hi lil bonsai!

Look what I got on Friday!

Don't you just love it?  I decided I liked this non-traditional bonsai with its leafy greens, chunky trunk, and that precious chubby little panda!  My co-workers thought it might be a ginger root... and when I tried to figure it out through Google searches, I thought it might be a ginseng ficus bonsai.  Not too sure.  

Admittedly, I'm nervous about taking care of this little guy since I don't have the greenest thumb, but so far, I think he's doing ok.  We water every Tuesday and Friday by filling up the tray so the tree can pull the water upward to the top of the soil.  I found a yellowing leaf but looking at the picture, I think it had one already when I got it?  So maybe that's not new.  Fingers crossed that this little guy keeps thriving!

ice cream, you scream

Happy Thursday!  Anyone as excited as I am that it's already the end of the week?  Phew, we almost made it.  Not much has been happening here but the usual busy, busy, busy.  

So, in lieu of some nonsense blabbering, I thought I would share a picture of some deliciousness that I discovered last week.  See that yummy picture up there?  That is Haagen Dazs Salted Caramel Truffle ice cream and it is super nommy.  I tried it a few days prior to that waffle cone when I made a rash decision to choose any new flavor I saw on the menu.  I half expected it to be an overly sweet caramel monstrosity, but was pleasantly surprised that it did include some chocolate (the "truffle" part of the whole thing, I suppose).  Salted caramel swirl and caramel-filled chocolate make for a tasty combo that really hit the spot.  It was absolutely freezing the day I had that cone, but it was SO worth it!  (I also realized my cone looks crazy.  They offer sizes "regular" and "large" and they use a small ice scream scoop so my large cone was made up of a bunch of small scoops haha.)  Haagen Dazs website says it's a "limited edition" flavor, whatever that means.

Besides being excited for our weekly jaunt down to the food trucks for lunch at work (which we fondly refer to as Food Trucks Friday), tomorrow, my co-worker and I are excited for our bonsai trees.  One of our other co-workers discovered a farmers market a few blocks away from the office and found a bonsai tree for himself a couple weeks ago and ever since, everyone's been wanting one!  Tomorrow, he's going to pick up ones for me and my other co-worker and we're so excited.  I requested one with a panda theme and she wanted one with a fisherman (with a pole and a dangling fish).  Yay!

Speaking of pandas, newest baby cub Xiao Liwu is finally on exhibit and I can't wait to see him!

life's a circus

And on Wednesday, this turned out to actually be true!

Did you know that often times, Long Beach serves as a backdrop for a lot of TV shows, films, and commercials?  Ever since I've been working in the area the past couple of years, I recognize a lot of buildings and landmarks and have seen lots of things being filmed.  The city is so adaptable to look like so many other cities.  We're never sure what we'll see filming on any given day.  And whenever we do see filming, we all try to figure out what is actually being filmed and then spy on the action, haha.  

On Wednesday, the street right outside my office was closed and soon we began to notice circus-themed props were being set up.  Not to mention an overturned car, and a lot of people dressed up for the circus, such as acrobats, strong men in leopard-print leotards and hefting barbells, clowns, tall men on stilts... My co-worker even said that there were circus animals roaming around when she went out for lunch to check things out!  

As it turns out, they were filming a Got Milk? commercial with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  I didn't bring my paparazzo super spy camera and lens to work, but d o you see him in this picture?  (Hint:  The circle and arrow give him away, haha.)

My co-worker nearly died that he was out there because she thinks he's super hot.  Not much happened during the day until late afternoon when they shot the same scene no less than 10 times, I swear, where everyone was running around in the same choreographed pattern over and over again.  It was hilarious to watch everyone scurry around like ants in circus costumes.  Also amazing how much effort and equipment and people are involved with even a seemingly simple commercial shoot.  (You can't see it in this picture, but there was a crane, lights, fog machines, and all sorts of crew members roaming around.)

I can't wait until this commercial is on TV so I can see what it was all about!  Just another day in LA with movie stars :)

weekend fun

Our weekend was spent doing some random things.

First up, the Clippers vs. Lakers game on Friday night.  I had bought a pair of tix for this Clippers home game for Matt for Christmas so he was super excited.  I was concerned because although the tix were marked 'first row of section,' the actual tix said we were in Row 6?  Huh?  But, as it turned out, Row 6 was elevated and partitioned of slightly from Rows 1-5 so it really was the front of the section!  Also, for whatever reason, there was a LOT of leg room, which was awesome.  No one ended up sitting in the seats on either side of us so that was even better.

Hi Clippers!

The Clippers were ahead for most of the game but blew the lead in the 4th quarter.  But leave it to Chris Paul to save the day so the Clippers were victorious in the end, 107-102 - yay!  PHEW.

Clippers victory!

We even saw it fitting to celebrate by bringing Blake Griffin home...

This looks absolutely nothing like him, but I think he's cool nevertheless haha :)

On Saturday, we had a tasty lunch at Curry House in Torrance en route to running some errands around town, nothing too exciting.  Nothing like filling one's belly full of curry and chicken katsu!

On Sunday, we headed to the Disney area yet again for more vinylmation trading (and Earl of Sandwich sammies that Matt seems to really love).  We've been picking up my friend/co-worker at her house to make things easier to meet up and save on parking.  Our favorite part of doing that is seeing her dog who is so sweet and adorable.  We arrived too early and found him ready and waiting for us at the front window...

Heehee, we see you Spin!

We didn't have too much luck trading, but that's ok.  It was a nice weekend anyway!  And it's been pretty hard re-adjusting to the first full week of work post-holidays so needless to say, I'm already for this coming weekend :)

an amigurumi christmas

This year, I decided to crochet some amigurumi for my co-workers.  Want to take a peek?

A narwhal for my good friend - she already named him Nathaniel! :)

A sweet cupcake for my sweet-loving friend.

A Christmas pickle for someone silly... If you don't know the story of good luck associated with Christmas pickle ornaments, you should read about it!  I love this one's little face and think that's what make him so him haha.

A coffee cup for my boss... I heard blue was her favorite color.

A sweet penguin for the mommy-to-be... I was also inspired to make her a little something for Baby S. (That we just found out will be a girl!  And she's due just a few days past my own b-day... Here's hoping we might share a b-day heehee.)....

A sweet little baby bear hat for Baby S.!  I could not get over how cute and small this turned out.  I thought about adding a pink bow but Matt and I agreed it looked too cluttered/heavy so I left it off.  I heard the mommy-to-be loved this hat so much that it almost made her cry - oops!

I'm glad everyone loved their gifts and it made me especially happy because I love making people smile.  There's nothing like making and giving a special handmade item! 

Patterns from Ana Paula Rimoli's amigurumi books, Pickle ornament by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches, and the newborn teddy hat pattern courtesy of All About Ami's tumblr.

hello 2013!

Being silly on It's A Small World Holiday (Disneyland, of course!)

Happy 2013!  As this previous year finally comes to a close, it's time to start the new year fresh and begin blogging once again.

Everything about this last year was challenging, exhausting, and stressful, so it definitely feels really good to get a 'fresh start.'  Here's hoping for new and great things this year!  (Looking at you, Year of the Dragon...)

Nothing felt better than having a long 4-day weekend... one that actually started off early on Friday since we were allowed to leave work at 3p - woo!  Saturday we braved the crowds (which turned out to not be too bad) at Disneyland.  Sunday we met with my friend/co-worker at Disneyland for our usual Sunday vinylmation trading at Downtown Disney.   We even had time to get some lunch at Earl of Sandwich, which I've been dying to try.  I had the special Holiday Turkey Sandwich (basically, Thanksgiving dinner on a roll... I was even surprised that I didn't mind and actually liked the little bit of cranberry), potato salad, and a brownie creme sandwich (chewy brownies made with Ghirardelli chocolate sandwiched with chocolate creme - essentially frosting), all of which I've read about before and it was all delicious.  Even Matt, who is not always a fan of toasted sandwiches, liked his turkey and swiss sandwich.  I'm just excited to have another tasty food option at Downtown Disney.

 Earl's Holiday Turkey Sandwich - yum!

Monday, we met with my Norcal/Stanford alum cousins for Korean BBQ for dinner (they were visiting for the Rose Bowl game today) and it was great to catch up.  Clearly, I am an old person though because my actual NYE night was pretty lame - I barely stayed up until midnight and fell asleep soon thereafter, not much celebrating done around here and I didn't even have a drink to toast the occasion lol. 

Today has also been equally lazy... I meant to do some things like bake some chocolate chip cookies or have a major crafting day but I just couldn't get things going.  I did have Matt help me pick up a tray of pint-sized mason jars which I've always wanted - for crafting and kitchen purposes.  Can't wait to see what I can do with those!  I think I'm mostly sad that the long weekend is coming to a close (felt too quick yet again!) and am trying to avoid thinking about going to work tomorrow (ho-hum) so I spent the majority of the day watching sports, napping, and reading.  Very relaxing but it would've been good to be more productive.  Ah well, I think it's never bad to ease into a new year... Just have to live in the moment sometimes!  

And it feels really good to be back in the blogging world... especially with a new blog design :)