Side note...I'm working on moving my blog over to WordPress and getting my own domain name (woohoo!!). I'll continue to publish here for awhile, but please change your bookmarks to www.eatingcleanandsavinggreen.com :)
I made my dad and my mother-in-law each a sign with a cute phrase. You can buy them on Etsy and other places, but to save some money I made my own. I was inspired by Just Imagine.
They took inexpensive wood plaques from a craft store, painted them fun colors and mod podged a picture on it. I did basically the same thing I did with my subway art. I found precut decorative wood plaques at Michaels and painted them black. Then I took the phase I wanted to use and in Publisher created a document with a black background and white letters in a fun font. I printed it out on plain old copy paper, cut it to match the size and shape of the plaque and mod podged in onto the plaque. I added two more layers of mod podge on top to seal the deal. Add a frame hanger on the back and that's it!
Along with lip balm and body scrub, I also made some homemade body butter. Seriously, this was ridiculously easy. You take coconut oil, add it to your mixer, and just let it whip into a luscious, creamy mixture. Add in several drops of essential oils if you want a scent other than coconut and put into jars. Really, that's it!
You only have to use a little on your body to go a long way too. I used too much and it ended up feeling too greasy.
What I spent:
Coconut Oil -- $6.97
Essential Oil -- $3.99 (I only used about 1/3 so $1.33)
Jars -- $7.00
Total cost -- $15.30 or $1.53 per jar
Like I've mentioned before, I want to start exploring all-natural body products, so along with the lip balm, I made homemade sugar body scrub. The scrub was super easy...if you can stir two ingredients together you can make sugar scrub :) Not only does the scrub work just as well as expensive store-bought brands, it was significantly less expensive. Here's what I spent...
Kroger brand Turbinado sugar $3.50
Kroger brand baby oil $1.99
Essential oil $4 (but I only used 1/3 of the bottle so $1.33 worth approx.)
Jars $6
Total spent...$12.82 which made 6 jars, so $2.13/jar
I could have probably made them even cheaper, but I went with the nicer glass jars since I was giving them as gifts.
Here's the recipe I adapted from Martha Stewart
Homemade Body Scrub
Body oil (I used baby oil, but you could use any kind of oil you want)
Epsom salt, sea salt, or organic cane sugar (I wanted a sugar scrub, so I used turbinado sugar)
12 oz. jar with cap
Lemon zest or 9-10 drops of your favorite flavor of essential oil
Combine 1 cup of body oil with 2 cups of Epsom or sea salts or organic cane sugar (depending on how fine a grain you like). Add lemon zest or essential oils for color and fragrance. Package in jars.
Remember my earlier post about how hard it is to find gifts for the men in our families? This is another solution to that dilemma :) My father-in-law LOVES bourbon but has pretty much everything bourbon related already (at least everything we can afford ;).
I saw on Etsy a bourbon bottle soap dispenser that I thought he would love and actually use. However, I didn't want to spend $40 on it, so I made my own. It was super easy...I took an empty bourbon bottle (I used one of his Maker's Mark ones he actually filled and sealed), washed it out good and filled with soap. For the dispenser part, go to the dollar store and find a $1 soap dispenser that's as tall or as nearly as tall as the bottle so that the straw reaches to the bottom of the bourbon bottle. Screw the dispenser and straw part onto the bourbon bottle and voila! Instant kitschy, fun and unique soap dispenser! I'm also going green and saving green by recycling and old bottle and only spending $1 on the dispenser.
The men in our family are extremely hard to buy for when it comes to Christmas, birthday or any types of gifts. If they want something, they typically just get it for themselves. One thing I can always count on them liking is bourbon or beer, but really you can only only buy so much bourbon and beer every year (I'm sure the men are disagreeing with me now!).
Thankfully, I came across a method for etching your own glasses and I thought it would be awesome to etch a bourbon decanter and glasses for my husband's brother. He's getting married this summer, so I thought these would be a great addition to their new home. I liked how they came out so much that we did some for another friend and some for ourselves.
The process is pretty straightforward. Buy etching cream from a craft store. Decide what type of letter or design you want etched. For my T's, I got a scrapbook letter T that was the size and font I liked. Instead of putting the T on the glass, I cut out the outline of the T (the part you would normally throw away) and applied to the glasses. Etch over the sticker, let dry and remove the sticker. Easy peasy! You could also tape off whatever letter or design you want if you're more artistically-inclined.
You can find the full instructions on etching glasses Thistlewood Farms, who I got the idea from. I originally wanted to do the circle with the letter inside they do, but found it much too time-consuming for my purposes. I couldn't find the right type of circle stickers and didn't want to tape off a circle on the glass.
I love chapstick and since I want to explore more all-natural and clean beauty products, I thought I'd start with my own lip balm. Plus, I wanted to use these as cute little Christmas gifts for my girlfriends. I did a lot of research and the process of making your own lip balm is super easy.
I found it hard to track down all the ingredients in one place though. Thankfully, I found several online retailers that make it easy buy selling kits. The kit I bought (here) had everything I needed and so when I went to make them, it took me less than 10 minutes. You get to choose your flavor and they include the lip balm base (a mixture of beeswax and other oils) and the pots or tubes. You melt the base, add in the flavor and put in your pots or tubes. Let harden and add cute labels if you want. That's it!!
How easy is that? And it's clean clean clean!!
As part of the Christmas season, I want to share with you 12 eating clean and saving green Christmas ideas. They'll include recipes, gift ideas and more and hope they'll inspire you and keep you in the holiday spirit!
My family loves hot chocolate so I searched for clean recipes and found a yummy one from Southern Living. I also used this recipe to put together cute little Christmas gifts for the grandparents.
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix
From Southern Living
1 1/2 cups 53% cacao dark chocolate morsels (I used mini semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup instant nonfat dry milk
2/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa (I used regular)
Stir together dark chocolate morsels, sugar, instant nonfat dry milk, and cocoa; spoon into 1 (2-qt.) jar. Store at room temperature up to 1 month.
TO MAKE HOMEMADE HOT COCOA: Heat 1 cup milk to 180°; stir in 1/4 cup Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix.
With Christmas only weeks away, (mostly) everyone is getting into the gift-giving spirit. Personally, I love giving gifts. It's the love language I use when showing someone they mean a lot to me and I enjoy the whole process of coming up with an idea, searching far and wide for that gift and seeing the recipient's face when they open it up.
Whether you've been done Christmas shopping since August or have yet to start, I'm here to help! I've come up with the Top Ten Eating Clean and Saving Green gifts for your holiday season. These gifts help you eat clean, save you some green and some even do both!
1. Spa Day -- For that special lady (or even guy!) in your life, consider giving them a day of pampering to a spa or salon that specializes in all-natural and organic products.
2. Subway Art -- Easy and inexpensive, a piece of unique subway art fits all sizes and is a great personalized gift for that special someone. Choose the recipient's favorite song lyrics, poem, Bible verse or quote.
3. Recipe Book -- Compile a list of your favorite Eating Clean recipes to give away to family and friends. You could create a book yourself, or use a helpful site, like Shutterfly or Bookemon, which does all the work for you!
4. Old Window Photo -- Another great personalized gift, especially for a newly married couple, family with kids or parents and grandparents. Again, the possibilities are endless for personalization.
5. Kitchen Tools -- Every cook needs the proper tools, so consider giving several smaller, handy kitchen items or purchasing a bigger piece of kitchen equipment. Some of my favorites and must-haves...cheese grater, mandolin, spice rack, crock pot, bread machine
6. Stock the Pantry Gift Basket -- I've made all kinds of pantry staples in the last year. Put together a gift basket to stock the pantry of a friend or neighbor. Some to include...brownie mix, cooking spray, chicken stock, pasta sauce, soup or sauce mix, seasoning salt.
7. Magazine Subscription -- I especially love giving magazine subscriptions because it's a gift that lasts all year! Some of my favorites for clean eating and saving green...All You, Eating Clean
8. Homemade Crayons -- For the kid, or the kid-at-heart. :) Also make a great stocking stuffer.
9. Ice Cream Ball -- Another great gift for kids or families. Fun for all and who doesn't love ice cream?
10. Gift Cards -- Consider giving gift cards to clean and all-natural stores and restaurants like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Seasons 52, Aveda, etc.
