Birthday card to Mom

I haven't started any of the x'mas card yet, since I have a more urgent task: Mom's birthday is coming up in two weeks.

Mom always prefer cute design and I decided not to use too complicated technique. This is a cheerful scene, I wish my Mom feel this way as she sees the card.



Inspired from this one:

Used a variety of different stamps (all Hero arts):
LP161 Asian Kids
CL153 Clear Design Happy Day Animals
CL230 Clear Design Live simple
CL138 Bird Branch
CL139 Birthday messages

Rangers Diamond Stickles
Copic markers, colour pencil.


I still found the distress ink and applicator not as easy to use. My first attempt for the blue background fails. Often I got big intense spot of ink on the paper. Maybe I need more practice...but it seems so easy on the tutorial video...

Vancouver Aquarium - IMAX 4D Experience

Went to the Vancouver Aquarium on Sunday. Heard that they have a new IMAX 4D theatre showing Planet Earth: Shallow Seas 4-D Experience (23 minutes). With the 50% off coupon on hand which is going to expire in a week, I plan to revisit this place.
The admission is a bit on the pricey side: $22/person includes the IMAX admission. With the coupon it seems to become a bit more a affordable.

It was actually my mistake that we took off late. When I got there it's already 3pm, which I know later that it closes at 5. And of course, after we saw the first section, we hurry to the lineup for the IMAX show. We lineup for about 15 minutes and we are one of the last few people for this last show of the day.

Like other IMAX theatre, the screen is exceptionally large: from floor to ceiling. However, the seat cushion seems a bit harder than those in other cinema. Each of us received a pair of clear plastic film glasses (no longer the red+green one as 20 years ago). I was expecting the moving seats like the one in Vegas but it doesn't seem to be like that (can't see railing underneath). Before the feature show, there is a short introductory trailer to give you an idea about the 4D experience: water splash on your face, vibrating chair, bubble, wind and even something that tickle your feet (I still can't figure out what that is, I assume it is some strong jet of air stream that blows out). Last but not least, the 3D effect that image is poking out of the screen. Combining all of the above, the experience is totally unique, if not a bit too exciting at times. Yeah I don't really advise anybody with heart attack to go there, so you know what I mean. Yet, it's a total new experience for the audience. You don't only watch, but sense. The whale is breathing on the surface of water so you feel the air that blow out from the whale, you get water splash on your face. You see bubbles; just like there is air bubble under the sea.

I totally recommend it, despite the high admission price. If you go before the end of October, there is another 4D movie showing as well (Halloween theme). I actually feel bad that only I don't have enough time to go over the rest of the aquarium. There would be another visit for sure, until I got another 2-for-1 coupon. :)

Exercise log (week 30)

Monday: run 36 minutes (5K). I was quite satisfied since I haven't run for so long.

Saturday: run 31 minutes. (4 laps @ the nearby park - with uphill slopes)

心情過山車

這幾天的心情，真的好像坐了過山車一樣。

前天的我是無奈，昨天的我是感恩，而今天，跟天氣一樣，很沈重。

雪中送炭

昨天的我真的很失落，就好像是走到谷底一樣。

沒想到上天還待我不薄。事緣我從去年起對製作手工卡片產生了濃厚興趣，也加入了網路上的社群。其間一些製造商，時常主辦比賽，勝出者就能獲得一些手工藝材料。我也參加過好幾次，當然名落孫山。除此之外，也有每星期抽獎，一年下來，由當初的熱切期待每次公佈的日子，到現在差不多到了愛理不理的程度，因為我學懂了沒有期望，才沒有失望。除了由製造商舉辦的抽獎外，也有個別成員舉辦抽獎，送出小禮物。只要在他的部落或上載的圖片上留言，就有機會參加，而我就抱著一試無妨的心態，也參加過幾次。沒想到，這一次中了，早上就收到電郵說我被抽中了。這些就是我的獎品。

太好了，都是我很喜愛，卻又捨不得買的rubber stamp呢！而這個就是我得獎的公佈。

再一次謝謝 Pia 的慷慨，同時也謝過替我高興的成員。一份小禮物，一句留言，卻是如此的窩心。

感謝了。

那些美好的時光

我明白，花無百日紅，人生一定是有起有跌。擁有過十年的美好時光已是不易，我卻奢想可以永遠擁有，我是太貪心了吧。

Fall Fahrt Ins Blaue Day Drive

Saturday: didn't do much, play Wii resort for a while with friend and then go to friend's place for steak dinner. The steak is just perfectly cooked (for me). Despite my effort, I still can't finish the 16oz steak.

Sunday: It's the annual Fahrt Ins Blaue Day Drive event organized by BMW Car Club of BC. We are so lucky that it was raining very heavily the day before but it turned a bit sunny during the drive. The autumn scenery is spectacular. On the way we passed by a lake and saw quite a few people actually went into the lake to fish. When I asked around, people said that they are fishing salmon. And right, I saw a big catch, at least 10 lb salmon! After that we went to BC Interior Design show. I miss one of my favourite guest speakers (host from HGTV, they are only there Friday and Saturday), oh well. :( Then I went to a Chopin concert in Vancouver Playhouse with my ex-coworker.

Fall Fahrt Ins Blaue Day Drive

Exercise log (week 29)

Nothing again...(and again...)

Thanksgiving longweekend

I know I should have rest more...but...

Thursday: Final fantasy concert

Friday: UBC Symphony orchestra concert @ UBC

Saturday: Went to One of a kind design show @ Vancouver convention center. Got free ticket from Mingpao. I now don't want to think about how much I have spent. After that we went for hotpot dinner. It's about the time for hotpot, getting cold now. The boss obviously "thought" that we order too much. But 4 plates of veggies to me doesn't sound like a lot. Then watch Surrogates. Not bad. But comparing to District 9, the later one is more striking. Received a call from friend in HK at around 1:30am. We chatted till 3:30am.

Sunday: Friend came over to play Wii after dinner. We play till midnight.

Monday: Did some housework: a few loads of laundry and clean up my room. Work on HA ATC and try out my new alcohol ink. Dinner at friend's place.

Exercise Log (week 28)

As usual, nothing.

My ATC is ready!

I wasn't aware it take so much time and energy to make 9 copies of the ATC (maybe my energy level is still too low these days).

Finally, it's ready!

I still need to let it dry and write down the material used at the back, before mailing. Also I'm thinking of making a thank you card for the regional representative who is going to distribute all the Canadian ATCs.

Hero Arts ATC

Since I started card making, I was following Hero Arts blog and its flickr group. Tons of talented artists contribute to the site with lots of wonderful submission. Of course, the weekly challenge held by HA also serves as a great motivation for the fellow card makers.

To me, however, I seldom join those challenges. Besides my technique is not up to par, the challenge closed on Sunday night and to me, that's just not the best time. I often started working late and do not think I would be able to meet the midnight submission deadline.

This time, the challenge theme is extraordinary. It's not only about the usual card making; it is not even talking about traditional bi-fold card. It's about ATC.

"ATC stands for Artist Trading Card. These little beauties measure 2.5″ x 3.5″ or 6cm x 9 cm, similar to baseball and playing cards. The purpose of ATC’s are to trade with other artists. They are really great to collect and display."

It sounds fun and I'd be glad to receive quality work from other HA members. So I decided to make one (actually one design x 10 copies).

In the end I made 2 versions and submit to the ATC challenges but for the actual ATC card swap, I have until Oct 23 to send. So I may design more ATC, will see. :)

Which one do you like more?

Exercise Log (week 27)

None...(again)

Last minute birthday card

I decided to make a last minute birthday card. Since it's "last minute", I am just going to mimic the card on Paper Creation Magazine (Fall 09 edition) cover page. I actually like that card a lot that's why I bought that magazine. Perfect for the fall season.



Later on I make another one so I can send out whenever I need. I don't have the yellow brads so I just colour the white brads with yellow copic marker.


This is the original:

Busy week, corn maze and mid autumn

Been very busy with work.

Because my team member was on vacation and I'm the one to work on the product which I'm not familiar with.

So starting from Friday (Sep 25), I was working so hard and I keep finding problems in the firmware.

Saturday I also came to work for 1 hour in the morning. I should have worked longer on Saturday but I already planned to go to the corn maze with a few friends. I'm the organizer and it is not too good that I didn't show up at the end. Of course, why do I have to give up my own personal plan to unpaid overtime work? I actually did struggle for a bit: work is important, customer is waiting for the release. But corn maze didn't open for long time as well. If I don't go this weekend perhaps the weather is not nice and have to wait till next year. And who knows what will happen next year. At the end I chose to stick with my plan to corn maze. I didn't regret but I did feel bad as my coworker said that he cannot reproduce the issue I found in the morning. I felt like wasting his time coming to work to check out the problem I found.

Corn Maze
I haven't been to corn maze for years. I thought I am going to the same one but in fact we are not. There is no more Mysterious Stuff dressing in black to point out the direction for you when you are in need. It took us about half an hour to get to the second station which made us a bit worried...But turns out that the other stations are not as tough as the first one.
We finished in the corn maze in almost 1.5 hour. (10 stations).
There is also a mini farm and u-pick apple tree. This is the first time I pick "apple" but those apples are too ripe. Anyway, I still pick about three. After that we went to Coquitnam Centre for dinner. The restaurant is called East Side Mario and like Olive Garden in the States, the soup and salad are free refill! I had a feeling that I'm in the State! I don't even see Chinese in other tables...Food is great. Worth returning but it's just a bit far from me...

Corn Maze

Sunday: Work till 6pm and then went to my friend's place for dinner. Then back to work again. My coworker also came back to fix another problem I found. Both of us left office around 10:30pm...

Monday: Found another problem. Stay till 9pm again...no release...my boss is not that happy...

Tuesday: finally all issues are fixed. I just hand over the job to my team member as he came back from vacation.

Wednesday: went to hotpot dinner with my coworkers in a new place called 開開豆撈坊 . Since we have 13 people we got a VIP room. There is a big projector TV and I thought we just sing K here after dinner. But turns out that room can only play the DVD but no karaoke. Food-wise, one pot per person. I notice the vege is so clean that it definitely is washed thoroughly. There is a 'sauce bar' outside and we can mix your own sauce. Great idea! $25 max per person including soup base. I picked the 烏雞 soup base and H got the mixed mushroom soup. My soup is a bit strong taste so I guess it doesn't go too well with the sauce. The oyster is exceptionally large (larger than the small serving plate). The manager is very kind and definitely worth a return trip! After dinner we went to Millanium for karaoke. My first time to there. I was tired and went home first at about 12:30am. I guess I'm really tired, I crash my car to the garage door...My judgement went off this time.

Thursday: Went to MB bodyshop in Richmond before I went to work in the morning. The service rep (or boss) I talked didn't give me a very "helpful" feeling. And my mistake is certainly costly. His quote is $1000+tax. End up I am 5 minute late to work. And bump into the new hire who start working today. I guess I have set a pretty bad example to them. Oh well.
Lunch time I was planning to check out both the MB body shop in North Van and the one I used to go. End up I did decided to go to North Van body shop. The manager is nice, he even asked his staff to clean up the scratch mark on the side so now it almost doesn't show any scratch mark (except the bent underneath). Also, because he quoted me a better price. But the appointment is end of the month. Yeah I expect that because I knew that shop is quite busy.
First time to have dinner at home this week. Make a few dishes including the newly learnt pizza dish(from Mingpao cooking class recipe). It's actually quite good! I will definitely try again.

Friday: Had dinner in Copper cafe. Then come back home and decorate my little balcony for the Mid Autumn festival. It's August 14 in Chinese lunar calendar. Then we had mooncake and tea outside and have a nice view of the moon. What a wonderful time!


Saturday: Had dinner in in-law's place. After dinner I just can't stand the dusty chandelier any more. I just offer to clean it and it looks much better now. Also I'm glad that the pomelo I pick is super sweet! Gotta buy another one for myself!

Sunday: Went to downtown, had Jappadog and a crepe for lunch. Want to have high tea in Shang-ri la but not enough time. Need to catch the 4:30 movie "District 9". Pretty good movie!
Then went back to Richmond for dinner. I need to get that pomelo and a few oranges.
After dinner, I got back home to start working on my HA ATC challenges. Made 2 versions. Maybe more later?