Wheat & Sugar Free Lemon Cranberry Chia Seed Scones...SO GOOD!!!

I have been eating wheat, sugar, and dairy free (except plain yogurt) for almost a month now.  I had my 5th baby in January and am really trying hard to get the last pounds off that seem particularly fond of sticking around.  I must say that giving up these foods (even fruit other than grapefruit) has helped.  I have also been hitting the gym 4-5 days a week and loving it.  In the meantime I would love to tell you that I just don't even care about food. but a foodie ALWAYS loves good food healthy or otherwise.

So while eating wheat and completely sugar free (a temporary thing for me till the baby weight drops off)  I still need a baking fix!  I was feeling like a lemon poppy seed muffin but the traditional recipes are laden with sugar, wheat and dairy.  So I settled on the idea of a spelt lemon cranberry chia seed scone with no sugar and made with stevia, coconut oil and  nutrient packed chia seeds.  I merged and tweaked a spelt scone recipe and a healthy lemon poppy seed muffin recipe.  It was delicious the first time around but I knew I could do better. So after church today I whipped up the recipe once more with a few tweaks.  I love it!

 This is what I came up with....

Spelt Lemon Cranberry Chia Seed Scones

(Wheat and Sugar Free)

4 Cups spelt flour

2 Tbsp Chia seeds

2-3 Tbsp of stevia mixed with fiber I use "Stevia plus"

(Use this link to get a $10 off coupon for "stevia plus" from Vitacost) 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup coconut oil warmed

1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice ( a little more for a stronger flavor)

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1/2 cup frozen cranberries

Mix all dry ingredients together.  Mix all wet ingredients including the warmed coconut oil so it is in liquid form, and beat in the two eggs.  Now mix the two together.  Then fold in the cranberries.  If they are large chop them up in to smaller parts.   I use organic ones from "Azure Standard" and they are smaller than conventional ones so I don't bother to chop them.  

Pat the dough into two balls then pat them down into two circles as shown above.

Now slice the raw dough into 8 slices as you would a pie.

Then separate out the scones to bake so that they do not touch.

Bake at 350 for 18-23 minutes till slightly golden brown.

Now just try to resist them... no wait don't worry about it... they are good for you!

They were a  hit with my sugar loving, wheat eating friends as well.  YUMMY!

Have a great wheat and sugar free recipe?  Share it with us in the comments below!

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!

EASTER - free dress patterns,printables and fun ideas!

Easter is coming up REALLY fast!  So to help you out I have compiled a huge list of fun things to do and cute dresses to make so that you will be ready for Easter! The patterns are after down below the printables and Easter ideas so just keep scrolling if that is what you are looking for!
Homeschool and preschool Easter freebies and ideas for the week before Easter!

Veggie Tales creator's blog "What is in the Bible" series for Easter week "What is Holy Week".
A great explanation of all the church history that goes with this week.  A great way to focus on Christ this Easter season and learn Biblical history.

Make an Easter lent garden with your kiddos as a visual parable.  You complete different parts on the corresponding days of Holy Week.  It has clear detailed directions.  This one is from an EXCELLENT blog called A Holy Experience written by a homeschool mama who wrote the book called One Thousand Gifts an amazing book on gratitude.

You can find a ton of Easter and Spring printables for tots here at 1plus1plus1equals1. It is GREAT homeschool blog with tons of printables, great ideas, and inspiration.

Here are some great learning activities and ideas from  the blog We are That Family to make sure Easter is celebrated for what it is...a celebration of Christ's Resurrection. Teaching our kids the reason we celebrate is a great way to spend your day.

Great printable worksheets for Easter from Mama's Learning Corner that work for pre K to 2nd grade.

This is an Easter learning roundup that includes crafts, worksheets, games, etc... from My Delicious Ambiguity.  She has a lot of fun things on her blog so you will have to check it out.

Two Teaching Mommies has a great lesson plan with a ton of free printables to go with it.  There is a printable memory verse with picture, worksheets, number maze, clip cards for math, etc... Hope you have some fun with it!

Two Teaching Mommies has created a 12 days of Easter lesson plan as well that coincides with  resurrection eggs for a 12 day lesson on Easter for your kiddos.  What a fun way to go through the meaning of Easter with your little ones and have them really get it.  They recommend combining Days 5-9 have been combined for those that are younger and will find the topic of Christs suffering too much to spread out over those days.  So you still have time to get this lesson done before Easter!

I hope this has helped you get a few new ideas for the week before Easter, so you and your kids can enjoy the deeper meaning of Easter and learn at the same time.

Now for you seamstress' here are some beautiful fun free Easter or Spring dress patterns! 

These are the "party dresses" I made for my girls last year.  See post HERE for more photos and tutorial link.

Best FREE patterns with tutorials for Easter or spring dress'!

If you get started right away you still have some time to make an Easter dress or two (or 3?) for your little girls.  I looked through tons of free online patterns and tutorials to come up with a list of what I think are the best ones out there so you only have to go to one place to find the perfect dress' for Easter.  Most of these are fairly simple and all have a pattern or instructions to create the pattern so there is nothing to buy except the fabric and notions!   Last year we chose the "Party Dress" by The Cottage Home and I let the girls pick out their fabric. Hope you find something special for your special little girls!

The Party Dress tutorial by The Cottage Home

Twirl Dress tutorial by From an Igloo

Charlotte dress tutorial from IveyC95

A Line Ruffle Front Dress tutorial by IveyC95

Reversible Ribbon Dress by Couturier Mommy
A very clear tutorial but asks for an A-line pattern.  Just use a simple dress in the size you want to make the pattern by folding it in half and tracing it with a seam allowance. Then put that pattern on folded material to cut out the A line dress.

Poppy Sundress tutorial by A Lemon Squeezy Home

Lucky Layers Sundress tutorial by Moda Bake Shop

Project Run and Play Dress tutorial by Simple Simon & Co.

Let's Fly A Kite Sundress tutorial by Craftiness Is Not Optional

Sunny Little Miss Dress tutorial by Made it on Monday

Retro Ruffle Dress tutorial by Simply Modern Mom

Petal Dress tutorial by Ucreate

Hope you were inspired! If you have time add this cute little caplet to top it off.

Sweet Little Caplet tutorial by Simple Simon & Co
Happy Sewing!

 Do you have a free one I should have included?  If so just put a link in the comments!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

DIY Handmade Doctor Play Kit (tutorial). GREAT kids gift!

I love a handmade holiday.  The gifts are so memorable and your kids know you really thought about them while you labored over a great gift.  It sure is cheaper as well!  With 4 kids aged 2-8 girls and boys I have been scouring the internet for ideas and come up with quite a few great ones! This one is great for the boys or girls, and they can all play together.  So here it is... the completed doctor kit.

I think it cost me a total of $4.50!  I found most of the stuff around the house, got the 2 surgical masks from the hospital for free when I was there for an ultrasound, printed stuff off and bought only the bag and stethoscope   Would you believe the stethoscope was only $3 brand new off Amazon!  They had other colors, but some of the other colors cost twice as much (same exact stethoscope), so I thought blue looked fine.  I love that it really works!  The bag was $1.50 at the thrift store and has the great doctor bag shape i was looking for.

Here is a closer look at the contents.  I printed off the labels you see above from the link below and attached to empty containers we had around the house.  I love the vintage uniform look.  The doctor badges I printed off from a great link I posted below that allows you to add your own photo and customize the text.  The silver bottle is a spray bottle filled with water for "wound care" or other imaginative play.  I added some band aid stickers that I printed from the computer onto sticky paper cut them out and put them in a band aid box.  The cotton balls and Q-tips they can use to "clean wounds", and doctor up their siblings or stuffed animals.  The plastic syringes we had as well as the medicine dosser.  You can also get a better look at the monogramed bag tag that I used to girly it up for my Bella.

I added a ear bulb for fun, a water balloon filler as otoscope for inspecting ears, some play money we had to pay the doctor, an ace bandage for wrapping up those sprains and broken bones, surgical masks, and of course the real working brand new stethoscope!  I made both my daughters a badge as I know they will both want to be the doctor at some point in the game.

I put it all together in this really cute doctor shaped bag and added a cute little laminated initial tag to give it a little more feminine appeal since it was for my daughter.  I may add a red felt cross to the front of  the bag on the black.  We will see.

Vintage medicine labels found free HERE at Eat Drink Chick.

Official Doctor badges created for free HERE at  Big Huge Labs

I am still thinking of adding a small clip board, white shirt for a lab coat (cut of the sleeve's cuff and the tail and hem), and file folder for official doctor papers to include...

Printable x-ray images like those found Here from Net Places, and free printable customizable eye chart from Eye Chart Maker.

I know she will love it!  I expect to get hours of play from all the kids out of this one!

 If you happened across a pair of kids crutches at a thrift store that would be pretty fun for the kids too!   I am sure I will find little things from now till Christmas to be adding in as well.  Hope you found some inspiration for a handmade kit for the kiddo in your life!  Love to hear if you  make one and how it goes! 

Tutorial - Make an Ironing Surface / Table on Your Washer and Dryer, and Line a Book Case!

I have a mismatched washer and dryer and no room for an ironing board in my laundry room.  I needed to come up with a solution to make the two look more unified and give me an ironing surface.  My laundry room is a tiny multipurpose space that serves as my office, laundry room, back entry, and crafty sewing space.  So not only did I need an ironing surface I also needed a place to fold the laundry, as well as lay out any patterns for cutting and sewing.  This is what I came up with and it is serving me well!  I also love the way it looks and it was VERY simple to complete.  All for the price of two yards of fabric!

I ended up pulling an old book shelf from the garage and putting it on the end to make a little bit of a separation between the entry and the laundry area.  It will also discourage everyone from throwing things down on top of the washer as they come in the door.  I used the same material (scraps left over) to line the back of the shelves and it came out great! I am going to add a hook to the back of the shelve to hold my laundry basket but until then it is still on the back of the dryer.   I love it!  Now I have separation, more storage and a cleaner overall look.  It was a quick and easy project and I feel like my laundry room had a makeover!

So here is how I did it..
You will need :
A sheet of plywood large enough to cover your washer and dryer.
2 yards of fabric or a little less.  I like to use the thicker home decor fabric.
1-2 large bath towels you no longer need.
A staple gun.
This is what it looked like before.

 The first thing I did was measure the space that I wanted to cover.  I then (OK my husband) cut the plywood to the size I needed.  I then stretched the towels over the board to create a softer surface and stapled them down around the edges (you can see the bottom layer in the photo below).  .

 Next I laid the fabric under the board and trimmed it so that I could wrap the edges over and staple it down

 I made sure to pull tight before I stapled so that the top would be nice and smooth.

Then all I had to do was flip it over and lay it in place.  Mine stays in place, but if you have trouble with it sliding just add some sticky backed velcro at all the four corners of the board and down to the washer and dryer as well.

For the book case I just used the scraps from the project to line the back of this lackluster book case.  I simply cut rectangles to fit the back of the book case one shelf at a time.  I recommend using a rotary cutter with cutting mats and rulers to get a nice even rectangle.  Then I just used spray adhesive to spray the back of the material and the back of the bookcase and applied them one shelve at a time.  The spray adhesive is really smelly so make sure you do it outside or right next to an open door!  It doesn't stay tacky too long so I did them one at a time and reapplied under any areas that were coming loose.  Now if your shelves come out you simply do one big rectangle but my shelves wouldn't come out.

And here it is again after it was all said and done! I am thinking about adding fabric or paint to the cupboard doors on the bottom but like I said this was a quick afternoon last minute project, and the shelves were just an after thought.  I love how it completes the space a bit, and gives it a more organized feel.
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