{"id":5346,"date":"2015-05-11T23:44:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T03:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=5346"},"modified":"2015-05-11T23:45:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T03:45:58","slug":"pamper-your-hands-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=5346","title":{"rendered":"Pamper Your Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the joys of belonging to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) is the connections I&#8217;ve made with other organizers around the country. These connections have given me business opportunities, assistance with clients&#8217; challenges, and precious friendships. Most recently, I traveled to the Howard County Fairgrounds, just west of Baltimore, to meet up with organizer Penny Bryant Catterall of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.OrderYourLife.net\" target=\"_blank\">Order Your Life<\/a> in Bethesda. We spent the day wallowing in the yarn-based fun of the Maryland Sheep &amp; Wool Festival. We didn&#8217;t talk about business (well, not much), just enjoyed a gorgeous day immersed in friendship and fiber.<\/p>\n<p>The festival sported the usual assortment of yarn and fleece and fiber tools, and ancillary goods that aren&#8217;t specifically for fiber, but tend to appeal to knitters. One of those things was hand lotion. It&#8217;s hard to control yarn with dry hands. As Penny sampled some lotion, I commented on how rough\u00a0organizing is on my skin, and she agreed. After a day of sorting papers, my hands are visibly dry and more prone to paper cuts. Homemade hand lotion is the cure.<\/p>\n<p>Penny asked for my recipe, so I thought I&#8217;d share it here as well. Simple to make, and you can add any scent you like. Best of all, you control the ingredients to address your sensitivities or preferences.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lotion recipe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1\/4 cup Vegetable oil. <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/grapeseed-oil-organic\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">Grapeseed<\/a> is my favorite, but <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/olive-oil-organic-extra-virgin\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">olive<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/sweet-almond-oil\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">almond<\/a> work well too.<br \/>\n1\/4 cup <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/emulsifying-wax\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">Emulsifying wax<\/a>. Not beeswax or other wax! Emulsifying wax is necessary to bind oil to water.<br \/>\n1 1\/4 cup Water.<br \/>\n1 tsp. <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/shea-butter\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">Shea butter<\/a>. Optional.<br \/>\nEssential oils. 5 drops is all you need for a lightly scented lotion. Adjust to your liking. For my most recent batch, I used <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/lavender-essential-oil\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">lavender<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/edge.affiliateshop.com\/public\/AIDLink?AID=132375&amp;Redirect=\/products\/carrot-seed-essential-oil\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">carrot seed<\/a> oils, which help my easily-burned skin recover from the summer sun.<\/p>\n<p>Combine the vegetable oil and emulsifying wax in a glass measuring cup, and microwave in short intervals until just melted. Swirl or stir to incorporate. At the same time, heat water to the same temperature, about 150 degrees. I used a candy thermometer the first few times I made this, but now I just wing it. So long as the water is too hot to touch but not yet steaming, it seems to work fine.<\/p>\n<p>Pour the water into the oil\/wax mixture. It will instantly turn creamy-white. Stir occasionally as it cools to keep it from separating. When the mixture starts to thicken, add the essential oils and pour into a jar or pump bottle. Let it sit until it cools to room temperature.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it! Next time you tackle an organizing project, reward your hands. Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>Live simply,<br \/>\nColleen<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.Minimologist.com\" target=\"_blank\">Minimologist<\/a><br \/>\nOrganize. Reclaim. Emerge.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the joys of belonging to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) is the connections I&#8217;ve made with other organizers around the country. These connections have given me &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=5346\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pamper Your Hands<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1289],"tags":[1450,1340,1452],"class_list":["post-5346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-simple-living","tag-home","tag-organizing","tag-simplicity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/MinimologistLotionIngredients640wide.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}