Indigo Book Giveaway

 

For the third year in a row, Canada's biggest bookstore chain, Indigo was giving books away.  We went last year and I blogged about it here.

The store opened at 9am and we were there just after 8:30am and here was the line.  The weather was glorious, unlike last year when it was cold and drizzling.  A lady from the store went down the line and handed out slips of paper with what book you would like.  You were allowed one book per adult (age 18+).  I of course dragged hubby along with me.  It was very well organized.

By the time the lady got to us; they had no more copies of "Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon" left.    I was going to get that book, but luckily I had two others picked out.  I ended up with:

"Educated by Tara Westover"  I started to read this book on Saturday afternoon and kept thinking to myself, this all sounds familiar.  So decided to look at my Book review blog and sure enough I reviewed it there back in 2019.  You can read my review here.

"The Wager, by David Grann"

The two other books choices were, "Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi" and that is a graphic novel and just not my thing.  "Bear Town by Fredrik Backman" seemed a popular choice with people we were standing with.  I do not enjoy this author at all and its about hockey which again is not my thing.

I have added links to all the book titles, so you can see the synopsis on the books.  I will of course pass on my books when I had read them, like I always do.  As I have said before this is a wonderful thing this company does and it's a Canadian company which is an added bonus!

Busy, busy day....

On Monday we managed to clean out the garage.  This is the before:

This is the after:

Dh took a truck load of garbage to the dump, luckily it was light in weight so only cost $8.99 to dispose off. The blue tarps are to go on the log pile to keep it dry and a big one has to go on the garage roof, as we need a new roof, but it will have to wait for another year.  It was too windy on Monday to go on the roof though.

There is now plenty of room in the garage, even with the tractor to park my car inside.  Mind you it helps that I only have half a car!!!!  I am up to 5,750 kilometres on my mileage with my car.  So I am averaging just over 1,000 kilometres a month; no idea where I go?

Monday was a perfect drying day and I took advantage of it with a pile of laundry, which in turn makes plenty of ironing  to do!!  Then I started cutting the grass, which really needed cutting.  Have you noticed how early it starts to get dark now?  I see the leaves are starting to fall as well.  I hope not to have the heating on for another month yet, but we'll see.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?  Click here to enter.

And the Winner is...................

Kim @ Life at Golden Pines.  Congrats to Kim and a huge thank you to everyone who entered. 

Kim is the lucky winner of these:

I decided to have just the one winner and keep them together as a pair.

Next time I am talking to my step-father I will see if he wants to submit/give me another painting for a giveaway, as I know he enjoys doing them.

I decided to have the giveaway today as it's my Mam's birthday and it's a big one.  We ordered flowers from Marks and Sparks and she said they were gorgeous and great quality and very well packaged. We also thought they were great value and it was free shipping.

Anyhow, congrats again to Kim for winning the pair of paintings.

More decluttering and a change of plans......

So this week's project is the living room.  I have been making excellent progress, but there has been a slight change of plan.  Our township is having a Garage/Yard sale on May 5th, so I have decided to book a table inside at a cost of $10, I have sold one of the VCR Players on Kijiji for $10 so that will pay for our table at the garage sale.  What that means for the living room is the table we have in their is now the holding place for things I want to take to the sale.  So the room doesn't actually look as tidy as I would like BUT I have had a good sort out, thrown a lot of stuff out, recycled stuff, and am going to try and sell some things.  Plus all the boxes in there have been emptied and sorted out.  So here are all the photos.

Some of dd and hubby's wedding presents.  All those green boxes are part of dd dinner service, this pattern. There are more wedding presents up in the attic.

This is the table with all the "stuff" on it for the garage sale and what is on sale in Kijiji at the moment.

Looking over towards the sofa, the bed frame is now laying on the floor behind the sofa, haven't found a home for it yet.  I made the small quilt on the back of the sofa.

This is the Welsh Dresser we have in the living room, we had it made before we came to Canada and I have to say we love it.  All the plates on the dresser are Wedgwood.  The boxes on the right are wall lights for the family room, plus a new door handle for the front door, and a out side light fixture for the basement.

The next photo is of the door to the living room.  Round here it's called a Dutch door, as there were/are a lot of Dutch immigrants who settled in this area.

I found another set of plates that we hadn't put up yet, these ones are German.  So I decided to showcase them on the dresser in the kitchen.  I will say the kitchen dresser looks a heck of a lot better on the photos than in real life.  It was put together by the prior owner and not put together well in my humble opinion.

So after a few days of hard work I have completed week two's challenge.  However there are two boxes of "computer stuff" for dh to go through that is still sitting in the family room........hoping to "encourage" dh to tackle that this week.  Oh, and my back is saying have a rest now!!

Oh, and if you haven't entered my Giveaway, pop over and do it now, click here!!

A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

I mentioned a week or so ago I was going to have a giveaway on my blog and hinted what it was about.  Well they finally arrived in the mail today so all can be revealed.  I asked my step-father to paint me a telephone box to match the post box he painted for me, and then asked him to paint another two pairs.  Dd is taking one of the pairs of paintings and the other two I am giving away to one or two of you.

Here they are:

They are approximately 5" x 7" and are water colours.  I'll be honest with you I don't know whether to give them away to two separate people or keep the pair together?  I will mail all over the world, so it's open to everyone.

The rules, if that's what you want to call them?

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog.
2. Leave a comment on this post and let me know if you think there should be two winners or just the one?
3. I want whomever wins to email me a photo of the framed paintings so I can forward it on to my step-father.
4. Would really appreciate it if you could let the readers of your blog know about the giveaway.
5. I must have a way of contacting you if you win, and if you don't respond within 24 hours of me contacting you I will draw another name.
6. You may only enter the once.

I will draw a name(s) on February 16th, probably around noon time, my time.

Good luck!!

Gorgeous gift........

(The header photo is of dd wedding bouquet)

When dd and hubby came over on Saturday night they brought us the most fantastic gift a photo book of the wedding.  There are some stunning photos in there.  They also brought us a USB stick of the wedding photos, all 700 of them.  I have to go through them when I get time, as I want one enlarged to hang on the wall.  Here is the front cover of the book:

I am still having trouble commenting on people's blogs.  One Simple Farmgirl, you're one of them.  I can read your blog, but when I come to comment I get a white blank page and that is it?  I have no idea what the problem is, hopefully Blogger will figure it out, or if anyone knows what is wrong could you let me know?

Also just a heads up I am going to be having a really good giveaway on my blog in the next couple of weeks, and it has something to do with this: http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-paintings.html

Good news I am up to $30 in my Amazon.ca account thanks to Swagbucks!!!!  Have another $5 to come and hoping to cash in my swagbucks before the end of the month for another $5.

The winner and saving money.......

And the winner is: WENDY

I have emailed her and if I don't hear back from her in the next 48 hours, I will draw another name.


One show I love to watch on TV is "Til Debt Do U$ Part" with Gail Vaz-Oxlade.  I love her no nonsense style and she isn't afraid to call you an idiot when you are being one.  She has a great web site with all sorts of useful resources on it that are free to use; which when you are trying to save money is such a bonus.  Here is a link to it.

We had our first snow on Sunday, not that it lasted for any length of time, but when I was driving home from church it was very difficult to see because of the snow.

I spent Sunday afternoon doing more work on dd birthday card.  It was too cold and snowy to do anything outside.

No sunset on Sunday night, just lots of clouds..........

Last day to enter the giveaway.......

I will be picking the winner of the giveaway later today as the contest closes at 5pm today.  To enter the contest please click on this link

Busy day on Saturday around the Acreage, and Sunday will be not much better, so will post more on what we have been up too.

Enjoy your Sunday and a Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate it.......

Photos from dd and she needs your opinions.....

Dd made Halloween cupcakes for her work and her boyfriend's work.

The mummy one is cute isn't it?

When we were at the Creativ Festival show last weekend, we both bought rubber stamps.  She bought Christmas ones as she wanted to make her own Christmas cards.

These are her first attempts and she would like your suggestions, opinions especially if you are a stamper.

I like the little jewels she got for the top of the Christmas trees.

She used a full background stamp on this one.

I think I like this one the best.....

Also a quick reminder if you haven't already entered my giveaway time is running out, here is the link to it.

It was a real pea souper on Sunday......

Very British like with fog through out the day on Sunday.  I guess it was better than snow, at least you don't have to shovel fog.

Here is a photo of the material I bought.  Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, as I am busy with a cross stitch project.

I had a go with the stamping and it's a lot harder than it looks.  The flower to the right is the one the lady at the show did for me.  I did the two on the left, I need to practice more.  Also blogger turned my photo around?  Why I do not know.........

Sunday was a super quiet day, which suited me just fine.  Made a roast of beef in the crockpot.  The recipe is here, and in my humble opinion is the only way to cook beef.   I made enough potatoes for another meal, all I need to add is some veggies.

If you haven't already and live in Canada or the States, please enter my giveaway by leaving a comment on this post

Poor Molly, and a few other things.......

On Wednesday Molly had her tooth extracted and below is the evidence!!! She was missing half the tooth it turned out.

It turns out we did it just in time, as she had a lot of problems with it; it was pretty rotten and her body was fighting the rotten part of the tooth.


I picked Molly up at 4pm and she was still a bit groggy poor thing.  Here she is laying on the sofa. If you click on the photo you will see how glazed over her eyes is.

She had a rough night and was up a number of times with diarrhea.  I am so glad I don't have a new born in the house, as I was pooped by morning.  Anyhow when we got up in the morning, she seemed a lot better and was wagging her tail, which is always a good sign.  She did finally have something to eat and drink by lunch time.  However she is only allowed soft foods for ten to fourteen days until her stitches heal; she had four stitches.

Do you want to buy a church?  This one is for sale.  It's actually a lovely church, I was inside it last year.  It's in a lovely little village called Mono Centre.  I'm not sure I could live in a church could you?

Mono Centre also has a real British telephone box:

Have you entered my Giveaway yet?  Here is a link to it.

Finally turned the heating on, on Thursday.  Not that it was on through the day.  We had snow flurries up the road from us.  Just streamers off the lake, but it's gone cold and I still haven't got everything done for Winter.

Another Giveaway.........

This I must say is a good one.  I have been thinking about getting a barstool for my island in the kitchen and have seen some that I like on this site.  I have been fortunate enough for them to ask me to do a review on an item from their main site.  They have also offered to supply me with a $70 gift card for this site for one of my readers as a thank you.

Unfortunately this time it will be restricted to people who live in the States and Canada.  I’m hoping down the road if I am able to do this again, that maybe we can include the rest of the world.

So here are the rules:

1.    You have to live in the States or Canada to be eligible (please indicate which country you live in.)

2.    You need to go to the site and tell me which Bar Stool you like the best and put that link in with your comment.

3.    You need to leave me your email address if you don’t have a blog where I can reach you at.

4.    If you promote this giveaway on your site (need to provide link and a separate comment) you will get an extra entry.

5.    The winner will be drawn on Sunday October 31^st, 5pm my time, which is EST.  I will contact you then and you have 48 hours to get back to me with a valid email address, as the gift card code will be emailed to you.

For those of us in Canada, please be aware there will be “international fees” of around $20 on your purchase, those are duties, taxes etc, that we always have to pay.

Good luck and I hope you enter…….

Creative souls that we are.........

You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see the detail.  This is a Sudoku birthday card, that I made by cross-stitching the main design and card for the rest of it.  The pattern is here, about half way down the page, it is a pdf file.  I had a heck of a job finding a Happy Birthday logo, and the numbers.  I tried all the usual places with no luck.  I may have to order them online in the future.  This is one of two that I will make for a couple of guy birthday's that are coming up.  The puzzle is a little bit harder, and as I know the two guys love doing Sudoku as much as me, they will enjoy solving it.  I am planning on using a different colour than the yellow for the numbers on my next one, as it is hard to see.

Dd is as "crafty" as I am, and at the moment is into cake decorating.  They are having a fund raiser at work for the flood victims in Pakistan, so she was going to make ladybug cupcakes.  She thought she would try out the idea first before taking them into work.  They turned out nice didn't they?  She is making both her boyfriend's and her dad's birthday later this month as well.  Can't wait to see what she does.

When we were in Collingwood the other day I picked up this print.  I have it hung in the mud room, so it is the first thing you see when you walk into the house.

Today is the final day to enter my blog giveaway.  So if you haven't already entered here is the link to the post where you may enter.

Today's Flower and a reminder about my blog giveaway

These are not my flowers, but how I wish they were.  I love how the colours inter mingle and compliment one another.  These flowers were at Blue Mountain which we visited the other day.  I took more photos, which you can see on this post.

To see more of the Today's Flower posts please click on the link.

I also wanted to remind you of my first ever blog giveaway.  To enter you must leave a comment on this post.  The deadline is fast approaching before the contest closes!!!

Great day out..........and the giveaway.

We took my brother up to Blue Mountain in Collingwood for a day out on Monday.  Dh has never been before, and me and my  brother hadn't been there for 30 years.  It's a big ski resort, but is still busy during the summer, with people hiking, mountain biking and just enjoying the area. 

There was a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain.  You could walk up the mountain, however as you know I am totally allergic to exercise and with temperatures in the low 40's with the humidity, onto the gondola we went!!!

Have to admit not keen on heights, but the view was stunning.

That's the Blue Mountain village at the bottom of the mountain, with Georgian Bay in the background.  It was quite hazy with the humidity.

Another view of the village.

This was one of the neat lifts that was used to carry mountain bikes to the top of the mountain.

We went to Firehall Pizza for lunch and it was really good.

Finally we saw this truck, thought our other brother would love it.

We were quite impressed with the place and it looks like a fun place to stay.  However we are not winter sports lovers; come to think of it, can't say we are summer sports lovers either!!

All in all we had a smashing day with good company.

If you haven't entered my blog giveaway, here is the link

My first ever Blog Giveaway!!!

I am having my first ever giveaway, pretty exciting eh!!!

For those of you who are regulars on my blog you know I have been busy with putting together a recipe book to raise funds for the church I attend.  The book arrived last week and in celebration of that I am giving away two copies of the book.

I did have help with certain things. One lady was an absolute dear in proofreading everything for me, and even input some of the recipes. As I soon discovered that although I have lived in Canada for 21 years, I still have a lot of British ways about me, in the way I write, and cook! Her husband did the artwork for the front of the book. Another guy did the original artwork for the dividers in the book. Two other ladies came up with the idea of the Liturgical Section, and between me, them and the Vicar completed that section.

Now to "win" one of these books is pretty simple:

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog.
2. I have to have a way of getting in touch with you.
3. Tell me the name of your favourite recipe that you use over and over again.  If you have a link to it on your blog, all the better, but not a prerequisite.  Mind you remember that may encourage more people to pop by your blog!
4. Oh, and you must comment on this post to enter.

The contest closes at 5pm (my time, 10pm in England, 2 pm on the west coast of Canada and the USA) on Monday September 6th, 2010.  I will post the winners names on Tuesday September 7th, 2010.  The winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email, then I will draw again.

**This contest is open to people all over the world.  Depending on who wins and where they live, I may end up sending the recipe book surface mail.......just a warning!!

Today's Flower and an announcement.....

This is a Pillar Clematis, that I got earlier in the year.  I have it growing in and up this rusty iron obolisk.  It is such an unusual clematis, for me as I normally grow the larger flower ones.  However I must say this is ever so pretty.

For more of Today's Flower's photos, please click on the link

I am having a Giveaway on my blog starting tomorrow.  So please check back on Monday to see what it is all about!!