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Wednesday, December 31

We're home!

Just a quicky to say that we're back home and the flight was fine, no hitches, but the wait in Houston was the suck. Back to work today but I doubt it will be a full day! We both slept well so that should help.

The fridge is bare so I really need to address that tonight, and we have more washing than you can poke at stick at. However we are full of wonderful memories. Hoping we can make it back to England soon. Updates to follow as soon as we find our feet.

Saturday, December 27

The wind up

Well it is our last day in Pavenham and we have had just the most wonderful time. Christmas was brilliant, really chilled out and so good to be with family. We took it easy in the morning then went to church with our adopted grandma, then Jo chatted to her folks in Australia while we sat around the tree opening presents. Lunch was a group effort (although Ruthie did the bulk of the hard work) and we ate at around 2. The food was brilliant, with a locally sourced turkey (slow cooked), pigs in blankets, three kinds of stuffing including a really old recipe for bread and onion stuffing, spuds, sweet potato, sprouts and bread sauce. I made the gravy but it wasn't tops because I didn't reduce it enough, but no dramas. We had grand plans for sweets but we were all so full that most of us opted to nap instead!

Today we've had more family to visit, another of Jo's aunt and uncles and another cousin, and we've all been hanging out and eating and going for brisk walks in the cold! Tonight we're heading to Elmswell (near Bury St Edmund's), our final destination for the trip really. We probably won't have the internets again until we get back to San Antonio on Monday night, so look out for some decent updates and pics after that. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and sorry we couldn't really call or txt.
I promise I'll explain this picture later ;)

Thursday, December 25

Christmas eve and some pics

Well it is Christmas eve here in Pavenham and the boys are outside playing football (soccer), grandma is in the lounge reading the paper and Jo, Tim, Ruth and Bridget are in the kitchen talking and cooking and listening to carols. I'm at the laptop blogging with a mug of mulled wine... perfect!

Yesterday we caught the train to London and had a wonderful day touring and shopping and such. We went to St Paul's Cathedral, Covent Garden (which I loved) and a lot of other monopoly board places full of shops and people and wonderful buildings. We caught the tube several times and it was surprisingly uncrowded... well it was crowded but not too badly. Ruth's friend Katie was our fabulous tour guide and she did a great job while we school of fished behind her (luckily she's a tall lass). In the evening we went to a little Italian restaurant for dinner, then across to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to see Wicked! It took a while to get going but it was a wonderful show, and yes I even cried at the end.

Today we had a wonderfully restful day, we slept in until 11! (we didn't get home until after midnight and Jo and I both have filthy colds so go easy on us) We just had an invigorating walk along the river and down the back of all the cottage gardens and I managed not to fall down once!

And now, some random photos!

Covent Garden from the opera house

The interior of the St Pancras station (we could have caught a train to Paris!)

Is the Doctor in?

A Manchester canal

St Paul's

Tuesday, December 23

Heron House

We're having a great time here in UK Tour 08. Had a fab time with the Richardson side of the rellies. We toured Greater Manchester with Jo's Aunt and Uncle, including lots of great industrial history and canal tours and such (I love a good bit of industry). I liked Manchester much more than I expected, especially considering how cold and wet it was! Then Saturday night the cousins came to join us and we had an early Christmas dinner with all the trimmings including chestnut stuffing and apple cider jelly.

Sunday we headed up to Leeds with Jo's cousin Andrea and her chosen other half Ronnie (great lad). They took us to a fabulous outdoor German Christmas market for shopping and sausages and potato pancakes, wonderful in the cold! We spent a lovely day and a bit with them, then this afternoon they got us on the train to Bedford via London. I'm so glad we chose 'rail tour 08' over hiring a car, oh boy. We were both able to enjoy looking out the window and checking out the gorgeous countryside, so wet and green and non-texas like! The only downside was sharing the carriage with a group of obnoxious drunk folk. We had to change trains at St Pancras and while staring at the board waiting for our platform number to show and handsome pixie-like fellow came over to us and said "Hello, I'm your uncle Tim" and he was! He had cleverly arranged to be on the same train so we traveled the rest of the way chatting to Tim, brilliant!

Arrived in Bedford at around 5pm (in the dark of course) and met Ruthie. it's hard to explain how good it is to meet people who you have been looking forward to meeting for so long and feel like you already know, and there were no letdowns (except maybe on their part but we'll see, I have time to charm them yet)

So now we are at Heron House, hanging out with all the family like this is something we've been doing for years. Heading to London tomorrow for shopping, sightseeing, dinner and a show! More news soon.

[Had to edit this for horrendous spelling errors!!]

Saturday, December 20

Safe arrival

We have arrived, safe, warm and with bags. The flights were great and we even scored the whole row on the long flight, plus a strong tail wind meant the 9 hour flight was more like 7.5! Just outside of Manchester now with rellies on Jo's dad's side. Sightseeing tomorrow plus an early Christmas dinner, conplete with chestnut stuffing, yay!

More comprehensive update soon.

Friday, December 19

We're going to ENGLAND!

We're on our way! The usual last minute dramas (like me having an article due to the publisher...) but all is good. We managed to pack super light! Who says girls can't travel light :D

Anyhow, I'll try to post a few updates on the way and keep an eye out for some epic posts and pics when we return. We have phones on us but with international roaming please save calls for emergencies. We should be checking email fairly often though! Yay!!

Happy Christmas y'all.
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Tuesday, December 16

Christmas is in the air...bbrrrrrrr!

I'm starting to feel like we're living in the middle of some governmental weather test site! Yesterday it was pushing 90 (30C) and today it's a degree or two above freezing!! However, the cold weather is helping us get prepared for Thursday, when Jo and I grab our swag and head to chilly England for Christmas! We're really looking forward to it, even if it is the coldest start to a winter they've had for a while (30 years apparently...just our luck). I'll finally get a chance to meet a whole lot of Jo's relatives (and they me, scary prospect), from both sides of her family, which will be fantastic :D

Aside from the rellies, I'm really looking forward to some good cheese! Sharp and crumbly cheeses are almost non existent here, and most of the blues are French and creamy (which isn't bad, but give me a good Stilton and I am putty in your hands) Other than my hope of cheese I have no expectations, I'm just looking forward to letting this trip unfold as it may, and enjoying every second of it! I know winter isn't the best time of year but I'm sure we'll be back, plus the idea of Christmas with family was too much to resist.

It has been a fairly full week or so leading up to leaving. We've been house-sitting/cat-sitting again, which has been great in terms of having a washing machine (yep, we still don't have one) but a bit tricky flitting between two houses. We've also had Christmas parties a gogo, including a fabulous Norwegian/Swedish celebration with lots of baking and glögg (similar to gluvine), a decoration swap with the girls and the big work Christmas party with lots of good food and dancing contests.

Somewhere between all that and the packing we managed to get our packages out to Oz, a new record this year I think! We also got so disgustingly far behind in sending out our Christmas cards that they might just arrive in time for the next one. But we did manage to get our tree (twig) up and adorned.

Saturday, December 13

More conference sketches

I just scanned some more recent conference sketches. It's a shame that the only time I really get to draw now is when I'm at these things listening to people talk. I feel like I'm losing the knack. Anyway, I have a couple of projects planned that might get some of the discipline back, we'll see!

Who is the crazy person who decides to start conference sessions at 7.30am??

Wednesday, December 10

Morel and porcini mushroom pasta

I realise I promised I'd start putting recipes on here rather than just waffling on about food in general and I totally forgot.

Lorena furnished us with a couple of packets of very good looking dried morels, so I promised to cook her some pasta. I rehydrated them in water and a touch of soy in the fridge for a day, then kept the soaking liquid and gave the mushrooms a really good wash (morels tend to be on the gritty side because of that puckering on the outside)

I also had half a pack of porcini mushrooms in the freezer, maybe 8 caps and stems, so I decided to chop them up fairly finely to make sure the dish had plenty of that divine, rich mushroom flavour that will always remind me of Rome.

The big ones are the porcini, the little wrinkled ones are the morels and the greenery is fresh tarragon from our tiny deck garden!

Recipe as follows:
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Half a cup of mushroom soaking liquid, finely strained
Half a cup of white wine (or vegie stock)
Half a cup of cream
Salt and pepper to season as required
Finely chopped tarragon and Italian parsley to garnish

Sweat the garlic and a little salt in the olive oil for a minute (before the garlic browns). Add the soaking liquid and the wine and let it reduce by half. Add the cream and mushrooms, stirring well to prevent curdling. Add pepper to taste and allow to simmer until the cream starts to thicken. Toss in some pasta and the fresh herbs, stirring well to coat the pasta, then serve! Enjoy :D

Tuesday, December 9

Deep in the Heart of a Texan part 2

Ok, a update on Tom. Like I said, he's one tough bugger. Tom is home (as of Saturday would you believe) and now he just has to rest and contemplate :D

It seems amazing to me how far they have come with bypass surgery, and that you can have your ribs cracked open, your legs stripped of veins and your heart manhandled and be home within days. Or maybe that's just Tom, remember what I said about high achieving. Anyway, keep up the happy thoughts and thanks to everyone who sent best wishes.

Friday, December 5

Deep in the Heart of a Texan

My dear friend Tom had six bypass surgery on his heart the other day, yeah six! I don't even know what that's called and I didn't know there could be so many things to bypass but he sure is a high achiever so why not this time too. Anyway, he is doing well and if he scares me like that again it might be me he wants to bypass...

So please, if you have any spare thoughts or prayers, swing them his way. Lord knows he could use them regardless...

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Wednesday, December 3

Sunday, November 30

Giving thanks

Thursday was Thanksgiving here and it has become an American holiday that we truly love. Christmas with friends sans the complexity of gift giving...Ok so it's all about the food and being happy!

This year we were cooking for 21 adults and 6 kids! Talk about huge, but we pulled it off just fine thanks in part to the helpful contributions of our guests. My job was a turkey, two chickens, three potato bakes, four boats of gravy (and a partridge...oh wait wrong holiday), bread stuffing, and making sure everything hit the table on time! We also had a second turkey, a baked ham, roast pumpkin/sweet potato/parsnip and such American classics as green bean casserole, whipped mashed potatoes and oyster stuffing, and this year we even had a Norwegian/Portuguese fish dish!

My turkey sure browned up well. Nothing too over the top this year, just butter, sage, pepper and some citrus in the middle.

I cooked the two chickens (for those oddballs who don't like turkey) on the rotisserie of the BBQ so they were so tender and moist! Not that you can tell the difference but one is honey, soy and ginger and the other is spicy adobo. As usual I can never throw out a carcass so I have just now completed the epic stock making session of '08, totally worth it!

You can see some of the food here (we were still bringing it out at this point) but I'm sure you get the idea.

Then there was the dessert table! A lot of Aussie contributions here, 2 pavlovas, 2 lemon meringue pies, a heaving plate of lammingtons plus a pumpkin pie and a whole lot of fresh fruit.

As usual we had an eclectic but incredible group of people. Only 4 Americans this year, lots of Aussies, and representatives of Norway, Sweden, Canada and Ireland.

One of the long tables required to seat 21+ people...John and Jo are the masters of large scale entertaining now!

The other fabulously laid out table!

Thursday, November 27

Love not H8

While we were in Philadelphia we were lucky enough to have been able to join in with a National Protest for Equality (in response to the outcome of Prop 8). It was brilliant! So lively and a lot of fun. Amazing to see thousands of people get off their butts and march to city hall, and the Philly rally was just one of many across the country.

I put together a quick vid mostly so that you can see just how many smiling people were there, pushing love not hate. That's right, all the people way off in the background of the square were part of it too. The march nearly lapped the block!

And of course some pics :D

Our friend Claire commandeered someone's flag!

I have one other unedited video of us marching through the final part of the square to get to city hall. I'm so glad we happened to be in the right place at the right time! This one is a bit more energetic :D It's been a while since I was at a good protest! Gets the blood moving.

Finally, I just want to thank all our straight alies out there, from the bottom of my heart. You don' have to be gay to understand the injustices here or to speak up about it. Thanks to Mel for marching with us when she probably would have prefered to stay in the hotel with her glass of wine! And if there is anyone out there who thinks they care about us but also thinks that gay people should be denied the right to marry, for whatever reason, please please do me one favour and watch this video. Please. Six and a half minutes of your time and I promise it won't do you any harm.

Wednesday, November 19

The city of brotherly love

I'm finally home after spending a week in Philadelphia at the big annual American Society of Human Genetic meeting. Good meeting, my talk went well and lucky for me I escaped question time fairly well unscathed (I was really worried given the controversial nature of my subject!)

The hotel was decent, big rooms, and connected to the conference center by a covered walkway (bonus). Philly was cold but not as cold as I was expecting. The clouds barely shifted above the buildings for the first few days, but thankfully there was only minor drizzle. The scenes of city hall and the surrounding buildings at night were pretty speccy! Very Gotham City.

We were right in the heart of downtown with a big undercover food market just next door, stocked with Amish treats, a cheese shop and fried oysters! There was even a pickle stand! Wewt. We were also very close to Chinatown and some great food (including a surprising Chinese-French-Vietnamese fusion) which always makes me happy :)

I didn't get in a whole lot of sightseeing, mostly because the conference took up so much time and headspace, but what I did see I really liked. Philly is a historic city and the interp is well structured but also nice and simple. The architecture is just gorgeous, especially with the drizzly grey skies and rich fall colours in all the trees.

We wandered through quite a bit of the historic precinct, and did manage to see the Liberty Bell in amongst the throng of people desperate to take its picture.

Not being an American I'm still trying to get my head around the concept of libery as it is used here. That confusion aside, however, there was some really beautiful interp on the way to viewing the bell, about civil rights progression through the years. Nothing on gay rights in that set but I was relieved to see the following 'monument' outside. More about that in the next blog post!

Wednesday, November 12

Hello internets, sorry about the radio silence following our little moments of history making. I'm off to Philadelphia today for the big annual genetics conference and I'm a little peaky about it (I'm talking) and I've had a lot of work to get done before I go, not all of which is finished yet! Oh well. Should be a fun trip, although it is much colder there so I've packed my woollies!

When I get back I have some Halloween pics to post and maybe a few other treaties...but that's not until at least next Monday. Pax-

Thursday, November 6

It's a new dawn

It's a new day... It's a new life!

Well, mixed feeling here this post-election morning. Absolute elation and incomprehensible joy that today, Barack Obama is President Elect of the United States. I can't believe I get to say that let alone be here to experience it. He's an incredible man and if he can pull of even half of what he hopes it will be just amazing for America. The US has always been a wonderful place for us in terms of living here but now I'm starting to feel the most incredible bubbles of love and maybe a touch of patriotism for this nation. Don't get me wrong, I'm an Aussie to the core, it's my home and I love it with a fierce loyalty and some level of blind passion. All I'm saying is that for the last 2-3 years here I've felt like I am in the world of the US but not of it. Now I feel a little more connected and, to continue the song quote, I'm feeling good.

However, back the the mixed feelings part. Texas is a red state, there's no denying that, so there was no spontaneous partying here. It kinda sucked talking to my online friends last night in Denver and even Canada where people were celebrating in the streets. Here we're walking on eggshells trying not to come into conflict with our friends and loved ones who we know voted red. However, in defense of Texas, when you look at the voting by county San Antonio, Austin and surprisingly Dallas were all Obama majorities! The other big downer is that it looks like Prop 8 passed in California (narrowly) which once again removed the rights of same-sex couples to marry. That's twice in Cali now, the poor buggers :( That one will have shockwaves through the country but we can only hope and pray that these things are getting nastier because they are running out of legs to stand on. Change is coming people, roll with it!

All in all, we watched history being made last night, sweet sweet history. McCain's concession speech was wonderful (linked below) and I'm hopeful that he will help with the next big task, which is to build bridges and begin to reunite this country that has been the grounds of a fierce two-year battle. I'm sure most of the country can at least unite in saying Farewell to Bush. Bring on January.

For those of you who missed the speeches, here they are:

Wednesday, November 5

[UPDATE: John McCain just gave the most impressive concession speech, so gracious. He has gone up in my estimation (although I always thought he was a good man, just not the right man). As for "caribou barbie"...]

Ok so it's only predicted at this point but wow. There is a love in my heart for America at the moment. Virginia - gold (well blue), Florida, finger's crossed...but even if the all go pink I think the fat lady is still warming up with her tralalas.

Back to juggling the idiot box and the laptop and this yummy plateful of apple pie!

Election update

For thems of you at home keeping an eye on this the NPR (public radio) site has really good coverage HERE.

The count on our TV screen is currently 174 to 64 in Obama's favour, with 270 needed, but it's still early days and the west coast haven't closed polls yet. Looks like the Dems have a majority in the senate already though!

It's an interesting night and we're still totally newbs at this.

Election night

Tonight is the night. We're off to watch the tallying. Fingers crossed for a no on Prop 8 and a yes to Obama as President!

And yay for passing 10,000 hits on the blog!

I'll try to post an update when we get home tonight. I wonder if we'll know by then?

Tuesday, November 4

I don't think we're still in San Antonio Toto...

A few weekends ago we finally made it to the botanical gardens and I'm really glad we did! It was a refreshing change, but I'll let the pics speak for themselves (mostly because we're going out soon and I have to run).

This lake was full of fish and turtles!

See, turtle! Well, if you squint you can see it. He's about 30cm long (good for soup?)

There were even random springs. Lots of limestone here and plenty of springs pop up from the aquifers below the city. Almost felt like being in a Roman grotto again...almost.

This is one of the big conservatories, and you can just make out the city skyline in the background. I am always surprised by the number of trees in San Antonio!

The interior of the conservatories was pretty impressive even without the 12 meter palms that you could look down on.

These beauties and more were in the orchid house (der) but I think this one looks like it has a tiny monkey inside it :)

This is one of my favorite kinds of orchids so I was stoked to find such a good looking specimen.

Not sure what these were but they sure are pretty.

And the obligatory head shot :D


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Showing posts from July, 2016

The Purpose Of Marriage Nowadays

I am sorry to say that from what I have witnessed and experienced is that marriage is not spiritual or special in anyway any longer. True love exists and some people do fall in love with their significant other and to them marriage is the most important step in their relationship and will open new adventures and strengthen their shared love for each other until they die. They will accept the flaws and bad habits of the others and not abandon the other under any circumstances. They will try and try until anymore effort is fruitless to save their love. Love is what they prize above everything else and for those who feel that way in their current relationships... I applaud you guys and give my best wishes and prayers.  Back on subject. The purpose of marriage for the majority of people know is only for finical relief. Everyone is now immersed in debts, loans, mortgages, insurance policies, and regular bills. The price of lifestyle is so high now wherever you go that it's impossible f…

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Friday, May 24, 2013

Cinque Terre

We went to one of the most beautiful places in Italy, the Cinque Terre (Five Lands), five fishing villages on the coast of Italy. A train system connects the villages, but also hiking trails.
 The three days that we were there, four of the village trails were closed, so we were taking the train to the villages. This is Riomaggiore village.
 In a wondrous beachy dream. :)
I and Hannah also in a sunshiny wonderland.
 Oh man, imagine getting to your house by ladder. Imagine fitting your new IKEA chair into your house, by LADDER! This is in the village of Monterosso.
 So we hiked the trail, winding between vineyards and lemon trees. The scent was amazing! The weather was moody but delightful when the sun decided to show.
 The village of Vernazza seen from the trail.
 Vernazza as we descended into it via alleys that barely fit a whole person at some points.
 An excellent lunch eaten by the ocean. A delightful halfway point in our day of hiking.
 I went off alone, and discovered this hidden beach that is reached through a tunnel! (okay so it probably isn't hidden, but it felt really special cuz no one was there but me.)
I was the only one who saw these particular waves crash into this particular piece of beach. I also sat on a rock near the ocean for a while until suddenly a massive wave came way up the beach and completely soaked me! Luckily I was wearing my backpack on my back and facing the ocean, so my stuff didn't get wet but wow... :)
 Coastline view of Vernazza as we headed back to Monterosso.
 This just seems so unreal, so beautiful and so unusual. This is also on the trail heading back.
 A delicious cone of fried calamari and shrimps.
 Yupe, unique signage.
 Ruthiey and Hannah in Riomaggiore.
 Nighttime view of Riomaggiore.

Down the coast, still in Riomaggiore. This was well worth the trip to see these villages and enjoy the natural wonders here. The Cinque Terre receives my full endorsement as an excellent place to relax and see amazing things. The ocean is worth a dip as well, even if it is accidental. >_<

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Check standings for the English Premier League

Mr A
Hello ladies and gentlemen, I know it has been ages since I published lesson 2 (How To Stay Beautiful)... This was because yours truly was trying to handle the growing traffic and see that the new members are given the attention they need as well as other personal offline businesses - these have kept me busy all this time. Well, thanks to the new moderators, Sam and the rest, coupled with the festive holiday season, I guess yours truly now has a bit of time to bless you wonderful people with another educative lesson on the TEN FOR TEN series. This one is titled How To Save More Money.

In case you are reading this series for the first time, the theme for Ten For Ten is "How To Live a Better and Happier Life". This series will contain 10 inspirational articles that will keep you happy, stress-free and worry-free at all times.

1. First Things First - Deal With Your Debt
Dealing with debt and the threathening stream of calls from the people you owe doesn't need to be terrifying. Take the first step towards financial freedom. Set up a meeting with each lender or creditor and work out a payment plan. If they won't accept bit payments, get someone close to you or a matured individual you can trust to collect the part payments until it is complete. Although the wisest thing to do (if you owe a huge sum) will be to open a new bank account for saving the part payments, but if you owe a small amount, it may be recomended to get one of those locally made piggy banks to save the money in.
Very Important: The only thing that keeps a lender's mind at rest is knowing when they will get their money. Make sure you tell your lender what you have done and the exact date they will get the money. This will stop them from randomly calling you to ask for the money.

2. Go For Quality Not Quantity:
Over the course of a week, write down what you spend your money on and include every expenditure.
On Sunday, review it and look for ways to change your spending habits the following week and then saving towards a luxurious reward.
For example, instead of buying 5 pirated DVD season movies from the road side to watch at home, save that money and use it for a trip to the cinema at the weekend instead. Who knows, you could meet someone new. :)

3. Money Management Services
Take advantage of free money management apps on your mobile phone, desktop or online. Some apps have the functionality to notify you when you're exceeding your normal budget as well as when you need to renew certain bills. If you own a BlackBerry, check out HandyLogsMoney on BlackBerry App World.

That's all folks, I hope you enjoyed Lesson 3 from the TEN FOR TEN series. Untill next time when I am psyched up enough to pen down the fourth part of the series. Have a wonderful weekend.

Coming soon... Lesson Four

Follow @JalingoHQ on twitter.
It's beautiful brother! Good job, Well done!
Thanks Mr A for the benefitial write-up; we realy gain from the topic; may God bless you for enlightening us on this sir.
Call for Total Cure from all diseases on 08079549042 / [email protected] .
Thats a good one . u ar doing a very good job.i luv that.
I didnot understand it
it's a nice deal
Chris Head Mod.
I didnot understand it
You can try reading again sir :)
Mr A
Mr A Admin
Thats a good one . u ar doing a very good job.i luv that.
Thank you.
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2012 tax reform and reporting foreign stock compensation

May 28, 2012  |  Compensation, Individual

A stall selling oden - a variety of small dishes often based on fish past usually eaten in the winter.

In recent years the Japanese tax authorities have been auditing the declaration by Japanese resident individuals of awards of share options, restricted stock awards or similar stock based compensation made to them by the foreign parent company of their Japanese employer.

Restricted stock awards with a vesting periods of around three to five years have often been part of the compensation of Japan based employees of foreign groups in the financial sector. Stock options have been used to reward senior staff based in Japan across a range of industries.

Regrettably, however, the Japanese authorities have often found gaps in the reporting by individuals of such stock based compensation (below ‘Foreign Stock Based Compensation’) in their annual tax filings.

2012 tax reform

Given the above background the 2012 tax reforms introduced a new reporting requirement obliging Japanese companies and Japanese branches of foreign companies (collectively below ‘Japanese Entities’) to submit details of awards of Foreign Stock Based Compensation directly to the tax authorities.

These new measures should make it easier for the Japanese tax authorities to cross reference the individual tax filings of employees with the records provided by their employer and ensure that Japanese taxes are properly collected on share options, restricted stock awards and similar.

Awards of stock outside Japan

Awards of stock in a foreign company administered and delivered outside Japan have usually been outside the scope of Japanese individual income withholding tax. As a result the Japanese tax authorities would not routinely receive information about such awards from Japanese Entities employing the individuals concerned.

The Japanese resident individual receiving such an award would be obliged to file a Japanese tax return and report the relevant income rather than suffer withholding tax at the time of the award. However individuals who would normally be exempt from an annual Japanese tax filing requirement by virtue of the amount and sources of income they received may have often overlooked this obligation.

Awards from a foreign parent

Article 228 no 3 no 2 of the new Japanese Income Tax Law applies to certain defined rights (discussed below) granted by a defined ‘Foreign Parent Company’ (in Japanese 外国親会社等 or ‘gaikoku oya kaisha tou’) to Japanese tax resident officers or employees of Japanese Entities where the Foreign Parent Company owns directly or indirect 50 per cent or more of the issued shares of the employing company concerned (considering only voting shares).

Under this definition Foreign Parent Company awards of stock or similar rights made to employees of a joint venture Japanese subsidiary or Japanese branch of a foreign subsidiary may be within the scope of this reporting obligation as well as awards made to employees of a wholly owned Japanese branch or subsidiary.

What benefits are in scope?

This new reporting requirement applies to rights that allow an individual to receive shares for either no consideration or rights to acquire shares at a beneficial price and where, as a result, the individual will receive shares, cash or other economic benefits from the Foreign Parent Company concerned. Given this definition share options rights and restricted stock awards are clearly intended to be within the scope of the new regulations.

The inclusion of awards of “…cash or other economic benefits…” in the reporting requirement seems intended to cover situations where the employee does not receive stock directly but, for example, may be awarded the proceeds of sale of shares to which they were not entitled to receive directly or similar cases.

Phantom share schemes

Care should be taken to consider whether “phantom share schemes” that track the price of notional stock or similar arrangements not including the award of stock would be within the scope of these new requirements.

Also companies should consider whether subsidized employee share purchase schemes that are typically aimed at all staff and not just senior employees should be within scope of the new regulations.

Reporting requirements and timing

The Japanese Entity has to report the provision of Foreign Stock Based Compensation by 31 March of the year following the year in which it the amounts concerned were provided.

Note that this law does not itself define the time when the Foreign Stock Based Compensation is treated as provided. Care should be taken to consider such timing, especially in compensation schemes that may allow partial vesting of benefits.

Reporting requirement arise from 1 January 2013.

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Inspirational Speaker, National Service Leader, Public Relations Expert

Jay S. Winuk

Co-founder, Executive Vice President, Board Member – MyGoodDeed

President – Winuk Communications, Inc.

Jay S. Winuk is a nationally recognized inspirational speaker and award-winning public relations executive whose journey to overcome personal tragedy to achieve monumental success in the service sector has resulted in millions of acts of kindness throughout the world for people and communities in need.  As a primary force behind the establishment of 9/11 as federally designated “National Day of Service and Remembrance” and its growth into America's largest day of service, Jay, a 9/11 family member, is one of the nation’s leading voices for volunteerism and charitable activity.  His work, commentary and personal story have been featured in major news media reports, documentaries and books throughout the nation and world.  READ MORE

Speaking Topics and Videos

Sample speeches and national interviews

MSNBC interview addressing volunteerism nationwide

Jay Winuk's leadership role in co-creating and co-building the nation’s largest annual day of charitable engagement has yielded a wide range of valuable, tactical learnings for application by corporations, educators and students, nonprofits, municipalities, associations, faith-based groups, first responders and others.

In a new series of presentations, Jay, whose groundbreaking work in the service sector continues to generate charitable action by tens of millions of people worldwide, shares numerous insights, including:

·  successfully motivating people to be philanthropic and/or volunteer, even those who traditionally aren't or don’t;

·  ideas and tools for marketing and promoting service initiatives and cause-related projects; and,

·  overcoming obstacles and transforming challenging situations and issues into positive action and outcomes.

Jay has delivered dozens of speeches to and participated in expert panels before a wide array of audiences at events and meetings throughout the United States, including:

Jay Winuk Speeches

25 Brian Court, Carmel, NY 10512

Phone : 845-277-1160

Fax: 845-277-1168


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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

No more excuses Missy!

I found time this morning to do my pre-season home work and I was amazed at how many of my excuses are the same sort of thing. I don't have time, It won't work, It's too hard ... you know the same ones everyone has. What I was amazed about is how easy it was to form a rebuttal to each and every one. I really feel Michelle's program is helping to inspire me and helping me to complete the preseason work. I was so impressed with how well it came together I have it printed up so i can read it now. I'm loving the use of colour and bold i put on it so I can catch the main points in an instant.

I have also found myself doubting my decision to join the 12WBT team a few times because I don't have huge amounts of weight to lose. My first three excuses in my preseason home work are based on the fact I only want to lose around 5kg and I wonder whether I really needed to sign up or whether I could go it alone. It was during this doubt that I found the SkinnyFat Club in the forum and saw a group of women in the same boat as me. I realise now that I have no real excuses.

I'm also having a really positive day, I am aware of diving into exercise and diet changes too quickly but I wanted to start eating better so i picked up a copy of the Crunch Time Cookbook. Today I have made myself breakfast and lunch out of the book and I am happily full and simply amazed at how good it tastes. This is the program I want to be on - eating good tasting food that is good for you!

Now i better get started on making dinner ...

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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Cruise Inn

Location: Cruise Inn

Rating: Nasty
Meal:  Breakfast
Price:  350 yen
Payment:  Cash Only (accepts dollars primarily)
Dishes: Spam Musubi
English Menu:Yes
Smoking: No

 The Cruise Inn is the first of my on-base restaurant reviews.  This is a small little spot specializing in breakfast and lunch fast food.  Like most of what's available on base, the ingredients are quite sub-par, so no matter how good it may look on the menu, the food always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  The best thing about the Cruise Inn is that they offer breakfast and it's on the walk in.  However, not much on the menus is actually very appetizing, so I rarely ever eat here.  For lunch it would have to be a special set of circumstances to convince me to eat their burgers ever again.

The most interesting thing they have in morning is the spam musubi.  I believe this is a Hawaiian/Japanese fusion of onigiri (japanese rice ball) and spam.  The Cruise Inn improves on this by adding some scrambled egg to layers.  I went one better today and ordered a side of cheese!  The theory is excellent, but unfortunately due to poor quality ingredients, the actual result is barely tolerable.  Spam is spam, so nothing to be done there, but the rice is (like all rice on base) of inferior quality and it comes through in taste and texture.  Also, it's not quite sticky enough to hold together properly so it crumbles as you eat it.  The egg is another problem...I don't know what they use, but I would suspect it's the egg powder or liquid, which is nasty stuff.  Even if they are using real eggs, they do use some kind of PAM or synthetic lubricant for oil and everything they cook on the griddle has an off taste as a result.  And then there's the cheese.  Even though the commisary is one of the only places you can get real cheese in Japan (Costco sells it), none of the restaurants on base seem to use it.  The only thing you can get is heavily processed cheese substances, and it is no different here.  I laughed out loud when I was asked "what kind of cheese" I wanted, since it's all just s lightly different color of the same extruded goop.  Oh well...I hauled it back to my desk and ate it for science.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Location: Katsuhiro
Rating: Excellent
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  2,000 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes:Tonkatsu Teishoku
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes

No English, but you'll like whatever you point at
 Katsuhiro is a tonkatsu restaurant located between the Main and Womble gates of the base on road 16.  My first memory of this place was soon after arriving, we were walking back from our first dinner off base (Ringer Hut) and we walked by this little hole in the wall with a wooden sign above it.  There were 3 or 4 people standing outside taking pictures of it after having finished their dinner.  One of them exclaimed:  "Oh?  Was that your first time?"

There are lots of tonkatsu places around town which are pretty good, some not so good.  But for the pure manifestation of tonkatsu (pounded, breaded, deep fried pork), nothing beats Katsuhiro.  There is only the one chef, and he's obviously been doing this a long time.  He has it down to a very precise, but slow, science.

Slowness and slight discomfort are the only two downsides to this place.  You had better plan for at least an hour and possibly more if you get behind the queue.  The most number of parallel dishes I've seen prepared is 4.  We arrived today behind two others and were worried we'd be there longer than usual, but luckily we got in as he was getting the others ready, so there were four dishes done at the same time.  Any more than that would probably have to wait until he was done before getting to order.  I thought he opened at 12pm prompt, but apparently he let these other two in early.  He didn't even have his pole with green noren out yet.  The other issue is comfort...there is only bar seating, with a narrow strip of tatami for your bum, and nothing to lean against.  I have to squirm about periodically to keep comfortable, but at least there's a place for your feet to go under.  One other thing is that smoking is permitted, and it's so small that if even one person decides to smoke, you'll be subjected to it as well.  In the 5 or 6 times I've eaten there, I've only had it happen twice.

There is no english menu, which is fine, because the cook pretty much assumes you'll be wanting the same thing every other gaijin wants:  the Tonkatsu Teishoku.  If you want anything different, be very clear (and possibly speak up...he might be a little deaf).  But really, the tonkatsu is amazing.  The lunch special is a rosukatsu (fatty pork) tonkatsu for 1000 yen.  Very hard to beat, and it's amazing.  In addition to the usual slab of fried pork, you get deliciously battered bites of apple, carrot, and whatever else he has prepared that day.   There is a small cabbage salad with different greens on top, a little bit of pickled cabbage (very salty) and some other small slices of vegetables.  The miso soup is unique and quite delicious, using what I'm pretty sure is a pork broth base instead of dashi.  If you are obviously foreign (read:  white or black), you will probably get a smaller than normal serving of rice.  I chose to forgive this micro-racism the first time I invited someone who ended up not eating their entire bowl of rice.  I was mortified, but couldn't say anything.  Just ask for more if you eat it all and he'll serve it up.

When he serves you, don't do anything until he tells you to start.  He will grind up some sesame seeds, pour in some sauce, and pour salad dressing and sauce over the salad.  Then he'll motion that you can start eating.  A polite "itadakimasu" is in order ("I gratefully receive this food").   The sauce used looks like a typical tonkatsu sauce, which I don't usually like as it is very vinegary.  But there is something special about his sauce.  I don't know if he makes it himself or not, but it wouldn't surprise me.  It's tart without being sour somehow..

If you want to try something else, there's menchi katsu (minced meat deep fried), chicken katsu, steak don, oyster (kaki), and ebi (shrimp) fry.  All are typically accompanied by the same stuff I think, so whatever you get will be incredible I am sure.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Location: Sushiro

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch
Price:  1200 yen
Payment:  Credit Cards accepted
Dish:  See below
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Sushiro is the last Daie Mall restaurant!  Yay!  I can move on to other stuff within walking distance of the base.  Sushiro is a famous cheap kaitenzushi (sushi-go-round) restaurant.  There are 4 of these in the nearby Yokosuka area and Sushiro is the closest to base.  The other nearby one is Hamazushi located closer to my apartment.  The last two are a bit down the road, very close to each other, Kappa Sushi and Kura Sushi.  Of these, I am partial to Kappa, but Sushiro is probably second on the list.  Remember, all of these are cheap 100 yen (108 yen now with sales tax) per plate restaurants, so the quality and in some cases quantity cannot be compared with really good places.  You have to go in with that mindset in order to enjoy yourself.

The other fun part is the unique dining experience that they afford.  Each one is a little different.  Sushiro operates with a single track and a touch based ordering system.  So you can just take plates from the track or custom order from the menu.  The menu has an English option by the way, taking the difficulty out of ordering (reducing the mystery, but oh well).  The trick with the single track systems is that in order to be sure you get your order they put the plate on a special round dish that elevates it slightly, and then alert you through the menu when it's getting close.  This means you must not take any plates from those elevated round dishes if they are not intended for you!  There are numerous stories of foreigner's first time visits to this style of kaitenzushi taking the wrong plate and only realizing later that they deprived someone of their custom order.  To try and prevent this, Sushiro provides a clear instruction guide in English...though it is a bit wordy so it might seem intimidating.  Really it's all quite simple.  Other restaurants (i.e. Kappa) have 2 tracks, the regular one, and a little train that zooms out with your order and then zooms back.  At other places, there is a special slot for you to slide your dirty plates down that automatically counts up your total.  Still others have a little contest after you are done where you can win prizes based on how many plates you ate.  It's kind of fun to try them all.

Because they are cheap, you will see families with small children sitting at the tables.  This makes for a loose atmosphere that puts us foreigners at ease I think.  Also foreigner friendly, there are lots of plates without raw fish!  You want bacon or prosciutto ham on your nigiri?  Got it.  Fried chicken?  It's there.  Chocolate cake?  You betcha.  French fries?  2 kinds:  regular and sweet potato with glaze.  So even the "sushi hater" can eat and have a good time.  Personally, I prefer to save my money and go to Chuo Sushi, but hey, sometimes the fam just wants to eat a ton of sushi and the cheap places are perfect for that sort of thing.

Aside from not taking someone else's order, the one thing you should look out for are the two main plate colors.  These are different for different restaurants, but they denote the same thing:  with or without wasabi.  Whichever color you see the tamago (egg) or inari (rice in tofu pocket) on is probably without wasabi (those are popular kids dishes).  When you order from the menu, you usually have an option to select with or without.  Personally I like wasabi, so pile it on.

Also, be sure to check the menu at least once for specials.  Often the specials are not put out on the main track and you have to order them.  They are sometimes slightly more expensive than usual.  Today for example, Sushiro seemed to be having a Hokkaido specials theme.  There was corn and miso ramen, Hokkaido sourced hotate (scallop) and shake (salmon).  Mmmmmm boy!

Here are pictures of the dishes I had.  I tried to get some non-sushi ones too to show what they sometimes have available:
Yellow plates have wasabi
Special Hokkaido hotate (I added the spice)
Asari miso

Cold chicken
Stewed beef and egg I think?

Marinated thin sliced beef

Big Boss

Location: Big Boss

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  1500 yen
Payment:  Credit Cards accepted
Dish:  Bibimbap and jijim
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:  Yes

Update:   7/3/2016 - The other day we were driving by and I noticed that it appears that Big Boss is now closed...though I'm not sure how long ago.

Big Boss wins the award for most interesting logo, that's for sure!  In the sign that looks like a cow above, if you squint you can discern hiragana that spell out the Japanese version of the name "bigubasu".  Most impressive.

This is a narrow establishment in an area devoid of better options.  It's a kind of "big box" store area consisting of a Homes (Home Depot clone) and Livin (grocery and department store).  I had to drop my car off for some work that would take an hour and a half so I needed to find something to eat.  Saizeriya and KFC were not an option, and neither was McDonalds.  I had seen this inventive sign from afar many times so it was time to give it a try.

Yakiniku remains one of my least favorite experiences, but fortunately since it hails from Korea originally, there are usually at least a few Korean dishes on the menu.  I spied a bibimbap (aka stuff on rice in a stone bowl) and a savory vegetable pancake (jijim) and ordered those.  They did have a decent English menu, which is handy at a Yakinku joint.  It appears they are used to having lots of foreigners, and as I was eating, two foreign families came in to start their dinners.  They have  several Set Courses for larger groups (starting at 3 persons and going up), but as usual they do not appear to include the veggies which need to be ordered separately.

The bibimpap was not particularly good.  It was oddly dry, despite adding as many sauces as I could find to it.  The jijim was ok.  I can't say I was impressed by anything here.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Location: Saizeriya

Rating: Not great
Meal:  Lunch
Price:  500 yen
Payment:  Cash Only
Dishes: Spinach and Bacon Spaghetti
English Menu:Yes
Smoking: No

Saizeriya is a ubiquitous chain of inexpensive Japanese Italian restaurants.  You can find them absolutely everywhere.  It was one of the first places we ate when we arrived in Japan and I was so turned off I vowed never to set foot in one again if I could avoid it.  A pity really, since sometimes you just want a cheap bowl of pasta, and it's hard to find one cheaper.  They also have the usual array of hamburg and steak that you would find in any "Western" style restaurant, but they emphasize the Italian, and that's what I usually think of.

Finally I went back a year or two ago and realized it was pretty good value for the money, and I needn't be so hung up on it.  I'll certainly never crave it, but it has its place, especially the parking lots that are available on the ones by the road.  The one in Daie is nice in that it is outside mall proper a bit and has a nice view of the harbor.  Otherwise, it's just like all the others.

 Today I opted for a lunch special at the astounding low price of 500 yen ($4.20 currently), with which you get a small salad and "soup" that basically broth you pour for yourself out of a coffee style dispenser.  The soup is truly something to behold, being indistinguishable from some forms of tea that one is often served in Japanese restaurants.  Sometimes you just have to shake your head.  The salad was fairly limp and smothered in thousand island dressing.

The pasta itself was fine, if under spiced.  "Bacon" here is never what you expect if you're from the US.  It's chunks of the same meat used to make real bacon, but there is none of the curing involved so the flavor is not there.  I hear real bacon is one of those things it's next to impossible to find in Japan, but we are lucky to have access to the real thing on base if we ever get the hankering.  I smothered my dish in the available parmesan, salt, pepper and spicy stuff (not very) to make it taste like something other than blandy bland bland.

J.S. Foodies

Location: J.S. Foodies

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  2000 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Avocado Cheese Burger, Vegetable Chicken Burger
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

The second review from Lalaport Toyosu Mall, J.S. Foodies called our names...especially after the previous days fiasco trying to find burgers for lunch and failing miserably.  It was just my wife and I, as our son was home sick with a cough and we didn't bring him along to church.  After scoping out the mall for the options we settled on this place.  It's lovely, bright restaurant with vaulted ceilings and funky decor.  The kitchen is visible behind glass windows and their menu is prominently displayed on a tv screen out front.

First you order and pay, then you go in, find a table and wait for them to bring it to you.  The burgers were ok, a bit disappointing after the delicious looking pictures though.  I wouldn't say they were worth the price, honestly.  The vegetable chicken burger came with sweet potato fries, but they were really awful, hard and brittle.  The regular fries were ok, but not great.  I quite liked the Vegetable Chicken burger as it came with red and yellow peppers and red onions, in addition to the avocado and spiced ground chicken patty.  But again, it wasn't incredible.

Location: Kurobatei

Rating: Excellent
Meal:  Dinner for 6 adults and 2 children
Price:  26,000 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: Tuna Head, 2 Sashimi platters, 2 roasted meat platters, drinks
English Menu: Uncertain (probably not)
Smoking: Didn't notice any

Kurobatei is legendary.  I ate here once before when a friend took me.  It was truly amazing.  They specialize in tuna dishes, specifically the stuff most people don't cook.  The entire town of Misakiguchi, located at the southern tip of Miura Peninsula where we all live, is tuna crazy.  They have one of the biggest tuna ports and markets in Japan, probably only surpassed by Tsukiji in Tokyo.  So there is much delicious tuna to be had here.

 But what makes Kurobatei extra special is that they will cook  the entire tuna head for you if you pre-order it a couple of days ahead of time.  This is a truly massive head and can feed several people.  There are many types of meat available, from the white, dry meat on top of the head, to the dark, steak-like meat of the jaw, to the soft, fatty tissue of eyes and brain.  It is an incredible feast, and incredibly expensive (14,000 yen).  But definitely worth doing at least once.  Unfortunately, you will need to have someone who speaks and reads Japanese to arrange the reservation for you, and possibly to order additional dishes once there.  It's not the most friendly to foreigners place, but they do seem to be willing to work with you.  Luckily we had some friends from work who wanted to go and their significant others were Japanese and could handle the reservations.

In addition to the head, we had sashimi and kalbi (roasted meat) which was also excellent.  I left stuffed, but I wish I had had a spoon to go digging in the big bowl and slurp up the juices in the bottom after we had decimated the head.  It is good to have done the head, but now I want to go back and try all the other dishes we saw other people eating!

As I told more people about the experience I realized I should probably put some of those details up for others interested in going.  One thing was the bizarre ritual that the head cook did before cutting up the tuna head.  It was some weird shouting thing involving a huge necklace of wooden beads, mumbling, and possibly imparting the spirit of the tuna to us.  I did not expect this so was caught rather off guard.  I'm not sure if you can ask for this to be left out or not, but if you have issues with that sort of thing, you might want to mention it.

Also, it's not a large restaurant.  There are maybe 15 bar seats and then a tatami area with 4 or so tables.  We had 2 put together for our group.  There's no space for your feet to go under, so you will have to be able to sit on the ground for a long time.  I am not good at this, so it was a bit of a challenge to get through the entire meal without shifting every few seconds.  If we go back, we'll be sitting at the bar for sure.

Location: Kourakuen
Rating: Not great
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price:  2500 yen
Payment:  Cash Only
Dishes: Ramen, Gyoza and Chahan
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Kourakuen doesn't have any romanized lettering, but it's hard to miss.  It has a giant parking lot and huge yellow signs with red kanji.  I had to look up how to pronounce it's name online.  As far as pluses go, it's fairly common, it's cheap, and it has a parking lot, so it's handy if you are in a car looking for lunch by the side of the road.  Otherwise, there's not much to report.  We ended up at this place after desperately searching for 3 other, probably better, restaurants, but as the sun kept beating down on us, everyone was getting tired of hiking around the area and we saw the big yellow sign beckoning.

Asari Shio Ramen
No english menus here, but you can figure it out by the pictures.  The options are pretty simple, with a few seasonal specials.  The prices are pretty rock bottom for ramen, and the tables are fairly large, so you'll see lots of families with kids here often.  Gourmet ramen this ain't, but the kiddies like it.  Actually, my son was happy with the chahan (fried rice) and gyoza.

Kurogoma Miso Ramen
 My wife had the asari (clam) salt ramen as that was a bit unusual, one of the seasonal specials.  I was taken in by the black sesame miso ramen.  None of it was particularly good.  The flavors were bland and unimpressive, mostly just salt.  The gyoza was alright, but again, nothing special.

Snug Stay Door Cafe

Location: Snug Stay Door Cafe

**** Update 8/25/2017 ****

Sorry, I should have updated this long ago, but Snug Stay Door has closed down.

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  2150 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes:  Spinach, Bacon Ham and Mushroom burger, Gorgonzola burger
English Menu: Yes

We've heard rave reviews about the burgers at Snug Stay Door Cafe and tried to go last Saturday.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  But you can't see the store easily from the road so we didn't know and searched forever for parking.  After finally finding it, and walking about 10 minutes to the restaurant, we discovered it was temporarily closed that day.  It is *normally* closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at least that's what we read on the door.  The website says Tuesdays are the regularly closed day.  We will have to try again some day.

Spinach bacon mushroom burger
We finally got back today, my wife and I, and here is the report.  Snug Stay Door Cafe is really cute and nice inside, but parking in the area is atrocious.  If you are going to come here, I strongly suggest taking the train or riding a bike.  That being said, the burgers were pretty good.  Not outstanding, but definitely decent.  We got two different burgers and split them.  The gorgonzola burger was a bit disappointing in its very light gorgonzola flavor.  The beef patties for both were nothing to write home about.  But the spinach, thick smoked bacon ham and mushroom burger was quite good.  Again, not because of the patty, but the other ingredients were fresh and flavorful.  I wish we had tried an avocado burger, but there will always be a next time.

Gorgonzola burger

Friday, April 24, 2015

Location: Ken

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch
Price:  950 yen
Payment:  Cash Only
Dishes: Grilled Chicken with Salad Bar
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Ken is another western style restaurant in the same vein as Big Boy, also specializing in steak, chicken and hamburg dishes.  It's located within Daie Mall's property, but just outside the mall itself.  I've eaten there once or twice before, but it's not high up on the rotation.  I do believe their salad bar to be superior to the others available at the  mall (Ducky Duck and Big Boy).

Today I felt like chicken, so I went with the straightforward Grilled Chicken with garlic sauce.  You have to pick a sauce...there is onion, garlic, miso, and something else I'm forgetting.  The menu is not in Japanese, but there are lots of pictures.  Oh, and they don't take credit cards, so cash only.

It's nothing special, but not terrible.  Probably the best of the "western" style options available there.  The price isn't bad too for the lunch specials.

Only 2 more Daie restaurants to go!


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January 14, 2008

Farewell party for 'Linda' photos

wish u the best of luck la linda for ur nue career!

be a good teacher k!! ;)

January 13, 2008

Bagan Lalang Photo Session

Location: Bagan Lalang, Sepang
Date : 12 January 2008

Bagan Lalang is one of the place for the urban people to go picnic-ing.Located near the Sepang F1 Circuit though it is not very near but still in the area of Sepang.Probably,we must say it is near Pekan Sepang.So basically it is in Sepang lah.

Not very beautiful but it is definitely a choice for us to spend our weekend here.Instead of going loitering nowhere to go bla bla bla.

And the sunset is definitely beautiful.

There are few more shots will be published soon at my flickr
Feel free to visit there!

January 4, 2008

The First Speak

So this is our first time taking photography seriously.
Before this,we were messing around with the W850 phone camera and now we have our Kisshiro!

Sape Kisshiro?
It's our chumel DSLR.

Just like the other beginners, we hope to develop our interest time to time.We hope to have some advice from the expert and critics are welcome.

Jangan malu segan..
Tunjuk ajar kuuuuu sifoooooo!
And here are some shots we've been taking these two days.
Penat tapi happy giler!


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Thursday, 19 August 2010

I finished the plasterboard around the kitchen window reveals last night, before realising I'd forgotten to run the sealant around the windows first - so I had to take it all off, do the sealant and put it all back on again. I also made a start on the bathroom windows using what was left of the two boards we used for the ceiling. The other moisture proof boards are right at the bottom of the pile, so we'll have to do the rest of the bathroom last.
Our roof trims have been ordered, our weedkiller has turned up, tonight I will buy our other internal door from Wickes in Swindon, and some more plasterboard screws and scrim tape.
We also have to pay the initial interest on our last stage mortgage payment, so I'm about to write a cheque for 35 pence!

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Free Patterns
Sale Patterns
    phlox socks sneak peek
  • Phlox Socks - the Robyn's Nest June Sock Club
  • Pattern will be for sale as of October 1 2008
    (You can email me or leave a comment and I will notify you when the pattern is available.)
I Want to Knit
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
socks that rock!
A few weeks ago the Enabler-Otherwise-Known-as-Maaike placed an order with Blue Moon Fiber Arts and asked if I'd be interested in getting anything. I was going to say no...and then I looked at their site.

Within minutes I'd found exactly what I wanted, and it arrived today! :]]]

I had to go to Maaike's anyways so she could help me out by photographing my other Knitty submission, and while I was there I got my yarn! My soft, squishy yarn!

Since the colors were all so wonderful, a big part of what drew me to these yarns in particular were their names.

This is Downpour.

I love it! It's the perfect representation (to me) of the soft gray skies and purply-brown shadows you find on a dark, rainy day. Faithful readers will know that rainy days are my favorite (notice how it poured on my wedding day, Jakob's birthday AND on my birthday yesterday?) and the name of this yarn drew me in right away. I think it will be perfect for a slouchy pair of comfy socks I'm thinking of designing.

The reason I decided to order at all was because I remembered the Rock and Weave socks I'd seen on the Yarn Harlot's blog. It took me a while to find the perfect yarn to use...many of the STR have short color repeats and I didn't want the colors to blend together in the socks, especially not in the linen-stitch cuffs. My eye kept getting drawn to a particular colorway, and when I read the name I knew I'd found the right one. It was a name that made me smile, and was silly and quirky...perfect!

This is Gingerbread Dude. I think I love him.

posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:37 PM
  • At 1:39 PM, Blogger JayJay said…

    I love the colors you chose! Subtle, but fun.

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Saturday, April 13, 2013

 Our family is feeling a little edgy these days as our little granddaughter is delaying her arrival.  Our daughter is tired of being big and anxious to meet her baby, and her oldest son complains daily that his sister has not come yet.  Every time the phone rings, we wonder if it is THE NEWS. So while I wait, I play with photos that feature edges.

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Friday, August 27, 2010

Where did August go?

Wow! That was a fast month! With the boys going back to school, USM classes beginning, and football season starting, we have had a full month. I did get some stitching accomplished as well. I have been working on the same few patterns, but my progress is great.

First, don't you just love the Anniversaries of the Heart series by Blackbird Designs? The first and second block are finished. I added my Mother-in-law's info to the January block. February is a big month in our family. Let's see, my son's, grandmother's, and grandfather-in-law's birthdays are all in February. And, of course, so is my birthday. I had to limit this project to just the immediate family, parents and grandparents. I also have a sister-in-law and two nephews that have February birthdays.

I am also making great progress in the Bent Creek Snapperville series. This is an old series, but I just love the theme and colors. Just two more blocks and the border to go...

And, my favorite project this month has been Shakespeare's Peddler Jenny Bean Humble Servant Sampler. I just love the colors in this one. To be honest, it was slow going at first. The upper left corner took me longer than I expected. But once I got to the letters and bee, I was hooked. Just a little work on the border and the lower right corner to go. This is such a sweet piece. I think I will frame it and hang it in my guest room.

I did have a complete week off this month. I didn't have classes to teach, fish to videotape, children to entertain, etc. So , I signed up for two sewing classes at our local quilt store. The first class focused on applique quilting. I have never done this, so thought it would be a great class for me. I had the best time. We were working on a quilt named Hooterville. It is so cute. These are my first two blocks, so forgive the lack of technique. But I am hooked. I have finished all of the tree squares and am working on the 16 owl squares. It is actually a lot of fun, but I can only do one square a day. Can't wait to finish this quilt.

The other class was a "Chubby Charmer" class where we learned to make a large bag. I used a bunch of scraps from some other projects. The best part is that I learned to machine quilt. So my week off was a great time.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Monday, August 09, 2010

Some progress pictures to share

So, I have been working on the BBD Anniversaries of the Heart this weekend. This is such a lovely series. I am stitching it on 40 ct linen, which makes it look so delicate and beautiful. Of course, since I have decided to include family birthdays and anniversaries in this piece, I have been doing some research into my family tree. It is quite interesting. My husband's paternal family tree is well researched. So I was able to find his parents' and paternal grandparents' information. I also have his maternal grandparents' birthdates but not their anniversary. As for my family, I have an aunt that just loves researching family information, so I have the dates needed.

The first block (January) only has my mother-in-law's initials and year of birth (MGM 1934). The second block (February) is a bit more crowded. Of course, my initials (JLC) and birth year (1971) are included, as well as my son's (PGR 1995), paternal grandmother (JMO 1903) and Hobbie's paternal grandfather (HMR 1900). Patrick wanted me to include his cousins that were also born in February, but I decided to limit to just our immediate family and then parents and grandparents. You see, I have two brothers and two sisters and Hobbie has three sisters and a brother. And we have 9 nephews and 4 neices, 13 grand neices and 4 grand nephews. So there just isn't enough room for everyone.

I have also been working on the Bent Creek Snapperville. This one is really easy and a nice break from the more tedious Anniversaries piece.

And finally, I have started on Jenny Bean's Humble Servant Sampler. This is such a pretty piece. Theresa is a wonderful designer and I can't wait to see the next one in the series. I would love to finish this one first, though.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a great week.

Oh, yeah. One more picture to share. The boys started school last Friday. Aren't they handsome? Can you tell which one isn't excited about a new school year. Nicholas (left) is starting 6th grade and Patrick (right) is a sophomore.

Monday, August 02, 2010

July wasn't the best month for stitching...

So I have been neglectful to my blog lately. I know, but I have been so busy. This summer semester flew by and I just felt like I was constantly trying to catch up. Plus, our entire family was gone the second week of July. I had to go to a meeting about the textbook, Hobbie was at a conference, and the boys were at camp. Hopefully, I will be more attentive this month. I do have several neat projects in line for this month, so I will definitely want to share.

I did finish one biscornu. This is Barbara Ana Designs Thanksgiving biscornu. It is very cute and quite easy to stitch.

I almost finished this LK Spring piece, but ran out of the green thread. I just picked up a new skein this weekend, so this will be finished soon.

I have also worked very diligently on Remember Me. Isn't it wonderful? I can't wait to get this one completed. Of course, I ran out of the Charcoal thread, but I think I am going to just use the DMC equivalent to complete it.

Have you seen the Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart series? These are so pretty. I have been purchasing these as they became available and have been thinking how I want to finish these. I know I want to stitch them as a single piece, but I really didn't want to buy another piece of linen when I have a drawer full. Luckily, I found a piece of 40 ct. that is perfect for it. I started the first pattern this weekend and had a great idea come to me while I was stitching. I am going to personalize the entire sampler by adding the initials and years for birthdays and anniversaries for me, Hobbie, the boys, our parents and our grandparents. Isn't that wonderful? The funny thing is that each month is covered except for May. I still need to find out the dates of my husbands paternal grandparents birthdays and anniversary, so maybe one of those dates is in May. I can't wait to finish this now...


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What’s Ahead for ISO?

1 August 2013

About a year ago, a post on the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems [1] became one of the most popular of the 100+ posts to this blog. This post returns to the ISO 9001 Standard, this time looking ahead to ISO 9001:2015, the new revision expected to be published in 2015.

International Standards

With the globalization of industry, it is critical to have a body of consensus standards that define materials, dimensions, manufacturing practices, etc., so that parts and products from around the world fit together and work together as intended. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), through committees comprised of delegates from ISO’s member countries, creates and maintains such standards.

ISO GraphicThe ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems is perhaps the most familiar of ISO’s vast catalogue of Standards. Globally, there are over a million facilities certified as compliant with the ISO 9001 Standard.

ISO’s practice is to revise and reissue Standards every 6 – 8 years. The current version of the ISO 9001 Standard was issued in 2008, hence is designated ISO 9001:2008. The next revision is expected to be released in 2015. The committee charged with creating the next version has recently released a draft for public comment.

Achieving consensus among a committee of delegates from many different nations, industries and points of view is tedious work, as anyone who has worked on a standards committee knows. It needs be recognized that a global consensus is a lagging indicator of the state of any art. Consequently, revisions to a global standard represent concepts that are already widely accepted. That’s why it is useful to preview probable revisions to a standard that will not be final for about two years — if you are behind the state of your art in 2013, best not to wait until 2015 to react.

Here are the most significant changes from the ISO 9001:2008 Standard, as proposed in the current draft of ISO 9001:2015 —

Products and Services

The earliest versions (ISO 9001:1987 and ISO 9001:1994) focused almost exclusively on tangible products. Since the ISO 9001:2000 version, services have received increasing attention. The 2015 draft proposes to the term “products and services” to replace the term “products” throughout the Standard. This change makes it clear that the Standard is applicable to service businesses as well as to producers of tangible products. More importantly, in my view, is the recognition that “products” are defined by customers. The “product” that a customer buys is an array of tangibles and intangibles — in-spec widgets, technical services, warranties, packaging, delivery, relationships, perceptions and much more — except when there are no widgets involved. Consider the importance of the sound a car door makes when it closes!

In the current and previous versions of the Standard, it has been possible to exclude requirements covering product development, in cases where a facility does not actually develop products: job shops, for example. The 2015 version may, practically speaking, limit the product development exclusion to tangibles, since the development of at least some intangible product aspects is usually local.

The 2015 draft proposes two new requirements, both of which illuminate the context in which the organization operates. The proposed additions are

“The organization shall determine external and internal issues, that are relevant to its purpose and its strategic direction and that affect its ability to achieve the intended outcome(s) of its quality management system”

“The organization shall determine

a) the interested parties that are relevant to the quality management system, and

b) the requirements of those interested parties”

These proposed requirements make it mandatory to explicitly think through and articulate these matters, assuring that they are addressed in the architecture of the management system. While these proposals are far from final, there is an easy (and free) way to begin right now. National Baldrige Award applicants complete a five page Organizational Profile as a preface to their application. The Organizational Profile provides context, much as these proposed requirements do. You can download the questions that comprise the Organizational Profile and a completed sample for a smaller manufacturing firm. [3] “Know Yourself” is good advice.

Risk and Preventive Action

The 2015 draft drops the long-standing requirement for a Preventive Action procedure, on grounds that the entire Standard is an instrument for prevention. Instead, the draft makes numerous references to risk assessment and risk management.

Explicit attention to risks and potential downsides is good business, especially when both the probability of occurrence and the potential for loss or disruption are considered. For that reason, this blog often mentions the use of Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) as a management tool.

Incidentally, ISO is quite familiar with risk management. ISO 31000:2009, Risk management – Principles and guidelines
provides principles, framework and a process for managing risk. It can be used by any organization regardless of its size, activity or sector.” [5] ISO 31000 and its associated documents provide a good way to come up to speed on risk management.

For Smaller Manufacturers

The real question for smaller manufacturers is whether to utilize the ISO 9001 Standard, or not. For many, compliance with and certification to the Standard is a marketing necessity. For those interested in Sustainability — thriving in perpetuity [6]  — ISO 9001 (especially along with ISO 9004) offers a sound organizational approach, although there are other approaches. As mentioned earlier, consensus standards lag the state of the art. Simple compliance with the present standard is yesterday’s thinking.

Chuck - SedonaThoughtful comments and experience reports are always appreciated.

…  Chuck Harrington (Chuck@JeraSustainableDevelopment.com)

P.S: Contact me when your organization is serious about pursuing Sustainability … CH

This blog and associated website (www.JeraSustainableDevelopment.com) are intended as a resource for smaller manufacturers in the pursuit of Sustainability. While editorial focus is on smaller manufacturers, all interested readers are welcome. New blog posts are published on Wednesday evenings.

[2] From ISO committee TC176/SC2 draft on revision to the ISO 9001 Standard, dated 3 June 2013.

[5] For more on ISO 31000:2009 and related documents, see: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/iso31000.htm

[6] Werbach, Adam, Strategy for Sustainability, Harvard Business Press, Boston (2009) page 9.


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• Village Park Sakalidis 1
  • Village Park Sakalidis 3
  • Village Park Sakalidis 2

Village Park Sakalidis

  • Athens, Greece 2000
  • Site Area: 42 hectares | Total Building Area: 36,000 sq m.

Village Roadshow expanded into the western suburbs with the development of Village Park, an unprecedented development for Athens, where there are no shopping centre complexes. The largest such leisure park in Greece, the three-level, open-air complex can accommodate 50,000 guests. Village Park has 20 cinema screens with 4,516 seats. The theatres boast the latest in design and technology, among the features being digital sound, wallto-wall screens, stadium seating and love seats. The project also features a 4,600-square meter retail component featuring 45 specialty shops, including music, books, clothing, and 4,750 square meters of bars and restaurants. Major international brands, such as Mango, Benetton, Levis, Virgin Megastore, Nike, Timberland, Swatch, KFC, Pizza Hut and Planet Hollywood, are a strong attraction for the increasingly affluent Greek youth. Yet, everyone, from families to teenagers, enjoy the novelty of free parking, open spaces, credit-card bookings and no intermission.

Client: Village Roadshow

Project Uses:
  • Entertainment
  • Retail
  • Dining

Village Park Sakalidis

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Amazon Contextual Product Ads

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Men at Work is "Plan B" for me

The latest episode of TBS's Men at Work is "Plan B." Neal (Adam Busch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) hooks Milo (Danny Masterson, That '70s Show) up with his hot friend, Hannah (Laura Prepon, Are You There Chelsea?). Milo likes Hannah, but as Neal keeps intruding on their dates, Milo begins to wonder if Hannah is Neal's Plan B, should things not work out with his current girlfriend, Amy (Meredith Hagner, As the World Turns). Milo is right, and Hannah, thrilled to see Neal's interest, makes a play for him, leaving Neal with a tough decision to make.

This is a story that has been done before about a bazillion times. Neal doesn't realize how good he has it in his relationship until he sees another choice. Then he thinks about what Amy means to him, and makes the right decision. Milo is merely present as a way to bring Hannah in, without any good character development for himself. Hannah, while played delightfully by a talented actress, is also simply a catalyst for Neal's story. This entire plot is Neal's. Busch handles it well, but it's nearly impossible to do a fresh take on such a been-done story, and Men at Work fails to make it seem current.

The B plot of "Plan B" is no better. Tyler (Michael Cassidy, Privileged) and Gibbs (James Lesure, Las Vegas) pretend to be a gay couple to join an expensive gym that offers two-for-one membership deals. This is merely an excuse by the writers to make these too masculine men act gay, and try to mine humor in that. Men at Work deserves a little bit of credit for not playing too much into stereotypes or getting crass in the story. But it's incredibly predictable, right up to when they figure out that the two-for-one deal did not specify that they had to be a couple to use it.

I originally watched the pilot of Men at Work, and decided it would not be a series worth my time reviewing. It seems like something completely unoriginal, just mixing up the ingredients of previous sitcoms in a slightly new way. The characters tended to be broad and unfocused, and the stories trite. The cast is decent, but not amazing enough to warrant regular viewings for a show that already feels like every week's episode is a reruns, even though they aren't.

"Plan B" doesn't do a lot to dispel those notions. It's better than the first episode, for sure, but there's still a lingering sense of nothing special. It's a diverting way to spend a half hour, but no jokes really stuck out as being memorable, and I am unlikely to dwell on any scenes after I've finished watching. It's not bad, per se, it's just not great, either. In today's world of a million programming choices, with enough gems to keep anyone busy, it's not worth it to continuing watching Men at Work.

Part of the problem is that other networks have recently tried a similar formula, about buddies at this stage of their lives, and done better. Man Up springs to mind, in spite of its cancellation. This comparison hurts any impression Men at Work seeks to make.

Most of these actors have been a part of better shows. One hopes they will be again soon. And Men at Work definitely makes me long for the arrival of Cougar Town so TBS can have a good comedy again, something it has not seen since ending My Boys.

If you choose to watch, Men at Work airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on TBS.

If you like my reviews, please follow me on Twitter!

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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Birthday Fairy

I never celebrated Halloween growing up. My kids have never celebrated Halloween either and I hope they don't celebrate it when they are grown and out on their own. BUT, every year, in all the stores, it never fails; all the costumes, headstones, witches and creepy stuff come out of hiding and litter the shelves. Every year without fail the kids start asking why other kids celebrate a holiday that is so bad and 'not good'. This year was a little different. Evan Grace said she didn't like Halloween but she would still like to wear a Fairy skirt (she had just spied one on the clothing racks.) I told her I thought I could probably make her one that she could wear whenever she liked.

So this is what I came up with. It's suppose to be way way way shorter but when I asked Evan Grace what she wanted she said and I quote, "I want it long, long, longer." So hopefully this it was 'long, long, longer' looks like. Isaac and Ev watched the entire process from start to finish, from. start. to. finish!!!! and yes Isaac did ask if he could wear it!

I measured and cut a strip of elastic, sewed the ends together, cut the tulle in 40 inch strips and started double knotting them on the elastic. I think it worked pretty well. You can see a pink flower at the bottom of the skirt, I had some cute flower buttons that I knotted on one of the strips of tulle. I have a few more different colored ones I hope to add on later. The only trouble I see with the Fairy skirt is the length. The longer she wore it the more tangled the fabric got within it's self. I may have to shorten it after all.

Oh, since her birthday is on the 12th of this month, she's now calling it her Birthday Skirt. :)
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bippity boppity becca said...

We made skirts like these for Briley's birthday last year. I found that you can wipe a dryer sheet on them to take out the cling if they get clingy. Then just run your fingers through the tulle, while holding the band, to untangle it. It worked for us.

On a side note, I didn't know you had moved. I noticed all these posts about being at your mom's and thought you were just taking a LONG summer vacation. I wanted to go out a couple of months ago and thought I might call you. (I chose to just stay home instead.) But then I saw a post that made it obvious you had moved. Wow! I'll miss you and the few mom's night outs that we had.

Jessica G said...

Becca, you rock. That's a brilliant idea. I was following her around at one point doing the finger thing because it was starting to drive me mad and she eventually just took it off and handed it too me. I'm going to get a dryer sheet right now! Thanks. If we ever make it back to AL I'll give you a shout out and maybe we could get the girls together for one more night out. I miss them too. Very much!


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Sunday, 1 April 2012

Plastic Bottle Flowers

In class this week, we have been talking about Materials in Science. Namely we have been talking about Reducing, Reusing and Recycling materials.

This week we made some plastic bottle flowers which are super easy to make and look absolutely fabulous (not that I'm biased).

Basically to make these beautiful flowers you need:

  • Plastic bottles - 1 bottle makes 2 flowers
  • Paint or permanent markers
  • Scissors
  • Glitter glue or stickers for decoration.

How to make the flowers:
  1. Cut a plastic bottle in half.
    If you would like longer petals you might like to cut one side longer.
  2. Cut down the plastic bottle, dividing the bottle into petals.
  3. Push down the petals as far as they can go
    This will ensure the petals don't flick back up.
  4. Shape the petals however you like
    You might want to slightly round the top to give it a curved shape.
  5. Colour the petals in using paint or permanent marker
  6. Decorate using glitter glue or stickers.

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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Football Camp ~ VBS ~ Father's Day

Last week was full of some fun summer camp/schools. First off was football camp for Noah. This was the first time they had football camp available for 2nd graders so we were excited to expose him a little to the sport and see how he did. It was only a 2 day camp but it was packed full of fun! Noah loved it and said he learned how to tackle, throw, "kick of that little thing with 3 points on it" and how to be part of a team. He was so sad it was over and has not stopped talking about it since.

Noah was one of the winners of the "Mean Face" competition at football camp :)

Overlapping with football camp in the evenings was Vacation Bible School. Our church does not have a VBS so I had the kids go to one of our friends church this time. Noah was really nervous when I went to drop him off and Ryan was of course ready to go no problem. That is just how those two are. Luckily Noah was fine by the end and had no problem the next day. One of my good friends was with both of my kids and sent me the cutest pictures  - they had the best time!

Noah and Ryan are on the front right - a little excited :)

Duck - Duck - Goose :)
Noah was loving being on stage singing and dancing to Praise music :)

Sunday was Father's Day. For the third year in a row we all met at Byrd's Riverfront Restaurant for lunch and swimming in the river. I am so glad the kids are big enough to get in without me now because that water was a little chilly after all the rain we have gotten lately. I loved just sitting on the rocks with family and watching the kids play with their cousins in the water - it is one of my happy places.

This is actually going to be a slow week besides the end of Noah's baseball games we are hoping to fit in some pool time.

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Awards and citations:

1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award

Saturday, 10 March 2012

Les 5 du Vin: Agnieszka Kumor on Verona and on Amarone

Agnieszka Kumor

Les 5 du Vin's guest contributor this week is Agnieszka Kumor, a Polish journalist living in France. We are delighted to welcome Agnieszka who posts on Verona and Amarone.

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Thursday, June 30, 2016

Clearly Awesome

There was never any doubt that you'd rock the "Midnight Clear" assignment, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ but who knew you'd do it with such amazing panache! Here are three cards that made us especially happy to looooooooooove Christmas:

...made three seriously amazing cards using *VELLUM* in ways that make us want to make all the rest of this year's cards using vellum! :)

...built her gorgeous all-white card on a transparency base, and did it as well-- or better-- than we've ever seen it done!

...cleverly upcycled the acrylic panel from a commercially produced Christmas card to complete a brand new design that's as eco-friendly as it is beautiful!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we LOVE seeing your clever ideas in action! We'll be back at midnight (clearly, lol!) with a brand new prompt we hope you'll think is picture perfect! ♥

Friday, June 24, 2016

Do you SEE what I SEE?

We're still celebrating holiday cards that contain clear elements, whether those be in the form of pre-printed transparencies, acrylic embellishments, or just shaker or window cards which utilize a bit of plastic packaging. Scroll down to the original post for full details and to link up your own masterpieces!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie says, "I used a scrap from the same clear Hambly Overlay as last week, but this time as an off-set tag using this week's Retro Sketch and a glittery Papaya! Art Sticker."

Lauren says, "I'm sad to say that I'm down to my last few pieces of holiday-themed Hambly transparencies, despite Stephanie's magnificent job of scouring the midwest for leftovers and my own valiant efforts at hoarding. But the point of acquiring crafty goodies is to USE THEM, so while I do feel a certain responsibility in terms of making especially nice cards with them, I am determined to use and enjoy them until they're gone. Meanwhile, I'm pretty pleased with this one, as a matter of fact!"

Friday, June 17, 2016

It Came Upon a Midnight, *CLEAR*

Can can you guess from the title what this fortnight's assignment is, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥? Yes, indeed, if you think we want you to include a clear element of some sort in your holiday card design, you're exactly right!

What do we mean by "clear element"? it can be anything from professionally silk screened transparencies, to digital elements home-printed on an ink-jet transparency, to see-thru journal card overlays, to acrylic embellishments, or even something as simple as a window or shaker card with plastic packaging taped behind the aperture. like... say... this one:

Lauren says, "I happen to love clear embellishments and overlays, and I suspect you'll see a few of them next week, but even if you don't have ANY you can still play along. I've made the most basic of shaker cards, I've filled it with tiny clear plastic beads that are made to use in shaker cards, and I've held those inside the card by the very simple method of taping some clear plastic to the reverse of the window opening. I actually used a small scrap of inkjet transparency, but you can use plastic packaging from something as simple as a takeaway salad container!"

Stephanie says,"I started with a navy card base and added a silver Hambly transparency on top.  I placed my Basic Grey Die cut where I wanted it on top of the transparency and then attached my transparency to my card base by applying adhesive behind the die cut (and in narrow strips behind the other patterns)..  I finished with clusters of clear pink & red gems for accents."

Now it's your turn to prove how clearly awesome you are! Link your cards here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 29th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:13.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Super Snow People

There are some seriously cute snowmen (and pre-snowmen) in the gallery for this prompt ... here are a few of our favorites.

made her happy snowman front & center in her design ...
and the coloring on textured cardstock is perfection

added lots of texture and layers to frame her cute little snowman ...
and click through to see how she made those metallic snowflakes
(and did you see his pockets are full of candy ... love that).

created with *pre-snowmen* ... her elegant snowflakes,
variety of texture and vintage image really come together to
create a show-stopper.

Thanks again for joining us on our creative holiday journey ... we really do love getting to share it with our Jingle Belles family each week.

And this week, Lauren and I had the pleasure of hanging out together in person in New York City and for some Gelli Printing Art Camp ... always fun to get to create together (and shop together ... and eat together ... and go to museums together ... and laugh together ... you get the picture).

Make sure you join us tomorrow for a *clearly* awesome prompt.

Friday, June 10, 2016

He Began to Dance Around

We're still celebrating Frosty the Snowman this week ... making holiday cards featuring snowmen (or pre-snowmen aka snowfall or snowflakes).

Here's what we created:

Lauren says, "Yes, I've gone with snowflakes again this week, or if you prefer, think of them as Frosty's baby pictures, lol. This time I embossed Tim Holtz's snowflake e/f on kraft cardstock, and sponged the flakes with a little gesso for a nice soft effect. I added some embellies--including gems of course; then matted and stitched and called it a (snow)day!"

Stephanie says, "I love this little Snow Dude from Paper Smooches.  I paper pieced his scarf and hat in teal and minty blue and die cut his body in black for a bit more pop.  I added snowflakes and a little birdie friend to finish the design."

Remember you have until Wednesday to have some snowman fun with us ... link-up here.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Frosty the Snowman

Our next prompt at Jingle Belles is "Frosty the Snowman" ... we're making cards that feature snowmen ... or perhaps a pre-snowman (aka snowflakes or snowfall).

Here's the snowy fun we had this week:

Stephanie says, "I used the Less is More Sketch with a fun little snowman gift tag (that is the one after-Christmas-sale item that I'm always on the hunt for because they are usually super-cheap and make such quick & easy cards).  Since he was decorated with glitter & a few gems, I added some glittery enamel dots for accent and finished with a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment."

Lauren says, "I've been in a serious drawing and painting phase, so I decided to doodle some snowflakes and go from there; I thought the center panel would be kind of equivalent to patterned paper and then I'd add chipboard snowflakes or silk flowers --or both-- on top; as it turned out I got a bit carried away embellishing the flakes with gorgeous eyelet outlet bling, glitter and metallic pen, so in the end I just added a little ribbon, a silver mat and a patterned paper card base."

And now it's your turn to pull out your coolest (ok, sorry, lol) papers and embellishments, then link up your snow-centric masterpieces here by 6pm EST on Wednesday, June 18th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:12.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

No Blues, Just Bliss

Who knew that a fortnight without *BLUE* could inspire you guys to such heights of awesome creativity? We found it especially hard to only choose a few cards to feature, but here are a couple that made our hearts go pitter pat:

...made us totally forget about reindeer, elves and snowmen; from now on this adorable Christmas Elephant (who's been made into such a lovely card!) is our FAVORITE holiday mascot!

...has taken the elements of an inspiration challenge and made them completely her own, adding in exemplary masking and stamping skills!
...has combined a number of dies, stamps and artful techniques to produce this very sophisticated easel card design!

As always, we thank everyone who participated, it is always a treat to see every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a ♥COOL♥ new prompt we hope will inspire you once more!


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Monday, October 19, 2009

Jeffrey Campbell Trunk Show!

The Jeffrey Campbell Trunk Show was a huge success here at J.Karma! It was a night of champagne, design, and J.Karma shoppers looking extra cute in their JC's. Here to help host the event was Ty from Jeffrey Campbell who came down from New York to fill all of you in on the hottest shoes for this season as well as a sneak peak of Spring/Summer! We saw lots of our regular customers and some new faces as well. Thanks guys!!
Here is a link to Jeffrey Campbell blog with more pics:

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