me round the house all day and was desperate to go outside. Before I went into a full-on heart attack I went to go look for her inside the house as I was probably overreacting but even with my mother’s help looking in every nook and cranny we couldn’t find Milly. Back came the mini panic attack as I searched the whole garden, driving the neighbour’s crazy calling out “Miiiiiilllly!”(after a while I was starting to think I was pronouncing it wrong as I’d said it so many times). I peered over the back fences of a couple of the surrounding neighbour’s gardens but no such luck. I was really starting to doubt I’d ever see her again, we have 6 neighbouring gardens that surround our backyard so she could have been in any one of them plus she wouldn’t really recognise anything as she was in a new neighbourhood. Next I went round asking the neighbours to look out for a ginger cat that may or may not respond to either Milly or Max(I got some strange looks there) but no-one had seen her. I was deciding whether or not to cry as I walked back into our house, about to phone the local ranger in case anyone called in saying they’d found a cat, when my mother yelled out saying she’d found her! Milly was fast asleep laying on top of a row on magazines on a bookshelf that was hidden by a sheet(my mother seems to have a phobia of dust and covers everything up). I was so relieved I wouldn’t have to tell my friend I’d lost her cat; one of the happiest moments of my life.

But other than that minor hiccup everything went smoothly, except for my feet which kept getting scratched by the monster under the bed.

2010

Hope you all had a lovely New Year and Christmas Day, I feel so giddy about it being the start of a new decade(I'm ignoring the fact that technically the new decade starts in 2011).

2010.
Wow.
It's finally here.

Shame it's not really how the 2000s were depicted in those old futuristic films/tv shows(Think "The Jetsons") But perhaps that was a little too far fetched, I doubt even the 3000's will be like that. I think the closest thing to how I expected the 2000's to be is IKEA. Seems silly how a furniture store could be so advanced but it truly is. I feel they have revolutionised the way people shop and it makes sense. They make the process of shopping simpler and as a 'reward' for shopping there you get cheaper products. And it's the tiniest of details that all add up.

The flat packaging- they save on the decreased cardboard, giving you cheaper prices plus the DIY element of putting the furniture together saves you even more. Not to the mention the adorable and simple picture instructions.

(credit: greenbang)

The provided shopping lists, pencils and measuring tapes. Why didn't people think of them before?

(credit: unilinkbus)

The supplied shopping bags and no plastic bag policy; the store short cuts, making it ten times easier to manouvere round the shop; the beautiful children's creche; the "As-Is" section where you buy disouncted IKEA furniture that has been used or that has slight faults(I used to think it read "A5-15" when I was little and could never figure out what an earth it meant); the fact that they have everchanging showrooms where you can test everything out and see how it really looks plus the market hall where you can buy everything you see.

My favourite part of IKEA though would have to be the restaurant, I love how you serve yourself and the array of foods they have available for you to choose from(Did you notice how they even have jars of baby food available?) for just a couple of dollars. They also sell vegetarian and organic food, which gets a big thumbs up from me. Plus they encourage everyone to put away their own trays, which I whole-heartedly support. I really hate when people leave all their leftovers on the tables when it would take them less than 60 seconds to put it away. The cleaners already have plenty to do with cleaning away spills/dropped food and clearing away all the china/glass, plates and cups.

(credit: fredtexas)

And just to top it all off, you can buy the food they sell at the restaurant and cook it at home yourself. Next time I'm wanting to buy their organic pasta sauce, which for the quantity is far cheaper than the organic versions in the supermarkets.

(credit: ikea)

What I'm trying to get at is that I expected the noughties and the tens(anyone got a better name for the new decade?) to be a bit more innovative, simple and more eco-conscious. I guess I'll be visiting IKEA more often. Perhaps even on an ikea bike?

Several days ago my mum and I visited IKEA just to eat lunch there. That's just how awesome we think it is.

Christmas Beading

Thought I'd do some last minute crafting before the big day, it's ever so close now!
I've been meaning to make my little Christmas tree earrings for a while now(by that I mean years!). The inspiration for them was when I saw a singer in a Christmas carol concert wearing something similar and even though I've never really beaded before, I knew I was going to make them. It took me ages to figure out how I was going to join it all up and to do so neatly but about an hour and a half later I finally got the better of those miniscule beads!



I'm planning to wear mine on Christmas day when we visit our family friends, I'll have to hunt through my wardrobe for a matching dress, something red shall do nicely.

Please tell me I'm not the only one planning their Christmas day outfit?!

The Wishing Tree

Last year I didn't exactly have the perfect Christmas but I'm sure many had a much harder day and at least I received presents, lovely ones for which I'm very grateful for. There are lots of families out there who are really struggling and can barely afford basic necessities let alone presents so for the past couple of years I've been joining in with one of the nearby department store's(Kmart) Wishing Tree Appeal where they ask for Christmas presents in the form of gift cards or actual goods. The Salvation Army charity will then hand the gifts out to local families in need. I really enjoy participating in the appeal as it combines my love of shopping with my other love of donating to charities. The previous two years I donated toys that would be suitable for little girls(whom I have a soft spot for) so this year I wanted to give something for the older kids who usually miss out. The Salvation Army said they wanted things such as sport equipment, board games and Cd's for teens and tweens so I decided to opt for an Australian "Here And Now" version of Monopoly which was quite cheap at $36, usually they'd be $60 upwards. I thought the game would be appropriate as poor families would be likely not to own a game of Monopoly which has to be one of the best board games out plus it's a unisex presents and can be a two player game which is handy if they aren't many people in the family.



I think next year I'd like to give multiple gifts and especially one suitable for an adult so I'd better start saving. I'd urge everyone to donate a small or large gift to these Wishing Tree appeals as most large department stores are participating in them and this year there's been a huge plummet in donations due to the global financial crisis. People are able to donate to the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal until 24th of December so you still have time left.