Welcome, welcome!  Sorry to get this up late and then not include any features, but we’re doing the family thing. There will be double features next week.  I hope you have all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  If you braved the cold and crazies this morning, I hope you got all the great deals you went looking for.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for the vinyl subway art.  The link to that post is in the header.  And if you’ve been eyeing anything in my Etsy shop, go grab it this weekend.  Coupon code THANKFUL11 will get you 40% off this weekend!

See you all next week!  And… GO!

Gift baskets are my go-to gift.  They are so easy to personalize and the possibilities are endless.  I have a cousin (actually, my dad’s cousin) who is more like a sister.  She and her hubby have been married just over 2 years.  She also has an obsession with all things Disney.  So… what better to give a still-newly-wed couple than an excuse to snuggle up together and enjoy some cocoa in super cute cups?

So, my little bro decided to take the plunge and he’s getting hitched at the end of December.

And, on a seemingly off topic tangent, my dad’s family does their Christmas gift exchange the day (or two) after Thanksgiving since everyone is already there.  It’s convenient and a tradition I enjoy and look forward to.  I can’t think of a better way to kick off the Christmas season than with family.  However, it means I have a whole month less to figure out Christmas gifts for the names we have that year. 

Ok, and now to merge those two thoughts, my brother is bringing his fiancée to our Thanksgiving festivities this year.  Not wanting my future sister-in-law to get stuck watching an hour or more of people opening gifts and singing Christmas carols out of tune while she received nothing, I threw a little something together for her: a gift basket.

Since I’ve only met her over a quick weekend trip she made here and talked to her a time or two on Skype, I didn’t know her very well to really personalize the basket.  So, I stuck to the generic girly stuff.  But, I always feel the need to make it a little personal so I stuck in a few homemade items, one of which is a sugar scrub.  This is a super easy and inexpensive.  It’s a great gift idea!  And, if you actually read all of that, you are my new hero for your perseverance.  Let’s make some sugar scrub!

Here’s the How:
Supplies
– 1 pint size jar (or size of your choice)
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 1 Tbs oil (I used coconut oil for a lighter scent and feel)
– 1 tsp finely ground sea salt
– a small squirt of dish soap
Optional:
– 3 drops of soap dye (you could also use food coloring.  It’ll be in contact with the skin so briefly, it shouldn’t stain.  Disclaimer: I haven’t tried the food coloring, so be warned, I’m not to blame if it doesn’t work.  Test it on your legs or some where you can hide first.)
– 5 drops of essential oil (or use a little extract – vanilla, peppermint, coconut, lemon, raspberry, ect.)

Directions:
1)  Mix the sugar and oil in a bowl.  Blend well.  Stir in the dish soap.  Add the salt.  The salt acts as a natural preservative, as well as an additional exfoliate.
2)  If you’ve chosen to add scent and color, add those now and mix well.
3)  Pour the scrub into the pint jar and seal.  You may need to stir the scrub up if it sits for very long, but a simple swish of a spoon will get you back in business in 2 seconds flat.

**You should avoid getting water in the jar, as it’ll grow things.  Yuck.  You can also store it in the fridge for longer life span, although it’s not necessary.  If you notice that it smells a little weird… toss it out, as the oil may have gone rancid.  Keeps for 2-3 months.

Or these are available HERE…

Krista