DIY Valentine’s Day Vases

Since Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, I decided to turn my winter vase into a collection of Valentine's Day Vases.

I took 4 of these vases from Dollar Tree and applied fabric glue with a paint brush.  Then I wrapped some brown yarn around them until they were covered.

I used various white or off-white items from around the house to spell out the word “LOVE” – a piece of lace, a felt rosette (here's a tutorial), buttons, and a piece of white yarn.

And there you have it.

And now, my dear readers.  Here's a question I have for you.

I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to filling vases.  And, to further add to my problem, my decorating budget is $0.  I have to use what I have around the house.  And in this case, these are the only flowers I had that were white or pink, or any sort of Valentine-y colors.  So, do you have any ideas for how to fill the vases using only these flowers or things I could find outside?  I'm no good at this.  Help!

Easy Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

You all know I love me some chocolate. But I really try to stay off the sugar.

These homemade peanut butter cups are one of my favorite healthy treats!

And what I love about them is that they are so easy to make – no melting down the chocolate and trying to coat the peanut butter mixture like so many other recipes for homemade peanut butter cups.  Nope.  Just mix it all up and you're done.   So I'll stop talking and just give you the recipe:

In a small saucepan, melt together

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (Tropical Traditions is my favorite, but sometimes I get the inexpensive stuff from Vitacost.)
1/4 cup raw honey (Tropical Traditions is my favorite, but local honey is awesome too!)

Whisk in

1/4 cup raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder) (I get raw cacao very inexpensively through Vitacost. Get a $10 off $30 coupon when you sign up through my referral link.  Or get it here if you already have an account.)

Note: I used the natural peanut butter from Aldi, which has some molasses added to it. If you're using unsweetened peanut butter, you may want to add a little more honey.

Spoon into mini muffin liners and freeze until hardened. Keep frozen or refrigerated until served.

Easy Sandwich Buns

I'm over at The Grain Mill Wagon today, sharing an easy, all-purpose recipe for sandwich buns, biscuits, or whatever you need some type of bread for!

Get the recipe here.  (Thanks to my sis-in-law, Lauren, for the original recipe!)

Sealy Baby Cool Gel Crib Mattress Review {Plus a $100 Gift Card Giveaway!} #SealyBaby

As a Kolcraft Mom, I have the privilege to represent Kolcraft and Sealy Baby, and I am excited to introduce you to the Sealy Baby Cool Gel Crib Mattress!

Disclosure: I received a free mattress to facilitate this review.  All opinions are 100% my own.

The following video highlights my favorite features of the mattress:

The very first thing I checked out when deciding whether or not to accept this mattress was whether or not it would be safe for my infant.  When I went to the product page, I was happy to see that this mattress is GREENGUARD® Gold certified for indoor air quality and low chemical emissions.  And perhaps one of my very favorite things?  Made in the USA!  You don't see that much anymore these days, and I am always happy to support American-made!

A little more info about the mattress:

The Sealy 2-Cool 2-Stage Crib Mattress is available in-store or online at Buy Buy Baby.

Giveaway:

One winner will receive a $100 gift card to Buy Buy Baby to help you pay for a new Sealy Baby Cool Gel Crib Mattress!

To enter, just complete the form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Natural Remedies for Cold and Flu

If you're needing some natural remedies for cold and flu, look no further!

(I hope you don't need them, but if you do happen to be sick, these should help you get feeling better in a jiffy!)

Kara from Home With Purpose uses Hydrogen Peroxide for cold and flu.

Shannon from Simply Smiles uses this Winter Wellness Elixir when she feels any kind of sickness coming on.

Whitney from Beauty in the Mess shares 10 different remedies for cold and flu, including her favorite essential oils.

This Homemade Decongestant from the Titus 2 Homemaker includes radishes, red onion and cloves.

Whole New Mom shows how she makes her own saline nose wash and homemade vapor rub.

The Homesteading Hippy made her own Elderberry Syrup as well as a different version of decongestant rub.

Jennifer from The Entwife's Journal came up with a different variation of homemade Elderberry Syrup.

Grassfed Mama's favorite ways to treat a cold include various essential oils, herbs, and a few other things.

Modern Wellness has a post on fighting the flu with essential oils.

Crunchy Savings shares her recipe for garlic cough syrup.

Better than natural cold and flu remedies, though, is prevention!  Visit Faith Filled Food for Moms to find 10 Ways to Naturally Boost Your Immune System.

What are your favorite natural cold and flu remedies?

One Easy Way to Get More Facebook and Pinterest Followers

What is happening to your posts?

Are people sharing them on Facebook or pinning them? Many times – not always – but many times the way a post is shared goes strongly in favor of one or the other.

(And if you don't have sharing tools on your blog – get some ASAP.)

Go analyze several of your top posts and see if they're a “Facebook post” or a “Pinterest post”. Many times you think you know what a post is going to do but your readers will ultimately tell you.

In other words, if people are mainly sharing it on Facebook, and it's not doing much on Pinterest, it's a “Facebook post”. So now it's time to optimize it for Facebook. If most of your traffic is coming from Facebook users, you don't want to try to direct them to Pinterest. They're already in Facebook mode. So what do you do? You embed a Facebook like box in your post and give them a clear call-to-action. “Follow on Facebook for more mom-to-mom encouragement.”

If your post is a “Pinterest post”, you can embed your Pinterest board into your post and ask them to follow you on Pinterest.
Start with your highest trafficked posts and embed the appropriate call-to-action. Over time, you will gain relevant followers who are interested in your content.

It's wonderful to gain Facebook and Pinterest followers on the actual platform, but we might as well gain them from every source we can! Can you think of other ways to gain social media followers directly from your blog?