The Depths of Frugalness

fashion disaster Doris - 11-16/11

Let's face it; Asians have a reputation for being cheap.  This is a raging stereotype, but on the whole it is pretty true for the first generation folks who came here dirt poor and worked their asses off to the middle class; and it affects a lot of second generation-ers like myself who are the children of the previously mentioned group.  (The cheapness doesn't apply to the other group of name-brand chasing Asians; or anyway, less obviously.  There isn't an Asian out there alive who can pass up a good bargain.)

Earlier this week a friend sent me a 50% off coupon for Banana Republic, good only for one day.  Of course I did my duty and passed it on to other friends and then scoped out the website to see what I might want.  I didn't end up getting anything from Banana that day, but I sure got infected with the need to buy more classy clothes for work in a really bad way.  It probably didn't help that I was dressed in fashion-disaster style and having a bad hair day to boot.  So I was on a serious mission to get a whole new wardrobe, like now.  And because I'm cheap, I started searching through Target and Ross in a serious way.

While I was there I saw this adorable wool jacket and it looks like the perfect classy jacket to go over some work dresses and skirts I picked up.  I tried it on and I'm between sizes; I needed the medium to fit my shoulders, but a small around the waist area.  Regretfully  I put it back on the rack because I'm trying to be good and not waste my money on ill fitting clothes and uncomfortable shoes; until I noticed that the jacket was on CLEARANCE.  That little tag changed everything because my frugal Asian genes kicked in; it's such a good deal!  How can you not?  My ancestors would be ashamed if I didn't take advantage of such good luck!

A little sewing machine is a dangerous thing.

Ungh.  Sometimes I think I have maybe more time on my hands than is quite good, or anyway, at this point in my life I spend more effort in the name of less money.  So I got that jacket, took it home, and took it apart to try to do some tailoring myself.  It didn't seem like it was going to be a very hard thing; I mean, I've sort of sewn a few things together, right?  I only needed to alter the jacket slightly to look less boxy on me, but still be big enough to fit  some heavier winter clothes underneath. 

In the end, I was reasonably pleased because it's always helpful for me to see how clothes are constructed and by ripping apart the lining I got a better view on how a jacket is made.  Sadly I wasn't able to make my stitching invisible and I did kind of rip a tiny hole I had to sew up (making the jacket go instantly from classy to ghetto; but not THAT noticeable....I think.)

not box shaped anymore!

Yup, so I discovered I've got quite a capacity for being cheap, although it'll be a ways to go before I can really tailor my own clothes super well.  Shortening some pants and the hack job on this jacket is my limit so far, and still working on making it less obvious that I have done so; but I have noticed that good tailoring will take a so-so article of clothing and make it great.   Anyway I had fun doing this and it's a warm jacket so I'm good with it.  AND CHEAP, mwahahaha.

 

Human Figure class

I had the chance to attend a workshop on photographing the human nude about a week ago, and I'm so glad I was able to go.  I may have studied photography in school but since I didn't go the route of professional photographer I need to remember to constantly make the effort to improve my skills. 
 I haven't done much of human figure/nude photography before, it's quite intimidating to have a naked person stand in front of you, waiting for you to give direction.  Luckily most of the models at the workshop had the experience I didn't; one was a dancer, one looked like she had done plenty of modeling before, and one who just was having so much fun with the whole process it made my job easier.  In the end, I thought the dancer was almost too easy to shoot because all of her poses were beautiful, and reduced the challenge.


I have to say, a room full of nude female models sure brought out the dirty old man in many participants of the workshop.  There was at least one rather rude gentleman (I use the term loosely) who bossed the rest of us and kind of ordered the models around.  The rudest of all was the equipment salesman at the workshop (from the sponsoring company.)  He had brought lenses for people to try, and was so kind as to "help" me with the equipment (in that "Let me help you there, little lady" way), insulted my camera as an antique, and let me know the perfect lens to use in case I wanted to you know, zoom in on a nipple.  The cherry on top was when he  proceeded to make a few remarks when the model was on the ground reclining, and I also lay on the ground to shoot her from a low angle - about how we were both now rolling around on the ground.  Uh-huh...and you're a professional salesman?


Using studio lights is always a treat for me these days, as I don't have access (or pay for access) to a regular studio.  After this weekend though, I'm thinking quite seriously about investing in a kit of my own, because it's just so much fun to use!  And I have a garage now, so some limited room to actually just use them at home.  On the whole I had a great time at the workshop - I learned a bit and came away with lots of inspiration, which is exactly what I wanted!


For the full portfolio, click the photo above, or follow this link - and remember, this was NUDE human figure so don't click if you're not ok with it!

http://www.stanford.edu/~cheungd/HumanFigure/

Honey Badgers just KILL their problems....hmmm...

For good times, honey badgers make it Suntory time.

Everyone needs more honey badger!  Mine (can I pick honey badger as my spirit animal?) always seems so cheerful and sunny.

It has been that kind of week...er....month.  There's all the fun parts of Halloween and house and outside life, but work life has been a little on the bad side.  Insomnia and bad dreams kind of bad with optional heart palpitations when the boss texts and calls me while I'm out of the office.  And I'm not the only one!  I weirdly felt a lot better when someone else at the office said she felt the same way.


So while I'm slowly and surely becoming an alcoholic in terms of frequency of drinking if not quantity, I guess I should try to remember to chill.  That is, chill after savagely tearing apart any metaphorical cobras in my way.  

**Oh no!  I just scrolled through old entries and the last stressed out honey badger one is only 4 entries down! :(  Better do something about that.

Living/Dining room before and after!

Hi Dad! also...blue and yellow next to each other!?

After a long break, I'm back to blogging. What have I been up to for the last 5 months? There's been a lot of working on the house. I fell into the trap of "I can't put up pictures of this before and after until the after is really done!" and as I have been discovering (all you people who have already done a lot of house-things, whether you own or not, are laughing at me) is that things are never DONE. And I fell further into the writer's trap of "I can't post anything until I get that first house blog done). Dang. That was a deep tiger pit of a trap. Anyhow! Here is my first official post about stuff I'm doing to the house because now I'm a homeowner and inflict that kind of thing on ever. PAINT! When I moved in, the house was pretty awful awful colors. I maintain that the previous owner certainly had STRONG sense of color, but I don't think he perceived color at all in the same way I do. Plus, the dining room drywall was a little destroyed due to some termite smiting.

Clearly, there was going to be a lot of repainting (i.e. the whole house.)  It was just so...not restful.  As much as I like Cal and Cal colors, it's not something I want in my dining room.

Thus I pulled a Tom Sawyer and desperately tried to convince all my friends that painting is SO MUCH FUN, and to come over and help me in return for beer, sandwiches, and pretzels.  Clearly this was a thin and sketchy offer on the fun angle, but after a few days of work my living room become much more soothing!

Granted, some of this is just that much more soothing because the mess is gone! It didn't take five months to do this painting, but it was only this last weekend where I was able to get curtains and was hence able to call this room "done".  Curtains are freaking expensive!  I did pull a crazy Asian girl homeowner thing though, and when I found a set of discontinued curtains on MEGA SALE, for the living room, I went back to two different locations to find enough matching and on sale curtains for the bedrooms.  Maybe it involved forcibly grabbing the display curtains while no one was looking a bit of work to find enough for a matching set but hey, DISCOUNTED!! and MATCHING! (boring boring white.  but the white is working for me.)

Whew, all right.  Now I feel like I can continue blogging like a normal person again, and not just about the house.  But stay tuned for more about the house. :)

My poor kitty...

Shelf kitty hides in shelves.

My poor kitty...moving has really gotten him freaked out the last few days. I don't know what is going to happen when I have human babies one day in addition to a kitty-child, because I worry so much about the kitty already! Otoro spent the first day slinking around under the furniture, which I did expect. However, in the last few days he has developed the habit of incessant meowing and being rambunctious starting at 4 am. I am sure it must be a "I'm freaked out by this place with all new smells and different stuff" reaction, but it also means I'm not sleeping that much at night either. I'm getting worried I have psychologically damaged my cat! It's only been a few days though, and I wasn't able to spend much time there yet. Hopefully he will calm down soon! 

My dad was a sweetie and brought over this rug that Otoro really likes in the hopes that having more familiar things (and one laden with familiar scents?) will help him calm down. I wonder if this rug was secretly made out of catnip, because the following video shows his reaction after the rug was unrolled; and it was rinse and repeat for the rest of the day. Kitties are so strange sometimes...

Jen and Paul's Engagement Photos

 I had the great honor of shooting Jen and Paul's engagement photos a few weeks back.  I've known them for about eight years now; though not so well in the beginning as we started bumping into each other through mutual friends.  I have to say, I totally thought Paul was a thug and kind of scary when I first met him due to buzz cut bleached hair (turns out that hair was "gold" to go with the blue and gold colors of Cal).  Later on Jen, Wei-Ling and I were roommates in one of the most fun apartment I've ever been in, 3 gals together - 4 if you count Charcoal!

The photos were taken around Berkeley in the Rose Garden, a few in downtown, and down by the Marina.  We totally crashed someone else's wedding down in the Rose Garden (don't worry! They were just setting up.)  I hadn't done a formal shoot or a location shoot in awhile, but the light was perfect and I was reminded just how much fun it is!  I imagine it was more fun for me than them, because I didn't have to face up to giant camera lens staring at me; and I started getting a bit gleeful in telling them to kiss again...and again...and again.

Mwahaha THE POWER, er, all in the name of getting a good shot!

Doing a photo shoot is a great way to test that wedding makeup and hair before the big day  Jen had gotten her trial run done right before; and I think we all quickly figured out that the updo was pretty, but it made Jen look like not-Jen.   And on your wedding day, it probably helps to still look like you, especially for the pictures!

Special guest appearance by Charcoal in these photos; I can't really imagine Paul and Jen without her there too.  I had a blast...I can't wait for their actual wedding day!   

For the full gallery, take a look HERE.

Motto for the Day..week...month

<3 honey badgers

This ought to have been my motto last week, actually, but I think it will apply for the whole summer.  And I don't mean that I oughtn't give a sh...er..I aspire to be like a honey badger because honey badgers don't sweat the small things in life!   Even when things are really tough, like being poisoned by a cobra...honey badger just takes a nap and gets back to work.  I can get behind that philosophy.

It's really easy for me to feel overwhelmed when I think too hard about everything. Busy season (weddings, bachelorette/bridal parties, more weddings) just started and the rest of the time will be filled with packing, picking out linoleum for the new place and the logistics of moving.  I start stressing when I think too far ahead about all the work I want to do on the house; as the mighty Wei-Ling said "The future is then.  Now is...now."  Better to just think about the now; everything will work itself out! 

Update about the goals board, I'm not bad at getting the goals done.  However, I turned out to be too much a cheapskate (am I'm now really poor) to get the prizes!  So I'll have to adjust with some non-monetary types of prizes for myself. :)

Upcoming blogs: can't wait to process some of of Jen and Paul's engagement photos to share! 

my precious....kimchi

artist's rendition of 11:30 am at the lunch fridge

This stick figure cartoon depicts the Gollum-like state I'm reduced to when Yuki gives me a jar of of her delicious home made kimchi.  It's so good!! I just gotta have some, especially when my lunch is boring white rice (I'm a bad Asian, I'm only so-so on the topic of rice...but I argue that eating it with kimchi completely redeems my Asianness). 

Unfortunately not everyone loves kimchi (what is WRONG with you people?), namely, my officemate.  He has banned me from having it in the office at all since that one time I opened up my lunch to eat at my desk and he started crying and coughing because of the fumes.  Granted, I understand the smell and taste is not for everyone, but I've never EVER seen a reaction like that before.  However for the purposes of office peace, I keep a jar down the hall in the fridge... and promised never to open up a container around that coworker again.  (P.S. Wuss.)

Um, this does have the side effect of me gobbling down a few furtive pieces every now and again, and in the hopes of not offending anyone else I do it really fast and kind of hidden-like when no one else is around.  This is probably where office urban legends come from, but so far, no passive aggressive notes to keep the kimchi out of the workplace!

Opposite Side something-something drop

Long time no update on this, but I'm still sporadically attending the aerial fabrics class.  This quarter the time is somewhat less convenient than before, 8 pm on Sunday nights.  Between family dinners
and not getting the start date right, I ended up missing a few classes but I'm planning on going regularly for the rest of the quarter, plus hitting the gym right before the class means no wait for all the cardio machines.  It's amazing how quickly arm strength will deteriorate because I now have a lot more difficulty climbing than I used to, and since the intermediate class is MUCH smaller than the beginner class I really ought to take advantage of having more time on the silks as much as my forearms may protest the exercise.  I find I'm much more a fan of the static poses and the climbs than the drops because...drops frankly scare the bejeesus out of me and I think I need those bejeesus to get around in life.

However, this week we did learn this fun drop which I already forget the name of (I made a point of asking again at the end of class too), and this one is not that scary for me.  I know I'm plunging straight down on it, but it feels very secure and there's not all this crazy flipping around in different directions, and the landing doesn't hurt like the others.  I have no idea how boys perform and kind of silk maneuvers because let me tell you, those silks get FRESH with you.  They need for safety's sake to get IN places.  I started wearing my bike shorts underneath, because I haven't quite deadened all the nerves on my inner thigh yet.  Makes drops a lot less scary.  Now I just need to work on the dismount, hehehe.

Honey Badger

I couldn't help jumping on the honey badger bandwagon, although I don't think it's an internet meme yet; had to make my own!

If only I could be so cool and unconcerned yet undeniably badass as honey badger! :)

being a stalker! and judgemental!

I can't quite pin down when I started feeling like I never had time to do anything anymore.  I think it must have started sometime in the last year, but I don't know exactly when or why!  Certainly I've gotten more busy at work but I thankfully have a job where I leave all of that AT work - so while I go in a bit earlier these days, it's my evenings that feel like there really is just no time for much besides getting home to eat dinner and then getting on to bed!  (That is slightly a lie because I have dance class in the evenings and I never get to bed as early as I should.  But it's more that I don't feel I have the energy to be doing all that much, like sewing every night or drawing or painting or something, which is what I WANT to be doing, until it comes to be evening time and all I want to do is go lie around and rest.  Bleh.)


I blame some of the mental lethargy on the house hunting process.  Sure, the process of going out and looking at places happens on the weekends, but the brain power evidently has leaked out of my ears because I certainly have very little of it left in my head these days. 

I do have enough brain power to add another Character, this time with a picture.  For some reason I find this fellow to be extremely creepy, although I freely admit I know nothing about him.  I'm sure he's perfectly nice, but I see him around on my commute and every time I can't help but think he looks evil!!! Maybe it is the slightly older-but-I'm-still-a-hipster look, or his glasses, or his hair; some combo of all that makes him look very sinister.  In fact, I think he looks very much like the James Bond villian Le Chiffre!!  What do you think?

<---- real life                                                  movie villain ---->

Portfolio starting to go up!

Hi everyone! 

I'm very excited to say that I've started uploading my photography work into an online portfolio (finally).  Check out the Fine Art Photography and the Sewing Projects tabs at the top of the page for the first few galleries.  Let me know what you think!  The formatting options are somewhat limited in blogger, but I was SUPER EXCITED to be able to include additional pages right into my blog.  It's very friendly for those web page developmentally impaired. :)

Part and parcel of this was digging up the dvds that had a lot of my old photos.  Lesson learned? MULTIPLE, back up storage in different formats.  Eventually CDs and DVDs don't read and hard drives will just fail (they all WILL, just a matter of time.)  One of my projects existed only in print form anymore...but thankfully now digitized and uploaded to multiple online storage options.  

Having a few web galleries up also encourages the creation of more!  So true about nothing being created in a vacuum (creativity, anyhow, not sure about big bang cosmos physics-wise); it's all about seeing what other people are doing and putting what you do out there for people to comment and critique on.  

Men’s Shirt Refashion 1: Summertime Dress (Part Two – Photo Shoot)

Concept: Frolicking Among the Flowers

Photographer: Wayne Vanderkuil
Location: Sunnyvale,CA

Model and Styling: Doris Cheung

It’s been far too long since I’ve made a concerted effort to put together any kind of photo shoot.  To think I used to do this all the time for school!  Back then I often used myself as a model  because I far too shy to ask anyone else to be my unpaid model for a school project. 

Modeling is quite hard!  I am not much for being a fashion model – there’s definitely a way to stand and pose that looks really weird in real life (and probably feels very awkward), but ends up looking great in photos.  Before we went out I reviewed the sketch notes that Wei-ling drew from her modeling session.  The sketches are fantastic, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to put much into practice – practicing in front of a mirror would have been very helpful.  There’s definitely fashion posing, and then there’s me.  Usually I end up liking things that look more natural.

This particular shoot I knew I wanted to be in among fields of mustard.  I can see the bright yellow flowers all along the freeway on my drive home, and thought they would be a perfect match with the yellow on the dress.  I had originally selected Heritage Orchard Park in Sunnyvale as the location for the shoot based off photos I’d found – only to discover on the day of that the fields have been plowed!  Well.  The potentially disastrous lack of research was averted when a field down the street turned out to be a perfect substitute.  

For outdoor shoots I highly recommend overcast days.  The lighting is much more even (no harsh shadows) and flattering for people and the colors will tend to be a little more saturated.  I tried the fashion thing, but these photos here I was just walking and moving around aside from the more posed “is it going to rain” one.  I wanted to focus on the dress and not myself as a model, so I like the ones with less of my face showing.  Incidentally, I’m wearing makeup practically applied with a trowel because I’m currently suffering through a very bad spell of allergies/eczema around my eyes, and much more eyeliner  than I would wear, say, to work.  However, it doesn’t actually show up that much in the photos so I am really pleased with the more natural look.  

Photo post processing didn't include a super amount of retouching (hm, due to my laziness?)  I popped out the saturation and contrast, and brightened up the whites with a slight glow.

Lastly, I guess I went a little nuts and made a parasol to go with the shoot.  I had stumbled across this wonderful tutorial - crafts from the dollar store!  Lo and behold written by the same blogger I've been following for tutorials recently. (Yup, my blog is not going to be about crafts I've invented, but lots of links to tutorials I've found!)  This parasol probably wouldn't hold up to an real rain...or sun...but the intention was to use it as a diffuser in case of harsh sunlight.  A very fashionable diffuser.


I think I can call this project done - except, I'm still waiting for warm weather to wear it!  I'm looking forward to spring and summer. :)

Lastly - a HUGE thank you to my friend and co-worker Wayne (check out his Flickr site here), who shot all these photos for me.  Not everyone would go along with "hey. You wanna shoot some pictures of me in a field of flowers?" with such an immediate "Sure!"  Many, many thanks. 

Men’s Shirt Refashon 1: Summertime Dress (Part One – The Dress)

raw materials #2

the inspiration

I was digging through a bag of clothes my mom wanted to take out to donate a couple of months ago and came across a silk dress shirt of an unflattering size and style for me.  The fabric was so gorgeous I shoved it straight into my “do something with later” pile and started Googling for ideas.  

I came across this super cute refashioning that I instantly wanted to try.  (Visit her etsy shop here.) I couldn’t just try it straightaway on the silk shirt, so I had to stop off at Goodwill and pick up a few men’s shirts to practice on.  The idea had been to just make a simple, practice neckline.  From there it turned into a dress, with a photo shoot, and a matching parasol.  Well…I guess I don’t do simple very well!

I started with an XL men’s dress shirt and combined it with this dress I never wear.  It’s super cute, but the material is thin.  A slip might have solved the problem, but I cut it up so that also solved that problem.  It took me a few weeks to make this since I had to figure out what I was going to do as I went along.  I didn’t really have a plan aside from working on that neckline, so there was a lot of cutting apart of what I had sewn to rework it. 

I don’t feel comfortable offering a tutorial on how I did end up putting together the top as the original idea belongs to someone else who sells it.  However, I will say that it wasn’t too bad to reverse engineer it for anyone else who thought that it was a great way to re-imagine a shirt! 

Here’s what I ended up with, front and back view.  The checked pattern of the cloth really suggested an innocent sundress, it’s very Dorothy inspired as well.  I later on added on the yellow underlayer because just the shirt alone as a dress still looked like…I’m wearing a men’s shirt and nothing else.  I ended up shirring (and here is a great tutorial on how to do that!) a large section of the back as a cheater method of making it fit.  I’d sewn darts along the back but I suck at making it super tailored.  The shirring ended up being so cute as a panel (and it REALLY did the trick on making it more form-fitting) that I will have to make another dress with it on purpose. 

I can't wait for the weather to be actually WARM so I can wear this dress.  Stay tuned for taking the dress out of this yucky looking field and into a pretty one for the photo shoot segment!

Welcome to the Girl Corner, home of crafting

kitty is essential

The other day I was out at a friend's and the subject of man-caves came up.  The importance of, joys of, man-cave envy - although there was no discussion of what actually goes on in one in my hearing.  I wonder, what's the lady equivalent?  Have we really come so far in society that we ladies no longer have a sewing room? 

The funny thing is, I would LOVE a sewing room.  So would a number of other girls I know, since the making of crafts really takes a lot of space!  Truly, if I ever had the space I would need the I Make Stuff and Paint Stuff Room.  For now, I've taken over a Girl Corner of my brother's old room temporarily for my crafting projects and it's got the basic necessities; table, Hello Kitty 3/4 size sewing machine + cat.  I have to give this corner back in a few weeks, but for now, I've been busily using it.  When I have a permanent corner, rest assured it will be much more girly.  The post to reveal just WHAT I've been making will have to wait until the rain lets up for a bit and it stops being so cold! 

I desperately had to cheer myself up a little bit last night though, I've been feeling very very blah from a lot of different things.  I made a quickie headband decoration to wear today, I just tacked on one of the chiffon flowers from a previous project to a thrift store headband (Daiso for the win!!!)  I'm wearing it with that same cardigan today AND with my hair curled in an attempt to seduce the universe into thinking it should hurry up and be spring.  If sunshine started pouring down on me and flowers bloomed beneath my feet and maybe the world started serenading me in joy, that would be ok too.

Combating Mental Drool

I find a most disturbing trend where my brain, being very very full these days, has decided to deal with overstuffed-ness by grinding to a squishy near-halt.  I commented yesterday that it's the equivalent to your mouth hanging open slightly and drool coming out, except mentally; not sleepy, but mentally tired from a lot of things just on my mind.  I think it's not uncommon a reaction of the human mind; too much ot think about it? Fine, I just won't think about anything at all!

It's a nasty mental drool spiral; the less able I am to deal with things, the less brain i have to think about them as they pile up!  I was trying (squish squish, goes the brain) to think of a way to get out of the slump when my friend Astrid came up with what I think will be a great solution.

"Doris...you need to come up with a reward system."

SELF-BRIBERY!!  Is this the key?  (Also, brilliant.  It works for kids.  Will it work for a big kid?)  So that very evening I ran out to Daiso to get a little whiteboard so I could combine a reward system with one of my favorite things, lists!  Different prizes of various denominations matched with tasks that seem daunting right now.  I don't get prizes for normal work things, just for things that weigh upon my mind that I really should get that done, you know.  It's hanging right by my work desk as a visual reminder.  I'll let you know if it works!

Single Star Drop

 

 I'm pleased to report on my continuing adventures in aerial fabrics class - there is improvement!  If you saw my earlier post, I was just SO MASSIVELY BAD it was downright embarrassing.  As I did suspect there was a trick to getting up that fabric so since then it hasn't been so bad.  The dance training has really helped because there's a lot of things you can get away with by being flexible that's kind of like a cheat...like fixing your position when you got into it wrong.  It was kind of like in wushu when I don't REALLY have the strength to to do a kip up, or the proper height to do an aerial, but I could cheat it by being flexible enough to shorten the required air time required for both moves. Ha!

THe moves that I'm having trouble with now are probably now due to my squodgy and wimptastic core.  Since hitting the ripe old age of thirty I've noticed that portion of my anatomy has become somewhat more troublesome with the upkeep (I need that fat to hibernate!! in...California...no really). 

And despite my utter and debilitating fear of heights, I discovered today that I think I'm going to like dropping!  This is the single star drop, just one rotation down - I didn't go that high up it's pretty fun twirling down the ribbon!  It's a very secure stop at the end which is probably why it's not that scary...so secure I got some bruises in delicate areas...

Episode 1: The Interview

Our first strip is up!! (Testing the blogger button share thing.)

Episode 1: The Interview

Medusa Blues, coming soon!

 I'm really really excited to announce the upcoming launch of a new comic strip by Wei-ling and I!   We've been working VERY hard on this lately (and hence if I've been a little MIA in real life, this is one reason why), and we are so happy and proud that it's finally ready to share!  It feels a little scary to have an idea that was for so long just in my head or just a discussion between the two of us suddenly become public.  But then, how can it be a bad thing when we have so much fun working on it?


The comic officially debuts Valentine's Day - check it out!

Happy New Year! And, Egg Custard Tarts

Happy New Year!

Ages and ages ago in Berkeley, my sister and I each bought a copy of this old school, from the 80’s, Chinese Snacks cookbook.  I forget which store carried it, but it seemed like such a great find we couldn’t pass it up and we obviously each needed our own copy. (We lived at the same apartment at the time.)  The idea seemed so great.  Make your own dim sum at home!  Turns out that dim sum is something really not something the home cook can whip up due to the complicated preparation and the sheer time it takes to churn out any kind of edible amount of bite sized goodness.  (Like that time my friends and I witnessed an entire room of super fast cooks wrapping Xiao Long Bao in a futile attempt to keep up with demands.)     

But oh, egg custard tarts!  As my friend Jen is fond of calling the most exemplary item in a category as its “king” (the King of Potato chips being salt and pepper Kettle Chips), I say egg custard tarts are the Princess of Dim Sum.  They’re fun, dainty, and sweet, and the hit of every dim sum outing.  In fact, I firmly uphold the belief that these treats are appropriate at any time during dim sum, not just as dessert!  The savory of the other dishes brings out the sweet goodness of the egg custard tarts, and vice versa!  Plus, these things go fast so if you don’t get them off the cart when the dim sum ladies come around, they might not be there later!

Therefore I couldn’t resist another attempt at making these (my favorite dim sum dish, not that that was a question).  I’m on attempt number 2 or 3 now; they seem like so much effort that I usually let several years lapse in between.  The crust is the hard part; many restaurants (second rate…sniff) will serve egg custard tarts in a shortbread style crust, which is the cheater way of doing it! 

A most suitable snack for all times of the day.

This recipe book provides excellent directions in Chinese and English, with step-by-step pictures on how to roll your crust properly; it takes two kinds of dough, one encased in the other, and a lot of folding.  I think it must be similar to puff pastry or croissants, to get that layering effect.  Also, the secret ingredient is lard.  I wasn’t able to find lard when I made this attempt, but I used shortening (and damn the health consequences) and the texture is finally approaching the desired flaky ideal!  I made this on a whim, so I didn’t have evaporated milk powder or any dairy for the egg custard, so that was a touch pale.  But I feel OK about that because my mom must’ve liked them; she went out and bought evaporated milk powder the next day. :) 

Restaurant: Scratch

Lobster, oysters, shrimp go in my belly!

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the paper and pretending to be a hipster by suggesting to my friends we all go try a new restaurant.  Ok, not hipster, but pretensions to foodieness.  Everyone else in the world has a point about South Bay being the absolutely worst place in the Bay Area for non-chain food, low-brow, restaurants, because everyone here thinks Cheesecake Factory is the height of gourmet dining.  Still, not all souls have given up opening restaurants NEAR South Bay - there was an interesting bit about a newly opened place in Mountain View.  Which is technically Peninsula, I think.  Maybe the edge of South Bay.  It counts!

Sort of.  

A long week deserves a drink in each hand.

Scratch specializes in upscale American - the comforts food kicked up a notch.  I felt so hip(ster), emailing my friends to try out a new place I'd read about, but at least it wasn't from an iPad and I didn't get there on my fixie bike.  We picked a Friday that was the tail end of a looooooooooooooong week for happy hour drinks and happy hour drinks could not be more needed.  Wei-ling and I had been planning to leave work early, but were foiled by meetings that ran way over.  After such a long week, we didn't care about missing the happy hour deals that much in our desperate grab for alcoholic relief.

It was a LONG week.

Wei-ling, Ben, Cari, Matt, Cyrus, Yuki and I decided to stay for dinner.  Next time, I'm going to bail out of work for sure to make it for the Happy hour specials.  We all agreed the food was a little overpriced, but good; nothing WOW, but tasty and solid.  The appetizers were the most intruiging (bacon wrapped figs, goat cheese souffle, salad Nicoise) so my plan is to go back for wine and to order three 1/2 price dishes for an early dinner and stuff my face.

I can almost never say no to a some rare tuna.

Scratch seems made for the happy hour crowd, next time I'll have to get a shot of its circular bar.  It's in a cursed location that changes hands very frequently, so by the time I managed to get myself and friends together for another happy hour it might be gone...but hopefully not, so I can go back!

Cardigan refashion

A few months ago I stumbled across this fun tutorial on Ruffles and Stuff, my new favorite crafty inspiration blog.  This project looked pretty easy, and I’ve been dying to try it for awhile now.  

I used a chiffon shirt I never wear (a Forever21 purchase that I never liked the color of) for the trim and embellishment.  Originally I used the shirt to make a pleated edge and flowers around a different cardigan only to discover to my chagrin the colors clashed badly with each other and everything else in my wardrobe. Luckily I had an old shapeless tunic/shift/jumper thing that WAS the perfect color.  These shift things were all the rage a few years ago, but really…no one looks good in something shapeless unless you have a supermodel body.  I tried repurposing this thing as a dance cover up and then shoved it to the bottom of my drawer. 

I made a cut up the middle to transform it into a jacket and added a few chiffon flowers.  So simple!  I was going to go further and add the pleats along the neckline as well, but now I’m not sure.  It might get a little busy.

I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I figured that if I sacrifice two items I never wear anymore, and wear the result at least once, it’s worth it!  I got a few (unsolicited, I swear!) compliments on the end outfit, so I’ll be wearing it again for sure.  Here I’m wearing it with a pink shirt that perfectly matches in color (sniff…that shirt is basically falling apart but I love it so, and I’ll never find another shirt that matches so well), and a $3 Daiso scarf.  Woo!  It felt good to change up the jeans and t-shirt look, although next time I'll wait for a warmer day to wear the light spring layers.

The master plan of a super comfortable, yet nice looking Friday outfit: yes!

Up and Atom!

After a serious case of the Mondays, preceded by a rather frustrating week, I decided to get into work an extra hour early to try and get a few things accomplished.  I'm a terrible morning person but I have a reliable wake up call to get me going, a big mug of coffee, and anyhow, an hour of commuting to wake up so by the time I do get to work I'm actually somewhat awake, even if it's a bit earlier than normal.

(For the purposes of this blog entry I'm going to ignore the opposing negative of having to go to bed earlier to get up earlier, except to say; this would be fine, aside from the fact that I'm usually busy in the evenings doing stuff so this doesn't work out for me.  And it's not always just websurfing and watching tv!  Productive stuff.)

Since I was feeling so dejected and unmotivated at the end of yesterday, I really needed a kick start to the day.  So I thought of the words of the great Tami ("Dress up for your day, and it will dress up for you!") and decided what my day really did need was a little dressing up.  Er.  *I* needed some dressing up, to feel ready to take on the day.  I'm still in a serious jeans and t shirt phase to work, but this is where the 27 minutes of train commute time come in handy!  AND....drumroll please...a portable curling iron.

I'd bought this thing about two months ago from Target; a small portable curling iron powered by a gas cartridge.  It heats up in about 2 minutes and disassembles into an extremely portable (in a backpack or midsized and up purse) little unit. The barrel is small, at 3/4" (I think), and about 5" long.  Still, it works on my hair, and I have a LOT of hair.  It just takes like 2-3 times around the wand for each curl....but it curls your hair really fast.  I get a lot of odd looks on the train, in that, OMG is that girl really curling her hair on the train?! kind of way.  Well.  Yes.  I also apply my makeup on the train too.  Hey, it's 27 mins more time of sleep in the morning. :)  Hopefully no one is too offended by this type personal grooming in a public area, no doubt I'm breaking a ton of Miss Manners rules.

 I've only used this thing two or three times since I got it to do the train-hair-curling.  Today I didn't put any product in my hair before I left so it'll probably be all straight by lunch...but I don't care!  Curly hair = a more cheerful me = more productive and energetic.  And that's a win win win!

P.S. Since it took like 20 attempts to get a self portrait I liked, I really only got to work an hour early instead of the potentially 1 hour and 15 minutes.  But that's ok.  Curly!

Is there a level zero?

 Huh.  I signed up for an aerial fabrics class a few weeks back and at the time I'd had some thought that I'd be kind of, you know, a natural. All that dance experience and flexibility should count for something, right?  Turns out I'm having a bit of a humbling experience.  I look a lot like that cat, except uh...more on the ground.  What's going on?  This isn't like snowboarding where I can accept I'll always suck.  I should be better?

See, I am having trouble with the MOST BASIC move...climbing up the fabric!   And then the second basic move, how to keep yourself stationary on the fabric while you do tricks.  We've now had two classes and I've only just learned the trick of how to get a couple of climbs up the fabric while everyone else has advanced to hm, 5 tricks?  That fabric just had a horrible way of sliding through my hands and feet! (I partially blame my very dry skin, most people say their hands get slippery when they start to sweat, I need that vital moisture to get a grip.  As an aside, I'm 90% sure this is why I've never been able to nail doing hand fart noises.) 

As it became more apparent that I'm on the slow track in this class, (I'm left all alone on the "beginner" fabric...on the upside, I don't have to wait as long before I struggle again) I started having some serious flashbacks to grade school when I'd be the last person picked for basketball or whichever horrible sport we were forced to do.  (yeah yeah...I'm not "sporty"  At least not with anything that needs hand-eye coordination.)  Serious flashbacks and some anxiety...because I'm learning about 50% slower than everyone else in the class.  Gah. So much anxiety about sucking that I kind of wanted to quit. =p

But hey, maybe I'm moving past all the insecurity because I later thought...well, who CARES if I'm the slow one (uh...aside from me.  I can admit I care.)  But no one else does!  So I can always just take the beginner class again! :)  With my work discount it's really cheap anyway.  This session is only 10 classes long being on the quarter system...that's hard enough sessions anyway. :)  At least, hopefully long enough for me to get this climbing thing down.  I still have some hope that when I get UP high enough on the fabric the flexibility and dance experience will kick in so that I can look pretty in the poses. ;)

Book Review: In the Company of the Courtesan

Plot Summary: A courtesan flees the fall of Rome with her dwarf companion, and sets up shop in Venice, surviving by their wit and charm.

Almost? 

That’s my main opinion of every most aspects of this book.  It almost is compelling, it almost wins me over with lush narrative, it almost has characters that win me over.  It almost has a plot? 

Almost doesn’t mean bad; if you liked Sarah Dunant’s other book The Birth of Venus, you’ll enjoy this one for sure.  I think her characters (Fiammetta the courtesan and Bucino the dwarf) are fun enough.  The story is told from Bucino’s point of view and the prose is easily readable, not too flowery, and I always love a historical setting.  Throw in some references to art (the artist Titian makes an appearance), and Venice in the 16^th century and you’ve got good potential. 

To me, this book never takes any of these elements far enough to make it REALLY interesting.  For example, the premise of setting up shop in a new city?  The story takes you right up to her first few struggles and then BAM, suddenly 8 or 9 years have passed and she’s already super established.  What happened to all the drama in between?  There’s a second subplot that pops up about then that gets resolved shortly thereafter but I feel the novel loses steam because there’s not the sense that any of this has a point, or is building up to a climax.  Stuff just happens.  And, there’s no really steamy scenes despite the subject matter.

I picked up In the Company of the Courtesan because the back cover made me think I was going to get a variation on this movie, only with a dwarf (it’s not really like this movie at all besides having a 16^th century Venetian courtesan):

Eh.  I think the book is pretty forgettable.  Maybe a beach read? 

<3 <3

Book Review: Lives of the Monster Dogs

I must admit here on my blog, that I have an addiction:

I buy a lot of used books.

I can’t help it!  Paperbacks for $2? Hardcovers for half price?  Flea market finds for $1?  At all such locations I feel as though they’re practically giving books away, so whenever I find myself in this situation I transform into a slathering bibliophile with no higher brain function as I grab every book that remotely looks interesting and head to the cash register.  In college it was Shakespeare’s Books, Moe’s, The Other Change of Hobbit, and Pegasus in Berkeley (with 4 used bookstores, that just started then confirmed the addiction.)  These days I make up excuses to head to Book Buyer’s in Mountain View, or that on in Campbell with the bookstore kitty named ISBN.  Apparently it’s my life’s mission to convert my bookshelf to the used Sci-Fi/Fantasy section (yeah well I never said I liked high literature, did I?) of an entire store.

What it currently means is I have a really big stack of books to get through and I’m really trying hard not to buy more until I get through all these.  I never used to be a person with a list of 10 books on the to-read pile, but times change and so do I, so now I’m that person.  It’s my mission to get to the bottom of the stack…so I can go get more! 

All this reading has some social value, I promise!  I also enjoy vetting books to friends with similar tastes.  Most of that pile is probably not really spectacular (after all, someone decided they didn’t want it anymore), but I feel quite determined to wade through my pile and I’ll post up some reviews here.

First up: Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis

 Quick plot summary: Mysterious genetically and cybernetically enhanced dogs with the culture from 18^th Century Prussia appear in New York.

Ok, that tagline makes this sound ridiculous; this isn’t comedy; it’s more like, a dispossessed, dying race comes to modern day New York – part of the book is a “memoir” of that time, and the other part is written as research notes as to how these monster dogs came about. It is, in fact, terrifically tragic in tone. 

I preferred the sweeping historical segments of the book; those are the parts I stayed up late reading.  There’s a mad scientist villain element, but reading his history was probably the most fascinating part of the book.  Where the narrative falls a bit flat for me would be the modern day memoir.  It's not badly written at all; I just don't like the main character.  About 1/3 into the book, you realize that the narrator is a stupid with youth and easily manipulated, which, since that’s the point of the character I suppose means the author has completely succeeded.  At some points, the narrator finds herself in situations where I wanted to shout, “WHY ARE YOU STILL THERE?  GET OUT!” Sort of like in a horror movie.

To give fair warning, this is one of those books where you don’t completely understand what happens at the end; but, the author gives completely fair warning with the narrator stating at the beginning that she will never be able to make sense of the events so I didn’t feel as bad about that as I normally do. 

End conclusion: I don’t think this is a book I would re-read, and I don’t know that I liked it.  However, it is very good, and it managed to both grab me and I know it’ll stick with me for a long time to come. 

Heart scale:
<3 <3 <  

We're the dancers...

 

It's here, it's here!  Fresh off the dvd rip, video of our dance recital last year!  Ah, looking back on the video is like getting your SAT test scores in the mail several months later.  I see all the things that we did better in practice or wish I'd gotten right (my shoulders! ack! so tense in the beginning) but aside from the bobbles I'm really pleased.  Cyrus and I worked really hard on this dance, and I see that too.  I loved this choreography the instant I saw it, so I'm really glad I had a chance to perform it. 

AND here's Wei-Ling and AJ's duet - super cute and super athletic, they performed it so well!  Job well done, ladies!

Gingerbread house time lapse

Am I obsessed with making time lapses or what?  This is my brother and I (me baking, him constructing) our annual gingerbread house.  Normally our sister is in town to make this thing (I always say I'll help but will wander off to take a nap), so normally it does look a little better; don't know why all those candy decorations kept sliding off!  We were a bit rushed this year because we like to make the house a little something different each year.  We'll have to wait till next year to make it a package delivery company!

The music is set to Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Muffin Man" in honor of my nephew Wiggly, who listened to it endlessly the Christmas before.  We also decided to make the street sign say "Drury Lane" (my brother wanted to write "Forclosed" but I nixed that idea.)

Awkwaaaaard....

No really, this happened.  In every small group or duet dance, there seems to be a ton of awkward moments. during rehearsal that makes us all glad we're very good friends!  I guess it says something that Wei-Ling, AJ, and I pick dances, somehow we always end up either rolling around on the ground together (Green Snake/White Snake), groping each other a WHOLE lot (Vine - Branch - Leaf), or climbing onto each other (Cow Dance.)  This last week, my butt was perilously close to Wei-Ling's face; granted, it lasts for like a second in the actual dance, but in practice we just kinda stopped there.  And were told to go lower. =p

We started  learning our new trio choreography this week!  The dance is really funny, it took a lot of time to grow on me, but the title translates to "Frolicking" or "Playing", but what I think of as "The Powerpuff Girls Dance"; basically, three little kids are playing and goofing around.  The movements are very caricatured and almost doll-like, and at first I couldn't get into being so cutesy!  They also each have a different color costume which I adore; makes me think of superheros.  The cuteness did win me over, especially when contrasted with a more modern, angst-ridden piece I'll be dancing with Cyrus.  The major winning aspect, this dance will be the most technically demanding piece I've ever tried!  

Aside from the fact, these three kids are goofing off, falling, and laughing...that's just like us in reality? :D

Wei-ling made ups matching hoodies as a Christmas gift, I love them!  Not only are the drawings SOOOOO cute, it's like having a team jacket!

P.S. I'm blue!  Just like Bubbles of the Powerpuff Girls, who happens to be my favorite!