Deck the halls... already?

Can you believe this is an ornament?

Each year I always go to the Christmas Store in the mall even though we have yet to celebrate Thanksgiving. Even though I can't wait to celebrate Christmas, I do go by what Nordstroms has posted on their glass doors with the saying " Celebrate one holiday at a time" hence, their stores are not quite ready to welcome the holidays just yet. I really love Christmas time and the beautiful ornaments, lights and the air being so festive! One night after eating dinner at the mall, I could not resist going in the store that's totally calling you from outside with a big christmas tree all lit and reindeers with lights twinkling at you? So, my son and I went inside the store and was amazed at each ornament, nutcracker that they had displayed! I totally wanted to buy the whole store (that would be awesome) but I grabbed my phone and started taking photo's because they were just way too pretty, I was being careful that the staff wouldn't see me as I left the store w/o buying one single thing (just between us).

Here are some beautiful ornaments to inspire you when you are ready to decorate your own Tree this Holiday season:

How OWL you?



love this stuffed animal tree





San Francisco, All in one

 

Check out this Sushi ornanment!

This is one of my Fave ornaments in the store



I totally love this Japanese Girl ornament

                                                


love the detail done on this Dragon Lion Ornament

Candy Cane theme

who does not like a Silver/White Christmas?

                                                 Here are some other festive decor for your home:

Green Thumb

I know I have not been on here for a while due to the amount of lovely school activities, work & home projects! Any how, I'm here to share my dad's (yes, we call it "dad's" garden) as he's the only one in our family that can make a lonely root/leaf bloom into a full grown plant! Sadly, My sister and I did not quite inherit his green thumb when it comes to caring for plants.

I was visiting my sister's house the other day where my parents live, they are situated in South San Francisco, despite the city being known to be Foggy all year round, where my sister lives, to our surprise, it's actually sunny & warm in her area!

We were about to go and have dim sum that day when we visited her, but she said that she will have to water my dad's garden before we go. So I ended up with her and my son outside, I was so amazed at his garden and the type of plants he's growing back there, so I ended up grabbing my camera from my phone and snapped a couple of pictures that I'd like to share with you.
 I could not get enough at how the different types of vegetables/plants he has growing at his garden. I sure hope one day I'll get the urge to try and create a garden of my own in my backyard, but not sure, as I'm still struggling (yes, struggling) to water my plants in my house! (no joke). I feel so bad for them, who reminds me to water them is my 6 1/2 year old, thank goodness!

Here are some pictures from his garden:

here you have 3 monkeys watching over the garden

Lovely Hydrangea

garden from a different view

this is a Philippine Lemon known as " Calamansi"

I remember when this Bamboo was only 3 ft tall

These look like eggplants, but I think it's another form of a succulent plant

these type of plants I think I can grow - haha!

My sister got a helper for that day, it's my 6 1/2 year old son:

He also grew vegetables: 

Green Peppers - I think they will only this big I was told

 look how bright red these turned out!

I got more photo's to share, here we go:

Rosemary

apologize, I'm not familiar w/ this flower, however, I managed to get a photo of an insect eek!

Spider plant

Love this Park in NYC...

Hello Fellow Bloggers & Followers,

Today I'm working from home as the NYSE is still closed due to Super Storm Sandy that hit the east coast yesterday and is still lingering today. I decided to blog some of these pictures while I'm on a break from reading emails.

The pictures that I'll share with you comes from my family vacation from the month of July of this year. My hubby and I were thankful that we went with New York as our vacation spot this year and we are so glad we did! There's just so much to see in that city that never sleeps, however, one special spot that I loved while vacationing there, was this park, it's called High line Park .

Our Auntie Bei was eager to show us this park to see how the city of New York preserved and then converted it into a park for all NY residents to relax, read a book, walk, enjoy the landscaping, beautiful flowers, food and so on.
It's a public park that they built on a historic freight rail line that's sits above the streets of Manhattan's West Side.
Reading the history of this park, it was founded in 1999 by the community residents and operated by Friends of the High Line.

When we got there, it was a little after 5:30pm, where the sun was setting in, it was a glorious but humid day since we were there the week of July 4th. It has a great atmosphere. I've read that it runs so long to across towns which we did not even attempt to go to the end of it! I know my hubby would say that walking is nothing, but I sure don't like to hear the word walking, same goes with my 6 year old.. haha! Anyhow, I talked my hubby to not walk all the way to the end, so we stopped and relaxed a bit.

Ok, so long of me babbling on and on, here are some photos:

This was the start of the park, loved the landscaping!

I wish I took a shot where the benches are that overlooks this glass window

Lola Bei had an idea that Zach stands in front of the glass window & wait for the NY Taxi's to drive by, cool shot!

Mi Familia! I look all tired here as the heat was getting to me, excuse my son's face reaction in this photo!

I love this photo, love how the sun is beaming behind the plants & my son contemplating about life

oh boy! he found his stash of m&m's, here he is sitting w/ Lola Bei before heading out

Another photo I took with the American Flag just peeking thru the plants

I was not able to take too many photos as my phone unfortunately was about to run of juice! ( I hate that when it happens). Anyhow, if ever you decide to visit the Big Apple, I encouraged you to visit this wonderful park but not in the summer (hot, hot!) unless your ok with the heat :-) I hope you enjoyed this short post for today!

Paper Tissue Flowers.. Halloween Inspired

I came from the store and I was so in love with all the Halloween Decorations that are out now, the colors of Orange, Purple and Black are just a great combination of colors without it being too scary/dark but yet it has a festive feel to it.

While walking around the store, I couldn't help but think of a fun craft to do. A craft that I've actually done before when I was one of four room parents assigned last year when my son was in Kindergarten. We made this craft as a nice gift to present to the Principal, the school was celebrating "Principal's Day".  Since the class had 37 kids, yes 37! the room mom's split up the number of Paper Tissue flowers but of course not with these colors, it was more of pastel & primary colors :-)

With all the time spent making it, it came to a beautiful bouquet of flowers and inserted into a vase. I wish I had a picture of it to show it you on here. I just love this craft as One, the "flowers" won't die on you, and second, you don't have to water them!

I was thinking, this craft can be done most of the year to celebrate a holiday or any occassion! Ok, let's get to making these Halloween Inspired Paper Tissue Flowers:

What you'll need:
Paper Tissue (Orange, Black & Purple)
Scissors
Pipe Cleaners (any color)

Step 1:
Remove the colors that you only want to use from the pack. When I went to the store, some of them had other colors in the pack so I just separated them as you can see below:

                                               

 Step 2:

 Take your scissors and start cutting them in squares, about 4 inches x 5 inches:

As you can see, when I took the picture, it did not quite show the full square..oops!

         

Step 3:
I suggest taking about 6 square paper tissues and alternating them, like the picture below:

the second paper tissue from the right, looks like it's pink but I guess a different hue of purple, it turns out!

Step 4:
After gathering the paper tissue, stack them up with no color in order, but I suggest, like in Step 3, alternate the colors. If you want just one solid color, that's totally up to you. The outcome will still look beautiful!

Step 5:
In the picture below, after stacking them, what you want to do is fold the stack of paper tissue (short side) start to alternate the fold, over and back, about 1centimeter wide. It will start to look the a accordian once your done.


                                    

 Step 5:
Once done, you will notice that the paper tissue does not get folded evenly at the ends. That's actually just fine, Don't need to worry! This is why I love this project.

Now, here's where you want to add that "rose" effect to it. You can definitely leave the ends Uncut, but for me, I love the paper tissue flowers to look like a Rose so I ended up Snipping off each side of the folded accordian.

Step 6:
Now that were done snipping off the ends, take your pipe cleaner and let it go over the folded paper tissue about 1 inch or so,  then fold the pipe cleaner over to the other side, so that end will meet with the remaining of the "stem", then you want to start to twist it until it's secure.

Step 7:
You want to make sure the Pipe Cleaner is in the middle of the accordian, if it's not just adjust it. Here's the fun part!. Spread the paper tissue on both sides and slightly flatten it. You would want to take one layer from one side and lift up towards the center (see below pic). Then once one side is pulled towards the center, grab another layer from the other side and do the same thing.

Step 8:
Keep lifting up each side of the flower until you come to this:

                                       

see how beautiful it turned out!

                                             

                                               

Step 9:
It depends on how many of these you want to make, if your having fun, then I'm sure you'll be making more than just 10! I've already pre-made other colors but I just wanted you to see how it will look along with the other flowers.

Give this craft a try one day, I made this for both my mom & mother in law for Mother's Day last year and it was a delight to see their reactions!