Snowboarding in Terrace, BC! April 29 2014

In February of this year, I got the chance to go on an amazing snowboarding trip. After a wonderfully busy holiday season, it was great to be able to take some time away from jewellery-making to do something else that I love--snowboarding!

The trip was a great source of inspiration (you may have seen some jewellery on our Facebook page, made with alder catkins that I found on the mountain!) and I thought it would be cool to share it with you! I'll try to keep my explanation brief...

Dave and I lived in Terrace for a winter a few years back and it was about time we went back to visit all the amazing people we met there. I've also been working on my snowboarding skills, so I was excited to test my skills at Shames Mountain and in the backcountry. We lucked out with amazing and plentiful snow, that came just in time for our arrival!

We started out our trip with a few intensive 'warm up' days at the ski hill. It was lovely to see all the familiar faces and to be snowboarding in familiar territory (I worked at the bar in the lodge when we lived there, so we were literally at the mountain everyday!)

Cool Fact: Shames Mountain is now My Mountain Co-op--Canada's first non-profit ski community co-operative.

We took a few days off riding after our initial shock-to-the-system ski hill days to catch up with friends and prepare for our second week, which we kicked off with a trip to the back country. We spent 2 nights and 3 days in a cabin way up in the mountains. We hiked in with all our gear using split boards (snowboards that split into skis for climbing). I had the best run of my life from up in the alpine, pretty much straight back to the cabin. It was cold but beautiful and sunny and the snow was light and fluffy. We got back to town exhausted, but exhilarated. We spent our last few days in town, at the ski hill and hanging out with friends. Oh yeah--and we also managed to sneak in a trip to Prince Rupert where we went kayaking on the ocean. Thanks to all the wonderful people that hosted us while we were there! What a trip!

Here are some photos:

Inspiration November 05 2012

Well, we've now been back from our trip for over a week! I figure it's about time to post some photos from our amazing adventures in Europe. Here's a little taste of what inspired us while we were travelling :)

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Euro Trip! September 27 2012

Courtney and I are getting pretty excited for our big trip to Europe! We will be travelling to Glasgow, London, Paris and Zurich, finishing our trip with lots of hiking in the mountains in Switzerland. We have been talking about doing this trip for a while, but it actually came together pretty quickly and I still can't believe that we're leaving in a week!

As far as jewellery orders go, we will still be checking emails while we're travelling and can ship out orders as soon as we get back, on October 26th. We're even going to try to set up some business meetings in the countries we visit! We are currently in the process of wrapping up some really cool projects before we leave, and will be ready and excited for a busy holiday season as soon as we return.

We're really looking forward to 3 weeks of exploring new places, getting some inspiration, reuniting with friends and family and having a big adventure!