Quickly stop pain from bee stings & bug bites

Hi again, everyone! I hope that you and those close to you (physically or not) have been healthy and safe these past months. I’m not posting here much these days but I thought this was a pretty helpful tip and I wanted to share it as it’s just about that time of year again. Our part of the province moved into Stage 3 of reopening this past Friday, which allows children to play on playgrounds once again. Our son was sort of hesitant to play … Continue reading

2 easy ways to grow your own spider plants — no green thumb needed!

Not long ago in my post about making cute ombre plant hangers I mentioned my love for spider plants. Well, today I’m going to finally make good on my promise to teach you how to cultivate baby spider plants and grow them into big mama spider plants! Spider plants are excellent air purifiers, removing up to 90% of formaldehyde from the air. The fresh air provided by a spider plant promotes better sleep, so they’re great to keep in your bedroom. The reason I chose … Continue reading

DIY Inspo: Soft storage bags

As you know, I love to upcycle. Naturally, I need to make these super cute storage bags by Style at Home! Looks like you could make them from old denim or any thicker decor fabric you have on hand if you’re a bit more experienced with your sewing machine. Click on the image above to find out how to make ’em! Have you made any soft storage bags? What’s your favourite material to use? Let’s talk in the comments! Share the post “DIY Inspo: Soft storage bags” FacebookXShare… Continue reading

3 (+2) chalazion treatments that really helped

[UPDATED December 16, 2020: Fixing links; recommending against using Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo and using Live Clean instead; fixing some words here and there because this post is quite a few years old now. Our kid is possibly starting to get another chalazion after years of having none, so we’ll see how this pans out.] [UPDATED May 19, 2016: Have you been here before? I’ve added new stuff to this post. Scroll to the bottom for my favourite chalazion-busters yet.] When our little guy … Continue reading

How to stop swelling with chayote

A day or so before Johnny made his way into the world, I had gone to the Cottage Life show in Toronto. (Lots of interesting things there — if you like cottage stuff, you should go!) Maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea to walk around so much more than I was used to doing at 39 weeks pregnant. That night, my feet swelled pretty badly. I figured a sleep would help, unfortunately sleep did not really come — and then my labour involved IV fluids … Continue reading

DIY: Extra-sensitive skin baby wipes

DIY Make-at-home baby wipes for extra-sensitive skin! No more diaper rash.

  I don’t know of many young ones who get diaper rash every time a regular baby wipe is used, but darn it if we didn’t end up with just such a baby boy. Our first plan of action was Pampers Sensitive Skin wipes. They’re a bit pricier per unit, but you do what you have to do to avoid a red butt on your kid. Sadly, those still seemed to irritate the boy’s skin. Thankfully, before our son was even born I’d found a great post about … Continue reading

How we treated our dog’s nasodigital hyperkeratosis — wait, what?

hyperkeratosis dog paws, almost feathery in texture

I thought to write this since as an animal-lover, finding a solution to our woof’s problem lifted such a weight off my back. Hopefully it helps someone else’s puppy out too. A few weeks ago, Casey started limping. We first assumed it was a pulled muscle since she does this often up north when she runs around. She had been roughhousing (ruff-housing?) in the snow a lot with Junior. After a few days it hadn’t resolved itself though. I checked her paws quickly and they seemed a bit cracked. … Continue reading

Ice shoves on Lake Erie at Crystal Beach — just wow.

One of the coolest things to happen in this region in a long time has cost us absolutely nothing. It’s a totally natural wonder, one I’d never seen until this past weekend. If you live here, you should definitely go see it while you can. UPDATE 1: See the bottom of this post for directions on how to get there, and a map! UPDATE 2: Ice caves were evacuated February 17, 2014 due to possible ice fractures. Please see this Erie Media write-up for more … Continue reading

Quick tip: How to soften hardened brown sugar

If you don’t keep brown sugar locked in an air tight container (or if your brown sugar-loving husband leaves the canister open often enough after spooning some into his coffee), you’ll find your delicious sweetener gets thick and hardens up fast.     I came across a great way to re-soften the stuff — no need to buy a new bag when you come across a hard one in the cupboard that you didn’t use soon enough. You just need an airtight container, a slice … Continue reading

Dragonfly Cannibalism

I’ve posted about this before, but I just felt like bringing it up again. This happened a few years ago at my family’s cottage: The guy on the bottom is the living dragonfly. This unlucky specimen is the head of the guy on top, whose mouth continued to move the whole time. Yet another thing I had never known could happen (both the cannibalism and the disembodied head moving for an hour or two afterward), discovered up north. Have you ever seen something like this? … Continue reading

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