typhoon ketsana (ondoy)

typhoon ondoy has rendered the philippines with water levels worse than hurricane katrina.

familes are displaced and homes ruined. my co-worker was telling me about how her friend and her one-year old baby had to be rescued from a building with a rope system and a plastic bucket for her baby and it's not surprising when you see pictures like above. mark's family has been hit hard as well.

puts life into perspective. donate here.

or if you'd prefer:
this month all proceeds from my etsy store will go to support the Philippine National Red Cross.

aw, damn it

i got to work today. set my stuff down and said hi to rachel. then i asked her, 'is today wednesday?'

she said, 'today is tuesday.'

then i cried.

hashbrown casserole

when you want to make sushi you find someone japanese. when you want to make kimchee you find someone korean. when you want to make a casserole you find a older white woman. ;P

i'm serious. at my old job all my co-workers had the best recipes for casseroles and 'potluck food.'

this is one such recipe. hashbrown casserole. as rachael ray would say, 'yumm-o!'

this past saturday morning, 7:30am i sacrificed sleeping in to make these lovelies for my church's women's prayer breakfast. i made two batches so that's why the pictures show two of everything.

ingredients:
1 - 10.25 oz can of cream of chicken or mushroom
8 oz colby cheese
1/2 cup melted butter (i'd suggest a little less)
1 small onion, minced
2 lb frozen shredded hashbrown (look in the freezer section)
1 small package of pork sausage
13x19" pan

1. pre-heat oven to 350 and spray your pan with cooking spray
2. cook sausage in a skillet. when cooked remove from skillet and chop in small pieces

3. cook minced onion in sausage drippings until slightly translucent

4. combine soup, cheese, butter, onion, sausage, and salt & pepper to taste
5. gently fold hasbrown into mixture and pour in pan
6. bake for 35-40 min until heated through and brown on top

have a heart!

hahaha, wouldn't it be just perfect after i post about how obsessed i am with etsy that i would share that i just started my own etsy page. LOL!

so i've been making these little felt heart pins in my spare time. to be honest i made them to possibly use them as part of a future wedding favor for myself. i just figured, 'hey i have some time since mark is gone i might as well help myself by planning ahead.' is that weird? i probably will still use them but i thought they might make cute little gifts for other people too.

please visit!

esty: an obsession, part one

i don't think i'd consider myself to have an addictive personality but etsy.com makes me second guess myself. "it's your place to buy & sell all things handmade!" to which i say, "yes, please and thank you!"

quiet moments at work i'll sneak a peek to see what is being featured on the front page. sometimes i browse for myself and sometimes for others. there's something for everyone on etsy.com.

one of my favorite things so far is a seller who is a felt taxidermist...feltidermy! it's freaking awesome! who wouldn't love to have one of these bad boys hanging from their wall?!

good friends

today is a birthday of a friend at work. in the art department we always make a handmade card for the birthday boy or girl. i think it's a really nice gesture for everyone to receive something that's been made by hand with the specific person in mind. this card was made from our sassy collection found only at jo-ann's. it's funky and sweet, just like elena!

omg!

i haven't been sleeping well lately and one night as i was up late in my room i heard a loud thud against my window. of course immediately i thought of the worst and imagine some guy trying to break in to the house and he's stupid enough to try the window with the light coming through the blinds.

i got up from my chair and peeked through the blinds and this is what i saw!

what is that?! a grasshopper?!

and when it left my window screen it left with a loud thud. freaky.

just around the corner

september is halfway done and fall is knocking at the door of some place other than california.

it's true, california doesn't really have a fall season so much as a really hot indian summer...which should actually be called native american summer...unless it was named after real indians from india.

anyway, here's a fun project i did at work.

meet frank!

shamless plug

ok, shameless plug for the week. we have these awesome ribbon albums in michael's stores now. some of us at work had to do one to post on our boss' blog and it was actually really fun to do. they make for a quick project and they're easier to give as gifts than a 12x12 album.

reform healthcare

korean bath house

sam and grace had their friend hanna in town and one of the things she wanted to do was go to a korean bath house.

the mogyok tang/bath part is separated by gender and you basically strip down and you have various jacuzzies and saunas with different temperatures.

but there is also a jjim jjil bang which is co-ed and everyone wears a shirt and short set given by the spa; we noted that it looks sort of like a concentration camp because everyone is wearing the same thing and we have a wrist band with a number. the jjim jjil bang has food and an open area where you can lay down on mats and play games or chat but there are also other saunas where you can sweat and rid your skin of toxins before going to the bath to exfoliate and soak.

the first time i went was for charles' birthday party. haha and i actually felt that the nakedness was a very opening experience. the second time around i enjoyed it a lot and it wasn't as shocking to be in the bath area.

we saw a lot of young girls walking around naked with the older women and it made me wonder how experiences like being in a public bath house would shape their young minds. would they be more comfortable with their body because they have seen so many different shapes of women? would it open them to their sexuality prematurely? i wonder...

i will say though, that it is a bonding experience on the whole and especially for family members. for moms to tend to their young and the like. it was a good day at the bath house with friends.

i wanted to post this picture because i thought it was funny.

what a relief

we've been having a heat wave for a long time and for the first time in a few weeks i feel the coolness of an ocean breeze. it's nice living close to the beach. enjoy your labor day, friends!

think local

where does the food we eat come from? does it come from our state? how about the west coast? does it even come from this country? how did it become that 'going to the market' become a face-less exercise?

when we buy clothes we can look at the label and read, "made in china" but it's not as easy with food. nowadays some grocery stores will put signs that say, 'grown locally' but what happens when the store doesn't display such a sign? how can we know where our food has come from or what conditions the workers are subjected to.

while i will appreciate the convenience of having tomatoes available in the winter time (though it is a summer fruit) it will be hard for me to imagine the amount of fossil fuel it will take to transport these ruby globes from the mysterious farm they're grown on to me. and it's even harder to imagine that some types of sushi-grade fish are caught off the east coast of US, shipped to Japan to be sold and then the remaining to be re-sold back to US vendors and stamped as 'imported from japan.'

if you live in orange county there is a farmer's market somewhere in our county on practically every single day of the week. our food in america is very inexpensive compared to the rest of the world but i wonder if we pay for it in other ways...

smoothie bar, baby!

my boss recently got married and one of the wonderful things about getting married is having sex. LOL but one of the other good things are the presents!

one of her wedding gifts was an immersion blender and with it she's been making smoothies for breakfast. my parents had one that they received as a gift from years ago and this summer i had been using it a lot with my soups. she and i had the great idea of having a smoothie bar at work today for breakfast. i know, my job rocks.

this morning we got frozen fruits, yogurt, bananas, OJ + milk, and honey and lined up the ingredients starting with empty mason jars. her thing is to drink the smoothie in a mason jar or a jelly jar. and it's really a great idea because you can seal it and stick it in the fridge for later or take it to work without fear of spilling.

so everyone lined up with their empty jar and filled it up with yogurt and whatever fruits they liked. it was a really fun way to start the day and everyone got to have a healthy breakfast.

we suggested the "one part yogurt + 2 parts fruit + a splash of OJ/milk + a little honey if needed" recipe but no matter how it was combined it always came out delicious.