Friday, November 11, 2011

Crafty Mamas

 I am not ready to thrust myself into Christmas shopping.  The bulk of that will happen after Thanksgiving and final harvests.  However, when thinking about hostess gifts, teachers gifts, and nice little things that are homemade, you do need to get a bit of a jump on it.  A small group of ladies decided in September that maybe we should gather a few times before the holidays, drink wine, and make gifts.

Last night was the first such session and was filled with laughter, friendship, storytelling and snacking with a little bit of crafting mixed in.  I chose two crafts.  The first was making a chai tea mix.  The recipe was simple and came highly rated.  Trying to keep the powdered mix as natural as possible I substituted the powdered vanilla creamer with the vanilla sugar that I had made with the remnants of the vanilla extract beans.  This worked perfectly, but altered the final volume amounts so I didn't end up with as much as I'd anticipated.  I was about three cups short for filling jars, (we got 14 half pint jars from a double recipe) but I was pretty happy with the ease of it.  With the jars will be a tag for use instructions and a recipe card with the chai cake from Domestic Sensualist (check it out)!

The second craft smelled amazing and I am excited to try.  We did bath teas.  Little tea bags filled with floral goodies, salts, and essential oils that can hang from the bath faucet with the water flowing through, or just bob in the tub.  The unbleached satchels I had for putting the mixture in may also be used to rub the skin.  They smell fantastic and are the perfect little hostess gift wrapped in a box in twos or threes. (with a double recipe of this we ended up with 35 generously filled bags)

Not to shabby for a crafty mama's night where trust me, we did more gabbing than actual crafting in the end!

Happy Friday!! 

Bath Tea
(single recipe)
1 C sea salt
1 C Epsom salt
8-10 drops clove oil
10-15 drops sweet orange oil
mix the above together, then add
1 1/2 C hibiscus flowers
1/2 C chamomile 
1/2 C lavender

Then place 3 Tbs. into each bag

There are tons of variations so if you're interested peruse online.  I don't think the proportions are are set in stone, just make a mixture based on preference.   I like the idea of adding oatmeal to them too.

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