Found Objects: February 28th, 2010

• Supreme Crates from The Container Store

They're a little bit bigger than standard milk crates so vinyl records fit perfectly in them. They're only $12.99 so I think I may have to get a couple (even though I only own 3 or 4 vinyls at the moment :P) 

• 22reasons.org

 Proceeds from these cute stuffed animals go to either The House Rabbit Society or the Preforming Animals Welfare Society.

 

 

• Bikini Kill Archive  

 There's a blog and a twitter. Check it out.

Have a happy Bunday!!

<3

Korea - Winter Sonata in Nami Island

Day 3

Since release of Winter Sonata, this island has gained popularity and tourists (whether local or foreign) have flocked this beautiful island. Nami Island has even declared independence from South Korea and has its own government and law.

As we strolled down the famous tree-lined road, one could not resist the beautiful, cooling and romantic nature has to offer. A 7 minutes ferry ride to the island and you will be mesmerised by its beauty. This island is a man-made island, formed because of the construction of Cheongpyeong Dam. Many scenes in "Winter Sonata" were shot in this island.



So, when you walk around the island (it took us more than an hour to walk over the island), you will see some posters of the famous drama here and there.



After the visit to Nami Island, we proceed to Yeoju Premium Outlet where you would find branded outlets like Gucci, Nike, Burberry etc there. Hubby bought a Reebok shoes worth 69000Won (more than RM200)in Reebok outlet. We did not stay long, about 30 minutes then we went to our next destination.

Myeong-dong street. It reminded me of our Malaysia's Petaling Street. What to expect in Myeong-dong street? Clothing, traditional clothing, lok-lok, food, utensil, souvenirs. We hunt for food and one thing that we love to hunt? Strawberries! Korean strawberries are sure sweet and you could even taste ginseng flavour in some strawberries. Korean are famous for planting their strawberries together with ginseng in same soil, so you could taste some essense of ginseng in their strawberry. Yummy! Cost 5000 to 7000won (RM15-RM21) depends on size and whether it is enriched with ginseng or not. Hubby just couldnt resist buying them. He finished up a whole pack of juicy strawberries alone in the bus! Lol!

Some Bite-Sized Gaga Goodness

Gaga, Gaga, Gaga...I can't wait for the premiere of the video for Telephone. I loved the visuals of the Bad Romance so I'm super excited to see what's coming up next from her. I haven't been able to look forward to videos that are so visually delicious in...well in forever. I missed most of the days when Manson's videos were wonderfully intricate. Most of the artists that I've gotten really really into over the years are from the 90s or before so it's really nice to be in the thick of an artist's career (I'm not knocking Manson I just know he doesn't have as much mainstream pull as he once did).

My friend informed me that they're selling Lady Gaga style "hair bows" at Hot Topic now. I checked them out and I don't really like the look of them, especially not for $10, so I thought I'd share a video I found awhile ago that I think is much cuter and obviously cheaper since you use your own hair.

Here's the Hot Topic hair bow:

They come in a bunch of different colors which is nice but the quality seems to be poor. It's still fairly cute though.

And here's the video:

Much cuter in my opinion, but if you don't have long hair one of the bows from Hot Topic might be the way to go, but you can find bows of better quality with a quick search on Etsy.

Also the Viva Glam Gaga lipstick is a gorgeous color. I'm so tempted...but I know I don't need a new lipstick. The bag they're selling is adorable too, but again I don't need it. I'm trying to save my money up for a few other things.

 

I'll end with a Gaga+Manson mashup:

Have a wonderful weekend my lovelies <3

P.S.
For all the Gaga you'll ever need visit- http://fuckyeahladygaga.tumblr.com/

Korea - Be a Korean for a minute!

Day 2 continue....

After an hour at Daejanggeum Theme Park, we took another 1 hour bus ride to the city to have our lunch. BBQ style. Probably we were hungry or cold, we finish and re-fill our food on the table. After filling up our empty stomach, we gone to Korean Culture Centre to have a taste of been a Korean for a while!!



Firstly we were introduced on making on kimchi, a famous Korean dish made from vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots and radish. The vegetables would be seasoned with spices such as salt, pepper, red chilli, etc and keep for few days to weeks in cold temperature. Kimchi colours varied from white, yellow to red depends on the ingredients.

A kimchi master showed us the making on one of over 200 kimchi in the centre. After the introduction, we were taught on seasoning kimchi ourselves. My first trial in making kimchi. Not bad for first timer. We were allowed to bring back the kimchi that we made and also treated to kimchi made by the master.



After kimchi making, we proceed to the next room where we can freely try on its traditional costume for photo-taking. The ladies wear the Korean costume called Hanboks. For married ladies, we have to tie our hair and wear a head gear. Don't we look nice in those costume? Lol!

Quotable Quotes: Februrary 26th, 2010

365 Project: February 25th, 2010

On The Hunt For New Face Wash

Since Clean & Clear decided to discontinue my absolutely favorite face wash (from the Soft line, I actually did a review on it here) I have been nervous to try something new. It's so frustrating since this face wash worked nearly perfectly for me. I get super super dry skin in the winter so I need something that wont dry my skin out but will also exfoliate enough. I'm not sure if I should try another Clean & Clear product or if I should try a different brand. I don't think they're making anything that really compares to the Soft Scrub. I've been combing through reviews on MakeupAlley trying to figure out what will be best. I'll need to pick something soon because I'm almost completely out of face wash >.< I'm probably going to end up going back to Saint Ives since it was my old standby for a long time. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave them. When I do try something new I'll post what it is and a review after I use it for a few weeks.

Korea - Daejanggeum Theme Park

Day 2

We arrived in Korea on Monday, 15 February evening around 5.20pm (Korean time). We went for our cabbage soup pot before residing at our hotel in Seoul for a night.

The next day (16 February) we departed from our hotel at 8.00am and heading to a restaurant for a breakfast buffet. Korean breakfast buffet is very simple. I were too hungry and cold to take any photos of the food. Lol! One thing about Korean, they eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner! So that is why I said I am gaining weight from eating rice 3 times a day.

After we filling up our stomachs, we headed to our very first destination in Korea. Daejanggeum Theme Park. It was about 1 hour plus trip. Anyone remember “The Jewel In the Palace” drama?? Yes. That was the exact site where they filmed the famous drama. Although the real actress were not there, but at least I managed to pose with her in a card-board size there. Lol!



After visiting the site for about an hour, we went to the field next to it to play some snow balls. Of course I took the opportunity to feel snow on my hands and take photos of us lying on the bed of snow! Phew! Cold!

A taste of Korea

I am fleshier and fairer (I think). Fleshier is because every day I eating rice for breakfast, rice for lunch and rice for dinner!! 3 meals a day. Fairer because of dry and windy weather in Korea! It feels good to be back to Kuching! *wink*

I started to miss Kuching food on 2nd day. Everyday kimchi and kimchi, I would want to stay away from cabbage and radish for the time being! Lol!

My vacation started on 14th February evening, where we took a flight to Singapore in the evening. Reached my transit hotel in Singapore around 12 midnight and the next day, we checked in Changi International Airport for our departure at 9.20am. We reached Incheon International Airport around 4.15pm (Korea time is 5.15pm - 1 hour ahead).

I have yet to sort out all the photographs. Over 2000 photographs from 5 cameras, so I will need to take some times to sort through. For time being, let me tempt you with food.....

My first Korea meal is dumpling. Korea food is indeed very healthy. Korean do not eat much meat, mostly vegetables and lots of kimchi. Pork and chicken are common meats as beef is very expensive in Korea. Not much fruits can be found especially during winters.



Either we are hungry or the dumplings,and soup were delicious, we finished up the whole pot. Not to mention the assortment of kimchi as side dishes. After the dinner, we headed straight to hotel for early rest.



Other food that I enjoyed in Korea is the above. If you noticed, that white long starch is "nian gao". Korean celebrated new year as Chinese around the world. Btw, Korean is Mongolian descendants; the culture is not much different from Chinese. Chinese is still used around Korea, which shopping malls using Korean and Chinese languages for announcement etc.



Back to "nian gau", the Korean nian gau comes in few colours, such as pink, white and green. To eat this nian gau dishes, you simply stir it together with rice, seaweed, marinated chicken, carrot slices and cabbage slices. Above picture shows the nian gau dish before you stir the ingredients.



Korean enjoyed their food either in hot pot (soup) or BBQ. This is to keep them warm during winter. One thing about Korean food. You can ask for re-fill but do not waste food. They charge wastage accordingly. So we keep re-filling the kimchi, rice, water, add soup, add meat and prawn paste. I do not quite like BBQ as after eating, my whole body and hair are smelly!



Above is the famous Korean stone rice. I do not have much comments about stone rice. For me, it is just like claypot rice. Lol!



However I enjoyed this ginseng chicken that I tasted last Saturday afternoon. They used spring chicken as you can see the size of the chicken. How you eat this dish? First, you add some rice wine into the soup to taste. You can add soy sauce, pepper and salt if you like. You add in mee sua into the soup. Then you eat the chicken. After finished up the meat, you cut open the chicken, and eat the glutinous rice in the chicken. A very great dish, but I did not finished up the rice as too full.



Assortment of kimchi. Korean has over 200 ways of making kimchi from mild to spicy kimchi. We mostly tasted mild kimchi as most of us do not enjoy taking spicy food.

Again, BBQ. Self-serviced BBQ. We grilled, we cut and we served ourselves right on our table. Lol!



Next post - pictures on Korea scenery!

Good Vibes for a Happy Sunny Bunday

Here's to hoping this next week is much much better <3

Heart Shaped Boxes

This next week is going to be rough, even rougher than dealing with being sick this week was. I'm still so sick that I can't see Trevis this weekend. I barely get through 4 days every week without him, I just miss him so much already. I am feeling a tiny bit better but I really really don't want to get him sick (I'd feel terrible if he was sick for a week and had to miss school). Hopefully this next week I'll feel much much better and I'll be able to focus on school work and a few crafty things I've been thinking about working on for him.

On another note, I'm so so tempted to go to the store and buy all of the heart-shaped boxes I can get my hands on. I love heart-shaped boxes. My dad buys my mom and I boxes of chocolates for Valentine's day so I have two from this year. The one he gave me last year accidentally got smooshed >.< I was heart broken (haha no pun intended, but it made me giggle). I love Valentine's Day because I love all of the heart stuff. I try to grab up things while I can. I got a bunch of kitchen stuff from Target this year. I can't wait until Trevis and I have a house, our kitchen is going to be so cute. I've already collected a bunch of stuff. So far everything is kind of 50s diner-style plus a little bit of Alice in Wonderland and lots of hearts and cupcakes ^_^

This is still one of my all time favorite music videos. The music, the lyrics, the visuals, everything is perfect.

Heart-Shaped Box- Nirvana

Colds Suck!

I hope today is the nastiest part of this cold. This is the worst cold I've had in a long while. I've been having to sleep sitting up because if I don't I end up coughing way worse which wakes me back up. Even sitting up I was only able to sleep a few hours last night. The coughing and sneezing is so violent. I think I may have pulled a muscle. I can't lean over and I can barely walk because a spot in my lower abdomen is screaming with pain.

Anyway, on to something happier. I'm obsessed with scrapbooking paper even though I don't scrapbook. It's just so cute. The sheets are about the size of a vinyl so I'm thinking about getting my boyfriend's and my records framed and making some cool music related collages to hang up with them. If we manage to make ourselves a studio/ music room when we live together I think they'd look great there. Some of the paper has robots and ray guns and spacey things on it so I think I'm going to start by making a Flaming Lips collage.

Isn't it cute?

 

The line these are from is called Recollections Rockets 'n' Sprockets. I found it at Michael's.

I'm so exhausted I think I'm going to have to take a nap. I hope my heating pad doesn't die soon, it keeps shutting itself off >.< I guess I could always use one of the cats instead but they're so wiggly haha.

A Buzzy Haiku

Oh Buzzy Kitty

Please Don't Eat The Bubble Wrap 

Adorably Dumb

Snow Days, Valentine's Day, and Sick Days

The cat keeps trying to dig through the window. I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to accomplish, but he's very focused. I can't really yell at him to stop it because my throat is so sore. I hope whatever I caught is just a cold and not something worse. I feel like I'm sick all winter. Luckily I have a wonderful boyfriend that sent me home with miso soup he made for me and some yummy pineapple/orange juice which I've been using to make popsicles. It's helped my throat loads.

Now the cat has decided to sit in my lap, but I think it's just a ploy to try to steal my crackers and bananas. At least he's warm...

Before I talk about my Valentine's Day I think the snow needs mentioning. It never snows and sticks here. I can't remember the last time snow lasted overnight. I felt like I was in an alien world for a couple of days. It was very pretty.

I had a pretty wonderful Valentine's Day weekend (except for getting sick). We made ourselves California rolls, miso soup, and some yummy sesame seed carrots for dinner. I think we did a pretty good job on the California rolls considering it was our first attempt. For desert we had an indoor picnic and had yummy chocolate fondue.For dipping we had apples, pineapples, raspberries, strawberries, clementines, bananas, angel food cake, and red velvet cake. I also made chocolate bowls which we filled with rediwhip. If you want to try your hand at making chocolate bowls it's really not very hard with these instructions. I messed up the first batch by making them too thin but I got it my second try. Sorry I didn't get a very clear picture of them.

I'll have to do another post later about the gifts I made for my boyfriend and the things he gave me (I can't wait to take some pictures of the M&Ms he got me!!). Until then here's a preview of the card I made him.

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy holidays!

I have been on holiday mood since yesterday. Not working as company is closing for CNY yesterday and today. What I did? Spring cleaning my bedroom and clearing my wardrobe and kids' too. Repack my luggage bag for my vacation. As for the house, not much done since my SIL has done so last week and throughout this week since she is not working. A lot of things have been thrown out from the house. It does make the house look spacious and organised! Lol! Later around 1pm, I am going to pick my little gal from pre-school and Baby Jay from babysitter's house.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Year of Mighty Tiger. For the first time in my life, I will be away during the Chinese New Year. Along with hubby’s parents and siblings, we would be flying to a far away land tomorrow evening to enjoy a different culture, ambiance and food. What a way to kick off a new year!

I would have tomorrow to visit my family and celebrate CNY with Baby Jay and Princess. By evening, we would send Baby Jay to baby sitter's house. Mummy promised Baby Jay that there would be lots of presents for Baby Jay when we are back from the vacation.

Parents-in-law would be flying and arriving here in the afternoon. Reunion dinner will be ready by my BIL. Probably I will have early dinner with my hubby's family then go over to my parents' house for another reunion dinner with them. Lol!

I will blog more when we are back from our family vacation. So, watch out for my next posts in this blog and my family blog............... Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers and friends. May the Year of Tiger brings luck, happiness, health & prosperity to you and your family.