A small funnel

4 oz bottle with dropper (cleaned and boiled to prevent bacterial growth)

Apricot or sweet almond oil for the base

Vitamin E oil

Essential oils: rose and any other scent you like

This recipe is adapted from Gorgeously Green:

1. Fill the bottle (using the funnel or you will have quite the mess, trust me) about 3/4 of the way full with either one of the base oils (I used apricot)

2. Add one teaspoon vitamin E oil (vitamin E is not only a powerful antioxidant that is good for your skin, but it also acts as a preservative to inhibit the growth of bacteria)

3. Add 5 drops rose oil (an added benefit of the rose oil is that it helps to lighten spots on the skin, including freckles. I freckle very easily, and my hands hardly have any freckles while my arms are full of them because I use this oil on my hands every night before bed.)

4. Add 5 drops each of any two essential oils you enjoy. I am not a big fan of floral scents, but I enjoy citrus. To cover the smell of the rose oil I used 5 drops orange and 5 drops lemon essential oils. For men, this is a great place for you to make the oil more “manly.” You can add any scent you want, including cedar, lemongrass, cinnamon, and citrus.

5. Fill the bottle almost completely full with more of your base oil (be careful, when using a funnel. It is easy to overfill the bottle without realizing).

6. The vitamin E oil settles to the bottom, so shake it up and enjoy!

All ingredients for this recipe can be found at some local stores, but it is easiest to find them online. I bought mine from MountainRoseHerbs.com. They have a wide selection of organic oils as well as the bottle and funnel you will need.

Instead of trying to find something to buy your mom this year, consider all of the things you could do with your mom, for your mom, or make for your mom that she would love and appreciate even more than things with a price tag on them.

I know we are no longer kindergarteners who are ecstatic to bring home an indecipherable drawing or macaroni craft project, but your mom would still love to have something you made, even if it still doesn’t look that great.

All of the ideas below of things that you can make or do for your mom and most can be made with objects you already have lying around or things you would throw out otherwise.

Live far away and can’t go home for Mother’s Day? No worries, most of these things can be digitally sent or easily mailed. Just don’t forget to plan ahead so she gets it before Mother’s Day.

These are listed in order of easiest to craftiest : )

1. The easiest suggestion here: ask your mom what she wants to do! There is no guesswork and you know your mom will love it.

2. Turn off the TV. The least you could do on Mother’s day is talk and reconnect.

3. Take a family photo with her. You know your mom is always begging for a nice picture of you.

4. Take a walk or do some other activity that your mom enjoys like hiking, knitting, scrapbooking, gardening, running, ect.

5. Drag out a family favorite card or board game and play it together.

6. Make coupons. I know they are corny and we have probably all made them dozens of times and then whined when your mom cashed in all of the chores you said you would do, but consider doing them again. They can be anything from a coupon for a walk with you to painting a room or doing some other chore. Get creative! Just don’t forget to make them things she might actually want and that you can actually do.

7. Write your mom a letter. Not through email or typing it, but actually sit down and write it down on some nice paper.

8. Make a card. You can grab some cardboard set to be recycled and cover it in paper, wrapping paper, or any other material to spruce it up a bit.

9. Make a short video or slide show with pictures of your family and some nice music that sets the scene or is a family favorite.

10. Make a small scrapbook out of paper and some cardboard. You can punch holes in your cardboard pages and tie it all together with some ribbon or string.

11. Make jar picture frames. Grab some clean empty glass jars and bottles and simply place the picture inside. A quick warning to those of you who are college students: although that bottle you picked looks really interesting, check to make sure it’s not an alcohol bottle or something else that might lead to unwanted questions.

12. Make her favorite dessert or food. Even if it doesn’t turn out quite right, I bet she will love it. Just remember to completely clean up when you are done.

13. Plant flowers for her or make her a flower pot so she can put her favorite plant in it. If you don’t want to by a cheap clay pot and decorate it there are many other creative ideas to make something different here.

14. Make her a cool saying, word, or picture out of cardboard strips like this.

15. Make a memory jar. Write down your favorite memories with your mom on a nice piece of paper and place it into a clean jar that you can decorate.

Get creative! Look around and think of all of the things you can make out of the objects around you that would make your mom smile.

If you come up with something amazing comment on this post so we can all benefit from your brilliance : )

No matter what you do just remember that Mother’s Day isn’t about buying something to prove you love her. It’s about celebrating your mom and your relationship with her.