March Break is upon us!  What are your plans? Are you staycationing or headed somewhere WARM?  Lounging on the beach somewhere tropical sounds blissful right now! It comes to no surprise that many Canadians are getting ready to head out on their March Break getaways. Did you know that 1 in 4 Canadians plan to escape winter by vacationing down south? Lucky for us, TELUS knows how important it is to stay connected with family back home while traveling. TELUS has a great post on their top 10 tips f […]

Whether you’re a locavore, ultimate foodie, or just hankering for  some good ‘ol home cookin’, there’s something on Manitoulin Island for everyone. What I love about living on Manitoulin Island is that I know where my food comes from.  We grow our own fruits and vegetables on our farm, our beef comes from our farm, our chicken and eggs are from local farmers, my Dad catches fish from the nearby freshwater lakes, and other wild meat are caught locally (venison, goose, etc) […]

I don’t know about you, but this Winter has been brutal on my skin.  I normally get dry skin in the Winter, but for some reason, this year has been especially hard on my hands (and feet)!  I try to keep moisturized, and I make sure to drink lots of water to keep hydrated, but to  no avail.  My hands have been so awful! My skin is dry, chapped, chaffed and not silky smooth like I’m accustomed to.   I was recently sent some of The Body Shop‘s Hemp Hand Protector.  The Hemp Hand P […]

This past month was a challenging one.  My family and I took on the Family Financial Challenge and took a very close look at our spending habits and made a concentrated effort at saving more.  After reading Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s “Money Rules”, I learned a lot about my family’s spending habits. If you’re interested in saving or improving your family’s spending habits,  I’d highly recommend reading Gail’s book.  You’ll definitely find tips that are easy to put into practice.  I […]

Something happened recently that caused me to panic.  Perhaps panic is not the best choice of words. It was more like “wake up”. That’s it. Something happened that caused me to wake up. I was under the weather, and Little One was keeping herself busy after school. My five year old was doing her homework on her own because I was “preoccupied” ahem…clinging to the porcelaine throne for dear life. When I returned from the loo, Little One was acting a little aloof […]

The following post is a guest post by writer and filmmaker, Beth Richards. Four years ago I was fitter than I’ve been since I was in my twenties, and felt great. Then stresses mounted on top of other stresses, loved ones died unexpectedly, my marriage broke up, I moved a couple of times, and as with many women – stress packed on the pounds: ten pounds per year to be exact. (Here’s an admission…you can tell I’m having trouble accepting “the new me” because my photos on line are the ol […]

It’s that time of the year again! I’m not sure about you, but I’m on a mission to purge all unneeded items in this house! I’m making piles for “keep”, “give away”, “sell” and just “get rid of”!  This includes household items like clothing, old toys, shoes, etc. Attempting to go “zen”, but we’ll see what happens!   Are you ready for some Spring cleaning? Let Mabel’s Labels help you get organized! […]

I grew up in a time when kids dressed up as their favourite Marvel superheroes.  It was a time when we thought we were superheroes! My brother and I even had superhero underoos!  My brother would probably not appreciate me posting a pic of us in our superhero underoos! I loved my Wonder Woman underoos! My brother had Spiderman underoos!  Ahhh! Nostalgia! Seriously, what kid in our vintage didn’t love pretending to be Batman or Superman? Fighting crime and saving the world were part of our […]

Bread.  Ah, bread!  It’s something my husband cannot live without.  Being a farm boy, he grew up with bread served at every meal.  Every day of the week.  My mother-in-law used to bake ten loaves of bread each week and the family would pretty much eat a loaf a meal! If you think of it, bread has been an important food for farming families. It fills them up and it’s also very portable!  When your out on the field on your tractor, you don’t always have time to come in for a meal.  Hubby says he re […]

There once lived a humble beef farmer whose family lived a simple life.  They were frugal, but happy and no matter how challenging things got on the farm, they always had a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and love in their hearts. The beef farmer’s wife and child loved their soups and veggies, but the beef farmer was a meat and potatoes man. What better marriage than beets coupled with beef? The beef farmer ended up loving his borscht. The wee one did too. The wee one loved her sour […]