a peek inside the fishbowl

Did you know that if you put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave something really cool will happen?

I started shooting this about 30 seconds after pressing the start button … but you’ll get the picture:

This was a really cool science experiment. You have to try it! You can get the instructions over at CanadianFamily.ca.

FYI: The most recent updates are at the bottom of this post.

How many times have you climbed into your car and thought: IT FEELS LIKE AN OVEN IN HERE? Our car is parked outside in full sun, and this is something that runs through my mind every day.

Last summer we fried an egg on the driveway, and this summer I thought it’d be neat to bake cookies in the car. You know, to see if our car really IS an oven.

I didn’t want to waste precious eggs, flour and butter on this experiment so yesterday we dropped by Bulk Barn to buy a just-add-water cookie mix. This morning I made drop cookies on a single non-stick cookie sheet.

7:58 a.m. – I’m already thinking this experiment would have had better odds of success if I’d chilled the dough and rolled it out to make thinner cookies. But we’re going with something close to drop cookies here instead:

Read the rest of this entry »

This giveaway is hosted by Fishbowl Patron, Ten Thousand Villages. Yay!

You know what I love about Ten Thousand Villages? They are continually looking for new ways to support producers, their families and communities in developing countries AND they have turned the act of shopping into something that is helpful and useful, instead of being all about consuming.

Take for example, their Give Opportunity campaigns. It’s a unique way to support projects their producers above and beyond the normal practices of Fair Trade. The Give campaign started with journal sets, of which over 280 have sold across the country, providing hundreds of students with school bags.

They now have a Give campaign around three beautiful bags. The style pictured below is the one that’s part of today’s giveaway. Isn’t it gorgeous? Classy AND practical.

Light & Shadow Shoulder Bag
Black and white. Sun and shade. A bag for adventures and quiet times. This fabulous summer bag is perfect for summer days.

$10 out of every purchase of this bag will help to buy school uniforms, backpacks and stationary for students in Bagladesh through the Saidpur School Program.

It bears repeating: if you buy this bag, it will help others who are less fortunate.

You can read more about the bags and the education program it will support at the Ten Thousand Villages Ottawa blog.

ANYWAY. Yes. This giveaway is for one of the Light & Shadow shoulder bags pictured above. (Retail value $70.)

Interested? Please read the next part carefully:

• This giveaway is open to anyone residing in the Ottawa area but is void in Quebec. (Sorry friends, here’s why.)
• In order for your entry to qualify, please take a moment to do some window shopping around the Ten Thousand Villages online catalogue and use the comments field below to tell us what catches your fancy! (This is just me being nosy.)
• Please note that the bag must be picked up at one of the two Ottawa-area Ten Thousand Villages stores in a timely fashion. There’s one in the Glebe and one in Westboro.
• If you can’t post your comment because you’re behind a firewall at work (or whatever), you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com (Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder!)
• One entry per person please! We want lots of people to have the opportunity to win.
• Good karma goes to those who tweet or post about this on your blog or Facebook. Seriously.

That’s it! I will do a random draw of qualifying comments using Random.org at noon EST on Friday July 20, 2012. I hope the winner will tell everyone she knows where she got her great new bag, because more people should know about this fantastic program.

Thank you Ten Thousand Villages, for the great work you do!

Good luck everyone!