Nature’s Parlour was in full effect at the family event held by Hotep Leeds at Jamaica House in Chapeltown, Leeds.

Dr Llaila O Afrika and his wife Dr Melanie Stevenson came to give a talk on holistic solutions to cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart problems.  There was a welcoming atmosphere and a mixture of young and old people with a genuine interest in their health.

Along with the headline speakers, there was a talk from Pauline Tomlin-Touray  about the fantastic benefits of aloe vera.  I also did a talk on natural hair, the ingredients that work for us, the ones that don’t and the low-down on how to grow natural afro hair long.

The talk was very well received and I look forward to talking again in Manchester and Birmingham in the not too distant future.

Mr Nature’s Parlour (Peter) and Master Nature’s Parlour, the Mascot (Elijah) were there in support – giving fab customer service and keeping people smiling.  Nature’s Beauty Essentials oils were flying off the stall, as were the Quench Curls Moisturizers once the benefits of keeping hair moisturised was explained to the audience.

In addition to Nature’s Parlour, Pauline Tomlin-Touray had a stall with Forever Living products, Faroma Oils were there selling the best incense sticks in the land, Candy Scent had their fragrant oils and soaps on offer and CathCraftz were there with their beautiful greeting cards.

A local poet, Sai Murai (Simon Murray) was amongst us and I was lucky enough to get a photo taken with him after he’d bought some oil from us.

It was a fantastic event and we’re looking forward to the next talk we do.

If you’d like us to give a talk in your town, we cover the following topics:

• Afro hair care and growth
• Mixed race hair care and growth
• Growing and maintaining locs
• Looking after your mixed race child’s hair
• Looking after your black child’s hair

One of the above topics would be covered at each event with the additional option of Peter’s talk on how black men can do the ultimate, bump free shave.

If you have any events which would be complimented by a Nature’s Parlour stall, please contact us at info@naturesparlour.co.uk

In part one of this post, we looked at some of the reasons I didn’t find snacking on fruit quite as convenient as I would have liked. In part two we’re going to look at some ways to make snacking on fruit a simple and regular feature in our daily diet. I’m going to take you through a typical fruit infused day…

• Add chopped fruit to cereal
• Have a morning smoothie with your breakfast or as a breakfast alternative
• If you’re a sedentary worker, have your fruit snack mid-morning just before your rest-room break so that you can wash your hands and reapply make-up (if necessary)
• Have some fruit as your lunch time starter – it should wet your appetite and get you ready for the main lunchtime meal
• Have some fruit when you arrive home from work. I wash some fruit and hand it to my son when he comes from school, so he eats it now without thinking about it
• Have a smoothie after you’ve come home from work
• Have some fruit as a dinner time starter/appetiser
• Have some fruit for dessert

A fantastic fruit dessert we love here consists of a bowl each of chopped fruit (about half and apple and half a pear in each bowl) with 2 tablespoons of yoghurt mixed with 1 tablespoon of honey to each bowl – yum!!!

Fresh fruits are fantastic for skin and hair care. They are packed full of nutrients and vitamins and are rich in anti-oxidants which helps combat free radicals – great for anti-ageing.

Happy snacking!!!

It’s common knowledge that fruit is the original fast food. It’s nutritious, flavoursome and easy to eat. Increasing your consumption of fruit does wonders for your skin and eating it should be part of your holistic skincare routine. So how can we make better use of it’s potential as the convenient food of choice?

In my quest to enjoy a more natural lifestyle with my family I actively look for ways to eat more fresh produce (preferably organic) and make natural living the norm for all of us.

However, I realised that I don’t often snack on fruit and decided to question why. Here’s what I came up with:

• I get lipgloss all over most apple/pear sized fruit when I eat it
• my fingers get sticky and wet when eating most fruit – not good when working on a keyboard
• fruits aren’t a convenient shape for my handbag
• I sometimes feel more hungry after I’ve eaten the fruit than before

I know some of these reasons may seem superficial, but there you have it! OK so what was I going to do about this? There’s no way I was going to be beaten by a bunch of fruit!!

The first thing I did was check out the daily recommended amount of fruit (and vegetables) to eat. According to the Food Standards Agency, a combination of 5 portions of fruit or vegetables a day would do the trick. In my home we eat at least one portion of vegetables and/or salad with each meal, which is fine, but I still wanted to incorporate more fruit easily and seamlessly into our daily diet.

How often do you eat fruit? Do you have some recommendations on how to incorporate fruity snacks? Are you able to eat a daily amount you’re happy with? Do you consider it an issue at all? Perhaps you don’t even like fruit? Whatever your take on this issue, we’d love to hear from you! Simply add your comment in the box below or click on the comments link.

Part 2 of this article will give some ideas on how you might incorporate more fruit into your diet as part of your holistic skincare routine. Be sure not to miss it – book mark this page using the icon below or subscribe by clicking the icon in the column to the right of this article.

Yours naturally

Xina

Nature’s Parlour

PS I found the wonderful photo of the fruit basket at Great Hampers.