Spa Day Ideas

Hey guys, Ruth Anna here! I love spa days, So here are a few of my favorite ideas.

Food:

Start by making some treats! You'll want to get to your face masks and nail polish as soon as you can, so here's a fast and easy recipe for cookies, and they're also mush healthier than normal spa day treats!

You'll need:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 egg

1 . Mix the peanut butter and sugar together in a large bowl .

2. Mix the egg in a small bowl and add to the peanut mix.
3. Different peanut butter brands have different levels of oil, so it the mix is looking too wet add in a couple more spoonfuls of sugar or a different peanut butter with less oil.
4. Roll the dough into balls and put them on a cookie sheet. They spread out a lot in the oven, so give them space! Flatten the dough out with a fork.
5. Heat the oven to 350o and put the cookies in. Cook them until they get evenly brown. Watch them as they cook because they burn easily. Mine take around 10 minutes.
6. Let cook and enjoy!

Face Masks:

Face masks from the store can be pretty expensive! So here are a couple DIY face masks you can make at home.

Green Tea Face Mask:

This one isn't really your typical face mask, but it still works really well!

You'll Need:

• A washcloth
• Two green tea packets
• a cup
• water

1. Boil about a cup of water. If you can't boil the water just stick a microwave cup full of water in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it gets hot.
2. Stick in the two green tea packets and let it sit for 5 minutes.
3. Throw away the packets. Put your washcloth into the tea and let it soak for 5 minutes. Green tea doesn't stain, but use a old washcloth if you want to be safe.
4. Rub the washcloth gently on your face. Again, I rub carefully for 5 minutes, but you can do it for whatever amount of time. Green tea helps shrink pours and brightens your face.
    

Aloe Vera Face Mask:

You'll need:

- Aloe Vera

1. This face mask is insanely simple. All you need to do is use your fingers or a makeup sponge to spread the aloe all over your face. When I use this face mask I normally leave it on all night, but you can also wash it off after 10-15 minutes.
   

Ice:

1. Hold ice to any parts of your face that are broken out to shrink your pours.

Exfoliating Scrub-

When I make this I normally make enough to use for a while, but you can also make enough for one time. The recipe is simple.

You'll Need:

• Sugar
• Coconut Oil
• Peppermint extract

1. Soften, but don't melt the coconut oil.
2. Mix the oil and the sugar together,
3. Add in drops of peppermint oil until you get the scent you want.
4. Rub it on your skin gently.
   

Moisturizer:

1. Moisturizer is a beautiful thing... But not for all skin types! Check any moisturizer or face scrub you use to make sure it's OK for your skin.
   

Feet:

Your feet are hard to take care of in the fall/winter time. Here are a couple foot soak ideas to keep them nice!

Mouthwash Rinse:

Mouthwash is not something you think to use on your feet, but it's actually great for them!

You'll Need:

• I cup mouthwash
• Basin
• Water

1. Fill your basin with hot water. You can get big and cheap plastic bowls at the dollar store to use for this.
2. Pour a cup of mouthwash into the water. Give the mix 5-10 minutes to mix and cool down to the right temperature.
3. Soak your feet until the water gets cold.
   

Rose Rinse:

Rose's are beautiful, and they're also great for your skin!

You'll Need:

• 1 tablespoon powdered milk
• 2 tablespoons unmade oatmeal
• Dried roses
• Basin of water

1. Mix the powdered milk and oatmeal together.
2. Break up as many roses as you want into small pieces and add them into the mix. The more roses you add, the stronger the smell will be.
3. Add the mix to the hot water and let your feet soak.
   

Bath Bomb Rinse:

1. You can break up old bath bombs into hot water in a basin and use it as a foot soak.

Lotion:

1. After you're done with your rinses, lotion your feet really well and put on a pair of fuzzy socks for the rest of your spa day.
   

Hair:

Honey hair mask:

Hair can get broken and damaged by too much product and heat. So here's a all natural hair mask that will help repair your hair. The amount of honey and cinnamon should always be a 1:2 ratio, so you can make as much as you want as your hair gets longer and thicker.

You'll Need:

• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• A towel

1. Mix the honey and cinnamon together and slather all over your hair.
2. Wrap your hair into a towel to stop the mask from going everywhere.
3. Let sit for 15 minutes. Wash your hair well.

Other Ideas:

• Use eye pads and nose strips
• Do a mani and pedi.
• Put the hair mask on your face! It works just as well as a face mask.
• Put cucumbers all over your face, or blend a cucumber to make a face mask.
• Take a nap with a face mask on.
• Put on a movie or some music.
• Invite some friends over for your spa day!

Things to take note of:

• Don't put anything on your face you're allergic to. You can even do a patch test the day before by putting a bit of each product on your arm and letting it sit for a day. Don't use the mix if you get a bad reaction on your arm.
• More than one or two masks on can just make your skin worse. Don't overdo it!

Have you guys used any of these spa day ideas, or are you planning to anytime soon? Let us know in the comments! And if you have any other spa day ideas, or any blogs posts you want to see, put that in the comments too!

Emma's Health Ideas

I think being healthy is a very important part in beauty and can give you a real vibrance that is hard to get any other place. I've been on a health kick for a little less than a week and as I'm going, I've been doing excersize and eating healthy food. But I've really been craving something like cake or sweet bread (in this short amount of time, yes. Probably since I've been binge watching The Great British Baking Show waay too much this week). Even though I don't like bananas, this gluten free, sugar free banana bread recipe was fantastic and super healthy and kept my cravings down without cheating. Usually gluten free isn't the way I'd go. Just use normal flour. But when the pantry is running low, sometimes you've got to MacGiver it and use rice flour. Usually rice flour gives the batter a grainy consistancy that is really thick and close. But this had a really great texture and wasn't too grainy. Best part is, it didn't taste any different than normal banana bread. Will definitely be making this in the future (would've put a picture but it was gone super quickly :D). The recipe is at the bottom of this post.

So like I said, I've been trying to get in shape. But it's hard to get protein without having too much fatty, bready foods. Here's a menu to give you ideas, this is basically what I've had every day but with alterations to flavours and stuff like that.

*Breakfast*
Smoothy with frozen berries, spinach (can't even taste it and gives great nutrition), coconut milk, cottage cheese (make sure to blend this in really well. This is your protein) or cream cheese for protein count as well. (if you usually had cereal for breakfast, a great counteract to that is homeade granola. Just toss some oats, maple syrup and cinnamon together, bake until crisp at 350 degrees, cool and add dried fruit--serve with either cows milk or coconut milk, tastes great)

*Lunch*
Grilled chicken breast cut up over a salad

*Snack*
Chopped almonds and dried fruit

*Dinner*
BBQ meat with iceberg wedge salad sprinkled with feta and sliced, dried apricots (wedge salad is just cutting the iceberg head in half, then that half into fourths and just eating it in a big chunk).

I'd love to hear any excersizing tips as well. The best one I've gotten so far was--make a playlist of songs that you aren't allowed to listen to except when you're excersing. Any other tips? Meals?

Thanks for reading, stay classic and see you next time :).


*Gluten free, sugar free banana bread*

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about four--best if previously frozen and then defrosted)
2 tablespoons of natural maple syrup (the legit stuff)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1-1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup chopped nuts
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup melted butter

Add bananas, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl. Add eggs and mix well. In a large bowl. mix rice flour, nuts, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add banana mixture alternating with oil and mix at low speed in an electric mixer, or by hand till combined. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.
This makes one medium size loaf. Serve warm with butter or cream cheese. (can be used for a breakfast or just late night munchies.