Holiday Party Style - Unique Wood Watches

JORD timeless wood watches are perfect for those holiday parties, and everyday life. Gorgeous wood and minimalist style to last. Check out the full blog post to be entered to win $100 you very own!

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JORD - Minimalist Style Watches

Minimalist Style Ladies Watches

Recently I read an article in Time magazine that gave the suggestion for wearing a watch as a social media mindfulness technique. This way when you need to know the time, you look at your watch, instead of your phone that will get your distracted if you notice notifications.

Soooooo... I got a myself a cool wooden watch. A beautiful, unique, minimalist style sandalwood watch from JORD and I LOVE IT.

The sandalwood is so soft and beautiful on the skin, and I feel like it pairs well in relaxed style and when I’m actually dressed up! Since I’m not a huge fashion guru, (I wear A LOT of spandex since I workout/teach so often)I like that it works with different styles. I’ve worn it with some jeans going out for dinner and with yoga pants heading for a hike.

Which of course this versatility feeds my minimalist approach to life. I like simplicity that can transfer into many different options.

But let me tell you how impressed my husband (builds wood furniture for a living) was with the care of the watch and the box it comes in . The watch has it’s own humidity control box and finishing oil to keep it looking new and in good condition. The box itself is also very beautiful and has a drawer to tuck away all the extra items that come with it. Once again, ,adding to the minimalist in me that likes clean counter tops and beautiful functional things.

Additionally, I picked a Sandalwood watch since sandalwood is something I wear often. They are very commonly used in malas.  The scent of sandalwood actually comes from the wood itself not the leaves like some plants. Sandalwood scent is known to help the mind unwind according to this article from Mala Collective.

Giveaway

Win $100 credit toward your very own JORD watch through THIS CONTEST LINK.

Each person will receive a 10% discount code as well (nice consolation prize if you don’t win)

The contest will close 03/11/2018 at 11:59pm CST. Both the $100 and the 10% off codes will expire on 04/08/2018

Self Care Sunday - Real Self Love

I've been writing Self Care Sundays for a few months now. And I believe we are all ready for this week's self care. It's a doozy.

I was talking with a friend/client yesterday morning and we were talking about how easy it is for us to name off all the things we don't like about our physical appearance. I imagine most of us can easily name of a dozen without thought. But most of us may find it hard to find something we like about ourselves. 

I'm currently reading Michele Theoret's book Empowered Body and in it she talks about how the world of marketing and social media basically sells us stuff based off of the fears of not "being enough" or good enough". We create these images in our heads of how we "should" be, rather then loving and accepting who we actually are. 

Today we aren't focusing on who we are in progress of something. Today we love ourselves for who we are. Period. The end. 

So this week's self care Sunday is uncomfortable. It may be challenging. But it will be worth it. 

We are going to look at ourselves in the mirror and find something we like. Actually two things. Because I guarantee you have at the very very very very minimum two things about you that are worth YOU loving. 

For those that are unsure, maybe it's sitting in front of a mirror staring at your face. Study it while repeating self love words. "I love........ my freckles, dimples, eyes", "I like the way........ my skin does, my hair is, my lips.......". Catching yourself when you start to put words out that do not serve you in self love.

For those maybe a little bolder.... Get undressed. Stand in front of the mirror. Find things you love. "I love.... my toes, my posture, my skin tone, my butt, the way I can wrap my arms around myself in a hug, the way my scar makes me look badass, my belly button......" or "I like...... the way my muscles pop as I flex, my height, my hair, my tattoos, my....." whatever it is. This is obvious deeply personal. 

Be kind to yourself. Show yourself some love. Genuine unfiltered love. 

Love, 

Jen the Bitchin' Housewife

Self Care Sunday - Self Primping

This week for Self Care Sunday we are talking about doing a bit of self primping. I'm guilty of putting off coloring my hair, waxing my brows or even shaving my legs until I absolutely have to. By then it's simply because I'm annoyed my hair wont work with me, my eyebrows look like a caterpillar or it's hot outside and I need to put on some shorts.

But this week, I want you to plan some time to do some self primping. What is something that always makes you feel good after you have it done/do it for yourself? When I feel like a hot mess, I sort of become a hot mess. When I'm feeling like i'm in a rut, I like to spend some time on myself and I swear I come out a new woman. Something about feeling good about the way I look, makes me more confident and ready to take on the world.

A few suggestions for some things you can do.: (And make sure to do a couple at least)

  • Color your hair. In my picture below I know I'm at home. I am a licensed hairstylist so I can do this. I do not, I repeat I DO NOT condone box dye and coloring at home. Just my opinion though. (sorry at home box dye people) Find a local salon with childcare like Pamper and Play Salon here in Edmonton if you have to!
  • Waxing your eyebrows. Go to a local salon or I love these pre shaped eyebrow wax strips I get at Shoppers. So easy and inexpensive. 
  • Get your nails done. Again so many options here. Go get those fancy gel nails with designs or cat claws, get a regular ol manicure or do it at home. Find your favourite color and spend some time shaping and painting. 
  • Buy yourself some beauty products. Stroll Shoppers or Mac or support your local community and try out some products from direct sales businesses. This week I've been using the Arbonne Re9 from my friend and the extra 5 minutes I've added to my face washing routine has been nice, spending that time on myself. 
  • Paint your toenails. Sort of same like getting your nails done, at home or in a spa. 
  • Buy a new outfit. Nothing like a new outfit or pair of shoes to add a little stuff to your strut. It doesn't even have to be Armani either. Honestly I feel great with a new outfit from  a thrift store!

What are some of your favourite things you like to do to make yourself feel a little extra special?

 

Love,

Jen

Enter to WIN a Monat Replenish Masque!

I LOVE giveaways! I've won my share of them recently, time to spread the love!

The Replenish masque is a repairing and hydrating masque ideal for damaged and moisture starved hair that penetrates and nurtures the scalp while helping boost natural hair growth, improve follicle strength and reduce hair thinning.

The masque infuses essential moisture and delivers vital nutrients to help eliminate frizz and reduce split ends. Hair is left silky and more manageable. The masque is safe to use on color treated hair and extensions!

Here is my hair using the Renew Shampoo and Replenish Masque!

Make sure to follow our Facebook page for an extra entry on the page. 

Also follow our Instagram for bonus entry! 


Contest closes February 26th 2016. 9pm MST.

Make sure to check out our MONAT website at www.selfcentered.mymonat.com for all our products! Please email self-centered@outlook.com for questions about products, how to become a VIP or sign up as a Market Partner!

Easy Homemade Face Wash

I love stuff I can make at home for skin care. Because A) I know what in it and B) well, to be honest I hate running out of stuff and having to drag my two kids to the store. Or waiting to long before it runs out to reorder it from wherever. 

This facewash is soooooooo simple and so good for your skin. I took it camping and made my face feel fresh even when all grungy and camping. 

What you need:

  • Brewed chammomile tea. 1/2 cup
  • Castile Soap, 1/4 cup
  • Almond Oil, 1/2 tbsp
  • Lavender Essential Oil, 2-4 drops

*Tip: You can usually find all these ingredients at a health food store! And there are many many uses for all these ingredients! 

 

1.Brew the tea. I made a strong cup and let it brew a while. Chammomile is moisturizing, while being an anti imflammatory, helps retore natural pH levels and provides some sun protection even.

 I found this awesome tea EARTH TEA where they help feed starving children of the world through the United Nation World Food Programme. Their tea is also grown right here in Alberta.  I mean you can use whatever tea brand you want, but supporting local farmers AND feeding starving children, I'm in. 

 

2. Put castile soap into a medium bowl. I used the lavender here, but you can use whichever suits you or you have. Lots of recipes I've seen calls for the baby one. I have also heard to avoid the citrus. I'll get to why I used Lavender a little further down. 

3.Add Almond oil. Almond Oil is an antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti inflammatory. It helps reduce irritation, itching and promote healing of the skin and scars you may have.

4. Add a few drops of Lavender essential oil. Maybe you're really into oils and want to add you own mix and that rocks. I used lavender soap and oil because Lavender is also an antiseptic and anti fungal. Additionally it is a calming scent for nerves and anxiety. Maybe stress is adding to your blemishes and calming those nerves helps with breakouts? Try it out?

5. Add cooled tea to mix and put into containers. I started with this small batch. I got a small bottle and put the rest in a  glass jar. Just make sure to shake before using. It comes out a bit runny so be careful, but it's super super sudsy! 


Enjoy and let me know how it works out!

Love,

Jen

No Shampoo? No Problem.

Since my husband and I got together nearly 11 years ago he's been calling me a hippie. At first because I am a vegetarian and all mushy and gooey about being nice to animals and saving bugs from the house and putting them outside.

As the years have passed I've gotten more and more "hippie" for lack of a better word. But I think my newest adventure takes the cake.

I'm not washing my hair. *Insert whispers and funny stares*

Well, actually I am, but not in the traditional sense. A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post Nature Powered Skin Care, and spoke about my awesome new face stuff that helps maintain my natural oils in my skin instead of stripping them. This is the same reason hairstylist tell you to go as long as you can in between hair washes. When you shampoo your hair you are washing the dirt and product but also stripping your natural oils from your hair. From this your body goes "hey we are missing something up there, start producing oil!!!!" Thus, making your hair greasier and greasier each time you skip a wash day. You've gone into over oil production mode trying to make up for the lack there of on your scalp. This is why I only wash my kids hair when really dirty from say ice cream in it or like once every 1-2 weeks. *insert more whispers and stares*

Sooooooo, No shampoo? No problem. I've researched a little bit about going natural with hair washing and it is so simple it's worth a try. Maybe even once or twice a month as sort of a reset if it's not your thing all the time. No crazy ingredients you need to run to the health food store and cost you a fortune. It's literally baking soda, apple cider vinegar, water and bottles to hold the stuff. 

I used an old conditioner bottle for the "shampoo" mixture and a spray bottle for the "conditioner".

Shampoo:

  • Couple of tablespoons of plain old baking soda. ( my bottle is an old Dove 338 mL so scale to your size)
  • Fill remainder of bottle with water.
  • Shake and put on the scalp. Here try and keep it to the scalp, avoiding putting it on the ends of your hair. Leave a minute or two and rinse. First time I tried this was mixed in a mason jar for cuteness. Yeah that doesn't work well. Use something that you can kind of put specifically on the scalp in areas, such as a squirt bottle or old shampoo bottle.

Conditioner:

  • 1 part apple cider vinegar
  • 4 parts water
  • Shake and spray onto all of the hair. Leave for a few minutes and rinse. The vinegar smell DOES rinse away. :)

The hair will not feel sleek and shiny most likely after your normal conditioning regime. I even used a tiny bit of leave in conditioner just on the ends. I imagine eventually over time the natural oils work there way to the ends of the hair and this will not be a necessary step.

I have this awesome Wet brush that I bought like 6 of for in my house. It will brush through any wet hair, even crazy knot filled toddler hair (dry or wet) without pulling and children screaming. As a licensed hairdresser I get them directly from the professional hair distributors for like $12 but they should be under $20 in a salon. Worth it. Buy some.

Style your hair as normal. I did notice it takes a bit longer to dry your hair, but it is crazy soft. The ends are very soft and have none of those dry fly aways. I barely had to straighten my hair. The top is not greasy exactly but not that super clean feeling after stripping it. Again I imagine this goes away after time. I will update with another post after its been a while.

So I did this 5 days ago. My hair felt a little like straw on the ends, but I think I had to much baking soda. I've read you need to adjust to your hair. A bit of trial and error. The next day I washed with normal shampoo and conditioner, because it was my birthday and I just wanted to feel pretty and was worried it would look yucky halfway through the day. I normally wash my hair every second day. Well yesterday would have been a wash day, but I already noticed it wasn't that bad and wasn't itchy. I know you know what itch I mean. The one that makes you wash your hair before you go to the gym itchy.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Jen 


Nature Powered Skin Care

Since about the age of 12 I have had problems with my face. Pimples and so on. I turn 30 in a week and it's been driving me nuts that its carried into my adult life. I've switched to a lot of products and used harsh this and that to cleanse my face.

The thing that's worked the best? I've made the switch to natural everything around my face. I started using Twisted Sisters Skin Nutrition . The Cream Cleanser and Face Fertilizer and I don't think I will use anything else ever. Instead of stripping the oils from my face, it's actually helping keep them, so my face doesn't have to go into overdrive creating more, this making the problem worse.

Secondly I've switched to natural toothpaste. I'm a half and half person. Meaning I have always used some natural face or body products, but about half have been normal drug store options. After learning a little more about acne face mapping, and that switching to a natural toothpaste can help with acne around the mouth (my main issue) I thought I'd give it a try. I found one on Well.ca  along with my next item. Use the coupon code SelfCentered to get $10 off! I got some for my kids too.

Lastly I bought a natural foundation. I've used a few natural makeup products before and didn't seem to make a difference, but I'll keep with my three combo because whatever it is, it's working. Plus, this one I also found on Well.ca and it's made here in Canada! Pure Anada Brand.

So if you're like me with your face still making you crazy over half your life, or maybe looking for more natural options (And some Canadian made too!) Check out some of these new products I'm in love with!