Sensitive Skin and my 6 month old, the journey.....

So I am finding out very quickly that my little one has sensitive skin. Which is odd because he is the only one out of four. But I love him to pieces!
I am not sure how many of you know that little boys can indeed get yeast infections! If you were like me hearing this for the first time, I just kind of chuckled and was like wait...what??? I just thought it was a horrible diaper rash and nothing was clearing it up. Well that was 5 years ago. I remember sitting in the doctor's office and him telling me what it was and telling me he wished he had a medical student in the office, because he hadn't seen one that bad. Wow, okay make mom feel horrible.
So we got it cleared up and I knew what to expect from then on. Well fast forward 5 1/2 years and realize all the stuff you forget about babies lol. My 6 month old had a rash and it wasn't going away. I was talking to a friend and she said well could it be, yeast.....duh moment!
I directly went straight to my Young living reference book and there it was, an entry for yeast infections. In the list was Purification. Hey I have that! I put 2 drops on to cover the entire area, put his diaper back on and waiting patiently for the next diaper change. Who does that? Well I was excited to see if it worked.
Guess what!?!
The redness had already gone down by half and didn't look as dry and bumpy. Win!!! I didn't apply anymore that day, because well it seems as he has sensitive skin. I applied another two drops the next morning and by the third morning it was gone. Totally Gone!!! I did do one more application just to make sure. So for you moms and dads out there, instead of reaching for that drug store tube or a prescription tube, that again we can't pronounce what is in there, try Young Living's Purification.

https://www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start?site=US&sponsorid=10909848&enrollerid=10909848

Essential oils Baby Butt Paste aka Diaper Cream

So recently I have jumped on the oils bandwagon, not to make money but to really know what I am using in and on my family. I mean really if you look at ingredients on almost anything how many can you actually pronounce and know what they are? I am trying to get on a healthier path this year. 

I just ordered my oils kit from Young living in December. Can I say I am in love and in awe! There are so many recipes for oils and everyday things we already use. So as I try new recipes and oils I will let you all know my experiences with them and give some insight. If you want to give them a try, sign up and I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Even if you just use oils in your diffuser it is so worth it!

So the first recipe that I tried with oils was a simple one, but effective one! I have a seven month old little boy, whom recently has been introduced to baby food. We tried fruit and it happened to be blueberries. Major diaper rash. I felt so sorry for the little guy. I took to Pinterest and started looking at creams and ointment recipes. 

Here is what I found. Most skin recipes for healing include lavender, frankincense and tea tree oil. They all have healing properties.

Here is how you make it

(pictures of the products I used are below)

I used a baby food jar for storage

6 drops Lavender Oil

6 drops Frankincense Oil

6 drops Tea Tree Oil

1/2 cup Coconut Oil

Now you can warm the coconut oil up so it isn't so hard, but once you add the oils to it, it does soften. I put everything into a clean baby food jar and took a small whisk and mixed it up. It smelled amazing! It firmed up a little bit but it starts to soften and melt once you apply it. 

His diaper rash was so red and and burned, I didn't expect results for a while. After about 2-3 hours it was almost cleared up. AMAZING!!!! I was sold. I never had the store bought ointments do that! Try it for yourself and let me know your results. 

More info on the oils

• The health benefits of frankincense oil are mostly attributed to its anti-inflammatory, astringent, antiseptic, disinfectant, digestive, diuretic and expectorant properties

• Lavender oil is believed to have antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties which can be used to help heal minor burns and bug bites.

• The benefits of Tea Tree Essential Oil can be attributed to its properties as an antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiseptic, antiviral, balsamic, cicatrisant, expectorant, fungicide, insecticide, stimulant and sudorific substance.

I am an Independent Distributor (#10909848) with Young Living Essential Oils. I believe these are the best oils out there. I love what the company stands for. If you want to order your Premium Starter kit or just want to order individual oils I can help you get started. If you are looking to make a business of it. I have some great resources that I can refer you to, to help you on your journey. I am just enjoying the benefits for my family. 

https://www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start?site=US&sponsorid=10909848&enrollerid=10909848

If you do decide to get the Premium starter kit here is what it will include:

• The Your Premium Starter Kit Includes:

• Home Diffuser (Or With Your Choice Of Diffuser)
• Copaiba Vitality™ 5-ml
• DiGize™ Vitality™ 5-ml
• Frankincense 5-ml
• Lavender 5-ml
• Lemon Vitality™ 5-ml
• PanAway® 5-ml
• Peppermint Vitality™ 5-ml.
• R.C.™ 5-ml
• Stress Away™ 5-ml
• Thieves® Vitality™ 5-ml
• Purification® 5-ml
• AromaGlide™ Roller Fitment
• Premium Essential Oils Collection
• Product Guide And Product Price List
• 10 Sample Business Cards
• 10 Sample Oil Bottles
• 10 Sample Packets
• 2 NingXia Red® Samples
• Essential Oil Magazine
• Essential Edge Member Resources

Easy Ranch Dressing

Last November our family went to visit our family in Washington for Thanksgiving. It was a blast spending time with family and learning some new recipes.
I don't know if you are like our family but we go through ranch dressing like crazy! I was always a fan of the bottled kind or the package for dips. Well you will be a fan of homemade after trying this.

Ranch Dressing
3/4 cup Mayo (I prefer best foods, but also like Kirkland)
3/4 cup sour cream (I use Daisy)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup - 1 cup buttermilk
1 small bunch of chives or scallions ( chopped )
Small handful of parsley ( chopped )
1-2 small cloves of garlic ( use fresh, the jar stuff just doesn't taste the same. Minced )
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup milk (we use 2%)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, wait to add milk till last. I let mine sit for about 5 minutes, it brings all the flavors out. You can also use a blender to mix everything. But there is just something about watching your kiddos begging for carrots wanting to scrape every last bit out of the bowl. :-)
Once everything is mixed pour in the milk a little at a time while whisking or blending. The original recipe directs you to add more buttermilk to make it thinner for more of a dressing or leave it thicker for a dipping sauce. This is what I use the milk for as J think the buttermilk covers more of the flavor up if you add too much.
Store in a air tight container usually keeps for 2-3 weeks.

Adapted from the "Gourmet Cookbook, 2004"

Easy Sweater Bag

I found this project on Pinterest. I love that site it is so addicting, hours pass and it only seems like minutes...lol Take an old sweater, you know that one that you have been meaning to mend for the past year, but just can't toss out because you love the color.

I am by far not the best when it comes to sewing but this is super easy. I added an inside liner to my bag. With two pockets, one zippered. It is big enough to use for carrying your knitting or crochet projects or just a great everyday bag/purse. 

Here is the link for the tutorial

http://perchedonawhim.com/?p=81

Doll Birthday Party

She loves her American Girl doll. So of course we had to do a doll party. Here are some cute cheap ideas that we came up with and the little girls loved them!

All the decorations are from the Dollar Tree. They have a princess line out right now, that worked great!

So the place setting came together perfectly. There was one for each little girl and one for each of their dolls. I used a miniature tea set for the dolls. Then we printed out little gift bags. You can find the printable here: http://sosewsuziamericangirldollclothes.blogspot.com/p/computer-crafts-for-dolls.html They are absolutely adorable. We made party hats, which I can't remember where we found those printables. I had some tulle left over from a previous project and made little tutus for the dolls. We printed mini coloring pages from the American Girl website.

These were my favorite! They are mini Reeses Peanut Butter cups with icing and sprinkles on them. They were doll size, I found them at the gas station and had one of those, "Really! it is that simple" moments!

I think in all we spent maybe $5.00 on decorations. And everything else we had on hand. She was very excited.

Meet the Doll

This is my daughters doll. She has been with us for two years and we have loved every minute. We get to be crafty and do girly things. My daughter loves to come up with ideas that she thinks her doll needs...lol

Okay so I have to start by showing you the doll house we put together for my daughter last year on her birthday. We gave her a Doll Party last year and it was so cute. I will post some pictures of that later. Give you some ideas for a quick, easy and inexpensive way to throw and Doll party. 

About 10 years ago I built these boxes for clothes, because we didn't have a dresser and these were easy to use for just about anything. When we decided to make a doll house and didn't want to spend a lot of money. These came in handy again. My daughter's favorite color is pink, so of course they got painted pink. The boxes measure 24x24x24. Here are the pictures...I hope you enjoy them. 

Here is the bedroom. We haven't any wall decorations yet, we just got done re-doing one box into a bathroom.

The dresser is from the second hand store I picked up for $2.00! One of the drawers needed to be glued, but for that price what a steal! I am not sure what the black thing is that I used to hang up all the clothes, but it works we attached it with cup hooks. It has storage for bags and hats in the middle and the clothes can hang on either side. The bed, I wish I would have done a tutorial on it cause it is super easy and has great storage inside.

Well I had enough of these huggie wipe boxes to choke a closet, yes I can't throw them out. You never know when you will need them. So I taped two of them together, hot glued some fabric for the bed skirt. I took an old kitchen towel and then covered it with fabric and hot glued it to the tops of the huggies boxes (put a couple pieces of tape across the lids so they open as one), easy mattress. I found an old dvd case and hot glued fabric around it and then hot glued it to the bed. Now she has a place to put clothes, shoes and whatever else. 

We just finished making this into a bathroom. It was an extra bedroom. 

We had fun with this. It was extremely cheap and easy.The toilet is from the second hand store and used to be a bank. It was $1.00. It is the perfect size. The bathtub I also picked up for $.50. The washer dryer set I purchased on eBay. 

Not sure what brand it is. I made the sink from a piece of pvc pipe and cardboard. I folded a piece of cardboard in half, hot glued it and cut a hole out in the middle and put a glass dish in there after painting it white. I painted the cardboard a light brown. The faucet is made from a wooden bead with a small pop cycle stick cut in half. The handles are from tiny wooden spindles. All of them painted black. 

I found the shelf for $.25 cents and the towels are cut from and old kitchen towel. The washer dryer set I purchased on ebay. 

The shower was really easy. I found an old paper towel holder metal. The really cheap kind. I took the center part off and then attached it upside down to the ceiling with cup hooks. The shower curtain is an old pillow case. To attach it, I used beads and hot glued cup hooks in the beads and hot glued the new hooks to the pillow case in about 3 inch sections. I clamped the hooks with a pair of pliers so they won't be falling off all the time. 

The kitchen. The sink/stove combo and fridge was purchased off eBay for about $20.00. The brown little shelf/hutch, I found at the secondhand store for $1.00. The floor is the sticky tile, we had some on hand. Just cut to size. 

The shelf hold dishes and spices. 

The little wire rack I found for $.50 

The 4th room is just an open room on top of a box. We put the bunk beds there and hung push pins on the wall for all the bags. The beds I picked up at an antique store for $5.00 for both. I drilled holes in the posts of the beds to make bunk beds. I used dowels to connect them. I took the side off  the bottom bed and it now functions as a ladder. 

I still need to sand and paint the bunk beds and make some bedding for it. That will be another post. 

I would love to hear comments or ideas that you have crafted.