Saturday, December 31, 2011

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Meet my new baby, a fifteen year old contoneaster Bonsai. The seller was a grandpa that cared a great deal about his plant and spent quite a few minutes teaching me how to take care of it in the summer and winter time. 

Thursday, December 29, 2011

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If I don't spend some time in the garden, I feel as though the day is incomplete.

Monday, December 26, 2011

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Got a glimpse of the bird feeder's customer:)
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I had a wonderful Christmas time with my family. We spent the entire morning unwrapping gifts, took the doggies to the park and then cooked Chinese hot pot instead of the traditional American Christmas dinner.  My husband hid all my presents in his car just in case I couldn't resist the urge to dig through the whole house for presents before the holiday arrives. This year, one of my favorite presents was the salt and pepper grinder by Perfex. I absolutely love them! My husband told me that the sales lady's son got them as his wedding gift in 1964 and still uses them today. Maybe they will last me 50 years too?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

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There are some things you can't live without, like a cute bird feeder with a umbrella top!
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Fiefie is a cute little gardner:)

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My band of fairy gardens... it's a growing monster.

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My latest creation is always my favorite!

Monday, December 19, 2011

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Homemade Okonomiyaki. Yummy!
What's been happening at the fairy garden?

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At this point, between all the making and remaking, I lost count of how many I've made. But definitely over ten, a few more on the way...

Sunday, December 18, 2011


I love this table, it can be custom made into the size that fit your home. From here.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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Pictures of home sweet home. I had a really fun day with my husband and mother-in-law unwrapping Christmas gifts, drinking wine and eating cheese. It was a blast!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

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I finally spent some regular hours practicing last week and finished learning the second half of Islamey, this made me feel a little less guilty about fairy gardening since it is a completely frivolous hobby and I can't think of it benefiting anything or anyone but my own entertainment. I'm planning out a few new pieces to learn, one of which is the Prokofiev sonata and the other is the Shostakovitch prelude and fugue, I'm putting my focus on Russian music for the next few months. In my personal experience, nothing is more difficult to learn than the Beethoven sonatas. Somehow his composition is just too hard for me to grasp, everything else that I play seem to come through much easier... I hope I won't have to play another one anytime soon. Sometimes I ask myself what is the point of keep learning, but after all it is a lot of fun to explore new pieces.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

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Fairy garden #7... in progress:)

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And a sneak preview of fairy garden #8, I think I got my fix of fairy gardens after this one. This REALLY is the last one, maybe.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

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Fairy garden #1 has been remodeled... again. Every time I saw it, it made me cringe, so I had to redo it. I like it a little better this time.

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Last night I added little birds to the mini carriage, saving it for the next fairy garden project!

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Completed fairy garden #6, took a while, but it's worth it.

Monday, December 5, 2011

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I'd been looking forward all day to be able to sit down, sip a glass of wine while sharing some popcorn with Kelly and Alfie, and super-gluing together some broken fairy garden decoration. It's been really windy lately, this morning I took in all the tiny small parts inside the house. It's always a good idea to glue things down in case the wind or our gardener blew them away:)

Friday, December 2, 2011

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My husband spent many trips to the Home Depot store and then many hours in the garage making a large wooden box for me as a fairy garden container. I've been working on it here and there, and now it's almost done. Now I just need some grass...
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I can't believe December has rolled around! This has been one crazy year with one thing after another, what will come next year? Who knows. I will admit that it has been quite a stressful couple of months. The night I lost Bobby, I thought the whole night was just ruined and I was never going to get through the night, but now two whole months had passed, I somehow managed through a muddle of stress. My health has taken a nose dive, the house is in shambles, but I hope things are all going to get better from now on.

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...