Author: thestampsinmypassport

A professional serving the travel industry for 25 years. Expertise and knowledge in sales, customer care and knowledge of the world. Sharing my knowledge, travel stories and tales from around the world in an engaging way.

Book review: The Secret Garden (grown up colouring)

On By thestampsinmypassportIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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I was quite surprised when I posted a photo of my colouring creation in the book The Secret Garden on Facebook the other day. Close to 50 likes and over 30 comments on the page, questions about the book and wonderful comments about how beautiful the page was looking. There were a lot of questions about the book, the quality of the paper, etc. Since I am a writer, what better than to use my blog to answer all your questions.

Over the winter I saw a piece on the Today Show about “adult” colouring books and how they are becoming all the rage. The piece was specifically about Johanna Basford and the success of her first book The Secret Garden and her new book The Enchanted Forest. It was then followed up on a piece on HuffPost and this is what started the craze that everyone has jumped on.

Of course, I went to to Chapters stores in search of the book. Unsuccessfully, as luck would have it – you get a spot on Today and HuffPost. I ended up ordering it on line and had it shipped to the store. I waited a couple of weeks and then it was ready for pick up.

Do the markers bleed through the pages?

While I was waiting for the book to arrive, I started to read some reviews on Amazon.ca about the book. Everyone was so impressed with the book, loved the pages and was so excited to get started colouring. The one comment was that the colour bleeds through to the page behind therefore you can’t really use the next page. When I got the book, I was surprised about the paper that was used. It is more like a ‘sketch’ pad, ivory colour paper, a bit rough, for lack of a better word. I would have thought it would be a white stronger ‘card stock’ type paper to avoid the colour bleed.

At first, I wanted to “save” the book, and photocopy the pages. I know that sounds crazy (as I was told by a friend yesterday) and decided to forgo that idea and start colouring. I am hooked. Can’t get enough. I have tried to take time out of job searching to get in some colouring. It really does de-stress. Seriously.

I bought a 24 pack of Sharpie ultra finebook3 markers. A cool “80’s Glam” colour scheme. They do bleed through. On the authors blog, she addresses the issue and offers other marker suggestions that she has tried and do not bleed. The brand name is  Staedtler Triplus.

Or…you could be like my great Aunt (in her 80’s) who shared a photo of her OWN colouring book using coloured pencils – she said the pencils are great for shading. I haven’t tried coloured pencils yet, but I will give it a try at some point. Some of the pictures have very small patches to colour, and unless you have a very sharp pencil crayon, you may not get in the lines. That may be an issue for some. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I try really hard to stay in the lines, which is why I like the ultra fine sharpies.

The books are not ‘cheap’, but I think it was well worth the money and well worth the wait. Much cheaper than therapy…LOL…seriously….why should kids have all the fun.

Share your photos of your finished pages, I think sharing would give people inspiration.

I am happy my photo sparked such a great conversation.

Off to colour now,

Lisa

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Inside out on Visitors day

On By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized1 Comment

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Happiness. Anxiety. Tears. Laughter. Joy.

While you may think this is an advertisement for the new movie Inside Out, it is not. I am referring to the mix of emotions that I witnessed this past Sunday while visiting my nieces at overnight camp.

Let’s take a step back for a moment. Let’s start with the background story leading up to the day that so many parents look forward to each summer.

Summer camp. For many it is a rite of passage. Something your parents did, and for many, even your grandparents. Not everyone loved camp, or maybe even liked it, but most of the people I know tried it, at least once. I know that every year I would get off the bus saying I didn’t want to go back the next year, but for some reason I never understood, there I was, getting ready to board the bus again next summer.

Since I don’t have children, I live vicariously through my nieces and my friends and their kids. I know that when my niece got off the bus after four weeks last summer, she couldn’t wait to go back. She started off the year before by going for two weeks, now four weeks. I am sure if she could (she told me this on Sunday) she would stay even longer. This year, my other niece was there for two weeks.

Getting back to visiting day. These camps are of course out of the city and are anywhere from 3 hours away and more. Bancroft, Haliburton, Sudbury, Muskoka, Bracebridge, Parry Sound and more. Some people just drive up for the day, others (like us) have always booked a hotel for the night before. My parents did that when they came to visit us in Haliburton, and that continued over the years.

Believe it or not, we booked the hotel in January. Sounds crazy right? Well, not so much, as camp is usually booked, reserved and paid for in October. Yes, the summer is just ending, and the kids are already booked for the next summer. Summer lovin’ as it were.

You may have noticed a frenzy of updates from your friends the past week or so. Getting letters from their kids with their visiting day wish list. For some kids, they are coming home just a few days after visiting day, but nonetheless, trips for all their favourite treats are happening all around town.

There is a mad rush to get to camp. The actually day is from 12 – 4pm but everyone wants to get there early. Get a good spot, under a tree, for their chairs and tables and set up. When we were at camp, our parents had to be the ones to park near the basket ball courts for the prime set up spot. Fast forward almost 30 years, the campers are now the parents and the parents are now the grandparents trekking along to see their grandchildren.

Once you get your car parked, you all go to the area that your kids are going to come out from. Here is where the emotions I mentioned at the start of the post begin to boil over. Parents are anxiously awaiting to see their children. Waiting, first patiently and then not so much. Wait, I see her…there she is…she looks good. Tears…hugs…kisses…laughter. “Let me look at you”. “are you eating”, “are you putting on sunscreen”, “why only 1 letter” were just a few things I heard on Sunday. Even I was overwhelmed with emotion watching all of this going on, and I don’t even have kids of my own.

camp4Then begins the day. Cabin visits. This year we visited two cabins, in total opposite directions in the camp. Camp is 750 acres…and it was about 95 degrees on Sunday, so you can imagine what it was like. Cabins are clean and spotless. Well, just for that day. I know from being a camper, that you need to have the cabin in tip top shape for visitors day. Clothes are neatly folded in the cubbies, shoes are neat and tidy on the porch. Picture its a hard knock life from Annie (just kidding, well sort of).

Even the cabins are a rite of passage. Decades of names written on the wood of the cabins. So and so slept here 1988. Best cabin ever 1979 and so on. There are plaques for colour wars, CIT years, and anything and everything. If you are a parent, and you are at the same camp, maybe you get lucky enough to show your child where you named appears.

camp3Lunch is served in the mess hall. At the camp I went to, that was never what we did. Our parents packed all our favourite foods, snacks and drinks and we had an open picnic at our car. We had a Caprice Station Wagon. Everyone stopped by our car for a visit and some food. Long after I stopped going to camp, my brother continued, and I loved visiting day. I think that is why I still want to go with my family now, to see my nieces. I am just as caught up in the event as I was almost 30 years ago. As I said, rite of passage.

There is a sense of pride for the campers. At one point, my niece wanted to take us to the A & C (arts and crafts) cabin and said she was taking us ‘a short cut way’, which she admitted along the way that it wasn’t really shorter, but she wanted us to see the waterfront. She was so proud to show us all the things she loved. We (her and I) also had a chance to walk alone together and talk. For those of you with kids, you know what that is like. Sharing thoughts and special time. As a very proud aunt, this is the time I cherish most.

For my other niece, the moment was in the mess hall. I had just waited for half an hour to get lunch and I finally sit down with my family who was done eating (not sure how that happened) and she says to me, “Will you come to the bathroom with me?” How could I say no. So I went with her and we had our moment then.

Time passes quickly at some points in the afternoon. And all of a sudden, there are announcements and music and the day is over. There is the long walk back to the cabin to say good bye. For some, it is just a few days until they will be reunited, others staying longer, will have to wait.

We pull out and onto the highway for the drive back home. The long drive back home. It has been a long day, but we all know, we would do it all again, in a heartbeat. It’s camp.

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Life Lessons – Tell me about yourself

On By thestampsinmypassportIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

 

irish-handsIt has been almost five weeks since my job ended. The first few weeks went by pretty quickly, but the past few have been harder. I remember that people kept saying to me, “enjoy this time off while you figure things out”. I even snapped at a friend of mine saying, “this is not a vacation, I didn’t choose to take time off from my job”.

I know that for many, this is not a new thing. I know many people who have been in this situation before. Many more than once. I would consider myself lucky to have not had many experiences with this in 25 years of employment. I have been working, with the exception of a 2 month period in late 2000, solidly for 25 years. Understandably this is a difficult adjustment.

I would like to take this time to mention a great place in Thornhill. It is called The Thornhill Employment Hub and it is a wonderful place. It is a government subsidized that is open to the public who need help in the job market. Are you new to Canada? Newly unemployed and need help? Unemployed for an extended period of time and looking for a second career? They have it all. They even have yoga!

They have great workshops facilitated by their staff. I have attended two so far – Targeting Resume Writing and today an all day workshop on Interview Skills.

“The Interview” – something that everyone has anxiety over. That was the first question we were asked today – How do you feel about going on an interview? I know people who haven’t been on an interview in over 20 years. Over the past several years I have applied for jobs and have been on a few interviews, but not that many. A lot of them were leads from people I knew so the interviews were less formal than if you didn’t know the people.

One of the first tasks was to break off in pairs and introduce yourself to the other, give one strength and one weakness about yourself. Some of the terms that were used as “weakness” were: lack of confidence, public speaking, shyness, and language skills (or lack of English) came up several times. That seemed to be a running commentary for me through the day.

Here is the question that will come up at the start of any interview: Tell us a bit about yourself.

When you start to talk about this in an interview is should be 80% work related experiences about yourself and 20% non related work experiences. You need to have a script in your head that you can speak clearly and concise about who you are and what you can bring to the table.

When I had my chance to speak to my partner I realized that my experiences came quite easy to talk about. How my career in travel led me to being able to see the world, which led me to my passion for food, photography and writing. It all seemed to just flow.

She commented on how my ‘accent’ was so clear and my words were so perfect. She was from another country and had only been in Canada for 43 days. She was a civil engineer in her country and now she is in Canada. I said to her that I have always lived in Canada, and she said that I was lucky.

Towards the end of the session we were given a hand out on the 50 most common interview questions. You can actually google it and you will find several articles with different amounts – 50, 31, 10 etc. The handout we received was 50, but they all basically fall into five categories just asked in different ways.

1. Why are you here? 

2. What can you do for me? 

3. What kind of person are you? 

4. Why are you different?

5. Can I afford you. 

And so the search continues. Thanks to the Targeted Resume Workshop I have a brand new resume that is ready to be sent out. I know that putting it out there in the social sphere is not necessarily what people would do, but the last time I shared, it did bring out some great feedback and connections to new people. I am hoping that this will continue to do that. I am open to new conversations, new adventures, and a new experience to take my professional life to the next level.

Living my best life,

Lisa