My workspace(s)

 I want to cry at this moment. I had this post almost finished when I hit a button and it was all gone and I couldn't undo it. SIGH

WorkSpace, they say you should share a photo of your workspace. I don't know who "They" are but I am guessing they didn't have 3 dogs, 4 kids, homeschool and run a business all at the same time from their home. OR they have this amazing room where everything for their business just fits and is (A girl can dream).

My "workspace" is organized and neat and tidy about 4 times a year. the rest of the time it's pretty much tidy chaos.

I am going to show my real workspace, not the "I just cleaned and want to make it look like all nice for a photo opt" no I am going to show you reality.

Let's start with the main floor. I work in a few different spots on the main floor.

The living room! This is where some of the magic happens. My sewing area is my machine along the wall on this awesome old-school sewing table that I found at goodwill. I sit on the arm of the couch with the TV playing either kid learning shows or one of my shows that I don't have to hear to follow (mindless background noise). Here I sew tutus, dresses, car seat covers, repairs, placemats, flags, masks and so much more. 

The floor! Here I cut fabric. I also lean against the couch to pin or put together tutus. I tape mugs and shirts here as well. Bows, headbands and so much more get done while I sit on the floor with the TV playing a show that I need to hear to follow.

In this room sits a long shelf with a mix of kids' puzzles and business supplies. There is an old dresser that my laser printer and cutting machine sit on top of. (group homeschool takes place here)

The dining room. In this room, I blog, answer clients, make my lists, design all the sublimation items, drink my tea and listen to Alexa who is in the kitchen. It looks stained? that is because this where I also refill the ink for the sublimation printer because the light is better in this room than in the rec room. (seated homeschool also takes place here) No there isn't food in that happy meal box, one the children is using it to keep stuff in.

Outside, this is by far my favourite place to be in the spring, summer and early fall. When the pool is up I can't do anything that will be ruined by getting wet. Here I sit, pin, cut, crochet etc. I even have a table to the side so that I can sew outside. (This is also where I paint)

In the rec room, along the back wall of the rec room, I have storage, my heat-press, my sublimation printer, my mug press and my desk. In this room, I print everything sublimation, while listening to the kids fight over the Xbox, toys or what to watch next. I head press everything in this room as well.

The laundry room (which I do not have a picture of) This room houses supplies for both the business and of course the house.
The picture below is my dream for the laundry room!

Would I love a well-organized space where everything has a place and is labelled? It's my dream! but I work with what I have and one day I will have a perfect space. Until then I work in the chaos that is spotless and organized 4 times a year.

Would you rather see the "photo opt" workspace or the reality?

March 2021 FITNESS Challenge

 I stuck with the January Challenge! I got to my 200 squats a day and am super excited about it.

Then February happened. I did nothing but my yoga in February. I started to feel stuck. Lockdown and winter in Canada beyond sucks!!

I decided that just because I sucked at life in February didn't mean that I couldn't start new for March.

I decided to find a challenge that did the squats plus a new exercise to add to it.

How I do my workouts:

Morning Yoga (on one of the kids 15 min breaks) I listen to a Spotify playlist for meditation when doing yoga to help with the flow. The kids know they are allowed to join me as long as they are quiet while we do it.

Now that the weather is at least bearable we are doing a morning walk. Takes about 20 minutes.

In the afternoon if it is warm enough for me (I am a cold sissy) I head outside to do my daily challenge I do this while the kids are doing their 15 minutes outside after their afternoon snack.

I do not do rest days. So on the calendar in this photo when it says rest day I either do the day before again or the next day.

I found this one on Pinterest and I am super excited about it.

If I happen to miss a day for whatever reason I will break it up to catch up so I will do yesterday's challenge in the morning and then the day I am on in the afternoon so it's not all at once.

How did you do with the January Challenge?

Did you do one in February?

Dancing on Rainbows

 Did you know no one sees the same rainbow? How about that it's round? I sure didn't!

H picked the topic of rainbows this week. I enjoy when it is her turn to pick what we learn about because I always end up learning something new.

How our days went for Rainbow week

8 am breakfast, get dressed, hair put their dirty laundry downstairs.

8:30 am Now that it is milder in the mornings we have gone back to walking in the mornings. One of the mornings we did a rainbow walk and the kids loved it so much that once we finished the sheet they started it all over again!

9 am either workbooks or worksheets. I alternate each day so the kids don't get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break. On this 15 min break, I get everything ready for the next activity, put laundry in, hand wash the dishes that need to be washed, empty and reload the dishwasher.

930am Journals and a letter sheet. (These are great for H learning her letters and the other children to keep working on letter sounds.)

15-minute break outside. I empty the dishwasher, answer clients and make their snacks.

10:00 am Snack While they eat their morning snack this month we are reading about one women in history from the book 101 Women in History

We talk about how things were, how things still are for many women in the world and how far we still have to go. 

10:30 am Rainbow activity or video (If its a video then fold and put away laundry while they are watching a video.)

11:00 am They have free time to do whatever they would like (this amount of time depends on how long things took us.)

In this "free time" I work on client orders and make lunch

12:00 pm LUNCH

12:30 pm reading. They each get to read their book with me and do the sight word cards as well as the sight word wall. (The books and the sight word changes every three days)

1:00 pm "Online learning" They each get a turn using the learning app on my phone called Khan Kids. They each have a profile and play what I consider one round. One round is playing until they get a prize.

1:30 PM They have until snack to free play. I sweep, clean up and work on client orders.

2:00 pm snack. I start dinner at this point.

15minutes outside.

Then they have until dinner to free play.

4:30 pm Dinner

5:30 pm walk dogs

6:30 pm start baths. When I start baths I get out the painting I have been working on and work on it while each child gets to play in the tub for 10mins.

7:15 pm snack, stories, teeth and bed.

At about 8:45 pm everyone is asleep, which means I get to work on client orders, cleaning, folding laundry and getting everything ready for the next day's schooling.

Here are links to the videos and activities that we did.

Activities

This one is fun and edible! 

We didn't frame them but we made these 

Colour page  

Rainbow walk 

 

Videos 

I love this guys videos!  

This one wasn't great for kids but I liked it. 

This isn't a video about how rainbows are formed because you can only watch the same information so may times but it is a book read on video about rainbows. 

Women's History month videos we watched

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#quote

 

 

 

 

 About a week or so ago I had another small business owner message me. Her business is similar to mine but different at the same time.

From the day my partner and I started this business we supported everyone who gives it a shot because we know how hard it is to do be a small business owner.

We are headed into year 8 of our business and we are doing okay, the pandemic has hit us hard not so much on orders and whatnot, but because we can't physically work at the same location or do our vendor shows.

We do not consider any business similar to ours or otherwise competition. We also really don't pay attention to who is doing what in our area what that means is that Cindy Lou could be doing shirts and we wouldn't have a clue. There are a few businesses that we know like Once Upon A Tutu, not because we consider them competition but because they do great work and we have chatted with her a few times. Do I know her name? NOPE.

Now back on topic. This woman messaged me starting out asking questions about if a store our products are in was closing. I explained that no one said anything to me and I just dropped off some products. This turned into them speaking unkindly of the store. I do not speak unkindly about any business because I know how it feels being a small business owner, not even when a client comes and complains about another business messing something up. I always reply with "I am sorry such and such happened to you, let's see how we can make it better".

A company putting down or bad-mouthing another company is not only in bad taste but also highly unprofessional.

Once we got through her "thoughts and feelings" about one of the shops we are in, she set into myself and our business.

For the first time in my life, I was called cutthroat because as a company I will only slowly raise our prices each year, and not raise them to where other companies in this area have them.

I also feel that I wouldn't want to pay $20.00 for a shirt so why would I charge that amount?

I stopped responding and moved on with my day.

We help build up other businesses and when we can't do something or we know for a fact that another business is doing it at that time we send people to the businesses that are doing it.

For example, there is one local business doing those picture frames with the song scan code. Can we do them? yes, 100% we can, are we doing them this valentines day? no. I sent them the name and business page link to that potential client.

I came across this quote the day after being called cutthroat. I have no idea who said it, but I do know that it is very true. As women in general and especially as women business owners we have enough crap thrown at us daily we don't need to sling mud at each other as well. The world IS big enough for all of us to be successful.

7 years in business.

 Hi all!

Monthly contests will be back, as well as freebie give-aways and we downsize our current in-house stock!

Did you know as of the end of Sept we will have been in business for 7 years! That is 7 amazing years of serving our community.

Along the way, we have had our ups and downs and bumps in the road but after 7 years we are still here, still backing our products and still striving to be better at all that we do.

Our families have grown, covid has gotten in the way of us working in person as a team but each step along the way has been worth it.

Do you know why we started this company? Do you know how it came about? How about what our business name means?

We started this company and working together after we both realized that we were pretty much doing the same thing as each other and could do it better as a team.

Our business name is the first initial of our children who were born a couple of months apart and were with us every day through the journey of first starting out.

Over the years our products have changed, the things we do, how we do and way the we do it have all changed. Trial and error were huge for us.

We have some of our products in a local store and are always looking for vendor events and other places to have our products.

When we first started we hand cut everything including all of our vinyl letters. Man those were NOT the days. Today we have a machine that cuts for us, two industrial heat presses, and we even do sublimation (the process of bonding the image right to fabric!).

Our children grew right alongside us and we grew as well.

We look forward to celebrating our 7 years with 7 giveaways in Sept. We also look forward to serving you and our community for the next 7 plus years!

Don't forget we donate to EVERYTHING so if your group needs items for an auction please feel free to PM.

M&B Creative Creations

OMG Energy

 

 

 

 Today I was going to write about a hard topic, today I have started and erased this post about 15 times before deciding that my goal today isn't to cover hard stuff, it's not to cover what I am dealing with because I can't even write the words on paper.

So instead I am going to write about my weekly workout and yoga routine this week.

It's a topic I love and can get the words out without crying or struggling with them.

Today is day 18 of my new program.

I started Thrive by Level 18 days ago, well actually I started it a bit longer than that because I did a 6-day trial and then had a break while I waited for my products to arrive.

I don't sell the product, nor am I pushing it. I do my daily videos to make myself accountable to show how the products work for me.
 I am not using it for weight loss I am using it for energy.

Each morning I drag my butt out of bed somewhere between 7 am and 8 am depending on how the night before went with the kids and my pain level.

I get up, head to the kitchen to take my vitamin capsule. They are these purple and white things that are awesome.  I set up my camera on top of a box in the kitchen and do my video. There are two in each pack, I only take one because that is what my body can handle. You can take one or both, you can start with one and when you are ready move up to two.

I suck at videos but I am learning.

After I do my video I feed the kids and get them going on their morning routine. Then I have a shower.

After my shower, I do step two which is a pre and probiotic powder. you mix it with water or milk. I use water. I only make half a package because my body can't handle the full package and I can never drink even the whole half of a shake. I am used to drinking just water or black green tea so for me to drink something with flavour is hard. 

I video both steps two and three at the same time.

Step three is this cool vitamin patch. This is probably my favourite part. You put this right on your skin and the best part for me is that I do not have any reaction to it at all. No skin peeling off no burning NOTHING!!!!
This is super exciting. I can't use band-aids or even paper tape because my latex allergy is so severe it causes these reactions (adhesive contains latex).

The patches use the same science that we moms have known since the dawn of time. Our bodies absorb more nutrients through our skin than any other way.

They don't stick very well to me at first so I have to clean the area by rubbing alcohol on it before I put them on. You don't put them in the same spot two days in a row. There are many different places you can put them, however for me I find my biceps is what works best.

After 10 days I started to notice as long as I didn't have a migraine then I didn't need an afternoon lay down. I started to notice that I had morning energy in the mornings so much so that I am annoying to the others in the house lol. It has also been easier to stick to my workout plan and get all my steps in!

If I could afford it I would pay for every mom I know to try it even if it's just one month.

So that covers the new product I am using, I will post a couple of videos I have been doing along with it. If you decide you want to try the product I can give you the information of the amazing lady who sells the product (No it's not me )

Worst mom, lifesaver.

 

 

I haven't blogged in a long time. Things haven't been great on my end. I also lost my mojo for a while.

I had to blog about this though because One; it is way too long to be just a Facebook post. Two because if it ever happens to another mom out there I don't want them to feel alone or like they are the worst parent in the world because I am feeling like that at the moment.

Today started as a pretty normal day. C: after being in meltdown mode for almost a full week was "okay" and the rest of the crew was fine.

However, for H it will turn out to be one to remember.

Let me start by saying H: is a daredevil if it "looks" climbable she will climb it. The girl has no fear.

On our normal morning walk, she wipes out because she was running with her shoes on the wrong feet and hurt her hand. It did bleed a little.

Today was our homeschool Splash pad/park play date. Mom finally gets to talk to an adult day. Everything was going well other than a few bumps in the road which can happen when you have a lot of different children all with different personalities.

At the end of the get-together, we are getting ready to go, only my lifesaver, myself and our littles. Suddenly hers and mine start yelling from the top of the equipment. Sarah makes it to the top before me. I am at the bottom of the slide. Staring up in disbelief and I figure Sarah has it. Nope H: has her leg stuck in the playset. She says to me "You have to come help".

My only thought as I climb the ladder is "I don't have any butter". I get up there and try to get her leg out it's a no-go she keeps screaming every time I try and get it out. I say to Sarah, no this isn't working, I am calling for a fire truck (This is my first time calling 911). I call I get a recording that says please don't hang up. Then I get a lady who says fire, ambulance or police. I say my child's leg is stuck in the playset I need a fire truck. The lady on the phone says okay I will send you over to the ambulance.....Ummmm that's not what I said. I am in a panic. I say to Sarah they are sending me to the ambulance. She says no we need a fire truck we need a saw.

I tell the ambulance lady I need a fire truck my child's leg is stuck in the play equipment. She asks for the address, I say I am at the town's only park and splash pad. She says well what is the address I said I don't know and she asks well does someone there know? Well, it's just me and Sarah and neither of us knows. Sarah says the same thing I did The only park and splash pad in this town of fewer than 1,000 people.

Sarah using her calm thinking brain sends her oldest to soak a towel and get her leg out while I am trying to figure out the stupid address for this park. Let the lady on the phone know and we end the call.

H: has been screaming and crying the whole time. Once she is free she stops crying and walks just fine....like nothing even happened.

I say to Sarah well things to remember to keep in the SUV for homeschool events.......a saw.

Can you say fluke accident?

Maybe for a week or so, H will not be such a daredevil. We can hope but I doubt it.


If you are out there and your child does, you are not alone. Once it was all said and done I realized I should have just used the sunscreen to get her out!!!