Thursday, April 30, 2009

A National Scrapbooking Day Giveaway!! YAY!! $20 Gift Certificate to my ETSYstore.




Alright, so I fell off the radar for last month, but I'm back with a fun giveaway for all you Dayhomemama.Etsy.com lovers. So this Saturday, the 2nd is National Scrapbooking Day and to celebrate, I wanted to do a good giveaway, a kit, embellis and some other stuff....but....then I got to thinking. Why should I pick what to give you? You should pick yourself, specially since not all my followers are scrapbookers, some of you like the cards, others like the wearable art blossoms, so....

In a moment of brilliance, I've decided to give away a $20 Gift Certifcate to my store. You can buy whatever you'd like for up to $20 (it will be shipped for free. The winner of the draw will be announced here Sunday evening (May 3rd). Then you can convo me at the store for instructions on how to redeem your GC in my store. This GC can also be used for purchases made during my sale, so good luck and have fun shopping!

I'm excited for this giveaway because everyone can participate. Enjoy the weekend and see you all on Sunday.

So what you need to do? Just leave a comment and tell me what items you like most in my store. EASY PEASY right?

If you follow me, you will get a seconds entry.

If you purchase anything from the store this before Sunday evening, you will also get an entry per item.

Remember your GC can go toward items purchased this weekend (I will refund your paypal!).

Good luck!!


That's me wearing one of my blossoms!


♥*¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸*´¨(♥Remember to check out my NSD sale, on for 24hrs too (all day Saturday, May 2nd), 50% off any of the regular priced scrapbook kits, albums and paper packs.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Here's To The Future, My Dear Son




I know that Earth Day just went by and I hope everybody did something to celebrate. I have learned a lot in the past 6 years about conserving and reducing my carbon footprint, I guess ever since finding out I was bringing a child into the world, my mind has been on what I can do to be a good example to my son. I want to share some of my tips and ways I try to reduce, reuse, recycle in my home. Some of you may already do most of this, hopefully I will get tips back from you all too.

One of the first things I changed was the way I did laundry. I used cloth diapers with my son, I would soak them, wash in vinegar, and hang to dry, the throw them in the dryer for 5 minutes to soften them. I always used paper lines so removing the poop was easy and flushable.
I always wash a full load, use half the detergent it says to use (and my clothes come out just as clean), I use a tablespoon of fabric softener on a wet pad (made from old burp cloths) so the container of liquid fabric softener last over a year and my clothes still come out soft and static free.
I hang towels, pants, and bigger items like sweatshirts to dry and soften for 10 minutes in the drier.
I wash the lint trap 4-5 times a year to remove any build up and make the drier more efficient.

When it comes to cleaning, I have also switched from using any chemicals to having 3 items, dish soap and baking soda, vinegar, and a green planet toilet bowl cleaner. I use microfibre cloths and water for almost everything, microfibre mops (I keep a wet one and a dry one) with boiling water do the trick on any floor, glass is streakless with a microfibre cloth, and dust clings better than anything on them. With that type of cleaning, I like that the kids can all help, my son loves it, and the can roll around the floor and I don't care because there is no chemicals to worry about.

I switched all my light bulbs to the energy saver curly ones. At first they seemed dimmer, but when I saw my electricity bill, I was thrilled!!! We never leave any lights on in a room unless we are in it. My son at 2 knew to turn off the lights (respect your environment runs in his blood now!).
I turn off my computer every night, and almost all things are on power bar that we switch off every night. The water heater is turned to the lowest setting (the water is not hot enough to burn anyone either!) and our heat is turned to 19C(66F) and that saves on gas, we bought a water heater blanket too, it makes a difference.

Our recycling has greatly improved with Calgary's acceptance of plastic, we love it. I have reduced my garbage output to less than 1 bag a week (for 5 children and myself!!) from 3. We recycle nearly all plastics, papers, tin, glass, cardboard because the city now does the sorting, making it much easier for us to just have 1 bin. I have put a composter in the back corner of our backyard, and all out organic food waste goes in there, with 5 kids during the day, that's a lot of fruits and veggies, coffee grounds and tea leaves! We are going meatless 2 days a week, and trying to always buy local foods (though not much fruit to chose from), and the farmers markets are great. I try to make small meals, and if we get hungry we can have fruit to fill us up, that way not much food goes to waste. I make coffee and tea at home and buy the flavoured syrup to make latte's like Starbucks!

We walk a lot, and if I drive anywhere, I make a mental map of all the places and things I need to do so I don't end up back tracking or having to go out more than once. I'm at about 1 tank of gas every 2-3 weeks!!! We got a bike with an attachment for my son to ride with me (he's 5), so this summer I'm guessing that will save us even more on gas and pay for itslef within the first month.





There are so many more things we do or could do, so if you are willing to share by way of a comment, please do so. We all need to learn more and try our best to do more. Those of us who are parents or are planning to be, we need to think of it for the sake of our children's children. We need to leave a planet that they too can live in.
Cheers and respect, Viviana

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Easter Weekend Adventure



Ok, so it wasn't really a huge adventure, it was the Zoo...but....we did get to meet up with a really cute guy!



He slept most of the time and were lucky to be there when he woke up for about 30 seconds had a good stretch and fell back asleep in what looked like a very uncomfortable position, but hey when you sleep in a tree, is anything comfortable


My son makes a very cute Koala!!





My son had a blast though, and afterwards when we got home he said, I didn't know the Easter bunny was real (the Cadbury people were at the Zoo and someone was dressed as a giant Cadbury Easter Bunny), and I almost blew it and said "oh he's not real"....but I backed tracked and explained that he was just not the real one...lol. Yikes. Hmm maybe he is way too smart for his own good.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Some of my NEW favourites....

I've recently bought a few things on ETSY, because of course, I love hand made and I love unique and wonderful things. ETSY is such a diverse community of stores, and what I love the most is, that I no longer have to go hunt through craft sales or markets to find the perfect item, it is all at my finger tips and delivered right to my doors step!

I decided to compile a list of some of my favourites thus far, in no particular order, but definitely places I'll go back to for more!

"SOAPREHAB"
Summer Lovin' Soap Bar

SOAPREHAB- I have bought hand made soap before, I've even tried to make it (though no one said they liked it and I hope they never used it, it was terrible!), and LUSH used to be my favourite shop before I discovered SOAPREHAB. The soaps are very well scented, hard and obviously long lasting, give great lather and you can get body butter, body sugar scrubs, body balms and lip balms in scents to match! The prices are a bargain, you can even get 3 bars for $13, and they are nice sized bars too at 4.5 o 5oz each. You can't go wrong with the soap as a gift item either, since the packaging itself is gorgeous and recyclable too.

Summer Lovin Sugar Polish


"BEARLY TIME TO SCRAP"


BEARLY TIME TO SCRAP- I'm sure it was on twitter that I met up with Bearly, and in the process of chatting and buying from each other, we have come to both appreciate each others shop. I love her supplies, specially the lace (which you can find on a lot of my cards lately, all of it from Bearly's ETSY store), which is reasonably priced (3 yards for $2.50 to 3.50) along side a bunch of other great crafting supplies. She also makes some of the cutest felted critter miniatures ever.

3/4 inch BLACK LACE trim 3 yards 9ft.


"BACKYARDPRIMS"


BACKYARDPRIMS- I've just recently discovered the appeal of using yo-yo's, I was going to make them myself, but for the time and effort it would take me, Backyardprims makes them at a very reasonable cost (36 for $4.50??!!). She has a ETSY store full of them, in all kinds of patterns and in different amounts depending on your needs.

One of my cards, made using a yo-yo from Barkyardprims.


"ANGEL'S PURPLE PANTRY OF PAPER AND YARN"

Handcrafted V-Stitch Newsboy Beanie/Hat w/Detachable Flower - Grey Heather

ANGEL'S PURPLE PANTRY OF PAPER AND YARN- Last but definitely not least is this gem, a awesome place to get beautifully crochet hats, and the customer service is tops. Angel really loves her work and it shows, I have 4 hats, 2 cloches and 2 beanies with brims. All are prefect for my head (I finally found a seller that doesn't skimp on the sizing, so my big hair doesn't get squished trying to fit into a hat!!). The brimmed beanies look so cute and are perfect for our Canadian cold. OK, now for pricing, I cannot find any other seller that has these kinds of prices for the quality of work, imagine being able to buy 5 hats for under $100!!! Yes, she's definitely worth a look!
Handcrafted Waffle Stitch Cloche/Bucket Hat w/Detachable Flower- Caramel Vanilla Latte


I'm sure that I'll find more favourites as I get to know more Etsy shops, but for now these are my top picks. They provide wonderful customer service along side great products with great prices. Hope you all get a chance to check them out, try them, and share them with your peeps!
Cheers,
Viviana

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