Fun in the Photo Booth

While my sister and I were out shopping for Christmas presents, we stumbled upon this photo booth that actually tapes you while you pose for the different snap shots. We did not know this was happening until after so it made for a good laugh later on:

For our last pose, we were trying to recreate Mother Mary and the baby Jesus but it ended up a little too XXX for X-mas.

DIY Christmas

My sister and I decided to make some of our Christmas gifts this year. We decided to take the citrus fruit from our backyard that Filipinos commonly use in their cooking (Kalamansi) and infuse it into some vodka to give to our cousins.  We picked the fruit and boiled some mason jars in preparation. In order to decorate the jars, we stopped by the craft store and had a little too much fun:

We tasted the vodka after infusing the kalamansi in the liquor for a week and it was good enough to drink straight.  We included a little recipe for the cocktail using bitters and ginger infused simple syrup.  Below is a what the finished product looked like after we glued on our PIG DOG label:

We have an extra bottle for ourselves to use on New Years Eve so I'm ready for a Kalamansi hang over this weekend.  We got the instructions from this website along with the cocktail recipe.

The Nutcracker Suite

Sorry for the lack of updates! I'm still back in Ventura visiting my family throughout the New Year since I am never really able to come home and visit often. It's been nice to hang out with my mom and sister and spend some quality time together cooking and gossiping.  Before I headed down here, Z surprised me and got us tickets to see the Nutcracker ballet at the San Francisco Opera Theater.  As a little girl, I had always watched the ballet on television and wished I could one day see the real thing on stage. The theater itself was beautiful. Z and I mostly enjoyed people watching because really the type of people that attend the ballet are quite interesting to say the least.

Outfit Details:

Blue Velvet Stripe Tent Dress (ASOS)

Navy Sheer Tights (Walgreens)

Vintage Black Mary Jane Shoes (Thrifted)

After the show, we got a late dinner at a near-by Thai restaurant. I got the crispy pork belly with bell peppers, green beans, and basil. Z got a nice noodle dish with yummy veggies and tofu. It was a lovely last night in the city before I had to wake up at dawn to drop Z off at work and drive down the 101 to Ventura. I am so happy I finally got to see the Nutcracker ballet and it definitely got me into the Christmas spirit!

Go Pugs Go!

Please excuse my crazy-pug ladyness, but when I am bored I google videos of pugs to past the time. I am in love with these pug videos by Matt Wiebe:




GoPro-GoPug from Matt Wiebe on Vimeo.


tired from Matt Wiebe on Vimeo.


Black vs Fawn from Matt Wiebe on Vimeo.


Pugs and Kisses,

New Bicycle

Photo via LuLu Letty's Flickr

Z recently got me a Vintage (New to me) bicycle that I had been lusting over for so long.  It is a hunter green 1976 Raleigh Sports model. It is similar to the bike (even my woven basket) pictured above except my handle bars and brooks saddle seat are black. I will take a proper picture of my bike soon when I get the chance. The Owners kept the bike in their garage for years gathering dust and it was never used. There was virtually no rust and the original paint job and parts signature to the bike were intact. I could not have asked for a better birthday present so thank you so much, Z! I now have too many bicycles that we are able to store in our tiny San Francisco apartment, so I will be selling my other bike pictured down below. It is a 3 speed Vintage Foremost Woman’s English Bike that is nice and sturdy. Here are some pictures from last summer when Z and I went out for some bike riding to the park near-by. 

Cheers!

Pugnacious Pugs

Above is a picture of Finnegan in his Holiday jumper as he sunbathed at my Mom's home this past Thanksgiving. Three years ago, Z and I bought Finnegan from a family in San Diego whose pugs had puppies and the family could not take care of the extra pups in the house hold. Finnegan is probably not a "pure bred" or "pedigree pug", but that will probably help him live longer since he does not have such the pronounced embedded nose, soft palate, crooked spine, and short stubby legs that are dominate in his breed today. (He is much taller that other pugs) He does however have patellar luxation in his left hind leg, which is common to pugs and it will have to be corrected one day with surgery.

After baking some fresh cranberry and candied ginger scones this morning for breakfast, I watched this interesting documentary on the devastating inbreeding that occurs in with Breeders and the Kennel Club association.There was a time when breeding dogs was not about looks but about talent. Man needed dogs that could perform a certain task better than any other animal on earth. The original philosophy of dog breeding was "form follows function".  If beauty pageant breeding produces sad cripples just so people can marvel at their own "creations" regardless of what level of suffering this causes the dog, then it needs to stop.




Here is a picture of what a black pug looked like in the past:

Here are more pictures of pugs from the past:

Gold Sneakers

Apologies for the myspace feel of these outfit pictures but they were just a quick snap of my outfit today for my work's Holiday Party.  

Outfit Details: 
Black lace peter pan collar chiffon dress (Forever 21)
Cropped Maroon and black sweater (Thrifted)
Black Boots (Thrifted)
                 
Below is a song from a local band (Wax Idols) that I currently have stuck in my head.






WAX IDOLS - GOLD SNEAKERS from Hayden Shiebler on Vimeo.

I can't wait for the weekend to start! Cheers and hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead.

Electric Chair

The B-Side on Bleached's "Searching Through the Past" 7 inch:

Dive Bar Black Friday

My sister and I decided to take some myspace-esque photos of ourselves before heading out for some special cousin bonding time over the Thanksgiving Holiday. My sister is one of the few people I can talk to and she knows exactly what I am saying even with just a few facial expressions and grunts. Me speak pretty well, yes?

We definitely needed the cousin bonding time and I was able to take a break from everything just for awhile. It was a dive bar black Friday for all of us.

Tous Les Garcons

From a scopitone collection: "Ye - Ye Girls" , better picture quality than some earlier posts. beautiful, exhilarating the way that music and motion compliment each other in this one - as if Hardy all by herself weren't sufficient...enjoy.

Gobble Gobble!

This Thanksgiving was a success! Special thanks to my sister and my aunt for helping my mom out this year since she could not cook. Unfortunately, some of the side effects of the chemo makes her extremities hyper-sensitive to cold. It proved quite difficult for her to even just open up the fridge and to retrieve the vegetables or frozen goods. My sister's turkey was super delicious. The turkey was set in brine since the previous Sunday and had this beautiful golden brown color from brushing it continuously with sage butter.

I had taken more photos with my Pentax K1000, but they did not turn out so well. Target did a horrible job scanning them since most of the pictures had this hideous horrible green scan line in the center. Here are some photos that managed to show up and the other photos are taken from my cousins:

I finally got to wear the Alex Chung for Madewell dress that I had been lusting for, but I got so excited with the cooking and total gluttony that I had little food stains on my dress at the end of the night. (I did manage to get them out later) I'm thankful that I have such a great family whom are very supportive with everything that has happened to my mom earlier this fall. Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can't wait to see my family again for Christmas! Cheers!