Chocolate Cookies with Orange Buttercream Filling

So I am trying to find new ways to use up some of the stuff I have in my pantry. I have these boxes of Chocolate Peppermint mix I got after Christmas for cheap- like .25 cents a box. I do not really care for the peppermint- so I wanted to use the mix but give it more kick.


So i found this pinterest pin, and  HERE is the original post/site where it came from.

Here's what you need:

Cookie Mix or Cake mix ( chocolate) Follow directions on the package of the cooking mix. I used a cookie mix NOT a cake mix.

For the Cake Mix to make cookies:
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Mix all ingredients together.
 Roll into 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch balls
350 degrees for about 8 minutes.
Let them cool before you frost them

For the Orange Buttercream filling

1/2 cup of butter, softened to room temp.

2 tablespoons milk

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. orange extract

I omitted making them orange like the original poster did. I dont care for food coloring. I also made them chocolate buttercream instead of orange buttercream. I just used cocoa powder to taste

Mix all together and spread on cookies.  Voila!

Here's a picture of my cookies . OH. MY. HEAVENS. They were amazing.

xoxo
Stephanie

Pros and Cons - Bath Fizzies DIY

I am all for making things to save some money. Just ask anyone that knows me. So when I saw the bath fizzies, or bath bombs as people call them, on Pinterest, I just had to try them.

My advice? Buy them pre-made. Seriously. Unless you want to buy in bulk for your supplies, spend hours making them, and then have 1332353 bath bombs in your kitchen, this is not for you. 

I am a Scentsy Independent Consultant. And we have a line of bath tablets that are A. more cost effective, B. smells great, and C. already have packaging that are 100 times better then the ones you can make for yourself. Again, unless you are wanting to make these to sell.... check out Scentsy's. I promise you they are great. I have used them. And now I have made my own. 

Here's the cost of Scentsy Bath Tablets: 

10.00 

They come in a lot of different fragrances ( my personal favorite is Lucky in Love which smells like Love Spell)

Here's a link to check them out- Scentsy Bath Tablets

Now you might be thinking "10.00! That's kind of expensive." 

Here's what it cost to make my own ( and keep in mind this does not include colors- you have to use special colorants so it wont stain, or any essential oils or carrier oils for your body like the Scentsy ones does.)

All I used was 3 ingredients:

Baking Soda

Citric Acid

Peppermint Oil ( not extract!!!)

The cheapest citric acid i could find w/ shipping was 4.49 and that was for 4 oz. 

The cheapest Peppermint Oil i could find was 1 oz for 6.30 shipped

Um that adds up to over 10.00

that doesnt include the baking soda which is relatively inexpensive but you are now at around 12.00 w/ tax for all your items. 

This was just to make a gift. One gift. This doesnt include your time to do this either. Or a mold. I had to go dig out a mold! ( mine are very small b/c I did not have the funds to buy a mold just for a bath bomb!)

Not to mention i have to let them sit for 4-8 hours before i can touch them.

So I followed this Pinterest link HERE and made my own. But do not get me wrong- Soap Queen is amazing. And there are some things in her blog and on her youtube link that I really cant wait to try. But if I did it with everything she wanted me to use, id be out over 20 bucks just for some bath fizzies. For one person. Im too frugal for that and know when purchasing them is a lot easier and better then doing it yourself. 

Its a fun project to do, do not get me wrong, but about 5 of mine didnt come out :( and if i wanted to make them larger, you are looking at getting about 4 out of what i used for about 13.00. And if you want to make them colored or maybe add some oils for your skin add on another 10 plus bucks. So 23.00 and up for 4 no thanks. Too much work for me. I encourage replies and responses. I also encourage you, if you are skeptical, to try it for yourself. Try the Scentsy and try your own. Ill stick with Scentsy!

xoxo-

Stephanie

DIY Bodywash- Pinterest Project

First off- Merry Christmas! ( yes I know its still 48 hours away) I wanted to wish my new fans a very Merry Christmas. Not a Happy Holiday. Sorry, not that kinda girl here ;)

Ok so onto the fun part. My DIY adventure into making my own body wash. Here is the original Pinterest Link - DIY Bodywash that i went off of when doing this little task.

I have to say, that whoever originally pinned this, must have had some magic on their side, because I followed it to a T and still came out runny. I had to let mine sit for about 24 hours in the bottle before it became body wash, and not body milk. Works great now.

Also, the original pinner said to use 2 cups of water and half a bar. Um yeah no.

Here's what I used to make it :

2 Cups of water and 1 full bar

This filled up one of those disposable ketchup/mustard bottles perfectly.

I grated and chunked my bar soap up first. Then put it all on my stove in a pan. I used a candy thermometer to get it up to 190 degrees which seemed to be the trick it making it thicker. I then had a milk like substance, very very thin, so i just poured it in the bottle and waited. After 24 hours and a good shake, its now pretty decent in the consistency of actual body wash. 

Here's my finished project 

I just used a regular bar of Olay soap. I had gotten some for .27 cents for 2 bars with some coupons I had and figured why not try it out. My advice? Play with the recipe and see what works best. Im glad i added the extra soap !

xoxox-

Stephanie

DIY Bath Scrub/Hand Scrub and Bath Salts

I am a sucker for bath products. When we went on our honeymoon, there was this store that I had gone into a few times on previous trips, that had all these amazing looking (and smelling) bath products. Soaps and scrubs to the hearts content. 

On my honeymoon, I bought some. And spent 50.00. And it wasn't even that much. But I was happy. Then I found Pinterest. And now I am like "Why didn't I look online sooner???" 

There are so many versions out there. And me, being a newbie, decided to use the simplest one. Just to see if I could really "do" this. And I can. And it was easy. AND I FELT ALL POWERFUL.

First, I made a lemon hand scrub. 

2.5 cups sugar 

Lemon juice- now they say to go for fresh lemon juice, but our Walmart was out of single lemons ( really???) so I got the small bottled lemon juice next to it. It wasnt working to my liking ( not enough smell) so i used lemon extract. Just a small small bit to give it some smell. 4 tablespoons lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract worked well for me

1 cup olive oil. It is supposed to be extra virgin olive oil but i ran out and only had half a cup so i had to use regular olive oil. 

Mix all together. Put in cute container. Your done.

 Here's mine:

Excuse my mess ;) I am not neat when I create. I just used jelly jars from Wal-Mart. These were 8 bucks for a set of 12

Next, I decided to make some Bath salts. I had done some research and saw so many different ways to do this. Then I found one that was super simple. I , however, did not use essential oils because I do not have any on hand. It did say you can use extracts though. It doesnt have any of the properties that oils would have ( which ill have in my next batch) but it smells awesome and still has the properties of the salts for your bath.

Here's what you need:

1 cup Epsom Salts

1/2 cup kosher salt ( i used course sea salt kosher salt)

essential oil ( or extract i used strawberry and coconut) i used a VERY  little and it was more than enough, my whole house smelled like coconut and strawberries lol

Food color- i used blue in the coconut just one drop at a time so it doesnt melt the salts. I only used 2 drops. For the Strawberry it was already pink colored ( the extract) so i added only 1 drop to give it a bit more pink/red color. 

Combine the salts and mix. Then add everything else and stir/mix well! Thats it. 

Now, onto the fun part - GIVEAWAY!!!

One person will win one of each! Just enter the Rafflecopter below to win. 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DIY Christmas Ornaments

OK, So I was trying to find something fun and quirky to make to put on my pink tree this year. I have Tinkerbell ornaments I use every year, but I always want to make things more personal. I came across this project while surfing the internet for something else. It was originally for keychains using wooden squares. I would most definitely use the wooden squares for key chains or for necklaces. But for ornaments, I think these work great.

All you need is the following:

Jewelry Findings

This is a set of tiles from The Home Depot. I bought the entire sheet for under 3.00

A Glue Gun

Then all I did was hot glue the jewelry finding to the back of one of the tiles. Then took a sharpie and decorated. You could use anything. Super easy. I made sure to hot glue it on and then hot glue it on top to secure it.

Enjoy!

Storing Fabric

So, I am a huge sewer these days. I have always loved fabrics, and usually will be 1/2 yards and yards at a time, when I find a print I like, or more if I really love it. But over time, I get confused on what I have bought.

I will be in the store going " Did I buy this last week??" and then I end up buying duplicates when I really do not need to spend the money.

I hate putting fabric in bins, because then you can not see what you have, or easily access it when you want to make something, without digging for it. And that hurts my back. And frustrates me when I can not find something I KNOW I have.

So, I decided to do some looking around the net. I went to Pinterest and of course there are tons of storage idea's. Even getting old bolts that fabric come on to wrap them around and store them. But, who has a spare fabric shelf in their house? And then I saw the idea about putting them around file hangers, and being able to hang them in filing cabinets. I thought " Brilliant! I will be able to just tab through them." Which is a great idea, but I do not have any filing cabinets, nor do I want to go buy any. I am frugal remember?

So tonight, while I was trying to find some fabric, once again, for a project I wanted to do, I came up with a great idea. I am sure someone, somewhere has done this, but it is new to me.

Take a hanger, the ones you hang shorts with, that have the clips on the end? Yep those- and hang up your fabric. Um, hello, super easy, cheap ( i have a gazillion of these laying around right now) and best of all you can probably find a closet to use in your house. I have a craft room with a walk in closet. Now I know what I am going to be doing with that unused space.

And, here's one of the best features- you do not have to bend over to get to anything. Its eye level. Brilliant.

If you have more than 2 yards you might have to cut it or store that, as I am not sure how much it would hold on a hanger. But for me 1-2 yards and less is all I usually have on hand. I am not to the "by the bolt" stage just yet.

xoxo
-Stephanie

Getting married? Check out this Blog!

A fellow couponer and blogger is engaged! Lisa over from Drugstore Diva's is engaged to be married, and has started up a great blog called A Bride on a Budget. And we all love to be frugal right? So head on over there and check it out.

As soon as I get my coupon blog back up and running ( sigh) I will be putting her link on there too.

So from all of us at Penny Pincher Pixie ( and DIY Pixie) we wish you much luck, success and love Lisa!!!


xoxox
Stephanie