For my big love

My sweet sweet Kory! Today means we have spent four years being married! Four years of ultimate love and sacrifice! Our four years have been very far from being perfect... But for me they have been perfect! You have shown me the deepest love, the most grace, mercy, and the best four years of my life! 
Kory, thank you for being such a respectable guy! You never look at other women, I am the only girl in your eyes and bc of that you give me a great sense of security and you make me feel truly loved and truly beautiful. 
Thank you for always putting up with me! I know I can be difficult a lot! I like things a certain way and I have a good way of telling you how I like these things ;)!
Thank you for working so hard for our family! I know it's not where you want to be in your career you want more responsibility, it'll come babe! You have proven yourself not only to your family but the people who work with you! 
You are an incredibly special man! You are unique there is only one Kory and I'm the luckiest girl on earth to have gotten him! I got a loyal husband, a best friend, a true love! I am so excited we are celebrating four years together, but lets celebrate more let's celebrate the rest of our lives being together, holding each other, loving each other!
Kory I love you more then words can express! I thank God for you!
Happy anniversary my big love!

This is a MUST read

Alright everyone, I have the shop fully stocked and ready for your holiday gift buying! I really appreciate everyone's support and all the purchases that have been made! All my family have friends have been so nice and have rallied behind me trying to get my products out there. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AND I APPRECIATE YOU ALL SO MUCH!
I have just donated $50.00 to Amazima Ministries! They help children get food, health care, and education! I am sooo excited about the donation! Thank you all for making it possible!

Thank you for your Donation to Amazima Ministries International MERCHANT: Amazima Ministries International DATE/TIME: 11/1/2012 3:49:46 PM AUTHORIZATION NUMBER: 084916 AMOUNT: $50.00 - - - - - - - - -  NAME: Cassie J Platt Email: theblissfulbody@ymail.com Confirm Email: theblissfulbody@ymail.com Fund Designation: Where Most Needed Personal or Business Donation?: Business Business Name: The Blissful Body

I want to send them A LOT more though for the holiday season so I really need your help. I promise you that my lotion and butters will be a huge hit. It is such a unique, special gift to give any lady. Guys, your wife, girlfriend, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, grandma WILL LOVE IT!  Girls, your friends, your mom, your sister, your daughter, your aunt, your grandma WILL LOVE IT! The comments I have been getting have been so awesome, so far everyone has been so pleased with the results of my these luscious lotions and butter. 

I have two seasonal scents in right now that I am absolutely crazy about. Hot apple pie and Cinnamon pumkin. My mother in law purchased a pineapple citrus butter, she came over to pick her order up and when she smelled the cinnamon pumpkin she had to order another, they are delicious! Buy some now,  click here and use this promo code {HOLIDAY15} at checkout to receive my holiday offer of 15% off! I am now offering $1 sample bottles. They are limited so if you want to try some scents before buying the full size you can get a 1 ounce pump bottle- they are great for purses too! 

Another very exciting thing I want to share, I have been featured in the A-List's holiday guide. Kristina has been working for small businesses for 6 years. She helps keep standards high, and she helps promote small businesses that meet or exceed those standards. She has accepted my shop in her A-list and for the holidays she has made an amazing holiday gift guide! It's basically your guide to buying some amazing and extremely unique hand made gifts by small business owners. I cannot express to you how important it is to help support these businesses! You will receive very personal customer service and a product that you cannot find anywhere else! Please, please take a look at the gift guide here.

Thank you everyone for reading and all your support! I would love if you shared this blog on your facebook or twitter! All the networking we tiny businesses can get is so helpful! 

Happy Holidays everyone!

NEW Mineral Veil

I am very excited to introduce my new product. Mostly b/c I love to use this stuff myself! I am sure all you ladies have heard of the mineral veil by sheer cover, well come to find out it is basically corn starch. When I learned this I thought for sure I can create something just as great with a little more benefit to it. So I experimented and did some research and found that I can make the same exact thing with very fine ground sea salt and himalayan pink salt and a little corn starch. Gives you the same exact effect but really really great for your skin.

 If your skin is oily or you get acne ever this stuff will really help your skin. Salt is so good for skin. These two salts I chose have very high mineral content. 

You can buy my mineral veil for $6.00 a lot cheaper then the name brand, and it is better for you!!

I use it to set my make up, it gives me a very flawless and soft finish I LOVE IT! I personally am so happy I discovered this. I really hope you all will buy some and try it out. It is so cheap and will last you a LOOONG time!!! Buy some here. 

Health and Fitness advice from an ex-fatty

Ok, SO, I am sooo overdue for a blog post. Sadly I have been a little ill lately! I have been in such a slump on my diet and working out I feel like its time for some inspiration (more for me)

So I am going to share a recent tip I heard and sorta loved-

Pre-shower work outs!! I love this bc it is perfect for us moms who have literally only 10 minutes OR LESS to really work out, plus the sweating is never too fun so doing a pre shower work out is genius in my opinion. Here is my version of a pre shower work out:

-25 jumping jacks
-30 crunches legs crossed in the air bringing your knees toward your head as you lift up
-15 pushups girl style or man style if you are super cool
-15 squats (get that butt low ladies and keep that back straight do not let those knees go over your feet POSTURE IS SOOO IMPORTANT)
-10 lunges each leg
- Repeat as much as you can before the BABY WAKES UP!!!! (thats for me)

This should get your heart pumping if you do it very quickly and also targets most your body. The beauty of it, hop in the shower when you are done and heat up those muscles even more and relax too! This will really wake you up as well from that LONG NIGHT! It also gets your pores open and starts releasing all kinds of toxins, that you can wash off quickly in the shower, this will also help keep your skin soft too if you slather some lotion on right after the shower while those pores are still open and receptive to some nice moisture!

Drink tons of water, get rid of more toxins!

Ok, here are two things I would love to share with you. Some of you probably know about these two things, if not then you are going to pee your pants with excitement (I'm serious) Ok go potty first then read.

LOW AND NO CARB PASTAS!!! YES I SAID IT AND SOMEHOW, IT IS POSSIBLE!!!

First one is a low carb pasta, it has like 5 net carbs per serving and it comes just like your average dry pasta would in a box and I am telling you, there is no taste difference what so ever you will never miss your wheat pasta or your white pasta -Dreamfields pasta- click Here to read about it and also get a $1.00 off coupon. I find this pasta at most grocery stores where the other pastas are located.

Second one is a zero carb pasta and pretty much zero everything, they are called shirataki noodles. Now there are a lot of varieties of this noodle; the one I found is located by the tofu and sprouts in the dridge part of the produce. These noodles are a bit rubbery, but boiling them for a couple minutes helps and they are still wonderful regardless. These come in a liquid already soft and ready to serve and must be refrigerated. They have a slight fishy smell that goes away with a good rinse or boil. I am telling you my husband and I were thrilled to find these! If you do a google search about shirataki noodles you can see all the different brands and variations and also where you can buy them. 

Skin skin and more skin

Many of you have probably have heard the skin is the largest organ in your body and is made up of many layers. There are three main layers I want to point out though, top layer is the epidermis, second is the dermis, and third is the hypodermis also known as the subcutaneous adipose layer. Each have a specific role for your bodies protection.

The epidermis is basically a water shield and keeps water inside your body and is waterproof on the outside to keep pathogens away. The epidermis also helps regulate your bodies temperature.

The dermis, below the epidermis is where a lot of nerve endings are so this is where you get heat and touch sensation. The dermis cushions the body from stress and strain. In the dermis is where your sweat glands, hair follicles, sebaceous glands (these secrete your natural oils), lymphatic vessels (these carry lymph), and blood vessels are.

The hypodermis basically connects the two top layers to the bones and muscles in your body. It contains 50% of the your body fat and serves as insulation and padding.

Now that you know what your basic skin make up is, I want to share with you ways to keep your skin healthy and vibrant! Your skin is what people see, you don't see muscle or bone exposed bc you have this perfect blanket of skin. Many of us think about our skin daily (women totally do) and we try to make it appear healthy and beautiful, but what if what you are doing is actually not really helping your skin but rather damaging it?

Your skin is the body's largest organ, and it works with your kidneys to get rid of the bodies toxins. However, your skin needs to be able to breathe to perform these function. 

Mineral oil is probably the most common oil found in popular lotions and skin care, sadly the reason is it is cheap. It actually seals off your skin and keeps it from breathing as well as keeping it from absorbing good nutrients and moisture. This causes premature aging and clogged pores.
Mineral oil covers the skin like plastic wrap, inhibiting the skin's natural immune barrier and its ability to breathe and absorb. Also, mineral oil attracts needed moisture from cells deep in your skin. This means that cell renewal is slowed, then your collagen breaks down, and then your connective tissue is destroyed. Normal cell development is slowed down and the skin ages prematurely when skin cells are robbed of moisture.

Take a look at what you put on your skin does it have mineral oil? THROW IT AWAY IF IT DOES!

Another common ingredient in lotions and creams are different types of alcohols. There are some good alcohols that are natural and are not harsh on skin, but there are many bad ones that include ethanol, denatured alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, and sd alcohol, which not only can be extremely drying and irritating to skin, but may be cytotoxic. Meaning it is toxic to your cells.  Again check your products.

So why is it so important that we put good things onto our skin? The answer is clear our skin houses many many blood vessels and your skin absorbs what you put on it and then that is transferred into your blood. If that doesn't make you more careful about what you put on your skin I don't know what will.

Having good skin products is also vital for good skin health bc what you eat is not always enough to nourish your skin. When you digest your food only a very small percentage of nutrients actually go to your skin. So a great solution is putting these nutrients directly on your skin, your skin will get a lot more out of direct contact. This does not mean diet isn't important for skin health bc diet is very very important for healthy, beautiful skin!

Ok, I hope this has inspired some of you to be a little more cautious with what you put on your skin and more so I hope you all are inspired to love your skin! No matter what stage it's at! Scarred, broken, cracked, wrinkled, sagging, jiggly love it no matter what and take good care of it! It protects you from all kinds of awful things that could get into your body! So show some appreciation and love to the largest organ that works hard and gets a lot of abuse.

Some fun facts about your skin:

-Globally, dead skin cells account for about a billion tons of dust in the atmosphere. You shed about 50,000 cells every minute!- Another good reason to use good products that encourage the healthy reproduction of these skin cells, you want to generate new HEALTHY cells! (this is sort of a gross fact when you think of it. We are like breathing in everyones skin ugh)

-The average adult's skin spans 21 square feet, weighs nine pounds, and contains more than 11 MILES of blood vessels!! WOW

Keep watching out I will be posting many skin care tips! Next blog I post will be about dry brushing and why it is sooo good for your skin!!!

Get some good skin care products I make myself (approved by me and many others) go to www.etsy.com/shop/theblissfulbody Until October 16 enjoy 10% off use OPEN10 at check out!!

The Grand Opening of The Blissful Body Shop- coupon code inside

 

Hello all you lovely people! Since you have skin you need to go to my shop and buy something super spectacular www.etsy.com/shop/theblissfulbody

I have been working long and hard to get this shop open and I am SOOOO very excited to announce it is finally here. Since this is such a cool time for me I am giving away a coupon code for my shop. It gives you 10% off  your purchase. Type in OPEN10 at check out!! This coupon is good for a week, so will end October 16.

Right now there are a variety of fragrances, it is hard to choose since you cannot smell them, so please if you want to know a description of the smell just contact me. I will be happy to give the best description I can. I also want to give everyone a heads up that I am not going to always offer the fragrances in the shop now. I will be narrowing it down to about 6 really really good ones then adding some as the seasons change, so keep a look out on that!!

Ok, so here is THE BEST PART this is truly the most exciting thing for me, every item that you purchase I will donate $1.00 to an amazing ministry called Amazima Ministries.  Please check them out at amazima.org they are wonderful. They help children get food, water, health care, and education.

I am so excited about this and I really hope you all will try out my lotions and butters. They make great gifts. Guys I am telling you, a unique home made bottle of lotion will for sure score you massive points with your lady ;-)! 

I really appreciate all your support and all the feedback you can give. Go look at my shop!!! Tell me what you think please please please!!

Here is what is in the shop!

A trip to grander things

I had been meaning to write this a few days ago but life has been exhaustingly busy since I returned from my short trip to see my parents.
My parents live about three hours away in a very tiny town where I grew up. This town offers what most small towns offer, a massive buffet of rumors and gossiping. Everyone knows everyone's business, you cannot leave your house without running into at least three people you enjoy and at least five people you can't stand. It's a great place to raise kids really. As a parent they hardly can get away with much ;)! I remember growing up and thinking "I cannot wait to move to California, where I can not run into people I have to talk too and I can wear other clothes besides sweatshirts and jeans without being stared at like some crazy person."

I could not wait to leave, and I did leave. So now when I visit I am reminded of what that small town had to offer in the form of so many good things- beauty, quiet, peaceful, love, home, places to really escape from everyone and everything, long amazing drives, nature, hospitality, people who care, friendship! As a teenager I rarely appreciated these things. Now being away and realizing how cruel the rest of the world can be I appreciate returning to that little cocoon of home, family, and friends! It's where I can truly relax and enjoy myself and reflect on life.

One of the things I reflected on while I drove there and back was how massive this world is. How tiny I am compared to the scheme of things. The mountains alone made me feel so insignificant. In a way I am so much like that small town tucked away in the mountains, I am hidden from reality and the true world around me; I keep to myself and try to ignore all the bad stuff going on. I am just consumed with my life, always gossiping about my small circle. Making rumors about my silly future that I really have no control over.

So really to put my long trip into words this is what I will leave you with bc this is what I was left with, these words-
Do I want this world to better my life or do I want my life to better this world