So maybe two weeks ago I went to World Market to browse. I saw these awesome industrial carts which reminded me of these ones I've been eyeing from Ikea. We kind of tossed around the idea of having a low lounger for our balcony and I think this one is probably the lowest you can go. Haha. I really like these sail boats for some reason. :) I also loved these mini storage dispensers! They sell larger ones at Ikea but I love the size of these. Would be perfect for things like sunflower seeds (which we always keep in stock for salads) or anything that you don't buy a lot of at a time. And finally I saw these ceramic berry baskets. At $5 each they're a great value compared to similar ones that Anthropologie sells for $14!
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Life has been busy and I'm playing catch-up with the blog so here goes! We celebrated David's 32nd birthday last Monday. :) I attempted to make him breakfast but I burnt his favorite thing - the sausage. :( I also tried making his famous french toast but it was obvious it was done by the sous chef. And I also fried some eggs. Thankfully the strawberries we got from Farmer's Market were pretty and yummy. :) Then we came home and I gave him his tease-present -- some silicone baking cups. David loves making cupcakes! It's a tease present because the real present wouldn't arrive on time. :( I also attempted to draw a birthday card which looked like the work of a 3rd grader. *sigh. Thankfully he's really considerate so he was gushing about all this while I knew that everything was 2nd rate. I cooked a simple dinner with my go-to entertaining meal: chicken piccata. It's seriously the easiest thing to make and hard to mess up. I also made a simple salad with the delicious Sungold tomatoes we got from the Farmer's Market. After dinner we went to the local theater to see The Avengers. Yes, we're the only people we know who haven't seen it. It was good! Now I want to see the rest of Marvel movies like Thor, Captain America and The Hulk. We already saw Iron Man. And because I don't bake cakes, I got a few pints of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream. David's favorite ice cream flavor is Mint Chocolate Chip and I read online reviews saying that B&Js is the best. And I have to agree! It's a really good one. :) And that was how David turned 32. :)
We had a socialization-filled Memorial's Day Weekend. Saturday night we had dinner at Joy with all our church friends. Wow, really good food and we only paid $12.50 each after tax & tip. I really don't know how could be this inexpensive because the food is really good and we were stuffed to our gills at the end. I made the mental note to take our parents there when they come. They'll like it. Sunday morning was our monthly morning prayer at church followed by a visit to the local rehab center. We go there once a month to sing hymns and share a simple message. We're currently doing the "I am's" and this week was "I am the Son of Man." It was an peculiar visit in that we only had 2 people join us for service in the beginning. Usually there is a room full of residents who would join us. We later found out that there was a Catholic bishop in town giving a service at the same time. After we got home from the visit we relaxed a little and then got to work because we were going to a friend's house for BBQ later that afternoon. We planned to bring lemonade and red velvet cupcakes (per our friends' request). I went to the garden and plucked 13 lemons from the bush. They smelled so nice. The fresh, sweet lemon scent must run through the branches as well. David made the red velvet cupcakes while I assisted by holding the mixer and basically mixed whatever he threw into the mixing bowl. We made two dozen cupcakes. I tried frosting the cupcake for the very first time and it was a lot of fun. Reminds me of the summer that I worked at Braum's Ice Cream. Putting whipped cream on sundaes was my favorite thing to do. We decided not to put too much frosting on the cupcakes so it won't be too sweet and overpower the flavor. So a small dollop is all it took. The red is just so pretty against the cream cheese frosting. While I was in the garden getting lemons I noticed that our tomatoes have grown tall. They were all below the first ring when planted and now they're well past the first ring. This year we have Sungold, Early Girl and Brandywine. There is already a Brandywine growing! Brandywine is an heirloom, slicer tomato and they can get as big as 1.5 lbs each and would probably take a while to get to maturity. After the cupcakes were done, we relaxed a little and then headed over to our friends' for BBQ & fellowship. They had 30+ people at their house and everyone had a great time catching up and talking. We got home at around 11pm. We are planning to meet up with a friend on the next day to go to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve + Half Moon Bay so we did a little bit of research on restaurants before we went to bed. Monday morning, we got up at around 9am or so. Went to Philz to get some coffee and then picked up the friend to head over to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. It's a public county park and during low tide, it becomes a tide pool. As usual, there are lots of families scaling the rocks in search of sea creatures. The weather was really awesome. It wasn't cold and it wasn't windy. It was a really nice, clear day. We saw this purple starfish. And purple sea urchins (there are 4 in the picture below). We got there at around noon and low tide was 9:44 am so parts of it was already under water. But I love how the grass and the seaweed ebb to and fro to the gentle rhythm of the water. Later we also saw an orange starfish. It always amazes me what shapes the starfish contorts themselves into even though they have a hard exoskeleton. I love this variety of starfish we have here. The white spots on their skin literally look like stars. There were quite a few smaller crabs in the water but we also saw this dead crab that was probably 5" across. Sad sight. Since the Marine Reserve was close to Half Moon Bay, we dropped by and walked the downtown since our friend has never been. There are a couple of cute stores in HMB and I was liking this 3-panel wall "art". It was basically wood boards that were carved to make those trees. I liked it because it has a peaceful feel to it and I like the wood. I was wondering if it would work above our sofa. The same shop also had these wood pieces that they planted succulents on. Again, love how it's all natural. Another store had Dash & Albert rugs. First time I've seen them in person. I like the colros of those stripes but they're a bit expensive. Then on the way home, we stopped by a couple of our favorite nurseries. They had this funny plant that has tons of berries on it. They are just amazingly compact and prolific! Then there are these carnivorous plants that had my husband at hello. Actually I admit I quite like them myself. They're so interestingly shaped. I would say I'd feel sorry for bugs that fall into their throats, but I'd be lying. I'm not a fan of bugs. Finally we went to a dessert place and had this really yummy dessert that had black glutinous rice, coconut milk and fresh mangoes. I'm determined to try making it home. Wish I took a picture. Then we went home and relaxed. We've been listening to The Help on audio book and we're hooked. The story is so riveting and sometimes I catch myself wondering what will happen next when I'm at work.
Anyway, that was our long weekend. It truly felt long and work felt so long ago and far away. Psalm 14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Psalm 53:2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Our plants have been doing very well. :) Our lettuce have grown about an inch now. And since we got the Mesclun mix (meaning we have a couple of varieties), different varieties continue to sprout. Here's one of them. No idea which variety it is but it's so cute. And here's another one. :) The beefsteak tomato has several flowers. :) Can't wait to eat a nice big juicy tomato! And a mum that somehow showed up in the backyard is budding! We still can't figure out how we got a mum in this pot but it is thriving. Oh the mysteries of plant propagation. :) And some strawberry flowers have given way to fruit. And lastly... the chives have sprouted!!! I just learned they're bulb plants! So that means we'll be getting them every year. I hope they will survive and become nice and healthy. :)
Okay, before anyone gets too excited I'm just getting started on organizing with the Expedit. So it's not done. At all. So keep your expectations low. Here is how it looks. I guess it's not too bad considering it looked like this the other day? Actually I have no qualms with the way the old bookcase looked. It's nice. I love the white and the legs. It's just that we really need more storage space and I knew that I want to take advantage of the unused vertical space available. So back to the Expedit. We have 4 magazine holders but only one actually holds magazines (all my Martha ones). The other 3 have other cool jobs. One holds all our printing paper, Avery labels, resume paper, etc. The second one is holding our construction paper. And that folder at the end holds all the construction paper scraps. And the last one holds our gift bags and manila envelops. And all that fits in one shelf! Amazing right? I was pretty surprised how roomy these magazine holders are! I was pretty sure I couldn't squeeze all the construction paper in one, but they fit quite comfortably! I am so pleased with this arrangement. Definitely a space saver! Wish I did this earlier. I also organized my fabric in a nice wire basket that I got years ago from Crate & Barrel. It's perfect. I love it. I should get another one to put in another shelf so it'll look balanced. I do need a glue holder! I have like 4 bottles of fabric glue, tacky glue, etc. So the other wire basket can hold my glue. :) And... that's pretty much all I did. The rest of the white boxes already have stuff in it like mailing supplies (stamps, address labels, etc) and other important stuff. :) So all I did was stack them . They may change around as I go along. And before you feel too happy for me, here's what our office looks like now. Yea, it looks like the closet vomited its contents on the floor. But I'm really happy because there will be so much more room to store things! So I'm looking forward to clearing things out and finally organizing the closet!
I'm not sure if I should feel lucky or guilty, but I just got these two items that were on my wish list. The white 2x4 Expedit is $10 off thanks to our Ikea Family card. I've never seen this one on sale so of course I just bought it. I assembled it last night. (For any of you who will be doing this, do yourself a favor and buy a mallet.) it's already storing a ton of stuff. Show you guys later when I'm done. :) I also got the Pottery Barn Tavern Stool which is $20 off. Don't know about you but it's rare to find something I really want from PB on sale. We went to the store to pick it up last night and I think it's much better than the Asian garden stools. :) So the guilty part? Yea, I'm way over my furnishing budget again. *sigh. I suppose I'm more American than Chinese after all. I need to go on another home furnishing moratorium. And I need to do a lot more sit-ups and walk more to earn more health awards!
We had a great weekend. After church on Saturday we had a joint Sr Class fellowship between East Bay & Pacifica. It was really fun and I think everyone had a great time. I want to do it again! I woke up at 10 am on Sunday. *sigh. I think my body somehow knows that Sunday = sleep-in day because I can't seem to get out of bed before 10. Whereas during the weekdays I automatically feel awake at around 8 or so. Our bodies can be so strange/clever like that. We had a pretty leisurely morning. I went to water our plants. Then had some coffee. We just took things really slowly. At around 1:30pm or so we decided to get some lunch and go to Summerwinds (a local nursery). I was out to buy tomatoes. And I got 3 of them: Brandywine, Early Girl and Sungold. I forgot to take a picture. We were excited the Endless Summer hydrangeas have arrived! And it was on sale!!! We've been awaiting their arrival because we have a perfect spot for them. The sale is pretty awesome! It was basically 25% off! So we took these two beauties home. :) I'm so excited about these! Will plant them soon as we improve the soil we have in the ground because right now it's like hardened clay. After Summerwinds we went to Nijiya (Japanese supermarket) to pick up some ingredients. The consignment store 2 doors down was open so we also paid a visit. They had these garden stools that I've been seeing everywhere online. I know that I want to get something that can be both a side table and stool so these definitely fit that bill. It was nice to see some in person and realize that I really don't like them. Haha. I don't like how they're very glossy. David says they look way too Asian and I'd have to agree with him. I'm not loving them. I'd rather get these ones from Pottery Barn (the white one, of course). They're basically the same price (around $100). All in all nothing really spoke to me at the consignment store except maybe for this "rustic" bench. It's funny how the planks of wood look new. But it's not bad. I am on the "rustic" & "industrial" bandwagons. Then we went home and prepped for dinner because this little guy and his family were coming over. :) He's super cute and said "dun" (Chinese for "light") when he saw our lamp. He's also intrigued by how if you pull the lever the light goes on/off. Easy baby to entertain. He's also a smart one, recognizing letters in the alphabet already. And that was our weekend. :) A nice, full weekend. And I daresay -- a relaxing one, too!
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