Detangler Spray

During the heat I have a particularly hard time with friz. If you share the same struggler then this is the project for you! You can use this as a friz spray, smoothing spray, and as a leave in conditioner

I have been using this on my hair for the past few days and it is a miracle worker!

 

 

What you will need:

A spray bottle

1/4 cup vegetable glycerin

 1 cup water

1 t of your favorite essential oils

 

All you do is mix it together, shake well, and spray.

 

Best Hand Soap Ever

I feel like every one of my posts recently have been revolving around summer because well I LOVE spring!! You can expect the same kind of posts about fall! But back to the point! I have been finding myself doing a lot of weird chores lately and my hands have gotten ridiculously dirty. To remove all the dirt I have made the best exfoliating hand soap!

 

Its even a beautiful color!!!!

 

What you will need:

A jar or container

Hand soap

Sugar

Lemon Oil

 

Fill 3/4 to 1/2 of the container with sugar and fill the rest with some kind of hand soap. The best is colored because it looks super cool!! Add a few drops of lemon oil and mix, mix, mix. This stuff is amazing and just the right abrasiveness that it doesn't hurt or tear your skin but it does remove ALL the dirt!!!!

 

Note: all measurements depend on how much you want.

Homemade Reeses Peanut Cups

Peanut butter or chocolate, chocolate or peanut butter this inner battle, for me at least, could go on forever!! Well the battle has finally ended with the semi (not really) healthy dessert.

This was technically made for Easter but I didn't have enough time to upload it by then so instead you will be reading this on Tuesday.

 

What you will need:

1 cup of peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 T agave, honey, or maple syrup

1/2 t vanilla extract

 

All you have to do is throw everything in your food processor or blender and make into balls. Next comes my personal favorite part the chocolate dipping!!!!!!!

 

Tip 1: Make sure to freeze the peanut balls so they dip easier

Tip 2: If you put the peanut butter balls on a fork and use a knife to scrape the chocolate off the bottom. This will you so much!!!!

Tip: I found that if when you melt the chocolate you add a little bit a milk it will keep it from solidifying to quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

Pepper, Lime, Cucumber Summer Salad

Happy Easter!!!!!

Summer and salads, what happens when you put those together?! An amazing summer-salad!!

This is springy, fresh tasting, and super healthy!!

What you will need:

1/8 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 T olive oil

1 1/2 T lime juice

1 cup quinoa

1/2 cup colored peppers

1/2 cup cucumber

Mix the half the cilantro, oil, and lime juice together.

Set aside.

Cut up peppers, cucumber, and the rest of the cilantro.

Mix it all together and enjoy!!!!

Season to taste.

Chain Bracelet

Happy Friday!

Now that the weather is getting warmer it is time for arm candy!!!!

How cool are these?! When I first saw this I thought it would be kind of weird but I honestly love them and I have worn them every day since!!!!

What you will need:

Pack of ponytails

A few chains

Plyers

All you need to do is separate a few chain links (depending on how big your wrist is) and attach each end to the ponytail.

They make the best bracelets because their is stretch and you won't have to clasp the ends together! Lets just admit that, that is the worst part about wearing bracelets!!

These can also double as a ponytail holders as long as the ends of the chain link is totally clasp together. Or it will catch your hair!

It probably took 10-15 minutes to make all of these.

Yummy Almond Crusted Chicken with Strawberry Sauce

As spring approaches I find myself in need of some new recipes! Because chicken is one of my favorite meals I have decided to revamp the typical breaded chicken!

What you will need:

4-5 chicken breasts

 3/4 cup of almonds
 2 egg white
1 cup strawberries (stems removed)
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar (make sure not to use the balsamic glaze)
1 tbsp of corn starch (more depending on how thick you want it)
1/4 cup of chicken broth
1 tbsp. rosemary

Dip your chicken in the egg white followed by pureed almonds until,

they are pretty thickly coated. Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes or so.

Puree strawberries, balsamic vinegar, and sugar in the blender until it looks like a weird strawberry smoothie (but don't taste it! For some reason I don't think that would taste very good....).

Then mix the rosemary, corn starch, and chicken broth in a pan.

Warm and serve over the chicken!

Have an amazing Wednesday!!

(All credit for the first picture goes to Cheese Please also the original creator of this recipe) 

DIY Matte Nail Polish

Hello everyone! I am particularly happy today because it's Saturday and we have matte nail polish!! I honestly love this stuff! One of my favorite things for spring is pastel nail polish but I am not a fan of neon colors.  The balance I have found is matte pink polish!!

What you will need:

Around a Tablespoon of Corn Starch

A bottle of clear polish

Funnel

This is literally as simple as one to three because well theirs only three steps!

Step One: Funnel corn starch into your clear polish (a paper funnel works best). Amounts of corn starch will vary based on just how matte you want it and how much polish you have.

Step Two: Shake, shake, shake! This is the most important step! Make sure you have all the clumps out.

Step Three: Paint on your base color coat and use this as a top coat!

The only downside to this very cheap alternative is that it will sometimes have a white "film" on top after it gets very wet. It comes off very easily with a little bit of rubbing.

Have a lovely weekend!!

Orange Chipotle Chicken

Sweet and spicy, spicy and sweet that sounds well sweet! What is this dish that is both of those and it's super healthy? Orange chipotle chicken! I honestly love this recipe! It can either be a spicy chicken or a sweeter chicken. Overall just a great recipe to add to your recipe book, binder, cards, or online doc!

For the chicken:

Around 4-5 pieces of chicken (would you guess that you need chicken for a chicken dish!?)

1 t chile powder

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 sea salt

1 tsp of oil (coconut, olive, safflower)

Sauce:

1 cup orange juice

2 T maple syrup

1 T chipotle peppers minced in adobe sauce (take seeds out if you don't like spicy)

To serve with:

Around 2 cups of mixed veggies

2-3 cups brown rice or quinoa, cooked to package directions

Pound chicken and slice it up, I cut them in smaller pieces after I took the picture. Heat up oil in the pan and cook chicken with the seasonings (1 t chile powder, 1/2 t ground cumin, 1/2 sea salt).

Now move onto the sauce (sorry there's no pictures!!)

Cook orange juice and maple syrup for about a minute until it thickens stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.

Add sauce and veggies to chicken serve warm with rice or quinoa.

Enjoy!! 

Country Chic Coasters

I love mason jars, country chic, and lemonade how can all three of these things be combined? Mason jar lid coasters wow that's a mouthful! It seems like this would be pretty hard but it was surprisingly simple and took about 1 hour to do about 15 lids.

What you will need:

Mason jar rings, this specific one was already painted white.

Cork roll I got this one at Hobby Lobby for a couple of dollars.

 I went to Hobby Lobby and asked for a paint that could antique something and this was what I was told to get. It worked out really great and I would happily use it again!

After all the supplies was gathered I took the spray painted rings, (you could really do any color I chose to do white because its well neutral) rubbed the antiquing paint on with a paper towel, then rubbed most of it off until it was "dry". 

This is about what it should look like.

This was probably my least favorite of the project, cutting the cork got kind of hard but was well worth it!

Warning: always buy more cork than you think you will need as there will be a lot of practices!

How cute!!!

You can stamp the middle with a normal stamp and normal ink (as seen above). This personalizes it and makes it an amazing gift for every country chic person in your life!

Note: the amount of supplies you will need is based solely on how many you want to make.

Goat Cheese Mini Pizza

One of my favorite spring lunches is this lovely beauty! My family and I have been enjoying this for the past year or so, I honestly can't remember when we first made it but I have never looked back.

What you will need:

Goat cheese

Sun dried tomatoes

Basil

Balsamic vinegar reduction

Tortilla

Note: there are no exact measurements on this, it is completely up to you.

I use a griddle to cook these on but I am sure you can make them on a pan on the stove.

Put the goat cheese on a tortilla so it can start melting, after it melts a little add the sun dried tomatoes. After the cheese is melted and tomatoes warmed sprinkle the basil and top add the balsamic vinegar reduction and

ENJOY!

Natural Sugar Scrub

Who has two thumbs and is obsessed with Bath and Body sugar scrub? This girl!

But what's the one thing that I don't like about them is.... you guessed it. The chemicals.

When your skin is wet your pores enlarge creating much more access for the chemicals. So I have created new little "dupe" for it.

You will just need a few simple things:

10 drops of Doterra Oil

1 cup of sugar (I used sucanat because it is really exfoliating)

1/2 cup oil (it depends on your preference on how sugary to oily you want it)

I made a citrus scrub but a lavender one is pretty amazing too!

Mix everything together in a bowl.

This will keep for a few weeks but if you do add lemon or orange zest, as I did, you should keep in the fridge if you haven't used it in a week or so.

Good Luck and have a lovely day!

Orange Brownie

 What are two of the best things you could put together? What are two of the weirdest things you could put together? The answer is one amazing, fantastic, fabulous recipe (drummmm rolllllll)

ORANGE BROWNIE!

I have made this recipe at least twice a week over the past few weeks. It is an amazing after workout snack! So again why am I wasting your time reading this? Lets jump in!

What you will need:

1 cup walnuts

1 cup orange juice

1 cup oatmeal

2 T cinnamon

3/4 cup cocoa or carob powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 egg

1 T baking powder

~Preheat oven to 350~

Mix walnuts and orange juice in a high power blender or food processor. Add oatmeal and make sure the walnuts, oatmeal, and orange juice are a very liquidy paste. Now it gets super simple! Add everything else mix, scrape into a greased pan, wait 30-40 minutes and

ENJOY!



New Baby!!!!!

  Greetings everyone!!!

Today is not just the oh so special April Fools Day it is also the birthday of brand new baby Jasmine and her mom Aurora!! She is the absolute cutest little baby ever!!

Five Harmless April Fools Pranks

HAPPY TUESDAY!!

(mumbles in the back)
Oh wait isn't it just a normal Tuesday?
(more mumbles)
Wait I was just told that its actually APRIL FOOLS DAY! Therefor in celebration of this hilarious day I will be postponing the new brownie recipe and bringing you five harmless April Fools pranks.

PRANK #1

Paint the "victims" soap bar with clear nail polish. This will keep the soap from bubbling up no matter how hard you scrub. But is easily reversible with a simple cotton ball and nail polish remover.

PRANK #2

This prank is very near and dear to my heart as it has been played on me every year for the past 8 years or so.

Start by getting a tupperware (as seen above), fill it with water, add a favorite garment of clothing, stick in the freezer and wait for your "prey".

PRANK #3

The, at least in my house, oh so popular "sew clothing together prank".

Every April 1st (and sometimes other days) someone in my family wakes up with a drawer of clothing sewn together.

PRANK #4

This really isn't a prank but it is amazing! When you make dinner prepare a pot of water, as if making peas, but in reality your devious plan is to give them jelly beans (muhahaha) its really not a "prank" but its pretty fun!

PRANK #5

Now in order to counteract the last prank and send things off with a bang I have my final and favorite to watch reactions to.

THE CHOCOLATE COVERED GARLIC,

or soap, or maybe even peppers....honestly anything....

I have done this once and it is pretty harmless but if you do make the decision to do this then be ready to become the victim.

Happy pranking!!!

All pictures are from google.

Homemade Face Towelettes

Lately (as I said on my detergent rant) I have been trying to weed the chemicals out of my house. I know that lately I have been loving the simple brand of face towelettes, but even if they are pretty cheap ($2-3) that collects over time. That is why today I have made my new MUST have.

What you will need:

1/2 roll of paper towels

1 T apple cider vinegar

1 T of your soap

1 cup water

1 T coconut oil

Cut your paper towels in half and put them in a plastic container. 

Put everything in the pot and let it boil

Pour into your container put a lid on it and well wash your face!

Enjoy!!!! 

Guilt Free Nutella

This is possibly my new favorite recipe! It is a guilt free NUTELLA it does not get any better than that! I would bore you with the details of how great this is but honestly it would just be wasting the time that could be spent making and enjoying this lovely recipe!!! 

What you will need:

1 cup walnuts

2 T maple syrup

2 T cocoa powder or carob powder

2 T milk

1 t vanilla

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Put your walnuts into the blender or food processor until they are finely ground. Throw in the rest and mix!

And ENJOY!!!!!

P.s. amazing with bananas!!!

Bath Bombs

Try, try, try again a classic saying and something that seriously relates to my experience with bath-bombs. This was my fourth try over the past week, my consistent problem was that they wouldn't stuck together and would just completely crumble! The trick that I learned was OLIVE OIL and a lot of it!

What you will need:

1 cup citric acid (I told you it would come back!!)

1 cup baking soda

3/4-1 cup of olive oil (or really an oil)

5-10 drops of lavender oil

So cute and lovely!!!

Mix dry ingredients

Add both of your oils. Add oil until it clumps into a ball that keeps its shape (as seen in above).

Stick into your molds (I used this and then one that is a little bigger)

I purchased my heart mold in the soap making section of my local craft store.

Have an amazing day!!!!

Cranberry, Chocolate, and Coconut Granola

Yogurt topper? Cereal? Snack? Trail mix? What is this magical new recipe? I personally like eating it as either a trail mix type of thing or on top of yogurt. It is splendid!

What you will need:

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup raw almonds chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375

I threw everything onto the pan an mixed it up on there in a grasping chance to save dishes!

Bake for 30-40 min depending on your oven and how crispy you want your granola.

Good Luck!!