Jan-chan's Tidbits

2009 Highs and Lows

Jan — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:33:34 +0000

Happy new year! It’s been a while since I’ve last posted. With weddings happening as late as November and then a bunch of birthday parties followed by holiday gatherings my last two months were pretty busy. I kind of liked it though. All those gathering gave me a chance to catch up with family and friends that I haven’t seen for a while.

Anyways since I haven’t posted for so long I thought I’d start the new year off with a recap of 2009. It was a challenging year for me in both personal and career aspects. It called for some interesting and difficult decision making. Looking back now I don’t regret in the path I’ve chosen. I don’t want to be in a position where I’ll have doubts and so I’ve done what I thought would best help me eliminate this. Thanks to my family and friends who were all very supportive with my decision and continue to be there for me. Love you guys ♥

The past year was also a very “unlucky” year for my family as well. I think in total my parents had to go to the hospital three times. The scariest incident was my dad falling off a ladder and had to be hospitalized for two weeks with broken hip bone and ribs. Also my grandparents’ health seemed to have gone south faster than I thought. Maybe it’s because I don’t see them as often anymore. Every time I saw them I find that they have a stricter diet or that they are less mobile.

Ok on to the happy thoughts. Aside from all those weddings, the highlights of the year is actually my Jamaica trip with Al! It’s our first vacation together and it was really fun. I’m hoping this will be the start of us taking annual vacations from now on. I’ve also been trying to see my girlfriends more often. It’s an interesting experience (will talk more in another post) as I don’t usually hang out with girls too much. No offense to females but I find guys are just easier to talk to. Maybe it’s because I have a brother or the fact that I game a bit…too much.

So for 2010, I’m not exactly sure what’s happening yet. There’s talk of going back to HK in April and going to a wedding in Vegas in May. Work wise I’m hoping to focus on developing some customer retention programs and take the email marketing further. I also plan on spending more time with my parents and grandparents. As for those that’s been wondering about the wedding, well you’ll just have to wait till we can find a date!

Handmade Chocolates [Clay Craft]

Jan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:54:04 +0000

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.

Where’s Jan?

Jan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:51:06 +0000

I’m still here…just been busy with a lot of things the past months. After a wave of weddings (not mine of course!) things have finally quiet down but now work just started to pick up. Direct mail, email, seasonal mailouts…so many campaigns all coming at once plus I’m redesigning two websites.

I’ve got a lot of photos to upload so you’ll be able to see something new (and you can bet there’ll be food pictures). Also I think (90% sure) that I’ll be heading back to HK next Spring. Yay! I’m so excited. I haven’t been back in a long time. If you know of a good/interesting restaurant in HK that you think I MUST try, please send info my way.

Clay Project #6 – Phalaenopsis

Jan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:36:57 +0000

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.

Wedding Fest – August 8, 2009

Jan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:42:31 +0000

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.