Heather in BC… & Beyond! 'Living the Baby Boomer Life in BC… and Beyond!

Do you have a Valentine’s Day product review you’d like to share, and gain huge exposure? Join the Product Review Carnival at Atomic Mama. It’s simple to enter and in exchange you need to post the carnival on your blog.

Hurry on over – entry deadline is February 10 to submit your entry to the Valentine Gifts Blog Carnival.

The name of the website Hawaii Drive-O made me laugh. It amazes me how creative people can be, using descriptive words in their URL’s to promote a product or business. How could anyone forget a Hawaii Car Rental company with such a great name?

So, what do you rent when you go to Hawaii? A jeep or a convertible? I think those are the two most popular rental vehicles, although families need SUV’s. Especially if they are driving to Hana or Haleakala. I’ve been to both and can tell you, you MUST rent a car if you go to Hawaii so you can see more than the area in which you are staying. There is so much to explore and do, no matter which Island you visit.

If you’ve never visited Hana on Maui, it’s definitely worth the drive. Leave early, plan for the whole day by buying a small styrofoam cooler and pack it with plenty of water and snacks. Take your beach towels – if you don’t use them to dry off the kids will use them as pillows when they nap!

TIP: Give the kids a motion-sickness pill before leaving your hotel. You might want to take one yourself!

I found the only way to cope with the windy road was to make plenty of stops to get out and walk – even if only for a couple of minutes. One time we drove out there we stopped at the little store in Hana to send postcards. I discovered I could mail a coconut with a note written on it (like a postcard – but a lot more fun!) LOL – so of course I did and my son received it a month later at a ski resort he was working at. It caused quite a stir as people heard about it in the mail room and they all wanted to see.

TIP: Take a black felt pen with you so you don’t have to buy one.

My other favorite place was the 7 Sacred Pools. It was beautiful and a fun place for the kids to paddle in the pools after a long hot day driving the windy road.

To compare rates, choose the right vehicle for your holiday, and to get the best deal on a rental car, click here. You will find a wealth of interesting information.

Hawaii Drive-O’s website has a ton of useful information not only on rental cars, but airfare, cruises, local info and fun articles to help you organize your next trip to Hawaii.

The Olympic Torch arrives on the Sunshine Coast Thursday and will be in Pender Harbour at 9:03 am for the ceremony!

A ‘Logger’s Breakfast” runs from 8 am to 11 am and makes my mouth water just thinking about it. It will be held at the Community Hall – and from what I gathered it will be FREE. There was no mention of price on the poster I saw today.

The poster was short on information and no one I asked knew much about the event, but I’m sure it’s available online. This Act Now BC doesn’t tell much more, other than the Torch Bearer will be welcomed on the highway in front of the school. I have to assume this means Pender Harbour Secondary, not Madeira Park Elementary, since the ‘highway’ is mentioned. Somehow, I believe the actual ceremony will take place in Madeira Park.

I certainly saw signs something was coming to our area – an ‘Olympic’ painted car was parked at the Skookumchuck Rapids trail this morning, longboarders were ‘practicing’ and being towed back up the hill to the Pender Harbour Hotel by a guy on a motor scooter. LOL – not the safest way of travel, but probably not much more dangerous than going down the hill!

I think I’ll get there early to take part in the breakfast – and wing it!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LG Chocolate Touch. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was working in the Blogger Lounge at Affiliate Summit my desk was littered with all my electronics devices and I hate a cluttered workspace. I also worry I’ll forget one key item when traveling and you know that could totally ruin a business trip. Every convention I attend people ask to borrow chargers as they’ve forgotten them in their rooms or worse – at home. I try to carry everything I might need in my computer bag and it gets awfully heavy but I finally got smart and bought a rollerbag to transport all my electronics!

I may have been a little premature on that as I understand the LG Chocolate Touch combines an amazing selection of devices into one manageable piece which allows you to make calls, send texts, use the internet, use Social Media, take pictures or video, AND has a music player with Dolby Mobile technology for crystal-clear sound quality. Now, that sounds right up my alley!

The Dolby Mobile technology provides crystal-clear sound quality to block out the snoring guy in the seat next to me on the plane – or the chitchat that I can’t help overhearing. Even at home this would be ideal to block out the TV or my Pop when he talks non-stop! I’m not sure about the rhythmical beat that vibrates the handset to the beat of the music, that would take me some time to get used to.

I do like the idea of a simple way to keep on top of my social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and even blogging with only one device. The LG Chocolate Touch combines all this with texting, picture, video and voice messaging (including visual messaging) with a3.2MP camera/recorder – oh and an image editor.

Can you imagine all this in ONE device? I love it and can’t wait to cut out the clutter and weight.

Chocolate is definitely the answer!

Click on the photo for a fabulous close-up!

“Who are the Jewels in your life?” That question reminded me of the reason I created my Jewel Tree.

My Mom never threw anything away and saved her family’s bits and pieces of jewelery and all my childhood treasures – cute brooches, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, pins and even buttons from special clothing. I seem to have inherited the trait and I kept every little treasure since then – my son’s shark tooth necklace from our trip to Hawaii, my daughter’s first earrings, my husband’s gold birthstone ring and of course all my odds and ends, such as broken necklaces or a single earring.

A friend showed me her “Christmas Jewel Tree” and that set me off – of course I had to take it one step further, making it into a piece of art, not just a Christmas decoration. All of a sudden I was rummaging through drawers, searching in boxes of old clothing, my jewelery box, my daughter’s jewelery box and even the ‘catch-all’ drawer in the kitchen, amassing a surprising amount of treasure.

I started hitting the garage sales, looking for the perfect wooden picture frame – it needed to be ornate, preferably gold tones and a size to fit a special wall I designated. I also bought bits of jewelry at garage sales, preferably gold toned, pearlized, white and most especially, rhinestone – bling, bling, bling – the more bling the better for me!

I cut a piece of thin plywood just a little smaller than the frame (”21 x 25″) and covered it with black velvet, gluing with Alene’s Craft Glue. I hand drew the outline of a Christmas tree shape on paper, being sure both sides were the same and laid it on the velvet, trimmed, tried again and again until it looked to be in proportion to the frame and had nicely curved lines. I then drilled holes at random in the plywood, so I could insert a small set of Christmas lights to add a more festive touch.

At that point I started laying out long necklaces of pearls and gold chain, trying to match sizes, making the outline of the tree. When I was satisfied, I spread a line of glue around the outline of the tree, removed the paper then put the chains onto the glue, curving them around the corners and adding more as I went when I felt it needed to be a wider outline (nearer the bottom).

The hardest part was deciding which pieces of jewelery could go on the bottom layer to be the base. I knew they wouldn’t show but just provide a fairly solid backing to place the more important pieces.

Once the inside area was pretty well covered, I started placing my special jewelery – first things that didn’t have a huge emotional value then topping them with my prized posessions. I sent out word to my female relatives and friends that I was making a family jewel tree and if they had an odd earring, brooch, necklace, pin – whatever they could part with, I’d love to add them. My family is wonderful that way and soon I had lots more pieces to add.

My Mom came up with stuff that belonged to her Dad, her Mother, my Dad, my brothers and even some of her precious pieces. There were earrings her rock-hound brother made of stones he polished then set into gold, there were buttons from my Grandfather’s WWI uniform, shoe buckles my Grandmother wore, a pin my Mom’s first employer gave her, my Dad’s old Alaska black diamond cufflinks, and even an old English coin which belonged to my Dad’s ‘Pappy’.

As I placed items on the tree, I kept a list of where they came from or to whom a certain piece belonged. It is now thumbtacked to the back of the plywood. I realized the Christmas lights were not necessary – just more work and it had to be near an electrical plug-in and the cord hanging down the wall didn’t look great. I wouldn’t bother with lights another time.

Now, if your jewelery is very, very special I wouldn’t recommend putting glue on it – and if you ever want to wear it again don’t put it on your tree! I’m not saying the glue will damage anything, but use caution.

Each time I pass by this piece of artwork – for that is what it turned out to be, a very valuable piece of art as far as I’m concerned, I say hello to my Mom, my Grandparents, my Aunts, cousins and dear friends. Some may be gone from my life but they live in my heart and are as close as my “Family Jewel Tree”.