Exfoliating Sugar Scrubs

Tricia, friend and colleague, had the great idea of making exfoliating sugar body scrubs as parent volunteer Christmas gifts. Super idea! 3 ingredients, easy to whip together, inexpensive, no problem...

I have a way of making things much harder than need be.

First of all, when I was gathering the supplies (amid Christmas shopping chaos and the last week of school before winter break), I left a gallon of extra virgin olive oil in the car for about two days. We were having below freezing temps. By the time I got the oil out of the car, it was solid and looked like lard. Nice. :/

Let me rewind, this was Thursday night around 9:30pm...the next day was Friday, the last day of school before break. It was cold. I had already settled into my comfy clothes after running around town like a maniac doing errands. I.wanted.to.stay.home.

So I see Lilly, my fur baby, on the heating vent (see a previous post for a pic) so I figured why not. I put the jug on the heating vent and in an hour I had olive oil that looked like olive oil again.

Where rolling again! Until I realize the almond oil was not scented and my exfoliating sugar scrubs still smelled like I need to dip some bread in them... After many texts back and forth with Tricia, she agreed to meet me the next morning and bring the proper sweet almond fragrance. She dubbed it the "Great Sugar Scrub Rescue of 2010".

A couple of days later, I tried many more scents and even experimented with coloring.
I'm now addicted to making these as little gifts.



Here's the recipe (well, my version-ish)

For 1 pint (think ball jelly jar):
*about 1 cupish of sugar
*about 2/3 cup olive oil (you don't want it too goopy, but you need it to be moist)
*10-12ish drops of soap fragrance
(not the candle fragrance & not an essential oil - you can find at Michael's)
*soap colorant (optional)

I also made some smaller tubs of scrubs for the nice little plastic containers seen in the above picture. I found these to be good for the stronger scents like orange.


Scents I tried:
Honey Almond - a personal fav
Vanilla Lavender - relaxing
Vanilla Pomegranate - my second fav
Orange - good for energizing and near the kitchen sink
Eucalyptus Mint - good for feet ;)

I'm planning to order some new scents from Bramble Berry sometime. 180 scents to choose from. Hmmmm....

Holiday Recap

It was a great holiday season.
I visited with friends and family.
My only wish is that I took more pictures.
Guess I was enjoying all of the fun too much to think about it.

Joe ordered this vanilla cake with raspberry filling. Yum.
Notice the name. ;)
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of my other cake.
It was delicious too and made by my childhood best friend.
Let's be honest. I haven't met too many cakes I didn't like.


Joe opening presents.
I love bows and ribbons. Can you tell?


Christmas at my dad's house.
Bruno wanted in the picture too.


Check out this happy 7 year old.
Check out that neon green mohawk.
This picture worries me a little....
I'm assuming it only goes just a little fast.
I will assume I'm right.


Wonderful Christmas.

Oh, and remember the "Jen cookies" I was telling you about?
I get a dozen of them almost every month in 2011. Sweet.

Christmas Around My Home

A few pictures to document the holiday season at my home.

The tree. I love the look of the ribbon.
But I really dislike unraveling it to put on the tree....
even though I wind it back up on a spool each year when taking it down.


The mantle. I went low key this year. The garland does have lights and the votives aren't lit in the picture, but you get the idea. I also decided I wanted to use my stocking from when I was very young this year. My grandmother made it. I think it's pretty cool. Can't get enough poinsettias. (BTW, how do you pronounce poinsettias/poinsettas?)


Cookies. I love cookies. Especially cute, iced sugar cookies.
I wish I could say I made these, but fat chance.
Thanks, Giant Eagle.
Check out Jen's cookies...she made all of those, she's so talented.


Messed around with this idea for a table centerpiece.
Not the best picture. It's prettier in real life. ;)



And, some fun, cozy flannel sheets thanks to Sherry!



What is your favorite holiday decor?

Zoolights

Joe and I braved the cold (super cold!) with some friends last night and went to the Columbus Zoo for Wildlights.









Love doing "Christmas-y" things. :)

I hope you are taking the time to enjoy the season too.

Confessions

What is more fun than a good confession? I have two to share with you today.


1) I have had my coffee maker for 5ish years and I learned how to program it...yesterday. I can program my thermostat, my Christmas tree, and other misc. things, but this was a challenge. My coffee pot looks like it could run NASA.

2) I have had outdoor Christmas decorations sitting in my dining room waiting to be put up. Maybe I should take them back to the basement. I'm not sure I want to bother with balancing on a ladder in these frigid temps.

There will be more...confessions and Christmas related posts. Stay tuned.

Don't make me feel completely ridiculous. What confessions do you have?