Hey all,

It’s a rainy day in Denver and I am using it to clean up the house and RELAX. I started my day off by sleeping in til 10 and then rolling out of bed to casually cook up a delicious Dutch Baby (I know it sounds weird but it will change your life), topped with blueberries and a lemon-powdered sugar glaze. Yum.

Greg isn’t feeling the best – stress is getting to him today so I decided to mix up some lavender bath salt for him so he could soak his worries away. My word of the day is tranquility – don’t you just love the sound of that? Anyways, I just wanted to quickly write you, because a Facebook status just wasn’t enough. You should take the day to relax with me – generally I like to be going 110%, getting stuff done but occasionally it’s good to stop and just breathe and enjoy all the stuff you’ve done. Enjoy your “rainy” day off.

Cheers,

KTB

Dutch Baby Recipe

1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 1 splash of vanilla, 3 egg whites, 2 eggs, a dash of cinnamon and I like to add oatmeal, too. Blend all these ingredients together and put in a giant pre-buttered pan. Bake in the oven at 425 for 20 minutes. Then, remove from the pan, slice it into eighths, just like a pizza. Top with fresh berries, lemon juice and powdered sugar. Trust me on this one. This is a Barstow family recipe – the only place we’ve ever seen them sold is the Pancake house and they are to-die-for

So, last week I got to go to one of the coolest cities in the world..Dubai. I was only there 4 whole days but it was pretty amazing. I stayed at the Shangri-La Hotel located on the Sheikh Zayed Road which is the main strip in Dubai. Out my hotel window, on the 39th floor, I could see the Burj-Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and I could also see a good chunk of the city buildings. The city in Dubai is so unique – every building has it’s own personality. One of them, that I called the taffy building, looks like a typical Denver skyscraper that was grabbed at the top and twisted. Later, I found out that this was called the Infinity Tower. Some of the buildings looked Dr. Seuss-ish. Needless to say, at 3:30 am, when my jetlag kicked in (every night), I could wake up and stare at the city buildings and enjoy my nights in Dubai.

FPSB

I was in Dubai for business reasons. My company is an international non profit, Financial Planning Standards Board, that is building the financial planning profession, so we were hosting a global conference with about 80 different people from all over the world – Germany, South Africa, China, Australia, Brazil, you name it. I was there taking notes at meetings and social media-ing it up, but at night time, I got to meet all the conference attendees at our social events. The first social event we hosted was at The Imperium which was a fancy restaurant that was featured in one of the Mission Impossible movies. I worked for 3 days straight – 18 hours per day – no joke. Then, on Friday afternoon, around 4 pm, I got to hit the town and explore Dubai.

Souks

I went out with Bill, my boss’ husband, and also the CBS photographer back in Colorado, and we went to the Souks. These are outdoor shopping markets where you  barter “for a good price.” I quote that because that’s the price that everything is. If you ask a salesmen, “How much is this?”, they will reply, “I will give you a good price” in their strong middle eastern accents. They never actually give you a good price to start off. You are meant to barter them down to about half of what they offer, so be careful…because they love ignorant Americans who don’t know this.

After shopping at the Souks and purchasing:

• tons of beautiful, soft scarves,
• cute ali baba shoes for my boyfriend’s new twin nephews
• a handmade leather wallet
• and an “I love Dubai” magnet for the fridge

we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant overlooking the Burj.

Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. It’s 160 stories high, or 2,700 feet. The Burj was really recently built and it’s official launch ceremony was in 2010, so I’m lucky to have seen this building. Oddly enough, my boyfriend took me up to Toronto, Canada this Christmas to see the CN Tower which is the second tallest building in the world, to the Burj. It held the record for 34 years. Back to the Burj. I heard a rumor that this building cost 2 billion to make and that if they had full customer capacity for the next 350 years, they still wouldn’t break even! Apparently, the people who built the building already knew this and didn’t care. The thing about Dubai is that they go big or go home. I also read that the government wanted to change the oil based economy to a tourist/service based economy. One last fact I like about the Burj: it’s architectural design was based on a flower, the Hymenocallis.

The Dubai Fountain

At dinner, we watched a really, really, sweet water show that goes on outside the Burj. There is a massive pool at the base of the Burj with lots of fountains. The fountains are choreographed to music and it really looks like the water is dancing. My favorite were the bollywood songs – they were SO COOL. If you’ve ever seen the Bellagio water show in Las Vegas, it’s like that, times 10.

So, all in all, my trip to Dubai was fantastic. I can’t believe I got to go there with my company. Sometimes, in life, you just get lucky. Our next conference is in Wales, so we’ll see if I get invited

Cheers,

KTB

Sweets recently got an order from the Netherlands to carry the entire product line (ow, ow!) So, the past two weeks have been spent packaging products and preparing the order. One of the products is a lavender rose bath salt and I have been filling up black organza bags with this recipe all morning. While stuffing these bags, I thought to myself “I should write a blog on bath salt.” And boom! here I am…

History of Bath Salt and Why You Should Use It:

The first recorded use of salt dates back to 2700 BC when Hippocrates, the father of Western Medicine, encouraged his fellow healers to immerse their patients in salt water to heal minor illnesses. Bath salts have various beneficial qualities such as improving your circulation and reducing soreness. For these reasons, they are recommended for people with sports injuries and/or arthritis among other things, too. Bath salts are also very good for your skin. In fact, Cleopatra was known for using them. The salt cleanses and detoxifies your skin by opening up your pores and allowing the water to wash away dirt and toxins. Bath salts also aid in healing dry skin and can improve irritations such as bug bites and rashes.

Types of Salts:

There are many differents types of salts but because we all have things to do today, let’s focus on the most common/popular ones:

• Dead Sea Salt: Dead sea salt is, in my opinion, the best salt out there because it has a high percentage of magnesium, sulfates and potassium. Only 8% of it’s makeup is sodium chloride.
• Dendritic Salt: This salt is manufactured by machines to have a greater surface area which allows it to hold scents and colors better. It’s criticized for not being natural, like the other salts. Dendritic salt is commonly blended with other salts because it doesn’t have the benefits that they do and it works as a preservative.
• European Sea Salt: This salt comes from the Mediterranean sea and contains Iodine, Fluorine, Magnesium and Potassium.
• Epsom Salt: Epsom salt is actually not salt; it is a pure mineral compound of magnesium sulfate that looks like salt. Interesting, eh? And, it is one of the few “salts” that is not from the sea. A lot of people are magnesium-deficient which can cause a number of things including heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, arthritis and joint pain, digestive problems, and chronic fatigue. So, epsom salt is good for boosting magnesium rates but be warned, it shouldn’t be ingested, which is why epsom salt baths are perfect!

How to Use Bath Salts

I mean how hard can it be, right? That’s what I thought at first, too. But there are a few things to note before using your bath salt. First of all, how much should you use? Two handfuls is perfect. Any more than this could result in a fairly saturated salt-content that can irritate your eyes. Any less won’t be enough to accomplish the benefits of the salt. Also, if your bath salt recipe uses coarse salts, make sure to add them as soon as you run the bath water. If you don’t they won’t be dissolved by the time you are getting in the tub, and you will have a very unhappy bottom.

So, now that you’ve become an informed bath salter, you have every excuse to take a bath. Splish splash, baby!

Until next time,

KTB

I’m relaxing after a typical Monday which included 8 hours of work, 2 hours of Madmen, and 2 hours of Sweets. I wanted to talk to you about something that’s really important to me. I think about it a lot and it’s something that gets to me. It gets to me because it’s an issue I’ve struggled with my whole life and I realize that it’s an issue that almost every other girl (and guy) seems to struggle with, as well. Of course, I’m talking about low self esteem.

Positive Self Esteem

I have been using my Google alerts lately for “positive self esteem” because it’s a topic I’m interested in. A lot of the stories I see are articles telling women how to have positive self esteem and a lot of the articles are just the opposite. One struck me pretty hard. It was probably 2 weeks ago that I saw this one. It was about a young girl who posted a video on Youtube asking people if she was pretty or not. Oh my gosh! How awful is that? Talk about depending on other people for confidence.

Then, today, I saw about 4 articles about the same thing. Facebook. The title of the article is “Facebook May Not Be So Friendly For Those With Low Self-Esteem.” It turns out that Facebook can be rather alienating…go figure. Those little thumbs ups called “Likes” can really get to people. I know the feeling. I have seen the same phenomenon happen with that game Apples to Apples. You try to be funny but nobody gets your humor. It’s a horrible feeling. I remember in my freshmen year psych class, we talked about being included and liked and how it was a NECESSARY piece for humans to be happy. We want to be liked. We want to be included. So, it turns out the Facebook study found that people don’t like it when you post negative posts. It also found that people with high self esteem don’t post negative things. They post grateful, positive things.

Fake It Til You Make It

Hmm. Ok. So, here’s my thought. Ever heard of the phrase, “fake it til you make it?” I live by this. I don’t know where I fall on the scale of self esteem. My family never really talked about feelings growing up and the whole idea of talking about feelings freaks me out. My way of coping with sadness or uncomfortable-ness is humor. I laugh at just about everything. Seriously. Not that I recommend laughing at everything. I think it is very healthy to FEEL whatever it is you’re feeling. Lately, these past few years, I’ve had to grow up quite a bit because I moved to Denver for my first job ever. I was 22, taking on my first full time office job, moving away from my friends and family, to a place where I knew no one. Rough (at least for me.) Then, I broke up with my boyfriend 3 weeks after moving. What could I do? Cry every day. No. I laughed it off. I listened to happy music. I faked it. And eventually, I made it.

I hope I don’t look back at this blog in the future and think, “Oh my gosh! Did I just advise everyone to repress their feelings?” I don’t think that’s what I’m doing. I really don’t, but I’m never one to be certain about anything. I’m a philosopher and in philosophy, there are hardly any universal truths. But, here’s my thought: Start being more grateful. Next time you encounter something bad in your life, turn around and realize how much good you have. Acknowledge your sadness – allow yourself to feel it – and move on. Act like a happy, positive person would, and eventually, you will become one.

It’s Ok to Be Sad

I used to get mad at myself for being sad. In college, my senior year, I was SO stressed out. I had the senior blues. Graduating is really scary because all of a sudden, you have to decide what to do with your life and that will make anyone sad. So, after getting pretty upset, I signed up to go see the free on-campus therapists. I told him, “I don’t feel good about complaining about my issues, when I know people are starving in the world.” It has taken me awhile to understand this feeling.

I just met a marine last week who put it best: “If you have a broken leg, looking at a guy with a shot wound won’t heal your leg.” He’s right. You still have a broken leg and you have to deal with it. I guess all I wanted to say tonight was we are all in this together. All of us with low self esteem which includes everyone, right? At least everyone I know.

Ok. So, here’s what I can leave you with. 3 amazing songs that helped me get through those really hard times when I first moved to Denver.

Chanda Mama by Playing for Change: I don’t know what it is about this song but it makes me feel like everything is going to be ok. I totally have a crush on the girl – you’ll know the one when you see the video.

I’m Ready by Tracy Chapman: I love her. She has the most genuine music. The first line in this song is: “I want to wake up and know where I’m going.” I just love this line. It captured the way I felt my senior year when I didn’t know where I wanted to go.

Lastly, here’s a great country song for you cowpokes: The Shape I’m In by Joe Nichols. At my old house, I lived with 3 other people and our house motto was “Lower that bar” meaning lower your expectations. This song’s chorus says “Ya, I’m doing alright for the shape I’m in.” He recognizes that he’s hanging in there and it’s not great but it’s ok for now. I like that. Lower that bar.

I listened to these nonstop. Every morning, I would run to my laptop and turn one of them on before anything sad could get in my head and I would feel so much better. Try it and hang in there.

KTB

Hey Team!

I hope the new year is treating you well thus far! I wanted to update you on my life and Sweets because it has been a few months and things have changed quite drastically.

Molly left the business and so I moved back to Denver and took on a full time job. I am still running the business on weeknights and weekends but I decided I needed to really think about what I wanted to do with the company and make some money in the meantime.

The job I’m working is actually really fun.I am doing website design and social media for an international company which I find to be very interesting.

When it comes to Sweets:

• I still love making the products and learning about different natural alternatives I can use.
• I still love giving the products to people and watching their reactions. My whole office is a Sweets’ loving office.
• And I still love using the products myself!

So, I have decided to continue working on the recipes and getting the products out there as much as I can. There is a new website I partnered with called IsThatOdd and they simply give samples of cool brands to women who interact on their website. I also have been donating a ton to causes that I think are sweet. For example, I just gave some lip balms to a charity supporting single moms. Heck ya! I also gave some lotions out to a youth group of girls in India. They took a bunch of pictures which were cool to see.

I’m also spending a lot of my free time working on Bruce Spruce, my outdoor men’s skincare line. It is a ton of fun. The only product I am selling at this point is Man Balm, a pine-scented lip balm, but I am working on a fireplace scented candle and some natural bug repellant. I’m working on the website at the moment but you can check out the Bruce Spruce Facebook Page if you want to know more.

Positive Self Esteem; More Than Just Cosmetics

So, back to Sweets. I have decided that I want Sweets to be more than just cosmetics. I figure if I’m able to be in touch with lots of people on a daily basis, then I want to have a positive influence on them. I’ve always had a passion for encouraging positive self esteem in young women. This is because I struggled with this when I was younger, and still do struggle with it today. I think one thing that companies do wrong is they target women’s insecurities and sell them products to fill the voids. I could talk about this a while but I don’t want to go there.

On a personal note, Greg and I just moved into an adorable bungalow (love that word) in Arvada with a huge backyard for our pups, Max and Buckley. I couldn’t be happier out here and it’s exciting finding new places and people. I have been doing lots of yoga and I’m thinking about becoming a yoga teacher later in the year. No promises…but I’m tossing the idea around.

Anyways, that’s the most recent scoop for me. I don’t want to seem all egotistical and go on about myself for pages One last thing: I have taken an interest lately in finding similar businesses to mine. Not so much cosmetics although kinda but more like businesses that are trying to make social change. One I found and love is called the Positive Express. I bought 2 Pips from them last week. If you know of any, you should mention them below in the comments. Thanks for tuning in and I will talk to you later.

Cheers,

Katie