Studio J® Custom Photo Wells

Its time to start thinking about homemade Christmas Cards

Once the kids are all settled in school I will start buckling down on my pre-Christmas planning. I always think that I still have lots of time to get things done and inevitably end up running around at the last minute trying to make something or pick something up. Not this year my friends. I am going to get organized. This will be the first time in 13 years that I have not had a wee one home every day. I am going to make my lists and check them twice. I have already purchased the Frosted card making workshop from Close to My Heart and I can't wait to get to started. The kit is absolutely lovely and jam packed with everything I will need. I will post some pictures when the cards are done. I have to run now though. Today is meet the teacher in my son's jk room. He is so excited he hardly slept last night. Check out this great video from Close to My Heart and let it inspire you to get a jumpstart on your Christmas To-Do.

First Craft Show Excitement

As i told you earlier in the summer I have been whiling away the hours crafting up a storm.  My poor trailer is filled to capacity with paper, ribbons and scrapbooking tools.  Poor Hubby has gone from having half the bedroom cupboard space to being squished into the corner of one small cubby and his closet.  I can't help it.  I wanted to be sure that I had everything I might need to do my creative best.  I have been making mini albums and Christmas Cards as well as keychains and charms.  My focus has been on making enough ahead to be able to participate in my first craft show in November.  Well, on a whim I decided to enter another craft show being held at the Royal Canadian Legion in Belleville. In September.....GULP! I am trying to balance crafting, blogging, business planning...and now I have to think about display design.  What do you like to see at craft sales? What catches your eye? Are you more likely to stop at a display if it is adorned in a particular way? I have been scouring Pinterest for booth ideas and wanted to share some of my favourites.

Purex plus Oxi - The laundry is done

Hello Ladies;

I brought all the laundry home from the trailer so that I would have an ample supply to give Purex with Oxi a fair trial.  My children's contribution to the project included multiple beach towels, swimsuits, s'more encrusted t shirts and muddy shorts.  It was good that my husband decided to show his support as well contributing piles of socks, sweaty shirts and jean shorts.  My family is always happy to pitch in with my projects. Let's see if they are so helpful when the socks need to be paired up.

Personally I was raised with the big orange box of laundry detergent. My Mom used it, my Grandma used it and when I setup my own house guess what I automatically stocked it with.  Even when laundry detergents changed and everything seemed to come in liquid form I still reached for the orange bottle.  That was until I noticed that my foster children were having reactions to the laundry detergent.  We had to switch to an all natural cleaner which became increasingly difficult to afford on one income.  One of the first things that I checked when I opened the bottle was to see if it had a strong perfumey smell.  I knew if it did my review would have to stop right there as both my youngest son and I have asthma and can't handle the strong heavy scents.  Purex with Oxi actually had a lovely light scent that reminds me more of a body wash or shampoo then a detergent.  I poured the blue syrupy detergent into the soap dispenser only to realize in horror that I had not checked to make sure it was HE. I grabbed the bottle and was overjoyed to see the little disclaimer in the corner of the bottle stating that it was safe for all machines including HE. I found my son's orange shorts determined to use them as the test of the detergents effectiveness at removing stains. Then the phone rang.  After hanging up the phone I rushed to the basement to get the load started....oh yah and threw in the shorts.....great.....so much for my before and after shots.  Well I guess at this point it is a matter of trust. I assure you they were thoroughly disgusting.
When the timer went off on the dryer I flew down the stairs to retrieve the results.  I have to say I was impressed.  The shorts actually look really good.  There are three small spots that you can barely see that my son has identified for me as grease from a bicycle chain so the fact that it came 95% out really pleases me.  There was no heavy soap smell left on the clothes and the entire load seemed free of spots (except as I said the 3 spots on kidlet's shorts).
I think that I will switch detergents.  I will give it a three month screening to see if anyone has any skin reactions and if there are any issues and I will do a follow up post. Purex plus Oxi liquid detergent is supposed to be hypoallergenic so I am hopeful.  If you would like to try Purex plus Oxi liquid detergent for yourself please feel free to enter my giveaway for one of four free bottles . Hurry the giveaway is over next week!

* Purex provided me with a sample of Purex plus Oxi detergent in exchange for a product review. However, all of the opinions expressed here are my own.