Pocketful of Memory Cards

No special theme this week for my declarations of gratitude.  I'm just grateful for: the clear roads and easy drive to and from Penticton this weekend. the opportunity to see Nano Stern 's performance Saturday night at  The Dream Cafe .   If you have the chance to see him I highly recommend it.  He's performing in the CBC studio in Vancouver tomorrow so you may get a chance to hear him on the radio.  He's a talented musician and an excellent entertainer - funny and informative.  The Dream Cafe is also a great venue and the food was delicious! Watch for more details on our visit to Penticton in a post later this week. the fact that we are 99% finished the main floor renos. our realtor, Ellen Churchill who has been a great help with suggestions for the house.  She's taken us through a number of places in our preferred location and I'm always grateful for her honest appraisals and thoughtful suggestions. the sunny February we've had. ...

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home .   - Anonymous I've never been very sentimental about houses.  To me a house is a collection of things - wood, nails, glass and paint.  A  home  is what you make with your family.  When you pack up your belongs  from one place, home goes along with you in your heart, to be unpacked in your new place.  I just can't relate to friends who sigh and say how much they are going to miss their house when they move.  Maybe it's because I enjoy change.  We moved four times in the first four years we were married, and we've lived in eight different houses all together.  We're working on getting into number nine this year.   The process has been a little stressful and Monday morning I dreamed the realtor called and told me "You're listing your house tomorrow."  The thought of that made my husband and I laugh when I told him about it at breakfast.  It...

I haven't had the time or opportunity to take many photos the past few days so this week's Wordless Wednesday was looking a bit sparse.  Instead, I decided to find out what sort of celebrations might be going on today and look for a corresponding photo from the past week.  Every day is some sort of special day like "Talk like a pirate day", "Hug a ginger day" etc.  But what would one google to learn today's designation? I typed in "today is ..." to see what would come up but google did not finish the sentence in any helpful way. OK ,  I'll just finish it off and see what turns up, I thought.  I typed the first thing that popped into my head... "today is love yor dog day."  (Yes, I typed 'yor') Guess what?   Today is "Love Your Pet Day".   ...and we do love our little fur children. a typical weeknight in front of the PVR

Heart-shaped cloud , a photo by aivas14 on Flickr.  Posted with permission. As many of you know, February is heart month and for the fourth year, I'm  canvassing in my neighbourhood and online. Thanks to many of you reading this, in  2011 the Heart & Stroke Foundation spent over $54 million on research into heart  defects, improving stroke outcomes and more. Another $47 million was  spent on health promotion programs such as grants that support kids'  health, free CPR training events and community health workshops. I've set a goal of $400 again this year and any amount you could donate  to help achieve this goal would be very much appreciated, perhaps even  by someone close to you. Nine out of ten Canadians have at least one  risk factor for heart disease which claims the life of a Canadian every  seven minutes.   To donate follow this link:    www.heartandstroke.ca/give  , select BC and Yuko...

They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so this week I thought I'd illustrate gratitude with some photographs. Happiness can be very easy to find.  How does he make these perfect eggs? June 9, 1984 Three new playmates

* update 2015.  This is an old post and the store is no longer located here infact as far as I can tell it's gone out of business.  If you have other information please let me know in the comments. If you've been following along, you'll know that shopping features prominently on my "Things I'd rather not do" list.  The more often I go downtown however, the more I realize that downtown Kelowna is a great place to shop, full of quirky little stores and boutiques that carry original works and out of the ordinary things you won't find in every chain store in the mall.   I thought I'd take the opportunity to promote some of these shops, especially while the west end of Bernard Avenue is under construction and might appreciate a little more promotion. Since I've been in decorating mode for the past six months I thought I'd start with Woodcreek Cottage Home Decor and Gifts owned by Sandy Hyatt and Diane Scott. You can enter the store ...

A few days before the first of February I came across a blog with a suggestion to do "14 days of  Valentines gifts" for your partner, similar to the "Twelve Days of Christmas".  Hubby and I don't usually exchange Valentines Day gifts.  In fact we don't exchange a lot of gifts in general. When we go on our yearly holiday we call that our Christmas/ Birthday/Anniversary/Valentines Day present to each other.  It is nice to get a gift once in a while though, so I thought this idea might be fun.  Here's what I did for my hubby for "The Fourteen Days of Valentines".  On the first day of February my true love gave to me... ....a pineapple in a pink bag. (That one's an inside joke related to some of our tropical vacations.) ....two chocolate Porters (Thanks to the always helpful red headed lady at the  Mission Mall Liquor Store, whose name I can't remember) ...three little pigs ...four hot dates (found t...