Travel and DIY Facial Products

Wow it's been ages since I've written here. I am still blogging on Wordpress but miss the crowd here sometimes and thought I'd post a few things in case anyone was intereted :)

I've been really busy at work, holding the fort while my boss is gone this month. He did my paperwork for my pay last week and told me I had an extra 30 hours for two weeks! I am still on a healthy government salary till the end of the month till I go back to my temp wages so in terms of money this month and all the hours, I will technically get an extra paycheck! With this salary it really works out great so I'm pretty happy about this. This extra money comes right in time for my vacation in a few weeks.

Speaking of travel, I have booked 4 plane tickets in the past two weeks. Two for our upcoming trip (Belgium, Holland and Czech Rebublic) , seeing Depeche Mode in Florida in September and my 40th birthday trip to San Francisco in February. I got cheap tickets to all of these destinations and have become very good at finding them. The key is to sign up to all of those sites where they send you weekly travel deals, as well as airline websites. My 40th is in February and didn't plan on purchasing tickets so soon but then I found a deal that was impossible to pass up. If you are going overseas, there are dozens of no frills airlines which offer discounts. Our trip from Holland to Prague (about a 2 hour trip) is costing us 68euros return for two tickets! If you do your research, you can get such good deals. I also discovered that airport taxes here in Canada are ridiculous, so if I am flying somewhere in the US, I make sure I don't make a stopover in another Canadian city. If the stopover is in the US, the ticket will cost me less...sad but true. I know I travel alot but this is where I spend my money. Some people buy stuff, fancy foods, dinners, have a few cars but if I have extra money it goes towards a train/plane or bus ticket. I was often called a gypsy before I settled into one city for awhile. I just love to move around. :) If it's too expensive for you to fly somewhere, get a rideshare to a neighbouring town or perhaps a bus and look up some people to stay with on couchsurfing.com. Getting away doesn't have to mean getting on a plane, even just a change of scenery is good! Also try hostelworld.com for cheap accommodations worldwide. No one is ever too old to stay in hostels or fun budget hotels. :)

I also recently started making all my own facial products (toner, cleanser and anti wrinkle cream). I have been using them all for about 2 weeks ago (in the morning only) and am shocked as to how my skin looks. I have always had pretty good young looking skin but I no longer wanted to spend $28 on a jar of Avon cream. I was a little worried as to how things were going to go after I stopped with the Avon but am pleasantly surprised. I decided to sell a facial kit in my Etsy.com shop for $8.50 as I wanted to share and be able to offer this to those like me who want nice skin but not want to spend the money on it.

We had a month of rain/clouds which just ended two days ago. Unfortunately due to the bad wet weather, I didn't plant my garden which means no harvest this year. I am really sad about this. It's been a huge problem for some farmers as well. I still had my strawberries and rhubarb which I made jam from, and my raspberries which should be ready in two weeks. This will give me enough jam for presents!

I've also been hosting a bunch of couchsurfers which has been very rewarding, as usual. Some of you already know that I am on couchsurfing.com and have people stay free at my house year round. I met a wonderful med student from Taiwan who gave me some lovely treats from Taipei, a charm which is often used for the dragon boat festivals and somat as he is having the good chinese medicine advice! The beautiful thing about hosting travellers is being able to learn so many things from different countries and also enjoy some good company and of course a free place to stay if I visit their city/country.

Since we're going away for 2 weeks and no longer have friends in town who can house and cat sit, I had to figure out a way to get someone to do this. Since I can't really pay to have someone come in once a day, I decided to join a housesitting network. A lot of people form aorund the world do this when they retire, just go around the world and housesit for people for free. This gives them a place to travel and a free place to stay. I also didn't want to board my 14 year old cat as he has trouble walking and needs care. He is in good spirits but is physically a little challenged. Long story short, i will meet the couple who will housesit for us for free. They live in New Zealand but are here now visiting family for 3 months. I am very excited that my cats will be cared for and the house will have people in it which will prevent the house from being broken into. A win win situation. Try housecarers.com if you are looking for anyone

That's about it for now. Till the next post! Hope everyone is having a good summer. Below is a photo of one of the places I will be going in August. Looking forward to visiting the oldest Jewish Cemetary in the world, largest castle in the world and Kafka's gravesite. Very cool.

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Charles Bridge in Prague

Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic