Jan-chan’s Tidbits

After taking the chocolate clay making class back in summer I’ve finally got the time to try making my own this week. I bought the clay (with colour mixed in) from my teach and just play around with the design of how the chocolate will look like. The hardest one to make is the one that has white and dark chocolate mixed together (like a swirl). To create the swirl you have to twist the dark and white clay together in a way that won’t mix them together completely (you’d end up with “milk chocolate” if you do). Here are some pictures of the final product. I’ve folded boxes to hold them as well as I’m going to give them away as gifts.

Close up of some of the chocolates. The flower one didn't turn out exactly as I've imagined but it'll do for now.

Here are most of the chocolates I've created.

I can't find boxes that'd fit them so I've created my own using origami boxes.

Here's a close up on what they look like in the box.

What do you think? I’m deciding whether to make them into magnets since they’d be more useful that way.

This was a project I had worked on in June that I didn’t have a chance to update until now. The flower this time is Phalaenopsis and it was the flower that had prompted me to do the flower courses. I love how real this flower looks. See for yourself:

Phalaenopsis made amost entirely with clay.

Close up on the flowers.

A closer look at the details.

Another close up on the paint job.

Close up on the buds.

My next project is making chocolate! More on that once I’m done.

So I was lucky enough to be invited to two weddings that happened on the same day. Before I continue further I want to congratulates the two couples, Mr. & Mrs. Tam and Mr. & Mrs. Lee.

Anyways, the best part of these weddings is that the location is very unique. I attended a ceremony in the UBC Boathouse and a banquet at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I’ve wrote about the two venues on the wedding notebook so if you’re interested in how the venues look like head over to view the pictures.

I didn’t get a chance to take too many photos at the weddings but for my dear Kaya here are some photos of the triplets.

This is at the dock at the UBC Boathouse.

I love this picture!

Cheese!...with the Kan couple.

At the Vancouver Art Gallery (outside).

For Richter...with ♥~ lol

Two more weddings coming up in the Fall. I haven’t been to fall weddings yet. Hopefully it won’t be too cold.

Since Al took me on a trip to Jamaica, I decided to surprise him with a sturgeon fishing trip. I booked the trip with BC Sportfishing Group. Their rates are competitive and Ria was really informative and answered all my questions about the trip (ie. How am I going to pee if there’s no washroom on the boat?) There are numerous docks along Fraser River and since it’s a day trip we used the dock in Chilliwack. It was a nice, sunny day with a bit of a breeze so we weren’t baking on the boat in the afternoon. We met Chad, our guide, at 10 and headed out to one of the many known fishing spots to test our luck.

After we anchored down, Chad taugh us some facts about sturgeon fishing, the type of bait they use and why. Apparently sturgeon can’t see very well (they are nearly blind) so they rely on their sense of smell to detect food. We used three different types of bait: salmon roe, eel (cut into smaller pieces) and a small fish (I forgot what they are called but Chad said they are very popular in Spring time which is when they catch them and freeze them to use as bait later). We were quite lucky as we didn’t wait too long before we caught our first sturgeon.

Chad, our guide, putting the bait on the hook.

Al getting a lesson on how to reel in the fish.

Our first sturgeon!

Our first sturgeon was about 30 inches long. Chad went over some of the sturgeon’s characteristics with us, such as it’s mouth which is like a suction cup, it’s hard head and the scales which runs along the side and the top of the body (it’s kind of lizard like). We then drove to other spots trying to catch more sturgeon but was only able to catch one more by the end of the day. I had tried to reel in one but I lost it since I didn’t have enough power to reel it in fast enough and when it jumped, it unhooked itself. I did managed to take a picture with the 2nd sturgeon that we caught. It was about 35 inches long.

Me, Chad and the lucky sturgeon.

During the fishing trip we saw bald eagles as well as other birds in the area. It was a pretty nice day so some people were doing paragliding as well. I didn’t think fishing would be this fun. Despite all the waiting, it’s very rewarding when you got a fish on the line and the fun of reeling it in (or watching someone do it) would have you on the edge of your seat.

Continuing from Part 1 of my Jamaica trip with Al, this post will highlight the two main activities that we’ve done.

Dune Buggy

We decided to do a dune buggy tour because we wanted an adventure that doesn’t require us to get wet. We didn’t get wet but we got dirty! After a short introduction on how the buggy operates we drove out in pairs over muddy terrains. At first I tried to avoid the puddles but even if I did that or went over them very slowly I still got mud all over my arms and legs. So at the end I just went full speed ahead.  There were a few stops where the guide pointed out some local plants and gave us a bit of Montego Bay’s history. It was a very fun trip even thought when we finish we looked like we had just took a mud bath.

Splash!

More splashing!

Snorkeling

When we were at the resort we’d try to snorkel in the morning before the beach gets busy or it’s too hot to stay out in the sun. We went a total of three days and had taken a waterproof point and shoot camera with us. The quality of the photos didn’t turn out too nice since it’s pretty hard to stay still while taking the picture (with the waves pushing you as well as the fish swimming around). It was our first time snorkeling and we had way more fun than expected. There were lots of different fish and we managed to find a couple of starfish, a puffer fish and lots of sea urchins. Too bad we couldn’t scoop them out of the ocean. I don’t think we swam far enough to see any sting rays though. On our last day the wind was good enough for us to use the resort’s sunfish sail boat. A resort staff took us out in the ocean for view of the coastlines.

Can you spot the sunfish sailboat?

Al sitting on the sailboat waiting for our departure.

Sea urchin hidden in the cracks.

Starfish

This puffer fish was hard to spot.

Here's a close up.

Another shoot of the puffer fish.

Close up.

Colourful fish.

I had a lot of fun snorkeling and would love to try diving. Al and I also talked about getting a better camera for under water photos.