Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloweenie


**Warning: Sad post ahead**

I wish everyone a wonderful day and ghastly fun tonight. I love dressing up for this time of year. And no, I don't mean the slut costumes either. It's fun dressing up. But this year I didn't. Last night I received a phone call from my mom. My grandmother has fallen and wasn't able to get up. It took her 3 hrs to crawl to the phone to call someone. I immediately rushed to my parents house to find my brother, aunt and uncle already there. She refused to go to the hospital despite unable to move her right leg.

I knew something was wrong so we dragged her to the hospital. There I stayed w/ her from checking in to x-rays. Since I was the only one who could translate the best, I stayed w/ her till they checked her into a room. She had fractured her pelvis in three areas and will require surgery. I didn't get home till 1 am completely exhausted.

Today I spent the day w/ her making sure she was alright. Tomorrow she is to see the cardiologist to approve that she is okay for sugery. My grandma doesn't want it. She's scared that she may not wake up. I don't know what to do or say. Not only that, who's going to take care of her after she is released from the hospital?

D and I talked about how our parents aren't 'invincible' as they used to be. They're getting much older and it scares us. How are we going to take care of them? Who's going to take care of them? Esp since D's dad is in his 70s. We're both worried for the future. How did our parents do it? I don't like all these grown up questions.

Monday, October 29, 2007

New Addition

No I'm not pregnant. Please get out of my ovaries. TYVM.

Teddy has a new brother! Meet Yoshi.


Sorry if I've been MIA. DK and I have been busy with this lil guy. Trying to keep him separated from Teddy since he hasn't had all his shots yet. They both are super excited to see each other w/ their tales wagging violently. I can't wait till this wkend for Yoshi to get his shot so that they can have their first play date.







Yes, Yoshi, as in the lil green dragon-like that eats eggs and hops. See for yourself...

Photos courtesy of Dapotato

Monday, October 15, 2007

Meet Emily and Morris

Saturday DK and I went to the Pet Adoption & Environmental Fair at Hermon Dog Park in Los Angeles. We were there with a purpose, pick up the kittens my brother adopted since he had to work that day. Of course I was happy to fulfill the task. Plus we wanted to see if we might have found a lil brother for Teddy.

There were so many cute lil furry animals there. I wanted to bring them all home but of course where would they sleep? There were mostly dogs at this even and I got to pet a horse. We picked up Emily and Morris, brother and sister, named by their foster mom. D and I adored them that we wanted to keep them. I wonder if Teddy will like them as much as we do.



So much for hoping, Teddy went ballistic when he saw them. I picked up Emily hoping that Teddy will calm down and see how sweet she was. She did the opposite, hissed and tried to claw Teddy. That's when Teddy barked up a storm and wouldn't stop till I threw him in the bedroom and hide the kittens. So sad. I guess they are going home w/ my bro.

D and I decided that we would visit them once a week to see how they're doing. You can you not love these faces?

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Shopping during lunch

is a dangerous combo. Last week I had to get out of the office during my lunch hour and escape the insanity. I went to Phoenix Food Boutique for their yummy quick lunch. I had their beef with string beans over rice. It was heaven. And it's not the typical chinese fast food sitting on the steam table. It's made to order. I was good and controlled my portions and ate only half and boxed the rest to save for tomorrow's lunch.

I still have some time so away I went to this new store that has been catching my eye every morning on my 15 min commute to work.



I pulled up to the front of the store and realized, they have Tarina Tarantino accessories! Oh. My. God. I practically stumbled inside the store. I got to meet the owner Mike who is an authorized Tarina seller. His store had all my favorite girly stuff. This is bad. I wanted to buy everything in the store. They had majority of the tiaras from her line and her new collection in their show room. I walked in deeper and found Juicy Couture goodies from clothes to bags. Le sigh....I'm in heaven.

Since Mike and I had a great chat, he offered me 15% off anything in the store. Hells no am I going to turn that down. I happily walked out of the store w/ this piece from her new Lolita Pink Head Collection:

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Teddy in a bed

Teddy has been ripping his pet bed apart the past month. It has gotten to the point where he has ripped a major hole and I can see the sponge. It's so ripped up that when I tossed him his ball to play fetch, he jumped on his bed and the ball slipped inside. The crazy dog that he is went after it. All I could see was a tail sticking out from under the cover. I laughed so hard that I had to take pics to show you how my dog cracks me up:







In his predicament, he couldn't grab his ball and get out at the same time. I had to stop laughing to rescue him. Pretty soon I'll have to get him a new bed. For now, he loves sleeping on our bed.

Project: Wristlet


When I first saw the wristlet and make up bags posted in Weddingbee and on Etsy by Angela Liu Designs, I thought they made great bridesmaid gifts. I never had the chance to purchase them since I got lazy and couldn't order them on time. Her fabrics are pretty and cute w/ Japanese Anime prints. They are pretty original and I love
how the black zipper complements her logo.

Since I first started sewing, I have been wanting to make one. I found several tutorials online. It's actually quite simple to make. Sewing the zipper is such a pain. Since this week's class is about zippers, I hope I can learn a simpler way of sewing them.

Couple weeks ago, I learned how to make a strap on the plastic bag dispenser. This proved helpful. I made the same strap for the clutch and sewed it in the inside so that you can pull it out to use as a clutch or slip it inside for a makeup bag.




Project Nike+ Pouch

As an early bday present for DK, I bought him the new ipod nano and the nike+ to monitor his running since he was getting back into it. I get bored easily when I work out and I thought he would love this gadget. It tells you what mile you have finished running through your ipod and how long it took you. Then you can upload your results and keep tally seeing how you have improved.

He loved it. The only problem, the nike+. It has to be inserted inside your shoe, so that means having to purchase the nike+ shoe. Ummm, no. So he decided to tape it to his laces which won't hold long.

DK came up with a brilliant idea. He wanted me to make a lil pouch for his chip that would attach to his shoe. He sketched what he envisioned and I brought it to life.




He said it almost what he wanted and it was similar to what they're selling on amazon. Yay! Hopefully it stays on when he runs.




Blog Party and some new friends

This Sunday Weemo planned a blog party to get to know our stalkers. It as held at 26 Beach in Venice. Although it was at 11:30, I was dragging my foot. Wasn't really looking forward to the drive. But the possibility of trying a new restaurant and meeting new people won me over.

It was a lot of fun. I got to meet 2007 Journey, A Crazy Little Thing Called Life, Kidultery, Till We Run Out of Road, Ballin and Joe's friend. They are absolutely the coolest girls IRL. Although I have been lurking at their blogs, I felt at ease talking to these ladies as if we were old friends.


Plus Ballin works for Sanrio! How cool is that?! My dream job. Le sigh. She was all decked out in Hello Kitty stuff. I love it. Plus she brought some goodies. Yay for HK stuff. I can't wait till next month's brunch. Weemo has a great recap on the party.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Tiara Cafe

This early Saturday morning, I convinced DK to go to downtown w/ me instead of running. I know terrible but I like his company plus he can drive. As a treat, I took him to Tiara Cafe. Weemo has been raving about it and she just went there yesterday for the goodbye lunch for Curly Fries.



DK before and After coffee


Our waiter Buck sat us immediately and made us felt like home. He brought me a hot steaming cup of coffee and recommended his favorites breakfast plates. DK ordered the Omelet La Soer - organic eggs whipped up into a duvet covering of mushrooms, ricotta cheese, spinach and salami, side of toasted brioche and potato pancake. I ordered Eggs R Us - two organic eggs w/ toasted Brioche. I felt like something simple and not heavy. I was looking forward to brioche since it's so hard to find it here in L.A.


Buck brought us complimentary pancakes to taste while we waited for our food. It was so fluffy and sweet that I wanted to change my order. But I'm trying to eat good so I kept my trap shut. Our piping hot food was sooo good. My eggs were cooked perfectly and the brioche was warm and buttery. Yum. Buck immediately brought me another cup of joe w/o me asking. DK and I definitely will be back with some friends since the service was great and the food was delish. This was a great way to start my Sat.

Onward we went to Michael Levine so that I can purchase supplies for next week's class. I ended up picking up some fabrics for my magic bag, zippers and more fabrics for the clutches i'm planning on making. I got to meet Pilar, my fav fabric cutter again. She gave me some extra fabric. Yay for free stuff. I'm ready to sew some more.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Week 4: Pillow case


I brought my brand spanking new sewing machine. Everyone noticed my machine. My classmate screamed w/ glee at how much more stitches I had compared to hers. Even the instructor noticed and asked me if it was new. Hee hee.

Tonight we assembled pillow cases. Which proved difficult. There are simply too many steps from sewing, pressing, measuring, cutting, marking and then back to sewing .

Thank goodness I bought and extra yard so that I can make another pillow case for DK. My classmates really liked the fabric and again asked where I got it from. Even the instructor knew that Amy Butler designed my fabric. Her stuff is so pretty. I'm so glad that I found it at Michael Levine. I'll be definitely be hitting it again this weekend since I have to get some more supplies for next week's class.

Halfway through class the teacher sat down to chat w/ me asking me why I bought a new machine. I told her that DK and I went to the L.A County fair for our date night and a friend told me that last time she was there, they had sewing machines. I got to test out other brands and ended loving the Janome HT2008.

I finished the pillow case by the time class ended. This project took me awhile to finish but I learned a lot tonight and how to do the French Seam. I'm really excited that now I can make pillow cases to my heart's content. Can't wait to start on my second one.

Pillow case in action

I'm still trying to perfect the clutch so I made another one. This time taking down notes and assembling it slowly that that everything lines up. Hopefully it'll be nice enough to give away.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Project: Pleated Clutch

I know I promised pics of the projects and things I learned in class. I keep forgetting to bring my camera. Sorry. So far this is what I have been doing:

Week 1: Intro to the class

Week 2: Machine Orientation

Week 3: Plastic Bag Dispenser

This past Thursday we made the plastic bag dispenser in class. It was quite easy for me to sew. But I did learn how to measure and cut it so that the grain of the fabric won't stretch. Heh. Who knew it was this complicated.


Tonight I decided to try to make a pleated clutch with a tutorial I found on craftster. I wanted to make it w/ a zipper on top instead of a clasp so things don't fall out. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Maybe I should've followed directions. What do you think?