Pucker Up: DIY Lip Balm with Essential Oils Just in Time for Valentine’s Day

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We have a drawer full of essential oils. The more we learn about the uses of the oils, the more we love. The more we love, the more we want to make. The more we make, the more we want to share.

This post was inspired by Gabriella’s (Jessica’s daughter) lip-making kit she got for Christmas (if a 6-year-old can make DIY lip balm with the help of a kit, we could surely make it, too), as well as Valentine’s Day. We made DIY lip balms with essential oils that not only smell amazing, but feel soft and smooth on lips too! These make awesome gifts for girlfriends and loved ones. It was so easy, and so fun.

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DIY Lip Balm with Essential Oils
makes 6 lip balm tubes

Ingredients:

Directions:

Step 1: Add 2 inches of water to a saucepan on the stove. Put on high for boiling water.

Step 2: Add shea butter, beeswax pellets and coconut butter to a glass measuring cup.

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Step 3: Place the glass measuring cup in the pan on the stove, and occasionally stir the mixture with a wood popsicle stick until all pellets are melted. Once they are melted, remove the cup from the stove, wait about 30 seconds, then add the essential oils. The combinations we chose are:
Peppermint: 30 drops
Peppermint and Lavender: 15 drops Peppermint and 10 drops Lavender
Peppermint and Wild Orange: 15 drops of each
Lemon and Wild Orange: 15 drops of each

Step 4: Stir the essentials oils in the oil. Quickly pour into the lip balm tubes before it hardens.

Step 5: Print labels. We made our labels for our lip balms using Avery labels. Free PDF file here. The Avery label you need to purchase is 5195. There are 60 labels per sheet.

Step 6: Once the lip balm is set (about 3 hours), stick the labels on.

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Share the lip balm love, and give to friends! Baci, Baci (kisses, kisses).

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DIY Typography Decanter

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Nordstrom is one of our favorite places to shop. The shoes, the fashion, the return policy, the cafe – we love all of it! We noticed a fun Booze Decanter and Stopper throughout the holidays, and we never quite stopped thinking about it. Thankfully, we were able to re-create a DIY Booze decanter with our Silhouette cutting machine, and our minds {and bar} are at peace…at least for now.

Materials:

Instructions:

Assemble empty glass bottles you can transform into DIY typography bottles.

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Design your labels with the Silhouette software. Print according to package instructions.

Once the vinyl is cut, remove the excess vinyl around the words, and place Frog’s Tape over the words.

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Pull the tape up, and the words should be attached to the tape.

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Press the tape and words onto the bottle, and get all the bubbles out with a straight edge {we used a credit card}.

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Pull the tape up from the bottle, and the vinyl should stay in place on the bottle. You may have to use one finger to press down on the vinyl if the font is thin and it comes up with the tape, but we didn’t have to on this project.

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Once all the tape is removed, you should have a new DIY typography decanter. Fill with alcohol and say cheers!

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For this project, we took it one step further and got a little Typography happy! We couldn’t do just one bottle! This DIY project makes for a really fun addition to any bar, and a great hostess gift.

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Not only did we create several bottles, but we couldn’t have a bottle that holds alcohol without actual alcohol in it. With St. Patrick’s Day several days away, we ventured into making our own Bailey’s Irish Cream. My girlfriend, Kacey, made a delicious batch of our favorite Irish cocktail for a birthday brunch recently, and we couldn’t believe homemade Bailey’s could be so good. We’ve revamped a couple of recipes to make our homemade version, but most are similar.

Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream
adapted from several recipes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup + 1 tablespoon Jameson Whiskey
  • 1 pint half and half
  • 1 can Eagle’s Condensed Milk
  • 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1 tsp. instant espresso mixed with 1 tsp. boiling water

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend. If you don’t blend for 30 seconds or more, we found that our Bailey’s had some chunks from the cream, so continue to blend until smooth.

Keep in a sealed glass jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Give it to a friend as a gift this St. Patrick’s Day, too!

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Cocktail to Cupcake: Gluten Free Champagne Cupcakes

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Pop. Fizz. Clink. Bake.

Yes, you read that right – we added the word bake at the end of Pop. Fizz. Clink.

We can do that because we had some bubbly action in our kitchen as we participated in the Wayfair Cocktail to Cupcake Campaign. The fun challenge was to make a yummy cupcake with our favorite cocktail on the ingredient list. We love our Italian bubbly, and we wanted to make it gluten free so we could actually eat it. The result is a delicious Gluten Free Champagne Cupcake.

Sip and bake – now that’s something we can get use to.

cupcake-cocktail-strawberry-champagne-white-bubbly-dessert

Gluten Free Champagne Cupcakes
servings: about 16
recipe adapted from DC Cupcakes

Ingredients:
Champagne Cupcakes

  • 1.5 cups gluten free flour
  • 1 cup gluten free oat flour
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1.5 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon Champagne

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

  • 16 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3.5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp half and half
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup champagne
  • 1 cup strawberries, diced

Directions:
Champagne Cupcakes

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Set cupcake liners in the cupcake baking pan.

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and slowly add the sugar. Blend with an electric mixer until combined.

Add the eggs, and blend.

Pour the vanilla, champagne and milk in a separate measuring cup.

Combine the flours, baking powder and sugar in a separate medium bowl.

Pour 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by 1/3 of the milk mixture. Continue this process until all the flour and milk is fully combined. Do not over mix.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners {fill 1/2-3/4 of each liner}.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool.

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and add the sugar slowly. Beat with an electric mixer until well mixed.

Add the vanilla, milk, salt and champagne, and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

Then, place in piping bag and decorate your cupcakes.

Top the cupcakes with your diced strawberries, then place a safe, indoor mini sparkler on top.

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Enjoy! And remember, you don’t always have to drink your cocktail. You can eat it, too.

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This #Cocktail2Cupcake post is sponsored by Wayfair, but we would love them and their products even if it wasn’t. Thanks for supporting the wonderful companies that support us. 

CocktailtoCupcake

A Super Bowl Party for the Ladies

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The men in our lives {and our mom} LOVE football. We love sports in general, but on Super Bowl Sunday, we expect the men to sit all day to watch pre-game, game and post-game coverage. With our hometown team, the Denver Broncos, in Super Bowl 50 the whole family will be wearing orange and blue with all eyes watching. Not just for the half-time show and commercials, but to cheer on our boys.

With the exception of Jenna, we like football, too. As women who watch football, we can make any game a fun event for us and our girlfriends! To prove this, we teamed up with fashionista and party planner Kaitlin of The Every Hostess, Lindsey, the chic and sweet owner of Denver Street Boutique {its fabulous fashion on wheels}, our go-to photographer Meredith Moran Photography and our favorite local distillery 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit. We couldn’t resist a few DIY’s for the party either.

Here’s some tips for all you ladies throwing a Super Bowl party.

What to wear?
Wear your team’s colors. We cheer for Bronco orange and blue, the whole way through, so Lindsey helped us find cute orange and blue options without wearing a jersey. Jodi paired her long blue sweater with slits on the side, with white jeans, booties and Bourbon and Boweties stone bracelets.

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Kaitlin paired a blue and orange chunky knit sweater with jeans and booties. Her wrists were adorned with stunning bracelets…plus she had a pretty braid.

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Lindsey’s biggest piece of advice for all your ladies is, “Stylish comfort,” she says. “Without wearing sweats you can watch the game and not feel constricted!”
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Follow Denver Street Boutique on Instagram to see where she will be, so you can shop for the game {and everyday after}. She will be at iThrive women’s marketplace on Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

What cocktail to serve?
Make a specialty cocktail. One of favorite stops in Vail is the 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit tasting room. If you’re ever in Vail, make it a point to visit their beautiful tasting room and raise a glass. Their alcohol is a must-have on our bar cart. We’re Whiskey girls at heart! We take after our dad on that one, but we went with Vodka for this shoot because well, we wanted an orange drink. Jodi named this cocktail Bronco Babe. It’s a delicious cocktail with a bright orange color and it has sherbet – yum!

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Bronco Babe Cocktail 
serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1-2 cans orange Izze, chilled
  • 2 large shots of 10th Mountain Vodka {or more – based on preference}
  • Orange Sherbet
  • Ice
  • California Cuties or orange slices, blueberries for garnish

Directions:

Add 1-2 scoops Sherbet per glass.

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Pour the 10th Mountain Vodka. We just poured, but it was probably 1-2 shots per glass.

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Pour 1/2 can Izze per cup, or more if you want.

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Add garnish. We added a touch of blue with blueberries on a gold star toothpick, and another touch of orange with a slice of orange on the rim of the glass.

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Cheers.

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A drink is always better with friends, don’t you think?

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How to decorate?
You can throw a Super Bowl party without spending a lot of money. Don’t go overboard – keep it simple and pretty.

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Incorporate color and current trends. Balloons are an easy and cheap way to add a pop of color. Buy your teams colors, blow them up or add helium.

balloons-ladies-watching-football

Weaving art and yarn banners {the ones that were big in the 70s} are trendy now. We incorporated fashion with a white hanger, and bright colors and pattern with blue, orange and white yarn. Here’s the tutorial for this affordable DIY art.

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Incorporate DIY details. A simple way to add color and pattern to a bar cart or serving tray is with coasters. We made DIY Marbled Coasters for the shoot with orange and blue nail polish. You can {and should} make them. Follow the tutorial here.

© 2015 Meredith Moran Photography

How cute are those DIY field goal drink stirrers made with popsicle sticks painted yellow, and of course the DIY football pennant drink stirrers?

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Another easy way to add your team’s colors to party decor is with edible foods. For a touch of orange on the tray, we couldn’t resist California Cuties and orange Tic-Tacs.

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The invite list can include little furry friends, too. As long as they are well-behaved and smell good, like Winston.

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VENDOR LOVE
Photographer: Meredith Moran | @meredithmoranphoto
Clothing and Jewelry: Denver Street Boutique | @denverstreetboutique
Vodka: 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit | @10thmtnwhiskey
Event Stylist: J. Sorelle | @jsorelle3 and The Every Hostess | @theeveryhostess
Models: Jodi, the beautiful brunette of J. Sorelle | @jsorelle3 and Kaitlin, the bombshell blonde of The Every Hostess |  @theeveryhostess
Bar Cart: West Elm
DIY coaster and yarn wall hangings: J. Sorelle

 

Gluten Free Chocolate Trifle Dessert

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Most days, we feel like we spend all day in the kitchen.

Wake up. Cook breakfast. Pack lunches. Clean up. Snack time. Lunch time. Clean up. Another Snack time. Cook dinner. Clean up.

Seriously, the amount of dishes we wash at times seems endless. We love to cook and bake for our families, but sometimes a lady just needs a break.

A break doesn’t have to mean a sacrifice in a really yummy, chocolate dessert. We made a gluten-free chocolate trifle and it was g-double-o-d, good. Our DIY football pennants added a touch of cute to the taste of chocolate-y yum! These would make for a delicious dessert at your next football tailgate or party! Plus everyone loves dessert in a jar.

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Gluten-Free, No Bake Chocolate Trifle

Ingredients

  • Udi’s Dark Chocolate Brownie Bites broken into pieces {if you want to bake a little, you can make a whole pan with the Namaste mix}
  • Whipping Cream, homemade or the store-bought kind will work
  • Chocolate pudding, KozyShack

All you have to do is layer in this order, brownie, pudding, whipped cream and repeat. No baking necessary. Then, the best part…devour. Even the non-gf people will ask for more!

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football-pennant-orange-bow-chocolate-trifle-dessert