Spring Has Sprung!

If you're anything like me (living in the northeast), you’ve been dreaming about spring for months!  As I tackle my spring cleaning, change my indoor décor and wait for my outside flowers to bloom, I thought what better way to ring in spring then creating a beautiful, bright wreath for my home.

Let’s make one together today using this tutorial.  As you make your own, please let me know if you run into any questions along the way.  Happy wreath making!

To begin you will need the following:

• Grapevine Wreath (purchased mine at Michaels for $4.99)
• A variety of fake flowers (I used 8 tulips and one bunch of heather)
• Ribbon ( I used burlap ribbon in 2 different sizes – 1.5” and 5/8”)
• Floral Wire
• Wire Cutters
• Hot Glue

(**If you have a Michaels near you – watch for the deals! I went on a day that all flowers were half off and most of the time they offer a 40% off one item coupon in the store**)

I started my wreath by making the bow.

If you've never made a bow before - begin with folding the smaller end of the ribbon onto the longer end of the ribbon (as it is above). 

Next - take the longer front of the ribbon and wrap it around the back of the shorter side (as it is above).

Once the longer piece is around the back of the shorter piece, pull the longer piece through the loop that was just created. 

Once you've pulled the piece through the loop, it should look like the above.  You will then need to tighten up the bow.  This takes a little bit of pulling and tugging.  Keep working the ribbon until you're happy with the look of it. 

Once the steps above are complete, I repeated them again to make a second bow.  When you have your two bows made, hot glue them onto each other criss-crossed (as shown above).  Once your glue has dried, you are now ready to place the bow on your grapevine.  Using your wire, tie the bow down to the wreath. Hide the wire under your bow loops.  

Using your wire cutters, cut a few stems of your flowers down. Mine were cut to all different lengths. 

Once you have a few cut, start to arrange them around your wreath.  How it looks will be completely your preference. For me, I felt the symmetry of 4 tulips on each side looked best. Attach a few of your flowers to the grapevine wreath using hot glue. Cluster the stems under the bow that is on your wreath and also glue them into place. 

As I placed the tulips onto the wreath, I tried to tuck in whatever I could into the grapevine. For anything that I couldn't tuck in, I hot glued down.  Once the tulips were in place, I took my "bunch" of heather and cut off smaller pieces. I used these pieces to fill any holes that I saw in between the tulips – again this is based on preference. I also left the leaves on a few of the flower stems as I felt this looked more natural and helped to fill the wreath. 

When you have the wreath looking like you want, be sure that all of your flowers are hot glued down.  To finish, take some of your smaller ribbon and loosely wrap it around the wreath in several places. I ended the smaller ribbon under my bow and hot glued it down. 

Use the remainder of your ribbon to tie your wreath to a door hook, wall mount, etc. 

And there you have it - a beautiful spring wreath to usher in the warmer weather. Have a great weekend my fellow chickies! 

Crazy For Coconut Oil

Unrefined

   Refined

My husband and I went on our honeymoon to Bora Bora and that's where my obsession began. The islanders have so many uses for coconut. From its milk, to its oil, and even its husks, I was blown away by all of the benefits from this one fruit. When we returned to the states, I started to research coconut oil a bit more....fast forward 7 months and now it's my current obsession.

Refined vs. Unrefined:

Coconut oil comes in 2 forms: refined and unrefined. From my experience, they are every similar in nature. The only difference is the smell. Unrefined has that wonderful natural coconut aroma whereas the refined does not.

Uses: 

Whether it's used in cooking or for beauty, coconut oil can be used for so many things. I currently use it in several ways:

• Shaving - it's an amazing substitute for shaving cream. It leaves your legs feeling so silky smooth. 
• Hair Mask - massage the oil onto your scalp and leave on for as little as 5 minutes or as much as an hour (depending on how much time you have). Follow-up with your regular shampoo and conditioner as it can leave your hair feeling a bit oily. 
• Lotion 
• Chapped lips - Helps keep my lips moisturized on these cold, snowy, winter days in Boston.
• Teeth Stains - Put a scoop of coconut oil in your mouth for 20 minutes and it pulls stains from your teeth.....it's AMAZING! 
• Cooking oil for my favorite recipes (like this one: Coconut Bliss Balls) 

Need more ideas on how to use it? This fellow blogger offers up 101 ideas: http://wellnessmama.com/5734/101-uses-for-coconut-oil/

Its many forms: 

Many jars of coconut oil come in a solid form which is easily melted down. You can either melt it over a stove, place the jar in a hot bowl of water, or simply massage the solid oil between your fingers. You could even microwave it down; however, I am not a huge fan of the microwave. 

Where to purchase: 

You can most likely find coconut oil at your local grocery store or online. Where I've purchased from: Unrefined: Trader Joe's for $5.99 (my favorite!) Refined: Target 

I think that's it for now. I am excited that I was able to share this latest beauty obsession with you. For first time users - give it a shot and let me know what you think! For fellow users - how else are you using coconut oil? I'd love to hear!