Relaxation and Focus with Simply Earth

A few months back I received a subscription box from Simply Earth filled with all kinds of essential oil goodies.  At the time I really didn’t know anything about essential oils and was interested in learning more.

Simply Earth is a subscription box service that arrives each month with a different theme or focus, and recipes that have you create diffuser blends, rollers for your daily use and other oil infused items.  This month, I received another box from Simply Earth and they did not disappoint.

The theme of the November box focuses on self care and comes with Lime, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus and Tranquilty blend essentials oils as powdered milk and lavender buds.   These were the base for creating this month’s recipes:

1. 1.  Tranquilty and Lime Diffuser Blend – helps you to find peace in your day and center yourself during those crazy, hectic times.  I’ve been diffusing this before bead and it’s made an improvement on my sleep quality.
2. 
3.  2. Lavender Buds and Tranquility Bath – another one to help you to relax and help with your sleep.
4.  3. Oatmeal Milk Bath – helps rejuvenate and made my skin feel super soft
5.  4. Chai Tea Bath Salts – perfect after a long, crazy day to relax you.
6.  5. Eucalyptus Shower Steamers – this one is perfect if you’re feeling the start of a cold or allergies to help open up your sinuses.
7.  6. Lime and Ecucalyptus RollOn – I’ve been using this to help perk me up and help with focus during those busy work days.
8. 

With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays ahead of us, I am taking as much time for self care as I can so I don’t end up getting sick and having the holidays ruined.  This box from Simply Earth will definitely help me along with that.

There is still time for you to get your own November box and pamper yourself with all kinds of self care.  Or it you’re looking for a gift for that someone special on your holiday gift lift, a subscription is a gift that they will enjoy all year long.  Right now if you subscribe and use the code ABOYANDHISMOMFREE, you will receive a Big Bonus Box, an Essential Oil Recipe box, and a $40 egift card towards future purchases.

Disclosure:  Although items were provided to us by Simply Earth, all comments, opinions and photos are strictly mine. This post contains affiliate links to products.  We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

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Create Small Crafts with Big Impact with Cricut EasyPress Mini

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

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When I first got my Cricut EasyPress 2, there were so many things that I was excited to use it for.   But as I was coming up with ideas, I felt like the size of EasyPress that I currently had might have a few limitations when it came to smaller more details projects.  Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way as Cricut has added the Cricut EasyPress Mini to the Cricut EasyPress line.

The  Cricut EasyPress Mini allows you to iron on materials to almost all your small or unique shapes projects like hats, shoes, pockets and even stuffed animals.  It has all the same technology and benefits of the Cricut EasyPress 2 (even heat plate and easy to use heat settings) for effortless heat transfers.

I know that we’re still a ways off (or least I am) from doing decorating for the holidays.  But this year, I decided to get a head start on an new banner for mantle and the Cricut Easy Press Mini was the perfect tool to help me accomplish this.

I love the rustic look of a burlap banner so I decided it would be the perfect material to start with for my project.

Materials needed for this project:

1. *  Cricut EasyPress Mini
2. * 1/2 metre of burlap fabric
3. * Cricut Patterned Iron-On (I used Sampler – Stripe, Sampler – Winter, Sampler – Nordic Christmas)
4. * Twine
5. * Mini Clothespins
6. * Cricut Access

To create the base of the banner, I used design space and searched for a shape of bunting that I wanted for my project.  I went with a classic shape and cut enough pieces out to hold all the letters.  In order to determine the size of each piece, I decided how long I wanted the end product to be, and divided it by the number of letters and spaces. That gave me a baseline as to the width of each piece.

Using the font – Follies (available with Cricut Access), I spelled out the phrase “Happy Holidays”.  I then chose 4 different iron-on materials and assigned it to alternating letters.  Once I had decided on the font I wanted to use, I adjusted the size so that it fit inside each piece of the banner properly.  Always test each letter, as depending on the font, the width of the letters can vary dramatically.

After all the letters and bunting pieces were cut out, I arranged everything in order to ensure the colors flowed evenly.

Using the Cricut EasyPress Mini, I applied the iron-on to the burlap.

After each letter was applied and the plastic protective later was removed I threaded the twine through the precut holes.

Once I had everything evenly spaced, I used the mini clothespins to secure each panel in place and to give a little extra flair to the piece.

Although I won’t actually be decorating for the holidays for another month or so, I know that I have this great banner ready to go when the time comes thanks to my Cricut EasyPress Mini.

 

Triple Oreo Cheesecakes – A Perfect Dessert

There are 2 things that the boy loves….Oreos and cheesecake.  So why not put the both together in these Triple Oreo Cheesecakes for one decadent dessert?

Why “triple” Oreo?  This recipe contains regular Oreos, Oreo crumbs and mini Oreos.  Can you ever have too many Oreos? Or too much cheesecake?  And hence, too much of Oreo cheesecakes? Of course not!

With the holidays just around the corner, these would make the perfect potluck dessert.

I’ve seen so many different Oreo flavors in stores these days, I am sure you could use any one of them in this recipe to add a little extra flavor to them.  My next round, I am going to try the mint Oreos and maybe add a 1/4 tsp of mint flavoring to the batter for some Triple Mint Oreo Cheesecakes.

Just a few tips here for this recipe:

• * Make sure you don’t over cook the filling.
• * Use full fat cream cheese.  The “lite” cream cheese gives it a weird consistency.
• * I can’t imagine them lasting this long without being eaten, but can be stored in refrigerator for up to a week.
• * If you have the silicone cupcake liners, use those.  I find the paper ones stick too much to the Oreo cheesecakes.
• * I haven’t tried making this as a single cheesecake instead of the individual ones, so I am not sure how the filling would set.
• * Oreos are school safe, so the kids could bring these in their snacks to school.

 

Tripe Oreo Mini Cheesecakes

If you love Oreos, imagine tripe the Oreos in this cheesecake recipe!

• 1 brick plain cream cheese (softened)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 each eggs (separated)
• 1/4 cup Oreo cookie crumbs
• 2 bags snack size mini Oreos
• 12 each Oreos (whole)
• 5 each Oreos (broken into pieces)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Place 1 whole Oreo in a liner in a cupcake pan

   

3. In a mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with a mixer until no more lumps. Add in the sugar and the vanilla and continue beating until mixed. Add in the eggs, one at a time and continue beating.

4. Add the Oreo crumbs and broken pieces to mixture and combine with a spoon or spatula.

   

5. Add approx 2 tbsp of batter to each cupcake cup.

6. Top each mini cheesecake with 1 mini Oreo.

   

7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until firm. Do not overcook.

8. Cool to room temp and then cool in refrigerator for a minimum 2 hours before enjoying!