Flashback Friday: Warm Fuzzies

Remember these guys? When I was a kid in the 1980s, I used to love to collect these adorably cute fuzzy fellas. They were called Warm Fuzzies - they were meant to be given to people because you wanted to make them feel "warm and fuzzy" inside. They were basically just a colored pom-pom with googly eyes, antennas and large feet with adhesive.

So simple a concept expressed with such a simple toy.  Maybe we should bring these fellas back and just stick them randomly around to spread the love. 

Warm Fuzzies for everyone!

Random Cuteness Wednesday

So here's the thing, I think I would fit perfectly in Japan. "Kawaii" in Japan means cuteness which is such a prominent aspect of Japanese culture. I've just loved cute things throughout my life that I am dying to make a trip to Japan and overdose on all that Kawaii. If Kawaii was a tall iced hazelnut macchiato I would drink it everyday (because I do drink iced hazelnut macchiato everyday, it's an addiction).

For my new weekly posts (or in my case, semi-weekly - because I'm just bad about keeping my posts regular), I'll try to share some of the adorably cute things I have found during my nightly internet surfing. Oohs and Aahs are welcome.

Su Ami is a group of family crafters living in Vietnam. They create these impossibly cute crochet animals that are unbelievably tiny, which to me anything miniature is already going past 10 on the cuteness scale.  

Seriously? how freaking cute are these buggers?! And you know what? There's more of them...check out their shop and be prepared to adopt these little guys. 

Flashback Friday: "Happy little trees"

I used to watch The Joy of Painting not to learn about painting, but to be completely entranced and zen'd out by the calming voice of Bob Ross. He with the white man's afro and the ability to create a paint-like numbers landscape in 26 minutes. 

I found his words absolutely soothing with his talks of "happy little trees" and creating a "little friend over there." He quite literally put me in a "happy little" coma. I've never smoked a doobage in my life but I can imagine watching The Joy of Painting while being all Snoop Dogg (or is it Snoop Lion?) would be a perfect pairing.

I continued watching his shows on PBS not even realizing that Mr. Ross passed away from lymphoma cancer in 1995. It's sad to think that he would not be painting his happy little worlds anymore, but I'm sure up there in the clouds he is painting for the big man in the sky and making him go into a sleepy lull.

I'll end this post with a famous Bob Ross quote: "We want happy paintings. Happy paintings. If you want sad things, watch the news." Well said, Mr. Ross, well said. 

"Ooh La La"

I got married in Paris in 2007. I had the Eiffel Tower right outside our chapel. It was a small intimate ceremony with our closest family and friends...

...okay, everything I said above is true, only the Paris was actually the Paris Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; the Eiffel Tower was a convincing fake; and of course we still were surrounded by our closest family and friends.

I wore a tea-length strapless lace dress with a veil and my husband wore a traditional Filipino barong. I went shopping in one day for my wedding dress and found it on sale for $300 at the local David's Bridal Shop and my husband found his barong at the back of a dry cleaner store where the owner sold Filipino garments. He paid $100 for it. We are a no-fuss couple and you will not find a bridezilla in me. 

So it was quite delightful to read about Keira Knightley's recent wedding in France. She wore a recycled Rodarte strapless, blush-pink, tulle dress (she wore it previously at a 2008 party), a cropped Chanel jacket, flats, and a adorable crown of delicate flowers. With her wealth she certainly could of thrown a typical celebrity, elaborate Kardashian type wedding, but I admire her for keeping it a small and intimate affair wearing a recycled dress. 

Bravo.

Flashback Friday: Swatch watches

When I was a teenager growing up in the 80s I had no idea what a Rolex watch was and quite frankly could not give a flying fig about it. It was all about the rad Swatch watches back in my day. These watches were first manufactured in 1983 and they were colorful graphic watches you would wear as the ultimate 80s accessory - so casual, so cool, so colorful (that should be the motto of the 1980s and I'm sticking to it). 

Your personality was defined by what type of watch you had: for me the simple nerdy gal I preferred the solid colors with of course my Swatch guard. What's a Swatch guard? well, it's like a pocket protector for your Swatch watch. Have no freaking idea if it actually protected your plastic Swatch, but it looked cool and that's all that mattered in the 1980s (some poor souls who were desperate to protect their Swatches resorted to using a twisted rubber band instead to protect it. I'll give them points for ingenuity, but no points for style).

You know what makes me feel old? Is when they sell Swatch watches that I used to wear on the Internet and classify them as "vintage" - if I only had a Back to the Future Delorean to go back in time and save my watches - found out some of these babies go for over $1000 now. 

I loved my Swatch watch. Radical.

I want a foyer because it's cool to say foyer

I don't have a foyer in my house...it's more like a teeny, tiny transition space into my living room or a small viewpoint towards our staircase. If I want to take my shoes off or put my shoes on, I sit on the bottom step of our staircase to do it. I actually put two little hooks to hang jackets/hats near our front door just to make it seem like a foyer. But it's not a foyer, it's a "faux"yer. 

Is it wrong of me to put on our house-hunting wish list a proper foyer? hmmm, more square footage or a proper foyer? decisions decisions. 

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Anyways, I think I want a foyer because I already know what I want in one: (1) bench; (2) basket (optional) to hold shoes/mail/doodads; (3) a large enough wall to hang either coat hooks/rack or a large painting or a gallery wall. Simple, but functional all around - my kind of space.  

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yep, a foyer it is.

Flashback Friday: Mom

I don't know why I love this photo so much. I think I might be digging the whole vintage 70s look to it: that shag carpet, that floral sofa, that faux baroque looking lamp in the background. Or could it be our cute matching gowns (I'm the one on the far left rocking the ponytails) or my mom's muumuu with slippers look. 

But what really resonates with me now is how TIRED my mom looks in this photo. For gosh darn sake she has four little kids 6 years and younger! (and she doesn't yet realize she'll soon be pregnant with her fifth child). 

Being a mom is tiring work...period. I struggle with two and my mom was able to raise five fairly well-adjusted individuals in a time with no mobile devices. 

So I just wanted to wish a Happy Early Mom's Day to the most awesome mom I know.  And even though it has been proven that watching TV too close to the screen does not make you blind and eating watermelon seeds will not cause a branch to grow out of your belly button, I still think you are a wise mother who has taught me some of my most valuable lessons in life.  

I love you mom. 

Pacific Northwest Trip in a nutshell

As promised, here is my recap of our trip to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.

I'm going to get this out of the way first: there are people who are 'train people' and there are people who are 'not train people,' and unfortunately you can count me in the latter category. Thirty plus hours (one way) is not what I hoped it would be.  There is only so much awesome scenery you can see. The rest of our time was realizing we were stuck on this moving vehicle without fresh air (except for the occasional quick stops on other cities train platforms), no Wi-Fi, same bland train food, communal (and when I say communal, I meant to say communal without much cleaning during our trip, therefore my gag reflex was on full alert) air plane sized bathrooms and a sleeper room the size of my work cubicle.

Would I recommend a train trip again? possibly, if only for a maximum of three hours and during the day on a scenic route. But our mistake was doing it for over a day and a half ONE WAY (I won't even go on my rant for the thirty plus hours coming back to San Diego).  But at least we can say we did it and now say we won't do it again. 

But here's the good news, once we got off the train, we had an awesome time in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.  We brought our beautiful San Diego weather with us: sunny and the temperature in the 70s. The people were laid back, accommodating and friendly. There was a whole hipster, granola, chill style here and I was loving it. 

PORTLAND, OREGON

First of all, I saw so many bicycles in this city I thought I was back in my college alma mater at UC Davis (which is a proverbial bike town). Bicyclists here come in all shapes and sizes, young and old. Second of all, they weren't kidding when they said Portland was the food truck capitol. But amazingly, we didn't eat at any one of them. 

We had only about a total of 24 hours in Portland, so we treated it as a Anthony Bourdain Layover episode: (1) picked up rental car; (2) checked in and recuperated at our hotel; (3) got lost trying to find the Sellwood District (which is a neighborhood known for it's antique shops sprinkled throughout in adorable Victorian homes), by the time we got there only a few shops were still open - but we did see our first of the many food trucks we would see during our stay here; (3) Ate at Pok Pok. I highly recommend this place. Anthony Bourdain wasn't wrong here. Their Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings isn't their signature dish for nothing. We also tried their special Fiddle Leaf Fig dish (which we heard if not cleaned properly, can be fatal if eaten) and survived; (4) Tried some donuts at Voodoo Donuts Too. Stella had Grape Ape, Milo had Tangfastic, Allan stayed safe with a Maple bar and I tried their Chocolate Vegan donut (none of us had their famous bacon maple bar, but we saw it and it was definitely tempting); (5) went back to our hotel and slept. 

Next day: (1) ordered breakfast room service; (2) visited the Japanese Garden. What can I say, this place was gorgeous. So calm, serene, and beautiful at every corner. My favorite was their Japanese maple trees and since the weather was clear, we could see Mt. Hood in the distance - perfect.; (3) visited Hoyt Arboretum (free). I planned to hike the trails, but my allergies kicked in and Stella fell asleep (and Milo refused to leave the car). Allan ended up walking the trails alone but enjoyed it (no kids, no wife, just nature); (4) visited the Portland Children's Musuem. This wasn't even on our itinerary, but I'm glad we did it. The kids and us adults enjoyed it. The Museum was larger than we thought and had interactive areas wherever we looked. We especially enjoyed the children's size grocery/restaurant area; (5) Shopped the Pearl District and ate at Paragon Restaurant. Didn't find any miniature horses, but enjoyed our time wandering this shopping district; (6) Drove to Seattle, Washington.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

We initially planned to make side trips to Mt. Saint Helens and Tacoma, Washington, but did neither. We didn't realize that Mt. Saint Helens observatory was only open during May through September, but we were able to view this famous volcano (along with Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt Rainier) during our drive up to Seattle. I'm such a history nut, that it was awe-inspring to see these volcanos in person. 

We didn't arrive in Seattle until 8pm, so we pretty much just checked into our hotel (which was a stone throw away from the Space Needle) and ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant and then slept early. 

Next day: (1) Visited Pike Place Market. I'm a Starbucks addict - no secret there. I figured why not drink my tall iced cinnamon dolce latte at the first Starbucks ever; (2) ate at Le Panier; (3) saw the fish fly; (4) walked the Embarcadero and shopped Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe: saw shrunken heads, 2 and 3 headed animals; mummies; skulls/skeletons and enough things to give our kids nightmares for a few days, but nonetheless interesting and Allan bought his share of skulls and skeletons to keep his curiosity at bay; (5) lunch at Collection Cafes and took 10,000 photos of the Space Needle (didn't go up the needle, but viewed it from the bottom). (6) Visited Chihuly's Garden and Glass. This was my one request to visit and it didn't disappoint. All the exhibits were mind-blowing (glass-blowing) and just beautiful.  I couldn't stop taking photos. The kids also enjoyed it, but the security guards kept a close eye on my kids (kids and glass, not a good combination). Told Allan to buy me one of Chihuly's glass vases at the gift shop and he said he would, until he saw one lil vase costs $7500 and he bought me a pack of notecards for $20 instead (he saved about $7480); (7) Saw the gum wall. Yes, a wall full of gum stuck to it. It's a tourist attraction and I could see why. Not the most hygienic place, but my son enjoyed it because it was gross; (8) ended our time in Seattle by eating dinner at the famous Ivar's Acres of Clams. Had our clams of course. 

Good-bye Pacific Northwest! I definitely wouldn't mind re-visiting these places (by plane that is). 

(Sorry, this post was a bit long - my nutshell is more like a walnut size, but there was so much to mention)

Flashback Friday: Jude Law

True story. In October of 1995, my sister and I visited New York City and saw Jude Law's private parts. Let me back track...

We went to see this off-Broadway play called Indiscretions because the actress Kathleen Turner was supposed to be in it. When we got to the play, we found our Kathleen Turner was ill and her understudy was taking her place. We were a bit disappointed, but we decided to watch the play anyways (turned out to be a good decision).

The son was played by a young actor named Jude Law, whose first scene was in a bathtub talking to his girlfriend (trivia: the girlfriend was played by Cynthia Nixon, who would later play Miranda in Sex and the City). It was your normal chit-chat scene until Jude Law came out of the bathtub in all his morning glory! His bits and pieces, twig and berries hanging out for all to see! (I can go on and on with the euphemisms but you get my drift). My sister and I were literally gob-smacked and soon noticed the majority of the audience were women and most of them were using opera glasses (obviously not their first time watching this play, they came prepared). 

Anyhoo, what happened after that I can't really recall - the play was quite boring, but I remember that actor later when his first starring role in a motion picture came out - Gattaca. No nudity in that movie, but Jude was gorgeous and eventually reached his gorgeous apex with The Talented Mr. Ripley (Jude had a bathtub scene in this movie too - perfect). 

My dear Jude is now showing his age, with the bags under his eyes, the receding hairline...but back in the days he was so gloriously beautiful:

* Sigh * Hey Jude indeed.

(photos via Pinterest)

What a cubicle dweller dreams of...

Pinterest-ing home office spaces is one of my favorite hobbies (I guess if you consider pinning a hobby, which I do). As was noted on a prior blog post, if I lose my job in three to five years and potentially lose an oh so fabulous real estate spot in my three and half walled cubicle with amazing views of a fax machine, metal filing cabinets and fluorescent light fixtures (okay, I'm being extremely sarcastic right now), my dream would be to work out of my house, if only to create amazing home office spaces like the following:

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So many things I love in this space: the blue swivel chair, the kilim rug, the old school stapler, the home made industrial shelving and the fur throw.  That whole old mixed with the new gets me every time. 

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It's the huge art pieces that makes this space appealing.  

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Realistically speaking, there is not enough room on this desk to hold all my do-hickeys and what-nots, but isn't this space beautiful? I feel like singing "I feel pretty, oh so pretty" while staring at my botanical wall.

(via Pinterest)

Okay, I'm 5'2" and this office space is not my size (even though it is pretty small), but wouldn't it be cute to have my daughter have her own lil desk next to mine?