Say Goodbye To Expensive Department Store Moisturizer and a Surprise!

Earlier this year when I sent out my Pay It Forward gifts, I included a little jar of lotion that I made. With the holiday season upon us, and I know lots of folks are strapped for extra cash, I decided to share this recipe for the most wonderful moisturizer you will ever use...and you can tell those expensive cosmetic counters at the department store goodbye...

These make great shower favors (which I use at every shower I give, just change the theme on the container), stocking stuffers, co-workers gifts, or just extra gifts to have on hand during the holiday season....something small...but says a lot!

Now, this is easy as can be.....and ANYONE whom I have ever given this gift to, simply raves about this lotion....they think I am a genius, super girl, the whole kit and caboodle....it has been fun riding that wave of genius for so long, but now I want you to have a turn too.....ready? Let's begin.....

All you need are three ingredients: From DOLLAR GENERAL.....Shhhhhhh, yes, I did just say Dollar General. You will need one large baby lotion, I used the Shea and coco butter today, the pink is great if you are doing a girl baby shower, the lotion will be pink. Next, a large jar of Petroleum Jelly, and finally, a jar of the vitamin E skin cream.....simple...three things that is all...now, lets get started.

See, here is the Shea and cocoa butter label......but the pink baby lotion will work too.

First, empty the jar of vitamin E cream in a large mixing bowl, get all the goods out of the jar. Now, I save these jars, they are plastic, and the labels peel right off with no effort, and they can be washed and to store the final lotion product back in the container....Recycle made easy!

Next, add the Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline).....sorry, I'll try to keep it simple.

Make sure you get all the good stuff.....I have had no luck at recycling these containers...so I toss them.

Lastly, pour in the lotion....all of it.....

I was not joking....ALL of it. I slice the side open, and using a spatula, get the rest out of the container...can't recycle this except inside the recycle bin.

Now, get your hand mixer out and begin to whip all of this together.......

whip, whip, whip..........don't stop....I said, whip, whip, whip.......

When all is mixed really well...it will be light and fluffy....almost like icing.....see, how pretty is this?

Next: fill your containers. I used recycled baby food jars. I had to really work at taking all the glue and labels off the jars, but these jars are a good size for a small gift, so totally makes a little effort on your part worth it.

Fill to the top......just like so.......

once again...don't waste a single drop.......

I used Mod-Podge to add some scrapbook paper on the spray painted lids, and embellished with vintage lace, buttons and rhinestones....


What do you think?????


Now, top off with some vintage rick-rack or ribbon...and there you go. See what a little creative work will turn an ordinary baby food jar into something really cute....

If you are making a big batch, then just do the same process with however many of each ingredient you think you might need. One of each will fill about 6-7 baby food jars. I have made big batches of this using about 9 of each.....works just the same.....

Once you have tried this, you will be sold....this is all I use. I use it as a face cream, hand and foot cream and all over body cream.....it is wonderful. I will tell you this, all my co-workers ask me for it without fail....I always get "When are you going to make me some more lotion?...Christmas is coming!"

They think I am a Rock Star......LOL

Here is a photo from a baby shower, used the same jars, had a little round sticker with shower theme printed and stuck on top of lid, and presented inside a organza bag.

Same lotion for a wedding shower, used containers from the container store, glued rhinestone on top for some pizazz and printed a tag and attached that to a little bag. I used the pink lotion here as this was a pink themed shower.

GIVEAWAY TIME

Now, if you leave a comment on this post....I am giving away a $10.00 gift certificate to Dollar General...that will buy you 3 of each container, and all you have to do is follow this recipe.....maybe this will jump start you on your gift giving this holiday season! If you do not have a Dollar General in your area, just tell me, I will send the products to your home using the gift card to purchase them.....Winner announced Saturday evening....

Tip: If you do not have access to baby food jars, (like I did not) place an ad on Craigslist under the "wanted" section...your email will be flooded with wonderful folks wanting to give these to you for free.....how economical is that????

And if you want to keep this recipe your secret....go right ahead.....you can be a Rock Star with your friends too!!!!

VINTAGE THINGIES THURSDAY: Vintage Pink Rose Delights

Welcome to this weeks segment of Vintage Thingies Thursday. Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone. If you are visiting and would like to join us, please do. It is very easy!
To participate, all you have to do is:

* * * * * * * Please everyone, follow these guidelines!

(1) do a post about something vintage.
(2) Visit all the participates and leave a comment.
(3) Link in with the link at the bottom of this post, please use a perma-link to link in with, that way, anyone can refer back to your post if they can not get to it on Thursday.
(4) Be sure to refer back to my blog so everyone can see who is participating today, and if you like include the VTT button in your post. Please be sure to have your post up before linking in.

I decided to show you some really sweet rose pattern treasures that I have picked up here and there. There really is no rhyme or reason to my purchases, if I see something I like, well, that is all it takes, it comes home with me.


This little shoe was sitting on a shelf at Goodwill. I love the little roses on the shoe itself, so dainty looking. I especially love the lacy top of the shoe and the little flowers that are on the lace. Very delicate looking. This was a $1.00 bargain.

Here is the bottom stamp of this little rose decorated shoe.

This little trinket plate was found at a hole in the wall thrift store. I had never been inside this store before, but one afternoon, decided to have a look around. This measures about 3 inches wide, small and dainty....and had a small price too.... 25 cents.

Here is the mark on the back of the little dish. I looked this mark up on ebay, and there were several pieces with hefty prices on them, but they were much larger pieces than this one. I don't know how much it actually is worth, but I love it....and loved the price.

This set of four little rosy dishes are quiet small...see the penny, wanted you to see in retrospect how small they are. These are very delicate, you can feel how delicate and fragile the china is, these are just precious to me....estate sale find...$2.00.

Here is the up close to show you the details of the little roses...so sweet.

and this is the back of the little dishes.....I was going to try and research these markings, but I have Jury Duty on Wed (today) and my work schedule changed on Tues, so I am frantically trying to get a post scheduled and up because...well with Jury Duty, you just don't ever know.....if I am late visiting each one of you this week, it is because I am doing my civic duty....and not happy about it!

Have a great week everyone.....as always thanks for your love and support.....enjoy your fall weekend.

Weight Loss Journey Part 2

Related Post:
Introduction: click Here
Part 1 : click Here

In 2001, I had lost some of my weight, but it came right back. I would guess my weight fluctuated between 150 and 169 around this time, for some of you I know you are saying "That's not so much" but for my normal weight, it was. Life events, which I can not discuss, took a major tole on my well being. The "what" of the issues are really not the topic, it was the emotional stress, sadness, disappointment, the feelings I had failed, lost sense of self worth, and depression and anxiety attacks took me to a place I had never been too, and would not want to be. Something unimaginable happened in my life, and the happy life I had known was never to return. I have dealt with this for many years. It really effected me, paralyzed my thought process, and I felt I had no hope, guilt had over come my life. I had to accept some things were lost forever...I would never get over it, but I had to learn to deal with it. I sought professional counseling, and got myself back on track and feeling some better. However, the old way of dealing with stressful situations never returned, I was always feeling too weak inside to handle stress like I used to do. So I was really in a fragile state....like a time bomb ticking....only foods were a comfort and that became my new joy, eating unhealthy foods became my survival mode.

In March of 2003, I got a call from my estranged step mother, my father was dead. Granted, I had not had any contact with him in several years, but no matter, that was a shock and a great sadness that no reconciliation would ever take place, I did not realize at the time how this left a lump in my heart the size of a football field, but like everything else, I suppressed these feelings and moved on the best way I could.And as you can imagine, dealing with monument sadness and depression, again, I turned to foods.

Then in June of 2003, my father in law had a triple by pass surgery and I took care of his recovery until he had to go into rehab. He is not a good patient, very mean and rude and wants to blame everyone for his problems.....that is just the way he is when he is sick...the stress from that was so over powering I can not explain. I was racked with guilt for sending him to a rehab place, but I could not allow him to disrupt my already stressful household being the uncooperative self he was. I felt bad and felt like it was my duty to care for him as he was my husband's father. None the less, he went to rehab, recovered and things leveled off.

In early August of 2003, my dad's sister, my sweet Aunt passed away. This was the last living relative on my dad's side of the family, no grandparents, no aunts or uncles, no dad...all gone just like that...I can not tell you how hard even to this day it is to type the words, it was like someone wiped away all the loved ones from this side of the family, all the memories, voices, the laughter, all were gone just like that...... unimaginable to me still. The great sadness was dealt with by eating, I really developed a love of sweets during this year, and that is how I dealt with my grief....the sweets....they made me feel good.

My mother in law encouraged me to lose some weight throughout this same year (2003), even paid for my weight watcher visits to try and help me lose. She encouraged, prompted, and was my cheerleader. I thought she was going to weight watchers too, but she was not.....she was sick and we NEVER knew it. In late September, we found out she had stage 4 breast cancer. We had NO IDEA she was even sick, she kept this all to herself.....she passed away 3 1/2 weeks after we found out she was sick. The unimaginable had happened, this lady who has been my children's grandmother, my husband's mother was dying....she was in her 60's, this is not supposed to happen. How was this happening? I took care of her for the last weeks of her life. The things I saw, the things I had to do, the feelings I felt, these things that were so hard to believe imaginable happened and she was gone before I ever had a chance to save her. And in my mind, I thought I could....save her. I felt like if I took care of her the best I knew how, fed her the right kind of foods, offered support, took her to chemo, all would be good or at least give my husband and children a few more months to have her. It was not to be. One Wednesday morning, 3 and 1/2 weeks of learning she was sick, I went to wake her up...only she was gone....just like that....my world spun out of control.....I had to call my husband at work to tell him I had not saved his mother, I had failed him......it was too much of a burden to carry, inside I had fallen completely apart.

On the outside, no one ever knew.......I had endured so much stress and sadness during this short time span, I knew my life had spiraled out of control again and all comforts were found in sweets and salty foods. The year 2003 was one of the hardest years of my life.......to be continued

Afterthought: I believe everyone experiences similar things in their lives that cause the same feelings and behaviors I have experienced. No matter how small or large things appear to others, the only person who really knows how they effect you and on what levels are YOU. I know this is very important to acknowledge and deal with so this same cycle does not continue, because when I feel these old feelings and emotions trying to surface.....I am now armed and ready to not allow them to take control of my life.....think about the trigger things in your life, and then try and discover their roots....it will make all the difference in the world.....