little easter baskets

Today’s post is DIY mini Easter baskets for your friends. They are super easy to make and we filled them with yummy candies and personalized them by adding little gifts that each person would enjoy.  Instead of using the traditional baskets (what do you do with them after Easter?), we used egg cartons which are both compostable and recyclable.

ingredients:

1/2 egg carton

grass (we found candy grass but you can use anything)

assorted candy (we used mini peanut butter cups, a chocolate bunny, mini cadbury eggs, and caramels)

little gifts (we used mini nail polish and chapstick)

twine or ribbon to tie them up

any decorations you want for the box

Happy Easter!

xoxo,

keya and erica

diy pore strips

Want soft and glowing skin?  (We’re talking baby’s bottom soft)  Try this easy at home facial to clear your pores and give your face a fresh spring start.

 Just use 1 tablespoon of unflavored gelatin mixed with 1-2 tablespoons of milk. Mix well and microwave for 10-15 seconds.  Stir and begin applying to your face immediately.  Make sure you put it on very thick and avoid your hair (especially eyebrows) because it can be very painful to get out! Apply quickly because it dries fast! Wait until your mask feels hard (about 15 minutes) and you’re ready to start peeling! Wash off any remaining face mask that you can’t peel off.

happy little finds: things we love for spring!

In the spirit of spring, here are a few little things we are looking forward to in the next few months!

1. shady shopping: for some fun in the sun, try some funky shades  2. frozen fun: now that the sun’s out, we’ll be making homemade popsicles and smoothies 3. pretty pastels: pastels are not just for Easter this year, we’ll be polishing our nails with these cool hues all Spring (Bonus? They make you look way tanner)   4. bicycle babes: biking is a great way to get some exercise without realizing it, what more could a girl ask for? 5.  reading rainbow: we’re excited for some new reads this spring like the highly anticipated The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer  6. high heeled hottie: we’ve been seeing heels with ankle straps all over and we’re just waiting for an excuse to buy some for ourselves  7. fabulous florals: what better time than Spring to boast florals on all your outfits  8.charming chalks: try chalking your hair with bright streaks this Spring to add a little pop of color without the commitment of a hair dye 9.bohemian bliss: bohemian inspired jewelry is going to be huge this spring and we’ll be jumping right on board 10. gardening goddess: whether you plant flowers for your bedroom or an herb garden for your kitchen, adding a potted plant to any room is sure to brighten up your Spring!

What trends are you dying to try this Spring? Let us know!

xoxo,

keya and erica

spring cleaning: closet edition

My mom recently forwarded me an email of lessons learned at a women’s health conference.  One of the main topics that they focused on was GETTING RID OF CLUTTER IN YOUR LIFE.  In my personal experience, nothing gets in the way of clear thinking and productivity as much as the chaos, disorder, and need to rummage that clutter creates.  In this post, we’re starting small: the closet.  Why not start spring with a fresh closet that has a little room for a new purchase or two?

Gone are the days when I needed to save hideous and random pieces of clothing on the off-chance that I would need to dress up as a character from Rock of Love for a themed social.  (Sidenote, I didn’t just pull that costume off the top of my head- it actually happened.  And no, it was not a good idea.  No human should wear that many temporary tattoos at one time and go out in public.)  I only kept the things that I actually wear.  Not the things that I think that I’ll wear, but never do.  And not the things that I like, but every time that I try them on they just don’t look right.  Only the things I wear.  Trust me, this really narrowed down my clothes.  I packed everything that was in really good condition to take to consignment.  The rest I dropped off at a thrift store.  A helpful tip, if you aren’t quite ready to part with certain items, is to pack them up and store them away for a few months; if you don’t miss them (or even forget you own them) then you’re ready to give them away!

Moral of this post: treat your life, and especially your space, as if it were a museum of which you were the curator- only keep that which is beautiful and which you love and use!

xoxo,

Keya

apple cider vinegar cleanse

apple cider vinegar cleanse

Our love of apple cider vinegar started with our coworker.  We would see her mixing it into a glass of water and honey and couldn’t figure out why she would drink anything so terrible.  We soon learned that after drinking it twice a day for a few months that she lost weight and her acne disappeared.  Needless to say, we started immediately.

We recommend drinking your apple cider vinegar cocktail morning and night.  You can drink it any way you want (except not hot- the heat kills the good stuff!), but here’s what we like to do.  To begin with, you want to use about two cap fulls of vinegar (make sure it’s a raw organic vinegar, we LOVE Bragg’s).  We like to take it like a shot; add the vinegar to about 2 oz of water and drink it down!  Sometimes, we mix in fresh lemon juice for an extra healthy kick!  Fresh lemon juice has a lot of the same cleansing qualities as the vinegar.  For best results (and the great benefits of both) alternate days between the lemon juice and the apple cider vinegar.

xoxo,

a healthier and happier Keya and Erica

little pies for pi day

Today is March 14th, a.k.a. Pi Day, and we couldn’t think of a better way of celebrating than with lots of pie!  Inspired by our pre-calculus teacher Mr. Cole’s enthusiasm for Pi Day in our senior year of high school, we first made mini pies.  We gave them to all of our teacher’s, (we know, we’re kiss-ups), and now they’re our favorite way to have pie! Easy to serve, fun to make, and impossibly adorable, you’ll want to try this recipe for yourself!

ingredients:

(makes approx. 12 mini pies)

-6 Granny Smith apples

-3/4 c. sugar

-1 tsp. cinamon

-2 tbsp. flour

-4 tbsp. butter

-2 packages Pillsbury pie dough (or you can make it homemade)

recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Preheat your oven to 450 then peel, core, and slice all the apples.  You can easily do this by hand or with an apple peeler!

After your apples are peeled and sliced, mix in the sugar, cinnamon, flour, and butter.

Take out your pie crust and roll it out.

Use a knife to cut a circle large enough to cover both the bottom and sides of your muffin cup.  We used a small bowl as our stencil.

Make sure you grease your muffin pan really well so that the pies come out! Place the dough into the cup.  Starting from the middle of the dough, mold around the cup, making sure to have a little bit of a lip around the edge. Repeat until you have used 2 rolls (1 box) of the dough.

Once all your dough is layed out, fill them to the top with your apple mixture.

Now is the part where you can be as creative as you’d like! Roll out the next 2 rolls in the second box of dough to use for the tops of your pies.  Our favorite way to decorate our mini pies is by creating a lattice top.  To make a lattice top, cut the dough into thin long strips.

Lay out your strips over the pie equally, then begin weaving the strips in the opposite direction through your first layer of strips.  Make sure you are weaving over, under, over, under.

With the next strip, you will be weaving the opposite direction of your first.  So if your first strip was weaved over, under, over, under, the next strip should be weaved under, over, under, over.  Repeat until you have covered your pie and then cut away the excess around the edges.  Press your thumbs around the sides to make a decorative edge!

And in the spirit of Pi Day you can cut a pi symbol out of your crust to use as a decorative top for over your lattice work!

You can be as creative as you’d like!

Cover all of your mini pies and you’re ready to stick them in the oven! Bake your pies at 450 for about 10 minutes then turn your oven down to 350 and bake until the crust is golden brown.  This takes about 15 minutes but make sure to continuously check on them so they don’t burn!

We love to cut up our leftover pie dough, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on them and make them into little pie crust cookies! Just stick them in the oven with your pies for about 10 minutes and enjoy these little treats while you wait for your pies to finish cooking!

Once they come out of the oven, let them sit for about 10 minutes.

Once your pies have cooled, use a knife to cut under the edges of the crust to make sure they do not stick to the pan.  Then use a fork to carefully remove your pies!

Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

These pies make great gifts for any pie lover (and who isn’t?)! Happy Pi Day!

xoxo,

Keya and Erica

diy personalized notebooks

Whether you’re a student, working, or just plain busy, there’s no substitue for the good ol’ notebook.  While the notes application on our phones are handy, sometimes you just need a pad of paper and a pen.  And if you’re carrying a notebook around it should say a little something about your style.  We think you’ll find that when you are taking notes for that miserable class or business meeting, your notebook will make it just a bit better (it’s the little things that count, right?)!

For this project we recommend that you go to the craft store and pick out things that inspire YOU. The options are endless! And you can even decorate old notebooks from around the house with markers, magazine cut outs, or glitter. This project can be totally inexpensive and still look great!  Here’s what we made and how we did it.

Grab your notebook and supplies and get ready to craft!

Keya’s Notebook:

Supplies Required:

-moleskine notebook

-metal studs

-gold metallic pen

-“notes” stencil

Lay out your design, push the studs through, fold on the inside flap of your notebook, and you can stencil on the front.

Erica’s Notebook:

Supplies Required:

-moleskine notebook

-silver metallic pen

-homemade paisley stencil

Find a stencil online and print it out, then cut it up and trace!

the little things notebook:

Supplies Required:

-moleskine notebook

-painter’s tape

-sparkle spray paint

-black sharpie

Use the painter’s tape to create your design and spray thoroughly with the glitter adhesive.  Let dry and remove the paint. You can use a sharpie to personalize it even more.

We hope we inspired you to go out and express your notebook style! Let us know how it goes!

xoxo,

Keya and Erica

diy little charm necklaces

Today’s post was inspired by our jewelry obsession.  Everywhere we go we see adorable little charm necklaces, and it seems like we need to get one of each to represent all of the facets of our personalities! A cute California charm?  We’re from California, we need that!  A heart, we’re loving people, we should get that too.  The list is endless and so is the growing list of receipts of necessary self-representative charms.  So we decided to make our own, at a much lower cost.  The project requires wire from the hardware store, pliers, and an old necklace chain!

These our our finished charms!  We made magnifying glasses, of course.  (These are just example chains, we’ve ordered some copper colored ones that are on the way!)

We used copper wire for the looking glasses, and played around with silver for the other charms.

Tools Required:

Copper or silver wire, a necklace chain, and pliers (jewelry pliers are easier to use, but not required).

Step 1: Cut a small section of wire.

Step 2: Begin to bend the wire into the desired shape.

The bending can take a while, and be careful not to make any sharp corners unless you’re ready to commit to them.

Don’t forget to use the pliers when you need help shaping your charm.

Step 3: Twist the two ends of wire together to complete your charm.

Step 4: Cut off the excess material.

Step 5: Use your pliers to fold over the ends of the wire to prevent them from poking you.

Step 6: Once your charm is done, you need to make a link to hang the charm from your chain.  Bend the wire into a circle and hook the loop into the charm.  Once it’s hooked through, cut off the end of the wire and bend them around the loop to complete the circle.

Yay!  You have a completed charm!  (Also, how GREAT of a gift is this? Just saying.)

Best of luck with your charms!

xoxo,

Keya and Erica