Meet the Goji Berry.

Studies show that a Goji berry is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world! Goji isa  high-energy berry and comes from a tree in Himalayan.. They taste a little bit like  berries and chocolate together (hence you can make delicious raw chocolate Goji Berry bars!). Goji  berry  full of antioxidants, amino acids and essential fatty acids.

Goji pulp contains:

• A remarkable concentration of antioxidants that help combat premature aging, with 10 times more antioxidants than red grapes and 10 to 30 times the anthocyanins of red wine. They are rich in vit A.
• A synergy of monounsaturated (healthy) fats, dietary fiber and phytosterols to help promote cardiovascular and digestive health.
• An almost perfect essential amino acid complex in conjunction with valuable trace minerals, vital to proper muscle contraction and regeneration.

The fatty acid content in Goji berries is like that of olive oil, and is rich in monounsaturated oleic acid. Oleic acid is important for a number of reasons. It helps omega-3 fish oils penetrate the cell membrane; together they help make cell membranes more supple. By keeping the cell membrane supple, all hormones, neurotransmitter and insulin receptors function more efficiently. This is particularly important because high insulin levels create an inflammatory state, and we know, inflammation causes aging. Other studies using goji berry juice founds benefits in mental well-being, and calmness, athletic performance, happiness, quality of sleep, and feelings of good health. These are preliminary studies that need to be repeated before definitive conclusions can be drawn. **There may be some possible herb-drug interactions with goji berries. If you take warfarin (a blood thinner), you may want to avoid goji berries. Goji berries may also interact with diabetes and blood pressure drugs.

Also, if you have pollen allergies, you may want to stay away from this fruit. However, when eaten in moderation, goji berries appear to be safe. Ask your doctor if you have any questions.

And guess what? We can even buy them here in Dubai, Check out besupernatural.com   for all your raw healthy food goodies, and they deliver direct to your door!

Here are a list of my favourites, email me if you want to do a link exchange or if you know me and i forgot you.

Crafty

• • Cant Stop Making Things
  • Cherry Bam
  • Claire Jones Art
  • Heart Handmade
  • How About Orange
  • jiji~punch
  • Jinjerup
  • Kawaii Junkie
  • Lots Of Super Love
  • Lucky Kate Crafts
  • Muse Of The Morning
  • Pepto Girl
  • Pink Poodle
  • Pretty Pretty Yum Yum
  • Rosy Little Things
  • She Likes Cute
  • Super Cute Kawaii
  • Syko
  • Tizzalicious
  • Wee Wonderfuls
• DUBAI
  • Dubai Babies
  • Dubai Mums Club
  • Fluttabyz
  • Geordie Armani
  • Lula’s Jewellery
  • Pink Poodle
  • Sue Tyson Designs
  • Toffee Princess
  • weightloss
  • Zen Beauty Lounge
• FRIENDS
  • Casino Hire UK
  • YummCupcakes
  • Be Supernatural
  • Ickle Bug
  • Kao-ani.com (credit smilies<3)
  • Markmeets
  • Pink Poodle
  • Zen Beauty Lounge
• KAWAII
  • All Things Kawaii
  • Apple Town
  • Babydoll.nu (credit smilies<3)
  • Bouncy bubbles
  • Carrielynnesworld
  • Cute Spot
  • Dress Up Games
  • Dress Up Girl
  • Drop Dead Kawaii
  • Trixinity
  • Wellness
  • Zen Beauty Lounge
  • Dubai Herbal Clinic
  • Be Supernatural
  • BLV

Here at Sparklefairy we have teamed up with one of our favourite affiliates over at Markmeets to give some of Markmeets fans a chance to win one of our exclusive Rose Quartz Angel bracelets.

Heres how to win

1. Follow @isparklefairy & @markmeets on Twitter
2. LIKE markmeets and isparklefairy on Facebook
3. Then when done, simply tweet
“i’ve entered @isparklefairy & @markmeets competition to win a Boutique Angel Bracelet full details http://bit.ly/JJoEwK RT”

Competition closes midday on Friday 11 May 2012 Good Luck

Check out Markmeets and celeb gossip here www.markmeets.com

Reminder: if you are wanting to order and live in UK we can post direct from UK next month as we are making a flying visit. So just contact us prior to the order to confirm you want to be eligable for that, as the postage fee will only be the standard p&p cost in UK, not the international courier service.
Rest of UAE we offer 1-3 day express delivery service.
Sparklefairy had a little article wrote about us here ((thankyou was a lovely suprise))
We launched a Swarovksi element range too which seems to be popular and already sold out of one bracelet, but not to worry we are stocked up again.
We also got some new crystals in stock, yellow appatite, (the famous weightloss crystal!)  Seraphinite , Kunzite (pink) perfect for anxiety issues as well as Morganite which to me looks like pink Kunzite- all working on the heart chakra.
We also stocked back up on Phenacite the Angel stone. So those awaiting, you will be receiving an sms from us this week.
We made our very own pink rose quartz Shamballa bracelets too. In fact we have uploaded another 10 different style of angel bracelets this week!
Oh and how could we forget these amazing new orgone pieces.

So today was the last day of week 2′s training programme. I admit, i am starting to get the same buzz from training as i do from running. I do have addictive personality and tend to get into things very quickly and surely getting ‘into’ training as much as i did running isn’t such a bad thing? When i lived in Saudi i did actually did both, run… a lot and train in the gym. So maybe the gym buzz is back?
So first things first, apparently i ‘wasn’t taking this seriously enough’ because the fact my nose started itching during the chest press and i had to put both weights in one hand to scratch it caused a very irate Trainer telling me the danger of this. He basically said it how it was. But i cant complain as where safety is concerned i needed to take note.
My chest and arms were still sore from the session 2 days ago which didn’t help the chest fly.
A few other incidents throughout the session raised a few eyebrows too and i needed to ‘focus’ So i got my sparkle back (fitness one) and managed to beat my PB with the straight arm plank (on incline) All in all my strength is on the increase and i did good. Think the commando personal trainer is a good thing, he definitely keeps me on my fairy toes …..xoxo

Well imagine my feeling when Wassonite landed in my home. Not practically. But for me it might have well have landed direct from the sky. Me coming across Wassonite was a definite bout of synchronicity
One of my dear suppliers left me some samples in December. Not knowing what this particular green stone was, i contacted him with a photo asking to identify it as i really didn’t recognise it, and thats unusual for me. (Some stones do catch me out though, and this was one of them) I found i was extremely drawn to it. I kept picking it up.
To my surprise, it was Wassonite which is an extremely rare sulfide mineral with chemical formula TiS. Its discovery was announced in a 2011a NASA press release as a single small grain within an enstatite chondrite meteorite called “Yamato 691″, which was found during a 1969 Japanese expedition to Antarctica. This grain represents the first observation in nature of the synthetic compound titanium(II) sulfide.
The mineral was named after John T. Wasson, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and was approved by the International Mineralogical Association. (well not really a surprise as i am always drawn to the space crystals.

I am still to find the healing properties of Wassonite but once i do i will give feedback and also on my ‘own’ experience. In the meantime enjoy the below article.

Here is more from http://www.sciencedaily.com
The new mineral was discovered within the meteorite officially designated Yamato 691 enstatite chondrite. The meteorite was discovered the same year as other landmark meteorites Allende and Murchison and the return of the first Apollo lunar samples. The study of meteorites helps define our understanding of the formation and history of the solar system.
The meteorite likely may have originated from an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Wassonite is among the tiniest, yet most important, minerals identified in the 4.5-billion-year-old sample. The research team, headed by NASA space scientist Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, added the mineral to the list of 4,500 officially approved by the International Mineralogical Association.
“Wassonite is a mineral formed from only two elements, sulfur and titanium, yet it possesses a unique crystal structure that has not been previously observed in nature,” said Nakamura-Messenger.
In 1969, members of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition discovered nine meteorites on the blue ice field of the Yamato Mountains in Antarctica. This was the first significant recovery of Antarctic meteorites and represented samples of several different types. As a result, the United States and Japan conducted systematic follow-up searches for meteorites in Antarctica that recovered more than 40,000 specimens, including extremely rare Martian and lunar meteorites.
Researchers found Wassonite surrounded by additional unknown minerals that are being investigated. The mineral is less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair or 50×450 nanometers. It would have been impossible to discover without NASA’s transmission electron microscope, which is capable of isolating the Wassonite grains and determining their chemical composition and atomic structure.
“More secrets of the universe can be revealed from these specimens using 21st century nano-technology,” said Nakamura-Messenger.
The new mineral’s name was approved by the International Mineralogical Association. It honors John T. Wasson, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Wasson is known for his achievements across a broad swath of meteorite and impact research, including the use of neutron activation data to classify meteorites and to formulate models for the chemical makeup of bulk chondrites.
“Meteorites, and the minerals within them, are windows to the formation of our solar system,” said Lindsay Keller, space scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Keller is the co-discoverer and principal investigator of the microscope used to analyze the Wassonite crystals. “Through these kinds of studies we can learn about the conditions that existed and the processes that were occurring then.”
Johnson’s advanced work in nanotechnology is part of Johnson’s Astromaterial Research and Exploration Science Directorate. It is currently the location for celestial materials that would be returned to Earth from spacecraft. The facility collaborates with industry, academic and international organizations.
“The beauty of this research is that it really demonstrates how the Johnson Space Center has become a pre-eminent leader in the field of nanoscale analysis,” said Simon Clemett, a space scientist at Johnson and co-discoverer of the new mineral. “In the words of the great English poet William Blake, we are now able ‘to see the world in a grain of sand.’”
In 2006 ARES scientists won research grants that established major facilities for the nanoscale analysis of cometary dust samples returned by the NASA Stardust Mission spacecraft. The instruments include a field-emission transmission electron microscope with extremely high sensitivity for chemical measurements and a next-generation NanoSIMS ion microprobe for nanometer scale isotopic measurements. Most recently, the team acquired a focused ion beam (FIB) instrument, used in this study, that enables analyzing a wider range of nanometer scale samples in geologically complex materials.
Collaborators in the discovery of the new mineral include Clemett, Keller and Zia Rahman in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate at Johnson; Alan Rubin from UCLA; Byeon-Gak Choi from Seoul National University, South Korea; Shouliang Zhang from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston; and Katsunari Oikawa from Tohoku University, Japan. You can purchase it here as a nugget bracelet.

Those that know me, know i am a runner, cardio queen. Well things changed. My knees are weak and once i recover the other one starts bothering me so we decided to resort to the gym full time and avoid running, for the short term anyway. That to me is scary, running is my ‘thing’ and never really get the same buzz from the gym than running running gives me. It also means my diet has to change *must* as additional protein, etc etc. That works nice on my semi organic and on and off rawfood plan anyway, i just have to be extra observant on whats going in my body. My overall goal is to tone up and build strength so i can hopefully be strong enough to complete a Marathon. Always done half Marathons but my real goal is for the big one. I think it could get boring if i keep  blogging about my training programme every single day so i will just do it as i please, those interested i may also include my food intake.  My trainer is my husband who i am very lucky to have coaching me, he is crème de la crème in the fitness industry ACSM Health Fitness Specialist, Certified Sports Nutritionist,  Rehabilitation Therapist, NLP Master Practitioner, wrote a couple of books and ex British Royal Marine Commando. So in my opinion i am coached by the best!Watch this space for updates. Today is session 5 of the new programme, and my chest and arms  still sore from day 3 of the programme… a nice sore though….. xoxo

Growing garlic inside your kitchen is a fun and healthy way way of providing your kitchen with a fabulous herb!. Garlic is renowned for its medicinal value too and very simple to grow!

Generally the best known time is to plant garlic in mid october as the cold helps the growth resulting in bigger bulbs, however here in Dubai just make sure they are in a cool place!

You can plant anytime you just wont get a big crop. Start by dividing the cloves of garlic from the bulb and then setting the largest and healthiest looking cloves aside for planting.  Fill a deep pot with compost -approx 6 inches wide- The depth is important. Plant one clove per pot in an upright position, no more than 1 ½ inch below the soil surface – the bottom of the clove is flat with a slightly concave end. Keep the pots well watered and place them in a sunny position.

Your garlic should be ready for harvesting any time between August to September depending on individual varieties and which country you are in. The problem with harvesting garlic is knowing when they are ripe in order to lift them. Harvest them too early and the bulbs will be too small, but harvest too late and the bulbs will begin to loose their quality, and so a more accurate method is needed to determine whether or not the garlic is ready to harvested. I

When harvesting garlic bulbs, gently ease them out of the ground  loosening the surrounding soil, taking care not to damage or bruise them as they will then not keep for long. Once lifted, most of the bulbs can be washed and dried, and then placed into a warm dry part of the garden/home to dry out. Once dried off, these bulbs should now keep in good condition for between 3-4 months.

So what are the benefits of garlic? … Click here for garlic 101

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