Whale Sightings

Picked up a couple of whales from UO a couple weeks back. They are metal, half off already discounted and meant to be wall mounted hooks. Not sure where to put them yet but for now, they will hang out on the coffeetable. The tangerine they are guarding here, lived up to its name: "Honey Tangerine." It was super sweet. Don't you just love the bright dimpled skin?

Grass Snack

We picked up a tuft of wheatgrass for the furbabies. They really love it. Nom nom nom nom nom...

Awesome Ad Design

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Turnip Cake

Chi's mom gave us a round of Turnip Cake for Chinese New Year. It is very difficult to make well, a lot of love goes into this dish. We sure appreciated it! I decided to pan fry the savory cuts of "cake."



I kicked it up with a splash of Cholula hot sauce. Yum.

Celery Chic

Mart's recent post was in surprising alignment with mine. Key ingredient: Celery. Sergio made dinner last night. Fish n' Chips. "No vegetables?" I asked. His response: He tossed a couple branches of celery onto the plate. I'll have to suggest au gratin next time. The fish was really yummy though. It was such a pleasant surprise to come home from work and smell dinner almost ready. :)

In other news, I wore two mildly pulled together outfits in a row! Quite the feat for me and I'm kind of pleased. The first outfit was a good celery eating outfit. It would be an even better celery au gratin eating outfit (hint, hint). See that painting I blogged about earlier this week? There it is (above right), on its end. So sad. Soon dearie, soon.

(Please excuse the mess. I have set a goal to put everything in its place by inviting a bunch of people over next month. God help us if we are STILL not organized by then.)

2.18.2010

Cropped Knit Cardigan: Label unknown, Gift from mom
Top: Ann Taylor, Crazy Sale (meaning, half off already discounted)
Belt: I stole it. It's one of Sergio's old belts and it's my favorite.
Jeans: Earnest Sewn, The Warehouse Sale
Earrings: Galit Barak
Shoes: Seychelles, Loehmann's

2.19.2010

Wool dress: H&M, another Crazy Sale score!
Purse: Clare Vivier (still in love)
Vintage Metal Belt: Estate Sale, free! They threw it in with the other items we were buying. Free is the ultimate thrifty score, isn't it?
Earrings: Gift from Sergio, Palm Beach, FL. (Sorry, better pic next time!)
Boots: I don't remember exactly. I know it was from Shoe Pavilion or Shoe Warehouse or some other similar discount shoe store.

We'll see how long I keep this up. I'm on a self-imposed "no fashion shopping" hold so it's all about what I already own. I'm optimistic since I have enough to need another closet...but you know that feeling when you stare in your closet and you feel like you have nothing to wear? It's nearly paralyzing for me sometimes. Especially when I'm running late.

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P.S. It was 80 degrees on Wednesday. And now, it's raindrops, mudslides, and evacuations again. The trees are confused and so am I.

Our VDay 2010

I didn't realize it at the time, but last night's was post 201 on elauinc! Whoa. Didn't see that one coming....

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Anyway, this is the final post about last weekend's celebrations, I promise. And, just in time for this weekend! :) Sergio and I had agreed to celebrate Valentine's Day on the following day-- Monday, President's Day. Our bedroom opens into the dining room and lookie at the surprise I found when I opened the door in the morning!



If you look closely, you can see how bleary eyed I still am, despite me already digging into this:



Love it when my guy makes breakkie for me. It was delicious! The flowers are now adorning the sideboard. sigh. Fresh flowers are so wonderful.




Later that night, I picked up a stack of clean laundry to put away and saw this:



That's Sergio's shirt hugging my shirt. It made me giggle. I did not pose this. I swear.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Today was Jenny's birthday! From now until July, our ages will be only one number apart. We celebrated early this past weekend because today is a school night. I threatened to put all 31 candles on her strawberry sponge cake. It's a good thing I didn't because this old lady wasn't able to blow out the measly twelve (see video below). Tee hee!
Before cake, we had a very lovely dinner in Chinatown. Seafood soup, cashew shrimp, fried tofu, sweet & sour pork... During dinner, mom insisted on reading our Chinese astrology horoscopes. It isn't looking so good for most of us. Mine was not bad though. The restaurant gave us sweet bean dessert -- because Dad asked for it (go dad!). Afterward, we took a short stroll amongst the neon and lights, all aglow for Chinese New Year night. Back at our house, Jenny finally blew out the fire and we had cake, ice-cream, coffee and drinks!





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Thrift Art! Les Tuileries (maybe)

Thought I'd take a break from the weekend celebration recap posts (yes there's still more) with some thrift art! I snapped up this pretty painting at our usual thrifty haunt. I can't say it was cheap, because it wasn't to me. But, relative to what is normal for an original oil painting of this size, not bad at all.

The painting is 48 inches wide by 23.5 inches tall. With the frame, it's 56 x 32! Big.

I got it with the living room in mind. But it didn't work in the space. So, it is idling on its end on the floor, against our bedroom wall.




After much online research, we think this is a depiction of Les Tuileries in Paris. We can't find any info on the artist, nor can we read the signature clearly. I lovelovelove the colors. To me, it looks like the 1940s-50s, it's a lovely weekend day, not too long after a spring shower, just enough of a teeny nip in the air to make handholding more of a treat than usual... très romantique, non?

Chinese New Year Dinner 2010

Once upon time, long, long ago, my sister and I awoke on Chinese New Year's morning, and ran over to my parents' bedroom shrieking Gung Hay Fat Choy! What was all the excitement about? A certain little red envelope (or lai see), that's what. We only ever received money on special occasions and always wrapped in a pretty red pocket. My parents would never relinquish the flat little treasures without hearing their children wish them a healthy and prosperous new year.

They still bestow us with the lai see even now. But honestly, it's the New Year's Eve dinner I look forward to most. And the offerings to the gods, burning of incense, candles and joss paper. The Eve dinner is traditionally the most important meal of the entire holiday. If it's one event that people trek home for from miles and miles away, this is it.

This year, we had it a day early and got Sergio into the act. :)







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P.S. Check out that giant Chinese tamale (zhong) my mom's friend made and gave to her. Seriously, it's the size of like 6 or 7 put together!



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P.P.S. I switched back to the old Blogger editor. It's too bad because the new version had a photo caption feature I was keen to test. But I hated it immensely. So glad to be back.