PowerPlay: Unleash the Power of Youth

Each year Strong Mortgages Ltd. and the Strong family love to share and connect our friends, family, clients, colleagues and neighbours with things we love and are involved with. This year’s holiday gift included products made and sold by young Canadian Entrepreneurs who completed the PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs (PYE) program.

It is my honour to introduce you to:

ISHAAN’S CUSTOM SIGNS
e: dhaliwalishaan2011@gmail.com
PowerPlay School: Hazelgrove Elementary, Surrey BC
Student: Ishaan Dhaliwal, 12
Charity: SPCA and various shelters

Ishaan Dhaliwal loved woodworking from a very young age with his grandfather operating a furniture business. He loves the hands-on work from measuring, cutting, and sanding wood and now sells his signs at various hockey tournaments and markets. For Strong Mortgages, he created red Strong & Free coasters.

What they loved most about participating in PowerPlay: Customer service, creating a product and making money. 

 What they love most about the product: The wood signs are unique with slogans targeting all age groups. 

NOTEWELL NOTEBOOKS
e: notewell.notebools@gmail.com 
insta: note_wellnotebooks
PowerPlay School: Cloverdale Traditional School
Student: Pari Soni, 13.
Charity: Their school, Cloverdale Traditional School

Pari ads a fun twist to her customizable notewell notebooks. You can find her on instgram selling her mini notebooks.

What they loved most about participating in PowerPlay: The hands-on experience of creating, selling and growing my business.

What do they love most about their product: I love the way they look after they are in the packaging and labeled with my business name.

GATOR DESIGNS
w: https://www.gatordesigns.ca 
e: Designsbygators@gmail.com 
PowerPlay School: Gretna Green School in Miramichi, New Brunswick
Students: aged 11 to 13
Business Product(s): create a wide range of products from earrings to sweatshirts using a glowforge laser and vinyl cutter.  For Strong Mortgages, over 70 students collectively created and produced frosted Strong & Free ornaments.
Charity: local food bank

Students grade 6 through 8 at Gretna Green school participate in the PowerPlay program and create products including but not limited to: clothing, keychains, earrings, bracelets, jibbitz, cutting boards, barbecue scrapers, and other holiday specials. They develop products using sublimation, heat press, and vinyl cutting.

 What they loved most about participating in PowerPlay: Students like learning new skills that they can use when they get their first job.   Students learn to take money at markets, create graphic designs, complete production, and monitor quality control. They have control over what they want to purchase with the profits.  Currently, we are saving to buy more computers for graphic designs and more materials and equipment to enrich our workroom. 

What they love most about their product: The students love making money and having a say in how that money is spent.  They get to order materials for passion projects.   They like getting trained for new tasks that include graphic design, using equipment and how to make and send invoices.  Authentic work and projects make the learning fun. 

ABOUT POWERPLAY YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
Whether students aim to be entrepreneurs, or simply want to chase their dreams and develop new skills, our PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs program provides various opportunities for authentic learning and exploration in a real-world context. The in-school program is a 6-week initiative that allows students from grades 4 through 8 to develop their own business ventures, set and achieve goals, and gain practical life skills. They put their plans into action at the Young Entrepreneur Show, a dynamic event where they interact with customers and earn money.

 We are committed to adaptability and inclusivity so all students can thrive regardless of their diverse learning styles, socioeconomic position, or background. In addition to building new competencies, the youth also give back to their local communities and the social causes that they care about.

www.powerplay4success.com

DIY Condo Patio Garden Project

Summer has hit and Jack and I are bit behind the eight ball for our garden planting, but it’s never too late to start.   For this year, we will get our condo patio garden project going with a beautiful tomato plant we purchased at the Sechelt farmers market, planting some fine herbs, lettuce, flowers and designing our very own bird feeder. To get our creative juice flowing and to hopefully inspire you to get your own garden growing, here are some DIY ideas.  Click on the pictures for more details.

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Tin-can-herb-container-gardens container-gardening-ideas
Rain boot pots Great-DIY-Birdhouse-Ideas-for-Your-Garden-1-218x300

Other ideas that we can’t wait to start for next year are incorporating the Growing Chefs! guide to growing windowsill gardens, no-dig gardens and coffee sack potatoes.

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Spring Ideas for your Home and Parties

Welcome Spring and all the exciting decorating ideas that come with warmer, longer & brighter days

 

Radiant Orchid

Colour Trends for 2014

Radiant Orchid is the colour of the season and find many more fashionable Pantone’s for Spring.

Place mats

Spring Decorating Ideas

From place mats to custom door mats, find the “how to’s” to make your home beautiful.

Spring Inspired Decor

Spring Decor

Welcome Spring to the indoors and wake up your living room, dining room and bedroom.

go green

Go Green

Home can feel natural with the colour green.

Makeover tips

Spring Decorating Tips

Tips to light up your space.

Decorate for Easter

Decorate for Easter

Have fun this Easter – host a tea party!

Spring Parties

Spring Party ideas

Celebrate the season with beauty.

 

Bring Feng Shui to your home

Feng Shui is based on a Taoist vision.  It’s an ancient art and science that seeks balancing the movement and energy within a space or environment.   Land’s energy, also known as Chi, brings the theories of yin and yang and the five elements together to create the basic concepts of Feng Shui.  Arranging and decorating a space in a manner that projects a positive flow of life’s energy, or chi flow, can bring a positive flow towards you.

YING AND YANG

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Yin-Yang are opposites They are either on the opposite ends of a cycle, like the seasons of the year, or, opposites on a continuum of energy or matter. This opposition is relative, and can only be spoken of in relationships. For example: Water is Yin relative to steam but Yang relative to ice. Yin and Yang are never static but in a constantly changing balance.

Interdependent: Can not exist without each other Nothing is totally Yin or totally Yang. Just as a state of total Yin is reached, Yang begins to grow. Yin contains seed of Yang and vise versa. They constantly transform into each other. For Example: no energy without matter, no day without night.

Mutual consumption of Yin and Yang Relative levels of Yin Yang are continuously changing. Normally this is a harmonious change, but when Yin or Yang are out of balance they affect each other, and too much of one can eventually weaken (consume) the other. Four (4) possible states of imbalance:

  • Preponderance (Excess) of Yin
  • Preponderance (Excess) of Yang
  • Weakness (Deficiency) of Yin
  • Weakness (Deficiency) of Yang

Inter-transformation of Yin and Yang. One can change into the other, but it is not a random event, happening only when the time is right. For example: Spring only comes when winter is finished.

(resource: http://www.sacredlotus.com/theory/yinyang.cfm)

FIVE ELEMENTS

Fire

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  • Considered the most powerful of all the elements
  • Represents energy, passion, expansion and transformation.
  • In the home, represented by: a candle, or by color (e.g. red lampshade)
  • Color: red, orange and yellow
  • Season: summer
  • Direction symbolized: south
  • Triangular

Wood

  • Wood - oxygen-mural200 Helps to develop creative energies such as inspiration, motivation and passion.
  • Represents: personal growth and renewal and purifies and redirects chi.
  • In the home, represented by: plants, trees or by green objects, (e.g. green pillows)
  • Color: green and sometimes purples, not pastels
  • Season: spring
  • Direction symbolized: east and southeast
  • Shape: Rectangle

Water

  • Water - blue-horchow200Directly related to the flow of money and career.
  • Flowing water helps us to let go of things we no longer need.
  • Still water helps the surrounding energies to be calm and offers the feeling of a new beginning and renewed strength.
  • In the home, represented by: a water feature, fish tank or pond. Crystals, wavy statues or artwork and paintings of water scenes are other ways the element of water may be represented.
  • Color: blues
  • Season: winter
  • Direction symbolized: north
  • Shape: Wavy

Metal

  • Metal200 Draws and unifies all of the elements together. They act as transmitters, conducting the various energies to different areas.
  • Stimulates mental strength and intellectual abilities, making it easier to focus and think clearly.
  • Color: white, silver, gray and black
  • Season: fall
  • Direction symbolized: west and northwest
  • Shape: Round

Earth

  • earth - crystal-emporium200 Representing permanence, stability and home, the earth element is solid giving a sense of security and grounding support.
  • It strengthens the feelings of safety and adds a sense of comfort from within.
  • Rock features, thick carpet, antique pottery and old books help to bring the earth element indoors.
  • Color: brown, beige, sierra and other muted colors
  • Season: end of summer
  • Direction symbolized: center, northeast and southwest
  • Shape: Square

The elements interactions

ElementWheel200 Productive Cycle Water feeds plants to give rise to Wood. Wood in turn can create Fire. The by-product of Fire is ash, in this case the Earth element. From the Earth comes Metal, which in turn can help collect Water, thus going full circle.

Destructive Cycle Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal axes fell Wood, the Wood tree roots hold down Earth and Earth absorbs Water.

FENG SHUI AT HOME

Feng Shui examples for you whole home Feng Shui Do’s and Dont’s Feng Shui Colours Feng Shui of House Numbers

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