Tricia's Musings

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



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Fondly remembering my Florida spring vacation

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Spring is a wonderful time to take a vacation isn’t it? I’ve been enjoying spring here in my own city, but I can’t help remembering some of the great spring vacations I’ve taken in the past. Actually now that I think of it, I think I’ve been to Florida in the spring more often than any other place in the world that I’ve vacationed.

The last time I went to Florida for spring vacation was several years ago. It was beautiful. The temperatures were in the 70’s to low 80’s so it was extremely comfortable.

I stayed with some friends in the Tampa and Orlando area. We visited both Tampa, Orlando and several other cities across the State. You see one of my nurse friends had traveled with me to Florida but she was staying in Boca Raton so we went there to spend a day with her and even drove down to Miami and visited the Miami Seaquarium. I guess we spent a lot of time traveling by car, but it was well worth it.

If you’re planning a spring vacation you should visit Trusted Tours & Attractions. They offer discounted tickets to the very best sightseeing tours. You’ll find discounted sight seeing tour tickets as well as some great information for 23 cities across America.

I actually wish I’d known about this companies website when I was looking for things to do in Orlando and other Florida cities. I could have even picked up some discount tickets for not only sight seeing tours but local attractions and I believe hotel rates as well.

If you expect to be going on vacation this spring or perhaps later in the year you might want to sign up for their newsletter. When you sign up for their newsletter before the end of April you’ll be entered in a contest where you could win a hand held system. Isn’t that great?

The newsletter is full of travel tips, interesting stories and links to travel blogs. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting and informative.

Visit the website, I’m sure you’ll find some great travel ideas!





Planning a wedding? Don’t forget the wedding favors

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It’s that time of year again. I bet you think I’m talking about Spring? No. I’m talking about Wedding season.

Somewhere near you mothers, mothers-in-law, brides to be and their Maids of Honor are frantically plotting out all the details of an upcoming wedding shower or late Spring / early Summer wedding. Listen carefully, you can almost hear their chatter.

If you happen to be involved in planning a wedding shower, or perhaps you’re the lucky bride, you might be interested in taking a look at the unique wedding favors at HQ Wedding Favors.

I certainly remember what planning a wedding is like. I pretty much did all the planning for my own wedding myself. My parents lived 5 hours away and Chris’ parents also happened to live out of town. Oh, a few friends, my sister and Chris helped, but as the Bride to be I was pretty much making all of the major decisions.

Call it wedding brain or temporary insanity I even, more than briefly, considered catering my own wedding! My mother eventually talked me out of that idea and I’m still ever so glad that she did.

Needless to say it was a very hectic and stressful time for me, as I’m sure it is for most brides to be and their friends and family.

My wedding was to be the last wedding in our family. My parents had five children and I was the youngest and last to wed. My parents, aunts and uncles were getting older and I knew for some it might be the last time we’d all get together. So I took pride in trying to make my day a special experience for all involved.

I think actually picking out the wedding party favors and gifts for our parents and guests was one of the more pleasant and enjoyable tasks that I had on my long list.

Along with selecting more traditional items such as match books with our names and wedding date printed on it I also selected a variety of wedding favors to put together as a small package for our guests. I honestly can’t remember all of the items I picked out, but I believe it consisted of edible wedding favors, candles and coasters. Generally items that I hoped would be used rather than stored away in a dusty closet.

One of my favorite items that I selected to place on each table along with a center piece of Fall flowers was a disposable camera. I still hear from people that attended our wedding reception who enjoyed being able to snap photos of the people they were seated with at their table. We’re pleased too, because I believe we managed to get at least one picture of every single person who attended the reception. I treasure those photos.

Earlier I mentioned the online shop HQ Wedding Favors. I would have enjoyed looking through such a site when I was planning our wedding. Of course, Chris and I got married in 1994 and there weren’t very many stores of this kind online at that time nor did people feel as comfortable shopping online as they do now.

I would certainly recommend that anyone who’s taking part in the planning of a wedding or perhaps a wedding shower take a look at HQ Wedding Favors as they have some lovely items. You’ll find special gifts for bridesmaids, groomsmen, the flower girl and ring bearer, bridal jewelry, guest books, thank you cards and invitations, wedding cameras and much more!

I especially like the designer cosmetic bag which would make a great gift for bridesmaids, and items for groomsmen such as personalized flasks and the tailgating buccaneer.

Take a moment to have a look at the online shop and I hope the wedding goes well!

What do you get a kid that has everything?

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I just remembered that it’s my nephews birthday next week. I hope that I’m feeling well enough to go shopping tomorrow.

Our nephews in Chicago so I’ve got to get something fast and then send a package off to him.

What do you get for a hockey loving 15 year old boy? Yeah, something hockey would be obvious, but he plays hockey and trains year round (he’s the one that comes to Ontario for hockey camps in the summer) so I don’t think he needs anything in that area.

I was think of maybe getting him some cool boardshorts since they fit his style and maybe a video game. Does that sound like a good gift?

If you have any ideas let me know as I’ve got to get something by tomorrow!

Finally upgrading my WP sites and their plugins!

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Over the last few days I’ve spent a good portion of my time updating all of my blogs. All of the new ones – the hush hush ones – have been updated to WP 2.3.3. It was easy to do because I was able to use Fantasico in my web hosting C-Panel to do it.

Now I have to update all of the blogs on this domain! Argh … I’ve moved those blogs to new web hosts twice in the last year and the last time was a manual update so this time round all the blogs will have to be manual updated too. It’s ok to do one or two manually, but when you have seven or eight that need to be upgraded manually it’s a pain in the butt! By the time I’m done I’ll be the WordPress upgrading queen! (17 blogs later!)

I’d also been having trouble on all my blogs when I’d try to save or publish a new post. A few months ago I had some kind of conflict occur when I upgraded my bad behavior plugin and the Google Sitemaps plugin on the same day. Ever since then I’d always get an error message when I saved or published a post. The posts were published but I’d have to check to be sure. It was a pain! I didn’t realize it but it was also messing up the do follow tags on my sites too. So there was a conflict between three plugins!

Luckily I discovered that there was yet another new Bad Behavior plugin update as well as a new Google XML sitemaps plugin. I updated those two plugins and refreshed my permalinks and TADA everything works right again!

Now I just hope that I don’t have any problems with my wordpress themes when I upgrade the sites on Feverishthoughts.com to the most recent WP upgrade. I think all my blogs on this domain are using 2.2.1 so it’ll be a big upgrade. If you drop by and notice that one of my feverishthoughts blogs is sporting a new very plain bare bones theme then you’ll know something strange happened when I updated the platform. It will only be temporary.

Once all that is done I can get back to work on the new blogs. One is a home and garden blog that will discuss mostly home type topics (my gardening blog will go back to mainly gardening!) such as decor, interior decorating, great recipes, tips for around the home and so on. The other blog is a shopping blog where I’ll talk about fashion trends, cosmetics, new home decor designs – who knows I’m sure I’ll even talk about platform beds on one or both!

Working on those two sites has inspired me again. I’m full of ideas and of course every time I find something cool to write about I also want to go out and buy it. I’ll be unveiling these new blogs shortly and I really hope that you like them. I’m trying to keep it fun, interesting and of course full of helpful information.

Have any of you updated your sites recently? Did it go well?

Anyone start any new blogs too? What is your new blog about? Are you being re-inspired as well?

Can’t wait for the flowers to grow? Buy a bouquet!

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I think just about anyone that’s visited this blog a few times knows that I absolutely adore flowers. Hardly a week goes by when I don’t post at least one photo of the flowers I grow in my garden. I’m so thankful for the photos that I have considering that I live in such a cold climate! I mean, I can’t enjoy my love of flowers any other way during our long winter … or can I?

I could of course purchase fresh Flowers from a site such as e-florists-inc to get me through the next month or two until my own flowers are blooming. You could too if you wanted to brighten your home with a lovely bouquet. After all there’s nothing quite like a beautiful floral arrangement as the center piece on the dinner table when you’re having a romantic dinner with someone you love.

You can find some beautiful flower selections at e-florists-inc. You can shop by the type of flower or plant, or by the occasion as they have arrangements that are perfect for birthdays, the birth of a baby, for Mom or to say congratulations to a friend or co-worker just to name a few of the selections from which you can choose.

roses.jpg If you purchase one of their best selling arrangements you can get it for up to 50% off as they’ve already reduced the prices on their most popular bouquets and gift baskets. I really like the white rose and white lily arrangement that I’ve include to the right. Isn’t it lovely?

If you’ve been thinking of buying some flowers for your home or as a special occasion gift for someone do take a look at their selection. They have some lovely arrangements. Easter’s coming up soon, perhaps you’ll want some flowers for your home at that time?

I spent quite a bit of time browsing through the site since I’m just fascinated with flowers. If you’re as interested in flowers as I am or if you’d like to learn more about how a Blossom develops and how flowers have become masters at attracting certain types of insects in order to pollinate you should take a look at the Wikipedia article that I found. It will answering any possible questions that you have about blossoms!

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