Homemade Pumpkin Body Scrub

To kick off the start of one of everyone's favorite seasons, I did some experimenting with ingredients to make a homemade Fall scrub. There are a lot of really simple scrubs to make with Summer scents (lemon, sugar, and olive oil) but I had never tried a Fall scented one.

I played around a little bit and decided that this simple mixture might work. I tried my recipe out to make sure it did what it was supposed to, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Not only does it smell amazing, but it leaves skin feeling so soft and smooth. 

The benefits of this scrub is:

Exfoliation: The sugar and coffee grounds remove dead skin cells and leave skin softer and brighter, and the caffeine in the coffee reduces inflammation and redness.

Moisturizer: The coconut oil has a ton of skin benefiting ingredients including anti-aging properties, natural moisturizers, proteins that promote healthy blood flow, and it reduces the appearance of pores and acne.

Vitamins: Pumpkin puree is full of tons of skin loving ingredients including Vitamin A and C, and is also easily absorbed into the skin. 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of pumpkin puree

1/3 cup of sugar

2 tbsp coffee grounds

1/4 cup coconut oil

Directions:

Just mix together the pumpkin, sugar, and coffee grounds. Then add in the coconut oil. Massage it all over legs, arms, or anywhere on your body, let it sit for a couple minutes, then just rinse away. Put leftovers in the refrigerator, it should last for 3-4 days, it makes plenty to share!

Do you have any homemade beauty remedies you love?

Fun with Hair Chalk

A couple of months ago, while shopping around in Free People, I came across this little tin of hair chalk and grabbed it, thinking it would be fun to bring on our honeymoon. I love the idea of being able to have a funky hairdo for one day without any commitment! Well, doofus me completely forgot I had it until I came across it again last night, oops! So I gave it a try this morning and thought I'd share how I did it and my results!

A few things to know before you get started; the darker your hair is, the less the colors will show up. I knew this before buying it but thought I'd give it a try anyways. So it will show up best on blonds, but can still look cute on my fellow dark-haired ladies. The second thing, it will be messy. it will get all over your hands, the sink, and probably your shirt/chest, so I recommend laying down a towel to avoid it getting everywhere. But no worries if it does, it is just chalk, so it will come out (of hair, too) with just soap and water. 

Here's what you'll need:

• Hair chalk, regular pastels from a craft store work too!
• Water
• A hair brush
• A hair dryer
• A towel you don't really care about

To start, wet the section of your hair you want to color, then wet the piece of chalk you want to use, the wetter the better! Then, run the chalk over your hair going downward. Best to do this a little more than you think is necessary because some will come off in your brush. Once you've got a good amount on there, blow-dry the section of hair downward while brushing it, until dry, then add a spritz of hairspray to hold it all in. Viola! Pretty, colorful, funky hair, easy-peasy! 

Have you ever tried hair chalking? What techniques worked best for you? 

I hope you have a fab rest of your Tuesday! Xoxo 

Easy Peasy Braided Headband

I call this "easy peasy" because it is seriously one of the easiest hair styles I've ever tried! I personally prefer wearing my hair down, I feel like I look weird when it's up, so I love discovering little things like this I can do to jazz up my every day hair. It takes about five minutes and really adds a fun, springy look.

All you need for this is a couple bobby pins and a couple small elastics.

Start by pulling the top part of your hair back so you have easy access to the hair behind your ears. Then, make a small, three strand braid right behind your ear and secure it with an elastic. Do the exact same thing on the other side. Pull each braid over the top of your head and pin it down behind the opposite ear. Release the hair you pinned back and you're good to go! It can help the look to tease the hair behind the headband, and don't forget the hairspray!

I'm not used to doing tutorials, so hopefully this was easy enough to understand! If you know of any other fun hairstyles for spring, please share in the comments, I'd love to learn more :)

 

 

Simple Burlap Hair Bow

As you've probably noticed, I am a big fan of hair bows. I feel like they're just the perfect addition to an outfit, adding a feminine touch to even the simplest of outfits. So I put together this little tutorial on how to make these bows. I chose burlap because it's so unique and fun! So here we go...

What you'll need:

-12" long piece of burlap (depending on the size of the bow you want)

-3" piece of burlap

-fabric scissors

-hot glue gun

Start by folding the bigger piece of burlap long ways, glue it down.

Then fold it in half the other way to make a loop.

Flatten your loop, grab the middle and pinch it together, glue it down.

 Note- you will probably get glue on your fingers because it will seep through the burlap, so make sure your glue gun is on low heat, or you'll burn yourself.

Next, fold your smaller piece of burlap long ways and glue down.
(The piece I ended up cutting for this was a bit big, so you may need to cut it down as you go)

Wrap the smaller piece around the middle and glue together in the back. Finish by gluing your choice of barrette to the back and easy peasy! You have a new little hair bow to add to your huge collection! (or is that just me...?)

Don't worry if it frays on the edges a little or looks a little messy, it adds to the appeal of the burlap. 

Play around with this and try different sizes and folding techniques! Also, you can try these same steps out on pretty much any type of fabric, I think I'm going to try velvet next!

Have fun and let me know if you make any cool bows!

Our Instagram Wall

While reading the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book (which is awesome, by the way) I came across the idea of making a wall display out of Instagram photos. I absolutely love Instagram, and loved the idea of being able to display those photos in other ways than just the app. I printed my favorites out using Printicular, which is super inexpensive. Then just measured out using blue painters tape exactly where they would go, and stuck them using double sided tape. I didn't worry about them being completely perfect because that would probably be close to impossible and would drive me crazy. 

I think it turned out pretty cool! I'm thinking of possibly making a frame to add around the borders, but I also like the idea of always being able to add more, so we'll see!

Sorry about the grainy photos, it's dark out today ;)

DIY Fall Wreath

I was looking around online the other day for a pretty fall wreath for my front door. I thought it would be fun to give the outside of the house a little touch of fall, plus it'd be a nice distraction from the weird bluish-gray color of the house (that we have yet to paint.) I found a few I really liked but all were between fifty and a hundred dollars. I just couldn't talk myself into spending that much on something I could probably make myself. So I thought I'd give it a shot. I went into Joann's with a 40% off coupon and bought a wreath and eight sheets of felt for five dollars and change. It only took about an hour and was pretty fun to make!

To start out, cut a square piece out of felt. I started with 4x4 but then did a few smaller ones too. Next, cut a swirl around till you get to the middle. Don't worry about trying to make them perfect, they actually look better when different and imperfect. Then start in the middle and just swirl it around until it's a good size little rose. Add a dab of glue to hold it together. Once you have the amount you want, display them on the wreath! I thought about covering the entire thing, but thought it would look more unique with only a part of it covered.