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Previous Issues > May 2007 > Special Feature > Make A Special Gift-from-the-kitchen For Mom
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 Special Feature
Make a Special Gift-From-the-Kitchen for Mom
By Susan Fleming
 Have you ever made your mom a special, one-of-a-kind gift? Maybe you have put your handprints into a stepping stone, or painted a coffee cup for her at the pottery store. Mothers always love everything they get from their kids even macaroni glued onto construction paper! But how about doing something extra special this year? You will need help from a grown-up to do this project, but it is a lot of fun and mom is guaranteed to smile, smile, smile.
Supply your mom with her very own home spa by making homemade bath salts and body scrub! You can make them even more elegant by packaging them in neat containers, such as an apothecary or biscuit jar, old decanters or even clear glass or plastic canisters. (Be sure to check out my Neat New Words box below.) These kinds of jars and bottles are easy to find in discount stores, flea markets, yard sales or maybe at Grandmas. Ask her to help you gather your supplies most of the ingredients can be found right at home or at the supermarket.
 You can really personalize your gifts by tying pretty ribbons around the container and by attaching a snazzy scoop for dipping out the salts. You might also put a card with instructions and a poem that you make up to tell your mom how much you love her and how much you appreciate everything she does for you. Give her a Do Not Disturb door hanger to put on the outside of her bathroom door for the times she wants to use your special bath salts to take a long, relaxing hot bath! This is a Mothers Day she will never forget!
Heres what you need:
Epsom salts
Sea salt
Liquid food coloring
Essential oil
Baking soda
Brown sugar
Olive oil
Pure vanilla extract
Containers
Ribbons
Index or other kind of cards
Its Your Day Bath Salts
3 cups Epson salts
1 cups sea salt
1/3 cup baking soda
1 tablespoon food coloring
Desired amount (several drops) of your choice of essential oil
(I used lavender.)
In a large bowl, combine salts and baking soda. Add food coloring until the mixture is the shade you like (this will take a lot of stirring!). Add a few drops of the oil, and then smell to see if it seems strong enough. Add more if needed. Pour the salts into your choice of pretty canisters and decorate as desired.
Gimme-Some-Sugar Body Scrub
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Combine ingredients and stir to blend. Pour into a small glass (or other) container and decorate with ribbons and an instruction card.
Neat New Words
Guaranteed: Means that something is promised or assured to be a certain way.
Home spa: A day spa is a place where people (mostly ladies) can go to get relaxing treatments, such as massages and whirlpool baths, given by
professionally trained experts. Spas are considered to be very special and are usually pretty expensive. A spa also offers services for people to make their skin feel smoother and look prettier. A home spa is when ladies (mostly moms) try to have some of those same neat things at their own houses without the help of a professional.
Elegant: A word used to describe something when it is beautiful and at the same time, simple.
Apothecary jar: The person who fills our prescriptions for us when we are sick is called a pharmacist but used to be called an apothecary. The apothecarys jar was a clear glass container that was used to keep items you might find at a drug store. They are very pretty, and companies sometimes make them new to look like the old-fashioned kind. They are very useful and also very pretty for things like bath salts!
Biscuit jar: We call it a cookie jar today, but people used to keep cookies, biscuits and other goodies in clear jars, or barrels. The clear ones are nice for pretty things like bath salts, and the small ones are good for sugar scrubs.
Decanter: Simply a bottle that is used to hold another liquid that may have sediment, or small particles. These are GREAT for bubble bath and other fancy mom-kinda bath stuff.
Canister: This could mean any kind of container that is shaped like a big can, but most often canisters are used for kitchen things like flour and sugar. Clear canisters make nice containers for pretty things like pasta and dry beans, or maybe even things for moms bath!
Appreciate: Sometimes people use this word to mean that they value something, but really it just means that you have a respectful understanding.
Susan Fleming is a home economist, editor and lifestyle writer, specializing in the areas of entertaining and childrens etiquette. Learn more about her at www.thesocialkid.com. Special thanks to photographer Rhonda
Carrigan (www.rhondacarrigan.com) for the bath salt photography.
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