and here's the fluffernutter!

good morning! and here's a photo of one of the cupcakes....vanilla, with peanut butter icing inside and on top with peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows. lucky me, I have some icing left over : ) ohmigosh it was delicious.

wish me luck for the Bake Sale - I hope we raise lots of cash for our charity ...YWCA Presents of Peace ...helping mostly single moms that really need help making Christmas a little brighter for their little ones.

have a great Wednesday ! : )

baking, baking, baking

Hi gang!


Well, the Christmas season is here...yay ! I have my outdoor christmas lights on as of today, some decorations are appearing around the apartment, and the baking marathon has begun. Tonight I am prepping for a charity bake sale at work on Wednesday this week. Beginning with vanilla cupcakes that will be filled and iced on Tuesday night (one set will be a Boston Cream with chocolate icing and sprinkles, and the other will be "Fluffernutter" - what a funny name - peanut butter icing with mini-marshmallows and peanut butter chips). Here's a pic of the liners awaiting their cupcake delicious-ness. :)

So now i'm on to baking the jumbo soft oreo cookies while keeping one eye on the Canucks game.

Hope you have a great week !

:)

Fun times

well it's been a fun weekend...Friday night was a Wrap Party for one of my teams (NCAA Basketball ) and we held it at Ceili's Irish Pub downtown. Drinks, food, karaoke and dancing til 2 am (or something like that) it was a total hoot. Saturday was luckily an easy day with no appointments or commitments, so it was a lazy day all the way.
Sunday was a Crop Day with the Scrapaholics ...lots of fun there! I did get some christmas tags done, and one lay-out of some schoolwork from my grade-school days ( my mom held on to almost everything but she has handed it over to me to get some de-cluttering done at her house). I won a door prize of some beautiful christmas papers and embellishments, and I won the 50/50 draw, $15.00!! :)
Now it's on to other house-work and getting ready for the week ahead with laundry and cooking. how exciting! :)
have a great week everyone !
thanks for stopping in,
: )

Amy and Demonica

hi ! here's a photo from my Halloween, as I mentioned I was going to the Flying Beaver in Richmond for their party....I dressed as Amy Winehouse (loved my black beehive wig :) and my friend Debbie was a demon-lady or "Demonica" lol!

good times!

have a great week, thanks for stopping in :)

J.

happy halloween!

hey all, hope you have a great halloween!

here's a photo of myself and my c0-worker Suzie from Friday - we dressed up as each other...!

tonight i'm off to the Flying Beaver in Richmond for their halloween-themed "Name That Tune" night with my friend Debbie...should be alot of fun there, as always.

and also wanted to mention that my header photo of the fall leaves was taken by my talented photographer brother Zeljko Travica. He has his own website here: www.creativescans.com

take care and have a great night !
:)

Crop 4 Kids = Fun 4 Us !

Hi all - long time no see ! This past weekend I went to an amazing annual scrapbooking event in Abbotsford called "BC Scrapbooking Crop For Kids" - a huge charity event where 225 generous scrapbookers raised a huge amount of money for the kids at BC Children's Hospital. Here's a photo of me at my table with a door prize that I won (some beautiful Avon products) and a pic of one of my 14 christmas cards that I made, using an Elzybell stamp, Copic markers and a variety of Stickles. I had a great time with the girls at my table - thanks for the fun! Can't wait til next year!

Whirlwind !

Wow! this upcoming week is going to be super busy....I haven't beent his busy in ages..!

Friday night, a visit with a long-time girlfriend Dawn (we've been friends since Grade 2 )
Sunday night, Bard on the Beach "Comedy of Errors" with my friend Debbie and her girlfriends
Tuesday night, PNE Summer Nights Concert --- En Vogue with Izzy ( b-day fun!) - eeeee! can't wait!
Thursday night, the Opus Hotel's "Pool Party" with my friend Kerry
Friday night, hoping to see that movie "District 9" with Debbie (who is a bona-fide Sci-fi fan, i'm just on the bandwagon for this movie, everyone is saying it's very good)
Saturday night, AC/DC concert with my sister Caroline and her friend Tracey.

Then the following weekend Sept 3-6 i'll be in Las Vegas with Caroline and Tracey (woot!)

Izzy could I borrow your jet-pack for a few days ?? :)

Cabin Holiday 2009

Hey gang! I'm back from the Okanagan now from the "Cabin Holiday" with my sister Caroline and her DH Al. We were at Lawrence Beach which is on Westside Road on Okanagan Lake, about 20 km north of Fintry Provincial Park / Terrace Mountain where the 3rd forest fire broke out on Saturday the 18th. I'm so glad to hear that Glenrosa and Rose Valley are getting contained and now I hear they are working on Terrace Mtn.

On Saturday afternoon we were all playing a board game ("You Know You're a Redneck When...." $5 at Wal-Mart by the way, it was a hoot to play :) ) when the wind gusted up and blew our little Redneck board pieces around so we had to put the game away. The wind just would not stop and later we heard about the forest fires breaking out. I'm attaching pics of the smoke that I could see on Terrace Mountain from behind the cabin.

I'm also attaching a picture of the view from the deck, taken earlier in the week..fabulous!

So besides the fires, the big news at the Cabin was just basic relaxing, sunning and swimming a wee bit, reading, playing board games, doing crossword puzzles, eating great food created by my sister (she's a fantastic cook), and lots of cocktails, lol! Happy hour would start anywhere from noon to 5 pm, depending on how we felt or if we had visitors over. Lots of fun. ;)

And my drive home was long on Monday - I had to take a different/longer route because of highway closures, so I went via Kamloops and it took me almost 7 hours to get home, but then I make a few stops to rest and take my time.

Now I'm back and under piles of laundry! But hope to get out and enjoy these sunny days before I go back to work on Monday.

Hope everyone is fine and well, and enjoying the sunshine !

:) J.

missing in action

Hey everybody! how are you???

yep it's been awhile.... almost a month ! things got a little out of control busy for awhile there, then add in the "JT Laziness Factor" (trademarked) .....and this is what happens.

Late June and early July were pretty full.. on June 20th it was my mom's 80th birthday so we held a BBQ party for her. My BIL bbq'd salmon and we also had a roast beef, with a home-made potato salad,green salad, green beans, rolls, and of course a huge chocolate birthday cake. It was a great dinner for our mom. photo attached ! :)

For my Scrapaholic Friends, i'm hosting the button swap for August (for the august 16th crop)- i'm pretty excited!!

Other than that , it's been non-stop work, some baking, and beach volleyball (when the weather is nice), but now i'm on vacation so i'm happy to have some time off. I'll be heading up to Okanagan Lake area soon to hang out with my family.

thanks for stopping by!

J :)

T.G.I.F.

Happy Friday everyone!

hope you've had a great week. mine has been jam-packed with tonnes of stuff :) Highlights of my week were getting to to do the Grouse Grind on Tuesday night for the first time of the season. While I am climbing that thing, I ask myself "OMG Why am I doing this again?" ...but once I get to the top, it is an a-maz-ing feeling. Once I catch my breath that is !
And yesterday I was able to go play some beach volleyball, however our team lost our match which is too bad, but it was still a hoot.
I visited my friend Tracey in the hospital on Wednesday, she'll be there for a few more weeks as her poor feet heal up after surgery to fix her shattered heels. She's in great spirits though which is great to see.

Hope you all have a great Friday and an awesome weekend ! TGIF!!

:) J.

Happy Half-Way Point of 2009!

hey everybody, how's life been this week? Can you believe it's the first week of June already? Half of 2009 has already gone by....amazing!

This past week has been busy. I visited my friend Tracey in the hospital - she was in a car accident early last week and overall she will be fine, but she got pretty banged up the poor thing and has some broken bones, including both of her heels. S0, she will have to wait awhile before she is walking around again. Really wishing her all the best for a fast recovery.

I also played my first game of beach volleyball at work this week (um, yah we have a beach volleyball court at work - isn't that insane??) It was alot of fun but I was fairly rusty. I have signed up for a Beach Skills Training Clinic hosted by Volleyball BC - that starts June 18th for six weeks, so I am really looking forward to learning some new stuff. It's at Shaughnessy Park in South Vancouver - I don't even know where that is just yet but I'm sure I'll find my way :)

On Thursday night I went to an old friend's grand re-opening of her shop in Deep Cove. It used to be called San Pedro Imports, but now it's called La La Home Decor. (www.lalahomedecor.ca) My friend Kristina has some amazing gifts in there! Unique jewellery, handbags, greeting cards (the really funny ones), giftware, and tonnes of other great stuff. Be sure to check it out if you are in the Deep Cove area of North Van.

And last night I went out for cocktails with the girls that I travelled to LA with, Juli, Nicole and Kerry. We went to "Joey's" on Burrard Street, which was alot of fun to see everyone again for a mini-reunion, 2 weeks later! : ) Then we went to "Yew" at the Four Seasons Hotel to meet up with two friends of Nicole's. I've never been there, and yep it was definitely very posh and foo foo shee shee . fun times!

And lastly, I wanted to mention a cool blog that my friend Gina told me about: http://www.happiness-project.com/. This lady Gretchen Rubin has some really neat ideas on happiness, people skills, and life in general. Very interesting stuff.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping in!
:)

Ya-Ya back from La-La Land

hey gang!

how is everybody? it's been awhile since I've posted....I have been swamped at work (organized the most challenging Travel Plan ever - 5 travellers visiting 4 cities in Asia - 7 (yes, 7) drafts of the itinerary before we finally decided what to book - it was insane but I loved it!).

Then I went on a little trip of my own ( finally! ) down to Los Angeles with 3 girlfriends from work. I was down in La-La Land from May 22-26 and the weekend before (May Long) I was busily cleaning my apartment because I, like many people I think, like to come home to a clean house from a trip.

So yes - L.A. was great! 4 nights, 5 days of pool-time, sunshine, shopping down at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica - my fave store was called "Oxbow" a cute French-owned surfing-style store, which is just my style ( I also love Billabong and O'Neill and all that stuff) and I bought a few cute things there (on sale of course!), and the sales guy was quite cute himself! :) sigh. He told me my legs looked great in a skirt that I was trying on...needless to say, I bought the skirt. LOL!

We stayed at the "W" Hotel in Westwood which had an awesome pool area (photo attached) and we visited a few great restaurants and lounges . We had dinner at one placed called "One Sunset" on the Saturday night, then one friend and I went to the Chateau Marmont ( dark and smoky, paid $35 for 2 martinis - unbelievable!) then over to the Beverly Hills Hotel (gorgeous, gorgeous and I felt like I travelled back in time). Sunday night was dinner at "Dan Tana's" on Sunset as well, which apparently is a fave of George Clooney, but alas, George was not there that night. It's a tiny little restaurant with huge portions of pasta and more pasta. After that we went to the Mondrian Hotel's Sky Bar, which is an outdoor lounge around their pool, which was pretty great. Lots of very friendly people - once they overheard our group was from Canada, they would come over and introduce themselves, it was interesting to see.

Overall, it was a fun, outrageous, girls getaway which was just what I needed. I hadn't been on a plane or a real holiday in five years ( last trip was to Las Vegas in Sept 2004). Now I am happy to be home again, but already planning future trips .

Hope everyone is well and fine, thanks for stopping by!

: ) J.

Collector cars and the Canucks

Hi all !



yikes! I have to say how say how terrible I feel for the Canucks and us fans after last night's game! We had such high hopes. Well, hopefully next year. I'm now going to root for whichever team plays against the Hawks. I have nothing nice to say about them. Boo.



In other news though, just thought I'd post a piccie from this past Saturday...I went to "PoCo Days" with my friend Tracey & her hubby John, it was alot of fun! There was a community block party, mini street market, dance presentations, and a show & shine of collector-style vintage cars (some real beauties).




After the block party we found a local pub ( Samz Pub ) which had great food and great service. If you are ever in downtown PoCo and need a pint or good martini- that's the place to be.

Have a great day! See you at the Voting Booth ! ;0)

Safety Week oh yes it is...

well some fun at work today....since it's "Safety Week" (so I'm told), we had a few of our finest from the Burnaby Fire Department drop by work over the lunch-hour to talk about fire safety or something.... fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and prepping for an emergency. blah blah blah. Never mind all that, the best part was getting to ride in the fire truck for a minute, and play the siren!

what a hoot! :)

great sale!

Wow, it's already Sunday night and time is definitely flying.

Saturday I hit the 40% off sale at Pick of the Patch and found some great stuff!..a sheet of alphabet stamps by Technique Tuesday, some more flowers, some more bling, "milk chocolate chip" micro-chip letters, buttons (my first buttons!) and a new "thank you" stamp. I was inspired by my new purchases, and made a Mother's Day card.

Today I met up with my sister Caroline for lunch and girltalk and a bit of shopping around at Metrotown. I didn't buy very much there, only a couple of cake rounds as I plan to bake a cake for my mom next weekend.

So, I hope you all have had a lovely weekend so far. Let's hope our Canucks do much better on Tuesday night !

wearing my jeans today

wow it's Thursday already ! the week is flying by. work has been SO over-the-top busy this week, but i love it!

I wanted to do a quick post to say thanks to everyone for all the comments and Welcome notes ! And for the feedback ("um, a bit pink isn't it???) lol ! I had to agree...so i'm experimenting with templates.

anyway, thanks again, the comments are great!

i'm looking forward to today....it's sunny out, and the Canucks' Round 2 start tonight ! 6 pm , i will be ready. i wonder if I can fit in a visit to Michael's after work and before the game starts?? I might have to try, i have a 40 off coupon...and i am drawn to the store and cannot help myself to go use it :)

it's also 'Jeans Day' today - buttons are sold for $5, pins for $20...proceeds go to BC Children's Hospital...what a great cause !


OK, time to get going on the day...have a great day everyone!

general awesome-ness on a sunny sunday

Well it was a really nice Sunday today. I went for a good long walk along the Port Coquitlam Dyke with my friend Tracey and it was fabulous! We both commented on the peace and quiet, absolutely no traffic noise, the sun glinting off the water, the sun shining on our faces. We walked for about 1 hour, 40 minutes which was some excellent exercise in my book. Thanks, Tracey for re-introducing me to that area as I hadn't been there in oh, about 18 years. If anyone is interested in checking it out, it's at the end of Dominion Avenue, which is off of Ottawa. Then we went off to Starbucks and Tracey treated me to my "Skinny Sugar Free Extra Hot Vanilla Latte, please" - Delicious! Then Kin's Farm Market for fruit & veggies, the Bakehouse Bakery for a little chocolate treat, and then Coquitlam Center to search for Canucks Gear. I found a very cute Canucks tee shirt which I cannot wait to wear.
And now it's back to working on my Recipe Card for the Scrapaholics Club's 'Cakes, Cheesecake and Pie swap' due in May - mine is a "Decadent Chocolate Torte", which I baked and taste-tested a couple of weeks ago, it was pretty divine! ;)
Hope everyone else had a great Sunday in this awesome weather !

Yardwork and the misty glimmer : )

Good morning and happy Saturday!

The week has flown by, but here it is the weekend - yay! today i'm off to the gym, do a bunch of errands, as well as out to Surrey to help out at my mom's house to do some yardwork. Little does she know I don't know how to do yard-work! haha. We shall see how I do - lol! and here's hoping the rain holds off.

And I went to Jo's Card Class at POTP on Thursday night, it was great! We made four cards using glimmer mist, embossing powder, rub-ons, stamps and hand-made flowers - awesome! I'm posting a photo here to share what we made. thanks again Jo for the fun.

have a great day everyone : )

p.s. when oh when will the Round 2 schedule of the play-offs be posted? i can hardly wait.

looking forward to Glimmer Mist

well, i'm running a little late this morning - but i'm looking forward to going to Jo W.'s card class at POTP tonight ....i'm told we'll be using Glimmer Mist and since i've never used it before, it's a perfect opportunity to learn how!

here's my blog mentor

Izzy !!

here she is ...

My Very First Post !!

here it is ! OMG ! i have a blog!

too exciting. sitting here with my Blog Mentor Izzy.....creating my blog.


stay tuned for more...as i'm just getting started !