Local Food Movement

150 Faces of YYC Growers ~ Local Food Movement

Ever heard of urban farming? What about the local food movement? There’s been a lot going on to increase awareness about eating local and supporting local producers & makers. Hubby and I are proud to a part of YYC Growers and Distributors through our small farm business, Happiness By The Acre. YYC Growers is a farmer/producer owned cooperative here in Calgary, with the vision for sustainable food that is delicious, healthy, fresh and supports community issues like environmental footprints, food security & food democracy.

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Living With Essential Oils: Creative Care

Living with Essential Oils: Creative Care ~ Diffuser recipe by Bubblegum Sass ~ Focused, Thoughtful, Creative ~ Everything you need to stay creative

 

Creative time for me can mean a lot of different things. It can be time spent doing product photos, making Love Catchers & Dreamcatchers for the shop, colouring in one of my many adult colouring books, or craft time with Sam. No matter what I’m doing with my creative time, it’s a part of my sanity-saving self care. Honestly, creative care is something we really value & encourage in our little family for each other. Which is why I decided it could use a complimentary oil diffuser recipe.

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Living With Essential Oils: Boosting Immunity

Living with Essential Oils: Boosting Immunity ~ Young Living Oils Tip by Bubblegum Sass

When I first started this oils journey, just over a year ago, I was mainly interested in using my diffuser. Slowly I started getting into topical applications for various remedies, in particular hormone balancing & sore muscles. A little citrus oils in my cooking. Then it was roll-ons and all sorts of DIY bath & beauty items. And now… I’ve dived into the world of veggie capsules for ingestion..
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Basically Beautiful: Date Night

Basically Beautiful: Date Night ~ Basic makeup for busy moms ~ Natural & chemical free options

 

When busy moms finally get a babysitter lined up and a date with hubby all planned, it feels so good to take a few minutes to do a little something special for yourself. For me, that usually means, putting on makeup, which I rarely wear anymore. I previously shared my basic morning skin care routine. Now I’d like to show you some of the products that I treat myself to for date nights!

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Living With Essential Oils: Clean Your Empty Bottles

Living With Essential Oils: How to Clean Your Empty Bottles ~ DIY Blog post by Bubblegum Sass

 

If you start down the path of enjoying essential oils {which I highly recommend}, you will find yourself with little empty oils bottles around the house. At first it’s just one or two because you’re new to oils and don’t go through any of them too quickly. A year later, you realize that you might need to do something with that bottle stash. That was my experience, anyway. Turns out cleaning your bottles is pretty straightforward. It’s also pretty helpful when you get into making all sorts of roll-on remedies for yourself & friends, and saves you from having to buy new bottles.

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Living With Essential Oils: Self Care Love

Living with Essential Oils: Self Care Love ~ Clary Sage, Dragon Time, Dreamcatcher ~ Diffuser recipe by Bubblegum Sass

Sometimes I diffuse certain essential oils because I want to enjoy a particular smell in the house. Other times I diffuse oils to serve a particular purpose. Much of the diffuser time at the beginning of January was spent on Thieves and Purification Oils, to help clear the house of all the icky germs that had taken up residence (hello, stomach flu & sneezy colds).

But one day, I realized I needed to get back to diffusing oils for self care (not just germ care). This is the recipe I came up with to help calm my mama anger & impatience and increase overall optimism. Let’s face it, we can get dragged down listening the the news reports, grow weary trying to see the good side to things, and then our patience gets tested over & over by those little ones who are trying to feel out boundaries. So ya, self care love in the diffuser is helpful to have going.

Self Care Love

  • 3 drops Dragon Time
  • 2 drops Clary Sage
  • 1 drop Dream Catcher

*That adorable essential oils pouch is from fellow maker Lesley of The Ellebee Tree. It’s perfect for packing some of your favourite oils for travel, weekends away or if you’re a hardcore oils mama, goes into your purse daily.

Happy diffusing!

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Santa’s Workshop: DIY Salts & Sugars

Santa's Workshop: DIY Salts & Sugars ~ Essential Oil Infused ~ by Bubblegum Sass

 

I was gifted a lovely & deliciously useful salt & sugar set infused with essential oils. It’s one of those things, at first glance, you’re not sure how you’ll use it, but I quickly changed that attitude into “what won’t I use them in?!” Turns out they are simple to make, and really handy to have sitting on the kitchen counter to shake in here & there.

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Let’s just jump into it:

Lime Salt

  • 1/2 cup of fine sea salt
  • 15-20 drops of Lime essential oil
  • fresh zest from one lime

Zest your lime & set aside {don’t let your now naked lime go to waste; slice it up & add to your water, or juice it & put it towards a margarita}. Mix together sea salt & lime essential oil, breaking up clumps. Add lime zest. Mix well. Put into whichever container is most convenient. Mine came in spice shakers, which work awesome.

Orange Sugar

  • 1/2 cup of white sugar
  • 7-10 drops of Orange essential oil
  • fresh zest from one orange

Zest your orange & set aside. Mix together sugar & orange essential oil. Add orange zest. Spread mixture onto baking sheet to air dry. Scoop into container, breaking up clumps as needed.

 

Santa's Workshop: DIY Salts & Sugars ~ Essential Oil Infused ~ by Bubblegum Sass

 

Now here’s the best part… you can do a whole variety of citrus infused salts & sugars using citrus zests & essential oils! The other amazing thing, is the number of ways to use these. I’ve sort of lost track of how many thing’s I’ve added them to. The salt gets added to random cooking, from veggies to chicken {lime salt & cooked beans is super tasty}. The sugar gets added to things like plain greek yogurt & homemade applesauce. I keep ours handy on the kitchen counter, so whenever I’m at a loss or just plain too tired to decided on flavours or seasonings, I grab one of these. They make a great hostess gift too!

Happy cooking!

Santa’s Workshop: DIY Soothing Milk Bath

Santa's Workshop: DIY Soothing Milk Bath Recipe ~ Essential Oils ~ by Bubblegum Sass

 

Oh man, I used to buy such a lovely milk bath mixture, but then the shop changed their recipe & it was much less lovely. Anyway, I’d sort of forgotten about how enjoyable milk baths were, until I started diving more into this whole DIY bath & beauty using essential oils. There’s lots of great recipes online, as it turns out, but I thought I would post my version to share with you. Tweak it as you like, to get the results & scent you adore.

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