Picture lockets as gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are coming up and as per usual I am kind of at a loss at what to get everyone. A few years ago at a photo shop I saw some picture pendants. You take a picture in and they would have it coloured lasered on to a metal pendant. I have always liked that idea, to be able to wear a picture that had good memories as jewellery. At the time I was thinking about having some done up with my children and giving them to their Grandparents for Christmas. The other item I was looking at was a locket that you put pictures into. I think that they are a nice gift idea, but I never did buy one. I just did not have pictures small enough to fit.

Looking around on the Internet today I found a great combination of both of these, lockets that the pictures are colour lasered into the inside. That way I don’t have to deal with looking for pictures that fit, and then try to cut them right and then somehow get them into the locket. This makes it so much easer for me. Also if the locket gets wet or something there will be no damage to the pictures because they are laser printed. I like that as my kids Grandmother lives right on the ocean, and is boating all the time.

I found locket wristwatch that would make great gifts for both Grandpa and Great Grandpa. They can use them as a wristwatch and then lift the watch part up and there the picture is. I am not sure if I will go with the engraving with this one or just put a picture in. I may go with the just the coloured lasered picture because I don’t think either one takes their watches off when washing their hands.



For Grandma and Great Grandmother I am looking at traditional silver lockets. I found some great designs. Though knowing Great Grandmother she will not wear it unless it was a white gold locket. I did find some lockets she would like, two-toned gold with diamonds, but the price is way out of my reach right now. I found some very nice silver lockets that I can afford now, and if I want to I can even get them in time for mothers day.






For me there is a very cool one for Mothers day in the gold lockets. It is a hart locket with a Mom holding a baby on the front. I like it a lot, but it is a bit out of my price range right now. My husband would be happy with the dog tag style ones I found at the photo shop place. Two of them with the kids baby pictures on the front and their names and date of birth on the back. It would be like a cheat sheet for him so he would stop confusing their birthdays.





These lockets are traditional gifts that I think Grandmother and Great Grandmother will appreciate. The watches are useful so I think Grandfather, and Great Grandfather will actually like and use them.

Pro360.com Casino Review site website review

I know that there have been a lot of problems for people who want to gamble online. Both Canada and the US have placed restrictions on companies that transfer money to online gambling sites. I understand that this was done for two reasons; one is to help people who have a gambling problem by restricting their ability to send money to gambling sites. The other reason is that both Governments want to keep gamblers money in their country. Both Canada and the US have legal gambling that they receive revenue from. It only makes sense that they want to keep people gambling in their Country.

Pro360.com is an online Casino Review site where people can find out information about different online casino’s and what people think about each one. It is helpful because it also lets you know what Casino’s that US players can play on. There is even a section on just the best US approved online Casino’s. It is nice to find a place that has all the information abut each online Casino in one place.

Pro360.com also lists what bonuses are available at each Casino. They are also listed with the highest editor rating and then show the players rating right beside it. You can also find the best place to play your game. I was interested in Poker and Bingo but you can also find sports betting, black jack, Backgammon, and more. This site is useful for those who gamble responsibly. If you have a gambling problem then it would not be a good idea to use this site or any online gambling sites.

Vision Bedding gave me some great ideas for Christmas gifts

I love having and looking at pictures of my kids, and my family. However you can only hang so many pictures on the wall, and I never think to pull out my photo albums. So how do you display all the pictures? I know that some people have their pictures done up on mugs and such. I am thinking about giving some photo gifts for Christmas this year. So I was looking around the web for options and found an unusual solution at www.visionbedding.com. Very cool and unusual ideas for displaying pictures.

They dye the picture into the fabric and make pillowcases, sheets, blankets and even dog beds out of them. It is amazing how far technology has come and the things that can be made using photos. Now I am not so keen on having my kid’s pictures on my bed but I have some great scenic pictures that would look great. I was thinking that a pillowcase with Mom and Dad would make it easer on my kids if they were sleeping over some place. I think that throw pillows with family pictures would make great personalized gifts. I like giving some thing that is useful like a throw pillow, and being able to design it with my photos will make it special.

Now when I was looking at vision bedding I saw some great pre-made designs from stunning scenic photos. A nice change from the usual bedspreads and duvets out there. The question now is what pictures do I use to make my personalized photo gifts? I like the idea of family pictures for my immediate family done up as throw pillows for in the living room. A few scenic ones for my friends, places we have been, also done up as throw pillows.

I was thinking about some very interesting bedspreads made from vacation pictures. I went to Pensic war a few years ago, and have some very cool pictures from it. I know a few people who would love a bedspread with some of the battle scenes. Then I had some wonderful pictures from BC with some great nature shots of wild life and great scenic ones of mountains. I can think of a few people who would love a duvet cover with those pictures. The more I think about it the more things I come up with.

Is it important to find a kid friendly hotel?

We don’t go to hotels very often, part of that is because we have two small children. However, last summer we spent a few days at a hotel so the kids could spend some time with their Grandfather. He was paying for the hotel, so he did the booking. Let me tell you this was not one of the family friendly hotels that are out there. This was a hotel by the airport used by business people or people spending the night before their flight. There was no restaurant in the hotel, game room, play area or playground, pool or babysitting services. As we did not book the rooms we did not get to ask the all-important questions: Do kids stay free? Do kids eat free? It was a real struggle the whole time we where there. There was nothing to do with the kids, nothing but watch TV or go out and try to find some place for the kids to do some thing. The hotel was fine, but not for a family.

What got me was on the last day as we were leaving, one of the staff asked me why we did not have cribs in the room, and they had them. Well no one told us about them, or that they were available, and we did not know to ask. We had never stayed in a hotel with the kids before, we did not know what they had for kids and there were no signs or any thing. So if the staff did not tell us, how were we to know? I know we should have asked about beds for the kids. We had two beds so we each took one kid and tried to make sure they did not fall out. My daughter, who was 1 did fall of the bed and had an owie. I was not happy. Now that I know what it is like first hand to stay at a non kid friendly hotel I know how important it is to make sure the next hotel I stay at with my kids is a kid friendly hotel. I am going to take the time and do my research and save myself a headache.

How do you know what questions to ask when booking a hotel when traveling with kids? How do you find kid friendly hotels? I know that there is sites out there that will tell you what hotels are pet friendly and what special things they offer for pet owners. I figured there had to be a site that did the same for families with kids. I found allstays.com. They have taken the time to do a page to help family’s find the kid friendly hotels in Canada and the US. To be considered a family friendly hotel the hotel had to meet at lest three of these criteria’s: Restaurant in hotel, game room, kids stay free, kids eat free, play area or playground, pool, babysitting services, arcade. It is easy to find hotels along any rout seeing as they let you find them by city and state.

They even had some information on things I never even thought about seeing as my kids are still very young. The best piece of advice was to book a hotel suit with two bed rooms instead of two hotel rooms, it can be cheaper but more importantly it is safer for you and your kids no matter what their age. I liked that they listed some hotels that can be adult content free sites. It never occurred to me I had to worry about that unless I ordered the movies myself. Well it turns out that some times the person who had the room before paid for some movies that can be seen for 24 hrs from the time it was ordered. Guess what, you are clicking to find some thing and boom some thing you don’t need your kids seeing. More importantly some hotels have pictures on the menu you don’t want your kids looking at advertising what can be seen. This is some thing that is important to check with the hotel before showing up with your kids. I liked allstays.com and will use them to do my research the next time I need to stay at a hotel, with or with out my kids. I understand how important it is to make sure the hotel meets my family’s needs, not just provide a bed for the night.

Lost baby shower

When my son was born I had the worst baby shower in the world. It all started because we lived in a small one-bed room, so we decided we could not have the shower there. Then we realised that a lot of the people we were going to invite lived at least an hour away so most people would have to be making a big trip for this. There was a camping event that was held once a year, we were all going to it a few weeks after my son was due to be born so to make things easer on every one we decided to have the baby shower at the camping event. So I started to get things ready for the baby shower, but then one of my “friends” said I should not be organizing my own baby shower and said she would do it, as we did not have family to organize it.

Great, that made things so much easer. We still had to bring the large sunshade and set up but my friend was going to handle the baby shower invitations, and get some snack food ready (a veggie tray, fruit tray and some chips and such, some drinks – nothing big) and we gave her a $100.00 to help pay for it all. I was under the impression that she was going to get some invitations for a baby shower and send them out to my friends with the time and place with an RSVP to her. That way every one would know about the baby shower and she would know how many people were coming so she knew how much food and drink was needed. Now every time I checked with her she said that every thing was under control and was going great, lots of people were coming.

Well the day of the baby shower came. We set up the dinning fly tent, got it all ready for the baby shower, seats, cushions, tables every thing. The time for the shower came and went – my friend had not shown up with the food or any thing, and no one showed up for the shower. A few hours later my “friend” showed up with a bag of party mix, threw it into the tent and said here is your shower, enjoy. That was it. Some baby shower. I cried thinking that no one cared and that all these people did not even have the common courtesy to let me know they could or would not be going to the shower. It was very hard to deal with and it hurt.

It turns out that she did not even buy some cheap baby shower invitations or any thing, she never contacted any one. She did not want to call any one because it would be a long distance charge so she never called any one, she did not have the address (she could have gotten it from me, though she knew the same people I did) so she did not send any thing. All she did was mention it to people when she saw them, so of course all the people who lived far away, or did not hang out with my “friend” did not know about it. Also the few people who did know about it only knew that it was on the Saturday, but not when or where. The big part was that the people she did tell about it she told them that I did not want any thing, that I did not want it to be a big deal, and made it sound like I would rather not have the shower. I did not want people to spend a lot of money but I wanted people to come and make a fuss over my son. Lets just say we are not friends any more. It turns out she did it on purpose for some imaginary slight. It was not like we could organize it again, it was going to be a year before every one was going to be getting together again. We never did know why she did this, all I know is it hurt me a lot, enough that I did not even try to have a baby shower when my daughter was born.

If you are having a baby shower, make sure you can trust the person organizing it or at least make sure the shower invitations get mailed. I hope no one else ever goes threw a baby shower like mine, I will always feel like I lost out on something special, important. I missed out on some thing that would have been a lot of fun. It does not make a difference now, but it did hurt then.

Comparison shopping on line is worth the time

Like almost every one out there I have a tight budget. When I want to buy a big-ticket item (and some small ones) I do my research on line before I buy. I like to find out what products have the features I want and then I do price comparisons. This is a lot of work, but I find I get what I want that way, at the best price I can find it. I spent an entire day doing this when I was deciding on a new digital camera.

So we have been looking into laptops for several weeks. We are looking at the different types out there figuring out what ones have the features we want at a price we can afford. I was told about a new shopping comparison site called Cubalaya. Very cool. I just spent some time looking up some products. Cubalaya is very easy to use, I found computers, and then picked laptop, as that is what I am interested in. I was then given a choice between price ranges, processor speed, hard drive capability, Brand, and weight. I picked price under $820.00, and found a very nice selection.

At this point I could look at the several 100 laptops available or I could break it down by Brand, hard drive capability, processor speed, processor type, or the installed RAM. I like how they broke down the categories to make it easer on me. I had 41 pages of laptops under $820.00 to look at. When I would find one I was interested in I would hit the more info button. This would give me the specs on that laptop, a selection of stores, with the store name, a store rating (between 1 and 5 stars), any notes such as in stock, new, free shipping, the different prices, and a go button to take you to the store. Cubalaya was very helpful, and made comparing product features and prices very easy.

I did find a few bugs where for one I was looking at a laptop and two of three prices were for CD’s for that laptop, and one I opened to the store and it took me to a different product with a different price range. I think this was more a data entry problem then a site problem. Over all I found the site was very helpful. I found a few products I am going to look into some more. I had a lot of fun looking in the kid section, a lot of products that I want now. What got me was the large selection of products to do price comparisons on, every thing from new and used cars to toys. I will be adding this to my favourites; it is going to be saving me some time.

I will be using Cubalaya again when I do my research simply because they made it so easy. However, I will use the information and prices to help me buy locally only because Cubalaya gives you options for US, UK, and Germany and I live in Canada. Although I may use them for some products, as I found some very cool kids things that I have not seen in Canada and would have to order from the US any way.

I was just told about bingohouse

I like to play bingo, poker and the lottery. I used to go to the Bingo Hall with my friend and play for a few hours. It cost a lot, but we had fun. It was the socializing I liked the most. We won some, lost some but talked a lot no matter what. Now I tend to play online Bingo. I just don’t have the money or the time to go to the Bingo Halls any more. With kids at home I don’t want to hire a baby sitter just to go out when I can play at home. I enjoy chatting with people as I play, and making friends.

I have played on about 20 different online bingo sites. I tend to play on two of them all the time because they have free games or give out bingo bucks every week so I can play for free. I was just told about a new online Bingo site, http://www.bingohouse.com. They have all sorts of interesting games. I liked the Bingo Central Hall, it looks like it would be a lot of fun, and I could chat with people from all over the world. I have not signed up yet, but I am thinking about it. Every one gets $30.00 bingo bucks just for signing up. I guess that is so every one can check out the site before spending any real money. If any one has played on this site, let me know what you think.