absurdly peculiar

Just wanted to share a couple pictures from the wedding! I wish I was able to take more pictures but there was a bit of an emergency and I didn't have as much time as I thought to decorate. Keeping in mind it was like 100 degrees F, I think we did a pretty good job decorating. Being a wedding decorator is a lot of work and it gave me deep appreciation for what they do.    

 It's June! This means the wedding is almost here and I have completed most of what I need for decorations. Something I really enjoyed decorating/DIYing was the decorative letters for the welcome table. The base letters were made out of all the extra cardboard we had when we bought new furniture. After cutting out all the letters I needed, I used a glue gun to create "sides" to the letters.  I felt it look unfinished in just cardboard. So for some reason I thought paper mache-ing would help. I used 1 part flour to 1 part water to create the glue and for the paper I used old newspapers. Then after I finished the paper  mache-ing and letting it dry, I spray painted it rose gold. To be honest, I didn't like how it looked... it still had this bumpy texture and I felt it would make the wedding look cheap. I thought I would end up having to buy the letters instead...but a month later I was inspired by something I saw online. I decided to ...

My cousin asked me decorate his wedding on a budget of $500. At the time I thought it was a lot of money, but after researching ideas and pricing I quickly realized how little $500 gets you for a wedding. One of my ideas was to use recylcled beer and wine bottles- the reasoning being that they have small openings and would require very little flowers for each bottle and because I could recycle some of the ones I already have. So I started to get to work and I soon discovered how labor intensive this actual is.  Here are the lessons I learned from delabeling bottles: 1. SOAK SOAK SOAK! And not just for 30 minutes... at least a day or more. You can add soap to your water or whatever trick you have up your sleeve, but just make sure it sits in water for a while. 2. Some bottles will be easy to delabel than others. The easiest bottle for me to delabel is Stella Artois followed by New Belgium. My boyfriend said Guinness is actually very easy as well but we don't really drin...

If you have been following my blog, you are use to seeing my DIY posts..but this is a different type of DIY post because this is a DIY fail post. Let's start from the very beginning. I wanted to paint over this pot my parents gave me. The first word that comes to mind when I see this pot is... Easter and there is nothing wrong with Easter, but I wanted a pot that didn't seem so seasonal. I was at Michael's debating for maybe an hour on what type of paint to get... mainly between some chalk paint and these Art Minds outdoor paints that I got in the end. I think what deterred me from getting the chalk paint was that it said for indoor use only. Then I was thinking that I definitely need this outdoor one! Welp, I made a wrong choice. Chalk paint doesn't need the surfaces to be sanded or primed... and for some reason I thought it would work exactly like chalk paint except it was also suitable for the outdoors. I came to this conclusion because they were right next to ...

I picked up a new terra cotta pot from Daiso to put my cactus in. But it looked a little boring to me so I decided to paint the terra cotta pot with some acrylic paint. I used some tape with cat images on it that I picked up at an airport in Taipei in order to keep the design clean. Then I just painted away!! And here is the finished result sitting on my porch. It looks quite lovely and it was such a simple project to do.

Lately, I've been into trying out new recipes and I wonder if it has anything to do with Spring. I love how it is still daylight by the time I get home from work and it makes me want to be productive. My goal this spring is to incorporate veggies into my everyday meals. I definitely do not get enough of those things called vegetables .This isn't really a diet in terms of portion control or anything because I know for a FACT that I have no self control; this is evident by the fact that I ate more than half of those Magic in the Middle Cookies  I made. So the least I can do is to introduce myself to something good in my food (and continue to eat a lot of it). So this time I made a Broccoli Salad; it has greens and it has BACON. How can that not be a winning combination for my new goal?

There is this one place in Long Beach called Deli News that I enjoy going to- not for the pizza, or the pasta, but for Magic in the Middle Cookies. They are amazingly delicious and are, in fact, magic. I decided to make them myself and I always seem to choose the greatest day to bake...meaning the very few days a year my apartment feels extremely hot.

Decided to make some French Toast this weekend, since I had some left over french bread.           

So, I finally bought a bike in August (behold its beauty below). I contemplated buying one the whole Summer and so when I finally decided to make the splurge and spend money to buy one, I hardly had time to ride it due to work trips and vacations (I know, life is tough-kidding)...and then Winter happened! And now by the time I come home from work, there's hardly any light out for bike riding. I'm gearing up for the spring/summer time when I can ride my bike more often. I really want to install a bike crate to hold my things while riding. Look how awesome a bike looks with a crate: [Photo by: Matt Haughey  -  license ] [ Photo By: Roman Boed  - license ] Now I just need to find the perfect sized crate! Additional articles on bike crates: Why Crates are Great How to Turn a Vintage Metal Picnic Basket into a Bicycle Crate

I moved into a place of my own about a year ago...which at the time,  was really exciting and overwhelming all at once. Suddenly, there are a lot of expenses that you take on by yourself; because for once, you can't split the cost of everything with roommates anymore. I realized it took me awhile to start decorating my place because the initial living expenses were just getting a little too much. Don't get me wrong, I can afford my place... I was just getting a little worried about how much I was spending since it was more than what I was use to. I really wanted to decorate my place without breaking the bank, but buying framed art can get really pricey; so I decided to make my own. I would pin ideas on  Pinterest  for inspiration and thought of ways to create something similar for a lot cheaper. I bought frames from Marshall's for $14.99 and poster board paper, which was 5 for $2.99 from Michael's (I love using their coupons!!!).  So that's about $50 for 3 pi...

This Valentine's Day we decided to make sushi and watch Wedding Crashers. Although we are not expert sushi makers it was a lot of fun to make together and eat the results of our clueless hard work.The best part about making your own rolls is that you can put all your favorites in it! If you want to get an idea of how to make some spicy tuna rolls or just stare at more pictures of sushi like this one here:

I really enjoy writing in notebooks, which document a range of things- from my to-do lists to enjoyable quotes from members of my family that I can look back on later and laugh. I currently use two notebooks and I realize that it becomes very difficult for me to keep it organized since I write everything in there. I decided that I should probably designate notebooks for certain things and so I came up with this idea of making my own notebooks since I can design them to look whatever way I want them and not pay any money for them. Here is my final result:

On Friday, I watched Friends with Kids at the Arclight in Hollywood. It was such an awesome movie and we were able to stay afterwards for a little Q&A with the director, Jennifer Westfeldt, and Jon Hamm. Totally worth my dinero and time. Then on Saturday, I was watching Shark Tank and that is when I came across the wonders of Litter SF . They are two sisters, Rachael and Mackenzie, who started making their own headpieces and eventually it expanded to other types of handmade body jewelry. Eventually, their orders became a little more than they could handle and that is why they were seeking investors in their company. It was interesting because I took an engineering entrepreneurship class and they discussed the fact that most businesses fail when they are trying to make a shift from a small business to a big business and that the best advice is to sell to someone who knows how to handle these types of situations. Litter SF was reaching this point where they were outgrow...