New Scents

Sweet Pea is finally here, folllowed by Chocolate Raspberry Drizzle Cupcakes! MMMmmmmmm.....

Home Theater Painting

What can I say? Well, busy comes to mind..I sound like a broken record. I have been painting like a mad woman, while all the while making soap . I make soap during the day, and paint at night! Here is the status of our home theater....hubby and I picked up paint from Benjamin Moore Store last Thursday. We finished priming Tuesday, and finished the home theater ceiling color and feature wall last night (at around 12:30 am) . The color I picked out for the feature wall is called Willow CC-542. It is a dark dark black brown, with a grey undertone . Sounds weird but is a beautiful color . That's where the screen comes down , so I wanted a almost black backround . The ceiling is painted a a dark silvery grey that has a brown undertone. Its on the same swatch card , its called Overcoat, CC-544. Its my favorite thus far, it looks irony, metal like. We used benjamin Moore Waterborne ceiling paint. The owner suggested it . I am glad he did! It is a perfect finish, flat and matte ..no streaking, the paint it glorious to put on. Now the walls have to be done, we choose CC-546 Metropolis. Cant wait to put that one. I am the cutter today because I am more steady and can do finicky things. My husband is good at slapping the paint on...

The bar is finally painted and ready for granite. Which by the way, I have to throw in that Hubby wanted a black granite. I said nooooo way, I wasn't going for that one. I wanted Blanco Romano (Bianco?) . I thought light granite would look fabulous with the dark bar. He was not going to let up , but I finally convinced him that light was the way to go . Now he says to me : "Boy I am sure glad that we went with light granite..." Ya, I am so glad I convinced you because it would have been ugly !

So anyway, the bar: We had to redo it because we didn't like the light stained oak look. We bought minwax ebony, and stained it with 2 coats. It was dark but not dark enough. We didn't "love" it . Not the look we were going for. In the very beginning, I wanted the bar painted and not stained. Because is oak, he paint would still show the grain anyway, but HUBBY didn't listen. Now he admits I was correct and now he loves it. :) He wanted Black Black, but I said leave the color up to me . Hiss track record for decor and taste is not so great...Well, its ok some of the time . Anyway, I though the paint color that we used for our front door, remember? It was called Night Shade, also from BM . It look fabulous. It is a rich , warm blackish brown. If anyone is searching for the perfect dark cabinet color, this would be it! This color is a stable in my book.

So, we have to finish the painting by Tuesday because the carpet is scheduled to go in Wednesday. Yes Yes, pictures!! I will pot them today..I have to find that camera of mine!!

My Life Goals, Dreams Include Bono....

Remember when I first started this blog, I listed all my life's goals and dreams? I had a goal to get a goldendoodle (Check!), I had a goal of having a successful business (check!), to kick my husband out of his retail space (um...no check yet)....My ultimate goal would be to attend my first U2 concert and meet my ultimate favorite man in the world, (next to my husband of course, who is always # 1)...BONO. As a young teenager/child I never knew or listened to U2. Only did I ever learn of them was through my husband. I remember going on a our first date to the beach, he played U2. We are 7 years apart , not much of a difference now , but I was 17/18 years old and he was 25 so that is a big difference in my book.

I was hooked the moment I heard U2 , and I am still hooked now. Every time I hear a song from them, it always reminds me of my hubby Mike and the drive to the beach.

I heard they are playing in Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton in 2010. Boy, am I praying they play in Winnipeg. Sure I can travel to Edmonton and see they play......NOT!

Not with 5 little ones tugging on your ankles. What a dream it would be if I met the guy, That would be a dream. In the past, I have written , emailed Oprah, Ellen, Sally Jessie Raphael for pete sakes...don't laugh!!! "Dear Oprah: I know you are best buds with Bono, Could you please make my dreams come true?? Mother of 5 would love to meet him and tell him what an inspiration he is to me and so many people. " yada yada...... No reply back, what a shocker! Same with Ellen Degeneres. (I love her btw) I kid you not, I really did email and write these people. Am I a loser or what??? Honestly, I would just die if I met Bono. I would make a soap in his honour... maybe a rock n roll duckie soap?

Someone else that I really love is Nicolas Cage. He's having some difficulties right now , but I know hell pull through. I know he needs money but all I have is soap. If you need some soap, Ive got plenty of that.

So I guess my plea to Bono is : Bono, I am a young mommy of 5, (well 6 if you count the hubby) who needs a night out. My hubby and I are celebrating 15 years of marriage in 2010 right around the time you will be in Canada. You are the reason we fell in love (well part of the reason) My husband is Irish too...does that help?? Please come to Winnipeg! I know our stadium stinks, its small and you may get west nile ..but I promise you, I am well worth the trouble! :)

Home Theatre Design

Hi Guys, if Im not busy enough, our next project is the basement. As we speak, we are having it taped by someone. Once thats done, we are ready to paint and install carpet. I am trying to decide on a color schem for the home theatre. I will definitely post pics of it . I also forgot to post pics of my front door I painted last summer using Nightshade in benjamin moore Aura Paint , so Ill do that tomorrow. I love benjamin moore! I just finished painting our powder room and masterbath and the paint is amazing! I will be BM in the entire basement.

So far, For the theatre ,I think I am going to go and see what Topeka Brown , Stone Brown, NorthCreek Brown, and Bittersweet Chocolate look like (thats for the walls) . I think I will be leaning toward a grey ceiling, and Topeka Brown is in the grey family. Its really exciting and finally hubby has a designated room for this great movie theatre. He will be building the bar and a mini concession stand. There will be 2 levels of seating , and an area for a games table because hubby has gameboard night with his brther-in-law and his buddies. I think the game is something similar to Risk... I get to do the fun stuff, like picking colors,lighting , furniture and so forth. The lighting we bought are mini pendents that go above the bar, they are clear glass tubes and inside them are mini crystals (like chandeliers). I want some bling in there! Pics to be posted cause I know you are interested! :)

A Big Thank You!

Thank you to all who saw me at the Scattered Seeds Craft Show. It was wonderful to see everyone again! I will be attending the 2nd Annual gathered Hearts Craft and Gift Show in Niverville,Manitoba . Hope to see you then! Monkey Farts and Gingerbread Man will be available to purchase there, and also some other favorites.

All Things Kawaii

What does Kawaii mean ? The term kawaii is a Japanese word which can be used to describe anything an individual considers cute, sweet, adorable, innocent, pure, simple, genuine, gentle etc. It can be used as an important keyword to describe happy moments of women's life.

I am on a kawaii kick! Take a look at these wonderful finds..Aren't they just totally sweet??? All found on Etsy

Kids off to School Again! Hooray!!

I apologize for being absent for along time! Being a mother of 5 is a task in itself. They are back to school now, so I have one left at home. My 3 year old Olivia. It feels weird to have only one to watch all day. I usually had at least 2, last year it was 3 because i was watching my niece. I always had a baby in my back pocket so to speak. I am not having anymore kids, 5 is enough I guess . At only 34 years old Id say that's pretty good. Part of me wishes I had another baby, then I stop to think for a moment, slap myself silly , realize I am nuts, and move on.

So, what have I been doing ??.....Well, of course I have been soaping my heart out! This fall, I have new scent added to my regular line. Cranberry Balsam, 7up pound cake, and Blue Raspberry are to name a few. Back this fall are Pink Lady, Sinfully Iced cinnamon, Candy Cane. Foaming Whipped Sugar Scrubs are being sold in 4oz jars. Ice cream Cupcake soaps are back in stock (they are 7-8 oz in weight) Raspberry Buttercream, KeyLime, Buttercream Frosting .

Also, I have been busily painting our Powder Room, and Master Bath in Benjamin Moore Grey Wisp. It is a spot on duplicate to Restoration Hardware Silver Sage. The Powder Room is done. I added a beveled glass star purchased from Urban Barn. Looks pretty!

I have been trying to do a full blown decorating project with our master bedroom as well. It was bare and just had our massive king size 4 poster bed. We bought only the bed from the Better Homes And Garden collection Modern Outlook. It was a steal at $600! We bought the floor model at a furniture store that was closing out. We recently ordered bedside tables that compliments the bed perfectly. So, so far over the weekend I purchased 4 -94" inch drapes from Urban Barn, 2 Lamps (as pictured) from Bowring, and a shade pendant light with crystals from Homesense that cost $79.99 CDN that looks exactly like this Horchow chandelier: John-Richard
Silver-Plated Chandelier listed at $1,980.00 !http://www.horchow.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=cprod26770040&parentId=cat000099&masterId=cat000099&index=51&cmCat=cat000000cat1590731cat000099

"Get out of town !", you say? (cough,cough) $2,000 for that or $79.99 for mine? I love Homesense!!! So ladies, I'm not finished blowing the bank... I have yet to buy bedding, and I am on the hunt for a bench...preferably a zebra print, silver studded one with dark wood barley twist legs. Did I make that up?? Last year, I bought a starburst mirror from homesense that I absolutely loved for 29.99 and its on my wall as well. Can you picture this room? I was going to repaint it in the Grey Wisp like our master bath but decided to hold off. I like the tones in the room right now . The paint that was used in our master bedroom was Netsuke from Sherwin Williams Paint. Its a nice neutral color, with a greenish undertone.

The Master bath has a mirror that I am picking up this weekend (as pictured) It is stunning! All beveled glass.

Next to soap making, I love home decorating!!

Summer Holidays Puts Me Behind

Ohhhh! The summer holidays has put me behind on my blog entries. That happened last year..not one blog entry all summer. So far the summer has been very interesting. We went camping for 3 days. The kids have had sleepovers and we went to alot of movies so far.

My husband sprained his foot badly last week, that was very bad let me tell you. Um, I had a garage sale last weekend and made about $190 dollars. It was from 10am-3pm. So, not bad considering I am not missing the junk. My sister made $20 (haha) , but she didn't really bring a whole lot. My mom made $25, she was happy. My sister loves garage sale shopping....she, my mom and my aunt left ours to go to another one in the area and mom came back with dishes. Obsessed or what!

I love garage sales shopping too , but my husband hates them ,hence, I haven't been to one in a decade. Really!

My sister and I are obsessed with all things shabby chic and vintage. Even though my new home is not decorated like that, I still have some elements of vintage . I would call my taste Modern Vintage/Classic.

One store here in Winnipeg that is a treasure is the Winnipeg's Old Revival House Company http://oldhouserevival.com/. 3 floors of fabulous vintage / antiques. It is neatly crammed with tons of stuff. You need hours and hours to go through everything. So far I bought a red vintage kids wooden ironing board, a vintage child's watering can shaped like a swan, and a vintage green recipe card holder with old recipes inside. These items where meant for a playhouse I want built in the backyard but I haven't found anyone willing to build it. I have already bought 3 windows , window boxes and shutters for it. they are collecting dust as we speak. This is something I wanted for a very long time, ever since my first born. Now, 5 kids later still no playhouse...My goal is to get one by the end of the summer...:)

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!!

The Soap Lady

The Prim Pantry Gourmet Soaps has changed its name. My company is now called That Soap Lady. Different name same great soap! Please check ut my new blog ThatSoapLady.blogspot.com

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcake

New for 2009 is the Chocolate Cream Cheese Cpcake Soap. Although the soaps are not shaped like cupcakes, they are the gourmet soap slices. I dont have a pic to post yet, but let me assure you it looks so yummy that my 5 year old was eyeing the chocolate soap syrup :)

Welcome Back !

Yes, yes, I know I have been awol for a while now, but that doesnt mean I have forgotten about you guys :) There are several new products that I have been working on are cupcake / spa cakes ,whipped butter cream soaps and scrubs, and shaving bars. They are not available for sale yet , but very soon will they be listed in my Etsy store.