Holiday Presents Part 2: Lemon Sugar Scrub!

Another stolen holiday gift from Pinterest was the Lemon Sugar Scrub. I had originally pinned this as a spring time gift idea - maybe for Mother's Day, but as I got to thinking, I realized that hands get dirty and dry in the winter as well, and so I decided to make it.

There are only three ingredients: olive oil, sugar, and lemon juice, so this recipe is simple and quick!

Step 1: Mix Lemon Juice and Olive Oil (tip for next time, use a little less olive oil than the recipe calls for - it came out too oily)

Step 2: Mix the sugar and oil with a spoon until crumbly

It should look a little like this...

Step 3: Add the lemon juice, this will make it shiny - and mix again

It should look like this - creamy and smooth

Spoon mixture into pint mason jars, add a bow and all of a sudden you have a simple, handmade gift for anybody!

Holiday Presents Part 1: Cookies!

So I know I promised to tell you about all the lovely presents I made for my loved ones... but life has been so busy that I'm just now finding a little time to sit down to tell you all about it.

I made several different presents this year - cookies in a jar, bags o' chocolate, candy cane vodka, and lemon sugar scrubs. I'll be honest - the vodka was not a huge hit, so I won't blog about that. Click here if you want to see what I did. All of these were inspired/stolen from Pinterest, my latest obsession. I don't know if I'll ever buy another present again! There are so many great DIY ideas on there and I always feel that homemade gifts mean more.

My favorite Pinterest gift I made this year was the cookies in a jar. I chose to do White Chocolate and Cranberry cookies, just because I love white chocolate and the hubby likes cranberries.These turned out amazingly well (we made a test batch just to be sure... and then a few more batches because we were hooked!)

Here's the step by step:

Tip #1: Gather your materials. 
We were making many batches, so we had to multiply our recipe by 20 30 or so.

Tip # 2 Use a funnel to help guide your ingredients into the jar.Although this will greatly cut down on mess, we found that for the flour and brown sugar, we needed a spoon to force the ingredients down the funnel.

Tip #3: Find something that will help you tamp down the ingredients we used part of a turkey baster and a piece of cardboard - not fancy, but it worked well. 

Tip # 4: Use that tamper to make even layers 
which will make your final product look much nicer.

Tip # 5: Try to layer the different colors 
so that your layers stand out and are more aesthetically pleasing.

Voila! Finished product! 
Just add a pretty bow on top, or some ribbon, and you are good to go!

Final Tip: Be prepared to make a mess. Clear off your counter, get all your materials organized, find bowls and measuring spoons for everything.This will make the process go much more smoothly, and you will thank me later!