Aaron's 5 Star Getaway!

This Sunday I will be heading to the cottage. It's Aaron's cottage and we only get there once a year. We will be gone for a week, and needless to say I know I will have lots of reading to catch up on when I get back!

We are leaving at 3am Sunday morning. It's a 6 hour drive so we figure if we leave that early we will be in North Bay by 6ish, grab some gas and grub and then push on for the final 3 1/2 hours! It really is a beautiful drive. Once we pass North Bay the highway has all of these little lakes just off the side. We always pass them and are like "Oh, got fish there sometime..."although we just keep driving. This year however we plan on stopping at a couple. Even if we catch nothing that is okay. I am really looking forward to trying out Aaron's new wide angle lens!

So the cottage we like to call Aaron's 5 star Retreat. It is located on Lake Sesekinika, just outside of Timmins Ontario. The cottage is in the shape of an octagon, and complete with two round beds! Nana told us that she saw a Bobcat out in the backyard (the grandparents live in the house next to the cottage), so maybe I can get some really neat pic's...from a safe distance of course!

I look forward to this trip every year. I love the drive up even though it takes us forever! I usually read to Aaron and we do crosswords or just jab about what we are going to do. It almost always involves sleeping in and relaxing!

In preparation for our trip we have spent the last day or so doing the following: cleaning up the condo (because it is way more fun to come home to a clean home) and I have been up to my armpits in laundry. We have also been foraging for food as I am not grocery shopping this close to our trip. We stop in Kirkland Lake to get food so that we aren't over packing the car with stuff. There is after all three of us heading up this year in one car so it'll be tight already!

Well my dears, I am off! I hope you all have a fantastic week! If I can ghost a signal at the cottage I will come on and check out what's been happening with all of you! As my boss used to tell us before we left the breakout room..."Play safe, and have fun."

Contest post is one post down!!!

The Contest!

Put Up Your Happy Place!


Get out your camera's kids! This contest is about your happy places!

How to Enter: Take a picture of a place that makes you happy, be it your cottage, your backyard, a local park or hey even your room! Post your picture and tell us why this place makes you happy! (to make it easy for me to find, post it under My Happy Place!) Send your friends over to enter for an extra ballot! (make sure they mention you sent them!) Follow my blog for yet another chance at winning!

The Prize:
A lovely assortment of my handmade bath stuffs! I don't have a photo yet as I am still making the prize!

Contest ends on July 12 th, 2009.

Good luck and have fun!

Milton Street Festival and Contest Teaser!

Been busy lately!

On the weekend Sadie (seen in photo looking rather pleased with our efforts!) Lauren and I had our first booth! We were at the Milton Street Festival selling our bath products! Here is what we had for sale! From the left: Lavender Mint, Vanilla Mint, Cinnamon, Patchouli, and Orange Vanilla soaps. Behind those are all of our bath salts (in the blue puffy stuff). Next is a couple of boxes of our candles in various smells. We had some spa cloths (thanks Cher!) and then all of our kids soaps, from Popsicles and lollipops to peppermint swirls and chunk soaps! Made about $200 on Saturday which is awesome! We didn't sell everything but are pretty sure we can work the kinks out in our plans! We did however sell out of our soaps for kids...which is always fun! The festival committee put us right beside a kids painting booth as we had a hand washing station. Lots of entertainment there!

Also, I will be holding a contest for some of our fabulous bath products! It will start on Friday June 12th and will run for a month. More details on Friday but I will tease you all with this...get your camera's ready!

Today, and a movie review with no spoiler!

Oh my today is a beautiful day! Think I might enjoy some if not most of it outside! Maybe I will head over to my local Home Depot and pick up two lawn chairs! We have only two and one is broken, both were uncomfortable, and it is time for new ones. The boyfriend has a hard time letting things go and I am anticipating a bit of a struggle. He will be fine with the concept of two new chairs I am sure but he will want to keep the one that isn't broken. It's worn, it's not comfy, and even though it isn't broken 'yet' it is well on it's way. Every time you sit in it it creaks louder and louder! Maybe I'll just toss it when he isn't looking...or maybe I will get lucky and it will 'mysteriously' break. I know it sounds horrible but really, this chair is well past it's prime.

Went and saw the new Star Trek movie last night. We met up with Aaron's friend Fraser (check out my blog on fishing on the weekend!) and although I like Fraser, I had wanted this to be like a date night. It's NOT a date with three people. Aaron spent like a half an hour trying to convince me to go. He even went so far as to say he'd cancel with Fraser but I was like 'No, you made plans I'm fine, you go' (cause I am stubborn like that) Finally I relented after he bribed me with a promise of 'date night' involving Angels and Demons! Needless to say I am glad that I went. Without giving anything away...the movie was awesome! Visually stunning, just the most spectacular eye candy in a very long time! The special effects were just incredible! The plot was also very good, leaving a healthy twist at the end. What was show stopping? The performances by Karl Urban (Bones McCoy) and Simon Pegg (Scotty) stole the show! This movie made me laugh, made me cry and made me want more. Go see this flick it's a fun romp and a great installment for the Star Trek series! 5 Stars!

The Escapades of Fritz the Gnome

When I lived in Acton I had a great neighbor named Stella. Stella had a wide collection of garden gnomes that lived in her garden. I had been planning a trip to Minneapolis with a friend and at the last minute decided to play a little prank on my neighbor. I kidnapped one of her gnomes! My girlfriend and I have this thing we used to do whenever we went over the border. We would strap our teddy bears into the backseat, belted in for safety obviously! It always gets a laugh from the boarder guards to see two grown women doing this, and we always got a kick out of giving someone a laugh at our expense! Now, let me paint this picture for you.

All summer we watched Stella pitch a heated battle with grubs in her lawn. She tried everything on the market to get rid of them and nothing worked so she set too with a plastic container and a small gardening shovel and picked them out by hand. For a while she thought she was loosing the battle as the grubs kept disappearing from her container whenever she went inside...it was blue jays up on the wire.

So it is the night before my trip. I had just gotten home from work at the gas station and was hanging out with my friend Amy when this plan just hit me! I was very incognito about this heist! I belly crawled in front of their hedge, slipped my arm through and grabbed the first gnome I hit, and brought it back to Amy. Much to my dismay, Amy declared I had not grabbed a gnome as this guy had no beard! Back on my belly to put him back and grab another, and Fritz was the winner.

Now not wanting to upset my neighbor with the prospect of one of her gnomes being stolen I wrote her a note and stuck it to a stick in the spot where Fritz had formally been. It went as follows

My Dearest Stella
After a long and arduous battle against the army of grubs, and our subsequent victory I have decided to take a much needed vacation. I will return in two weeks.
Love Fritz, the Garden Gnome.

Picture this. The next day I am spending all of my time looking out the bedroom window watching Stella garden and waiting for her to notice her note where Fritz had been. Her friend popped by and noticed the note in the garden. Stella read it, passed it to her friend and then they both laughed.

So off to the boarder with my friend, Fritz the Gnome safely wrapped in a towel and belted into the back seat while sitting on a pillow. Here are a few of the pictures we took of Fritz the Gnome on vacation!

This is Fritz driving through some construction in Wisconsin!

Fritz is riding shot gun giving us directions so we don't get lost! Our route is on the map!

Fritz having a look at the scenic lookout in Michigan!

Fritz at the beach! Is it a vacation without a beach?


The payoff from this gag was huge! My sister bought Fritz a friend named Franz! We returned Fritz to his spot in the garden with his new found friend and a lovely little picture book documenting his journey! We leaned the two gnomes up against each other and surrounded them with Red Cap 'stubby' beer bottles and the album. Large laughs ensued!

We watched carefully the next day, waiting to see Stella be reunited with Fritz. When I fessed up to my 'crime' I was thrilled to hear the results! Her friend called her everyday to see if Fritz was back from his vacation! She was delighted with the photo album and the new addition to her garden! She did however lament that after his vacation Fritz had done nothing and had become lazy! The album comes out whenever she has new company come over. Stella you are awesome!

I was inspired to share this story when I read some of the adventures of Bilbo the garden Gnome! Thanks Victoria and Kim!