First Communion

My middle child Emma, will have her 1ST Communion Sunday. I am busily preparing for that and boy, am I busy. The food I have yet to plan out, but it will be dinner.

This is the third communion we've done, so this occasion is no stranger to us.

As you can see, I have posted the dress that I bought. It is a Christie Helene dress that retailed for $450. But, of course I didn't pay that for goodness sake. Whenever I need a special occasion dress for the girls, and I want a designer that we cant get here ...I go to the land of Ebay. Ebay is like my best friend. I purchased this dress new, tags and all..crispy white untouched for 29.99 US dollars..Can you believe that. What is so amazing is it fits my daughter to a tee and she looks like an angel. I am so thrilled with this purchase. She is also wearing a pearl headband (no veil). Cant wait to see her in it all.

Make Your Own Sea Salt Spray for Sexy Wavy Beach Style Hair

This spray, made by Bumble & Bumble gives gives you sexy, salty, sun-dried, wind swept styles . The key is in the sea salt which gives texture, hold and volume to hair. Sea salt has the ability to enhance the natural waves that most of us already have. It also gives it a shine-free finish, because the secret to beach hair is keeping it matte so it actually looks like you’ve spent the day at the beach rather than under a can of hair spray. For a 4oz bottle, its listed at 22.00 U.S.

How about saving your hard earned dollars? Here's a recipe that's sure to please:

1 tsp per 8oz of water. Don't use more than that or it can really dry out your hair. Or you can just put 1/2 a table spoon in a 16 oz bottle of water and store it in the fridge until use. After its mixed, put it in a spray bottle, spritz the hair and braid it in several loose braids at night, untie and spritz w a bit more salt water and u are good to go. Sea salt is relatively inexpensive, so give this a whirl!

Are Anti-bacterial products really safe?

This is what I read the other day and I truly believe it :

If you're going to get infected by bacteria, it's not the 99.9% that's going to make a home out of you - it's the rare 0.1% that's dangerous. Consumers who purchase and use products that contain antibacterial chemicals, such as triclosan, kill off the weak, harmless bacteria (99.9%) and ensure the really bad 0.1% survive to multiply in your bathroom and elsewhere - sometimes millions per day.
The practice of overusing antibacterial chemicals enriches numbers of dangerous bacteria in normal populations - effectively "selecting" them - which increases our chances of getting sick or infected by strains that antibiotic drugs are increasingly ineffective against.

This is not something that the mass marketeers tell you about because sensationalizing that all bacteria are bad sells their product.

Bacteria are everywhere and most are harmless. All of them compete for the same resources to survive, but killing the harmless ones allows the harmful strains to flourish like fast-growing weeds in a freshly tilled field. A reasonable daily personal care routine using natural soaps is adequate to protect you from these dangerous bacteria. These strains are rare, and we need to keep them that way. Using consumer products labeled as "Antibacterial" is unnecessary and actually increases our infection risks, yet the solution is easy: Don't purchase consumer products labeled "Antibacterial."

Any soap with warm water, used for 15 seconds or more, will kill germs on the body.

Craft Show was Wonderful

Thank you to all those who made this year's spring show a success.

Here are some pictures of my display, and the counter I was talking about the other day. It was so much fun, and I even got my dad and uncle to mind the booth while I made a trip to the cotton candy counter for my kids. I tell you, my dad and uncle were quite funny. I saw my dad talking up a storm to a customer saying how wonderful my products were..(I admit I was embarrassed, and feeling like a kid again) But Daddy if you are reading this ,....never stick a Popsicle soap in a perfect stranger's face and tell them to smell it . AHHHHH!!!

I met new faces and chatted with the regulars, I had so much fun. The sugar scrubs were very successful. I sold out of 2 of the 3 flavours. The only thing I regret is not having a wash station..but I will have that come the next large show. Margarita and Love Bug were sell outs. The top sellers were Cherry Lemonade, Cucumber Cantaloupe, Monkey Farts, Black Raspberry Vanilla Cream...Close seconds were Pink Sugar, Fresh Laundry, Honey Bee

Craft Show in 3 days...

Well, I have been calmly getting organized...yeah right...My husband is helping me out once again. He is building me some counters for my booth where my cake plates will be out for display , and additional shelving underneath. The idea came to be when last year, he was putting together a simple pine shelf at the show. He had the shelf on its side and a light bulb went off in my tiny head. It looked like a counter if you put a piece of wood on top, then closed the back , then maybe added some planks on the bottom for shelving. Voila! So, he is putting 2 counters together using the 5 foot shelves as the main frame. So simple to put together (if your a man).
I will post some pics of it when its done.
There will be alot more room in my booth going this route...I also have my prized ladder shelf for my duckies. Didn't have time to repaint it though....its a cherry red. Remember that project last year? He made that for me.
I love my hubby :)

Weather is looking up

It's still too cold for spring but at least its sunny. There is still snow on the ground and of course icy patches everywhere. I think Spring is going to skip us really....It will go from -15 to + 30 over night I am sure of it. Sometimes I wonder why I ended up in this cold place.

The hubby and I are shopping around for patio furniture and a barbecue. Didn't realize how expensive these things cost. We want a sofa, chairs and coffee table arrangement and also a table ,umbrella and 6 chairs. So far Walmart is the least expensive but also they looked really nice. Costco was a crazy amount, Rona was expensive too. We have Canadian Tire and Home Depot left.

Also in the works is a mudroom. We have a new home, its custom built but one thing that we failed to think of when building was a proper mudroom. In the house plans there is one, we have one technically but it is is space that's been wasted . So our plan is to take out the back closet, put a wall up and voila... the mudroom that was supposed to be there in the first place. In the original plans there was a door leading to it but we decided not to put that wall up..(big mistake)

So, eventually we will have someone come in and see if we can do this. Would have saved us alot of headaches if this was done in the first place....My ideal mudroom is cubbies,shelving,hooks,and a bench intergrated in all this. The space we have to work with is 6 x 8 so , I am sure its doable.

Craft Show in 3 weeks

The Scattered Seeds craft show is in 3 weeks time. My sister who is a Tim Horton's coffee junkie, will have a booth right next door to me. Her Company Name is Little Sara Soda..She sells trendy boutique quality accessories for children



like Bibs, blankets, hair accessories, and taggie blankies. We've done so many shows together over a span of ten years(even longer), But this one is her first Juried large show. It is a 10 x 10 booth She's really excited and so am I. Last year, she helped me at my booth...Remember, she was the one who ran after a toddler to another soap booth and secretly gave this girl a free soap ....then mom comes back with kid and ear in hand and thinks her baby girl is a kleptomaniac? Ahhh those were the good old days. I have some advice to her ,and to all you crafters who do this for a living,...Dont ask your buying customer.." Are you sure you wanna buy all this??" "Your not buying that out of pitty are ya?"...

You can think it but dont pull a Homer Simpson and actually say it outloud! OF course they want to buy it silly!!