Monthly Archives: October 2021

Halloween Costumes I Dressed as Through The Years

Uncategorized, , ,

Growing up in Canada we were for sure a family that celebrated Halloween. Which would come to no surprise to many I am sure. As a child There was basically only one reason why we loved Halloween. Which may seem super obvious, CANDY! We wanted to get the most candy in the least amount of time possible. We had backpacks, pillow cases, when my dad would come around with us we had a wagon we would bring to put the over flow on in bags also. But that is only the big part of Halloween. The other part was also when you were to decide what you were going to wear! Would it be something scary, funny, weird, or a character from a movie or video game. Who knew!

The longest running costume that I would dress up as growing up was a Witch. For whatever reason I was a witch nearly 5 years straight if not more. I wore the same dress just black. I had a wig sometimes and sometimes I didn’t. I also had green paint that would be put on my face also too. I am not sure why I was always wanting to be this for Halloween but I did though. Maybe it had to do with the fact that i was fascinated with magic and the though of there being that in the world made me gravitate towards a witch as a costume. Maybe it was because my Mom’s first daughter was a witch for a few years before she passed away also. I am not entirely sure but I loved being a witch. I also had a bit of a sassy attitude so I think this suited me for sure when it came down to it.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

My mom also had bade us costumes as well. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up in the sense that we never bought new costumes every single year. We never spend 50 plus dollars on costumes to wear for 5 hours, if that, and then grow out of them. Some costumes that my mom made was a bunny before. She was really good with a sewing machine so she would try to make things based on patterns that she may have had in her box of them. She also made a candy cane one year which was hilarious. She used fabric and stuffed the hook part to make it stand up and it had a swirl just like the ones you see on a Christmas tree.

Another costume that I was sometimes was an angel. This was one that she had made just by sewing a sheet together into a dress and finding a gold belt from a local hand me down store. As for the wings I think I either bought those from the dollar store or she made them also with material. Fort he halo she used pipe cleaners gold ones that sparkled and a regular headband. That way it was easy and it would stay in place on my head.

As I got older into teenage years I wanted to be silly things. There was one year I went as a ghost. And yes, it was literally just a white sheet over my head that I pinned for my arms and I wore a scarf around my neck to hold the sheet in place. I just cut eye holes out of the head part and that was all. It was so simple but everyone thought it was so funny at the same time. Then I would start to get masks from the dollar store or Walmart as I became older and older. I would just wear a mask with a hoodie and go door to door like that.

I think I was even a baby one year also. You know pig tails or weird hair, with a soother and then pajamas also too. Being Halloween in Canada you had to prepare for the possibility you may need to wear a jacket underneath your costume because it would be freeing without it.

As for my siblings, They did basically the same things, My brother was a vampire for a very long time. My mom made him a cape and then he had a mask he would wear that was stuffed and super soft too. My sister would be a bunny for many years and then switch to also be a baby too. And at times my brother would be a clown. If I could find some I would post some photos of what we would be. Including the photos of tears because you know we would be crying as my mom would put makeup on our faces and she wasn’t doing it the way we wanted to. Which was typical i suppose when it came to costumes and kids.

There was also some Halloweens that we choose to be different things. Sometimes we had Halloween costume days for when we were in bowling, other times we had parties for Guides, and then we would have the dress up day at school also too. There was a lot of things that we could dress up for not just Halloween night that we could mix and match different ideas and be a few things in one year. However, I still believe if i remember correctly I would be a witch for the entire thing and I would try to just change how I looked like maybe a different color makeup or a different wig or something too.

Overall, I think with my children I will probably try to do the same things as they grow up also. I don’t understand the point of spending so much money on a costume for a few hours. that being said, There is no way I wont be snagging a sweet deal on a costume if I see it though!

Did you celebrate Halloween as a child

What was your favorite costume to dress up as too

Let me know below! Maybe we liked the same things!

We drove 14 hours with a 15 month old! (Conclusion)

Parenting, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I can’t believe how late I am on this but for the record, WE MADE IT! I want to say I think ti went easier than I thought it would but I like to think that I planned a lot of things really good so that we were prepared for nearly any scenario that was possible. You can read all about the prep work we had done before the trip here and it will give you the base of where we were coming from and the goals we had set up!

We left at about 5am from my Uncle’s home. This was about 35 minutes from our home but we wanted to leave early so that we arrived semi decent time. Remember that Nova Scotia is an hour ahead of Quebec so we wanted to plan it so we were not driving in the night time (Which we made it so we arrived on time!). We also had everything out of the bedroom that needed to be packed in the morning in the hall and not in the bedroom so that way we could load the car up in order to let my son sleep a little bit longer before putting him in the car. While my boyfriend had started to pack the car I gathered out things and prepped the little cooler and things like the thermos we had for my son also too. This was the oatmeal and chicken soup for lunch so that we were able to not think so much about his foods. Once everything was set up the last thing we did was got my son up so that way he could go into the car seat. He also did not fall asleep again in it for a while.

As far as structure for naps, that was basically out the window. We aimed to stop every 2-3 hours to stretch out legs and let my dog out for a pee. The cat stayed in his carrier and was completely fine the entire time just as he was when we moved the 1st time to Quebec. The dog surprisingly never threw up which was honestly a blessing.

We would also stop more frequently to change out son’s diaper, stretch legs and have the dog out also. This was a great way to take a few moments for a snack or meal, or even a great time for us to reflect on how the drive was going. For the amount of time we did stop I think we also made good time. The weather was great everywhere, no rain. Some spots were a bit warmer than others but it was still great none the less in terms of weather, though we also had air conditioning in the car.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

The only time that my son was really fussy I would say was once we arrived into Nova Scotia. About the last 2 hours it became a bit difficult for him because he had been sitting all day, things were getting boring, he had barely any sleep except for cat naps along the way, and as anyone especially a child would be, he probably wanted to be running around! He never really cried that much he just kind of whined. At this point I just reached around behind the seat and held/placed the tablet so that he could see blues clues and watched some of that for the remaining of the time. Which seemed to have helped. We did have a few new toys to give but at this point he was not interested in them and just wanted to kind of hang out I think and watch something. Once we arrived to my parents to grab the keys in order to go to our new home and isolate, he was beyond the point of no return. The dog was crying for my parents when he seen them through the door of the car so he was crying, my parents were saying hello to their newest grandson for the first time which he was now crying immensely from being tired and new people. So we obviously cut this short and took the keys and went.

My biggest surprise as far as toys I had gotten for him was the pop toys. You know the ones people use for anxiety or to keep their hands busy with things, I had no idea how these would work with my toddler and he loved them. He would sit and pop them for way longer than I thought that he would. And the mess they made was so minimal that I was very happy with the purchase. I may even buy a few more for his Christmas stocking as well since that seems like a toy he would enjoy!

Overall I think everything went as best as it could go. My boyfriend had stated he would probably do it in 2 days and stay over night somewhere, I disagreed. For the 14 hours plus the stops and him only fussing near the end track, I think it was a lot better. Not to mention one whole day in a vehicle as apposed to 2 days in one seemed to be the way to go. It was easier to just get it done and over with and be done than it would be to split the drive up in 2 days. I was super shocked at how well my son did, I can say I did not give him enough credit for the drive before hand. Maybe because with Covid and everything we never really traveled that far of a distance or even anything remotely long before. I am just glad that everything is over and we are sitting comfortably in our new home (After the long wait for our things which you can read here)

Have you traveled anywhere with a toddler before

What did you think helped to make the drive more bearable or things you wish you had thought of

let me know in the comments below!



Why you should diversify your content

Uncategorized, , ,

Before even beginning, you may be familiar with the good ol saying “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”. This is a saying I personally have heard growing up for a very very long time. This basically is just saying that when it comes to things you should not be putting all hopes and dreams into one avenue in case something were to happen.

I think as far as content creation goes this is one of the major reasons and life lessons anyone should learn. Just as life goes, you have a job interview. Quit your current job. And wait to hear back on this ambitions offer only to find out that you never got the job and you are now jobless.

Content creation is never a guaranteed source of income. You can have months where you are eating truffles and steaks, and other months where you are rationing out ramen for the week so you don’t completely starve. Content creation as easy as some influencers make it look, is not an easy job to have nor is anything guaranteed. You maybe a one game streamer where you found your community and suddenly that game shuts down or you have completely lost interest and you find yourself with nothing to play.

This very much carries over for putting all of your content on one platform. Anyone see the major issues with Twitch for example? Twitch is a platform that regularly takes 50% of the earnings that a streamer has. Whether that be subscribers or the tax they charge on their bits for donations. Putting all of your eggs in one basket can be extremely harmful.  Even working in the world what type of company takes 50% of your earnings for themselves. Not to mention this does not factor into the taxes you also have to pay on top of this making your earnings even less.

The best thing you can do is diversify your content. What does this mean? This means stop putting your eggs in one basket! If you for example, stream on twitch, look into putting content else where also. Especially financially. Whether this means striving for YouTube partner, putting some content on a Fanhouse account. Creating a Patreon where you can reward people for different financial tiers. Regardless of which platform you want to bring more content to, an important factor to look at is what percent they take from you. Look at the type of content that you have and whether it is a match for the site. Another important factor worth looking at when choosing a site would be to look at how user friendly the website is. If you have to click 30 things in order to subscribe that may not be the most ideal website to introduce to your supporters.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

What I am doing in this is recently I have made the decision to drop streaming down to 2 days per week. While I do enjoy streaming I find myself slacking and cancelling streams. I want to be regular but while streaming is a very small portion of my income (Maybe 20$ per month, if that) putting time into it when I know I have other skill sets that could better be spent and bring in more income besides playing video games. Plus by dropping 2 days per week I can always stream more if I wanted to.

Another thing I am thinking about doing is taking from the fall of this year til the end of the year and building up some stock to be able to finally launch a crafting and homemade business. I think if I have some stock built up and planning some little giveaways it could be a great way for me to be able to grow my different crafting pages for more potential clients. I have been sewing more and little magnets which will be a start for me by using scraps of my plastic canvas. I have also thought about prints and paintings, as well as stickers and things also too. I am looking forward to this launch and while my newborn sleeps I can also sew while watching some TV and what not as well too which is good to know also. I am trying to think of things that do not require a large area and I am able to do while my oldest sleeps.

I have thought about Patreon however I am not entirely sure how I would do this to be able to make a profit. I will be working on the details as my business grows because it does take a while to be able to figure out costs and things also too. Sitting down and figuring out different things for the prices will come in time.

And finally, this blog! I feel like I am doing okay with the blog and finding who I am while writing and sharing myself with you all. My next step is to monetize things for this. Whether that be different links, pushing different aspects of it, but I do feel like there is a lot for me to learn. I need to focus more on optimizing this and making it better which also includes I think going back to blogs I first started with and re-vamping them in the process too. I also have thought about writing 3x per week in 2022 as well too which will be a bit tougher but I have faith that I can do this if I really put my mind to it and I plan things and blogs. Obviously as you can tell sometimes I do in fact struggle with this blog because life does happen! The growth I have seen in the past year has been great and I cannot wait to see how the end of the year finishes off also too.

Do you post content on more than one platform?

What makes you diverse in producing content too?

Let me know in the comments below, maybe you are doing something others are not sure about!

Vaccine passports, Why they are good

Opinion, , , , , , ,

This is going to be a very controversial blog post. I know there is going to be a lot of people that share how I feel. I also know that there is going to be a lot of people that do not share this opinion also.  And that is alright. This is my personal opinion.

Recently, many countries around the world as well as provinces in Canada have adapted a mandatory vaccine passport. For people who do not know what this is, this is a system whether be paper, electronic or whatever that you show different places in order to get in. This is not for essential services but it is for places of recreation or luxury. Some of these places include dining in a restaurant (Curb side or take out you are not required), using a gym facility, a concert or a hockey game, and things of that nature. Basically places you do not need to live.

So where is the controversy? A lot of people who are apposed to the vaccine passport are claiming that this is infringing on their rights as a Canadian. Saying this country is free and with the mandate it is being compared to “Nazi Germany” (Not a term I agree with on any level. Then you have people who are unsure whether or not to get the vaccine because Bob from high school who failed 3/4ths of his classes before he dropped out has been posting some pretty scientific information regarding the vaccine *Wink wink* and why you should not trust scientists or government officials.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Then you have me. I, like many other Canadians in many other provinces with these mandates, support the use of a vaccine passport. I would like to state, for the record I am 31 years old. When I was 18/20 and taking the Human Services field for college I had to prove that I was up to date on vaccines. Such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, etc. The use of a vaccine passport is NOT new by any means. The difference is we now have the backyard professionals doing Facebook research trying to spread lies and conspiracies around which we know how information, whether true or false, spreads on the internet.

The big thing happening with vaccine passports, at least in Nova Scotia is that in order to do your normal recreational or luxury activities you must have a proof of vaccine for your 1st and 2nd shots for covid-19. That being said. Doctors, or grocery stores, or certain things that are deemed essential are not included in this list. Not even shopping is on that list. The things on the list requiring proof would be concerts, hockey games, bowling, activities for children (Parents who are unvaxxed are unable to take children to these places since children unable to get vaccinated follow their parents status), or sitting down in a restaurant but you can get take out if you wish. The people who are freaking out about this are the ones who are not thinking about the greater good of humanity or society but looking out for themselves. No one is being forced to get vaccinated. If they want to choose not to these are some consequences. Just as many many things in life also have based on decisions.

For me. I agree with this 110%. I think if you look at some of the excuses that people say why they wont get the vaccine some are cop out answers. I personally have a family member who will not get it. These are the excuses for why they will not. “The vaccine is only approved under the emergency order in Canada. It is not authorized” which now it is. Another is “we do not know the side effects because it has been around for only a year and you need 3 years in order to know side effects at the minimum”. Sure, but the type of vaccine that the covid shot is classified as has been around for many many years and is not new. Another reason when I stated they would not be able to go to the gym or they would not be able to enjoy their bi weekly dinner dates eating in a restaurant their response was “I have a treadmill at home so I don’t need the gym, and we are able to get take out so we wont need to eat in.” They also added that “This wont be forever it will only be for a few weeks”.  Anything that I had said was met with data from 6 plus months ago. And the fact is, when it comes to anti covid vaccine people I do t think any information could change their mines because anything you say with proving information simply is met with outdated or plain false data from the weirdest websites out there.

I think the passport will persuade people who are on the fence to get the vaccine also. And even though yes, you can still get covid even being fully vaccinated, the chance of being hospitalized is drastically decreased and your chance of spreading does decrease, even if it does not 100% prevent the spread. There is so many benefits that outweigh the few side effects or few flaws. For me, I was hesitant because being pregnant we wanted to wait til further into pregnancy. I got both vaccines towards the end of the 2nd trimester and the beginning of the 3rd trimester. Because I also needed to get a whopping cough vaccine I had to make sure that I planned and  timed it right. As for my spouse, being a father of a young toddler and a newborn in a few months, it was a no brainer for him to want to protect us because he is the sole income in the family and has to be out in the world more than we do. Does that mean we live in fear? No. But we will be doing everything we can to protect our family, even if that includes cutting out family members temporarily til they follow science and not Joe Blow from the corner store.

What do you think about vaccine passports?

Is there a vaccine mandate where you live?

Let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear your stories!

Pregnancy 34 week update – Nearly THERE!

Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Firstly, I am SORRY for not updating you all since the half way point, Holy smokes. It really has been that long and I have no idea how time flew by but here we are. I will try to cover as much as possible with out making this boring for you since we are nearing the end of my 2nd pregnancy and it feels insane to think that in however many weeks I will have another little fella in my lap!

During this time we had a second ultrasound which was at 31 weeks. Again, it was great because my boyfriend was able to come along and my dad watched my son til my mom was home from work. it is nice to be able to have family here to be able to help out if need be. Everything at the ultrasound went great. The technician even got us a photo with the 3D technology and we could kind of see his face! I know it sounds craZy and it was! But we are very excited as time inches closer. I will say this, that ultrasound did freak me out a little bit. My son when he was born weighed 6lbs and 12 oZ. This boy, he was measuring 2.5 weeks ahead in growth AND he was currently weighing according to the ultrasound 4lb and 14oZ. So as you can see this is quite the siZe difference from my first son to my second son! I am hoping that he comes early but any time after 36 weeks would be ideal obviously. I will be doing all the little tricks that probably do absolutely nothing just to hope he comes quicker. Like drinking raspberry leaf tea, or sitting on a yoga ball to help him really get into position!

As for how I feel, I would say that I am feeling pretty good though! I feel like sleeping at night is for sure becoming a lost art though with the amount of times I have to get up during the night for varies reasons especially heart burn. Which I am currently on medication for among taking tums here and there. I still find myself waking for varies reasons even if it is just the bathroom or sleeping to long on one of my sides compared to the other side. My body is for sure aching more as it stretches to the max and I am trying to take baths frequently in the evenings to help curb that also too. Overall I have also been trying not to nap in the afternoon because I am enjoying the time my son sleeps as my personal me-time whether that mean I am sewing or getting a bit of gaming in while he naps. Though normally I do have a bit of regret about not sleeping when he naps because towards the end of the day I find myself dragging my butt in the process.

Other than that I feel like I am anxiously awaiting for this little fella to be born. I feel like with my son the last few weeks didn’t really pass quickly but I didn’t think they passed slow either. With this little guy I am anxiously awaiting for him to arrive, again not before 36 weeks but still any time after that would be great due to the fact he was measuring so far ahead. The crunch time to try and get everything ready for him in the process is just that, a process but I feel like I am on a good pace to have everything done and ready for him. I did however have to purchase myself some new pants since the ones I had were getting holes in the thighs as well as it is getting colder and all I had was basically shorts! I will be taking more about the details of prepping for our new baby here once the blog post goes life in a little bit, so keep the eye out for that as well!

One thing I have noticed with this pregnancy is that I look and feel rounder. I know strange but apparently with more pregnancy’s you will grow a bit more in the process since you are already stretched so much as it is from the 1st. I also find myself really trying to focus more on weight loss. Obviously this is a bit away after I am all healed up but I am thinking about how I want to really try to get under what i was pre-pregnancy as far as weight goes and try my best to become a lighter version of me. I feel like I didn’t really over indulge this pregnancy like I did with my son and that is not a bad thing by any means, I just would like to really try to become a better me where I can chase around these two boys in the future and not be winded in the process which is not a good time!

Overall I am really looking forward to the little things. I asked my partner if he was nervous, more or less this time than last and he said he was less nervous because we had already done this before. I said that I was getting nervous and anxious about that as well. I am going into the mind set that I am not trying to be a hero, if I need an epidural than I need one. But I wont be trying to hold out because I never needed one the 1st time. I don’t want to be in agony and pain the entire time to prove a point to no one. I would be lying if the ultrasound measurements didn’t freak me out also since this little one seems to be a lot bigger than his brother was! Though measurements can be off to some extent also that is known to happen too.

Were you still just as nervous the second time you or a loved one was pregnant
How were you feeling towards the end too

Let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear anyone`s thoughts

October Update 2021

Life, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welp here we are! I am a few days late but that is totally okay by me. This have been hectic to say the least however let’s break it down for the month in review!

Streaming is yet again, om the back burner for me. With everything I have legit no desire to be sitting in front of the computer. The computer chair that I have is also not very comfortable so sitting there even for a little bit starts to hurt my back just as it did with my 1st pregnancy.  I think going forward I would drop streams to 2x per week. On Mondays and Friday’s. If I want to do more the option is always there and if I don’t want to do more than I don’t need to. I still love streaming don’t get me wrong, but I want to spend my time doing productive things that can begin to make money for my family. Not to mention, I have really not been into playing dead by daylight like I once was. The game has gotten stake for me and I have nearly no desire to play it. I am still on the fence with content if I want to just play solo games or if i would like to start doing more crafting/just chatting streams into the mix also. Adding crafting into the mix would mean that I am able to do more in terms of potentially making money for my family. I’m not stressing over it as we wait for the birth of our second child but all are ideas that I am having do cross my mind! With that being said I also would like to revamp my discord server. While healing from this pregnancy that may be the only thing I try to regularly use. I want to bring back a simplistic and society/community based theme to bring people together. Streaming for little to no financial reward is challenging at best. Especially when I feel like I do have skills that I could be using to better financially support myself and bring in a few dollars to the house. I miss being able to work and have a pay check but I also love staying at home as a mom. I just need to think creatively and figure out a way to make it happen!

If you also haven’t noticed, since the move I have been majorly slacking on the blog too. Why? I have no idea. I normally do really well with writing and pre-writing things out so I can get things written efficiently. I have not done that. I need to though because I would really like to make sure that I can get things going for when our second son is born that they can be scheduled and just consistent. Just like before when I did this with my 1st pregnancy, only last time I wrote strictly about streaming and now I barely even touch on that unless it is my monthly updates! I will really be trying to hammer down on building another handful of  logs to schedule while writing about subjects that also come up in life too. I think in 2022 I will be attempting to do blogs 3x per week. I feel like I also need to research a lot more about SEO and how I can better make my blogs seen by people too!

And lastly, our home update! Everything upstairs is basically painted! A few walls in the new babies room need to be done, and then after the front entry if the house needs to be done but that is for now. Oh and the floors in the bedrooms also need to be done but the main hallway, dining area and living room floors are done which is huge! And the kitchen and bathroom and front entry floors also need to be done. And the baseboards because the ones with the carpet were all different and we want them to be the same (Obviously!). Downstairs will have to wait til the time comes when we use it more. I also feel a bit of a rush with the due date approaching to get everything ready and prepared for the birth! I am so happy with the house turning out to be ours. It is crazy to think how it was and where it has gone with us updating things. Just getting rid of the carpet in the main living areas has been such a huge change!

As you can see things have been happening here in my life, I just have not been able to find times update people on it though! I am enjoying the last bits of peace and quiet til we have our new sin with us into the world. Update in that also coming soon too! As the time approaches where we will have him I have an increase in anxiety and increase in nervousness. I think that is okay natural though. Thankfully I have been keeping use with crafting and planning and sewing to prep for the new year. Sometimes one of the hardest things for me is the fact I have so many ideas and not enough time in the run of a day to finish everything! Even an extra hour the day would be great. Let’s not forget too, as this baby is growing so is the need to run to the washroom every 2 hours at night which is drastically cutting into my sleep schedule! And on top of that while my son naps I have been, more often than not also napping too! Even an hour seem to help me feel a little bit caught up!

Here is to hoping that I can get back on track and make things happen more and more in prep for the year coming up!

How has things been going in your life?

Did you have a great summer? How has fall even treating you also?

Let me know in the comments below!