In Vivienne’s ladybug 1st birthday party post, I promised a quick post giving an overview of how I constructed the cake and pretzels. I’m making good on that promise before I forget!
I drew tons of inspiration from doing a search for “ladybug cake” on Google Images. I knew early on that I wanted to do something 3D, and since I had a bit of experience making rounded cakes (thanks to this fire helmet cake I did a few years ago), I felt pretty confident I could tackle this one.
Here’s how it turned out:
In determining how to bake the cakes and piece this guy (gal?) together, I took out a bunch of cake pans and glass bowls and did my best to stack them and estimate size and proportions. I ended up settling on a 1-quart Pyrex glass mixing bowl, a 9″ round cake pan, and a 2-cup round Pyrex glass container (normally used for food storage). Note: I also made a 6″ round to use for my smash cake.
After Googling the crap out of “baking cakes in Pyrex glass bowls” to refresh my memory (I could not for the life of me remember exactly how I did it to make the fire helmet cake), I got to work.
To make all of these cakes, I made three batches of cake using this recipe (but you could make whatever cake recipe you’d like). I filled all bowls/pans about 2/3 of the way full, like you would with any normal cake pan. With the big 1-quart Pyrex mixing bowl, I took a cue from people on the internet and added my Wilton flower nail, inserting it into the top of the batter. Having the piece of metal in the middle supposedly helps the middle of the cake bake more evenly. In the process, my cake-in-a-bowl ended up baking up over the flower nail, so it remained inside of the cake until I was cutting it at the party—just FYI.
While the cakes in the 9″ and 6″ cake pans baked like normal (obviously)—and the one in the small 2-cup round Pyrex dish baked within a reasonable amount of time as well—the cake in the 1-quart Pyrex glass mixing bowl ended up taking well over an hour to be done. To bake that cake, I also took more advice from the internet and dropped the oven temperature down 25 to 50 degrees. You want to bake it slower since you need the middle to be done without completely frying the outside edges. It’s a delicate balance. After about 45 minutes of baking, I checked the cake every 10 minutes, then once we were past an hour, I checked it every 5 minutes. I knew the cake was finally done when the top stopped “jiggling” every time I rattled the oven rack, and when the top of the cake sprung back upon my pressing it gently. It did end up being slightly crispy on the outside edges, but it wasn’t a detriment. It was still really good cake!
Side note: Icing. I made all of my buttercream icing in advance. Deciding how much frosting I need to make—and how much I need of each color—is by far the most stressful part of cake baking for me. I once had an incident (with my fire truck cake) when I was thisclose to running out of red icing, and it gave me heart palpitations. Back then, I ended up making it work by adding a strip of gray across the top of the truck (and making it wider than I originally planned), but since then, I’ve tended to be overly cautious about the amount of icing needed. So… with this big ladybug cake and the smash cake? I ended up making FOUR batches of Wilton buttercream. It was a lot, and I ended up having a pretty decent amount leftover (red, particularly), but I regret nothing. Because you DO NOT want to run out of colored icing in the middle of decorating a cake. The chances of you matching the exact color again? Slim!
Anyway, I digress.
After the cakes all cooled, it was time to put the pieces together and start decorating. Now, I don’t have any pictures of this process, so you’ll have to bear with my (continued) wordy descriptions.
First? The easy part. I placed the 9″ round cake on my platter, then smothered the top of it with thinned out buttercream icing (white). I then stacked my 1-quart Pyrex bowl cake on top of it. From there, I took my 2-cup Pyrex bowl cake and positioned it on the front of the body to make the head. Here, I had to do a tiny bit of carving, just cutting off a little bit of the side of the cake closest to the body in order for the head (which I had positioned sort of at an angle) to sit flush against the body. Once I had a good fit, I “glued” the head onto the body with more buttercream, then used cake dowels to secure it even further. I stuck four dowels through the head and into the body at various angles.
From there, it was pretty simple cake decorating. I started by giving the entire thing a crumb coat—a really thin coat of icing; you can typically still see the cake through the icing, it’s that thin. The ladybug body in red, the head in black. Then, I used a small round cookie cutter to “trace” the spots in the crumb coat on the body. You could use any appropriately sized round object for this, but obviously a cookie cutter makes it easy. I pressed it into the cake with enough pressure to leave marks, making the pattern of the spot all over the body.
I then used one of my Wilton round tips to divide the body in half, making the line you see down the ladybug’s back. I swapped that tip out for a star tip and got to work filling in the spots and covering the ladybug’s head. Before completely covering the head, I paused to make the face. I traced spots for the eyes, then spread some white icing over them. Then I took my pink icing—which I unintentionally made a darker shade of pink than I meant to, oh well!—and drew the mouth and “eyebrows” on with a piping bag and a round tip. After that, I continued piping my black stars around it, filling in the entire head.
Finally, I fit a piping bag with another star tip, filled it with red icing, and covered the body, working around my black spots. It’s tedious to do a cake this way, but it goes relatively quickly, and I like the way it looks when it’s done.
As finishing touches, I used black pipe cleaners for the antennae, and wrote out “Happy Birthday Vivienne” in white buttercream. I didn’t thin it out enough, so I had a little trouble writing with it—that’s why it didn’t turn out as neat as I would’ve liked. But I was too tired to try to wipe the whole thing clean, thin the icing, refill the bag, and do it over again, so… I didn’t. :)
I did all of the decorating the night before the party, then stored my huge cake in the oven (which—I’ll state the obvious—was NOT on) overnight. I will typically do this with oversized cakes, just to “cover” them somewhat and get them out of the way. Also, it’s obviously not totally air tight, but it’s better than just being out in the room. It works well.
So that’s the cake. Let’s move on to the pretzels, shall we? These were a lot less complicated!
I first saw these on Pinterest, and even after clicking through a couple of different pins, I found that nothing took me to actual instructions. I didn’t really need them, as they are just dipped in candy melts, but I figured I’d still type up a quick tutorial here in case anyone is looking for a little guidance. Again, no photos—I only have two hands in the kitchen, and they’re usually covered in food. It doesn’t lend itself well to photography, and I don’t have the patience to stop what I’m doing every couple of minutes to take pics!
I bought big sourdough pretzel twists for the job, which ended up being a good size. I started with the red candy melts, as the surface area it covers is much larger than the black. I melted the candy melts (Wilton) according to package instructions, then stirred it really, really well to get it smooth. Holding onto the bottom of the pretzel (the area that is black in the finished ones pictured above), I held the pretzel over my candy melt bowl and spooned the melted candy over the pretzel. I found this worked better than dipping since I didn’t end up with as much excess on the pretzel. Once covered, I shook off any excess and then placed on a sheet of wax paper to dry.
Once the red part was dry, I got to work on the black for the head. Now, one thing that was a little frustrating was that when trying to dip the other side of the pretzel, I had to hold onto the red part—and the little bit of body heat from my fingertips caused the candy to smudge. It doesn’t take much heat to melt it! So after one or two of them, I caught on to this and used a rubber oven mitt thingy to hold onto the pretzels instead. Problem solved.
Again, I used the spoon method for the black, making sure to cover any remaining pretzel spots. Then, back onto the wax paper they went. While I waited for the black to set, I put my remaining black candy (already melted) into a plastic squeeze bottle and used it to draw on the black spots. By the time I was done with that, the heads were dry enough for me to add eyes.
You could use white candy melts (or melted white chocolate chips, even) to make the eyes, but I used royal icing instead. This is because I already had it on hand to make the cookies (you can see them in this post), so it was easiest for me to not have to melt another color. I used a toothpick to dab little blobs of icing onto the pretzels, and I was done.
I let the pretzels fully set on the wax paper overnight, then stored in an airtight container (with wax paper between the stacked layers of pretzels) until party day. FYI—I made these on Tuesday or Wednesday night, and the party was on Saturday. They held up well.
I hope all of this helps. I also tried to link to relevant things within this post. Feel free to ask me any questions about the cake or pretzels. Enjoy!
Well, hello there.
I rarely come to you on a Sunday afternoon, but I want to tell you quickly about something cool a few friends and I are organizing for this week. We’ve all been fielding a lot of questions and talking to many people in our lives—both in person and virtually—about the power of essential oils. When you’re new to them, they can be a bit overwhelming.
What exactly are essential oils?
What do the different essential oils do? What can they be used for?
How do I know how to use them?
What’s the deal with doTERRA?
These are just a few of the questions that I know I was asking, and have heard from others, too.
SO. We’re organizing a live webinar and subsequent Facebook chat/Q&A for those who are interested in learning about essential oils. And I’m inviting all of you!
The webinar will provide information about essential oils, the uses and benefits of the oils, and testimonials. There will be opportunities to ask questions, interact and engage with oil enthusiasts, and we also plan to have a few giveaways as well. And there’s a good chance you’ll catch a live glimpse of me in my pajamas (comedy gold)… and hopefully with a glass of wine, because NERVES. I hate being on camera.
I encourage you to join us. If you’re interested in attending, please shoot me a note at heatherdriveblog at yahoo dot com or leave me a comment/message on the Heather Drive Facebook page, and I will hook you up with a link to the official invitation to the event.
(Note: I originally had a typo in the date in the graphic above—it’s the 27th, not the 17th! Whoops. It’s corrected now. In any case it’s THIS Wednesday!)
You guys: I started doing CrossFit.
I’ll pause for a second while you laugh. Or pick up your jaw from the floor. Or applaud or something, I don’t know. :)
I’ve posted a few times about how difficult it has been for me to work regular exercise into my life since having children. I’ve tried (and failed miserably) a few times to get into the Couch to 5K program. But the thing is? I really kind of hate running, and always have. Exercising is hard enough as it is, so when you’re doing something you don’t even like? It’s that much harder. I just couldn’t stick with it.
Michael started doing CrossFit in April 2013. I remember it well, because he started going right after my bout with appendicitis. So here I was, pregnant and tremendously weakened from lying in bed almost 24/7 for nearly three weeks, and he was busting his ass at CrossFit. I got back into walking by the end of my pregnancy, and then… I had a baby.
I know there are women out there who manage to strike a balance between kids and work and exercise, but I have never been one of them. And in that first year after a baby? Life is hectic. I tried again this last spring to start a walking/running routine, and then began Couch to 5K again, but once again, I crapped out with it. There was no schedule to follow, no money on the line. It was easy to quit when things got busy, so I did.
My friend, Julie, has been trying to get me on board with CrossFit since I was pregnant with Vivienne. She tried and fell in love with it, completely changed her body and made herself into a crazy athlete, and she was determined to get me there, too. For so long, I laughed and laughed at her whenever she would mention it to me. I’d roll my eyes. And Michael, well, he never pressured me to try CrossFit.
But in recent months, as we were closing in on Vivienne’s birthday, I knew I wanted to make it a priority to figure out some kind of fitness routine for myself. Running wasn’t working. I didn’t want to go back to my old step and kickboxing classes that I used to do pre-kids, because I needed something that didn’t have a super fixed schedule. And I sure as hell didn’t want to join a regular ol’ gym. CrossFit crept further and further into my mind, and then one day, I emailed the owner of the CrossFit “box” that Michael and Julie go to. I started asking questions. And then… I went.
I went to my first beginners’ session, then another, and another. Then I had a few training sessions one-on-one with one of the coaches. And this morning? I was officially released into the wild. I went to my first “real” CrossFit class and completed my first real WOD (that’s workout-of-the-day, for those not in the know). And I liked it.
It’s been three weeks now, I guess, and I’ve been going three times per week. The whole thing has been rather humbling. I mean, I knew I was in awful shape, but it’s a different story to really FEEL it. The first week and a half, I felt like I could barely move because I was so sore. And honestly, I’m feeling it today, too, after that WOD this morning. I’m sure I’ll be feeling it for quite some time, as I teach my muscles to do new things and work in a way that they haven’t worked in more than four years (or maybe ever).
So far, I like CrossFit because it’s always different. Each warm-up + workout takes about an hour, and it FLIES by. It’s a lot of legs and shoulders and core—all of which are really important, obviously. I have always had a really weak upper body, so I’m curious to see how I improve over time. I think I’m going to snap some “before” pics of myself (even though I’m a few weeks into it already), and see how things compare after several months. If the results are good, perhaps I’ll share them some day. :)
I think this is something I’ll be able to keep up. That’s largely due to my flexible schedule with my current job, which I couldn’t be more grateful for. I’ve been able to go to CrossFit classes in the morning or late afternoon, skipping lunch or working additional hours at night after the girls are in bed. It truly makes all the difference in the world.
I might be a CrossFit convert. But burpees? They are the devil. :)
Any fellow CrossFitters out there?
Last.week.was.INSANE.
Sorry again for the abandonment of the blog, but we celebrated Vivienne’s birthday on Saturday with her big first birthday bash. Her party just so happened to fall on my actual birthday (it was the only Saturday that really worked for it, and hey, I didn’t mind), so that made things a little more interesting, too.
Last week, I was up until midnight every night working on projects for her birthday party. It’s a little crazy, I’ll admit, since she’s ONE and doesn’t know or care about the details of her party, but what can I say? It’s who I am. My parties aren’t nearly as fancy as some of the ones you’ll see on Pinterest, but I do like to pour my blood, sweat and tears into a handful of things—namely desserts—to make an impact. After all, baking and cake/cookie decorating has been a hobby of mine for quite a few years now, and I don’t get a chance to do it nearly as often as I did before kids came along. So once (well, now twice) a year or so, I like to stretch my baking/decorating legs and make a disaster out of my kitchen for a week.
Anyway, in planning Vivienne’s first birthday, we somehow landed on a ladybug theme, for no other reason than it seemed like it would be cute and the color scheme would be different than the traditional pinks and purples often associated with little girls. I drew major inspiration from Pinterest, of course. And Google Images.
I bought her invitation design from Etsy seller Arthomer. That photo was taken at the beginning of July and it is CRAZY how much older she looks now, I think. Those two front teeth (which were just making their way through in the pic) make a huge difference! My baaaaabyyyyy. Gah.
And yes, I did make her a tutu. It was too adorable to pass up. I used this tutorial and it was really easy. I made two of them, actually, because I knew that once Nora saw Vivienne’s, she was going to want one for herself. So I bought supplies to make two, and threw a purple one together for Nora to wear for dress up. And hell, maybe even dance class. Vivienne’s shirt is a Carter’s onesie that I had embroidered by a local woman who does them. And the birthday crown is compliments of Mary, the girls’ daycare provider, who makes them for every birthday for each of the kids she watches. She hand cuts all of those little flowers around the headband… they’re pretty amazing and special.
THE SWEETS! All the fruits of my labor. The cake, the cookies, the smash cake, the pretzels. Oh, and the cake smash collage. More on all of that in a minute.
The week before the party, I was stressing about the weather… well, as much as I will allow myself to stress about weather. I mean, I know I can’t control it so I don’t get TOO worked up about it, but I did check weather.com at least once a day to see what the forecast was like. Rain, no rain, rain, no rain. It kept changing. Finally, the day of the party, we had a pretty good chance for rain, but thankfully not until late afternoon. The temperature was cool—I think it maybe hit 75 degrees at most—and it was overcast most of the day, but honestly, I thought it was perfect weather for an outdoor party. Worst case, we would’ve moved into our house and/or garage, but when you’re expecting 35-40 people at your house, including a boat load of kids? YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO BE IN THE BACKYARD. Especially when you have a new swing set that you want all of the kids to enjoy.
And enjoy they did. The swing set was a hit, as were our sand table and play house. The kids ran wild, and it was awesome.
We chose to start the party at 11:00 a.m., which I think most of the parents appreciated since it accommodated nap times pretty well! Vivienne typically wakes up from her morning nap around 11:00, and goes back down around 2:00, so we figured this would be the best window of time for our little birthday girl.
We served lunch—pulled chicken, baked beans, pasta salad, broccoli salad, a green salad. It worked out well. We are known to order pizza for this sort of thing (no muss, no fuss!) but this was a nice change from the norm, and didn’t add too much stress or work to the party day.
There’s Nora, chowing down on my mom’s cowboy caviar (a.k.a. Texas caviar), only the best appetizer EVER. We have her make it for every family gathering because it’s such a crowd pleaser. And it’s not even THAT terrible for you as far as snack foods are concerned.
The week before the party, I went to Walmart to pick up a few party supplies and I hit the Ladybug Party JACKPOT in their party section. I picked up ladybug appetizer/snack plates, table cloths, masks and noisemakers, ladybug straws for the kids. Other than that, I stuck to solid red and black for balloons, plates, napkins, cups, and plasticware.
I also found ladybug stickers, mini clothes pins, and black ribbon with white polka dots. (Inspiration.) I put the stickers on clothespins to put up this little display of Vivienne’s month-by-month pictures.
We did gifts right out in the middle of our yard. I love summer birthdays! Vivienne was randomly into stuff I opened, like tissue paper, a turtle toy, and a PACKAGE OF SOCKS. Babies are weird.
Nora was my big helper, of course, and she provided hilarious commentary throughout the whole process. As we opened up that big Minnie Mouse plane ride-on toy above? Nora was all wide-eyed, looked at me seriously and goes, “Mommy, WE SHARE IT.” It’s gotta be pretty awesome to have a baby sister who you can essentially steal things from and she barely knows the difference. :) Another funny moment was when I opened a card and a gift card fell out, which was inside of a little red envelope with a small white bulls eye on it. “TARGET!” Nora yelled excitedly. Oh, Target. Your branding? It is effective… even on 3 year olds.
After presents? It was time for dessert.
I probably need to do a whole post on the ladybug cake. It’s not anything SUPER major in terms of construction and decoration, and I didn’t take any step-by-step pictures to illustrate, but I could go into some detail about how I tackled this cake. So yeah, I’ll plan on that. If you’re interested in more info on this guy lady, be on the lookout for that post. But overall? I was really happy with how this turned out. I think it’s one of my favorite cakes I’ve done.
Sugar cookie cutouts! (Inspiration.) I got nervous about these while I was in the process of decorating them, but I needn’t have worried. Adding the finishing touches to everything—the outlines, the dots on the flowers, etc.—really helped everything to come together. I really loved these, too. They are so time consuming, but so worth it. We didn’t do goody bags or packaged favors or anything… we just sent people home with a few of these babies.
…AND these babies. These are candy coated pretzels, made with the Wilton candy melts you can pick up at craft stores. (Inspiration.) I thought these would be an “easy” project to take on (in addition to EVERYTHING ELSE!) but they ended up being more of a pain/more time consuming than I thought. When dipping and decorating these guys took up an entire evening last week, I was sort of regretting them. But they’re awesome, so all’s well that ends well. I never found real directions on these, but they’re pretty easy to figure out. I’ll type up some quick instructions (again, I don’t have any step-by-step photos) and throw them in the same post as the ladybug cake explanation. Coming soon this week, I promise.
We did the cake smash photo shoot several weeks ago, before we even went on vacation to the Outer Banks. I used the photos and the same collage design that I used for Nora three years ago. Had it printed up and framed it for display at the party. We plan to hang it next to Nora’s in our playroom.
Finally? The smash cake. It’s a single layer, 6″ round—no big deal. I had several visions for how I was going to decorate this, and thought I had settled on mimicking one of the flower cookies. Green base, white flower with black polka dots, put a tiny ladybug on the flower. But the night before the party, as I was icing it, I had a change of heart. I wanted a ladybug to be the main focus again, so I opted to do a simple ladybug on top instead. I used my ladybug cookie cutter (used for the cutout cookies above) and pressed it into the top of the cake. From there, I filled it in with color. Easy peasy.
Speaking of the smash cake? Vivienne SMASHED IT. Go figure.
She needed no help, no encouragement. As soon as we were done singing, the candle was blown out, and we set that thing down in front of her, she immediately began raking her fingers across the icing and stuffing handfuls of it into her mouth. I’m guessing the cake smash photo shoot and the piece of cake she had on her actual birthday served as really good practice. She nailed it.
We ended up cutting her off after she had made a pretty sizable dent in the cake itself. She didn’t even protest, so I’m thinking she was pretty full by that point. Michael took her up for a quick bath while I served cake and ice cream to everyone else.
After cake, people started taking off to enjoy the rest of their afternoons elsewhere. Our close family stayed put for a while longer to hang out. And not too long after we had cleaned up and moved inside? The rain started. Luck was on our side for this one; fingers crossed we get a good day for Nora’s party next month! (Last year, it POURED on Nora’s birthday. POURED!)
Thankfully, we remembered to have a few family snapshots taken during the party to mark the occasion. None of them perfect, but perfectly imperfect, I suppose. :)
It was busy, and it was exhausting, but it was fun. And it wasn’t a bad way to celebrate my own birthday. Rock on, 32!
Four months into my exploration of essential oils, and I am still learning new things every day. My favorite mail day of each month by far is when my doTERRA order arrives—adding oils to my arsenal and into the routine of our lives is always exciting.
Speaking of my arsenal… I have been struggling for weeks to find a storage/organization strategy for my growing essential oils “toolbox,” and I finally made great strides in that department within the last few weeks. First, I finally ordered the little bottle cap stickers this month (only $0.50, can’t beat that!). The sheets come with stickers for all of the oils doTERRA offers, with multiples for each. I’ve even been putting them on sample vials; they’re so useful!
The stickers are such a simple thing, but they go such a long way in keeping things in order and easily accessible. I used to have to remove several bottles of oil from my bag in order to find the one I was looking for, and now I can find it in a split second. It’s the little things in life, people. :)
And after searching high and low for a box of some sort that would neatly store my oils and supplies, AND look cute lying around my house, I finally found an answer with a semi-DIY option. After wandering around Joann Fabrics and Target for longer than I care to admit, exploring all areas of the store—wooden boxes, plastic boxes, drawer dividers, styrofoam, hardware, jewelry storage, etc.—I finally ended up back at Joann’s. I purchased a simple decorative storage box and a variety of scrapbook papers. Back at home, I gathered up a variety of food boxes from the kitchen and then made my own little dividers using this tutorial I had seen on Pinterest. My finished result?
I’m so happy with it, at least for now. I can keep everything here—my little sample vials, roller bottles, droppers, a few spray bottles, all of my oils (of course!) and my FCO (fractionated coconut oil, used for dilution). Love it!
————————————————–
Onto the oils themselves… one of my favorite recent essential oils discoveries actually involves two oils I’ve had since the beginning—wild orange and peppermint.
If I’m feeling particularly tired, sluggish or worn down, wild orange and peppermint help put a little pep in my step. I don’t drink coffee, and very rarely drink soda, so I almost never have caffeine. It’s awesome not to be addicted to it or NEED it to wake up, but on the days when I’m tired, it’s tough not to have something to help me out. Now, I have a solution. When we were traveling a few weeks ago to the beach, we had to get up really early (after being up late!) and I was definitely utilizing this blend. I’ve come to use it often enough that it was worth mixing up a roller bottle of it. Apply a dab to each of my temples and I am good to go! And the combination smells good, too.
Brand new in my order this month was Cypress. It’s a really versatile oil that can help with many things. It’s beneficial for increasing circulation, so one thing I’ve been testing out is its ability to help reduce the appearance of spider veins. I have a few patches of spider veins on the inside corners of my upper calves near my knees, so I’ve been applying a “Veins” mix—6 drops Cypress, 3 drops Lavender, 2 drops Lemon in a 10mL roller bottle, then filled to the top with FCO—morning and night. This isn’t something that will magically happen overnight, but I figure what the heck, I’ll give it a whirl and see if it helps over time.
In the meantime, Cypress is also helpful for respiratory issues, helping to open up the airways and breathe easier. It can also help relieve muscle spasms, and has wonderful antiseptic properties so it can be used to help clean cuts, scrapes, and other minor injuries. So it’s a great “first aid” oil to have in my kit.
Also new to me this month is Clove, which I ordered specifically to help with oral troubles—teething and canker sores! Vivienne’s not currently cutting any teeth, but when some new ones are on their way, I’m prepared! Clove is fantastic at numbing, so it can be applied to the gums of teething little ones, AND help adults with canker sores (I get some really painful ones sometimes!). It is a “hot” oil, so it’s not something I would use without dilution, particularly for babies and children. When I use with Vivienne, I plan to dilute it heavily with FCO, and then test it on myself to make sure it’s not too strong before I put it on her gums. I’m really hoping it helps, because it sure beats using Orajel or constantly dosing her up with ibuprofen (which I will still give her if/when necessary, for what it’s worth).
Other uses for Clove? Repelling silverfish, apparently! Have you ever had silverfish in your house? Those effers are NASTY. I’ve seen one or two in our house in the three years we’ve lived here, so it’s not a huge problem for us (knock on wood!) but we had them a lot in the house I grew up in, as well as my house in college. Silverfish can vary in size from pretty little to GINORMOUS OHMYGOD. They have a million legs that help them move as fast as lightning, and they are just generally disgusting. *heebie jeebies, heebie jeebies!* ANYWAY, apparently these unwanted inhabitants of your home don’t like the smell of clove. Go figure. You can put a few drops on a couple of cotton balls and put them wherever you have problems—under your kitchen cabinets, in your basement, wherever. You have to refresh the cotton balls every once in a while so the scent doesn’t wear off too much to continue being effective. Any time you can potentially use essential oils to get rid of insects, that’s a bonus in my book.
On a completely unrelated note, I can’t wait to use Clove in our diffuser in the fall and near the holidays! I love the smell of clove, so I’m looking forward to making our house smell like I’m always baking something. Because although I love to bake, actually doing so on a super regular basis would not be good for my waistline. :)
————————————————–
I’m getting ready to place my August order, so if anyone wants to get in on that, let me know. As always, if you want to try essential oils, I am more than willing to help you out by giving you the benefits of my wholesale discount and then mailing them your way.
And if you want to just talk essential oils? Questions? Email me at heatherdriveblog at yahoo dot com, because I love chatting about them.
Lastly, I told you in July about a promotion doTERRA was running for new wellness advocates (a.k.a. wholesale account members). By enrolling with the purchase of a starter kit (like the Family Physician Kit I started with), you receive a bonus $50 in free essential oils of your choice. It’s an amazing promo, and it’s rare for doTERRA to offer a bonus as great as this. The great news is that doTERRA has extended this offer until August 15, so if you thought you missed out, or if you’re interested now, you should check it out. Let me know if you’re interested or have questions about it. Believe me, *I* would take advantage of it if I could! :)
Here’s the link to my doTERRA store, but again, I’d prefer you email me to start because I can get you better deals. More than anything, I just want to help empower you to make changes that can help you live a more natural life and kick some of the synthetic products in your house to the curb.
————————————————–
Check out all of my previous posts about essential oils here.
Have a fabulous weekend! The weather here is supposed to be perfect; I hope the same for you.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
