DIY Hand/Body Lotion/Cream

So everyone wants to save a buck right?  As a single mom any way that I can save some money is always a good thing.

Lotions and hand creams can be expensive.  It's something that I use every day.  I'm sure that most, if not all women, use every day.

I was on the hunt for a hand cream/body lotion that I could make at home during the winter time.  My skin, especially my hands get super dry during the winter and most hand creams don't cut it for me.  I need to use way to much or way too often.  With a toddler and a small business to run there isn't always time to constantly be reapplying lotions.

I found something that I really like.  It's all natural, organic and SUPER easy to whip up at home.

Here's the site that I found it on.  CLICK HERE.

I used eucalyptus essential oil because of it's natural anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-viral properties and just because I love the way it smells.  It's great to add to all kinds of stuff to ease sore muscles.

I doubled the amount so I didn't have to make it up again for a while.  I didn't use Vitamin E oil but next time I make up some I will.  I've always got olive oil and coconut oil in the house for cooking so the only things I needed to buy was the shea butter, essential oil and beeswax.  The wax was a huge brick so I've got lots left over for whenever I get crafty and decide to make something with it.

I always go a bit heavier on the eucalyptus oil than normal because I love it.  But this just do till you think it's sufficient.

I also heated it all up in the mason jar I store it in in a pot of water so I didn't have to worry about pouring the hot mixture into another container.  I'm a klutz at the best of times so the less chance of maiming myself the better.

I use the lotion all the time.  It's great as an all over body lotion just out of the shower, a great massage lotion, the oils in it keep it from absorbing into the skin to fast so a little goes a long way.

It's kept my hands, feet, elbows, ankles and other body parts happy all winter long and I use it after showers and before bed still.  I made it in December and still have 3/4 of the mason jar left!

Cool alternative to Waxing facial hair

Like many other women I know I've got extra facial hair that is dark.  I've been waxing or tweezing for YEARS!  And I do mean years, I've been waxing my eyebrows since I was 11, that's 22 years of waxing people!  My lip and chin followed not long after.

Years before I had my son, who is 3 now, I had laser hair removal on my lip and chin.  Got one of those buy one area get one area deal.  It worked great, until I got pregnant.  Then the hormones went all whacky and the dark hair started growing back.

Not so fun let me tell you.

Anyway, there's a salon down the road from my apartment that I've had some other services done and I decided to get my eyebrows done there.  I used to get them done at my nail salon or at my hair stylist.  I could still get them done at my nail salon but I'm currently in the market for another hair stylist again, it's a long story for another blog post.

They are Indian so they thread eyebrows.  I never had it done before.  It was awesome.  SO much faster than waxing.  Added bonus is that my skin isn't red or inflamed afterwords, not red at all in fact, and you don't have all that gross wax residue left over from waxing.  Another thing is that you don't have to worry about potentially getting burned by the wax being to hot.

I wanted to see if I could find instructions in the Internet to see if I could do my lip and chin at home.  I'm more than happy to pay the $6 every few weeks to have my eyebrows done as, quite frankly, I'm not that coordinated when it comes to making sure my eyebrows are even.

There is TONS of info out there.  HERE are my favorite instructions I've found.

Now a few notes about getting started.

It says to use 2' of thread.  I think that, at least for me, that's to much.  Around 18" or so seems to work best for me.

It does take a bit of practice to be able to yank out the hair.  Once you do get the hang of it it's certainly faster than tweezing and, in my opinion anyway, faster and easier than waxing.

As for the thread I seem to like just a standard all purpose thread.  I've got some upholstery thread that works decently as well.  The article says that the type doesn't matter so just play around with different types and just pick one that works best for you.

I didn't practice on my leg like they say to in the article as I had just shaved the other day so I didn't have enough hair there to try it out.  I did just fine with the mirror on my face once I got the hang of the motion required to pull the hair out.

The big bonus of threading is that you don't have to wait for hair to be a certain length like you do with waxing.  You can do it every other day if you feel like it so you never have hair on your eyebrows, lip or chin.

Sure you'll still need tweezers just like with waxing but that part is no worse than before.

30 Day Mommy Ab Challange

So this is pretty cool.

I follow Being Mommy on Facebook.  They have fun little giveaways and other posts about being a mommy.  I've even shared a few of there posts.

Well, now in the month of June they are doing a 30 Day Ab Challenge.  I've seen it around Facebook and apparently it's a thing.  During the month of June you;ll do a series of ab exercises where each day you up the number of reps, every 5th day is a rest day.

It starts out pretty easy, 10 sit ups, 5 crunches, 5 leg raises and 9 seconds of plank.

You can check it out HERE

Now my abs muscles are pretty strong to begin with but I am excited to try the challenge to see if I'll get any other toning and tightening out of it because even though my muscles are strong my post-baby belly isn't quite the same.

Ways to earn some extra cash

So do you ever wonder how you can earn some extra money on the side?

Me too.

I was doing some research a while back and I came across ways you could earn some extra money.  Now some of it was silly stuff like donating plasma and selling stuff on craigslist but I also came across some sites where you could take surveys and get points that you can exchange for cash.

I did a bunch of research to make sure the sites were legit and all that fun stuff.  My favorite of all of them by far is Opinion Outpost.  I've started playing with SwagBucks, SurveySavvy, InBox Dollars and MyPoints.  Opinion Outpost is the one that I've had the most luck with so far.  In 3 weeks I've earned enough points for $20 worth of paypal money.  And the best part is that there aren't any fees with paypal for the transfer of the money to my bank account.

Most of these sites take some time to go through to earn points or dollars.  They are all pretty much free (though you can shop on retailers websites by clicking on the links at each site and earn points or extra dollars, except for Opinion Outpost).

I've been enjoying it so far.  I do it in my spare time when I'm not doing anything other than watching TV or something else like that.

Being a single mom every little bit helps.  I may as well earn something in my spare time.

Time to get back in the saddle

So, it's been way to long since I have been blogging regularly.  Over the past few years there have been quite a few changes in my life.  My son is now 3 years old and the biggest part of my life.  Some other life changes have been happening as well.

I started my own company last year that's kept me fairly busy.  I'm an architect by trade but I also now do construction cost estimating, shop drawings, project management and anything else my clients need me to take care of .

I've also moved into the world of knitting and paper crafting.  I taught myself to knit when I was pregnant with my son.  The card making I started last year sometime.  Many of my friends scrapbook and make cards etc.  I was always "no, I don't do that stuff."  Well I got hooked.  But I love it.  I haven't bought a premade card in over a year now.  I can make a card for a fraction of the price of a store bought card.

I'm still working on the jewelry as I have time.  I'm working on a few different things and hope to list a few new items soon.

Until then Cheers!