• Have It Sweet Give Away!

    It’s no secret that I LOVE goodies from “Have It Sweet” confections!

    I shared back in August, a little about this shop and the owners.

    Have it Sweet creates my very favorite sweet of all time, Fleur de Sel caramels. Yummmm….

    My kids love the caramels too, but they also love the homemade Marshmallows!

    I asked Beth if they would like to partcipate in our New Year’s Eve party! She said YES!
    That means I get to share my love for their goodies, with you!

    Here’s info from Beth at Have It Sweet. The photos above are my own, those below, are from their own shop! Gorgeous photography!

    We, at Have It Sweet, are giving away any one pack of Marshies, winner choice, and a box of bites our assorted flavors.

    “We’re just a small family run business in Los Angeles. We live in Burbank and work from a small, shared commercial kitchen in LA. We are insured, licensed food handlers.

    We have created the very best artisan confections in the world and are here to share them with you. It’s just my husband and me, sometimes our seven-year old daughter helps, she loves to tape the boxes. Everything from the papers we use to wrap our fine confections to each and every sweet is hand made in very small batches. Due to high demand, working from a shared kitchen and there being just the two of us, these batches take a lot of time to complete which is why we have a pretty long turnaround time. We know that once your package arrives though, you will be delighted and you’ll know we’re worth the wait.

    We are so grateful to announce Have It Sweet! has had amazing features in: The Huffington Post, Real Simple, Martha Stewart, Etsy Featured Seller, Food(ography) with Mo Rocca, Time Out New York, The Tasting Table, and Epicurious.com.

    We use only the finest all natural, organic and fair trade ingredients. Our colors are all natural and organic. 

    Welcome to Have It Sweet…Sugar Transformed.”

    Thank you Have It Sweet for your generous gift to one of our readers!

    • For your chance to win Have It Sweet’s generous prize, leave a comment here!
    • For a second chance to win, share this post and then come back and leave a link to where you’ve shared!
    • For a third chance to win, take a look at Have It Sweet’s Shopand leave a comment here about what you think you’d like best!*Contest closes Jan. 2nd 2012 at midnight! Winner will be announced here, on the blog, some time before Jan. 6th!

     

  • How To- Petite/Teen Size Pads

    A couple of weeks ago for one of our Friday afternoon stockings on our hyenacart, I listed a pretty set of hand dyed undies, and petite/teen size pads.

    It was the first time I had this type of set all at once in my possession, that all matched so nicely, so I decided I should take the opportunity to snap photos of the pads IN the undies just in case there are some readers who might like to know more about the “how to” of our products!

    These photos show how the pads fit and how they snap around. These are size small undies from The Dharma Trading Co. Consequently, this is also where I buy all my dyes.

    The pads are an UltiMini xs, Teeny Ultimate, and a Light Comfort Contour pad.
    The UltiMini xs is aprox. 10 inches in length, the Teeny Ultimate is aprox. 8.5 inches and the light comfort contour is aprox. 8 inches in length.

    This photo above shows the outer underwear with the UltiMini xs pad snapped in place.

    In the above photo, I’ve flipped the underwear inside out so you can see how it fits INSIDE the undies.

    Here’s a better shot.
    All our pads are created not just with fit for our womanly figures, but with the fit of undies also. At least, as much as possible, knowing how much variety there can be within different styles of undies.

    Here is the undies shown with the Teeny Ultimate snapped inside.
    This style of pad, and our other contour styles of pads, have smaller tab style wings which hold the pads in place, and offer ‘some’ protection around the undies, however, the small tab wings do not have absorbency, like the wrap wings do.

    In this photo above, is the Teeny Ultimate shown with the undies flipped inside out so you can view how it fits.

    Here is the Light Comfort Contour pad snapped in place, shown from the inside.

    And that’s it! A photo ‘tutorial’ for our pads, a “How To”. I hope to have some more undies in the future to hand dye, and then I can do more tutorials with other sizes. I could also do a tutorial showing our larger pads with our dundies.

    I hope you’ve found these photos and information helpful! If you have any other things you’d like to see, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

  • A New Year approaches. Goodbye 2011.

    Every year once Christmas is over and the new year approaches, I begin to dwell on the past 12 months. This past year, 2011, has proven to be one like none other in this family’s history.

    Graydon (dear hubby) has spent EIGHT months of the past twelve working away. In our 21.5 years of marriage, we’ve never spent time apart, except for the very rare occasion one of us might have to go away somewhere. Daddy has always home each night to snuggle and give goodnight kisses to each of the kids. In 21 years of marriage, I’ve rarely slept alone. This past year, this change, has been a whole new experience. An experience I’m proud to say we’ve come through fairly well, yet, an experience I don’t really care to continue.

    I’m praying, with ALL my heart, that 2012 will indeed bring our family back together again.

    I’m the type of person who ponders. I ponder a lot. I probably ponder too much.
    With our children growing like weeds and seemingly getting older by the day, this time apart bothers me in more ways then simply not being together under one roof.

    It bothers me in many ways. It bothers me that our eldest is now TWENTY, and I know there isn’t going to be THAT many more years, even months, of living together all as a family, yet here we are, our family living apart.

    It bothers me that our youngest, our twins, are now TWELVE, and as my husband said the last night he was here, there may not be so many more years left of snuggling before they go to bed at night.

    Elsa’s almost 14 now and already doesn’t care much to ‘snuggle’ anymore. Alesia and Joshua were done with snuggling years ago. Time just passes much too quickly. Twelve year olds need their Daddy. Heck, 18 year old boys need their dad too. This is NOT a time I want to be apart, solo parenting five ‘almost grown up’ children!

    And I ponder that, often: Time passes MUCH too quickly.
    I’ve always known this. When my husband and I became engaged, we decided together that he would not remain in the Navy, but instead he would finish out his 3 year term and then we’d marry the week he was ‘out’. We didn’t want to live our married life separated by a career. We never wanted it to be about “money”. Yet, when you come to a point in life where there’s not enough money, sometimes you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. No matter how much you don’t want to.

    And here we are, 21 years later, living exactly 1,161 miles/ 1,870 km’s, apart. He’s living in Saskatchewan, and the five kids and I are on Vancouver Island. This just isn’t the way we pictured our lives to ever be.

    Yet, it is what it is. So many are not living their lives the way they expected. Hard economic times have changed many a life’s course. Why should we be so special that nothing in our lives would ever change?

    Yet at the same time, as I ponder the negative feelings I have about this whole situation, I also know there are many positives. I know that we have hope. Hope of a brighter future. Hope of a move for our whole family, to the prairies where we can begin again, together. Hopefully where land, and more importantly, jobs are plentiful. Where the cost of homes is less then an arm and a leg (and sometimes your first born thrown in for good measure!)

    Camera Plus

    We hope for a future with a slower pace, more time to spend with children.
    It seems so ironic to me some times, that we’re living apart, in hopes to spend more time as a family. And then again I remind myself that this is a ‘season’.

    I’m a “now” person, always have been, and this whole situation just… throws me.
    Throws me from what I feel our reality should be. Throws me from all that I’ve always believed.

    Yet through it all, there IS peace. There IS strength.

    Surely not my own though. Most days I’m really feeling quite weak, quite stressed, and quite frankly, at the end of my rope.

    However, when that happens, I can take a few moments and pray, and carry on.
    And for that, I am thankful.

  • Christmas Whirlwind 2011!

    This Christmas went by like a whirlwind! It really didn’t feel like the Christmas season at all until Graydon arrived home on the 21st. As soon as the younger three girls and I picked him up from the airport, we headed straight to the Christmas tree farm to finally pick up a tree.


    (anxiously awaiting to see Daddy)

    Our usual tradition each year is to pick out our tree on, or around, the twins birthday which is December 8th. However, since hubby was not home, and finances simply didn’t permit it at the time, we held off getting the tree this year. I was starting to wonder if we’d even have one at all!

    This year’s tree was quite a bit a little smaller then usual. Since our home is still for sale, and our home IS small, I didn’t want the house to see too cluttered, but rather cozy. I’m really not quite sure we’ve succeeded, but it is what it is. I’m not really advertising the house again until after the new  year anyway, so we’ll enjoy our cozy, albeit cluttered, living room with the pretty tree, while we can.


    (pets, pets, in every photo!)

    One of the many casualties of living with your home half packed is missing things such as the Angel your husband bought you many, many Christmases ago. A precious moments angel had to take the place of my beautiful golden ‘missing in action’ angel. Not sure where she’s gone off to, but most likely packed away with some of my good china.

    (peanut butter blossoms)

    Graydon would only be home for 4 and a half days. That first evening was spent taking all five kids to do a little Christmas & grocery shopping. The next day we had the pleasure of doing my quarterly business taxes. The third day he ran errands while I did some baking with the girls and last minute sewing.

    Saturday was Christmas Eve. We did some more baking, and lots of cooking! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, & gravy.

    (good company)

    Company brought brussel sprouts, dinner rolls and some more baked goods. We had a candle light service at Church and then a very late Christmas dinner at home. It really was a nice Christmas eve. However, we had some sick kids and so my parents were not able to come, and I just hope our friends who were brave enough to join us don’t regret it by ending up with this cold/flu themselves.

    (opening gifts, Shaylah loves Garfield so her brother got her a Garfield movie!)

    All five kids are now sick, although Joshua was the first sick and is well on his way to getting better now. This morning I realized I’m coming down with it myself. So far, Graydon is the last man standing and I hope it stays that way!


    (father & son discussing the farming and REAL tractors while ‘playing’ with a toy one)

    Yesterday, Christmas, our last day together, was spent sleeping in late until almost 11:00! That’s the first time we’ve slept so late on Christmas, but it had been such a LONG week with very little sleep, and sick kids!


    (the girls BIG gift. Pillow buddies, a dog and a horse, I was blessed to trade for with another wahm!)


    (Julia made her Daddy a travel pillow of his very own! She even personalized it with i love u)

    We opened gifts while fresh homemade cinnamon buns baked in the oven. For once I got some photos of how we make our buns so I can share those photos at a later date.


    (Cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing)

    Once we were done opening gifts, we simply hung around the house, eating homemade goodies and enjoying family time.


    (JUNK food! What could be better, according to a teenage boy?)

    The last gift the kids opened was a movie night package. We made up one of these for them last year, and they liked it so much we did it again.


    (Jasper & Alesia. Jasper never knows what to think of all this excitement going on.)

    Christmas evening was spent watching a movie together and eating junk food amid coughs and sniffles.

    Early this morning Joshua (ds) and I took Graydon (dh) to the airport. We were up at 5am and got everyone else up just long enough to say a prayer together as a family before we headed out. Then the girls went back to bed, and I dropped Joshua off at work after we said our goodbyes to Graydon at the airport.

    How was your Christmas?

  • Homemade Playdough, for those in need of a quick addition to their gifts!

    If you need a quick addition to your children’s gifts this year, make playdough!

    I used this recipe, and it turned out AWESOME! http://pinterest.com/pin/23432860530808019/

    My  youngest girls may be 12, 12, & 13, but you’re really NEVER too old for Playdough!

    We put our playdough in one of my glass containers, and sent another batch off to their cousin in a red coffee container.

    So if you’re in need of one last fun gift, or even if you’re staying home on Christmas and would like to make something with the kids, this is a great recipe! For the red, we used a package of koolaid, so it smells especially wonderful!

     

  • Busy Christmas Season!

    I’d have to say that the Christmas Season 2011 has probably been my busiest season ever.

    Along with the regular daily grind we’ve been preparing for dear hubby’s homecoming and everything that entails to spending as much quality time as a family, to getting quarterly business taxes done!

    Tomorrow evening we’ll have Christmas eve dinner here after the Christmas eve service at church. There should be about 13 of us. We’ll have turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings including pumpkin pie! Yum!

    We’ve been crafting, some baking (but not NEAR enough  yet…

    Most we made was sent off to family and now we’ve got none. lol Time to get at it again!) and doing lots of sewing.

    After we picked Graydon up from the airport on Wed. afternoon, we headed straight out to finally get our Christmas tree. This is the latest we’ve ever gotten one. Normally we like to put it up around the twins birthday on Dec. 8th, and leave it up until about Elsa’s birthday on Jan. 11th. Due to finances and time constraints there was just no way we could get it early. Some friends blessed us recently, and we finally got the tree this week! Yay! It looks so pretty and now our home finally feels seasonal!

    Now we just need some snow. Looks like the forecast has other plans though. Rain, rain, and more rain.

    Christmas day is going to be spent home, with just us, since we’re having our big dinner on Christmas Eve. This will actually be quite nice, as Graydon leaves again at about 5am the very next morning. I am so VERY grateful that he’s home for Christmas but what a whirlwind of time as well. I was not able to take the full time ‘off’ as we had hoped, plus there’s always so much that needs to be done with Dad/Husband home for just a few days. Stuff like those taxes, cleaning out the well filter, even silly things like changing burnt out light bulbs and random outside tidying that never seems to get done when he’s not home. There’s just never enough time for everything, PLUS lots of good quality family time. At least not as much as you’d like when you’re husband has spent EIGHT months of the last year away.

    But I suppose that IS our life right now. 2011 has proven to be a year like none other in this family’s history. One for the record books for sure. I’m impressed that we’ve survived, but very hopefull 2012 will bring about some changes and bring our family back under one roof again!

  • Loss, suffering, grieving, and our society.

    There’s been a lot of discussion going on around the internet about the Duggar’s and the loss of their most recent baby girl who died before she could be born.

    I’m not in the mood to discuss people’s personal opinion’s on the Duggars, how many children they have, their belief’s, etc.. However, what I am in the mood to say is…

    If you’ve got something negative to say about a family who is suffering a loss, zip your lips and sit on your hands!

    I understand some people do not believe this baby was a ‘baby’. Fine, use that as your reasoning.

    I understand some people do not believe anyone should have so many kids. Fine, use that as your reasoning.

    However, EVERY PERSON in society SHOULD understand that if you have even one small ounce of maturity and compassion within you, that when someone FEELS loss, you don’t stomp on them, you don’t ridicule them, you don’t say nasty things about them.

    You come alongside, and offer support. OR, simply keep your mouth shut, or sit on those fingers of yours.

    It’s really not that hard, AND, it’s as simple as choosing to do so.

    “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

    A family is grieving. It doesn’t matter what you feel or what you think about that family, or their loss, as human’s, it’s our responsibility to show compassion.

    Otherwise, how else can we expect our children to grow up and be a compassionate society?

    Think about it.

  • Our days of breastfeeding.

    Our days of breastfeeding.
    I believe most who’ve hung around these parts for a while know what an advocate I am of breastfeeding. Not that I’m “against” bottle feeding. My belief in mothering is that each mother should do their very best, whatever their best may be, only THEY truly know. It’s not for ANYONE else to judge, and definitely not me! I’ll take care of MY parenting, and you take care of yours. 😉

    Read more

  • Seems I’m not the only one with a beef about the lack of rewarding customer loyalty!

    Wow, it seems I’m not the only one with a beef about the lack of rewarding customer loyalty!

    Read more

  • Battling cold and flu BEFORE it begins!

    Since winter is just about upon us, I wanted to share what we did last year that seemed to have worked to ward off any colds and/or flues. I say it seemed to have worked because I didn’t get a cold at ALL last year, and this is what I did to try and prevent it.

    Every single time I started to get even a hint of a sore throat, I’d eat some minced garlic. It was really easy too, since we have our smoothy in the morning and it’s real thick, I’d just put a bit of smoothy on a spoon, put about 1/2 a tsp of garlic on that, then cover it up with more smoothy and swallow it REAL quick. I couldn’t even really taste it, at all, and I never noticed any stinking like garlic like I expected we would. Ha! No one wants to walk around smelling like a garlic clove!
    Then we’d drink lemon juice in our water.
    And, we never got any colds AND, those two items (minced garlic & lemon juice) are relatively inexpensive overall, compared to a lot of stuff that’s out there to ward of colds. With the garlic and lemon juice, you also know just what you’re putting into your body, unlike any capsules etc. that may be recommended.
    Healthy AND inexpensive. You just can’t beat that in my opinion!