Valentine's Day

DH and I do not celebrate Valentine's Day. As far as I could recall, we probably celebrated Valentine's Day during first few years of dating, back when we were in a college. 18 years later, with a 7 years old son in our midst, our love is now solid as a rock. Sure, just like any real relationships, not everything is sweet. We went through bumps of life and that what makes it real. We were tested many times but we hold on to each other and surrender our relationship to God.

My little man was excited about Valentine's Day (and any other special days!). He made me this. Not just any card. It's a work of art. He says I could play like I am in the 100-acre wood.

He asked for a pink cardstock (since he knows my favorite color is pink), and if he could borrow my scissor and off he went creating this. Draw, write, cut, fold, and glue. Full of creativity! 

And the word "love you too" all over it.

And it's made with love! Who taught him that? He probably sees a lot of what I do in my crafty world :-)

Ethan didn't forget about his dad. He made one for DH with his childhood favorite character. Can you guess what it is?

And as I said, "I love you" to DH, he replied, "The feeling is mutual".  You gotta love that! Ha!

Summer in Vancouver - Part 2

Here we are in the last day of October and I hope you don't mind me sharing my Summer. This post is the 2nd part of my 2013 Summer in Vancouver series. The Summer in Vanncouver - Part 1 was posted a couple of weeks ago.

We love going to Steveston, Richmond. It is still part of Vancouver Lower Mainland and is about an hour drive from our home.

There are a few things we can do here.

Steveston Fisherman's Wharf is one of the perfect places to go when you want a relaxing afternoon. We walk along the pier to enjoy the beautiful scenery. We sometimes see the swans who are not shy! The fish market is a must to go. We love to buy fresh wild salmons and shrimps here right off the fishing boats. We get fresh seafood at a fair price. Plus, we get to support local businesses. What not to love!

Located in Steveston village is the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a National Historic Site of Canada. It was built in 1894, the largest canning building and the leading producer of canned salmon in British Columbia. It is definitely worth a visit tourist attraction site if you love museums. You are not only able to see the machines but also to touch them, very interesting. Tour guides are available and they are very knowledgable. We learn a little bit of  the history of the workers, how people lived at that time. Life certainly was not easy for them.  

A stroll at the village, you will find restaurants (City Grill is one of my favs), coffee shops and souvenir shops. Fish and chips or Oysters and chips are to die for. And the ice cream is simply delightful!

Here is my son is in action. Tee hee!

We typically grill the salmon. I marinade it with lemon juice, garlic and a hint of salt and pepper. Fresh salmon needs to be accompanied by fresh vegetables and it cannot be freshener than coming from my mom and my brother's gardens. They are grown organically.

Late August/ early September are the time to harvest pears. Oh my, these pears were so sweet!  These again were from my brother's garden.

Here are stuffed mushrooms filled with bacon and topped with cheddar cheese. My DH's favorite.   Mmm....mmm.... :-)

Spending our summer in Vancouver meant that Ethan had the opportunity to spend time with his cousin. They grew up together and only about a year or so apart so being so close to each other comes naturally. Of course, there were times that when they spent too much time together they started to annoy each other. Lol. Nevertheless, aren't they adorable?

Thank you for dropping by and taking a glimpse look of my life beyond adorebynat. I hope you enjoy your visit. Feel free to leave a comment and share this post.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We took another trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This time we were there for 4 days and the main reason was to do medical checkups at Sunway Medical Centre. We spent almost 2 whole days at the hospital seeing a few different doctors, including a dentist for our regular scaling. I must admit that our 5 years old was very cooperating. Giving him a pen and papers to draw and he was happy.  We may have to go back in about a month for a few follow-ups. Nothing to worry about.

We managed to do a little sightseeing. We took another visit to Petronas Twin Towers. It's pretty impressive, don't you think? This time, we didn't take a ride up. It is a nice view of the city from up there but I think once is good enough. 

And a MUST-Try dessert at Meet Fresh, originally from Taiwan. We were there two nights in a row. I could eat this everyday, lol. I love the fact that they not too sweet and they are healthier choice compared to other desserts.

Until next time!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!

There was a Mother's Day celebration at E's school, Taipei International School. I just learned that it's a tradition to wash mom's feet on Mother's Day, and that was exactly what we had on Saturday.

My 5 years old son was so eager to wash my feet. I didn't want to laugh but I just could not help seeing him working so hard to make sure my feet are clean. Lol. I even got 'bonus' time as he insisted that each foot was washed twice! There was tea ceremony as well, but E wanted me to share the tea with him. I figured he's thirsty and it's always nice to share.

We also made Clay together.

And check out the Mother's Day I received from Ethan! Isn't he sweet or what? 

I asked him what's the 2001 is for. He said it's just a random year. Then I suggested (trying to make sense everything here), why not changing to the year of 2007? That's the year I became a mother, the year you were born. ......And he said, "that's ok, 2001 is fine". Yes, that's totally fine with me. I love you very much too!

The 2 Boys

It's the picture of the day! These are my 2 boys. The oldest one, Mocha, (that's the furry boy) is 13 and the boy sitting down reading a book is 5.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

We're Moving

Just over a year ago, we've bought and moved to our new home. We've worked so hard for it. Our sweat goes into this house from putting all our savings into it as well as the physical work that went into renovating and cleaning it. We're not handy at all but we did one-third of painting job (after firing the 'professional' painter that did the job poorly). 

 
 The three of us love this house. 

The house that we've dreamed it for so long. Sadly, it seems that it'll be a dream again to live in this sweet house. Life has given us another direction and we have decided to give Indonesia a try.

It's hard not to drop tears when I'm looking back into these pictures but I'm grateful that I'll have these in memories.

I'm getting stressed out trying to get everything together. The house will be rented out or sold. We only have a month to do everything, pack and go. People say that moving is one of the most stressful events in one's life and they're right! If you've been following my blog from the get go, you know we've moved a lot and it's not just within country but over continents! I think this time is the hardest because we love this house so much and it's hard to say good-bye.

Every time I think about how much we need to do moving wise, I have butterflies on my stomach. The constant headache is here. I hate throwing things out and it seems I'm forced to do that. Big items will be on sale and/ or end up at my parents' crawl.

I'm overwhelmed, that's for sure. Here is my current strategy and I hope it works. I will do sorting and organizing one room at the time. There are only so much we can bring with us, so I need to be very selective.

I will unpack all buttons and brads and put them in re-usable containers. I'd rather bring those than carton packagings that are heavy and ended up being thrown away.

Chillin' out

Greetings from Indonesia.
Here we are at one of the malls, having coffee.

We've been here for 2 weeks now, adjusting to the hot weather and life style while we are trying to get back to the routine.

Ethan is having a great time here, of course, since he's being spoiled. The only thing that his body can't take is the heat. But he has so much fun that he's hardly noticed.

My Etsy shop remains open while I'm here. While completing on existing orders, I'm working on new designs as well. Too adorable, I promise you. Plus, I'll offer more stickers in addition to favor tags.Here is an example:

Have a great week!

Spring Carnival

We were so glad that we could make it to the last day of Carnival. It's an annual Carnival where they just stay about 1 week or 2 weeks at the most and they leave to go to different places in the country. When we passed it over a week ago, we thought we should bring Ethan there. And of course, out of sight, out of mind. I didn't jot it down in my calendar or into the iphone....we totally forgot about it.

 

Thank goodness, a couple old friends came to see us on Sunday and mentioned about going to the Carnival afterward and it just hit us: we need to go to!We had so much fun! 4 parents with 3 young kids running around wanting to go on some fun rides. Because they're still too young (or short) for some of the rides, parents took turn to accompany them. This is for sure one of the memories that I would like to remember and preserve, spending time and relaxing in one afternoon, as a family and with companions of friends and their children.

I Love You, Mama

Happy Thursday!
Hope your week has run smoothly.

Family is very important for us and every now and then, I need to remind myself to drop everything and have a little of fun. That usually means hang in around with my little man. My work, I guess can wait, as long as I commit to stay late at night to catch up. After all, he grows so fast, learning new things every day. Lately, he loves to say, "I love you, Mama". I can hear these sweet words over ten times in a day. I certainly don't want to complain about that. Oh no, I'll take them as much as I could. He evens made a card for me with a heart, the word "mama" and "ethan", just because he loves me. I'm truly blessed.

It's so much taking pictures with Instagram. One of these days, these pictures will be scrapbooked.

Kid and I: Beaty Biodiversity Museum

Happy Friday! Ethan and I went to Beaty Biodiversity Museum last Wednesday. I decided to take a little break, brought the kid to UBC, Vancouver hopping along with DH who had a meeting with his friends. After a quick lunch, we headed to the museum.

He pointed and named what he saw and told me that he 'teach' me, and he will teach his dad too later. I was a student for the day. Ha!

 

Note to Self

Every day, I'm exhausted. So much to do, so little time I have. Isn't this typical of what we say? I know I feel this and say it a lot lately. 

 A couple of days ago, I looked at our pictures files to develop. There was one picture that was stuck in my head. It was a picture of Ethan and me, taken in January 2012 when we played in the backyard, building a snowman. There I looked at my little man who was so cute and happy. I looked happy too. But there was more. I looked at how pale my face was, how tired my eyes looked, and how no fresh I was overall.

I realized that I had not been taking good care of myself for the past few years. Oftentimes, I forgot how to relax and take the time to really just rest . . . until I was sick a couple of weeks ago. Nothing major. It's just a cold but the cold hasn't really gone until now and it's not a type of me being sick. I'm usually the healthiest in the family but I guess it finally takes a toll on me. People started to mention how tired I look and it's just like a confirmation, isn't it? It is not too late, I tell myself. 

Changes have to be made. My husband and I have been talking about changes that we need to make in life and we are working through them. Maybe first, I need to try not to work on the weekend. I've seen a few Etsy shops lately that are closed on weekends and holidays. Maybe I should do that, eh? 

Do you like the print above? I just found this Going Place 2 shop today and really love this shop. Check it out when you get a chance! 

While you're here, why not entering our current giveaway to win $25 Gift Certificate?

Firsts in 2012

Gosh, it has been over a month that I haven't showed myself up in the blog world. This is my first post in 2012. As some of you know, we went for a month vacation to Taiwan and Indonesia. I thought I would just relax while being in overseas. It turned out, we've been quite busy running around, going out with friends and family, one mall to the other, and excessively enjoying the foods! A month went by too fast.

So here I am, back in Canada, back to the routines with some plans cooking up :-) We're up to something and I can't share that just now.

It snowed on the weekend, the first snow of the year. I heard that there is a snowfall warning on Wednesday, a heavy one. I just hope that we still can go out as I have errands to run that day and there is no time to slow down.

Sunny and snow is a good combo. It's just beautiful. And the smile of my little one makes the day just super perfect!

Taipei, Taiwan - December 2011

We stayed in Taipei, Taiwan for 3 nights. It's too bad that it was cloudy and rained the entire time we were there.

Unlike most tourists, we did not go to those attraction sites that are normally suggested such as Memorial Halls and Temples. Instead, we went to places where most Taiwanese go on a day-to-day basis.

Night market is one of the examples. We really enjoyed the foods and drinks: stinky tofu, noodle soups and bubble teas. Authentic as is. Shopping is fun and inexpensive. Gotta love that, right?

So we thought let's go to at least ONE recommended tourist site, and we chose Taipei 101.

They had Coral Arts Exhibition. I was in awe. The details are impressive. The fact that these corals are hard to get makes them very expensive.

 

I wish we had more time to spend in Taiwan and explore more what it offers. Maybe next time.

He is 4

Today my little baby turns 4. No matter how many times he corrects me, "Not baby, mama. I'm a BIG boy," he will always be my baby.

That's him trying to show me his four fingers. How adorable!

I love you, my little man. You makes me smile and laugh. Tonight I asked you if you know what a birthday means. I started to explain it to you that you were on mommy's tummy and then you came out... You quickly asked me, "Mama, where is the door?" LOL. I was speechless and could only laughed.

Yes of course, there are moments that you're a trouble-maker. But still at the end of the day, I still love you so much no matter what.

I could see you were SO happy today: having a little party at the preschool, getting lot of toys from grandparents, aunties and cousins, and visiting Toys R Us to get your Thomas Trains and more. The joy was overwhelming, but in a good way.

Happy Birthday my little man!

Pumpkin Patch

Autumn is so beautiful.

The change of leaves' color.

The crisp of dry leaves.

I realize I appreciate this beautiful nature more and more as years pass by.


We went to Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago. The weather was perfect. It had not been raining for a few days prior. The sun was shining. All of us, Ethan in particular, had so much fun and I'm sure he would have enjoyed a little bit more if he was not under the weather.

One Saturday Afternoon

Hey all! Hope you had a great weekend! We surely did. The weather has been great: sunny with a little breeze. I can't handle too much heat, so this is meeting my expectation. 

Above is the view from our deck, lovely isn't it? 

It's salmon with potatoes and onions for Saturday dinner.

Yummy, as Ethan said.

And there he is enjoying playing. He grows so fast, doesn't he?

Simply Blessed

Dear friends,
My yesterday started with a 'blah' feeling, you know... for whatever reason, I felt something is missing in this life. Off I went off to work in the morning. Afternoon went by and the unsatisfied feeling was still there. I thought maybe the heat got into me (I can't stand hot weather!), but is there such thing?

Then God reminded me, through a blog that I visited and an old christian song that I listened, to be content with what I have. To live a simple life and be happy. Every now and then, it's good to be reminded: always be grateful. I'm simply blessed.

With that in mind, I slept peacefully.

PS: the above art is from scaredycatprimitives.

Getting By

This has been another busy week. I'm hoping for sales and one day I could do this as a living. I'm getting there slowly even though it's tough. I have a few orders lining up, most of them are custom orders, which I LOVE!! Now that the orders are flowing in, I am struggling to manage my time. I'm sure you understand how hard it is to manage our 24 hrs in a day when we have to wear many different hats (mom, wife, an employee of a day job, and a shop owner and artist of my little shop). 24 hrs a day is certainly not enough and I say this many times. Silly me, cuz this will not change. Anyone out there feels the same?

 Anywhoooo... it's time to say bye for now as DH is about to pick me up from work. I can't wait to go home and wear my mom's hat. PS: those pink chic tags is available at my shop. I'll be making these tonight.

New Nest

As we're settling into our new home, two more families decided to stay with us. I've never seen a nest this big. This is a crow nest.

Another family is Starling. The nest was sitting on the displaced soffit. I can only wish they helped us with the mortgage. Lol. I still have to find pictures of the 1st day we moved in and the update on our renovation project. I'll share them with you once I have them. There is always something to do each day. Just like tonight, DH is still busy with paint touching. It's getting really late now, so I'd to say good night and hit the sack. I hope DH will follow me soon.

Progress These Days

Happy Friday everyone! I'm so glad that we survived another week! Above is a snapshot of beautiful scenery we have from our deck at the back of our new home. Can't you tell that it's a golf course?

We had hired a painter to paint our new home. Sadly, it didn't go well that we ended the contract 2/3 of the way and we will have to finish it off ourselves. 

The flooring contractor started his job today and hopefully he delivers. The new flooring should be completed in 4 days. After that, we are planning to do the painting, which will happen during weekdays after we get off from work. It's going to be a LONG week!! I just need to remind myself: It's going to be worth it!!

 

Therefore, I may need to close my shop or at least not taking new orders at the moment . . . only if I can't resist to. You can tell I'm still contemplating here. I do have a few orders to complete and mail this weekend. That'll keep me extra busy but at least I'm doing what I love to do.