Folksy Friday - ~*Barbeque*~

This weeks Folksy Friday is brought to you by the lovely hot weather we're having!  Last weekend was spent out in the garden, under the gazebo, with friends and of course, having barbeques!  So this inspired me to search for the best BBQ related Folksy related items I could find...

This funky burger Memory Book/Scrapbook can be found in Arty'G.  I think it's a fab idea!

These kebab earrings are the perfect accessory to wear to a BBQ!  Find them in Comf!

And finally this adorable owl lantern can be found in Blossom Fair.

Have a great bank holiday weekend everyone, and I hope with weather holds out so that we can have more barbeques! 

Refreshing Oatmeal face scrub for oily skin recipe

Here's a recipe for a home-made face scrub designed for oily and acne prone skin. I've been using it for several days now and I'm really impressed with the results! It leaves my skin smooth, soft, clean and it removes grease without making my face feel dry.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Oatmeal
1tbsp Fuller's Earth
2-3 tbsp Honey
2 drops Grapefruit essential oil
3 drops May Chang essential oil

Grind up the oatmeal in a pestle and mortar, add the rest of the ingredients and mix together to make a paste. That's it!
I've put mine in a little screw lid pot and I've used it 3 times now, and still have enough left for a few more applications.

Here's why I chose these ingredients:



OATMEAL: To act as a gentle exfolient and because of it's hypoallergenic properties.




FULLER'S EARTH: Deep cleansing and has been used for centuries to remove impurities and oil from the skin.




HONEY: To help 'hold' the mixture together but also because it's a natural humectant (it attracts and retains water) which benefits the skin by keeping it moisturised.




GRAPEFRUIT ESSENTIAL OIL: For it's effectiveness against oily and acne prone skin and it's uplifting, refreshing scent. Don't use too much as it may irratate sensitive skin.




MAY CHANG ESSENTIAL OIL: Again, for it's effectivness for oily and acne prone skin, plus I love it's sweet lemony fragrance!

As I mentioned earlier, I have tailormade this recipe to suit my oily skin, but you could easily tweak it to suit your skin type by changing the essential oils.

For example:

DRY:
Chamomile (Roman or German)
Neroli
Rose
Sandalwood

NORMAL:
Geranium
Lavender
Rosemary

SENSITIVE:
Chamomile (Roman or German)
Jasmine
Neroli

MATURE:
Clary Sage
Frankincense
Patchouli
Ylang Ylang







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Collaboration Women Wednesday Blog Hop

It's taken me a little while to join in on this AMAZING idea (to be honest, it took me a while to figure out how it works *duh!*) but here's the general jist of it:

Creation|Collaboration was set up by eight women, all existing friends, who run small businesses from their homes. We have started Women Wednesday blog roll to link up with other women in business, spread the word about Creation|Collaboration and basically just have fun visiting all of your interesting blogs!


Join in each week and you could be the following weeks blog feature. Every Thursday we will use Randomness software to pick someone from that weeks blog hop and announce who will be the next blog feature.


Heres how you can join in with Collaboration Women Wednesday:
- Link up your blog name and URL to your Women Wednesday blog post using the McKLinky below (you only need to add on one blog to be seen on all of the McKLinky blog roll's) Please note that it's for blogs only and not links to your websites or shops.
- Follow our Creation|Collaboration blog and the hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.
- Grab our Women Wednesday button and feature it on your blog or Women Wednesday blog post.
- - Follow and comment saying you're from Women Wednesday on as many blogs as you likes listed in the McKlinky box.
- Follow back any new followers from Women Wednesday!

It's that easy and a fun way to discover new and interesting blogs and us women at Creation|Collaboration get to meet other women in business!

Creation|Collaboration can be found on Facebook and they also have their own website!

Folksy Friday - ~*Matilda*~

It's time for another Folksy Friday collection!
This time I have selected my favourite items named 'Matilda'.  A bit obscure, yes, but I chose this theme due to it being my daughter's first birthday this week, and her name is 'Mathilda' (the spelling with the 'h' appears to be very rare :S )

 

This pretty 'Matilda' necklace can be found in handmadecharlie 

This lovely, almost Tim Burton-esque 'Matilda' doll can be found in Dharmaflyer Crafts

And finally this cute 'Matilda' rose ring can be found in Patricia Pio

First ever Folksy Friday: *~Faeries~*

Prior to being mentioned on Lynwoodcraft's blog, I didn't even know about Folksy Friday (where fellow crafts and bloggers mention their favourite finds on Folksy, normally with a theme), so here's my first ever one, I hope you like it!

This week I have chosen my favourite Faeries on Folksy.  This is because it's nearly my daughter's 1st birthday (she was born on 19th May 2009) and her name is Mathilda Fae.  I chose Fae as her middle name, as it literally means faerie, or fairy, and in my eyes, she is my little faerie princess!

So here's my enchanting selection...

This cute lil fella can be found in Feyth's shop

This lovely lady is called Alyissa and she can be found in The Fairy Dust Enchanted Hollow shop.  This one definitely appeals to the goth in me!

And finally, these adorable faerie soaps can be found in Lucy Loves shop, in various colours and fragrances!

Kingsbury May Festival 2010 Review (and a little mention on how my stall went!)

Last week I attended the annual Kingsbury May Festival, in my home village, Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset, UK.

It really was a great day, despite the dodgy weather (very windy - not very good for all the stalls with gazebos!). As you probably already know, I had my first ever stall there, so it was also quite a big learning curve for me! But I'll get to that later.

  

Firstly, there were some amazing craft stalls including handmade jewellery, woodworking, knitting/crochet, sculpture, to name but a few. My stall was very fortunate to be nestled in-between Bob Selway's (rjm_selway@yahoo.co.uk) handmade wooden items stall, where I purchased some lovely cedarwood hearts and a cute blue squirrel toy for my daughter, and Poppy Langford's hand-made jewellery stand, which was abundant with gorgeous earrings and necklaces.

Here are a few pictures I managed to snap at the festival:

As for my stall, well I think it all went really well.  I did a bit of last minute reading and research on how to prepare for a craft fair and what to expect and I came across the following amazing blogposts: Shopping is Psychological by Soap and the finer Things in Life and Ten Craft Fair Tips! by Wonder Turtle Soaps.  A must for any craft fair newbie, especially a shy one like myself!  I took heed of the 'shopping is psychological' mantra on the Soap and the Finer Things in Life blog and I'm certain it worked wonders.  If I was birght and cheery, so were the customers.  If I became quiet and shy, most people just walked on by not making eye contact.
Tip no. 6 - 'Bring plenty of change and small bills' from Wonder Turtle Soaps is excellent advice too.  My first 2 sales were paid for with £20 notes, so that wiped out a good deal of my change and the day had only just started!  In fact, most sales were paid for by either a £20, £10 or £5, so it was very important to have lots of change to last me the entire day.

Anyway, here are a few snaps of my stall:

 I chose to have a round table so that customers could walk in under my gazebo and walk around it to view the soaps and to also get rid of the barrier between me (the seller) and them (the buyer).  It seemed to work quite well.  I think some people didn't know what to make of it at first, but soon cottoned on to the general idea.

Things I'd change for next time:

• Make the pricing clearer.  All I had for this stall was one sign at the back stating the pricing.  Most people didn't notice it and either didn't say anything and walked on by without buying or had to ask.  So next time I plan to have the pricing on each soap section.  

• Make a large shop sign or banner to make it obvious that I'm a soap shop!  I honestly think that some people didn't realise initially that I was selling soap.  I guess it's quite an unusual thing to see at country fairs!

• Add more decoration...but not too much to distract from the soaps.  My stall was rather bare, I was hoping to have some pretty bunting, but couldn't order some in time.  I noticed a couple of other stalls at the festival were nicely decorated and it really made them look welcoming and friendly.

So overall Kingsbury May Festival 2010 (which boasted a whopping 9,000 visitors this year!) and my first ever stall was a great success and I also secured invites to other local craft fairs!  The next one being Bradford Abbas Country Fayre on June 19th.  See you there!