In an attempt to get us organized {and comfortable} out at the farm this summer, I made up a few essential oil sprays to keep on hand. An After Sun Spray to soothe skin, Face Refresher toner, and Natural Bug Spray. They have been really lovely to have out there, especially the After Sun spray and Face Refresher. Those two spritzed on a cotton pad, are sooo soothing to the face at the end of a day spent in the hot sun & wind.
This was the second year in a row that Sam requested a Dino themed birthday party and when you’re kiddo is turning FIVE, you smile & embrace all the fun! Which for me, means diving into all the Dino Pinterest projects I’m constantly pinning.
I grew up in the age of birthday favors, but struggle a bit with them now as a mama. In the past, it has just been candy. This year, I really wanted something the kiddos could keep & enjoy. From that the Dino Terrariums started to take shape. I opted for spending more money on the favors, but made them serve dual duty as a party craft too.
Ok, let’s face it. Lavender and Peppermint were my “gateway” essential oils. They were the two initial oils that got me hooked on trying more {and more}. And one of the many ways I used Lavender & Peppermint was for tension relief. Over the months, I’ve discovered a few more essential oils that work great for releasing different types of tension!
In my quest to use more natural products, I switched to a face serum a couple years ago. It felt great on, provided the moisturizing I needed in our dry climate, and smelled amazing. Until the oils went rancid, that is. I generally got through about 3/4 or 2/3 of a bottle before the oils went bad, even using it daily. Although I thoroughly enjoy supporting local, I decided to try my hand at making my own face serum, so I could make very small batches & hopefully waste less in the long run.
We made these yarn hearts last week. Yarn dipped in white glue and placed on wax paper in a heart shape… trace a heart shape on the wax paper to make it easy. Let dry over night. Peel off. They’re flat enough you could attach them to cards or pop in an envelope to mail.
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.
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.
Let’s just jump into it:
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.
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.
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!
At this year’s annual Pinterest Christmas Party with the ladies, our lovely host, Shauna, had us try out a quick little project: marbling with nail polish. She picked up white bowls & mugs at the dollar store. Then all you need is a disposable foil container, nail polish, hot water, and some creative bravery.
There’s lots of great full tutorials already out there {like here and here}, so I’m not going to do step by step. Just going to offer some tips we discovered as we each took a turn at this project.
Tip #1: Get your work area set up, all the nail polish colours you’re going to use picked out & open each bottle, so everything is ready to go quickly.
Tip #2: Open a friggin’ window {or two}! It was a damn cold winter night, and I’m pretty sure we got a little high on fumes.
Tip #3: In case you thought doing this with young kids was a good idea {ummm, nail polish & kids don’t usually mix}, please reconsider. It’s a simple “adult” craft. Again, hello, fumes.
Tip #4: Work quickly. Drizzle the nail polish close to the surface of the water, slowly, but do work quickly. The polish will start to get gummy as it hardens & can lead to lumpy {somewhat ugly} results. But hey, if you don’t like how it turns out, just use nail polish remover & start again.
Tip #5: You don’t necessarily have to take the time to swirl the nail polish in the water with a toothpick before dipping your item in. Simply the way you drizzled the nail polish colours into the water can give beautiful results.
Tip #6: Prepare to be surprised! Or brace yourself! Or heck, just dive in & DO NOT overthink it. This is one of those crafty projects that you can’t predict what the end product will look like. Yes, you’re choosing the colour scheme, but that’s about all you have control over. I found it exciting, others found it a little frightening. Experiment!
You can generally rate the success of a Pinterest project by whether you’d repeat it. And yes, I would definitely gives this one another go. Several of us at the party were interested in attempting to dip our bowls upside down, so that the inside gets marbled {not food safe, but to keep jewelry in}. I think tile coasters would be awesome too {and a great hostess gift idea}. But high on the list to try, is a marbled hanging planter! They’re gorgeous!
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.