Friday 23 August 2013

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.


Wednesday 21 August 2013

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.





Monday 12 August 2013

My First Giveaway



My box of cleaning joy arrived today via Canada Post.  I am so excited to get going with this test but I am heading out the door to go to the trailer and I already had all the laundry done.  Purex sent me a huge bottle of their detergent to try out. I was expecting one of those tiny sample bottles most companies would have sent. Inside the package there were 4 coupons for free bottles of Purex so I decided to share them among you lovelies via rafflecopter.  I will let you all get your entries in to win your own bottle and then hopefully once you have had a chance to try it out we can compare notes.  I better run now. Hubby and the kidlets are getting eager to go.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway





Tuesday 30 July 2013

Are you interested in free stuff?

I have been chosen to test a new product being released called Purex plus Oxi.  I have had great success using products with Oxi in the past and I am looking forward to seeing how this one will measure up. My ten year old son has presented me with the perfect opportunity.  He has worn his new bright orange shorts all over the camp this summer and they are so stained I have little hope of restoring them to their former state. He has dark mud stains from crawling across the yard looking for worms just after the rain. He has green grass stain from tumbling around in the  park. He has a few large patches that I can't quite identify but I am leaning towards drips from random freezies, icecreams and hot dogs that he has consumed. If this product can clean these babies then I am going to be a fan for life.  I am watching my mailbox for the kit to arrive so I can put it to the test.  If you are interested in trying this product for free then please stay tuned.  The company is sending vouchers for free bottles.  I will have to figure out how to distribute them fairly once I know how many I will get.  I am thinking rafflecopter might do the trick.  They are also  having a  giveaway on their site to launch the product and the buzz is that the grand prize is $500 with 50 second place winners receiving free product. That package better arrive soon....those shorts are not getting any easier to clean!

Enjoy the sunshine.

Tracy