Lifestyle & Home: Postcarden, send a tiny garden in the post

What an enchanting idea the Postcarden is - a postcard that unfolds into a miniature 3D scene, complete with cress seeds, just waiting to spring into life.

From the humble allotment garden to a Victorian botanical glass house palace, these little gardens are bursting with life and energy. Made with FSC certified card, and featuring a great range of designs (including a mini football pitch, and just in time for Christmas, a starry Alpine scene), these Postcardens are just the thing to give your message a life of it's own.

Sophy

Lifestyle & Home: Have a ghostly, green, Halloween

Halloween is my favourite night of the year. At  New Year's Eve and Christmas there's so much pressure to be having the best possible time ever; Halloween is simply fun. We dress up, we tell stories, we deliberately frighten ourselves, we take on new identities. What I love most about Halloween is the creativity on parade, as people compete with each other to make the scariest costume, the creepiest decorations and the grossest treats.

Given that the focus is on creativity – making, crafting, story telling – it's a shame that the shops fill up with the same disposable plastic rubbish, sticking to the same themes year in, year out. The best decorations and costumes are personalised, home made, and make us smile as well as scream!

Fortunately there are a multitude of tips, recipes and projects to help you have a creative, and thrifty, Halloween, without lots of waste and extra landfill on 1st November. Here are some that I thought were particularly nifty, in a gruesome kind of way. Happy Halloween everybody!

Blood Clot and Brain Cupcakes: Simultaneously delightful and horrible, these spooky, sticky treats are just the thing to prepare you for a night of trick or treating.

Bleeding Vampire Bite Cupcakes: Serve with garlic bread, just in case. Feeling ambitious? Try a tiny pumpkin complete with mice occupants – far too fiddly for me...

Witch's Finger Cookies: Delicious, if you can bring yourself to put one in your mouth! Try experimenting with green food dye, for the Wicked Witch of the West look.

Eyeball Punch: A Halloween classic, and pretty healthy too! For that extra fear factor, fill a clean washing up glove with water, tie up the end, freeze and empty into your punch – a frozen helping hand to alarm your guests.

Pumpkin Hummus: Leftover pumpkin? Put it to good use, and try making this delicious dip.

Cobweb Candles: Simple yet creepy, and you can put this decoration away and reuse next year. Or try making cobwebs from (organic) cotton wool.

Woolly Ghosts: If you're handy with knitting needle, or even if you're not, try this simple pattern to make a ghostly family. (Scroll down for the link to the pattern.)

Here are some favourites tricks and treats of mine for a great spooky atmosphere.

Specimen Jars: Old plastic toys are creepy enough anyway, stick them in a large jar (with a lid) and submerge in water with green food dye and they are downright terrifying! Illuminate from behind with a tea light in a saucer.

Creepy Creepers: Attached bits of old string and shredded rag to the ceiling, so that it hangs down just low enough to brush your guests heads and shoulders. Dip the ends in water for an extra chill. Turn the lights low, and wait for the shrieks...

Ghostly Light: Go through the recycling bin and pull out any coloured plastic bottles. Cut off the base of the bottles – on it's own, it has a pretty flower-like shape. Attached a few together around a light fitting with an energy saving bulb – take inspiration from Michelle Brand's beautiful upcycled creations. You can use the rest of the bottle to make spooky cut outs for your windows or to stick on to lampshades; bats, witches, and spiders. Or what about some 21^st century bogeys – cloned sheep, mutant tomatoes, mice with human ears...

Sophy

Lifestyle & Home: Why I Don’t Use Chemicals in Any of My Products

A lot of people often ask me why it's so important not to use chemicals in beauty products, household laundry, paint and cleaning products. It's about time that I told everyone why and what the chemicals in standard beauty products are capable of. There is a lot of information on this subject and I would advise you to do your own research on this and inform yourself of the correct information.

People often argue that the small amount of chemicals found in everyday products are harmless and yet what is often overlooked is the build-up of these products over time within the body. Because the body cannot eliminate a lot of chemicals, they stay stored within the body, building up year after year into a toxic soup. Terrifying isn't it? Not to mention that these chemicals are literally washed down the drain into our water system causing potential serious problems for our own and our children's futures in years to come.

But there is an answer, in the form of arming ourselves with the facts, removing the use of these chemicals in our lives and detoxing our body with specialised products to remove the waste products.

To summarize and act as a staring point, here is a list of chemicals that should at all costs be avoided in your products:

Alcohol (Isopropyl)
This is a solvent used in anti-freeze and can be found across a range of products such as moisturiser, hair colourants, body lotion, hand lotion, after shave, perfume and fragrance. It can cause depression, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting. The fatal dose if taken internally is only one ounce.

DEA(dienthanolamine) MEA(monoethanolamine) TEA(methanolamine)
These chemicals are carcinogenic and disruptor hormones. Used repeatedly over time, they can cause both liver and kidney cancer. They are usually in products like bubble bath, hand wash, shampoos, soaps and cleansers, shower gels and body washes, or any product which foams.

Fragrances
Fragrances can be found in almost every beauty product and this includes shampoo, conditioners, facial skincare products, soap, bath products sunscreen, in fact the list is endless and up to 4000 chemicals can be included in any product. Many of the properties in fragrance are potentially carcinogenic and toxic and can affect the central nervous system causing dizziness, vomiting, nausea amongst many others.

Polyethelene glycol (PEG)
This chemical can be found in facial cleansers and is added to dissolve the oil and grease on our skin It also thickens the product to make it creamy.  PEG's  disrupt the immune system by stripping our skin of it’s natural moisture and are also potentially carcinogenic.

Propylene glycol (PG)
Found in haircare products, cosmetics, after shave, deodorants, mouthwashes and toothpaste toothpaste. This chemical nasty is also used in processing our food. It is the active ingredient in anti freeze and industrial workers handling this product have to wear gloves and even eye protection because of it’s toxicity to the skin, where it's destroyed at hazardous waste sites.. Yet it can be found in a high concentrations in products we are using on our skin daily and even putting into our mouth (toothpaste and mouthwash).

Sodium lauryl sulphate or also Sodium Laureth (SLS)
This product is in 90 per cent of all shampoos and really anything that foams. It is a surfactant and is also used in detergents. Research has shown it is damaging to the immune system, the eyes and skin and when combined with other chemicals in products can also be carcinogenic. It is now seen as a real health threat because it is present in products that are innocently used daily. Problem is, it’s residue stays in the body where it then wreaks havoc. Because it gets absorbed by the skin, it is even more dangerous than eating it.

Make up Mineral oil
Using this is like putting a seal over your skin, or wrapping it in plastic cling film. Think on this one….we put it all over our babies! It acts like a seal and stops the skin from breathing disrupting our natural immune barrier. It stops the skin from eliminating toxins causing them to accumulate. This contributes to acne and by it’s very nature in causing toxin build up, causes premature aging of the skin.

Dioxin
This product is carcinogenic and 500,000 more deadly than DDT Ethyl Alcohol

DMDM Hydantoin and Urea
These preservatives actually release formaldehyde into our bodies which is carcinogenic. Even funeral directors are saying that they only need to use half the formaldehyde that they once used because of the high concentration in our bodies at the time of death.

Methlyparaben and Propylparaben
Methylparaben is from the paraben  family of chemicals, and is pretty commonly used as a preservative in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food. It is readily and completely absorbed directly through the skin and the gastrointestinal tract, meaning it has absolutely no problem getting into your system via any means. Various studies have shown methylparabens to disrupt our endocrine system, and the Environmental Working Group gives it a score of 8 for a High Hazard ingredient. According to them, methylparabens are linked to cancer, immunotoxicity, and organ system toxicity.

Avoid  Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben and Butylparaben. In the EU, cosmetic ingredients are listed by law so it is really easy to check before you buy.

Some great online stores for chemical free products are:

Miss Eco Glam Shop

Love Lula

Baldwins

Eco Beauty Shop

How on Earth

The Natural Beauty Shop

* Information from Well Women

Rachel

Lifestyle & Home: Ugly Be Gone

I had no idea what to expect when I first heard about Ugly be Gone, they certainly have found a name that is memorable. It was with a little bit of hesitation that I embarked on this site for the first time, not knowing what was in store for me. When you have no idea what to expect and open this site, what awaits is a very pleasant surprise, a breath of fresh air.

Lydia

Lifestyle & Home: Made at Home by Lisa Stickley

If you've always fancied making something and don't know where to start, Lisa Stickley's book 'Made at Home' offers chic yet practical ideas for crafty projects to do at home. As a follow-on from the BBC TV series, you can now follow one of her easy to do projects and create something individual, unique and with handmade style for your Kitchen, Living room, Bedroom and Laundry.

Illustrated step-by-step instructions take you through each stage of the projects, building on the techniques you have already learnt and increasing your sewing confidence. Discover how to finish seams, stitch hems and hand-sew buttonholes whether you're trying to furnish a first home on a budget or you simply want to refresh a tired room with new cushions. Whatever your sewing experience, you'll find some original ideas for your home. This book will help you to discover the art of customisation at home and will keep you coming back for more ideas and inspiration on how to make put a personal stamp on your living space.

Lifestyle & Home: Aura Soma Consultation at Aloka

La Luminata was invited to try out a new system of personal transformation called 'Aura Soma' at the Aloka centre in Brighton, UK.

"Aura" means "light" and "Soma" means "the body" (from the Greek) or "the being" (from the Aramaic), or "living energies" (from the Sanskrit). Aura-Soma® connects the light to the body - it addresses the being of light within each of us and the living energies of light that surround us.

To start the consultation I'm asked to choose four bottles from the selection on display and to arrange them in the order that feels right for me. The bottles are a range of colour combination bottles called ‘Equilibrium’. Each bottle contains two colours and by selecting the ones that appeal to us we can use them as a mirror in which we can recognise our needs, our truth and our potential. This 'language of colour' is entirely instinctual as I choose the coloured bottles quickly, unhesitatingly and without thinking. I even gravitate towards choosing a bottle which feels murky and unattractive in colour, yet I've been told that it's often our sub-conscious choices that can lead to the most startling readings.

Using my bottles as a guide, my lovely consultant Heather begins by assessing the meaning of each bottle and what these colours represent to me. As a very visual and creative person, I found this process extraordinary as I had instinctually chosen colours which were completely spot-on in describing myself, my vision, my current situation and what the future may bring. I found out that my life purpose relates to an ascended master; (61) Sanat Kumara and that this high-purpose also involves creativity, innovation, passion and hope, with my overall prevalent colour's being red and yellow. This was very interesting to me personally as I have always been drawn to the colour (89) yellow and this colour represents the core of my personality, the softness, warmth and the glow. The (89) red symbolises innate drive and passion, something which I'm not outwardly known for and yet it was extremely prevalent in my reading. This colour also shows how it will carry me into my future (0) Royal Blue, being that the very lifeblood of me is filled with determination, passion and a love for life. Something that is so hidden came up in such an obvious way during this reading that it positively blew me away! It was also comforting to hear these things being said to me, as running La Luminata takes a lot of work and yet it shows that I'm on completely the right path for my life's purpose. Recently I've secretly been considering life-changes such as retraining as a therapist or healer, yet this reading told me that my most good will be created from using my visual streak and creative ideas. Who knew running a magazine could be both great fun and a spiritual calling!

Aura-Soma was created in 1984 after the name and the vision of its creation, was bestowed upon Vicky Wall. In a series of meditative visions Vicky was given the same message repeatedly; she was told to "go and divide the waters". Vicky, a practicing chiropodist, pharmacist and herbalist was 66 years of age and clinically blind

In her small laboratory, she formulated a mixture comprising different layers and colours of the most natural ingredients she could find. Using plant extracts, essential oils and crystals she captured the elements into what we now call the ‘Equilibrium Bottle’. From this inspiration in 1984 a colour system has grown and spread across the World.

There are 108 different bottles, each of which is able to tell a story. Vicky Wall, the founder of the Aura-Soma system felt that Equilibrium was a mirror to the soul; enabling the individual to recognise in their colour choices the reflection of their deeper aspects.

Designed to be used on the body, they contain colour, plant and crystal energies in fractions of oil over water. Containing essential oils and herbal extracts they combine the arts of the aroma therapist and the herbalist. The crystal energies help ground and fine tune the actions of the whole package. The colour energies are the key by which all other ingredients are harmonised and selected. The bottles may be applied directly to the skin; here the active ingredients work their ‘magic’ by supporting the body on a mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic level to bring about resolution, change and restore balance and harmony.

Lifestyle & Home: Aloka, Quality of Life Centre Restaurant

Aloka is an unusual cafe, restaurant and treatment centre based in the South Laines of Brighton, UK. 'Aloka' meaning the 'Light' related with your inner wisdom, sums up the feel-good factor of this venue. Using completely natural and organic materials with thoughtful and modern design to create the centre, this is truly the place to unwind and relax amongst the bustle of Brighton city centre.

Aloka offers a complete wellbeing experience. With three light and airy treatment rooms, a studio for yoga, a crystal and cosmetics shop, a  vegan café and an exclusively vegan and ‘raw’ restaurant, you can guarantee to reap the benefits of regular visits to the restaurant and use of the treatments.

The main restaurant offers ‘Raw’ or ‘Living’ food, meaning all of the food is prepared at temperatures of under 46ºC. This means that the proteins, enzymes, minerals & cofactors that make up the life force of the food are still intact when eaten and therefore are more ‘useable’ by our bodies. Also because the food is not cooked it contains less harmful chemicals that are the by-product of the cooking process. All of this means that raw food contains more ‘energy’, is more easily digested and contains fewer toxins than cooked foods.