@#*?!% Cold!

This week has been beyond cold. All week the temperatures have ranged from -13 to -28 with the wind chill. More than 10 minutes outside and your face feels like you have had an inordinately large amount of botox injected into it. On the plus side it has been sunny.

It's been another busy week at work the temperatures don't seem to have deterred people from working, or orders coming in. By Friday I finished getting all the new stuff up in the showroom and it looks pretty neat. We printed an internal door and some ceramic wall tiles which are now on display, these are by far my favourite items we have printed to date on the flatbed printer and the fact you can turn a 29c plain white tile into a custom design is something that definitely appeals to me. I shall be taking some photos this week for an up coming conference, so next time I blog I might put a couple of them up for you to see.

In other news, my friend Suzanne lost her husband this week after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.

Nancy, Deb, Cheryl and I went along to the funeral on Saturday to support her. Even though I didn't know him, it was incredibly sad, but the service/Mass was very beautiful and quite uplifting with the choices of prayer and song.

Robert and I will be heading of for a week's break in the sun on Friday this week, we are meeting my Dad and Marjorie down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a cruise around the Caribbean, which I am so looking forward to. As I get back the day before my birthday and will have much to sort out, a few of us are celebrating on Feb 23 and going out for...you guessed it fish and chips!

So this will be my last update for a couple of weeks, I hope to return with a arsenal of photos to share. Finally, birthday wishes go out to my friend Lorraine for Feb 3,  I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Until next time here are some more images from Peggy's Cove and some forgotten images from the archives.

Another Postcard from Peggy's

A Bit Ropey

Winter at Peggy's Cove (2012)

Faded Beauty

Snow

Another busy week done and dusted. Time has just flown by this week, probably largely due to the fact I was sick on Wednesday and spent the remainder of the week playing catch up.

I am in the middle of adding to and improving the showroom, I commissioned another cabinet to be made before Christmas and it was delivered this week and now I have some more wall space to fill with samples, which I shall be working on next week. Ideally I would like to get it looking ship shape by the end of next week as I have to photograph it for a conference being held next month.

We have more than our fair share of snow this week which has irritated me somewhat. Friday being the worst day as it caught me out, Rob left early as usual and it had started when he left, but by the time I left for work I had to clear the car and try and defrost the inside which was well and truly iced up. Having accomplished this I crawled my way to work quite literally behind a snow plough and was late! It came down all morning and then the sun came out in the afternoon, I think it was around minus 10 but it didn't actually feel that cold.

My Newfie pal Sarah met me from work and came home with me for a few beers and some dinner, it was a good night and we had plenty to catch upon as I haven't seen her since November.

I am updating the blog early this week as I have no plans for the rest of the weekend, as I am in full hibernation mode thanks to the weather. Of course it hasn't escaped my notice that the UK is in the throws of a deep freeze too, plenty of snow causing chaos as always on the roads. Welcome to our world :o)

On Dry Land at Peggy's

Winter Blues at Prospect



Low Tide at Prospect

Crazy Busy!

What a week, I have been flat out at work. All of a sudden, I think my colleagues have realised I am a designer and I have been given all manner of jobs one on top of the other. I have designed an ad to go on a door (as we print direct to doors and we want to display one in the showroom). I have put together a new marketing flyer advertising this service also, I have also created another flyer for some surveying equipment and done a couple of signs for people and a business card for a customer.
I still have 2 new posters to design and some promo marketing for a hockey match. All this as well as keeping on top of my invoicing and training up one of the other girls to do my billing and admin when I am away. The week has quite literally flown past and I was knackered beyond belief come Friday!

That said, the weather was too good to waste on Saturday, a balmy 3 degrees and beautifully sunny. I have been itching to get outside and try out the camera, so Rob and I took a quick trip to Peggy's. I haven't been out there in such a long time. The lighthouse was given a much needed lick of paint back in the summer and she looks so pretty again now.

Today I have been tinkering with the blog a little bit. I have revamped the message forum. It's not as pretty now sadly! My old forum was great, but it was costing me money annually to maintain it as as no one has left a message on it since August 2012, I didn't see the point in renewing it and have opted for a free one instead. It's pretty self explanatory, I think you just have to create a member user name and password. all topics will be under the general folder. There is one welcome message from me in there already. If you get the chance give it a go and let me know that it is working for you. There is a small text link at the top and bottom of the page which you can click on to get back to the blog.

 

A New White than White Peggy's (Click to view large!!!)



Classic Peggy's The Old Shack and Colourful Buoys



Happy New Year!

 So it's the first post of 2013! I almost didn't make it. As I left off last week Rob and I had been round to Nancy's for dinner and in the early hours of the morning I got very sick, I was throwing up and couldn't get warm at all. It was the longest night with numerous trips to the toilet. Thankfully whatever it was only last 24 hours, but I did feel like death warmed up.

Rob and I saw the New Year in at home with Anne, Smiffy and some chinese food! We watched some telly until late and some who will remain nameless, fell asleep. I am not generally a fan of New Year's Eve but spending it with good friends was very nice and my kind of evening for sure.

New Years Day I couldn't wait to get the Christmas tree and decs down. It took a while especially the tree as so many of the ornaments were tangled up on there thanks to my lively 4 legged friend. I felt a bit sad for him actually as he looked a bit lost when everything was packed away.

The only other good thing about this past week is Celebrity Big Brother starting. I am already fully immersed into the action and cannot wait to see Spencer and Heidi (Speidi) stir it up. If you have no clue as to who I am talking about, they were in 'The Hills' and I really didn't like them, but I couldn't stop watching them either. After the Hills they did I'm a Celeb USA and caused all kinds of drama on there and although their new housemates are wary of them I don't think they have any idea of of how bad they can actually be...Yay! My only hope is that they don't get voted out too soon. The down side to BB is that they have put that annoying, camp Rylan from X Factor in there who in my opinion looks like Katie Price with a beard!

Dancing on Ice starts today and I cannot wait to watch it. I tweeted Keith Chegwin wishing him well on the ice and he direct messaged me back...He is now officially my 2nd celebrity tweeter.

It's snowing again here today, just flurries but it will add the frozen mess that was left behind from the snowfall we had last weekend. We didn't get the 25 cm as predicted more like about 8 cm I would say. I was going to go out and take some photos today but in all honesty I would rather be warm and toasty inside.



Have you got 2013 pegged?





Almost 2013

Blimey it seems more like 3 weeks than under seven days since I last updated the blog.

I hope all my readers had a wonderful Christmas. I must say ours did not disappoint. Christmas morning we slept in a bit and opened up some pressies, watched a some TV and then headed out to Anne's parent's cottage on the Eastern Shore. The weather on Christmas Day was stunning, beautifully sunny so it made for a lovely drive out there.

Once there we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Anne, Smiffy, Pat and Roy (her parents) and Mike her brother. I have to say that our Christmas dinner was quite possibly one of the best I have ever had. A wonderful meal beautifully cooked and presented. We chatted late into the evening and left around Midnight...All over too soon. Pat Gave us some toys for Shakespeare and he was more than happy to try them out when we got back...I didn't realise at first glance that they were catnip filled....at 3 am Boxing Day morning he was still bouncing round the house on a catnip high...The tree took yet another pounding!

Boxing Day we spent the whole day doing nothing apart from eating rubbish and watching films and Christmas specials. Definitely my kind of day! Thursday it was back to work for Rob and I. The forecast said rain, what we actually got was around 4 -5 cm of blizzard snow, followed by rain, which was a joy to drive and walk in...NOT.  Most of Thursday at work I had time on my hands to mull over my Getty money and whether or not to spend it in the sales, By 5 pm I had reached a decision, so as soon as Rob got back from work we headed to the mall to buy my new camera. I have upgraded now to the Canon 60D, in the kit I also got the 18-200 mm lens. I love it. It's heavier than my other camera, and is taking me a bit of time to get used to holding it, but the great thing is I now only need the one lens for pretty much everything. I just cannot wait now to get outside and shoot some landscape shots with it.

Friday we worked again, the day dragged as there was really nothing to do. So I left early and headed home to watch more TV. On Saturday I decided it was time to sell off some of my older camera gear, so I bundled up My old 350D body a 55-200 mm lens and some other accessories, photographed it and bunged an advert up on Kijiji (local classified ads online). I didn't hold out much hope in truth, as the last item I tried to sell on there didn't even get a look in. But amazingly within 30 minutes of placing the ad I had a chap contact me via e-mail. He came round within the hour and took the lot for $200.00 I was thrilled.

Saturday evening Nancy invited us round for dinner. It's the first time I have seen her place all decked out for Christmas and how pretty it looked. She has an amazing, realistic artificial tree that is so beautifully decorated (image at top)...Nothing like mine! We headed back around 9 pm to avoid the forecasted snow. As I am typing this is is 1.39 am on Sunday morning, the snow is supposed to arrive over night...Nothing yet but if the prediction is right we will have around a foot of snow by the afternoon...I will keep you posted on that!

Until then Happy New Year!!! And here is yet another photo of Shakespeare, this time in a bag!

The first shot with my new camera!

 

Merry Christmas!

Just a brief update today as I really don't have much to say.
A surprising busy work week for the run up to Christmas. I thought that is would be pretty quiet but in fact it has been the opposite, which is great as I hate not being busy at work as it makes the days so long when there isn't much to do.

I seem to have spent most of the week recovering from that party last weekend. I think I suffered the effects of an extended hangover on Monday morning. I was so stiff all over from those dance moves I was walking around like a 90 year old....Still am in truth!

Saturday night Rob and I attended Anne's Open House party. Great company as always and the food was excellent! By popular demand...me asking...Anne's mum brought some of her bean dip along which I had tried back in the Summer and loved!  We left there at around 1.30 am and seeing as the cold drive back woke us up we stayed up for at least another hour or so at home watching 'The Toys that made Christmas' Quite cool taking a walk down memory lane with some much loved toys throughout the decades.

Today I am of course knackered. It's mid afternoon now and I have only been up for a couple of hours. Nancy is popping round later, it will be the first time she has met Shakespeare, so lets hope he is on his best behaviour!

As this is my last post before Christmas, let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas! See you on the other side!

Hangover

I think the title of this post will tell you how I am feeling today! Aside from encountering computer issues this week I don't have a whole heck of news apart from the staff Christmas party last night.

I am pretty sure I am not the only person nursing a serious hangover this morning. What a good night it was. The company hosted a dinner and dance at a local club. I don't think anyone was much interested in the turkey dinner...Which was okay...It was more about socialising and drinking of course. Poor Robert drove, so he was pretty reserved and promptly forgot the names of everyone I introduced him to. I think all my work colleagues were interested in finally meeting the mysterious husband they have never seen. It was great getting to meet a lot of the 'other halves' as well.

As soon as the dinner was over the dancing commenced, I was pretty plastered by the time I hit the dance floor and threw some interesting shapes! Gangnam Style was entertaining as was Smooth Criminal I do believe I attempted some moon walking and a crutch grab...I dread to think how many beers a glugged, (possibly in the region of abut 15), but this morning, my head was pretty muzzy and my body ached in parts I never knew could ache! One of my co workers Sean brought a case of beer to the party and aside from the free drink we got, he kept supplying me with extra beer from his truck, if I thought I was hammered you should have seen the state of him at the end of the evening.
Even our VP of Eastern Canada was up kicking it on the floor. I am sure there will be some recounting of the evenings events, come Monday morning....Oh dear!

Shakespeare has continued his reign of terror on the Christmas tree this week, and has broken several more ornaments as he scrabbles his way inside it. Below is a very poor quality phone image taken of him in the tree last night.

It's not a real tree....But he doesn't care :o)