Things To Look Forward To: Moving, Lenka, and Santa Fe

It feels good to have a post with this title, dontcha think?
Here are some things happening in my neck of the beach.

+We move in two weeks, and I'm looking forward to unclogging our lives! My love for small, cute items does not come in handy when organizing a household. Things I can see from my desk:
- dog, monkey, and owl paperweights. None of them are weighing down paper.
- a fabric elephant hanging out next to a fabric squirrel
- four calendars, two wall, one desk, and one mini with its own stand
- two Japanese erasers with bears on them
- two polka dots bags, one blue, one red
- green leopard print pencils that have never been used
- a postcard with a bunny saying "hello". This was not intended to be sent or received.
You get the point. I love pretty, cute STUFF. I actually find I am happier having pretty things around me, and this is why I'm drowning in fabric elephants and leopard print pencils. So my goal is to trash any pens that don't work, recycle scraps of paper from my art box, donate *gulp* any books I don't want to the library...sigh. Wish me luck.

+I'm seeing my girl crush, pop music sweetheart Lenka, with the boy. You'll most likely have to suffer through some of my outfit decisions so I can look my best for her.

Ah Lenka, so incredibly cute and bubbly. I can't wait for the show!

If I had a music video, it would totally have dancing stethoscopes too.

+I'm bracing myself for a difficult quarter of school and long hours at work, BUT in a few months it will be summer, my favorite season!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary and my 28th year at the end of June, we reserved a hot air balloon ride and a bed and breakfast in Santa Fe. I am so excited! 

 

[From Pueblo Balloon Company]

What are you looking forward to?

The Weekend in iPhone Photos

We were lucky to be guests at an above and beyond creative and loving wedding this past weekend in L.A. Above are small snippets, iPhone/Instagram style! (Aren't her DIY rooster and pig adorable??)

This morning we recovered with a delicious breakfast at Literati Cafe with a good friend.

[The Croque Madam at Literati Cafe]

Happy Monday everyone, hope you all had great weekends!

Eat a Cupcake (or Two) and Support Japan

[From Sprinkles]

Yet another reason to love cupcakes...100% of proceeds for red velvet cupcakes purchased on Tuesday, March 22nd at Sprinkles Cupcakes will be donated to the American Red Cross to support Japan. 

For more information, click here.

A Dress, Some Candy, and Afternoon Tea

After a blustery weekend in the SF Bay visiting family and friends, I'm back at my desk in typically sunny but temporarily gloomy San Diego.  I've been on overdrive lately with work, and coupled with all the tragedy in the news, and the boy also trying to deal with his own work, it hasn't been the happiest of times.

For some cheer amidst the gloom, I've 1) finished one more quarter toward my master's, 2) found some grounding at yoga class, and 3) bought a dress and had some tea.

I own too many dresses. Some people own too many shoes, handbags, books, I have way, WAY too many dresses, and here's another to add to the bunch, which I bought on sale for a wedding next weekend. It's my first one-shoulder, except because of my annoyingly slanted shoulders the one-shoulder doesn't really stay up very well: 

[Draped one-shoulder dress in pistachio from BR]

But I kept it because I LOVE the color. In the photo it looks baby blue, but it's actually a pistachio green color, more like this:

Speaking of pretty colors, over the weekend I finally had the chance to visit Miette in San Francisco, where I picked up some adorable little candy bars and a bag of lavender cookies. I could have stayed inside surrounded by the colorful candy jars all day, le sigh.

And then to top off the weekend, on Saturday I had afternoon tea with my sisters and girlfriends at Lisa's Tea Treasures. I had blueberry green tea, a variation I've never tried before, dainty cheese sandwiches, a scone, and pistachio cookies. Mmmm...

Phew. Okay, it's time for me to rest and do laundry before I get thrust back into the office and my school books!

How are you doing? Anyone else got the blues?

Blogging Interrupted

I had posts scheduled, but talking about yoga and cute shoes just feels bad in my mouth given the tragedy in Japan. I'm also a little numb after reading about the Chinatown bus accident in New York, as it hits close to home. (I used to take the Chinatown bus all the time living on the east coast, and my parents and in-laws travel by bus with other Asian Americans when traveling or going to the casinos.)

If you would like to donate to Japan, click here to donate to The Red Cross, here to donate to Global Giving, and here to Doctors Without Borders. For a full list from the NYTimes, click here.

I'll be back. In the meantime, I send out my love and hope to read more successful survivor stories in the media. xoxo

Compromises + Moving

Here is the short and really positive version of this post: We're moving! It has two bedrooms! Vaulted ceilings! A window facing north so that I don't have to take so many photos with my flash!

Here is the long and more detailed version of this post: Last week, we got good news. We've been wanting to move to a new neighborhood in San Diego for a long time, except that our lease was up in July, which was when we got married. Getting married + Moving=Headache I Did Not Want To Deal With. So we renewed our lease.

Last week we got a letter.

Dear Mo, remember how you want to move to the beach and live next door to your best girlfriend? Well, now you can! We're changing your lease from 12 months, to month to month, just because we love you! Pack up the cat and get out of here. Off you go to a cuter neighborhood that has a coffee shop other than Starbucks, go now! Love, the apartment fairies

I was so excited that I was thisclose to packing up our first box of stuff. 

But we didn't end up looking at new apartments, and the boy halted my craigslist research, to which I responded with wwwhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyy.

For very pragmatic reasons that the boy pointed out, ie proximity to both of our workplaces, cheaper rent, and a washer/dryer in the unit, we're staying in our complex but just moving to another unit with more space. Sigh, I was so close to leaving, so close.

This is a good thing, it really is, more space! Huzzah! I'm just being a big baby and just had held too many fantasies of walking outside and doing yoga on the beach. Maybe one day my friends. 

Dear Mo, before you move, you might want to check out that anonymous bag of clothes...or that box of files you haven't touched since 2007...or those toiletries you ignore in the back of the closet. Just sayin'. Love, the apartment fairies

Beer+Cupcakes+Coffee=A Happy Saturday

 Knowing my love of cupcakes and the boy's love for beer, a friend suggested we try out PubCakes, a marriage between none other than, beer and cake! They just had their grand opening last month. The space is super cute, especially the small area outside that is decorated with succulents. PubCakes also shares the space with Treehouse Coffee Company, which supplied us with delicious caffeine for the day.

We had three mini cupcakes: the Top Ten Cake, Beer for Breakfast, and an Irish Carbomb (made with Guinness). You can see pics of them all below.

Overall, an interesting cupcake experience (have you ever had bacon on a cupcake?) that I would recommend trying out. I just wish they were closer to our neck of the woods. 

[Top Ten Cake: Karl Strauss Tower Ten IPA, cayenne caramel, cherry, and ancho chillies]

[Beer for Breakfast: Alesmith Wee Heavy, maple cream cheese frosting, and, wait for it, BACON]

PS: My iPhone camera amazes me more and more everyday!

Crappy Day = Eating Ice Cream

It's been that kind of week. When I feel like crap, two things may likely occur. 1, I eat a lot of sugar (example above.) 2, I buy something impulsively. Impractical shoes are a likely purchase.

Life would be a lot skinnier and less expensive if I only had good days.

What's your go-to quick fix for a super craptastic day?