Wildlife World Zoo Trip

I have been away for a week trying to get caught up on homework and candle making and everything else I'm behind on.  But I'm back with a post about our trip last Monday to the Wildlife World Zoo, located in Litchfield Park, AZ.  This zoo is only about 5 miles from our house, yet we have never visited it in the 9 years we've lived in the Phoenix area.  Corbin was out of school on Monday because of Presidents Day so we figured we should finally go check this place out.





The kids were really excited to go, but my husband was a bit worried about the possibility of dust and dirt blowing around, as he had heard that this zoo was unpaved, and in Arizona unpaved means blowing dust... and to a husband with horrible allergies, this also means coughing, sneezing and general unpleasantness.

We entered the zoo through the west entrance and the first creatures we saw were these beautiful black swans.  As we walked around the zoo a bit, the first thing that I noticed besides the fact that it was indeed unpaved, was that the animals were all very close and easy to view.  In fact, in some situations you could easily have walked right into their enclosures... not that I would do that!

If you look closely in this picture of Corbin, you can see the Zebra enclosure in the background.  It consists of 2 rows of log fencing, the first of which Corbin is standing on.  I did see several kids during our zoo trip, actually trying to climb into some of the enclosures.  Of course in all cases they were stopped before they made it, but it does make you think.  The cool thing about this though is that my pictures of the animals came out fabulous!







Our next stop in the zoo, was to check out the lemurs, which Corbin remembered from Madagascar. Many of the smaller monkeys were housed not in cages, but on islands surrounded by water.  I have heard that some monkeys are afraid of water and will not swim in it, which I guess must be true since the monkeys haven't escaped from their island enclosures.

Next we saw the only big cat for the day... the lion.  Again you can see how close you are able to get to the animals.  Don't stick your fingers through the bars!









Here's another interesting example of the closeness of the animals which I think is kind of cool.  This monkey was sitting against the bars of his cage, and a man thought it would be fun to reach out to the monkey and see what would happen... 

Or how about the time Corbin decided to throw an empty M&M wrapper he found on the ground in the general direction of the monkeys...
The monkey keep away game occurred after this point was the best part.

I think the kids favorite part of the visit was getting up close and personal with the giraffes.  They have a feeding station at the Wildlife World Zoo that is open all day, with food being dispensed by the handful from quarter machines.

Who knew that giraffes had long blue tongues! To feed them, you simply drop the food pellets onto their tongues.

And finally, I will leave you with a gallery of the rest of our visit...

Sugar Scrub Attempt #1

If you have never tried a sugar scrub, you are missing out! Sugar is a natural source of glycolic acid, which is a type of alpha hydroxy acid that both exfoliates the skin, and acts as a humectant to draw moisture into the skin. Sugar scrubs are especially nice on your legs before or after shaving to help with ingrown hairs and irritation, and also to make your legs super smooth and irresistibly soft. 

Now, I have made sugar scrubs in the past with many different ingredients added such as finely ground coffee or oatmeal, but I wanted something simpler.  I have seen many different recipes for sugar scrubs, some are 50% oil to 50% sugar, while others have a higher proportion of oil to sugar or sugar to oil to achieve different consistencies.  I have found that when you add more oil than sugar, say 2/3 oil and 1/3 sugar, the sugar begins to dissolve and loses some of it's scrubby texture, so for this recipe I wanted to try using a higher proportion of sugar.

Sugar Scrub Recipe #1
9oz Brown Sugar
2oz Sunflower Oil
1oz Grapeseed Oil
14 Drops Rosemary Essential Oil
14 Drops Lavender Essential Oil
14 Drops Tea Tree Essential Oil
.10oz LiquaPar Oil (preservative, optional)

You will also need a scale, a small bowl, and a spoon for mixing.  I also like to add a preservative to my scrubs so that it will last longer.  You don't need a preservative for this recipe because it is an anhydrous mixture, meaning there is no water, and being that it is so fabulous, you will probably use it up before anything has a chance to grow in it. However, since most people like to use sugar scrubs in the shower, water will likely get introduced to the mix at some point, and if it sits long enough, bacteria or other yucky things can and will take up residence in your lovely scrub.  So, for safety's sake, I added LiquaPar Oil preservative at .8% of the total ingredients.

I prefer to use brown sugar for sugar scrubs because I like the sweet molasses scent it has, but you can easily substitute white sugar.

I chose sunflower oil as the main oil in this scrub because it is a very light oil that absorbs quickly and hardly leaves a film on skin at all.  It also has very high amounts of vitamin E which give it anti inflammatory and skin softening properties, and it's a 0 on the comedogenic scale which means that it's highly unlikely to clog pores (something I am always worried about).

For the secondary oil in this sugar scrub, I chose grapeseed oil simply because I had it on hand, and it is a slightly heavier oil than sunflower oil. It also contains small amounts of phytosterols which helps our skin repair itself, and can reduce inflammation and itchiness.  It is also on the low end of the comedogenic scale at 2, which means it can clog pores but is unlikely to do so.

I especially like to use sugar scrubs in the shower after shaving to help with ingrown hairs and irritation. I chose my essential oil blend specifically knowing that I would be using this sugar scrub mostly on my legs.  First, I chose Rosemary essential oil because its said to increase cell turnover and help improve circulation.  Lavender is said to have skin soothing anti inflammatory properties, and it is said to help regenerate skin cells and repair the skins moisture barrier, and lastly I added Tea Tree oil for it antiseptic properties.

Now that I've explained my ingredients, let's get started...

Directions

1. Put bowl on scale, and tare scale to 0.
2. Add 9oz of brown sugar to bowl.
3. Add essential oils to brown sugar, and stir until well incorporated.
4. Tare scale again, then add 2oz of Sunflower oil to the bowl.  Mix this into the sugar until well incorporated.
5. Tare scale again, then add 1oz of Grapeseed oil to the bowl.  Mix until well incorporated.
6. Finally, if you are adding preservative do it now and again... mix thoroughly!

As a side note, I like to tare the scale each time I add a new ingredient. Sometimes things get bumped or moved a certain way so that the reading becomes inaccurate, and I find that it's just easier for me to tare the scale between ingredients to ensure accuracy.






After you are done mixing you ingredients, you should have something that looks like this... Yes, it looks a little strange, but believe me, it will make your legs feel like butter!

Finally, you will want to store your scrub in some kind of container for your personal use.  I have purchased some containers for this purpose, but you could easily use a small plastic food storage type container, you know, the kind you put your leftovers in! Just don't accidentally eat your sugar scrub...

And that's it! Now you have a wonderfully exfoliating sugar scrub made from simple, wholesome ingredients... Enjoy!

In the future I may try adding an emulsifier to the mix, to get a finished product that has a more appealing appearance, but that will be for another post...

Valentine's Day 2012

The perfect Valentine's Day!

What would you imagine your perfect Valentine's Day to be?

Does it involve dressing up and being whisked away to a high end restaurant for a romantic dinner with your sweetheart?  Or perhaps you are a more traditional flowers and chocolates kind of girl?

Beautiful flowers from the best husband ever!

You know what, I really despise crowded restaurants...  No, the perfect Valentine's Day for me involves staying home.  That's right, I want to stay home with my sweety, curl up next to him on the couch to a good movie, and order pizza so I don't have to cook, and that's exactly what we did!  Normally, the husband and I don't even exchange Valentine gifts, but since I got the kids Candy this year, I thought why not!  I got Brent (my husband) a card and some chocolates, and look what Brent got me!

Corbin proudly showing me his Valentine's Day card holder.

It was actually kind of exciting this year because my oldest son Corbin is in Kindergarten, and for the first time he got to make Valentines cards to exchange with the other kids in his class.  Well okay, he didn't actually make the cards, but he sure had fun picking them out and putting his friends names on them.  He chose holographic dinosaur Valentines and Fun Dips candy to pass out.  For the celebration, Corbin got to decorate a Valentines card holder which he was very excited to show me when he got home, and of course he and his brother Caleb immediately gorged themselves on all of the candy within...

Caleb showing off his airplane Valentine's.

Of course not wanting to be left out, my youngest son Caleb saw me making a Valentine for my son's lunch box and decided that he wanted to make Mommy and Daddy some Valentines too! I didn't even realize he was making them until he brought me one and said "Happy Valentine's mommy!" Here are two of the airplane Valentine's that he made for Brent and I. Isn't he a sweetheart!

Let Me Introduce Myself

This is going to be a sort of "hello world" of posts so bear with me!

     I have decided recently that I want to start a blog that is a journal or an account rather of my daily life as a mom, wife, and self employed chandler.  I realize that these types of blogs are a dime a dozen, but I can't help myself...

Let me start by introducing myself... 

    My name is Caitlin and I own a business called Candeo Candles that I started 5 years ago this month.  The business is run by my family which includes myself, my lovely husband, my father, and my mother.  In my daily life I am both homemaker and business person and am constantly trying to juggle both.  I have two wonderful boys, and the great thing about being self-employed with a home based business is that I get to be home them. Unfortunately this can sometimes also be a downside because I don't get to separate my work from my home responsibilities.  But don't get me wrong, I would never change a thing!

Why start a blog?

     I thought that now would be the perfect time to start a blog, because my family is planning on relocating to Oregon in April, and I want to start my blog off on the right foot, by documenting our journey.  We currently live in Arizona, and we have been here for 9 years now.  I grew up in Oregon, and my husband grew up in Washington and we both miss our hometown.  We have pretty much settled on the Portland area, because we feel it will be a better location for our business, and my parents are more familiar with that area.  Yes, that's right, my parents are planning on moving back with us! They miss the Northwest as much as we do...

     As an end to my post, I will leave you with a beautiful picture of the Oregon coastline that I took when we last visited the Lincoln City area.  It was actually sunny that day!