Homemade Honey & Oil Hair Mask

Here's a great homemade hair mask that I use to not only condition my hair, but to increase it's shine as well. It takes only 2 ingredients and 30 minutes.

Put 5 tbsp olive oil and 4 tbsp honey in a microwave safe bowl. (Add the olive oil first, that way the honey will glide right off the spoon.) If you have short hair, you can half the amounts.

Microwave honey and oil. I microwave it for 30 seconds, but microwave it to a temperature that works for you. Mix to combine.

Add to hair and scalp and cover your head with a shower cap. If you don't have a shower cap, a plastic bag works great. After 20 minutes, shampoo out. (It may take two shampooing to get all the mask out.)

Prepare yourself for some incredible hair that cost only pennies to get!

Enjoy!

Easy, Homemade Topiary/Mother's Gift Idea

Topiaries are beautiful pieces of living sculpture that bring beauty to a garden, deck, or house. They can be a bit pricey if you buy them premade at the store, which is a shame because they can be quick, easy, and cheap to make.

To any fathers of young children reading this blog, this is also a great Mother's Day gift idea to help your kids make for mommy.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a heart shaped topiary.
 

You'll need an ivy, metal hanger, a pot w/soil, and a pair of pliers. Optional:floral wire and a stick

Using the pliers, straighten the hook of the hanger. Use the pliers and your hands to shape the rest of the hanger into a heart shape. The heart doesn't have to be perfect because the frame will be covered by the ivy.

You can push the hanger directly into the pot until the heart portion of the hanger touches the soil, or, you can secure the hanger to a stick with floral wire, (or twine, fishing line, etc) and push the stick into the soil.  

Plant the ivy in the pot and carefully wind it around the heart frame. Check your ivy once or twice a week and wind any new growth around the frame. Ivy grows quickly, so you should have a full topiary in a few weeks time. You can leave your topiary outside.

Or bring it inside.

If young kids will be making this for Mother's Day, obliviously, there are some steps they will need help with, (anything to do with pliers), but they will have a blast picking out the ivy from the nursery and helping wind the ivy around the frame. This will be a gift any mother would be proud to show off for years to come.

Enjoy!

Easy Ice Cream that the Kiddies can Make

Nothing is easier than going to the grocery store and picking up a 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream; nothing is more fun to eat than ice cream you made yourself.

For this easy recipe, you'll need:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup of any combination of milk and cream - I like 1/4 cup whole milk and 1/4 cup light cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

1 quart sized Ziploc bag
1 gallon sized Ziploc bag - Use a freezer bag if you have it, it's thicker, therefore stronger
6 tablespoons rock salt
Ice

1 - Put the sugar, milk/cream, vanilla, and salt in the quart sized bag; seal.
2 - Fill the gallon sized bag half-way with ice; add rock salt.
3 - Put the quart sized bag inside the gallon sized one and shake about 5 minutes.
4 - Wipe the top of the quart sized bag and spoon out the ice cream.
5 - Enjoy some delicious, soft-serve vanilla ice cream.

I did this outside just in case the gallon sized bag ripped.

A very happy Archer mixing his ice cream.

A very happy Archer eating his ice cream.

Enjoy!

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SocialLiving Deal - You know me, I'm always looking for some fun, cheap place to take the kiddies. For those living in the DC Metro area, I'm sure you've heard of the annual Strawberry Festival at the Briggs Chaney-Greencastle Farmers and Artisans' Market. A family pack of tickets includes 2 adult tickets, 2 children's tickets, a 4-item brunch sampler, 2 pony rides for the kids, and a $5 market coupon. The bundle will normally set you back $25 dollars, but click on the link below to get it for only $12.

Family Pack to Strawberry Festival for $12

Watermelon Cookies

Summer is fast approaching, and with it returns it's delicious, seasonal fruit. Here's a fun way to present the quintessential summer fruit, watermelon, to the kiddies.

You'll need:
watermelon
favorite cookie cutters

Cut a circular slice of water.



Remove the rind.

Using the cookie cutters, cut out shapes from the watermelon.

Enjoy!
________________________________________________________________________
SocialLiving Deal - You know me, I'm always looking for some fun, cheap place to take the kiddies. For those living in the DC Metro area, I'm sure you've heard of the annual Strawberry Festival at the Briggs Chaney-Greencastle Farmers and Artisans' Market. A family pack of tickets includes 2 adult tickets, 2 children's tickets, a 4-item brunch sampler, 2 pony rides for the kids, and a $5 market coupon. The bundle will normally set you back $25 dollars, but click on the link below to get it for only $12.

Family Pack to Strawberry Festival for $12

Go Bananas for Soft, Glowing Skin!

For some reason, my household just can't seem to finish off an entire bunch of bananas before the bananas become too ripe. I dutifully make banana bread/muffins out of the remaining few pieces of fruit, but yesterday, (probably due to the fact that I already have a bag full of said muffins in my freezer), I just didn't feel like baking.

I also didn't feel like wasting these banana either.

You don't have to eat a banana to take advantage of its vitamins. You can also mash it up and put it on your face.

Banana Honey Mask

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 tsp honey
• splash of milk (optional)

Mash the banana in a bowl, add honey and mix. Add a splash of milk if mask is too thick. Apply to face and wait 10 min before washing it off. There is enough mask for multiple faces or you can apply to your hands and feet as well. (The latter is a perfect excuse to watch tv and have hubby mind the kids.) Prepare to feel a difference in your skin immediately.

You can spend $20, $30, or more for a tube of chemicals to achieve, (at best), the same results or you can make this mask for pennies.

Enjoy!

_________________________________________________________________________
SocialLiving Deal - You know me, I'm always looking for some fun, cheap place to take the kiddies. For those living in the DC Metro area, I'm sure you've heard of the annual Strawberry Festival at the Briggs Chaney-Greencastle Farmers and Artisans' Market. A family pack of tickets includes 2 adult tickets, 2 children's tickets, a 4-item brunch sampler, 2 pony rides for the kids, and a $5 market coupon. The bundle will normally set you back $25 dollars, but click on the link below to get it for only $12.

Family Pack to Strawberry Festival for $12

What's for Dinner?

If you have a second freezer, it probably looks a lot like mine - each shelf stocked with frozen foods stacked on top of each other, with no discernible way to tell what is actually there. Here's a quick, easy way to keep on top of what you have stored away. Buy some white board markers, (I got 3 for a $1 at my local dollar store), and on the door simply list the contents of the freezer.

I color coded my list to make it easier for me when I scan for a particular item. I used a black pen to write down bread items, red for meat, and blue for everything else. Going forward, I'll also write down the date of when I buy these items. If you're not able to write on the actually face of the freezer, you can always buy a small white board and attach it to the freezer.

Enjoy!

Easter Egg Chicks II

Here's another cute way to present all those hard-boiled eggs you've made this week. You'll also need a little carrot, a little plum, and your favorite deviled eggs recipe.

Cut the tops off your hard-boiled eggs and set them aside. Cut a silver off the bottom of the eggs in order to make the stand easier.

Scoop out the yolks. Do this carefully because the whites of the eggs can rip easily.

Devil the yokes and add back into the egg. Put the top of the egg back on. Shave a carrot and cut out beaks for your chickies. Use a bit of plum peel for the eyes. (You can use anything dark you have in the kitchen, olives for example.)

You can present your chickies on a bed of lettuce of a nest of pretzels.

Enjoy!