It was an exciting day. I had scheduled with my mother-in-law, who works at Purdy's Chocolate Factory, to take us on a chocolate tour. This was my second time, but this time was summer and there were more of us in the group. My sister, her husband, her husband's brother, sister-in-law and their kids came along. My husband's auto also came with her daughter.

Before we actually went in for the tour, we all had to wear hair nets/caps for hygiene purposes. When we first got inside, we saw the mixing station with a huge bag of sugar and lots of butter. The area was quite warm because the butter was being melted. The big mixer mixes the chocolate cream; looks like a big cookie dough.






The next section is where the chocolate is moulded into shapes, and then glased with chocolate syrup. It was neat how the chocolate comes out and there was a lot.






mMmMMmmMm... Turkish Delight... and covered in dark chocolate



The kinds of chocolate syrup comes in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate. My favorite is the regular milk chocolate.

Christmas chocolate was already being produced early because it sold widely during the Christmas season. Below are pictures of Christmas bell chocolates and wrapped in foil.





Here they are packing hedgehogs, another of my favorite of Purdy's.




The pictures below show the workers placing the assorted chocolates in the boxes/packages and weighing them. This is the "end of line packing". At the end of the tour, the kids got a bag of sample chocolates that the tour guide (my mother-in-law) prepared.





It was a fun experience! If you're in the area, come check out the store and if you're interested in the tour, visit the shop at ask one of the sales people.

Purdy’s Chocolates Factory store
2777 Kingsway
Vancouver, B.C.
V5R 5H7
Phone: (604) 454-2700

Follow @PurdysChocolate on Twitter.

Ok, here I am trying this new app called Linky Tools. I saw this on a few other blogs and thought it was interesting so thought I'd sign up for one.

Anyway, this will be the list for August 2010 giveaways. If you have a giveaway contest(s) posted on your blog that ends in the month of August, feel free to link up here and let everyone know.

On your next travel plan, I recommend OneTravel.com for your one-stop travel deals, that include discount airfares, hotel rooms, rental cars, train tickets, vacation packages and cruises. OneTravel.com can help you find the best deals and much more. Check out their latest deals! Website: Cheap Airfare

Also don't forget to check out the blog and read travel articles from various bloggers. I would like to thank George Christodoulou for the guest blog spot and the opportunity to share my post with everyone. Read my guest post here.

FREE small iced-coffee from McDonald's. Offer is only good in British Columbia, Canada only. Coupon is valid from July 9, 2010 to July 23, 2010. Enjoy!

Dynex DX-PDVD7A 7" Portable DVD Player

I bought this portable DVD player brand new and not too long ago after that, it just stopped working. The power works, but the screen doesn't show anything nor the DVD would spin/play. The DVD player was never abused in any way. It's still brand new.

The manufacture warranty was only 90 days and the DVD player stopped working just a few days the warranty ended. I was not very happy with that. I ended up purchasing another DVD player of a more well-known brand.

I hope Dynex would extend their warranty to 1 year like the other brands. They are the only one with the shortest warranty period.

Sorry for the late notice. One Savy Mom is hosting a Contest Giveaway for the Summer 2010 Visa® Giftcard Giveaway. I am also entering to win it. Check out her blog to find out how you can win too.


The giveaway ends at 12pm PST July 14, 2010. Winner's are chosen randomly through random.org.

My teeth looked like it was stained, so I made an appointment with my dentist and decided to get my teeth whitened professionally. Of course, it costed a little bit more than what you buy at the store on the boxes of Crest Whitestrips.

I used to use the Crest whitening strips, but those don't seem to work effectively for me. There wasn't much noticeable changes or improvements. Also, it doesn't get all my teeth covered.

I am currently using the Opalescence Whitening Kit provided by my dentist. The dentist first takes an impression mould of my teeth for the custom tray. This would whiten the teeth more evenly.

I was planning to take before and after pics, but the accuracy isn't perfect due to poor lighting. Here is a chart I have used to show the change after 2 weeks. I went from 3.5-M2 to 1-M1.5 (that's about 6 shades whiter). That is a big difference. Now I have great looking whiter teeth just in time for my friend's wedding for the coming weekend.





For more details on the Opalescence Whitening System, visit their website at http://www.opalescence.com.

It has been a while since I've touched my Honda Civic. Yes, I've neglected the "sweetcivic" for a long time. It hasn't been insured for almost 2 years now, but recently I've been checking to see how the engine compartment is doing. It was really dusty. I do miss the car washing.








The battery needed to be replaced. I already knew that for a while and I shou'dve taken it out or unplug the wires in the first place. There were some deposits forming on the surface. I don't think it was mouse dropping (at least I hope not). Still, it was disgusting!





Look at all the brake dust on those rims. I swiped my finger on it to show how dirty it was.





I decided not to sell the Honda Civic that's been sitting in my garage. Too many memories and too much hard work had been put into it. I love my Type-R enging! If I do sell it, it would be like a missing part of me. I guess I'm still into that passion with the car scene, but will have to wait till Brandon is a bit older so we can go to the race track together. And someday, little Brandon could ride in it.

If you're wondering when I will have the Civic on the road again. I'm not sure, but maybe next summer or when Brandon starts preschool/kindergarten?

Happy Canada Day everyone! Here's my attempt for a quick 5-minute sketch.



Anyways... there's a big sale at the mall if you are looking to get new clothes and stuff.

Hubby took us shopping in Richmond yesterday. First we went to Aberdeen Centre, but nothing really exciting there. So, we went to the bigger mall at Richmond Centre. There were a lot of sales at almost every store. I almost bought a cardigan at Old Navy, but I forgot my discount receipt (which have expiry date). I decided to wait next time to buy it. As we walked around the mall, I went into La Vie En Rose to see some sleepwear and lingerie and Oh I've found a really nice blue color "Basic Satin Chemise." It was on sale and I wanted to try it on. It was nice and I bought it.

La Vie En Rose
The Blue Satin Chemise is my favorite one. It's pretty.





I'll post up some more new summer clothes I bought a couple months back.