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This month I have received a lot of Thank You cards.
I love the idea behind Thank You cards, whether it be thanking someone for helping you move, for a wedding gift, for being a friend... Not to negate the importance of a voiced expression of thanks - it's just that a card has that tangibility about it, where you can record your expressions of thanks and it can be reread for years to come. I recently discovered a new Thank You Cards shop by that very name.
The Thank You Cards Shop is run by Amy, who has the same thoughts as I do about the humble thank you card. She is a talented artist, and what better way to put her creative gifts to use than to use them to depict gratitude and thanks? She tells me that her husband is the king of cards, putting so much effort into every single card that he writes, always finding the perfect words to say - and her beautifully designed cards are the perfect canvas for his eloquent words, or any words of thanks that you would write in yours. 
When creating her cards, Amy just lets herself relax. She'll take time out to go for a walk for inspiration, or to drink a comforting cup of tea - she likes to spend time doing the things that she is thankful for, and then naturally the ideas come to her. One of her favorite movie scenes of all time is the Feather scene in Forrest Gump. She loves the beautiful simplicity of that lone feather floating into the scene. She showed me this link explaining the meaning of this scene, and it's lovely.
Amy is generously giving away a thank you card set each to three lucky readers. To enter, please leave a comment here telling me something that someone has done for you that deserves a thank you card, and also let me know which set you'd pick if you won. I will announce the winner next week.
(PS. The winner of the Gold-hearted Girl Giveaway is Dancing Branflake. And more good news - Gold-hearted Girl is holding a special for all City Of Dionne readers through until April 1st. Just use the code CITYOFDIONNE15 to receive 15% off your order!)
I love hearing people's engagement stories, don't you?
Our friends Jenni and Adam got engaged and will be getting married in October. They asked me to take their engagement photos recently, and here's the lovely couple:
Along with Jenni and Adam's engagement pics, this engagement video that has been making the blog and facebook rounds has made me reminisce about when Brian proposed to me.
Brian and I both lived in California, but then he moved to Houston for work - so for two years we had a long-distance relationship. For the proposal, Brian had set it up about a month in advance. One of our friends had a boss who had recently broken his back in a car accident, and while it was terrible for him, it worked in conveniently for Brian's plan. Our friend called me up telling me that since his boss had broken his back, he could nolonger use his two massage tickets that he had, and he had given them to him. He asked me if I wanted to go. I had never had a professional massage before, so I jumped at the chance.
A week later, off we went. I was expecting him to take me to some dinky little hole-in-the-wall place, but instead we ended up at at the amazing Montage Resort in Laguna Beach (Laguna Beach happens to be where Brian and I met, but I didn't take notice of that detail right then). Immediately I called Brian to gush to him about how gorgeous the place was and how I couldn't believe that I was able to get a free spa day there. We had gotten there a little late, so when we got there I asked if there were any other massage spaces that day. The lady looked down the list and said to me "What name is your reservation under?" I looked at my friend and then said to the lady "Evan Winter."
She looked down the list and said "oh yes, there you are. No problem, we can move you back half an hour." My friend had a weird expression on his face, but I made nothing of it, and excitedly went in to the women's side for my massage. When I was done, I came out all relaxed in my robe, and standing there was Brian, all dressed up in a tie, and all the people in the spa were watching us with excited faces. I knew right then that he must have planned this whole thing and was about to propose.
But no, he didn't propose right then. He whisked me off on a lovely wine and cheese tasting, and then we went to a couples cooking class. After making a beautiful dinner, he took me down to the beach where we first met and pulled out a ring that he had custom designed for me. We were the only people on the beach, and light from the hotel above was shining down on us, and that is where he proposed. It was soooo romantic!
*The reason why my friend had given a weird look was because Brian hadn't put a reservation under Evan Winter, so he was worried that the surprise would be ruined when the lady didn't see his name. Coincidentally, ANOTHER Evan Winter was scheduled for a massage that day! What are the odds?!!
*Another weird thing - Brian had picked up the ring the day he was flying out to Cali, but it was taking longer than expected. By the time he got out of the ring store, he only had ten minutes to go until his flight was meant to leave. He hurried to the airport and didn't get there until 45 minutes later, thinking he'd have to try and get another flight. But lo and behold - when he arrived, he saw on the monitor that his flight had been delayed. As soon as he boarded the plane the captain announced that they were ready for take off! God must have REALLY wanted Brian to propose that day, hahahaha!
Do you have any engagement stories you'd like to share?
What are your favorite things to cook?
I have some favorite recipes, but I also like to experiment, so rarely do I have time to cook my favorites because I am always looking for new favorites.
My husband Brian is half Korean, and his mother introduced me to the world of Korean Food. I love all the flavors and all the little side dishes they have. Have you ever tried Bi Bim Bap? It's a Korean street food. Basically it's white rice in a sizzling pan, topped with piles of different vegetables and beef, and then topped with a fried egg, sunny-side up. Before eating, you just break the yolk, and mix all the vegetables, beef and yolk in with the rice. It's soooo good!
I decided to try and make it for the first time last night, after finding this recipe here. I highly recommend it. Soooo good!
Something that is also relatively new to me are grits. We don't eat grits in Australia, so I never knew about them until moving here to the US. I don't really consider them very exciting, so I decided to make it my mission to make them yummy - so I made some the other night along with shrimp and bacon. If you'd like my recipe, meet me after the jump...
If you have any links to some recipes you think I might like to try, please leave them in the comments. I am always on the lookout for new and interesting things to cook/bake.
These are my three favorite colors for the summer season coming up. Teal. Coral. Gold. I love the how the teal and coral manage to hint at pastel, and yet are bright and vivacious like the summer sun. And of course I love gold as a metallic accent. So you all know what jewelry colors I will be sporting over the summer.
Have you all checked out the Gold-Hearted Girl blog? Michelle is one of my favorite Cali bloggers. She is always posting such inspiring images, and gorgeous finds from across the net. Well now she has opened an Etsy store selling her jewelry creations, and whaddya know - a lot of her colors are my summer color must-haves!
Isn't it unique? I love finding jewelry that has character, and isn't everywhere. Michelle actually first started selling jewelry when she was a little sprout at 11 years old! Her mother always encouraged her to explore arts and crafts, and now Michelle's jewelry is available to us on Etsy.
Her inspiration comes from nature - from the trees, flowers, summers in Yosemite Valley... all the natural beauty in this world. So of course it's no surprise that most of her favorite hobbies involve the outdoors, like running, hiking, biking and kayaking. Secondly, she inspired by art. Viewing art, art history - Michelle is a self-confessed Musuem Junkie. And this lovely blogger also has the Travel Bug. Having been to China, Costa Rica and Canada, her next stop is studying abroad in Rome.
Michelle is giving one lucky reader one of her creations. The winner will have their choice between either an Indian Summer Bracelet in black or ivory, or a Little Turq Necklace. To enter, please leave a comment here telling me what your Summer colors will be, and which piece of jewelry you would like if you won. I will announce the winner next week.
Dinner, lunch, breakfast, desserts... The last few days have been a major cooking frenzy for me.
I like to consider myself a creative person, and with all my creative pursuits (whether it be my graphic design, illustration, cooking, etc.), I have sudden bursts of creative inspiration and find myself needing to work on it that exact moment. Well this weekend I was in cooking/baking mode, and was creating faster than we could eat. Our apartment was a cooking machine this weekend!
I had never prepared a whole fish before - I had only ever cooked with fillets, so this weekend I was determined to try a whole fish, and found a gorgeous Red Snapper at the market which was calling my name. It was so simple to prepare and so fresh and delicious. All I did was slice some incisions along both sides of the fish and stuff them with lemon slices, and a mixture of fresh herbs and olive oil. Then I just brushed the fish with more olive oil and sea salt and pepper.
Another thing I made was an awesome Miso Soup. Whenever I have Miso Soup at a restaurant, I always enjoy the flavor, but find the soup a little lacking in content. So I decided to add buckwheat noodles, pork, onions, shallots, and lots of fresh herbs to mine, making it a perfect warm-weather soup with all the fresh cilantro and green onion.
Then there was dessert. I had mentioned in an earlier post that I was participating in a Bake Sale fundraiser, and decided to bake something simple and classic - nothing too out-there or different - I wanted to make sure that it was something that most people would like. So I settled on vanilla cupcakes filled with vanilla yogurt and topped with a fresh blackberry buttercream. Then on Sunday I felt like meringue, and found an awesome recipe in a Donna Hay cookbook for Lemon Curd and Raspberry Mini Meringues. Divine! I tried finding a link online for it, but couldn't - so if any of you want the recipe, I can email it to you. I don't feel right about publishing her recipe on my blog, especially since she hasn't posted it anywhere online.
So as you can see, I had a big weekend of food. Did you make anything yummy this weekend?
(PS. the winner of the Simply Objekts giveaway is Regina. Congrats!)
