Tricia's Musings

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



You are here: Home / Archives for Home and Lifestyle

Snow covered pine branches

by

Join Green Thumb Sunday
Join

Mugo pine branch covered in snow

This is a photo of a dwarf Mugo pine branch that’s been dusted in snow. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago after a big snow storm came through town.

When we bought our house it came with three dwarf pines in large barrel planters at the front of the house. The planters are actually in the walkway between our house and our neighbors. Usually I decorate the pines each winter with clear LED lights and tiny red bows on some of the branches and they look quite lovely. I didn’t decorate them this year for the holidays, but that snowfall added a beautiful touch.

Do you have any plants around your home that look inviting after a snowfall?

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





Help me plan a kids party

by

I seem to know a lot of people that are expecting kids soon. In the last weeks I’ve gone to one baby shower (for my niece) and been invited to two more!

If that weren’t enough one of my friends is having a big birthday party for her little boy who’s turning 10 next month and she’s asked me to give her a hand. I’ve got a list of things that she’d like me to help with such as helping her pick out the party decorations and kids party invitations. We’ve also got to come up with some kind of entertainment.

Thinking of entertainment for a kids birthday party in the summer is easy but in the dead of winter … hmmm … I have no idea. I think clowns and magicians have been over done. I wonder what other kind of entertainment I can find.

The best idea that I can come up with is that I know the owner of an exotic pet store. I wonder if I could ask him to get one of his staff to bring some animals to the party? That might work.

Any other ideas?

Midnight is getting bigger!

by

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Skinny

When we first got our puppy, Midnight, in November she was exactly three months old and she was a skinny little thing. She doesn’t look that skinny in the above photo, but believe me she was very sick and she was much too thin.

She’s grown quite a bit in the 7 weeks that we’ve had her. I think she’s going to be on the small side for a Lab as she only weighs 20 pounds right now, but she’s apparently healthy again and growing and gaining weight as each day goes by.

Just to show you how much she’s grown. I placed her doggy bed on her favorite chair last night. We’d taken her doggy bed away a month ago or so when she started having diarrhea while in her crate and well … she also chewed a hole in her bed. Darn those labs and their need to chew! So last night was the first time she’d used her doggy bed in quite a while.

As you can see she’s grown a lot. She pretty much takes up the whole doggy bed when she lies in it now. Good thing I just bought her a new one eh? She won’t get to use the new one for a couple of months though. I’d like to wait until she’s finished teething or at least just about done finished teething as I’m hoping her chewing will have slowed down or at the very least all the new adult teeth she’ll have won’t be so sharp and damaging!

Oh and she’s definitely not skinny anymore. I think she’s just right for her size.

Losing some weight

by

Well it looks like I won’t have to go on a formal diet or a diet plan like slimquick after all. Ever since we got our puppy in November my activity level has gone way up!

I’d gained a bit of weight due to being on prednisone and because I’ve been in so much pain over the last two years that I just haven’t been very active at all. Actually as time went on I became less and less active. You might have called me a couch potato.

Just to show you how inactive I must have become … When we’d only had our puppy, who’s very very active, for three weeks I went to see my pain doctor. I think that was December 15th or so. She weighs me every time I see her much to my dismay! Even if I hadn’t been gain weight I’d still have hated being weighed every visit. Well I was pleased to see that I’d lost 10lb according to her scale.

We’ve had our puppy for just under two months now and I’ve lost 25 lb. It won’t take much longer for me to be back in shape!

One of the reasons we got the puppy was to keep me company and to get me a little more motivated to exercise. I’d wanted to get more active but when you are always in pain it’s very hard to will yourself to go out for a walk or even to go out in the garden to look at your flowers let alone work in the garden. However, when you have a dog, especially a puppy, you must get moving. Puppies need to go outside about ten times a day when they are young. Of course now that Midnight is 4.5 months old and has some bladder control she’s not going out that often anymore, but we are talking longer walks. It’s good for both of us.

If you have a young pet at home did you notice that you lost a bit of weight or started to get in better shape as a result of all the extra walks you were doing?

Just a nice lazy day

by

Chris and I are just having a very lazy Saturday.

Actually this is the first weekend in a while that we’re both home. The last two weekends Chris went to Brantford to help out with things at his parents and to visit with his brother that was up from Chicago (last weekend).

We both slept in, much to our puppies disappointment. However we both needed it. She’s totally changed both our schedules since we got her and this was the first time we’ve both slept in since she’s been with us. So she ate her breakfast a little late this morning. That’s ok.

Since the weather was fairly nice and there’s no snow on the ground Chris went out and raked the leaves that had blown onto the lawn. So now our garden beds have a little extra winter protection and the yard looks so much nicer. The dishes and laundry also got done.

Wait … didn’t I say it was a lazy Saturday … hmmm seems we got a bit more accomplished than I thought. Still it’s felt kind of lazy as we’ve just been sitting back for the last few hours watching shows that we taped on the PVR.

Even our puppy’s been having a lazy day. She was in her crate a bit longer than normal today since we both slept in and she was in her crate when some of the yard and house work were done as well. After that we had a good play session … A play session with the puppy usually consists of playing ball with her for oh maybe two or three hours!

I guess we tired her out or she’s picking up on our “just relax” mood because she fell asleep on the couch at 9 pm which is much earlier than normal. She just woke up a few minutes ago and wanted to go outside to do her business and now she’s on the lazyboy chair looking like she’s about to fall asleep again. Maybe last nights puppy training class wore her out.

How was your Saturday?

Meta

Search this site

Tags

blog blogs camera Canada Chris computer crohns dinner dog Family flower flowers Food friends funny garden Gardening Green Thumb Sunday Health and Fitness Health Fitness and Beauty holiday home Home and Lifestyle house husband IBD Inflammatory bowel disease Internet Music neighbors pain photo photos plants puppy Shopping sick sleep spring Toronto TV Video visit website Wordless Wednesday