Needing Cubicle Personalization Assistance.

Filed Under Work, furniture | 19 Comments

I started my brand, spanking new job this week and am absolutely loving it! I work for a not-for-profit agency that focusses mainly on people with mental health issues and/or homelessness. I work on the mental health side of things, and have learned more this week than I ever thought possible in four days. My problem is, I have super sweet, huge, spacious cubicle that looks over the city through a floor-to-ceiling window. How is this a problem you may ask? Well, it’s a problem because my desk looks like this:

Photo credit: http://dearjanesample.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/cube-decorating-101/

BORING! Although I love decorating magazines and websites - why, hello Jessica Jones - I am not very good at decorating!! I think it comes from years of student homes where how many empty beer cases you had in your front doorway was more important than how cute your room was.

So I need you!!! How can I make my cubicle sparkle with fun, and not be so stark and boring??? I want it to say zen, happiness, and be a welcoming place for me to arrive at every morning and to bring my clients to.

Help me! What does your desk look like? What have you decorated it with to make it exude your personality and be an enjoyable place to be?

Thanks for reading! Did you know you can get Five Blondes delivered (semi) daily? Just click for our RSS feed. See you soon!

May

24

I only wish I could make up random holidays.

Filed Under Work | 2 Comments

My cat just winked at me. Seriously - looking right at me and blinked one eye. I think it’s loooove.

Whoops, back to business! I try not to write about work and what goes on/does not go on here mainly because 1. I love my job and therefore there isn’t a lot to gripe write about; 2. Everyone at work knows that I blog and 3. I would not be surprised if some of our customers have been here (Hi!). Many of them are bloggers themselves and hey, curiosity compels them! We’re an online company and it’s just something that comes with the job. I try to keep my online work life and online personal life separate, but it can be really hard.

Many (okay, the majority) of our customers are from the US and are therefore enjoying the Memorial Day holiday. In fact, I’ve had people wishing me a ‘happy holiday weekend!’ since Thursday. They seem to forget that we don’t have a holiday - we’re Canadian! I guess I can’t blame them. The only reason I know it’s an American holiday is because I look forward to the slower day at work.

We enjoyed our long weekend last week when we had Monday off. You know, when our customers sent multiple emails and left multiple voicemails wondering where the heck we were and why we weren’t doing our jobs. Of course, this throws us off on Tuesday and it takes a good part of the day to catch up. Unfortunately this happens every time there is a Canadian holiday. I’ve even had to reply to an email that presumed (very wrongly) that we had gone out of business.

Ninety-nine percent of the time people are very understanding and will often ask if you had a good weekend. The other day I spoke to someone who was a little…skeptical.

Customer: Was no-one in the office on Monday? I called several times and didn’t get an answer.

Me: Monday was a Canadian holiday.

C: “Oh really? What holiday?”

** I had to pause here to remember the official name of the holiday as it is usually called by it’s informal name ”May 2-4″ - indicating that it occurs around the 24th of May and that there are a lot of 2-4’s consumed.

M: “Victoria Day!”

C: “Victoria…who?”

(sheesh)

M: “Queen Victoria.”

C: “…Oh.”

May

20

FiveBlondes is going National!

Filed Under Calgary, Family, Work, cars, dreams, leah, relationships | 8 Comments

I have put off writing this post because it always felt so far away, but time sure does creep up on you sometimes. A little while ago, you may recall that I was questioning life choices after graduation. Well, decisions have been made and now I am about to follow my dream boy across the country to the beautiful city of Calgary! The car drives out next Tuesday, May 27th. We are road-trippin’ our way across the nation to our new home for the next year. Lucky for us, I have amazing relatives out west who have already invited us into their homes until we find our perfect place to make into our home. Today was a bittersweet day, because I finished my last day at my current job (professional barmaid, bartender, petal, bar wench, whatever those crazy Europeans come up with at the moment), and have left my amazing coworkers and bosses at My Favourite Pub.

Currently I am deciding what Calgary-Leah will be like … I thrive on change and actively pursuing new and exciting adventures.

Hometown friends - there will be some sort of gathering chez Bontje farm on Sunday, so pop on over if you have time! I will keep you updated concerning times.

P.S. Don’t forget to vote for us!

Apr

30

Movin On Up

Filed Under Work, life, relationships | 6 Comments

I’m really happy to be able to write this today. This has been a great week for myself and D, and also for Five Blondes.com! This afternoon I got a call from D’s boos - which immediately had me worried because I figured the only reason his boss might have to call me is if something BAD had happened. My heart was in my throat. He spends a good amount of the day driving from call to call, so I thought that he had been in an accident. Then, his boss went on to say “I’m here with D…” and asked my what I would think if the company were to offer him a full-time, permanent position!

I just about jumped up and down yelling “Yes! I would love that!” D has been working for this major company (he doesn’t want me to blog about his personal details and I respect that) on contract as a technician for over 1.5 years. He truly is one of the best technicians they have on staff - numbers don’t lie! In fact, he is one of the best techs in Canada. His boss loves him and told me that they are making an exception for him. He’s exceptional

Pinwheels

What does this mean for us? Aside from job security for D, he’ll be getting a company van in a few weeks and will no longer have to worry about mileage on our personal car or moving parts in and out of the car every weekend. We’ll get benefits, which will help pay for my prescriptions. We are now in a much better position to buy a house (!!) and start a family (!!) - the wedding is 367 days away!

On the blog-front, the great Google gods bestowed a pagerank of 4 upon FiveBlondes.com yesterday. I couldn’t believe it! Mom’s website, Couturesmith, is PR3.

Finally, I want to know if you’re on Twitter. I am! At first I decided to keep it separate from my blogging activities, but I’ve had a change of heart. You can find me @ericablonde. I’m having a lot of fun getting to know some of my favorite bloggers even better and keeping up with the latest news on the social media / SEO / intrawebz front. I’m the kind of person who likes to be standing in the middle of a crowded room listening to everything going on around me. Sometimes that’s what Twitter feels like to me.

Finally, I’m thinking of writing some book reviews. I’ve been reading a LOT lately and have discovered some fantastic authors that you MUST know about. I’m excited already!