Motivation Monday - She's still creative

Happy Memorial Day to all my family and friends in the USA.  Whatever you are doing today, I hope you are having fun or at least making use of this holiday Monday.  Speaking of making use of your time.  Last Saturday I received a very pretty hand made card from my MIL's neighbor and very good friend Sylvia.  It was very touching because you have to know her age and the fact she took the time to create this special card for my birthday.  My MIL said that they use to belong to a club that makes cards for every occasion.  If I am not mistaken, Sylvia is 91 years old.  The last time I saw her was a couple of weeks ago and she was pulling weeds in her front yard.  One day last week I felt bad when I saw her waiting for the bus stop.  I would have given her a ride to wherever she was going but I was on the wrong lane so I couldn't stop.  Anyway, I thought I would share the card she made.  I am so motivated that the next time I need a card for someone, I will definitely take the time to create.

Not only she made this card, she also wrote me a short note that made it even more special.

Sleepless Saturday - No more counting sleeps

 

I am too busy hanging out with my buddies today and having a blast.

 

 I was hoping they were going to bring me this unicorn that is sooh fluffy.

 

 BOB made me a cake.

Kevin is our bartender.  We are definitely going to get drunk.

Throwback Thursday - I think that's the right word

While cleaning some of the photos on my phone, I found a couple of really cute pictures that I thought of sharing today.  But before I do, let me tell you the recent DIY on a hat I got at the Dollar Store.  Jeff suggested that I get one for the upcoming trip.  Since I have been sort of checking out some of the hats in other stores,  there was not one that actually look good on my head.  I guess I am not one of those with the right shape of head.  Most of the hat I wear are the ones for golf.  Actually they are called caps as in baseball caps.  But somehow this particular hat fits perfectly and is the right color.  Hey, it's only a dollar and if after a few days or weeks or if for some reason I lose it, no big deal right.  When we got home, I started looking for some left over fabric, laces and ribbons.  What gave me the idea on the hat are those from the Kentucky Derby.  So here's the result of my little creativity to make my dollar hat a bit more classy.  Ha ha!

My new summer hat.

Each time I see these pretty cute baby shoes, I feel like making more.

Definitely making more of these beautiful baby shoes in the fall.

Material Monday - More items to sew

Before I begin, let me wish all my Canadian family and friends a Happy Victoria Day or they say May two four weekend.  It's their long weekend and while most will enjoy staying close to home doing chores or projects, others will try and do a small get away for their four days.

Since I won't be celebrating it the same way as they do, I am still thinking of what I would do if I was there.  Probably will do a round of golf with some of my girlfriends.  Maybe visit my daughter and in laws just in case they are having a BBQ.  But since I have more sewing to do, I will be doing that because I have had my dining room and living room area look like a sweat shop for a couple of months now.  My MIL was so nice and helpful with my projects.  She is a very good cutter and very experienced in doing embroideries.  I gave her all the left over fabrics to cut for my potato bags and fabric wallets.  Now they are all ready for me to put them together and sew.  Aside from those, I have a couple of kitchen towels to finish and an order of Sharks apron which I haven't started. But there's a special flip flop that I did for the bride who is getting married in June.  Since she will be having a destination wedding, I thought she will definitely need a bridal flip flop.

There's eight here and I have 17 more to do.

This is instruction that goes inside the bag.

The bride will definitely be the only one who has this style of flip flops.

 

Surprise Saturday - My daughter is the best

When it comes to keeping a surprise a secret, I can only think of one person, my daughter.  Yesterday I came home and there was a package for me.  At first I thought, I did not order anything and Jeff did not order anything for me.  Then I checked the label which was torn in half, it was from my Alysia.  Of course I had to open it very quickly and I was truly surprised what was inside.  What is funny is that I sent my daughter a package a week ago and she got it also yesterday.  Most of the time I am so excited about sending her stuff but I cannot keep quiet, I have to send her a text.  I think it's because we have had several different mishaps about packages that I have to keep her updated to make sure she's informed and if necessary track it.  I took a photo of everything so I can share with you my surprise package.

Here's my other surprise - at bowling last Tuesday - check out my score.

 

Failure Friday - Bon Chon restaurant

Do you know what it feels like to crave for some particular food or get excited about a new restaurant only to find out they are not what you expected?  This one particular restaurant failed at every aspect of that.  I am talking about the new Bon Chon on Princeton Plaza located in San Jose, CA.  I got all excited when I found out they opened one near my MIL's house.  Jeff and I have been to the one in Sunnyvale and our experience were totally different.  The chicken wings were great as well as the service.  We didn't even know about this restaurant until my daughter told me to check it out.  So on Friday with my MIL, we decided to check it out.  There was no line up as it was after the lunch hour crowd.  We got there a little before one and got seated immediately.  It took a while before the waitress came to take our drink order which was just water.  Then it took a while to get her attention so we can order, still no water.  My MIL ordered the beef sliders with some korean beef but she wanted NO coleslaw.  On the menu the shrimp shu mai looked delicious and since I wanted something quick, I chose that.  I asked her how long it will take since both were appetizer items, she replied "15 minutes".  Our water did not arrive until after 10 minutes and the sliders arrive after 20 minutes with the coleslaw so it went back to the kitchen.  Then I asked about my order and she said, " did you want it fried or steamed", I almost said "cooked".

The sliders arrived after 5 minutes and still no lunch for me.  After another 10 minutes, there it was. Not exactly like the photo but I was hungry. It looks like the frozen kind you buy but I decided to eat it and after three, that was enough.  I decided to ask another waiter if it was frozen and he did not know the answer.  Our waitress came back and told me that they don't make it there but buy it from some other company.  OK basically they buy it at an Asian supermarket.  OMG, we were so disappointed for that whole experience.  It's good my MIL gave me one of her slider because she didn't want me to get hungry.  We paid and left no tip.

I am not a very picky person and can eat almost anything but this one was not just the food but the service as well.  If I wanted to eat frozen food, I could just do it at home.  This restaurant does not deserve any star.  I was thinking of submitting a review on Yelp but they are not even worth my time.  This post was enough and they have already wasted some of my precious time.

Very basic- meat, one cucumber and an onion ring.

The outside was squishy and the inside did not have any shrimp at all.

 
 

Wonderstruck Wednesday - I am in awe

Yesterday I decided to stay at home and catch up again with my blogging, sewing and some household chores.  While ironing some of the fabric in preparation for my project, I noticed my beautiful orchids.  It's still as beautiful when it opened the first bloom until now that it has all the five blooms staying as pretty as last year when I received it from my neighbor Pam.  I am in awe and still wondering how I did it and how it is still alive after 11 months.  In just a couple of weeks it would be one year old and I am hoping that it will celebrate it's anniversary that coincides with my birthday.  It was a nice and warm day yesterday and I contemplated on going for a round of 18 but there was just too many things to do at home.  While doing this post I noticed the roses in our front yard and I decided to take some photos.  You know that expression "stop and smell the roses"?  Well, that's exactly what I did except I noticed a bee buzzing so I just took some quick pictures instead.  I cannot believe how such simple things in life can bring so much joy.  All these flowers are growing and I am still in awe.  Jeff takes care of all these amazing roses and I am so glad we decided to plant these in our front yard.

My pride and joy.

 

Mesmerizing Monday - A flower that looks like an egg

Remember my friend in our neighborhood who is a master gardener?  We recently dropped by at their home to check out her garden.  In the front were some new succulents that she added as well as some other type of flowering bushes or just flowers.  In her back yard she has a lot of garden beds with healthy variety of vegetables.  They have an amazing view of the hills. Almost forgot to mention the fruit trees such as pomegranate, plum, nectarines, oranges, mini grapes, apples and pears.  But the most interesting of all is the plant that she has in front- a flower that looks like an egg.

 

Fairway Friday - I am truly in love with golf

Many years ago when I first started playing golf, I said to myself that maybe this was not for me.  It is the most difficult sport that I ever picked to try and do.  Most of the sports that I play did not start at a young age.  In fact I did not want to play any when I was in my teens because I did not want to have any scar or marks on my legs due to cuts or accidents that happen during a particular sports.  My legs were much more important then.  I played a little tennis in my 20's, started playing squash in mid 30's and tried golf in my mid 40's and then gave up.  At some point many of my girl friends from work played golf and I started going a bit more with them, but I was at the bottom all the time.  One of the things that I wanted to do when I retire was to golf at least once a week and maybe more.  Now that I have my regular foursome, I am really enjoying each and every round because I did improve

with time.  Most of the time we don't even score so we can truly have fun.  Sometimes they find great deals on some harder courses but it's all worth it.  I am not scared to try them as long as I have fun doing what I love the most, be outdoors and getting some exercise.  In the last four months we have gone to beautiful golf courses in the Bay area and some are out of town courses.  Recently we have named our group as "the three old men and a babe".  They are very easy going guys who just want to have a day doing what they love to do - Play Golf.

Here's a list of the golf courses that I have played since 2010.

• Pacific Grove Golf Links
• Cinnibar Hills
• The Ranch
• Coyote Creek
• Bayonet Golf Course
• Spring Valley
• Spring Hills
• Santa Teresa
• San Jose Municipal
• Los Lagos
• Sunnyvale Municipal
• Poplar Hills
• Pajaro Valley GC
• Eagle Ridge
• Summit Point
• The course at Wente Vineyards
• Boulder Creek
• Table Mountain

 Here's a photo from Pacific Grove - poor man's Pebble Beach. 

I realized that I'll never be able to have awesome scores but I am happy with my game.  It takes a lot of practice hours, lessons, maybe even great clubs to obtain a certain score but since I don't have time and patience for these requirement, it is what it is and I am having a great time each time I play with my group, my other friends and once in a while in a tournament.  I just love GOLF.

Welcome Wednesday - My new laptop

Do you recall my Sunday post? Remember how I was giving my Jeff a hard time?  Well, I came home after golf on Monday and there it was.  A big box with a card and a flower from our garden.  Of course I felt awful because I did not get him a gift for our anniversary, although I gave him a card that I created.  So even though I know what was in the box, I was still excited to see what it's like since I only had a preview on line. First of all it was very very light.  It looked sharp and very elegant and classy because it's black with a bit of shine.  If you know Jeff really well, you would know that he would be more excited than me when it comes to techie toys.  He got the laptop plugged and started in no time.  Because it has the windows 10 operating system, he advised me that there are a few things that might be different from my previous computer.  In no time, it was all set up and it was time for me to check it out.  There were a few things that I still wanted him to install and he did.  By the end of the evening, I was all set to try my new laptop.  The key board had the nice touch and makes typing so light.  The colors are vibrant and the different icons on the window menu are so cool.  Today for the first time I am doing this post on my new ASUS notebook PC.

After a couple of days, I am loving it because it's fast and truly there's nothing that is difficult about Windows 10.  Of course, I don't use it for a lot of things.  Basically to check my emails, do some blogging, every now and again use Skype, and maybe a little bit of surfing the web.  Almost forgot one cute feature, I have these mini post it notes that I can use as reminders.  

Marriage Monday - It's our 8th year

Eight years ago today we got married at Monte Carlo Hotel in Las Vegas.  When we first started going out, we thought that we were fine with being in a long distance relationship.  After five years of that I guess Jeff had a thought, he wanted a full time wife around his home.  The rest is history.  Let me share with you the story that my sister wrote about our relationship and today is a perfect day to reminisce.  I am happy to report that we are still together, enjoying life, growing old together and looking forward to many more years of happy together.

 

 

By the way, guess what I got for a combine gift for mother's day and anniversary gift?  A new computer.  Yeah!  See I told you Jeff is a generous husband.  I can't wait to use it but first Jeff has to install whatever operating system it needs, etc. blah blah blah.  But I love it.

Sorry Sunday - "You are not my mom" says Jeff

Happy Mother's day to all my family, friends, followers and readers.  Today is your day to celebrate the one day a year when we don't do anything.  Well, at least that's how I want to spend my mother's day.  After I move here, each year I would ask Jeff what I want for mother's day.  His response is always the same "You are not my mom".  So the first couple of years I felt a little sad but then I realize what he meant.  I am not even the mother of his only son.  This year I was thinking of boycotting mother's day.  Jeff thought I was upset that I was not going to get a card or gift nor taken out for dinner.  He suggested that he will take his mother for dinner and I could come along if I want.  Maybe it would be nice to be asked what I wanted to do, but this line keeps ringing in my mind, "you are no my mom".  This year I thought of writing a poem titled "You are not my mom".    

Happy mother's day to me, who is a mother, a wife and a friend

A mother who cooks, does the laundry and even knows how to mend.
The wife who understands, who is patient and always attend,
To all the needs of husband and children to the bitter end. 

 "You are not my mom" is the response that I always get
When I wanted a gift or a treat I thought I deserve and yet
Don't get me wrong Jeff is a generous man but his ways are set
But I guess I get it, I am not his mother and I won't forget it.

 To all the mothers who are like me, I hope you enjoy this post, the flowers and the cake.

Separately Saturday - Succulents and Orchids

Bragging is not my style but when it comes to my Orchid plant, I cannot help it but brag because it is very difficult for me to accept that I actually kept it alive.  Not only alive but it has given me five beautiful flowers.  Although I have to give credit to Jeff who does the watering of our indoor plants, I am the one who talks to it and takes photos and ensure that it does not get moved as it seems to love it's location.  Now that the all the buds have opened into beautiful orchids, all I need to do is show it, share it, and hopefully give my readers something to enjoy, that is if you are into plants.  

This past weekend, we decided to check Home Depot for some more succulents.  If you remember a few years ago, we planted lots of beautiful annuals in the back yard only to find out after a few days that the squirrels ate the flowers and ruined the rest of the plants.  I told Jeff that we won't be planting anymore of those types and we resorted to succulents.  With the drought, etc. it seems this was the way to go.  We bought new ones and transferred the smaller ones which we planted separately but have now all been rejoined with others.  They are now in two big pots which makes it easier for watering.

Talking about plants vs squirrels, today Jeff saw two squirrels wandering in our two garden box checking out the most recent plant that Jeff just put in.  They were all vegetable plants like yellow squash, cucumber, eggplant,  basil, tomatoes, peppers and watermelon.  I hope that they won't back.  Last year when Jeff planted something similar, these squirrels ruined most of them by digging the plants they can't eat and snipping all the leaves of the ones they like.  I don't know how anyone can think of them as cute when all they do is ruin plants and flowers for us.  This is the reason why I cannot get excited about gardening.  Damn squirrels.

 

Flaky Friday - New favorite recipes

As most of you know, I am not good at baking cookies, but I love trying out new recipe specially those one that starts with use a cake mix box.  I have tried at least three different recipe and they all came out perfect.  The first one I tried using the Yellow Cake Mix and just adding butter, nuts and chocolate chips.  The second one I tried using the Dark Chocolate Mix and making them into brownies.  The third and most recent one is the Red Velvet Cake Mix which turned into a RVC Crinkle cookies.  It was easy to make and the result is crispy on the outside and moist in the inside.  The fourth one is not from a cake mix but a recipe I found from Pinterest called chocolate chips cookie bar.  Again, easy recipe to follow and so yummy.  BTW being a diabetic, I am always trying to find new recipe that has less sugar or where I can adjust the recipe without ruining the results.  So far I have made a lot of stuff by using half of the sugar the recipe calls for without any issue.  Even though I don't like baking cookies and prefers making bars or other quick breads or cake, I now have a few favorites which also includes some pies.  

 

What the cup Wednesday - thought it was a cafe?

When you see a new restaurant in your neighborhood with a name "what the cup", how can you not check it out.  At first we thought it was going to be a coffee shop but when I saw the bowl on their logo, I new it would be some sort of noodle place.  Sure enough it was a Ramen

place.  The day we check it out was after we already had lunch at the Pho place right next door.  We asked our friend who lives around the area of this particular restaurant and he said it was pretty good although his wife thinks it's a little too salty.  Now that we have all the info, we can make our decision.  Jeff is not a fan of ramen and I try to stay away from too salty foods.  I guess we won't be trying this particular one and just say "WHAT THE CUP?"  Now that I have covered the topic of the day, I wanted to share more photos of  foods we have recently tried. 

Oxtail, dirty rice and plantain from Backayard (downtown San Jose)

Appetizer plate from Oros Thai Restaurant around our area

The well known Pad Thai from Oros as well.

 

Succulent Sunday - The perfect plant

First day of May.  My favorite month.  Summer is almost here. It's time to check out the Nursery for some new plants specially succulents.  With the drought that they keep insisting we are experiencing, even though all our water barrels are full, succulents are fun and easy to grow. Some of the plants have done so well and of course one or two are struggling.  This month I want to add more to my succulents collection.  As much as flowering plants are pretty and colorful, I find it harder to take care off and the bad experience from a few years ago makes me think it's not worth the time and money.  There are a few big pots that I will use for my new variety of succulents.  For now, check out the few that I have.  

They might be small, but they are my survivors.

This one is definitely getting too much sun.

The little plant has been struggling ever since the beginning.

This is the healthiest of all the jade plants and it all started from a small clipping from my MIL's jade.