DIY sugar scrub plus dove

So if you're anything like me, you love sugar scrubs, like those made by Bath and Body Works, but you hate the huge list of petrochemicals that they use to make said sugar scrub. Well, worry no longer! While I continue my search for the perfect sugar scrub recipe, here is one that I use to make a single dose, make-and-use batch of sugar scrub for when I'm showering.

Your base ingredients

The basic ingredients are demerara/turbinado sugar, almond/apricot oil and an essential oil of your choice (I went with lavender, this is totally optional, only if you want a scent). I use a half pint jar (of which I have many) for mixing my ingredients. I put in about half a jar's worth of sugar, then I pour in oil until all the sugar is coated (when I mix mine, there is no oil floating over the sugar, but you can add more if you like it with more oil). Then I add 10-15 drops of essential oil and mix it all with my hand until it's all combined. The oil will naturally settle at the bottom and that's fine, you'll mix it up again in the shower when you scoop up a handful.

To use, just scoop up a bit in your hand and scrub it on your skin while you're in the shower. It will leave an oily residue on your skin, which is fine. Rinse off as much as you can and the rest will absorb very quickly and your skin will feel soft, not oily.

One big advantage I've noticed is that I don't feel cold when I get out of the shower. I'm not a scientist, but I credit this to the oil preventing evaporation and thus cooling. This is great because I know that it's keeping in the moisture and keeping my skin from drying out. I really like using the scrub in the winter when my skin vaguely resembles papyrus and itches like crazy from the drying effects of New England air and my wood stove.

In other news, we have an unexpected visitor, a white domesticated dove, who absolutely refuses to leave. Probably because we feed it, but I'm too much of a softy to stop so it will probably be around until it gets eaten by something/flies away/lives to a ripe old dove age and dies.

The gender-unknown dove

My children insist it's a she. I insist it's an it. My husband insists it needs to find its home before he finds out whether dove is tasty or not. We originally took it in because it couldn't fly, but after a few days in a makeshift bird cage consisting of a food dish, a waterer and wood shavings in a big storage bin with an old screen on top, it was able to fly. I thought that was the end of it as it flew off into the sky.

Well, boy was I wrong! Not only has it not left, but it expects me to feed it every day. It's like a chicken, except without the whole egg-producing-not-pooping-on-my-steps...thing. The kids like looking for it and for the most part it keeps up and on the roof. It's fairly low maintenance, no more inconvenient than feeding the regular population of songbirds that live in my front yard. It's just...weird. It has a band and everything but it won't go home!