Easy As P.I.E.S. Home Spa Self Care Day

Home Spa Self Care Day

Finally!  The reason I started this blog, this post.... a total self care plan in one, 'Home Spa Self Care Day' Event...

For years, I've dreamed of spending a day at the spa...


I imagine taking in a steam in the steam room to open up the pores, then a mud bath, a facial, and enjoying a relaxing mani/pedi, while surrounded by lit candles, breathing in the scents of the aromatherapy treatments meant to calm, inspire, and invigorate...

I envision a light, healthy lunch with grilled fish, a nice side salad, and a glass of wine.

Followed by a complete and total body wax, and ending with a full body rub down of essential oils...

Of course, a day at the spa can be just a dream for many of us, myself included. So, it's time to get creative!  Not having the time or budget for going to the spa wasn't going to stop me from having my own self care day of pampering.

If you can't get to the spa... bring the spa to you!

I must confess, when I first considered creating this 'self care' blog, everything I'm about to show you in this post is what I envisioned as my own 'self care day.'

Setting Up Your Home Spa Self Care Day...

My home spa setting...

The Spa Room

I have a bathroom in my bedroom, but it's kind of small and it only has a walk-in shower.  My main bathroom however, is bigger and has a bathtub.  I was considering (ok, so I was actually 'searching' Google for DIY homemeade bath tubs) creating some kind of 'tub' in that shower for the purpose of my 'home spa' event, simply because it adjoins my bedroom where my collection of beauty products live.

I also considered using the main bathroom to set up my 'spa experience,' but aside from tracking all those products across and to the other end of the house, it's also the 'main' bathroom for the house, including the kids and any guests, and to occupy it for a full day, also meant that the kids and any guests would have to go into my bedroom to use that bathroom...Suffice to say, I had a hard time trying to decide what to do.  Until I thought of... 

The She-Shed Home Spa.

The idea for the she-shed spa, (to be more accurate, the 'pallet she-shed spa) came to me as I was thinking of all the things I wanted my little 'at-home self care palace' to offer.

I knew I wanted the 'sauna' ambiance of wood and heat, and with free pallets in no shortage of supply in this neck of the woods, I knew I could create that 'sauna-like' experience with free building materials.

And my bedroom, and the adjoining bathroom both line up against the side yard, so I could easily 'extend' both bedroom and bathroom into the 'she-shed home spa' and create my own personal self care space.

Plus, I wanted to be able to have a 'girls spa day' with friends, so I want the 'space' to be able to accommodate a few friends and myself, which I could do with just my bedroom and bathroom, but could do even better with a little additional space.

*Note: I've been collecting pallets for years so I already had a collection.  That said, such a project would take 'some' time to complete, so I settled on simply moving the furniture in my bedroom around, and bringing in a few pallets for 'staging' the 'home spa self care day.' 

Spa Services At Home 

I have a feeling this post is going to be pretty long as it is, so rather than run down the huge list of options you can choose from for your home spa day, I'll show you how I intend to make mine.

Having never been to a spa, I wasn't sure what I could, or wanted to do for my own 'home spa' event.

I knew the basics of facials and manicures, pedicures. Now all I needed to do was decide what else I wanted to include.

Included in my personal, home spa self care day was: First, breakfast; 30 minute steam to open the pores; full body hair removal; activated charcoal facials for cleansing, followed by a clay mask facial for tightening; a full body mud bath accompanied by an aromatherapy session; a short mid-morning snack break; a 20 minute hand bath, followed by a 30 minute foot bath; a hot, relaxing bubble bath with bath oils, bath salts and bath crystals; lunch; complete, full body oil rub down; manicure; pedicure; after lunch snack; hot oil hair treatment.

Future self care days may call for some changes to this plan.  Things like facials may change according to any skin care needs, as aromatherapy scents may change according to needs as well. For now though, this set-up works for me, and for what I want out of this event.

If you aren't sure what other services a spa offers that you would want, you can easily do a Google search for spas in your area and then check out their websites to see if they have a list of the various services offered their facility.  While facials and mani/pedis are pretty much standard spa fare, some spas offer mud baths, seaweed wraps, and more... 


  The Home Spa Menu

I wanted this to be a full day of self care activities, so I knew we would need fuel for our bodies.  This home spa treatment called for healthy yet delicious foods including breakfast, lunch, snacks, and of course, bottled water. I also wanted to include some 'indulgences' like mimosa's, wine and chocolate.

Aside from the bottled water, I set up fruit and vegetable trays for snacking on throughout the day between meals.

And of course, I included several smoothies for juicing.

     Breakfast
      Mimosa's, Eggs Benedict, fresh apple, orange, banana and canteloupe slices, a glass of orange juice, and a bottle of water to get us started with the process of cleansing our systems of toxins and impurities. 

     Mid-morning snack
     Strawberries with whipped cream and chocolate, wine and water. 

     Lunch 
     Grilled salmon, with lemon, butter and garlic, salad, with a raspberry vinagrette, and a bottle of white, sparkling, wine. 

     Mid-afternoon Snack
     Vegetable tray, cheese, whole wheat crackers with peanut butter, bottled water. 

You can, of course, change some of the foods on the menu.  Just make sure that you substitute any food with another from the same food group.  And remember, mimosa's are 'champagne' and orange juice.  You can also use 'sparkling white wine' to make mimosa's.

Home Spa Day Supplies... 

Once you get your 'spa activities' and logistics figured out, the last thing you'll need is 'supplies.' You'll want to be sure you have everything you need on hand.  So you can concentrate on doing exactly what you're meant to do on this special self care day...'taking care of you.'

Here's my list of supplies for my first 'home spa self care day event': Candles, towels, bathrobes, slippers, activated charcoal mask, clay mask, bubble bath, bath oils, bath salts/crystals, essential oils, pedicure set, manicure set, cuticle oil, hot oil hair treatment, razors, and Nair.

Plus the food, wine, water and juices.

Where To Get Your Supplies For Your Home Spa Event

I got quite a few of my supplies, including towels, candles, waschloths, and nail polishes at Dollar Tree.  You can get quite a bit of stuff for cheap at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar.  For things you can't get at either of those stores, if you're like me and don't want to brave Wal Mart, there's Amazon. Here are two supplies I found on Amazon.

Juicer
When I was planning the menu for 'spa day,' I realized that mimosa's, (orange juice and champagne - or sparkling white wine-) and water could get pretty old, pretty quick.

I'd use 'smoothies' in the past to trick my kiddos into eating certain vegetables.

And despite years of trying to 'acquire' a taste for any of them, knowing their health benefits, I'd had yet to find a 'berry' I liked... until I started making smoothies.

So it seemed that juicing and smoothies were a perfect addition to the 'drinks' menu of home spa self care day!

I didn't have a juicer, so I searched Amazon for something that was affordable and easy to clean, and I found this Cuisinart CJE-1000 Die-Cast Juice Extractor.  Affordable, and easy to use, this juicer has over 900 reviews and averages 4 stars.  Plus, it comes with a cleaning brush, so that's one thing I won't have to worry about 'adding' to my purchase to make the product usable.

Essential Oils
I got interested in essential oils when a nurse suggested rubbing lavendar and peppermint oil on my son's feet to help him with his ADD.  Of course, I'd already been exposed, unkowingly, to 'aromatherapy,' through various 'scented' bath products which promoted their 'scents' as various benefits, such as 'citrus' for 'invigorating,' or 'lavendar' for 'calming.

When I started researching the 'spa like activities' for my home spa event, I also discovered that essential oils can be added to things like DIY mud masks.

And you can even drop a few drops of an essential oil into a 'diffuser' to scent a room and reap the benefits of the 'aromatherapy.'

With a pretty big selection of oils, and a wide variety of benefits from them as well, I knew I was going to need at least a small 'assortment' of essential oils for myself and my 'spa day girlfriends' to benefit each our individual needs.

A quick search on Amazon led me to exactly what I needed, the Plant Therapy 7 & 7 Essential Oils Set.  This set of 7 essential oils includes; Lavendar, Tea Tree, Orange Sweet, Peppermint, Lemon, Cinnamon and Eucalyptus oils. These oils are used to fight germs, aid the immune system, invigorate, help with relaxation and tranquility, and sensual stimulation.

And with that, it's time to start your....

Home Spa Self Care Day

Need To Know Skin Care Facts

Maintaining a healthy skin is important in today’s image-conscious society. 

So how do you go about it? 

Skin is the largest organ in our body and the body’s first layer of protection against the environment. Besides good skin is the most important ingredient in physical beauty. Ask the supermodels if you don’t think so! 

All this makes proper skin care very important for a human being. 

Every day our environment inflicts a lot of damage on the skin — from exposure to pollutants, sunlight, ultra violet rays, etc. 

And we add to that by using skin care products that are not very skin-friendly, through our ignorance. 

Choosing the best skin care product should be a very important part of your skin care routine. 

This is easier said that done. There is no lack of skin care products in the market shelves though having a good skin is still a distant dream for many. Choosing the right skin care product from all those colorful products vying for your attention on the supermarket shelves is often a very difficult task. The flashy ads in magazines and billboards of supermodels endorsing various brands of skin care products isn’t of much help either when you are trying to choose the best skin care product for you. 

What is the ideal skin care routine? 

A healthy and glowing skin is the desired product of any skin care regime. 

The first step towards healthy skin is a clean skin. 

Any skin care routine starts with a cleansing process. 

Washing your face after you’ve been out is important, as facial skin is most exposed to the dust and grime in the atmosphere. But do not over do it, as excessive use of soap and other cleansers may lead to the secretion of excess oil and cause eruptions or lesions on your face. This is especially so if you have oily skin. 

Drinking plenty of water daily is good for your skin as it helps get rid of toxins in the body. A balanced diet with the right servings of fruits and vegetables is also essential for maintaining a healthy skin. 

Acne is the most common skin care problem affecting people, especially teenagers. The medical name for this condition is ‘Acne vulgaris.’ Acne is a skin condition that occurs when the dead skin cells and the oil clogs the skinpores. Usually acne is seen to fade in the late 20s but some people, mostly women, face this problem even in the 40s and 50s. 

The main cause of acne is the hormonal changes. Especially in teenagers, the sebaceous glands become overactive and secrete excess oil, which then blocks the pores in the skin. This, in turn, leads to inflammation and redness of the skin causing acne. The majority of those affected by acne only experience it in a mild form, but severe acne could lead to emotional and physical scarring. 

Poor hygiene or increased stress levels are not, as is popularly believed, the cause of acne, though they may aggravate the problem. There are now excellent treatments available to treat acne and produce the desired results. Physicians treat acne based on the patient’s skin characteristics and nature of lesions. 

For proper skin care it is important that one understands one’s skin type. There are mainly three skin types: dry, oily, and normal skin. When you choose skin care products, keep in mind that they should be chosen depending on your skin type. 

Remember, first impression is always the best impression. And your skin plays a very important role in how others perceive you.

Nutrition - Not Diet

Some people say that “there is no such thing as a “good food” or “bad food”, just bad diets”. 

Usually after that they say something about another kind of low-fat, balanced diet which will let you reach your 100′ birthday in good health. Most of this “wonder diets” became sooner or later another dietetics mistake and are replaced by new ones, which, after some time, are also replaced, because of the new revelations in the dietetics. 

And so it goes on and on, making people who want to live healthy life more and more frustrated, but still believing that the most important thing is not what lands on their plate, but the amount of it. 

Today, when there are so many kinds of food on the market, we should not only care for the calories, but also look carefully at what we are actually eating.

Difference between organic, conventional and genetically modified food

We all know that organic food is healthy, conventional food is accessible and genetically modified food can be solution to the food problems around the world, but when asked for details only few people can answer precisely what this is all about. Organic food is produced using ecological methods of farming. That means no pesticides or fertilizers with synthetic ingredients for the plants and no growth hormones and antibiotics for the animals. When you buy certified organic food, you can be sure that all of the above won’t land in your stomach and affect your organism. However because of the slower production process and lesser efficiency this kind of the food is more expensive and even if all the farms would start its production it wouldn’t be enough to feed people all around the world.

Conventional food is produced using almost all available technologies provided by the science, save genetic modifications. Still, because of the intense production process, many chemicals and medicines are involved to guarantee that crops or animals will grow at the appropriate rate. Some of these “stimulants” can be found in the final product which we buy and may affect our health (notably the growth hormones in meat). Anyway, conventional food can be found in almost every kitchen around the world and some of the scientists start to wonder how could we feel without this additional dose of antibiotics and artificial poisons which we involuntary eat. 

Genetically modified food is the most controversial. The process of growing it is similar to the conventional, the only difference is that in GM food a part of the DNA is transferred from another species in order to change its characteristics into desired one without some long-lasting and sometimes in vein inbreed process. All scientists working on GM food projects say that everything is under control, but a few accidents when transferred genes didn’t behave as they predicted show us that it may not be as safe as they want. The real advantages and flaws of the GM food will be known only after long time, all we know today is based only on theory and laboratory tests, not the real life.

The 5 Factors Of Physical Fitness

Physical fitness is the ability to function effectively throughout your workday, perform your usual other activities and still have enough energy left over to handle any extra stresses or emergencies which may arise.

The factors of physical fitness are:

•  Cardiorespiratory (CR) endurance – the efficiency with which the body delivers oxygen and 
  
  nutrients needed for muscular activity and transports waste products from the cells.
•  Muscular strength – the greatest amount of force a muscle or muscle group can exert in a single effort.
•  Muscular endurance – the ability of a muscle or muscle group to perform repeated movements with a sub-maximal force for extended periods of times.
•  Flexibility – the ability to move the joints or any group of joints through an entire, normal range of motion.
•  Body composition – the percentage of body fat a person has in comparison to his or her total body mass.

Improving the first three components of fitness listed above will have a positive impact on body composition and will result in less fat. Excessive body fat detracts from the other fitness components, reduces performance, detracts from appearance, and negatively affects your health.

Factors such as speed, agility, muscle power, eye-hand coordination, and eye-foot coordination are classified as components of “motor” fitness. These factors most affect your athletic ability. Appropriate training can improve these factors within the limits of your potential. A sensible weight loss and fitness program seeks to improve or maintain all the components of physical and motor fitness through sound, progressive, mission specific physical mtraining.

Principles of Exercise

Adherence to certain basic exercise principles is important for developing an effective program. The same principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training, from the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger.

These basic principles of exercise must be followed.

Regularity

To achieve a training effect, you must exercise often. You should exercise each of the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Infrequent exercise can do more harm than good. Regularity is also important in resting, sleeping, and following a sensible diet.

Progression

The intensity (how hard) and/or duration (how long) of exercise must gradually increase to improve the level of fitness.

Balance

To be effective, a program should include activities that address all the fitness components, since overemphasizing any one of them may hurt the others.

Variety

Providing a variety of activities reduces boredom and increases motivation and progress.

Specificity
Training must be geared toward specific goals. For example, people become better runners if their training emphasizes running. Although swimming is great exercise, it does not improve a 2-mile-run time as much as a running program does.

Recovery

A hard day of training for a given component of fitness should be followed by an easier training day or rest day for that component and/or muscle group(s) to help permit recovery. Another way to allow recovery is to alternate the muscle groups exercised every other day, especially when training for strength and/or muscle endurance.

The work load of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands placed on the body in order to bring about a training effect.

Comfortably Leaving My Comfort Zone...

My Self Care Hair Care Transformation Continues

Is hair color self care or vanity?

I've never been a shallow, concerned with my looks, kind of person. I hardly ever wore make-up, rarely got 'dressed' much, as I work from home, and never did much of anything at all with my hair.  

I have thick, wavy, dark hair... no doubt it's one of my best features.  And, I used to pride myself on keeping my gorgeous locks 'healthy.'  I didn't use chemicals... hardly ever used hair spray, and almost never blow dried it. 

 

But, as I've transitioned into my 40's, with a second divorce helping this particular 'decade' of my life to bitch slap me right in the face... 

... and meeting Mr. Right Now, who always graciously notices anything I do to look nice, pretty, sexy, etc... 

I've not only come to care more about my outward presentation of myself to the world... I've also come to feel the need for a... transformation. 

I've been going for the mermaid look... slowly.  

First I had to bleach my hair three times, just to get it light enough for purple to take... 

Then it washed out almost immediately.  Granted, I was washing it a lot.  A lot more than usual for me ... 

And now, my roots are dark again, so I'll need to bleach it again before I can try to color it again.   Which is an all day, minimum 2 person job.  

My girlfriend was going to do it a few weeks ago, but she bailed on me.  My darling Mr. Right Now would be more than willing to do it for me.  In fact, he bleached it once for me, and dyed it blue for me a few weeks ago. 

Unfortunately, as willing as he is to spoil and pamper me... he didn't do very well with the bleaching or the dyeing, so... 

In these past few weeks, I've experimented with trying to get a mermaid looking using those colored hairsprays you can buy at WalMart.... yea, don't bother.  That stuff makes hair stiff and strawlike. 

I experimented a few ways, and these are some of the ways the colored hairsprays experiments worked out: 

Meanwhile, I've been looking at different mermaid hairstyles and the 'styles' of them. 

Here are some of the mermaid hairstyles I've found and like:

Mermaid hair style considerations:  Color combination, direction of color. 

Mermaid hair colors usually include blue (such as ocean blue), and a light greenish color like teal, aquamarine. *There are several styles that also work in a purple/violet color, and a fewer number of styles that work in a 'fuschia/pink' color. 

Options for the direction of the color(s)... 

Too many choices... makes it so hard to decide! Google Images, Pinterest and YouTube be cursed!

When it comes to the 'style' (or direction) of the colors in a mermaid hair style, there are more than a few options...

Top color bottom color
Dark on top, light on bottom,
Light on top, dark on bottom
Top, middle, bottom color
Dark down to light
Light down to dark...
Colors weaved in



I really like both of these...

They're both only two colors, but weaved in, which may be a little bit more difficult than trying to just do 'top to bottom.'

 I honestly don't know. I tried watching YouTube videos to get a feel for the 'technique,' but those have got to be the most boring videos in the history of ever!

Choices, choices, choices... 


I kinda like this one on the right a little better than the one on the left, and actually, right now, as I sit here writing this, I realize why,,,

The one on the left is only two colors, and it's top to bottom and weaved in... only, it's only weaved in on the bottom... that might be doable.

So... Decision Making Time... 

I had thought to just dye my hair purple, and use the colored hairsprays, waxes and chalks, etc... to 'style in' the mermaid look when I wanted to.

Purple would be the color least likely to look tacky, after all.

But the more I look at the different mermaid hairstyles... the more I like the blue and green colors.

A Dramatically Subtle Mermaid Hair Style

I also really love this one... the subtlety of it definitely grabs my attention.  And sometimes, subtlety is far more attention grabbing than the blatant, "Look at Me!" message that most of the mermaid styles, and well, let's face it... 'non natural colors'... styles.

Got a favorite style of your own?  

Leave a comment and tell us about it... feel free to link to a picture of it!

Nails & The Art of Conversation

Nail Art, A Quick, Cheap and Easy Way To Take Care of You

If there's one thing people notice and easily comment on, it's nail art. 

And it doesn't even have to be very artistic nail art.... something as simple as a two color 'hombre' (also known as 'gradient') design is often enough not only to make your hands and you look good, and feel good about you, but also... to get other people to 'notice' and 'engage' with you, which again, makes you feel good about you. 

As I've mentioned before in other posts on this blog, my mom was a nail tech and I was her 'nail art guinea pig' for years.  She's got the 'artistic' gift, which, as I've also mentioned in other posts on this blog, is a gene that skipped me, but did manage to go to my first born son. 

When I first started to make an 'effort' to practice self-care, I started with my nails.

And luckily, now that Mom isn't a nail tech anymore, we have this wonderful technology called... The Internet.

And the Internet gives us websites like YouTube and Pinterest, where we can find amazing nail art, and 'hacks' to cheat your way into 'artistic nail designs that will make everyone think you paid a fortune to get your nails done.' 

And of course we have Amazon and e-bay where we can find some amazing, and cheap, accessories for our nail art too.

Here are a few of the nail art jobs I've done on my own nails... 

My Autumn Nail Art Experiment

This was an experiment I tried in the fall of 2017. 

 I wanted an 'elegant' fall harvest look.

I wanted to go beyond the pumpkin orange and brown colors and have something dramatic, with red, purple, green and gold.

I did manage to get a nice look, but I had to do a ton of experimenting... so much so that I could never replicate it now.

I may try for something like this again after Halloween 2018.

My first experiment with Mermaid Nails

While still trying to figure out how to do mermaid hair, I decided to look into 'mermaid nails'.

I quite a few ideas on Pinterest and YouTube, and finally settled on trying something simple.. 

These were a little plain, but I wanted to get a good color scheme down before going 'full on mermaid.'

My second experiment with Mermaid Nails

After the first experiment, I decided I needed to tone the colors down a bit, so I could bring in some mermaid/marine,sea,ocean nail jewelry. 

I loved the way they looked... the only problem I had was keeping the jewelry on my nails.  

I ordered the nail jewelry kit from Amazon and it was only about $8.00.  Not bad, considering how hard these little gems are to find. 

Now that it's almost October of 2018, I'll be looking for and attempting "Halloween Nails," so stay tuned. 

The Transformation Journey Begins - Self Care, The Non-Natural Hair Color Metaphamorphisis

I thought I wanted a change... but what I really wanted was

A Transformation

Even though I like the 'rainbow' look, it's not a look I want to wear every single day.

I also liked the "Mermaid" look and that was something I felt I could live with having every day, but since I was going to be 'new' to non-natural colors, my plan was to go with a purple, which wouldn't be 'too' outrageous, and then use colored hair sprays to give myself 'temporary' rainbow or mermaid looks on days I wanted it, while maintaining a safe distance from the 'commitment' of making it my 'daily appearance.'

And it took me almost another full year to finally start the transformation process.

Because I have dark, dark, dark, almost black, brown hair, not a single 'non-natural' color would take if I didn't bleach my hair (or 'lift the natural color') first.

That's one reason it took a year... I kept looking for something that wouldn't require me to bleach my hair first, because, as I knew...

Bleaching My Hair 3 Times... 

It took 3 bleachings, once I finally started the process, to get my hair to a light enough color for these non-natural colors to take hold in my hair.

This picture on the right  is what it looked like after the 2nd bleaching... there was still quite a bit of 'pink' and 'orange' and just all around 'brassiness' in it... so back to Sally I went in search of yet another bleaching kit...

And this picture on the left, is the color of 'blond' I got after bleaching my hair for a 3rd time. It's possible that I may have gotten it even lighter, and gotten a better result had I left the bleach in a little bit longer, or simply used a different bleaching or color-lifting product to begin with, but... live and learn.

And then, it was so damaged from the bleaching, that I wanted to let it grow out a little bit, so I could cut the damage without losing too much length, before adding more harsh chemicals to it.


Then... AAAAACKKK!!!  Just as it grew out enough for me to be ready to cut it, my wonderful children and I found ourselves under a full frontal attack of head lice!

And just in case you don't already know this, no salon can cut your hair when you have head lice.  So... ya gotta get rid of that sh*t.

And the chemicals for doing that are just as harsh as the bleach for your hair.

I waited a good 2 and 1/2 weeks for the lice killing stuff to take effect, combing through it with the amazing "Robi Comb" every single day...

I wasn't sure they were all gone though, as my head was still itching like mad....

But I couldn't stand the blonde anymore.  ( I was definitely not born to be blonde. My skin tone is too dark and my eyes are too dark and too deep set, to pull it off.)

Dyeing My Hair 'Ultraviolet' by Manic Panic. 

So I went ahead and dyed it, using Manic Panic's absolutely gorgeous "Ultra Violet."

But, two days later, my head was still itching like crazy, so I used my lice killing shampoo again, figuring it would kill off anything that the dye didn't.

And that literally STRIPPED, so much of the violet out of my hair, that my color now looked like "Halloween Witch" gray, black and purple.



So, my girlfriend came over two days after that, and cut it for me.

Adding 'Rockabilly Blue' hair dye by Manic Panic

...And we decided to 'work in' a blue over the 'faded' parts of the violet... only.... the blue almost completely overtook my entire head and almost all of the violet, and so now, it's blue.

Once it 'fades' out a little bit, I'll pull out some sections, bleach them again, and add the violet back... and maybe try something else...

For now, I'm planning to buy pink, purple, green, and teal colored 'hair sprays' and use them to create different looks with the current blue.