Heading East

2 weeks of freedom! I have been waiting for this trip for what seems like forever! We are finally off on our road trip to Prince Edward Island.
2 weeks will fly by, and when I come back, I hope to have lots of beautiful photos to show you from our adventure.

Bye Mea *kiss*
Bye Mojo *kiss*
Be good to uncle Gabe. Show him how adorable you really are (as if that will be hard!)!

Bye my friends *kiss* (yes, you get one too!)
ta-ta!
Have a beautiful 2 weeks!

2 Travel Journals

Admiring these travel journals from these 2 talented ladies.
Yurio Seki (first 3 photos) and Sara Midda (last 3 photos).

finished quilt top

Remember this post? Well, this is the progress I have made so far.

I drew what I wanted my quilt to look like on a grid, and I referred to it many times so that I would know which square to sew together next. It is my only copy, so I am glad my cats did not swipe it away before I finished the quilt top, or I would have to try to remember my design again, or make a new one.

I finished the quilt top last week. I already have the fabric for the quilt back, and Jin helped me baste it together.

It is hand quilting time! My favourite!

Happy Friday

Next Wednesday is Canada Day, so most people have that day off work. A lot of my friends have taken Monday and Tuesday off to make it a nice long 5 day weekend!

I hope you have a weekend full of fun planned ahead of you. My in-laws are back from Korea, so we are having dinner with them! I have another wedding to photograph with Gabe, and preparing, planning and packing for our trip, which we leave for on Wednesday, bright and early.

Maybe, I can sneak a brunch somewhere in there!

Photo of May, taken by me while waiting for my french toast!

the party

It rained all day on Saturday, and I asked Jin if it would be crazy if we pulled a big tarp over our backyard. He said it was crazy, but it can be done. So, we did!

May and I filled up as many helium balloons as we could and they decorated our "tent". None of our guests got wet later on in the night when it continued to drizzle!

For the scavenger hunt, I sent everyone out to do some funny things around the neighbourhood, such as, pan handling money, getting piggy back rides from strangers, a photo sliding down the fire station pole, and some other funny things!
Each team had 10 balloons, and you had to try to pop and steal other team's balloons! It was so funny to see people walking around the neighbourhood with bunches of balloons!

After the scavenger hunt, we had a huge bbq under the "tent". More friends came by to celebrate Jin's birthday with him, and we all sang happy birthday to the birthday boy!
I was running around the entire night and I didn't get to take any photos :(. Thank god my friends had their cameras, and they let me steal their photos!

the party : preparing

An office I worked for had a scavenger hunt for their summer party one year, but they had it before I was hired. That is where I got the idea to organize a small one for Jin's birthday.

I could not have done it without May! She helped me find prizes for the scavenger hunt winners at a yard sale (finger puppets and yo-yo's!), and she helped me draw mustaches on drinking glasses (as part of the prize pack!). She also prepped all the scavenger hunt material and packed them all together while I made food for the bbq. She's so amazing, and so generous with her time! Thank you so much May! It wouldn't have turned out this amazing without your ideas and your helping hand! It was so fun to hang out with you all those days.

We joked that it looked like we were planning a party for 5 year olds instead of adults! Doesn't it??

his special day

Today is Jinny's birthday, and I just wanted to say to him, Happy Birthday, and I love you so very much!

His party is tomorrow and the forecast calls for rain. But I still have high hopes that tomorrow will be as beautiful as it is today. (crossing my fingers!)

a peculiar collection

I love stamps. They are like tiny graphic posters to me. My parents introduced my brother and I to stamp collecting when we were six and seven years old. My whole family temporarily moved back to Hong Kong, and it was one of their ways of entertaining us so that we wouldn't be as home sick for Canada.

When I saw this at a massive yard sale at the park on Saturday, I had to have it. Who ever compiled this collection did it in an odd way. Each page is a collection of the same stamp, and it is glued onto the page, very neatly. It is so old though, that the stamps are starting to fall off. I want to figure out how to secure it on the piece of paper so that I can frame each of these one day.

bits of red, and happiness.

I think I am unconsciously attracted to red. I really do like that colour. What is your favourite colour?

Some things that make me happy. Riding bikes with Jin, enjoying the garden with Jin, and seeing Jin smile.

Jin is away all weekend. Pooey. It is such a beautiful weekend too!
But I will be spending the weekend planning his big birthday party, which is happening next week. So thoughts of Jin will be quite present on my mind. I am planning a scavenger hunt & bbq party with all our friends! It should be fun!

testing testing...

...1,2,3.

I tested out our new hasselblad lens, and these are some of the results! I really loved shooting with it. I think this will become my favourite lens to shoot with for this camera.
I really need to take more film photos! More shots to come later.

Adventure : road trip to the ocean

Speaking of more adventures.....!
I talked about exploring places closer to me in the winter, and our next holiday destination is a goodie! This place isn't exactly "local" to us, but at least it is within the same country!! It has been hard to fight the urge to fly out of the country, there are so many places I want to go! But I think this is far more exciting!

We are driving to a cottage by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on Prince Edward Island. I have never been to this part of PEI before, so I can definately cross one thing off my list. It will take us 2 days to get there by car! I haven't been on a proper road trip since I was very little, and this time, I will get to drive! When we get there, I plan to eat A LOT of seafood, and not do much else. I have never been on a holiday where I plan to just relax. And to relax in a beautiful setting, makes it so much more exciting! July could not come any sooner!!

up, up, and away!

When I was a very very little girl, I wanted to be a Disney animator. Watching the new animated movie that came out each year was one of the highlights of my youth. Now, how did I end up here? I guess animation wasn't my passion after all!

But I watched the movie "UP" this week, and it blew me away! 3D animation has come such a long way over the years, not only are the graphics stunning, but the story was just so full of goodness! It made happy, sad, laugh and cry. Wow!

I hope you all get to see it. It has inspired me to go on more adventures, and to include more helium balloons in my life.

beautiful balloon photos via danisoul, emilie79*, leanncannon, and me respectively.

Bright, on a gloomy day

It has been a cold kind of rainy today, so I had to take out some extra layers in the closet to keep warm. It doesn't seem like June. To me, June has always been bright and sunny, and the happy month my brother and I are born in, (and also the month Jin is born in too!) My eyes are looking for bright spots to keep me warm. Mostly I am noticing whites. I guess white isn't really a warm colour, but on this grey day, it is exactly what I need. And, a punch of bright pink and green.

Mea are you trying to sneak out the front door, again?
You have to rotate that knob to ring my doorbell.
These little flowers were everywhere, I do not know their name. Do you?
I told Jin I want to paint our backyard fence, white. What do you think?