This Saturday, Beanies & Weenies has been graced by a guest post from Katja Orel at Wild for Nature! She has wonderful tutorials to make your own natural skincare and beauty products and so much more natural goodness on her blog. Check her out!

I don’t know about you but come summer, my skincare products change quite a bit. And so does my relationship towards heavy skin lotions or facial oils. There is a strict no, no for butters and anything of the sort. In my personal belief, summer is all about light, refreshing, cooling, and soothing. That’s why we’re making a fragrant facial toner with green tea extract. Let’s get to it!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! To celebrate today, I want to share with you my new found love of mojitos with my easy recipe.

I just started learning how to make mojitos in the past couple of weeks. I have a beautiful mint plant growing in my herb garden and thought that mojitos would be the perfect use for the fragrant leaves I have an abundance of. (I tried mint julep, but I'm more of a rum girl anyway.) I think mojitos are so refreshing! They will be the perfect drink to make all summer long and I see myself doctoring up this recipe to add different fruits and flavors as the season progresses.

Spring is a great time to try new products and that is exactly what I have been doing! With a wedding on the horizon, I have been testing the waters for beauty products to use on, as well as before, the big day. Skincare has been a big focus of mine recently. I have never had a good skincare routine and figured six months before my wedding was the time to start one!

​In my April Must-Have's you can find Mario Badescu Facial Spray, a Freeman's Green Tea +Orange Blossom Face Mask, Lush's Scrubee body butter, imPress press-on gel manicure, and the cutest pineapple cocktail shaker for summer!

It's been 3 months since my last post, but what a crazy three months it has been!

As you all know Beanies & Weenies launched Fall gift baskets on September 1. Since then, I have hard at work developing a line of Christmas gift baskets (more on that later) and growing my freelance marketing business. I also had a month long sinus infection and somehow ended up rescuing a cat during a thunderstorm (she now rules my house).

On top of that, we went on vacation in October and I came back ENGAGED! So, naturally, to make things even crazier, Zack and I decided to find a house and move back to our hometown and within two weeks of getting engaged, we were in our first house together!

These past three months have been a whirlwind, but Christmas is coming up and there is nothing that puts me in a more creative mood than Christmas decorations and DIY Christmas gifts.

Keep an eye out here at Beanies & Weenies for the launch of my Winter lines including the Christmas gift baskets and beanies like the one featured above. I will also be sharing at least two (probably more) DIY Christmas crafts, presents, and crochet patterns a week between now and Christmas.

Until then, stay jolly and check out some pictures from these crazy three months below!

What better way to usher in Fall than with sweet and nourishing pumpkin spice body scrub!

If you haven't heard yet, Beanies & Weenies is releasing Fall gift baskets this Friday that include a crocheted basket, two fall colored crochet washcloths, and 4 ounces of handmade pumpkin spice body scrub! The best part about it is that it only costs $25! 

If you're thinking, "well, that's great and all, but what can I do with a sugar scrub?" then I'm here to enlighten you.

The 4th of July is right around the corner, and you know what that means! Summer is in full swing! Between trips to the pool or beach and time spent enjoying the warm weather, it is easy to get too busy to cook. And with everyone's favorite grilling holiday only a few days away, everyone wants to get out, enjoy some fireworks, and eat good food. If this sounds like you, I have the perfect recipe for you: burger sliders.

The time has come. The time of oppressive heat, puddles of sweat, and general misery is upon us. Summer is finally here. 

If you can't already tell, I'm not a big fan of summer, especially here in the south, due to all of the heat, sunlight, and sweating. I can tolerate the summer as long as I have an ice cold drink and a pool to swim in. 

What I also don't mind about summer, despite the heat, is the food. Barbecues are front and center this time of year and I am more than happy to brave the elements to be first in line for some good grilling. ​

One of my favorite things about birthdays is all the free things. And I'm not just talking about the presents. I'm talking about all the coupons and goodies you get from being a rewards member at your favorite stores and restaurants. So far, my favorite goodies have been a free scoop of ice cream and Baskin Robbins and free tater tots at Sonic. That coupon for Olive Garden is going to taste mighty good this weekend too. But one birthday reward has blow all the rest out of the water and that is my free gift from being a Sephora Beauty Insider.

May's Beauty Insider birthday gift at Sephora was this cute blush and lipstick combo from Tarte. Anyone who knows me know that I am definitely not going to sneeze at free makeup. In fact, I will more than likely do everything I can to get free makeupt. It was a no brainer to yes to the Tarte duo at the checkout counter, especially when I haven't tried any of their makeup before.

​This Tarte combo comes with an Amazonian clay 12-hour blush in the shade paaarty and a tartiest lip paint in the color birthday suit. Lipstick is my weakness. Actually, that's why I was in Sephora in the first place. I was buying my birthday lipstick. (I chose Stila stay all day liquid lipstick in perla, but that's a different story.) I was eager to get this Tarte freebie home and try it on.

This Tarte lip paint is fantastic! This lipstick has a cool mint smell and goes on like a dream. It felt so light on my lips. Not to mention, the shade is a dark dusty rose color that makes for the perfect nude lip. And the Tarte blush is a nice light pink color that didn't make my already rosy cheeks too rosy. I usually stay away from blush for this very reason, but I have a feeling I will be picking this one up often.

Let this blog post serve as a reminder to you that when your birthday rolls around, don't forget to check everywhere you are a rewards member with so you can get your free goodies too! Tarte is a great brand and if you haven't already, check out their makeup!

Things have been crazy for me these last few months. I have not had time to maintain my website like I should due to producing an awards show in Las Vegas, graduating, and turning 21, but now that things are winding down, prepare for a Beanies & Weenies like you've never seen before.

This past semester was rough. I was taking 17 credit hours worth of classes and working as an editor at ECU's student newspaper. On top of that, I was part of a specially chosen group of students who flew to Las Vegas at the end of April to attend the National Association of Broadcasters convention and produce the Best of Festival awards show for the Broadcast Educators Association. I have been a busy bee since February!

Now that graduation is over and my birthday has passed (I finally turned 21!), I plan on dedicating a lot more time into Beanies & Weenies and my freelance services. For starters, I plan on updating this website and posting many more blog posts with cool patterns and tutorials. I also plan crochet a giant inventory of goodies for Etsy, local markets, and maybe, just maybe, a few giveaways (shhhhh!). 

Anyway, that was my quick update. Check back later this week for what could be a fun crochet pattern or interesting DIY. I haven't decided yet.

Until then, check out these pictures to see what I've been up to for the last 3 months!

With the Super Bowl less than 24 hours away, chicken wings and dips are being prepared for chowing down during game day all across the country. If you are in search of a last-minute dish to take to a Super Bowl party or just one more item to add to your menu, I have just the recipe for you: homemade cheese fries.