Mother's Day thoughts.

This morning as I sit on my back door step soaking in the sunshine, listening to the birds, and drinking my cup of coffee I'm thinking about Mother's Day and what it means to me. My boys have never been big on the cards, and gifts, but for me that really doesn't matter. It may sound strange, but today is just another busy day around our place. Biggest difference is that normally on Mother's Day I have just a little less to do. 

I got to sleep in a bit, and hubby made coffee, did laundry (some of the things he always does when he's home). I went out to the coop, fed and watered the hens, then went back inside to grab that first wonderful cup of go go juice. Hubby is heading back to the city tonight for work so we went over not only today's plans, but the plans for the rest of the week. I know deep down he wishes he could have got me something for Mother's Day, but with break up in full swing, and him only working part time it's just not in the cards this year. 

For me Mother's Day is just another day on the calendar, and I have good reasons for that. My husband doesn't need a special day to get up, make coffee and breakfast for me. My kids don't need a special day to make lunch or supper for everyone. I don't need flowers that will wilt and dry out, but a bag of seeds for my garden, or flowers for my gnome garden is something that means more to me. With our climate those flowers can't be planted for another week or two anyways. 

Mother's Day never falls on a weekend that works for us and our tight budget. Yesterday was my moms birthday, Tomorrow is hubby's 41st birthday, next weekend is May long, I just got my hens last week, and we are doing a yard sale this weekend. It just doesn't fit! Everyday is Mother's Day in this house. Someone is always doing something to help out or put a smile on my face. I don't need 1 day a year to feel special and appreciated, because everyday someone is doing that already.

I know I am blessed to have such an amazing family. It's not all rainbows and lollipops, there are days where my boys drive me nuts, but those before bed hugs and I love yous make it all worth while. So happy Mother's Day to those that celebrate it. I'll stick to my every day is Mother's Day!

~ Niki

WTF Snow!

So it's been beautiful around here lately, snow almost gone, getting yard work done etc. hubby told me it's been miserable here all weekend while I was in Stettler. Yesterday and today Mother Nature has been a real bag. Yesterday with the cold and wind and today with the snow. Seriously this girl has stuff to do and it won't get done with the wind or snow, please Mother Nature cut me some slack ...

Stettler Day 3

So today was a little slower, and honestly my feet were rejoicing for it! Still made some amazing contacts. I was even asked to do a makeover session next time I'm in town! YAY! That will definitely be in the works!

Looking forward to being back on May 2 for the women's show. Gonna see if I can work in a makeover party for that weekend! Now to get my booth packed up, get the truck loaded and head home. As much fun as this has been I'm missing my family and can't wait to be home to tuck in my boys and veg out with hubby before bed. 

See you soon Stettler! Thank you for an AMAZING time! ❤️❤️❤️

Day 2 ... WOW!

First off I have to say thanks to all the amazingly awesome people that stopped by my booth today! An even bigger thank you to everyone who placed orders! You guys are amazing I really feel blessed! Had some great conversations with a bunch of hard working men and women, your stories truly touched my heart. Who would have thought selling makeup would bring so many wonderful people into my life.

I have never felt as at home at a trade show being away from my family as I did today. Between having breakfast and chatting with other vendors, to the women who tried our products and were amazed by their own results. One lady came back to my table grinning from ear to ear over an hour later just beaming over how soft her hands were from trying our moisturizer Brilliant. She can't wait to get it on her face, and honestly I can't wait to see her once she starts using it regularly!

I never thought just how many lives I could touch with this company, but I am so looking forward to the future! THIS is the real deal people. Changing lives making women mor confident about themselves, and seeing those smiles make me so happy to be doing what I'm doing!

Now to head back to a friends place and order some pizza. This trade show has been such an amazing experience I'm over joyed that I have 1 more day to go. That being said ... On the road I go pizza, deep fried pickles, and begging out with a friend is calling to me!

See you tomorrow Stettler!!!

Having some fun!

Well today was day 2 of the Lethbridge Health and Wellness Show. I always like to have some fun at these things. My one eye done with the Fiber Lashes and one natural always gets a reaction lol

So just for the sake of he haw here ya go! Me being goofy and having a little fun before my show 😉

~ Niki

Greenhouse in progress

So anyone that knows me knows I'm not exactly the most patient person when it comes to projects. Lol today even though there is still 4' of snow on the ground we got started on my greenhouse! I'm all about repurposing, reusing, and frankly doing things with little to no out of pocket cost.

Pallet greenhouse it is! 

First we shovelled out the snow to give us the room to put up the walls, with the help of some amazing friends, and 3 amazing unschooling boys (yup child labour at it's finest haha). Then we got putting up walls, now this wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but once we got going everything started coming together quite nicely. The best thing is I wasn't looking for something fancy, expensive, or even overly pretty. I want cheap, solid, functional, and usable. That is what we got!

Now it's gonna take a bit before we can get the roof on and all the plastic up, but here it is in all her recycled glory, all for the price of a few screws, dinner, and the gas in the truck used to pick them up!

Stay tuned for more blogs as we do more steps and get this baby completed to grow all kinds of yummy organic produce! 

~ Niki

Compost bin from pallets

Ta Da!

So while I know this probably isn't all that exciting for some, it is for me! I am working really hard on growing our own produce this year. My goal is to one day be fully self sufficient on our own homestead. All this takes trail and error, practise and experience. 

As always if I can recycle I will, and if I can do it and be as cheap as possible then I'm ABSOLUTELY gonna do it! So compost done, next pallet project is the greenhouse. Woo hoo! Ok maybe I'm just a tad too excited haha

~ Niki

This is me!

So this is me. I'm a 33 yr old wife and mother of 3 boys. Two of which still live at home. My husband works out of town as an excavator operator in the oil patch. He's away from home sometimes for months at a time, so that leaves me as a single mom with double income, and a wife to a man never around. Now I know some people aren't gonna like that statement, however it is the reality. Let me explain. I'm at home 24/7 with my boys. "Don't they go to school?" Is probably the first thing that comes to mind and that answer would be no. I homeschool both our boys. "Oh so your religious or scared of the world around you" again nope. (For the record all the questions I'm posting I have been asked more than once!) I am spiritual, and my kids see and live more of the real world than most kids in public school, they have friends scattered all over the globe that homeschool and/or go to public school. Currently they don't have many local friends, however we just moved to a new house 3 hours away from our old house, and haven't as of yet had a chance to really get out and meet people. "Why's that?" Well that's another blog post that I'll get to in the near future.

"So what do you exactly do in a day?" Well for that grab yourself a drink and you can check out a couple of my other blog posts. Typical winter "no running around" "home" day. Typical winter a "running around" day.

"What do you do in your free time?" Well when I have free time I read, knit, crochet, paint, watch movies, listen to music, take pictures, chat with friends and family, or spend time outside (that is when it's not -40c) just to name a few. I always have about 100 projects on the go, and bounce between them as the mood hits me or time finds me.

To sum me up in one post is pretty much impossible, but here's a few basics. I'm a country girl that loves life, dreams of having a full farm making my family mostly self sufficient. I love to teach art, and one day plan on getting my doctorate in art history. I LOVE animals of all kinds, even though I wouldn't hesitate to pull a trigger to feed my family. I have big plans and even bigger dreams, and I don't give up easily. I have more hobbies then I can keep track of. I have OCD, and ADHD which to me are gifts that I was blessed with. I've lived a hard life so far, and I'm still standing! Want to know more? Follow me on this journey that is my life. Just hand in cause it's bound to be one hell of a ride!

~ Niki