Let's decorate!!!!

Well look! It's an empty corner! Whatever shall I fill it with??????
For the past few years, I haven't put much effort into decorating for Christmas. The reasoning behind this lack of decorating has been because a) i go home to Winnipeg for Christmas so i'm not even here over Dec 25 to enjoy a tree et al. b) i've been in school, thus too busy and too poor to have many decorations and c) i've been somewhat transient, living in different rental suites year after year, and not ever really calling any of them "home".
Enter Dec 2008, and I have now rectified b & c respectively, which in turn has allowed me to say "who cares if i'm not here for Dec 25 and the surrounding days...I still have Dec 1-22 in which to enjoy a festive atmosphere". So i took a trip to Walmart, bought me a (fake) tree and a few ornaments, got out the few decorations already stockpiled in a box, and on Friday night, Pammer and I got to work!!!
My tree came in a nice little box, complete with attached lights and everything...it doesn't get much easier than that!

add a pomegranite martini for good measure, and let the decorating fun begin!!!

We got the tree mostly complete (though a trip back to Walmart was now pending for Saturday afternoon....) and then decided to switch up the fun. So Theresa and Josh came over with Guitar Hero 4, and soon thereafter, Theresa and Chad came by for some rockin' good times!!!!!

We all (and by 'all' i mean Pammer and I) had to concentrate really hard (even on 'easy'...i know, i know...). Pammer and I actually ended up sharing the drums because it was just too much for one person to handle....quit mocking now, I just need to practice more!!!

Chad gave up the guitar for a bit and showed off his high-pitched-out-of-range vocal 'talent'

Theresa and Theresa were very good spectators

And by the end, it was Josh and Chad rocking out (on 'expert' i'm sure...) while the rest of us watched in awe...

Now, back to the decorating. Like I said, another trip to Walmart was in order, and by Sunday night, my tree was pretty much done (except for a few small details, like a tree topper...which will come in good time, once I find one i like) so here are some pictures of my festive living room for your viewing pleasure!!!

Story Time!

Once upon a time, a girl bought a condo that she really loved. One thing she really did not love, however, was the ugly green tile (circa 1994) that framed the fireplace (ok i get that from this distance, the tile may not look too bad, but trust me, it just did not match with my decor. Also, I am realizing that I have not really posted about my new place yet, have I? with pictures? maybe i'll have to do that. in the meantime, here's my living room!).
This ugly green tile also greeted you upon arrival at the condo. The front entrance (shown below) indeed matched the fireplace. Now the problem for the girl who owned the condo was that there was really nothing WRONG with the tile. It was in good shape, it was just UGLY. Anyone who is a homeowner can attest to the fact that the few dollars you may have for home renos are designated to jobs that actually HAVE to be done, and not to jobs that are just "ugly".

Here is where our story takes an interesting turn. Sometime in September, the girl who owned the condo started smelling gas coming from her fireplace. Ok, i guess if we're being honest, there had been the occasional small whiffs at other times, but nothing that really seemed like a big deal, and therefore the girl ignored it. Finally, however, she decided it was probably a good idea to get her fireplace ready for winter, so called a company to set up a service call. Said repairman came and looked at the fireplace, and he fixed a connection, which is where the suspected gas leak was coming from. Problem was, however, that after the connection was fixed, there was still a gas leak coming from somewhere else. Long story short, the gas line for my unit and the 3 units directly below me was shut off because of the mysterious location of said leak. Fastforward to 2 more service calls by gasfitters and we conclude that the leak is coming from a connection in the wall.

Now....here is where the girl who owns the condo begins to see the positive side of this story. First of all, because the leak is in the wall, the repairs are going to be paid for by the Strata. Second of all, the fireplace is going to be pulled out of the wall in order for the repairman to have access to things in behind....which means THE TILE MUST GO!!!!!!!

So, finally, on November 15, things started to get moving!!!! Here is my fireplace, after being pulled from the wall.

This picture is a bit blurry, but i thought it gave a good perspective of things

So then the girl who owns the condo thought to herself "well i can't get pretty new tile around my fireplace and still have the ugly green stuff in the front entrance, can I?" Of course not! Bye bye ugly tile!!

New drywall around the fireplace

The girl who owns the condo goes tile shopping and finds something she really loves. Actually she finds 2 things she really loves. One is really really expensive, and one is just normal prices. what to do, what to do....Well she decides to get the cheaper tile (cuz it's awesome) and use it in the front entrance, and also along the floor infront of the fireplace. And so, on tuesday of this past week, the tile man came and transformed my entrance into something beautiful!!! Hellooooooooooo beautiful grey slate!!! (and now, you should get my reference from the last blog about a blog being "slated" for this weekend...)

And then there's the expensive tile. What to do,what to do? Well, the girl who owns the condo decides to get it, because she believes it will look really great around the fireplace, despite the price (which she is hoping the strata will not contest....)

And just like that, the ugly fireplace has been transformed into the focal point of the room (there's still the matter of the ugly gold bars on the fireplace, but those will be painted all in good time)

And there you have it. The mayham and chaos has been my house in the last week...and wow is my house dusty now...construction is messy!!!!! I feel like i will be cleaning forever! But it's all good because I love my front entrance, and I love my fireplace, and most importantly, I am not slowing dying from gas poisoning anymore!!!!!!!

the end.

stay tuned....

...a new post is "slated" for this weekend....when I actually can find the time to sit down at my computer, upload some pictures and write a little blurb...and thennyou will understand why one word is italicised above....

rain, visits, and one last sunny day

Sorry for the lengthy delay...but it's been a busy couple of weeks!!! Halloween has come and gone, and suddenly it's the middle of November!!!! Where does the time go?!?!?!?!?! Most recently, over this last weekend, my parents came for a visit!!!! Because the stat holiday fell on Tues, I took Monday off too, so had a nice 4-day weekend. My parents arrived last Thursday evening and were here until Tuesday morning. It rained most of the time they were here, so we filled our time with shopping (yay IKEA!!) and lots and lots of games of Settlers!!!!!! Pammer came over a couple of evenings and joined in the Settlers fun!!!!!

Like i said, it is now the rainy monsoon season here on the west coast and it did rain most of the weekend however on Monday, the sun actually showed up for a bit!! We took advantage of the break in the clouds to go for a walk around Mill Lake. It was late in the afternoon, so the sun was going down (and the moon was up) by the time we made our way around the loop, but I still got a couple of pics

lol i love that you can see their cute little feet (as turbo duck sticks his head out of the picture, lol)!!!

The following few pics I took a couple of weeks back, right at the very end of October, as we had a couple of beautiful sunny days and I spent my lunchhours walking and taking pictures

annual pumpkin carving extravaganza!!

Ah Halloween...the time of year when candy is cheap, i'm told i'm too old for trick or treating, and pumpkin carving is the name of the game!! You may be aware that over the past few years (i hope this link works...!!) i have enjoyed the challenge of carving a pretty sweet design on my pumpkins. This year was no exception. On Tues night, i got together with Pammer and Kristi and the festivities began!!

Look! i found a new hat!!

Here's Pammer hard at work

Giving the thumbs up to my carving companions

All our hard work on display!!! From left to right...Kristi's crazy face....my Statue of Liberty...and Pammer's crazy monster man

I was mostly happy with how Lady Liberty turned out...had a few problems with her nose falling off and I had to fish around in the "leftover" pile to find a piece that might work ok...oh well such is the way it was...Now you may be wondering why i decided on this particular pattern...well, it was in tribute to the trip to NYC that Pammer and I took earlier this year!

Happy Halloween!!!

Mazzy and me....one year!!!!

This post is a couple of days late, but better late than never. Last week, October 16, was my one-year anniversary with Mazzy!!! YAY! what a great car Mazzy is, and what adventures we've had over the past year...trips here, trips there....and most importantly, he makes driving FUN!!!!

I love my Mazzy!!!!!

weekend in Harrison

So this past weekend Pammer and I were up at Harrison Hot Springs for a leadership retreat with our church...the retreat and sessions were amazing, as was the weather. After our last session concluded Sunday afternoon, I had to take some pics before heading home.

I like these first two, because in the first one, the foreground is blurred, while in the second one, the focus switched

Here's Pammer enjoying the view


We made a detour on the way home and found this new community under development. After navigating the paved roads, it was time to follow the gravel road, up to where some people are going to have some pretty sweet views once their houses are built up there...

I love sunshiney fall weekends!!!!!!!

a fabulous fall day for fotos

Summer is my favorite season, but I must say, fall isn't that far behind (well, not rainy fall).The weather has been amazing lately....cold and sunny, which i love because it sooooooooo beats the rain, and it also makes for some great photo opportunities. Part of my drive to work is through some farmland (far beats sitting in a traffic jam) and lately i've been gazing longingly at the fields in the morning...they are so beautiful, with the sun just peaking over the trees, the frost and low fog...and if i wasn't about to be late for work, i would pull over just to stare a while longer!! Well by Friday afternoon I had made up my mind: the fall sunshine was to last a couple more days and I had to get up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning to take Mazzy in for his 1 year check-up (that's my car, if you didn't know...next week is mine and Mazzy's one year anniversary).....so why not get up a bit earlier and go shoot some photos? You can always tell what i'm passionate about by whether or not i'm willing to sacrifice sleep for it :)
So i ventured out this morning, braved the cool temps (just a couple of degrees above freezing) and got some shots i'm fairly happy with!


the frost makes it look very wintery in this photo!!

After a dentist appt and a few more errands, it was still gorgeous and sunny out, so Rebs and I decided to go for a walk in the park. This is what i've now concluded: sunny fall day + long weekend = people in good moods!! Almost everyone I walked past in the park offered a cheerful hello! Well i guess that's what sunshine in BC in October will do to you!! Anyway here are some shots from my stroll through Fishtrap Creek...i love the colours of fall!!

i was actually quite impressed that i captured this dragonfly as well as i did...those buggers know how to move!!!
And this little duck was having a great time in the water, frolicing about
I love that someone stuck this leaf on the fence

Well, it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so i'm off to bake some pumpkin pies and watch the Canucks game!! Have a great weekend!!