WIP: Weeks! In Photos.

I've been busy. Really busy. But I've been trying to take more photos. Not that I actually documented my past few weeks well. I tend to take photos in spurts. Dozens one day, and none for a week. But I'm trying! So here's a quick rundown of what's been going on:

Teaching at CKC - Houston. I lucked out and no one had rotten tomatoes to throw at me.

Siblings + significant others + nieces + Tex-Mex food + ginormous Texas-sized iced tea = heaven!

Going from point A to point B, I kept thinking those clouds looked like cotton candy. Just like I used to when I was five. Some things never change.

My cousin was visiting from Taiwan, so we played tourists for a whole week. Roy Rogers had teeny feet.

Everytime I see this hotel, I think of Royal Tenenbaum manning the elevator.

Lily Bee booth being set up. The new collections were even better in real life!

First night of CHA with old and new friends. We stayed until we were thrown out. So you know we had fun! (From left: Jenni Hufford, Cindy Liebel, Suz Mannecke, Keshet Starr, Lexi Bridges, Valerie Mangan, Jenny Larson, me, and Lisa Day)

Finally met Jen Jockish. I knew I'd like her, and I did. So much!

Cindy, making out with the Jillibean Gnomie. Lucky Gnomie! At one point, he found himself inside her shirt...

Had great chats with Marnie Flores and Emily Pitts (and Emily knew all the good lunch spots!)

How much do I love the Jillibean girls? Thiiiiiiiiis much! (From left: Kimber McGray, me, Laina Lamb, and Summer Fullerton)

Flying home, thinking about how much fun I had, how awesome it is to see a sunset while in the air, and how much I missed my family. And surprisingly, how much I missed LA. I think I finally love living here. All in all, a good two weeks.

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Happy Reasons, List One

I have more than four reasons why I'm happy I moved to Southern California. But for today, I'm focusing on these.

BEACH! Need I say more?

Japanese bookstore with a washi tape aisle.

Fresh squeezed orange juice from my own orange tree. And a husband who will squeeze it for me. Although I did bring that husband along. (Don't mind ugly 70s kitchen. It's a rental.)

Women who welcomed me with open arms even though we had just met a few weeks before. (In you case you are wondering, they are Stacy, Suzy, and Lisa.)

I'll be posting more lists of random Happy Reasons. It's better than sad reasons list for leaving Philly, right?

Happy Monday!

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Weekend In Photos: The Washington DC Edition

As we count down our days on the East Coast, the kids are getting more and more frantic about the things we "must" do before we move to the left coast. On top of their lists: eat a last cheesesteak at Tony Luke's, eat at Banana Leaf, eat at Classic Diner, and go to Washington DC. To eat. Of course. These are my kids after all.

So off we went to DC. Although I was sneaky, and managed to get a girls' day out for myself with Cindy and Keisha. So fun. And so bittersweet.

Keisha was pretty determined to get some Georgetown Cupcakes. They have their own TV show! Who knew! Well, apparently everyone but me. They had moved from their teeny storefront on a small side street to a much larger location on M Street. Again, I had no idea. But we could tell where it was located from the ginormous line wrapping around the block. NUTS! No, we don't love cupcakes that much. Especially after having some really nice pizza for lunch. Add to the fact that it was raining and hailing. So we ducked into Paper Source, and bought more paper goods than we needed. Then into Lush and got very nice smelling bath bombs. Then, and only then, we went to brave a cupcake line. Not at Georgetown Cupcakes. Not at Sprinkles (I mean, one can get Sprinkles anywhere else in the country, even if they are good.) But we went to Baked and Wired, which was pretty amazing too. Plus the place was just cute. And the lines were shorter. I'm going to recommend the Fresh Strawberry, the Cherry Blossom, and the Razmanian cupcakes. Not that I ate all three by myself...

And then we had to say goodbye. I'm going to miss Cindy and Keisha so much. We will see each other again. But the get togethers won't be as spontaneous anymore.

My family and I stayed overnight, and we ate ate ate. We did take a little eating break to go visit the zoo (they had baby lions) and say hi to the pandas. And visited Mt Vernon. Of our 20ish trips to the DC area, we had never been to Mt Vernon. It was about time. So fascinating to see where George Washington lived. And to learn more about his accomplishments. Everyone knows about him as the father of our country, but I knew very little about the farmer and husband.

And now we are back to school, work, and packing. At least I won't have to clean the house this week. YES!

Food paparazzi!

Crazy line just for cupcakes. Look past the end of the line. It wraps around the corner down the other street.

We had to settle for a photo on the outside.

Inside Baked & Wired. So cute. So yummy!

Stumptown coffee? Please. And yes, I tipped really well.

RED VELVET! It was good too.

Love those girls!

There was this and a huge thing of Korean bbq. The kids ate it all. I had to fight for a few scraps.

Those cherry blossoms. So pretty. So allergy inducing.

I couldn't stop thinking "someone needs to wash those panda butts."

Love how they pose nicely for photos.

We do love Thai food. Can you tell?

A super nice Japanese lady forced us into a family photo, and then praised my children to the skies. I love her already. Oh, that is George and Martha Washington with their grandchildren Washy and Nelly behind us.

The mansion at Mt Vernon. The other building to the right is the kitchen.

And thank you for the love re: house sale and Jillibean. You guys are awesome. I mean that.

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I'm At CHA + Lily Bee

This is my second CHA, but I had forgotten how tiring it is to be on my feet all day. I wore really comfy shoes, and my feet are still killing me! What's up with that? Plus my legs are sore. I feel like I should have started an exercise program a few months ago. Built up those leg muscles, gotten my stamina up. Oh well. Next time.

Did I take photos? Three. Yeah, only three. What kind of scrapbooker am I! I know. Sorry. Everyone else had cameras, so I'm hoping they'll email me some.

Just for fun, here are the three I took. Actually, the three that someone else took with my iPhone. (Brace yourself for me, non-Photoshopped.)

At the Lily Bee booth with the Big Picture Classes gals. From the left, Stacy Julian (BPC), moi, Kaycee Rehn (BPC), Wendy Smedley (BPC), and Kristen Young (owner/designer of Lily Bee.)

Lily Bee booth, with Stacy Cohen (in pink), Piradee Talvanna (talking to someone with a fab red bag, alas not me), and Kim Watson hiding in the back.

At Basic Grey. I walked by that booth so many times. Poor Kelly. From the left: Laura Vegas, Kim Watson, me, and Kelly Goree. Their new stuff is fab, as usual.

The Lily Bee booth was so cute. I'll have to take photos tomorrow. Also tomorrow, I'm going to actually walk the floor in an organized manner. Today, I walked past the same six booths about ten times. I would be going one way, and I'd run into someone I knew or who I wanted to meet. They would then take me along elsewhere, and I would get sidetracked. That happened again and again. Tomorrow, better planning on my part.

Speaking of Lily Bee, the full product reveal started today. Go by and leave a comment for a chance to win some new stuff. On the last day of CHA (February 2), Lily Bee is going to give away its entire Winter 2011 release. Yup. The whole thing. We'll be picking two winners. One from the blog, and one from Facebook. Click here to follow Lily Bee.

I'm going to bed! But not before I share my CHA layout using Lily Bee's Happily Lost.

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Weekend In Photos: The Chinatown Edition

I spent a delightful day with my dear friend Margaret. Every few months, we go and get haircuts together in Center City, followed by chowing on yummy food in Chinatown. Afterwards, she usually wants to visit Chinese knickknack stores, and buy everything in sight. I usually have to talk her down. This time, she was in search of the perfect jade dragon. I just wanted to visit my favorite pastry shop to get some dan-tat and a boba drink. But I'm a good friend, so we searched high and low, and found her dragon (and a few other questionable buys.)

Chinese checkers. Kind of hard to play if one can't read Chinese. I can't play it.

Chinese dragons are friendly. Uh-huh. (And apparently, they have good orthodontists too.)

Not sure what this is. A basket of cheap, fake hair? Blonde? In Chinatown?

No idea what's printed on this plate, but it's beautiful.

We Asians dig our jarred, canned, and packaged foods.

Love the store signs in Chinese. Again, I can't read Chinese. 
(I can hear my Mom sighing from far away.)

Happy with my boba and new haircut. What did you say? My hair looks exactly the same?
It's a bit shorter. Really. Really!

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Weekend in Photos: The Baltimore Edition

Every six months or so,  I'm lucky enough to get together with a few of my scrappy friends. On a day-to-day basis, we tweet, call, email, and visit each other's blogs, but there is nothing like a real life visit to reconnect. This time, it was Keisha and Cindy and me. I love these gals. We just get each other.

We met in Baltimore where: we talked a lot (loudly); we laughed a lot (even more loudly); we walked a lot (while talking and laughing loudly); and we ate lots of amazing food (but hey, we walked it off!)

In conclusion: fun was had by all!

Cindy's posing!

They didn't trust me to do my share of the paddling. Sheesh!

Love this shot of color in the edge of the sidewalk.

When we saw this, we said, "If only Kelly was here. She'd eat one."

Wondering if this was a public restroom?

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