Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Archives for July 2007

Unique handcrafted Eco-Handbags

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ecofriendly.jpg

Do you recycle? I’ve just been exploring the website of a company that recycles in a very creative way.

Eco-Handbags.ca is Canadian company, based in Montreal, Quebec and it’s been a well received online presence since it’s beginnings in December of 2006. This online retail store sells one of a kind chic, unique and eco-fashionable handbags.

These handbags are made out of recycled and eco-friendly materials such as candy wrappers, chopsticks, 35 mm slides, movie billboards, sails, soda pop tops, bicycle inner tubes and truck tire inner tubes, record albums and cds, magazines as well as natural materials such as hemp, natural plants, denim, recycled canvas, organic cotton and many more interesting materials.

I must tell you right from the start that I absolutely adore most of the handbags. I’ve spent quite a while exploring the site and I’m impressed by the lovely and utterly creative bags that Eco-Handbags many talented designers have created.

This company believes that if everyone did their part for their environment, even something as simple as purchasing a fashionable unique handbag that’s been made out of recycled materials, that the world would be a better place. If you’ve been reading my home and gardening blog over the last week or two you know that I try to live a fairly green lifestyle so I’m quite happy to be introducing you to this wonderful company.

Visit the Eco-Handbag.ca website and you’ll find not only handbags, but also coin pouches, clutch bags, totes, purses, men’s shaving kit bag, wine bags, yoga mat bags, cosmetic bags, gym bags and just about any other type of bag that you might desire.

Enough of me telling you what you can find on the site – let me show you!

trucktirebag.jpg Just take a look at this beautiful mini evening handbag that’s been made from recycled truck inner tubes. The inner tubes used to create this bag have been collected from tire centers then cleaned in an environmentally friendly solution for three days.

The patterns on the rubber are unique to each hand bag.

Fine leather and non leather is used for the trim, Swarovski Crystals adorn the outside of the bag, and the inside is lit with an automatic light system that illuminates the interior of the bag when it’s opened.

candywrapbotero-kiwi.jpg This Botero- Kiwi handbag is made from candy wrappers. Isn’t it beautiful? I think this is my favorite design. I may end up buying this one myself.

This bag was inspired by Columbian Artist Fernando Botero.

The candy wrappers are constructed in a way that creates the attractive bubbly shape. This bag also features a zipper closure, and shiny metal handles.

art005-40.jpg This last bag, an open tote, is
made from recycled art banners. Don’t you love banner that was used for this bag?

This bag would be idea for day to day activities and because you might use it every day it’s been made with materials that can cope with seasonal changes. The banner is made of PVC, it’s trimmed in black, has a black promo lining and has an interior open pocket and cell phone pocket to help you stay organized.

You’ll notice that when you visit the site and start browsing through the various bags that the designer who made the bag is listed. Clicking on the link will take you to the artists profile page and you’ll be able to see all of their creations on that one page. Eco-Handbags.ca does this specifically to highlight and support their artisans.

All prices on the site are in Canadian funds. At this time the Canadian dollar is within a few cents of the US dollar so if you are a US citizen the price in US dollars will be very close to the one displayed on the site. I found the prices of the bags to be very reasonable. Each bag is unique, is a way for you to make a difference in the environment and is a quality handcrafted item.

Shipping throughout Canada and the US is free of charge. Purchases will be sent via the Canadian Postal Service using the Expedited, small packet air or ground service depending upon which country the parcel is being shipped. International orders should contact Eco-Handbags.ca to discuss shipping rates.

I really like this company and not just because it’s as Canadian as I am. They are really all about protecting and saving the earth. Eco-Handbags.ca is a member of 1% for the Planet. This is an alliance of small businesses that pay a voluntary earth tax and donate 1% of their sales to non-profit, non-governmental environmental organizations.

Visit Eco-Handbags.ca and take a look at their lovely handbags. I’ll bet that you’ll love them. Check out their eco-blog and eco-links while you are there too.





Monetizing our sites – trying out new affiliate programs

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Some of you have probably noticed that I’ve been working on new ways to monetize my sites over the last few weeks.

I was lucky enough to have been invited into the Blogads program recently by a blogging friend. I’d been hankering to get into that program for some time so I’m quite pleased to have been included.

I’ve actually had quite a bit of luck with advertising companies lately. They’ve been seeking me out rather than the other way around. Perhaps they know something about my sites that I don’t know?

Emily from Kontera got in touch with me about a month ago inviting me to join the Kontera program. They worked with me to develop special codes for four of my domains. I’ve only just started adding them to some of my sites so I’ve yet to see how the program fairs against others like Adsense, but I can tell you that I’ve already made a bit of money and I’ve put the code only on the smaller less visited sites so far.

Lets see, what other companies contacted me directly?

Around the same time that Emily was writing to me from Kontera so was Jeff from Tumri. I finally got around to setting up my first Apod the other day. See the nice white box with various fashion products in it in the right sidebar? That’s a Tumri Apod. No one has clicked on an ad yet though. I’ll have to wait and see how Tumri does on my sites. I’ve only put the one Apod on this site. I’ll create new Apods that totally suit my other blogs topics and try them out on those blogs soon.

I was also invited to join the COPEAC program as well. Nina got me set up, but I still haven’t used any of their ads. COPEAC has ads from a variety of advertisers. You can pick and choose exactly which ads will go on your site. You can actually chose from a number of different advertisers or ads and then use the banner or optimized rotator code to show different ads when a page refreshes. It’s quite versatile. The link that I’ve added is an affiliate link. I’d appreciate it if you’d sign up through me if you are thinking of getting into COPEAC too.

NBCsearch also happened to contact me. I’ve signed up with their program, but have yet to try it out as well. I actually haven’t quite figured out what this is. I believe it allows you to add an xml feed to your site of the search results of your choosing. If anyone else is using this program maybe you can teach me something.

I signed up with BlogKits or OfferForge as it’s now called on my own. The ads from that site are in the middle of each sidebar to the left and right of this post. I’ve had a few clicks on those ads. No income yet. This is another one I’ll have to keep an eye on to see how it does.

There’s another site that invited me to partner with them using three of my blogs. I was introduced to them from my contact at The Glam Network. (Glam is another affiliation that’s been working out beautifully for me BTW). I’ll tell you more about that new partnership once we’re ready to set it up and introduce it on my sites. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you about that deal within a week or so.

There’s also been some private advertisers that have contacted me as well. I’ve had requests from private advertisers for some time – for links but I don’t always take them up on their offers. Two recent offers caught my interest and I’m currently working with these two new advertisers with whom I’ve set up 6 month partnerships. I’ll tell you about each of them individually in future posts.

I’m pretty sure that I’ll be removing the Adbrite ads from all my sites. I only make a few cents each week with them. The only time I’ve made a significant amount of money was when one kind advertiser purchased an ad for a month. I think I’ve only made about $74 dollars in the year that I’ve worked with adbrite and I’ve yet to get an actual payment. I feel that I can do better with the other forms of advertising that I’ve already been using and the programs that I’ve just added.

I’ll keep you updated as to how these new programs are working out. Hopefully one or two if not all of them make me a little bit of extra money.

Our skylight is leaking!

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It’s been raining and raining here all day. At around 6 am it was coming down so hard I could barely see out the window. It’s rained hard on and off all day, but I believe it rained the hardest early in the morning.

At least twice today we’ve seen the skylight in our enclosed porch leak. We installed it a couple of years and it’s been very solid without any problems except one leak after a very hard rain last year.

When we had a similar rain last year that fell directly down on the skylight ( a direction the rain doesn’t normally fall in) it leaked. Chris got up on the enclosed porch roof and did a bit of work sealing up the area we though the leak came from last year and we hadn’t had another problem until today.

This makes me wonder if we’ll ever put in another skylight. Chris would really like one upstairs in the ceiling over the staircase. I agree with him that it would help let more light into the north end of the house, but if it’s going to leak every once in a while like this one is then no … I don’t want it.

Does anyone have any repair ideas? We installed the skylight ourselves even adding extra sealant and rubber? around it to prevent leaks. I’m really disappointed that it’s leaking now.

The flu or something

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Chris came home sick from work yesterday. He’d worked all day feeling awful and was still feeling terrible by the time he got home that evening. It seems that it’s a flu bug or something – you know fever, sweats, sore muscles and joints plus the ever embarrassing crampy tummy and runs.

He had a really high fever a few times through the night and didn’t end up going to work today. Good idea actually since he works in the OR recovery room. Those people don’t need to be exposed to virus’.

He actually thought he was getting better by this afternoon, but his neck really started to ache a little while ago and I felt his forehead and sure enough his fever had returned. I’m not sure he’ll be going to work tomorrow if this keeps up.

As much as I feel bad for Chris I’m also in “Stay Away” mode. Considering that I have Crohn’s and it’s an autoimmune disease I’ll likely end up getting what he’s got. Usually when I get sick it’s a much worse version than those who’ve had it before me so I’m looking at him with dread.

I do think I might be getting the bug too because I’m headache and achy. I certainly hope I can fight this before it hits!

Deals and free samples at MySavings.com

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I’ve never personally used this site, but when I’ve discussed other sites that offered savings and coupons MySavings has been recommended to me by my regular visitors as another great site for deals and coupon savings.

I think when viewing this site the easiest way to find whatever type of deal you might be looking for is to use the tabs across the top of the page. The various tabs lead to areas where you can find Free Product Samples, free services and software, Coupons, deals and if you’d like you can also get to the MySavings.com blog or forums using the tabs as well.

I can actually see why others have recommended MySavings.com to me in the past. I love the free product sample area. When you click on the tab there are pages and pages of products for which you might request a free sample. Many of these free samples are only for those living in the USA but it’s easy to tell at a glance if an offer is available in your country because there are little flag icons right in the listing. You can quickly scan through the pages of free samples to find offers available to you.

I might in fact spend a little bit of time finding free samples for Canadians later on this evening. Why not? I like trying new products out before I buy them.

When I clicked on the coupon area I was shown an area where I could register for a free account which would enable me to Get Free Samples and Printable Coupons such as online coupon codes, restaurant coupons, grocery coupons and a whole lot more.

Within any of the sites sections you’ll find hundreds of links to offers for real brand name free samples or coupons for brand name products. You’ll find samples for health and beauty items, cosmetics, baby products, diet pills, food, make up, electronics and just about any thing you could think of I believe. Offerings are updated weekly so you know the listings are current.

I think this is a great site if you are interested in saving money and trying products samples before purchasing a full size product. Visit MySavings.com yourself and see what you can save money on today.

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