Orchids and Jewelry

Hi, All.

Here are a few photos of my once-again-blooming orchid and the new green jade necklace/bracelet set I bought in San Francisco. Toodles for now :)

Orchids & Photos

It looks like I've pretty much abandoned this blog: sorry, things have been busy with cooking, making travel plans and stuff.

Here are a few photographs of my new orchid. Whole Foods was having a sale on orchids (9.99), and I just could not refuse :) This beauty is nearly 3 feet tall and has 7 unopened buds--meaning I will hopefully enjoy it for quite some time. (click on the photos to see better detail)

And here is an orchid I've had for probably 5 years: this is at least the 4th time it will bloom (yes, I'm proud of myself for keeping it alive).

And finally, here is a display of some of the photographs that I did not manage to sell during the gallery showing: I decided to hang them above my TV: you like?

Another baby gift

One of my food blogger friends is having triplets! Three boys!!! So I decided to make her a little painting using the pattern of her nursery decor as inspiration. I think it turned out well, and she loved it! I'm so happy!!!

Fingers and toes crossed that everything goes well and the boys enjoy this picture in their nursery.

Shopping Time

I've all but abandoned this blog. Sorry...lately there just hasn't been much going on.

I have, however, been feeling like shopping a lot. Everything from a trip to Puerto Rico for Thanksgiving, to food bloggers' festival in San Francisco...below are some of my latest purchases.


1) White Franco Satro bag--I got mine at DSW and know will have a really hard time waiting for next Spring/Summer to start carrying it. I can't really pull off a white bag in Fall/Winter, right?





2) I also bought a few things at Ann Taylor Loft, definitely one of my most favorite stores:

a. a ruffle top, b. a few camisoles (in deep pink and bluish color...and now am tempted to get the other colors on line)




3) A pink Toshiba netbook for my travel! (Special help to Misha for finding the color I wanted)


4) I also bought a matte black plate in World Market and a pretty white teacup (I'll post those photos on Mango & Tomato later next week)


5) Two new dresses from Macy's, which I bought a few weeks ago during my shopping time with Jenn (note that the first one has a different pattern from what is pictured)

I think that is about it for now :)

A necklace redo

A long, long, long time ago I bought a necklace at Ann Taylor Loft. It had pretty beads and a gold-toned chain. I wore it for a bit, but then the chain began to discolor and looked horrible. No more jewelry buying for me from Ann Taylor Loft: sorry, but I do still love their clothes.

here is the photo of the original necklace

Anyway, I decided to redo the necklace using new silver wire and silver chain and the original beads. Here is what I came up with: the necklace can be worn long or doubled up. I'm quite a fan.
Click on images for better detail!

More Roses

Last Friday I took the roses that I bought on Monday home because they were still "alive," and I did not want them to be alone in my cubicle over the weekend :)

Saturday morning I decided to take a "few" shots of them. Thoughts!?

Roses

It's been ages since I've updated this blog! I apologize...I guess I haven't really bought anything new, haven't had any strange "Say What?" stories and haven't made any crafts.

I promise, this will change :) In fact, this Saturday I'm getting together with a few friends to make jewelry, and I hope to finish a necklace I started in Seattle and will post photos then.

For now, here a few photographs of white roses, which I bought for myself last week. Whenever I have a five day week at work, I like to treat myself to pretty flowers for my desk. They cheer me up and add a nice fragrance to my cubicle.

This week I have deep pink colored roses. Not sure if I'll take photos of them, so just use your imagination :)

On a slightly sad note, none of my photographs from the gallery exhibit have sold. And there are less than 2 weeks of hope left.

2nd Gallery Show

Friday at Touchstone Gallery in DC will be the second time that I'll be showcasing (and maybe even selling!) some of my photographs. Below is a picture of how my photos look on the wall of the gallery (labels will be added later)...hopefully they'll make my "name tag" a bit nicer :) [Please click on images for better details!]

Below are beautiful oil paintings by my friend Radha. Our spaces are right next to one another!

And here are all of our masterpieces.

I'll update you on our success!

August 12 - September 4, 2009

“My Space on 7th”

NON-JURIED GROUP EXHIBITION

featuring 90 local artists

Opening Reception: Friday, August 14, 6 - 8:30pm

Touchstone Gallery

406 7th Street NW

2nd Floor

Washington, DC 20004

Phone: 202.347.2787

Fax: 202.347.3339

Earrings for my mom

While in Seattle, I made these earrings for my mom from a strand of turquoise beads she bought and the yellow crystal beads I had left over from my other projects. She LOVES them, which makes me super happy!

In Seattle

Lavender in my mom's garden: this is for Paige!

How I ended up at a rock/metal concert

A few weeks ago I was at Jenn's house for her birthday party. Her friends James and Melinda were visiting from Baltimore with their super cute daughter. We were all chatting, eating, etc.

James, who is a drum player for Division, mentioned that his band will be playing at a club in Virginia. I asked Jenn if she was going to go. She said yes. That's when for some bizarre reason I told her that I would come too.

As soon as the words came out of my mouth I was horrified. Me at a rock/metal concert!? Who was I kidding? That is so not my scene! I think Jenn was shocked just as much as I was.

Then, to save my "little" behind, I said that I'll go unless I'd have a hot date. Right. That was very smart of me. A week later, with no hot date (or any date) in site, Jenn picked me up on a Friday night and we drove to Springfield, VA to see James's band in concert.

First, however, we had to pick up ear plugs. Turns out, you have to wear ear plugs the entire time you are at the concert (the only time I wear mine are when my neighbors are too loud or the person next to me breaths too loudly or snores!).

Well, I survived my first (and probably last) rock/metal concert. It was definitely quite an experience. I felt like a fish out of the water, but it was entertaining none the less (nonetheless?). Unfortunately, it's still legal to smoke in clubs/restaurants in VA, so I came home reeking of smoke.

I'm glad I tried something different. I'm sure many of you who know me are quite surprised by this...after all, I skipped a night of salsa for this :) It was amazing to see how many people were "into" this music and how dedicated the band members were! It takes a lot of energy to play for 1.5 hours, not to mention the hours it takes to practice, etc.

Hmm, what should I try next?!?!?!?

A little bit of everything

So my Monday dancing nights at Lucky Bar have been anything but lucky lately. Instead of taking a chance of making myself miserable again, I decided to start a mini boycott and spend the next who-knows-how-many Monday nights away from dancing (at least for now).

Instead, I decided to buy some wine and make pasta at home. I was so excited about this! Alas, when I opened my pasta maker, I was horrified to see that the cutting rolls had rust on them. Crap!

I immediately went and tried to research solutions to this problem on Google. Alas, using rubbing alcohol and white vinegar (separately) did not take all of the rust off. (I still managed to make pasta and will post the results on Mango & Tomato later this week.)

It was then that I decided to consult the manual for my pasta machine. Turns out, you are not supposed to wash the machine or let water anywhere near it!

If only I was like my dad...he's an engineer, and doesn't even attempt to start using a new appliance before reading its manual cover to cover! I, on the other hand, just jump into things and hope to figure them out as I go.

You should have seen him teaching Anna and I how to drive: there were diagrams involved, and he even took Misha's toy cars to show us how the wheels worked. As if I cared: I just wanted to drive :)

Anyway, I will try to see if I can return/exchange my pasta machine.

Oh, and the earrings in this post are the ones I made for Jenn's birthday: she looks adorable wearing them :)

Jewelry Re-do

A while ago I made some sunny yellow jewelry.

I've gotten quite a bit of wear from the bracelet, necklace and earrings, but last night decided to re-do the bracelet. Let's face it: I was bored, couped up in my apartment for the last 4 days and did not go dancing. (On the positive note, I'm finally feeling better!).

before

For the after, I used silver tone beads in-between the yellow ones. Alas, I was missing one silver tone bead, so this bracelet is not perfect, but then neither is life.

4th of July Fireworks

Here are a few photographs from 4th of July: I went to the Mall with Laura and some of her friends after pigging out on awesome food :)

The views were gorgeous, the fireworks were amazing, and we had a ton of fun listening to patriotic music on an ipod hooked up to mini speakers provided by David & Sarah.

(click on images to see better detail)

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned....

Well, maybe sinned is too harsh of a word, but I did break my vow of not buying any jewelry/clothes/shoes for two months!

Yesterday I met Anna's friend from Birmingham, Angela, and some of her friends at Eastern Market. And let me tell you, you cannot go to Eastern Market and not buy anything!

I happened to be wearing a yellow skirt (I actually wore it as a dress) and my turquoise necklace, which took me several years to find (I finally purchased one in Dallas a few years ago). While looking at some jewelry stands, I saw a pair of turquoise earrings for $5!!!!!!!! Now, how could I have passed that by? I could not: so I bought them. I think they match so well!

As far as "What I am Eating," I haven't been writing things down, but I definitely keep track of my food intake in my head. So far I've been doing pretty well. Of course, there was quite a bit of eating at Laura's bbq for the 4th of July, but overall I haven't had any of the let's-eat-everything-in sight episodes!

WIAE

So I haven't updated my progress in the last few days. I can't really remember what I ate on Wednesday, but I remember that I did pretty well! And I went salsa dancing.

Thursday was a big test because I stayed home, which usually means eating and watching TV, but not this time! I had scrambled eggs and cheese in a tortilla, then a salad with chicken and diet Pepsi and a nectarine. Then I was working a Mexican class at Sur La Table, and other than snacking a bit too much on salsa and chips, I did not pig out!

Friday
cereal w/milk, coffee
potatoes, salad, chicken
nectarine
cookie and diet Pepsi (I also have a mini brownie sitting on my desk, but might just take it home w/me instead of eating it right now)

WIAE & Progress

You know, I think the fact that I'm writing down everything that I eat is really helping! I already lost ten pounds.
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.
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Ok, that was a joke. I don't think I actually lost any weight, but last night when I came home from a rather sh*tty night of dancing, instead of eating the entire contents of my refrigerator (something I would have absolutely done in the past), I simply went to bed. Let's hope this more sane behavior continues.

cereal with milk
roasted pepper & cauliflower soup; broccoli souffle
diet Pepsi
10 almonds
cantaloupe
tomato/basil/mozzarella salad for a snack
Dinner w/Jenn, Mas and Joenn (Peruvian chicken and dessert)
Exercise: swing dancing!

WIAE & I was FORCED to buy new shoes

Today is going pretty well so far...well, relatively well :)


cereal with milk
roasted pepper & cauliflower soup, broccoli souffle
diet Pepsi with 2 small chocolates
iced coffee with a slice of Daring Bakers challenge (the rest of the "challenge" I brought to work and shared with my coworkers! that means I would not be eating it at home tonight! Score!)
for dinner I had a beet/grapefruit/blue cheese/endive salad and some melon later on


And now to the story of the shoes. Last Friday I walked across the street on my way to the Metro and one of my Express flip flops broke. I was too lazy to walk home and take another pair of shoes and simply tied the flip flop: it was operational. Then when I walked to Gallery Place for lunch to meet Ashley, my second flip flop broke! UGH! Ashley decided that was good enough of an excuse to buy new flip flops.


Luckily Payless was right around the corner. All the cheap flip flops were...well, cheap! And they did not have too many in my size, so I ended up buying these. The flower on them reminds me of the red pumps Anna and I had when we were in Russia...oh the memories!

Surprisingly, they are quite comfortable! I just hope they last longer than the ones from Express!

A Way to Cheer Up: Asters

You know what cheers me up? Flowers! And this week I definitely needed some cheering up. So I bought 2 bouquets of asters and put them together:

WIAE Saturday & Sunday

Saturday
Bread with eggs, tomatoes and Diet Pepsi
peach
2 salads: canned salmon/mayo/Parmesan and roasted peppers/basil/mozzarella and bread
wine
Indian with Jenn and Radha
1 doughnut
exercise: 26 laps in the pool

Sunday
peach/chocolate chip pancakes; water
salad with Parmesan and roasted peppers; Diet Pepsi
a bit of apricot jam
Daring Bakers Challenge (it's a secret!!!) with milk
Robyn's broccoli souffle

WIAE Day 1

So this past week I've been doing quite a bit of emotional eating. I know that I'm doing it, and yet I'm still doing it. Ridiculous.

Yesterday I went to the pool and did 22 laps...pretty good, right? Each "lap" is 20 meters. Before doing my laps, I got on a scale and I so did not like the number that I saw!

So I decided to start publicly writing down everything that I eat each day. Hopefully that will force me to be more mindful of the food I put in my mouth and give you, my readers, an opportunity to spot things that I'm missing from my food intake.

So today is the brand new start!!! WIAE: What I Am Eating.

Morning: I drank 24 oz of water as soon as I got to work. Then I had some cereal with 1% milk. By 10:30 I was sort of hungry again, but just had more water.

Lunch: Capitol BBQ w/Ashley: pulled bbq sandwich with corn/tomato salad, potato salad (mustard base) and Diet Coke (I had some of the food left over, took it to work and had it later for a snack).

Falling asleep/bored: diet Pepsi seems like a good solution.

Snack: leftover cold lemony dill shrimp. Mostly I ate it because if I did not, I'd have to throw it away.

Dinner: Qdoba with Wendy: chicken taco salad w/guacamole.

Late snack: individual sized watermelon: ugh, it was overripe and not too sweet, but the good thing is I resisted eating it with white bread (my favorite way!).

Overall this was a pretty good day! And I managed to walk a total of 1.5 hours!

Hope y'all not finding this too boring. I promise to post other things and not just my food intake :)

Say What???

Last night I was walking home from the grocery store carrying a few bags full with ingredients for testing Robyn's recipes. Once again I was feeling like I was having a sugar low and that if I did not get home in time and put some food in my mouth, I'd be in trouble.

Thus, I wasn't really paying attention when some teenager boy said something to me from his car. "Excuse me?" I asked. "Would you like help with your [grocery] bags?" he asked again.

Seriously!? I wonder what the repercussions of me agreeing to that would have been. Instead, I just said "No, thank you."

No more shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few weeks ago I changed things up in my closet: I switched up my winter/fall wardrobe to a spring/summer wardrobe. During this big to-do I also put a bunch of clothing items on top of my "to be donated" pile, which is quite large now.

ARGH: I'm so tired of buying things and then either not wearing them, or growing out of them or not taking good care of them. So I decided not to buy any more clothes/shoes/jewelry for the next two months (so basically June and July). So far, so good. But temptations are everywhere!!!

Perhaps that's why last night when I was working at Sur La Table I bought two martini glasses. Mine are the red ones: I just could not resist: they were on sale from $9.99 to $2.99. I think they'll be really fun to use as props for my food blog. And they also match the red color of my Mikasa martini glasses and are not clothing/shoes/jewelry...yes, I'm really good at justifying my decisions!

Butterflies!

Today during lunch Laura and I took a walk to the Natural History Museum for their Butterfly exhibit. Luckily, we did not have to wait in line because my friend Sarah (who I met during the Avon Breast Cancer walk) volunteers at the exhibit on Tuesdays (the only day when admission is free!).

Butterflies were everywhere! So many colors. So many shapes. I was a bit scared that one will either sit on me or I would step on one...none of which happened.

Hope you like the photos below.

New Jewelry

Remember a gorgeous silver ring I purchased from a local gallery in Washington DC in October 2007?? I absolutely loved it! I wore it quite often, and even came up with a fun idea of wearing it together with other thin rings.

Then this past February I lost the ring on my way to Savannah and was devastated. I even tried to replicate the ring (without any success) from copper wire.

I was so delighted when over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago I walked into Contemporary Museum of Art and saw that they carried both the ring and the matching bracelet!!! The two purchases were definitely quite a splurge, but the craftsmanship is absolutely beautiful, and it makes me happy to wear this jewelry. I love the fluidity of the pieces and the ability to make the ring wider or narrow by playing with the silver wire.



The artist of this gorgeous jewelry is Pamela Bosco.