Unfortunately, I am in HorseWorld Emporium quite often, so my senses are immune to the rich scent of all the leather goods in the store. It’s too bad too! I love the smell of leather.

Visitors to the store are immediately hit by the leather scent as they walk in the front door among the many saddles and over 600 pair of leather cowboy boots. It’s quite the site to see, row upon row of boots – big, small, black, brown and even pink! Yes, pink!

Further back in the store, there is a selection of cowboy hats – some leather, many more in felt and straw and a wide variety of leather belts – fancy bling belts to plain ol’ leather – add a fancy buckle and you’re good to go.

As you finally get to the back of the store, you run across the leather craft section of the store where you will find rolls of leather in a variety of colours, weights, thickness. Tooling leather, upholstery and garment leather and more. And along with all that leather you will find every type of hardware you could imagine for making your own leather products, tooling equipment, sewing awls and thread, rawhide, horse hair, conchos, dye, leather kits and much more.  For those that like to make their own, or repair their own, HorseWorld is a treasure chest of finds.

The leather craft area brings in a variety of people looking for products: jewellery makers, dressmakers, antique restorers, bikers, and many participating in 1812 and medieval reenactments – they even stock calvary style caps and hats.  It’s always interesting chatting with the customers at HorseWorld and listening to their stories, trials and tribulations in making their projects.

Some eventually give up and have our leather crafters in the store make or complete their project. You will also find many custom-made products throughout the store made by HorseWorld’s own leather crafters. Dog collars and leashes, belts, knife sheaths, construction crew tool bags, saddlebags for motorcycles and so much more.

If you haven’t been to HorseWorld Emporium, make it a point to drop in. The store isn’t just for horse people – there is so much more to be discovered.  And when you do drop in,

HorseWorld Emporium
27 Maywood Ave., St. Catharines, ON
905-682-2545 www.horseworldemporium.com

Yes, my computer is back operational, but some of the functionality is still lost due to missing software and fonts. Needless to say I am extremely far behind on my client’s work and the day to day items I do to promote local business. Another lesson learned – don’t have all your eggs in one basket.

Easier said than done! When you’re a one person office – unfortunately if you don’t do the work, no one else does either. Amazing how that works. So now, amid trying to reinstate computer functionality to that of what it once was I am also trying to restructure to include a team of individuals to aid in the work load I have put on myself. Yes — some of what I do doesn’t earn – like this blog for example. It’s sole purpose is to promote local business. Do I give it up? No — it’s also my therapy. Writing is an amazing avenue for clearing your thoughts, putting things in perspective, venting and just relaxing.

Years ago, I wrote a daily blog for my stables. The blog was followed around the world. My day went horribly wrong if I did not start it off with the writing of the daily blog. Now, I find that I’m back to that! This is the first blog I’ve written in almost two weeks – already I’m feeling less overwhelmed. Waking up to 100s of emails in the morning and a to do list that stretches the length of my office is definitely overwhelming. Good thing I’m a workaholic.

So what next – well – the first step to recovery was in writing this blog. Partly for therapy, partly to let everyone know I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth (facebook and twitter) that is, and partly to get back in to my regular morning routine. Routine is important for the functionality of my office. So today it begins again!

• regular routine
• back to basics
• complete the restructuring
• get the work done!

To my clients, thank you for being so understanding! Work should progress at a faster rate from this point forward. For those that have missed the constant tweets from Connecting Niagara and DebiSentYou – they start again today! I’m sure a few of you are tired of seeing my mug pop up on your screen, but — most like the little tidbits of information tweeted for savings and activities.

So….  I’m back!

The past week and a half has been a disaster due to my main computer system crashing. Of course I had my laptop to work with, but it doesn’t have all the software I use, nor did it have all my data files. What a nightmare.

Now I know the importance of a daily back-up on my computer system. And, yes I had one. I also know the importance of preventative maintenance. That is why, when my main system started acting strange – slow, periodic crashes, etc., I called my computer techy-guy – John from Computer Trouble Shooters.  John has been working on my computers for over 5 years now.  He knows my system inside out, knows the value of my data and the importance of having a system up and running constantly.  He arrives within hours of me calling him to fix the nasty…

Anyway, John picked up my computer and off he went. I went about business with my laptop fully expecting to have my system back the following morning. It’s a good thing I didn’t check my email that Thursday night, (I had a major cold, wasn’t much up for working anyway) as John sent me an email to tell me when he plugged the system in the motherboard died, ultimately erasing my harddrive. OMG!   Thank goodness for backups.

Bright and early the next day, John was back to pick up my back-up and software. And off he went again. Saturday he returned with the new system. Needless to say I spent the weekend restoring software, data, fonts, emails etc., only to wake up Monday morning with a system crash again. John was back. The computer was gone. It arrived back on Tuesday functional again – another day of restoring.

So now I decide a simple back up is not good enough. I want more. I called one of my clients Tom at TAG Computer Services to find out about his off-site backup system – it backs up the entire computer system – basically taking an image of the computer duplicating it in a cloud that allows for almost instantaneous restoration of my files should something similar happen again. Tom’s system also provides remote monitoring of my computer for potential hardware failures, viruses and more — all for $30/month. Well that’s a no brainer considering I have lost almost two weeks of work to system failure with more to come in restoring files and fonts. Not to mention the outlay for new software that was in my system that I no longer have…. So in Tom came on Thursday to set up the remote monitoring and back up. Friday the new computer crashed again and John was back once again.

Ultimately the computer system was replaced again, restored and back to me Saturday. Another weekend spent reloading and repairing the damage. And here I sit venting instead of working – but it’s also an explanation why my clients are waiting for their work… If only I had put the better back up system on sooner…. If only!  Thousands of $’s later, hours of recovery time and data restoration required. A nightmare for sure!  So now with two back up systems (local data and system cloud) in place, I feel much safer. I’ve learned my lesson big time! And now back to work and major catch-up to do for my clients.

Thank you Tom and John!

For everyone that could potentially face the same downtime due to a computer crash. Please give these guys a call – both offer valuable computer repair and sales along with backup solutions.

TAG Computer Services -
Tom McIntyre
905-892-4000
Find TAG on Facebook and on Twitter

Computer Trouble Shooters
- John Shierlaw 905-380-8791

Purses, belts, buckles and yes even sunglasses come with bling these days. What you want to watch out for is the quality. It makes a big difference.

Years ago, I was one of the first around to have a fancy leather bling belt (horse people love them). Anyway, my belt was purchased in Burlington at a high-end saddlery. The cost – astronomical for a belt, but this at least 7 years later, I still have the belt. It still looks great. It still has all the bling! Does it still fit? Well that’s another story…

Needless to say, I was thoroughly disgusted when at a tradeshow a few years later I ran across a booth selling bling belts. Seeing that one of the belts on display was my belt, I went over to take a look and compare pricing.

First of all the leather was a thin vinyl-type material. You would cut your hands, not to mention tear your jeans with the points sticking out the back of the belt from how the stones were attached to the belt – but get this! The price – just $10.  I don’t know about you, but I would be embarrassed to even where it.

At HorseWorld Emporium they carry a large selection of belts and buckles, plus every other accessory you could imagine. All superior quality at reasonable prices. They just received a shipment of new bling belts for adults and children. The child’s belt starts at $24.95 and the adult’s at $49.95 – great value for leather and bling!

And should you decide you really don’t see what you want, you can ask Rosie to custom make a belt for you. Have your name stamped, tooling, conchos and bling. The custom-made products at HorseWorld are quite reasonable and you’ll know, you’ll have the only one like it!

HorseWorld is known for their leather repairs and custom-made products, supply leads and collars to the canine units, special harness and tool kits to the construction industry, custom saddle bags for the bikers and even custom-made briefcases and totes. Of course, their heart is with the horses – so anything you could image horse-wise can be made at the store when it comes to leather goods. They even repair shoes and boots.

So drop in to HorseWorld at 27 Maywood Ave., St. Catharines and see what they’re all about . Be sure to 

While the scooters and e-bikes are great, Go Green also offers  a selection of mobility units for those requiring alternative aids to moving about in their day to day lives. There are several models to choose from even a trike-style scooter.

I know I would have enjoyed the convenience of one of these units years ago. For those that don’t know, I have Multiple Sclerosis. And while the disease has not showed it’s face severely in many, many years, there was a time when I could have used this convenience. A time when I didn’t have the strength to walk more than 20 feet without sitting down. A time when my children were 2 and 4 and I couldn’t chase them around or even pick them up without being in a seated position for fear of dropping them. A time when family outings were not a happening thing because I just couldn’t walk very far without the support of my cane and family members. A mobility cruiser like this one, would have made even the simple things like grocery shopping so much easier in my life at the time.  Years later, I’m thankful that most of my disabilities have disappeared, but that doesn’t mean they won’t return.

The ability to move around freely for so many is a luxury. The manufacturer’s of mobility devices like the one shown above have come a long way in developing features to suit almost every requirement. Because of the rising need, the pricing of them has come down substantially and coupled with medical aid programs, more people with debilitating injuries or illnesses can now have a more productive and normal life.

To see  more of what Go Green E-Cycles has to offer, visit their showroom on Cushman Rd, in St. Catharines or their website at www.gogreenecycles.com.

Be sure to

I know how difficult it can be – being a smoker myself. I quit for almost two years once — and hated every minute of it. I quit do to pressure from others, the lack of places to smoke and the smell on my clothes. I did not quit because I wanted to quit – consequently I started again. Not a good testimonial for those trying to quit – but that was me. My father on the other hand, decided to quit years ago. He threw out his pack of cigarettes all except for 5. He kept one for each morning of the first week to have with his coffee before work. At the end of the week, he quit totally and has never smoked since! Congrats Dad!

Anyway, quitting might have been a little easier with today’s electronic cigarette at hand. I’ll point out that these have not been approved as ‘quit smoking aids’, but regardless I definitely think they would help. As most smokers know, smoking is as much habitual as it is the craving for nicotine – in some cases more so. We light a cigarette religiously with certain tasks we do: answer the phone, get in the car, have a coffee, etc., etc.,

I have tested these electronic cigarettes and I find as long as it is sitting in the ashtray, my brain thinks I have a cigarette going, thus I’m lighting less frequently. I’ve even used the eletronic cigarette in the car to get past the boredom of driving that triggers lighting a cigarette. At a minimum this electronic device has let me cut-down – which is all I’m prepared to do.

Below are a few frequently asked questions about electronic cigarettes:

Check out www.EsmokerCanada.com for more information

and

Turf Net Sports Supplies is certainly a diverse company. While the main emphasis of the business is supplying golf products, artificial turf and sports netting to the golf courses, they also have products for the retail customer.

First, there is the TNSS Golf Simulator – I think this should be scheduled in to every golfer’s week. It’s a great way to keep your game going through the winter months (mind you I think this winter the courses are still open with so little cold and snow). Regardless, I’m sure more would like to practice in the comfy warmth of a business than the frigid temperatures of the course.

Here’s a preview of the simulator:

Course Fly-over – Warwickshire Brabazon from Foresight Sports on Vimeo.

But don’t take my word for it, visit this link to read articles about the simulator and learn what it is all about.

Turf Net Sports Supplies is open 7 days a week, evenings included. I’m sure with all the hours they have available, something will fit into your schedule to keep your game going this winter.

Give Turf Net Sports Supplies a call to book your time on the simulator. Oh and don’t forget to ask about their golf leagues.

And most of all

Find them on facebook              Follow them on twitter

Watch for another article on their netting later in the month….

Last weekend was the Hamilton-Halton Wedding Show and this weekend coming up is the Niagara Spring Wedding Show. By the way here is a link to a $2.oo off coupon if you are planning on attending this weekend’s show. What better way to get ideas for that perfect wedding.

For those searching for a special ceremony, you might want to have a chat with Reverend Deborah Coleman. She  is a down to earth non-denominational minister dedicated to assisting couples in making their special wedding day filled with meaning and beauty. Whether you dream of a traditional or contemporary wedding ceremony, Deborah will help you to create your own unique memorable wedding service with warmth, elegance and a personal touch of magic.

Deborah will gladly arrange a no-obligation at her office to discuss your special day and allow you to find where the little touch of magic comes from. Rev. Deb has performed hundreds of ceremonies. Her personality is contagious. Visit her website to read the testimonials or better yet, give her call – you’ll see what I mean!

Just be sure to

Rev. Deborah Coleman
For online inquiry, please click here: 

marryme@deborahcoleman.ca
Tel: 905-575-2972
Toll free: 1.855.2.MARRYME (1.855.562.7796)
Find her on facebook 

I had the pleasure of attending a few events where Darcie Osborne was present with demonstrations and samples of the Epicure products. Wow! Yum! Yum! and so simple.

Epicure’s key phrases:
Make Every Day Gourmet
and
Discover the gourmet chef you already are by simply opening a jar.

With Epicure Selections this is quite true. I was truly amazed at the selection of products, quality of the products and the fun the reps have hosting parties and demonstrations .

Epicure Selections will help you make delicious, affordable and healthy meals in minutes, with their versatile VE Herbs , Spice Blends & dips to name a few!
• No Added MSG, Additives or Preservatives and Low in Sodium!!
Spend LESS – enjoy MORE, with Epicure.

Epicure Selections® is a 100% Canadian-owned direct sales company offering a unique line of versatile herb and spice blends, time-saving recipes and professional-quality cookware. Inspired by the pursuit of making delicious, healthy meals easy for the home chef.

The catalogues make you absolutely hungry just looking at them. They are filled with helpful hints and recipes can be found on-line.

Darcie Osborne is an Epicure Unit Leader. So while she is an “Epicure Lady” as I like to call them, she has a team of representatives that she manages. Her job includes making sure her reps are well aware of all the products, new products being introduced, understanding the procedures and also in helping them to promote themselves and sell more “Epicure Selections”.

Darcie says “it’s a great way to earn while having fun at what you do”. She truly enjoys meeting people and helping them ‘Make Every Day Gourmet’.

To order from Epicure Selections, book a party, or become a representative call:
Darcie Osborne Unit Leader
Epicure Selections
289-969-8550
darcie4epicure@hotmail.com
View the on-line catalogue here:
and

Why buckle up? 
1. Buckles can be as much a part of your wardrobe as your jeans and jacket.
2. Buckles can be cool.
3. Buckles can state who you are or what you do.
4. Buckles can make a small or big statement about you.
5. But most importantly your pants won’t fall down if you buckle up!

I’m sure no one wants that image in their head.

But where do you find a nice buckle, not to mention a good quality leather belt to go with it. Sure, we all walk through the malls and see the kiosks with belts for $10 or 2 for $15, only to discover they are vinyl or plastic covered something or other. The first time you bend them when they’re cold they crack. What a waste.

For us women we have it a little easier as almost every clothing store has fashion belts to match the outfits. For men – their favourite suit store of course for their suits – but what about for wearing with jeans? Man or woman, finding that leather belt is somewhat of a challenge.

Unless…

…you’ve been to HorseWorld Emporium. Then you know they have a great selection of leather belts and buckles. There are small buckles, medium buckles, large buckles, even extra large buckles. Buckles in brass, silver, pewter, leather, chrome, blinged and plain. Buckles with horses, (of course), fish, trademarks, profession, flowers, themed, I can go on and on. And, if they don’t have what you want on the shelf, ask to see their catalogues, they’ll order the one you want. Montana Silversmiths and a couple others will even make you a custom buckle. I’m warning you here though – that can get pretty expensive. Most buckles start in the $25 range and go up from there. Smaller buckles are less of course.

Now, what good is the buckle if you don’t have a good belt to put it on. HorseWorld has belts in various colours, styles and sizes – all good quality leather. They’re not going to crack in the cold. And did you know, they make their own belts. A standard leather belt for a pair of jeans made at their store is $25. Then you can dress it up. Have your name stamped in it, add some bling. You’ll find the pricing quite reasonable for a custom-made belt you just can’t get elsewhere!

and dog collars too!

And when you’re done shopping for the belt and buckle, don’t forget to add the hat, boots, and jeans to go with it.

HorseWorld Emporium – for the Western Lifestyle in all of us!
27 Maywood Ave, St. Catharines
www.horseworldemporium.com905-682-2545