Tricia's Musings

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



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Archives for 2007

Lowest unique bid wins great prizes at Bid4prizes.com

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I just visited a site called Bid4prizes.com and I think you might really like it. All you have to do to play and possibly win Free gifts is to register on the site and start making bids on items that you would like to win.

They have lowest unique bid Sweepstake where the person who has the lowest bid for the item wins that prize. At this time they have a Scion XB vehicle and a 61″ HDTV set up for lowest bid auction.

The site looks fun and easy to use. It’s text based. You can enter bids for the various auctions using your mobile phone or by visiting the website. It’s easy. Why don’t you visit the site today. Perhaps you’ll be lucky and win a Cash prize, HDTV, Apple iPhone, the Scion, or even a designer bag. There’s a new winner each day. Check it out.





Spring is here – the garden is coming back to life

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Peonies, rhododendron, hosta, lilies, daylilies …

West side

In about two months one small area of my garden, near the patio, will look like this. The Rhododendron will be blooming with it’s large cherry red flowers, the hosta leaves will be in perfect shape as yet untouched by nasty slugs, and the peonies (karl Rosenfield) and day lilies will be preparing to bloom.

Spring, late spring and early summer are the time of year that I think I enjoy the garden the most. Almost every day there is something new to look at. During that time of year the plants are growing fast, and a plant that didn’t have flower buds one day suddenly seems to develop tiny flower buds almost over night.

A few of the plants in my garden have started to show signs that they are waking up. I can’t wait until several more plants come back to life and start to grow.

Who else is excited now that it’s spring?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Thinking about getting a home improvement loan

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Being off work and not being able to bring in a secured income obviously has me thinking about money a lot these days. I wish I didn’t have to worry about money as much as I have been since I’m sure that’s not helping me get better.

I am really happy that we were able to remortgage our home last year in late June. I can’t believe it’s been almost a year already. I guess that means we’ve owned our own home for almost 6 years now.

As you might know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, we’ve been trying to renovate our home on our own. Not only have I been sick for the better part of two and a half years, but my husband got sick for a period of time in 2004/2005. He’s better now, but both of our illnesses caused major delays in our renovations.

I think we’re about ready to start finishing off some DIY jobs we had already started, but I’ve really been starting to think about possibly getting a home improvement loan and hiring a contractor to do the rest of the work that we want done. I don’t really want to do that, but just in case something happens I’d rather have the house finished than continue to live indefinitely in a state of unfinished renovation. Perhaps some of our unfinished work is even contributing to my illness. Who knows.

I don’t think we’d have a problem getting a home improvement or a secured loan as we’ve been very good about paying down our mortgage. Chris has a steady job and I can verify my internet income.

I guess I’ll have to check into whether we’d qualify for a loan or not given our circumstances. I think we would but I’ll have to check it out. One of the places that I might check will be the UKpersonalloanstore.co.uk they have a lot of information about the various types of loans that one might apply for, as well as articles, loan tips and they even list companies through which you can apply for the various types of loans that they discuss. The site is very user friendly, and people living in the UK in particular will find the information on the various loan products helpful.

The whole idea of taking out another loan is not something that really appeals to me at this time, but it would help us finish off our house and of course, if we decided to sell, or had to sell for some reason we’d get the full house value. I can only imagine how much the value of our home might be if we tried to sell right now with the living room unfinished! I don’t even want to think about it!

The boardwalk

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September, Woodbine Beach in Toronto

scenicbeach

We went to the beach last year in September. It was late afternoon and although the day had been nice it was starting to get a little chilly. I suppose that’s why the beach was almost empty.

boardwalkashbridges

I think that I took this photo on the same day. This is part of Toronto’s famous boardwalk. This is what I would call the beginning of the boardwalk in the Ashbridges Bay area. As you can see the boardwalk was almost empty that day.

On nice days, the beach is crowded with people getting sun or playing volleyball. Throughout the whole year the boardwalk is a great place to walk. Residents lucky enough to live in that area of Toronto regularly walk their dogs, cats and just about any kind of pet that you can imagine on the boardwalk.

Right beside the boardwalk there’s a bicycle path.

We aren’t too far from the beach area. It’s about a 10 minute drive or a half hour bike ride. It’s not uncommon for Chris and I to get on our bikes anytime from April through to November and bike down to the beach area, or on some of the nice trails in the area.

We’re actually pretty lucky living in Toronto. The whole inner core of the city has ravines and parks where city residents can walk or bike. You can actually travel quite a distance throughout the city on the paths that interconnect throughout the city.

Biking on the trails, or walking on the boardwalk is a great way to get some exercise and enjoy a nice day.

Do you make time to enjoy some of the things that you can do in your city or town?

Wonder if our friend might get engaged?

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Last night, Chris brought one of our friends from work home with him for a visit. It wasn’t a surprise visit – we’d planned earlier in the week on Oliver coming over for dinner. It was nice to see our friend since I hadn’t seen him for a few months. Chris sees him pretty much daily at work, but since I haven’t been to work in a while I don’t think I’ve seen Oliver since before Christmas.

Our friend spent the evening telling us about his girlfriend, and how this is the first week when they’ve each had other obligations and can’t spend much time together. This is the first long term girlfriend that our friend has had in the time that we’ve known him so I can understand his excitement and where he’s coming from.

They’ve only been seeing each other for about four months but she’s already given him a promise ring of sorts. It’s a very nice silver ring with a center that spins. Now he wants to get a nice ring for her too.

Chris and I are both former jewelers. So we talked to him about what kind of ring he wants to get, and whether he wants to get something custom made or perhaps just find a nice already made ring for her. We still have jewelry connections so I think Chris might take him to some of the jewelry trades people we know this weekend or sometime next week and see what they can find.

Now, while our friend says he only wants to get his girlfriend a nice ring since she got him a ring I’m curious as to what type of ring he might get. I mean he called his ring a promise ring … perhaps it won’t be too long before they are looking for engagement rings? I’m just guessing, but it seems like it’s a serious relationship so I wouldn’t be surprised if they do end up getting engaged.

Having been a jeweler myself I guess it’s kind of ironic that I really don’t wear much jewelry. Isn’t it? I mean, I don’t even have an engagement ring! LOL That’s always been fine with me, but perhaps one day when our finances are better, maybe for a big anniversary I’ll talk Chris into getting me a nice diamond ring. Perhaps a nice white gold sapphire diamond ring? With a lovely brilliant cut diamond with D color? Oh yeah, that’d be nice. You see, my birthday is in September and my birthstone is a sapphire so why not combine the two?

The only problem with that is that my wedding band has emeralds in it. Hmmm perhaps I need to get either just a diamond ring or one that has a combination of diamonds and emeralds?

Even though I don’t wear much jewelry I guess the jeweler, and of course woman, in me still likes to look at fine jewelry.

If our friend does decide to get an engagement ring for his girlfriend someday, if we can’t help him ourselves I wouldn’t hesitate to send him to Abazias.com. Abazias Diamonds is a jewelery company that specializes in the sale of loose diamonds. I’ve looked over their selection and I must say that they have some fine diamonds to choose from. They also have a wonderful selection of engagement rings and other jewelery mounts that these fine diamonds could be set into. The prices are reasonable and the quality is superb. Visit the site yourself to see what I mean.

In the meantime we’ll just stick with helping our friend find a “promise” ring for his girlfriend.

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