Summer, so far

Could it be that it's only three weeks into summer? Life's been going at breakneck speed, so much so that I'm consciously creating me-time, even if it involves backing out of events previously committed to. Here are some snippets of what's been keeping me occupied:

• 
  
  Handmade tissue paper tassels for my BFF's birthday party

• 
  
  Checking out: Shakespeare, American poets, craft books, Newbery Award winners

• 
  
  Making pizza with my Italy friends

• 
  
  Farmers Markets (I'm lucky to have access to four, from Tuesday to Friday!)

• 
  
  Watermelon + feta salad (with sea salt, honey, and olive oil): this summer's staple

Much in between, and much more to go! A part of me feels like summer is entirely booked, but I am being intentional about finding making snippets of time for both big (being a bridesmaid in a month!) and little (calligraphy, coffee, conversations, crochet) things.

How are you spending your summer days?

Summer, so far

Could it be that it's only three weeks into summer? Life's been going at breakneck speed, so much so that I'm consciously creating me-time, even if it involves backing out of events previously committed to. Here are some snippets of what's been keeping me occupied:

• 
  
  Handmade tissue paper tassels for my BFF's birthday party

• 
  
  Checking out: Shakespeare, American poets, craft books, Newbery Award winners

• 
  
  Making pizza with my Italy friends

• 
  
  Farmers Markets (I'm lucky to have access to four, from Tuesday to Friday!)

• 
  
  Watermelon + feta salad (with sea salt, honey, and olive oil): this summer's staple

Much in between, and much more to go! A part of me feels like summer is entirely booked, but I am being intentional about finding making snippets of time for both big (being a bridesmaid in a month!) and little (calligraphy, coffee, conversations, crochet) things.

How are you spending your summer days?

Old School birthday bash

I love organizing and throwing parties for people. I love the planning, the sending, the organizing, the gathering of loved ones onto the birthday gal or guy. But when it comes to myself, I typically shy away and am content with a small dinner with my closest circle.

A few years ago I said to myself that by a certain age, I will love myself enough to throw my own birthday party.

"That certain age" was this year.  And amid doubt whether I'd actually follow through, I called my city and secured the gazebo area.  Once the credit card got charged, things got real.  So I downloaded the fonts (Marcelle and Colleged) and got out my contact list.

The theme: Old School.  Feelin' like a kid again. 

It couldn't have happened with all the help from friends far and near. My game masters filled up water balloons for the tossing.  Laid out sacks for racing.  And brought jute string for the three-legged race.  

My BFF laid out an entire spread to fulfill my "candy apple bar" request.  She even peeled the caramels, one by one, and melted them together. Another friend supplied the most delicious furikake Chex mix ever.  Yet another plucked and washed three whole bagfulls of lemons from his tree for me to have a lemonade stand. And cakes?  Three: the other BFF brought both the cake I wanted (a fruit tart) as well as "a proper birthday cake" (old school, complete with roses in our high school colors); and there was an awesome birthday brownie (which I may have taken home without sharing) with a secret message. 

My only real material contribution was the pinata, which was inspired by my inordinate love of polyhedra and high school Geometry Honors.  I'd wanted to cover it in tissue paper or fringed crepe, but ran out of time... but looks okay with seams done up in painter's tape.  I filled it with old school candies: Smarties, Tootsie Rolls, and Dum Dums. Everyone insisted that I take a turn at bat, and I need to tell you how desperately difficult it is to willfully destroy something you so lovingly created -- even if you made it to be destroyed.  I wasn't strong enough, but my brother (pictured) gave it a good go, and another karate-practicing friend gave it the death blow: a drop kick.  Beautiful yet painful to watch.

And the gifts.  A table full.  I haven't had so much to unwrap since I was a kid.  Which goes along with the old school theme, I suppose.  It was SO nice to be SO loved by SO many people -- from family to friends from so many periods and parts of life.

Funny: when everyone started gathering for the birthday song and cake, it was all I could do not to sing along; I'm usually the one holding the cake, or taking pictures, or recording. It took some a moment to remind myself that everyone was singing for me!  I had to force myself to stay in the center of the circle, and smile.  And once I accepted and allowed that in my heart, I could truly and fully appreciate and receive the well wishing. In the end, I'm glad that I gave myself this opportunity for people to shower me with love. Not so much with their presents, but their presence.  Both on this day and in my life all these years. 

Best! Birthday! Ever!

Belated birthday post

My birthday tends to be a low-key affair, which is fine by me.  This year, though, I was quite lucky to ride with my fellow March babies for celebrations manifold.  Check it:

I missed my brother's birthday dinner to eat with old friends, one of whose birthday is the day after mine.  We went to Three Drunken Goats in Montrose.

[team J bday]

My actual birthday was a long day spent at church.  I found out that it was my pastor's birthday, too, plus another person's a couple of days later.  One of our friends made cupcakes topped with thin mints and initials (our names all start with "J'), and another friend brought a lovely fruit tart from Porto's.

Later in the week a group of friends met for a quick dinner at Zankou Chicken.  My good friend treated me to my first shawerma wrap!  Thanks, Beej!

The following week we did a birthday party for college friends.  Tres leches cake from Perfectly Sweet, along shrimp egg rolls, gourmet sandwiches, and homemade Hainan chicken rice and ribs! 

I generally am over gift-giving because I don't want to accumulate "stuff."  Rather, I'm in favor of gifts of experience like movies or meals, gifts of quality time, or handknits. So I felt a bit bad about all the gifts bestowed on me this year; but I was able to shake it off (meaning: not feeling guilty and not thinking of a reciprocal gift) and simply be grateful.

[gifts]

• West Elm vases/containers -- love that they're white!


• Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler


• Back to Basics by Abigail R. Gehring


• Soap -- delightful rose scent, sent long-distance from WDC


• Sakura and gold-flecked stationery and sakura tenugui from Ito-Ya in Japan


• Grey and pastel-striped summer scarf -- something I especially like because I wouldn't have chosen it for myself


• Target & Best Buy gift cards -- the loophole against my "buy nothing new" rule


• Eco-bag


• Really nice, out-of-my-price-point headphones (from my brothers)

Zooming out from the above picture, you'll see one of my birthday gifts to self:

[loveseat]

A vintage loveseat, found on CL (of course).  And thanks to my youngest brother's charm, it set me back $50 instead of the $75 at which it was listed -- score!  The light blue-grey damask-y upholstery is in good shape, but isn't really my style, so I've lined it with a jersey sheet while I search the internets for fabric.  My ideas range from a luxurious teal or gold or cream velvet, to a simple geometric, to something unique, like this.  In the meantime, it fits my little space perfectly (and means that not all of my guests have to sit on my (day)bed!).

[sewing machine + box]

My second self-gift was a vintage sewing machine.  I'd been researching for a while and knew I wanted an older Husqvarna for its high quality (the body is a single cast metal piece) and --frankly -- its hawt Swedish desgin.  It's a Husqvarna Viking 6020, complete with folding table, carrying case, and accessories.  It's just beautiful to look at, isn't it? And the sweing chair my brother found and gave me goes with it perfectly!  I actually swung back for the tiered sewing box, which came full of all kinds of supplies.  Now I can get on with pillowcases, hems, and (hopefully) skillbuilding!

Lastly, a lovely cafe au lait -- carefully and painstakingly brewed on a Chemex coffeemaker -- at the new(ish?) Intelligentsia in Old Town Pasadena (which serves food, too, btw), accompanied by delightful companionship and conversation.  Thank you, CO.

I'm so grateful!

I'm the last of my siblings to celebrate the first birthday without Mom.  We've all had each other these past (nearly seven!) months, which has been better than good.  Still, we all miss her.  We'll feel that similar pang again tomorrow night, as we gather to celebrate my dad's birthday.  It'll be a good time.  Different that how we would've wanted it, but good nonetheless.

Goo's birthday sweater, and not

The Goo has a few stuffed toys, but not too many sweaters, so I opted to knit one for him for his birthday.  I finished it a month early so he got to wear it a few times.  No sense in waiting ("He don't know," as my brother says).  I used a discontinued yarn, GGH Soft Tweed (grey with orange, green, yellow, and brown flecks).  It turned out very cute, if I do say so myself!

 [Goo and sweater, and Aunty Jean]

Well, in early December, another set of college friends had their firstborn, and I decided it was finally time to finish up a toy bear that had been in my WIP pile for a while (you may remember it here and here).  It took much less time than I thought to attach the limbs, and I used up some leftover sock yarn to embroider the eyes and nose.  I held off on sending it right away because the head was still a bit floppy and I wanted to f ind a ribbon to tie there.

Luckily -- or unluckily, as the case may be -- my brother came up to me one afternoon with a terrible look on his face.  He was doing the laundry and had simply thrown The Goo's birthday sweater in with the rest of the lot.  He felt awful, asked me if there was anything we could do to stretch it out again.  Nope!  All I could do was laugh.  Here's what it looked like, with my coffee cup for scale:

[sweater, felted]

I was ready to save the buttons and toss it out, until MyKo came over and had a brilliant idea:

[sweatered bear]

I'm shipping it to BabyA this week!  With care and washing instructions.  And I'll make sure The Goo's next sweater will be in superwash.

Crafting creatures

Making toys for babies is my new thing, for many reasons:

• they stick around a lot longer than clothes


• it's good re-use for old woolens


• I have tons of stuffing


• they're super cute!

For Baby V, I used an old scarf my brother had given me in college (the parents are our college friends, so very appropo), a Martha Stewart pattern, and leftover sock yarn.  Oh, and I used another felted sweater for the ears, tail, and snout (red bits).  I enlarged the pattern to the appropriate size and made sure to cut so that stripes were all aligned. 

[piglet parts]

I sewed exposed seams with sock yarn.  It took forever but was totally worth it!  Instead of using a pipe cleaner for a curly tail, I simply knottted a length of red felted sweater.

[piglet profile]

[piglet front]

It was a hit! My friends appreciated the detail, the eco-friendliness, and the color scheme (staying away from too much pink).  Welcome to the world, BabyV!

Birthday surprise: home edition

As if things couldn't get better, my family surprised me at our weekly family dinner with a card that said, "Happy birthday to your bum."  I didn't really get it, but such is my brother's humor.  As I was reading the card, he brought in the gift itself: a Victoria Ghost chair by Philippe Starck.  I'd been drooling over this chair for years (and its armed companion the Louis Ghost), but set the dream aside until I had a permanent home in which to place it.  I got to sit in it immediately during the dinner!

Here's where it sits now, back at my apartment:

[victoria ghost]

At the end of the week, Jax invited us over for what I thought was a casual firepit evening at their backyard.  But I discovered my best friends there, my parents, and friends continued to come during the night.  Turns out Jax had been in cahoots with them -- and that DC had known about this even before our London trip.  So much sneakiness!

[phaelenopsis]

[flowers]

On top of that, Jax had strapped little Baby G to her and put together an entirely home-cooked smörgåsbord including two pots of cider and hot cocoa (complete with bar of brandy, Bailey's, and other enhancements), finger foods, and cupcakes:

[birthday cupcakes]

[birthday blowout]

I was grateful not only for the turnout, but also for the opportunity for DC and me to announce our engagement in person.  Before I blew out my candles, I said, "I can't imagine anything to wish for this year, because all my dreams have come true."  And it's true!  Here's to the best birthday ever!  Thanks so very, very much, family and friends!

Birthday surprise: London edition

At the beginning of February, DC casually asked, "What do you think of going to London for your birthday?" 

To which I responded, "You don't have the vacation days!"

To which he blithely said, "Yes, I do.  So... what do you think?"

"I think it'd be great!"

Within a day or so I got an email from him with our itinerary.  So we started to dream.

This was our first international trip together.  But since we'd each spent an academic year in England, it was (and will always be) a friendly, familiar place.  We decided that in addition to showing each other our 'versions' of England, we'd do things that neither of us had done, together. 

Unfortunately, my uncle and another friend would be traveling at the same exact time, so we missed seeing them.  But I did get to meet DC's friends, with whom we stayed the first few nights in London.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be there again -- my last trip was 10 years ago!

[westminster abbey]

We stopped a few stations shy of our destination on the way to the V&A Museum, just to say hello to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and their neighbors.  Lots of crowds and full regalia (even a horsedrawn coach sighting) at Buckingham Palace.  We learned that it was a state visit from South Africa -- but didn't want to wait the 90 minutes (they'd just left to collect PM Zuma at the airport).  Onwards!

[london homes]

[more london homes]

I particularly enjoyed the lace displays and embroidery samplers at the V&A.  I confess to short power naps in the fashion exhibition area -- dark lighting and Louis Ghost chairs were sleep inducers for us!  Then a bit of shopping at Liberty, where I ogled all the eye candy, especially fabrics.  But I decided my interest and skill aren't high enough for me to put down GBP19.95 for a single meter of fabric.

[liberty]

[fish and chips, near st paul's]

The highlight of our days in London were the museums (we also visited the Tate Modern and the Royal Observatory in Greenwhich), pubs, fisn n' chips, and friends.  We also managed a bus ride, which was a nice alternative to the Tube.

[dc and me, represented in shopfronts, greenwhich]

We opted not to stop at DC's university town, since he hardly knew anyone there anymore -- I'd met one good friend in London, and the other is now at Oxford.  So we went to Oxford earlier to spend more time with said friend.  And I'm glad we did!

If one is a visitor or tourist to Oxford, one can see the facades of the colleges, but must sign up for a tour in order to get in (we passed by a lot of "___ College is not open to visitors" signs).  Since JHJ is a student there, we got to see the inside of both New College -- where several of his family members, including his youngest brother, a first year, attended -- as well as his own, St. Antony's.  Each college has its own living quarters, library, bar, dining hall... so the students hardly have to leave.  It's like a whole other world behind those thick, centuries-old walls!  The highlight for me was a quick look into the dining hall that was eyeballed (but in the end, not chosen) for the filming of the Harry Potter films.  JHJ also took us to Turf Tavern, the pub at which Bill Clinton famously did not smoke pot, and, 'American Night' at his college -- beer pong, American music, and a room plastered with American celebrities.

[oxford with jhj]

My birthday fell on the day we were in Oxford, and DC made me close my eyes to receive my birthday gift.  "What?! Isn't the trip itself the gift?"  I opened my eyes to discover the Book of Common Prayer, which I'd been wanting, in my lap.  A nice leather version at that (not the cheaper clothbound one I was going to get for myself).  Spoiled!

Our last two full days were spent in Bristol, where I studied abroad back in the day.  I have kept in touch with one friend there over the years, who stayed at Bristol University through to her Ph.D. in Medieval Literature, and now works there.  She also met her husband there.  What a great history with a place!

Walking around, it seemed like Bristol was a completely new place.  I was totally disoriented as we walked from the train station to city center, so much more than usually so that DC joked, "Are you sure you've been here before?!"  In the couple of days we were there a lot became familiar, but there were many new discoveries as well.  Bristol and Clifton (the suburb where my dorm was) were much bigger than I remembered!

I was able to take DC to Christ Church on Sunday, which was meaningful because this was the first church I ever voluntarily went to as an adult.  I don't even know what entered my mind to make me come there!  But I remember that people were really nice, and I even started taking the Alpha course.  I never finished it, but started exploring church after coming home from that year, and eventually became a Christian.

[christ church, clifton, bristol]

Before leaving Bristol, my friend made sure I got my pint of Guinness!  After that, we went for Sunday roast, which is a traditional British Sunday meal -- DC's first.

[guinness]

It didn't rain at all the entire week we were there, can you believe it?!  Don't let the blue sky fool you, though: it was cold!  In the high 30s/low 40s!  We stayed warm with accessories and all the walking.  I had a wonderful time, not just because it was England, but because with was with DC.  Thanks, love, for the best birthday ever!

Pho Ever

My cousin opened up a Vietnamese restaurant!  In Gardena!  It's called Pho Ever -- which will never cease to make us smile!  We went for my mom's birthday!  It was funny to see him and my dad nearly fighting over the bill!  I think my dad won!  We ate tons!  Check it out!

[goi vit = duck + pickled cabbage salad]

[cha gio = fried egg rolls]

[com bo dai han = korean beef + rice]

[pho tai gan = beef noodle soup w/ rare meat + tendon = my favorite]

The restaurant is entirely run by my cousin, his siblings, and their families.  The guys are waiting and bussing tables; the ladies are working the kitchen.  This is family cooking for reals.

I checked out the reviews on Yelp.  It's interesting when you know the person that everyone's talking about (they all say he's nice).  That's especially meaningful to me because not only is this cousin someone who used to live with us when I was very young (I barely remember), but he's the cousin who totally took care of me when I went to Vietnam a few years back.  He made me move to his house, loaned me a computer, and even gave me his mobile phone.  At the time, I thought, So much for my grand plan of independence, but even then I was truly grateful.  And will always be.

But enough of the emotional aside.  My parents have tried a bunch of dishes and totally vouch for them (and you know that family is the most critical of critics!).  If you're in South Bay area, give it a shot!