My brother made this!!!

for my little sister wedding over the weekend.  He put so many hours into and it shows.  I am so terribly proud of him!  Great…Fantastic job bro!!!

gum paste flowers…

The past week or so I have been busy working on making lotus flowers for my little sister wedding.  Luckily my friend, Evelyn, has been helping me start this project.  I think they are turning out quite nicely.  I still have to add some color and sparkle to them but that will be the last step.  Assembling them as been a very very tedious job but surprisingly very enjoyable to do.

ta da…here is my first attempt of the lotus flower

and here is my second attempt

They are quite small and very dainty.  I am also thinking that I am going to put them a cluster of three or so, but I won’t know for sure until the day of, when I am actually putting the flowers on the cake.  I promise to take lots of pictures and show the end result.  I can’t wait to see what the final product will look like, especially once it is on the cake.  If you have any advice on adding colors or placement on a five tier cake – do let me know!

Food for the Piggies

Yesterday I did a bread run for the piggies, specifically four Mangalitsa pigs at The Herbfarm.  They can weigh up to 550lb and have layers of fat, up to 7” of it! Talk about yum!  These pigs are considered lard-type breeds, thus you get a lot of fat that makes the meat super juicy and flavorful.  They have a wonderful curly wooly coat and are very happy pigs and love a good rub and scratch.  At The Herbfarm, they get mainly a vegetarian diet consisting of high quality grains, fruits and vegetables.  I love seeing them in the morning because they slowly amble out of their little shed and snort and greet me good morning.  I think they are getting to know my voice now, well at least I hope so.  We do not have any names for them, because well you know…they will get eaten at one point, but I try not to think about it and give them much love, scratches and food for them.  

Aren’t their tails cute?

Here are their cute snouts sniffing and getting ready to eat their morning meal of grains.

Back to the bread run, my vehicle:  I have a Honda Element.  I love my Element.  It can fit a lot of stuff in it, for example, bread!

Here’s a view from the trunk:

Several loaves came tumbling down when I opened the back to unload all the bread.  There was a lot of bread!  We get our bread from Hopelink in Kirkland.  It is amazing all the bread that goes to waste.  Hopelink gets a lot of food donated from Costco, QFC, Trader’s Joe and a few other places.  Most of the bread that we get are still good but have gone slightly staled, which the pigs do not complain about and happily eat it.

With the bread run, we usually wait until the end of the week and gather all the bread that does not eat taken and bring it to the pigs. If we do not pick them up they usually get thrown away and gets compost in the land dump. 

Here is view form the side of the car:

Here’s a view where I took it from the driver’s seat:

Let’s say the pigs will be very happily feed until my next bread run next week. :) 

(One special treat that pigs really enjoyed were the QFC roasted garlic butter bread – they actually squealed with delight at the buttery taste of the bread and snarfed it all down, and this was after they had already ate a huge amount of bread!  tee hee…they were real piggies eating all those bread!)

Even the chickens got some of the bread action!

A great usage for all those wine corks!

Well, I think I need to start collecting more corks to make this.  200??? I think we have about thirty that I have been collecting for over a year now.  I better throw some more dinner parties or better yet ask my drinking friends to start saving theirs for me.  Yay for friends that like wines!

Loving at the moment

This Santa Barbara Umbrella.  The ruffles, the colors and the fun name and how girly it is!

Santa Barbara Flamenco™ Umbrella
Whitecap Ruffles and Pink Banding

Since the weather is getting warmer – we are in the 60s now…woohoo! I have been getting the deck ready for some usage.  Though our deck is not quite as large or even has a fire pit as the one picture below (pic via The Estate Of Things by Betsy).  I love the low rocking chair with the back and round rattan pillows.  It looks so cozy and wonderful!  I tabbed this in case we ever have a wonderful deck to have them.

I love how fun this cloud shelf is and so want one!  (via shelterrific by Erica P.)

via shelterrific by Mary T.  I love how they used wooden hangers to hang this great Seattle Map. 

My next project but first I need a sewing machine…any advice on purchasing a first time sewing machine.  I have been scanning craigslist, and it is so hard to decide which one to buy!

Letter To the Husband…

Dear Husband,

You know I love food but we do not take advantage of the great restaurant scene in Seattle because you are too lazy to go to the other side, specifically the west side.

But here is my short list of restaurants that I am anxiously wanting to go and enjoy. Please refer to this list if you want to take me out for our imaginary date night…that never ever seem to happen, even though you have told me it will happen…one day.

• Spur (Chef Brian McCracken & Dana Tough /Belltown)
• Sutra (Chef Colin Patterson / Wallingford)
• Cafe Juanita (Chef Stuart Lane /Kirkland)
• Pike Street Fish Fry (Chef Michael Hebberoy / Capitol Hill)
• Spring Hill (Chef Mark Fuller / West Seattle)
• Joule (Chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi / Wallingford)
• Poppy (Chef Jerry Traunfeld / Capitol Hill)
• Corson Building (Chef Matt Dillon / Georgetown)

Love,

Your Wife

Gardening Update

I started to volunteer at The Herbfarm in their garden today and I had a blast.  The head gardener at The Herbfarm is so knowledgeable and incredibly approachable.  The other volunteers there is amazing too.  I feel like I am going to learn so much about organic gardening and the different usage of herbs and fruit gardening.  Beside growing numerous types of herbs, plants and fruit trees, they have dozens and dozens chickens and four special pigs that are dark grey in color and have curly hairs!  They are really cute and supposedly they are grown for their extra fat.  These pigs eat very very well.  They get high quality, high grain breads from the pig banks.  Mainly they are on a vegetarian diets with grains and lots of fruits and vegetables, as you can read they eat very very well.

Today we pulled up older greens like purple mizuma and other mixed greens to make more room to grow micro greens for the restaurant.  As an added bonus, we got to take home a nice green bouquet for our very own salads too!

Afterwards we pulled up baby French radishes and weeded the radish roll so we can plant more Italian onions.  Below is my little bundle of yummy peppery baby French radishes that we got to take home.  Daniel and I enjoyed them with our salad and roasted chicken for dinner.  Freshly picked vegetables is incredible delicious.   Don’t those radishes look wonderful!

I was lucky enough to get all the little bitty radishes that have not grown to picking size and I supplanted them in my pea patch.  Here they are planted in little rows in my pea patch…hopefully I will be able to pick them next week, and we can continue to enjoy these lovely radishes.

The pea patch is looking fantastic.  We have lots of iris and dahlias beginning to peep up and look happy! 

Look at the iris growing, along with some weeds.  We keep weeding but they keep coming back…it is like an endless battle with them!

and look at the Rainbow Swiss Chard…don’t they are looking great!  Though the basil are not doing so well…we still get cold nights here, and I believe they got harmed but hopefully they will recover soon.  I have been pulling off the bad leaves and hoping the plant will concentrate on building a stronger stem and better leaves.   In the far left corner is the empty place waiting for the Black Russian Tomato.  I cannot wait for the weather to get warmer so I can plant it and watch it fruit and grow and pick the black yummy tomatoey fruit!  It is going to be so delicious!  The husband can barely wait for the summer to get here.

Here’s our dinner of Roasted Orange Lemongrass Chicken and Shrimp with an Lemon-Thyme Red Onion Vinaigrette with the yummy greens from The Herbfarm.

Here is a close up of it our dinner.  I marinated the chicken in a lemongrass with orange zest and its juice along with soy sauce and fish sauce with lots of minced garlic.  I halved some Japanese eggplant and placed some thick cut red onions underneath the chicken to roast and caramelized.  Meanwhile I pulled some frozen shrimps out and quickly thawed them and threw them in the marinate.  In the last five-ten minutes of roasting the chicken, I put the shrimp on top where they quickly cooked and got a nice pick color.  For the salad, I zested a lemon and squeeze the juice in with thinly sliced red onions to slightly pickled and added a touch of honey and seasoned it with salt & pepper with a dose of extra virgin oil.  The husband remark, “mmmm yum!”  That always makes me happy to hear and watching him clean his plate makes me happier.

Thursday Morning Notes

• Enjoying the last bit coffee brought from Vietnam.  Brings back so many great memory
• Listening to Joni Mitchell on this still sunny morning
• Reflecting on the past two months
• Really enjoy the latest JCrew catalog.  Beautiful craftsmanship clothing with amazing details and the colors – make me sigh with all the prettiness of it all.  Spring is finally here!
• Getting ready to meet up with Evelyn so we can go to The Herbfarm and help plant blueberry and raspberry bushes!
• Reading up on “Herb Gardening for Washington and Oregon” by Marianne Binetti and Laura Peters.  A great handbook for growing herbs and how to pick them and use them.  Especially reading up on ‘Lovage’ – The Herbfarm is growing it there and it taste really nice.  It is part of the parsley family but taste like a celery with a peppery bite.

Coupon code bonus:  use EXTRA20 to get 20% on your next JCrew order.

Wednesday notes… and outlook on life

Facebook has been an amazing tool in reaching out to old friends that I have not talked or seen since high school and college.  Below is a clip that one of my high school friend, Dustin Ballard directed and wrote.  I was incredibly impressed by this short video. 

Leave Me (4 Minute Expanded Version) from Daros Films on Vimeo.

It has been a little over ten years since high school/college and so much as happened in our lives.  People gotten married, had kids, some have gotten famous and some not…but each is living their own lives to their fullest and Facebook has let me have a glimpse into their lives and let me share mine and renew some friendship again.

I cannot believe how fast time has flown by and what has happened in my own life.  I have to admit I am completely happy where I am, married and in love with my sweet husband that drives me bonkers sometimes, and the circle of close friends that I confided into when I need comfort and support.

Looking back, those small/grand goals that I made in high school now seem ridiculous and frivolous compared to what I have done and seen and especially experienced since that time.  In some ways it has directed my life to a certain path  and brought me here.  I have done things that I never thought I was capable of doing and done it well; been in relationships that made me a stronger person and in some ways made me realize what kind of person I am and what I needed in the next relationship.  I have made mistakes and regretted them but in return it has made me more thoughtful and more mature.  I now treasure those small moments and make it a priority to do small acts of kindness like opening doors for others and saying thank you more frequently and be a more giving, patience and honest person.

Yesterday and today has been a difficult day for me, well actually the past seven weeks has been a very trying period.  I had so many surprising happy and sad news, that in a way I became numb to any news about it; because every time I would talk to the nurse, midwife or doctor I would get some sort of good/bad news.

Seven weeks ago, I found out that I was pregnant and then a few days later I found out that I lost the baby.  But then I found out I was still pregnant, we were carrying twins!  I was so happy and sad at the same time…my husband was in a state of  shock.  We had just started trying and so happy to have conceived so quickly.  Unfortunately, during all this time, I have been bleeding non-stop for seven weeks. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light and we were very worry and concerned about it.  I have been checking in with the doctor and doing a lot of blood work to check on my Hcg levels.  It tells you how “pregnant” along you are, and unfortunately it has been fluctuating quite a bit.  The sad news we lost the baby and today I had a D&C done.  The doctor was afraid that I have been bleeding so long that we needed to “clean” me out and make sure there was no infection there.  I am alright but sad right now.

Mini Munny Mobile Party

Today we went to a mini Munny Mobile Party and it was so much fun. We started the day off with a walk through Pike Place Market and then breakfast at Etta’s, a restaurant of Tom Douglas.  Afterwards we went to Schmancy to pick up our very cool Munny.  The Mini Munny Mobile Decorating Party was hosted by  Schmancy sponsored by our friends at Kidrobot.  All I can say it was just awesome and incredible.

Everyone received this box filled with a Munny and a mobile.  Our surprise accessories for the mobile was a rocket!  Both the husband and I received the same, so I ended up exchanging it with Sky who had a old style car.   Below here is our great stash with our bags on top to claim them!  (I dragged the husband along to get the second mobile with strict instruction if he had to decorating the mobile he could only use pencil and nothing permanent so I can bling them later.)

Here’s the owner of Schmancy, Kristen, getting the decorating table ready for people to use:

Here’s the wall of Mini Munny Mobile for the decorating party:

Here’s some people sitting outside of the store painting and decorating their kit:

Some people brought their own supplies of acrylic paints and markers to personalize their Munny.  It was so much fun. I hope Kidrobot will sponsor more events like this in the future!