DIY lux face, hand, and diaper cream homemade from whipped coconut & shea butter!

I love, love love this stuff!  I cannot get enough of it.  You know it has to be good if I am bothering to make it with 5 kids and homeschooling! Ok it doesn't hurt that it is really fast and easy and works for a plethora of uses.  Yes I did say plethora! Pretty sure I learned that word from the movie "The Three Amigos" in the early 90's.   Anyway...this all natural moisturizer is not only highly effective, free of unwanted chemicals and additives, but it is made from 2 of natures most amazing products coconut oil and shea butter.  

Coconut oil and shea butter are some of the best possible ingredients when it comes to skin care!  If you aren't familiar with coconut oils miraculous healing powers be sure to read my earlier post  "One of nature's best healers! 20 NEW reasons to love coconut oil!". I can't go on with this recipe without letting you first know why it is so fabulous for your skin.  This combo is unlike most commercial moisturizers in that most commercial moisturizers are filled with water so the lotion becomes ineffective as soon as the water dries on your skin.  They are also often filled with additives, and petroleum byproducts that are carcinogenic and can suffocate skin causing breakouts.  Coconut oil and shea butter on the other hand are rich and truly moisturize your skin down at the deepest levels where they are even responsible for strengthening the underlying tissue .  They are both excellent at treating acne as they kill off bacteria and acne is a bacterial infection   Coconut oil also helps remove the dead, dry, flaky layers that causes rough and dull skin.  Convinced? Not yet?  Well African Shea (pronounced shay) butter has been proven to reduce the appearance of lines, scars and stretch marks as well as ease a host of skin irritations such as psoriasis, eczema, and sunburn.  WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE!

So here it is... your super simple 2 ingredient beauty wonder,,,

Combine 1 cup African shea butter and 1/2 cup coconut oil. 

Mix on medium high with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes till you get a nice whip cream texture.  I make  big batches to jar in several containers so I have diaper cream, body butter, and portable hand cream.

That is it!  Now you have an AMAZING face, body, hand and diaper cream that moisturizes at the deepest level, clarifys skin, strengthens the underlying tissue, reduces the signs of aging, scars, lines and stretch marks while treating eczema, psoriasis, and other irritations!  I buy my coconut oil at Costco for a very inexpensive $22 for 78 ozs and the African shea butter I got from amazon for around $18 for 32 oz. with shipping.  I will never go back to a commercial face or diaper cream again!  My face feels amazing after using this.  I use it every morning and night.  I used it on my baby when he was a newborn with a terrible rash that nothing would touch!  The secret was this cream plus a few shakes of corn starch each diaper change.  It is all we ever use now.  You can use it as chap stick, hand cream, body butter, for stretch marks, for acne, sun burn cream etc....  Let me know how it works for you!

Gifts that bring joy and opportunity to the poor! View on the Web | Forward to a Friend
	Dear Kristy, This Black Friday, instead of running around town to find this year’s “it” gift, take a moment and choose a present that will save a life. Food For The Poor’s Christmas Gift Catalog makes gift giving easy, meaningful, and there are options to fit every budget. Your loved ones will be delighted to know that a practical, desperately-needed gift has been given to the poor in their honor.

Let your dollars do double duty!  Get your Christmas presents and feed the poor!

How To Have a Peaceful, Budget Friendly Christmas Season.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up at my parents with all the kid-lets, my uncle, and some friends.  We ate a beautiful feast.  Of course I forgot my camera, which is my common response to a lot going on!  We ate our typical feast (all the recipes listed earlier on "My All Favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner Recipes year after year (made with whole foods)."  YUMMY!

When we are being thankful it is such a reminder of God's grace in our lives. All the little and big things we are thankful for are gifts from God.  Made me think that next year I would love to add a time of praise and worship to our traditional celebration.  A time of showing God our thankfulness and enjoying His presence.

Came home by 5:30 after stopping to look at Christmas lights on the way home, got everyone into jammies and watched a fun family movie.  By 7:30 we were all exhausted (pregnancy and sleep are not going that great for me at the moment) and in bed!  I was of course just "laying down with Cruz" my 2 year old, but at nine I woke up to find a quiet house, husband in bed and feeling refreshed :).  I love a quiet house to sew, blog or craft in!

The end of Thanksgiving signifies for my family the start of the Christmas season as well.  I love the weekend after Thanksgiving as it is so fun to put up the tree, decorate and get in the Christmas Spirit.  I don't however get into the whole Black Friday craze, and was sorry to see that so many stores started black Friday tonight.  The consumerism can really rob from the time of thankfulness and time with family.

I LOVE Christmas.  Everything about it... The lights, the craftiness of making decorations, presents, and what not, the music, the spirit of generosity.  It is the perfect way to celebrate the gift of Jesus.  Being generous with others as God was so generous with the gift of his Son Jesus the hope of salvation. I always explain it to my kids like this.."We give gifts to others, because God gave Jesus to us."  It blesses Gods heart to see generosity, so that is our gift to God.  We also keep it simple at our house. Setting a budget at the begining of the season helps too.  We have 5 kids (if you count the one due Christmas day), and a small budget so we make a lot of gifts, swap names between the adults and include thrifted gifts as well that we have scoped out at the local thrift store, on craigslist, or at garage sales.  This year I found a pink DS in great shape for my daughter at a garage sale for $1!!!  I also found her a kids sewing machine (something I had been wanting to get her), and a few board games that looked new.  She is by far the easiest to get gifts for!

Christmas can be simple, budget friendly, and peaceful.  I try to focus on the traditions and season of giving more than just the presents.   I wasn't raised with Santa and we choose not to do it at all at our house. I didn't want to confuse the reason for the season with Santa as it can be overshadowing but we do read stories about Saint Nick and other Christmas tales that inspire generosity and love.  We have started a few holiday traditions like wrapping 24 Christmas books under the tree, some we own, tons are from the library, etc.. and then the kids take turns every night of December till Christmas unwrapping one and that is what we read before bedtime.  We try to incorporate giving to the hungry or needy where ever we can.  We might sponsor a child, give gifts from World Vision so the profits go to feed the hungry, or buy a sheep through World Vision for a family across the globe in need etc.. in someones name on our gift list who doesn't want anything.  We also have an advent calender (tutorial coming soon) that we fill with activity ideas like making cookies, seeing the lights, giving a gift in secret to a friend, etc...  Christmas morning we will eat a big fun breakfast and read the Christmas story, and we always have our big meal Christmas Eve so mom's don't have to cook Christmas day!  Then we can snack on all the leftovers all day on Christmas.  I also have the kids find or make each other presents so they get to participate in the giving side of things.  They love it!

These fun things keep the focus on togetherness, generosity and love the real reason of the Season.  If I don't get it all crafted I am not too worried.  I am not looking to focus on getting everyone the perfect gift (although I would love it if they were thrilled!), but on really enjoying each other and God's goodness the whole season through.  I do not want consumerism, long lists of "I want", in fact we don't let the kids make lists or get them into the habit of thinking they need to tell us exactly what they want for this very reason.  It should all be a pleasant surprise not a demand or expectation.  They know that thrifted presents are part of it and in fact they look forward to finding things for their brothers and sisters at the thrift store too!  It just sets them up to appreciate whatever comes their way and allows us to get them something they would really like even though it is not in a new wrapper.
Here are some of the fun DIY ideas I am using for my kids this year!

 I am making her and my younger daughter these owl  pillows from Button Bird Designs but in fun fabrics (in fact I started those a while ago and am almost done).

These amazingly cute wool cape's for the girls are next on the sewing list!  The pattern is made like a simple circle skirt so as cute as they are they shouldn't take long.  I LOVE them and once I get the hang of how to make them I plan on making one for myself!
I think with all the things I have to sew for her, and all the gifts I have found over time that I need to be done for her.  They get gifts from grandmas, and grandpas, and aunts so we try not to go overboard. I do not want to set the expectation at this stage in life that Christmas is an over top budget blower.  My youngest is really starting to get into imaginative play so I am making her a DIY doctor kit.  I have found some really fun ideas for it and have so many of the supplies on hand around the house.  She will love it!  I will post a tutorial on that once it is done.

My oldest son who is 8 will be getting a really cool fort kid that I found a tutorial for here at Saltwater-kids. I can't wait to get started on this!  He will love it!  What a great birthday presents for his friends as well.  I am sure I will have to sew a few more up in the near future!  Just so you know I really don't get to sew that often.  We homeschool and being pregnant, having a 2 yr old, 3 yr old, 5 yr old and 8 yr old they keep me busy getting water, doing school, cleaning, cooking etc... So most of the projects I picked for this year are really simple ones!
 
Like this cape for my youngest son.  I followed the cutting tutorial to get the right shape from the picture above at Moms Rising, but used black knit so there was no sewing involved with that part.  I did however create the CUTEST felt logo with a lightning bolt and his initial out of felt that I sewed on the back!  I love it! I added some cuffs from this tutorial at The Train To Crazy, and made two cute super hero masks with lightning bolts that I will have to show you when I make my DIY super hero outfit tutorial.  I hope he loves it.  It is too cute and we can't let the girls have all the fun with their princess dress ups!

I plan to make these sock monkeys for Cruz my youngest and our newest baby boy for when he is born.  They are so cute!! Not sure how hard they are.  We will see.  I have lots of stuff to make all the kids on my list but this last one for Cruz is so cute I had to share in case you have a little "cowboy" on your list as well!

I adore these stick horse, hobby horse or whatever you want to call them!  The tutorial is Here at Light Blue Grey.  So like I said I have way more ideas of what I want to make for all kinds of people on my list and if you want to see the tutorials and gift ideas I am pinning at pinterest be sure to  and check out my Christmas gift ideas board and my Christmas and fall holidays board.  There are tons of fun ideas that I plan on adding to as well. I figure if I don't make it all this Christmas there are plenty of holidays that I will be looking for gift ideas for!  I also posted some money saving ideas on these older posts Here and Here.

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked showing you all the fun DIY ideas out there for presents but my point was that Christmas is about God's Love and should remain the focus of the season!  I may not get all my ideas crafted, or get around to Christmas cards (so please don't be offended if you don't get one), or get my house perfectly decked out, or get around to throwing that great holiday party, but that is ok.  I don't want anything to take the place of focusing on God's great gift and opportunities to be generous and be a blessing. I really want to take the time to enjoy my family which is His second greatest gift to me.  If any to-do item is robbing me of my joy and stressing me out than it isn't that important!   What do you do to keep the spirit in the season and avoid the craziness that can rob your joy during the holidays?

EASY 3 ingredient No Grate, No Cook Homemade DIY Laundry Detergent PLUS Free Printable Labels To Go With It!

I had originally intended to make the laundry soap that requires grating a bar of soap and cooking it all.  I loved the "green" appeal removing all those weird chemicals, and the money saving side of things.  The thing that stopped me (after I bought everything for it of course) was the fact that I did not have a place to store 5 gallons of laundry soap and grating and cooking really didn't sound that fun. I am 7 months pregnant, and have 4 other kids to chase after to occupy my time!  

This recipe is SO fast that I whipped it up at 9pm at night in 4 minutes flat! This recipe is DIRT CHEAP and works well. All you need are a few simple supplies..

Then I saw a simple recipe THANKS to One Good Thing by Jilee!

DIY No Grate, No Cook Concentrated Laundry Detergent 

3 Tablespoons Borax

3 Tablespoons Washing Soda (not the same as baking soda)

2 Tablespoons Dawn or other non bleach effective dish soap

All you do is pour those into a jar or plastic container like your old laundry detergent bottle if you prefer.  Then add 4 cups boiling or really hot tap water to the mix to dissolve it all.  Once it is dissolved simply add enough water to make 1/2 gallon.  Because this is concentrated I only have to use 1/4 cup of the mixture.  You can always see how you like it and adjust how much you need based on your size of load and level of dirtiness.  I used a palmolive dish soap but many swear by blue dawn (specifically the blue one) for it's amazing degreasing abilities.   You can buy all these supplies in the laundry isle at walmart.  I had to ask because they were tricky to find but they had all of them and they were very cheap.

Now if you want to be all practical you can simply make this mixture in an old fabric softer bottle or laundry detergent container, but I wanted mine cute.  I have been slowly redoing the laundry/entry/crafty/office space so I wanted mine to look nice.  Notice the beautiful ironing table /counter surface on the washer and dryer under the laundry detergent?  I just redid that and you can see my ironing table/counter tutorial HERE.  Needless to say I was trying to get rid of the big ugly plastic red jug so here was my solution.

I used an old 1/2 gallon Vlasic pickle jar, some scrap fabric, the free printable labels I provide below and fabric starch to modge podge it all on.  So just to clarify I did not use modge podge, I used fabric starch in it's place.  It's much cheaper and I happened to have some from my DIY Silly Putty Tutorial a while back.

Here is how I did it.

I created the free printable laundry labels for you using Cathe Holden's very cool apothecary labels I blogged about earlier in my post on  Free Printable Labels where I gave you TONS of links to great printable labels.  Those labels are available to download and customize.   For this project I did all that for you already.  You  just need to right click on the image below and open it in another window and print.

I used a rotary cutter and cutting mat with ruler to get a nice straight edge on my fabric (you cold of course use scrap book paper here too) when I cut it to the width I wanted.

Next pour some liquid starch ( a few bucks at walmart in the laundry isle) into a container and lay the fabric down into it so that it is fully coated.  Then use your fingers to strip off the excess as you pull it out.  

Now place it on the jar just the way want it.  It slides around nicely while you adjust it unlike other adhesives like straight up glue.

 

You do the same thing with the label making sure it is coated with the fabric starch and then simply place it over the fabric where you want it.  Be warned if you use really cheap ink like I do in your printer it may fade a little.  Mine didn't really do too bad but it can happen since we are dipping it in so much liquid.

 To cover the lid with fabric trace a round shape the same size as the top of your lid and cut it out.  Then dip it in fabric starch and place on top the lid.

 For the edges you can cut a thin strip again using your rotary cutting tool, cutting mat and ruler.  Dip in fabric starch and place around the lid.  Would it be nicer to paint the lid first?  Probably, but I didn't want to go get the spray paint out.  So I went with what I was already using.  Below is a picture I did with another of the labels I provided above.  That is the nice thing.. You have lots of choices.  You can adhere the label straight to the jar but I just wanted to add the fabric for decor reasons as that is how I roll!

I really love the results.  So just to recap.. the soap takes all of 4 minutes to make and costs pennies.  You don't have to bother with all the jar decorating, but how fun would that be?  What do you think?  You gonna give it a go?  I didn't give a price breakdown earlier but it is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP to make this soap and it works just as good as other detergent. It is very low suddsing so you can use it in a HE front loader like I do. You can even try scenting it with essential oils, like lavender.  I think when I am done posting this for you I will go grab my lavender essential oil and do just that!

Freebie Friday! - printable budgeting cash envelopes

I love freebies!  I found this great printable to make your own cash envelopes and I LOVE IT!  I am a budget kind of girl.  With 4 kids and a small income we really have to stay on top of our money to make it stretch as far as possible.  The best part is you can make two sets so that you put only 2 weeks worth of your months budgeted amount in each set.  Then you can get a months worth ready at one time without worrying about carrying so much cash.  You can also be ready immediately when you have used up current two weeks worth.

Download printable cash envelopes HERE from Today's Nest

For a really great introduction on how to get started on an envelope cash budgeting system go check out Dave Ramsey's info here.

Happy Budgeting!  

Homemade energy & protein bars- LOTS of recipes!

Just typing the title made me hungry and I had to go have some of my homemade "lemon treats" as whole foods market calls them.  YUMMY!  They are basically like a lara bar in truffle form rolled in coconut, similar to the key lime pie flavor.  Easy as pie.. easier actually! Did I mention that they are perfect for a raw foodist, but don't let that discourage you if you are not into healthy food!

Lemon Treats

Taste the yum for yourself click here!

Moving on to the AMAZING bevvy of energy, protein, snack bars!  The best part these are truly healthy, low in any processed sugar if any and loaded with nutrients!

Cherry Orange Oatmeal Outdoors Bars

Get the simple recipe here.

Don't go away... there are so many more and they just keep getting more interesting!

Hempseed Apricot Chews

Click here for the 6 ingredient recipe that takes literally minutes to make.

Oat-Date Bars

Great twist on granola bars. Get the recipe here.

Saved some of the most interesting exciting recipes for last!

Lara bar copycat

                                                                                           

 Found here at one of my new FAVORITE food blogs!

All-Natural Chocolate Brownie Power Bars (Raw, Vegan, No Added Sugar)

Find the secret here!

PB&J lara bar taste a like!

My friends easy method to the PB&J lara bar copy cat!

Homemade Cliff Bars (no bake!)

Love Cliff Bars? Hate the price? You're only a click away...

Chocolate Black Bean Power Bars (No-Bake, Vegan, & Easy--Allergy Free Option)

This recipe looks so interesting!

I would love to know what you guys think!  Leave me a comment.  I am so excited to make all of these and have some healthy fun options on hand that are yummy and all natural!

Financial Peace... even in tough times

In this economy or in any other I have never heard anyone say "There is just too much money at the end of the month...".  Unfortunately what I have heard is "There is just too much month at the end of the money".  I know exactly what it is like to need a small budget to stretch a long way and then stretch a little more.  We used to have 2 kids and a great paying job, in a house with a small mortgage (we have always believed in not becoming house poor with  a huge mortgage).

 Since then we spent about a year overseas doing mission work on our own dime on the island of Efate in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, adopted Bella from birth while there.

We also put our life savings into a piece of beach land there

thinking we were going to stay longer term there and then came back broke into a bad economy just in time to have another baby! :)

 Financial stressors?  We have seen them all...  Aside from the peace that comes from knowing God is in control we have been able to stay relatively calm and be debt free due to a few things..

Contentment which is the key to not spending what you don't have, friends and relatives helped us along quite a bit, and following the Dave Ramsey model one "baby step" at a time.

If you are not familiar with Dave Ramsey you should check him out.  He has a very comical no nonsense approach to money that is simple to understand albeit not necessarily easy to commit to.  However if you make the commitment and work at it faithfully you will reap the rewards.

Here are the baby steps..

1) $1000 emergency fund. (Please be warned Dave Ramsey does not consider pizza an emergency!)  You do not move on to ANY other baby step till this is in place.

2) Debt Snowball - pay off all debts starting with the smallest throwing any income at it that you can.  Sell sell sell whatever you can till you are DEBT free.  Do not pay off the debt with the largest percentage rate first unless it happens to be the smallest one.  The point is that you gain momentum by paying off one and then throwing all the money you would be paying on that debt toward the next one, and continuing till all debts are paid!  Attack this as hard and fast as you can.  Put a thermometer style chart on your fridge to chart every last dime you are putting towards the debts and where you are so you can be encouraged to drop every spare dollar in that direction, and kill it off FAST!

3) 3-6 months living expenses saved- Now we are getting somewhere! This step may take a while but it is an important step.  This money needs to be liquid, not wrapped up in real estate or mutual funds you can't sell off.  It must be accessible. Dave reminds us this money is not meant to be a cool exciting investment it is peace of mind and therefore must be accessible.   This is the step we are currently on. We have a chart on the fridge to show our progress toward our goal.  That we are encouraged and constantly reminded of the big picture goal.  If we get a spare $20 this is where it goes!

4) Invest 15% of household income into ROTH IRA's and pre-tax retirement. We have already spoken to our financial advisor and have a plan to have it automatically taken out monthly on we are on this step. At this step you start doing the last 4 baby steps all at the same time as opposed to earlier when you worked through them one at a time and didn't move on till it was completed.

5) College Funding This one will be a hefty step as we have 4 kids.  Good thing they are still young and yet running off to college or we would be in trouble!


6)Pay off home early Dave has a great financial calculator for this on his site here to see how much you could save if you pay off your house early! It is very inspiring and I highly recommended you check it out.

7) Build Wealth (Mutual Funds/Real Estate) Dave's web site has great resources and info on this step too.  But remember  you can't do this step till you have completed Steps 1-3.  No jumping ahead.  Dave has his reasons for setting it up this way.


Here is a link to  Dave's site to do a little more searching around and get to know his methods if you are interested.  He has a TON of great resources.  Good luck and let me know in the comments what your best money saving tips are.  

Want to save money with grocery coupons but hate the bother?

I love shortcuts.com and safeway.com because you can preload your coupons from the internet onto your safeway card so no paper is ever involved!  Nothing to forget, wreak havok in your purse, or delay you in line!  You just set up an account (easy and fast) and look at the coupons online, and anything that looks interesting you click and it adds it to your card.  Once you have done that you can print or email yourself the shopping list for the coupons you chose.  Then when you are checking out all you do is input your safeway card and they come off automatically!  Pretty painless and you can save quite a bit if you do this regularly.
check out shortcuts.com to start preloading your safeway card!


Or try safeway.com for a differant selection of coupons to preload