Almost a year later

I guess now is a good time to come back. I've abandoned this for too long. I toyed with the idea of starting a new blog for this new phase in life. But figured, nah....I'll stick to this one and see what happens. Long story short this is what has happened since last August. eeek!

Got engaged, bought a house, now planning a wedding. Why anyone would take on 2 huge milestones at the same time is beyond me. Planning a wedding in itself is tough, then you throw in buying a place and not just any place, we were blessed enough to buy a new new new place where we've been having endless meetings with these house type people to pick our electrical stuff, paint colors, flooring, deal with $$ issues, etc.

People say enjoy the process...I guess we have. The fiance and I usually agree to most things and when we don't we come to a compromise pretty easily. We are also in premarital counseling right now, highly recommended for anyone getting married. We've learned useful terms to use like "minimize" as in you are minimizing this issue and I feel like you don't care about my feelings toward it. Very helpful in this whole process. I guess what I can say is that, everything is going really well. We are less then 55 days away from the wedding! I have started having these weird dreams akin to the kind you have about sitting for finals and not studying the night before...yeah mine are along the lines of the wedding is the next day and I have no shoes. Well technically, if the wedding is tomorrow, I wouldn't have shoes or a dress because the dress hasn't arrived and I haven't decided what shoes I want.

So there you have it. In a nutshell, July 2013, my life revolves around wedding planning and house stuff. I would post pictures but I can't find any right now. Will do so when I get home later. Till then....

New Month New Toy

I really need to do better at updating this blog.  Truth is though, I have been having a rough time at work recently and hence, haven't really had the motivation to create anything or do anything after work. I've also been kinda addicted to the new Tiger Woods game on the Xbox which explains the lack of updates.... I've realized something about myself, when I get into something, I really get into it. E.g. a new video game, some silly game on my phone, some tv series...you get the idea.

The weather has been RIDICULOUS. It's been really hot and we've already had 3 mini earthquakes...when is it ever gonna cool down? I guess this is what they call earthquake weather. So yesterday, in a bid to get out of the house and seek refuge in some mall with AC, I found myself at BestBuy. I've been wanting to get a new laptop but was kinda wishywashy about it. I knew I wanted something with a bigscreen and since I already have a macbook, wanted a PC. Long story short, I saw something at BestBuy that I really wanted but the price was not right. I obediently walked away, pouting, the heat DID NOT help. I came home, cleaned and organized my craft area and decided ah what the heck. I am going to treat myself. So here it is my new toy.

It's the HP all-in-one something something. For some reason (maybe because its black) my camera just COULD NOT take a good picture of it. But I'm a happy camper. Might even look into digital scrapbooking now with this baby! 

Hope your weekend is turning out as great as mine :)

In light of all things....

I originally wanted to do a post about my superduper awesome konad nail stamper thingy I ordered. So as I got ready for work this morning I kinda formulated a post in my head. Then I got in the car and turned on the radio and heard all about the shooting. Then I thought it would be rather superficial of me to just go on my way and wax lyrical about my konad and my nails in light of the somberness that is around us.

I don't really know what I'm feeling about the shooting. And I am going to be really honest here, but part of me was kinda like "oh another shooting?" alright, moving on. Then I caught myself. Having worked in South LA for about six years now, part of me has become numb to the violence that I constantly find myself surrounded by.  Drive by? ok. Oh shooter around campus? eh...it will be fine soon, no big deal. Kid brought gun to school today? just ask him to go home. How did it get this way? I need to work on myself. I cannot afford to get numb. Every life matters. Today,  I promise myself to be more present and aware of what is going on around us. We have to stick together. We have to see the signs - a troubled youth, a bully, a loner.... we can't just say "oh they will get over it." No. Starting today, I want to be more aware to these cries for help that our youth  are giving us. Please Lord, help me be present and help me be kind.

Will you also be more present with me? This violence has to stop. I don't want my child to grow up in a world of chaos.

Young Crafters Take #2

I can't believe its only Tuesday. 3 more days to go. I must. MUST. must hang in there. Decided to create a bright card to cheer me up :) and decided to enter it in this challenge. Young Crafters Unite challenge #11

Hope this cheers you up. Just....keep....trucking....

xoxo

Definitely left a tiny bit of my heart there

San Francisco.  One of the first places I visited as a child and then again when I was in College. I remember going to SF in college and thinking wow... I kinda do like it here maybe I would apply for jobs out here. Then, life happens and you apply for jobs in Los Angeles because you get too scared to leave and you stay in the job for almost six years now and you are even more afraid to leave. But thank God that SF is only an hour flight away (its a zzzzzboringzzzz drive - unless you take the superlong coastal way) and I have friends there that I can visit and crash with. A good weekend getaway.

This weekend I was there for a wedding. In all honesty, as friday came, I was sitting at work and thinking oh man...I wish I was heading home to just do nothing and not heading to LAX to fly to SFO. It had nothing to do with the wedding but everything to do with my lazy self. But the couple that was getting married has and always will be very close to my heart and I'm so glad my lazy self did not prevail. So since I was going to SF for really slightly more than 24 hours (arrived Friday night at 11pm left sunday morning at 8am) I was determined not to waste my time there. so before people get tired of reading all this...here goes some pictures.

view from my friend's apartment - Saturday morning

Determined not to waste the day - we take the train to the Ferry Building

Colorful Items from the Farmers Market

Hydrangeas 

ok you can't really read the menu but just trust that it is awesome....but this is EVEN more awesome:

Ferry Building!

Who doesn't love pork rinds?!

What are pork rinds you say? well....

Here is the view from the bench we had lunch on:

Getting our biking on....

ok funny story -- so see all these other bikes and things chained to the pole. Ok so my bike is somewhere there among all the others, so while I enjoy my delicious lunch and when I get ready to leave OMG the darn seagull decided to poop on MY seat out of ALL the other bikes. Imagine that.

oh and here is lunch: don't hate. 

I am almost certain I went the wedding smelling like garlic. yum.

National...WHAT day?

Fried chicken! That's what. Did you know? Did you know that my most favorite food in the world had its own day? I surely didn't. But now that I do, I am ecstatic. Like bouncing up and down in my chair with excitement, little kid with icecream cake kind of excitement.
So this is me:

Patiently waiting for Church's fried chicken to fry up some SPICY chicken for me.

I. Feel. Complete.

Happy National Fried Chicken Day Y'all!

Let's talk about BRIGHT COLORS!

Here is another card I did for the oozak.com challenge blog. The theme this month is BRIGHT COLORS! I noticed that all the other cards in this challenge incorporated some sort of copic coloring ish. Well here goes my "bright color" card!

Play along here: http://blog.oozak.com/2012/07/challenge-4-bright-colors.html