• Homestead Diary February 14 2022

    Homestead Diary February 14 2022

    It’s Valentine’s Day!

    My husband and I have celebrated 32 Valentine’s Days together.

    Today I thought I’d share a bit about the two of us.
    Just a short story as the day has been busy, and long, so I’m short on time!

    Just over 32 years ago, I had recently moved back to White Rock, British Columbia, Canada from spending a year in my birthplace, the Netherlands. I was 18, almost 19 at the time.
    Graydon, my husband, was currently in the Canadian Navy, he was 23, almost 24.

    A mutual friend of ours invited several of us to come for a ships tour while they were docked nearby in Vancouver. It was during that ship visit Graydon and I first met. I knew that first meeting that he was the man I would marry. It was as though a voice whispered it to me as I watched and listened to him explain all sorts of parts and workings of the ship to us during that tour.

    That first meeting was February 2nd 1990.
    By March 10th he asked me to marry him. Mid September he was finished his stint in the Navy.
    We married on September 22nd of that same year. I was 19, he was 24.

    Through the years we’ve had many ups and downs, and persevered through many trials and tribulations. We both grew in maturity, together. We raised five children, including twins, homeschooled all of them from kindergarten through to graduation in 3 different provinces, through many moves, and during a time when homeschooling wasn’t considered ‘normal’. Mind you, not much of what we’ve ever done has been ‘normal’. We do a lot of things VERY well, but ‘normal’ is not one of them!

    Just look at the business I’ve successfully run for the past 17+ years… creating reusable cloth pads and shipping them worldwide. Most wouldn’t consider that ‘normal’. lol

    All we’ve been through, everywhere we’ve been and all that we’ve done, has led us to where we are today.
    Still married and we would still choose one another today. It hasn’t always been easy, but both of us have always known that going our separate ways would never be easy either, so we may as well stick it out together, and continue working together towards a better life for ourselves, for our family.

    And that’s what we’ve done!

    We both know that neither of us is perfect, but we’re perfectly suited for one another because neither of us ever gives up. We continue to learn, to grow, and to strive to thrive in our marriage, not just survive.

    We’ve both seen a lot of ‘surviving’ marriages.
    I’m sure we all have. Seek to thrive instead. It’s a much better goal!

  • Homestead Diary February 12 2022

    Homestead Diary February 12 2022

    Cool day today, but not as cold as yesterday! Still cool enough to need a scarf.
    The big horses were all wearing a layer of snow. Did you know that if a horse has a layer of snow on their back, it’s a very good sign that they are staying warm and not loosing body heat. If they were loosing body heat through their furry coat, the snow would melt. All our horses have great coats each winter! The big horse in the right foreground is actually jet black, and here he is looking a bit like a snowman.

    Each morning when I let the miniature horses out of the barn and into their paddock, the big horses always come over to say hello. I joke that the mini horses are their entertainment. Like us with tv. They love to stand and watch everything these little horses do.

    This stray who showed up on our homestead last fall, decided it was going to be a friendly day.
    This cat is kind of weird. Some days he loves me, other days he runs away and hides from me as fast as he did when he first showed up. He can’t quite decide if he likes humans. He had made up his mind that we were NOT likeable, until I realized to win him over I was going to need to bribe him with some good stuff. I started bringing him out a bit of cream each morning. He loved that.
    So now some days he talks up a storm to me, and lets me pet him and love on him, even if I don’t have cream. Other days, he forgets that he likes people and avoids me like the plague. I’ll share a video of him from this morning on my fb page.

    Today was a good people day. Today he liked me, and apparently Levi the barn dog too.
    I’m pretty sure he changes his mind about the dog on a daily basis too.

    Here’s our pretty boy barn roosters, our bachelors. And a couple of our barn cats. The calico cat is also a stray. She’s super sweet, and a fantastic hunter. Right now she’s on the prowl keeping watch for a pure white ermine. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s an animal that is basically a mink/weasel. I think these animals are super duper cute! BUT, back in BC we had just ONE mink take out a whole bunch of our chickens. They are NOT a good animal to have around a farm.

    We’ve never had any issues with weasels since moving to this homestead 9 years ago, so when my daughters saw a tiny one in the barn last night, it was a surprise. From what they described, it had to be a baby ermine, which causes me to wonder if we have a family of them in our barn… or possibly more realistically, our farm dog found a nest some where on or near the property, brought this one to the barn and it got away from him. He was trying to get at it in the barn, but it was too fast and scurried out the door into the snow.

    I have a difficult time believing that we could have a family of these critters living in our barn alongside our barn cats. Riley, the calico, is especially good at hunting and I just don’t think she’d allow it. lol

    If my daughters could have caught the baby ermine, I know they would have… and we’d likely have a new pet.

    This is Missy, she’s currently our oldest hen, and our smallest, a bantam. She’s almost 9 years old and one of the first chickens we got when we moved onto the homestead in 2013! She was still laying eggs last summer, the smallest roosters in the photo above are her babies. Every egg of hers that I have ever incubated has hatched! She’s an amazing little hen. I really love bantam chickens, and if everyone loved small eggs, I’d have a coop full of bantams but unfortunately most prefer large eggs, so I just have a few. The very first chicken I ever had as a child was a bantam. They are super friendly and gentle, really a great chicken for small children! I’ll always have a couple so that if kids visit, I can count on having a couple of friendly hens who will obligingly be held in a child’s arms. 🙂

    I took a few videos this morning of the different animals, and I’ll share those on my fb and on my tiktok, if any of you are also on there! On fb you can find me at www.facebook.com/HomesteadEmporium and on tiktok just search for HomesteadEmporium and you’ll find me there!

  • Homestead Diary Friday February 11 2022

    Homestead Diary Friday February 11 2022

    Yesterday we had rain and temps that went up as high as 5C/41F and this morning it was so cold the ‘feels like’ temperature was -32C/-27F! Quite a drastic change overnight!

    I was sure the deck would be slick as snot when I went out to do chores but thankfully it was covered in a light coating of some sort of sleet, which made it grippy to walk on like sandpaper, rather than a skating rink. lol Slip sliding to the barn and while doing chores is never fun!

    The animals were all doing well this morning, despite the cold. When the temperature change is that drastic I almost expect to find them all shivering and the chickens sneezing. It’s those types of fluctuations that will bring on sickness. As much as I hate to say it, I prefer it just stay cold, not extreme cold, but definitely above freezing.

    When people hear that we moved from the warm climate of Vancouver Island, BC to the cold winter climates here in the prairies, they expect that we miss the warmer winters. Nope. I sure don’t at all. I actually enjoy the cold, I find it quite invigorating really. I will often go for long walks outdoors even when it’s as cold as -40C/-40F or colder. I’ve found that here in Saskatchewan, at least where we are near two large bodies of salt water, the air is perfect all year round. In BC when it was cold, it would be cold and WET. So even if it was only -10C/14F it would absolutely chill you to the BONE! No matter what you wore! Here, because the air is neither too damp or too dry, as long as I’m well dressed for the temperatures, I’m always warm. Very seldom is it that I will feel cold outside. Of course in the extreme temperatures, any bare skin will get cold, but my body as a whole really never gets cold. I don’t even wear huge winter coats while working or walking outside, just appropriate layers. Long sleeve shirt or light sweater underneath an insulated flannel barn coat. Good mittens are a must, mine are like a glove/mitten combination, the thumb and forefinger are separate so I can grab/grip etc., but the other three fingers are in a mitten shape, and the glove/mitten itself comes up well over my wrists so no cool air ever gets in up under my sleeves. I wear wool socks that my mom knit for me, along with bog boots, they are not true winter boots, but not a regular rubber boot either. My secret weapon for keeping my legs warm… is bamboo velour yoga pants. I made many pairs for myself, and these keep my legs warm all winter. No need for snow pants! As long as I’m out there moving I just don’t get cold. I often come inside sweating after finishing my chores.

    I share these details for those of you who may be new to hometeading, or may be considering homesteading, and wondering about these sorts of details of daily life. I know there are MANY people out there who are considering a move back to the land, and they are wondering if they could handle prairie winters or if they should move some place where the weather isn’t so drastically cold.

    It will depend on each person of course, but for us, we do not regret moving to the prairies for even a moment. We’ve been here almost ten years now and we still love it! Moving to land is very expensive in many places, and the warmer the area, the more expensive the land. Here in Saskatchewan, there have been MANY people moving from city/town/small properties in places like BC, Ontario, Quebec, who sold their homes for a pretty good $ there and purchased huge properties here.

    Some make it and love it like we do, but some do not.

    I personally couldn’t do it, or at least I could not do it as well as we do, without the luxuries we have like a warm home, a large heated shop for times we need to warm up animals, and even to store our tractor in to keep it warm and easily run all winter. Then there’s other very important aspects to making winter life in the prairies much easier that some may not even think about, like a very good mature shelter belt that surrounds our home and our entire farmyard. It keeps the wild prairie winds from affecting us much at all, which keeps our temperatures for us, and even for our animals, much lower when you have weather that is -38C/-36F, with windchill temperatures of -50C/-58F. When we have those temperatures here on the prairies, our very well treed shelter belt keeps our farmyard temps more towards the -33C/-36F than the ultimate extreme wind chilling cold reached in open areas. These are the types of things that can make a difference between surviving in our climate, and thriving through the winter. I will always aim for thriving, not much of a fan of just surviving.

    My doggies would agree. 🙂

  • Homestead Diary February 10 2022

    Homestead Diary February 10 2022

    Today I woke up to rain, of all things!
    We’ve had such an odd winter! More snow this year than we’ve had since the year we moved onto the homestead in 2013, when the snow was so high in April that it almost came up to our thighs in places as we walked around our property for the first time!

    We need the snow though. Last year was such a very dry year. The first drought we’ve experienced here on the homestead. It was very difficult to watch our land become so parched late last summer. All the snow we’ve received so far, and will likely receive even more in the next couple of months, will be very good for the land. Like a healing balm come spring when it all begins to melt.

    We’ve also had times of bitter bitter cold this winter, which is normal of course here on the Canadian prairies. It has been as cold as -50C/-58F overnight! The very first time it was that cold, one of our new miniature horses caught a chill and just couldn’t warm up. The girls and I brought her into our large heated shop, rubbed her down good with towels, gave her some food and water, and sat with her while she warmed up again. It only took about 1.5 hours, and she was good to go! She basically hopped, skipped and jumped back over to her mini horse mates and has been good ever since!

    —
    It’s worrisome when one of the animals isn’t doing well. This is the ONLY thing I do not like about homesteading. As they say, when you have livestock, you have deadstock, but no one likes to think about that harsh reality of the homestead lifestyle. When in a dire situation with one of your animals, you do the very best you can to help them through it and then pray it works. Thankfully it worked wonderfully this time. She never caught a chill again!

    The times that nothing helps and I’ve lost animals, especially baby animals like a lamb, or last spring when I lost twin lambs who were both stillborn, it’s in those moments that some times I truly feel like throwing in the towel. It can be heart wrenching. But you carry on, because the other animals still need you, and some how the pain fades over time and you find yourself enjoying it all once again.
    —

    By the time I went out to do chores after my morning coffee, the rain had stopped and it was pleasant weather for working. I take Ryker, our German Shepherd 1 year old pup, out for a walk and toss her some snow balls. She absolutely LOVES catching snow balls. She has since she was a tiny pup last winter when we first got her. Only problem is, she eats them, so she’s never learned that balls are to be brought back to us. lol So in warm months I have to have two balls on me when we play, I throw one, and she only brings it back if I have another to show her, and then throw. She drops the first ball, only to go get the second one. This snow ball thing has created a fetch issue that I just don’t know how to fix. Ha!

    Once I’ve gotten Ryker some exercise and she’s good and tired out, I head to the mini horses, to let them out of their barn stall and into their paddock. They are always ready to go, Luna, the eldest mare, is the most impatient. As I walk through the barn to their back stall she’s always pawing at the floor right at the gate, waiting for what feels like an eternity to her. Their stall is at the very back of the barn, so as soon as she hears me open up the large front door, she starts. lol

    Once I’ve scooted them all out of the barn and into their paddock, I say hello to the big horses and then it’s time to get water for everyone. In winter, (and part of fall and part of spring- basically about 6-8 months of the year lol) because a hose would freeze, we use 5 gallon buckets to carry water from the water hydrant over to the horse bucket. We have a great set up though, we built our fence so that the big water trough sits in a gap between both paddocks, with the five big horses on the one side of the fence and the three mini horses on the other side of the fence, so they all drink from one central location. That saves having to lug water to two separate troughs! It’s very handy!

    Carrying 5 gallon buckets, two at a time, is an excellent work out each morning. When we first moved here it was hard for me to do, now, I can do it fairly easily.

    Once I fill and lug 4-8 five gallon buckets full of water to the horses (it depends on how much everyone drank through the night) I feed the sheep their hay. We keep a round bale outside of their pen, and I fork the hay into their feeder by hand. The horses, on the other hand, are in two main paddocks, big horses in one, and mini’s in the other. Each paddock has a huge round bale of hay in it, so we don’t have to feed the horses by hand. Instead, about every 10 days my husband moves a round bale in with the tractor. Life before our tractor was a LOT more work. Before the tractor we had to use small square bales, and those had to be taken up to our barn loft one by one to be stored for the year, and then thrown down each time we needed them, which was many times a day! A tractor and round bales make our life MUCH easier!

    Once the sheep have their hay, I give them some oats in their grain trough. They LOVE oat feeding time. Every morning when I head into the barn they baa at me (I often baa back at them…) until I finally give them their oats. There is no way you can forget to feed the sheep their oats, they won’t let you!

    Then it’s time to bring them water, so I fill another bucket and take it to the sheep’s water bucket inside their barn stall. They have access to a huge stall inside our barn where I keep their water and where I feed them their grain, and then they can head outside to eat their hay. Having their hay outside keeps most of the mess outside. Previously when I fed them hay inside their barn stall, they would spread it all over and within no time they’d be standing on a thick deep bed of hay that they wasted! It was a royal pain in the butt to clean each time! At least outside, when they waste hay, it composts out there in the fresh air rather than becoming a foot deep block of hay and manure ‘concrete’ inside our barn!

    Once the sheep are fed I fill up another bucket with chicken feed, and a bucket of water, feed the free range roosters (the bachelors) who live in the barn, along with Dougie the female goose, and her best friend Green Bean the male duck, then head on over to the duplex chicken coop. Time to feed all of the hens, their three roosters, and the two female ducks who live with them. Collected all the eggs, 8 of them this morning, all brown ones so far.

    Head back to the barn, put everything away, say hello to Levi the barn dog who is also the very best barn dog in the world because he takes his job SO seriously, give him some belly rubs and it’s time to head back inside.

    That’s pretty much my morning barn chores each day. While there is still two of our adult daughters living here on the homestead, chores are fairly easy and only take me about 45 minutes to an hour each morning. Once baby animals arrive, or if the girls are away, or when things come up (like a chilled horse) it takes longer of course, but that was a fairly typical morning.

    And now it’s time to get ready for my day of business work. 🙂

  • Homestead Diary

    I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a homestead diary.
    I actually have been trying to talk myself into vlogging… you know, video blogging? But I’ve been trying to talk myself into that for quite some time now and I’m no further in my debate with myself than I was in the beginning so it’s time to move on to other ideas. lol

    Writing, that is something I enjoy. Being in front of a camera? Nope.

    So here I am. I’m just going to start writing about our daily homestead life. I’ll keep these posts tucked under the homestead heading, for anyone wanting to find them easily.

    If you’re wanting to be notified each time I write, just add your information to the “subscribe” area to the right of the page. Super simple!

    I hope you’ll enjoy travelling this homestead journey with me. 🙂

  • Walk with me

    Walk with me

    As I’ve been sharing on social media, on Christmas eve day I began walking daily. It was just spur of the moment. I was busy with something and suddenly I just felt like I needed to take a break, outside, alone. So off I went for a walk down our quiet prairie road. I took deep breaths of the cold winter air and walked at whatever pace I felt like walking. Sometimes fast, and sometimes stopping to pick up any rocks that caught my eye. I guess I walked like I was a kid again, off exploring on my own.

    As a child I loved doing that. For some years as a young child we lived on an acreage, and I got to go exploring all the time. Then in my teen years we moved near the ocean, and more great exploring was to be had. I often walked to the beach alone and would walk, and sit, explore, pick up shells and rocks, and simply enjoy my time alone. I was never truly alone, as I often spent my time talking with God about all the deep and pressing issues I faced that day/week/month/year.

    When I got married, my husband and I would walk together. Once our first child came along, we continued walking with her in the snuggly, along with our two dogs. Then more kids came and I always made a point of getting out to walk with the kids. Often we would go on nature walks. I loved those nature walks as much as they did. We explored beaches, trails, mountains and any little forest paths we ever found. Finding so many treasures along the ways. The photos I have of all these adventures warms my heart.

    But then the kids grew up, got busy with their own lives and their own adventures alone or with their new friends/boyfriend/girlfriend etc.. My husband isn’t much into walking anymore, he walks a lot at work. He will walk if I ask him to, but I can tell he doesn’t really want to… so I didn’t really ask often. But I missed walking and I was always kind of on pause, waiting for someone to walk with me.

    But on Christmas eve day I suddenly remembered that I used to really enjoy just walking, alone, not waiting for someone else to come along, just heading out the door and doing it. So I did it. And it felt great! And I wondered why I hadn’t thought of this before??

    So now almost every day since that first day, I’ve been walking. I started with 20 minutes and yesterday I was up to 55 minutes. I’m proud of myself for finally doing it. 🙂

    A few days into this decision to just keep walking, I came across a virtual challenge. I’d never heard of such a thing so I looked into it. And wow, did it look like fun! To have an extra goal to aim for on top of the enjoyment of just getting out and walking every day sounded very appealing. And it’s weird, I don’t normally do this kind of thing but for whatever reason the timing was right and I decided to jump in. I picked the shortest challenge, to make sure I could and would actually stick with it, and away I went for a walk with a purpose to enjoy myself and add distance to my new challenge. To walk the distance of the English Channel.

    Last weekend I finished my first challenge! I’m being sent a medal for this. Isn’t that cool? Along the way I also received notifications and e-postcards with detailed information about the area and its history. For this knowledge nerd, that was yet another bonus!

    I’ve never been one to receive medals of any kind, track and field, science fairs, you name it, I was typically so-so at it. Did ok, but never enough for a medal, so this is a fun bonus. To me, a medal may seem silly but I’ve always been a big believer that the most important challenge is to challenge ourselves to do better that we did before, and that’s exactly what this is for me. A time to get going on something I’ve been missing out on for a while, and to keep going further and further in it. To not give up.

    I was sent a certificate too. And along the way of my challenge, every 20% I completed, a tree was planted for my efforts. Yet another bonus! Trees are important to me. I plant many every year right here on our property, and now someone else is planting trees on my behalf elsewhere!

    This first challenge wasn’t huge, but that doesn’t matter to me. I finished it, and I did it in just over half the time I alloted for myself. For my second challenge, I’m doubling my distance and doing the Mount Everest challenge.
    I’m excited for this one because as you go along, you can check on the app where you are in the world, and for the English Channel, there just wasn’t a whole lot to see out there in the middle of water. Ha!

    Yesterday I started the challenge and here’s where I ended my first walk, virtually;

    I think that’s pretty cool, to be able to use the power of the world wide web to see where I would be if I had walked that distance climbing Mount Everest! I look forward to seeing more views along the way!

    There is a cost to join these challenges, but I feel the cost is very fair considering all I’m getting out of it and it includes the cost of the medals being shipped to you. If you are interested in joining a challenge, use my link below and you’ll get a discount, and I’ll get a discount too! Win Win! Plus we’ll both get in better shape, mentally and physically while working towards a very fun goal. 🙂

    https://www.theconqueror.events/r/PW256

    I’m going to be sharing videos of my walks fairly regularly on my new tiktok account (HomesteadEmporium on there) so come find me! I like doing the Mount Everest challenge here in winter right now because I figure some of the weather I’ve been experiencing here on the Canadian prairies is probably a little similar to what I’d experience climbing a mountain. So far I’ve had some nice sunny days, a freezing rain day, snowy days and super chilly days where my face felt like it may freeze up and I walked in the door to my daughter laughing at me calling me frosty because I was covered in frost on my face and hair!

    On that day I was thinking it may be best to exercise inside, but honestly, it’s the walking outside part that’s most important to my mental health so I went out anyways. For my work, I sit at my desk, cutting table, sewing table, etc. and when I go outside it’s far removed from my work, so it’s very good for me. While on my walk I’ll give myself little extras to do part of the ways, like arm circles, a marching walk with knees up high, fast walk, speed walk, suck in my tummy muscle workouts etc., everything I can’t do while working in a chair. It’s been very good for me. And part of the walk, I just focus on breathing deep, relaxing my shoulders and being.

    I hope some of you will join and reap all these wonderful benefits as well. If it’s not possible for you to head outside for a walk, don’t let that stop you. This is what’s working for me. Maybe for you it’s walking on a treadmill, or riding an exercise bike, or going swimming at a pool or walking up and down your stairs. It doesn’t really matter what you do. What’s important is to just do it! If you do, leave a comment and let me know!

    Remember, if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to my blog, comment you’ve done so, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a 25.00 gift certificate for our shops! If you have done so already, I’ll be sure to enter you in as well from our list of subscribers. 🙂
    Thanks for being here with me!

  • Welcome to our very first newsletter!

    To view the photos and videos, and to join us on facebook, head on over and follow us here:
    https://www.facebook.com/HomesteadEmporium

    Our etsy shop offers the option to choose your currency, and you’ll find that shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HomesteadEmporium

    Our indiecart shop is in CDN funds, but if you’re in the USA it will exchange funds for you upon checkout (typically USD is about 25% lower than the CDN prices seen in the shop)
    You’ll find our indiecart shop here: https://indiecart.com/stores/HomesteadEmporium/

    *While you’re here, be sure to subscribe for updates, you’ll find the info above at the top right of this page. Once you’ve entered your email address, let me know here in the comments below and I’ll enter your name for a chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate for our shops!

  • A new season

    To say that I’m excited for my maker’s yearbook would be a huge understatement!

    For the past 15 years since I first began creating and selling online, I’ve been running my business by revolving it, and myself, around raising and homeschooling 5 kids. This next year, it’s all about switching the focus onto me as the creator, and my business planning. After 28 years of being kid focused, I’m very ready for this next phase.

    I bought the maker’s year book to help me stay tuned into that new direction.

    It’s not that raising five kids and homeschooling set me off course either. It was my life. I loved it and I’d do it all again in a minute! My kids, my husband, homeschooling and my home have always been the driving force behind this business. The inspiration in fact! Indeed, the reason the business first came about was as I researched reusables because my first daughter was soon becoming a teen.

    No, I do not begrudge these past years of revolving the business or myself around any of it in any way. The business allowed me to be mom, to be home, right where I desire to be. I’m so grateful.

    All of it is exactly what has brought me here to this place, right here, right now.

    I love this place.

    But the kids are grown now. My youngest, our twins, turn 20 this weekend. A new season is beginning. A season of refocus and renewal. And I can’t wait!

  • FIFTEEN year celebration!

    Fifteen years. FIFTEEN YEARS!
    This little business of ours has been fifteen years in the making. So far.

    *Just a note for everyone reading, especially those who may be new to our business and/or blog. All the photos shared in this post are screenshots from way back when… most are close to 15 years old. Our products have changed a lot since then, so be sure to check us out on our facebook page and join us as we celebrate 15 years in business! www.facebook.com/homesteademporium

    On the one hand it feels like only yesterday that I began this journey. On the other, as I’ve been reminiscing while going through all these photos and screenshots of our humble beginnings, it feels like a lifetime ago.
    In many ways, it’s five life times ago. All five of our children have grown up since!

    When I first began making cloth pads at home to share with others, our twins were just four years old. Now, they will be 20 years old just next month!
    This business has spanned almost their entire lives. Our youngest three likely don’t remember me before I was behind a sewing machine most of my days.
    Likely, our eldest two don’t either. They were 12 and 10 when I began this business, but I had spent many years sewing before then! I used to sew all hours into the night to get outfits made for both of them, costumes, bathing suits, bags… oh the bags I made for my kids… maybe they miss those days when I sewed more for all of them than for anyone else?

    Fifteen years ago this was the very first ‘banner’ I ever had. I was SO excited and SO proud of this banner. It ROTATED information! Perhaps some of you remember when that was really amazing?!?! lol
    The internet has come a long way since then too…

    homemademama (1)

    My very first ‘official’ site. It all began as Homemade Mama. I’ve actually missed that title ever since I first gave it up. I truly feel like Homemade Mama.
    But, we wanted a name that would fit the whole family, a name that would suit a ‘family’ business, and allow our kids (and even hubby if he was ever so inclined- I actually haven’t given up hope on that one yet) to create anything and everything they could ever want to create and share with the world alongside of me. So we said goodbye to Homemade Mama, and hello to the official family business, Homestead Emporium.

    I love to look back on the early days though.

    HomemadeMama

    Boy, I felt so ‘grown up’! Ha!
    I laugh at that now. A happy laugh though, because I still remember those feelings of excitement in those early days,

    Truth be told, I STILL get those same feelings of excitement over this business. I truly understand what a blessing that is.

    To do what you love, and to love what you do.

    Every. Day.

    Take a look at that Ultimate Pad (now called the UltiMax- and looking a little different).
    I actually still have it’s twin here, the very first one. I’ve kept it all these years. One day I’ll likely make a ‘shadow box’ of it for my sewing space.
    Just because.
    It was my first step into really going the extra ‘mile’ so to speak, in my creating. From that first Ultimate pad came a whole lot of other pads that were all very unique back then.

    HomemadeMama2

     

    Fifteen years of creating. Fifteen years of getting to be ME, in all that I do! Fifteen years of sharing a part of me in all of my work.

    Blessed.

    HomemadeMama07

    With each new look, I felt more and more grown up!
    My products became more polished. My excitement only grew. That excitement never wavered. I think that’s quite amazing.

    homemademama2007

    All these photos of my kids when they were little. Some of  you will remember these. Some of you and your children have grown up alongside us! How amazing is that?!

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    Look at that sweet face!! How I miss those years of my kids being littles. Working alongside me every day, whether helping me in whatever way they wanted, or simply doing their own thing right there next to me.

    We still have a little of that going on around here, but not much anymore. Alesia has long since moved out of the family home, she’s 28 years old and living far away in British Columbia. Joshua is 26 now. Has had his own little acreage just 12 minutes from us for about the past 4.5 years. Elsa is away at college this year, so we only see her the odd weekend, and during breaks. And Shaylah and Julia, the only two children who were more than happy to always oblige in photos and thus show up on just about every old HomemadeMama/HomesteadEmporium page you’ll ever find. Both of them, almost 20 years old now, and both working as Care Aids with disabled adults and working towards more schooling. For now, both are still living at home, but we know it’s just a matter of time now.

    Bittersweet. All this growing up.

    And look at these other screenshots I found on the wayback machine!

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    Jewelry that Alesia made. I still remember those pieces! She would have been about 13 or 14 at the time she made these.

    And look what else I found!

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    More twin photos, and look, there’s Joshua! I wouldn’t be surprised if he still has that tool apron somewhere!

    The other day I posted a photo of him on facebook for his birthday. He was about 5 or 6 years old holding his favourite stuffed dog.
    He sent me back a photo of him now, with that same stuffed dog. lol It was too funny!

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    I made toys back in the day!

    I wonder if any of them are still out there. I know we’ve got a few of them here. That little bunny foo foo was a favourite of mine. One day when I have grandchildren I know I’ll be itching to get creating toys again! Likely not for the shop though, but definitely for my grandkids. 🙂

    But let’s not forget THE PADS!

    Through all these past 15 years I’ve created many different things but one thing has always remained, and that is THE PADS!
    No matter how hard I tried to get my customers to love something, anything, better than my homemade cloth pads, it just wasn’t happening. I had to come to the realization that I would forever be that pad woman.

    Again I say “Ha!” lol

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    I will admit to being somewhat embarrassed by my business in those beginning years. Not online mind you, but definitely in person.
    People would always ask me, “So what do you do?” And my answer would always be, “I create cloth products that we ship worldwide,”
    Then inevitably the next question would always be…. “what kind of cloth products?’ to which my HUSBAND of all people, would always unabashedly reply, “Homemade Cloth Menstrual Pads!”

    Yes, my kids have been by my side all these 15 years in business, but it’s my husband who has always been my greatest supporter. He has never considered me crazy, even when “I” was pretty sure that I was. lol
    He’s taken thousands upon thousands of packages to the post office for me over all these years. Thousands. He’s spent HOURS sitting on the bench outside of my favourite fabric shops. He’s likely brought home thousands of packages of fabrics, snaps, thread, etc. etc. etc. home for me too. Never once complaining. Always knowing these packages that came in the door would be transformed from fabrics, to beautiful reusable products that he would then be taking to the post office to ship everywhere from Canada and the USA to Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, the Netherlands, Finland, Greece, Spain, Mexico, Malaysia, France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Africa, and so many more and more and more places all around the world that I just can’t even think of them all right now!

    At one time my husband even helped with snaps! He didn’t love it, I’ll admit to that, but he did it! Him and Joshua would do all the snaps together when things got much too big for me to do everything myself. Joshua quickly learned how to do them by himself though, and from that point on for many years Joshua did all the snaps. He was very very happy to hand over the reign of snapper to Julia though, about a year after he moved out. Very happy. lol Julia has been doing the snaps ever since.

    Then there was another time that they both helped me sew the tab style wings onto the pads. Oh that was a riot! I still get a good chuckle out of that time in history. lol My husband does NOT share my love of sewing.

    But he did it. Why? Because he supports me. I hope my children remember that as they prepare their futures, with spouses. I hope they will always support their spouses as my husband has supported me. And I hope my girls will always hold out for someone who will be there for them just as much as my husband has been here for me over these past years. Has our marriage always been perfect? No. Far from it, especially the early years! But we’ve grown, we’ve learned, we’ve matured. Just like this business.

    I hope we’ve been a good example to our children. In marriage, and in work/business. I hope our children all get to do what they love, and love what they do!

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    And with that… I’ve rambled long enough in this journey through time. We’ve grown from Homemade Mama to Homestead Emporium, and now, after many years of working towards it, 7 years ago we finally also became The Willard Homestead with the Emporium just being a part of it all.

    This isn’t the end. In some ways it is just the beginning. More about that in another post… I’ll try not to wait so long next time.

  • Healthy steps

    Just as I had been talking for years of getting into healthier eating and lifestyle habits, my husband had been talking for years of getting back into running. When one of our twins began running recently, it spurred him on to start too!

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