There are plenty of reasons to make your own skin and body care products at home: you know exactly what is going into it, you can avoid certain ingredients you might be sensitive to, you can save money and you can use things you already have in your fridge, kitchen cupboard or garden.

Here are some easy and simple ideas, many based on the good sense of earlier generations:

Oatmeal: mix with water to form a paste and apply as a facemask. You can also add honey and/or yogurt instead of water.  This is great for oilier skins.

Lemon juice: as a hair conditioner – combine ¾ cup olive oil, 1/2 cup raw honey and 3tsps of lemon juice. Comb through after shampooing then cover hair with plastic cap, leave for 30 mins then shampoo and rinse.

Honey: smear on face and leave 15-30mins then rinse off. You can also mix honey with some warm water and use as a cleanser.  Honey is moisturising and has antibacterial properties.

Cornmeal: take a tablespoon and add a 1tsp of olive oil and drop of lavender oil as a face exfoliant.

Sea Salt: use as a body scrub added with any kind of oil, a drop of lavender oil and rose oil

Apple Cider vinegar: Apple cider vinegar gets rid of residue build-up on hair, leaving it soft and shiny. Use as a final rinse after shampooing. Mix 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar with 4c of water.

If catch a little too much sun you can add a cup of apple cider vinegar to a bath and relax for 10 minutes to take the sting out. (Not really for us Melburnians at present, unless you are going on holiday to a warmer climate!)

Try these at home and you won’t want to visit the department store or chemist for expensive beauty products ever again!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could be chauffeured around town to all your appointments?  Imagine being able to go wherever you need to and not having to worry about finding a parking spot.

You can experience that for yourself.  Day 2 Day Personal Concierge can be your driver for the day.  I take care of the business of driving and don’t intrude into your personal space and time.

You could take a day trip to the wineries and not have to worry about who’s going to drive home and how many drinks you can have.  You can plan a girl’s day out and go from shopping to lunch and back to shopping again, all without having to manage a car.

Do you have a special event coming up – perhaps an anniversary or birthday?  You could plan a picnic on the beach and I can chauffeur you there and back.

You can even give me as a gift.  Book me for the day, pack some chocolates into the back seat and I will take your loved one wherever they need to go.

If you don’t like driving or would prefer not having to worry about it for one special day, call me and I’ll make your day smooth and memorable.

Packing the kids in the car and driving off to see the countryside can be a wonderful experience or a nightmare and it all depends on the preparation that you do beforehand.

Kids love to go places and explore new things.  They are excited at the idea.  Do you remember how it used to feel?  Your breath would come faster and you’d feel tingles up and down your spine as you piled into the car.  The problem is that excitement and impatience work in inverse proportion.  The more excited you were the less patient you became.  Your kids are no different.

It doesn’t matter whether you are driving or flying, the best thing to do is to keep your children amused and comfortable on the way.

Here are some great tips that will make your next family outing more pleasant.

1.  Make a simple map and mark on it some of the things you will see along the way.  It gives your children something to watch out for and lets them track their progress.

2.  Scour the internet and your memory for some games that you can play along the way.  You can only play “I Spy” for so long!

3.  Take a stash of little travel games and puzzles.  If the only time your children are allowed to play with these it makes them seem very special and adds a novelty value.

4.  Pack a picnic lunch and stop somewhere along the way so they can use up their energy with some running and play.

5.  Keep a snack pack with you as you travel.  A drink, a piece of fruit or even a lolly will distract them for a while.

6.  Go high tech.  Some cars have built in DVD players so your kids can watch a movie on the way.  You can also buy portable DVD players or download movies onto your smartphones.

7. If your child is really young, make sure he or she has their favourite toy or cuddly to snuggle up to.  They are more likely to settle in and even sleep part of the way.

8.  Take your child’s favourite CD’s and have a sing-along.

9.  Buy a backseat desk.  It’s a plastic desk that attaches to the headrest in front and when opened, can be used to rest colouring books and pencils.  Some come with built in activities.

10. Camera’s are cheap now.  Let your kids take photos of interesting things along the way.  You can try disposable cameras or even play ones if they are too young for the real thing.

With all these ideas up your sleeve, travel will be fun.

If there is anything I can do for you around the home while you are away, call me!

Whenever I see those shows on TV where people win a fortune and plan to spend it all on their wedding, I wonder if they are crazy.  I know that we all want the perfect wedding and reception, but does it have to cost us the money we could otherwise use as a home deposit?

I read somewhere recently that the average cost of a wedding is $25,000. How many couples do you know that would have that sort of money lying around?  It’s no wonder so many put off the wedding and just move in together.

If you don’t want to go broke over your wedding day, here are a few ways that you can cut back on your expenses.

1.  Ask each other what is most important to you when you think of your wedding day.  Work out a list of priorities.  You might be surprised to find that budget breakers like fancy reception venues aren’t seen as important by either of you!  Cut back on what you don’t value.

2.  Involve your friends and family.  You never know who has a contact somewhere – a cake decorator, a dressmaker or a florist.

3.  Choose a simple theme for your wedding.  Use flowers that are in season and take the wedding outdoors if the weather is good.  Picnic weddings can be elegant and relaxed.

4.  Save on your decorations.  Fairy lights and gauzy material strung around the roof and tables will give your reception a magical feel for little cost and both can be used again later.

5.  Skip the wedding presents and ask your guests to pay for their meal instead.  After all, you can only have so many toasters.  This is becoming more common these days and it saves your guests the worry of what to buy.

6.  Hire your dress instead of buying it.  You won’t ever wear it again and it will just hang in the cupboard going yellow with age.

7.  Remember that ‘less is more’ and don’t try to do too much.  You don’t need flowers on every table or fancy chair covers.  You don’t need a band.  You don’t need a big cake.

8.  Ask your friends to take the photos and videos of the event.   It saves hundreds on photography fees and will give you lots of photos to choose from for your album.

It isn’t the ‘things’ that will make your wedding day perfect, it’s the people.  Remember what is important and enjoy your day.  You’ll save money and stress and start your married life off in the company of people you love.

If you are planning a wedding and need a hand, contact me, I’d be thrilled to help you. After all, everyone loves a wedding!

It’s the age old question, isn’t it?

You’ve probably heard someone say “In my day we would never have done that!”  You might even have said it yourself.

The world changes and so do our lifestyles and the behaviours that go with it. We live a much more casual and relaxed lifestyle than our grandparents did.  We live in a more multi-cultural society and are far better travelled than our grandparents.  This sort of change is bound to bring with it some changes to our behaviour and in turn, to manners and etiquette.

Manners are the standards of behaviour which show that we are polite, and respectable people.  They are the ‘norms’ of regular social interaction.  Manners aren’t something we are born with.  We have to learn them from our parents and through living in the world.  We learn to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and to wait our turn.  We are taught not to eat our food with our fingers and that belching in public is not socially acceptable.

Etiquette, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game.  It’s a set of social standards that apply to specific situations.  Etiquette tells us how to behave at a formal dinner or when meeting a person of importance.  Etiquette tells us which set of manners we are required to use in specific social situations.

Are good manners and etiquette missing in today’s society?  Or is it that in today’s society there is a more diverse set of norms and social situations?

The tendency is to say yes, based on what we see in the news, our use of manners and etiquette has slipped.  We seem to be very casual about whether or not to bother with them.

But next time you stand at the coffee bar or deli counter waiting for your turn to order, pay attention to what goes on around you.  I guarantee you will see good manners and social etiquette as the people waiting with you check to see that they aren’t queue jumping.

I don’t think manners and etiquette are missing.  I think they have just changed their appearance to fit the modern world.