soap sweater

Jukki came to visit and we felted some soap sweaters! Fun, quick and easy!

zai jian zao

Just to stick with the Asian food theme, Jukki (who is visiting from LA) and I had lunch at Zao's Noodle at U Village. Though I've lived near a Zao's since college, I've never (I think... maybe once in Vegas...) gone in. And now that I've been, I'll never go again. Food sucked.

So maybe I should change the title of this post since zai jian means 'until I see you again' because I ain't ever going back. So... sayonara Zao.

ooh... need to be home on tuesday...

Marination Mobile

rice cooker

Speaking of Asian food, I just had to rave about having the bestest rice cooker ever. One of many craigslist finds in SF bay area, this sucker cost me a whopping $100. Some may sneer and gag at the thought of spending that much money on a rice cooker, but really, it makes any crappy rice found at 99 Ranch Market edible and yummy. Thank goodness for japanese businessmen who win prizes at golf tournaments and then proceed to sell their winnings on craigslist.

rocking wok

Seattle, for all its Asian population, has terrible Chinese food. Those in the know usually go over to Bellevue for good Chinese food. So it was nice to find that the new owners of Rocking Wok haven't screwed the pooch. I had this craving for 皮蛋瘦肉粥 and while Rocking Wok's wasn't the most spectacular, nor the most authentic, it was decently flavored and not bad for $4.75. It's nice that it's walking distance from home, too.

new seattle sugar

curio confections
the yellow leaf cupcake company
(via daily candy)

kyuto!

Mairuru's handsew-it-all blog!

wedding bands

Though I still love the idea of mokume gane, making our own wedding bands sound kinda cool, too. GE and I learned of this from a woman at Fusion Beads. We were taking a silver fusing class (once my camera gets back from its trip to Vancouver, I'll post pictures of the hammered bracelet I made) and the woman in the know was sitting beside me :)

say it ain't so...

Has it really been that long since I've written here? I blame it all on graduate school. I'll be better soon... really.

To prove I haven't been slacking in the crafts dept, though, here's a sweater and matching booties I made for LN and SN's new baby, May. And may I say, FINALLY, one of my friends has a female baby. Let the pink fluff flow forth from my needles and the flowers be crocheted! Next up: sweater for GL' and JL's similarly aged little girl.

**and I have no idea why blogger's decided to cut off the picture where it does...

if i had time

i'd go geek it out!

tatting

One of the reasons I wanted to learn to crochet is to be able to tat (this is a verb, tatting:knitting) beautiful items like this (butterfly from digital leaf studio). There's a tatting group on Ravelry that has quite a few wonderful finished objects to gawk at.

fiance asked me...

... whether I would want his brother to be a bridesmaid. Though funny, I doubt MG's bro would shave his pits for a strapless bridesmaid dress. So, probably not, MG. Probably not.

tacky weddings
(via weddingbee)

procession songs

1. Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite in G Major (if only I could get Yoyo Ma...)
2. Wagner's Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral. Here's a drum corps version. There's also a couple of solo piano versions on the internet (here's a sample, yes that is Hitler).
3. Forrest Gump theme for piano. Heck, I know three people off the top of my head that can play this well on the piano.
4. Kissin's Pictures at an Exhibition, for a weightier entrance.
5. (Darkhorse) Gustav Holst's Mars would kinda be fun, too. Though the subtitle "Bringer of War!!!" isn't really conducive to weddings, I guess.
6. That one song in high school that we played but whose name escapes me. I might have to go back to the band classroom to look it up in the library.

So all you instrument-playing friends of mine, get yo arses ready to be put to work. Unless all you can play is Canon in D. Then you're already fired. Because the world doesn't need another wedding with someone playing that song. Speaking of which:

Pretty Songs Nixed Due to Overplay

1. Canon. Though this song always reminds me of My Sassy Girl, it seems everyone and their mother plays this song at their wedding.
2. Appalachian Spring. Lovely, but also gets around like Paris Hilton.
3. Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. I loved playing this song on the oboe, way back when.
4. Ave Maria. Unless someone can write "Ave Fert"
   

want...

... an illusion vase. Or any of illusion products at Uncommon Goods.
... and ice orb.

pug portrait

So last night, MG and I attended a charity silent auction for Pawsitive Alliance. And I bid on a custom pet portrait. Lo and behold, we won. Our downstairs neighbor (who is on Pawsitive Alliance's board) joked that the artist would have to draw a pug and then smear it every which way since Hemi never holds still. And then my coworkers joked that I'm becoming one of those crazy pug people. I told him that the sanity train left the station a while back.

engagement story

Since there was a contest on engagement stories, I quickly entered ours:

MG and I got engaged last September. He had been carrying the ring around since May of that year and was waiting for the right moment to pop the question. And after waiting five months in vain for said moment, he decided to make one.

MG had told me early that day that we were invited to watch Super Troopers (his favorite movie) at his recently-singled friend's place. Little did I know that he was going to propose at Gasworks Park (Seattle) and had made reservations at a fancy restaurant. Thus, when we were getting ready to leave, I put on some sweats and flip flops in preparation. I was a little surprised when MG commented on how casual my outfit was. I do believe my response was, "Dude, we're going over to ***'s. He doesn't even have dishes, just piles of used paper plates covering the counters." He looked quizzical for a moment before responding, "Fair enough."

When we got into the car, he concocted another story about having to pick up some friends from "a wine bar across the street from Gasworks" (which if you know the area around Gasworks is a statement akin to *I'm going to Nebraska for good Chinese food*). He lured me into the park area by saying that the friends were probably walking drunkenly in the park and that we should go find them. It wasn't long before my flip-flopped feet started getting muddy and gross (as Seattle will do on any month except July) and MG said that we’d turn back for the car after he tied his shoelaces. While he bent over, I started turned to look at the city across the water and when I turned around, he had the ring out.

Later, while we were at the fancy restaurant, he mentioned how nervous he had been because there had been so many holes in his story. He kept thinking that any moment, I would realize how ludicrous half of his assertions were. And in looking back, I wonder the same thing considering that I’ve bought all his shoes since we started dating and all of them were slip-ons.

baroness beret

Just finished the flower. It's for someone that has a one biological child, a crapload of non-biological children and three jobs. For those days that there's absolutely no time to brush or shampoo.

lemon candle

I had a dying champagne Illuminations candle. We also had fish for dinner last week that required only half a lemon. And when these two worlds collided, that leftover lemon and the leftover wax became a Martha project.

wavelength

I've started a crochet project! I've been meaning to learn how to crochet so when I saw the wavelength pattern, I just had to try.

lv luv pug

I made Hemi a jacket with fabric I found in Hong Kong a long time ago. It's reversible with a really happy pink and orange striped fabric on the other side. The velcro and trim are from Pacific Fabrics. I used one of his other jackets as a template and wish I knew how to properly trim sewing stuff. I'm going to have to redo that ugly buckle on the back one of these days. But isn't he an adorapug?