Wednesday, October 31, 2007

HAPPY HOLLOWEEN!


I wish I was a kid again. I remember first time going trick-o-treating....I was like 'WOW, free candy!' My parents dressed my sister and I up as clowns; identical even though she was 3 feet taller than me. And of course, when we were going house to house, people thought she was too old to be trick-o-treating. They thought sis was in college when in fact she was only 9!! We didn't do many years of trick-o-treating before we moved on to giving out the 'treats.' We have a weird household, instead of candy, my dad is always giving out tee-shirts, posters, star war collectable coins, and oh yeah...that one year he was giving out small earphone radio thing-a-majig. We had kids coming back THREE times!

And now, I just want to borrow someone's kid to take my dogs out in costume. Oh how we evolve. =)

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Mom's BIG 6-0 Birthday!

Mom's big 60th birthday was last weekend. Initially...I was full of ideas: we were taking a trip to Napa, then we were going on a 4 day cruise down to Mexico, 3 nights in Vegas, etc, etc. In the end, it was a day in Temecula. I was a little disappointed (okay, 'little' is an understatement). I guess it took me a whole week to 'get over' the disappointment to actually blog about it. Geesh, if it was last weekend, you wouldn't hear the end of it. In the end, I realize what was important was that my mom was happy and we were able to celebrate with love ones. And that my sister who wasn't able to join us and fouled my plans...it's her lost not ours (okay, maybe I'm not completely over it yet).

My aunts and uncles from San Jose flew down to celebrate with us. We had a fun dinner at Yamashiro (one of Mom's favorite because of the view, not the food). Since it was extremely dark at the restaurant, I didn't take any pictures. My little cousin B also joined us for the festivities. After dinner, we head to Old Town Pasadena for the infamous Pinkberry. My parents and my aunts/uncles never tried it before. They were amazed at the long line especially since the night was cold. Here we are waiting in line.


After the little frozen yogurt adventure,we head home for cake cutting and present openings. The cake was dark forest with a layer of Chinese pudding ~ it's from a Chinese bakery by hubs' work. Besides the 'American' sounding flavor, the cake itself was the typical yummy, light Chinese style cake.


Here's hubs and I with Mom & Dad (yes, I'm wearing pajamas, it was a long day). Look at the pile of gifts! My aunts informed Mom all the gifts were just random junk from their house packaged nicely. It's mainly just for the purpose of ripping open presents. They were JOKING of course. =D


Dad broke open one of his precious liquor collection. The sketch on the bottle is created by the master of art deco, world famous designer Erté. Initially there was 7 bottles in the set. Another bottle called "Inedit" has been launched in 1995 as a tribute to Erte's life and work (he died in 1990). Only 4,000 units have been produced. The design on the bottle is the first one that Erte created for the Vigne bottle, but censored at that time on the American market because the girl on the draw was half nude.

Erté created the luscious shape of the decanter, and then conceived visuals to represent the seven stages of the courvoisier cognac-making process. Each one of the decanters is filled with an exceptionally rare blend of the best cognacs -- some dating back to 1892 -- the year of Erte's birth. The third design in the series, "Distillation" inspired Erte to portray the coaxing of the precious spirit which is distilled from the wine, which reminded him of the genie appearing from Aladdin's lamp. ~ Courvoisier

Dad has been collecting since the bottles were first released. A few years back he opened bottle #8 when we had a family reunion (the earlier bottles are higher in value since people started drinking them before the artist passed away). This time for Mom's birthday, he opened bottle # 7 "la Part des Anges." Prices vary drastically...I seen it for $500 on ebay to $1500 at retail.

Here's my cousin B tempting the dog with persimmons.

The poor thing didn't realize B was instructed not to give him any. A dog can dream though.



Next morning we headed to the Temecula wineries. I didn't know what to expect. Temecula had much smaller scale wineries than Napa or Sonoma and the wines aren't as good. But the positive is Temecula is only an hour drive. We started at the Hart Winery. It was fairly small (literally a small shack on a hill) but they are building another bigger structure in the back. The owners are very friendly and it was a great start to the day.




Next up, Thornton Winery. It's a nice enough place but my only complaint was that I called ahead of time to see if I could bring my doggies, which they said I could. But look at the white sign to the right.



So the kids and I were out front in the lawn enjoying ourselves while the gang had lunch inside. I of course entertained myself playing on my iPhone ~ poor neglected kids.


Grandma came out after lunch to play with them. This is why I LOVE my mom. She really cares and always play with them and give them treats. My mom truly functions in the capacity of the grandma that spoils the grand kids rotten!


Then I called them for their afternoon treat and look how they come running.



Water, pupperoni, and chicken jerky.


Off to the other side, I saw the lawn was set up for a wedding. I was able to see the florist setting up before we left. The winery closes at 5pm and I'm assuming open to weddings after that. I can vouch for the food though. Mom bought me out a hamburger with grilled mushroom and it was delicious! I had my own little picnic under the trees.


All in all, Temecula was nice. It's not comparable to the Napa or Sonoma but it's our own little piece of wine country.


On our way home we went through the sand storm again. This time hubs had his camera ready. Initially we thought it was only in the morning but on our way home, it was just as bad. It's only for a short two miles before you reach I-10 on the 15 freeway. You can see from the side of the picture how hard the wind was blowing. All the trees were tilted dangerously to the side. It felt like we were underwater and the trees were the seaweed floating with the current!


Sometimes it was so bad you could barely see the car in front of you. All the cars came to a standstill. I can only compare the experience to driving through thick fogs.



And this is why there's high wind advisory.

Favorite mood boards

Sometimes it's easy to lose track of things when planning a wedding...especially when you are bombarded with a million pretty things. You want to include everything and anything, but in the end, you don't want to end up with a jumbled confusion as your wedding! So I recommend brides to create mood/inspirational boards.

It's very simple and basic and you don't have to be computer savvy to know how. Just start collecting pictures you see on the web, or in a magazine, or take photos of things around you. It doesn't have to be anything specific...sometimes it can be as subtle as just a color combination that you feel attracted to. Below are a few examples of mood/inspirational boards that I really like.

I LOVE vibrant colors and as you can see, so does the camera.


Simplicity at it's best. Clean and elegant...black, white, and yellow wedding.


Happy and fun colors bring spirt to your wedding.


Soothing, unexpected colors are very chic! And as you can see, you can collect pictures of furnitures and room decor to create your board.


Cute twist ~ lime green with navy blue


I'm not usually attracted to pale colors for weddings, but this next two inspirational boards may just change my mind!


Elegant white with frosty gray and blue


A little more warm and rustic...


Pretty in PINK!


This to me feels very old Hollywood glam...almost Gothic but not quite.


So now it's your turn to create something totally fabulous!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Sweetie Pie Honey Bear



I had a hard week and look what I got when I came home Thursday night! =) My cutie pie hubby got me this GORGEOUS ring! He's always so good at getting me gifts for no apparent reason except to cheer me up. The ring was beautifully wrapped in a wooden box. I feel so lucky and so loved. =)

Friday, October 26, 2007

Briana & David's Engagement Party

One of my gorgeous bride from next year just sent me pictures of her recent engagement party. With all the bright colors, traditional outfits and customs ~ the party sure looked like a blast! Briana is like a ray of sunshine ~ now I see where she gets her infectious smile from.





Yum...fried egg rolls


The procession of the groom's family bearing gifts covered in red cloth


Exchange of gifts




WOW...look at that gorgeous ring! Good job David! =)


I am extremely bless to be invited into your lives. I know your wedding is going to be AMAZING...fill with fun and laughter and most importantly, LOVE.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I heart J.Crew

I am so happy to find companies like JCrew starting a wedding line. No longer will bridesmaid dresses or wedding gowns cost a small fortune, with no prospect of wearing it again.

For your beautiful bridesmaids:

Silk Taffeta dress ~ taffeta gives the gown a more stiff formal look, but the color and cut is whimsical


Also Silk Taffeta but in a baby doll dress


Lighter Silk chiffon dress


And for the queen bee (I'm been watching too much Gossip Girl ~ you know you love to hate the show!)




From the Spring 2008 JCrew line...pretty fabulous isn't it?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Introducing to you...my babies

These two are the love of my life (oh, besides hubs). They are the ones that greet me excitedly when I walk through the door. They wait patiently for me to wake up in the morning before attacking me with their love. As I'm typing away on the computer, they lie on the ground besides my feet. The young one would claw my knee once in a while to remind me that they're both waiting for me, but never rushing me. Every time as I get ready for work, they look at me with their big puppy dog eyes. They bring me immeasurable amount of joy. They fill me with laughter at their childish antics. I never experience such unconditional love as theirs. My cute little babies.

My Maltese oldie has been with me ten years. If I had a kid, he/she would be ten! I never treated him like a dog and he never acted like one. He knows when I'm happy, when I'm joking, when I mean what I say, and when I need an extra pair of ears. Throughout these ten years, I lost him once (grandma left him in the yard too long and he snuck out the fence). That was the worst day of my life. I tear up just remembering the day and I thank God (or whoever above) for giving him back to me. A few months back he gave us a health scare. I know he's getting older but he has quite a few good years left with me. I'm still in search of a house with a HUGE backyard for him.





My baby schnauzer is another story. He really is a dog (if that makes any sense). He's playful, attached, bratty but completely lovable. I forgot what it was like to have a pup. He loves to eat grass and tears them out by the roots. Too bad my backyard is a concrete jungle. Reason why every time he's back at my parents, he thinks their backyard is a buffet. He's usually the one that starts the laughter. I love how he tries to entice his older brother to play with him! He never seems to give up or get tired, but when he does tire, he snores when he sleeps. In the year that we had him, he had weaseled his way not only into my heart, but everyone else's as well (being that my parents initially thought he was related to a rat!).





Well there you are, these two little munchkins are the key to my heart.