Nana Poo's Xmas gift - Homemade Candy Cane Bath Salts!

Money was pretty tight this year so I had to scale back on my Christmas gifts. My roommate/bestie and Aurora were really the only people I could afford to spend on. So what about everyone else... cookies! (More on that tomorrow) Nana Poo fit into another category though because she was having us over for Christmas dinner and I knew that she got Aura some goodies so I decided to make one extra gift for her to tuck under the tree with all the cookies...
Unfortunately, I am cursed with a stand up shower (I'd kill for a good soak!) but when I had a tub peppermint bath salts were my absolute favorite go-to for achy muscles. To make them festive, I added some color! I'm almost embarrassed to admit how easy and inexpensive these were to make.
I'm sure Nana Poo won't be offended if I share the wealth though, especially now that I've given her a cure for her achy back!
So without further ado...

CANDY CANE BATH SALTS:

You will need...

-One see-through cylindrical container with a tight fitting lid 

(mine was about 3 cups -if the opening is small, you'll also need a funnel)

-Epsom Salts 

-Course Ground Sea Salt (I used Baleine)

-Pure Peppermint Oil, preferably food grade
(I found mine at a craft store in the candy making section)

-Red food coloring (liquid, not gel or paste)

-One Ziploc baggie

-Two plastic disposable cups - These are OPTIONAL but they really help.

The easiest way to do this is to fill your container with 3/4 Epsom salt and 1/4 sea salt, tap it down to make sure it's full... now pour half into your plastic baggie and half into one of your cups 

(or any container that you're comfortable pouring from)

Now to the half in the baggie you're going to add about 8-10 drops of peppermint oil (you should be able to smell it THROUGH the baggie. It'll be super strong.) and about 5 drops of food coloring. Seal the baggie and massage the food coloring until it is evenly distributed in the salt. If the salt is red continue, if it's too light or too pink just add a few more drops of food coloring and massage it through again. Don't go too nuts though, you don't want the salt to be wet or it'll bleed. It should look something like this:

Now... pour this red mixture into your other empty cup. I'd say you can use another container but the peppermint oil permeates EVERYTHING so choose wisely. If you have no disposable cups around, your best bet may be to pour directly from the baggie and use a funnel. Just a kind warning. Now the fun part!

Remember those sand bottles you get at carnivals where you use the different colored sand to make art in the bottles? That's the idea here too! You're going to layer the salt, alternating white and red so it's striped, you can tilt the bottle if you'd like or leave it flat. Tap it on a hard surface after every two stripes to make sure the layers are compact. I try to end with red because no matter how good I am I always end up having to top it off with a little extra plain Epsom or sea salt at the end. You want to make sure the jar is super full so the stripes don't mix and mingle before you get to give your gift. Pop the lid on and that's it! 

Easy right?!?!?

When I was all done, I just tied on a little tissue paper and a bow to cover the lid and TA-DA:

Instant AWESOME Christmas gift... or just an awesome gift for yourself! 

1/2 cup in the bath will make muscle aches and fatigue disappear! 

Enjoy!

Our weekend: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Now that all of the birthday madness is over with I finally got a chance to put up the Christmas decorations!

First up was my little silver tree which I've had for the last 6 years. I never felt the need to go all out when it was just me and Scoobie (the dog) and whichever roommate I had at the time... 

Ye Olde Silver Tinsel Tree.

Then came our Christmas stocking and various holiday candles. 

Aurora's new handmade stocking fit in nicely with ours.

The biggest development this year is that we have officially become a two tree household! I was originally going to ditch the silver tree in favor of the new 'real' tree but I just couldn't bear to part with it yet... plus it looked cute near the fireplace! I thought long and hard about this tree purchase. I planned to get a fresh tree but thinking about little exploring Aurora hands, the dog and a cat made me change my mind. I decided to get a small four foot tree that I could put on a table until everyone (mainly Aura) can get used to it and learn it's not a toy. 

I'm estimating I'll get at least three good years out of it haha.

When it comes to actual Christmas trees (as opposed to my tiny novelty one) I get a little obnoxious about decorating them... For our first 'family' Christmas tree I wanted it to be simple and all silver. I also had to do it on the cheap which actually wasn't so hard. 

The obnoxiousness reared it's head in the form of being dead set on old fashioned icicles (tinsel.) Well, apparently no one makes it or sells it anymore, not that I could find anyway. I ended up hunting for a solid week on Ebay to get some...  (Five boxes for $5 shipped! It would've been quicker if I was willing to pay $10 PER box... I wasn't.)

Then I just filled the tree with dollar store ornaments which I'll eventually swap out as we collect more meaningful ones... All in all I spent $52.00 ...including a fancy new ornament for Aurora's second Christmas ($16 - engraved) AND the tree itself! (pre-lit, $25.00 on sale)

I think it came out pretty great! What do you think?

This is Aura's new ornament!

This is her first from Auntie Poo last year!

$12 tree topper? Nope. $1.00 flower and twist tie.

Ta-da!

Christmas spirit? Check. 

Christmas shopping? Well... not so much. But I'm working on it!

Happy holiday season everyone!

Aurora's First Birthday Party!!!

Whew! I've finally recovered enough from Aurora's epic first birthday party to write about it. It went off pretty well, a couple minor things could've been better but that's just the perfectionist in me talking. I spent so long on it but the good news is that by making everything myself I came in at just under $100- - -TOTAL!
That's food, decorations, tableware, favors, the whole shebang. I was pretty proud of myself and in the end it was worth all the stress because the kids had a great time. So where to start?
Well, Saturday I spent the entire day baking... two cakes for the layered smash cake, 72 mini cupcakes and 6 accidental big ones from over flow, plus a batch of brownies! Then I started putting together the balloon 'trees' our 'forest' tree (soon to be a Christmas tree) and a small reading/play nook under the table for the littles...

Excuse the mess, this is actually an 'after' picture! 

Then on to my favorite part: decorating the cupcakes! I made two different kinds, Spiced Yellow Cake with Honeyed Buttercream Frosting:

Finally! An excuse to use my bee and lemon decos!

Then there were Black Forest "Toadstools" (chocolate with cherries) and my favorite, though very labor intensive, Peanut Butter Toffee Chocolate Covered Cheesecake Brownies! Finally the little layered pink angel food and chocolate Owl smash cake for Aurora to eat! Then I put them all together on the three tiered  cupcake stand that I made with some cups and platters from the dollar store and a hot glue gun... 

Does it sound like bragging yet? Sorry.

Top to Bottom: Yellow cake, Toadstools, Brownies and Adorable Owl!!

I had spent the week or so prior making little woodland creature masks out of felt. I was inspired by some I saw elsewhere but couldn't afford... they came out pretty great though and I may start making more and trying to sell them... it's one of the many ideas swimming around in my head right now. We'll see what happens... Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, there was also a photo frame for everyone to sign so Aurora can look back and see who came to her party, since she definitely won't remember it.

I designed that little birthday owl!

Here's a better picture of the masks.

I originally had this slightly convoluted idea that all the kids would wear masks and play and they would make the best pictures ever, but I realized later that was asking waaaaay too much. Aurora wouldn't keep her mask on for more than 2 minutes. Oh well, they are well made so we can always use them for dress up in later years! I made two of each so everyone would take one home too. The other minor glitches include not finishing all the signs in time and our helium balloons deflating. All in all though no one seemed to notice or mind. 

Speaking of masks, now is a good time to mention that Aurora was a unicorn for her birthday!! I got her an adorable little handmade foam unicorn horn from Etsy... it was the one thing that wasn't worth making myself. Between labor and buying all the foam and glitter it actually would've been more expensive to even attempt it. Luckily I found THIS ONE! Plus, the girl was nice enough to make a mini version for Aura!

After everyone arrived and settled in with snacks and some good conversation it was time for presents!!

She wasted no time digging into the bags...

Once all the presents were unwrapped she took some time figuring out some of her new toys with her pals!!

That's our best buddy Hendrix's mama Adriana helping them out... you can see more of her and her adorable crew HERE. Then it was onto the cake!!! Aurora never had cake before and we don't really give her refined sugar so this was quite a new experience for her!

Saying Hi to the owl... not sure what to do with it yet though.

Just took one quick explanation: "It's FOOD! Yummy!"

Then it was on! She went for the feet first, then the one of the mini oreo eyes... and then she dug right in and got down to business!

Some of the photos came out greenish because of the balloons we had hanging from the ceiling fan. Oops... sorry about that!

Still adorable though, right?

Once she started in and noticed everyone watching she really started to play it up, grabbing huge fist-fulls!

Then the laughing! I swear no kid has ever loved attention quite as much as my little bean. What a ham! Here's a short and sweet video:

Here's a couple more pictures of the cake, we couldn't stop taking them!

That's her pal Hendrix's big bro C. watching from a safe distance.

The verdict is in... Aurora LOVES cake!

After dropping the bottom part of the cake on the floor she started playing with the frosting. Oh, the mess she made!

There aren't many really many pictures after the birthday cake smashing because Aura needed and emergency bath, as I'm sure you can imagine...

Then it was off to bed for my little birthday bean after a very long and eventful day!

Aurora's actual birthday wasn't until yesterday. We went to the Children's Museum and then had a quiet night in. I'll be sure to write more about that soon. This post has gotten long enough already! 

So... there you have it, Aurora's Woodland Birthday Party was a success!! 

Birthday party INSANITY!!!!!

Aurora's 1st birthday party is this Sunday! Her actual birthday isn't until the 30th but Sunday is more convenient and we're going to do something special on her actual birthday, just the two of us... three if Auntie Poo wants to join. I've been really internet absent because planning this party has taken over my life! Haha... I know it'll be fun and memorable but I almost can't wait for it to be over already!
We don't have a ton of money but I've scrimped and saved where I could and I'm hand-making the majority of the decorations and preparing all of the food myself. I also rarely have company over and I've been in home-improvement overdrive. I'm burning the birthday candle at both ends!
Lot's to be done still but I'm taking a night off from the madness. I've decided that I have earned an hour or so on the internerd and a night of trashy TV.. though I may sneak in a small sewing project. I can't wait to show you guys everything I put together... I'm super excited about it! The only thing I'm willing to give away is that it's a woodland/forest theme. Here's the invites:

Hope everyone is doing well! I can't wait to wind down and catch up on all of your posts! I'll also try to sneak in my Wordless Wednesday and a Thanksgiving update amid the chaos.

Aura's 1st Halloween! Here's some photos!

At the Halloween store doing some last minute shopping!

I made Aurora's first Halloween costume for a neighborhood party we were supposed to attend on Saturday... however, due to the crazy snow/ice/rain/general yuckiness, it was cancelled!! I was really bummed but we settled for trick or treating at the mall on Monday. By trick or treating, I really mean just walking around and collecting compliments haha. Still too young for candy! I wish I got some better pictures but Aura was particularly mobile that day and most of the pictures are so blurry she looks like a real ghost!

See? She was on the move!! Here's the few good pictures that I got:

Scary face?

Happy Halloween!!!

Our weekend: (a little late) Birthday party and tons of work for mommy...

This weekend/week has been super busy! I took on a big painting job for my landlord to make some extra money (Aurora's birthday is only 5 weeks away!!) and I drastically underestimated how long it would take me. The nice part is I can work while she's in bed for the night because the job is in our back hallway! Plus I benefit from it being repainted since I live here. It's definitely a win-win, just hard work, but that's okay too since I haven't seen a bicycle or the inside of a gym in longer than I'd like. If all goes well it will be just the first of many projects I can do for her, which will make Christmas less stressful too. On top of this I've been planning a playlist for the next time I DJ at the bar... it's the week of my birthday so I'm being selfish and playing nothing but Prince songs. Trouble is narrowing down the hundreds of songs to which ones I want to play, and then narrowing THAT list down to songs that people will listen to for three hours. I have high hopes. Plus it's a pretty good soundtrack to all this work I've been doing. 

On top of all that? We had a very important birthday party to go to this weekend! Two of my closest friends had a 2nd birthday bash for their little man, so of course we had to go! If you're curious you can see more pics of their adorable family HERE.

Here's your photo fix:

Waiting for the bus... that was a full 25 minutes late. 

Aurora playing with the birthday dude! (Check out his awesome hair!)

She loved the spatula from his kitchen...

Maybe a little too much?

We had a great time, I was glad we were able to get there, even though we were a little late due to the bus.

So what did I bring to the party?

H. has tons of toys (as you can see) and I wanted to give something a little more personal. So, I decided to make him a picture! 

I took this already adorable "Aw" inducing photo:

And with some creative photo editing, a canvas, some monotone magazine scraps and a ton of Mod Podge, I turned it into this:

I was pretty proud of this one... It was an idea I was kicking around for Aura (may still do it, not going to lie) I worried for a second that maybe it was a little cheesy to do for someone else but they loved it!

Ok, now that everyone is updated... back to painting!! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Our Weekend: Painting, Cake Making and Bday Partying... Photobomb!

This weekend was a pretty busy one for us. On Saturday we revisited the zoo with my roommate/bestie in the afternoon. Aurora was a little cranky but overall we definitely still had a good time! Then I spent the rest of the evening finishing up a nursery painting and making a cake! 

Our friends' little girl was having her first birthday party on Sunday! I had been working on a painting for her room all week. They LOVE owls and have owl things all over for her, so I figured what could be more perfect then a picture of a little owl family that looked just like theirs?! Here's what I came up with:

I was pretty proud of the wrapping too!

Then it was on to the cake. I love the idea of fancy little smash cakes for first birthdays! The party theme was owls, of course, and the colors were hot pink and lime green. Step one was creating a tiny layer cake with green and pink sponge. (It's sitting on a breadcrumb can to give you some size perspective...)

Then some frosting...

Our apartment was very warm so piping the frosting wasn't really working. I ended up doing the detail with a toothpick! Then I cut some ears and wings out of fruit leather, mini Oreo eyes with licorice pupils and carved orange slice candies for a beak and feet!

Not bad huh??

This was my first attempt at a fully decorated and themed smash cake and I have to say I was pretty proud of myself! Somehow we managed a 30 minute drive with me holding the cake on my lap. There was one or two close calls because the weather was pretty bad so my roommate seemed to have a little bit of a tough time driving in the downpours but we made it. And then? Well.... I dropped the whole thing on the ground in their driveway.

I was SO bummed. They are going to try to salvage it since only the top really got messed up and some of the frosting can be scraped off, but they never got to see how cute it was in person! 

As for the party, it was a pretty good time. It took me a little while to accept that the cake got ruined so I could settle down and enjoy it but I saw some great friends there and there were tons of kids running around so I snapped out of it eventually. Aurora seemed to have a blast and proved once again that she's anything but shy and timid! She was crawling all over trying to get her hands on everything and eating up the attention.

Aurora didn't really seem too interested in playing with the other kids but they were all older than her. She was more concerned with putting all the toys (and crayons) in her mouth!

Aurora loves eating EVERYTHING.

So... despite a little rough patch, we had a pretty great weekend!

How about you?!