Random photos from down the town.......

We went to a wedding on Saturday, so I prepared this post Saturday morning.  I took all the photos from my car when I drove through town earlier in the week.  Don't worry I was either stopped at the lights, or stopped for turning traffic when I took each one.  None are particularly interesting but I did include a couple of facts with some of them.

Giant Tiger is a Canadian firm sort of like a grocery store, that also sells clothes, and house wares, a bit of everything.  We had a smaller one in town, but they moved to this new premises which is a lot, lot bigger.  It was where the old Zellers used to be.  Haven't been in it yet, as I couldn't be bothered to go in.  I went to the store to the right of it Mark's Work Wearhouse to get dh a new dress shirt for the wedding.  They sell the best shirts there.

 The town Alliston has adopted a phrase called "RURBAN," a cross between Urban and Rural.  I get it,  we are a bit of both.  It was a small farming town with limited other industries until a Honda Plant came into town in 1989.  It has since expanded at a rapid rate.

 I took this photo to illustrate how dismal it looks this time of year with no green in the grass or on the trees.  I call this "the dirty time of year."  Once Spring is in full flow, things look prettier.

 I love this store in the middle of town it has a bit of everything for the house.  We got our end tables for the living room for there.  Once I save up enough money I'll be buying more things from them.

 If you look in the distance you can see a church steeple?

 Here is that church closer up.  It's St. John's United Church   I couldn't find a definitive age of when this church was built.

All in all not overly exciting but if you click on the links it may be more interesting for you.

Just a look at the town in which we live.

Open House, more light fixtures and someone was 3 months old on Sunday!

Despite mine and dh's reservations, the open house on Sunday was a success as Sarah said there were seven different families over.  All were positive, but none were able to make a firm offer, as all/some had properties to sell.  Sarah was pleased though so that was good. In a city property that would be normal, but in a country property that is unusual to have so many people at an open house.

We had to go out for the two hours, so I dragged dh to a couple of stores including Rafters Living Lighting Store to look at light fixtures.  As although the builder does put in light fixtures, I never like them!!  All the light photos below are to go over the dining room table.

This one was lovely in "real life," the photo doesn't do it justice.  This one was $740.......did I mention I have expensive tastes...LOL This light fixture was from this company.

 We loved this one and it was cheaper at $640.  

 Here is a close up of the light and here is the web site for the firm.

 Liked this one as well, but forgot to get the company information.

 Then here is Miss Nora at three months old.  The headband was soon off as it turns out she neither likes headbands nor shoes on her feet!!

Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks of hers!!  Just a head's up her 4 month photo will have a St. Patrick's Day theme I am told!!

Finally, if you enjoy looking at figures/statistics/graphs, here is a link for the numbers for people looking at our house photos online: 

http://tourstats.obeo.com/stats_main.cfm?ID=852110&year=2014

New photo of Miss Nora:

This photo was taken on November 27th.  She is back to her birth weight and is even sleeping through the night up  to a five hour stretch at a time, which is really good.   She is more alert and aware of whats going on around her.  Her hair looks darker but I think it's the way the light is.  Can't wait to see her tomorrow!!!

 Isn't this a super cute outfit?  They were gifted it and its from Gymboree  It's a six month size so goodness knows when Miss Nora will wear them as she is still in newborn sizes.

I will catch you all up with what has been going on, on Sunday.  It's been a super busy week around here and probably won't slow down for a while.

All about the birds (photo heavy)..........

I have mentioned before about the male red cardinal attacking his reflection in our window.  It still hasn't stopped and is driving us crazy, plus it must be hurting him as there is blood on the window now.  So on Sunday we headed to Barrie to Wild Birds Unlimited to see what they stocked.  The Barrie Store is one of the franchise stores and is owned and operated by Steve, Dianne and Kristen Martyn.  Kristen was working on Sunday and was a fountain of information.

The store is laid out so nicely and is bright and airy. 

I bought one of theses stackable feeders and it was a pretty good deal at $16 for the food and the feeder.  They would make a great Christmas gift.

Everywhere you looked there was more product all displayed nicely.

The different types of feeders were so different and as Kristen told us, each one had it's pros and con's depending on what type of bird you wanted to attract.

The floral display in the rain boots was a lovely touch.

Even the bag every thing was packed in was really pretty and reusable.  I bought a small bag of Safflower seed to try, as black birds and squirrels don't like it but other birds do, you can read more about it here.

I also decided to sign up for the daily saving club which cost $25 for the year, there is more info here  For joining I also got a small bag of No Mess Blend of bird seed, more about that here, a suet feeder holder and a clip to keep seed fresh, plus an information book, with a 20 % off coupon in it.

Now the reason we went to the store was to try and cure the red cardinal problem.  So I bought the product below called "Cardinal Alert." It's a strip 6 inches by 48 inches and you put it on the bottom of your window on the outside.  I will say the reviews are not that great for the product but anything is worth a try.  I'll let you know how we get on.  As I am typing this on Sunday evening the cardinal and his wife have been by but he didn't attack the window.

We also bought a feeder that you stick on the window; that has a life time guarantee which is good.  Plus we bought some butterfly decals and you can see the Cardinal Alert strip at the bottom of the window.

You can follow Wild Birds Unlimited Barrie store on Facebook; there are all sorts of interesting information on there with some lovely photos of birds.

To see if there is a Wild Birds Unlimited store near you click on this link.

My poor hand, and more Christmas shopping...

My right hand is still giving me heck and is sore at the moment, as on Saturday and Monday I painted doors, and door and window trim down the basement.  I need to do another coat of paint on them, so took Tuesday off and will do the final coat today.

Dh mentioned the other day that I need to take the car out every few days otherwise it will seize up.  So decided on Tuesday morning to drive into the big town of Orangeville to do some shopping.  I had to call into the dollar store to pick up a few things.  Then I popped into From the Kitchen to the Table and picked up some Christmas presents, including the pizza stone and paddle which is for "R" & "M" for Christmas.

The book I bought on Bookcloseouts for $11.99 on Amazon it was just over $20.  So that is them finished.

I then discovered a new to me store called Acheson's in Orangeville.  What a feast for the eyes that store was.  It's decorated for Christmas and everywhere you look there is something new to see.  I did get something in there, but can't share with you what I got until next week.  I was very impressed with the customer service in there.  I need to go back with my camera, as you would also enough looking at the things in there.

I decided I would also call in at an independent book store called "Book Lore."  For anyone who reads books this is a book lovers paradise.  I was just browsing on Tuesday but managed to walk out with a cooking magazine and a little book for the new baby.  Their children's section was wonderful and I can see me popping in there on a more regular basis.

The funny thing is I have been past these stores many times but never have been in them.

Talking about books, I am have just started the book called, "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," by Rachel Held Evans.  I will do a post about it when I get it read, so far so good though.