Happy New Year!

02.02.2011
by psaugust
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home sweet home

Happy Tet! Chuc Mung Nam Moi! My second favorite holiday of the year. Spring (Xuan) will be here soon, once we get through this so-called Snowmageddon. I don’t know about you, but I welcome the cold. It’sĀ  a good excuse to wear tights and mittens.Ā  Anyway, I wish you and all your loved ones a prosperous and healthy new year.Ā  Here are just a few things that remind me of Tet every year:

fresh, blooming branches of forsythia

those lucrative red envelopes

bright, fluffy, yellow chrysanthemums

steaming hot tea

rice cakes and Mom’s old tin can of rice for the incense

and coconut candies, peanut brittle, and dried fruits and goodies

Everyone is taking a day off tomorrow, so we’re all going to the temple early morning, and at midnight for the dragon dance. It’s going to be super cold tomorrow, but nothing a hot bowl of pho won’t cure. Stay warm guys. We’ll get through this Super-blizzard together.

Seed the day

02.02.2011
by psaugust
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homemade / Parties


For favors to go, we arranged these vintage demitasse cups with bright mixes of flowers, and some wildflower seeds in these custom made packets (see my template below). My sister has this quirky cute planter that has “Seed the Day” printed on it that gave us such a laugh when she bought it. It ties nicely with the theme. These were fun favors to make, albeit time-consuming, but I like the personal touches in all my little details.

Little Hello Kitty rings for Jocelyn, who nabbed all four of them for herself and her friend. (I saved the green one for myself!) There’s lip gloss inside when you open the top!

a French delicacy

02.01.2011
by psaugust
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food

A lot of people were fawning over those delicious macarons at the bridal shower, but gasped in outrage when they heard how expensive these little sweets were. I want to try to make these one day. Maybe invite the girls over an we can experiment with some baking. (Did I mention my cupcake baking skills were a disaster for the party? Yeah, that’s why there are no close ups shots of the cupcakes šŸ™‚ Anyway, there is an illustrated step by step tutorial over at French Nouveau that is a great reference for those beginners, me included. Who knows, if I can master the art of the French macaron in a week or two, I can make some for the wedding and future parties.

Wish tree

02.01.2011
by psaugust
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homemade / Parties

Originally, I planned on manzanita branches for the wish tree, but I found these sparkly branches on clearance at a sidewalk sale at the craft store and couldn’t pass up such a sweet deal. This makes good practice for the larger wish tree I’ll be making for the wedding reception.