Fall Buyer Beware: Check those boots!

There are many reasons to fall in love with fall - weddings, birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, football... but for myself, and I'm sure many of my readers, my favourite thing about the season, are the clothes. The leaves are changing and as follows, so does your wardrobe. When I think of fall, I think of copper scarves, mustard purses and cognac boots. All of which make me grab for my credit card when seen in stores or online. I thought this year I would try to get ahead of the game by planning my shopping approach. In mid-August, I found a really good deal on slip-on moccasins and a pair of cognac leather ankle boots. In September, I scoured the internet and found a great deal on a double-breasted grey full length pea coat. My approach was a paced one so that my bank account wasn't destroyed in one swipe. I decided to change my shopping habits so that I could really work on making reasonable purchasing decisions. One by one, I would weigh the pros and cons and think to myself, "Do I really, REALLY, need this?" So many times I would head to the mall with a couple hundred bucks and leave with 3s of everything, shoes, jeans, sweaters, spending way more than I had planned but to me, I was just preparing for fall. I really, REALLY needed that entire new wardrobe, right? Well lesson learned because in the heat of the moment, I ended up buying a pair of boots that ended up turning into a nightmare. Polyurethane, dreaded Polyurethane. The boots I had spent somewhere around $130 for, were made of Polyurethane and came from China. Good God what had I done? A) they were not worth $130. B) they were not made for Winnipeg winters or even Canadian winters for that matter. The entire boot fell apart after only a few weeks of wear. The sole had come off and there was no way of putting it back on said my shoe doctor. My heart was broken. Needless to say, I somehow managed to convince the manager of the store to give me a refund, well, credit, and bought some accessories in exchange. I guess my point here is: think twice about what your spending your money on. Don't go to the mall and buy forty low quality items. Spend the money and buy quality. It will last and it will look good. Let's celebrate by yelling "yay!" to the pea coat jacket I got for $100, regular $325.

Saving The Shore - Completed Documentary

After many hours on the cold shores of Lake Winnipeg filming, many interviews with very interesting and passionate people and even more hours in a small suite at school editing video, my partner Chase Gouthro and I have completed our documentary, Saving The Shore - A documentary on lake shore rehabilitation.

This was a great experience, we met and worked with a bunch of great people and we feel grateful for having the opportunity to raise awareness regarding an important issue.

Special thanks to Eddie's Gravel, Bill Lawrie and his wife, and my parents for helping me when my car broke down on the ride out to the country when we only had 20 mins to get to our interview. THANKS! ;)

My interview with Mexican Conductor, Carlos Miguel Prieto.

During my work placement at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO), I got the opportunity to interview Carlos Miguel Prieto, Mexican Conductor and guest conductor for a series of WSO concerts. Prieto is known for being one of the most dynamic young conductors of this decade.

The best part about this experience was that the WSO pretty much said to me, "Hey the conductor is going to be here this morning practicing. Here's a camera, get some questions together. You'll be interviewing him in an hour." It was amazing and what was super neat was that WSO Principal Cellist Yuri Hooker was practicing in the other room so at some points you can hear him playing in the background.

An opportunity, an experience, I will remember forever.

Follow the link to hear Carlos talk about how the symphony has evolved and how the experience has changed for audiences over the years.

Team CCMA: New and Improved

As the event coordinators for this year's Creative Communication Media Awards, Kristel and I have worked very hard to introduce a couple new things to the awards. We are very excited to be adding Best Blog and the Alumni Award of Achievement to the list of award categories!

Our graduating class is very unique in the way that we are some of the first groups of CreComms to bust into the communications industry with an abundance of social media knowledge under our belt. Past graduates were never assigned to write about a certain topic on their blog or to create a Twitter account and because of this, we added the new Best Blog Award.

Let's see... what makes a good blog? Well consistency is the first. Posting blogs on a daily, or weekly basis. Interesting or cohesive topics. You don't want to read a blog about nothing and if the blog has a theme, that is even better. Using links, pictures and videos makes blogs more interactive and fun. Many of our classmates use those for their blogs and many are very talented writers. We look forward to the submissions!

Another great addition to the 2011 CCMAs is the Creative Communications Alumni Award of Achievement. We chose to add this award to take advantage of the family of CreComms that Creative Communications has made. Many graduates are our mentors, many inspire us and encourage us to work hard to achieve our future goals. By creating this award, we will unite students with graduates and in turn, potential employers with upcoming grads. It's a beautiful thing! We are very excited to have alumnus at the awards this year and we think it will be a great networking opportunity for everyone.

We look forward to seeing alumni, family, friends and faculty at the 2011 Creative Communications Media Awards. Tuesday, April 26th at the Millennium Centre, 389 Main Street. Tickets will be on sale at the door or at the Mercantile at RRC's Princess Street Campus. See you all there! Cheers!

My Vegas Experience

Reading Week has come and gone and like many other vacationers, I ventured out of Canada to a warmer get-a-way. I was Vegas bound with the whole fam-damily. It was like National Lampoon all over again. Anything could be better than Winterpeg's -30, anything. Give me plus 5 and I'll be happy. Luckily, it was a nice 14 degrees celsius. I was in the zone.

Besides getting bit by a dog on my first full day in Vegas and getting a stomach flu on my way back home, both very laughable, I had a pretty rockin' time. To my surprise, I only got a little drunk, once, and I am grateful for that. For all the site seeing we accomplished and all the food I ate, I couldn't manage to stuff myself anymore. Though I did enjoy a handful of USA's delicious Chilada's. For those who don't know, they are pre-mixed beer and clamato juice. It is a beautiful thing.

While on my adventure, I explored for many days. I visited classic Fremont street as recommended by Steve Vogelsang. I gazed at the overhead light show and sucked back cheap beer while watching people zip-line above me and show girls dance around. It was quite the sight to see.

Thanks to my old but young boyfriend, I even mustered up the guts to hike to the top of the Stratosphere and go on a ride called, Insanity. Yeah, Insanity. We sat in a two seat thinga-ma-jigger and spun around in circles, 909 feet above Las Vegas. I was glad I did it. I didn't die!

We walked up and down the Strip, explored casino after casino and I even rode the public transit and so did my parents. That was kind of weird, just because I don't usually ride public transit with my parents... who does even... While on the Strip I travelled to the top of the "Eiffel Tower" and viewed the plethora of casinos from there. Preeeettty high, but not as high as the Stratosphere. I enjoyed many different meals and drinks. My favourite was cheap wine which I drank right out of the bottle. When in Rome...

One day we ventured out to Red Rock Canyon. THAT was amazing. To actually leave the city and see the countryside was breathtaking and almost indescribable. The pictures I took, make no justice for what I actually saw. The mountains so red and rich. The desert so dry, yet green. We visited a ranch house owned by a variety of rich people throughout the 1900's and dined on the front lawn. I bet whoever owned the place throughout the years never thought tourists would be exploring their yard some time later in the future.

Besides the good weather, cheap booze and flashy lights, I was happy to leave Vegas. It truly is something that you can only stand for so long. My warm little apartment and the crisp cool air makes me feel good and Winnipeg is my home.

Maybe when my PR diploma pays off I'll buy a place there. In the mean time, I'll gladly float around my seasonal apartment pool with my own mix of beer and clam and the calm sound of the river, no ding ding noises or screaming or cheering thanks!

Ya if you're wondering, I'm pretending to snowboard in that picture, or I guess surf too.

Saving the Shore! A Documentary

Today was a great day of filming. My partner, Chase Gouthro, and I, spent the day in beautiful Dunnottar, MB, shooting our main project for Television Documentary class: a documentary on lake shore rehabilitation.

We chose to do this project to basically, raise awareness. Many Manitobans don't know much about Lake Winnipeg, many rather, don't know the impact the lake has on the shoreline.

If you've ever been to the Interlake, you would know that specific areas along Number 9 Highway are cabin country. Hundreds upon hundreds of cabins line the shores of Lake Winnipeg and in turn, must withstand the force of the waters and the erosion of the land because of it. This is where lake shore rehabilitation comes in.

Lake shore rehabilitation is a term used to describe the process of reinforcing the wall of land that meets the shoreline in order to prevent erosion and withstand the force of the water.

In our documentary, we follow local gravel company, Eddie's Gravel Supply LTD., as they send their crews of workers to the shores of Lake Winnipeg to help homeowner's save their private property from the forceful waves.

Stay tuned for the completed documentary.

Kitties VS Superbowl

While everyone was sitting down with their friends to watch the Superbowl game this past Sunday, I was kitty-proofing my apartment. While on my way home from visiting my family in the country, I received a text from a friend, telling me he had to get rid of his kitties because his landlord found out about them. My first response was to consider taking the kitties, then I thought about all the hassles; the cleaning, the potential disasters I could encounter when I come home from school after I let two, 5 month old kittens run around my place all day, and then I had to consider my highly kitty allergic boyfriend and of course, probably an abundance of meowing and messes.

Then I considered what could happen if I didn't take the kitties and everything I considered concluded that something bad could potentially happen to them. So I took them. How could I turn my back on these helpless kitties? They deserve a nice, loving family. So I spent my Sunday with two kitties cuddling me. It was priceless.

Sometimes life throws random things at you and if you consider your good judgement, your gut will tell you that it is worth it. Karma is karma and it's worth it to be kind!

So if anyone would like to adopt these adorably loving kitties, please let me know. As much as I would love to, I can't take care of them forever.

Contact me at nickidola@hotmail.com