I’m piling through the photos on Flickr of all the fantastic people that showed up last night for the Best of 604 awards reception. Some may think it’s a silly idea to have an awards night for bloggers and websites, but I think that (especially in this town) so much effort, passion, care, humour, and personality goes into creating such great content that everyone deserved a night out regardless.

Photo credit: Derek Miller on Flickr

I’m so thankful that so many people were able to come out – bloggers, media, friends, family, and many people that I have known in the online realm for years and just last night had the chance to meet. The fact that they all assembled to chat, eat, drink, and celebrate their own work, as well as others makes me so proud to be a part of this city.

The most important element of the evening was the cause and together we raised $1,845 for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society.

Photo credit: Derek Miller on Flickr

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

Photo credit: Keira-Anne on Flickr

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

To say that I’m touched by the efforts of so many is an understatement. I want to thank everyone that attended, those who voted, and every single person that has inspired me to keep doing all of this day in and day out – whether they are aware of it or not.

Photo credit: Derek Miller on Flickr

According to the overwhelming positive response I’m pretty sure I’m on the hook to make this an annual event so keep your eyes peeled in later November 2009 for the Best of 604 (and 778) to make a return.

I’d like to give a shout out to the wonderful ladies who ran the door last night and were so incredibly helpful, Rosemary, Marina, and Kate. Thanks to Jenny and Keira for being my lovely prize assistants, and to John for the music – I’m SO glad I got to hear some International Noise Conspiracy.

My best friend and love of my life – John and Me
Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

Please check out the Best of 604 site for all the sponsor links, they really came through with some super prizes and if you enjoyed the venue like I did, consider heading back to The Cellar for a good time.

Below is a list of of results from the voting in each of the 14 categories. Some of the winners were not in attendance so I’ll try to touch base with them regarding their prizes.

Best site for Sports:
1. BC Soccer Web 35% ^*
2. Canucks Hockey Blog 35%
3. Outdoor Vancouver 15%

Best Podcast (audio or video):
1. Lipgloss and Laptops 35%
2. Choogle On 14%
3. TikiBar TV 11%

Best site for Events:
1. Beyond Robson 40%
2. From Blown Speakers 19%
3. Vancity Buzz 13%

Best Multi-Author site:
1. The Tyee 23%
2. Beyond Robson 16%
3. Vancouver is Awesome 15%

Best New Blog of 2008:
1. Modern Mix Vancouver 31%
2. 3 Degrees West 12%
3.Tiny Bites 9%

Best site for Tech:
1. Buzz Networker 21%
2. Techvibes 18%
3. iPhone in Canada 16%

Best site for News:
1. The Tyee 23%
2. CBC 21%
3.News 1130 16%

Best site for Politics:
1. The Tyee 35%
2. Matthew Good 22%
3. Jonathon Narvey 18%

Best site for Humor:
1. The Province Live @ 5 24% ^*
2. CondoHype 17%
3. Your Dose of Lunacy 13%

Best Company blog:
1. Raincity Studios 18%
2. BuildDirect 17%
3. 3 Degrees West 10%

Best site for Food (directory or blog):
1. The Well-Tempered Chocolatier 14% ^*
2. Farmstead Wines 11%
3. Chow Times 10%

Best site for Photos:
1. Waxy Photography 16% ^*
2. Marc L’Esperance 13%
3. Blue Olive Photography 11%

Best site for Fashion or Style:
1. Demicouture 24%
2. The Style Spy 20%
3. The Conveyor Belt 17%

Best Personal site:
1. John Chow 46%
2. Gus Greeper 7%
3. Delicious Juice 6%

^*Prizes have yet to be collected.

I had no idea this would have such a response and grow to become what it has (with over 6,000 votes to boot!) I’m looking forward to next year; to watching all of these great sites grow, discovering new sites, and celebrating the hard work of each one of these content producers.

Photos from the evening can be found tagged as “Bestof604” on Flickr, such as Raul’s great collection, and Tawcan has some up on his site as well.

There are some badges on my Flickr although you may even want to make your own, please feel free.

Update: Ianiv streamed the entire awards presentation with Qik, you can check it out here.

Tonight at 6:00pm about 200 people will be gathering at The Cellar for food, drinks, supporting the Food Bank, and celebrating the efforts of all those who contribute online in Metro Vancouver. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect today for the Best of 604.

Doors are at 6:00pm and admission is by monetary (cash/cheque) donation to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. I will have three lovely volunteers handing out a complimentary drink ticket (until 7:00pm), accepting your donation, and handing out raffle tickets. There will also be some finger foods supplied however as we’re at max capacity make sure to show up on time in order to get in on these goodies.

The awards announcements will take place around 7:15pm/7:30pm and I’ll go through all the runners up, as well as announce and award the winners with prizes donated by our gracious sponsors.

Please make sure to RSVP here – we sold out already but I have released a few extra tickets.

A note to the ladies (and the gents), I know a few of us are dressing up a little (I’m hoping to get a sweet dress this morning). As I explained on Twitter last night, my business is blogging (freelance, Miss604.com, sixty4media consulting etc.) so I won’t really have an office Christmas party this year. This is as close as I’ll get so I’m going to try and doll up a bit and celebrate the year with all of you. This doesn’t mean you have to dress up – jeans are very welcome – it’s just that I’ve had a few inquiries about attire.

Finally, be sure to have cast your vote for the awards – we have almost 6,000 votes in already so make sure you have made your favourite known.

Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to seeing everyone tonight. Remember to RSVP and I’ll print a list of the winners right here on Miss604.com tomorrow morning.

Warren Kimmel and Amy Wallis
Photo by David Cooper

In the car on the way to The Stanley this evening to see Disney’s Beauty and the Beast my sister had to fill me in on the story. Being the mother of four children she can pretty much recite any Disney movie by heart (and she knows The Little Mermaid verbatim).

The tale was unfamiliar to me however seeing as this is one of the most anticipated theatre experiences in Vancouver each year, I knew I was in for a treat regardless (and all the tunes would send the memories flooding back in no time).

The musical contains the songs from the Disney film (lyrics by Tim Rice) and the performers brought every word to life with their beautiful, powerful, and playful melodies. The entire stage was able to rotate in the centre allowing for the easy flow of scene and backdrop changes and the costumes once again were divine.

Jonathon Winsby and the cast of the Arts Club Theatre Company’s
production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Photo by David Cooper

Photo by David Cooper

My niece (age eight) came along with us and I caught her giggling on more than one occasion – she particularly liked Cogsworth and Lumiere’s interactions and humour. We all loved the singing and the cast was spot-on.

Each night at the theatre in Vancouver is different, from the pre-show meal to the stage settings and audiences. It’s a great way to spend an evening, be entertained, and take the kids out to some place other than the mall this season. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast runs until January 4th, 2009 and it’s one of two holiday offerings from the Arts Club.

As a side note, one lucky winner at the Best of 604 awards reception will be receiving two tickets to this very production of Beauty and the Beast courtesy of The Arts Club.

One of my favourite memories as a girl was picking out our Christmas tree. This only happened every 5 or 6 years though as we would get a live tree which we placed in a massive pot, decorated, cared for until after Christmas and then planted in our backyard until the following year when we dug it up (this could be a challenge when the ground was frozen) and brought it in again. This was repeated yearly until the tree became too large to bring in and took up it’s permanent home in our yard. Then, back to the tree farm to pick out another one.

Unfortunately we aren’t yet able to continue this tradition with our kids as we have limited space (both inside and outside) but instead of heading out to the local tree lot this year, which is usually all we have time for, we decided to go to a local Christmas tree farm and cut our own tree. I wasn’t exactly sure the address of such a place but we headed east on Hwy1 towards Langley and before long we spotted a sign for the Dogwood Tree Farm, we took the 232nd exit and from there followed the signs right to the farm itself.

It was Sunday evening and it was just about to get dark. It looked incredibly busy as there were cars lined up along the street and people attaching trees to roof racks as we pulled in. Fortunately there was plenty of parking in the small gravel lot as we had arrived at the end of the day. We were greeted by a friendly man who handed us a saw and advised us that there was no hurry but the sun was setting and when it’s dark ‘all trees look perfect’.

It was a really fun experience for the kids wandering among the small, medium and large trees of varying types and because there were few people around anymore it felt like we were alone in the woods briefly.

Once the ideal tree was picked Sean and the kids cut it down and carried it back to be measured. The cost is determined by the height of the tree and the type of tree. You may also want to hang around for a bit around the fire pit with a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy the beauty of the scenery and wonderful smell of Christmas.

The Dogwood Christmas Tree Farm is located at 8659 252 St in Fort Langley. Don’t forget to bring cash as they don’t have debit or credit available.

Photo credit: nep on Flickr

As there are only 3 days left to vote for your favourite websites in the region for the Best of 604, here is a quick update on the Awards Reception (RSVP now if you haven’t already).

Over 4,500 votes have been counted (or at least collected by my polling system) thus far so make sure you cast your ballot for your favourite sites in the region by midday Thursday.