I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. #WalgreensBeauty #CollectiveBias

I don't know about where you live, but here in Kansas City, winter has been brutal. I already have pretty dry skin and hair, but this harsh season has not been kind to me! I headed to Walgreens in search of some more natural beauty products to help my poor body (and my kids dry skin) cope! Here's what I picked up:

1. Maybelline Fit Me blush in light pink
2. St. Ives Daily Hydrating bodly lotion
3. Covergirl Outlast nail polish in Ever Reddy
4. Organix Renewing Argan Oil
5. EOS lip balm in Honeydew
6. Jason Tea Tree treatment shampoo

I was surprised at the natural beauty options at Walgreens. I saw brands that I normally see at Whole Foods or Sprouts.

I picked up these 2 hair items because I wanted a deep moisturizing treatment for my dry hair. The Organix Argan Oil leaves my hair feeling really soft. I've used it about 2x a week. I grabbed the Jason tea tree oil shampoo for my girls. They struggle with super dry and itchy scalps in the winter and I know that tea tree oil is supposed to help with this. I also love that it's all natural. So far it has made a bit of a difference and I've used a few times as well.

The St. Ives daily hydrating lotion smells SO good and works surprisingly well. It's all 100% natural with no parabens or Phthalates so I can use it on my girls. Jane has some eczema in the winter and this has worked great for her.  The EOS lip balm is just so cute and smells SO good! I love the packaging. It's also an all natural lip balm option.

Ok, these 2 products are not "all natural" but I needed some color to brighten up my super pale skin in the winter. The Maybelline fit me blush is a very light color (I got the color light pink) and natural looking. Next time I actually might try a darker shade because it's almost hard to see on my skin. The Covergirl nail polish is a really fun orange-red color. I usually don't go for colors this bright but I'm actually really loving it and my girls have like it as well.

Here it is in action on Lula's toes! It's just cheery and bright!

What beauty products are essential for you in winter?

Winter {Natural

Tips for How to Make the Perfect Cup of Pour Over Gourmet Coffee

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. #cookincomfort #collectivebias 

Last September, I bought Reid all the pour over coffee basics for his birthday present. We've been hooked on this method of coffee making every since. It's definitely a little more time consuming and probably high maintenance, but the extra few minutes are SO worth it. I cannot rave about how much I love this method of making coffee. We usually freshly grind our own right before brewing a cup, but I decided to try it out with Gevalia's ground gourmet coffee. The results were tasty and it was nice to know that you could still brew a decent cup of you have some ground coffee around and didn't want to take the time to grind it yourself.

The Gevalia gourmet coffee can be found at Walmart, but any of your favorite beans will do. The pour over method extracts tons of flavors from the beans, so don't be surprised if the end results taste a lot different than what you are used to - even if it's the same coffee you usually drink.

The basic tools that we use (there are many to choose from) are a Hario Coffee Drip Kettle, Hario v60 Coffee Dripper, Hario V60 filters, food scale, glass carafe and a burr grinder. (we currently have this one from Cuisinart)


The first step is to grind your beans. It's best to do this right before you make your coffee...and a burr grinder is a must. This one we have is pretty inexpensive and it does the job.

Here is where your food scale comes in. For 2 cups of coffee, we measure our 38 grams of beans (or in this case, grounds since I was trying it out with the pre-ground coffee. But usually I'm measuring beans and then grinding them)

Next,  put a filter in the dripper and fill with water and let it drain out. This wets the filter and it sticks to the dripper better. It also claims to get rid of any slight taste the paper filter may have.

This is how the set up looks. (oh, and you should be boiling some water in your slow drip kettle in the meantime)

Once your water is boiling, take it off the heat and let it sit for about 30 seconds. Make sure to zero out your scale because you will now be measuring the amount of water that is poured into the coffee filter.

Slowly pour about 50 grams of water into the filter, trying to only stay in the center. The coffee should "bloom" out (kind of froth and puff up)

Wait about 30 seconds

Now pour the rest in a slow circular motion until you reach about 480 grams of water total.

After all the coffee has dripped out, you are ready to enjoy your amazing cup of heaven.

Purists insist on only drinking this method of coffee black. While I can tolerate it black, I do add some cream and sugar to mine. But even if you think you hate black coffee,  just try a sip of it plain. It really is delicious and so flavorful!

Mocha Raspberry Pretzelwiches {And a $100 Dollar Tree Giveaway!}

When Dollar Tree asked me to create a yummy dessert idea using ingredients from their store, I was up for the challenge! Let me tell you, I have really come to love Dollar Tree. Every time I leave there, I have a small rush from how much I have just saved. Is that weird? Probably. But I really am always amazed at what things I can buy for just $1.  And the best news is that I’m giving away a $100 gift card to Dollar Tree at the end of this post.  If I did the math right, that means that one lucky reader can buy 100 things (before tax) from Dollar Tree. That’s a lot of stuff!

Anyway, on to my yummy dessert. I found this recipe from the Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club. There are craft projects and recipes that you can make entirely from Dollar Tree stuff! How cool is that? Membership is totally free and new things are being added each month. The layout is so handy because you can easily print out the instructions or recipe to have on hand. I found these Mocha Raspberry Pretzelwiches and thought they looked really unique, so I put my own spin on it by making my own frosting, and made these lovely little sandwich cookies!

Here’s what you will need:

6oz Bag Granny’s Oven Brownie Crisps (or any favorite chocolate wafer cookie)

Lady of Liberty Rasperry Preserves

Benzels Rod Pretzels

Cappuccino Supreme Mocha Packet

12oz. Tub Harvest Hill Vanilla Frosting (optional - if you choose not to make your own)

To make your own buttercream:
½ cup butter

2 Cups Confectioners Sugar

1 Tbs Vanilla

2 Tbs Milk

You can definitely take the easy route and just purchase a tub of vanilla frosting.  I love homemade buttercream, so I chose to make my own.

(Head over to the Value Seekers Club for full instructions on how to make these beauties and you can sign up to receive more yummy recipes and fun crafts as well.)

They are so simple to make yet look so lovely and a little fancy if you ask me.  I love the combo of the chocolate and mocha with the tart raspberries and then a few bursts of salty crunchiness from the pretzels. No one would ever imagine that you made these fancy cookies with ingredients from Dollar Tree! They look like they should come from the local french bakery.

To win the $100 gift card, you must sign up for the Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club and then enter in the Rafflecopter Widget below.  (Make sure you use the same email as you did to sign up for the Value Seekers Club so that I can verify that you are eligible to win.) Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway





This is a sponsored post.  I was compensated to create this project, but the opinions in this posts are 100% my own.

His and Hers Stenciled Pillowcases

Recently Target asked me to team up with them to come up with a personalized wedding gift.  I immediately knew I wanted to involved a freezer paper stenciled project in some way.  I came up with these cute his and hers pillowcases.

These would be fun to pair with some sheets or pillowcases off of the couple's Target Registry.  You could also add the wedding date to the backs of the pillowcases.

 Here is a good tutorial on how to make a freezer paper stencil.  I won't do a full detailed tutorial since there are so many out there. But you basically need some freezer paper, 2 pillow cases (this set of 2 were just $9.99 at Target), an exacto knife and some fabric paint.

I cut out my stencils on the freezer paper and ironed them onto the pillowcases.

Painted some white fabric paint inside...

And after they were dry, pulled the freezer paper off! Done!

Here are some other fun personalized wedding registry ideas I am loving. So many more options than when I was registering for my wedding 8.5 years ago!

Threshold Monogram Mugs
Give a date night in with a pizza stone with a California Pizza Kitchen cookbook
Monogram some his and hers cozy robes
Compile favorite family recipes in a fun binder along with some pots and pans
Frame the wedding invitation in a shadowbox frame


What was your favorite wedding gift that you received or maybe one that you love to give? Mine was probably a beautiful quilt that my mom made with Amy Butler fabric.




Be sure to follow along with #TargetWedding

 This post is in partnership with Target. All opinions are my own.

Blessing Bag Ideas + Another Target Gift Card Giveaway!

Good news! My last Target $25 gift card giveaway was so popular, that I'm hosting another one! So, you have another chance to win to get any last minute shopping done! Yay!

Before we go forward with the giveaway,  I thought I would share some last minute gift ideas. I was thinking about what to do this year to exercise a little generosity with my girls. We have a lot of homeless men and women around certain intersections where we live. They are usually standing in the cold and holding a sign. My heart always goes out to them but I never know what to do. I came across this idea awhile ago to make little blessing bags to keep handy in the car to hand out when you see someone in need.  I thought it would be a fun activity to hit up Target with my girls and pick out items to go in the bags.

Here are some ideas I came up with:

Larabars
Deodorant
Chapstick
Tissues
Crackers
Hand Sanitizer
Gloves
Gum
Hand Warmers
Target Gift Card
Some other ideas would be:
Applesauce Cups
Toothbrush
A Card
Mini Bible
Pens
Fast Food Gift Card 


By the way, have you discovered the Target Cartwheel app? I'm obsessed! I love finding deals. I'm sure a ton of this stuff will be on sale with that app. Also, you can load and reload e-gift cards on it.


And now for the giveaway! Enter below using the Rafflecopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


This post is brought to you by Target but all content and opinions are my own.  Follow along with #MyKindOf Holiday 

Holiday Sharpie Mason Jars & A Recipe!

 

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Sharpie, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #StaplesSharpie http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

I recently hit up Staples and grabbed some Sharpies to make a quick little holiday gift. I decided to decorate some mason jars with metallic sharpies, make some tags and fill them with homemade white hot chocolate mix.

These little jars are so easy to make and would be the perfect teacher gift!  I was trying to think of something easy and inexpensive to make for little gifts other than the typical cookies on a plate. When I stopped by Staples, these Sharpies were all on sale...score!

All of these packages were on sale. The metallic package was $3.39, neons were $5 and the 12 count rainbow packs were only $6, which is a steal for Sharpies.  I use them for everything. I especially love the metallic ones. Last year I made these little metallic decorated ramekins for Christmas, so I'm keeping with the theme this year!

I grabbed some white cardstock tags, gold, silver and bronze sharpies and mason jars.  After drawing directly on the jars and filling them with the white hot chocolate mix, they looked pretty cute!

This would also be fun with a black sharpie, it would create a little bolder look.

I covered the lids with white paper and added some Sharpie magic to those as well.

After writing the instructions on the tags, I just tied them around the jars with some bakers twine.

Here is the recipe for the hot chocolate:


White Hot Chocolate Mix
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup instant dry milk
1 3.3 oz. package instant white chocolate pudding

This works best if you freeze the chocolate chips. Using a blender, grind them up until they are a powder. Combine with the other ingredients.  Mix about 3 tsp hot chocolate mix for every 1 cup of hot water. Stir and enjoy!

Don't forget to visit Staples this holiday and check out the sales on the 12 ct multi colored pack of Sharpies and the Sharpie Metallic Assorted 4-CT pack for all of your holiday crafting! 


 You can also get lots more Sharpie crafting ideas on:
Twitter 
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Pinterest