Tricia's Musings

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



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Jewelry and the holidays just go together

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I am so not envying all my friends in the jewelry trade right now. This is the busiest time of the year for retailers, and the trades people that work behind the scenes to make the jewelry to your exact specifications.

Truthfully- I both hated and loved the holiday season when I was a jeweller. I loved it because it meant I was busy and also because I was helping others bring some joy into the holiday season with the Christmas jewelry that I created, or the engagement rings that I designed and that my sister engraved. What did I hate? Why the thing that I loved – it was too busy! I worked 18+ hour days and it never stopped until the 2nd week of January or so. It’s a crazy business to be in.

My sister still works in the jewelry trade as an engraver. She’s working long hours right now as I sit her and type out this post. Actually, she’s so busy that she’s working weekends too. I’m holding our very small Christmas get together this coming Sunday here at the house and I’m still not sure whether my sister will be able to make it or not. She probably doesn’t even know yet considering it’s only Tuesday and still early in the week.

So tell me, how many of you bought jewelry for a loved one this Christmas? Did anyone buy an engagement ring or does anyone hope to get one by New Years Eve?





My brothers travels

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I was just thinking about my brother that lives in Vancouver. He’s a geologist – well he’s more than a genealogist, he’s the vice president of one mining company and the president of another. He still goes out on exploration jobs and visits the sites, but his main work in the last few years has been trying to secure funding from investors and venture capitalists. I’ll never forget when he secured his first million dollar check. He was here in Toronto at a trade show, talking with prospective investors and I met up with him that evening for dinner and he was so pleased with himself.

Trade shows are one of the many ways that he promotes the company and tries to get the interest of potential donors. I don’t think he really enjoys the whole trade show routine. It’s tiring – he shows up late in the evening and secures his booth or has to secure in early the following morning then he spends time setting up the trade show displays, then it’s at least one or two long days on his feet all day talking, talking, talking. After that he’s usually off to anther trade show somewhere in the world or back home for a weekend with the family before he has to get on yet another plane to go to another show or another meeting.

Another round of trade shows will be coming up for my brother in the new year. I’m sure he’s looking forward to that. Co-incidentally I just found a company online that specializes in Trade show displays, booths, graphics and exhibits and I’m going to tell my brother about ExhibitDeal because I think they may have some products that will make his job a little easier. They have everything he needs to set up a successful display from table throws to literature racks. The materials are lightweight and easy to transport and assemble. Perhaps he’s already using products from this company, but if he isn’t he might be interested in hearing about Exhibit Deal.

Create your own Area rug design

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Now here’s an interesting idea. Have you ever wished that you could create your own area rug with your own design? I’m sure that if you are in the interior design business you wish all the time that you could do this. Well now you can. The Custom Area Rugs by Tufenkian Carpets program is open to all interior designers as well as home owners.

Using their state of the art rendering system, Tufenkian can create any design to your exact specifications. Choose from their existing patterns and modify it as you wish, or create something totally new. All you need is your imagination and you’re all set. I took a look at some of their recent design projects and they are just gorgeous.

The company has been in business for over 20 years and provides reliable and timely service. Visit the site to learn more and perhaps to start creating your own custom carpet.

HD audio confrencing

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I’ve just been visiting a site called Lifesize and I suppose you could say they specialize in business communication systems from truly lifesize Video Conference in High definition to a product called Lifesize Phone which provides audio conferencing in high definition audio.

Now, probably not every business will be able to afford HD video conferencing at the moment but I wouldn’t doubt that most can and should make room in the budget to get HD audio conferencing. Compared to the old fashioned land line way of audio conferencing with static or being unable to hear all of the participants in the room clearly, HD audio is crisp and clear. HD audio uses 16 always on, circular array microphones with true CD quality sound.

It can be used on it’s own, or combined with the HD video conferencing equipment for extraordinary conferencing every time Lifesize’s products are used.

Learn more about careers in Nursing

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I wonder how many people who read my page are nurses, or have thought of becoming a nurse as a career? Even though I haven’t been able to work for a while due to my Crohns, I can tell you that I love my career choice. If you’ve been reading this page for a while you probably also know that becoming a nurse wasn’t my first career choice. It took me a while to come around to nursing. I was a make up artist first, then a Jeweller to the trade, and only when the Jewelry trade went into recession did I decide that I wanted to make a career out of helping others.

As a nurse, I can tell you that you will never come home from your shift feeling glamorous, but you will come home from your shift most of the time feeling like you’ve made a difference in someones life. Whether that feeling of accomplishment comes from making someone who’s in pain feel just a little bit better, making someone laugh, or from saving a life – you’ll know you made a difference.

If you’ve been thinking of becoming a nurse or going back to school to take some specialty courses in nursing you should take a look at the Nursing Degree Guide. You’ll find information on the site about the various types of nurses/ nursing careers from LVN/LPN, RN, specialties and advanced practice Nursing.

The Nursing Degree guide also has information regarding the various types of Nursing Degrees that are available Online and in Universities, such as Associates Degree, Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree courses. If you are interested in getting a Degree you can read up on what’s involved in the course and the specialties that you can branch out into when you achieve your degree.

I really enjoyed reading this site and getting more information on the courses available to me. I was also pleased to find that if I wanted to take more courses that there is a way for me to take them online through the University of Phoenix, Kaplan Nursing and six other Colleges and Universities that offer Online courses.

I hope that if any of my readers have ever thought of a career in nursing that they will take a look at the Nursing Degree Guide for an explanation of the types of nursing careers that are available today. There are nursing shortages all over North America. We need more nurses to join us in our work. It’s demanding, but it’s also satisfying work.

I can tell you that one of the reasons why there are long waiting times in the ER and for surgeries is because of the nursing shortage. I work in one of the busiest ER’s in Canada and while we are likely one of the best staffed units in our hospital, most days we could easily double our staff and still have people waiting to be seen.

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