This month's Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box just arrived and it's SO.MUCH.FUN! Each month Simply Earth sends subscribers a set of essential oils, recipes cards, and fun accessory items to make the recipes. As an ambassador they are so sweet to send me a complimentary box to share the recipes and contents with you. In the process, I have fallen in love with essential oils! This month's theme is soap making! Inside the box are 3 full size essential oils, a smaller essential oil, aloe glycerine soap base, and a silicone soap mold. Plus six recipe cards!! If you use coupon code BACKTOCALLEYFREE you’ll get a bonus $40 gift certificate when you subscribe to their monthly subscription box. To learn more: http://bit.ly/2XfM77e (referral link) My favorite recipe this month is the Happy Joy Facial Soap. It was super simply and only took a few minutes to make a fancy bar of homemade soap! Happy Joy Facial Soap: 1.5 oz Glycerine Soap Base6 drops of Happy Joy ... [ Read More ]
Simply Earth August Unboxing *Spoilers*
I just received my August (2019) Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box and wanted to reveal the goodies inside! As a member of their Squad ambassador team Simply Earth sent me the box for free AND they have provided me with a coupon code for you! If you use coupon code BACKTOCALLEYFREE you’ll get a bonus $40 gift certificate when you subscribe to their monthly subscription box. To learn more: http://bit.ly/2XfM77e (referral link) I'm learning more and more about Essential Oils and how to safely use them thanks to their fun subscription box and website. They even have a FREE ebook; Essential Oils for Beginners, that is packed full of useful information, dilution guides, and tips for using essential oils with children and pets. It's such a great resource. Want to see what's in the August Essential Oil Recipe Box by Simply Earth?? Inside the August Recipe Box you'll find: -Clear Skin Essential Oils Blend-Frankincense Essential Oils-Rosemary Essential Oils-Clove ... [ Read More ]
Natural Slime Recipe with Psyllium Husk Powder
Post contains affiliate links. A few weeks ago I received a new essential oil subscription box from Simply Earth AND their bonus box. They asked me to join their #squad and share my experiences with you about their program. I've owned several different essential oils over the years but I've never gotten into all the brand oil clubs. Honestly, I'm just now starting to learn how to safely use these oils and incorporate them into some fun DIY recipes around the house. If you'd like to see what's included in the Simply Earth Essential Oil Recipe Box (and big bonus box) click over using this referral link: http://bit.ly/2XfM77e. If you use coupon code BACKTOCALLEYFREE you'll get a bonus $20 gift certificate! If your kids love making slime like my kids do, they will LOVE this recipe! This recipe does require heating the ingredients so make sure a parent helps and make sure you let this cool down for at least 20 minutes before letting your kids play with it. It gets very hot!! ... [ Read More ]
My Creativity This Week – Episode 1: Funky Florals
Are you a creative person? Do you struggle with finding your inner creative spirit? Sit there staring at the blank canvas or journal page wondering what you'll work on next? This series is something new to me where I'll share what I'm working on this week. I feel like my creative spirit is ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE and I'm always trying something new each week. That doesn't have to be a bad thing because it's broadening your inner creativity. This week I've been working on Funky Florals. One of my favorite Instagram creatives to follow is Megan (@MakeWells) and her awesome Funky Florals. I love the bright colors and the use of mixed media in her work. I love that she works on canvas, paper, wood, walls, and more! She is seriously inspiring to follow. View this post on Instagram I’m thoroughly convinced that I will never run out of ways to paint flowers. The possibilities are just endless people! I may have a ... [ Read More ]
Give the Gift of Awesome Photos
I am a "Picture Play" affiliate and earn a commission when you order through my links in this post. Have you ever wanted to take better pictures with your iPhone or Android? Did you know that there are a few free or low cost (like less than $5) apps that can make your regular iPhone pictures 10X better? It's possible with some of the tips that Jill Krause (and Happy Loud Life) shares in her new Picture Play ebook. I have a fancy DSLR that I bought a few years ago and kinda learned how to use, but it's so big and bulky that I never take it with me. I'm really happy with the overall quality of photos from my iPhone 8+ but it doesn't always take perfect photos. Sometimes they are too dark, or too light, or there are things in the background that are distracting. This is one of the photos I took a few years ago with my DSLR. It showed up in my memories this week so I thought I'd try to edit it again using the tricks in Picture Play. Look closely behind her head, in the new version I ... [ Read More ]
Under the Sea Coloring Pages
Color with me!! I've created a new set of coloring pages full of some of my favorite sea life characters. This is a set that I've been working on for months and I'm so excited about how it turned out!! PS: The whale sharks are my absolute favorite. The set includes 7 different pages that you can print from home on 8.5" x 11" paper. The great thing is that you can print the files over and over again anytime you like! Do you enjoy coloring? Do your kids? Do you color in your classroom or when you have spare time in clubs? I use these mostly in the evenings when I want to force myself to put my phone down and do something creative with my kids. My daughter is my little artist and loves to color and create so it's the perfect activity for the two of us. We don't get many evenings when we're not bombarded with homework, sports, or clubs. Here's a sample of the pages that you'll get in the download: ... [ Read More ]
2019 Planner | Printable or Digital Versions Available
I did a thing!! I created a 2019 printable and digital planner!! You can find this planner in my Etsy shop as a digital download! Where did 2018 go? I cannot believe we're almost halfway through December and 2019 is just around the corner. I was organizing my desk this weekend and realized that I needed a new 2019 planner. This year I've placed with several different planner options and found a few that are really helpful. I'm not a big spender when it comes to planners and can't stomach a $30-40 planner (or more with all the extra options and accessories). They are incredibly beautiful but I fear that I wouldn't use them enough or the right way. Sure there's no "wrong way" to use a planner, but it would likely get set aside and forgotten after a few months. What has worked for me? iPhone Calendar Apps For important events, appointments, and scheduling I still rely heavily on my native iPhone and Google calendar apps. I can sync them together and share them with other ... [ Read More ]
What Are You Thankful For?
How is it that Thanksgiving is NEXT week? This year is flying by so quickly that I can hardly keep up. My kids just keep growing, life keeps moving, and our schedules keep getting crazier and crazier! If you don't follow me on Instagram you may have missed a few of the recent things going on our in our lives. Like.... My daughter is a Junior Girl Scout this year and is really blossoming into a wonderful leader. My son is 15, learning to drive, got his first job, and opened his first bank account. My latest doodles and designs; like the one shown above!! It's hard for me to get excited about Thanksgiving; which really isn't any different from any other year. This is the most hectic time of year for our family and for my job. We host a huge Black Friday weekend sale and it's very time consuming and exhausting to plan; however it's a great reward when the weekend arrives and our customers flock to our store looking for deals!! My "work day" on Black Friday actually starts ... [ Read More ]
Sprouts Grocery Haul | Organic & Natural Farmers Market
This post is a paid sponsorship with Sprouts Farmers Market. If you follow me on Instagram (@BackToCalley) you may have noticed that we toured our local Sprouts grocery store last week for a blogger/influencer event. We were guided by a dietitian, Abigail Dougherty, who talked about some of the plant-based options that are offered at Sprouts. My daughter tagged along on the tour and we both got to sample a variety of plant-based foods, drinks and desserts. As part of the campaign we received a gift card to come back and shop with so I thought it would be fun to show you what we brought home. With this weeks meal plan I am trying to incorporate some more fall veggies with a little more variety than our boring broccoli and green beans! Link to YouTube video embedded above: https://youtu.be/fmaJ9MXTiDU Funny side story, after I filmed the video I realized that I was missing an entire bag of groceries. Of course it was the bag with the receipt in it so I didn't even ... [ Read More ]
Creating Layers with Tombow Pens & Markers
These Tombow pens are just too much fun. The colors are so vibrant and I keep reaching for them in the evenings when we're drawing. Today I'm going to share with you my process for applying layers with the markers to achieve depth with only a few colors. I only have ten dual brush pens and twelve twin tone markers so my color palette is pretty limited. Applying layers helps me blend and create more colors. Supplies: For this project I used marker paper, Tombow dual brush pens, Tombow TwinTones and the Tombow Mono pencil. You can find all of these in my Amazon shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/backtocalley (referral link) I found this picture on Pinterest as my inspiration (sorry the source is unknown, the pin leads me to nowhere). I loved the colors and the texture of the sea urchins. I started with a pencil sketch on marker paper with the Tombow Mono pencil and then outlined the shapes with the dual brush pens or twin tones. They both have one tip that is very similar in size ... [ Read More ]