She likes rock n roll

I have a confession. I LOVE AC/DC. They are my guilty pleasure (well one of them) They have been my favourite band since I was 12. I have "you shook me" as my ringtone on my Blackberry (Which is my fav song of theirs). At a place I used to hang out at when I was "younger" and "wilder", the DJ used to put the song on as soon as I arrived. These days I am pretty much a closet listener because it is in direct contrast with my Mommy image lol. Not that I am trying to portray myself as something I am not. It usually just doesn't "fit" anymore. Which I guess is just silly. I heard their concerts are a real mix of age, children and Grandparent.
I have waited with much anticipation for the release of their new album. There was the odd song played on the radio stations. Anyway, I got the album tonight and was not disappointed.
They will be in concert near us soon. Unfortunately the concert sold out in 11 minutes (I believe that was what I was told)
I haven't given up on winning tickets to see this tour. At their age I don't think they will be doing many more tours.... :(

ps. She likes rock n roll (the title to this post) is one of their new songs :)

A cozy Bed

This morning after I changed the sheets and was making up my bed, I was thinking about how cozy it looked. I always make my bed. The rest of the room could be a mess but the bed is made! There is something very restful about a made bed.
A freshly made bed just begs to be crawled into! So cozy. I love a bed with crisp fresh heavy cotton sheets for most of the year, especially if the sheets have been hung to dry on the line. Aaahhh.. In the winter warm thick flannel sheets with a thick down duvet is the making of sweet dreams. I love quilts. I love handmade quilts. Oh, to travel through Amish country with a purse full of money and leave with a trunk full of their beautiful quilts. I have made one quilt by hand. It was for my oldest daughters first birthday. It wasn't a very detailed design, but I gave lots of attention to detail, and I hope it is something she will treasure forever. I have made some very elaborate squares by hand that are all diamonds sewed intricately together. I would like to make another quilt, a big one this time. I think I will do the top by machine for durability and the actual quilting by hand. Yes another great project for someone that has no time, lol.
Maybe beds appeal so much to me right now because crawling into one and sleeping until I am completely rested seems like it would be bliss...I dream of a vacation where I could sleep for a while week, as much as I want. Well and take pictures too :)


The lovely bed pictures were found here,
http://www.myhomeideas.com

Orchids

I love orchids. I have grown them for quite a few years and used to belong to a orchid club. That was before having kids! Anyway, I downsized my orchid collection years ago because of having so little time or space to grow them. The past couple years I have added a few here and there. I have been fortunate to get some at our local grocery store after they had finished blooming for only $5 a piece. It is a lot of fun to bring them back to a healthy state (usually they are one step from death, having bloomed for so long)and watch them grow and eventually bloom. It is always interesting to see what they will look like.
This is a picture of a few of my collection,

I have a small green house that I can keep them in 3 seasons of the year. I don't have a heated one so I must bring them in when it gets colder but being in the west our weather is great for a long time. The definitely benefit from the mild weather.

The picture at the very top is one of my "bargain orchids" that is blooming for me right now. :)

Sunny Saturday

Yesterday I had fun taking pictures at a lagoon, while my Daughter was at a birthday party. There were some little birds that I wanted to take pictures of, unfortunately they weren't co-operative! They sure were noisy little things.
Anyways, the view was lovely.

There were a few lonely flowers, and one lone apple tree. I love coming across fruit trees like this! Probably sown by some tossed core...


I found a tree, (not sure what kind) that was swarming with bee's. Unfortunately, what ever was attracting the bee's was also attracting yellow jackets. I flirted with getting stung to get a few pictures. I am allergic so I try to minimize my chances of getting stung. But this was just too good of an oppotunity to pass up. The sun was filtering onto the bee's and they were enjoying drinking what was on these flowers.

I had a rather disappointing moment today, I got one of the lenses delivered that I had won on ebay. Well there was a miscommunication somewhere, because it wont fit my camera :( I will go back and check the auction and see what happened, but I am pretty sure I can't return it. I will have to sell it here. Ugh. That really bummed me out.

But on a better note, when my mail arrived it came with a letter from Verona Italy. A nice letter from a friend telling me about the birth of her son Lucas. So everyday has a silver lining.

What a weekend!

What a weekend! My oldest went to Brownie camp on Friday night, after school and the schools fun fair. She was at camp for two nights and had a great time. The house sure was quiet without her. I had the opportunity to take some pictures on Saturday at the rail yards of a beautiful girl named Hannah. She was so much fun to take pictures of. Here are a few of them,

Of course I had to get a few random picture in,

Then after picking my daughter up on Sunday we stopped at the lagoon to feed the geese. Well these geese and ducks were not afraid of anyone with food! I had a hard time taking any pictures because they were right in the camera, literally. I did manage to get a few. This one I liked because you can see Kristin and my reflection in its eye :)

This beautiful swan was making his presence know to all the others, puffing up and pushing his way around.

I know there are lots of people who think that seagulls are a nuisance. I like them. I couldn't imagine going to the water and not having them. Think how it empty it would seem without seeing their antics and calls while at the ocean...

The day was overcast and a rainy at times, but nothing that a few boaters would worry about.

Then as we were driving from the water, home.. we came across these sweeties. The pictures are not good because I took them from the car. But what doll's. It sure made Kristin's day.

Look what I got!

I won these two lenses on ebay today. I am excited to get them and try them out, now that I have my camera back! The first one is Pentax super Takumar 28mm F3.5 and the second one is a Pentax 18-55m.
Comments welcome Clane! :)

I have mentioned in other posts about the water view we have. We are not water front (I wish!) but we are only a stones throw from it. Tonight I saw the biggest moon rising. I headed to the end of our road, where there is a sitting area and a small boat launch. Of course by the time I got down there the moon was behind some clouds. I still took a few pictures and thought I would post them. I love being close to the water. The picture below, you can see part of the large park that is just a road over from us. Long ago the part that you see, had a bathing house and a tea house. There are still people who look for items from those days, coins and jewellery I imagine. Around the corner to the right of the picture is an inlet that is now part of a estuary. A couple years ago the city connected it too a stream and planted sedge grass to attract fowl. We do see some very unique birds around here.

I am Thankful

This weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I really like the idea of taking time to think about what we are thankful for. I try hard to always, let the people in my life know how much they mean to me. But we need to be reminded sometimes. I have many, many, things to be thankful for. All the usual, family and health etc. But I want to let the people I have met online know how thankful I am for them. We meet people online and they become friends. Frankly I may "see" some of you more often than I do my "real world" friends. You become part of my day and part of my life. I enjoy reading yours blogs and getting a small glimpse into your world and in essence, being a small part in your life.

I went thrift store shopping on Saturday. This is certainly one of my favourite past times! I love finding deals. I am usually only looking for clothes for my kids. Frankly, I think I will be shot if I bring anything else into the house before our renovation is finished. However, I did manage to sneak a couple little things into the house without them being noticed. Then being the person that I am I told John about them anyway! I can't be sneaky about anything, so I don't know why I even try. I had seen a lovely idea on a wonderful blog (myromantichome.blogspot.com). It involved using a candle stick, glass plate and a cheese dome. I thought the idea was lovely and imagined my vintage Christmas ornaments under the glass.... So I kept this in mind while I was out. I was able to get a very nice crystal bowl from France and a crystal candle stick from Austria for $1 each. So I made a stemmed bowl instead.
I also found a really nice hurricane lamp with a ceramic base, it has rosebuds on it. I have a couple hurricane lamps and love them. I have been searching for some old Pyrex bowls with the Amish design on the sides. I haven't seen any for a long time, of course, since I started looking :)

Our Adopted Cat

This morning Meep Meep came scratching on the door, as usual. I love this cat so much. He lives up the road and around the corner and I know his name because it is on his name tag. I have met his owner, because he was lost once and I phoned the number off the posted on the telephone pole. He is huge, he obviously likes his food. When you pick him up you can give him a hug he's so big. He hangs out at our place all day, mostly in the back yard. When he gets lonely he scratches on door or the window. He walks in like he owns the place. Frankly I am not sure when he does go home because, pretty much any time, day or night that I go outside he is there. We don't feed him, because of course then he would never leave. I would be completely willing to have him, but I figure if I love him this much, he must be loved a lot by his owner. His owner is young and I think between her work and life, she is busy and he is not getting all the attention he wants. My oldest daughter plays with him and drags sticks around for him to chase. My twins think that "Meep Meep" means "Cat". "Meep Meep" of course is the sound that the road runner makes :) I don't mind being his adopted family. He chose us and we like having him around

My Pentax Dilemma

So, I got my first DSLR in June a Pentax K10D. I was really excited about this purchase and a little intimidated too! I have a Pentax SLR and some lenses and filters for it and have enjoyed using. I had found Pentax to be good to deal with when problems arose so I was fairly confident in this purchase. I didn't have a lot of time to play around and get used to the camera at first, my twins 2nd Birthday came along and a party needed to be planned etc. And being summer, I was taking more pictures outside than in, so I did not notice right away that the flash was not firing. When it didn't I figured it was not needed. By the time I did notice it was getting close to a month owning the camera. I went onto a K10D forum and asked a few questions, still figuring I was doing something wrong. The people on there told me it sounded like it was the camera! So I took it right in to the place I bought it (London Drugs) and they checked it out and said it was definetly the camera, not anything I was doing. Unfortunately I did not save the box the camera came in! Grrr, otherwise they would of tried replacing it. Actually they did look into this but weren't able to find one as this model is discontinued. So off to Pentax the camera went. I really fully expected the camera to be replaced. After all it was new and did not work when I bought it. Our holidays came and went and I didn't have my camera, 6 weeks came and went and still no camera and no word from Pentax except to say they had received it. Now we are at almost 7 weeks and I am getting ticked. So this morning I go into London Drugs when they open and while I was there a call was put in too Pentax, apparently the camera has been fixed and is on enroute to me. The part that I disliked about this was *FIXED*. Who wants to have spent this kind of money on a fixed camera! London Drugs says they want to make it right with me. I am not sure what they can do at this point. I have to say that London Drugs is one of the best places to buy your electronics from. I have had them stand behind me and help me out more than once with products.
So I am not sure what the outcome of this is going to be. I know I am very disapointed and some thing that was so exciting for me has become a huge hassle. I am very disapointed in Pentax for this.... I do like the camera though :(

Cauliflower

I got quite a good deal on cauliflower, the other day. $1.68 a head. I eat a fair amount of cauliflower, because it is one of the lower carb veggies, and I am on a low carb diet. There are times when I got to the grocery store and there isn't any cauliflower or it is small and not worth the price.

It is very easy to get ready for the freezer. You blanch it for 3 minutes in boiling water and then plunge it into a cold water bath to stop the cooking process. Then you bag it in some good freezer bags. I use a straw to get as much air as I can out of the bag.

Skin Care

I know when I am in the skin care section of the drug stores, it is somewhat intimidating looking at all the products. I then see the prices, and I am even more leery to spend money on something I am not sure of. I am always happy to hear some reviews on products, from real people.
I want to tell about a product that I have tried recently and that I am really impressed with. The company is called La Roche Posay. I was introduced to their skin care line at the cosmetic counter and London Drugs. The cosmetician gave me a couple samples and I have been hooked ever since. I have combination skin, so it has always been difficult for me to find something that moisturizes but, that doesn't leave my skin feeling greasy.
The effaclar face wash is amazing, you only need a tiny bit (the size of a pea) to wash your face. It leaves your skin feeling clean without being stripped and dry. The Mela-D anti dark spot cream, works very quickly to reduce the signs of age spots and freckles. Active eye C only takes a tiny bit. I usually put this on before bed. The Redermic daily anti wrinkle fill in cream goes on without any grease. You can easily put your makeup on right away over top of it. I have found these products to be fairly priced and considering they work so well, they are definitely worth the money. I encourage anyone to check them out and ask for a few samples to try them for yourself.