Tricia's Musings

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



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Barbecue time

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We’re having a BBQ for the first time in a while this evening. Chris has either been tiring himself out working the early early shifts or working the 12 noon to 8 pm shifts at work so we haven’t been having as many barbecues that we normal do this year.

Tonight we’re having some grilled sausages – those cheese grill’ems or however the name is spelled. I love them. They don’t love me and they aren’t good for us but they sure do taste good.

Of course we are balancing it out with a salad full of cucumber, carrot, a variety of leafy greens, tomatoes and a light vinaigrette dressing, as well as Frenched beans.

Time to eat! What did you have for dinner tonight?





I got my canvas and I love it!

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On July 5th I wrote stating that I was going to send one of my photos to Canvas on Demand to have it made into a 16 x 20″ canvas. I decided to send this photo in:

monarch2

It’s a photo of a butterfly that I literally chased around my yard for a week trying to get a photo. It only allowed me about five minutes of that whole week to take photos and I snapped quite a few. I believe this was the best of the bunch.

I went to the Canvas on Demand website and following the very simple instruction I choose the size and style of canvas that I wanted, the frame type and uploaded my photo.

The company sent an email shortly after I completed my order and we corresponded by email as to when the canvas would be complete. They must have started working on it pretty much right away because my lovely canvas arrived on July 13th, only 8 days after I’d ordered it!

Talk about fast! They say it takes four days to create a canvas, then they had to ship it from North Carolina to Toronto, Canada. Honestly the earliest I thought I might get my fabulous canvas was July 20th or later given how slow some delivery companies can be.

Would you like to see my beautiful new canvas? Here you go:

 

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That photo really doesn’t do it justice. I’ll try to get an even better one, perhaps once I’ve decided where to hang it. It’s lovely though isn’t it? The butterfly looks so real. It makes you want to reach out and touch it. When our relatives visited this past weekend they just loved the canvas and might even get one of their own.

The canvas is so beautiful that I’m actually thinking of getting some of my other photos made into canvas’. They’d make great gifts at Christmas time or even for a birthday.

I just had a bright idea. If you’ve been reading this site for a year you might remember that last August Chris and I were part of a Hindu wedding ceremony when Chris’ cousin got married. Their anniversary is coming up in a month and one of the photos that I took at their wedding might make a beautiful anniversary gift. After seeing my own canvas I’m certain they’d love it.

I love Canvas on Demand.

They were in touch with me throughout the whole process so I can honestly say that they have excellent customer service. As for their product – well you can see the results for yourself. Their canvas’ are beautiful.

I’m just so pleased!

If you’ve ever thought of doing something like this please think of visiting Canvas on Demand. You won’t regret it.

Boys and their toys

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Do you remember I was talking about how Chris wanted our basement, when we are done our renovation, to be a true rec room? Well, after having so much fun over the weekend with his sister and brother-in-law he’s adamant that the basement must be a rec room full of manly toys to play with or on.

You see, once my brother in law came back from the concert that he’d gone to – Roger Waters, he said it was fantastic! – they all went out to play pool, and later they came back and we played poker. Now along with the pool table that he’s got his eye on he wants us to look at poker tables too!

Geesh! I just bought him a new video camera! Now he wants more toys? Don’t they usually say it’s the women that spend all the money shopping?

Well at least we never impulse buy. Anything that I write about that we’ve purchased, particularly if it’s an expensive item, is something that we’ve thought about and discussed for quite a while.

Maybe he’ll get his new toy, but we’ve got to finish the basement first!

House Guests, the Museum and a Psychic Reading?

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Don’t you just hate it when people drop in unexpectedly? I do. Since I’m sick and never know how I’m going to feel from one day to the next I like to at least know in advance when someone might be coming over.

Well on Saturday we got a call from Chris’ sister. Her husband was coming to Toronto to go to a concert. We knew about this because he’d called the day before to ask Chris if he wanted to go – he didn’t, and to see if he could stay over Saturday night.

Ok, so we knew our brother in law was coming for a visit. Fine. But when Chris’ sister called she said she’d decided to come and that they were bringing their young daughter with them.

Needless to say I didn’t get any work done over the weekend. I have several posts to write and I’m slowly catching up. If you are one of the advertiser that’s waiting for an article it’s coming!

While our brother in law was at the concert Chris and his sister partied a bit – even going over to the neighbors who had pestered us twice that day to come visit with them while I ended up spending time with my niece. I wasn’t about to turn my back on my little niece and leave her to amuse herself in a very adult household. She’d have been bored to tears poor girl.

The next day we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. I’ve got some great pictures of the buildings! They re-did the ROM and the architecture is amazing! It’s all glass and crazy angles. Beautiful.

We also ended up visiting a psychic! There are few shops near my house and my sister in law had always wanted to get a Psychic Reading so she did. It was pretty interesting.

Guess what? She’s going to have some turmoil in her life, maybe around her job, but then things will settle down over the next few months and she’ll be very happy with both work and family. Wow … She is actually in the midst of changing jobs. Her new job is a government position and she’ll have to draw on all her past experiences in her new career.

I didn’t get a reading done. I didn’t want to end up depressed.

I have to tell my sister in law about Real Travel

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I just visited a website that my sister in law – my brothers wife, will absolutely love. My brother and his wife have been taking absolutely amazing trips over the last few years. I think their last trip, in January, was to India. The year before they went to Africa and went on Safari.

I say their trips are amazing because she plans their itinerary to a T. When I first heard how much planning she did I was a little put off. Not at her – but she’d plan something for morning, afternoon and evening. My husband and I tend to be free spirits at times so I couldn’t imagine such a rigorously planned vacation, but you know what? I’ve changed my mind.

They see absolutely everything and come back with the most fascinating tales and beautiful photos.

She’ll love the RealTravel site as it’s a travel guide that helps you plan a vacation using their free trip planner.

I’m sure that some of you might also like the travel guide as you can use the information on the site to learn more about a Country or area that you’d like to visit. Then using the trip planner you could build an itinerary as exacting as my sister in laws or perhaps a little more relaxed with only one sight to see each day.

There’s even a forum at the Real travel guide where you can talk to others who are planning their holidays or perhaps to others who have been to the area that you are hoping to go.

I think I’m going to email the link to the site to my sister in law right now before I forget. I’m 99.99999% certain that she’s already planning their next big trip. Perhaps this will help.

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