Self-Care Ritual Box: Water Renewal

Self-Care Ritual Boxes              Aromatic Traditions 2015

So what is Self-Care?

Self-care is any intentional action you take to tend to your emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well-being.  Buzz word -- intentional.  We need to initiate something for ourselves.

Not so easy for most of us, don't you agree?

Like the "shoemaker's son" I am guilty of putting off my personal needs for the needs of others; family, neighbors, customers, etc. and find myself at the bottom of the barrel.

The bottom is dry - not juicy.

The bottom feels empty - not full.

The bottom seems dark - not light.

Creativity gets stagnant - lacks flow.

Have you noticed that doing one small thing a day can turn these feelings around?

Something as simple as lighting a candle and soaking in some fine bath salts.  You know that "Ahhhhh..." when you slip into the water and feel your muscles sigh in relief.

You let go, you surrender.

And with surrender, your heart opens and into it flows all the juiciness, full-filling and lightness the world has to offer.

Here is a postcard which is included in one of my four Ritual Boxes:

Feel free to substitute any of the products that you have around your home and create a Water Renewal Ritual for yourself.

Blessings to YOU!

We've launched our first box -- Renewal, Elemental Water Ritual -- check it out here:

http://www.aromatictraditions.com/collections/organic-holiday/products/birch-pearl-botanical-soap-sampler

Shhhh...each box contains a one-of-a-kind talismans designed by artist Linda Lee of Dragonhill Studio

Little Altars Everywhere...

Sacred Space     Aromatic Traditions 2015

“Sometimes I wonder if any of us are cut out for the lives we lead.” 

― Rebecca Wells, Little Altars Everywhere

Really!  If you told me a two years ago that I would be where I am now - living on a floating home in Portland Oregon - I would have felt a little overwhelmed (to say the least).

It was a real push to pack up my home, lab and part of my family and move across the country.  As soon as we unpacked, we began to renovate from the water up.  Yes! We replaced the float system of old growth logs underneath or home, put in a sub-floor, later flooring, electricity and plumbing.

I am also living a bi-coastal relationship.  There is nothing easy about it.  You miss the cues, the little things your senses pick up about your partner.  There is nothing physical about it.

Today was a really difficult day.  We all have them.  Sometimes we have them more than we care to.  Today the sun came out and shown through my kitchen window illuminating my greenhouse and statue.  A gentle reminder to stop, slow down, and take the moment IN.

Ahhhhhhh....

It is time to be grateful to everyone and everything that brought me to this moment.
Sometimes I feel like I am not cut out for the life I chose because I forgot to be grateful for everything that got me here in the first place.

Thank You!

I am grateful.

And I Sometimes See a Falling Star...

Rose hip harvest.    Fall 2015

It is December in Wicklow:

Alders dripping, birches

Inheriting the last light,

The ash tree cold to look at.

A comet that was lost

Should be visible at sunset,

Those million tons of light

Like a glimmer of haws and rose-hips,

And I sometimes see a falling star.

If I could come on meteorite!

Instead I walk through damp leaves,

Husks, the spent flukes of autumn,...

-from "Exposure", Seamus Heaney

Commonly known as Dog rose, Dog Brier, Brier Rose, Rose hips always remind me of the coming of Fall.  As a young woman, wanting to "live off the land", I would collect bright red rose hips, grind them and make a Vitamin C packed tea.

Here is my simple recipe, I hope you enjoy!

Rose Hip Tea

-Place fresh or crushed dried rose hips in a mason jar.

-Pour boiling water over them and steep, covered for 10 minutes.

-Add honey, stevia to sweeten

What's In A Name...

White Sage by S. Varga   2015

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

-William Shakespeare

It began in 1998 with my first farm to face company.

Lillly's Essential Products blossomed from a small plot of land and a renovated mudroom. The first product came to me while driving across the Berkshires.  I remember opening the glove box and grabbing a scrap piece of paper and writing:

Blue Pearl

Evening Primrose Oil

Lavender

Rose

I heard these words whispered as I rode along absorbing the scenery.
Blue Pearl has been a bestseller ever since.

Fast forward 13 years...after a career pioneering Oncology Massage my heart broken from another loss my husband asked - "if you could do anything right now, what would it be?".

Aromatic Traditions™ was born in that moment.

My passion for aromatics and need for a tradition of self-care rooted in Mother Earth birthed a brand dedicated to the beauty way. To walk in balance with all things. 

Today may I walk out in beauty.

With beauty may I walk.

With beauty before me, may I walk.

With beauty behind me, may I walk.

With beauty above me, may I walk.

With beauty below me, may I walk.

With beauty around me, may I walk.

It is finished in beauty.

-Navajo Beauty Way prayer

The Way to Get Started...

Easy-Bake Oven, circa 1960's

"The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing."

-Walt Disney

Tucked inside my bedroom closet. No adults please! Just grounded and my brand new chemistry set removed from my room - I create.

This is how Aromatic Traditions™ began...

Out of the box go the baking mixes.  Into the pans go my mixes. 

Crayons, candle wax, flower petals from my beloved Peonies.

Somewhere in my heart, I knew what I came here to do.

Didn't you?

I would love to hear about YOUR earliest passions...

and how you stay true to them.

Let's start a list.

1. Follow your heart. Listen to the voice that whispers to you (HINT: it never raises its voice).

We Are Here and It Is Now...

A visit to Mark's Stills in Newburg, OR  2015

"We are here and it is now.  Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine".

--H.L. Mencken

It all started with a conversation at the local Helvatia Lavender Festival.  A few sniffs later and I've purchased a beautiful bottle of Lavender Absolute.  You know, no stems and seeds that we don't need - just the flowers.  You'll find it in my Blue Pearl Face Serum.

Moments after the purchase I notice a woman wandering off with a jug of lavender hydrosol which was just poured off from the steam distiller.  Hmmm...

A few phone calls later, jugs loaded in car and we are off on an adventure which takes us rambling through the beautiful Willamette Valley of central Oregon.

We arrive at Mark's Stills and Dad Butch greets us as well.  An olfactory adventure begins as we are introduced to not only Lavender, their specialty - but Cedar and Sequoia.

"The best kept secret is Yamhill County" Butch says.

I agree.  I left with a quart of THE most amazing Lavender Grosso essential oil.  Soon to be blended in our products.

Love me some local color...and you...

Deep In Their Roots...

Calendula officinalis harvest.  Oregon 2015

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.

-Theodore Roethke

Today I cleared my drying baskets.  Two months on the Multnomah Channel of the Willamette River and the harvest is abundant.

Calendula is a well known medicinal herb also known as the Poor Man's Saffron.  At Aromatic Traditions I infuse cold pressed Organic Sweet Almond Oil with dried blooms and add it to many of my products.  It imbues a gorgeous golden (think sunlight) color and our skin takes in its healing properties.

Here is a simple recipe that you can try at home...

Calendula Salve Recipe

1/4 cup dried Calendula Flowers

1/2 cup Organic Olive Oil

1/8 cup Beeswax pastilles or Candelilla Wax (vegan)

10 drops of healing essential oil of your choice (ie. Lavender, Chamomile, Orange)

I like to use the solar infusion method...place dried flowers in mason jar, cover with oil and let sit in sun for several days until oil is a golden color.  To do on stove, gently heat oil and add dried flowers. Turn heat off and let infuse until oil is cool.  Strain flowers from oil with cheesecloth.

To make salve, warm infused oil gently to a temperature that allows the wax of your choice to melt.  Blend, cool, add your essential oils and pour into container(s).

Enjoy.