Disappointment

Yesterday, a friend and I went to an event being held in a new art/antiques/crafts and funky furniture store. It was billed as a creative get together of crafters and artists - a time when we could create together, feed off each other's ideas and forge new relationships within London's artistic community.

It was NONE of these - it was a joke! And the joke was on us! I'll let my friend's email to the organizer explain in the way only she can - honestly and boldly.

"I would like to say the your 'Create with Me' event was a real letdown and as my friend said 'A total rip-off'. Please do not use the photo you took of us in any of your advertising. You need to polish up your communication and other skills such as punctuality and manners. A proper host should not show up late, stare at their phone most of the time, ignore their guests, forget some refreshments like milk (coffee & terrible mini muffins were offered), not explain anything about your business or your goals, not engage your guests in conversations and ignore us when we left without even getting your butt off the couch to say goodbye. An awkward, boring waste of time. We got all this for $7…please help me understand why we had to pay you this when we brought our own crafts? You are clearly out of your element as a host. Big fail. We felt so sorry for the man who showed up late and was left on his own to colour while you continued to gossip with your friend. I was so embarrassed that I invited my friend to this fiasco I ended up treating her to lunch nearby. We both would like a refund of our $7. You can leave it with Kate-who should seriously evaluate any future 'create with me' events at lost&found."

Needless to say we won't be going back. Oh yes, and I was the friend who said it's "a total ripoff!" Stay tuned to see if we get our money back!

In better news, my refund cheque arrived!! Yippee!! A whopping $204.22! Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! AND all the snow and ice is gone from my patio!! I went out and cleaned up a little bit. I took the tarps off my patio furniture so everything could dry out and of course it's raining today. The kitties have been outside once and now mew piteously whenever I come near the patio door. They have spring fever! I was going to go out on my bike today - the tires feeling quite firm about a winter spent languishing in the basement hallway - but again, it's raining so will have to wait. 

BUT...spring IS in the air!!

Taking That First Step

Sometimes you just have to take that first step. It can be difficult and scary and most of the time we don't do it. We have so many "reasons" that hold us back: the timing isn't right, something bad will happen, it won't work out, it's too much effort, too much money, it doesn't feel safe... blah blah blah.

 However on the rare occasion that I have taken that first step I have found that space usually opens up for good things to happen. It's weird.

When I got the estimate for the basement flooring I was discouraged - it seemed like so much money and here I am on a pension now - should I really be spending that much money? Perhaps I'm a little unrealistic or naive but I didn't think it would cost that much. BUT I had ripped up the previous flooring, thrown it all in the back of faithful Dougie the Dodge, drove to the large construction dumpster that our condo corporation provides twice a year and tossed it all in. It was gone. I had the choice of living with concrete floors (brrrrr & UGLY) or getting some sort of flooring put in. And if I decided to sell the condo some time in the future floors are kinda necessary.

So I gritted my teeth and approved the estimate and away we went. I took that first step into the abyss! And darn it all if good things didn't happen.

• First I got a call that the wrong underlay had been chosen. That was corrected with savings of $132 back to me!
• Then the installers decided that no levelling needed to be done!! And there were 4 packages of flooring that wasn't used in addition to the 2 bags of cement not needed. I received refunds of $303 and $127!! (materials and labour)
• Finally I noticed that they had charged me for 5 transition pieces into other doorways but I only have 3 doorways in the basement that needed transition pieces! That little observation put another $90 in my pocket!  Ca-ching!!
• Savings totalling $652 put the price back into the realm of "possibly affordable" and I was thrilled to say the least. The savings helped to cover the cost of new items for the TV room - a new futon cover and pillows, a set of 3 storage ottomans and most of the cost of a new fireplace/TV stand coming tomorrow along with 2 new chairs!!

 Aside: I HIGHLY recommend Futons to Go!! For $149 I received  futon cover, 2  roll cushions and 2 square cushions with covers.  There are literally hundreds of designs to choose from and it took less than a week to ship from the U.S. I am very pleased!

Other good things have happened too - I received a big refund on car/home insurance (not sure why and afraid to call to find out!!) of over $600!! AND I totally forgot that in November and December I don't have to pay my property taxes (I'm on a 10 month plan) saving me another $304!!  The TV room, my new dishes and my beautiful new dining room rug and PAID FOR!! 

On the down side I did lose my Timmy's card on Monday with about $22.00 left on it :( so I just hope someone found it who needed it. 

The moral of my little story is to take a chance and step outside of your comfort zone. I'm hoping the next time I need to take a first step it'll be a little easier than it was this time. Space will open up but I have to make the first move. 

March Break Begins...

in two more days!!  And I am preparing a list of things I want to get accomplished. For example, I plan to strip the old caulking from around the bathtub and re-caulk it. I'm going to clean the grout between the tiles in the bathroom with bleach. My daughter got a printer with her mactop and has never been able to hook it up to work wirelessly so yes, I'm going to solve that problem (maybe). I MUST get rolling on listing items for sale on Kijiji - that's only been on my TO DO List for a few months... ETC. ETC. I won't be twiddling my thumbs! If I get bored I have these to keep me occupied:

 Right now I'm reading a book on my Kindle AND I'm almost finished "The Introvert Advantage" (you can see my bookmark sticking out.  And Michael wants me to get started on "The Soul of Money" which a friend sent to him on his birthday - he's finished it and is raving about it. I'm really looking forward to being able to sit for a couple of hours and just read :)

Happily I am back on my bike and pedaling like MAD!! Only 120km from Philly (and no, I haven't forgotten about you Sluggy! I have a stubborn 3 pounds to lose to get to my 10 Pound Challenge goal and have (once again) renewed my efforts....sigh... Speaking of losing weight (not) I have my daughter's fave recipe baking away in the oven - it's called No Peeking Chicken (kind of a play on words of Peking Chicken just in case you didn't catch the reference!) It's the easiest recipe in the world!! You put a bunch of skinless chicken in the bottom of a roasting pan - I'm using thighs this time but any parts will do, and cover it with a mixture of a can of cream of celery soup, a can of mushroom soup, a can of water, some sour cream if you have it but that's optional (well, not optional for ME) and a cup full of either wild rice or brown rice. I had some celery stalks that were getting a little floppy so I cut them up and tossed them in too. Mushrooms are nice in this recipe too. Then sprinkle some onion soup mix on top. Put a lid on it and bake 2 hours in a 350 oven - and NO PEEKING because the steam needs to stay in the pot! Yum yum yum!! Course I'm having some chicken but only a teeny weeny bit of rice. Yeah, right!

Last night I worked on income tax as Kazi printed off the tuition forms from her university. I juggled numbers and got us both a very juicy refund. Hers will pay almost half of next year's tuition!! Plus she's mailed forms away for a tuition rebate from last year's tuition that our very in-debt gov't is offering (though probably not for long!) Mine will be put towards my line of credit though I might allow myself a new spring top as it was a robust 15c today with lots of sunshine. One of those days that are such a gift in early spring. So, tonight I file my taxes online and should see the $$ next week! Yippee!!

And finally - Today's Inspirational Moment:

Michael bought these flowers on Valentine's day and has gradually been removing the dead ones as they wilted, dried out and fell onto the table. Yesterday I took this other picture:

this is all that remains after 3 weeks. Michael's been going through a bit of a yucky time and we were inspired by how beautiful these perky little remnants looked floating around in a dish or water. They have no stems anymore and the petals are curling up but there is still a bit of life and loveliness left. Here is what we came up with after having a good long heart to heart talk:

"Even in the midst of our mess we can salvage something good." 


Whenever we go through a tough time we can ALWAYS take away something good. Whether is be a lesson learned, an inner discovery of our own strength or simply the satisfaction of knowing we did our best in a difficult situation there is always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

Here endeth the lesson.