Busy Busy

Life has been very hectic these last few weeks. That's why I haven't had time to post.

I've been giving a course on "Aromatherapy for you and your Family"; this is my first time to teach a course, and I'm loving it! I also wrote the material, and even though it was hugely time-consuming, I learned lots and got a lot of satisfaction from doing it this way.

Each week, I incorporated an inspirational quote, and also a recipe that used essential oils. I made up the recipe and we ate it with a cuppa at the end of class.

I was blessed in that a friend, who wanted to do the course, offered her beautiful, cosy dining room. This meant that she didn't have to hire a babysitter, and I didn't have to prepare a room in my house!
Last week each person blended their own hand cream, using the knowledge they had gained in the previous 4 weeks. We had so much fun! The course should be finished now, but we were all enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to do one extra week, this Wednesday.

Musically, things are also hectic. In band, we are preparing for the National Band Championships. I had hoped to not participate, as I still feel very new and quite overwhelmed in the band, but they kindly wanted me to be part of it, so that means a lot of practice for me, as I'm really challenged with the pieces. I think they'd do much better in the competition without me, but they're including me, which is really nice! It's in Cork, so it will also involve a night away;that should be fun, getting to know everyone a bit better.
On the plus side, it makes for good progress.
The music doesn't look too bad, till you read the fine print! The fine differences in articulation, the fact that some of it is played as a speed of 176, yikes, I find it hard to keep up, my lips and fingers are nearly on fire! The end of the piece below is a Gallop, and it's literally like horses in a steeplechase! Dih,dididih,dididih and so on!Finally, we had an orchestra rehearsal this afternoon, as we have a big concert coming up in April. We were divided into sections, and it was brilliant! More on that later..

Mellow Yellow Monday: Green Tomato Chutney with Vodka

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY WITH (OR WITHOUT) VODKA

For more MYM, visit Drowsey Monkey, who hosts this meme.

You combine them in penne alla vodka, so I thought I'd try it, and it worked. I used the red one too, so there are tiny bits of red in my chutney, but mostly it's a golden yellow and it looks fine.

This creates quite an aroma as it's cooking, so leave a window open if you don't like it.

1.75 kg Green Tomatoes, roughly chopped

500g Apples, chopped (I used eating apples, cos I prefer them...maybe that's what the red bits in the chutney are??!)

500g Onions, chopped

225g Sultanas (or Raisins)

Half teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Ground Ginger or finely chopped Ginger Root (see tip in previous post re essential oils)

1 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg (see tip in previous post re essential oils)

500ml Vinegar (I used Cider Vinegar, cos it's nice and mild)

500g Sugar

125g Walnuts, halved or chopped

3 Tablespoons Vodka

Here's a link to previous post Plum Chutney With Walnuts and Hazelnut Liquer

Method is to put everything except the walnuts and vodka in a saucepan and cook slowly for 2 or 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add the walnuts, then cook for another hour. Add the vodka at the end and stir in so you don't boil off the alcohol!

And at the end, it will look something like this. Come to think of it, this is kind of Mellow Yellow too!

Ideally, you should leave this to mature for a couple of months, but the people I give it to can never wait that long. Yup, I still don't really like chutney, just love making it!

Where did that week go to?

I'm sorry that I haven't been around much this week. I do not know where the week went to.



Life has been pure hectic, on all fronts.



In school, we have a WSE (whole school evaluation) next week, and boy did my inner perfectionist (IP) decide to come out! I told her to go away, but she kept coming back, often just as I put my head on the pillow at night. Whispering little things in my ear "wouldn't it be good to buy new folders for your notes, and to colour co-ordinate them?" - I gave in on that one. "It's time to do a complete clearout of your press"... "you need to re-write all your notes" - you get the picture. I'm struggling to keep her at bay, so if anyone has a magic cure, please let me know!


I've been busy with aromatherapy too. A local school invited me to talk to their Transition Year students, which I'm delighted to do. Just not this week, please. (Luckily, my available times this week didn't suit, so it's postponed for a couple of weeks). Which gives me a chance to properly prepare the talk!


And it's been busy with the kids- it's music exam season! And Feis season too! So lots of running around.


Then we got invited to a table quiz fundraiser at the primary school where our kids went. It was a fantastic school, our kids got such a good education there, and we've still loads of friends there, so we went along to that. IP kept whispering in my ear "you should be at home, doing more notes" . Guess what? Going out was the best thing I did all week- showed me there is more to life than WSE's. And guess what else? Our team WON! I feel a bit of a fraud saying "our team", cos in reality I contributed very little. I have no memory for general knowledge, but luckily Hubby is my opposite on that front, and a friend at the table could fill in the gaps in his knowledge. So the other friend and myself got to sit back and enjoy the night, and the team came home with 4 lovely bottles of wine for our efforts!

Plus I won this prize in the raffle.




Would you like to see what's inside? Of course!






Just what I need, and even though I could easily make these myself, it's nice sometimes to use something made by another. And Rose oil is one of my favourites!


So, it has been a good week, if a busy one.


I just hope that I can do myself and my school justice in next week's evaluation. My job doesn't depend on it, but my pride does.

Final Giveaway!

Sorry this post is so late, it's been a hectic weekend.

I decided to have an aromatherapy evening, which took place last night, and have been up to my eyes making creams, oils, sprays, gels... beautiful work, and I've been sleeping like a baby after breathing in all these wonderful oils.

But trying to do this in my spare time, after work, is a bit much, and I probably shouldn't have undertaken the evening at all. But you know when you just love doing something and you know that people will like the stuff, and it will be a way of starting off the Christmas season? Yes, it was all that and more!

There wasn't a big crowd, but it was so lovely to have time to talk to people about the different oils and what they're used for. Everybody enjoyed trying the samples of different combinations of oils and seeing the many ways of using essential oils. And they got some unique presents for their friends. These kind of events really get the enthusiasm going all over again!

I put this oil on tissues tied to the side bar of each radiator in the house, and I'm not joking, the aroma of Christmas was as strong as if I'd been baking for a week!

The giveaway has the same rules as before, leave a comment, I'll get a random number, match it with that number comment, and leave a comment on your blog, you then email me your snailmail address and I'll pop the oil in the post.

As the post is late,let's say midnight Tuesday 8th December GMT for the closing date.

Looking forward to your comments.

The house is finished.

A while back, I posted about a fundraising project I was doing, called "Dóchas".

I made 60 jars of aromatherapy hand cream, called "Dóchas" which is Irish for hope, sold them for €10 each, with all proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity, to help build a house in Cape Town.

My brother has returned from building the house and I thought I would post a couple of pics of how it looks. They got the house finished in one week, and the family moved in, delighted.

In this photo, on the left, is the shack where they had been living

so I can imagine that it must be bliss to now have this:

Sorry about the funny faces- I don't have permission to post their faces, and this is my best photoshopping skills.

I am learning, however; the son came along as I was trying to manually smudge the faces, and he has shown me a poly something tool that does it much better and quicker, as in the top photo.

So my new motto is "Every day, my photoshop skills get better and better"!

What a day!

I was at an aromatherapy conference near Birmingham yesterday.
The only outgoing flight that would get us there on time was at 6.30am, which involved a 4.30 start.
Bad enough, but the only flight back was at 23.05pm!
That also was bad enough, but when we got back into Dublin, we couldn't find the car! We spent an hour searching, searching searching. Level 1, 2 and 3. We had to be in Section C because we had booked online. So after an hour, and it was now 1.15am, we called the car park supervisor for help. He assured us that according to their system, our car hadn't left the car park.

At this stage I had visions of thieves putting paper over our number plate, or even fitting a false plate, and leaving the car park.

Mr. Supervisor came down and we began searching. Within 5 minutes, he pointed and said "it's there" matter-of-factly. We had somehow wandered (driving) into section B in the morning! We eventually got home at 2.00am! 22 and a half hours after we had woken up. Lesson learned- always take down the space number when you park. Or don't book flights that leave at 6.30 am!

The conference was brilliant. We met lots of aromatherapists who work in many different situations, from private practice to clinics to teaching universities.

One of the sessions particularly impressed me, and taught me once again just how individual plants are. There were 4 different unidentified oils on the table, and we smelled each one, just registering characteristics and how it made us feel, not looking to name any of the oils. Most of the 12 people around the table agreed on most of the characteristics and effects.

The facilitator then divulged that all 4 oils were Lavender, just grown in different places. One was at high altitude, another near a sea, another at very low altitude, and another in Provence. They were distinctly different, and have different healing properties, even though they all come from the same plant family. Depending on the season, the age of the plant and other influences, the chemical make-up of the oil obtained varies from batch to batch.

I suppose it's similar to people- even though we come from the same "people family", we are different to our siblings, and we have different talents. And we change with the seasons and with our age and our influences.
It's interesting, isn't it?

Aromatherapy tip

Can't think of anything good to post today, so here's a little aromatherapy tip.

Add some drops of Lemon (Citrus Limonum) pure essential oil to your bottle of washing-up liquid. I usually add about 15 or 20 drops to a 500ml bottle.

It's good for killing bacteria and germs, and gives a nice scent also.