Butterfly Frame

Ever since I saw this tutorial for a punch collage, I knew that I wanted to replicate it someday. I've been slowly building my collection of Martha Stewart punches and this butterfly one was my first.

Honestly, we were never going to paint our walls purple, but I really have a thing for collecting paint chips in every color. :)

I used circle foam dots to adhere the punch-outs to the frame. It took me forever to decide how to arrange them. Forever. I'm so picky.

The final product! I can't wait to utilize my other MS punches for future projects. I recently bought a tulip punch. I'm waiting for the scallop edge border punch to come out!

Another Not-So-Shabby Day

Not all my days are worth blogging about, but I just have to say that Monday was filled with a sense of accomplishment, familiar and friendly faces, delicious foods, a fantastic fashion find, great news and lots of time-sucking TV.

I started off Monday by turning my comprehensive exam on campus. For those of you who may not know, passing the comps are a requirement for graduation. You can get a high pass, pass, low pass, or fail. On Friday, you are emailed a list of topics and instructions. You pick one topic and write a 10 page paper on it. It's due the following Monday. I'd have to say the test was very fair. I did not stress out about it, in fact I threw Jer a bday party the same wknd, haha. But I did take it seriously. After all, it would be so freaking embarrassing to fail and not be able to graduate! After I turned it in, I felt a sense of accomplishment pass through me. It was a wonderful feeling to know that I passed my final hurdle to recieving my degree. Even though I'm in debt now, I'd have to say getting my MPH was a good investment. I also realized how much my writing has improved since I first started the program to now. My critical thinking and knowledge of concepts and practice has improved as well. So it felt really good to write a paper and not have to BS any of it! And it felt good to turn in something that I'm proud of.

Okay, so after I turned it in, I did a quick run at the Galleria for some groceries. I was long overdue for a new jar of kim chi! I also picked up some goodies like cold noodle packets, gim, marinated rib eye, frozen seafood for haemul pajeon, etc. Then, I headed over to Kang Nam for lunch with CP. As usual, I had a great time catching up with everyone, and meeting new folks as well. I'm so proud to say that I was a part of that team. :)

I'll blog about the restaurant on another day. But remember how hot it was earlier this wk? Well, my mool naeng myun totally hit the spot! Yum!

So after hugs and goodbyes, I decided to head home. But on a whim, I decided to go into the Ross off La Tijera to see if there was any good kitchen stuff- oh say, maybe the stars would align in my favor and I'd be able to find a La Creuset dutch oven for cheap, haha. I don't really shop for clothes at places such as Ross, TjMaxx, or Marshalls anymore since most of the clothing is either of poor quality or doesn't fit my style, but once in a while I'll be able to find a hidden gem. I'm so glad I went on Monday because I was able to buy this amazing dress for a steal!

Hmm, I couldn't find a bigger picture, so just look at it here. It fits perfectly, and I'm going to wear it to one of the weddings we're attending in June. I love it when I find good quality stuff for a fraction of the cost!

After I got home, I drank lots of barley tea (my current favorite drink) and watched Nanny McPhee. In the middle of the movie, I got an email for a job interview!! Finally!! I was so excited. :) Once I go through the process, I'll blog about it maybe. Then Jerry came home, we made dinner, and spent the rest of the night watching Gossip Girl, Miss USA (but really to just see all the "drama" around Miss California), and 24. Oh Tony Almeida, what the heck is your end game?!

Nothing particularly glamorous about Monday, but it was a stress free day, and that's the attitude I'm going for. :)

An Ideal Day

Though the practice of lazying around seems universally ideal, it can get boring for me personally. My ideal day off consists of a combination of good food, rest, and a sense of accomplishment of something, whether setting out to buy an item on a list, doing something outdoorsy, being able to hang out with a friend, or tackling whatever needs to be done around house, etc. I've gone stir crazy sitting on my butt all day surfing the web, and I'm determined to make my days off more balanced and diverse. Today was a good example of that!

In the morning we woke up and realized we had a good 3.5 hours to go before Onami opened, so we surfed the web. After a few clicks I was done already, since there was nothing of interest really in my google reader. So I went and got the Sunday paper and since it was Easter there were no ads to browse through so I read the other sections and finished quite quickly. We didn't want to eat breakfast since we were saving our tummies for the buffet, so we were trying to decide how to kill the next 3 hours (yes all the above took less than half an hour!). Jerry came up with a good idea to start prepping our bathroom for painting. We bought paint ages ago but haven't had time to tackle the upstairs bathroom as of late. Thankfully, that took up a good chunk of our time, and I was distracted enough to forget that I was super hungry. Prepping is the hardest part of painting I think. But if done correctly, it makes painting go even faster and smoother, so it's definitely worth it to be extra careful. After we finished masking off everything (the bathroom has so many nooks and crannies!), it was time to go!

We got to Onami before it opened at 11:30 and it was already full of people with the same idea! We looked at the reservations board while we waited, and at 12:30, they were expecting a party of 55. Yeah, fifty five! Crazy. Anyways, we got seated really quickly (and in the middle room, which is ideal hehe). Though we made multiple trips with stacked plates, we staggered breaks in between in order to pace ourselves and not let our eyes be bigger than our tummies. We also limited our water intake. Hehe, is it lame to have tactics at buffets? Not for us! We managed to leave 2 hours later very stuffed, but not in pain haha. A good $40 well spent. I think we ate almost one of every roll there. I myself had at least 20 pieces, and 2 HUGE handrolls (which Jerry helped me out on). We didn't bother with stuff like fried rice or chow mein or miso soup. My rule of thumb is, eat something I can't make or is too high maintenence to make (like tempura shrimp- this guy had them piled on his plate like they were french fries). I had two servings of the green tea ice cream though. Yum!! The rest of the food was okay, just what you would expect at an AYCE place. I dunno why ppl on Yelp bash AYCE places for not having quality sushi. It's all you can eat ppl! Quantity over quality! If you wanted high end quality, go somewhere else! Some people can be so snobby. Oh, but the Angus beef was delicious. That item was of better quality than what could be expected at a buffet. Okay, enough about food, because I'm still full.

So we came home and immediately had an onset of food coma. I then proceeded to take the best 2 hour nap in recent memory. It was a deep and delicious sleep. What did I dream of? Eating at Onami! I swear, I'm not making this up! :)

So after I finally woke up (Jerry woke up about 20 min before me), we finally got to paint the bathroom. It was just the right amount of activity to help me start digesting my food. I was still too full to workout, and sitting passively wasn't my idea of fun either, so I'm glad we could jump right into painting. I'll spare the details for another post with pictures when we're done with touch ups and such.

Then, after high fiving each other for a job well done (we are such dorks!), we then proceeded to watch two of our favorite recorded shows, Hell's Kitchen and Amazing Race. Hints of hunger were starting to emerge, so apples and frozen grapes hit the spot. After that, we still weren't done being productive! Jer helped me finish my taxes, and I cleaned up the room. Whew, what a day!! I'm looking forward to more days like this! I just got a crazy idea to paint or stain the bannisters...so we'll see how that goes!

What's your ideal day off?

Cuttlebug

I realized that I never showed pics of my Cuttlebug and how it works. Well, here goes:

The Cuttlebug is a very simple machine. It comes with a few plates that you layer with your folders/die cuts and paper, and all you do is crank the plates (sort of like a sandwich) through the machine. You can either emboss or make die cuts. I'll show both here. In the above picture, I started with a piece of cardstock and a folder design.

(That's not the same card, but I had to show this step, and you get the idea...) I put them in btwn the plates and cranked them through.

Out on the the other side pops this!

This is a die cut that I'll be making. Here you can see the layers a bit more clearly: the large green plate A, then the B plate, then my die cut right side up, then my cardstock, and then another B plate to finish off the sandwich.

I cranked it through the machine (makes an awful crunchy noise! I thought I broke it!). The crunchy noise is normal.

Then I removed my plate and paper.

And out pops my die cut piece!

I made a card out of it. Whoops I made it backwards haha.

Here's another embossed mini-card that I made.

Cute, huh!
It's a very simple machine to use, but costly over time because you want to keep adding die cuts and folders to your collection. But I always use the 50% Joanns/Michaels coupons on Cuttlebug accessories, so it's not thaaat bad. Next time I'll show what some of the larger embossing folders look like, and maybe some real cards that I've made. Usually I'm in such a rush to make cards right before I have to give them out, so I end up totally forgetting to take pictures.

My current obsession: Martha Stewart punches. I have 4 so far! I'll try to take pics of my next project with them.

Happy Birthday, Jerry

It's Jerry's 30th! Happy birfday honey!
I know he would rather be doing this today:

Or this:

(Last year's tiramisu bday "cake")
But unfortunately he's out of town for work right now. Working on this:

Hehe, when I said he was OOT, he is definitely out of town! Just kidding, he's only up north. Either way, I can't wait to celebrate when he comes home!

Ceviche

Taken from "Salud con Sabor (Health with Flavor): Healthy and Flavorful Latino Recipes and Helpful Tips", a cookbook my classmate and I created for our communications class.
Ceviche (every 1lb of seafood serves about 4)
2 lbs of firm, fresh red snapper fillets, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, completely deboned (or other seafood)
1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 purple onion, finely diced
1 cup of fresh peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
1 serrano chili, seeded and finely diced (we used habanero)
2 teaspoons of salt
dash of ground oregano
dash of Tabasco or a few grains of cayenne pepper
Garnishes:
Cilantro
Avocado
Tortillas or tortilla chips

Preparation
1. In a non-reactive casserole dish, either Pyrex or ceramic, place the fish, onion, tomatoes, serrano chile, salt, tabasco, and oregano.
2. Cover with lime and lemon juices.
3. Let sit covered in the refrigerator for an hour, then stir, making sure more of the fish gets exposed to the acidic lime and lemon juices.
4. Let sit for several more hours, giving time for flavors to blend.
5. Serve with tortilla chips and garnish of choice.

This versatile ceviche is fresh and easy with no cooking involved!

Makes 4 servings (every lb of seafood will feed 4 people)

Prep time: 10 minutes

Nutrition Profile:
Low Calorie ♦ Low Carb ♦ Low Sodium ♦ Low Cholesterol ♦ Low Saturated fat ♦ Heart Healthy ♦ High Potassium

As you can see from the picture, we forgot the green stuff. This was one of the recipes from the healthy eating cookbook that Rachel and I made for a class project. Jerry actually helped us make this. It was delicious! Hopefully we'll make it again in the future. When we completed the cookbook we kind of swore off making Mexican food for a while. :) It's been a handful of months though, so maybe we're ready to introduce it back to the kitchen. Eventually. In the meantime, I have other recipes from the cookbook to come.

Some DVDs

I usually watch DVDs alone since my taste is very questionable, according to some people. :P Hey, I like blockbusters too! I just happen to watch stuff in btwn as well. What I've seen lately:

I like anything with Keri Russell (I loved Waitress!) and this is same kid from Finding Neverland (another fave) so I had definitely wanted to watch it on DVD when it came out. Even though most people will find this movie boring and slow, I liked it! It was so cheesy, but whatever. I was bored and wanted to be entertained.

I enjoyed the first one the most, the second one was okay, and I thought the 3rd was confusing. Too many ppl. I didn't recognize Al Pacino. I hope they stop here.

I love Kevin Smith movies. This is the cheesiest of them all, and I loved it! The only thing I hated was that J-Lo was it in for a little bit. She shouldn't have been in it at all. That little girl in the movie was well casted.

Omg, this movie was sooo slow. And confusing. Jer stopped watching after like 15 min so I finished it on my own. I had to wiki it afterwards to fully understand.

I <3 John Cusack movies, esp his romantical roles. From Lloyd Dobler to Martin Q. Blank to Rob Gordon to Jonathan Trager, he always plays the guy I root for! I also think Diane Lane is gorgeous, so they make a good pair in this movie.

Some movies I want to watch next:
Cape No. 7
An Inconvenient Truth
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
27 Dresses
2046

Phantom of the Opera

Earlier this year, Jer took me to see his favorite musical, Phantom. This was his 4th or 5th time, and my first.

I feel terrible b/c I feel asleep numerous times. It's not that Phantom was boring, it's just that I was so stressed out from the stupid mapping class back then and wasn't really in the mood to sit in a dark theater, and we were surrounded by fat ppl who either blocked my view in the front, or who hogged my leg room on the side, and I ended up not really enjoying the experience. I usually love musicals but I was just not feeling it that night. I did enjoy the music but not so much the acting.

I think this is the last time he's going to a musical with me. I wouldn't want to sit with me either. I was such a whiny, grumpy, and sleepy date. I really want to watch Avenue Q though so maybe he'll change his mind. Pleaaaaaaase?? I was well behaved when we went to watch Wicked! :)

It Was Nice

Today was a nice day:

Even though the 10E entrance was closed from the 710N, I still managed to find my way back onto the freeway w/o getting too frustrated despite running into a couple dead ends.
I spent the entire morning w/ my mom and we had actual conversations and I didn't feel impatient and she didn't really nag.
We beat the crowds at Rose Hills. It feels good to be leaving when ppl are barely arriving and are stuck in gridlock!!
Jer flew home a day early. What a pleasant surprise.
We made dinner plans and I realized, we can drive anywhere and I can stay out as late as I want b/c I don't have any homework!! (before if we ate out, it was somewhere local if I had a paper due soon). Even though we still went home at a time when ppl are barely getting ready to go out, it was nice to know that I potentially could have stayed out late. (Well, not entirely. We had to put the laundry in the dryer.) But potentially, people, potentially!
$30 and some change fed us sushi and then boba, which made my tummy so happy after being sick and eating bland food all week. I like Sawtelle. Jer likes that I'm a cheap date and doesn't need to be wined and dined all fancy schmancy.
We STROLLED all along Sawtelle. I don't remember the last time that I walked somewhere that slowly and aimlessly. I'm usually in such a rush to get from pt A to pt B. It felt really nice to walk and talk. At a relaxed pace. Sometimes, we'd just stand somewhere, people watch, and then talk smack about them, haha. People watching is fun!
I found a sports bra that fit. The ones I tried on before either totally cut off my circulation, or felt like they were gonna slip off the minute I tried to work out. Next search- an athletic one-piece swimsuit that is somewhat cute- the really cute 2 piece ones are kinda flimsy so when I dive, my top comes off! It's totally embarassing.

Tomorrow's another day. :)

Nutcracker Ballet

Went to my first ballet with Jer, Thu and Andreas. It was just okay- we were all kinda bored. I think I need to watch another ballet, maybe with a real troupe like the SF ballet or the NY ballet. I don't think we can afford to watch the Russian dancers. :P

For more pics you can go to photoist, or here.

Redondo Beach Superbowl 10K

I ran my first 10K a couple months ago. It was hard, but I did it w/o stopping. My time was just okay, over an hour and about 15 min? For the Nike 10K run this Aug, I want cut it down to an hour or so. Hopefully Half Dome training will help w/ my conditioning! I went swimming for the first time since last fall and I found that my legs were pretty strong and held up when I did solo kicking with the kick board. Last summer, I had a very hard time using the kick board to go from one end to the other, and now I think it's b/c last summer I barely ran so my legs were pretty weak. Thanks to the 10k training, my legs are stronger now than they were last summer. In addition to legs, I also want to work on my arms. I can barely do a push-up! So it'll be a long road to being more fit, but it should be rewarding. I'm looking forward to doing even more good and healthful things for my body.

Outdoor Ice Skating

Last December we went ice skating with Rachel and Tong at SM's outdoor rink. At first I was pretty unsteady and the least fearless of the bunch and though by the end of the session I was still the least fearless, I think I made it around the rink a couple times w/o holding onto anything. I think. It was so long ago!

I rarely post pose-y pics but here's one! I love the bokeh and the background.
Outdoor skating is fun! I want to do it again the next holiday season!