I’m stocking up for the holidays and putting my little creatures to good use this year on the tree. I love the holidays, but it always goes by way too fast!
a Phamily affair…
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are all spending these few days with your loved ones and eating delicious foods like giants. I know I am for sure. My family has been hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the past two years, with all my uncles and aunts, and cousins coming over to our house. It’s usually myself and my brother and sister who cooks the American fare of turkey and side dishes and my parents making a few Vietnamese dishes also. This year was no exception with the fusion of both American and Vietnamese dishes coming together in a banquet of deliciousness. My dad went all out this year and served up some very bad ass seafood dishes including chili lobster noodles, fried soft shelled crab, liver & pork pate, beef lotus salad, and crab meat soup. My mom made her famous fried bananas and eggplant with shrimp, and we snacked on these during out morning preparation for dinner. Still full as I type this, and one thing that I am definitely also thankful for is… leftovers! (photos courtesy of my bro and his new favorite lens)
cactus garden
Even though I’m off for an entire week for Thanksgiving break, I still feel like I’m constantly in teaching mode. I drove around to various nurseries today in search of cacti for upcoming Rodeo drawing projects when school commences again. (Surprisingly enough, Home Depot carries the cheapest and has a wider selection of cacti to choose from) And sure, it probably would have been more economical in the long run and less stressful to purchase a few fake cactus plants, but I think the real ones are so much more tactile and beautiful to look at, especially the ones with those vibrant flowers. If anything, these plants will make a colorful edition to the classroom. Aaaand, I gotta say, I’m a bit excited to have a few students try and mess with these plants for a change and experience those prickly needles for themselves. 🙂
My macrame planter hanger from Myth & Symbol’s workshop last Thursday.
Gardening tip #356: Pour a layer to pebbles or gravel in the pot before adding soil for cacti and succulents. This helps with the drainage and balances out the weight, especially with the more top heavy cactus plants. A porous planter like this terra cotta one will also help to to dry out the soil faster to prevent root rot.
auld lang syne…
My Thanksgiving week kicked off early last Saturday as my sister and I hosted our annual dinner party again. I will say that I did not plan the dinner party to the extent that I normally do, but for the first time, we actually finished prepping and cooking early enough to take a breather and chill on the couch before company arrived. And because this year has been such a busy time for everyone, it was really great to have everyone come together for some food and wine, and to catch up and even meet a few new people along the way. I took a quiet moment to myself during dinner and realized that we have all come such a long way since last year, since our college days several years ago, since we had met each other so many, many years before that, and how everyone seems to be in such a good place right now. Here’s hoping for many more years like this one to come in our futures…
overgrown
Dad’s pepper tree is overgrowing. The yellow peppers look like giant caterpillars hanging around. 
psaugust.com 