January is bitter and devoid of Christmas. March is raw, teasing with its two or three nice days and threatening to never end. But February? Right spang in the middle of it, its redeeming quality, Valentine’s Day, comes to brighten up what would appear to be just another set of footprints plodding through the snow and slush till spring. It doesn’t hurt that chocolate usually enters the picture, too!
While I had no way of sending you chocolates and my little Sweetheart Valentine has kept me from getting a homemade set of Valentine cards made for you, I do have a bit of cheery bling to offer.
Take a look –
This beautiful pendant on a 28”-30” gold-tone chain followed me home. It’s from Accessory Connection and I just loved all the movement in the tortoiseshell pieces hanging from the black faceted embellishment, not to mention the detail in the chain that adds the extra sparkle.
To enter to win the pendant and chain as a Valentine for yourself or for someone you love, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “Be My Valentine, Midwest Storyteller!” You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, February 5th, 2021!
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First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so hop on over to the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page and subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.
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A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight by leaving a comment which says, “Be My Valentine, Midwest Storyteller!”
Take advantage of this “month of love” by sending some Valentines! I know, I know, it gets all commercialized, but you must admit, we don’t spend enough time telling friends and family how much we love and appreciate them. Let’s let all the commercialism serve as a nudge. The simplest note or a treat wrapped in red tissue is all it takes to make someone feel special
Subscribe now if you haven’t already, and confirm in your email before you forget! (See note above concerning subscription issues.)
I type this at the end of a raw, blustery day. Is that the distant call of spring I hear? Never mind, I think it’s the Roomba.
Comments or questions? Share some of your simple ideas for making someone feel loved and appreciated on Valentine’s Day.
If ever a holiday had a tendency to sneak up on you unexpectedly, it’s Valentine’s Day. Somehow, when Christmas is over and the last Happy New Year is wished, we tend to hunker down for winter and take on the attitude that there won’t be a single bright spot in our lives until spring.
So, I’m
wondering, are you ready for it?
I know, I know. So much is said about how commercialized Valentine’s Day has become and how it was given a big build-up by the retail world in order to suck us all in to their stores so they could empty our pockets, leaving us to stagger out in a daze wondering if we’d just done too much or too little when all we really wanted was to say, “I love you”, or “You’re special to me.” We resist the nudge to fall into such traps, but let’s ask ourselves one thing – What could be better than a special day to remind us (because we so often forget) to offer someone a loving gesture?
I love old-fashioned, sappy Valentines. Here are some that I’ve made and you can see more about that here.
A card will do just fine, but as for gifts, I love to give a few special people a simple token of affection without going on a spending spree. Let’s face it, a homemade gift always means more and if you go overboard you can send the person you’re trying to bless on a guilt trip if they think they need to reciprocate. Or, even worse, you’ll start that horror of horrors – the yearly contest to see who can outdo the other – an uncomfortable situation that empties everyone’s bank account and does little to fill the heart.
If you’re feeling a twinge of panic and wishing you had a few tokens of affection to offer, try making this homemade sugar scrub. You’ll have it whipped up in one minute and have nothing left to do but fashion a cute tag declaring that the gift is “Because You Are So Sweet”! I wish I could remember where I found this great idea and recipe so I could give credit where credit is due, but it’s been a while and a Pinterest search is not bringing it back to me, so I have no idea. If anyone can send me the info or a link to it, I’m happy to include it here.
If you have a stash of stuff like I do, you probably won’t even have to leave the house for supplies. You’ll need a mixing bowl, spatula, small jars, extra virgin coconut oil, white table sugar, 5-10 drops fragrance oil (rose or lavender is nice), red food coloring, ribbon and/or fabric scraps, paper tags, cardstock you can fashion into tags or, better yet, the FREE PRINTABLE TAGS you’ll find at the end of this post! This recipe made three gifts, but it all depends on the size of your containers. Clear ones are best, because the sugar scrub is really pretty!
Instructions:
With a spatula, blend ½ cup extra virgin coconut oil, 1 ½ to 2 cups white sugar, 5-10 drops fragrance
oil and five drops food coloring together in a mixing bowl. Fill jars and add a cute tag or label.
I hope you didn’t nod off during that lengthy description. Coconut oil softens at 76 degrees Fahrenheit, so if your work area is colder than that you may have to put the bowl in the microwave for a few seconds to bring it to the point where it mixes easily.
I got into my Printmaster program and designed a tag that suited the look I wanted to achieve. You can always make this quick gift for a birthday or any other occasion by using different colors of food coloring and changing the look of your tags or labels. Again, I used various jars, ribbon scraps and bags I had on hand.
Why give sugar scrub, other than the
fact that scrubs are popular and can be expensive? My main concern was whether or not they are
good for you or pose some sort of health risk or cause skin damage. I am not your doctor or your licensed skin
care specialist, so I am only passing on a little of what I know in order to
help you continue with your own research.
What I discovered in my limited studies is that some body and facial scrubs are not so good for you. Their exfoliating ingredients range from nut shells to polymer beads to salt and sugar. Let’s face it, exfoliating feels wonderful! However, nut shells and other ground matter have sharp edges and who wants to be scratched? Polymer beads are round and smooth and leave the skin much more intact, but they’ve been found to last forever, making their way into the rivers and oceans and harming marine life. As for salt, it’s a great option, but the edges of salt crystals are still sharper than that of sugar and it may not be what you want for use on delicate areas of the body or if you have sensitive skin.
That leaves sugar! While I would recommend removing as much of
it from your diet as possible, I’m
giving it my approval , so far, as a scrub.
The coconut oil is just about the most wonderful thing you can put on
your skin and the combination will leave you soft, moisturized and much, much
smoother.
A natural source of glycolic acid, sugar already contains the ingredient that a lot of over-the-counter, spas and dermatologists offer to remove dead skin cells and encourage cellular turnover. It’s an alpha hydroxy acid, and since your homemade scrub is mild, it will be safe to use a couple of times a week in the evenings. Some stronger formulas, available in stores and from spas and professionals, will recommend wearing a sunscreen if using alpha hydroxyy acid formulas during the day. You can read more about that in this article from Huffington Posthere.
Sugar is also a natural humectant,
meaning that it draws moisture from the air into your skin – and that’s a good thing.
Some scrubs can do your skin more harm than good and you can learn more about that in this article from The Sidney Morning Herald. More info, including safe recipes for sugar scrubs that include honey, avocado oil and other natural ingredients can be found in this ETimes article.
If someone needs to hear you say, “This is for you, ‘because you are so sweet!’”, homemade sugar scrub might just be the perfect token of your affection.
Now for those FREE printable tags – just click below and you have a whole sheet of tags that you can print on cardstock. Attach a pretty ribbon and tie to your jars of sugar scrub! Could I have made it any easier, folks?
Questions? Comments?
I’m
happy to chat, because you are so sweet!
