Category: Uncategorized

 I could write this article in a few short words: I am having a blast, learning a ton, and spending my time at home figuring out ways to make money during lockdown so that I can stay longer.

I have brought my horse Sansira (2004 Sunny Boy x Rubinstein) and my mom’s horse Stryder (2008 Sagnol x Feinbrand). I am working on the U-25 Grand Prix with Sara and Stryder and I are just getting to know each other and working on his strength since he is a bit of a worrier and dropped a lot of weight on the trip here. Hopefully, I will be able to do U-25 on him as well, but he is not as easy of a ride as Sara, so stay tuned.

I am living in downtown Toronto with an RN and a dental school student. I am quickly becoming friends with both of them, though they do not quite understand why I would move across the country to ride horses when I could just as easily do it at home. Let me tell you why.

Interjection: If you want a crash course in dressage and horses, visit @teamirwindressage on instagram. Below you can see Jaimey and I working on piaffe with Sara.

Two and a half years ago in my first clinic with Jaimey, I could barely get one clean flying change with Sara. Soon after riding with him for the first time, I began plotting my trip out East, because of how quickly I was advancing with only a couple of clinics a year. The few clinics we had became my favourite weekends because every time he was in town, I did something on Sara that I had never done before – fours, threes, half-steps, and so on. We work hard at the clinics and they keep training headed in the right direction, but by training every day, I am realizing that riding is a process and requires so much more than a clinic every few months to make sure you haven’t gone too far off track. I am also realizing that subjecting yourself to coaching and criticism everyday can take a bit of a toll on your confidence as a rider.

Jaimey teaches me on both horses Monday to Friday. The first week was mostly getting the horses moving and learning how to ride Stryder. He is a completely different feel than Sara and I would be lying if I said I have figured it out. For the first week, cantering a 20 meter circle on the bit was a challenge, though, I am happy to report that he was round for at least half of our last ride.

Sara and I were doing some exciting things last week. We did 12 ones for the first time and the canter half-pass-pirouette sequence from the u-25. BUT ever since I have been riding her up in a grand prix frame, she has been weird on the bit, not flexing right in the poll, crossing her jaw, and sticking her tongue out a little bit. All things that will cause judges and spectators to roast the rider alive.

This week, Jaimey rode her Monday to Wednesday to get her more even into both reins. Turns out, my right hand forgets the “give” part of the half-halt which causes Sara to be one sided and defensive. I would probably stick my tongue out, too.

It is exciting to watch Jaimey ride the horses because I get to see what they are capable of, but when he first got on, I was quite frustrated with myself. He makes it look so easy and then my brain goes, “Wow, Katey. You suck. Why could you not get that?” On Tuesday, after some reflection and a chill pill, I remembered that if I COULD do it by myself, I wouldn’t be here.

When I got back on, I immediately felt the things that Jaimey had been trying to get me to feel for the past week. He had taught Sara how to stretch properly through her whole body in 20 minutes, saving her confusion, frustration, and unnecessary strain on her body. He also jazzed her up enough that I could feel the cadence and bounce in the trot for the passage – I had never felt that before so it was quite an epiphany. Thank goodness Jaimey got on because after feeling the stretch and proper trot, Sara and I are not guessing anymore. Sara did not cross her jaw or stick out her tongue at all when Jaimey was on and now, when I ride she is not doing it as much. This is a process for both me and the horses. I am still working on having a better seat, more elastic contact, and giving with my right hand. Rome wasn’t built in a day and my first u-25 won’t be show ready in my first month here, but I am excited to see what these horses can do with 6 months of consistent and outstanding coaching.

Side Note: The dessert places here are incredible. I am currently on a tiramisu kick. Which one would you pick??

Throughout this course, I have been working on creating what I call is my Covid project turned into side business. During these challenging times I found out I was living in a home with life-threatening levels of radon (for those who aren’t familiar Radon is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that can accumulate to high levels in an enclosed area such as a house and become a risk to the health of you and your family). On top of this I discovered high levels of VOC’s and toxic compounds in our air, mainly due to my occasional habit of burning paraffin and soy-based candles. Knowing these factors, my partner and I knew we had to make some changes in our home for the benefit of our health. 

During the summer I hung out with my friend Carolyn, we met in school on a semester abroad in Italy. She was pretty much my only friend in my “covid circle”. She had been experiencing severe allergic reactions to and also suffers from eczema, therefore she started to make her own hand soap, lip balm, and lotion made from pure, natural, and locally sourced ingredients that contained very little if any fragrances to help her sensitive skin. 

Now, coincidently while I was seeking a natural alternative to replaced my awful habit of burning chemically harmful candles, I wanted to diversify the farm and get into beekeeping. I pushed my father to allow me to do this, and although he gave me the no-go, he connected with a local bee farmer and they began a partnership with him.

I mentioned this to Carolyn, as I was excited to have bees on our land and we both came up with the idea of sourcing some beeswax from the Bee-guy to experiment with making natural products including lip balm, creams, and candles for my home. 

With her knowledge in hand and body products and my knowledge of essential oils and sourcing natural materials we pursued to create beeswax candles that would be scented with pure essential oils using upcycled glass containers and a natural hemp wick.

We especially wanted to integrate as much locally sourced ingredients and support local suppliers when purchasing our materials. We pressed fresh herbs and native flowers we personally grew from seed to create a botanically inspired product line. In doing this and experimenting with beeswax and essential oil blends we discovered our business name, Apis Botanicals. “Apis” being the latin name for bee and “Botanicals” being the overall inspiration and common theme among our products. 

Fast forward 3 months later, after pouring and re-pouring over thousands of candles and hundreds of burn and air quality tests, we have curated a botanical line of candles in 4 scents being Lavender Eucalyptus (our best seller), Citrus Mint, Mulled Wine, and Unscented for those who have sensitivities to smells. We changed and experimented with our logo and packaging over a dozen times, and still may change it up.

In addition, we are proud to celebrate the holiday season with introducing a holiday themed collection made in limited quantities in special scents of Winter Forest, Candy Cane, Holiday Spice, and Candied Orange (this one was an accident). We hopped on the bandwagon and decided to make dried oranges as decoration for our mulled spice candle and discovered the amazing scent of cinnamon sugared orange. We made a second trip to our essential oil supplier in Calgary to purchase cinnamon leaf, nutmeg, blood orange, and peppermint oils to create this amazing blend. Overall, we are happy with the final result and still continue to perfect our product. We are in the introductory phase of selling our product to hopefully receive positive and constructive feedback to improve our product. 

In addition to candles we expanded to create beeswax wraps made from unused quilting remnants from previous projects, as well as new 100% cotton and linen fabrics from a Canadian company called Figo fabrics. This company supports graphic designers from all over the world to create such fun and modern fabrics I believe everyone would love to see in their kitchen. I specifically chose fabric from their Treehouse collection not only because the patterns are fun, vibrant, and colourful but because the prints were designed by Canadian graphic designer, Annie Chen. When sourcing new materials such as fabric I put a lot of research into how I can make our products stand out from the rest, while ensuring the quality and supporting local. This has been one of the biggest challenges as supplies are very limited and hard to source efficiently on a small scale. 

From this experience, we have learned and continue learning from our mistakes, working with such a dynamic natural product like beeswax is no small feat as we remind ourselves if this was easy everyone would do it. I am most proud of the fact that we were able to kick start our creativity and what positive mindset we had left into making something amazing during these difficult times. As we continue our journey we hope to grow our business and use it to inspire others, promote a sustainable lifestyle and support the local community. We bee-lieve in ourselves as you should too! 

According to PsychGuides.com  Cell phone addiction, sometimes referred to as problematic mobile phone use, is a behavioral addiction thought to be similar to that of an Internet, gambling, shopping, or video game addiction and leads to severe impairment or distress in one’s life.

This is a story of a girl name Rhenesmae, 8 years of age and in Grade 3. One day when the pandemic hits her mother decided to give her a cellphone or mobile phone to be still connect with her friends.   Rhenesmae was so happy

Rhenesmae always on the phone when awake up in the morning she will look for it, while eating or watching TV. Always on the phone!

And then her mother noticed that Rhenesmae was changing she doesn’t study her lesson, play with his brother and not paying attention her food.

Finally her mother talked to her daughter explained to her that sometimes too much used of cellphone is not good.  Emphasized the importance of education and how lucky she have food to eat. Mentioned to her always spend time with her brother. Mother showed her some pictures of children who are in struggle of better education and food.

To continue the story please clicks on the following link:

Instagram > https://www.instagram.com/p/CIMSe44nZa6/?igshid=p6yef5meky0t

Twitter> https://twitter.com/ManiegoRita/status/1333193253420556288

Every Christmas I try my hand at baking gingersnaps. Not just any gingersnaps, the perfect, chewy and soft gingersnaps. This year will be a bit of guessing game since I’m using a new kitchen and oven temperatures vary. Plus this cookie is my most challenging, I don’t know why, it’s my Christmas baking unicorn. All I can say is…

All Systems Go

I checked off all of my supplies and got to work. What could go wrong? Nothing can go wrong. I’m so ready this time. Also, my Mom called she’s coming to visit tomorrow, no pressure. LOL

What Could Go Wrong?

As you can see there’s an important ingredient missing from my picture above. If you guessed, butter, you’re right. It’s still in the FREEZER! No problem, I’ll put it in the microwave to soften it up a bit. I’m right here, what could possibly go wrong?

My butter completely melted, so it had to go back into the freezer. Not worried yet.

When in doubt, Use a Fork.

Once my butter was the right softness I wanted, I moved onto the next step. Cream together butter and sugar…Wait…you need a mixer for that. Okay, not panicking, maybe a little bit panicking. I don’t have a mixer! So, I went for my tried and true mixer replacement, the mighty FORK and BICEP POWER.

It worked! Nice and smooth.

Ready to Roll Out

After my dough chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes, and I had a nice cold beer, I was ready to roll out the dough. I preheated the oven to 350 F.

The first batch it ready to go. In 10 minutes I’ll find out if I succeeded this year.

The First Batch

After waiting 10 minutes, which felt like forever, to find out if my gingersnaps worked out the way I was dreaming of. They better look like the pictures!

Okay, they came out round and they look pretty soft. I waited until they cooled down to taste. I did pretty good. They’re gingery, soft, chewy and not overly sweet.

Yay, me!

But the real test will be MOM…

The Next Day…

My Mom arrived just after noon. We had lunch together, chatted for a bit before we had tea. This was my chance to share the gingersnaps. Will she approve..?

Watch the Video to Find Out

Sharing is Caring

If anyone is interested in the Gingersnaps recipe I used, you can find it here.

16-year-old me decided I would one day own a Sheltie. 23-year-old me decided it was a good idea. Neither version of myself had any idea what I was in for.

I did some research and found a reasonably local breeder, Yvonne. I went to meet her and the mom of the litter I was picking from and the next thing I knew I had put down a deposit on a puppy due in early November.

Yvonne emailed me on November 1, 2011 to let me know Izzie had given birth to five puppies – two girls and three boys. I went to meet them when they were about four weeks old to pick one. I thought I wanted a female since they tended to be cuddlier and sweeter. But Dallas chose me. His littermates all went to pile up to sleep, but he wouldn’t leave me. He sat in front of me, his little feet sliding out from under him on the hardwood floor, determined to stick around as long as I did. I picked him up and he fell asleep in the crook of my arm. I was a goner.

He fooled me.

Four-week-old Dallas was a sleepy baby. When I brought him home on December 30 at nine weeks, he was…not so sleepy. He was, as all puppies are, rambunctious and playful and curious. He was never a bad dog, never destructive, and incredibly easy to house train. But it quickly became obvious that he had some unique quirks.

You see, Dallas is noise-phobic. I didn’t know that was a thing until I talked to my vet about his over-the-top reactions to things like sneezes, the opening of pop cans, thunder, hammering, etc. We ended up putting my dog on a mild anti-anxiety medication. Yes, that exists for dogs. Yes, it feels ridiculous. But yes, it helps. A lot.

He got prettier and prettier as time went on and it soon became obvious he was going to be big for a Sheltie. He grew up beautifully and became a well-mannered, usually well behaved, very sweet companion.

I was living with a friend when I brought Dallas home and that spring decided it was time to get my own place. I’ll never forget moving day. I put Dallas in the car and started it to warm up while I scraped the frost off the windows. Dallas thought the scraper was something to be chased and, as he assaulted my windshield from inside, managed to step on the lock button and lock me out of the car. I had to call my mom, who was a half hour away, to come with my spare key. When we got the car opened, he’d been napping and opened one eye to look at me as if to ask what my problem was and why I was disturbing him.

He was a welcome distraction when I was in university. He made sure I took study breaks as he needed attention and walks, and he kept me laughing when things were stressful.

I bought my own condo in July 2013 when Dallas was not quite two. He handled the move (and the new roommate) like a champ. Then, that December, my boyfriend moved in. I used to half-joke that if my dog didn’t like my boyfriend, the boyfriend would have to go. (We’re married now, so I think that went okay.)

My boyfriend proposed in May of 2016. As he had been for all of our milestones, Dallas was there for that.

A burst pipe in the ceiling in our master bedroom caused a massive flood in the summer of 2016. We had to move out (for four months) for repairs and again, Dallas was a champ. Our two cats were very stressed by it all, but we didn’t need to worry about the dog.

A broken pipe on the third floor of our building caused another flood this year. Dallas was not the most helpful while I was cleaning up water. For some reason he thinks wet towels are fantastic toys and he had the best day “helping” me mop up water.

I’ve lived in apartments with Dallas his whole life. This spring, we’re finally buying a house and he’ll have a yard for his senior years. He loves to lay in long grass and sunbathe in the summer, he loves to crunch through leaves in the fall. He lives for bounding through snowdrifts in winter, and spring runoff and puddles are great fun. I can’t wait for him to have all of that right outside our door.

He barks at things, as Shelties do. People walking by the patio door. People making noise in the hallway of our condo building. Having the door closed in his face when you’re going to the bathroom and need some privacy. He’s got some opinions, and he wants to share them. Age is creeping up on him, slowly but surely, but he refuses to let it get the best of him.

He’s not the best dog, but he’s my dog. And I’m thankful for our many years together.

Christmas is a magical time of year. A time of family and friends. The beautiful sounds and aromas fill the air and our noses. The colours of green, gold and pink…Pink??? Wait what?

Yes! Pink!

I was lucky enough a few years back to stumble across a pre lit pink Christmas tree and I did not hesitate ti snatch that beauty up. For the past 20 or so years of my life I’ve loved and adored the colour pink.

So a pink Christmas tree was a perfect find for me.

This blog is to tell you how to set-up and create your Perfect Pink Christmas Tree.

STEP 1: Find and Locate

• Find The Tree
• Find The Decorations
• Find The Perfect Spot To Put Up Your Tree

STEP 2: Get Organized

• Take Tree Out Of Box And Fluff
• Get Ornaments Out
• Find Tree Skirt And Garland

STEP 3: Decorate

• Put The Tree Skirt And Garland On
• Put The Selected Decorations On
• Put Some Icing (Tinsel) On

Step 4: Clean Up And Enjoy

• Clean Up Your Mess
• Enjoy Your Masterpiece

Enjoy the Perfect Pink Christmas Tree!

Check out the Twitter Thread here: https://twitter.com/Tinkerbelle1978/status/1333154534550511616

#Saskatchewan

Hockey a sheet of ice, an old iconic barn in the middle of a field, it is like a religion in the small prairie towns.  Growing up in Aberdeen Saskatchewan, I spent many a day at the rink, I loved snow days, I spent more time at the rink than anywhere else.  I can’t ever remember paying for public skating but there must have been some fee.  I played hockey right through until I was 15 and then retired.  I still have my original skates. 

On my teams I played on the kids called me Shack as I was the one always to stir it up, get it going, hockey was rough back then.    Especially in Bantam and Midget you could expect a bench clearing brawl most game nights.

The coaches were also different I remember our coaches smoking on the ice and going to tournaments the coach would smell of whiskey.   Obviously back then no seat belts and through it all we all survived to play another day.  That was minor hockey back in the late 60’s no fair play back then.

Anyway, nobody from my teams ever made it to pro hockey we played for fun, but that was the starting point of where Hockey’s road trip began.    

#Bobby Orr Player for the Ages

I would always consider myself a superfan, first cheering on Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins through their amazing cup runs in the early 70’s, then transitioned onto The Edmonton Oilers in the 80’s for their run of 5 cups that might never be matched by the franchise, too many teams and travel now to dominate like that ever again.

With every opportunity I would always take in games and it turned into a passion not only going to the games but also collecting various memorabilia from my favorite players.  I have pins, pictures, clocks, garbage cans and multiple hats.  I have stopped purchasing this sort of thing as I have run out of room.

#Hockey Road Trip

The trips have been amazing the fans in the buildings that I have traveled to have all been so very friendly you kind of hope that their teams can win someday as well.  

Most expensive by far would be Toronto, a Hot Dog and a Beer upwards of $30.00 but the atmosphere is incredible.   If you go to Buffalo stop into Ed’s and have some wings, delicious and they are even better the next day.  Vancouver very trendy crowd and I couldn’t believe how loud the crowd was compared to the Oilers games.  And finally, Las Vegas what an amazing trip got to enjoy the game in my shorts that was always a dream.   The overall crowd in Vegas is second to none they stand for most of the game, not aware of the rules, but for the most part provide great entertainment in the building it is a show.

But my heart belongs to one team the Edmonton Oilers, I have been a superfan of the team for many years now and sometimes I feel that I care more about the team than they care about me.  The decade of darkness was a tough one and the team has only made the playoffs like once in the last 15 years.

That is why when the playoffs arrived at Rogers Place in 2017 the Fans went crazy, I was able to score a couple of tickets on the bar rail for $450.00 per seat, playoff fever was in the air.

Then Perry held onto Talbots Pad and the rest is history what could have been a spot in the West Final was over.   

Here’s to hoping that someday the Oilers will win the cup, you must keep on believing right.

#Nail Yakupov

Favorite players, it is a big day when you can connect with certain players, some of my favorites include Bobby Orr, Gretzky, and probably a couple of surprises for you Nail Yakupov & Ryan Smyth.

Nail had the great slide down the ice after an overtime win over the Kings in his rookie season, that big smile and enthusiasm really had me hooked.   As a matter of fact, made a special trip in to watch him play his last season in the NHL in Edmonton when he was playing for the Avs, let’s face it after having Eakins for a coach he was never the same.

And then of course Ryan Smyth, we were lucky to be at Ryan’s send off retirement game in at Rexall Place.  The ovation for Ryan went on for probably 30-40 minutes after the game.  I know they say his jersey will never be retired, but that is a tough one heart and soul and he really connected with the community, possibly someday they will honor him in some way.

Other favorites include Derek Sanderson, from the Boston Bruins he was one of the Bruins who would smoke cigarettes all the time, it was just a different league back then, the players weren’t making the big money that they do now.

If you are a superfan you must get out to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and do the tour, get into the Broadcast booth and do play by play check out all the greats.  As well it is a great chance to see all the major trophies.

#The Stanley Cup

The one thing that is the most challenging for most fans to get their heads around is that only one team wins the Stanley Cup every year which means there is 30 losers.

Other fans can really be nasty when you team is losing, I am sure I have heard every Oilers joke under the sun.

If you a believer and a superfan you must keep the faith because one day your team will win it all heck look at the St Louis Blues winning it maybe there is hope for the Leaf’s after all.

It can get frustrating, but can you imagine how sweet it will be when your team wins!! 

It’s going to be magical.

I can’t wait to feel that who knows maybe I will this coming season.  

Keep on believing maybe we can carry Stanley home this year.