And the winner is...

Well, the results are in! Check out www.fromheretotheworld.org to see how I placed in this years' Songwriting Competition...you should be able to hear the song by clicking on the link too. Sending this song in was a bit like flogging a dead horse...I recorded it ages ago but I really wanted to win the $1500 worth of studio time. Many thanks to the judges for the honourable mention!!

Hols :)

From Here to the World...

Howdy Folks...

Well, my big news is out. I have been nominated as one of the top 30 songs to represent my region in the "From Here to the World" songwriting competition. I submitted a song that I wrote a little while back called "Home"...so we are all keeping everything crossed for the Finals.

Check out www.escapeartistmedia.com for the results...they should be on there tomorrow sometime!

In other news, life is good. It's still raining cats & dogs here though...didn't I just leave the rainiest place on earth to move to sunny Kelowna??? Oh well, at least it makes everything green!

It's late so I digress for now...big love to you all! HB :)

Check these out...

Here are some other cool sites you might want to check out...

www.creationproject.blogspot.com Philosphy at its' best with my old mate Jonathan D!
www.dicks-sand-bar.com Cool surf bar in the South of France run by school chum David P.
www.rysa.bc.ca My bro works for this great non-profit org!
www.answers.com Great search site for absolutely any question you may have about ANYTHING at all!!!
www.kelownahospice.com Where I work...
www.rulesview.blogspot.com Michele Rule runs for office!
www.portfolios.com Artist showcase website...v. creative!!

Autumn Rain...

I'm feeling rather melancholy today, maybe it's midweek slump, roll on weekend I say!!! You know the kind of day where you just want to pull the duvet over your head and stay there all huddled up in the warmth. Today is definately one of those days...puts me in mind of a hot chocolate smothered with whipped cream and drizzled in chocolate...ugh! I've got it bad!

Well, I can't help it really...it's raining outside, although actually I quite like the rain (I know I need my head examined right) but it makes everything feel cozy. Apparently we are in for a very cold winter...lots of the white stuff which the snowboarders are totallly "stoked" about. It was cool to see the snow again last year although it only stuck around for a few weeks or so.

Spring and Fall are actually my fave times of year...I made my abrupt entrance into this weird and wonderful planet in the Spring (so that gets my vote by default) and the Fall makes me feel like wrapping up in front of a blazing log fire...hot chocolate in hand of course, and hhhmmm! Brad Pitt wouldn't go amiss either...hey! I can dream!!

Well, I guess I should jolt myself back to reality...time waits for no man, don't put off until tomorrow what could be done today, blah-blah-blah...I want my duvet!!! At least us Canucks have a long weekend to look forward to...Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Still crazy...

Well, it's still beautiful weather here in sunny Kelowna. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain tomorrow so we're all enjoying the sun as much as possible.

I am hoping for the best with today's update, as I had an unfortunate incident with a box of thumb tacks which has resulted in the letter "P" on my keyboard being rendered almost useless! I have to hit the stupid thing at least three times before it will print...ugh!!! Sometimes the littlest things can be soooooooo annoying!

So please forgive me if I lose my cool and start to type * instead of "P"...it's a last ditch effort to keep my sanity intact...barely!

I'm taking this o**ortunity to say a big HI! to all my mates all around the world (makes me sound like some kind of rock star doesn't it..ha!ha! I wish), but seriously I love kee*ing in touch with you all. Keep me posted on all your news ok!

In other news, I'm keeping everything crossed lately for my latest venture back into the music biz. Have entered one of my tunes in the OK Songwriters Contest. Would be a great way to meet the local musos for sure. Also, the $1500 free recording session would be a definite bonus, would also be a kick in the keister for me to get out there again.

Not much happening here at the mo really. Work, work, and more work mostly. Big plans are on the horizon in my career zone, so I'll keep you posted on that as soon as I have NEWS!!! Let's just say that my roots run deeper than I thought they did. "Every road leads home". H :)

The little things...

Hi All!

Well, today is a day like any other day. No great epiphanies, no amazing newsflashes, no whirlwind romances, just life....just how I like it! You know it's taken me this long to figure out that it's all the stuff that happens in between the chaos and the excitement that is really important.

This morning I woke up to a beatiful orange glowing sunrise. I walked along leave strewn sidewalks which herald the start of Fall once again. It's those little pleasures that make it all worthwhile right. Sometimes it seems we're so busy rushing around from here to there that we really don't notice the little things that are so spectacular around us.

Amazingly, my daughter has already grasped this concept. When something bad happens or I'm disappointed about something in life, she chimes in with: " At least you're not dead Mum!!!"

How true!!!

I guess we all have a choice to make. We either look at the big things and make them our whole focus, or we take time to look at the small, seemingly insignificant things around us and truly enjoy them! La vie est belle folks!!!

The Key...

I realize that my posts have been pretty serious recently, so I thought I'd take a different trail this time around. It seems to me that we have so much to be thankful for in this life...even the simplest things are to be honoured and cherished.

If you walked into your day thinking about each little thing that makes you happy, each simple pleasure and joy...I'm sure that by the end of the day, we would find that the good far outweighs the bad doesn't it?

I've been thinking about that lately, how life is series of choices, we can choose to see the proverbial glass as half-empty or half-full, we can seize the moment or let it pass us by...in the course of a single day we make so many choices. Even in the seemingly insignificant trivialities of our daily lives, we choose to truly live life to the fullest or squander it away.

At the risk of sounding like any number of self-help books available on the market these days, the answer really is within each of us, the key to our own personal truth is staring us in the face but so often we are so busy looking elsewhere that we don't ever see it.

I know people who are so busy trying to validate themselves through other people that they lose sight of their own voice and subsequently spiral helplessly in the cacophony of noise. It only took me 31 years to realize that the key to living this life is to truly LIVE it...and give it everything you've got!!! You only get one shot!

Hurricane Katrina

I haven't written in a few days due to the devastating nature of Hurricane Katrina over the last week. The pictures coming out of the hardest hit areas have been shocking to say the least. Somehow these kinds of scenes don't really hit home until they are almost on your doorstep.

The enormity of the damage can best be summed up as "apocalyptic". Imagine an area the size of the United Kingdom being completely levelled. The loss of life there is still unknown as many did not manage to get out of the storm zone quickly enough. Exactly a week after the storm touched ground, thousands remain clinging to what little they have left. Sadly, it will be the most helpless and most vulnerable who will continue to lose their lives in the aftermath of the disaster.

Critics point the finger at the government response for their slowness to react, others claim that it was those who stubbornly stayed behind in their homes who are to blame for their own demise, whichever way you slice it, thousands have lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina, this is not the time to point the finger at anyone!

Sadly, this disaster has not brought out the best in the human spirit. Within the hardest hit areas, looting, raping, and pilaging began shortly after the Hurricane. Truly, this is the hardest thing to comprehend through all of this chaos.

Tonight, my prayers are with those who have lost everything, their homes, their livelihoods, their families and friends. Sometimes it seems as though lending our prayers is the only thing we can do...at least it is something!

Fire update...

Well, all is well on the Westside! Yesterday heralded a much-needed rainfall and the raging fire that engulfed the area has now dimmed to a cloudy smolder of ash and debris. Local residents are both relieved and hesitant to be moving back into their homes after the near disaster.

Thankfully residential damage was minimal, with only ash deposits being left on yards and roads in the area.

The local fire Dept. are being heralded for their quick response to the blaze. It seems that lessons have been learned in recent years and constant monitoring and thinning out of mature trees in the Rose Valley area were key in the disaster being contained.

Westside Fire

As you can see, today's blog is tinged with worry. Last night at about 11:30pm, a raging forest fire began spreading on the Westside of Kelowna.

Many people were forced to evacuate their homes and remain out of the area tonight.

Anxiety hung heavy in the air, as this all too familiar for Kelowna Residents since the 2003 Forest Fire Disaster when 40 people lost their homes.

We had just come out from an evening at the theater when we noticed the bright orange blaze across the lake. Everyone just stood frozen to the spot, hoping and praying the firefighters God-speed.

Today, water bombers still circle the area, dropping water from a nearby lake intermittantly. The weather forecast indicates possible rain tonight. We are all keeping our fingers crossed.

Not much else to report at this time, so I'll sign off for now.

Blog away...

Ok...you knew it would happen sooner or later right? It was almost inevitable that I'd get sucked into the whole "blog" buzz ...what can I say...I have a highly addictive personality!

So, here's the INTRO blurb. My name is Holli. I am 31 yrs old and currently live in Kelowna, BC, CANADA with my two kids, Jordan and Chloe.

We love it here! Kelowna has the best of all worlds. You can't beat the 2000 hours of sunshine per year, the 90 km of pristine lakeshore, some of the best beaches around, and vineyards creating a patchwork sloping down into lush valleys.

Here you can enjoy some of the best fruits and wines in the region. I don't advise that you over-do it on either though...would make for a very unpleasant holiday I'm afraid!

When I'm not working, or lapping up the wonderful sunshine, I can usually be found writing the next chapter of my book, or now....writing my blog!!!