Eating Clean 12 Days of Christmas -- Body Butter

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

Clean Eating 12 Days of Christmas - Whiskey/Bourbon Bottle Soap Dispenser

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.

Some More Fall Crafts Courtesy of Pinterest

While everyone else has seemed to move onto Christmas, I'm still enjoying Fall and decided to try some autumn-themed decorations I had seen on Pinterest.

The first was a pumpkin made out of mason jar or canning jar rings. I had about a dozen left over from canning this summer, so had to buy another box. You can find them for around $3 for a dozen at Wal-Mart, a dollar store, Kroger, etc. 

Lay all the rings out on a piece of cardboard or paper and spray paint with inexpensive orange spray paint (avoid the day-glo orange though!). Flip them over after they dry and paint the other side. Let dry completely, then put them all on a string (all facing the same direction) and tie the string in a knot, arranging the rings into a circle/pumpkin shape. You'll have to tie a pretty tight knot for it to keep its shape. You can do any number of things for the stem and leaf....I opted to use rolled up burlap and a green ribbon. I've also seen them done with a stick and green felt, string, etc.

Since I had the orange spray paint out already, my second project was another pumpkin, this time made from wine corks. Pull out 25 wine corks, spray paint orange (one side at a time) and glue together in a pumpkin shape using hot glue. Start with four, then five, then six, then five, then four. Again, for the stem and leaf you could do about anything, I used burlap and ribbon.

Repurposing Old Windows, Part Deux

Found another huge window that I wasn't sure what I would use it for since it was so big, but it was only $5 so I couldn't resist. After bringing it home and having it sit in my garage for several weeks, I decided I would use to dress up my fireplace mantel. Previously, I just had the star hanging up on the wall, but I think adding the star behind it gives the mantel more dimension and interest. Plus, I think it looks rustic and Americana and super cute :) When hanging old windows, especially large ones, be sure to use drywall anchors and heavy duty picture frame hooks.

Inexpensive Subway Art

I've always been a little afraid of wall art for my home. Aside from family pictures, I never know what to hang up on the walls. Plus, seems like most wall hangings, especially the ones I love, are expensive. Thank you Pinterest, once again, for showing me the light and giving me ideas for some money saving DIY wall art. The first wall art I tackled was the phonetic alphabet for G's room. His room is all aviation and airplanes and so when I saw the Pinterest one (on the left) I knew I wanted something similar. The secret to making this DIY subway art affordable is using Staples' option for engineering prints. At $1.99 for a 2x3 print, it's a steal. Mind you, the engineering prints only come in black and white, but that's perfect for the subway art look. 

For the airplane and phonetic alphabet, I found a black outline of an old looking airplane on Google, copy and pasted it into Publisher and then added the words in white on top of it. Whatever design or wording you do, make the background black and the wording white. Save as a JPG file, upload to Staples and order an engineering print. I then cut out the airplane (because the background of it was white, I wanted grey) and used double-sided tape to adhere to a piece of grey poster board. The frame was $5.99 from Goodwill (I sanded down the ugly brown and spray painted black). Cut the poster board to size to fit the frame, add to the frame and there you have it. Instant subway art for under $10. 

The second piece is subway art using lyrics to one of my favorite Mumford and Sons' songs, "After the Storm." I did the basically the same thing; in Publisher, I created a document with a black background and overlaid it with the words in white. I played with the fonts, changing them up line by line to give it that full subway art look. I saved it as a JPEG, uploaded to Staples and ordered as an engineering print. I then took a piece of plywood, cut to the size of the print (in my case 2x3) and painted the edges of the plywood black. I then used mod podge to adhere the print to the wood and also added two layers of modge podge on top of the print. I took a fine sand paper and very lightly sanded over the whole thing to give it a rustic, vintage look. With the print, mod podge and plywood, this one cost under $10 as well.

You can find full directions on DIY subway art at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.

Saving Green Birthday Parties

For my kiddos birthday parties, I utilized some awesome decor ideas I had found on Pinterest and online that saved me some green. 

I used inexpensive cardstock, scrapbook paper and ribbon and twine to make birthday banners. I printed out the letters on my computer and cut them out to save even more money, but you could find cheap chip letters at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Check out the tutorial here.

For Liesl's party, I created a pretty, girly background with three plastic tablecloths. (Here's that tutorial) I also made my own tissue paper pom poms. (Tutorial here) 

For the table and other decor, I ended up choosing themes where I had a lot of the toys/props I could use. For Gavin's barnyard party, I used all his tractors, farm animals, etc. For Liesl's My Little Pony party, we pulled out all her ponies to use as table decor. 

 All in all, both parties turned out great. Clean food and green saving decor made for happy guests, very happy birthday boy and girl and a happy Momma :)

Thanksgiving Decor

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Fall?? Another Pinterest inspired project and some more money saved! 

I love the look of the bunting-type banners, but they are pretty expensive if you buy them in Etsy. Instead, I made my own and it was super easy and super cheap. In Publisher (you could use Word too) pick a font you love, type out whatever words you want in about 200-250 size and print on colored paper. Cut around the letters in a triangle shape, paste on another colored sheet and cut around another larger triangle. Attach to a line of twine with wooden clothespins.

I Saw, I Pinned, I Conquered, Part Two

When we finished our basement, my one requirement was a really nice laundry room. If my washer and dryer have to be in the basement, I want them to be in a nice room. I also wanted my laundry room to serve as a craft/wrapping room too, so I was on the lookout for storage to go in it. Everything I found that was new was pretty expensive, so, of course, I turned to Pinterest and found tons of refinished pieces. 
The dressing table was free from a friend of a friend (thanks Sarah and Amy!). After a good sanding, several coats of gray paint, new knobs and inexpensive scrapbook paper inside the windows on the drawers, it went from plain to pizzazz!. 

I also wanted some cute wall decor that wouldn't cost a lot, and found that someone on Pinterest had taken plain canvases and wrapped them in fabric. Instead of canvases, I found the canvas frames at Michael's for cheap (around $2-3 per frame) and covered in fabric (found in the discount bin for $1.99 a yard). Voila! Instant wall art for just a few dollars. 

I Saw, I Pinned, I Conquered

While this doesn't really have anything to do with clean eating, I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts that show stuff I pinned on Pinterest that I actually do and that saves some money (saving green!). When pinning, we have so many good intentions, but unfortunately, most of the time they don't pan out.

So, I want to show you some of the Pinterest projects I've done that have saved me time, money or a little bit of both. 

The first is a wall of clocks for a home office. I loved this idea for Matt's home office and so I bought three very inexpensive clocks (check out Lowes, Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart or scour local garage sales) and scattered them on the wall with maps of the three states were we've lived since we've been married. The maps came from an old atlas my parents had laying around and the frames are from old barn wood we had extra of from a different project. I added some old suitcases and old set of drawers as side tables. 



I love this look of the old license plates to add a splash of color and whimsy to a room. We had a bunch of old license plates from all the states were we've lived as a married couple and growing up and so I took them and attached them to a piece of lightweight MDF with wood glue. My hubby added on brackets on the back to hang it up and voila, a fun look at all the states my husband and I have lived in. 

What Pinterest projects have you followed up on??