the island’s destination & event service staff and partners are dedicated to creating remarkable destination and event experiences. tides is located in Sidney BC, the gateway to Victoria, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Join us to explore the Salish Sea! tides will deliver a very well organized and creative approach in making your trip or activity a success.

With over 30 years of global destination & event service, Steve Duck brings a wealth of experience. Steve enjoys living in the center of Sidney, a coastal town on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Sunshine & sea at his fingertips, Steve spends his leisure time cycling the Saanich Peninsula countryside and wandering the local beaches.

Location
Sidney, British Columbia, V8L 0A5

Hours Of Operation
Office hours: Monday – Friday: 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

Contact Information
Phone: (250)891-6599
Email: steve@tidesgroup.com

Follow tides

Website: http://tidesgroup.com

The Images And Text In This Listing Are © tides, All Rights Reserved

Beautiful interiors to inspire!

With roots in both modern Calgary and the grand heritage architecture of the East Coast, Colleen Buker’s natural design flair is reflected in her elegant and esthetically designed rooms.

Referencing her early years, Colleen says “I have always had an affinity for design. When I threw my little red pony outside my crib I was space planning…” and she has never stopped. Colleen brought her talent to Victoria 10 years ago. “I value my clients…” Using her skill set of listening, identifying, researching, and creatively solving problems she has developed inviting, sophisticated interiors which reflect her client’s individual personality. Embracing traditional design principles, she crafts classic environments with the benefit of inspired contemporary design.

From residential work to hospitality and from health care and theatres, Colleen’s award-winning designs are matched only by her passion for people.

If you need an interior designer, let her bring this natural talent and professional flair to your home.

Services Offered

Residential Interior Design
Space planning
Paint Color Selection
Lighting | Plumbing | Material Selections
Kitchen | Bath Design NKBA Certificate
Design Drawings

Residential Interior Decorating

Furniture Selection
Custom Furniture Design
Fabrics | Drapery | Bedding | Re-Upholstery
Blinds
Artwork | Accessories
Paint Color Selection

Contact Information
250-220-4796
Contact By Email

Website: http://cbdesign.ca/

 J. Richmond Gardening
Victoria BC

Services Offered
J. Richmond Gardening offers residential gardening services in the Victoria area.
These services include design, renovations, and regular maintenance.
References are available upon request.

Contact Information
Phone: 250-744-3938
Email: janice.r@live.ca

Victoria’s Painting Experts

Rod Taylor is the owner operator of PaintPro Victoria and has been a proud member of the Victoria business community since 1995. Rod makes sure that he responds to every request for an estimate or consultation personally.

If you are looking for painters in Victoria, PaintPro Victoria has over 20 years experience at providing exceptional quality painting services for residential and commercial properties. PaintPro continuously exceeds expectations for owners of houses, apartments, townhouses and condominiums in the greater Victoria area and south Vancouver Island.

We are specialists in ensuring long lasting, true color finishes for the West Coast environment and pride ourselves on ensuring that all of our skills and dedication are focused on the most important aspect of the job – YOU.

Location
3054 Albany Street
Victoria, BC V9A 1R5

Contact Information
Office: 250-474-6200
Cell: 250-380-8240
Contact By Email

Follow PaintPro Victoria

Website: http://www.paintprovictoria.biz/

Photo Credit

The Microsoft Office Clip Art Collection

For Your Animal Companions

The foundation of the Tellington TTouch method is a specific form of light circular touches and strokes applied to the body. Done mindfully, this form of touch induces a state of relaxation and increased body awareness. The combination of TTouch bodywork with unique movement exercises improves focus and attention allowing optimal learning to take place.

TTouch offers animal lovers and professionals a gentle and effective way to solve behavioral issues, enhance performance and improve communication between humans and animals. 

Janice Richmond
Tellington TTouch Practitioner – Victoria BC

Services Offered
Individual Client Sessions
One Day Small Group Workshops
Group Classes

Contact Information
Phone: 250-744-3938
Email: janice.r@live.ca

Additional Information About Tellington TTouch

Why Use TTouch for Companion Animals?

Tellington TTouch Training Canada Website

A rare find in Arezzo: tastefully restored in 2008, an extremely large, elegant and luxurious apartment on a single level, with many windows and fine furnishings, at one of the best addresses in Arezzo. The reduced price of €1.145 million includes a fully fitted American-style kitchen with all appliances, and many incredible antique chandeliers and sconces. This property is at once a truly luxurious dwelling and a sound investment. In these troubled economic times, quality Tuscan properties have retained their value, and truly elite properties such as this have continue to appreciate despite the global economic downturn.

A few images of this wonderful home
Click here for more images

Location

Arezzo, City of Goldsmiths and home to Giorgio Vasari and Petrarch, is one of the true jewels of Tuscany, from the towering Duomo and the churches of San Domenico and San Francesco, to the Piazza Grande, depicted in Roberto Benigni’s now-classic film, “Life is Beautiful.” It is a city of rich cultural and artistic traditions that continue today, and the historic centre, with its ancient cobbles and centuries-old palazzi, reflects this fact.

By fast train, the property is just over an hour from Rome and about half an hour from Florence, with all that these major centres have to offer. The countryside surrounding Arezzo itself is stunning in its verdant beauty. It is a city of tranquility, a splendid and safe haven in the rolling Tuscan hills.

The apartment itself is located in a palazzo at one of the best addresses in Arezzo’s historic centre, or “Centro Storico,” in easy walking distance of parks, churches, schools, shopping and other amenities.

Read more about the location

Contact Information
Contact The Seller

Website: A Luxury Home In Tuscany

The Images And Text In This Listing Are © A Luxury Home In Tuscany, All Rights Reserved

I thought I would share a few with you and start with one called, ‘Start Now – No Funding Needed’. In this short but inspiring video, Derek speaks about the dynamic of “just doing it” and not waiting for all types of other conditions to be met before starting your business, or perhaps, embracing your passions. This has always been my way of doing things, and while success can never be guaranteed, starting something will always open doors and opportunities. All we need to do is recognize them and some pretty amazing things can happen!

Click here to view the embedded video.

P.S. Yes yes .. my other nieces are wonderful too

In seeking the art of life, the creative process is a prayer for understanding. The art work created is the evidence of that process. ~ Marco Zecchin

Sottoportico, Venice – 1995

Marco Zecchin’s personal art work has been influenced by many inspirational places, and people.

“In my travels, I find wondrous things everywhere I look. This said, there are special and spiritual areas like the American Southwest, Minnesota, England and my ancestral home of Italy, that influence and touch me greatly.”

Buildings and other man made structures are a running theme through the majority of his personal photographs.

“I find it interesting how we have worked so hard at separating ourselves from the elements and the magic and self awareness that we can derive from them. We have actually tried to protect ourselves from the elements through these structures but ultimately the elements prevail in the ruins that I find everywhere. I can only hope that we will not have to fall to ruin to discover our magic and awareness.”

Sottoportico can also be found on page 17 of his fabulous book, The Spirit Of Northern Italy.

Marco Zecchin’s inspirational limited edition prints are of the highest quality.

“Ensuring that the final prints will satisfy my aesthetic and make them a value to buy, I print them on the finest archival materials and limit the number of prints I produce, in each size, to editions of 45 – unless otherwise specified. Once the edition is completed, the file is retired, never to be printed again.”

Sottoportico Limited Edition Prints

8″ x 10″ – $450.00

11″ x 14″ – $650.00

16″ x 20″ – $850.00

Purchase Here

Location
P.O. Box 786, Los Gatos, California, 95031

Hours Of Operation
Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00

Contact Information
Phone: (408)930-2490
Email: marcoz@image-center.com

Follow Marco Zecchin

Website: http://marcozecchin.com

Latest Posts At Marco’s Site

The Images And Text In This Listing Are © Marco Zecchin, All Rights Reserved

A few weeks ago, I was having coffee with a good friend. She is a project manager for an application developer and has to make sure that the programmers are staying focused in order to meet their objectives and milestones. I asked how her week was going.

“It’s like herding butterflies,” she said.

Butterflies are beautiful to watch but their flight paths are anything but straight. As the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, herding butterflies would be a very difficult task indeed! The thing is; we all behave like butterflies from time to time. When we are working efficiently, we are moving in straight lines. When we get sidetracked, we are flying about like butterflies. A simple example is going to the grocery store to get something you need. You get back home with 2 bags of groceries only to realize the one thing you really needed is not in either bag.

It’s so easy to lose focus. For instance, while writing this article, I have been sidetracked several times. As I was writing the first paragraph, I began to wonder what type of pictures I could use. Butterflies? Sine waves vs. straight lines? I opened my browser and started surfing. As I did this, I came across another blog that had a nice look, the type of look I am after for my guitar instruction web site. The theme they were using was something that would work for me so I spent an hour investigating it. Then, an e-mail came which reminded me I need to spend time on a monetization strategy for synaptici.com. In order to monetize, the site needs to attract many visitors so I spent time delving deeper into which Virtual Social Networking mechanisms would be most effective to draw readers to the site. Several hours later, I went back to writing this article but I was drawing blanks. I had totally lost my train of thought. Moreover, I had not found any pictures, was nowhere closer to a monetization strategy, had not increased my readership and now had 30 e-mails that needed to be read and replied to. My goals for the day were derailed!

This doesn’t always happen to me. In fact, it only happens when I don’t follow a strategy that I have employed for many years. It’s a strategy I developed for myself primarily because I recognized in my twenties that discipline and focus did not come naturally to me. If I had stuck to my plan, I likely would have finished this article the day I started it. It’s ironic that an article about focus has been the hardest one I have yet written simply because I didn’t follow my plan and got sidetracked.

So what’s the strategy? A ‘categorized’ to-do list. The word categorized is essential. To make such a list, I first do the following:

IDENTIFY the main objectives or the goals.

DETERMINE everything required to achieve the goal.

ORGANIZE these requirements into their appropriate categories.

PRIORITIZE the most important categories / requirements.

The following is a snapshot of my categorized to-do list for synaptici.com. While the actual list is much deeper than I am presenting here, it should serve to get the point across. Besides, I can’t tell you ALL my secrets … yet

Content Development:

• Write articles that are relevant to the topics covered at synaptici.com
• Create or source pictures and media that will enhance the articles.
• Develop e-books.
• Find interesting video clips that stimulate the imagination and thought processes.

Site Development and Administration:

• Look and feel of the site – the site needs to look great and be easy to navigate.
• Update WordPress to its latest version.
• Update all widgets to their latest versions.
• Optimize the site for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Business Strategy:

• Develop a monetization strategy.
• Develop an affiliates program.
• Attract contributing authors.

Marketing Strategy:

• Leverage Virtual Social Networking mechanisms (Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon)
• Attract readers.
• Attract advertisers.

Once you have established your categorized to-do list, time management becomes an important aspect. Dedicate blocks of time to each item on your list. During those times, focus on that item until it is complete then move on to your next priority. In my case, content development has the highest priority.

Look and feel of the site is number two. I can always change my business and marketing strategies. Without content and a good-looking site, I would not attract readers. Without readers, synaptici.com would not need business and marketing strategies.

Another helpful idea is to pick a theme for the week. For example, I have decided that next week’s theme is to attract contributing authors. When I am not developing content, it will be my primary focus.

If you want to stay on track, you need to follow a plan and you need to focus on your highest priority items. If you are having a day or a week where you just don’t have the energy to delve into the big things, pick a smaller one, look after the little things. If you are sidetracked, don’t beat yourself up about it and get frustrated. Go back to your plan and get back on track. Without a plan, well, you will become a butterfly!

Photo Credits

Butterfly Midflight © Fir0002/Flagstaffotos © Gil Namur, 2009

First Posted At Synaptici June 14, 2009

Suppose you have just done business with a client and during the process, the client has thanked you several times for your efforts and expressed to you what a good job you have done for them. This is the best time to ask for that reference. Just thank them and ask, “could you please put that in writing?”

People, in general, love to write you a reference. A mentor of mine taught me this in my twenties and it has served me very well over the years. I have in excess of 30 written references. Some of these are from Presidents and Directors of companies, Government Deputy Ministers, Information Systems Directors, sales people, re-sellers and I even have some from employees and staff that I have worked with in the past which are among my most treasured references.

For me, these references serve two distinct purposes. Most obviously, it’s great to be able to hand a copy of a written reference to a prospective client or employer. Less obvious is what I call my “I Love Me” file. Let me explain.

All of us go through slumps and when we do, it’s very easy to get down on oneself. It’s easy to begin to question your worth and your ability. If that happens to you, take your “I Love Me” file and find a nice quiet room and sit on the floor. Place all of your references around you and then spend some time looking at each one. You are now surrounded by positive commentary about YOU. As you consider each one, you will remember all of your successes and get your mind off of your current slump. You will remember just how capable you are and be reminded of your potential. You will also smile remembering the writers and the relationships you built with them. You might even pick up the phone and call a few of them or send them an e-mail. Who knows what doors that might open.

Give it a try!

© Gil Namur, 2009

Image From Microsoft Office Collection

First posted at synaptici.com on Feb 4, 2009