Homemade Whipped Body Butter

I made body butter this weekend I wanted to share with you! It's surprisingly easy and I'm excited to experiment with different recipes. I used lemongrass and lavender essential oils for this batch and it smells so good! 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup shea butter

16 drops essential oils of your choice - for this batch I did about 10 each of lavender and lemongrass. 

{Note: all essential oils are not made for ingestion and can be dangerous if they are only perfume grade. That's why I can only recommend Young Living oils because of their commitment to purity and quality. Remember, anything you put on your skin (your body's largest organ) is ingested. This is why making our own clean body butter is even more exciting - get rid of all the extra ingredients in processed lotions.}

Directions:

Mix all together in mixer. After well mixed, my consistency was pretty oily/melted, so I stuck it in the freezer for 20 minutes. After that, the consistency was perfect! I mixed again for a little bit, then filled my jars with the luxurious mixture.  

*Some recipes have you add the coconut oil and shea butter to a double broiler (don't heat the essential oils though;)) to melt, then let cool before stirring and adding to freezer. I didn't do this, but some of the coconut oil in my jars has started to separate - so next time, I'll try melting them to see if that helps them not separate. I also may try adding a little more shea butter and a little less coconut oil to see if that helps. I'd love to hear if you try this, what works for you! 

Shea butter & coconut oil 

After freezing, they whipped up so well! 

They look like ice cream or frosting or something really delicious. It definitely smells edible! 

 I was so excited about these little labels! I found a super easy website to make free labels. You type in whatever description you want, and can choose between different templates. It prints lots per page, depending on how big your labels need to be. You could use them for anything really - be creative! 

 I used 4 oz canning mason jars, I did this recipe x4 or so to have enough for my 9 jars. So fun! I'd LOVE to hear what you make!

Now, I'm off to wrap gifts and tackle some projects! 

Today's Pinspiration:

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I don't know how Buddy the Elf knows how to roll all of my love languages into one sentence. 

'Tis the Season

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. This season has gone so fast, and I feel like December has just flown by. I hope you're enjoying it! My very favorite time of year:)

I case you're working on any very last minute gifts, I thought I'd re-link to a few gifts I made last year. See that post here. It's also crazy thinking back to last Christmas, when we were trying to find a place to live. What a year it has been! 

Also, one year ago is when I was baptized:) Such neat memories with my parents and Nick.

 Last weekend, we had some fun Christmas gatherings! First was Nick's work Christmas party Friday night. It was fancy with cocktail attire, heavy h'ordeuvres, formal photos, giveaways, and meeting Nick's work people. It was great! We didn't take any photos at the beginning of the night, but thankfully we got some when we got home at the end of the night:) 

 The weather was perfect. About 60's, even that late at night! Last year, it was very cold, so this made it so much easier.

Saturday night, we met up with friends downtown for dinner and taking in the Christmas festivities downtown. There were carolers, a bagpipe band, and lots of families out and about, enjoying the great weather in December. 

 Sunday night, we had a Christmas exchange and snacks with our bible study group. We played Would you Rather, and Nick got to draw glasses & a mustache on my face. :) Ranger didn't know quite what to think.. 

Ranger likes to be under the covers. And I like it too, when he's in a sweet mood. 

Handsome boys! This was the night before Ranger's hair cut. It gets so long and we can't see his eyes. He doesn't behave well during hair cuts, so he only gets a few a year, and we take as much off as we can so we don't have to again for a while. Oh this puppy. 

I have to continue to profess my thankfulness for thieves. Especially in December, when so many are fighting getting sick themselves. 1) it smells great, 2) it saves me from getting wintertime ickies, 3) it works. 

I'm making this recipe this week when our family is together. I can't wait, it sounds delicious!

I wish all of you and your families a very Merry Christmas! 

 Today's Pinspiration:

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Let us remember the reason for this season.

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Ours was really nice. It started Wednesday afternoon for me. I lucked out that my dad was off work and agreed to come over to help me put up Christmas decorations.

Blurry selfie after getting the tree up:)

 Ranger loved time with his Grampy and wouldn't leave his side. The place got messy really fast as I pulled everything out, but dad helped me get it out, decorate, and make things look less hectic;) for when Nick got home. We have some more ornaments to put on the tree, but I'm excited with how it came together and love sitting in the glow of the lights at night. Our first Christmas in this home! 

 Ranger got his first Christmas sweater :) I think it's the cutest thing to see this boy in a nice sweater. I'm sure there will be more family pics this season in this one;) 

We got a little Christmas shopping in this weekend, a lotttt of college football (good thing I've come to enjoy it!), great time visiting Nick's parents, delicious meals, and rest. 

I always look for beauty on road trips and it's always right there, waiting to be noticed.

I shared this recipe on Facebook, but wanted to share it here too - it's that good. I made it for Nick's Thanksgiving pot luck, after he signed us up for sweet potato casserole. The thing was -- I've never made sweet potato casserole in my life! He knew though that we had some on our counter from our farm batch we hadn't used yet. I looked for recipes and landed on this one. So easy and so delicious. I made it gluten and dairy free too! YUM. Here's the recipe I used.

Today's Pinspiration:

Today's Pinspiration

If you're looking for inspiration in your life, check out Steve Chandler. We listened to him on audio in the car this weekend and were impressed. He has books I'd like to read too! Simple but profound.