Tricia's Musings

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



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The sky’s alive with lightening

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Well we’re having that heat wave that I mentioned we were going to have. The odd thing is that they’ve keep saying it’s going to rain but it’s done no more than spit a little bit.

Right now … at almost 6 a.m. the skies are lighting up with sheet lightening. It’s beautiful to watch. I should get my camera out and take some photos. Hmm maybe I will haul out the camera.

What’s odd is that there’s absolutely no rain and I’m sure that there won’t be any. We need rain badly, but the clouds, lightening and distant thunder are all a tease.

How’s the weather been in your part of the world?





It’s time to start thinking about Halloween!

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You may think it’s a little early to start thinking about Halloween, but it’s already the end of August and I know people who start planning what they’ll do next Halloween almost from November 1st.

It’s a big deal.

I mean really. If you celebrate Halloween it’s one of the only times of year when you can truly be someone else. Dress yourself up, even take on a slightly different personality and get out there and have a good time.

In one of my career incarnations I was a makeup artist. I suppose I still am as I have the training behind me. As a result of my skills I was always quite popular come Halloween. Friends and family would come over to have me do their makeup and add some special effects to their costumes.

I guess you can tell that Halloween is still one of my favorite celebrations. I haven’t actually started to plan this years Halloween celebration, but I suppose it’s time to start thinking about it.

zombie.jpg The Costume Cauldron has a huge variety of Halloween costumes and items to decorate your home with, in fact it’s said that they have 14,000 Halloween related items.

They have everything from Sexy Halloween Costumes, to kids costumes, costumes for couples, movie or celebrity related costumes, funny costumes and so on. Just about anything you can think of really. They even have theatrical makeup and accessories to complete your look.

I think the year that I had the most fun helping people with their costumes was the year we all dressed up as the living dead or zombies. I had a lot of fun doing the makeup for that. The Costume Cauldron has a great zombie rot costume that would let anyone look like the living dead!

outhouse.jpgMy sister always had great costume ideas.

One year she had me help her dress up as a tampon. Unfortunately it was supposed to be a used one! Another year she went as a turd. Yes you heard me right.

Now I didn’t search all that hard for one of those types of costumes but I did find an outhouse costume! Isn’t that great?

If you enjoy Halloween as much as I do visit the Costume Cauldron and see if you can find something interesting to wear this year.

I’d love to hear what you might be dressing up as!

Your Life in Canvas – Check out PaintYourLife

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Have you ever thought how nice it would be to turn your favorite photo from your wedding into a canvas painting? Or perhaps you have a lovely photo of your parents together or your children that would make a beautiful portrait painting.

Well I’m pleased to tell you that PaintYourLife has made it possible to turn your photos into paintings.

PaintYourLife states that all their work is 100% handmade by portrait artists and as you can see from the photo that I’ve included above the paintings are of high quality.

I took a few moments to look through PaintYourLife’s gallery, looking at before and after comparisons of photos that had been sent in my clients and the paintings that the portrait artists had created and the work is just amazing.

It’s very easy to have a painting made of a favorite photo too. All you need to do is find a clear photo that you’d like to have made into a canvas. You can turn photos of people, pets, buildings or landscapes into paintings. It doesn’t have to be a high quality photo but if it’s a high quality photo all the better. You can send your photo to PaintYourLife via a digital upload or by postal mail.

Once you’ve picked out the photo that you want to have turned into a painting just visit the PaintYourLife site and fill out the request form. You can choose to have your painting done in oil, watercolor, charcoal, black or color pencil, pastel or acrylic. Then all you need to do is decide what size you want your painting and then tell the company whether you want the canvas sent to you unframed, Stretch canvas (Gallery wrap) or pick out a frame.

Doesn’t that sound easy?

Believe it or not once you send in your photo it can be made into a canvas in as little as 10 days! You’ll also get to preview your painting before it’s shipped to you.

I bet you think this service is expensive. It’s not really. You can get hand painted oil portraits or watercolor portraits for as little as $99. That’s quite affordable when you consider the high quality of the painting you’ll receive.

PaintYourLife portrait paintings would not only make a lovely addition to your home, but a beautiful gift for someone you love.

If you want something leave a message we’ll get back to you!

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Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Since Wednesday our phone keeps ringing and ringing and ringing!

Chris is off work this week and his coworker keeps calling. This guy must have called from work or from his cell phone at least 20 times. Did he leave a message each time? No. He finally left a message earlier today asking Chris to call him back regarding the work schedule for next week.

This guy is always calling in sick or trying to make deals with Chris to trade shifts. Actually he even managed to talk my husband into changing his permanent schedule! My husband, when he started in the OR attendant job last December was supposed to work Tuesday to Friday. Now ever since this guy got hired they’ve alternated the schedule so sometimes Chris has a Monday off and on alternate weeks he’s got a Tuesday off.

This guy has even called our home at 5 in the morning to tell Chris he’s sick and that he’ll have to do his shift never bothering to call in sick at work. Chris even has more seniority. It’s just nuts what Chris has let this guy get away. Yes it’s Chris’ fault. There’s no doubt about that.

So now we’ve got this guy ruining Chris’ holiday by calling all the time. If he wants something why doesn’t he just leave a proper message with his request?

Chris and I are purposely not answering his calls ’cause we figure that it’s either some schedule switch or that he might even have wanted to Chris to work on one of his holiday days. No, the guy can think we aren’t home and haven’t been home all week.

This is the problem with being too nice.

We often go out of our way to do something nice for people. Sometimes putting ourselves out while trying to make someone happy and you know what? People rarely appreciate it. It’s like a ticket for taking advantage of us in the future when ever they want something else.

It’s our own fault, but I’d rather be kind to others than nasty.

The clean out begins

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My neighbors are serious. If the tapping and repairs going on weren’t enough of a message that they mean to sell their home successfully the pile of discarded items outside there house should be enough to convince me.

I just looked outside and they’ve been cleaning out their home. There’s old rolled up carpeting, a few blinds, what looks like a painting or a photo frame, an old couch and a few bags of garbage.

Gee I hope they’re going to cart that stuff to the dump on their own because this past Tuesday was Garbage day and garbage is only picked up twice a month in our area of Toronto. They’d better not be planning on leaving that pile on the boulevard grass for the next week and a half.

Oh now a wooden chair has joined the pile. Hmmm if anyone needs some used furniture I might have a deal for you.

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