Simple, Last Minute Valentine's Day DIY Gifts

With Valentine's Day coming up, I'm thinking about ways to gift my husband, Zachary, and I bet you are thinking about how to gift the man in your life, too.

What can we do to bless these amazing men in our lives & show them how much they are loved?! Especially when so little time is left before Valentine's! Here's a few ideas for you that I posted a few years ago. :)

An Encouragement Jar

Our first year of dating, I made Zachary a bag of all the things I loved about him.
 Everyone loves to hear the ways they are loved and we should never tire of telling our special men how wonderful they are. This year I made him an encouragement jar with 75 reasons I love him. Don't ask me why the number 75! You can pick any number, really.

A Box of Dates

Valentine's Day is a good excuse to start a date box.
Fill a box with fun date ideas or just simple ways to spend time together.

Truth or Dare Sticks

Going with the theme of fun things to do together, how about a classic; truth or dare. It may be a little corny but still fun. Make your truths and dares as naughty or nice as you'd like.

Red hearts-Dares // Pink Hearts-Truths

Homemade Massage Oil

This gift is fun & easy to make. Plus, it comes with an extra bonus-- It probably ensures you'll be getting a massage, too! A gift that gives back to you! :) Nice! 

But remember, this is Valentines' Day, a day devoted to love! So, make sure your one and only gets a massage, too!

Valentine's Massage Oil Recipe
6 tsp of grape seed, coconut or canola oil
8 drops of an essential oil of choice 
(lavender, mint, rose hip and jasmine are great, relaxing choices!)
Mix & store in a dark glass jar. 
Tie a ribbon around it and give it to your man!

As you can see above, all of these ideas are fun, thoughtful & super easy. Obviously, you can make them look better or use nicer materials. I made the above while in China, so paper & markers it was! 

Do you have any fun, easy ideas on how to bless your guy? Let me know in the comments below!

Cinnamon Pumpkin Tea Light Holder

This is a repost from last Fall but since it's that wonderful season again, I thought why not repost it! This is a super easy DIY, using one of, if not THE, favorite fall goody, pumpkin. Happy Decorating!

We recently had a Harvest Party with our church and a few girls and I were in charge of decorations. 

Of course we took to Pinterest ( like you do, also, follow mehere! ) and found this oober easy (see how that's just another way of saying 'super easy', I'm really using my synonyms today. ;)) Fall decoration. 

These smelled great  and  looked awesome! 

Needed: 

Cinnamon

Small Pumpkins

Knife

Tealights

Cut the top of the pumpkin off and scoop out the insides. 

Poke holes throughout the pumpkin and pumpkin lid. 

Poke enough holes for the light to shine through and for enough oxygen to get in to keep the flame lit. 

You can use a pencil or screwdriver for this.

Coat the inside of the pumpkin with cinnamon.

Place tea light in the center. 

Light when you start dinner or company comes over!It makes a beautiful, easy decoration to set the mood for the holidays!

Placenta Care

You may remember that I was in charge of taking Catherine’s placenta from the hospital and preparing the lovely organ for her. Well, a few weeks ago, my job came to fruition, when she gave birth to the most precious little thing, Elijah. He’s amazing, guys. We love him so much!

The nurses bagged up Catherine’s placenta and then it was given to me to refrigerate & take home.

Once home, I put on my gloves, pulled out a fresh cutting board, and pulled out that super food jewel to prepare  

How do you prepare a placenta for consumption you might ask? Great question! There are several ways in which to prepare it, but I’ll share with you what I did, in order for Catherine to make smoothies with it. I recommend buying gloves, a new cutting board & knife if you want, and clearing/scrubbing clean your kitchen sink. Once things are set out and cleaned, it’s time to pull out the placenta. It’s gonna be bloody, so be prepared!

Needed: 
New, clean cutting board
sharp knife
gloves
placenta
clean, open work area
wash basin
freezer bags

 

Turn the placenta over and cut open a slit into the white outer sack. Rinse all the blood out from the inside.

  

If you want to keep the umbilical chord as a memento, make sure you clean out all the blood thoroughly. Cut it off and lay it out to dry. It will dry out & become hard after a day or so. Make sure to lay it in the shape you desire. For example, you could arrange it in a heart before you lay it out to dry. A circle? A triangle? Anything! Get crazy. ;) (Sorry Eli! I didn't think about the shape thing until now! Just know, I'd totally have made yours into a Longhorn or something equally amazing. But alas, for the rest of your life, you will just have to have a 'snake' shaped dried umbilical chord. Snakes are cool, too.)

Next, use a sharp knife to remove the outer white skin & veins from the “meat” in the middle. Be careful!

 

Once you've cut the white covering and veins out you can start pulling off or cut off bite size pieces of placenta from the whole. With each peace, make sure to pop any blood vessels and wash out thoroughly. You want the placenta to be pinkish in color, instead of the deeper purple/red.

Once you cleaned out all the blood and cut all the placenta into proper sizes, it's time to divide it out! Placenta keeps in the refrigerator for 3 days and should be consumed thawed, not frozen. I suggest dividing the placenta into 3 day servings and placing it in freezer safe bags. Each freezer bag could be taken out, and thawed, and consumed in 3 days worth of smoothies. I put 6 to 8 bite size pieces in each freezer bag, assuming Catherine would use 2-3 pieces of placenta a day. I got around 10 bags worth of placenta out of the one placenta. Mommas, freeze and enjoy in your favorite smoothies for postpartum benefits!

For some great placenta recipes or to find out why the heck you'd ever consume your own flesh, check out Catherine's (the bearer of the placenta above :) ) blog!

Also, read about her experience eating it! Did she like it?! You will see!

Placenta Smoothie: Tasty or Taboo

Placenta Smoothie: Tasty or Taboo Part 2

Cinnamon Pumpkin Tea Light Holder

This is a repost from last Fall but since it's that wonderful season again, I thought why not repost it! This is a super easy DIY, using one of, if not THE, favorite fall goody, pumpkin. Happy Decorating!

We recently had a Harvest Party with our church and a few girls and I were in charge of decorations. 

Of course we took to Pinterest ( like you do, also, follow mehere! ) and found this oober easy (see how that's just another way of saying 'super easy', I'm really using my synonyms today. ;)) Fall decoration. 

These smelled great  and  looked awesome! 

Needed: 

Cinnamon

Small Pumpkins

Knife

Tealights

Cut the top of the pumpkin off and scoop out the insides. 

Poke holes throughout the pumpkin and pumpkin lid. 

Poke enough holes for the light to shine through and for enough oxygen to get in to keep the flame lit. 

You can use a pencil or screwdriver for this.

Coat the inside of the pumpkin with cinnamon.

Place tea light in the center. 

Light when you start dinner or company comes over!It makes a beautiful, easy decoration to set the mood for the holidays!