Wednesday, June 30, 2010

snippets of summer


yumminess at the czech missions bake sale fundraiser and an afternoon stop at the fabric store on my mission to find the perfect piece for a new table runner. tried to convince myself to go with the fun pom-pommy one, but left empty-handed to write my 5-page essay first. does anybody have any linenspiration to share?

Monday, June 28, 2010

happy 1st day of year two!

one year ago today i was on a plane to maui because one year ago yesterday joe and i put on some fancy clothes, strung up some lights, said our "i do's," and became husband and wife!


photo by bonnie tsang

with any major celebrations put on hold, we started our day with a sweet breakfast at cream pan japanese bakery before church, spent all day surrounded by dear friends, and ended the night in prayer thanking god for each other and our first wonderful year together.

[insert photos sitting on undeveloped rolls of film, torturing me with their probable blurriness and possible awesomeness]

year one // top five
- having belly-aching laughs and catching, when i can bear to open my eyes, joe laughing just as heartily next to me. love that split second of realization of how happy we are together.
- seeing my real, unfiltered, ugly self previously seen by only my immediate family exposed and hearing joe tell me he still loves me, even more than before. what in the world?!
- waking up at 10am on a wedding-less, shower-less, sports-less saturday and enjoying breakfast in our pajamas with faces fat from plentiful sleep.
- joe carefully saving any dessert that he gets at work, whether it be a slice of birthday cake, a box of crackerjacks, or once even an entire tray of cupcakes, to bring home to me as a surprise treat.
- being amazed at how after years of hoping, wondering, letting go, waiting, i made it to the right team and got the best teammate who i can run alongside and root for (unless he is beating me in settlers or monopoly).

dear joe...ILYSM! love, rosie

Thursday, June 24, 2010

summer lovin'

dear summer,

welcome back! we have been enjoying your 8pm sunsets and cleared out traffic by the schools in the morning. hope this year you'll bring some exciting baseball games, ice cream sandwiches, watermelons with spoons and no bowls, whiffle ball on driveways, lazy days at the beach and lots of bbqs with our favorite friends. if i could make one request, please don't let the weddings without air conditioning fall on the hottest days ever. people seem to remember the suffering more than any of the pretty stuff.

love,
rosie

ps - here's a pic from your first day back

Sunday, June 20, 2010

world's best dad

whether he's lecturing about finance in the university hall or singing happy birthday in a small family dinner setting, he does it in earnest, every time with 100% genuine gusto. even when he's going through the toughest trial and i know his heart is breaking, no...broken, he tells me with unwavering faith "life sucks. but god is good." he has a passion for sharing the gospel and taking the free blood pressure tests at walmart. he loves people. he treasures my mom. he's the world's best dad.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

kitchen reverie

when i first saw jen johner's kitchen on apartment therapy, i totally did a double take. it was like the imaginary kitchen i have filed away in the back of my mind coming to life in the form of jpgs i can now keep saved in [virtually] real folders!

love the colors, love the simple details, the chalkboard, the light pouring through the window.

as fun as it is to dream, there are many things that make me cherish the here and now [insert luther vandross lyrics here (sorry i'm in a cheesy music funk this week)]. top five reasons why i'm lovin the fabulous apartment life...
1. the far mailbox calls for nice evening strolls with best roomie
2. close proximity with neighbors gives world cup and lakers games a nice stadium effect
3. easy access to tennis court, pool, fitness center we will surely take advantage of "one of these days"
4. provides the much-needed reminder of how temporary the material things in life are and to be thankful for all we do have that is in abundance and way more than we deserve
5. and my fave, less square footage = less cleaning :)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

taking it back to the old school

after ordering my re-sealing kit from ebay weeks ago...

after searching store after store to find denatured alcohol for cleaning...

after spending hours at night to carefully replace the disintegrating foam in the body...

after finding out the battery chamber is busted and the camera will only function and focus manually by eyeing it...

after googling all that i could for a crash course in aperture, shutter speed and ISO...

after stopping by three rite-aids (resisting the call of three thrifty ice cream cones) and a costco to find a good and cheap place that can process film...

these photos from my first roll of film had me waving my hands in the air and shaking my deriere to some tag team music in full effect - whoomp there it is! (in my mind (mostly.)) i'm not sure how much more i can hang with the process before getting a DSLR, but here are a few photos shot on my nikon FM 35mm camera from the also much-anticipated rose bowl flea market this past sunday.


vintage houseware in pretty colors


loving sailboats for the summer [insert salt n pepa rap here]


also loving future sis-in-law connie and the radio flyer wagon we found for the upcoming wedding

ps - father's day cards are finally up on etsy!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

goal #11: don't get featured on regretsy

did you know there is a site dedicated to all those weird things you stumble across amidst all the heart-worthy delights on etsy? i hate to be critical of someone else's work, but i'll admit there have been some postings that really make me scratch my head in wonder. so when i came across this site via remarks from sparks, i had myself a nice little chuckle.

it's refreshing to be reminded not to take all of life so seriously - especially the things i'm given by grace to just enjoy! so my new goal is to simply enjoy what i do, without feeling pressure to wow the world, without becoming puffed up with pride at my accomplishments, to just create something some lovely person might be inspired to pick up...without any regretsy. 

here's some postage to send you to the shop! (now i just have to figure out how to get this thing up there /`).

ps - father's day cards are done and needing to be photographed...hopefully will have them up by tomorrow!

Monday, June 7, 2010

bunting for baby elias

somehow joe's and my weekend schedule often ends up including a babysitting gig for the people we love. but no complaints from me - i think i may have more fun than the kids, especially when we get to bust out the crayolas for some arts and crafts time. i love watching them scribble scrabble their hearts away as they put their all into making something so sincere and sweet. here's the sign i made with the girlies we babysat this weekend to welcome home their new baby brother.

as cute as they are with all the ridiculous and funny things they say and do, i secretly think the cutest is joe, who goes all out playing games with them, telling them silly stories, and trying really hard to explain to them why they shouldn't eat too much candy. can't wait to have our own little bunch some day, lord-willing! :)

some scribble scrabble of my own for the new baby boy...

(card set available on etsy).

Thursday, June 3, 2010

crossroads fashion photo contest

it started with brunch a couple saturdays ago at the now-closed omelette parlor followed by a trip to crossroads trading co. to sell a few articles of clothing that ended up paying for the meal (score!) where a certain photo contest poster caught our eye. the result? a scramble to goodwill and urban outfitters followed by our eleventh-hour fashion photo shoot at a nearby park.

we had a blast reliving some of our crazier days, reminiscent of way back in the day when we used to get super-judged for our secondhand styles (some would actually rummage through my closet for halloween costumes! haha). here are a couple of my favorites from our adventure...

happy birthday karean, my fearless friend! even if we don't win the big bucks, and even if we get too tired and old to follow the popular trends, you'll always be a winner in my book! (and if all else fails, we can always meet up at forever21).

ps - you can find us and give us five stars here!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

hot off the letterpress

there was a big hurrah last week with all the big season and series finales - [spoiler alert] nicole scherzinger was the best dancer, lee beat crystal, everybody died on lost,  jack bauer became the new dark knight on the run...and over in my little world, the final class of introductory letterpress at irvine fine arts center came to a significantly less-dramatic end.

i found out about this class randomly through a gal who bought some of our wedding decorations from the weddingbee classifieds and after being wait-listed once, finally got to take the class along with ampersandity-cathie.

i didn't quite know what to expect but found it to be such a delight to be removed from the fast-paced, "ctrl-P" world of instant gratification for a few hours a week to become acquainted with gutenburg and the old-school art of letterpress.


our first project was a simple one-graphic/one-line card using movable metal type.


and the finale was our own set of business cards which we designed through illustrator and got converted to a polymer plate to be run through the letterpress machine.

the best part is now we have access to the letterpress studio to continue working on our own projects. i'm already looking forward to season two! :)