Agape Gems

Introduction Personal care items are becoming so expensive these days. You shouldn't have to pay a fortune to pamper yourself. This simple homemade sugar body scrub is refreshing, rejuvenating and costs just pennies to make. Once you accumulate the supplies you'll be able to make endless amounts for yourself and also for gifts. Instructions Difficulty: Easy Things You'll Need Metal or plastic mixing spoon Clean and dry glass or plastic jars with tight fitting lids Measuring cups 1/4 cup jojoba oil 2 Metal or glass mixing bowls A couple tablespoons of lemon juice 1/2 cup white sugar Essential oil such as lavender 1 cup brown sugar Steps 1 Step One Assemble all your ingredients and prepare a clean working surface. The kitchen is the best place for this project. 2 Step Two Blend the brown sugar and white sugar together in a large bowl and set aside. 3 Step Three Mix your liquid ingredients together in a smaller bowl. First the jojoba oil, lemon juice and finally the essential oil. Add this in small increments, incorporating as you go to reach the desired fragrance potency. 4 Step Four Combine liquids with the sugars and incorporate until a paste consistency is achieved. Add more jojoba oil if the mixture seems too dry, or sugar if it is too wet. 5 Step Five Add the scrub mixture to your containers and seal with a tight fitting lid. Wipe the outside of the container to remove any scrub residue before labeling. Overall Tips & Warnings Use interesting bottles to hold your homemade sugar body scrub. Old jelly jars and specialty food jars are great and you're recycling too. Tie raffia or other ribbon around the lid for gift giving. Cooking supply stores are a great place to pick up a small scoop to dispense the scrub. Tie with the raffia around the lid. A cheaper option for the scoops would be simple wooden craft spoons that you can pick up at a craft store. Choose essential oils based on the season for gift-giving. Mix multiple oils for a robust fragrance. Jojoba oil is a little more costly. Other oil options include grape seed, almond and apricot. Visit your health food store to pick up the oil. You can usually find your essential oils there too. You can use a wooden spoon for mixing. Just note that you should use it exclusively for scrubs since it will retain the fragrance you use. A little of the essential oil will go a long way so add it sparingly. Who Can Help Find more sugar scrub tips at pioneerthinking.com Review different recipes here Even more recipes can be found at natural-moms.com

How to Make and Package a Body Scrub Making a scrub is extremely easy and cheap yet stores manage to charge high prices and people actually pay them. Why? Because you are paying for the packaging and design of the product. Follow these instructions to make a professional looking high quality scrub that looks like it cost a fortune. [edit] Ingredients 1/4 cup light olive oil 1/4 cup fine sea salt salt 1/4 cup liquid soap 2 drops of lavender or rose essential oil 2 drops of geranium essential oil Small bottle Pink or purple food coloring Dried pink flowers or lavender (optional) String (optional) Cellophane (optional) Light brown crepe paper (optional) [edit] Steps Sterilize the bottle (you can do this by putting it in the microwave). Add a few drops of pink or purple food coloring to the salt and mix well until you reach a pastel color. Add a small amount each time as you never know how dark it will be until it is totally mixed. Add and mix all ingredients. Pour the mixture (the scrub) into the bottle. Download and print the labels on heavy paper. They can be downloaded for free at Body Scrub Paste the label on the top of the page onto the front of the jar. Use a paintbrush and glue for perfect results. Cut out a square of crepe paper approximately double the size of the lid. Cut out a piece of clear cellophane exactly the same size as the crepe paper. Place the crepe paper on the lid. Place a few pieces of dried lavender (if you used purple food color) or dried pink roses (if you used pink food color) in the center of the lid. Place the cellophane over the crepe paper. Place an elastic band around the top of the lid to keep it in place. Tie the string around the bottle and through the label which you cut out from the bottom of the page that you downloaded. Remove the elastic band once the string is securely tied (optional). [edit] Tips You can use any kind of oil and any essential oil or variation of different essential oils. [edit] Warnings Avoid contact with eyes. Do not use on open wounds.

I just followed the recipe on the package. I bought "something fabulous" pure glycerin soap base b/c it can be melted in the microwave. Then for each bar of soap I added about 10-15 drops of fragrance, a few drops of color, and a little bit of shea butter. I know those are not very specific instructions but everything is printed on the package. If you don't have a hobby lobby near you, check Walmart. I just saw a soap making kit there today. Also, I read on another DIY site that you can buy plain ivory soap, use a cheese grater to grate into thin pieces, melt in a double boiler, then add fragrance and coloring, pour into a mold and in a few hours it will be back to the original consistency. Lot of DIY projects here: wikiHow - The How-to Manual That You Can Edit

A Sunday in late Feb works for me

I am planning to make scented glycerin soaps to put in OOT bags. Just thought I would bump this thread up in case anyone one else is looking for a simply DIY gift. If you have a Hobby Lobby near you they sell everything you need. I spent about $40 and that was for the glycerin, a few scents (coconut, citrus fruit, lime verbena...) dyes to make soaps different colors based on scent, molds to make them in different shapes, and some extras like shea butter to make the soap more moisturizing. I should have enough to make about 30 bars. I think I'm going to wrap them in some natural-looking paper and attach a hanging tag with our logo on one side and a description of the soap on the other side.

My schedule is pretty flexible, what part of Atlanta are ya'll in? I live in Alpharetta and I work in Vinings.

After the ceremony. My ceremony is at 11, so i'm doing everything at the Gazebo except the cake cutting while i still have my dress on. So after we take pictures, we will do 1st dance, bouquet/garder toss, & toasts from BM and MOH.

Sure! let me know when and where : )

I'm planning to use recorded music for the ceremony and to keep it simple i'm putting only one song each CD and labeling what it is. So 1 cd will have song for BM entrance, then 1 cd with song for my entrance, 1 cd for song for our walk back down the aisle, and then one cd with the song for our first dance that we will do in the gazebo.

I have used UPS to ship things to a hotel before and just put "hold for guest arrival on April.." and my name. But I will check with Chandlyn to see if I can do that there.

I say ask the 3rd if you really want her to be in the wedding, regardless of making the numbers equal. I'm sure she would be honored

Thanks for all of your perspectives! So it's settled, I'm walking alone and having FI meet me half way. (even though it seems from pics that aisle is not that long at ROR)

Angela- the canon ball is awesome! Thanks for sharing : )

Thanks ladies. My father will be there, but we don't have a good relationship at all so I just feel it would be fake to have him "give me away" and I thought about asking my mom b/c we are close, but then I thought that would just make the fact that my dad isn't walking with me even more akward. I really like the idea of FI meeting me half way! We have been together for 8 years (we met in freshman year of college) and we both really feel like this day is only about us b/c the ceremony is going to happen regardless of whoever else is there. Thanks again!

The pool is a great idea. Thanks

Hey I'm just curious if any of the brides are walking down the aisle alone? I really don't have anyone that I truly want to "give me away" and I'm totally fine with walking my self down the aisle, but I already know I'm going to have to hear it from family members that I shouldn't do that. Just wondering if anyone else is in the same position, and how you are handling opinionated family members.

Agape Gems Home handmade jewelry code: wedding 25% off entire order and free shipping

Ok- so I had never heard of this until last week. I think the pictures are fantastic and I would definitly get a 2nd dress b/c mine is traditional and poofy with beading. But is there any symbolism in doing this? Are you doing it with your guests watching or is it later? I would have to do it on a different day b/c my wedding is at 11am and want my hair to still look nice for the dinner reception. And I know this is going to sound crazy, by my fiance hates the sand and the water so I know he would have no interest in doing this. He goes to the beach in socks and sandals so that he doesn't have to feel the sand inbetween his toes! So I'm not sure it would be so much fun to do by myself, so i was thinking I might ask my BMs to do it with me, but not if there is some significance to it. any thoughts?

Paper Umbrellas Colored

I think we are getting the GM really nice garmet bags with thier last names embroidered. I'm going to put their shirt and pants in the bag when we give it to them.

Try this email for the RIU Ochos Rios: [email protected] She takes a few days to respond, but eventually she does. Don't freak out too much. I was in your exact place a week ago when I found this site and realized I had done NOTHING but book a date last year. I'm getting married April 12 so I'll see ya there!

I think American Express Travelers Checks are definitly the way to go. I'm going to email the resort and ask if they will cash them Most hotels will. That way we could just cash how ever much we think we will need for the day. Just make sure you keep the checks hidden separate from the #s and if they do happen to get stolen, report it immediately before they can be used.

I found some nice beach bags at Garden Ridge for a $1 and I'm putting a folding fan, a cute headband (girls), homemade soap, aloe vera gel, a chrome luggage tag, and photo album in each one. Each one is around $10 total.

this is the 2nd review I have seen where a safe was drilled open at ROR... that's a little alarming. The other posting was on trip advisor and the girl said the hotel was not willing to do anything about it. She and her husband figured out it was the maintenance man who was suppose to fix the fan in thier room but the hotel never did anything. Are ya'll going to suggest to your guests that they not use the safe? I don't want to alarm people but I also don't want to make them easy targets.

Has anyone stayed at other all-inclusive resorts before like Sandals and Couples? The staff there will not take cash tips from you, it's a strict policy. I'm suprised that RIU is different. I wonder if the staff gets paid better at the other resorts....