Beauty Bites Wednesday - Week 1

Photo from http://www.wellbeing.com.au 

First guest post for the Beauty Bites series, by Seema Amin

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Hi my pamper pigs ;))

Are you feeling stressed and not having any or enough sleep , and your looking tired and skin needs some perking up and rejuvenating? You need to sit and take some pamper pig time and try this ! Xxx

Here's a great tip for a homemade mask which has exfoliating properties too .

Firstly, soak 2 cottons pads with rose water and cut medium depth cucumber slices and place in freezer for 15 to 20 minutes

Meanwhile make the mask

Mix 2 tbsp of gram flour (chickpea) with 1 tbsp of papaya flesh ( eat the rest is also good for your skin :))) ) with a teaspoon of honey( manuka or good organic quality ) and 1 teaspoon of soy milk with 1/2 teaspoon of oats or fine ground almond powder and a pinch of turmeric. Mix to a paste and apply to face avoiding eyes and lips area . Gently place cucumbers over the eyes whilst lying down and then place cotton pads - soaked with rose water - on top and just relax and breath deeply concentrating on your breath for 10-15 minutes or until the mask has set 

If the cucumber doesn't remain cold turn it around . 

Full list of ingredients:
 2 tbsp of gram flour (chickpea)
1 tbsp of papaya flesh
1 tsp of honey
1 tsp of soy milk
1/2 tsp of oats or fine ground almond powder
A pinch of turmeric
Cotton pads
Sliced cucumbers
Rose water

This mask is purifying with the chickpea flour and turmeric , moisturizing with the honey ( preferably organic) and also exfoliating with the oats /ground almonds. The enzyme papain in papaya gently dead skin but gently. The soy milk is also brightening and helps pigmentation or scarring , but generally will help plump the skin up

Enjoy my pamper piggies !! ;)

Lots of love

Seema

Motivational Monday - looking after myself

jumping up and down

A quick one this week as part of my whole ME time thing is to try and go to bed early once in a while and since we had an early dinner, tonight seems like the perfect opportunity.
So January is gone and I have tried a few things, loads of ups and downs but in general I think things are improving.
This weekend we got Harry a jumperoo and it was just the ticket! While lill guy bounces up and down mummy can get on with doing her work - I'm working my Keep In Touch days from home and end up  stuck on the laptop every time he goes for a kip or in the evenings after dinner - do stuff around the house, get lunch done for the two of us or just lazy around enjoying a few minutes to herself. My aim s to work around that so I can organize my days a bit better to do some yoga and play with my Just Dance. I looove dancing and don't care for gym work outs so the Wii was my favorite work out tool until I got pregnant. It will also be really good if i can keep on working during his awake, I think I'll probably get a lot more done that way and may eventually have a kip myself on those hard mornings after sleepless nights.
Well this is all speculation but the one thing I done for myself this past week that got me really happy was to pop into the hairdressers with my other half Friday afternoon and get my long overdue haircut. Such a simple thing but with a baby seems to require a lot of logistics. I never got the fringe I wanted instead went for something simple and easy to look after. Once life is a bit more manageable I'll go back to stylish haircuts me thinks.
That's it, short and sweet but full of good achievements and plans.
What about you? How well are you doing on your New year's resolutions? Take part of this bloghop to share your thoughts and get/give some support!!

Motivational Monday - even though today is Tuesday - Week 3

So it's been just 3 weeks since the Motivational Monday started and on the second one I was already too busy to post. Almost gave up doing it this week as well but if anything I think this is one more thing I can do for myself. 

I was doing well on the health eating front until the weather went freezing and I ended up stuck at home with a teething little boy. I'm not too worried about that as I know health eating for me is a marathon, not a sprint. Also I know I'm a bit limited with choices at the moment as i can't really cook everything from scratch as I used to do but the they will come and I shall be able to change that.

We were snowed in for a couple of days, with Harry having just recovered from his ear infection I didn't want to be out and about on the cold. When Sunday came it all got a bit too much for me so daddy and I went on a snowy walk with lill guy. It was rather hard work but it was also quite fun to just walk about watching kids - and adults for that matter - running around starting their snowball fights and parents dragging their little ones on sledges of all shapes and sizes. Above all it was good to have a nice little break and enjoy daddy's company while Harry had a kip all cosy in his pram.

With the weather my plans of treating myself to a hair cut had to stay for another day, maybe this weekend coming.

Now the most lovely thing i done for myself was yesterday. I took lill guy for a walk and when he was just about to fall asleep -instead of keep on walking and then get stuck outdoors because he is all wrapped up and would be too hot if i went into any shops at all - I went into my favorite tea room at pram town, gave him a little feed and got him down for a kip in his pram so I could enjoy a lovely lunch accompanied by a book that I have being trying to read for weeks. Such a simple pleasure but it felt great to have some ME time during his nap rather than end up being in front of the laptop working, walking on the cold or even just laying in front of tv with a pointless daytime show.

This is it, slowly but surely I start to feel like myself again.

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