A Day’s Work

Just a sneak peak of how I make my inhalers.

The cotton stick is soaked in oils and then inserted into the inhaler blank.

Then I use a craft hammer to seal the bottom with the little white plug. Voila!

Spotlight On: Cajeput

Botanical Name: Melaleuca cajeputi  or Melaleuca leucodendron

Type of Plant: Evergreen tree

Method of Extraction: steam distillation of the leaves and twigs

This is an oil you may not have heard of before.   Cajeput has an astringent, camphor-like scent, similar to it’s more famous cousin, Tea Tree, but it’s not as overwhelming.  

It has many of the same applications as Tea Tree does, like fighting upper respiratory infections (cold, flu, sinuses).  It’s also good for pain such as neuralgia or arthritis, but it should be well diluted for any skin application.  Cajeput is a little more irritating to the skin than Tea Tree, or its other close cousin, Niaouli.

The scent of this oil reminds me more of Vicks Vapo Rub than any other oil.  For this reason, it’s the first oil I go to when I have an adult client complaining of chest congestion.  I do not use this oil on young children.

I recently had a friend with a very intense sinus infection.  She complained of constant pressure and pain, as well as an “itching” feeling inside her nose.  I made her a blend of Cajeput, Eucalyptus globulus, Lemon, Niaouli and Lavender and directed her to massage it into her sinuses every morning and night (being very careful not to get it inside her nose, or in contact with any mucus membranes).  She reported back after about a week that her infection was clearing and the pain lifting!

Privacy on Facebook – Personal Information, News Feed & Wall

I’m currently on vacation until August 3rd.  This post has been auto-published for your enjoyment! 

A continuation of last week’s post about privacy for your personal Facebook profile.

Personal Information

Click Settings >> Privacy Settings >> Profile

On this page, I’ve just got everything set to “Friends Only”.  If you have someone that you mercy-Friended (come on, we’ve all got at least one), you can choose “customize” from any drop-down menu and set it so they will remain your Friend but cannot see certain information about you.

Make sure you click the “Contact” tab and adjust the settings there as well.  This controls who can see your e-mail, phone number and IM programs IDs.

Remember to Save Changes!

 

News Feed & Wall

Click Settings >> Privacy Settings >> News Feed & Wall

Did you know that every time you write something on a Friend’s Wall (not a private message that goes to the Inbox), that something is also broadcast to all your mutual Friends via the News Feed?  If you want to prevent that, make sure the “Show Wall Posts” box is unchecked.

You can check/uncheck the rest of the boxes to your own preferences.  Remember, this won’t stop someone being able to view your Wall and see the activity, it just prevents the activity from being broadcasted to everyone New’s Feeds/Home Page.

Save the changes, of course.

 

While you are under Newsfeed & Wall, you will want to click the tab “Facebook Ads”.  In the drop-down list, select “No One”.  What is this all about?  You know how you see ads when you are browsing Facebook, and those ads sometimes contain images of your Friends? (Does “Susie thinks you’re an idiot!  Can you beat her IQ?” sound familiar?)  Guess what.  Your picture and name has been showing up in the ads that your friends see!  By changing this selection to “no one”, you can stop having your profile picture appear in advertisements. 

My little Garden

I’m on vacation until August 3rd.  I’ve scheduled this post (and a few others) for your enjoyment.

Just a few photos of my front garden.  Those daisies started out from a single plant that yielded only one bloom just four short years ago.   And look at my poor lavender, stretching out to reach the sun.  I guess it was silly of me to plant it in the shade of the magnolia tree!

Spotlight On: Roman Chamomile

Botanical Name: Chamaemelum nobile

Type of Plant: Perennial herb with small, daisy-like flowers

Method of extraction: Steam distillation of the flower heads.

I’m going to be honest here – I hate the smell of chamomile!  In fact, I detest all the essential oils in the Compositae family – both Roman & German Chamomile, plus Helichrysum (or Everlasting).   The irony is that these are also all very expensive oils, so it literally pains me to spend so much money on something I don’t really care for.  However, there is no denying Roman Chamomile’s effectiveness as a relaxation agent.  And if you blend it just right, the scent becomes a non-issue.

Almost any type of skin disorder or rash can be helped with some combination of R.Chamomile & Lavender. Simply add it to your preferred carrier oil or an unscented lotion base at the proper dilution, and apply to the skin as needed.

R.Chamomile is available as a hydrosol, although I do not currently own any.  I’d love to mix it with Lavender hydrosol and use it as my first line of defence for allergic outbreaks on the skin. This oil is so gentle that respected author and Aromatherapist, Valerie Ann Worwood, recommends that it can be used on children beginning from birth (at the proper dilution, of course).

Chamomile can be used internally in the form of tea, available for purchase at nearly every grocery store.  Its famous as a bed-time tea, but it’s also reported to help keep the urinary tract clear.  Of course, drinking copious quantities of any liquid will help ensure frequent urination and “flushing out” of the tract.

Although I may not enjoy the scent, I must admit that the plant itself is one of my favourites.  I’m a sucker for daisies!

Privacy on Facebook – Photos, Search & Blocking People

I’m currently on vacation until August 3rd.  This post has been auto-published for your enjoyment!

Well, my aromatherapy blog is slowly turning into a Facebook how-to blog! 

I’m going to outline a few ways that you can make your Personal Facebook Profile more private.

Photo Albums

When you create a new album, the privacy setting for who is able to view the album is set to “everyone” by default.  Make sure each time you create an album, you use the drop-down list to change this to “only Friends”  or “customise” (lets you choose specific Friends to share the album with, or specific Friends who may not see the album).

To check the status of your current albums, go to the “Photos” tab of your personal profile.  Just above the thumbnails of your photo albums, there is a link for Album Privacy.  Click it, and adjust the settings for each album.  You may be surprised to learn that all your albums have been public. 

It’s not likely that your pictures have been popping up in a search, but friends of friends (and their friends) may have been browsing through your albums.  How do they find your pictures, you ask?  Let’s say you tag Susie in one of your photos.  That photo will show up in her profile under “Pictures of Susie”.   Anyone who is a friend of Susie (but not of yours) can click on that photo and be taken to the album.  They will then be able to browse the album from there, or look at the rest of your albums if they are a real Nosey Rosie.  (If your album is set to private, they can still see the tagged picture of Susie, but they will get an error message if they try to browse).

 

Control who finds you in a Search

Click Settings >> Privacy Settings >> Search

You will have to decide who can find you in a search.  If you click “everyone”, your name and profile picture will be “clickable” and visible to everyone on Facebook.  This means if you comment on someone’s photo, ALL of their friends can see your picture and maybe click on your name and request to add you as Friend.  Same goes for when you post on someone’s Fan Page or on a Discussion forum.  You may also want to uncheck all the boxes that allow people who search for you to see certain things about you.

When I was new to Facebook, I was pretty liberal with the search settings because I wanted to make sure all my old friends could find me.  Now I have it set to “friends of friends” only.

Block People

There may be people who you absolutely do not want to be able to find you or see any of your activity on Facebook.  This could be as serious as an abusive ex-partner, or simply the annoying girl in the next cubicle at work.

Click Settings >> Privacy Settings

From there you will see a search box.  Enter the full name of the person you want to block.  From the search results, choose the correct person.  The person will not be notified that you have blocked them. 

Keep in mind that if you have mutual friends with this person, they will not be able to see what you comment on a mutual friend’s profile, and you will not be able to see what they write either.

Tutorial: Heat Packs & Eye Pillows

Perhaps you’ve heard of (or already own) these wonderful microwaveable or freezable heat packs. I like to use the heat packs on a client’s back or other problem areas while they are receiving treatment on the other parts of their body. The eye pillows are great for blocking out light to keep someone relaxed while they are supine (face-up).

You will need:

• Material of your choice (amount will depend on how big you want your pack to be. A fat quarter is usually enough.)
• Sewing Machine/thread
• Long-grain white rice and/or flax seed
• funnel
• wooden dowel (optional)

1. Start by choosing and cutting your material. You can make the pack any size you want. I like a finished size of about 7” x 9” for a heat pack, and 3.5” x 10” for an eye pillow. You’ll want to add 1” to all sides for seam allowances. You need FOUR (4) pieces of fabric for one pack. Here is fabric cut for an eye pillow (2 pieces of fabric together in 2 stacks).

2. Sew all 4 pieces together, wrong sides out, leaving an opening on one short end that is big enough for turning. I like to double stitch everything. The reason we are using 4 pieces of fabric is so that the pillow is extra sturdy.

3. Trim down your seams and turn inside-out. Make sure you have two layers of fabric on each side. I use a small wooden dowel to help me turn the fabric and sharpen the corners.

4. Now it’s time to fill! For a heat pack, use rice. For an eye pillow, I find rice is a bit heavy so I use flax seed instead. You could also use lavender buds, or a combination of the two. I use a funnel and my wooden dowel to help poke down the seeds. Fill it so the pack/bag is slightly under 1” thick, and the filling is evenly distributed when the pack is placed flat. Do not overfill to the point where the fabric is pulling or stretched out.

5. Turn in the seams of the opening and sew shut. You can do this by hand if you wish, but I find the machine stitching to be sturdier.

You’re done! If you like, you can also create pillow cases for your packs. I do this because the packs are used on different people, and the pillow cases are easy to wash.

These packs can be kept in the freezer as cold packs, or microwaved for 2 minutes. Make sure you shake the filling around so there aren’t any hot spots. I do not recommend microwaving the eye pillows, but who would want to put a hot pillow on their eyes anyway?

I actually went to college for this

Not everyone knows this, but I am a trained ECE, or Early Childhood Educator.  I never found full-time work in the field because sadly this society will not pay people as much money to care for their children as they will to drive buses.

Facing the prospect of 4 hours on a Greyhound bus, followed by 4 hours in an airplane (plus various wait times at the terminals), I called on my expertise to come up with some activities to keep my boys occupied.

They’ve already shown that they love playing with the felt board (I have many stories and characters left over from my daycare days).  My step-son (8 years old) recently informed me, however, that magnets are “cooler” than felt.  Okay.

So I wanted to make a portable magnet board that didn’t weigh a ton.  I found these neat, zippered portfolios at the Dollarama.  Then I also found some cookie sheets, and nearly peed with excited when they turned out to be magnetic.  Normally those cheap baking pans are aluminum and magnets won’t stick. (Ahem, note the price tags.  The Dollarama has recently become “The Dollar-Twenty-five-rama.”)

Then I cut the lips off the cookie sheets using Fiskars scissors.  This is a job that should probably be left to people who know what they are doing, and who have the right tools.  I will spare you the pictures of my bloody finger.  Next time I make one of these things, I’ll get the bodyshop guys at work to cut & grind the metal.  I taped up the edges to cover the sharp sides.  Then I just hot-glued the metal sheet to one side of the portfolio, and I hot glued a piece of craft felt to the other side, and voila!  A portable magnet/felt board.

Like my Disney’s Cars magnets?  I just found some clipart on the Internet, resized the photos and placed them all on one 8.5”x11” Photoshop file, then printed them on magnet sheets.  I’ve also made magnet sets for Tonka Trucks(The Toys R Us website is a great source for finding pictures of those) and Lego Batman characters.  I like to cover them with clear contact paper before cutting them apart.  Dirty fingers, ya know!

The possibilities are really endless.  Don’t forget to make letters & numbers magnets using some really cool fonts.

Spotlight On: Rosemary Essential Oil

Botanical Name: Rosmarinus officinalis

Type of Plant: flowering herb

Method of extraction: Steam distillation of the flowering tops

Rosemary is an oil I wouldn’t be without.  In practice, I use it mainly for muscle pain and for mental stimulation.  Just a whiff of this oil will help pull you out of a mid-afternoon slump.  I combine it with Lime to create my Revive inhaler.

When left alone, a Rosemary plant can become a beautiful, full shrub in only a few years.  I’ve never had that kind of success with it, since Rosemary can’t winter in my zone.   There are Rosemary shrubs all over Vancouver, though, many of them lining the sea wall.  Mmmmm, the scent combination of sea air and fresh Rosemary is hard to beat!

Rosemary oil is a very strong antiseptic.  It’s possible that it was first used in cooking as a way to preserve meat before the advent of refrigeration, rather than as a flavouring.  These antiseptic properties make it a wonderful oil to diffuse in the house during the cold and flu season, or whenever a family member is sick.  It’s also great for respiratory infections, so a few drops in the bath can help loosen chest congestion.

Try rubbing some pork chops with dried rosemary and fresh, chopped garlic before placing on the grill. 

Soon I’ll be Here

It’s my birthday today!

And all I want is this:

Yes, I realize that I have to put it together, but that is part of the fun.  I love building things.  Then I can fill my house up with all my favourite Etsy miniatures.

This dollhouse was created by VictorianDollhouse on Etsy.  Click the picture to go to the listing.

Google “Victorian dollhouse”.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  Now just have fun browsing all the gorgeous images that come up!

Add A Facebook Fanbox to your Blog or Website!

Facebook just announced a new widget for Fan Pages.  Now people can become a fan of your Business or Fan page directly from your blog or website!  Just follow these easy instructions.  I’ve replaced my Page Badge on my blog with a Fan Box.  You can see it in the left-hand column.

1.   On your Page, click the “Edit Page” link under the Page’s profile picture.

2.  On the right-hand side of the next page, under the Promote Your Page heading, click on “Add a fan box to your site”.

3.  Copy the Code in the box.

4.  Now simply add that code to your webpage!  If you are the webmaster of your page, this shouldn’t be a problem for you.  If you use Blogger, I can help you out with that. 

5. From the Layout page of your Blogger account, choose “Add a Gadget”

6. In the window that pops up, click on the “+” sign beside HTML/Javascript

7.  Paste the code in the text box that appears.  Click “save”.

8.  You may rearrange your gadgets on the Layout page by dragging & dropping.

You’re done!  I’m loving this gadget so far!  You can even scroll through all the items I’ve posted to my Fan Page.  Give it a try.

Hot Oil Treatment for Dry Hair

Heather Scent finds herself home alone!  My family has gone off camping and I’ve decided to take a staycation instead.  I’m taking advantage of the peace and quiet tonight by giving my hair a hot oil treatment. 

Oiling your hair on a regular basis will help keep it soft & supple and make it less prone to breakage.  If you are trying to grow your hair long, weekly oiling is a must.  You don’t need to spend money on fancy drugstore treatments, either.  All the ingredients you need are probably already in your pantry or essential oil chest.

You will need:

1/4 cup base oil.   Some suggestions for base oil:  Avocado, jojoba, sweet almond, cocoa butter (needs to be melted first), coconut.  Sesame and Olive oil are fine, too, but remember that they have a strong scent to them that will overpower the scent of the essential oils.

10 drops Rosemary EO

10 drops Carrot Seed EO

5 drops Sandalwood EO

*Note: I realized that Carrot Seed and Sandalwood are two essential oils that your average person may not own.  You may substitute Lavender for one of the oils, or leave the other two out altogether and just use a total of 25 drops Rosemary.

 

Directions:

• Place the base oil in a small glass bowl and microwave for about 10-30 seconds.  You want to get the oil warm, not scalding hot.  Be sure to mix the oil well to eliminate any hot spots.  If it still isn’t warm enough, zap it in 10 second increments.  
• Alternatively, you may use a hot water bath.  Fill a larger bowl with scalding hot (not boiling) water, and place the bowl with the oil inside, being very careful not to let any water get into the oil.  Stir and test the oil until it reaches the desired temperature.
• Once the oil is warmed, add the essential oils and stir well.
• Apply to clean, wet hair, starting with the tips where hair is driest.  Be very generous in your application.  Use a wide-tooth comb to evenly distribute the oil.  Give yourself a little scalp massage while you are at it!  It’s even better if you can recruit someone else to do it for you.
• Soak an old medium-sized towel in hot water.  Ring out.  Wrap your hair, turban-style, in the warm towel.
• Leave the oil on your hair for a minimum of 15 minutes.  The towel with be cool by this point.  If you wish, you can soak the towel again and re-wrap your hair for another 15 minutes.
• I like to leave my oil in overnight.  Just use an old pillowcase!  (And remove the towel before going to bed!)
• Shampoo out the oil, and condition hair as usual.

Spotlight On: Marjoram Essential Oil

Botanical Name: Origanum marjorana

Type of Plant:  Flowering Herb

Method of extraction: steam distillation of the dried flowers

Marjoram has a very herby, camphor-like scent.   It blends well with most other essential oils, and is a wonderful addition to a blend when you are looking for something to add a relaxing element.

This essential oil is excellent for calming a person, lowering blood pressure, and generally bringing someone down into a parasympathetic state (rest & repair).  As I mentioned in my post about Clary Sage, I use those two oils (plus Lavender) in my standard “relaxation” blend.   It’s also great for general muscle strain.  For respiratory problems, when a client is not able to handle the stronger essential oil of Camphor, I’ll use Marjoram instead.

Marjoram also has emmenagogic properties, and I’ve used it successfully in a blend to help ‘jump start’ scanty menstruation.  For this reason, one should avoid this oil while pregnant.

This is an oil that you are sure to want in your medicine chest, especially if you have a lot of stress in your life, or trouble sleeping.

Something a Little Different

My main passion is Aromatherapy, but I do have some other talents!  One of those is reading Tarot Cards, something I’ve been practicing since I was about 16 years old. Since Geocities is due to shut down in October,  I moved all my info to Facebook in the form of a new fan page – Tarot By Hedder.   Please check it out and become a fan if you are so inclined.

I’m giving free one-card readings to all my fans.  Just start a new thread in the Discussions tab with your name, and I’ll get to it in chronological order (first come, first served).  These are just fun, general readings and do not go into personal detail.  They will be shared on the Discussion tab so everyone can get a feel for what my readings are like.

I’ve even found a way to incorporate my two loves together:  The “Wake-Up Call” 3-card reading, plus personalized Aromatherapy Inhaler.  For sale exclusively on Etsy.

Life with Boys

I worked and I slaved to create tons of felt food, but will he play with it?  Nooooo! Instead, he has turned the toy kitchen into his “fire station”.  Every night he backs the fire trucks into the oven (complete with back-up alarm sound effects), and then puts the other trucks in their respective spots (the sink and the microwave).  The bin full of dinky cars goes on top of the stove. I guess I should just be thankful he is cleaning up!

Mainstream Aromatherapy

Neuragen® is a product I recently saw an add for in a magazine.  The ad describes the product as being a homeopathic, but further investigation shows that it’s actually an aromatherapy product that contains mainly essential oils.  Take a look at the label (I highlighted the part listing the active essential oil ingredients):

Note – the company has this label available to view on their website.

This is a product that is used by people suffering from neuralgia, especially patients with diabetes.  It is recommended by many doctors and has scientific studies to back up the claims.   Because it has a prescription medication looking label, and is marketed as a medical product, it’s taken seriously by those in the field of traditional medicine. Yet an aroma-massage performed by an aromatherapist using the exact same essential oils would be considered quackery by many allopathics.  

I set out on an internet hunt to find some other aromatherapy products masquerading as mainstream medicine.

Vicks Vapo Rub.  This product is likely everyone’s first experience with aromatherapy medicine.  As an aromatherapist, however, I do not recommend this product for young children.  Read more about that here.

Tiger Balm.   Love this stuff.  I just wish it didn’t use a petroleum base.  I’ve been trying (with little success) to emulate the blend of oils and put it in a beeswax base.  Of course, I would never market and sell such a product since it is copyright infringement, but it would only be for my own personal use.

Head On.  Apply directly to forehead! Apply directly to forehead!  Apply directly to forehead! (No link because their website is currently under construction.)This is another one that masquerades as a “homeopathic”.  Although it does contain some homeopathic remedies, it also contains menthol (that is what produces the tingle).  Menthol/peppermint is contraindicated in homeopathic medicine, and therefore the remedies in the product are essential useless; it’s the menthol that is working to “cure” the headache.

Johnson’s Sleep Care Baby Products.  Sigh.  This one actually makes me angry.  Please look at the ingredients.  It claims to use  “a unique blend of patent pending essences that has been tested and proven to have relaxing properties.”  First of all, you cannot patent lavender and chamomile!  Second of all, the product does not even contain essential oils, it contains fragrance.  Fragrance oils have no medicinal properties.  Zip.  Zilch.  If these products help your child fall asleep faster and sleep longer, it is likely more to do with the bath/massage/bed routine, rather than the fake lavender smell.  It could be scented with bananas and apples and still have the same effect.

Go read the labels of everything in your medicine cabinet.  If there are any ingredients you think may sound like an essential oil, or anything your aren’t sure about, post it here and I’ll find out for you.

Advanced Topics in Facebook – The Networked Blogs Application

If you blog & keep a FB Business Page, I highly recommend using the Networked Blogs application.  Whenever you create a new blog post, this app. will generate a story to the Wall of your business page, complete with thumbnails.  If you don’t want it to automatically publish every single blog post to your Wall, you can manually decide which posts to publish.   You can also use this application to posts your blog entries to your personal profile.

Now, I could spend two hours taking screen caps and writing out a long tutorial about how to use this wonderful application  But why bother, when there is already a wonderful tute available on The Social Media Guide?  So click that link, and give her all the credit.

And since you’re here, why not click the “Follow This Blog” link on my Networked Blogs widget?  It’s right over there -------> Thanks!