I’m hoping to take the pressure off of Valentine’s Day with this adorable free printable classroom valentine—no craftiness required! Your kids (and their friends!) will love them. Score one for mom.

Somewhere along the line, mothers of school-aged kids decided that cheapie paper valentines from the drugstore are not good enough for their babies. I’m not sure why or how, but it sort of ruined things for the rest of us.

Now I feel like I have to come up with something inventive and homemade or I’m a failure of a mother. Plus, I’ll have to listen to things like “Look what Emma’s mom made.” Can you hear the disappointment at my failures dripping from her little voice already?

So I took the bull by its stupid horns and came up with an idea of my own—and I turned it into something super easy for other moms to run with. All you need is a printer and maybe (maybe) some sort of bear-shaped treat. Take that, Emma’s mom.

I collected a bunch of super cute DIY kids valentines for school. These are fun and easy and can be personalized with a little creativity. There are also both candy and non-candy ideas—a little something for everyone!

Valentines have come a loooooong way since I was ripping perforated sheets and signing my name to them in the 90s. These days, it’s much more likely that glue guns and heavy parental input is involved. That’s ok, but I’m a firm believer in making sure the kids get their hands in there. It is, after all, their thing—even if momma has a vision.

I took to the interwebs and collected eighteen super cute DIY kids valentines that think outside the store-bought box and can be improved with a little bit of kiddie creativity. Whether it’s splattering the things in stickers, glitter glue, or drawing little pictures for their friends, kids can take these ideas and totally make them their own.

I also made sure to collect both candy and non-candy ideas (or valentines that can be customized to your needs) so that parents who don’t want all that sugar or who are making sure to keep kids with allergies safe are happy too.

Tired of Father’s Day gift ideas that are all cuff links and grilling and alcohol? Me too, which is why I teamed up with Olivia of Atiliay (again) to come up with some super cute—super original—Father’s Day DIY gift ideas for kids to make for their dads.

I’ve been trying so hard to let go of the whole Pinterest-perfect mentality. You know what I mean, right? The idea that everything you do (or worse, everything your kids do) has to be flawless and worthy of all of the social media shares. It’s easy to get swept up in it, but I want to call bullshit. It’s way too much pressure. And for what?

When it comes to kids DIYs, they get pleasure out of the doing: getting their hands dirty and experimenting and putting their heart into something. But what fun is there in making something if mommy is hovering around trying to “fix” everything? Just take a deep breath and let them do their thing. It will mean more to everyone if you do.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to start off with an awesome base, which is what I did with each of these three ideas. Olivia was sweet enough to design a free printable for us based off of her sweet Father’s Day card.

Click here to have the files sent directly to your inbox!

I recently perfected the recipe for the best DIY body butter ever—the mother of all DIY body butters, if you will. Get your pinning finger ready, because you are definitely going to want to save this one for later!

I originally posted a recipe for a creamy, luxurious DIY body butter just in time for Mother’s Day back in 2013. It was pretty awesome, but it had one drawback: you had to refrigerate it in the warmer months to keep it from melting because it was coconut-oil based. Now, I love me some coconut oil so I was not about to eliminate it from the recipe. But I did find a way to make it hold on to its creaminess.

Today, I’m completely updating that post to give you an even better recipe that doesn’t require refrigeration and that makes the perfect budget-friendly gift for any lady in your life (yourself included) who might need a little pampering.

My daughters, who are experts in the art of papering, are obsessed with this stuff and have been slathering it all over themselves ever since I made it. Note to self: double the recipe next time and stash some where they can’t find it! 😉

I’ve gotten really into green cleaning products recently. With all of the attention we pay to the chemicals we ingest, we sometimes forget about the stuff we clean with. I collected some of my favorite DIY green cleaning recipes to share with you. If you’re looking to cut down on using chemicals that are harmful to the environment and to our bodies, this post is for you.

Whenever I tell people I make my own cleaning products, the first thing I get is the Huuuuh? face. As in, why on earth would you do that when you could run to the store and pick one up that’s already made for you?

Let me start by telling you right off the bat that if it wasn’t easy, I wouldn’t do it. I’ve got way too much going on to be bothered with complicated green cleaning recipes. The recipes I use are incredibly simple and nontoxic—in my book, this is key when you have a toddler who not only puts just about anything in her mouth but scales furniture when I turn my back.

The next thought that flickers across a person’s face is usually, How do you know it actually works? Most people don’t ask that out loud but you can totally see that they’re thinking it (my sister, however, absolutely asks it out loud). Once I explain the ingredients I use and their magical powers (which I’ll get to in a bit) the face is usually all Tell me your secrets!

Since I can never remember these magical recipes off the top of my head (I keep them on a card in my recipe box), I thought I’d lay them all out for you right here…