I just LOVE sending Oil Samples!

What I do is SO MUCH FUN! I get to be creative and smell delightful, mood altering aroma while helping others by giving a gift that promotes better overall health. WOW! Giving out samples of essential oils is such a blessing for my heart!

This weekend our awesome essential OIL TEAM is gathering to put on a our monthly EDUCATE & EXPERIENCE Class. Where we teach essential oils 101 and then in the next hour we have stations with some great DIY projects. We provide the containers and ingredients needed , you provide your essential oil to use. We teach you how to use it.... you teach others to use it! 

SIMPLY SUBLIME! 

>>>----For those looking to register for our DIY Class this Sunday------>>>

Let them EAT Cake: Best Ever Birthday Cake Recipe's & Easy DIY Decorating

When in doubt...ADD RIBBON!

recipe found at add a pinch and listed below

This was so EASY-PEASY...and I think it turned out super-duper cute. 

To be quite honest this happened by total accident. I was frosting the cake and thought it needed a little extra something. Oh yes indeed,  I do have all of the proper wilton cake decorating tubes, tips and ingredients to whip up something beautiful but... to be quite frank... I didn't want to put in the effort. Yeah, Mom of the year award here. But let me explain why before you go judging my lack of love effort here. I had been cooking up my daughter's favorite Italian Feast of bread sticks from scratch, Steak Gorgonzola and a Chicken Fettucine...ALL.DAY.LONG! This cake decorating was the final step, whew. 

So, as I was looking at this flatly frosted creation I decided to pull out that "easy" gun frosting shooter thingy (cake decorator) that can be used for making all food dishes pretty... a'hem. Yeah, right, maybe deviled eggs once a year on Easter.

My frosting was a bit soft but I was in a slam-jam hurry so, I slopped it into the tube and started shooting my cake around the rim with little star point slabby dots,  rather unsuccessfully. UGH! Okay...when in doubt ADD MORE! Lets run a little around the base of the cake. Eh...not much better. Somehow these little additions to the cake were actually drawing the eye to the imperfections and making it look even sadder. Atleast to me anyway. AND, I wanted a HAPPY cake. Yes, I said it ... a HAPPY CAKE! 

Then as if hit in the head by the most brilliant brainstorm ever I remembered the adorable bright hot pink polka dot ribbon in the the wrap drawer. Ahhh...... lovely, just lovely. That paired with the adorable long sparkler candles we picked up and the cake was complete. Pretty cute, huh?

Now for this little beauty - Toasted Coconut Layer Cake with Coconut Butter Cream

Recipe at Food Network & Listed below

This Coconut Layer Cake photo and recipe has been waiting to blog about since July but just after I made it we were off to Africa. So, it has sat waiting oh-so-patiently for it's BIG reveal. 

This is one of my favorite Chef's {Bobby Flay's}recipes from a show called Throwdown. You can't really see my layers in the photo...but they are there. I should have turned my sliced cake layer over so it would show up better when cut. Lesson learned.

Some cakes just don't need much decorating, and this is one of those. The toasted coconut on it makes it simply divine...like eye candy at it's best. I guess for those unfortunate souls who don't like coconut it may lack some luster but we LOVE us some coconut in this fam!

The recipe on this one is a bit more involved with many more steps than the chocolate cake - but it required less decorating. Can I say I could have dove in the bowl and ate each of the layers before they were even assembled? Yes, it is all THAT GOOD! 

There is something so rewarding about whipping out a homemade Birthday Cake! I can't remember the last time we purchased a birthday cake - because my kids are always excited to dig into the home made YUM-FEST created for their special day. It really doesn't take a lot - but think about what it adds to your home. Your kiddos SEE you creating something to celebrate them, they also SMELL the deliciousness wafting throughout the rooms of your home in the process, and finally they get to TASTE the yumminess of what you made on their behalf. Can you picture it - it is like a Hallmark Greeting Card or Norman Rockwell scene right? Okay, okay - well, life isn't about perfection - it is about the enjoying the process. 

Just remember you don't have to be a professional baker or cake decorator to pull this off. Ribbon and fun candles can make all the difference. Some curled chocolate or toasted coconut can add a lil' extra yum factor and eye appeal. Just relax and have fun with it. Your kids will notice your deposit of love in action.

Okay here are the recipes: 

{or you can clink on the links under the photos and print them out}

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. -Eph. 5:2

-Simply Sublime

Retreat Treats 101: Framed Love Quote Designs DIY Project

Oh, how I LOVE me a good retreat!!! I love taking time away from the hustle & bustle to refresh, renew and re-focus. One of my favorite things in the WORLD is to help create these fantabulous and much needed getaways. Give me a day or a weekend and I start dreaming of themes, conversations to be had, decor to doll it up, goodie bags to bless. 

Budget can be one of the biggest road blocks in the move from dreaming it up to pulling it off. The smallest of trinkets or party decor can end up blowing a hole in your budget in no time flat. At this point disappointment and discouragement can begin to settle in dashing all of your previous hopes for an amazing event. Don't you fret.... I have a couple of great ideas to share with you. 

Let's get this ball rollin' with Framed Quote Art. 

The Quote Art I am sharing in this post came from a recent retreat we had focused on what it looks like to... 

I have an entire post coming soon that will be wrapped around the theme of this retreat. For now let's focus on one of my FAVORITE elements to add in: fun Quote Art focused around the retreat theme. The reason I really love this idea is it packs a punch that reaches beyond the event. The framed art is multi-purpose which really gives you a bang for your buck...literally. 

• 1. They beautify in any location, no matter the style of the venue.
• 2. They encourage more thought or conversation on the topic being taught
• 3.They are great give-aways for participants to take home
• Once brought home they are great reminders of the message & the special times shared.

You can find quite a few chalkboard background freebies out in web-land, along with free fonts and design elements (swirls, doodles, etc). You may even find some royalty-free graphics with quotes or verses that are already to go. To really keep the cost down I decided to keep the designs I was creating at either a  5x7 in overall size or 4x6 because I knew printing and frames would be cheaper.

Once I had a good variety of designs I was ready for the next step which is converting them into a .jpg image that can be easily uploaded and printed at a photo developing establishment.

I have a favorite 24 hour neighborhood drugstore with a photo developing section that typically will whip out whatever I send them within an hour or two. I uploaded my .jpg designs on their website as I would any digital photos I would have printed, selected the sizes I wanted them, along with how many copies and VOILA! Super-peasey-easy.

Next step would be to find cheap-o frames that were cute, wouldn't take away from the graphics and had a glass front, not plastic. Check dollar stores or inexpensive box stores - the other option would be to think ahead and go hit some garage sales.

For these designs I was on the hunt for the simplest of frames. I am a believer if you have a lot going on in the graphic design / art then the frame should be next to nothing as far as design. In that case the frame should put the spotlight on the artwork it beholds. If you have an artful, detailed frame let the art contained by it be simple and highlight the frame. It is like a good make-up artist will tell you - choose your focus - pop your eyes or your lips with intense color - not both or it is overdone. 

As you can see these designs are pretty busy or text heavy...yep, keeping the frame simple is a must.

Our retreat was located in a log cabin up on a mountain by a river. Yes, it is okay to be jealous... it was GORGEOUS! The beautiful sunshine greeted us with a warm welcome and lit up the - oh, okay it is hard to call this place a cabin, it was more like a lodge or house.  Our nature rich surroundings were a reminder to us that God loves us, that his creation is something beautiful for us to behold, find rest in and praise him for.

The framed art was placed in different locations throughout the home with flowers and candles to create cute little groupings that would attract the eye and warm the space. 

The total cost for each of these was between $1.20 to $2.49. Yowza! I also had extra 4x6 prints made up @.19 cents a piece that they could grab n' go with to frame for themselves or switch out if they were in love with one that was already taken - and extras were taken. 

It was such an inexpensive idea that added a substantial punch to the party! We ALL know a good retreat has a party atmosphere at some point in the weekend, am I right? 

I have more Retreat Treats 101 ideas coming over the next few days. Hope you enjoy!

-Simply Sublime

Kombucha 101: the journey continues

So we WAIT! 

I told you once we transferred it into a large mouth glass container we would re-post. So as promised, here it is. On February 24th we started our Kombucha Creation Quest. We started our batch with out the Mother Scoby they suggest - so we knew it would take quite a bit longer.

We are 2-1/2 weeks into the journey and we can see (and smell) the kombucha making in action. The liquid is a little milky right now with the obvious beginnings of  a MOTHERLOAD... 

• SYMBIOTIC
• COLONY 
• Of 
• BACTERIA and 
• YEAST

Not sure the photos give you an idea of the progress we are making - but the floaties are growing and there is a translucent gel like layer growing on the top of the jar. We are loving checking it, but being careful not to disturb it too much. 

At this point (taking a wild stab here) I am assuming that the actual liquid in this jar will not be something we consume. It is smelling strongly like yeasty vinegar...YUM right? I think we will grow the scoby and reserve some of the liquid to start a fresh batch for our first consumption experience. 

We shall see though...

KOMBUCHA 101: Day Two of the Best Homeschool Experiment Ever

If you didn't see my previous blog on Kombucha 101  - you may want to check-it-out prior to trying to follow this post. 

 Things you will need to start your Kombucha the way we are making it:

• 1/2 Cup Kombucha Starter (you can get this at your local health food store. Just pick up any bottle of kombucha that you see chunky / slimies floating in - make sure it is unpasteurized)
• 2 qt. boiled filtered water
• 1 Cup organic cane sugar (didn't have this so we used regular)
• 4 qt. filtered water (room temp)
• 2-4 tea bags depending on strength of tea

So today we start our 2nd day of Let's Make Kombucha. First we needed 2 quarts of  filtered water brought to boil. (so right off the bat we had opportunity to re-visit conversion)  

After the water was brought to a boil we put it back into the glass measuring bowl to add the sugar.

So in it goes... 1 Cup O' Sugar.

Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Next it is time to get the lovely little tea bags a brewing in it. We have a girl (middle daughter 19 yrs old)  in our house who has a bit of a tea addiction. Our local tea house knows her well by now. So we always have an eclectic variety of teas in adorable glass jars. After some official sniff-testing we decided (against common Kombucha suggestions) to use a white blueberry tea (they say to use green or black). We did toss in a plain old bag of black tea to the mix. Just in case there is a scientific reason for one of the two types suggested. 

We put in 3 bags of the white tea and 1 black tea bag to steep in the hot sugar water mixture.

For this phase you leave the tea seeping until the water cools - approx 15-20 minutes. 

Once the water has come close to room temperature it is time to add 4 more quarts of filtered water to the tea mix. Now comes the time to toss it all together in a BIG glass jar.

add the Kombucha Starter: How much will depend on the weather in your zone and the temperature in your house. It needs to stay at a minimum of 65 degrees. If your home is on the cooler side you will need more kombucha starter - if it is on the warmer side  start with a little under 1/2 cup. 

We tossed in all we were given in this batch. 1 - it is winter and stinking cold. 2- it is winter and we live in a house with a REALLY BAD draft problem - so it is stinking cold. We didn't measure it but I would guess we had between 2/3 &  3/4 cup of the starter kombucha.

Now you are ready to add a few layers of cheesecloth over the top and secure it tightly with a rubber band....and now you wait. They say if you started with a  mature scoby that you would have a completed batch in 12-14 days. However since we started with a batch of starter without the scoby we will see just how long it takes.  Can't wait to see the growing little slime fest happening in our concoction. Photos to come as they develop.

NOTE} You may notice this glass jar has a small opening. This IS NOT a good idea. Once the scoby grows it will be trapped inside the bottle with no chance of harvesting it to multiply. We started the project while one of our eldest daughters was running to get the LARGE wide mouth glass jar. Guess what? Yep - no one had it. They were out of stock at the two store where they usually carry them. This particular batch is going to take quite a long time to grow so as it is in slow-start mode we have time to get the proper container. We will post a picture when we finally have our little hands on it.

KOMBUCHA 101: Best Homeschool Experiment Ever

OH.MY.WORD! Have you tried Kombucha? It is SOOOOO good! Now, I am talking FLAVOR here. I absolutely LOVE it! Not to mention the supposed health benefits:

• DIGESTION 
• DETOX
• IMMUNE BOOST
• JOINT CARE 
• LIVER FUNCTION
• CANCER FIGHTING
• MENTAL CLARITY
• MOOD STABILITY
• IMMORTAL HEALTH ELIXIR??? 

               (as the ancient Chinese called it)

YES PLEASE!

Whether these factoids are true or not - the drink itself is delightful. A little glass of probiotic bevie  that’s been fermented by a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. I mean who wouldn't want to sip on that all day long? Okay so perhaps that doesn't sound all that appetizing - but it really is. 

Bad News: It can break the bank. 

So what's a gal to do? Every good homeschool Mom knows (hee hee)  the goal is to get your kids to be self-sufficient. That's right. We are going to learn how to make it ourselves. 

So, I will consider this our NUMBER #1, most important homeschool lesson of the year (Perhaps most important lesson of a lifetime - after all if this is as successful as I imagine it will be it is a triple-dee-dipple benefit for me) .  Not only that, it will cover Science, Nutrition, Home Ec, and perhaps we can squeeze in some Photography and English projects with it. 

WOW - I just impressed myself with how great this project of ours really is. Let me take a minute and soak in my brilliancy....................... yeah... it's GOOD! Now that I am thinking of it, maybe we should start working  on a physical therapy unity study too where massage is the first thing to master. AND a taste testing best cheeseburger in the world study. Hey - here's a thought, what about a complete house care cleaning unit? Yeah, my humor is giving me the chuckles. But still...perhaps it does deserve more thought.

Anywhooo - I do believe this Kombucha is an inspired and well-supported idea. It just so happens since we BREWED to BREW (brewed the idea to brew the tea - clever right?) God has provided two unknown to us support systems. In the 3 days since concept we have been in the presence of 2 different women who make their own. This is CRAZY as we just met one of the women, and the other one we haven't seen in over 6 months. One gave us the starter  pictured above. The second actually has a full grown scoby (mushroom looking ditty) she said we could have. She has been making her delicious blueberry green tea Kombucha for 3 years. Not only that - she brought a jug of hers to a girls night we were at and it was SO YUMMY!!! Makes us all the more excited to get  doing the KOMBUCHA dance and CHUG!  

So here is where we are at right now - we have the starter in a large mouth mason jar (needs to be glass not plastic) that has a cheesecloth topper on it with a ring to hold it in place. This allows for breathing without yuck-o-muck getting in it. Step TWO will come tomorrow as we try to develop this into a mature scoby. So keep checking back to see how we are progressing. 

When we receive the mature one we may just get two batches going. I have a feeling our family will soon be known as the KOMBUCHISTS> 

Here is looking forward to a happy glass of Kombucha! Cheers!