Super Easy Homemade Honey Almond Facial Scrub!

I'm all about easy and natural these days and I've found one of the best places to start simplifying is with the products we buy, especially those for our skin and hair.

When it comes to skin care for myself and my family I'm a stickler for pure ingredients that aren't going to cause reproductive toxicity, among other things, with the pretty little bubbles they give the kids in the bath tub. I'm sure you've realized as well, products that have purer, safer ingredients aren't always the most budget friendly - especially when it comes to women's skin care lines.

If you haven't been to Skin Deep it's a fascinating place to hang out and learn more about everything you have in your bathroom and whether the listed ingredients are harmful or not to yourself and your kids. Some products surprised me in that they have improved over the years and others you realize, just don't care that they make, market and sell a product that is full of known carcinogenic substances and other toxic crap that just isn't good for you.

So what's a granola girl on a budget to do?

Friday Finds for December 17th!

I can't believe it is Friday again all ready! Is it just me or does the time just keep flying by faster and faster?

I'll share my fabulous Friday Finds with you, but I also want to know, what have you found lately that you think is super cool and you want to share with the world?

With the weather we've been having lately I'm having to come up with cool ideas to keep my kids entertained. Today one of my BFF's, Tina and I took the kids out for lunch and to the movies, but I can't afford to do this everyday obviously. We need to get back into our arts and crafts and like I mentioned in previous posts, I suck at coming up with ideas so I rely on my friends and fellow bloggers/moms to help me out in that department!

Today I stumbled across this amazing blog with all sorts of ideas! It makes me giddy just looking at it! :D

If you are hoping for the kidlets to make some home made gifts this year and you're like me and don't know where to start or what to do, check out the CraftyCrow.net! She's gathered some of the best of the best when it comes to the crafty type blogs and it's hard to go over there and not get totally lost (in a great way!) on her site checking out all the unique (and wonderfully simple) ideas. Not only are there great tips and tricks in regards to arts and crafts for your kids to make, but also some fantastic ideas for yourself as well.

A perfect example is this adorable little notepad holder - this is truly suitable for any age. Click here for the simple instructions on how to help your child make this perfect little stocking stuffer!

Photo courtesy of Let's Explore via the Crafty Crow 

I have to thank my good friend Darla for this next find today! It won't help you with your shopping, not this decade at least, but if you were around in the 80's you will love to remember these great Christmas commercials! I totally forgot about some of these! It's making me all nostalgic for my mixed tapes and the Kenny and Dolly Christmas specials - remember those? ;o)

Photo Credit

Click here to go back in time and check them out. Michael J. Fox and his DeLorean not necessary... ;o)

Now, I wouldn't be true to my crunchy granola self if I didn't include a few "green" finds for the week. One site I really like is the Examiner.com. They have great authors and articles from all over the USA and Canada.

Alicia Bayer wrote these great tips on how to stay warm this winter without once having to touch the thermostat on your wall. Great reminders that are really just common sense!

Click here to find out "15 Ways to Warm Up Without Turning Up the Thermostat". The earth and your bank account will thank you!

So what have you found this week that you think is fabulous and share-worthy? Comment below and let us know!

Have a great weekend everyone! ♥

With love and light,

 

Tree Huggin' Tuesday - Quick and Easy, Eco Friendly Gifts

Omigosh I am starting to panic. I have not done any shopping yet and it is 11 days until Christmas morning! @_@

Our life in this house has been so hectic and chaotic the last 2 months that it suddenly hit me this morning, it's the middle of December and I am not even close to being ready. YIKES!

The problem with suddenly realizing that you basically have 10 days to get your sh*t together is that it is very easy to get caught up in the mass consumerism of the season. I find I am telling myself I'll just pop over to Costco and get all the gifts and everything I need and then I can be done. But there really is no thought in that because I know I'll just be there buying gifts for the sake of getting gifts and what good is that? And for the record I am not saying that just because you shopped at Costco your gifts are meaningless, not at all. I am just musing to myself that if I go there (it's 5 minutes from my house) and just shop for the sake of shopping and getting things that the gifts from me wouldn't have as much meaning and thought as I would like...does that make any sense? It's been a really long day around here.... :Þ

For one thing, I hate crowds.

{shudder}

The thought of hitting the stores this week or next is enough to sending me running for the hills screaming incomprehensible things while smacking myself on the forehead and hoping the little men in white jackets don't catch up with me.

For another thing, I feel like the meaning of this time of year is starting to fade. For some it is celebrating the birth of Jesus. For others, it is a celebration of light, of welcoming back the sun and just being close to friends and family. Whatever your reason for celebrating at this time of year, ask yourself, what does it mean to you? Is it about having the biggest and best and most expensive present to give or show off? Or the most presents? Why do people feel the need to literally spend thousands of dollars on gifts?!?! If it is not about that, then why is that always the focus? I don't get it and it's not what I want to teach my children.

Let's re-cap here.... I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyy behind in the gift giving/making department, it's December 14th, I hate crowds and mass consumerism really irritates me. So what is a girl to do?

Stay home, have a glass of wine and get into your zen spot by making your own gifts that have meaning and are filled with love and good energy.

I am not that crafty (although I am a crafty girl wannabe in the most desperate of ways :D LOL), I am not creative when it comes to coming up with ideas, but I am stubborn and tenacious and despite everything we've been through this little while, I am not letting it be my free pass this year to just hit the stores and get 'stuff' for the sake of having things to wrap up and give away. I might suck it up and shop a little bit if I can find the right gift for the right person and it is something they love (ie there is truly thought behind it), but other than that I plan to lay low for the next couple of weeks and remember the spirit of the season.

If it weren't for my children, I think I would just skip this craziness all together, but they are getting so excited and I have to remember that really, the magic of this season is still in them. They still believe in Santa and have so excitedly started their letters to send off.  One of the things they really want is actual toys from Santa's work shop. Not from the stores, but 'original' toys. Basically Maria and Matty are getting old enough to question the whole concept and want to know why Santa just gets everyone store bought toys.

I need to come up with something original. I need to be 'Santa's Workshop' and some how turn into an Elf and create something amazing. In ten days.

Luckily there is Google and fellow bloggers with super nifty crafty ideas that share what they come up with!

For Noah it is going to be these fabulous Fabric Alphabet Fridge Magnets that I saw awhile back on SpearmintBaby.com (and posted about on December 3rd) and fell in love with.

Aren't they just adorable?!?! :D

  

Photo and idea courtesy of SpearmintBaby.com

And really, he's 3. If my sewing is less than stellar I'm sure he won't notice. ;o)

Matty loves, loves, loves playdough and that is sooooooooooooo easy to make. If I put it in some original and unique packaging, use some cool colours with some car shaped cookie cutters, he'll be thrilled!

I haven't made playdough in a long time, but when I do this is the recipe that ends up the best for us:

Simple and Easy Homemade Playdough Recipe

• 1 cup of plain white flour (Save the organic whole wheat stuff for something else and just use the whitest all purpose flour you can find. Yes for us crunchy granola girl types it feels weird to use white flour for anything, but this is the time and the place for it! LOL :D)
• 1/2 cup table salt
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 2 teaspoons of Cream of Tartar
• Food coloring

Using a large pot add in all your ingredients and mix together over medium heat. Eventually the consistency turns to something like thick and sticky mashed potatoes. When this happens remove from heat and carefully start kneading the dough until it gets a smooth finish. Just watch out because it will be hot at first. I usually tip the pot over onto the table and let the playdough drop there and it cools off faster that way while I knead it.

For my Gluten Free friends, here is a great recipe that has gotten rave reviews!

Easy Gluten Free Playdough recipe:

• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tsp. cooking oil
• food coloring

Mix all ingredients together in saucepan, cook on low heat, stirring occassionally for at least 5 minutes or until it forms a ball. Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes. Scoop into a large bowl, add at least 1/2 cup more rice flour, and 1/2 cup more corn starch, knead until well mixed and no longer sticky. Store in airtight container.

  

Photo Courtesy of MumsBabyMagazine.com

For the colours, I use the food colouring pastes that you find in cake decorating stores. They seem more expensive yes, at first compared to the liquid kind you find in the grocery store etc, but they last for years and years and years. They are well worth the upfront cost. Just a teeny tiny speck on a toothpick will you give you rich and vibrant colours that are hard to find in store bought play dough varieties.

If you add some vanilla extract the playdough smells super yummy and the extract hlps preserve the dough so it lasts longer. You can use peppermint extract too which would be fun for this time of year!

Add some glitter to make sparkly dough. The kids love it! Make some special 'Santa Dough' by leaving the dough uncoloured and then add in red, green and silver glitter. :o)

Cooked playdough lasts longer and is easier to play with (in my not so humble opinion) than its non cooked counter part. It is also super easy to make, ridiculously simple to clean up and it costs just pennies for what turns out to be a really fun and unique gift!

Are you making any homemade gifts this year? I'll be on a mission all week for great ideas so feel free to share and I'll be sure to pop back and let you know any cool links and ideas I find too!

With love and light, ♥

 

Friday Finds for December 10!

I love Fridays, I really do! It means that I actually have a place to share all the crazy things I find on the internet all week long (and I am a bit of an internet junkie, so I have a lot of things I am bookmarking all the time :D ).

Now, Noah who is my youngest and turned 3 in August has *finally* potty trained. Do you hear the angels singing? I sure do! I have had at least one in diapers (often two) for the last... *gasp*... EIGHT years. Eight years. @_@ OMG that makes me dizzy just thinking about it!

Even though Noah is out of diapers, I still can't help browsing through some of my favourite online stores that helped feed my cloth diaper addiction. If you aren't currently using cloth diapers and wonder how on earth one can become addicted to them, well check these cuties out from EcoBabyCanada.com!

Fuzzi Bunz Daisy print from EcoBabyCanada.com

KiwiDot Goodmama from EcoBabyCanada.com

Then I noticed that she has her Goodmama's on sale and that alone is enough to almost make me want to put Noah back in diapers. :Þ I *LOVE* Goodmama's, they are one of my absolute favourites and were one of the most well used and well loved diapers in my stash. They are worth every.single.penny because they last forever and are oh so soft and cushy. Really, who can resist cute diapers like this? ♥

I could go on and on and on about cloth diapers, but I will stop there for now! :D

How are you all doing with your holiday shopping? I have to confess with everything going on in my life lately I haven't even started.

If you plan to order online, you are best to get finished this weekend if you want to have everything delivered in time for Christmas without paying a fortune in shipping. I have to thank David Suzuki for reminding me of that fact. While I would  love to say David told me that little shipping tid bit personally, I can't. :Þ

Being a huge fan of his, I was on his website today to see what was hot over there for the holiday season and noticed that they have mentioned to order by December 11 to get your goodies at regular parcel rates (for US customers this might be different, just so ya know).

I fell in love with this calendar they have in their store "Nature in the City 2011"! Check out this car!

Photo Courtesy of The David Suzuki Foundation "Nature in the City 2011 Calendar"

I LOVE IT! :D A car that has been reclaimed as an urban garden. How cool is that? According to the David Suzuki Foundation website/holiday store:

 "...we asked Canadians to grab their cameras and show us the natural world interwoven into the urban landscape, as viewed through their camera lenses. Hundreds of photographers across the country entered thousands of images to our Nature in the City photo contest. The twelve winners, featured in this 2011 calendar, were chosen by our panel of guest judges - all professional photographers."

You have to get this calendar, I mean really, isn't there some pseudo hippie in your family that would love this? ;o)

Okay, okay, so maybe not everyone in your circle of family/friends is into cloth diapers and David Suzuki, but you have to have some sort of techie in your famliy right? Have you seen these on Etsy.com?

Photo courtesy of DebbyAremDesigns on Etsy.com

It is recycled circuit board light switch!! :D

Or this, for the Lego fan in your life who loves to read, how can you resist this cute little stocking stuffer?

Photo courtesy of "misscourageous" on Etsy.com

And my personal favourite:

{drum roll please.....}

Photo courtesy of FloppyDiskCreations on Etsy.com

It's a floppy disk night light!!!!! I am so in love with it that I am putting it on my wish list this year for sure. It reminds me of the good 'ole days before USB drives and cable internet. :D Remember dial up? Ahh, I can hear the dial up tones just like it was yesterday....

And with that my friends I am going to go and put some early Pearl Jam on the iPod and get my letter to Santa finished up...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! ♥

With love and light,

 

Wordy Wednesday - Go Green This Christmas

Christmas is creeping up on us, and none too slowly.  But not to worry, there is still time to green your Christmas and these books will help you do it in style.

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More

Santa Claus Is Green!: How to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas (Little Green Books)

Green Christmas: How to Have a Joyous, Eco-Friendly Holiday Season

If you have any book recommendations on greening your holidays, share with us in the comments.

Friday Finds for Dec 3!

Oh my, oh my, oh my! Did I ever find something last weekend when Heather and I were out shopping at the new Cross Iron Mills Mall here in Calgary!

Have you ever heard of Lush? OMG people, you MUST TRY LUSH! They are all handmade soaps, lotions, potions and skincare and everything I have tried so far is d.i.v.i.n.e!!!!

I had actually heard of Lush before and I thought "meh, sounds like another Body Shop" but boy was I wrong!

The Godiva Shampoo Bar. Photo Courtesy of Lush Cosmetics

For so long I have been allergic to sooooo many different shampoos/conditioners etc, so I tried their Godiva Shampoo Bar and I think I actually got one step closer to heaven - it is amazing! My head/scalp isn't itchy, my hair smells like jasmine and looks even better if I do say so myself! I was so shocked that this little itty bitty round disc shaped thingy even worked, let alone is so rock solid it feels like it will last forever. I followed it up with their Jungle Solid Conditioner (which is a bar by the way, not a bottle of conditioner - who knew?!) which actually tamed my thick and wild locks (I'm not bragging either, my hair is thick and crazy and drives me to the brink some days...) All in all $80 later between their shampoo, conditioner, skin cleansers and bubble bars I've been smelling purty all week!

The Jungle Solid Conditioner. Photo Courtesy of Lush Cosmetics

What I also love about Lush, is their lack of packaging. If I buy a bar of shampoo or a bubble bar for example, it is handmade in Vancouver, BC Canada AND it doesn't come in any unnecessary plastic packaging!! WOOOT! I love that. A few of their products need packaging but I love that only the products that *really* need it are in plastic bottles or tubs.

You have to try it out, you will be sooooooooooooooo glad you did!

'Pop In The Bath' Bubble Bar. Photo Courtesy of Lush Cosmetics

For our Canadian friends simply go to http://www.lush.ca/, for our American friends pop on over to http://www.lushusa.com/ and all our other international friends you can click your way to http://www.lush.com/ and they will help you get to the right place.

Moving right along...  :o)

I have also become a HUGE fan of Laurette Lynn aka The Unplugged Mom. I dream, no actually I drool over the thought of becoming an unplugged house (which will never happen because my husband is a sports and HDTV addict - *sigh*), so I live a lot of the time, vicariously through her. She has a truly informative and inspiring blog radio show as well every Sunday night at 10pm Central (thats 8pm PST, 9pm MST and 11pm EST). Laurette has a fabulous blog and radio show and I think you should go and check her out! For more information about Laurette's show just click here!

Speaking of fabulous ideas and wonderful blogs, I found this little gem on Spearmint Baby and fell in love!

Photo courtesy of Spearmint Baby

They are fabric alphabet fridge magnets! I was always nervous of the little plastic fridge magnets so I never kept them in the house. But these are great and I can't wait to make some for my little Noah this month and tuck them under the tree! :D

Now I found this on Spearmint Baby, but this is what I love about blogging - we all share the love! Spearmint Baby found this on the Daily B. So going to either site will give you the instructions on how to make these wonderful little letters.



What have you found this week that you want to share? Make sure to comment and let us know!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! ♥

With love and light,



Hand Made Gift Idea - Heating Pads

It's December and Christmas is on the way! This morning I was up and at 'em and by 5:45 I had my sewing machine set up and a couple of pillowcases ready to go.

Don't let the words 'sewing machine' scare you off - while I wish I could sew like Tea Rose Home, the truth is, I'm just getting back into sewing after a nearly 10 year hiatus. What does that mean? Well, I'm back to only making 'beginner' projects and pretty much anything that says it will take 1 hour or less (which usually takes me 2 hours).

That being said, this morning I completed 4 (count 'em - FOUR!) Christmas gifts in exactly one hour. That included cutting, ironing, sewing, filling, and closing.

I did about 5 minutes of googling and came up with something our kids already have and use at least 3 times each week. Heating Pads!

As these pads are frugal to make, environmentally friendly, and handmade, they are a great option for gift giving. I already had a stash of fun pillowcases and plenty of rice in the pantry, so it was an easy choice. If the heating pad gets worn out, the rice can be composted and the fabric can be reused for quilting.

For the sake of getting off the computer to spend time with my kids, I've included the link to Martha Stewart's tutorial. It's easy and each one can be made in 15 minutes. She uses cherry pits, but I used rice for the filling.  I have also used barley in the past.  I'd say it's even worth it to make up a couple of extras - you never know when you'll need one.

If you have a 'must make' craft for gift giving, let us know - we're always looking for great ideas!

Shipping Holiday Gifts

The deadlines for shipping holiday gifts is quickly approaching. Take a look at the deadline dates from Canada, from the US, from Australia, and from the UK.

Get ahead of the rush with these simple tips.

1) If you don't have a paper shredder, you could beg, borrow, or buy (try a thrift store first) a paper shredder to shred all of your old papers. If you're like me, you likely have a stack of old bills you have kept to take to the shredders, but haven't had time (or the memory!) to do it. Instead, shred them yourself and pack the shredded paper around gifts before sending to your loved ones.



Photo Credit
By simply reusing things you already have around the home, you are helping your wallet and the environment.

2) Do you have a bachelor uncle or brother that doesn't do a lot of cooking? Instead of giving a heavily packaged item, why not send a homemade Gift in a Jar - hearty soup mix, delicious muffin mix, or homemade pancake mix. All they have to do is add the liquid ingredients and voila!

Earrings $16 (Photo: Ten Thousand Villages)

3) Spend your money wisely this year and shop at Ten Thousand Villages where you will find quality hand made products. By supporting a fair trade organization, you can feel good about purchasing products from workers who received fair wages for their hard work. Plus, they drop ship - you make the purchase and have them ship directly to your friend. As far as I know, the gift will not be gift wrapped, which is actually a good thing. :)



How do you make shipping gifts as environmentally friendly as possible?