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

Another Road Trip, Another Trade Show, Lots of Excitement.

So I had another trade show this weekend in Calgary! I have to admit my favourite part of these trade shows are all the people I get to meet that I normally never would have. The fact that all the vendors are so open and friendly makes things that much more enjoyable. This one I made some really awesome friends! Not just people you meet once then forget about, but true friends. I really felt a connection with some of these ladies and I can't wait to get to know them better.

This time I don't have pictures of my table because I spent too much time chatting to take any haha.

I did get to sneak in a visit with hubby's aunt again, which was wonderful as always.

The trip home however was the most exciting part of all, and not in a good way. Overnight we figure someone had tried to steal the tire off my husbands new truck. I was going 110 km/hr down the deer foot trail in Calgary when the vibration turned into a banging. After pulling over and checking it out I noticed the lugnuts were finger tight. 

I tightened them as much as I could and drove 7 km down the road going 30 km/hr to Canadian tire hoping they would be able to tork them up and I could get a tire iron. Well in that 7 km I managed to snap off one of the bolts. The service staff there were amazing! They torked up the remaining 4 and even checked all the other lugnuts/tires. They charged me nothing to do this either.

After talking to my husband, and confirming with a friend we decided I would get a tire iron and continue my trip home, stopping every 50 km to check the lugnuts were tight. It was a LONG trip home to say the least. 

I did stop in Edmonton at our former neighbours who went over everything for me, and had picked up the bolts we needed to fix the tire when I got home. After a coffee there and quick visit I was back on the road. Eventually I made it home. This was the longest trip yet for me, and I could really go without anything like this again haha

~ Niki

Trade show traveling.

After talking to my wonderful husband we had decided that I would start traveling around and get the younique brand name out there. Which for me is a bit of a mini vacation every week or two! Hubby is shut down for break up so he's home with the kids and I'm the one on the road! Still not sure how I feel about it, feels so strange being away from the kids. 

On Tuesday I was in Calgary, met some really incredible women. It's so nice to see so many women out doing what they love, however seeing some of the other business models of other direct sales companies really brought home how blessed I am to have found Younique!

Here's a few pictures of my display from the show!

It was a fun Mardi Gras theme, and I'm absolutely looking forward to being a part of it again next year! As much as I missed hubby and the kids being gone for a couple days I have to admit getting out, meeting other women, and being back out in the public was a nice change! 

Heading back to Calgary for another show on the 22nd, Can't wait!

~ Niki

A busy week in review.

So as always things got busy and the blog got left by the wayside. So here's a recap of the last week or so.

We had planned on going snowboarding/skiing with a local homeschool group, but thanks to the crazy winds we had that was cancelled, lots of the area had power outages, downed trees, vehicles blown into the ditch (we barely kept out of the ditch due to the ice and wind just trying to go get the mail), buildings collapsing, even saw a picture a friend posted of a mobile home flipped on its roof! Yeah it was crazy! J has big issues with wind, he's always been that way. So we closed up my black out curtains in my room and when it really started to howl he would go crawl into my bed with the cats and it calmed him right down. Other than that we decided we were due a movie/gaming day. 

The next day involved yard clean up, the tree shrapnel was unbelievable!  Noticed we did have a few drees down in the bush, but those will have to wait until hubby gets home for cleanup, or the spring whichever comes first. Even made the kids some fresh cookies, which did not least long enough to cool off lol!

The boys and I went to a bowling/pizza party with a local group of homeschoolers. I wasn't gonna tempt fate by bowling myself, but it was great to chat with some other parents, and spend time with the boys outside of the house. I also realised just how much I missed bowling, so I think the boys and I might try to make it a monthly thing.

We also had a skating day with the homeschooling group! Love that my kids are getting out and meeting local kids, even if they don't have anyone they would consider "friends" yet, but I'm feeling more and more comfortable with our decision to move up here. Neither of my boys have gone skating before, they both Rollerblade, but skating has never really held much interest for them. J didn't want to go, but D was really looking forward to it! He did absolutely amazing for a kid who'd never been on the ice before. Only 2 little falls which he laughed off and kept going. By the end of the hour that kid was really buzzing around. He even went up to a couple of the dad's on the ice with their kids asking for tips on stopping and such. I was really glad that one of the dad's who were on his bowling team at the party was there. Watching D step out of his comfort zone and going up to near strangers asking for help was a great thing to see. He also as always was helping little kids that would fall or need a "skating bar" etc. reminded me all over again at just how big this kids heart is and how amazing he is with little kids. After skating took the kids out to Mc Donalds for lunch. They had a good day, and I was happy to see their smiling faces.

A couple days with errands and shopping were in the mix as well, not to mention my body slowly becoming stronger and stronger.

It's been a busy couple weeks for me with work. With lots of people wanting more info on products, and the business end I've talked to some really amazing people!my business cards even came in!

 

All in all it's been a good but busy week and a bit! Looking forward to more! Bring it on 2014 is gonna ROCK! I feel it in my heart and soul!

~ Niki