I carry a bottle of their fabulous lotion in every bag I own, and keep one in every bathroom & bedroom in my house. It’s not at all greasy but is awesomely moisturizing. Made of only four ingredients (plus essential oils and/or fragrances) it’s one of the only things in my bathroom that I’m not afraid for my babies to get ahold of & chew on.

Callous Balm was my first love from It’s a Family Affair. My heels have never looked better than they have since I started using Callous Balm regularly. Even my pedicurist noticed and commented that I must have just come for the massage because my heels sure didn’t need her. I’ve moved on to the Peppermint Foot Scrub and Foot Mousse for regular foot days and now I save the callous balm for post-pedicure feet (they’ll stay that way for what seems like forever!).

If you’re looking to relax in the tub, the Fizzing Bath Salts are fabulous. Pumpkin lavender is a beautiful combination – far nicer than it sounds.

If you’re looking for some great Christmas gifts for the hard to buy for, stocking stuffers for the kids, something special for a new mama or just a little treat to pamper yourself, be sure to check out all Canadian It’s a Family Affair. (At this time their products are only available in Canada.)

Written by Nicole, who blogs about whatever strikes her fancy at Much More Than a Mom. She’s a mom first, and then a whole bunch of other crazy stuff, including a teacher, fitness & yoga instructor and mother to two. She is also the founder & senior editor at The Opinionated Parent, where one of her favorite things to do is give great stuff away.

At my newborn daughter’s baby shower this past weekend she received some amazingly adorable and thoughtful gifts. I really do have the best friends and family. My best friend gave her a huge box stuffed full of clothes made of organic cotton. Most of them were purchased on a shopping trip to the US but a few things jumped out at me because they had Cotton Ginny “Eco-Ganic” tags on them.

Cotton Ginny is a strictly Canadian clothing retailer and they have a store in many of the crappiest little malls in Canada. Most of their clothing isn’t anything I’d wear very often. A lot of it is t-shirt material and styles that I’d call “fat-chick clothes” if I was seventeen and skinny, or “Grandma clothes” if I was thirty one and kind of a fat-chick myself. If I was more politically correct, I’d just call them casual and comfortable.

I was so pleased to see that they had launched this “Eco-Ganic” line that I’m off to the mall this week to buy some more clothing for both of my kids and maybe even myself. After all, a stay at home mom that doesn’t fit into any of her nice clothes has to have some casual and comfortable clothing to wear while she sits on the couch and eats bon bons with the kids all day, right? (Actually, I’ve been told they’ve updated their styles a lot since I was in high school and I’m sure they’re quite lovely now.)

More info can be found in this article from theGreenPages.ca from Fall 2006 when the line launched. Laurie Dubrovac, Director of Marketing and Communications for Cotton Ginny says: “The new line is doing extremely well. Our goal is to make all of our products Eco-Ganic within the next three to five years.” In March, Cotton Ginny is launching a Sustainable Signature Collection, featuring hemp clothing. I send huge props to Cotton Ginny for taking this step!

Written by Nicole, who blogs about whatever strikes her fancy at Much More Than a Mom. She’s a mom first, and then a whole bunch of other crazy stuff, including a teacher, fitness & yoga instructor and a pregnant mom of 1.5 kids. She is also the founder & senior editor at The Opinionated Parent, where one of her favorite things to do is give great stuff away.

Somehow in the confusion of moving in together, we ended up keeping his laundry baskets. Not that there was anything wrong with them, really. They just weren’t designed for the sheer volume of laundry that this particular couple needs to do. Graham’s line of work requires him to get his clothes disgustingly dirty several days each week and I’m an avid gardener with the charming habit of wiping dirty hands on her pants.

Needless to say, hauling multiple loads of laundry in and out of the house on the trek to my beloved clothesline at the back of our yard means those bachelor laundry baskets have been getting a workout. That is, until yesterday, when the cracked plastic pinched me as I carried it out to the clothesline. Being pinched on my way through the kitchen isn’t out of the ordinary in our house, if you know what I mean, but this pinch hurt and was not followed by a cat call or whistle in my general direction.

I headed out to our local Canadian Tire and picked up a couple of new laundry baskets for me to lug our heavy, wet laundry around in. No bachelor in his right mind would choose these Debbie Travis laundry baskets. (Debbie Travis is Canada’s answer to Martha Stewart.)

First of all, they’re pretty!

“Why’d you pick that colour?” Graham asked when I brought them in from the car.

Admittedly, they are a little bit girly, but it was the only colour available: a pale, pearly pistachio green, with cream, reinforced handles. The thick rim of these baskets won’t be cracking and pinching me anytime soon. And the price was right at $9.99 each.

Secondly, these baskets are deeper than most traditional plastic laundry baskets I’ve seen, measuring a full thirteen inches deep. I bought two to replace the three old ones that were falling apart, since they are much larger. The design is more modern, too. There’s a cool retro bubble pattern on all four sides, which is much more decorative than the typical boring mesh.

Guests at our home over the next few weeks might be surprised when I dream up an excuse to carry the laundry around while they’re visiting…these are just too nice to hide in the closet, unlike their “single guy” predecessors.