{sharing a great deal on adorable customizable books and products: paper coterie & howdoesshe}

before i received my silhouette cameo, i tried to win the machine in a bunch of giveaways that occurred a few weeks ago. needless to say, i didn't win. haha. but, i did stumble upon this great website, How Does She. Recently she posted this GREAT DEAL, celebrating their 2nd anniversary. Click Great Deal to see the link and the special code. They are working with this cute company called Paper Coterie, where you get $30.00 off any purchase. Here you can find super cute books, journals, recipe books, flip books, cards, calendars, growth charts that you can customize with pictures of your baby or your family. Many of their adorable products are just under $30, so all you have to do is pay for shipping! I made an ABC book for my baby, filled with pictures of our family, like A is for Auntie A**. or N is for Nainai (grandma!). I can't wait to get it!

Hurry! The deal expires in a few days!

{trader joe's dark chocolate minty mallows review}

on my way out of trader joe's the other day, these cute boxes of minty mallows caught my eye. i love marshmallows, in small quantities {and especially roasted on a stick}. gourmet flavored marshmallows are popular and can be quite expensive. so, at $3.99, i definitely wanted to give these a try! these marshmallows are quite good. i can eat maybe 1 or 2 in a sitting, then it becomes really sweet. what i enjoy about these treats is that the marshmallow is quite chewy, with a nice punch of peppermint. this is then nicely complemented with the more bitter dark chocolate. kind of reminds me of a chewy version of a peppermint patty. all in all, i would say, good job trader joe's! me likey!

{silhouette cameo: my first project, custom tshirt}

hello readers! i took a long hiatus after giving birth to our beautiful spunky chunky little boy, matthew. its been a sleep-depriving, but incredibly joyful and rewarding journey. we feel so blessed to have this wonderful addition to our family and look forward to exciting challenges ahead.

so, to restart my blogging, i decided to share a little about a new toy that i recently acquired, the silhouette cameo, rather than about food :) not sure if you've ever heard of this machine, but it is amazing! it is this electronic cutting tool that can cut through different materials (papers, vinyl, heat transfer paper, fabric, etc). my hubbers was nice enough to gift me with one for my combo anniversary/christmas gift. i debated for a while whether it was worth purchasing the machine, since i could see myself tucking it away into my closet after a couple projects and having it become a pricy dust collector. but the more projects i see on blogs, the more i feel confident that this machine is a keeper and going to be well used in this home of mine.
the first thing i wanted to make was a custom tshirt for my son. {that still looks really weird when i type that out. haha!}. i finally settled on making a robot tshirt. the robot is supposed to be matthew, and the robot dog is supposed to be my dog, which is his favorite source of laughter. here is the final product!!! i'm quite happy with the result!!

i had also ordered some heat transfer paper from scrapbookexpress.com since they had a deal on free shipping and 40% off one item. the heat transfer is rather expensive though and wish there were cheaper alternatives. if any of you readers have any tips, i would love to know if there are other different brands that work just as well, or better, than the silhouette brand. anyways, after scouring the web and youtube videos to see how to use the machine, i felt ready to give my new machine a whirl. i downloaded two images (robot and a robot dog) from the silhouette online store, using my free $10 download card and imported it into my library. i then played around with the images, decided on the size of the objects i wanted, and created a master layout of how i wanted it to look on my tshirt. after reading many tips from other silhouette owners, i made sure i mirrored the images prior to printing it. after clicking the print window, set it to silhouette heat transfer paper (smooth). the good thing is that it tells you the blade setting (1--for this project). I also moved the rollers to 9" since my paper was only 9".

Here is a tip {learn from my mistake}---under the page tool settings, make sure you change it to "LETTER size" (rather than the default 12x12) and that the cutting mat is set to "NONE". The other important thing to note is that after you click "send to silhouette", you'll see the image and the arrows pointing in the direction of how you would load the picture. well, note that the orientation is different! although the screen is top/bottom, the image would print at a 90 degree orientation to the left. soo i changed the orientation of my images to save my heat transfer paper. so with a little trial and error, i printed out my images, after a few trials of pausing/reloading/and a few screeches of "OH NO, its cutting the machine instead of the paper!" {which happened to be practically every time, my husband laughingly pointed out, yet true!!} haha.

for my project, i actually had to do 3 separate print outs for the 3 colored papers (1--for inside of robot body since i wanted it white and the name, 2--yellow dog, 3--teal robot shell). this required "subtracting" the image. my font was the "american typewriter". ironing the images on was quite difficult!! it took me about 2-3 hours of ironing and ironing and ironing. the white ironed on quickly (1 minute tops, like it is supposed to...). the teal robot arm and yellow dog would just. not. stick, no matter how much pressure i used, heat level on the iron, or thickness of cloth that i used....finally, in a last ditch effort, i picked off the image slightly with the silhouette hook tool and then ironed again and that seemed to help. then after removing the transfer paper, i ironed it again with just a thin cloth separating the image from my iron. and voila! tshirt was done! have to say overall, i really loved how it turned out. can't wait to put it on my little monkey!!



although i'm no expert by any means, if you have any questions about what i made, send me a comment and i'll try to give you any tips i've learned.

{bar tartine, review of the pork belly sandwich}

my husband and i recently took a vacation up to northern california {cambria, san francisco, napa}. for part of the visit, we visited my friend lydia. she had mentioned to one of her bosses (a foodie) that i was coming, he was super kind enough to come up with a list of recommended places to eat! since much of the vacation centered around food (my husband kindly obliged), i have much to blog about! (although i did not forget that i need to share with you my eating adventures on abbott kinney soon)....

one of the restaurants highly reviewed was bar tartine in san francisco, famous for their open faced pork belly sandwich. the picture of the sandwich looks quite delicious right? pork belly can be amazing and i've had a few in my life. but, i sadly have to say that after slicing into the pork belly, it looked more like the fried by-products of liposuction sitting on a piece of bread. {ok that is a disturbing image buuut it seriously was 3 large greasy chunks of fat with a faint sliver of pork, and i mean sliver}. where was the PORK? i do realize that pork belly can be quite fatty, but this was above and beyond in my opinion...

i'm not that health conscience and adore bacon and fries, but this was a plate serving a heart attack, with a side of a coronary artery bypass. i'm not sure if we had unusual pieces (although we ordered two of them and it was the same) since i'm surprised that anybody could comfortably eat that dish without getting grossed out, even if it tasted good. maybe the people who enjoyed the dish had more pork on the pork belly?? granted, the flavor of the sliver of pork was delicious.... and there were other redeeming parts of the dish--the yummy shoestring fries and the avocado, egg salad, and pickled jalapenos and onions on the bread. needless to say, ordering 2 of those dishes was not ideal for the pocket & arteries and we left most of the "fat" belly on the plate. booooo...


i'm sure there are other great dishes at this restaurant and the ambience is nice. i think i'll give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and say that the dishes we received that day were just a mishap....but i must say that i must missed the boat on what is so great about this pork belly sandwich.....

interestingly, they added a 4% surcharge to the bill to provide healthcare for their employees. apparently, not unusual in restaurants in san francisco so i was told?

{adventures on abbot kinney road}

i saw some pictures of Abbot Kinney Road in Venice California posted on a blog recently and decided to venture there with my husband this past weekend. uber cute street with cool architecture, trendy restaurants, and unique boutiques. i'll review each place i ate at over the next few weeks, but i'll give you a little taste of our adventure in venice! :)

the night before, we had planned on trying one of the restaurants along Abbot Kinney, but as we started walking, we immediately noticed a parking lot filled with food trucks! the koji truck!! a hot dog truck! a vietnamese sandwhich truck! i had been wanting to try the koji truck! i just never mustered the energy to drive into LA to try it. fun!


developing quite a thirst after eating at the koji truck, we wandered into the store lemonade for a quencher. along one wall was a glass bar filled with these delicious looking unique ready-made salads and potroasts. in the back, i saw a row of colorful liquids dripping down these containers. yeees, so many flavors of lemonades to choose from!

after sipping our lemonade, we gave our tummies a break and started strolling through the streets. there was a store called bountiful, lined with vintage furniture that quickly caught my attention. when you step into the store, you'll see the ceiling dripping with sparkly chandeliers and shelves overflowing with beautiful vintage cake stands of all different sizes and colors. i L.O.V.E. cake stands.



i had read about this well-reviewed bakery that sold macarons, called Jin's Patisserie. if you've been a follower of my blog, you'll know that i love macarons. so, that was a must-try....after purchasing the macarons, we stopped at one last place. N'ice Cream gelatos and sorbets. ooo, i'll blog about that later, but...drooool....

after a day of fun, we drove off to our friend's house who just had a little baby boy, with a bag of macarons as a gift. cute hungry yet sleepy little man!

{review of the alcove cafe & bakery in los angeles}

meandering down hillhurst in los angeles, you'll see nestled into the street, this cute old bungalow called the alcove cafe and bakery, with a large outdoor patio filled with lively chatter, colorful chairs, and the look of happy people eating brunch. walking up, you'll see a long line out the door and quickly discover that you're standing in line to place your order for the food. when you finally are able to grab a menu, you'll see a lovely offering of everything from farm egg omelettes, french toast, freshly squeezed juices to a display case of freshly baked goods. it was definitely a little hectic inside to try and squeeze your way through the crowd, but once you place your order, you grab your number and find a seat indoors or outdoors.



as i stood there staring at the menu, i began to have the recurrent epic brunch battle in my mind--sweet or salty? sweet or salty? heehee. do you have that debate as well?

i usually have to tell myself, make a decision girl! so i did. sweet won that day (sort of). so i chose the brioche french toasts topped with blueberries with vermont maple syrup and creme fraiche. great thing about it was that the french toast was not smothered in butter. the blueberries-as you can see from the picture, had the appearance of thawed out frozen berries. (not sure if thats how it was prepared though) overall, the french toast was well made and it was a good dish, but, not mind blowing, especially for the hefty price tag of 10.95 with no sides.


ok ok, so the sweet did not totally win that day. i caved and ordered a side of salty. i chose the side of two potato pancakes with caramelized apples and.... creme fraiche (it appears again!!) for $3.50. yay for salty. the potato pancakes were a yummy version of hashbrowns. the "caramelized apples" were...an "interesting" flavor combination with the potato pancakes . it tasted like dehydrated chewy apples seasoned with cinnamon and maybe brown sugar? the potato pancakes sat on a bed of arugula, which was a nice compliment to the salty crunch of the potatoes.


and, finally, my hubster ordered the smoked salmon breakfast stack, which included two potato pancakes, topped with smoked salmon, poached eggs, and....wait for it...wait for it.... Creme Fraiche (!!!) and fresh dill, and a side of seasonal fresh fruit. haha. who knew creme fraiche could be soo versatile...(or not!). he enjoyed his dish, except wishing that there was not creme fraiche poured all over the dish. i unfortunately, did not take a bite of it, so i can't comment on it other than the fact that it looked delicious.


overall, i would say the place has a wonderful ambience and an enticing menu list. its a great place to go on a date or to hang out with your friends over brunch. my dishes were good, but probably not on the top of my list for brunch food. i would definitely go back though to try a few other dishes and to just enjoy the lively atmosphere.

{review of Kellogg's Fruit Crisps}

As a perpetual snacker and always on the hunt for new snacks, I've been noticing the commercials for these Kellogg's Special K Strawberry Fruit Crisps. Anything with the word "Crisp" in the snack catches my attention. I happened to find a coupon for these babies and decided to buy them. When i ripped open the package, each crisp looked amazingly similar to another favorite 100 calorie snack packs of mine (Newton's Fruit Crisps - Apple Cinnamon), except for the frosting drizzled across the top. I enjoyed it. Crispy outer shell. Sweet strawberry filling. It reminds me of a crispier, healthier, lighter version of a strawberry pop tart. I personally wouldn't have minded if they left out the frosting, but I'll bet that most people prefer it since it makes it a little more decadent and its still delicious. So all in all, a great snack. I would buy it again :) (I think the hard part is just limiting yourself to one pack in one sitting, which would defeat the whole purpose of limiting your calories for a snack if you opened a few packs at once. hehe.