I’m not a huge bath person. Wait, I should take that back. I love taking baths in a big, deep tub where I can just float around and relax. Unfortunately we have a super tiny (well, probably normal sized) tub, and I don’t find that very relaxing. I decided to try making some bath bombs to up the relaxation game in my bathroom.
These are so great. The moment you drop them in the water, they just go berserk, fizzing all over the place. My girls love them in their baths, and I love how they are both moisturizing because of the oils, and add a calming scent to the whole bathroom.
I found quite a few different recipes around the internets, and settled on a combination of a few. Most recipes have the same basic ingredients, just different ratios or other things thrown in for fun.
Here’s what I came up with:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup carrier oil (almond oil, fractionated coconut oil, olive oil)
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1 cup baking soda
- 1 cup citric acid
- 10-12 drops of essential oil (I love to add relaxing oils to the bath, so I used about 10 drops of Release this time. I think you could do pretty much anything and it would be great.)
Mix all ingredients together in a glass bowl. You can use a spoon, but you might as well just use your hands and get the benefit of the oils while you mix it all up. It should feel like wet sand, and hold together if you squeeze it in your hand. You can add more baking soda if it’s too wet, or more oil if it’s too dry.
There are silicone molds you can use, but I don’t have one, and didn’t want to spend the money on one, so I just used my mini-muffin tin. I just pressed the mixture into the cups. The more firmly you press the mixture in, the better it will solidify.
Let it dry for at least 24 hours, pop them out, and store in an airtight container, glass is always best.
Please let me know if you have any questions! I’d be happy to suggest some other oils, or help you get started with essential oils if you don’t know where to begin!
Head over to my Instagram account for a giveaway of some of this sugar scrub! This part three of my 36 Things for 36 Years project. I’m giving away 36 things this year, and this week will be a whole week of oily giveaways! Details on how to enter here!
Also, make sure you enter my other Essential Oil Giveaways this week! Essential Oil Sugar Scrub can be found here!
Already to the third day of the 5 Days of Christmas! If you haven’t already entered for the first two giveaways, make sure you go check those out (
I love wrapping gifts, but I’m so, so bad at it. The ends are always crumpled and there’s way more tape than there should be. I also hate all the trash that we throw away on Christmas morning. But, I love how reusable gift wrapping is getting more popular!
Start by ironing down about a half inch on the top of the bag. You should note, at this point, that I don’t use actual measurements to make this bag. It’s all estimated and eyeballed. This is partly because the amount of material you use will determine how you construct your gift bag. Also, it doesn’t have to be perfect since it will be all scrunched up in the end. 
Fold down again, this time a few inches. You can see this in the below photo. If you look to the left of my hand, you’ll see the first fold, then how I folded again on top. Does that make sense? I hope so.
Unfold the fabric, and put your buttonholes in. (My sewing machine manual had instructions on making a buttonhole, and I’m not sure if the directions would be similar for different machines, so if you don’t know how to make a buttonhole, you should search for your specific machine.) You want to make sure you just put the holes in the top layer of fabric, so be very sure that you unfold your fabric before you start sewing the holes.
Refold your fabric and sew along the bottom edge, all along the top. Now, you’re going to finish the channel for the ribbon. Start above the buttonhole, and sew all the way across the top to make the channel. For me, I had a narrow ribbon, so I sewed my second line a couple inches above the bottom line. 
For these gift bags, I love making it as finished looking as possible, so I like to do a French seam on the inside. French seams are really fun, and I actually use them a lot when I make clothes, too.
Turn your bag inside out, and sew around the seams you just sewed, again with a 1/4 inch seam. You’ll want to make sure the first seam is nestled inside this seam. 
Now, all you have to do is string your ribbon. Cut your ribbon so it’s about 4 times as long as your bag is wide. I’ve ready about fancy ribbon threading tools, but I’ve always done just fine with the safety pin method. Attach a safety pin to one end, stick it in one of the holes, and work your way around until the pin comes out the other hole, pulling the ribbon with it.
Magic! 
The purpose of quilting is to hold the three layers all together. I have yet to get too fancy with my quilting. I usually just do straight or wavy lines, and I like how that turns out. For this quilt, I didn’t really want to see the lines, so I used a technique called stitch in the ditch. Basically, this means that you will sew right over the seams. The quilting lines are almost hidden in the seams. I used red thread, so it stands out more than if I had really been trying to match, and hide the quilting lines. 
Keep quilting until it’s all sewn together! To bind it, use 
This year the mantel is a little more Halloween-y than in the past. I put our vintage Halloween postcards right in the center, and added some more spooky things. I love this sphere my grandpa made out of obsidian that looks like a magical eyeball crystal ball or something. It’s even spookier with my ghostly reflection in this photo… 
I can’t remember if I ever shared a photo of the 
This next decoration cracks me up. I think my mother-in-law gave this to the girls last Autumn, but I couldn’t find the dowel for hanging it. It probably became a sword or a wand and had to be taken away. Anyway, the girls have been playing with this branch and I thought it would a perfectly spooky flagpole. I doubt it will last long, but it’s funny for now. Just watch out as you walk into our garage… 
Here’s our front porch decorations. The broom is actually my mother-in-law’s; she won it in a raffle and I picked it up for her. I’m sure she’ll agree that it looks really good on our porch, right?!? We’ve been collecting the mini pumpkins each time we go out to the farm. 
I’ve also meant to post about our new bench! Jesse built it and I stained it! Isn’t it amazing? We used reclaimed lumber from my dad’s old deck. I love the nicks and dings and nail holes. 
And of course, I needed to get the fairies some new Autumn decor.
Next, I used an x-acto knife and a cutting mat to cut out the letters. 
The directions say to clean your surface of dirt and debris. We took it a step further, and Jesse pressure washed the whole front walk. The cleaner the surface, the better, I figure!
The directions also say that it holds up better if it doesn’t get much foot traffic, so I placed the template to the left of the landing, since people tend to hug the right hand side as they go up the steps. I don’t think it will get a whole lot of foot traffic where I placed it. 
Next, I just followed the directions that came with the NeverWet. There is a base coat of which I did two coats. Then I did four super light coats of the top coat.
You are supposed to let it cure for 12 hours, but I waited almost a whole day. Since there is no rain coming anytime soon, I had to manufacture it. I just poured some water on it to see what it did. It was pretty amazing! The water just rolled right off the letters! And the letters feel totally dry. Super fun! 
