Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto
Wordless Wednesday
I’m not sure if this is a Gopher or a Prairie Dog, but whatever it is I imagine that it was just trying to enjoy the nut it found when the birds around it decided that they wanted their share too.
I think the birds are Grackles. I didn’t see many of this kind of bird this year, but they usually love our bird feeders!
I guess this Prairie Dog knows how we feel when we eat outside and we’re all of a sudden surrounded by Sea Gulls or Pigeons. Eh?
Have you ever taken a photo that you loved so much you thought that it might make a beautiful painting?
I’m sure most everyone has a photo at home that they’ve thought about enlarging in order to turn it into a beautiful wall hanging. Perhaps a photo of your children when they were young? The happy couple on their wedding day? A beloved parent or grandparent?
Well, if you happen to live in Australia you might want to visit Brilliant Prints. This family-owned canvas printing company can turn your photos or digital images into beautiful canvas prints in as little as three to four days.
As some of you might remember I turned one of my own photos into a lovely canvas during the summer. Mine wasn’t done by Brilliant Prints, but I am very happy with how my canvas turned out and I’d recommend that anyone who’s ever wanted to turn a photo, a slide, or some form of digital artwork into a canvas print do so. My canvas hangs in my dining room and I see it every day. I love it.
Your canvas prints might look like this in one of your rooms.
You can turn your images into square, rectangular or panoramic canvas prints in sizes ranging from 11″ x 14″ to 101″ x 203″. That’s quite a range of sizes isn’t it?
Brilliant Prints uses quality materials. They use a fine American-made 100% cotton canvas for all of their canvas prints. They also use ink that has been tested for it’s longevity and that is said to provide 75 years protection against fading. The frames that your canvas will be stretched on are quality profiled meranti stretcher bars.
One of the final processes in the creation of your canvas is lamination. Did you know that some Canvas Print companies do not laminate their canvas? The lamination process is very important as it will help to protect your canvas print from damaging moisture, mould, dust and abrasion. Brilliant Prints uses a high quality laminate from America on all of their canvas prints.
I think the prices are quite reasonable. A 12″ x 12″ square canvas print only costs $58. A full list of their canvas printing prices is available on the pricing page.
Included in the price of each canvas is any resizing of your image that might be necessary, conversion of color photos to sepia or black and white if desired, emailed proofs that will show you how your finished canvas will look, plus any editing of the photo that’s necessary including color correction, enhancement, and dust removal or repair of your image. There are no extra charges for digital images, but if you send in a photo, slide or transparency there will be a low cost scanning charge.
The process is very simple. Well, the customers side of the process that is.
Simply send your photo, slide or digital image to Brilliant Prints. If your images are already in digital form you can simply email the company your photos. Don’t forget to include information about what size canvas and other options you might like to order. They also have an FTP option if your digital images are too large to send by email. Photos, negatives, transparencies and slides can be mailed to Brilliant Prints.
Once Brilliant Prints receives your images they will take a look at them and see if they can successfully create the canvas that you ordered. It all depends upon the quality and resolution of the images as to whether they’ll be able to enlarge the photo well enough to create the desired canvas size. They will then contact you and let you know what they can do for you.
The folks at Brilliant prints will keep in touch with you through the whole process of creating your new canvas print. As I said above they’ll email you proofs of what your canvas will look like before they begin the process of creating the canvas.
I love this companies guarantee. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a guarantee quite like it, nor one that would ensure customer satisfaction so completely. This is their guarantee:
“You don’t pay a single cent until you receive your prints and are completely happy. We will gladly send you prints from your own images without upfront payment! If you are not truly, absolutely, 100% delighted with your prints then contact us and we will arrange for them to be returned. We will even pay the return freight.
It doesn’t matter whether the problem was your fault, our fault, an Act of God, or the fault of the bloke at the post office. It doesn’t matter if you change your mind, decide you don’t like the picture, or have just divorced the husband / wife in the photo. Unless you are happy, we are not happy. No conditions, no small print. “
Isn’t that a great guarantee? You don’t pay a cent until you are completely satisfied. There is absolutely no risk to their clients.
If you enjoy photography and want to create a great photo that you can eventually make into a canvas print you might be interested in visiting the learning center at Brilliant Prints where you can learn about how to compose photos better, how to edit your digital images and if you are an enthusiastic amateur or professional photographer you can learn more about how you can become successful commercially.
Now I know that I have quite a few readers from Australia. Visit Brilliant Prints and see how they can help you turn your fabulous photos into lovely canvas prints for your home or perhaps as a gift for someone you love.
Have you ever visited The Foo Logs? If you hang out at my pal Fab’s site, Pointless Drivel, you’ve probably encountered The Foo from time to time and might have even already visited his blog.
The Foo likes to blog about a number of topics, but the main topics of the blog are Tech trends & life’s ramblings. I guess this blog is a little like The Foo’s in some ways as I tend to write about those two topics quite often as well.
If you believe in Karma there’s an excellent post up right now called What Goes Around, Comes Around. It’s a true story and I’ve heard it before, but it’s a classic. The story will make you believe in Karma if you don’t already!
Then there’s a post that I think most everyone might find helpful at one point or another.
Do you ever tinker with your sidebar widgets trying to find a color that matches your blog themes colors? Perhaps you don’t want to change your websites theme, but want to spruce it up by changing the color of the links or other areas?
Well, I’m sure you’ve encountered some sites that offer very limited colors for you to choose from when you are customizing a widget. You often have to know what the actual code is to create the color you want. Well, The Foo, was frustrated with sites like this and the time it took to find the right colors so he went ahead and created a page with a table of color swashes as he calls it.
Check out The Foo Logs. As I said, if you like this site you’ll probably enjoy The Foo Logs as well. The posts are a mix of humor, life and some really great tech finds that might help you with your own website or blog.
I can’t believe that a week ago I was complaining about the heat. It was about 100 F with the humidity – almost 30 to 40 degrees warmer than it should have been here in early October. Needless to say we were still using our air-conditioning and our furnace which normally kicks on at least once or twice in September and more regularly in October hadn’t even started up.
Well, all that changed late last week. Temperatures dropped to more normal seasonal levels and our furnace has warmed our home at least 20 times since Saturday.
Unfortunately our master bedroom is the coldest room in the house, so it won’t surprise you when I tell you that on Saturday night when we got cold I quickly pulled out one of our old quilts and put it on the bed to give us some much needed extra warmth. I need to pull out our nice comforter and put it in the duvet that’s already on the bed soon.
I’m sure many of you were in the same situation as my husband and I in the last week or so. Suddenly finding yourselves pulling out the winter bedding. Perhaps this cold climate Autumn chore made you realize that you need new bed spreads or blankets for your bedrooms?
If you do need new bedding head on over to Overstock.com.
I’ve spent some time looking at the Bedding selection at Overstock and I was pleased to discover that they have quite a variety of products ranging from Memory Foam to mattresses, sheet sets, comforter sets, blankets, bedspreads, quilts, down bedding, duvet covers and even full bedding packages like bed in a bag.
Since winter is coming I decided to concentrate on Quilts and I found some lovely handcrafted quilts that I’d love to have in my home or perhaps even purchases for others as a gift.
Take the Blue Star quilt that I’ve included an image of above. At this time this handcrafted quilt is only $44.99. I think that’s a fantastic price for a beautiful quilt. It’s 100% cotton too which means it’s easy to wash and care for as well.
The description states that it’s a heirloom-quality quilt with a traditional blue star design that offers warm country charm. However the first person I thought of when I saw the design of this quilt was my Dutch sister in law. Perhaps the design isn’t Dutch at all, but it reminds me of traditional Dutch designs. Perhaps it’s just the color of the blue that is used in the quilt. Either way I may just end up purchasing this quilt as a gift for my brother and sister in law.
As I said there are many styles of bedding and quilts to choose from at Overstock.com. Designs range from heirloom to traditional, modern and everything in between. The prices are more than reasonable as well. Just on the main quilt page I didn’t see a quilt set over $79.99. I’m fairly certain I can’t get prices that low in any of the department stores in my area!
I also noticed that at the top of each page there’s a statement that says “Your entire order ships for just $2.95 – order today!“. That sounds like a fantastic price for shipping. Heck, shopping around town it might cost you more than that in gas and parking expenses!
If you need new bedding go and take a look at the selection at Overstock.com. I’m fairly sure you’ll be pleased with the variety and prices.
I took this photo a couple of weeks ago.
The green pole beans that I grow in a large container at the back of the house were beginning to die down, but some of the beans were hanging nicely in front of my metal sun ornament so I decided to snap a few pictures and this was the result.
Do you grow green beans? I actually like eating them raw although I can’t do that very often with my stomach problems. (raw veggies kill me) Raw green beans taste great. If you haven’t tried them before you should.
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.