screaming goats

A little silliness for a Thursday. The hubby and I were crying when we watched this.



And another funny video as Shelby suggested.  :)

pattern quiz

If you're looking for a Thursday distraction then try taking this quiz on patterns and see how many you can name in 4 minutes! I only knew 19 out of 25 patterns.

introducing...

I thought I'd officially introduce you to our little Yorkie, Eemoy, who we inherited from Mark's parents in October last year. No, they didn't die but they felt that their increasing travel schedule made it difficult to be good caretakers for Eemoy and asked us to lovingly look after him instead. He flew over to IL as carry-on luggage with a family friend and has been with us since. He's turning 11 years old next month and certainly lives the life of a 77 year old grandpa - sleeping, eating, sleeping, personal breaks, sleeping. He is a toothless (because of a gum infection) stroke survivor and that's why his tongue hangs out on his left side most of the time. Haha he makes the funniest faces.

Gif made with www.gickr.com.

happy new year!

So, last year I did a year-in-review MadLib type exercise that was inspired from an entry on Frank Chimero's blog and it went a little something like this:

I like ____________________.
I love ____________________.
I want ___________________.
I was ____________________.
I am _____________________.
I will ____________________.
I think ___________________.
I know ___________________.

What did 2012 look like for you? Whether it was forgettable or unforgettable I hope that 2013 will be the best year to date for you and me.

pet plants

At the orchid show Mark and I decided to try our hand in growing them at home. We each chose a plant to take home and care for.  The orchid I chose is the first image and Mark's orchid is the second. As our surrogate pets we named them, Inky and Flower. I hope they live!

spoiler alert

**Spoiler Alert** This is a pre-released Super Bowl commercial so if you want to see it on Sunday don't press play.

I'm not sure if I like this commercial...over 24 references to Ferris Bueller's Day Off and yet the most obvious references (as in people) are missing.

brought to you by pinterest

Mine is Brown Tooth Jenkins.  LOL!

never gets old

This song makes me so happy.  I don't know what I love more...the singing or the dancing.  What a classic.

unsolicited wedding advice wednesdays : sandwich cake?

image via panini happy

So, of course, if you want to do a non-cake (or don't usually like cake, like me) there's always cupcakes, or cake pops, or pies, and having a dessert/candy bar instead.  But how about a sandwich cake??  I think this would be really lovely for a kind of off-beat, quirky, day-time reception, don't you?  It's a little unexpected, a little cheeky, and looks really delicious.

The sandwich cake is posted on Panini Happy and it'll show you step by step of how to make this tasty beauty.

weekend gardening

Well, we don't have a yard and it's too late to have flower pots on the balcony because of the weather.  And even though we've been enjoying 'warmer' winter temperatures it's a far cry from the 80 degrees right now back in CA.  So I only have two small house plants inside that I'm trying to keep alive until they can go outside on our balcony.  I tried to grow a basil plant from Trader Joe's but it died.  Apparently it dies on most people.  Hopefully in spring I'll be able to buy a dwarf citrus tree that we can keep inside and outside.  It'll be great to have the fruit available for cooking too.  It's a little depressing to be dreaming of spring so early in the winter season.  :/  I guess that's another reason why I wanted to have plants, to have something green and alive inside while everything is dormant outside in the winter.

I repotted the plants out of the plastic containers they came in.  Loosened the roots a bit and repotted using potting soil in a larger pot with a drain hole at the bottom.  Taking care to fill any air holes in the pot, I made sure to keep the soil line at the same level of the roots as how they came originally.  I gave it one good watering then placed the plant where it's care instructions suggested.  Every week or so I rotate the plants to that all sides will get sun and I won't have a leaning plant towards the window.  I also try not to over water the plant (which is so tempting sometimes) and follow the watering instructions that the plant came with.  Since these plants are around more for decorative leaves than for their flowers I like to pick off the flowering parts in the beginning to let the plant use all it's energy to produce more leaves.

feeling the love

Ok, so it's January and the Christmas decorations are down but I'm already looking toward February because, well, it's hard to decorate the house for "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day." The bank is tight for us so I definitely don't want to buy anything to decorate the house for Valentine's.  I looked around the house and I spied 3 decks of cards in our game area.  I pulled out only the heart cards and started arranging them on our dining table to create a heart shape (it's hard to work with rectangles!).  Here's what I came up with:

I've seen people do this same idea with pictures which would be really cute, like here and here.  I'd suggest printing and cutting your pictures into squares to make your life easier.  

happy new year!

I saw this thing on Frank Chimero's blog before.  I emailed it to myself but when I tried to search for it now I couldn't find it.  His blog changed so many times in 2011 so that's probably why.  ANYWHO, Frank Chimero is an artist that I like and I've posted his work here before.  I'm getting sidetracked again .... SO, previously on his blog Frank wrote about how he experienced this MadLib-esque list of interview questions that went as follows:

I like ____________________.
I love ____________________.
I want ___________________.
I was ____________________.
I am _____________________.
I will ____________________.
I think ___________________.
I know ___________________.

I thought it would be fun to use the format and tailor it to look back on my year and see how I'd answer those questions.  Some of the questions I had multiple answers for and others I had a harder time answering.  I wanted this record of 2011 to be honest and not too fakey positive because 1. It wasn't a perfect year and 2. That's definitely not how I roll.

I wish you and yours a very Happy New Year and all the best that 2012 can offer you.

Here's how I answered those questions....

california craving : tommy's

Today I woke up craving The Original Tommy's.  Damn it.  Flavorful, thick, rich chili that sticks to your insides smothered on and eaten with everything.  :(((  I almost had them cater the wedding....too expensive.  My brother and I would eat Tommy's together in the middle of the night.  You can't live in Fountain Valley, CA and not love Tommy's.   

I'd like to order a #2 with extra chili and tomatos with chili fries but with the chili on the side and a Coke.  That's my usual.  Now I will go cry as I eat cereal for lunch.  

unsolicited wedding advice wednesdays : christmas traditions

Mark and I were talking about it recently but this will be one of the few Christmases that we've ever spent together even during our dating career.  Of course it's extra special that it our first as hubby and wifey.  We'll be spending the Christmas season apart from our parents (although we'll be spending some time with his aunt and uncle and their family) and it got me thinking about starting our own Christmas traditions.  I think we kind of talked about this before we got married.  Like, who's parents would we have to go to on Christmas Day or on Christmas Eve (That's a tip right there.  Figure that stuff out BEFORE the Christmas season.  Unknown expectations from the family are a bitch!) but I don't remember that we talked about starting our own traditions.

I guess our first tradition was getting a tree.  Neither of our parents put a tree anymore so I suppose it'll be a tradition for us now.  I stumbled upon the idea on this blog, here, who got it from this blog, here, who got it from this blog, here.  The idea is "12 Dates of Christmas" when you intentionally spend time together during the Christmas season.  One of the bloggers and her husband each secretly wrote dates and put them in envelopes to be opened and done on different days and it seems like the other bloggers just intentionally did things together during the month.

I think this is a great idea for people who are married, who are dating, and who are single.  For instance, if I were single I'd go on 12 "dates" with different friends to catch up with during December.  That would be a lot of fun.  I like how some of the dates that the bloggers go on are simple like: decorate the tree and listen to Christmas music, or see Christmas lights, or do some Christmas shopping together.  I think the key here is being intentional during this season to connect with people and show them you love them because that's what the first Christmas was all about.

how i fold t-shirts

So a while back I watched a Japanese video on YouTube that demonstrated how to fold a shirt and I was so amazed by the sorcery that time to time I would yield its magic to fold my shirts.  Nowadays I use a method that's based on that video but is less confusing for my brain.  I will share my method with you today.  In hind sight I should've used my Lakers t-shirt for this but whatever.  Happy laundry folding!

Step 1: 

Holding the top of the t-shirt with your right hand and the bottom hem with your left fold back the right sleeve.  Notice that the fold is not directly on the collar but like 2 inches away.  Adjust this distance to your preference.  

Step 2: 
Take your left hand holding the bottom hem to your right hand and fold the t-shirt in half bringing the bottom hem up to the top of the t-shirt.

Step 3:
Next, fold back the left sleeve to match what you've done up til now.  Notice that the distance from the collar on either side is somewhat even.  I know, it's kind of anal but if you're actually following this post you're probably a somewhat anal person.  You're in good company, friend.

Step 4:
Fold the whole thing in half again so that it looks like the picture below.  You did it!

Ok, so if you're like me at this point you'd want to see a demonstration.  So using the timer setting on my point and shoot I have tried to do the steps again but including my hands.  This was a very awkward process to shoot.  Imagine me setting up the camera and hunching in front of it with the shirt above my ducked head.  All in my PJs.  

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:
This is a shot of what Step 3 looks like from the back of the t-shirt.

belated happy halloween!

Here are some point and shoot shots on our walk yesterday.  Technically it was Monday but it's considered our Saturday because Mark has been working Wednesday–Sunday lately.  I'm going to press some fall leaves to take home to give to my mom.  She loves ginko leaves.

tip of the day

via ikea.com

Tip of the Day:  Next time you have a jar lid that you just can't seem to open but you feel like it's a funny situation because YOU were the one to close the jar last time so you think to yourself, "Well if I'm strong enough to close it this tight I should be strong enough to open it?", try wearing a rubber kitchen glove on the hand that is doing the turning to grip the lid much better.

lolz

image via Pintrest

My hubby's man crush: Maurice Moss from the British show, The IT Crowd.    You will recognize Chris O'Dowd from the movie,  Bridesmaids.  If you have Netflix you can watch streaming episodes online.  Oh those crazy Brits....

omg

Ok, seriously....this video kind of scared me but it's strangely hypnotic.  As in, I had to watch the entire tutorial.  Maybe I should do this for Halloween....maybe not.  I think I'd scare myself.

Oh, and yes, this is what I do while in China - search for strange youtube videos.  ;D

doppelganger

If you watch How I Met Your Mother you will appreciate this post.  As Mark and I were walking around Target we spotted someone.  He looked a lot like someone we knew...he looked like MARK!!  It was his DOPPELGANGER!  Gasp.

We call him Merona Mark.  Isn't the resemblance so eerie?!