Thursday Thirteen Take #1

3…. Speaking of Reptiles- I just had an offer to write an article for Reptiles USA magazine! Whoohoo! If it goes through this will be my 5th article for a magazine.

4…. I also love my garden. When I was a child we always had a flower and vegetable garden in the back yard, and two veggie gardens up at the cottage. My job was to pull the weeds! Yuck! I thought I hated gardening. Skip forward to 4.5 years ago when we purchased our house and what’s one of the first things I do? I design a beautifully landscaped garden. It’s where I go to relax. I must have done a good job of it too because people just walk in off the street to have a look. Makes me proud but it’s kind of creepy having strangers walk into your yard as well.

5….Photography. Well that goes right along with my love of gardening and reptiles- doesn’t it? I mean I gotta take great pictures of my pretty flowers and my pets, don’t I? Expect to see the occasional garden photo on this site. I also have some pretty cool pictures of Toronto and the surrounding area.

6…. I have the best husband in the world. Yeah he’s a talkaholic (see wandering husband post), and he can be messy at times, but he’s a good one. I think I’ll keep him.

7…. I’m a klutz! If there is a great big hole in front of me you can pretty much guarantee that I’ll fall in it. In fact I did just that, last summer! Much to my friends amusement. I fall up a staircase- not down it, I trip over my own feet and other peoples! I’m not as bad as I used to be, I guess I’ve learned how to hide my klutziness over the years, but when I do a klutz move you can bet it’s a doozy!

8…. I moved to Toronto to become a professional make-up artist and got side tracked along the way and became a jeweler instead. By jeweler I don’t mean selling jewelery- I mean making it, as in working in the Jewelery trade. For a time I was the first and only female diamond cutter in North America. When the recession hit in the early 90’s I moved on career wise.

9…. While I was a jeweler I completed my Make-up artist certificate and also got my special effects make up certificate. Everyone calls me at Halloween, I wonder why??? LOL I never did either job professionally though.

10…. Wow, I was a busy, busy girl back then. I also tried to become an actress while I was a jeweler. It was a life long dream and how I originally became interested in becoming a make up artist in the first place. I did a lot of extra work on films and commercials and got a few roles over the years, but I never did well enough to close down my business and pursue it full time. It was pretty interesting though.

11…. While I worked in the jewelery trade I met a lot of interesting and often very wealthy people. First let me tell you that the majority of people that work inside the trade are not originally from North America, most are from Europe (Russia) or the middle east. There are very few women in the trade so I guess I stood out. I was proposed to approximately 13 times by different men. One man asked me to marry him every time he came to my shop- and he was serious! Talk about pressure! Oh and the advice I got from my friends wasn’t really helpful at all- they advised me to marry for money. Sorry no- I just couldn’t do that. Nope- I wanted to marry for love. Oh did I tell you that my husband was also a jeweler? So in the end I did marry for love after all, ain’t that sweet? But I’m not rich- my husband wasn’t one of the wealthy suitors. Oh well!

12….I guess I’m on my third career now. I’m an emergency department nurse now. Busy busy busy, but I love it. I don’t know why I was complaining about Mondays at the beginning of this post though. I’ve been off work for more than 3 months due to illness and right now I think I would gladly work on a Monday. I’m kind of bored and I miss the quirky place. Once I get back to work I’m sure I’ll have some funny ER stories to tell all of you.

13…. And to wrap this up? My favorite things- Chocolate! The smell of wild flowers- especially lavender, jasmine and passion flower. Oh I love the smell of Vanilla too. The sound of running water- no not a toilet or from a tap … I mean a water fall or waves hitting the shore silly!