Typically I do not make holiday gifts because I am just too busy around the holidays. And quite frankly, other than making and baking food, I’m not much of a do-it-yourself-er. But 2020 is a different year. We all need more nuturing and pampering, not only during the stressful holiday season, but especially this year. So I stepped out of my comfort zone and am making 2 gifts. Today is Gift #1’s reveal and tomorrow you will see the other.

Also, my blogging buddies, Andrea from Design Morsels and Chas from Chas Crazy Creations are sharing their Holiday DIY ideas at the bottom of this post.

I am a big fan of giving a gift that is consumable, or a commodity that can be used up rather quickly. We all have received those white elephant gifts that we either donate, re-gift or take to a gag party. At this stage in our lives, we just have too much anyway.

With the theme of pampering and reducing stress, today’s DIY is an easy, simple, make-in-your-kitchen item. The ingredients can be ordered online and delivered so you don’t even need to go to the store. And I believe it to be timely (at least for me), because I have not exercised as much this year. Now that the gym is open, getting back into it is hard on my muscles.

And with the colder weather coming, there is nothing more relaxing and calming than a nice long bath.

Magnesium Flakes vs. Epsom salts

These Muscle Relaxing Magnesium Bath Salt recipe is from Pinterest and the original author is Laura, from Simply Laura Leigh. What I like about this particular recipe is that the ingredients are simple and clean. I have never used Magnesium Flakes vs. Epsom Salt so I did a little research.

Magnesium is world-renowned for its health benefits such as aiding sleep quality and relieving muscle tension. Epsom salts aren’t actually salt, but magnesium sulphate. They are sourced either from naturally occurring springs, or are created from synthetic materials.

Magnesium Flakes are a magnesium chloride solution which has been heated up then cooled down to create a hard sheet of highly-concentrated magnesium chloride that is then broken in to small pieces to create the ‘flakes’. Magnesium chloride is a naturally occurring compound which can be mined from ancient sea beds or in open-water sources like the Dead Sea.

While the appearance and application may be similar, the ‘unseen’ difference in absorption between Magnesium Flakes and Epsom Salts is what really sets these two compounds apart. The magnesium in magnesium flakes is a type of magnesium that is better absorbed and better processed by your body. The magnesium in Epsom salts is harder for your body to absorb and quickly processed out.

Benefits of Pink Himalayan and Baking Soda

Pink Himalayan sea salt is able to generate negative ions in the air, creating the type of calming effect many people experience on a saltwater beach.

Baking soda is a remarkable ingredient in the bath. Click here for the 10 benefits of baking soda on your skin from Medical News Today.

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Eucalyptus essential oil is my choice for this bath salt mixture, however, you can select any essential oil you want. Not only does eucalyptus oil open your nasal passages but it also eases joint pain.

I have never worked with shea butter before. Because of its moisturizing qualities and high vitamin content, shea butter is a great addition to these salts. So helpful with dry winter skin! I broke the butter up into smaller pieces and mixed it in with the other ingredients.

The Container

Naturally, since these are gifts, I want to present them in a pretty glass container. I found two sizes and styles at World Market, but if you can find them online here.

The Gift Tag or Label

You can either label or tag your gift with the ingredients. Using Avery Business Cards #5377, I am able to create my own design and add my logo. Avery has an easy design format to use online, especially if you use their templates. On the back is the ingredient list.

The Scoop or Spoon

These natural bamboo spoons work well to scoop the bath salts out of the container. Again, I bought these from World Market, but look at the variety of scoops here on Amazon! With this set above, I also have the forks and knives.

The Presentation

What a relaxing and pampering gift to include these muscle relaxing bath salts with other fun items to make a spa basket. Remember the lavender pillows I made (see post here)? Add a candle, a scrub brush and some soaps and you have a wonderful spa gift.

Ingredients and Links

Here are the ingredients you will need:

1 1/2 cup Ancient Minerals Magnesium Bath Flakes (I bought the 4.4 lb. container but it does come in 1.7 lbs too)

1/2 cup Baking Soda

1/2 cup Pink Himalayan Salt

1 TBSP Unrefined Shea Butter– I bought the 1 lb. bag, but you could do with a lesser quantity

10 drops Eucalyptus Oil

Recipe Directions

Combine the magnesium flats, baking soda, and pink Himalayan salt. Add the Eucalyptus oil (or the essential oil of your choice). Mix. Place in a container and place the shea butter on the top of the ingredients (I chose to mix mine in after I crumbled it into small pieces).

When you are ready to use your Muscle Relaxing Magnesium bath salts, just add it to a hot bath and soak for 30 minutes. Also try dry brushing your body, starting at your ankles and working upward with circular motion.

Drying bushing is a great way to not only shed dead skin cells but it has also been shown to help improve circulation and lymphatic drainage. The Dry Body Brush above is from World Market ($4.99). Others can be found here.

This is a very easy and fun DIY, providing you gifts you can be proud to give. Stay tuned for the 2nd DIY holiday gift idea that I will be sharing tomorrow.

P.S. Just a reminder that any words that are italicized bring you to the source. If it is a product on Amazon, please note that I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you purchase something through my website, I receive a small (very small!) stipend, which doesn’t affect the price you pay at all. My goal is to make sourcing the items easy for you. Thank you for your continued support.

Now for more Holiday DIY gift ideas

Andrea from Design Morsels is creating DIY Healthy Homemade Food Gifts.

Chas from Chas Crazy Creations is making DIY Hand Soap Dispensers

Thank you so much for joining me today! Happy DIY-ing!

Please share to Pinterest too if you enjoyed this post!

For those of you who know me, I do not do anything Christmas/holiday related until the day after Thanksgiving. No decorations, no gift buying, no holiday cards. However, 2020 is a completely different year, forcing completely different behavior. Ever since the pandemic started, our supply chain has been stressed. And even though there is toilet paper back on the shelves, many other items continue to be out of stock. Inventories are low. A recent trip to Walmart had 30% of the shelves completely empty.

So what can we do differently this year in our holiday gift planning? I am teaming up with my blogging buddies as we are trying to find viable solutions to gift giving. And I do believe we must all think about it sooner rather than later. Here’s just a peek into some ideas and hopefully I will generate a few more gift guides in the next few weeks. And please check out the links to other holiday gift ideas at the end of this post.

For the cook/foodie

My son, Benjamin is our family’s foodie and he loves to cook. Here are his recommendations in the kitchen:

• Instant Read Thermometer. Link is here

• Good Oven Gloves. Link is here

• Nice Balsamic Vinegar~Hands down, our FAVORITE balsamic is from a very small shop in Pinetop, Arizona. This thick, delicious balsamic comes from Modena and is called the “mamma” of all balsamic. Link is here. Their shop has limited hours of Wednesday-Saturday, but you can order online or give them a call. $18.00/bottle

For the Gardener

As a gardener, I go through many things~gloves, shears, and tools.

Gardening Shears~Depending on your budget, here is a selection of shears/pruners.

Gardening Gloves: I literally can trash a pair of gardening gloves in one day in the garden. So having a few is always recommended. This 6 pack from Amazon is a great deal. Click here.

Gardening shoes: I’ve written about my Sloggers before. These were a Christmas present from my friend, Janie and I LOVE them. I wear a typical 7.5 women’s shoe and these Sloggers are a WO S 7 and they fit perfectly…..and oh so comfortable. Here is the link.

For the Wine Connoisseur

Costco is again featuring their wine Advent calendar this year. With 24 1/2 size bottles of wine from around the world. At $99.00, it works out to be about $4.00 per bottle. Wine advent calendar from Costco. Link is here.

As we all know, 2020 has been an interesting year. There are SO many wine glasses out there with fun quotes for the person who loves wine and has a sense of humor. See the extensive collection here.

For those wine enthusiasts who like to keep track of the wines they are enjoying, this leather bound wine journal is a lovely gift. Link is here.

For the Hostess

My favorite candle is Capri Blue Volcano candle. Generally for the holidays, they change up their jar design but you cannot go wrong with this candle. If you prefer, there is also a reed diffuser.

Click the link here.

Small Prep Bowls: A gift from my friend, Connie, I use these 4″ bowls all the time when cooking, entertaining or just using them for food storage. Here is an affordable set of 16 for nearly $20.00.

I met the owner, Sherri of Mad Dash Mixes during a trip to Waco in June. So far the mixes I have tried are very good (and easy to use!). These mixes are just fabulous to have on hand if you need to whip up a dip, or a soup or dessert. Just for this blog post, Mad Dash Mixes has created a coupon for you for an additional 10% off! Any orders that you place using BELLATERRA10, will get you this discount.

Here is the link to their main page so you can peruse the numerous products they have. If you want to order the Host Bundle (Link here) it includes Warm Spinach Artichoke Dip, Cranberry Pasta Salad, Cheesy Chicken Enchilada, and Pumpkin Spice No-Bake Cheesecake. $21.00 (and don’t forget the discount code!)

Just some wonderful gift ideas:

23 and Me~for the person who is interested in real science, real data and genetic insights that can help make it easier for you to take action on your health. Especially this year, knowing more about your ancestry, genetics and health profile is a valuable gift. Link here.

My personal splurge is subscribing to the quarterly subscription to My Stylish French Box. It is such a treat to get this beautifully wrapped box filled with hand picked French items four times a year. You can also do a one-time purchase or give it to someone as a gift. I highly recommend this for yourself or someone who is extra special. My Stylish French box. Link here.

Help your local businesses as suggested by my friend Tevia on her Instagram.

As soon as I finish typing this I am going to start my holiday gift planning. I hope you enjoy today’s post and please send me any other ideas you have for holiday gifts.

And now for some other gift suggestions from my blogging friends:

Family Gift Exchange Ideas from Chas Crazy Creations|DIY Custom Gift Boxes for Christmas from Design Morsels|Holiday Gifts under $30 by Celebrate and Decorate|

Am still traveling and cannot wait to share some of my photos of this trip with you! Happy Tuesday.

If you enjoy this post, please share on Pinterest.

As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. If you purchase something linked through my website, it will not affect your cost, but does provide me with a small stipend for making the recommendation.

It has been an interesting week. What started with a lovely, relaxing Mother’s Day and ended with a flooded basement. The good news is the governor’s quarantine is over and life in Arizona is slowly getting back to the new normal.

Garden Update

The garden is abundant with artichokes, eggplant, fennel, cherry tomatoes, shishito peppers and fresh herbs ready to harvest. However, I have a garden mystery and hope someone can help me solve it.

Kale usually does very well here, even during the warmer months. We enjoyed one green and two purple healthy and producing kale plants over the last several months. But last month, my gorgeous kale plants went from this….

To this, literally overnight.

What kind of creature would have done this amount of damage? None of the other plants have been touched, just the kale.

This week, my husband created a fortress around the green kale plant, in hopes it may produce again.

Another, very big and disappointing discovery this week occurred in the bulb garden. You may recall that last fall, I planted hundreds of bulbs and rhizomes. This spring we enjoyed the fruits of my efforts.

During my walkabout, I was shocked and stunned to see that someTHING has stolen/eaten? all my tulip and hyacinth bulbs! There are hundreds of little holes with nothing in them. The bulbs have vanished!

I’ve have never seen anything like this! The irises have not been attacked, I hope, but maybe this critter is eating everything from below ground? Help.

New Projects

Well, this one is not so new, but we are finally making some progress on the back staircase. I posted about this last August (click here), but the project obviously stalled. The sisal carpeting is past its prime and what a dirty and smelly job it is to remove the rug and the excessive amounts of dried glue underneath. Not to mention, possibly old lead paint too.

Using a heat gun to get rid of the glue is nasty business, but the most time consuming part is taking out hundreds of carpet staples. Since I never want to glue down a rug here again, I’m debating what to do. Perhaps just staining and finishing the treads and painting the risers? We still have the final 6 steps to go. Ugh.

So excited about receiving this gorgeous green tile from Home Depot. We will use it as a backsplash behind the outdoor barbecue. It is 9 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ porcelain Monteca Encaustic tile. Quite surprising, but Home Depot has many beautiful tile selections online. Click here for link. It also comes in blue.

It was easy to order online and then curbside pickup at the store. My favorite tile man, Rick, will be doing this project in June for us.

After a rather significant meeting at City Hall yesterday morning, I had hoped to spend Friday afternoon relaxing or painting or just having “me” time. Well, that didn’t last long. While washing the lunch dishes, we suddenly ran out of hot water. Taking my daughter to the basement to show her how to re-light the water heater, we discovered a flood in progress. One of the 75 gallon water heaters split. What a mess!

I am SOOOO happy I cleaned the basement last year (click here to read that post) or this would have been much worse. Fortunately the Christmas room items were off the floor and on shelves so we did avoid a bigger disaster. To see our Christmas room, click here.

We will be spending the weekend cleaning up and replacing the water heater. These are the moments when living in an apartment sounds attractive. Sigh.

Wishing you a stress-less weekend.

It was a very rainy Christmas morning here in Phoenix~~just perfect for lighting each of the fireplaces. This is one of the first years we didn’t have guests, so it was just our family. That set the tone for a very relaxing and easy day.

After reading Santa’s letter and opening presents, Dad made his legendary Eggs a la Goldenrod for breakfast. Click here for previous post recipe. This breakfast dish has been a family tradition and is a big hit with the children.

Benjamin made mimosas with fresh squeezed orange juice and Prosecco.

I set an easy table this year for dinner, mostly because I left that chore to the last minute. In keeping with my “simple” theme, we used holiday placemats in lieu of a tablecloth.

The Christmas dinner was also simple. Benjamin made a reverse-seared prime rib and the rest were items from the garden. Two types of cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, carrots and beets were seasoned and roasted. I even managed to dig up potatoes too!

As you know, each holiday we bake, from scratch, a new cake for dessert. This year’s selection was superb! From our favorite cake cookbook, Layered by Tessa Huff, we made the Gingerbread Coffee Toffee cake. Four layers of an old fashioned molasses cake, with coffee French buttercream and toffee pieces between the layers. It was covered in a Swiss Vanilla Meringue buttercream on the outside and a toffee molasses sauce on top. Ooh la la!

We also tried a new cocktail from Half Baked Harvest~~White Christmas Mojitos. It was surprisingly light and refreshing. An easy blender drink using coconut rum, white rum, coconut milk and sparkling water. We used cranberries instead of pomegranate arils for garnish. Click here for the recipe.

My big surprise present from Santa was an Apple Watch. With news this year of a few friends having cardiac moments, I am happy to be able to track my heart rate and workouts going forward (plus work off that delicious cake!)

We had a REALLY good Christmas. I hope you had the same. Not sure what, if anything, we will do to celebrate the New Year. But I am truly enjoying this quiet time in between. Happy Saturday!

Even though I don’t feel like I’ve completed everything for this holiday, I have an odd sense of calm about it. The magic of Christmas happens regardless. Today, I am just enjoying the rainy day and the blessings the season brings.

I can’t believe another decade is ending soon. What will the next 10 years bring? Ten years ago, motherhood was my primary role as the children were 14, 12 and 8. And just like that ~~ two have graduated college and are financially independent and the third just finished her first college semester.

The holidays can be very challenging and lonely for some. I recognize that life isn’t as glorious as portrayed on social media or Pinterest. It’s not easy to forget those holidays when I mourned the loss of loved ones or struggled with other personal pain. But when you have a good year, it should be celebrated.

My goal for the rest of 2019 is to live purposefully and with intention. When the children were small, I often told them to replace the words “have to” with the words “get to”. And better yet, add ” I am lucky I get to…..”. Whether it means washing the dishes, doing laundry, or wrapping gifts, if we just change our perspective and take joy in the simplest of chores, then it doesn’t feel like such a burden.

When we lighten our loads, we create space to be joyful with others. So, this morning, I “get to write a blog post”. I feel so lucky that you have chosen to follow Life at Bella Terra. Your comments and feedback are inspiring. You are my gifts this Christmas. My appreciation and gratitude is deep.

Wherever you are in the journey of life, I wish you and yours, from the bottom of my heart, a blessed, stress-free, and loving holiday.

Last year I made my first gingerbread house. It was such a rewarding, creative experience that I was looking forward to it again this year.

There are many gingerbread house dough recipes online. Unfortunately, since I didn’t take notes, I do not recall which recipe I had used for the dough last year.

I googled a Martha Stewart recipe and proceeded forward. The dough is very spicy and flavorful; but it was like rolling concrete, not the soft, fragrant dough from a year ago.

In thinking I had screwed up the recipe somehow, I made a second batch. It was equally difficult. At this point, I was ready to quit. But I wasn’t going to let impossible dough deter me. After some serious effort and sweat (picture me using all my weight on the rolling pin), the dough was flat enough to be used. This was NOT the experience I had last year.

You can make your own templates or get various ones online. The templates I used were purchased in the 1990s and had no instructions. Thankfully they were labeled.

The smaller pieces I cut on the counter as the larger ones were done in place on the cookie sheet, so I didn’t have to move them and risk breakage.

Baking resulted in some of the edges not being square so this was easily fixed with a paring knife.

A large cardboard base covered in aluminum foil was the foundation of the project.

The window panes were made from butterscotch candies. Last year I used yellow cellophane. First time I have done this and it was super easy.

Candies were smashed into bits and then poured onto parchment paper in the rough form of the windows.

In a few minutes, the candies melted in the oven. After cooling, they readily peeled off.

After all the pieces were baked and windows made, construction begins! There are several recipes for Royal icing for gingerbread construction. Three simple ingredients ~~confectioners sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar makes a sturdy glue. Applying with a pastry bag was helpful.

Windows were glued to the inside of the walls.

Time and patience are essential next. It is important to wait for the royal icing to dry after each section is glued together or collapse is inevitable.

Before the roof went on, battery operated fairy lights were placed inside.

This was the fun part for me~~decorating the outside with various candies and confections, pretzels and coconut.

The chimney is coated in chocolate bark. Hershey chocolate pieces and pretzels adorned the windows and corners.

With the extra gingerbread dough, I made trees, the owners and a wreath.

Here is the finished product.

My piping skills need improving. What was I thinking when I did the shorts on the gingerbread man? LOL!

Happy Saturday! Trying to minimize the stress of knowing Christmas is only 4 days away. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!