happy happy

Dreaming of roasted duck, and cornish hens. Of warm potatoes and pie. I want to try making duck for Christmas dinner next year.

I hope you are opening boxes today with gifts given by loved ones! This year, Christmas is opposite for us! We are wrapping everything we own and putting them in boxes, as the movers are coming in 2 days. To be honest, I am quite bored of packing right now, so hopefully the next time I see you, I will be....unpacking!!

If I do not come back before the new year, I want to wish you and yours, a happy happy new year. 2010 will be amazing. I can feel it!

I wouldn't have known....

I wouldn't have known that Christmas is on its way,
if it weren't for my dear friends.

With all the commotion going on in our lives, with moving and packing and renovating, and all the while, we still have our day jobs to attend to, Jin and I do not really have time to fully celebrate Christmas this year.

But...
Nikole gave me a beautiful hand made wooden bracelet from her shop,
Anabela gave me this print of Sonja Ahlers' bunny making a sugar igloo!(photo taken by Carly Waito)
and we got this handmade Christmas card from Melinda in the mail!

Thank you, dear friends for bringing a little bit of Christmas into our lives this year!

Heaven

Looking for bathroom fixtures on our lunch.

We found plumbing heaven. Look at all these antique hardwares!

These photos I took do not even do this place justice. I was too distracted by porcelain!

packing, or playing?

Look what I found while I was packing.

A toy Jin has owned since he was a little pirate. I think it is safe to say that it is vintage.

Jin told me, that he begged his father for it. I am glad he still has it.

From what I understand, it is like a little electronics toy, and by following the instructions in this book, you can make different things. Like a radio, an alarm, some sort of sensor...

We made an amplifier, connected the microphone to it, and had a karaoke session with the cats.

talking hands

These girls are very descriptive with their hands!

I had brunch with Melinda and Charlyn at Le Select Bistro. I really love their interiors! Wouldn't you love this tile work in a foyer, or a bathroom?

These girls gave me some early christmas gifts! So sweet! A really delicious cookie from the market from Charlyn, and a handmade owl ornament from Melinda! Charlyn, the cookie was so good, Jin accidentally ate most of it! I was so upset! And Melinda, this little guy will be hanging on our tree for years to come!

Our 3 lady brunch was supposed to be a with 4 ladies, but poor Nikki was feeling sick. I hope she feels better today! Perhaps we can do the 4 lady brunch we originally planned, on another weekend!

black and white

I love black and white photos, they are so nostalgic, and sometimes, dramatic. I have the cute photo of Jin the pirate slipped in the pages of my diary, so that I know where it is at all times, and so that I can look at it before I go to sleep. I am definitely going to frame it when we move into the new house. Something with a really big, white, matte border would be nice.

I have yet to take a good black and white photo that I am happy with. For now, I will leave it up to the photobooths!

This was taken on the day we bought our house! We were waiting in the lobby of the Drake, and the photobooth was actually working that day! The machine left funny dark streaks on the photo, making it look like Jin came out of a horror movie (the second frame!). He wasn't bleeding! I promise!

Thank you everyone for your warm congratulations!! I can't tell you how much it means to us that you are happy for us!! Thank you!

I can't wait to show you our house. There is a lot that needs to be done, and we are not going to do any major renovations immediately, but we will try our best to make it 'home'.

exciting times

Hi friends!

There is a reason why I have been so busy this past little while, and I have been restraining myself from telling you, until now.

Because now, the papers are signed, things are confirmed, and we are going ahead.

The man who told us to wait at a café was a real estate agent. He was putting a bid on a house for us on tuesday night,

and we won! (YAAAY!!!)

I would have never thought we were going to be homeowners by the end of 2009! I feel so fortunate! Jin and I are so excited, we can barely sleep!

We get posession in mid December.

I better start packing!

Yukiko Otsu

You may have heard me mention Yukiko around here! We have been really good friends for a long time now. I met her on the first day of highschool in art class, and since that day, I have always been blown away by her amazing creations. She is talented in so many ways, let me just show you.

She insisted on making me my wedding dress, and all I had for reference was a photo of the dress I wanted. She made up her own pattern, and somehow, magically, she crafted my wedding dress. It was truely amazing, any bride is lucky to have a skilled, talented, and BRAVE friend like her around.

Her drawings for what she wore today are super cute!

She is an amazing cook.

And now, she opened up an online store for her illustrations!! I have been waiting for her to open one since I learned about etsy! I am so happy for her! This one is one of my favourites she did. Isn't it beautiful?

waiting...

"wait for me at a café" he said.

so we did, at the Drake.

Jin worked intensely on the laptop while I sipped my iced tea. I was relieved to finally have a moment to snap some photos.

We waited a very long time, and it started to rain.

________________________________________________
I have been pretty absent from here these days, I apologize. Jin and I have been quite busy during the night time after work, but a good busy you know?

I hope your week has been a good one, and if it a busy, I hope it is a good busy too.

hugs and kisses

tiny two's

I met two tiny little sisters this weekend, with tiny little hands, and tiny little fingers. Their names are Sarah and Layla, and they came into our lives two weeks ago.

Gabe and I did our first baby photo session this weekend. My good friends just gave birth to twins, and we happily went over with our cameras to capture them at their tiniest. They must have been really really tiny two weeks ago, because they are really small now! We had so much fun in this session, I really hope we are able to do more of these in the future!

Congratulations Noah and Leanna!

These are some photos I took, and Gabe took a lot more! From the previews I saw, the set looks really good!

And Congratulations to Famapa and the arrival of her little man! I am so happy for her and her hubby!!

I want to rearrange our bedroom, but I am doing it in a scaled down paper model version first.

This is a good way to test things out without lifting a finger.

Our bedroom is in the basement, but I am hoping we can have a room above ground in the future!

How it went

I wanted so badly to show a photo of our dresses today, but as hard as we worked on the weekend, we didn’t finish them. That is ok, because thanks to Yukiko, I think I have gotten over my fear of cutting into fabric! And, installing invisible zippers!

I think the part that took us the longest was understanding the pattern, and tracing the pattern onto our fabric. It was fun to trace with a friend though; we traced the pattern pieces together for both of our dresses. After we read through the instructions many many many times over, it felt like we were on the right track! I am hoping reading patterns will be easier and easier the more dresses we make.

Once I finish the dress, I will take a photo of it for you!

But for now, how cute is Yukiko’s cactus pin cushion??

Get it?

Cactus? Pins?



hehehe!

♥

It has been the perfect fall weather this past week, and I am looking at the weather report now, it looks like next week will be too! Golden! Taking longer walks during lunch solved my sun deprivation problem. This year, fall has been really good to us.

What are you doing this weekend? I am off to a sleepover at Yukiko's house tonight. When was the last time you were at a sleepover? Whenever I say that, I feel like a little girl again. But there will be no scary movies and painting nails at this sleepover, we are going to have a dress making party! Yukiko and I are going to make dresses together, because I am still not confident enough to cut into fabric without someone watching me!

Hopefully I will have something resembling a dress when I come back! Wish me luck!

it was you all along

These are vintage office lights we bought many years ago, and they have been sitting in storage since. We weren't sure if it would be bright enough to light up our kitchen.

I walk by a school on my way to work everyday, and I took a peek into their windows. They have the exact same lights! I love the shape of the glass shade very much. I observed the space they were hanging in, and it is bigger than our kitchen. So, the only way to find out if it was bright enough, was to try it out.

Last week, my brother came by to help me install them, and Jin finished it off the next day. I tried installing it too, but I discovered that I am terrified of being on top of ladders! I have to get over that fear so that I can do this on my own! But our kitchen looks so different now, the light is so even and bright! It is amazing the great effect lighting has in a room! I am so glad we finally put these up.

the darkness

Who is that following me in the dark?

(it was Jin. *phew*)

As I mentioned before, it gets dark by the time I get home. But today, it was dark, even before I left for home. I am not used to this.

It was the most beautiful day outside today, but I only got to enjoy it in the dark. I enjoyed the smell of the leaves and the crunching sounds they make under our feet. The darkness couldn't take that away.

I haven't been taking too many photos because of the dark though. I shouldn't let it take that away from me.