Some other ideas came to me about homemade goodies, but in the form of bath & body care. For these gifts, you have to plan ahead at least 2 weeks...some of the recipes will need time to 'cure' or absorb the scents. Again, making these in bulk will give you several gifts...these are good for all the female relatives in your family (including teens), babysitters, neighbors, teachers and so on.So what am I waiting for, you ask...Christmas?!!
Bath Salts
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There are lots of varieties for these...I found one basic recipe and a couple of great ideas:
4 cups Epsom salts; 2 cups sea salt*; Essential oils* for scent; Food coloring (optional)--Mix the two salts together; this is the base for your bath salts. Using 2 cups of salt at a time, add 4 to 15 drops of essential oil and food coloring as desired. Mix well, then place in a ziplock bag. Let cure for two weeks, shaking at least once daily. Once salts have cured for two weeks, transfer to containers for use in gift basket.
*Many natural food stores will carry the sea salt in bulk & will have better prices on essential oils...
Candy Cane Version: Divide your base in half. To one half, add 3-6 drops of peppermint oil. To the other half, add a few drops of red food coloring. Layer in a clear jar, alternating white and red. Add a candy cane to the package!
Chocolate Mint: Use peppermint & chocolate oils. Use food coloring if desired. Tie a ribbon around the jar with 2 small chocolate mints (hard candy type)
Energizing: Use any type of citrus or eucalyptus scents (mix the two!) & food coloring if desired.
Relaxing: Lavender is a perfect relaxation scent! Buy a sprig or 2 of Lavender and tie that to the ribbon.
Other Bath Goodies
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Here's a basic recipe for a sugar scrub to get you started. Tailor your batch to whatever scents sound good!
1 C. Sugar (either white or brown), 1/4-1/2 C. almond, olive, or grapeseed oil.
Mocha Spice: Whisk sugar with 1 T. ground coffee, 1 T. cocoa, 1 t. cinnamon, generous pinch of both nutmeg & ginger. Whisk in 1/4 C. oil, adding more by the tablespoon until desired consistency is reached.
Honey Citrus: Mix in 3-4 T. honey & a lemon or orange essential oil. Package with some honey sticks, found in most tea shops.
Vanilla Lavender: Place 1-3 vanilla beans** in the sugar for 2 weeks, to allow the sugar to absorb the vanilla. Add lavender essential oil & mix. **You can substitute pure vanilla extract, adding it with the lavender oil.
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Moving on, I found this yummy sounding bubble bath recipe, that seems very easy to prepare.
Milk baths are popular and soothing to dry skin, especially in the winter. Anyone could appreciate a chocolate milk bath, and you could throw in the mix the Chocolate Mint bath salts, some Hershey Kisses and a sample packet of cocoa! Perfect!
Some other great store bought partners for the above homemade gifts include:Votive candles in a complimentary scent
Matchbook incense
A small bottles of wine (as mentioned in previous blog) or a split of Asti Spumante
A box of Andes Mints
Again, packets of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate (and the honey sticks with the tea!)
Add some chocolate mint sticks
How about some chocolate covered spoons?
Again, use your imagination and creativity. These are perfect projects to take on during a long winter's day, when it's too cold outside to do anything. Kids again can help, and many would love to give gifts like these to their teachers, being able to say "I made it myself". That means a lot.
More to come with my Christmas ideas...next up I'll have some ideas on how to shop without breaking the bank....
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