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I tasted a lot of salt water this weekend - and it wasn't even from the beach. Don't you wish that tears tasted like cupcakes? Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Brian and I watched the movie "PS, I Love You" last night. Maki had posted about it on her blog, so we decided to give it a try. I was a blubbering mess through the whole movie! And it wasn't just little tears, I was sobbing. Big, ugly sobbing. The couple in the movie reminded me so much of Brian and me. There's a scene near the beginning where they're being playful with one another in their bedroom, and I swore that it could have been a scene out of a movie about me and Brian's life.
This morning I woke up with swollen eyes. They were so puffy that I looked like I had been in a boxing match. Not a pretty sight. To console myself because of my horrid appearance, I decided to bake some cupcakes. I made some delicious Butterscotch cupcakes, and was all set to make the icing, but didn't have all the ingredients I needed. I had some vanilla yogurt lying around, so I spooned that over the top and they tasted AMAZING! To make 18 of these little things, just melt 1/3 cup butter and mix it with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar. Then add 2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, a handful of butterscotch chips, and a bit of white chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup of milk. Mix that all together and then spoon it into your cupcake tins and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Now this is what I wish tears tasted like!
Are there any movies that make you bawl? And when you do - what would you want your tears to taste like?
Don't you just love making new friends? I have always adhered to the saying "the more the merrier" - I was never one to be into cliques. I went to a small high school in Australia - our graduating class only had about 50 people - so it was really too small to be cliquey. Sure, everyone had their close friends that they spent more time with, but there were never any exclusive little clubs that you see in all those teen movies.
I am excited about this swap - for those of you participating, I would like to introduce you to your new friend! For the most part, these partners were generated through random.org, the only parts that were controlled were that I made sure partners from the last swap weren't paired up again, and that those of you who don't have a blog/website, only email, are partnered with others who don't blog (for you non-bloggers, check your email - I emailed you your partners details). So here we go!
1. Tammy & Lori
2. Lena & Jennifer
3. Jessica Marie & Rhiannon M
4. Mo & Michelle
5. Maggi & Tracy
6. Kotori & Summer
7. Adele & Sam
8. Nicole & Kelsy C
9. Sherie & Claudia
10. Diana & Christine
11. Penelope & Pamela
12. Bekah & Tiara
13. Kylie D & Brooke14. Lyndsey & Amanda
15. Meg & Heather
16. Froile & Daniella
17. Mads & Viv
18. Sarah & Lindsey
19. Photojoy & Jo
20. Tina & Belinda
21. Nicole R & Kle
22. Kaye & Dionne
23. Truly Smitten & Kristin
24. Joop & Lisette
25. Maria & Kylie A
26. Julia & Coral
27. Dana & Louise
28. Brooke & Bethany
29. Lily & Jessica M
Ok, so there you go. So get in contact with each other, get to know one another - I can't wait to see what you swap! Don't forget that the MAIL BY DATE is Monday, June 15. Have fun!
(Quick note before I continue with my post: Today at midnight is the last day to sign up for the Summerly Swap - please sign up here if you want to participate. Also, people in Southern California, if you want to come to the Bloggers Lunch, please mention it here and I can give you more info).
I love to travel. I caught the travel bug when I was a little girl. My family would go on an overseas vacation every second year - so I got used to hurrying through airports, bursting with anticipation, wondering what I would discover at each new country I visited. Each city has it's own charm, it's own personality. - and I am always drawn to places that have a mix of the old and the new.
Pasadena, California is one of those cities. It is the first city in California that I really fell in love with, and is one of my favorite cities in the world. It's a menagerie of beautiful old buildings with sweet little cafes and delicatessens wedged among these amazing displays of grand architecture. That's why I decided to move there 7 years ago.
I love admiring the ornate churches, and watching all sorts of people scatter across the streets on their individual missions. It's a pretty Little city that has Big city appeal - you get the best of both worlds. I am so excited that I will be heading back there for a visit next month - I can't wait!
What are some of your favorite cities?
You all know me well enough to know that I am not one to go by the saying "Eat to Live" - I am definitely one that LIVES TO EAT!
This lovely long weekend, Brian and I enjoyed the simple pleasures in life - coffee, cheese, strawberries and each other.
For lunch, we had simple sandwiches - and Brian, being half Korean, wanted egg in his sandwiches (every Korean I know is mad about eggs!). So we just sandwiched fried eggs, ham and cheese between yummy garlic bread. Garlic bread just isn't garlic bread without parsley, so if you've never made it before - make sure to mix in some fresh parsley with your butter, olive oil and garlic - it makes such a huge difference!
Since it was a hot day, we wanted a light dessert - but didn't feel like sorbet or frozen yogurt, so instead we made some meringues. I love how light they are, and they don't leave you all bloated and full. To make 6 little ones of your own, just take 3 egg whites and beat them until they're all peaky and stiff, along with half a teaspoon of salt, a drop of vanilla, and two tablespoons of sugar. Once that's done, just spoon it all onto some wax paper on a baking tray (6 blobs should do it) and bake it at 215 degrees for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Once they're done, let them cool a bit, and then spoon over them a mix of 8 large sliced strawberries, a dash of lime juice, 8 sliced green grapes and two tablesoons sugar - they should come out looking as lovely as these above.
OK, so what was on your Memorial Day menu?
Signups for the Summerly Swap are still open until this Thursday at midnight. If you haven't yet, and want to participate, please sign up here. Also, Californians - Sunday June 14th is the SoCal Bloggers Lunch in Glendale. If you are wanting more information on that, please also let me know here.
(Thanks for the Blog Love - Lyndsey and Kathy!)
Yes, it's that time again...
Time for the Summerly Swap!
For those of you who are new here and don't know about it, I hosted a Springtime Swap a few months ago, and there was such a great response, that I decided to make it a seasonal thing. Basically what happens is that through random.org, I partner up all the people wanting to participate, and then everyone either makes (or for those who aren't crafty - buys) little goodies to send to their partner. It's a lot of fun, and a great way to meet new people. See here for some of the results of the last swap.
Here are the RULES:
1. We will be swapping a small collection of lovely little things that we have either made, or purchased from a local store. It is up to you what you send, but please don't send anything perishable. I would also rather no-one send anything possibly breakable, unless they are SURE they can pacakge it really well.
2. International participants are more than welcome. If there are some of you here in the US who don't want to swap internationally, please send me an email at spotty_zebra@hotmail.com, and I will make sure to give you an American partner. If you don't email me, I will assume you are ok with an international partner.
3. The total price of items should be $15 US (or your currency's equivalent). If you wish to spend more, that's ok, but please be aware that you can't be upset if your partner only spends $15 - that's the set price
4. I realize that there are some of you who might comment who don't want to take part - so if you DO want to participate, please be sure that in your comment you mention that you want to be included in the swap.
5. The deadline for signups is Thursday, May 28th. I will announce the partners the next day.
6. I will make sure that the people who participated in the last swap don't get the same partners as last time, so they can be introduced to a new friend!
7. After the pairs are announced, it's up to you to comment on each other's blogs to swap email addresses and mailing information. You could also let each other know if there's anything unusual you might need to share (eg. allergic to wool, or whatever). I am setting a MAIL BY DATE so that no one has to wait months to receive their goodies, and so that each person gets their stuff around the same time. The MAIL BY DATE is Monday, June 15. That give us about 2 weeks to organize our goodies.
8. It would be great if you'd post about what you received. I will post links to everyone's blogs about their swaps once they have all been received.
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Also, for those of you who live or will be in Southern California on Sunday June 14, I will be hosting a Bloggers Lunch, and I would LOVE to meet you all! It will be in the city of Glendale, so if you would like to come, please comment on this post and I can email you more information.
Happy Hump Day, people!
I am sure that most of you have purchased from, or at least have heard of the wonder that is Etsy. I love how it encourages and supports artists from all over the world who want to earn an income doing what they love. I first heard about Etsy in the middle of last year. I was looking up ideas for Bridesmaids gifts for my wedding, and I noticed a lot of people were talking about this thing called Etsy. So I checked it out and immediately got excited about all the handmade goodies people were selling.
I stumbled upon Pamela's lovely store 'PamelaSusan' and immediately knew what I wanted to include among my gifts for my bridesmaids. It was a very dark, almost oily green Freshwater Cultured Coin Pearl necklace with a Poppy Topaz set in the middle. I then noticed that she also had a birthstone collection, where she personalized white pearl necklaces with birthstones, so I asked if she could put my Bridesmaid's stones in the green pearl. They looked LOVELY! So when my mum asked me what I wanted her to get me for my own wedding necklace, I chose something from Pamela's store again, and here it is:
I had such a great experience with Pamela, she was so friendly and sweet (you can also see how lovely she is in her blog). God has definitely blessed her with great talent - not only does she make jewelry, but she makes pottery for fun too! With her jewelry, she makes most of it at night once she's put her two lovely little chickadee kidlets to bed, and another tidbit - her favorite dessert is a good old Apple Crisp with vanilla bean icecream dumped on top. Yum!
Another Etsy jewelry artist that I love that I have only just discovered in recent weeks is Niki from 'StellaAndLux'. Niki is vibrant, and fun-loving and it reflects through her jewelry. One of her earliest childhood memories is making necklaces at her kindergarten birthday party with neon plastic beads, so it seems that jewelry was in her destiny! I fell in love with the daintiness yet randomness of her jewlery. The beads aren't in a pattern, but yet they all seem like they're in the perfect place. I am wearing one of her bracelets right now, and it looks like something out of a pretty dream - here it is:
And again, because I love dessert so much - I had to find out what Niki enjoys - and she's a caramel apple girl, all the way!
So now that I have shared with you my two favorite Etsy Jewelry artists - who are some of yours?
Even though the Great Depression was a rough time in history, if it wasn't for that difficult time - we wouldn't have weekends, and I LOOOOVE weekends!
Kristin over at Contented Me posted about six things that made her happy today and tagged me to play along too. It's 9am on a Monday morning, so not much has happened for me, so I am going to blog about six things that made me happy over the weekend.
1. THE WORLD'S BIGGEST STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. We went to the Strawberry Festival with friends on Saturday and ate a huge piece of their shortcake. It was massive, so there was sooo much cake to go around. The pieces they were serving were gigantic!
2. EATING CHOCOLATE CEREAL OUT IN GREAT WEATHER. Who doesn't like the idea of sneaking a bit of dessert into their breakfast? This cereal is one of my favorites. We don't get it often, because it's not the best thing to have every morning, but it's a nice little splurge, and even better when eaten outside in the sun (on a non-stinking-hot day)!
3. LETTERPRESS GOODIES. Suann at Simplesong sent me a lovely little gift over the weekend. I love presents out of the blue, especially when they are delicate letterpress pretties! I love the indentations on the spongy paper, and the milky colors - her letterpress pieces are literally like pretty chocolates. The cards she sent are so lovely that I don't want to use them for what they're made for - I don't want to give them to anyone - I want them for me!! And Suann's blog is just as lovely as her products - full of inspiring images and posts. So go check out her shop and blog if you haven't!
4. TIME WITH MY HUSBO. Brian really is my best friend. Some people get married and then end up becoming best friends with their spouse, but Brian and I were best friends for 3 years before we started dating, so I literally did marry my best friend. Weekends feel like a vacation with him, because everything else in the world stops. It sounds corny, but it's true. I am soppily, disgustingly in love with this man!
5. ANTHROPOLOGIE. I think this place makes most women happy. Brian and I went there yesterday and picked up a few bits and pieces as gifts, and I swear, this store is the perfect example of the word PRETTY at work. Everything is so dainty and girly and earthy and homey. I love it!
6. FRUIT. Once again, fruit hit the spot for me this weekend. It's that Texas Grapefruit!
So there are my six things. Instead of tagging six people to list their six things, I am tagging any of you who read this who wanna join in. What six things made you happy this weekend?
It is STINKING HOT in Houston lately. I feel like it's Summer, and it's only going to get hotter.
It's hard to be a lady in the sweltering summer. Even though I'd like to be elegant and polite, all I want to do is slouch around and snap at everyone who annoys me. It's easy when it's cold - I get to dress up in sophisticated coats and drink hot coffee in the middle of the day (which always puts a shine on things!), but in the summer, the heat is EVERYWHERE. The very THOUGHT of a hot latte in the middle of the day makes me wince, and the idea that something that I usually love so much is making me wince, gets me frustrated! I am afraid that ladylikeness (not sure what the real word is) is one of the casualties of Summer.
Yesterday I was at the Post Office to send off some Etsy orders, and when I got there the line had at about ten people ahead of me. At least another ten people got there at the same time as me and formed in line behind me. I looked ahead and saw that there was only one person serving people at the counter. ONE person for at least 21 waiting customers. I saw two other post office employees come out from the back room and I sighed with relief, thinking that they would be helping out - but no. "We're taking our break now" - they said to the one lady that was serving. I was so hot from the air-conditionless post office, and so frustrated that they were leaving that I wanted to scream. The people behind me were muttering about it, and I chimed in - "They are so inconsiderate, this happens all the time!" And I deliberately said it loudly so the two employees about to leave could hear me. And then all the way home I was grumbling about it to myself (summer also makes me hold grudges!!). But then when I got home I realized that my statement was also inconsiderate. Who knows - maybe they had been busy all day and that was the only time they could get a break? Whether or not that's true, I was accusing people of being inconsiderate through my own inconsideration. I blame the summer!
What are your casualties of Summer?
So I have decided that my life is like a Flea Market.
For someone as detailed and organized as I am, my life has pretty much come together with a hodgepodge of people, experiences and places all thrown together. Most of the things that I planned for my life have totally been turned upside down - but in the very best way possible. I see my life so far as a series of tables, full of trinkets and wares that's origins are completely unknown to me. But while I have no idea where they came from, each piece is meticulously labeled by God in some invisible ink.
There are the times I felt like a broken piece of China that no one wanted to buy, and then the times that I felt like a beautiful prize that people were actually fighting over - it's amazing what diverse but beautiful things can happen in our lives, and what God has lead us through. Quirky friends, funny neighbors, caring teachers, amazing vacations, loving mothers, ethical bosses - there are just sooooo many things clustered together to make up my little flea market.
I am so blessed and completely honored by this flea market that I have - how all these seemingly random colors come together and form a beautiful picture.
Tell me about your flea market!
On Saturday Brian was a victim of Restaurant Psychology.
Years ago I read a Menu Design book that talked about Restaurant Psychology. They mentioned that a lot of upscale restaurants leave out the dollar sign on their menu prices. They did tests where people went to two different establishments, and both places had the same prices, but one had dollar signs beside their prices, and the other didn't. Customers perceived the one with the dollar signs to be more expensive. And then this weekend Brian was reading an article about it and was telling me about how restaurants name dishes in their menus a certain way to make them seem like they are worth more money. They fill the descriptions with flowery words that make the meal seem more exotic and desirable, and therefore people are more likely to want to pay more money for it. The funny thing is that on Saturday, we found a perfect example of this.
We really felt like ice cream, but didn't have the ingredients at home to make our own, so we went out for gelato. As usual, I tasted a few before deciding which flavors I wanted (I ended up with a scoop of the Chocolate Souffle flavor, and a scoop of the Brown Sugar Waffle Cone flavor - yum!), but Brian saw one with an interesting name and picked based on the name alone. The lady behind the counter asked him if he wanted to try it, and he declined. He chose Orange Saffron along with another flavor, and ended up not liking the Orange Saffron at all.
"Why didn't you taste it first?" I asked him.
"Well I like Orange, and the name sounded cool, so I was sure it would be good."
And so there you have it - another victim of Restaurant Psychology! What about you? Have you had a similar experience?
Fruit is such a natural candy.
When we go to the movies, we munch on popcorn, candy, or packets of chips - and we can't stop reaching into that bag and pulling out another little piece. Imagine what the US or any other "junk food" nation would be like if instead of popcorn, we pulled out grapes. Or berries.
Our refrigerator is always well-stocked with fruit, because besides eating it straight how it comes off the tree, I put fruit in anything I can - cookies, cakes, salads, sauces - everything. I love how this time of year more fruits appear in the Grocery store - all that fresh new color, dripping with juices. Yum! I swoon over mango, and cheer over white peaches... what are some of your favorites?
Friday afternoon I was greeted by a lovely package in my mailbox. A brown envelope with friendly handwriting on the front, the type of handwriting that you want all your mail to have, instead of that font that the electric company uses.
It was a package from one of my favorite bloggers - Lindsey! I was so excited to receive it, it was her Pay-it-Forward package (if you want to know what that means, see her post here). Now let me tell you a little about Miss Lindsey - she is such a talented artist, her watercolor pictures are stunning. I love the way she captures light in her paintings. She also works wonders with felt, and can pretty much make anything with it. She has such amazing talent, and a big heart to match (every girl needs a coordinating outfit on the inside too, not just the outside!). I absolutely INSIST that you go check out her etsy store... but in the meantime, take a little peeklet at what she sent me:
Impressive, aren't they? She made these herself! I fell in love with the little birdlet instantly, and have named him Mister Linderman. On the back of the painting, Lindsey wrote a sweet, heartfelt message that really made me feel special. And then there's the lovely little soft felt bowl. In my favorite color green, it now chills out in my living room where I can see it every day. Thanks, Lindsey!
So that covers the Lindsey part of my post - but what's a post on City of Dionne without some sort of Food reference? Well here it is - a Crawfish Boil.
Yup, Brian and I went to our first ever Crawfish Boil this weekend. Our friend bought 100 pounds of Crawfish, lotsa corn and potatoes, and hosted a fun backyard party where everyone had their fill. The experts taught us how to eat them, and what parts the die-harders eat, and what parts the conservative fans eat. I ate like a Louisiana Native, but Brian didn't like the idea of some of the parts he was eating, so he just ate the main part of the meat. It was delicious, and a lot of fun!
Do you have snippets of childhood memories that seem to be little flashes, but not a whole scene? I do. I have these frozen pictures in my mind, but I don't remember the situation, or any other details other than what is in that snapshot.
I can clearly remember a house. The inside of a house that I was in when I was about 2 years old. I know I was two, because when I described the house to my Mum, she told me that it was the house of my aunt in the Philippines, and I haven't been there since I was 2. But I didn't remember anything about my aunt that lived there - just exactly where the chairs were, how many bedrooms there were, the scroll-work on the front gate, and the rickety ceiling fans.
But I also have a lot of memories where I can remember the whole scene. The whole day's events.
I remember when we moved into the first house that Mum and Dad designed. I had a window and a balcony in my room that faced the front yard, and I would watch my Dad play with my brother outside while I did my homework. Then when I was done, I would take my brother to the beach and we would splash each other with salt water and would get sand and water all over the house when we got home. I would play pranks on my sister, and gang up on her with my cousin, laughing and locking her out on the balcony - so many good memories.
I kept a journal for a few years, but I wish I had kept it up for longer. I think it's interesting what our brain remembers - how some things we can recall minute by minute, and other things are just fragments of pictures.
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