Are you searching for ideas for Mother’s Day gifts? I’ve come up with some awesome suggestions that I’m sure most Mum’s will love. From a gift voucher for a relaxing massage, to some organic, chemical free skin products, to a DIY decorated mug, you won’t be short of ideas after reading this.

Design your Own Beautiful Mug

Don’t want to spend much? Make Mum a gift! This DIY decorated mug is a great idea and will be a fun activity to do.
Start with a solid coloured mug (or a few) from a cheap store and decorate it. This could be a great one for the kiddies to do (with parental supervision of course).

My favourite is the Nail Polish Marble Mug. You could also use this technique to decorate votive candle holders, vases, saucers or potplants.
Marble Mugs

Using a Porcelain Marker pen you can decorate a mug in all sorts of ways
This link gives you ideas about how to transfer a printable picture so it’s easier to draw, or some inspiration to draw some geometric patterns.
Marker Mugs

High tea

Take your Mummy on a date to High Tea, or give her a gift voucher for another time.

Here are some lovely places to consider:
The Sebel, Hawkesbury – $44 pp
The Fairmont Resort, Leura – $49-$65 pp
Lilianfels, Katoomba, $49-$69 pp

A tea subscription.

Does your Mum love herbal tea? For a gift that will last well past May 14th, consider a subscription of organic herbal tea.

Burton Health offers a monthly tea subscription which delivers a bag of organic tea to your door along with an information sheet about each tea blend, new members get a travel mug, and each month there are surprise goodies included. With each month Mum gets a present in the mail that will remind her of your kind gift.

Membership ranges from 3 months for $99 or a years worth for $299. Alternatively you can just purchase her a single pack of tea, which is all available to peruse on the club website.
Burton Health Tea Club

A relaxing massage.

Ease stress and sore muscles with a therapeutic, relaxing massage. Pregnancy massage is great gift idea for a Mum-to-be as well!
Massages are available with me at the Windsor clinic on Wednesdays and Saturdays, or Fridays at Dural.
60min for $95
30 min for $55

Email me for a voucher, or Book Online for Dural or Call for appointments at Windsor

Skin Juice Box of Goodness – Hand Cream and Green Balm

This pack contains the all-purpose Skin Juice Green Balm, and Perfect Paws hand cream.

I swear by the Skin Juice Green Balm, you can use it for rough skin, as a night cream, for rashes and a bit of eczema, as a lip balm, soothe cuts and bruises. It softens, soothes and conditions all areas of skin you want to apply it to. (It’s also safe to use on babies from 4 weeks and safe during pregnancy). The hand cream smells lovely and isn’t greasy.
This pack with the hand moisturiser and green balm together is on sale at the moment on Nourished Life – $36 down from $55; or just get the Green Balm for $29.50

Skin Juice Just Squeezed Box of Goodness

Green Juice All Over Skin Balm

Make her a cake.

Try my recipe for a gluten free Plum and Orange Cake.

Women Essence – Australian Bush Flower Essence

This blend of Bush Flowers is designed to assist in balancing emotional imbalances that are common during menstruation, menopause, pregnancy and more. This gentle formula works on an energetic level and may help with mood swings, hot flushes, and more. For more detail look at the individual essences on the website.

Women Essence Drops

The Divine Company Hand Series

What Mum doesn’t have hardworking hands. Give them some love with a beautiful, nasty-chemical free cleanser and moisturiser. This moisturiser smells just divine. (Get it?)
Last year I interviewed the founder of this company, Therese Kerr about natural beauty products. You can check that out here.
The cleanser and moisturiser combo is on sale for $79.95: The Divine Company Organic Hand Series

Or just get the moisturiser for $49.95
The Divine Company Organic Hand & Body Lotion

So that’s my suggestions. What do you think? Any other ideas?

This post contains some affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

The post Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

This recipe came about from my attempts to make a bit of  healthier version of Lumberjack cake whilst I was pregnant. I love Lumberjack cake, and one morning I was really feeling like it, but didn’t feel like something quite that sweet. I added some pineapple (like in a Hummingbird cake) and used buckwheat and coconut flour to make it a bit more blood sugar and gut friendly. I was quite impressed with myself for how well they turned out. Let me know if you give them a try.

Ingredients

• 1 apple, cored and diced
• ½ cup dates, chopped
• ½ cup boiling water
• 1 tsp bicarb soda

• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• ¾ cup buckwheat flour
• ¼ cup coconut flour
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 2 slices pineapple, chopped
• ½ cup chopped mixed nuts
• 1 cup almond meal
• 3 eggs
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out (or ½ tsp vanilla extract)
• ½ tsp each cinnamon and ground ginger
• ¼ tsp each nutmeg and cardamon
• Pinch salt

Topping

• 60g butter
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut (I used finely dessicated because that’s all I had, but this was too fine)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Mix the chopped apples and dates, bicarb soda and boiling water in a bowl. Stir to coat them, cover, then set aside until it’s just warm.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs with the maple syrup then combine the flours, baking soda, salt, spices and vanilla. Fold in the nuts, banana, pineapple and the soaked apple and dates.

Spoon into muffin trays and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile to make the topping, combine the butter, milk and brown sugar in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until the butter has completely melted and the sugar dissolved. Stir through the coconut. Pour this mixture evenly over the muffins, then place them back into the oven for 30 minutes.

The muffins are done when a skewer inserted into the muffins comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool slightly. Serve at room temperature.

The post Lumberjack-ish Muffins appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.