Garden Update.

My garden has been progressing at what feels to me to be a snail's pace but really it isn't quite so bad. I have lots of little carrots and have planted a second crop for fall harvest.

Sorry my chili pepper picture is so blurry. I had to hold the camera at a really strange angle and I couldn't keep my hand steady. I can't wait for more of these to turn red so I can pickle them and dry some. I have 4 or 5 varieties of peppers total and my anaheims are coming in too.

Nobody believed in my green onions except for me. They kept saying that it would be too hot for them in the greenhouse but the soil here is really bad so I went with the greenhouse anyway, and look, there they are. They smell delicious and taste even better.

I'm still waiting on the tomatoes and squash. Both have blossomed but there are no veggies yet. We've also had a lot of yellow wax beans but I always eat them all before I can get a picture. They're so good!

Whole Fish.

Every time we go to Davis for a family reunion we end up going to a restaurant called Ding How. We sit in the back room at a bunch of big tables. My Auntie always goes through their menu in advance and chooses our menu for the evening. Then she calls it in so everything is ready when we arrive, we don't have to wait long and everyone gets a nice selection of delicious food. One thing she always orders is the whole fish. It comes out fried and with the eyeballs intact. The first time we went there and she ordered it I was freaked out and caught off guard by the giant plate of fish coming out toward us. Now it's a family tradition and the whole fish is quite popular.

Here is my little brother digging meat out of the fish skull. So glad I'm a vegetarian.

My Girl Crushes.

I may be into guys but I have some serious girl crushes on a few celebrity women. I admire them not only for their beauty but for their talent, brains and abilities. I mean, can I have them as best friends? Pretty please?

{via}

The beautiful Felicia Day has been on Dr. Horrible and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, her most notable role has been playing Sid Sherman aka Codex on The Guild. The Guild is a web series written by, starring, and produced by Felicia Day. She wrote the script, got some actor friends together, and then shot the first few episodes in her living room before fans started donating and she eventually got funding. The series follows a group of misfit gamers who play a game very similar to World of Warcraft. Sid convinces them that they should meet in real life, rather than just online. This leads to hilariously awkward encounters. When I originally watched the first season I laughed so hard I fell off the couch. Dead serious. 

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Next up, Zooey Deschanel. She's my favorite half of She & Him, don't get me wrong, M. Ward is pretty awesome too. Not only does she make killer music but she's a fantastic actress as well, not to mention one of my style icons. She always wears the most adorable quirky outfits. She has acted in many movies such as Almost Famous, Elf, Yes Man and (500) Days of Summer which is one of my favorites. She's married to Ben Gibbard, the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie. She recently worked on the new Winnie the Pooh movie and is set to star in a new t.v. show, New Girl, in the fall. I love Zooey's quirkiness, her originality and her immense talent. All of that talent in one person just isn't fair.

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Queen Rania is not only a stunning woman who dresses impeccably, she is the Queen of Jordan. So cool. I admire her because of her humanitarian work. Not only does she champion women's rights and education in her own country, she does it around the world. In Jordan, she works hard to make sure all children have access to education of a high caliber and has worked with Universities around the world to aid Jordanian students with scholarships abroad. She also works to end child abuse.

Who is your girl crush?

Our Family Cookbook.

My paupau is on the left with her two sisters on the right.

In my family, cooking Chinese food is something really special. My great aunt carries around a book of all of her handwritten family recipes from the restaurant our family used to have and recipes handed down through the family. She recently let us photo copy them and we put them in binders. My mom added some recipes from other family members that she had and now we have a giant book full of family recipes, both Chinese and not. It seems like half of the book is desserts, I guess we love our sweets.

Aren't those hairdos amazing? I'm in love.

In the top left is my great-grandma and below her with the birthday cake is my grandma.

In addition to the recipes we added a couple pages of old family photos. This is a book I'll cherish and if for some reason I ever decide to have children, this will be passed down to them, after adding my own recipes of course. I can't wait to try out some of the traditional Chinese recipes.

Along with the cha siu bao, soy steamed chicken, and sui mai, there are some killer more recent creations, like a casserole my sister made up in Girl Scout camp and the snickerdoodles we made in kindergarten.

One of my favorite recipes in the book is the famous recipe for Elephant Stew:

1 African Elephant
10 lbs. salt
38 bushels of potatoes
Wine to cover
2 rabbits (optional)

Cut elephant into bite-sized pieces (allow 2 months).
Marinate in wine one month.
Add salt, any pepper, and potatoes.
Simmer over kerosene fire 4 weeks.
Serves 3,000.
If more are expected - add rabbits, but do this only if necessary as most do not like to find hare in their stew.

Apparently when we were kids this was my cousin Emma's favorite and it was almost enough to feed my little brother, Cory. I laughed when I read that but my mom assured me that one night at dinner Cory ate almost the entire dish himself. 8 chicken breasts, really kid?

This particular page is really special to me because of the little note written at the bottom. Mr. Bowman passed away a few years ago so I'm really happy to have this. There is also a recipe written by my Pau Pau (grandma) who passed away before I was born. I've marked these special recipes with the little scalloped circles I made. 

This is my Auntie Alice. She always wears the most fantastic clothing. The reason we all got together last week was to celebrate her 95th birthday.

I wish I had that dress. Amazing!

This is my other Auntie, Daisy or (Dae-dae as we call her). Dae-dae is a busy bee and hilarious. Auntie and Dae-dae are my grandma's sisters. Every year growing up my brother and I would go live with them for a month or so in California and drive them completely insane. They are the closest thing I've ever had to a grandparent and although I couldn't say, because I've never actually had a grandparent, I feel like in many ways, they are better than grandparents. I am so thankful to have these two amazing women in my life.

I've linked up here and here.

WILW: Nautical Edition.

I've been craving the sand and the sea the past few days. It's weird having it be summer and not going to the beach. I grew up in a coastal town and now that I'm in a landlocked state it seems a little odd to not have my toes in the sand. Luckily for me, there are a lot of rivers nearby and I'm going to spend some quality time with them later this week.

Since I'm missing the ocean, my picks for this week follow a nautical theme.

1. Double Natural Sugar Starfish Headband by dreamsbythesea.
2. Water Resistant Pleated Diaper Bag by ikabags.
3. Vintage 1950s Tomato Red Sun Kiss Bombshell Swimsuit simplicityisbliss.
4. Pretty Poppies Stud Fabric Button Earrings by Sweet Sulka.
5. Hey Sailor Ladies Tee by emandsprout.
6. Smiley Face Whale Necklace by CreationsbyJuliann.
7. Ahoy Sailor Mini Keepsake Bag by Zibagz.
8. Seahorse Art by eastwitching.
9. Grain Sack Pillow by lesliejanson.

I really love the vintage swimsuit and the t-shirt in the middle is so fun.

I'm linked up at lollipops.

What I Returned With: Part One.

Every time one of us goes to visit the Aunties, we inevitably return home with a car packed full of things they have saved for us. They have paper bags all over their house with our names written in thick black marker on the side, where they sort things that they want to give to us. One thing I always return home with is peanut butter. I'm not sure why, really, but they always give me peanut butter. It's fine by me, I like making peanut butter cookies.

They wouldn't all fit on one counter.

Sometimes we return home with things that are just a bit cooler than peanut butter though. For instance, this trip I was gifted just over 100 canning jars, many of them have been used by my Aunties to put up all kinds of yummy goodness in the past. It's no secret that I love canning and pickling so I was really ecstatic when my Aunt Dae-Dae (Daisy) offered me the jars. Now to wash, sort, and store them. Peaches and nectarines will be ready for u-pick in a couple of weeks and I'm so excited to use some of my new jars.  

There was an unopened box of these beauties from 1989. They are gorgeous and I can't wait to make something really special to put inside them.

The sides have fruit all over them. These are so much cooler than the jam and jelly jars you can purchase now-a-days. I think I will probably keep these for personal use because I just love them so much and I don't know if I could give them away without a promise of having the pretty jar returned. 

We're Home!!

Our drive was really long and we're so happy to be home. I think Weiser missed us too, look at that beautiful sunset we were treated to on our way into town. We unloaded the car (which was completely stuffed) and then I basically collapsed on the couch. Our landlords had a brand spanking new air conditioning unit installed while we were gone. It was so nice opening the door to a house that wasn't sweltering.

I have so many things I want to show you guys from our trip and a couple fun projects we did but I am so tired I can barely form a complete sentence and tomorrow is jam packed with doctor appointments and bill paying so for now I'm just going to post these goofy photos of us stopping at Sonic for a cherry limeade last night. Sonic's cherry limeades are my very very favorite and I don't get them very often because there isn't a Sonic nearby. 

I think this last one needs to be framed and prominently displayed in our home. 

San Francisco Zoo.

Jake, my mom and I went to the zoo while we were in San Francisco. It's right on the water so it was windy and cold but we still had a great time. I always love seeing such beautiful and exotic animals. I think it's great that zoos take care of these animals, especially because a lot of them are hunted in the wild by humans and are endangered. At the same time though, I wish I could open their cages and let them run free. I would hate to be trapped in a cage all day everyday with weird humans looking in on me as I live my life, making noises at me, taking my picture, trying to get me to turn around.

Excellent hair days, every single day.

He reminds me of women who wear just a little too much makeup.

Hip, hip hop, hip hop anonymous? This guy was so cool. I felt bad because his pen was so small.

I love peacocks and it made me happy that this one was just wandering around the zoo, having the run of the place.

This guy looks like he could be straight from the World of Warcraft. 

I love these statues that were all over the zoo. I really wanted a photo of me riding on the back of the lion statue but it was being swarmed by little kids. Sad.

My mom took a really blurry photo of us but I still like it because of the hippo statue. 

This photo is blurry because I had to zoom in as far as I could to get the chimp. It was a cold and windy day and I thought he was just so cute. After laying out his sleeping pad he wrapped up in a sheet. Such an intelligent little guy. 

Projects in Progress.

Today was family craft day. I think tomorrow will probably end up being family craft day again. It seems like we all just have so many projects to do. It's nice having people to bounce ideas off of. Jake got in on the action too, so awesome!

Here are some sneak peeks of what I was working on. I'll give you a full update after we return home.

I could not get a good photograph of these. The colors kept turning out weird but the colors are so cute in person.

Damsel In The Dress {7.27}.

This is one of my favorite shirts to wear. It's so flowy and comfy. 

Shirt: Macy's

Skinny Jeans: Forever 21

Boots: Vintage, gifted from my Auntie

Necklace: coin necklace

Here are some out takes from our quick little photo shoot. I had gotten Jake some finger steaks so he wanted to hurry up and go eat them. 

My face is glowing. I like it. 

Cartwheels...

...and twirls.

Linked up at The Pleated Poppy. 

Shoe Heaven.

I just checked my email and had a lovely little message from Anthropologie about shoes. I considered deleting it since I don't have money to be spending on shoes but I decided to look instead. Now I'm going to go sell a kidney to buy these shoes. (can I do that on ebay?) Actually, they're only $98 which is a great price for Anthro.

I love the detail down the back and the gorgeous autumn colors. *swoon* I wear a size 6.5. You know, just sayin'. 

I've linked up at Lollipops. 

New Friends.

We made it to California! It was a long drive but we made a new friend along the way. I named our tumbleweed Randall. It's a nice name for a tumbleweed, don't you think?

I also inherited this sweet pair of acid washed, elastic waistband jeans. I'm digging how high the waist is from the crotch of the pants. These things are killer. You know you're jealous. Sorry ladies, they can't be found in stores.

Leaving on a Jet Plane (or in my Compact Car, Either Way).

We're leaving soon to go visit my family in California and celebrate my Auntie's 95th birthday. I am so excited! I miss my family a lot and I can't wait to have a little summer fun with them.

Plus, I get to see this beautiful girl!! She's 9 months old and I haven't seen her since she was about 1 month old. I miss my little niece. I can't wait to play with her, now that she's old enough to play.

We've planned a big BBQ, a dinner out with the entire family, a trip to the zoo, and to just take our time and have fun. I think my sister and I might get to have some crafting time together too!