Back to the Grind...

It's only the second day back from the Thanksgiving holiday, and I'm already looking forward to Christmas and the long weekend that brings. 

Our Thanksgiving this year was wonderful!  The day started around noon...that's when everyone began to come over.  My uncle and mom started the prep for the food right away as the rest of us sat around, chatted, and watched some football.  We ended up with a lot of food...too much food actually...so here's a glimpse of it:

My uncle makes an amazing ketchup shrimp dish and my aunt cooked up the quail that's in the top plate. 

I braised some pork belly the night before and simply reheated it the next day.  I find that braised dishes are always better on the second and third day, so I tend to always cook this type of dish ahead of time. 

Seattle's best duck!  My parents went to Chinatown and got this Thanksgiving morning.  Behind the duck are the sweet and sour pork ribs. 

Chinese broccoli and thin curry noodles

We ordered a special Filipino noodle dish that's extremely hard to make from my friend's dad who does catering.  The bowl of yellow noodles is called Palobok.  The green dish on the right is cucumbers cut up mixed with some special sauces and ingredients with Chinese BBQ pork.

My uncle, the master chef...looks great in my Anthro apron!

Look at that spread of food!  I didn't even miss the turkey!

I tried to take this before everyone arrived and tried to get my kitty, who loves to cuddle with me.  He had a special ocean pate canned dinner himself! 

This year's Turkey Day was such a special one for me.  I'm glad both Chris and my families were able to spend it together as one big family.  Who knows what next year will bring us, but our family will only get bigger.  My aunt and uncle's son and his future wife might finally be able to come to the United States soon...so cheers to that! 

Also, don't forget my giveaway going on currently here.  You still have until this Friday to enter and I'll post the winner Monday.  Thanks for reading!

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Today is one of the happiest days for me all year...because why?  I get to spend it with the people I love...

My parents and my Uncle and Aunt

My new Mom and in loving memory of D...Daddy

My beautiful and ever so classy sister-in-law

My wonderful and silly brother-in-law

My spoiled baby

My other spoiled baby

Today is my dad's 60th birthday.  It fell on Thanksgiving day, which is a great excuse to party extra hard!  This was from a couple of years ago...but his favorite gift he can get is alcohol...whiskey to be exact.  Here he is admiring our gift to him a couple years back.

My dad's lived through the Chinese Revolution, he's been sent down by the Chinese government in his teens to work on farm lands, he's come to the US with nothing in his pocket and now he's living the American dream with WHISKEY!!!  And what is he missing?  A good working television set.  And this year, for his 60th, that is his birthday present to us.  A new flat screen HDTV! :)  Happy Birthday Dad!  I can't wait till you open up your presents.  

And of course, the person I love the most is my hubby.  This is our first Thanksgiving as a married couple!  Kisses and hugs to my baby!  The picture above was taken at our work event back when we first met in 2007! :)  Ahh...how we've....aged...ahem....and grown together.  Love you!

To all my readers, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I am truly thankful for all your support...it's really what keeps me going with this little blog of mine.  :)

Now...gobble gobble...it's time to eat!

A Snowy Thanksgiving Eve!

Hello all!  Yesterday was my playing hookie from work day as we were snowed in.  Yes...that's right...snowed in.  Sunday afternoon the flakes started falling but it wasn't enough to stick.  When everyone got to work Monday, it started coming down hard...and it continued throughout the day.  Now...for those of my readers that live in the midwest, let me just explain.  It rains a lot here in the Pacific Northwest, but as soon as it snows, the whole city loses it.  Hardly any of us own chains or snow tires and since our streets are hilly, drivers just go nuts! 

Our major freeway, Interstate 5, was backed up for HOURS!  Two of my friends, who lived less than 15 miles away from work, both took 6 hours to get home.  I heard on the news, some took as long as 9 hours!  It was just crazy.  And guess how many inches we got?  THREE!!!  That's right...just a few inches and our city goes into arctic shock.  It wasn't the amount of snow, but when it started Monday morning, it came down hard.  Then in the middle of the day, it warmed up, melting some of the snow.  And by the time it got dark, there was cold front that moved in that freezed everything.  And for a city with lots of steep hills, not enough of snow plows, people all rushing to get home, mixed in with some crazy drivers, it was bad!

Here are some pics of the snow day we had:

So...onto something new and fun.  My hubby, recently just started his blog here.  He used to blog about cars a lot back in high school, but recently started up again and wanted this blog to be about art.  My husband works for a consulting firm, and the client he's working for right now just happens to be Microsoft.  One of the managers there saw our wedding guest book that he made and asked him to paint a mural in his office in a "not too street, but not too corporate" way.  And this is what he came up with:

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

Chris drew up some templates on the computer and out of all the mock ups, the Manager chose this design.  Microsoft just opened up their new retail store here in the Seattle area, so the colors used here is part of their new store logo.  Let me just add that this was not your regular roller painting.  This was all done by paint spray cans for the "graffiti" look.  The Microsoft letters were cut as stencils, same as the white outline surrounding the black letters.   It took 9 hours on a Saturday to get this done, but the Manager was so satisfied!  It really turned out better than we all imagined it would.

For those new readers, here is a picture of our wedding guest book.  It's now hanging in our family room all signed by our guests, but this was also all done with spray can.  The graffiti on the right was stenciled and airsprayed.  If you tilt your head to the right, it reads "Cindi" and if you tilt your head to the left, it reads "Chris".  Our bodies were stenciled in by blowing up an engagement picture of ours below:

Anyhoo, thanks for those of you that's already entered my giveaway.  For those of you that haven't already, here's the link to my very first giveaway!  There's still time to enter!!

It's Thanksgiving eve and I hope everyone a great Turkey Day!  I'm sure there will be lots of laughs and food in your near future as you all spend some much needed family time.  I'm going to do the same!  Be happy and be safe!

Simply a Giveaway!

In the spirit of the season, as well as recently reaching 100 Google followers, I've decided to host my very first giveaway!  I wanted to take the time out to thank every one of those that frequent my little blog here...it truly means a lot to me.  This blog is a little window into my life here in the Pacific Northwest and honestly, it's probably one of the best things I've decided to do.  I never thought I'd keep it up for this long.  But needless to say, it's been a great journey, and I'm looking forward to many more to come. 

So...here's the details of the giveaway:

1.  You have the choice of picking TWO of the Anthropologie alphabet monogram mugs in any letter you want.  You do not have to leave them in the comments.  Once the giveaway is over, I will contact you directly on which one you'd like.

2. For one submission, you can be a follower, but you do not need to follow to participate in this blog.  Just leave me your email address in the comments.

3. For an additional submission, in the comments section, tell me whether you're participating in Black Friday this year and what you're looking to score.

4. For a final submission, blog about this giveaway on your blog and let me know in the comments once you've done so. 

I will be taking entries from now till December 3rd.  I will also be contacting the winner to see whether they drink coffee or tea...or other hot beverages for an additional surprise I'd like to include in the mailing.  :)

It's Monday and outside looks like this:

I'm SO ready for the holidays!  Have a great Monday, everyone! 

Napa Dining Table

Good afternoon!  I wanted to thank everyone's kind and supportive words responding to my post yesterday.  I went ahead and removed the post upon chatting with a friend who reminded me that someone at my work might stumble upon my blog and read the entry.  But it felt good typing this out and reading all your responses made me feel like I wasn't in this alone. 

In preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday, which will be held at our house this year, we hunted down the Napa Dining Table and Bench at World Market the other day.  It was quite an adventure...let me just tell you.  I called all over and they only had this one table left...which was a return.  So in the middle of pouring rain and pitch darkness, I drove down to the store to take a look and decided to buy it! 

The SA said the reason why this particular table was returned was because the previous customer didn't like the deeper knots on the table top.  But I thought this brought out the more rustic look that I was going for.  The knots are closer to the edge than the center, which didn't bother me at all. 

When we picked the table up (this weekend), they didn't have the bench but they just had some come in yesterday so we bought it last night.  The brown leather chairs were ours to begin with, and now we can sit 8 people comfortable around this huge (and heavy!  This thing weighed 200 pounds!!!) table.  I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

And here's an OOTD from a few days ago.  The black "tights" I was wearing were HUE cordroy tights.  They made my legs look huge...so I don't think I'll be wearing these much!  LOL. 

Tomorrow's Friday and next week will be a short one, for everyone I'm sure!  Have a great rest of the afternoon!

Purple for PanCan!

Well good evening everyone.  Thank you to everyone again for submitting your wonderful purple outfits for my special post on Pancreatic Cancer.  All you ladies look so lovely and I feel so grateful for your support in this.  So, without further rambling from me, lets start with...

Sara of You, Me, and Anthropologie is decked out in Anthropologie purple and she's wearing the much loved Mimetic Skirt that I was lusting over.  It looks wonderful on her!

Top: Anthropologie Muted Lavender Top
Skirt: Anthropologie Mimetic Skirt
Tights: Forever 21
Shoes: Target


Bonnie of Small Town Fashionista is wearing her purple with the Crocheted Clouds Dress.  I have to admit that I wanted to try this dress on after seeing it on her.  She just makes it look so amazing!

Inkmark of Objects of Desire is so adorable with her pumpkin and purple.  Inkmark and I connect in a special way because she's from the same town in China as I am!  I just don't meet a lot of people from there so it's always exciting when I do.

Jamie of Thrifty Threads has a wonderful blog that showcases all the great deals she's found.  She has a knack for finding wonderful deals and she has great fashion sense.  Check her out in her purple outfit totaling only $106!!!

Purple: (tt) Anthropologie pencil skirt. Retail:$88-98. Sale: $30
Purple: (tt) LOFT cropped jacket. Thrifted for $3
Purple: Naturalizer Annabelle pumps. Retail: $80. Sale: $48 (buy here, though not on sale)
(tt) LOFT ivory tee. Retail: $30. Sale: $15

(tt) Ann Taylor ribbon abd pearl necklae. Retail: $38. Sale: $20

Debbie of possess and obsess incorporated purple in her 30 for 30 challenge.  Debbie's father passed away from prostate cancer in 2007 so this cause is near and dear to her heart.

 

Pamela of ginger girl recently attended her regional Pancreatic Cancer Action Network function where they helped raised $6000!  Thank you for being a supporter of the cause, Pamela!

Lori of Lorispeak is a fellow Seattle-ite and an awesome fashionista!  She wore purple the whole week last week and she even busted out her mom's purple dress (first outfit).  In the second picture, Lori's at our favorite store...Anthropologie!

Jen of vintageglammz is a fellow reader all the way from Aussie land!  Her wonderful blog brings her readers to Sydney...not to mention adventures in Europe.  There's no Anthro in Australia as of yet, but that doesn't stop her from getting wonderful pieces.

Robin of California Dreams had a grandfather that passed away from Pancan just two years ago.  I am pretty sure on the day of the Pancan walk, her grandfather was alongside Claro cheering us on!

Debbie of Dark Horse shared two outfits and she recently just patterned mixed with another purple cardigan. Debbie always puts together the cutest belted outfits...so make sure to check her blog out for inspiration!

And here's me...in my purple Gossemar Henley I purchased last week.  I love these henleys so much and seriously want it in every color.  It's a perfect weekend outfit with skinnies.

Thank you again to all you lovely ladies that submitted a purple outfit.  We just got word that this year's Pancan walk helped raise $125,000 towards further research!  That's more than THREE times as much money raised than last year.  I'm seriously proud of our Puget Sound PanCan Chapter.  :)

Wedding Photos Part 2...

Chris and I met up with our wedding photographer, Erwin Wijanto last night for dinner.  He gave us 2 DVD filled with 1020 wedding photos!  It took us two hours to go through all of them last night and all of them were wonderful.  Here are some of the highlights that you didn't see from my previous post.

My Matron of honor delivered my groom's gift...which was an iPad.  I wrapped it in an inter-office mail envelope.  :)

Putting on the veil for my portraits...just to forget it later!

Chris' home made card that came along with my bride's gift

Bride's gift!  Michael Kors' watch!

It's great being a guy huh?  They got ready early and started to relax with some alcohol!

Erwin gave me a TON of portraits!  All of them were amazing.  I have enough to remember this day for a life time.  He is just so great!

Instructions Chris made for our gift book

Our cake was so yummy and beautiful but working with our decorator was kind of scary.  She befriended me on Facebook and throughout the year, when a bride pissed her off, she'd write about it as her status.  Then all her friends would chime in on her side!  I was so afraid to get on her bad side...but luckily no statuses were written about me!  :)

Hugging is just not a thing in my family, so when my parents gave me away, Erwin caught this pic of me and my mom hugging.  I just love it and want to frame it for her!

See how uncomfortable my dad looks?

KA-POW!!!!

Jill was still teary eyed after the cememony and Erwin was able to catch her laughing at herself.

Somehow, a mysterious rainbow was on top of Chris' head.  We believe this was his father with us that day!

This is an awesome picture we'd like to blow up and hang somewhere in our house.  Upon first look, you really can't tell it's our wedding day...which I like.

DRINKS!!!

Our flower girl and ring bearer...the little Princess herself

Our home made programs

We made a dedication video to our parents and I was welting up!

Me dancing with our family friend and my Uncle.  Our family friend is an immigrant from Taiwan and he knew every song I played!!!  Guess what his baby daughter's name is???  BEYONCE!!!!!  Haha.  It's the cutest thing.

Chris and John changed into their "kicks" and tried to break dance!

That's it all!!!  I loved revisiting our wedding day through photos.  I hope you also enjoyed these...and have a great weekend!