How often to you pamper yourself? How often do you turn the phone, computer, tv etc off and relax? I mean really relax. A bath, some candles, some gorgeous music, maybe a glass of wine. I know I don’t do it very often. But I have made the effort in the last couple of weeks, and wow, do I feel better.
I have soaked, scrubbed, moisturised and relaxed.
I’ve been on a bit of a Botanicals blitz, so the products I have enjoyed have been the Sooth Bath Soak, Heal body scrub and the Sooth Body Butter. I could have made it the trifecta and used the Stimulate Body Lotion, and I probably would have if I had remembered to bring some home!!!!
The nice thing about really treating your body in the winter months, is that it prepares our bodies for the warmer seasons. How often have you got to leg showing time, only to see that you have neglected to exfoliate or moisturise your legs for 10 weeks and they have taken on the appearance of an old turtle shell. I know I have been guilty of that.
Dead skin cells just keep on coming, and if you don’t take the time to exfoliate your whole body properly, you do get this funny kind of layer (I don’t think that is the technical term). It truly doesn’t take that long to have a scrub all over and I swear you will feel better for it.
Later in the week I’ll share with you the benefits of dry body brushing for amazing internal and external results.
You don’t need to have a bath to really relax either. Sometimes I just stay in the shower for what seems an eternity, and come out feeling amazed.
For best results, I exfoliate every 3-5 days. That includes face, feet and body.
The other thing about winter, is the deadly electric blanket……I am getting better at turning it off when I get it, but seriously, if you want to look after your skin, leave it off all together.

Ok so this week, I’ve been to the Australia Gift and Homewares Trade Fair. It’s a smallish fair at this time of year, but I still found some great stuff for Christmas hampers etc. This year we are going to see some major colour in some of the sets. Very exciting. I’m really looking forward to the Sounds of Summer Set that will be in a gorgeous multi coloured tub filled with the fabulous Memisis Sari range. Stay tuned.

So it’s still officially Autumn, but I’m feeling winteritis already. I haven’t put the electric blanket or flannelette sheets on the bed yet, but the heater is out and I am changing my products around the house.

Why change products? Well, I know I prefer lighter scents in the warmer months in everything from my candles, to diffusers, to oils to moisturisers. Right now as it’s getting colder all of my chosen fragrances are getting heavier.

Right now I am burning a Dervish Moroccan Fig & Cinnamon Candle, I have changed my lounge room diffuser over to Aroma Home Honeysuckle & Musk Diffusion Sticks, and I’m slathering Soy Milk and Cherry Blossom Body Butter all over twice a day.

Just like you have a spring clean, you need to change your make up, personal fragrances and home fragrances as the seasons change. I even change my foundation to suit the change in climate and skin tone.

What fragrance will you surround yourself with this winter????

Can you believe we are in May already?!  I know I can’t.

We did lots of corporate gifts last year (hampers etc), but it was just via word of mouth.  This year I thought I should get serious, take photos, advertise and actually get organised before the end of November.

So where do I start?

So far questions include how many hampers do I offer, do I include alcohol (which means getting a liquor license), what are the best price points, what are the best storage containers, how early do I buy the chocolate incase of extreme heat?  WOW I had no idea this would be so complicated.

I’ve been looking at what feels like millions of hamper sites out there in cyber space, and they have all started to look same same.  I really want the Some Kind Of Bliss Hampers to be unique….but then it’s not about what I want, it’s about what the customer wants.  Oh, this makes it very hard.

I would love feedback on this dilemma – so please email me shopping@somekindofbliss.com or add a message on Facebook, or comment here.

My aim is to have 15 different hampers at various price points.  These will all be online by 1^st of July 2010 – so I better get busy.  Now is when my time management skills really need to kick in.  I could just delegate I guess, but I’ve never been very good at that.

OK, so are we all on the Facebook bandwagon?? Are we all confused by the like, fan, friend etc etc options?  I know I am.  Anyway, I have started the Some Kind Of Bliss page and would love it if you could ‘like’ it.  I’ll be posting specials, giving you great bits of info and I guess some general chit chat.

One thing I have to watch with Facebook is how it eats into your working day.  You log on and then all of a sudden it’s an hour later and you are still trying to find that long lost friend of a friend of a friend who you remember from that one night when…

A good tip for that is, treat it like your email.  Set yourself a time limit and a couple of times a day when you do things like email, Facebook, Twitter and other black whole internet applications like You Tube.  I have found this really works (when I stick to it).

What about advertising on Facebook?  I have just done our first ad as an experiment for Mother’s Day, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

So Mother’s Day is almost here.  It’s that time when we are meant to pamper, appreciate, love and thank our mums.  Over the years we have given our Mother everything from wireless headphones (very sensible when on a ride on lawn mower), clothes, magazine subscriptions, fancy dinners etc etc.  Now I’m a mum – all I want is someone else to make decisions for me, a sleep in and all my home chores done.  However, as I teach my daughter ‘I want’ doesn’t get when asking for things…..so I’ll add a pretty please.

Seriously, I’m sure all mums don’t want or need much for Mother’s Day, but it’s tradition to be given gifts, and I am one for tradition.

There are websites everywhere, dedicated to Mother’s Day and its meaning.  There are even more websites that do nothing but sell Mother’s Day Gifts.  WOW.  I won’t go that far, but I have created a couple of special Mother’s Day Gift Sets for you to thank your mother with.

You can even have the gift wrapped and sent directly to your mum – a great option if you live on opposite ends of the world.  Just add a note in the comments field and this will be done for you.

If you are going to be spending the morning with your mum can I suggest the following……..

• Champagne with a touch of mango puree
• Fresh fruit salad
• A good cup of coffee (or tea)
• 2 slices of wholegrain toast
• A couple of slices of her preferred protein (smoked salmon, ham, bacon)
• Scrambled eggs (don’t scrimp here – add cream for extra flavour)
• The newspaper – unread by anyone else (nothing worse than a scrumpled paper to read).

With the scrambled eggs, make sure you do them in a pot over low eat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to give it that smooth texture.  Be extra careful not to overcook them.

Now the tricky part for me is teaching my 4 year old how to do all of that!