Friday, July 22, 2011

My Vegetable Garden

I sure had problem reconnecting with blogosphere. Thanks to Roma of Town Square. Hopefully I'll be able to make up for the lost time. Thought some of you might be interested in seeing some of my vegetable garden pictures. Here are some of them.


Ridge Gourd ( Turai, Beerakaya ) lots of male flowers at this point.



Lemon cuke ( dosakaya )


Bottle Gourd ( Kaddu, Anapakaya )


Chile peppers ( Mirchi, mirapakaya )


Ivy gourd plant ( tindora, dondakaya ), just got it from a dear lady in NJ.


Baby Cucumber ( Keera )


Water Melon ( puchakaya )



Okra ( bhindi, bendakaya )


Brinjal( Vankaya )



Got few other vegetables like karela, snake gourd, chikkudukaya, corn, tomatoes, onions, carrots beets, methi etc. will post them once they start producing any fruit.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

After a loong hiatus, back with some Soap !!!


I am back!! I know some of you might have forgotten me, cause its been three years since I blogged. Was working, had a baby and many other things going on. But now I am back. This time with something different to offer. Yeah! I wont let you keep guessing about the title of the post. You read it right! Its about SOAP not food this time. I have kept this secret long enough with me that I finally couldn't contain it anymore and decided to broadcast it :). Yes, I started making soap. Now you may ask, Why in the world I am making soap when such a plethora of soaps are available in the market. Well, that is the irony.The soap that we find in stores is mass produced and contain a whole range of dangerous ingredients. This can include things like petroleum, irritants, detergents and more. This is bad for our skin as well as the environment. It might cost less than natural soap, but it costs more in the long run. So I went ahead and tried purchasing natural products like Burt's Bee products for skin care, Like body wash and lotions. But it costs a fortune to indulge in those. Being a frugal that I am, decided to venture into natural homemade skin care products. It started 2 years ago. I did a lot of research. I dint shy away from trying out new recipes. It was long journey and in the process I added other homemade products like lotions, lip balms to my line of skin care products. Right now I am working on shampoo's and body washes. In my blog I would like to share more of my experiments and recipes and lots of other fun info. So stay tuned. Just take a look at some of my homemade products.



These are few of the skin care products I made. In Anti clockwise direction( for the above picture ) : Whipped Shea Butter in white tin. couple of lip really cool lip balms, Ayurvedic Hair oil for hair falling and dandruff. Lavender soap, actually it was a little lavender in color but looks white in the pic. round green tea soaps ( strong anti aging soap ), Sandalwood-turmeric soap. the soap got its color from combination of turmeric and sandalwood. Shikakai shampoo bar - the one right on top of the white jar of cream. These are the ones I hand on hand for the picture. I usually make a lot of other lotions and soaps.



Milk and Honey Soap( smells divine and pure indulgence )



Sandalwood-turmeric soap( not kidding when I say it improves youthful complexion )



Green Tea Soap ( great for mature skin )



Shikakai shampoo bar ( it has real shikakai and aritha powder and lots of other good for your hair herbs )



Really cool lipbalm ( it is cool and nourishing your lips indeed )



Whipped Shea Butter ( Great for wrinkles, scars, eczema )



The ingredients I use for making my soaps and lotions. Almond oil, apricot kernel oil, olive oil, organic coconut oil, grape seed oil, canola oil, essential oils like lavender oil, tea tree oil, sweet orange oil, peppermint oil, cinnamon oil, witch hazel, rose water, castor oil, vitamin e oil, organic aloe vera juice etc.



These are few of the nutrients or herbs I use to enhance my products. Shea butter, beeswax, Kasturi turmeric, neem powder, vattivelu( not sure about the english name ), hibiscus flower powder.

Most of my products have Indian herbs cause thats what I know about, though I try to used others too. All the skin care products I do are chemical free and almost 100% natural. definitely good for skin. I would like to run posts about the hazards of commercial soaps and creams, the benefits of natural products and uses of different oils and herbs in maintaining a glowing skin.

Untill then...

be Nourished!!