In the UK – Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It was customary for people to return to the church where they were baptised and to visit their mother and their families, bring gifts to give their mums.
I look forward to this day, as my kids surprise me with a homemade card which is just about the best thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day card from Little Bird with a little lavender scented felt blackbird decoration
This aromatic Rose Scented tea, made its way into a body scrub, simply because I could not get enough of the delicate scent of rose scented tea.
Since tea is well-known for its antioxidant properties, the act of steeping the tea leaves in hot water and drinking it will activate its health giving properties. I thought it would also make for a wonderfully fragrant body scrub, which would not only delicately scent   my skin, but would leave it wonderfully soft and pampered this weekend.
Making this could not be easier. Simply take a cupful of coarse sea salt. In my case I’m using the Dead Sea bath salts that I purchased a while back and am working my way through.
Add a spoonful of Rose Pouching loose leaf tea and mix into the salt granules.
Add a spoonful of Coconut oil and mix until the consistency is soft, slightly damp and granular. If you want to boost the moisture content, you can add a splash of Rosewater, and mix in until you get the consistency you’d like for the scrub. Just enough moisture in my case to make the salt form a clump in my hands.
You can add Rose essential oil to this to further enhance the delicate scent of Rose. The scent of the coconut oil compliments the sweet floral scent of the Rose tea and will moisturise the skin, leaving a silky softness.
Apply to damp skin, by gently rubbing the mixture in a circular motion on your skin. Don’t overdo it, the aim is to rub until your skin feels as if it has had a workout and has a soft glow.
You can either use thus scrub in the shower and rinse away the tea leaves as you go, or as I did, in a bath so that all the gorgeous scent, little blobs of Rose petals and tea leaves unfurl and surround you in the delicate scent of Rose Pouchong tea. The antioxidants in the tea will aid aching limbs and muscles. I like the idea of bathing in tea, it’s qualities being good on the outside as well as on the inside.
The origins of the tea come from China, later imported to Taiwan, where it has become a specialty. This tea in the pretty caddy was a treat from Fortnum and Masons, you can of course get this tea fairly easily in a supermarket or find it in specialty tea websites.
The leaves from the tea plant are harvested and wrapped in paper, layered and left to dry, with dried Rose buds added to delicately scent the tea, once dried, the loose tea leaves look like little tiny lengths of rope.
It is a lovely tea, refreshing, with just the right rich depth of flavour. It’s strange because if you inhale the scent of this tea, its wonderful scent will transport you to a scene out of The Arabian nights filled with the sweet scent of Turkish delight. It does not have a dark smoky taste like Chinese Oolong or light and refreshing sparkle of green tea, but somewhere in between. Sweet and fragrant.
I love to drink this tea at the end of the day, a full pot with a biscotti, which I like to dunk in the tea or a coconut flavoured biscuit. Hmmm off to brew a cuppa!
Enjoy drinking or bathing in Rose Pouchong!
Monday 8th February 2016 will be the first day of the Year of the Monkey and the Chinese New Year.
Growing up we didn’t really celebrate the coming of the new year as much as we should have done.
What I do remember are – just a few things that I’ve made an effort to carry on as traditions in our family.
Like Christmas crackers these are great fun. When the kids were much younger, their first reception year at Primary School, I was asked to bring in some things that were Chinese for the children in my kids school. It was easy to bring in some fresh ginger, spring onions, noodles, Chinese cabbage and a bottle of soy. I handed lucky fortune cookies to the kids. Since then we’ve celebrated Chinese New Year with a few Fortune Cookies
It’s traditional in Chinese Culture to hand out little envelopes filled with Money as a way of welcoming in the New Year and wishing loved ones good fortune with little packets with money. I remember receiving these as a child. Now that my kids are a little older and understand the value of money, I’ll be leaving two little packets on the mantle for them to find.
Lots and lots of food, at any given time, the Chinese celebrate the New Year with lots of food, always freshly prepared. Aparently, and I don’t know whether this is superstition or just a family thing, my parents would make sure there were plenty left over so that there would always be food.
Seeing the new year in would also involve setting off fireworks or firecrackers, the louder the better as this would mean scarying the demons and monsters away from your home
Whilst alcohol, such as rice wine would be served at mealtimes, the ritual of drinking Chinese tea as part of the meal is something which I still remember
Snacks and sweets, more food!
Watching the dragon dance and taking part in the celebrations in China Town and Trafalgar Square. This is something we’ve done a few times. This year we didn’t manage to travel into Central London. A small incident with the washing machine on Saturday, meant we were catching up on the week’s laundry on Sunday, the day when London celebrates the Chinese New Year. Whilst this was an inconvenience, it’s better to be appreciative and count our blessings rather than worry over misfortunes. Something my mum taught me when I was I was little. At least, we didn’t have to go to the expense of getting a new washing machine, because it was fixed and very quickly too. Instead, we visited a Chinese Supermarket on Sunday and stocked up on lots of goodies to enjoy this week.
The number eight is considered a lucky number. Maybe it was just coincidence, I like to think that fate had a part to play, we live in the 8th house along our road. This year is the Year of the Monkey and there are 2 generations of Monkeys in this house, I think this will be a year full of great surprises and eventful too as my youngest will start secondary school this year.
I think it’s the little things, small pleasures that keep you going.
Since we received a Dolce Gusto coffee machine, I have come to appreciate a small hit of caffeine to kick start my day.
We’ve been trying out all sorts from the Dolce Gusto range, both from the online shop as well as the ones you can find in the supermarket.
As I’m not keen on lattes, being a little too milky, I much prefer strong black coffee. The one that I like most is the limited edition Yunnan espresso. This little capsule is only available from  the online shop.
I had never heard or read about coffee grown in China. Like most people I associate tea with China, so it was so lovely to discover a coffee grown in a climate and location of dramatic mountain ranges. Imagine these as the scene to wake up to, where rice is grown on man made terraces on mountains. It must be such an experience. It’s going on my bucket list now as a place to visit.
The coffee itself is distinctive due to its light fruitiness. Even though it’s an intense Esspresso, I think it smells light and refreshing. The texture of the coffee is delicate yet rich and powerful, a combination which reminds me of the Yin and Yang symbol, a balance of light and dark.
In a few days it will be time to celebrate Chinese New Year. I can’t wait… We’ve always celebrated. The last two years, venturing into China Town to see the dragon dancing in the streets in London and eating in one of the nearby restaurants. It’s become a bit of a tradition for our family.
This is one of my favourites as there’s only one way to describe the scent in this bottle and that is its sublimely indulgent.
The heady scent of Jasmine will hit you the moment this makes contact with water and skin.
The scent is as natural and as authentic as you can get to real Jasmine. I love the idea of enveloping myself in its aroma, drinking in the scent as if I’m sipping my favourite Jasmine Tea from Whittards.
From outside in, the scent of Jasmine can be a natural drug to lift your mood. It stimulates the release of serotonin which boosts energy. Perhaps this is the reason I love it so much.
As it is one of the most expensive essential oils to buy, I have a small bottle which contains a 10% dilution in jojoba oil, which I keep to add a few drops into the night time facial oil I made.
Around 8 million Jasmine blooms are needed to produce a kilo of essential oil, commercially the blooms are hand picked at night when their scent is at their most powerful. I love the idea that the magic of the scent is only released at night. There’s something very Arabian nights about this. Â It also means it’s one of the most expensive oils to buy.
It also reminds me of my early childhood home where we had a Jasmine bush climbing outside our front door.
In in early evening as the blooms released their scent, our home was bathed in the delicate scent. I can’t explain how I remember this, I just do and that’s mostly the reason why I am always drawn to anything that’s Jasmine scented.
I have a feeling that the blizzard that has besieged the U.S. is headed for the U.K and we are going to get a lot of snow. Not as bad as New York, but bad enough to want to stay home with a warm cuppa instead of venturing out.
These bright sunny roses were in the supermarket on Sunday and I could not resist. I’ve filled a vase with them, long stems with their dark green leaves and yellow petals, lighting up the room. They’re bringing an instant cheer making the room feel cosy with their warm glow.
Not much else to say except, just enjoy the cheerful brightness that they’re bringing.
These lemony ginger nuts are the perfect way to counter gloomy weather. When the weather gets cold, our oven gets busy with lots of baking to fill the air with the delicious scent of home-baked biscuits.
This recipe is adapted from Delia Online and has been a favourite, since my eldest made them for one of her homework assignments for school.
As we had plenty of Golden Syrup, ginger and lemons, I decided that the lemons would bring a lovely citrusy tang to the ginger nuts.
Ingredients:
Zest of one lemon and about a dessert spoon  of lemon juice
110grams of Self Raising Flour
1 slightly rounded teaspoon of ground ginger
1 level teaspoon of biocarb of soda
40g soft brown sugar
50g butter
2 tablespoon of golden syrup
Preheat oven to 190degree c or Gas mark 5
To make:
Sieve the flour, biocarbonate, ground ginger into a bowl, add the lemon zest and combine. With your hands, rub the softened butter into the mixture until it resembles rubble.
Add the lemon juice, and the golden syrup, combine this into a dough. (You may need to add a little flour at this stage if the dough feels too wet or sticky. The consistency you are aiming for is something resembling short crust pastry. Form the dough into a ball and divide in half, then half again and cut into four. This should make 16 small pieces of dough.
Rub plenty of butter onto a non stick baking tray. Next place the small pieces of dough on to the baking tray and flatten them slightly. Leave plenty of room between each and put into the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.
When they come out of the oven they will be soft. Leave them to cool a little before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
All that remains is to enjoy with a lovely cup of tea. They took all of half an hour to make and bake. Even better was that the lingering scent of ginger and lemons was in our house for the rest of the afternoon.
It started to snow today, little fluffy flakes which made the air feel very cold. While I love snow, my face, particularly my eyes don’t.
This homemade Anti-aging eye serum is more like a gel than a serum. That’s because it’s full of the goodness of Rosehip oil.
Rosehip Oil is packed full of antioxidants, is super moisturising and is considered a “dry oil” meaning that it’s quickly absorbed by the skin. It heals scars, is great for pigmented skin and is a great all-round moisturiser for your skin.
Combine this with the calming benefits of Chamomile and the delicate scent of Jasmine, with the antioxidants from Green Tea to prevent dark circles, this nightly eye serum has kept my delicate under eye area nourished, and in spite of the cold weather, the area under my eyes feel soft and replenished.
To make this eye gel is very simple.
In a pan, put a jug in simmering hot water.
(makes 30ml)
Add your ingredients:
3Â ml of Bees Wax
20ml of Rosehip Oil
7ml of Shea Butter
Wait until melted.
Now add some Green Tea (I’ve used a Green Tea bag and simply sprinkled this into the mixture to infuse the green tea into the oil.
Add one drop of Chamomile and Jasmine to the mixture
Leave to simmer for 5 minutes and then strain the mixture  through a fine sieve into a small container or jar.
Leave to cool.
The beeswax should emulsify and hold the Rosehip and Shea butter together in a gel-like consistency.
I tend to use this at night just before bed so that all the goodness of the rich serum works overnight. Just tap a very small amount onto the skin under your eye, being careful not to get any into your eyes.
I don’t know if anyone else has the same thoughts about January. It’s a very long month, we put away the Christmas decorations finally, so they are now hibernating for another year.
My day literally begins and ends in darkness and in between are the working hours in an office. It can be a whole 5 days in an office that’s connected by an underpass from the Tube station straight into Canary Wharf, before I glimpse any daylight to wake up to at the weekend.
Last Saturday, I was running some errands and spotted these lovely roses. They are nothing extraordinary, just the type you find at the entrance of a supermarket. In this case Marks and Spencer.
They stood out, because they were the last bunch in white, flecked with a delicate green to their outer petals. I bought them on impulse, because they made me smile.
This week the roses will make some sunshine for me. I will look at them whilst inhaling and drinking a cup of espresso.
I’ve moved them to the dining table so their presence can keep me company, while the rest of the house sleeps on as I get ready to leave for work.
I’ve been using Molton Brown’s Japenese body wash all this week, as a way to get the zing and wake up to the start of the day.
Getting back into the commute and a full day at work has been hard, especially after the long Festive break.
So this indulgent body wash, which is packed full of the delicious scent of the Japanese Yuzu fruit, is a wonderful way to chase away the darkness outside when I wake-up and reluctantly make my way to the bathroom.
If you are in need of something that will wake you up and lift your senses, this is a great way to begin the day. It contains a blend of Yuzu, Patchouli, caraway and smells wonderful.
The fruit of the Yuzu, a citrus fruit is used in Japanese bath houses as a part of a deep cleansing ritual. I’ve never been to Japan, but one of my earliest memories is visiting a bath house with my mother when I was little in Taiwan. I remember being in a deep hot pool of water bathing with other women along with my mother, a faded memory from childhood.
As this scent is so bright and zesty, I am using it to bring a little sunshine to my mood.
