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Showing posts with label 5 Favorites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5 Favorites. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

5 Favorites - From the Hearts at Home Conference



This past weekend, my husband and I traveled to Illinois for the 2014 National Hearts at Home Conference.  I think this is the fifth time we've been vendors at this conference.  It is a lovely gathering of thousands of Christian women who are working to truly set motherhood as a priority in their lives.  It is so refreshing to be surrounded by all those mothers striving to raise their children to know, love, and serve the Lord!

As I mentioned, we were there in the capacity of a vendor.  We had our booth decked out with gifts for infants, children, and mothers and had overall good sales.  I thought I'd share with you some of the most unique products that were available.

The owner of this lovely business and I worked out a swap for products.  She took home some toys for her children, and I received an ever-blooming rose necklace.  You really have to check out her website to understand how totally cool this piece of jewelry is!  This creative lady has integrated a natural flower from the Judean Desert in Israel into a pendant.  It has been on our kitchen counter opening and closing for the past 3 days.  You must check this out! It would be the perfect gift for that hard to buy for person on your list...and it has a great message behind it, too!

Onto a completely different area.  We used to have a huge, lovely garden in our old house which we filled each spring with seedlings and cared for until harvest time.  Our rental house, however, does not have such a space.  I have been thinking about container gardening as we'll only be here for one growing season.  But, then I found this - the Tower Garden!  According to the sales representative, Arrine, this was developed by a man working at Epcot.  It was a system that he used while employed there and then mass produced it when he moved on.  Take a peek at this system!  It is pricey, but they do offer a payment plan which makes it more affordable.  I think this may be out of our budget for this year, but I am definitely keeping it in mind for the future!

This handbag company is amazing!  It is the brainchild of a woman, Kim, who has become a friend of mine over the years.  I enjoy visiting with her at the Hearts at Home Conferences and am always amazed at the variety and quality of her products.  The bags are 100% constructed in Ohio - no "made in China" labels to be found on anything from Varu!  If you are in the market for any type of handbag, do yourself a favor and check out what Varu has to offer!

This is another business where I have become friends with the owners, who are expecting their first child just a month before our baby is due!  Their whole business centers around celebrating marriage and family...how cool is that!  The have a wide variety of t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and have recently expanded into sweatpants which all carry pro-marriage messages.  Take a peek at their website and you may just find an anniversary gift for your hubby or a unique wedding gift.

My daughters recently opened an etsy shop where they sell their yarn creations.  Madeline and Haley worked up some products for me to sell in my booth at the conference and they almost sold out!  The ladies were clearly impressed with the high quality of workmanship and the affordable prices.  Of course, I am a bit biased, I completely agree!  My daughters have some mission trips coming up this summer and are trying to earn enough money to foot their part of the bill.  If you are in need of anything yarn-related, check out their etsy shop. They are working to restock it as I sold most of what they had last weekend.  If you are interested in a custom order, they can do that too.  Just send a convo and work out the details.

Sorry for not including pictures...I'm just happy that I got a post done!  I'm at 30 weeks today and this little baby is consuming more and more of my energy.  Thanks for understanding about the non-flashy post. Please, check out a few of these small businesses.  You'll be glad you did!

Hop on over to moxiewife for more 5 Favorites!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Thursday, September 12, 2013

5 Favorites - On the "Tube"



The weather has finally cooled off into more bearable fall-like temperatures.  The month of August was sweltering.  It was literally too hot to be outside most evenings.  So, we had a good amount of movie nights and Todd and I had some date nights on the couch in front of the television....true romance, I know!  Here are a few of our family's favorites.

(1) Call the Midwife
Have you watched this?  Todd and I were hooked at the first episode.  It follows the life of a young midwife in a poor suburb of London just after World War 2. We streamed them all from the PBS website. Absolutely fabulous!

(2) White Collar
I stream this on Netflix when I exercise.  It is so good that I hardly even realize my 42 minutes is over...well, almost!  I've only made it through the first season (perhaps I should exercise more...you think?!), but so far it is quite entertaining. It follows a convicted white collar criminal who made a deal with the FBI to consult on cases in exchange for freedom.  Fabulous story line and pretty clean.

(3) Myth Busters
This is the kids' favorite which we also stream on Netflix.  They take myths and urban legends and try to figure out if they are possible or not.  They utilize oodles of science, math, and common sense.  Being the geeky home school momma that I am, I  am always careful to point out the importance of studying and working hard in all areas because you never know what kind of job God may call you to when you grow up.  Who knows, you may just become a myth buster!

(4) Star Wars
Pick one....any one...it really doesn't matter.  The older kids (Todd included!) would watch these back to back to back any night of the week.  The whole battle of good versus evil and the fight to use the force for good is captivating.  We picked these VHS tapes up at Goodwill for 50 cents each....cha-ching!

(5) Monsters, Inc.
Of course the little girls need to be watching something while the big kids are watching their "scary" movie.  One of their tried and true favorites is Monsters, Inc.  My favorite part is snuggling up with them and listening to their belly laughs....gotta love it!

Tonight was absolutely lovely and the weather was perfect.  We played in the yard and then walked to the park to play some more.  Needless to say, there was no television tonight...I love fall!

Head over to Camp Patton who is guest hosting the Five Favorites this week to find many more favorites from other awesome moms!

God Bless!

Heather :-)



Wednesday, May 22, 2013

My Five Favorites!

This is my first time linking up to Five Favorites.  I enjoy reading what so many of my bloggy buddies like that I thought I'd join in on the fun.




(1)
Emjoi Micro-Pedi - This thing is worth its weight in gold.  I have tried everything to get rid of my dry skin on my feet...I won't even bore you with my 30 year quest to rid my feet of dry, itchy, yucky skin.  Instead, I'll share this thing with you.  It's kind of like an electric sander for your feet.  But, it doesn't hurt.  It is a bit gross to see all the dead, flaky skin that falls off your feet.  However, that's just something you have to put up with to get super soft, flip-flop ready feet for the summer.

(2)


Space Bags - I just put away 11 pairs of snow pants, 10 winter coats, and countless pairs of gloves and mittens along with oodles of scarves and hats.  Due to the space bags, this all miraculously fit into 3 storage totes.  They are a bit pricey, but are cheaper than buying more storage totes and are crazy fun to use.  Perhaps my kids need to get out more, but they were all fighting over who would get to suck the air out of the next one!

(3)
Extreme Couponing - Have you watched this show?  We don't have cable and haven't for many years, so I didn't even know what all the hub-bub was about.  I recently noticed that it was on Netflix and I'm always looking for something to watch when I'm doing my time on the eliptical machine.  So, I watched an episode and I'm hooked. I think most of the folks on there are wacky hoarders, but am fascinated by the idea of feeding my family for next to nothing.  We'll see what happens!
 
(4)


Star Gazer Lillies - My adorable husband brought me home a bundle of fresh cut lillies for Mother's Day.  Of course, I didn't take an actual photograph for you to see. I wish that you could smell my kitchen this past week as they opened.  I just tossed the last of them today.  There's just something about fresh flowers that makes me smile!

(5)
 
Teaching Textbooks - The MN Catholic Homeschool Conference is a week away and I'm planning my purchases for the upcoming school year.  While I am very happy with and use Saxon math up to the 6th grade, I switched to Teaching Textbooks for 7th grade on up.  I have been very impressed with the throroughness of the program and enjoy the automatic grading feature.

Hey, that was kind of fun.  Take a look over at Moxiewife.com for more Five Favorites.

God Bless!

Heather :-)