The Captive and Visiting the Grandkids

Another visit come and gone, 14 hours on the Greyhound Bus there and another 14 hours home.  It's a long trip, but worth every uncomfortable minute.

Whilst I was visiting the grandkids (and their mum and dad of course), I was invited to spend the evening with their day care provider, a delightful lady named Anna, and have dinner with her family.  After dinner we took in this movie, see what you think of it.

This is a Canadian thriller, directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Mireille Enos and Ryan Reynolds.  You may remember Mireille from "The Killing", a series of three distinct stories which revolved around a single murder.

The captive is essentially an abduction thriller, set over time span of eight years. Mireille Enos and Ryan Reynolds play the parents, whose daughter is kidnapped one day outside of coffee shop. The agonising search for leads on the identity of the kidnapper is set over a period of 8 years. Scott Speedman and Rosario Dawson provide strong support as the lead police officers assigned to the case. The audience is already aware of the identity of the kidnapper which allows us to empathise more with the parents and police officers involved.

There are frequent time shifts within the movie, centring around events just after the abduction, six years after the incident and finally eight years, leading to the film’s climax. Some reviewers have criticized this, as there was no indication, the audience is left to work out what has happened.

The main conflict which fleshes out the middle part of the movie are the themes of guilt, the distraught mother blames her husband for the abduction and in turn he blames him self.  I enjoyed this movie, they can't all be terrific but I think it was worth the price of entry.

As usual, I had a great time visiting and as usual, it went by way too fast.  Each time I try to stay a little longer.  Rhys is now in school full-time, in SK and seems to love it, Katherine still has a way to go before she starts JK.  Unfortunately both Niki and I came down with terrible colds (or was it flu) which put a little bit of a dampner on things, especially as my other son who lives in Toronto came to visit for a few days so I had to make an effort to at least go out with him a few times.  I'm still not over it two weeks later.

Just one little project to show you this time, gosh, I have been lazy, LOL  This is a rather unique shaped shelf.  Someone is going to love it for their knick-knacks.  I did it in grey and shabbied it.

It was another busy day at my little shop, The Church Street Boutique and this time I decided to give away one of my hand-crafted pendant necklaces with each purchase.  Everyone was delighted but some were reluctant to accept as they were already getting some great deals, but that's what we are all about, great deals and making people happy.

Not much to blog about this time taking into account my trip and my cold.

Here are a couple of photos of the darlings, they are always a joy to see.....

Rhys's first day at SK

Sweet Katherine

Rhys drying off

Katherine, finding Daddy amusing

And that's it for now my friends.  I hope you are all healthy and life is treating you well.  Until next time, take care....

Hugs, 

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

"This added part is an update (Sunday, 6th Jan.): as you will see from my comments beneath, I had trouble posting my photos.  Imagine my horror when I found out that after all that hard work uploading them to Picasa they didn't even show up in my blog.  I have been spending the last two or more hours trying to figure out how to get them back on and thanks to a lovely lady named Rae Ann, I tried it her way, using HTML and it seems to have worked.  I hope that I don't have to do this every time I blog because it sure is a work out.  Sorry for any of the photos I couldn't retrieve - I don't save every photo I take.  Hugs, Chris"

For the first time, I have been having trouble in uploading photos from my computer onto my blog.  I have always been able to do it so easily but now I find that I have to go through a Google based programme called Picasa.  Is everyone else who uses Blogger in the same boat?  I'm sure that once I get used to it, it will be as easy as pie but to get started it means that I have to transfer all my photos into individual albums from which to draw the photos which I wish to use in my current blog.  Phew, I am so tired of doing this procedure this evening that I just might take a break and go and do something else until I get my breath back, LOL

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and are now looking forward to a peaceful and healthy New Year.  I know I am.  I had a very quiet Christmas, spent with my eldest son and we enjoyed a very nice repast, made by moi, took all day to cook and was polished off in about 30 minutes - doesn't that happen to everyone?  My three sons and family joined together and bought me a fabulous new TV.  I had been resisting getting a new one because the old one worked just like it did the day it was purchased, but with technology constantly changing, I couldn't have my DVD player and the Digital Box connected at the same time and plugging in and unplugging became a bit of a nuisance.  That gave the sons, DIL and grandchildren something really special to be able to get for me and I truly appreciate it.  Why I resisted for so long I just don't know.  Here's a picture of it - aren't I spoilt?



As usual, I have been busy creating and refinishing items for my Boutique.  It's not like I need to do this to fill empty spaces, no, on the contrary, I barely have room to move in there.  I guess you could say that I am addicted to being crafty.  These are a few things that I have been working on over the holidays......

I made some animal magnets.  I had leftover animals from a previous craft, bookends which you will see in my previous post, and decided to put them to good use.  I just hope that someone will take pity on me and buy a few.

A couple of crow pictures which I found on the net and painted

on canvas, giving them my own individual look.



I'm sure this little group reminds you of a famous singing group.  I made silhouette images and mod podged them onto a painted canvas and then framed them.  I was quite a fan of these young men in my heyday, and even received a beautiful smile from one of them when I saw them live.  I'm not kidding!!

I spent quite a bit of time painting and shabbying these beauties - if I didn't already have a nice set of glass end tables I would consider keeping them for myself and they certainly would go with my decor - they have a mirror insert......

I also did this small table and shabby-chiced it too.....

I painted a few chalkboards for the kiddies as well...........



Kellee and Kathy, two delightful ladies with whom I worked at the Library did this unusual Christmas tree for the Main Library just in front of the Circulation Desk for all to admire - what a neat idea...

My dear friend Laurie from   http://iloveacloudyday.blogspot.ca/

came around with a large slice of brownies which she had just made, in fact they were still warm.  They were peanut butter and chocolate chip, something I had never tasted before in a brownie, and they were delicious.  I would have posted a photo of them but they disappeared so fast - my son thought they were great, as did I.

Well, that's it for this post.  I am ending it with some photos of my most favourite people and then I'm going to give myself a headache and work on uploading more photos to Picasa.  Let me know what you think of this programme and if you find it easy to use.

Have a fabulous weekend.  I'm working at my Boutique in the morning so I had better get cracking and figure out this Picasa thing and get to bed.  'Til next time.  Hugs,



Church Street Boutique

Well, the last few days sure have been very busy for me.  We, that is myself and my two partners in crime, decided to split up the room we have rented and named "Church Street Boutique", into three equal spaces so that it would be fair for all of us.

To do this, I had to go out and purchase three unassembled shelf units and with the help of my eldest son, lugged them over to the boutique and there I spent hours assembling and arranging them, creating a nice warm area where, we hope, our clients and friends can come and shop, especially now that it is getting closer to Christmas.  Here are a few photos I took today.  I think I will probably leave it like this for a while, unless I find that I need another unit.  Trouble is, I have so much stuff and can't stop creating and/or shopping, LOL

So, this is my side of the room ........... looking good, I think ......

Today, before I went to the Boutique, I had an appointment with an eye specialist to check to see if the medication I was on for Lupus has damaged my sight.  I am very pleased to report that apart from some evidence of beginning cataracts, my sight has not been damaged permanently and as of last week, I have ceased taking it.  My blood work is holding it's own but the arthritis is no better, it's getting worse as I get older, and I really felt my age when I was kneeling on the hard floor following the confusing diagram - sometimes you just have to rely on common sense, LOL

Here are a few paintings I have acquired the last week or so, spruced them up a little and am now selling them in the Boutique for a few dollars (hopefully).



I picked up this gorgeous window style mirror at a local thrift store recently.  My son Dave has a few larger ones in his home and I have often admired them.  I wasn't very taken with the colour of the wood, so, me being me, I painted it, but wait for it, not cream but black - wow, the sky will surely fall now, LOL  Here is the before picture and then the after.  It wasn't very easy getting photos of it without getting myself in it too, so they really aren't the best, but you will get the idea.......

This is a Christmas wreath I made for my apartment entrance.  Cute little fellow on the top.

And to finish off, I leave you with photos of my sweet grandchildren.................

Super Rhys getting his boots on

and the beautiful Katherine

I can't believe that a week has gone by since I last blogged - where on earth does the time go?  It won't be long before the snow is here to stay and when that happens, believe me, I won't be trotting the the mall two or three times a day.  Being a non-driver makes a big difference to my mobility during the winter months.  Just have to grin and bear it and keep myself busy in other ways.  Talk again soon.  Hugs,