dumpity dump dump

it's time for a random photo dump!  i take pictures all the time of stuff we do and then find that a lot of them don't really deserve a whole post...so here you go.  heh.

for one of their friends' birthdays, the bean got a bug up their butt to craft a handmade gift.  i don't really know what the significance of the wombat is, but that's what they created - she has a scoop of ice cream on top of her head and she's sitting in a skillet with a deep dish chocolate chip cookie.  i'm sure it's filled with all kinds of inside jokes, but i was just marveling over the bean's creativity because this was created with no pattern, not following a youtube video or online tutorial or anything like that.  the bean just knew what they wanted it to look like and it turned out exactly as they'd envisioned:

one weekend while the hub was off doing stuff with his friends, the bean and i headed down to little tokyo for some shopping and a fun lunch at our favorite udon spot.  they love a little shop out there called mokuyobi, which is a super cute shop filled with clothes and accessories in really bright colors and all made locally.  

we spotted this ad for a sample sale the following weekend:

and then we stopped here for a quick treat before heading back home.

the sample sale was in south pasadena, which was a slightly easier drive than little tokyo.  we got there about a half hour after they opened, and the line to check out went all the way back to the front door.  i walked around the shop a bit with the bean and then left them to keep browsing while i got in that long line.

another day, we headed out and met up with the old lady at disneyland for a few hours of fun.

somewhere in between the bazillion rainstorms we've had here in soCA over the last few months, we also got some snow, which was really cool:

we tried to put beanies on teddy and cocoa, but they would have none of it.

i crocheted some fun little surprises for my friend weezermonkey's kids:

and also worked on my submission for the home arts competition for this year's l.a. county fair.  it turns out that the rules for the culinary competition state that those who sell their work aren't eligible to compete (oops), so i decided to try something different this time around.  i scrambled to finish my two pieces by the turn-in date, and then headed out to the fairgrounds to drop my entries off for judging.  there were a lot of other folks there with handmade quilts and dolls and things in hand, and i was flattered when a good handful of them stopped to compliment me on my projects.  the fair opens in may, and i'm excited to see if their sentiments are echoed by the judges.

i follow a bunch of people on instagram who post their process for recreating drinks from starbucks and dutch bros., which probably sounds super dorky (but i don't care).  this, of course, led to me deciding that i wanted to save up for an upgrade to my entry-level espresso machine.  i did a little internet research to narrow down my options and see what i could get with the budget i'd set for myself and settled on a nice mid-level breville machine.  

the coffee gods must've been watching, because as soon as i'd made that decision i got an email from williams-sonoma announcing a 20% off sale on - you guessed it - their selection of breville espresso machines.  SCHWING!  this then presented me with quite the dilemma...go with the machine i'd settled on and save a few bucks, or use up the original amount i'd budgeted and upgrade to the next step up?

bitch, please.  as if that were a real question.  and then i did a little googling and found that amazon had also decided to put all of their breville machines on sale.  and so the next day, i welcomed this new addition to the household:

much to my family's amusement (and slight horror), i moved stuff around and now i have my very own coffee bar:

they may make fun of me for it, but don't think they haven't all enjoyed some delicious caffeinated beverages as a result.  hmph.

there's another new toy in my kitchen too, and i think it's getting almost as much use as the coffee bar - an air fryer!

so i've actually had an airfryer for a few years now, but the damn thing is so big and sucked up so much power that every time i fired it up it would trip a circuit.  like, every single time.  it was so annoying and so i never used it.  it just took up space in one of my cupboards, and after looking at it again one day i finally decided that i wanted to get rid of it and buy a smaller, more usable version.  i listed in my local mom's yard sale facebook page and sold it within ten minutes.  woohoo!  and now i'm having fun trying out all kinds of fun recipes and cooking everything i can in that thing.  it's amazing and i can't believe i waited so long.

oh, and for st. patrick's day i totally pigged out on green krispy kreme donuts and a shamrock shake from mcdonald's.  YOLO.

first photo dump of 2023

january was full of all kinds of random moments.  none of them really warranted a full post on their own, so here's a fun little cornucopia of stuff that i apparently thought was important enough to take a picture of.

like, i did a major closet cleanout that yielded a shitton of bags to donate.  i finally let go of some things i've held on to for years - you know, the old "it'll come back in style AND i'll still fit into it!" well, guess what:  it didn't, and i definitely didn't.  and so into the bags it all went:

homemade mochi waffle with warm syrup, plus milk tea with brown sugar boba.  the recipe for that milk tea made a TON, which the bean was happy to plow through as quickly as they could drink it.

cousin seven had originally planned on coming home for christmas, but was a victim of all those flight cancellations over the holidays.  she sent us this awesome box full of a whole bunch of my favorite things, which was such a fun surprise.

when we heard that the girls' soccer team was hosting a game against the school that was the bean's second choice (and where a good number of their 8th grade classmates went), we decided to go.  it was fun to watch, and our team won.  the bean's school is not really known for sports, but while we were at the game i couldn't help but think that they could really use a cheer team to drum up some school spirit.  they offer all of the typical high school sports - football, baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, golf, etc. - but it doesn't seem like it's really encouraged to attend the games.  it's kind of a bummer, because i remember going to all kinds of games at that age not only to support my friends who were playing but to hang out with other friends in the stands.  oh well.

for the january class meeting, i'd volunteered to make cake pops to hand out to the students.  it'd been a long time since i'd made them but i thought, how hard could it be?  i used to make those things all the time.  

yeah.  after dipping the first few i remembered why i stopped...they're a pain in the ass.  heh.

luckily i finally figured out what i was doing wrong, and then it was smooth sailing (which is great because i had 50+ of those damn things to make).  i had two flavors to offer, and laid them out on the table for the students to grab on their way out of the meeting and to their next class.

the bean's BFF's mom and i were invited to a birthday party for one of our fellow class parents, and the invitation asked all of the attendees to dress as pop divas.  "think britney spears, lady gaga, madonna, etc." it said.  

oh.

i came up with a few different ideas and ordered a bunch of stuff from amazon.  i tried the "oops, i did it again" shiny red catsuit that was incredibly ill-fitting and very unflattering.  there was the ringleader costume that could have either been from britney's "circus" era OR taylor swift's red tour - and it could have worked except that the bean pretty much fell over laughing when i tried it on and showed them a picture.  i also found a burgundy hat like the one taylor wore for her red (taylor's version) photoshoot that i figured i could wear with a camel coat - simple but comfortable.  but the hub took one look and asked me why i was dressed like a P.I.  ugh.

this is the one that worked:

i ended up being super relieved that that red catsuit hadn't worked out after all, because not only did the party guest in the car in front of us emerge dressed in a similar outfit but the birthday girl herself greeted us at the door wearing a much higher-quality version of it.  heh.  and even her signature cocktail for the evening was britney-themed:

i didn't know a lot of the ladies at the party, but my friend did and she made sure to introduce me to everyone.  it was nice to meet other school parents, and we had a good time munching on tray-passed appetizers, sipping the signature cocktail and eventually dancing to all the pop diva songs in the room they'd transformed into a club.  it was quite the shindig.

the bean took one of their oldest friends as their date to the winter formal:

and i took the old lady and the old man out to get some dim sum for dinner.

we were really amused at this bunny-shaped pudding dessert thingy:

and even more so at the ad we saw at the tea shop next door.

ever heard of a borzoi?  i hadn't either, until the bean started showing me tiktok videos of this russian breed of hunting dog with a really long snout.  super random, i know.  and then when they showed me that someone had made a crocheted version of one, i found a pattern and stitched one together as a surprise (which went over really well, because my child still adores stuffed animals).

and lastly, i was pretty excited to finally tackle a recipe i've been eyeing forever.  i think i've mentioned before that i fell down the rabbit hole of brewing my own vanilla extract during pandemic - which sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is because all you do is stick the beans in alcohol and leave it alone for a year.  but if you want to make some vanilla goodness that you can use a lot sooner than that, you can use the beans along with a few other ingredients and make vanilla paste.  it's best if you have a really high-powered blender like a vitamix, and you end up with a product that you can keep in the pantry that adds some pretty intense flavor, is shelf-stable and usable almost immediately.  i think measuring the ingredients out almost took longer than the actual processing, and in about 15 minutes i had a full quart of homemade vanilla paste that made my kitchen smell amazing.

i've already tried it out in a batch of chocolate chip cookies and was pretty proud of myself when the bean tried one and said "whoa...you can really taste the vanilla in these!"

most excellent.

summer 2021 > summer 2020

the summer is flying by, as it always does.  we've been filling our days with all sorts of stuff, which is a nice change from the endless days last year of mostly doing nothing.  and so it's time for one of my beloved random photo dumps!

the bean tried out a new hip hop dance class with mini cee at a studio called athletic garage in pasadena.  they gave it a few weeks before deciding that they didn't love it.  we're currently on the hunt for another studio that might offer some k-pop dance instruction, because we all know how much my child would adore that.

speaking of k-pop, her beloved BTS came out with a limited-time meal at mcdonald's that included chicken mcnuggets, fries and a coke with two special sauces - cajun and sweet chili.  there wasn't much that made it super special besides that other than a branded paper bag, but she seemed happy with it.

my family gathered together to celebrate my nanay's birthday, which was really nice because we had to do it over zoom last year when she turned 95.  it was so nice to see her (and select other family members) in person, although the old lady missed the party because she was off getting engaged that same day.

while she and her fiance were gone that weekend we got to spend some time with stevie, who was perfectly happy playing with teddy and cocoa.

and then before the bean and i went to pick them up at the airport, we stopped at their apartment to make it a little extra festive.

and then we did this so they'd see it the second we pulled up to take them home.

we made the rounds with family members on both sides on three separate days to celebrate the happy news, but only remembered to take a group photo at the last gathering.  oops.

one of those celebrations took us out to palm springs for a day, which was fun.  

as for the bean, she did two weeks of art camp at CSArts again - only this time, one of her BFFs joined her for the first week.

and since i handled transportation for them both, we got to go on fun outings after classes every day.

teddy turned 2!  he didn't love the birthday hat, but he tolerated it long enough for me to get a couple of pictures.  he's such a good sport.

it's been fun finally getting to see friends in person again...

and especially when it involves eating a lot of delicious sushi to earn fun hello kitty swag.

after art camp was over, the bean headed off to texas for a week of grandma camp.

and while she was gone, the hub and i headed off to san diego for a nice weekend getaway, just the two of us.  more on that later.

the old lady and i headed to a local bridal shop with one of her oldest, dearest friends...and FOUND HER DRESS!  more on that later too!

the wedding is going to be super small, and they've also locked down their wedding party - just two on each side.  the bean was thrilled to open a package and find all of this fun stuff in it:

there's a pretty big hint in there as to where the wedding will be.  i'm pretty sure you figured it out upon first glance, yes?

oh, so much fun!  don't you just love love?