Thursday, April 28, 2011

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Some little moments in life are just plain simple and good.
gnomes and things...

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I see plenty of gnomes at garden shops but not very often one in plain colors. This little gnome is sitting under my maple tree. Kelly likes him!

And a little more home improvement updates:
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Back yard phase 1.
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Backyard phase 2. 
I added a red maple tree and some roses, it's really nice to have flowers when I look out the window now

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

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One of my favorite things to do lately has been going to nurseries. There's nothing relax you like walking on a dirt road with rows and rows of flowers and greens. It's the real food for the soul!
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Our sofa arrived today. After seeing the room empty for a while, my eyes are having a hard time adjusting to its largeness.  It's got a strong new leather smell and the little bits of wrapper are still sticking to the leather, but here's a picture of it.  I think I like it!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

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It's hard when you have a project going on in the house, besides having to get up around 6:30 am every morning so the painters could get in, there were also lots of dust everywhere and furniture moved out of their place.  We've been working on getting the house comfortable and live in ready around the clock, often foregoing meals and lots of sleep.  Today was the first weekend in a while that we went out to see a play, it was so much fun! To top it off, we had some super fantastic Italian food. There was a little puppy in the restaurant, every atom of his is made up of cuteness, wish Kelly was here!
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Happy Easter everyone! These bunnies are not Easter decorations, I just have a bunny themed backyard:)

So how did the painting job go? I think I'm happy with it. The bedroom used to have red window sills, they used to look like this


we took out the red, painted the wall in white and added a accent wall color in mint green.  

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It's not done yet, I still need to re-upholster the cushion, put in a real bed and night stands and replace that ugly old ceiling fan. The painter is almost done with the other rooms, so more pictures to come. Stay tuned!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

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Our house is getting ready for a fresh coat of paint. The workers were waiting outside our house at 6:50 this morning all dressed in uniforms and knocked on our door at 7 am sharp. That to me was impressive. I had never dealt with construction or paint companies before, never event tempted to paint my room once in my life, so a lot of learning involved as we go. I got up early this morning for the workers and had a cup of coffee with my fiance in the kitchen, and when we stepped out to take a look, our living room became like this
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All in the matter of a few minutes, so, yeah, somethings you just gotta leave them to the professionals! Fingers crossed that everything will turn out great!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A story of dress hunting...

Did you know that it takes somewhere between 4-8 months to order a wedding dress? When I casually waltzed into a bridal shop in Costa Mesa yesterday and told them that my wedding is happening in a couple of months, the receptionist nearly screamed.  I was on my way to a furniture store and thought it might be fun to stop by to see wedding gowns, but right then I realized that the situation was perhaps more serious than I had thought.  Hence all other plans were put off, I had to aggressively look for a wedding dress for the past two days. I pretty much listed all the bridal shops in the neighborhood and raided them one by one down the list. I went through a lot of tough skin haggling with the sales associates at various stores, and all I can say is I almost got tricked into buying a Vera Wang dress that could easily sell me into slavery for the rest of my life. As of this moment, nearly 9pm at night, the deal was done. I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine because I have a potential dress in the making and supposedly some dress makers in New York are going to stay up for a few nights til the morning rush to make things happen. It sounded extremely painful but lucky for me I could finally sleep well tonight!

So how did it feel to try on wedding gowns for the first time of my life? Definitely more amazing than I thought. I always imagine it would be dreadful to try on bridal dresses, but it was not true. Some of the dresses were just down right amazing. Now I can see how a pretty dress could easily sprout into a pretty banquet hall, a pretty set up for everything and why wedding costs could easily go over the roof all the while you thought you just wanted a simple plain wedding and be with the person you love. It was definitely a experience though, while I never thought I wanted a big wedding, I've always wanted a beautiful dress. When I had the dress on in front of the big three sided mirrors, I thought I could be plucked up and put on top of a cake, it was a nice thing to remember. I will bet one day when I'm 80, I will have plenty of time to look back and think how cute and funny this moment must have been!

Sunday, April 17, 2011


Some home decorating ideas, I'm having design seizures right now and can't even decide on a paint color!

Friday, April 15, 2011

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Grocery shopping during rush hour is bad, but getting home and start cooking in the kitchen alone with a glass of wine is good:)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

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I went antique shopping yesterday and found these beautiful jewelry in the back room of some antique mall, they are too pretty!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

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Finally have my piano moved to the new house today. If you have a grand piano, the best way to move them is to hire professional piano movers, yes, you heard me, moving companies that move only pianos. It took three guys carefully maneuver the monster into my house. I got a piece of vintage lace table cloth as a cover to protect it from the sun, the huge fabric is about 112 inches and turned out to be a tad too small, sigh! Maybe window treatment should be called for?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

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My project today was to hang the crystals on the Chandelier in the dining room. I think Chandeliers have such a old world charm!

Friday, April 8, 2011

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What's cooking? Balsamic strawberries with honey!
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My taste buds are thanking me for the macaroons.
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Outside was cold and windy, inside was cozy and warm, I'm really beginning to fall in love with my new house.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

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A little sneak preview of the house. It's impossible to take nice pictures now with all the boxes stuffed up to the ceiling, and the mess just seems to be growing every day. We are nervously getting some estimates on repainting some places in the house and do a few minor repairs. Fingers crossed that it won't get too expensive! I can't wait til I have my piano here with me so I can start practicing again and get back to normal, will I ever get my "normal" back again?

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Kelly and Bobby each got a hair cut today, I love the way they look right after a clean cut! Don't they look adorable? Bobby look like a real sturdy little boy, pets are the best!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

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The last couple of weeks for some reason my computer and camera never happen to end up in the same place, hence there's not much posts or pictures because I haven't got the gears! We did managed to get a 51' tv into the house. After reading various sources warning about not buying a tv that's too big for your house, I decided to be good and got the 43', my fiance and I stuffed it in the back seat and drove home nervously the entire time afraid that the plasma screen might crack if there's a pot hole on the ground. After a lot of trouble we set it in the family room and it looked about the size of a shoe box from where the sofa is. So the first one had to go back. By the time we got our second tv we've pretty much made friends with every sales man at Best Buy and they probably got really tired of seeing us. The 51' replacement looked like a monster with the box on and there was no way we could have fitted that in the car, Jeff's smart light bulb went off then and decided that we take off the package and load it in his backseat, and that actually worked just perfect. So now we have a plasma tv, neither of us had owned a newer tv before, we both had big clunker TVs and mine just sat in the corner of my room unplugged. I've spent the last few nights catching up on my favorite shows, i.e. Seinfield, but I still haven't saw the Simpsons yet, by the time I saw a story on the Animal Planet channel about a man who had to eat his dog to survive in the wild, I immediately turned it off. I didn't know being grossed out was part of the package, interested in dog eaters? No thank you!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

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I can't believe it's Saturday, where did time go? We've been on a very tight schedule this week with the move. On Wednesday morning the previous owner of our house handed us the keys. The whole house had been cleared out, and the old owners parked a huge motor home in front of our house with their belongings and three dogs inside. I saw the big husky sat inside the motor home like he's guarding his new home, kind of felt bad for him now that he doesn't have a backyard to play around in. Inside the house there was a box of documents with referrals to the painter, woodworker, and even a magazine which our house was featured in back in the 90's. There was fresh camellia left on the kitchen counter and new salt sprinkled on the roses in the garden. Throughout the day as I looked in and out of the house I saw beautiful potted plants, watering pots and little stuff that she left for us, and I didn't really even get a chance to thank her for all that. As I saw them took off I felt a little nostalgic, but then there was not too much time left for that.  The cleaning crew came in that morning and gave the house a deep cleaning and I had to head right away back to my fiance's place to help him pack. We worked til we were about to dropped dead and got everything ready for the movers the next morning. Between then and now, all of Jeff's stuff were moved to the new place, we got some more furniture and appliances and set up the internet and cable service. The place is filled with boxes right now and some areas need to be worked on, it hasn't feel like home yet and probably won't for a short while, but we are working on it!

New Year Preparation

I always like to do a bit of preparation at the end of each year to welcome the new year, although this year things were very challenging, I...