Natural Handmade Soap

The Marula Tree Soap Co. makes natural handmade soap from glycerin bases with additives such as Goat's Milk, Shea Butter, Honey and Marula Oil. Marula Oil is a unique oil pressed from the kernels of the Marula Trees in southern Africa. To learn more about the benefits of Marula Oil click here. All my products are vegan friendly except those with Goat's Milk and Honey. Thanks!

You can purchase my soaps from my etsy store here!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

'Sweet Poison' and to making a better life

So I haven't done many posts where I actually talk about my feelings and opinions, but there's a topic that I've been researching a lot lately so I thought I'd start there. It's sugar - white, sweet, delicious, processed in everything, sugar.

It started when I was in Oregon and I was thinking to myself that I had to make some changes with my health and my body. I shouldn't wake up from a full night's sleep feeling groggy, and wanting a nap by noon complete with uncontrollable yawning.  At work I feel like I could fall asleep on command. I don't eat terrible, I actually pride myself on always bringing a lunch to work, and saying 'no' to the spread of Tim Horton's that plagues the office on a regular bases, but I know that I could be doing a LOT better. I'm a really 'picky' eater (I hate that term), and I feel like it's immature, but hard to change. I've also had self-image issues as far back as I can remember and have tried a few "diets" but have never been happy or comfortable in my own skin. And lastly, I often have thoughts of depression, and sometimes feel stressed and sad for no apparent reason. Everything just always feels a little gloomy. As I was researching sugar, I discovered that it could be sugar responsible for my body, depression, mood-swings and tiredness. Sugar! Something I ingest every single day.

The first thing I stumbled upon was Linda Wagner's blog. She's a nutrition coach with a blog full of healthy recipes, advice and inspiration all with a "you go girl!" attitude. She started me on making green smoothies:



You can read her post on them here.

Next, her blog lead me to a woman named Sarah Wilson's blog here. I read her series of posts called "I quit sugar" and couldn't believe how much it made sense. Finally, her posts lead to a book written by David Gillespie called "Sweet Poison"



And this is his website.

I know myself and I know that I would never make it on an "Atkins" or even Paleo diet because I love my carbs and I can't give them up. David doesn't require that we all give up carbs because we're mostly trying to avoid only one kind of sugar - Fructose. Fruit is very high in fructose, and so is honey, agave nectar and maple syrup. White sugar is made up of half fructose and half sucralose. Milk has lactose (which is fine), and carbs turn into glucose. The kind of carbs we want to be eating is high-fibre "slow moving" ones, so whole-grains and ones that are brown instead of white. In a nut shell I have to quit eating anything with white processed sugar, high-fructose fruits (and to limit myself to 1-2 low-fructose fruits, probably in a green smoothie), desserts, chocolate (don't worry, I'll be trying out many sugar-free chocolate recipes I've found lately and will report back), syrups, white carbs, sauces, cereals and granola bars. To make up for these losses, I get to eat more fat! Say hello to delicious cheeses, bacon, real butter and lots and lots of protein. I'm not going to start until I am fully prepared so that I can't slip up immediately and toss the whole idea. I have an order of Stevia on the way, which is a natural sweetener found in a plant from South America. It has it's controversy (like any sugar alternatives) but I'll be using it for my coffee and sugar-free chocolate exclusively.

Anyway, I'm trying to make a new beginning for myself, that will hopefully have long term positive effects on my health and how I feel. If your interested, I went to my local Value Village (they honestly have the best used book section) and picked myself up a book on overcoming sugar addiction, and it cost me $4.00 and so far has been an interesting read. I haven't yet been able to get my hands on a copy of David's "Sweet Poison" so in the meantime I'll read whatever else I can. I'm sure any used book store will have something similar.

Thanks for reading! I hope I have spiked some interest when it comes to your own diets, and if you think sugar could be the culprit. :) I'll share more information later on as I prepare to make the change.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

A few new soaps

Blood Orange with Marula Oil


Pomegranate & Black Currant with Marula Oil - in a new "fit in your hand easily" shape :)


And a Chocolate Frosted Cupcake!


Get them all here.
Have a good day everyone!


Monday, July 25, 2011

Oregon Coast

 

So our little summer vacation started off with 1 night in Portland, Oregon.  We stayed in the cutest motel room and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. The room had just recently been re-done with new modern decor and the location was perfect; 5 minutes from restaurants and bars, and 15 minutes to the downtown core (walking). It was great! We did a bit of shopping and then had some good greek food for dinner!

Of course we visited the Oregon Zoo, and my personal rating on it is that it's not quite as nice as Woodland Zoo in Seattle, but it is definitely respectable. And I love me some big cats!







And then the dunes, they are unbelievable! It makes you feel like you are somewhere completely different than only a few hours from home.


I love these little oasis' in the middle of the dunes, so pretty!


Matt climbing the dunes.. Seriously, they are beautiful but they make you work for it! It's like the ultimate stairmaster..


Nice calm beach that we found, the rest were pretty windy!


As soon as I sat down this guy bee-lined it for me. I really thought he wanted to be my friend, but later found out he was just mooching for food :(


This beach was so windy!


This was our little campsite in Florence. After this weekend I decided that I don't love tenting. I can definitely rough it, as I proved to myself in Africa, but tenting was tough. And then how about when your going home and you have to pack it all up and try to fit your huge tent into it's gum wrapper sized sleeve. (You all know what I'm talking about) and come to think of it, the sleeping bags and air mattress don't seem to ever fit into their bags either. Also, I was probably dehydrated the whole time because I had a cut off for liquids after dinner for fear that I'd have to get up and pee in the middle of the night.
Needless to say, it was a great experience.. but we spent the last night in a hotel in Salem. :)


The coast!


And sea lions! A lot of sea lions!


The sign said that this lighthouse was the most photographed lighthouse in the world, so naturally I couldn't resist.


Dune buggie adventure! This was awesome and definitely a highlight. I think I still have sand in my ears though..


And lastly, a beautiful ending to our trip.

Now it's lots of work and no holidays until September 2012. Matt and I are once again embarking on a journey to Africa then, but I will save those details for a later date!
Good night!


Sunday, July 24, 2011

Home again,


Hi everyone! I'm home now and it's back to the grind again tomorrow. We had a good time and it was fun while it lasted. I'll have a full update with pictures to come, but for now.. I'm going to bed!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Stumblin'

Have you all heard of stumbleupon? http://www.stumbleupon.com/ - You sign up for an account and then look through categories and check off things that interest you. Then you click stumble and it brings up webpages and blogs that you would probably never find otherwise. It's so great! Great recipes, travel destinations, cool architecture, music, art, quotes, motivation, videos and anything else you can think of. Right now I 'stumbled' across http://8tracks.com/. If your looking for new music or inspiration then this site is perfect for you. People put together mixes and you can play them right off the webpage. I happened to be looking for new music for our upcoming road trip so this was great timing!

And speaking of the trip, we're leaving on Wednesday morning so I guess I am officially on vacation! I'm having the hardest time putting the shop on vacation mode, but when it re-opens next Monday I plan to re-vamp it a bit with a few new items, and removing some older ones.

On our trip we're spending a night in Portland to do some shopping and go to the zoo (of course), and then we're driving to Florence to camp next to the sand dunes for 3 nights. I'm most looking forward to just adventuring around the coast, and finding a little bit of bliss.



See ya next week!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Snap Shots

I love summer - Here are a few shots from our Saturday activities:

After doing the Grouse Grind we checked out the Grizzly Bear habitat and this guy was happily posing for us on top of a mountain of snow.


The Tram down the mountain.. A preferred method of transportation compared to the Grind!


Views out the window


And an evening of playing Volleyball in a field with some friends <3



Friday, July 8, 2011

New Products

With work, school, baseball, running, filling orders and having summer finally present itself, I've found little time for creating lately. Luckily I took an afternoon off this week to make soap, and play around with some new ideas!

Here's a few that will be showing up in the shop this weekend:

Sangria Punch - with little soap fruit wedges inside. This soap is a limited edition for the summer!


Blue Raspberry Lip Balm


And... If etsy has taught me anything, it's that people like odd/quirky things. SO I present to you, Barbeque Solid Perfume. Lol!


I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Only a week and a half until my boyfriend and I jet down the west coast to Oregon for a much needed vacation. Can't wait!

Also, for some reason I can't comment on any blogs (including my own), so if you leave a comment and I don't respond, this is why!