6 Essential Oils Blends You'll Want In Your Diffuser This Holiday Season

6 Great essential oil blends to get you in the mood for fall, balance your stress levels and excite you for the holidays!

Diffusing essential oils is by far my favorite way to use them. Well, it's a tie between diffusing and applying topically, but for the sake of this post we'll say diffusing. The holiday season (which I define as Sept through New Years) is my favorite time of the year. I'm basically a grown-woman-child this time of year, decorating the house nonstop. Everything gets covered in a layer of glitter, even if I don't intend it to. Despite all my love for superficial parts of the holidays, I also love to really celebrate the season and all the true meaning behind it. These essential oil blends for my diffuser help me to do just that.

First, the essential oils! Revive oils are my new go-to. Yup, I used to be with Young Living, but the expense of those oils were insane. I asked some of my oily gurus who they got their oils from and learned about Revive. They're therapeutic grade, indigestible essential oils that are NOT a multi-level-marketing structure. You can go on their website and buy them like you'd buy something on Amazon - no need to sign up for some membership! They have packages with diffusers and single essential oils, plus roller bottles and other lifestyle items. Use code Paige10 for 10% off your order and experience the same quality of Young Living or doTERRA without the obnoxious price (and minus the sales people always trying to get you to buy things...)

I've broken it down into two blends per "holiday" if you will - two that are great for fall/Halloween, two that are helpful around the stressful Thanksgiving holiday and finally, two that promote the spirit of Christmas. Don't limit them to their use around that particular holiday though! Full disclosure: I've diffused Christmas Spirit essential oil in the middle of July before, just because I love the spicy scent. Christmas in July was a real thing up in my house this summer! Oh well. At least I wasn't watching a Christmas movie too? Right? 

Enough endless banter pointless writing, let's get to those blends! I've combined them all in a handy pin you can put on Pinterest for later reference, too. Y'all that graphic took me an embarrassingly long time to make so please, use it at your convenience! While I'm a woman of many talents, I'm riding front row of the struggle bus when it comes to using graphic design software. Just keeping the full disclosure theme of this post rollin'...

Le Blends:

Fall Air

You know that crisp, sharp air that indicates fall is settling in? Well, I don't anymore, but I used to know it well when I lived in Minneapolis. In Texas, I just breathe a sigh of relief that I get to go outside again without wanting to die. Good news is, I can recreate those crisp fall morning memories (minus the cold!) with this fall air diffuser blend:

Fall Air

3 drops Sandalwood

2 drops Fir

2 drops Cypress

1 drop Frankincense 

Pumpkin Spice

You either love or hate pumpkin spice. The funny thing is that pumpkins literally have no spice in them - this now excessively popular "spice" is a blend used to make pumpkin pie, and has been shortened to just pumpkin spice. While I don't love PSLs, I DO love my house smelling like a pumpkin pie is baking (minus the guilt of eating the pie!) so this blend is a winner:

Pumpkin Spice

2 drops Cinnamon

1 drop Clove

1 drop Nutmeg

1 drop Orange

1 drop Ginger

*Also winning? All of these oils are SUPER affordable, with each one coming in at $18 or less!

Feeling Thankful

Sometimes our gratitude spills out of us and sometimes it takes a little help to remember all the good things you've got going in your life. Young Living makes two amazing blends that, through the power of aromatherapy, helps bring to your consciousness exactly what you're thankful for. If you struggle around the holidays with all the family around stressing you out, this one is for you! I actually diffuse these year-round just because I love them:

Feeling Thankful

3-5 drops Family 

OR

3-5 drops Gathering

Gounding

With how busy and chaotic the holiday season can be, sometimes it's good just to remember that you're in the moment. That it's not about having the perfectly cooked turkey or the most beautiful table scape. All you have is right now and what's around you, and all of that is perfect in and of itself. THAT is called "grounding" and taking a minute to ground yourself during the holidays is essential! This blend is a good one to diffuse in the early morning before a crazy day or later at night, after the chaos has left:

Gounding

2 drops Sacred Mountain

2 drops Cedarwood

1-2 drops Patchouli 

Christmas Tree

Growing up in Minnesota, we ALWAYS had a real Christmas tree. All my friends had real trees. In fact, we'd even go to a tree farm about an hour out of Minneapolis and cut ours down ourselves. The smell of  a Christmas tree reminds me of happy childhood memories. In Dallas, I don't think I've seen one pine tree. Not one. I don't know if it's too hot here or what, but my neighborhood is full of Live Oaks, Crepe Myrtle, and Magnolias. People (ourselves included!) do have holly bushes that bloom in the late fall with the red berries, but if I want the smell of my childhood around, I have to bolster our fake Christmas tree with this blend:

Chirstmas Tree

3 drops Balsam Fir

1 drop Christmas Spirit

Wise Men

Sometimes I try to talk with someone who's had too much science education about essential oils. They normally roll their eyes and say, "I can't wait for that trend to be over." To which I silently respond, "Oh, bless your heart." You see, essential oils precede Biblical times. Frankincense and Myrrh are noted throughout the Bible for their health properties. Egyptians anointed with essential oils, and used them to preserve bodies. So I'm not quite sure what "trend" naysayers are referring to, because oils predate big pharmaceuticals. The only trend I see is that people are sick of being sick and sick of expensive meds and want alternatives, and are looking back into history to find ways to take control of their health! That's a long winded, semi-tangent way to say, this blend is some of the oldest essential oils on earth, and are are some of the most spiritual oils you can diffuse:   

Wise Men

2 drops Frankincense

2 drops Myrrh

1 drop Orange

All of these essential oil blends are great year round, but are especially relevant during the holiday season! Most of the oils are very affordable, especially all the citrus and spicy oils. These 6 essential oil blends will help you and your family celebrate the holiday season!

Semi DIY Haunted Fireplace Mantel

When you want to decorate for the holidays but you're not super crafty, use a semi DIY decorating method to save money AND get the look you want

In the most basic of ways, fall is my favorite season. But not for the pumpkin spice lattes and blanket scarves... I'm here for Halloween! My birthday falling on October 16 is a plus too, but mostly Halloween. I actually might enjoy decorating for Halloween more than Christmas! Black, orange, green, purple and everything seems to be covered in glitter... What more could a girl want?! I enjoy a good craft, but these days, I have limited time for my hobbies. Yet buying decorations from a store is expensive. I've found the semi DIY decorating method to be the most efficient and cost effective for a great Halloween fireplace mantel.

Ever since I could remember, I've been fascinated with Halloween. Not for the death and gore, but a fascination with ghosts and spirits and life after death. I know some people don't celebrate Halloween because "it's the devils' work" and that's so outlandish to me I have to hide a snort laugh. I don't want to laugh at anyone's religious beliefs, but I don't believe in devils or hell and I find it absurd that others do as a way to put fear into a person to "do good." I'm getting a bit off topic and going deeper than I intended to here, so I'll end saying this: Halloween was created in the early 10th century to remember the departed. Throughout the centuries, tall tales have been added about ghosts and ghouls of those who have passed and everything has gotten covered in about six layers of glitter. To me, it's all in good fun. Decorate on!

Have you ever been in a craft store, or Target, or anywhere really - and have seen all the great decorations, but choked at the price tag? And then you think, oh heck, I can make that myself! So you start to fill your cart with the individual pieces, and before you're even 10 minutes into it, you're so overwhelmed with how time consuming it's going to be, you leave your cart in the aisle and walk away? Hey, I've actually done that. I really thought I could build my own haunted house and share a tutorial on it and before I even had $30 of supplies in my cart I was like, "I CAN'T" and moved on.

What I COULD do, however, was this semi DIY haunted bouquet to round out my Halloween fireplace mantel. It's so simple: I used a Mason jar and leftover moss I had to form the base. Then I selected some favorite pieces of glitter-covered Halloween faux-flowers/plants from a craft store. I formed the bouquet in the store so I would know what would look good together. Boom! Insert moss in Mason jar, form my bouquet and you're in business with the semi DIY haunted bouquet. I spent $21 on supplies for this. Had I bought it pre-made from the craft store, it would have easily been $50. Semi DIY saves you tons of money and you get it to look the way you want!

I also semi DIY'd the garland for the fireplace mantel. It's actually four garland pieces I've strung together to make it thick, then I added the pumpkin lights. A robust, pre-lit garland is outrageously expensive, but if you semi DIY it, you can get it to fit just the right space with just the right colors for a fraction of the cost. It only takes you a little bit of thought and some time to put it together.

For the rest of the haunted fireplace mantel, I used pieces and decorations I've collected over the years. A skull cookie jar. A glittery haunted house. My fall DIY pumpkins got a Halloween face lift with some new ribbon. Now if only I can get Henry to leave them alone... They're reachable down on the fireplace hearth, but since they're plastic, he hasn't been able to destroy them. Yet.

What's your favorite holiday to decorate for? I know there's more than a few of us die-hard Halloween and fall lovers out there! Whatever holiday is your jam, try out the semi DIY decorating method. It's just enough of a craft to be fun without the frustration. It saves a bunch of money compared to the pre-made items and you get to make it just the way you want to fit your home and style. My semi DIY haunted fireplace mantel is right up my weird, Halloween loving alley!

Managing Night Terrors in Toddlers

Night terrors in toddlers is very common but there's an easy fix with the Lully Sleep Guardian 2

This post was sponsored by Lully as part of Influencer Activation for Influence Central

If you've ever woken up to your toddler screaming in the middle of the night, seemingly for no reason, you're well aware of what a night terror is. I was completely unfamiliar with night terrors until Henry had his first. It scared the crap out of me, because in the middle of the night, he was absolutely hollering as if someone were trying to harm him! Upon going into his room, all was well and he was calmed down and back to sleep in less than 5 minutes.. While it was easy for him to fall back asleep, I was awake for another hour or two wondering what his deal was. Turns out, Henry has inconsistent night terrors. Luckily for both of us, I found a solution to managing those night terrors.

Night terrors are a weird thing. You put your child to bed and all is well. You retire for the night. You fall asleep after thinking about your to do list for the next day. Then all of a sudden, you're awoken by your child screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. If you're not a parent, I don't think there's a way to me to describe how absolutely nerve rattling this is! A million thoughts go through your head. "Is his foot stuck in the crib? Did he vomit? Did someone break in and do something to him? What kind of a scene am I going to find once I get to him?!"

Henry is old enough now to get his foot un-stuck from his crib bars. We also still sleep sack him so that he can't crawl out of his crib and disturb his brother, so stuck limbs aren't really a concern. There's only been one case of him vomiting in the night, and let me tell you how NOT fun it was to have to turn on all the lights, change and bathe him, change the crib and wash the sheets, and attempt to get him back to sleep, all at 2am. The joys of parenting, right? Most the time when he's crying at night, there's no obvious thing wrong. He's just had a night terror. In fact, night terrors are extremely common as they affect 20 percent of all kids! Fortunately for us, Henry is easy to calm and get back to sleep, but some children get really worked up from their night terrors.

Lully Sleep Guardian 2 fits under your child's mattress and doesn't disrupt normal sleep

The real issue is getting yourself back to sleep after a bout of night terrors in your toddler. There's something about being a parent and hearing your child scream in the night that rattles you to your core! Whenever it happens, it takes me a good hour (sometimes even longer) to be able to get back to sleep. If my husband is off traveling for work, I find that I have to go about the house and re-check that all the doors are locked and nothing is amiss in the house before I can even think about getting back in bed. And if Henry bursts into screams at 4am, I just have to accept that I'm now up for the day because there's no way I'm getting settled back down only to get up at 6am again.

Enter modern day technology to save both parents and toddlers alike! Lully Sleep Guardian 2 is some of the coolest "mom technology" I've seen yet. There's a pod that plugs into the wall and fits under your child's mattress. Then you download an app and answer a few questions about your child's sleeping patterns and behavior. The pod and the app are able to track your child's sleep and it begins to vibrate once a night terror is about to start, waking your child up before it's able to take place. The Lully Sleep Guardian 2 is able to completely stop a night terror before it starts!

Happy camper without night terrors!

As parents we want our children to feel safe and sleep well at night. Night terrors are a challenge for everyone involved, and the sleep disruption just might be toughest on parents! But your child doesn't need to suffer nor do you. Check out this awesome technology from Lully to manage your toddler's night terrors.