Warrior Salve & Foot Soak Combo for Tired, Aching Muscles and Feet

Back in 2010, when I trained over 500 miles and walked 60 miles in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure, I started developing what would eventually become my first herbal products for sore muscles.  The first and most popular to date has been my sore muscle salve but a really great complement to it is my foot soak.

I had a really great team captain for the 3 Day who taught us well to stretch and stretch often.  I have to thank her for that because after walking 60 miles in 3 days, I was a little sore after the fact but I was not in pain and I think that it largely has to do with the stretching.  I did something else immediately after the walk that I believe contributed to my quick recovery: I took a nice, long, hot herbal bath (and then followed it up with my sore muscle salve!).

My foot soak was formulated based on that herbal bath concoction.  It includes Epsom salts, baking soda, mugwort, sage, rosemary, and lavender.  These natural ingredients are anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, pain relieving, skin softening, detoxifying, and aromatic.  Lavender is a wonderfully relaxing herb.  Mugwort is used to invigorate tired feet (and was once used by Roman soldiers to relieve aching feet on their long marches).  Sage helps relieve joint pain and is strengthening.  Rosemary helps increase circulation.  Baking soda softens the skin.  Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate which, absorbed through the skin, not only increases magnesium levels in the body but also acts as a sedative for the nervous system, reduces swelling, and relaxes muscles.  It also draws toxins from the body and is a natural exfoliant.  A really great way to massage your feet in the foot soak is by adding smooth river rocks or marbles to the basin!

Whether you're a seasoned athlete, training for an event, or just sore from over doing it over the weekend, my Warrior Salve and Foot Soak are fantastic, all natural ways of caring for your aching self!

My Warrior Salve and Foot Soak also come as a set and makes a really great gift for the Pink Warrior in your life.

Warrior Salve for Sore Muscles, Strains, Sprains, and Bruises

I've talked about it off and on here at the blog and often on twitter but as of a few weeks ago, my Warrior Salve for Sore Muscles, Strains, Sprains, and Bruises was finally made available in my Artfire Studio and in my Etsy shop!  This salve is perfect for athletes, weekend warriors, and everyone in between primarily for helping relieve sore muscles.

This is a recipe that I developed last year while I was training for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure.  My training consisted of walking around 500 miles in preparation for the event where I walked 60 miles over the course of three days in order to raise awareness of the fight against breast cancer.  I had a lot of problems with my feet in training and know many walkers who had very, very sore muscles not to mention strains and sprains.  My Warrior Salve was inspired by these walkers that kept going no matter what, knowing that they were walking for something much bigger than themselves and their pain.


I asked some of my 3 Day walker friends to test out my Warrior Salve, knowing that I couldn't find a better group of people to really put it to the test and give me honest feedback.  The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.


-I LOVE this muscle salve! I've been able to use it on a few different types of muscle pain (e.g., tired muscles, sore muscles, and injured muscles) and found the salve to be effective on each type. Most pains were alleviated after one use while more severe injuries felt improvement over a couple days. And best of all...no stinky medicine smell! ~ Jami


-You need some of @AthenasArmoury's sore muscle salve. It's *amazing* and works on everything from torn ligaments to bruises. ~Pam

Pain relieving, anti-spasmodic organic herbs were infused in medicinal olive oil and blended with essential oils and beeswax to create this salve.   Just rub a little in where you feel sore (the rubbing is an added bonus of giving yourself a little massage) and wait for the herbs to work their magic.

You Can Help Me Make More Soap!

Wow.  The first time I tried to make soap was back in September of 2009!  I can't believe it's been that long!  My first couple of attempts at soap making were, shall we say, not quite that successful.  But they certainly were learning experiences!!

I started with a recipe from my copy of Better Basics for the Home by Annie Berthold-Bond.  By the way, this book rocks!  My first forays into green cleaning, among other things, came from the recipes in this book.  I highly recommend it.  Anyway, the soap.  I didn't really know much about what I was doing, but I figured if I could just follow the instructions I'd be all right.  Right?  Wrong.  There were little things (and some not so little things) that I missed that made a HUGE difference.  I didn't realize that I should be stirring the lye water to dissolve the lye crystals.  I didn't realize that I should be weighing my oils/ingredients instead of measuring them.  And let me tell you the difference a stick blender makes over trying to mix it by hand!  It's a good recipe.  I've since used it to much success.  In fact, it's one of my favorite recipes for conditioning and lather.  My inexperience was really the only problem.

After those first couple of unsuccessful tries, I was still determined to figure out how to do this right and started wondering if there was a class in my area.  Call it coincidence, call it synchronicity, call it divine intervention, call it what you will but at my next Herb Society meeting, I found out that a friend was teaching soap making classes.  I signed up!  All those little/huge things I mentioned getting wrong... I found out about during Rebecca's class.  I gained the knowledge and confidence to give it another try.  This time I used the recipe that she demonstrated and I got it!  I was so excited!  I made soap!!

Needless to say, I didn't stop there.  I made her recipe numerous times with different scents, I made the original recipe that I played with (successfully, this time), I started experimenting with different additives (like ground oatmeal and apricot seeds)...  All of the soap that I make is all natural.  I will NOT ever use any chemical fragrances or dyes and all oils are sustainable.  I handed out samples to EVERYONE and was absolutely thrilled with all of the positive responses that I received.  It got to the point where people were asking me daily when I was going to get it listed in the shop.

Back in May, I finally announced the addition of the Apothecary to the shop as I started listing some soap.  At the moment, I have four scents listed: Lavender Oatmeal, Creamy Castile, Tangerine Lavender, and Cinnamon Clove Spice.  These are scents and recipes that I've been testing out for about a year.  I love all of them, but my favorites are probably the Cinnamon Clove Spice & Creamy Castile.  They may seem to be slightly odd sizes at the moment but that will change.  I hadn't been making full size bars for my testers and I stuck with what I had been doing for starting them off in the shop.  Once I get through this batch, you will start to see a more standard 4-6oz size uniform throughout the shop.

I have so many ideas of different scents and additives that I want to play with, there are different recipes that I want to try, I have plans for gift combos, there are ways of making plant dyes to color bars that I can't wait to try...  But there's a catch and this is where you come in.

Supplies for soap making can be very expensive.  Since I left my full time job back in January, money has been tight and I've run out of the luscious oils I use to make soap.  If you thought about trying out my soap, if you've never tried handmade soap before (there is a HUGE difference, but I'll save that for another post), if you're a friend and want to help support me and my shop, if you need a gift, or maybe you just need a shower...  check out the Apothecary section of my shop and make a soap purchase.  All proceeds of Apothecary items will go towards the purchase of soap supplies so I can offer you a wider array of goods.


What's in it for you?  All Apothecary purchases will come with a sample of my new Foot Soak, you'll smell pretty, and you'll feel good knowing that you helped support a handmade business.


You can visit the Apothecary in my Artfire Studio or Etsy Shop.

Happy Shopping!!

-Janine

30 Days of Creativity - Day 4: Athena's Armoury & Apothecary Product Label Work In Progress

Creativity today was a bit of a challenge, but not without trying.  I attempted to work on three different projects and couldn't finish any of them because I'm missing parts.  A trip to the hardware store after work tomorrow & I should have everything I need to keep me creatively busy for the next few days!

So, I moved onto another project that I've needed to do for a while now and must admit, I've been putting off.  I am NOT a graphic designer.  I can't even pretend to be.  But I need labels.  I've been promising to get my sore muscle salve into the shop for longer than I care to admit for people that are actually asking for it.  When I ran out of other projects today, I figured I should start working on it.  Well, let's just say that it's been a challenging afternoon.  I got Avery labels and figured that it would be easy enough to download their template and play around.  They only have templates for Microsoft Word & I use Open Office on my main computer.  Open Office can usually open any Word documents, but I'm guessing that opening a template is a little different.  Even when I found templates for Open Office, they weren't for the right Avery labels that I'm using.  So... I attempted to use the Avery Design Online software.  Needless to say, it's a little limiting.  Actually, it's very limiting.  It only uses specific file formats, so the picture that I originally wanted to use wasn't working.  I couldn't use my font of choice.  There was a crazy circle around the labels I couldn't get rid of...  GAH!!

At one point of great frustration, I just had to walk away from the computer for a few minutes.  I went outside and hung up a couple cute sun catchers (one of which, I realize, you can't see very well in this shot) and a really pretty chime.

After spending a few minutes outside, I came back & started from scratch and figured a few things out.  The good news is that I learned how to make a transparent background on pictures and I finally have a work in progress label.  It's certainly not perfect (yet) but it's a start at least.  Here's a little glimpse of what I'm working on:

Here's to the possibility of new labels at some point this evening and frustration free creativity for the next few days!!


By the way, I tried the homemade dishwasher detergent that I made on Day 2 last night & it worked prettty well!!


Psst: I just finished working on the Warrior Salve labels & should have it listed in the shop within the next few days!!!

Simple Joy Sunday

My week started off pretty crappy: I was counting on three days of work that I didn't get.  That had me in a good rut to start the week off but I still found things to make me happy.

After finding out that I wasn't going to be working, I stopped by IKEA.  It just happened to be in the area I was for my lack of work.  I got a lingonberry soda.  It was tasty and made me happy.  And then I went home and spent a couple hours replanting my succulents and potting a couple new plants that I picked up from IKEA for stupid cheap.  The time I spent outside and communing with the plants was great.  Such a mood elevator!  After doing a few more crafty things outside, I sat down with a beer and enjoyed my work.

1. A small palm of some sort, 2. Red Mandevilla and some small Aloe, 3. Succulents, 4. Variety of plants and shells

I finally framed artwork that I got from estasketch literally years ago!  Scott's a big fan of Spiderman and I love Wonder Woman, so it only seemed appropriate that we have work from this series called My Secret Identity.  Now, we just have to figure out where we're going to hang them...

I finally got paid for my first couple of blog articles!  Woohoo!  That's definitely encouraging to me to do more.  I've done a lot of research to find places to write, now I really just need to get down to business and start typing!

One of my 3 Day Tweeps buds @knittingbagel and her daughter drew some pictures inspired by the Armoury.  I must say, this is a first for me and I'm honored!

Joys for the shop:
-finally adding the Apothecary to the Armoury, starting with some soap.
-new banners and the continuation of a blog makeover.
-getting labels for the metal tins that contain my salves, etc.
-spending a lot of time working on beefing up my Artfire shop (adding new sections, putting some custom items in the gallery, adding a bio, updating the on site blog).

Foodie joys:
-successfully making a tasty pot of miso soup with chicken (I didn't have any tofu in), soba noodles, wakame, and scallions.
-a peach, peanut butter, and cardamom smoothie.
-a cheese calzone big enough for 2-3 meals.

And just because it's a picture of my favorite cat and a pretty plant, it made me happy.

What were some of your simple joys this week?  Share below or write your own blog post (we can exchange links!).  I'd love to hear!