otrdiena, 2011. gada 31. maijs

Photo report on Avocado day

As promissed, last wednesday evening on green carpet was very green indeed. Literally :)

After the shower I plunged myself into avocado.
  • Hair mask experience (recipe in previous post)- I used half of avocado, whole seemed too much. It blends with honey in perfect, smooth substance, very soft and I found that also my hands were enjoying it when I massaged it through my scalp and hair. I left it in for 30min and washed out with shampoo. Result- after washing hair seemed a bit rough, but today when dry felt very soft!
  • Bump mask experience- I made another portion of the face mask (recipe in previous post, just added much more avocado than anything else this time) and happily covered with it my bump.. Baby seemed to be fine with avocado massage. It was a bit messy as I had to sit down for those 30min not to touch anything :) It felt great, smooth and quite refreshing during the time I had it on. Result- washed it off and my skin had the same plump-effect as my face did in the morning!

I would suggest the Bump mask to every pregnant woman! It feels fantastic to treat yourself like this.. And it's also a lot of fun for everyone who sees you like that!

trešdiena, 2011. gada 25. maijs

Avocado day- Part II- Beauty

Of course, here on green carpet the wonderful and fatty pear shaped avocado is enjoyable in many more ways than just eating!
We take care of our body first by eating to give cells food to make our hair soft and shiny and our skin fresh and elastic. But we do have a lot of outside effects to our body as well, so it's good to take some good care of it externally too. Avocado is just perfect for various masks and oils.

Everyday treatments:
  • Avocado oil is rich and can feed your skin. Use it for hair before wash (let to soak in overnight) or apply directly to skin instead of any chemical lotion- effect will be much better! Some may find that avocado oil is too heavy and thick, therefore you can try to mix it with other, lighter oils. Add some essential oils for aroma benefits!
  • Avocado butter- fatty butter that is mainly sold for purposes of creating your own cosmetics can be used pure - as a single ingredient as well. As a hand cream, for example. Suggestion- put a small jar of avocado butter in your kitchen next to sink to put it on after washing the dishes- it will keep your hands soft and skin healthy.
Deeper treatments:
  • This is the time to use ripe avocado as it is. And the best way to do is - various masks! Even though I like to smear it over my face, neck and hands just as it is- peeled and smashed in my hands, I like to enjoy some more ingredients once in a while. So here are some recipes: 

Today's revitalizing face mask:

2 tbsp. chopped cucumber
2 tbsp. chopped avocado
1 egg white
2 tsp. dry cosmetic clay
Combine all of the ingredients in a blender until they form a smooth paste, apply the mask to your face and neck using circular upward movements. Leave the mask on for 30 minutes, or until dry, then rinse your face and neck with warm water and finish with a cold water rinse.

I did this one this very morning and my skin feels amazing!
My next try- I will apply the same mask to my growing bump as well! My face loved it, my bump will too!

Today's invigorating hair mask:

1 medium avocado
2 tablespoons honey
Mash together the ingredients in a small bowl. Massage into hair and leave in for 20-30 minutes. Then wash hair as usual.

I'm trying this tonight and will share my experience on green carpet tomorrow morning!

P.S.- it was a while ago when me and one of my best friends declared every Wednesday a "Face Day".
So every week I'll try to update if we try something new from home beauty on green carpet!

Avocado day- Part I- Values and eating

Avocado is one of those fruits (berries to be botanically precise) that is highly appreciated on green carpet. So today I decided to dedicate some extra attention to it.

Without going much into history, geography and botanics, I'll move to the main point- why is it so good?

Nutritional value:
  • Each fruit of avocado is full of valuable, healthy fats. Actually about 75% of an avocado's calories come from fat, most of which - monounsaturated fat- good for everyone, but especially those fighting cholesterol levels.
  • Avocados are also full of potassium (60% more than bananas!) and pholate- this point especially important for all growing bumps on green carpet!
  • They are rich in vitamins B, E and K (and contain also others- C, D, P and PP).
  • Avocados contain more fiber than other fruits- about 75% insoluble and 25% soluble fiber
  • In avocado you will find also a fatty triol (fatty alcohol) with one double bond - Avocadene

Here on green carpet we take good and natural care of our bodies and our children. At the moment we're still "2-in-1", and growing rapidly, so I find that avocado is not just something I really enjoy eating. It's also something I must eat to maintain potassium and pholate balance for me and my baby.
One of the most important ways to take care of your skin is through eating (creams and lotions come last, not first!), and avocado with all vitamins and fats are perfect for feeding my skin so it's healthy and elastic.

There are million recipes that tell how to prepare the avocado.
If I would have to make the top list of avocado eats we love the most, that would be following:
  • Spread on the bread. Either plain ripe avocado with a pinch of salt on top, or make avocado butter- mix ripe avocado with butter softened in warm temperature, some salt and garlic. Mmm...
  • Put that in salad- variations are as many as your imagination goes. I particularly like to mix avocado, tomato and mozzarella cheese with some olive oil and balsamico. Or the green leave mix with avocado, cucumber and some dressing. Or salad that joins the amazing tastes of avocado+mango..
  • Roll it in crepes- together with salmon and a squeeze some lemon juice.
  • On side with everything- I can't think of a dish that you couldn't eat with the avocado on side.. one example- I like it with pan fried potatoes (could go well with chunky chips as well for a party snack, no?)

The new list of what I am going to try very soon:
  • Dessert: mix smaller chunks of avocado or blend it together with lime or lemon juice and honey, add toasted sunflower seeds and nuts. Sounds yummy!
  • Smoothie: blend it together with freshly squeezed juices (orange, grapefruit, apple, strawberries, bananas etc).

So today's suggestion on green carpet- avocado is great fruit for everybody, especially those of us with bumps!
Extra suggestion- buy organic if you can! And see where it comes from and find out, which supplier goes less miles!

pirmdiena, 2011. gada 23. maijs

Spray that cucumber!

Another refreshing note on green carpet- face and body spray!

I finished my wonderful tea and lemon juice toner and decided to make a new one, but this time- even lighter than the one before. One I could take with me everywhere and spray on my face and body whenever it's been a bit too hot.. Hmmm.. so I needed something very light, refreshing and green.. the first thing that popped in my mind was- cucumber.. the juicy and green cucumber..
It smells nice, it's light.. and in the end- that is what we put on our eyes after a long night or too long staring in the monitors! If it can do for eyes, it should do for rest of the skin.

So my super-simple recipe:
  • juice the piece of cucumber,
  • put some silver in the water to clean it and make it perfect,
  • cool it all and mix two equal parts of cucumber juice and water together in a spray bottle!



I made two for myself- I keep one in the bathroom, another- in the fridge for times when I want it really cooling (like for my feet in the evening).
And it is so super-simple! I could do one every other day!

It is also a warning: you have to make it fresh more often to make sure it doesn't get old! But it's so easy, it's not a slightest problem :)

It feels fantastic- the light and fresh feeling that stays combined with just a moment long aroma therapy (fades away so quickly)..

 Spray that cucumber!

ceturtdiena, 2011. gada 19. maijs

Sweet'n'Fresh

There have been some very good smelling moments on green carpet.
One of them was creating new face and body scrub. After I did the last one, I realised- I'll probably never buy one in the shop again. It's so easy, natural and the best- tailored to your personal wishes.
This time I chose a little bit different notes on it to have fresher feeling as the weather becomes warmer.

So what goes in:
  • sugar (fairtrade, home grown)
  • grinded fairtrade organic coffee (used from yesterdays decaf mocca cup)
  • chopped balm mint (grown in our apartment, hanging in the window)
  • organic sesame oil (I buy it in big volumes for everything, and I use my own containers to buy it, so less plastic bought and used)
  • mix of essential oils - verbena and sweet grapefruit. 
Proportions: how ever you like, I don't like mine too liquid though, I like the sugary feeling :)
Placed again in a nice screw top container and in my bathroom.

Perfect morning massage once in a while with this!

Going countryside and four basic tasks

Hallo back on green carpet. It's been a little quiet here for a while, but it doesn't meen that nothing is going on. So I think I should start with some updates :)

First- back to the April. I went home ("my real home" as I always call Latvian countryside where I grew up) for the Easter and May holidays. I took a bus, a coach and a plane. Yeah, it's not green. Unfortunately that was the only way for that moment. But I know that the big flying schedule is going to be over very very soon, just the last flight in July left now :) So that's good.

It was fantastic.. being there in the countryside. And so green.. so I'll just start with four basic tasks for human survival and how they were enjoyed on green carpet closer to the nature..

Breathing - we all know that taking slow and deep breaths works great for you. That you shouldn't breath shallow as people usually do, especially when they are crumped at their computers. So we do yoga. But sometimes there's something else we need, and that is-
  • Air itself. It was so fresh that breathing seems to make you feel free at last. I wish I could take it with me to the city, but I could just breath full lungs as long as I was there. And it did wonders-I was relaxed but full of energy.
  • Open windows around the clock. That is another wish-come-true on green carpet. In the countryside you can have the open window all day and night long. I mean- you do still breath in the night! I can't express how beneficial is fresh and cool air when you're sleeping.
  • Being outside. One of the top things for breathing is being out and around, and especially when you are physically active. Which we did and as much as we could!   
Sleeping - ah this very pleasant part of our lives. And the most reviving as well. We heal when we sleep and we grow when we sleep. Not just physically also in other terms. On green carpet we believe that sometimes we have to sleep over some things, they're much more clear in the morning. If you have a good sleep. But what do we need for a good sleep? -
  • Total darkness. Ahh, sleeping in dark, without any light pollution from my windows- I miss it in the city. Just the moon and millions of stars. I'm not just being romantic here, it's also very unhealthy not having the proper rest in the darkness. Body can't rest and recreate enough with the light pollution. Now when I'm back in the city I'm trying to imitate the darkness hanging my black bed throw on top of my beige (bad design idea a while ago) curtains. It's not the same though. The true darkness is very important.
  •  Silence and natural sounds. Silence for sleeping time was another great benefit- not a single human made noise (except my brother walking around or somebody talking downstairs). Some birds chirping, yes, but at the time I was laying my head to the soft pillow, there was silence. It is such a rest. You can hear your heart, your breath and thoughts that fade away in this quiet night. Interesting, that my husband found it difficult to sleep in such silence at the beginning. City had spoiled him too much as he's been living in cities longer than me. I just wonder, how far away from our nature we've been led if that is so. But then his body and mind adapted back to its original state, he loved the dark and silence. We slept in silence and woke up with natural sounds of birds and all nature awaking outside instead of alarm signal. That is something that's worth the world. Now back in the city we suffer a lot from the traffic noise, people shouting, partying, music outside etc. I bought some earplugs (supposedly bio silicone or something to keep ourselves as green as we could) after the first night litterally crying about not being able to sleep. Silence through your sleeping time is a bliss.
  • Waking up with the light. In these two weeks not just light- the sunshine! That's another benefit- in countryside you don't have to use curtains- the night is dark, the morning- bright. So forget about the alarm clocks. The light just tells your body- time to get up, feel invigorated and start your day! 
Seasonal eating- one of other human pleasures. One of important parts of how to sustain or lives in our bodies. One of the opportunities to do good or bad to ourselves- we are what we eat. We all are at times sinners and saints in one person with this. Let's talk about the good things that I enjoyed on green carpet in the country side this spring season.
  • Water. Clean and good right from the tap. Or the spring. First thing in the morning and good levels of it throughout the day. I still started my morning with hot water with lemon juice and Manuka honey, while swingin in a hanging chair in the orangery, talking to my baby, just watching the day begin. Remember- water carries your messages, so make it count :)
  • Spring juice. In spring- it's time for trees. I missed the maple juice, but we made it for the last drops of birch juice. I'm not sure in how many countries people actually do that, but in Latvia, everybody does it! You pick a birch (we have our own special one that treats us every year), bore the hole in it (ask the permission and blessing to the tree!), put the wooden groove in it and a bucked to collect it. (If you're new to it, find someone to make more clear instructions for you!). And then- enjoy the sweet juice. You can drink it till the leaves spring out from their buds. It's healthy and also very good for detox. We collect, prepare and keep it also for later in the cellar, so we can drink it in the hot summer day, but it's the best fresh from the tree.
  • Buds, leaves, flowers. Yes, you can eat all of them and - you don't have to grow them in countryside, they grow there themselves. So I picked my favourites this spring stright from the garden sides, lawn and trees. Leaves: sorrel, chick-weed, ground-elder, nettle, wood sorrel, ramsons, etc. Buds: linden. Flowers: wood sorrel, dandelion, cowslip. This was a nice daily mix I had from fresh leaves and flowers, and it delicious! I just chewed these as they were, but if you can't take it that far yet, just put them in the salad ;) 
Seasonal physical activities- a human body is designed to move and I think we all know the great feeling after doing something more than just clicking and typing. Physical activitie not only gives us a good cardio or strenghtens our muscles, it also improves our immunity, raises our spirits and fills us with "feel good" hormones. Well, I love yoga and walking, I can do it everywhere, so obviously I can do that in the countryside as well. But I just wanted to mention some seasonal things I can do there and then.
  • Spring gardening. Oh, I just love to tell my growing bump, that she will eat these carrots and parsnips in the winter when she's born and starts to eat solid. And I love the knowledge, that I'll have these beetroots to juice in the autumn for my whole family. But to do that, we have to do some digging, sowing and watering. And believe me, it's a good workout that brings you both immediate joy and great fruits (veggies in this case) afterwards.
  • Spring cleaning in and out. We all love spring- it's fresh, bright and green. So we clean. Everything. Starting from the cupboard and inside of home, to garden and all the territory surrounding your house. Which in my case was big. Reorganizing cupboard or cleaning windows might be tiring, but so rewarding. More space, everything clean and tidy, and some bags to give away to charity. Outside though it's the real deal- cutting bushes, some trees, clearing the space to make it beautiful for this year. Lovely. But you must take into account that you'll need a good dinner and a nice massage after it. 
These all things were much enjoyed within those two weeks. I wish everyone had a chance for them, it would be just fair to ourselves. I can't wait till I'm going back in July to have some Summer seasonal pleasures there in all these matters.