Best Golden Day EVER!!

I'm still floating on clouds thinking about my epic golden day last Friday!!

Here's how the day went...

Dylan woke me up by bringing me breakfast in bed with some coffee and treats from Besalu pastries. Then I got kicked out for the rest of day, since Dylan had to take over the house to decorate. But I especially don't mind in cases like this. :)

I met up with Ashley for some new ideas we're collaborating on...here's a SNEAK PEAK!

Then I met up with my sister and got some play time with my niece, Yvette! Awww....look at her adowable worry eyebrows!

Then it was time to put on my outfit for the evening with a gold rope necklace with materials I found at Joann's of all places! 

Even the sun came out to say hello....

Then bunch of friends and I went to Belle Clementine for a delicious community coursed meal.

This was one of best dinner experience with good food, good drinks, good friends and people at the restaurant. (more details about the dinner later!)
Here's a teaser photo....a glass of Lillet, some lightly pickled green olives with orange zest,  and sheep's milk feta cheese over saute nettle forged from the Northwest.

Then after dinner, we went back for more partying at our house withe the whole place decked out in all sorts of gold decorations!

Even got this special giant gold gobblet to drink out of!

and then totally stuffed my face with more homemade treats & special cocktail drinks from everyone.

Thanks Dylan & everyone that came out to celebrate with me on my birthday! I had the most amazing time...and I really couldn't have asked for anything more!!

xoxo

The Golden Day!!!

So....this is sorta kinda a big deal....well, not as big of a deal compare to the golden year...

BUT still...this year, 2012, this month, March, tomorrow, the 30th......is gonna be my golden birthday!!!!

Damn right.. I'll be turning 30 on the 30th!

But I'm WAAAAAAY more excited about the GOLDEN part than some silly insignificant number!
For anyone who knows me, I'm not the type of person to make a big deal out of my birthdays...(except when it involves kareoke) 

Dylan is being a TOTAL sweetheart and is planning the event and all I know is that we'll be having an nice group community dinner at Belle Clementine, which I can't wait!!!
So all I have to worry about is how I can make myself look golden for my big day!
Yah... I know...I sound like I'm 16, but it's been awhile.  :)

(Gold image and tassels above from Confetti System)

I'm not one to go all out and cover myself gold from head to toe like getting some fancy gold evening gown, sexy gold heels, and flashy gold tooth (they all go hand in hand, right?)
...BUT I'm always up for some tasteful gold accessories!

I was looking for a button up shirt with gold accents of some sort and ended up finding THIS gold collar necklace!....that's not available anymore! Bummer!!
But I think I can make something up by sewing a gold collar to go on a simple white dress shirt to classy it up!

I also really want gold polka dots tights, but can't find it anywhere!...I guess that means I'll need to make my own polka dots on my black leggings!! :P

Of course....I would need some solid dancing like THIS pair of amazing gold & black stripped shoes from Totokaelo. DROOOOOL!

 

Also would love this classy Gold Cambridge Satchel (and the neon yellow,too!)

I've also been wanting a gold casio calculator watch for years now.....and I ended up finding THIS 70's vintage Casio on ebay going for about $600! .....it's unbelievably awesome....

Aaaaaand while we're at it, I might as well add THIS special edition Gold Hasselblad camera going for $5,000+ to the of all the things on my list on how to look golden. Why not?

 

Well...actually I can think of more than a doezon of reason why I shouldn't get all that! But hey...a girl can dream right?!

But, hopefully I'll be able to get at least one of those things before the REAL golden year birthday!

Snorting Drywall Dust Phase

As we got to the phase of putting up dry wall & mudding our kitchen,  we soon started to question why we even started this whole kitchen renovation project in the first place!

No one ever warned us about how awful this whole process is!  For only the size of our kitchen, it took us more than a week of hanging the walls, Dylan mudding the walls in the morning, and then me sanding the walls at  late through the night (repeat 3 times)....and on top of that having all the joint compound dust suck all the moisture out of our body.

I only have pictures of the kitchen before it got bad...and before I went crazy.

Then it was just dust....EVERYWHERE.....

...and then it was just me swearing like a sailor and looking like Peg-Pen from Charlie Brown the whole rest of the time...

Aug 2011 NYIGF Wrap up!

Here's a recap of the JOIN at the NYIGF for the 3rd time!

This time with us being in the lobby outside of the Accent on Design area turned out to be a MUCH more pleasant of a space to be in...especially when the sun is out! Just look at how everything shines on the table!

Above: New server colors and cake servers from L&G, and colorful big Silicone ring by fruitsuper....and NO they're NOT eraser rings!
Here we got Chelsea H. from plainMADE getting a little sun tanning sesh at the Javits....


Photos above by Grain

New frame light colors from Iacoli & McAllister.

Also this time being next to AmDC made it 100 times more fun, too!

photo by Steph Mantis
Here are some highlights from AmDC's booth:

Bracelets made with mix marble cuts celebrating the colors & patterns of the various types of stone. By Chen Chen & Kai Tsien Williams.

Chika and I got to trade with Patrick Kim for one of his clever wooden tons and these lovely cutting boards with a simple rubber band at the end to keep it from slipping around.  So clever & thoughtful!

Beautiful and sleek glass vessels from Felicia Ferrone based out of Chicago.

Playful two-headed animal necklaces in various metals by Steph Mantis! (and yes... exclamation mark is required when referring to Steph!)

...and of course, we wouldn't feel complete at the NYIGF until we have some sort of birthday celebration! and this year is no exception...

Here's Chika with her doughnut birthday cake composed by me and Christa (of blkPINE bags). This is second time celebrating Chika's bday at the Javits and we went all out and made a doughnut tower with yummy doughnuts from Doughnut Plant....surrounded with coconut macaroons, strawberry Pocky sticks, and flower pom pom with napkins provided by the Javits.

Yes...I know...only a master mind & a true artist can create such master piece such as this. Christa and I took MAD pride in carefully piling the doughnuts up and sprucing it all up...and all the  grease spots on the box only shows how much thought went into this...

A Perfect day in NY

After 5 long grueling days of smiling, smirking, staring, standing, speaking, and more staring at the NYIGF, I finally got some downtime right after the show ended.
and totally had myself the most perfect day....

First, I stopped at the closest Dean & Deluca and paid for an over priced iced latte and one of this amazing carrot cake doughnuts from  doughnut planet and "wrote" a card to Dylan with one of these Utility Cards by Grain. Each card is filled with words all of sorts for every occasion possible. It's more than brilliant!
It took me a while but composed my own phrase "WAHZZ....UP....MY....BOY....FRIEND....I....MISS....YOU....WAY....TOO....MUCH....YEA..."

Then I walked through Highline checking out the new addition, which is even more amazing than before!

I sat one of the the lounge benches and ate one of these deliciously handmade peach elderberry popsicle.

Then I actually got to soak up some sun for at least couple of hours... and as shameful as this sounds (but I'm not longer ashamed) I starting hearing Sheryl Crow's "soak up the sun" in my head out of nowhere!
Normally I'd freak out if that song were to pop in my head at any other moments, but instead I kept my cool...and just embraced it.
I got to read a bit, stared at the clouds, did some people watching, and all the while still humming the song....it was so refreshing.

Then what made it EVEN more perfect is that I met up with Chika & Jesse and got to enjoy THE most perfect dish at Joseph Leonard with all the simple ingredients I love the most....
Just look at that perfect egg sitting perfectly on top of a cute little piece of brioche..next to a perfectly healthy bed of frisee salad topped with perfectly crisped bacon bits....


Can't say that I get to expereince a lot of days like this anymore, but whenever it happens...I just totally love every moment of it...even if Sheryl Crow comes into the picture.

Instant Framing

This was the day we've been waiting for since we started designing a steel frame with Nick from Piano Nobile...we're gonna see the frame in our space for the first time!

I was especially excited to wake up this morning and see Nick pull in with his AWESOME Fuso in our drive way with the frame pieces. Seeing the size of the Fuso, I wished we had bigger pieces to move just so we can see the crane in action, too!!

So remember from our previous post with our Google sketchup of our kitchen with a steel frame?...the frame will act as a load bearing structure between our kitchen and living room so we can open the space up and have an island!

so here are some photos of Dylan & Nick dry fitting the pieces in the space for the first time to see how it all looks and fits....nervous?? I AM!!

Ta-da! Instant framing, done!

It was as simple as lining up the pieces, screw in the bolts and voila!  Totally exciting to see what it actually look like in our space!! I was hopping around like a 5 year old filled with excitement when they were doing all this.

Next on the list....ride the Fuso and get the frame powder coated! Yesssss....

Summer Rides

I've been meaning to put together a road bike that I have...
I took it apart 3 years ago wanting to re-coat the frame, get color tires, leather handles & seats along with some vintage Cinelli & Campagnolo parts..and what do you know?...the frame is still there with all the parts are still in a box! Wah-wuh...

I was especially a bit discourage when I saw that I can get a custom single speed or track bike from Republic Bike for $399! You can customize the color from the frame, to the seat, the wheel, the tires, down to the chain and gears!! And it would take them less time to build a bike from scratch than me putting it back together and have it be not even rideable...what in the what was I thinking?
Just so convenient that they have a feature on their website where you can custom build a bike to see what you like...and of f course I HAD to start playing around with it!!
Started our with something like this...
... classic/unisex feel with yellow, black, and white.
....then something soft and bold at the same time...

or it could be any of these....
ah..Too many options...I can't decide....

But then again...I hate to give up on my poor torn apart bike project...it's SO tempting to want to just get something shiny and new!! But instead of surrendering to my irresponsible desire for compulsive consumption...I'm making a commitment to work on my bike!!
Because nothing can replace the sense of accomplishment of doing something from start to finish...even if it means that it'll take me 4+ years to complete it...right? God...I sure hope so....