.:: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 ::.

i am on a crafting spree...seriously i can't stop!! i've even busted out my sewing machine, and i can't wait to make more aranzi aronzo stuff. couple other things on my list of to-make:

quiet book for R -- something he'll probably want to play with when he's a little older, around 2, so i'm giving myself plenty of time to make it! here's another example. super cute, and educational too!

this is the cutest thing i've ever seen. i'm thinking about making barn for R to play with, or maybe a little garage full of cars?? i love the dollhouse and garden ideas...but need a little girl to make it for! hmmm...who will the lucky little girl be? :)

:: joyce 3:37 PM [+]::
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.:: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 ::.

thought it was time for a "food and craft" update!

my friend J had a little girl (her son and R are buddies), and i made baby B some embroidered booties!! it was my first time embroidering on knitted stuff, and it was surprisingly easier than i thought it would be. the pattern was from debbie bliss, who makes the cutest baby knits!!



i love pho, but with all the MSG and, well, meat, it's something i've given up for some time now. we have a vegetarian slow cooker cookbook, and there was this recipe for pho in it, but i wasn't so sure about it. finally one day i decided to just try it, and it was sooooo good!!! i made homemade seitan (aka wheat meat, made from vital wheat gluten) and it was quite tasty!! i can't wait to make it again...yum!!



i've recently discovered aranzi aronzo, a super cute japanese duo that makes really cute stuff (sold at a really cool store called loft in japan), and they have books with patterns on how to make their really cute stuff!!! so i made something for my friend's son's first birthday (hopefully she's not following this blog, haha!) and some finger puppets for R. he cracks up when i wear them and then grabs them and throws them on the floor. he's only tried to eat the tiger so far.





i'm working on some more aranzi aronzo stuff, soooo cute!!!

:: joyce 9:25 PM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 ::.

last weekend our new neighbors moved in...and they have dogs. *sigh* and they're small little yappers, so we'll be pulling out the Bark Free again. :( so far the earliest they've yapped is around 7am, and they don't yap all day like the old neighbor's dogs. and there's only 2 of them. actually, i think only one is yapping, the other seems fairly quiet. our next door neighbor N met them and said they were a very nice young couple from LA with a 2 year old boy and 3 year old girl, which is great cuz that's more kids for R to play with! i worried about that when we first moved here cuz everyone had older kids in high school, but slowly new, younger families are moving in, and R now has lots of playmates, so that's good.

well, at least we had one month of silence. the good thing is that winter is fast approaching and that means cold and snow, and no good dog owner would leave their little yappers outside to freeze.

:: joyce 7:37 AM [+]::
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.:: Monday, October 12, 2009 ::.

okay, i'm pissed. our neighbor told me that the assholes had priced their house low to sell it faster, but i didn't think they'd go THAT low!!! jeezus...they might as well have just given it away!!! i know they paid similar to what we paid for our house which was a really good deal for that house, and they did a ton of work to it, new tile roof, recarpeted the entire house, installed crown molding, and who knows what else, and they asked for $15k LESS??? so the only reason they would price it that low would be to a) get it sold quick (which they did, i don't even think it was on the market for 30 days) or b) to piss us all off cuz now the value of all our houses has dropped!!! thanks a lot!!! grrr...

:: joyce 8:48 PM [+]::
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.:: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 ::.

i love our neighborhood. we got really lucky cuz we have great neighbors, we seriously love our neighbors, they are wonderful! about 8 months after we moved in, we got neighbors from hell that moved into the house behind our next door neighbors. okay, they're not that bad, but they really sucked. they had a pit bull that was not very nice, and 3 little rat terriers and a shih-tzu that were ALWAYS yapping, sometimes as early as 5am!!! this used to really piss me off when i was pregnant and already had a hard time sleeping!! one weekend they left their dogs out all weekend while they were away, and their dogs barked ALL NIGHT. we left a stern letter saying they needed to control their dogs' barking or else we would take further action (i.e. call animal control, which is kind of a big deal here cuz they don't waste any time taking your dogs away!!). we didn't want to go there, but seriously, 2 nights straight they barked, we had to sleep in our guest room which is the furthest from their yard, and we could still hear them, altho much more faintly. they were very rude about it and denied it was their dogs, even after i told her i was looking AT her pit bull while he was growling and bearing his fangs. after that, there was a bit of tension. turns out tho that we weren't the only neighbors they pissed off. and it wasn't just their dogs, their teenaged boys would sit outside in their yard playing death metal really loud and swearing up and down. did i mention we live in a pretty conservative neighborhood with lots of young kids and families?? i felt so horrible for our next door (very sweet, very christian) neighbors!

well, just before we left for california last month, i saw a HUGE moving van in their driveway. no way, i thought...this is some sort of cruel joke or something. i told W what i saw and he said "don't get my hopes up, that's not even funny." well, when we got back from california at the end of september, i was talking to our neighbor and she said they moved out and their house is for sale!!!! OMG!!! our wildest dream come true!! seriously, we always talked about how we love where we live EXCEPT for our asshole neighbors (i could go on and on about why we disliked them so much, but i'll spare you). and now we really love where we live!! we don't have to worry about R being mauled by the mean pit bull (we have low split rail fences, not much protection from a mean dog) while playing in the backyard! when i told W what i had learned, he literally got up and did a dance of joy, and asked me when we could throw a party. hahaha...yes, we were pretty happy, to say the least. now we just have our fingers crossed that whoever buys the house doesn't have shitdogs, or annoying teenagers, or obnoxious adults, hahaha.

:: joyce 10:50 PM [+]::
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.:: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 ::.

when i was planning our wedding 5 years ago (OMG!!!) i knew what i wanted and what i didn't want, afterall, i'd been planning this wedding really for many many years (like most girls, haha). one thing i knew i didn't want was a videographer. wedding videos are boring, cheezy, and really, how often would we actually watch it? then my friend showed me her friend's wedding video. omg...this was like cinematic!! so now i'm hooked on this guy's blog. he's got a video (scroll down a bit to 9/10) shot with a canon 7D, which is the camera that W wants to get next (cuz i won't let him get the very expensive 5D Mark II). amazing that a digital SLR can take that great quality of video!! anyways, if you want to hire jason, i think it might be hard, cuz he's in the philippines!

:: joyce 8:59 PM [+]::
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.:: Thursday, August 20, 2009 ::.

i have found a great website for korean cooking!! she shows you how to cook basic, korean dishes, even kimchi!! and she is adorable! hahaha... she's got a really cute accent, and her videos are fun to watch.

it's no secret i love to cook (and bake), and lately i've been really trying to sharpen my korean cooking skills. i'm nowhere near as awesome as my mom, and probably never will be, but it's nice to know i can throw down a mean pot of yukaejang!! i'm too lazy to make kimchi, plus, the korean market has really good kimchi (without MSG!). it's been pretty easy to convert the korean recipes into vegetarian recipes, so that's been a fun challenge of sorts.

and my newest obsession is vegan baking. i found a great book, the joy of vegan baking, and made delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies. i also got vegan cupcakes take over the world, which is co-written by the author of vegan with a vengeance, another really delicious vegan cookbook. i made vegan cookies and cream cupcakes for our friends, they were a hit and no one had any clue that there wasn't a single animal by-product (or part of an animal) in them. :) love it!!

:: joyce 10:18 PM [+]::
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.:: Thursday, July 09, 2009 ::.

i love this website!! what a great idea, very well executed. it takes slideshows to a whole new, hip, level! :)

funny thing about the name tho. back after i left the ritz-carlton i started looking into starting my own "etail" business, and i named it "animoto!" but obviously i didn't follow thru with it cuz it was a lot more work than i was ready to commit to and i wasn't sure how well it would do. i wanted to do something with the business name but couldn't come up with anything.

:: joyce 8:00 AM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 ::.

i made baby R some adzuki red beans. well, i should say i made a LOT on accident. i needed something to do with all those adzuki beans, so i thought "what about steamed red bean buns?" i found a great recipe online (as well as a great blog!), and they turned out sooo delicious! then i thought, char siu bao sounds good, but without the char siu. i found a recipe for it, and replaced the pork with some boca veggie crumbles, and they were soooo yummy!!! even W had some, and he doesn't like chinese food at all. :) they're even better the next day when i baked them to get the outside brown and crisp. soooo good...

:: joyce 8:36 PM [+]::
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.:: Sunday, June 14, 2009 ::.

a couple months after we moved into our house, we got a package addresed to the former owners. the sender had the same last name, so of course we assumed it was from a relative. well, we didn't have a way of contacting the former owners, so we figured they'd probably talk to the sender and figure out that we got their package. well, a few months went by and the package was still sitting there in our living room, with no one to claim it. it was from some maple syrup place in vermont or something, and it was quite heavy. we thought about sending it back, but again, the box was pretty heavy and we didn't want to spend money on that. our other option was to just open it! :) so we did. we figured it had been months since we got the package, and if the sender didn't know that these ppl, their assumed relatives, had moved, then that was their fault. maybe these ppl didn't want them to know they had moved? i dunno the story. but in any case, we decided it had been long enough and no one had claimed it, so it was now our's. we opened the box and there was a little can of maple syrup, and a package of pancake mix. the syrup was like real deal from a maple tree syrup. it was okay. i thought it didn't have much taste to it, and it was kinda runny. but the pancake mix could be used to make waffles, so i tried it out. we have a thick belgian waffle maker, like the professional kind, so it's hard to find mixes that work well in it. usually they come out very thick and dense, more suitable for the little eggo-type waffle irons. anyway, we tried it in our waffle iron, and seriously, the best waffles ever. very light and fluffy on the inside, crisp on the outside. deeelicious!!! well, we recently used up all of the waffle mix, and i need to order some more. so if you're in the search for some good belgian waffle mix, try out new hope mills! we had the old fashioned pancake mix, but i think i'll try the belgian waffle mix. mmm...i can't wait!!

:: joyce 11:02 AM [+]::
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.:: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 ::.

when i was in 8th grade, i read an article in "sassy" magazine about 2 actresses who had lost weight by not eating meat and drinking lots of water. i wasn't really chubby, but my mom always gave me a hard time about my weight. so i decided to follow their lead and become a vegetarian. my parents didn't understand at the time why i would choose not to eat meat. they were raised in post-war korea, where meat was scarce, something only the rich ate. and after we moved to the US, they took advantage of the abundance and accessibility of meat. i never was a big meat eater, so it wasn't that hard for me to make the switch. but still, my parents didn't get it, so they were always saying things like "why don't you just eat a little bit." i stayed a vegetarian til i was a junior in high school, when i slowly started reincorporating chicken and fish to my diet, and eventually beef and pork (which i hardly eat).

shortly after R was born, W was doing some reading and decided he wanted to go on a plant based diet, the health reasons. well, i wasn't about to make 2 dinners every night, so i followed his lead. but the thing that really got me not wanting to eat meat was reading the book skinny bitch. now, the thought of eating meat kinda grosses me out. i don't consider myself a vegetarian, cuz i still eat fish (i'd rather die than give up eating sushi...oh, spicy tuna roll, how i love thee). and i figure, if i really want some meat, i'm gonna eat it. what's the point of depriving myself of something i really want??? but oddly enough, i haven't had any urge to eat meat, and it's been a good 5 months. altho sometimes i think about eating some mango habanero wings from buffalo wild wings. :)

the hardest thing to give up has been dairy. not so much the milk, but the cheese and yogurt! and ice cream!!! i stopped eating and drinking dairy when i had R, cuz the nursing book i was reading suggested it, due to milk allergies in infants. well, when R started having eczema issues, i not only gave up all dairy, but also wheat and nuts. yikes!!! i'll be really happy when i wean him. REALLY happy. but it's a small sacrifice to give my baby the best start at life. but seriously, i can't wait to have a big slice of cheese pizza...YUM.

so my favorite new food discoveries that i love are:
hemp milk (especially chocolate...soooo creamy and delicious!)
hemp seeds (tons of protein, great with oatmeal)
rice dream frozen dessert (mint pie...think it's its!! soooo good!)
rice chips...my favorite is made by a local company, rice and adzuki bean chips...soooo good!!
quinoa...pronouned "keen-wah", it's a protein packed grain much like couscous.

okay, must go finish my glass of chocolate rice dream. :)

:: joyce 9:09 PM [+]::
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.:: Thursday, February 26, 2009 ::.

yesterday morning i was awoken (woken?) by some a-hole jackhammering at 7:50 in the morning. i was like WTF?! it's not even 8am?! now, i should preface this by saying that baby R isn't the best sleeper, so those rare mornings he lets me sleep in are very much appreciated. so anyway, i hear this very loud jackhammering, and there's no way i can go back to sleep. shortly after, i could hear R waking, so i decided to just get out of bed and start our day. i went downstairs to W's office and said "some a-hole is jackhammering!" and W explained that it wasn't an a-hole jackhammering, it was a bird stuck in our furnace piping!!! what?! how do we get rid of that? who do i call to get the bird out? obviously W turned off our furnace, and thank goodness it's been warm so the heat hasn't been kicking on. EWWWW...can you imagine?! ugh. anyway, the jackhammering bird eventually stopped. which meant he was either dead in our furnace piping, or had somehow gotten out. hmm...how do we find out? W took apart some of the piping last night and saw nothing. strange. maybe he flew out? well, after talking to his friend, we think it wasn't a bird flapping its wings, but a woodpecker! so was this woodpecker in our furnace piping? and why did it sound so loud for me and not so loud anywhere else? well, this morning W was looking at the house behind us (same floor plan, mirror image) and we realized there is no way a bird could've flown into that vent pipe. so was this crazy woodpecker just pecking away at the furnace pipe?! stupid bird. i just hope he never comes back, cuz i'm going to shoot him.

and yesterday we had an abhorist come by and assess our trees again. apparently 2 of our aspens are dead!!! lovely. so there go 2 more trees (we had to cut one down last year because it was too close to our roof and actually damaging it). but if we don't cut them down, they could kill the rest of our trees in front of our house, and our neighbor's trees too!

one bit of good news...i got summonsed for jury duty, but was able to get a postponement since i'm a nursing mom. :) yea for nursing moms!

:: joyce 2:48 PM [+]::
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.:: Friday, January 23, 2009 ::.

hilarious...i'm actually gonna miss his stupid moments!!!

:: joyce 9:51 PM [+]::
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.:: Sunday, January 11, 2009 ::.

W found a cool website called hulu. it has a ton of TV shows (old and current) and movies that you can watch for free! he thinks this is the wave of the future, and cable/satellite will become obsolete and everyone will be watching steaming video online (that is assuming everyone has fast internet connections). i just like that i can watch doogie howser! LOL... it doesn't have every show, but it has a lot, and did i mention it's free? since we cancelled our comcast cable, we don't get the mojo channel anymore, but now we can still watch three sheets! woohoo!! and since we have a media server connected to our TV, we can watch them on a regular TV instead of a little computer screen. they even have a small selection of HD shows, and hopefully more to come. now, if we just could find more time to watch TV again...

:: joyce 1:42 PM [+]::
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