Fashion: H&M on Glee

Glee is one of my favorite TV shows and tonight, Lea Michele was wearing a blue dress from H&M that I own!  I'm not going to lie... as soon as I recognized the dress, I yelled aloud "oooh!  I own that dress!"

And while yes, a lot of episodes make fun of Lea Michele's character's lack of fashion... this was a cute dress that was in fact quite fashionable.  When I wear it to work, I always get compliments.

I tried to find a picture but haven't been successful.  It's the blue dress she's wearing at the end of the episode.  It's blue fabric with blue vertical stripes, cap-sleeved, v-neck, belted at the middle.  Cute!

Thanksgiving, the American Chinese Way

I just wanted to share a picture of all of the food (minus my pumpkin cheesecake pie) we had for Thanksgiving.  We had all of the normal "traditional" Thanksgiving foods plus what my family considers is necessary at family gatherings...

Yep, we had turkey (super juicy), stuffing (with venison sausage!), cranberry sauce (not from a can this year!), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (with soup from a can), sweet potatoes, potato salad, tater tot casserole (in honor of Opie's BBQ and the craving Stasia's wedding created), stuffed mushrooms, deviled eggs, rolls, fruit salad, pumpkin cheesecake pie...

Then we also had sweet & sour chicken, pork loin, a noodle side dish whose name I only know in Chinese, and rice.  

Side note: My family believes rice should be eaten with practically every single meal.  Noodle dishes (like Italian) or pizza are pretty much the only exception.  Seriously, they eat cheese hamburgers without a bun and with a side of rice instead.  My plate and my cousin's wife's plate would be the ones without rice.  We allotted no room for a filler like rice! 

Gotta love Thanksgiving done my family's way!  It makes eating the leftovers a lot less boring, that's for sure!

Thankful

Growing up, Thanksgiving was never about sharing what we're thankful for.  It has always been about food, football, more food, and then more football.  It was enjoyed with the extended family but if you got in the way of food or football, you may as well have not been family.  Unconditional love did not cover getting in the way of food and football.  People fought over who got the dining room table seats that had the best view of the living room's TV.  I always lost...

I don't fault my family.  Daily, we ate home-cooked dinner together at the kitchen table (with no TV allowed) but conversation was never lively.  We just didn't (and still don't) discuss the little things of life, the details of our days.  Big events were discussed and as I got older, my dad and I can discuss current events and politics.  It's just the way we are and I can appreciate our peacefully silent yet still enjoyable meals.

This Thanksgiving, I would like to reflect on some of the things I am truly thankful for.  It's really good to take a step back and think positively rather than fret over all the little things.

I am thankful for my family who has always supported me no matter what, always forgives me after angry outbursts, has taught me the morals and values that shaped who I am today.  They may frustrate me but they love me and have done nothing but push me to be a better person.  

At Chichen Itza - Family Cruise 2010

I'm also thankful that my grandfather is temporarily living with my parents and has been here to celebrate my birthday and now Thanksgiving.  He's 97 and each day with him is a blessing.

At my cousin's birthday party - we love food!

I'm thankful for my wonderful boyfriend, Josh.  I'm so lucky to have found him.  He brightens my day and lifts my spirits.  He reminds me to be a little less serious and enjoy life.  He introduced me to the fun of costumes (as evidenced by the picture) and does want to talk about the details of my day.  His family welcomed me into their family with WIDE open arms.

At Texas Renaissance Festival - 1001 Dreams Themed Weekend

I'm thankful for my dog, Zoey.  She's a lover.  I wish I could spend 20 hours of the day lounging around on the bed/sleeping and then the other 4 hours of the day getting belly rubs, hugs and kisses, and treats.  She lives a good life - everyone spoils her and in return she rewards us with her unconditional love.  

At my parents' backyard - lab/spaniel mix (aka mutt)

And lastly, I'm thankful for my friends.  They pick me up when I'm down, they share the good (and bad) times with me, they make me smile and laugh, they're an extension of me that without I am not whole.

 At a UT football game with Amber

At Britt's wedding 

At Maggiano's - my birthday dinner

At Peaches' wedding

Friends who were not pictured, I am still thankful for you but we need to hang out more so I have pictures!

What are you thankful for?

Fashion Tip: Belts, Asymmetrical Necklaces, and Red

I'm a big fan of the lasting trend of wearing belts higher than the waist.  The dress was already an empire waist little black dress but I really wanted to add red accents so that I didn't look like I was attending a funeral.  And because I hate wearing smokin' hot red shoes without red accessories of some sort to balance everything out.

Here's the fashion tip - that is a red belt I'm wearing.  I turned it around so that the belt buckle is hiding in the back underneath my cardigan.  Doesn't it make it look like a part of my dress instead of a belt?  Genius isn't it?!

I only have 1 picture of the whole outfit - sorry.  

I really loved my outfit.  Smokin' hot red peep toe patent leather shoes, my current fave necklace in red (goes back to my obsession with flowers and asymmetry), red belt that looks like a part of the dress, and a simple red cardigan (with "diamonds" for the buttons!) because well it is November and a bit chilly.

Shoes by Chinese Laundry - purchased years ago - something similar

Necklace from New York & Co (comes in multiple colors) - here

Little black dress - purchased years ago - something similar

Belt - purchased years ago - something similar

Cardigan from New York & Co (comes in multiple colors) - here

When American wedding traditions merge with Asian traditions

To continue with the wedding posts... I enjoyed Stasia and Justin's wedding in Austin and then had to drive back to Dallas in time for Daigo and Nancy's wedding.  Who knew November would be so popular for weddings!

Daigo and Nancy had their ceremony outside at the Dallas Arboretum in the Women's Garden.  The forecast originally was rain for the entire weekend but it turned out to be gorgeous weather for both weddings - yay!

I've never seen Daigo happier.  He was grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

 Nancy couldn't stop grinning either.

She was absolutely stunning!  

Some wedding ceremonies are completely serious and intense and make me tear up.  This was definitely not one of those.  Daigo kept making silly little faces at Nancy; you couldn't help but smile and be happy for them.  And Sam, the minister, kept things light hearted and funny.  When he said, "you may now kiss the Bride," he prefaced it with "this is the moment that Daigo has been waiting for!"  And then Daigo didn't kiss Nancy normally... he peeked her on the left cheek, then the right, back to the left, etc. just to be goofy.  Everyone laughed.  It was sweet to see how fun and goofy they are together.

I **LOVED** these bridesmaid dresses.  I'm a huge fan of the one shoulder look, am currently on a flower obsession, and red is one of my favorite colors.  If my company holiday party were a formal affair, (sadly it is not) I'd so want to wear this dress to it.  THAT is how much I love it.

Red is the traditional Asian wedding color so I intentionally wore red to both weddings.  It was my way of providing them with some good luck from me.  And then I ended up coordinating with both weddings - oops!

The reception was a traditional Asian wedding reception held at Maxim's Chinese Restaurant.  There's really only two Chinese restaurants in the Dallas area that are big enough for wedding receptions and can do the typical 10-14 course smorgasbord of food.  Daigo and Nancy had 10 courses and we ate and ate and ate and ate until it hurt.  We also drank and drank and drank and drank.  So we were the rowdy table... so what?

The first course had animals carved out of carrot as decoration.  

Dog?  Rabbit?  We weren't sure either.  But whatever it was, it was cute!

I was too busy eating and drinking to take more pictures of the food.  Let's just say there was seafood soup, pickled jellyfish, LOBSTER, more meats, vegetables (but who needs that?), fried rice (definitely did not bother to save room for rice when there was LOBSTER), and much more.

Here's their cake.  It was delicious.  

The traditional Asian cake that is so light and airy it practically melts in your mouth.  And the icing just melts too.  YUM.  (I've yet to properly recreate this in my kitchen.)

They chose to play the "Beauty and the Beast" song from the movie while they cut the cake.  Since Disney FINALLY released this beloved, childhood all-time favorite of mine from the vault, Josh bought it for me for my birthday.  I watched it with him recently.  

I LOVE THIS SONG. 

I LOVE THIS MOVIE.  

I started tearing up.  Josh told me to get a grip on myself.  What can I say, alcohol makes me emotional.  And I'm already emotional on a daily basis.

It was perfect.  Nancy looked like a princess.  She found her prince charming.  They are so in love and so happy.  I love weddings!

An Intimate Vineyard Wedding

The last time I was in Austin, Brittany and Korey got married.  Fast forward seven months, and this past weekend I went to see Anastasia and Justin get married at Spicewood Vineyards.  It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding.  An intimate affair arranged beautifully with decorations made by Brittany and Stasia.

The lovely bridesmaids (Maggie, Caroline, Brittany).

The Bride and Groom - Look at how happy they look!  

At one point, Justin shed tears.  It was moving.

The ceremony was different in that it didn't have religion overtones, Bible verses, or traditional vows.  But I really liked it.  The officiant was serious but not boring and spoke from the heart about love and marriage.  I don't remember the actual vows but one funny part stuck out.  Justin appeared to stumble (possibly out of embarrassment?) when asked to repeat "lover" while Stasia appeared to yell/emphasis it.    

Mr. and Mrs. Teague!

I found it amusing that the officiant wore his sunglasses the entire ceremony.

I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures - I had too much fun just enjoying myself!  It was great to see everyone, drink some good wine, eat some delicious food (Opie's BBQ - I'm determined to recreate their tater tot casserole and Britt's working on their spicy corn and then we'll share!), and be a part of their special day!

A yummy and pretty cake from Lux Bakery!

They had a fantastic guestbook.  It was a time capsule and guests were asked to pick one or more dates (1, 5, 10, or 25 years from now) and write a message or prediction to the couple.  It could be anything we wanted and they provided examples like "where will they be living" and the more random one "how many robots will be living in their home."  It was a SUPER cute and fun idea.  I already told Stasia I'm definitely stealing that one from her!  (She did take my red color so we're even, right?!)

All in all, a fun weekend trip to Austin and a beautiful wedding!  I'm so grateful I was able to share in Stasia's special day and see her marry the man she loves.  Congrats Stasia and Justin!

Let the Christmas Shopping Begin!

I have officially started Christmas shopping!

Some people love receiving gifts and/or new stuff and rip into the packaging as fast as possible.  I'm talking the item is opened while the person is still shopping, as they walk to the next store.  That's definitely not me.

Some people love giving gifts and watching a person's face light up once they've opened the gift and love what they see.  That's not me either.

I'm the person who loves the shopping part.  The planning part of what will be absolutely perfect for each loved one on my list.  And! the part in which I say... "I got part of your gift last night!" and then I make you wait over a month before you get it.  Tonight, this applies to Peaches, Amber and Brittany.  Next week, to be determined.  :o)

Hoot!

I came home last night and found an owl sitting on my chiminea!

Look how tiny he was!  Owls are such gorgeous, intriguing creatures.  :o)

Opera, Shopping, Netflix, Birthday Party = Great Weekend

I love the weekend.  They tend to be jam-packed and super busy but that suits my personality.  This weekend was full of activities but also balanced with a good amount of staying in bed watching TV time.  *BLISS*

Friday night started off with Brother's first trip to the new Winspear Opera House to see Don Giovanni.  It was FANTASTIC (even though we sat SO high we couldn't see the top of the talking statue during one of the scenes LOL.)  I definitely liked it better than last week's Anna Bolena (although that one was still good and the seats were front and center orchestra instead of in the rafters.)  The lead men singing in Italian was enough to dazzle anyone.  Add in amazing sets that constantly changed and included smoke and lights, comedy, drama, action, sword fights, and music by my favorite classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart... yep, I definitely was happy.

Saturday was a day of errands/shopping and even though I didn't much, just the act of shopping brings me joy.  Food for the house, Halloween items on major markdown, and Bed Bath & Beyond for all my friends' upcoming weddings.  For dinner, Josh picked up my favorite pizza (Papa Murphy's) and we watched UT football on the Xbox.  Let's not concentrate on how bad the Longhorns are this year but instead on how cool it is that ESPN now streams live on the Xbox.  We also watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Josh and his sister grew up watching this all the time and LOVED it.  I'm amazed they're not scarred HAHA.

Thanks to Daylight Savings time, today I got extra sleep and enjoyed just staying in bed watching Netflix until it was time to go to my cousin's 2nd birthday party.  I'm not used to the hyperness of children... let me tell you, I'm TIRED.  (Could also be due to Daylight Savings Time but I'll stick to blaming the children.)

They were cute kids and fun to watch/play with.  And now... the following picture makes me simultaneously feel super bad for my cousin and laugh...

He was doing perfectly fine the entire party and happy as can be... until everyone started singing "Happy Birthday" to him.  Then his face went from happy to hesitant to scared to full WAILING.  Poor baby but he got over it fast, no worries.

On to the presents... he's on his way to being a little rock star one day.

He REALLY loves guitars.  This would be his 3rd now and he jams along.  It's cute to watch him dancing along to the music.  He also got the drum which contained symbols, maracas, the little finger symbols, and a trumpet.  My cousins can say goodbye to sleeping in!

And now, time for some more Netflix before saying goodbye to another lovely weekend.

World Series Game 5: Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants

I've been a Texas Rangers baseball fan for literally my entire life.  Not that I remember this, but supposedly as a baby I "watched" the games with my dad.  Quality bonding time on the couch.  :o)

I'm proud to say I'm not a bandwagon fan or a fair weather fan.  I've gone to games every year, win or lose, regardless of how terrible we were... and trust me, we've been terrible.  So... when this year we made it into the playoffs, I was super excited but wouldn't get my hopes up since well, we've never advanced past the first round of playoffs.  And then we beat the Tampa Bay Rays!  So it was on to the New York Yankees which we'd never before been able to beat in the playoffs.  I was WORRIED.  And then we beat them to become the American League Champions!  The Rangers were on their way to their very first World Series in franchise history!  I couldn't be more excited!

Gary and I decided we deserved to go to a World Series game no matter the cost.  It would be wrong to go without also taking Dad so we split the cost of his ticket.  It was a major splurge but definitely worth it to be there!  Jeff came with us too and helped memorialize the occasion with awesome photos.  (All photos were taken by me unless otherwise noted.)

Photo by Jeff

We chose Game 5 because we had a feeling it would be the final game of the World Series and then we'd be there for the Rangers' win and how historic would that be!  Alas, our prediction of the Rangers winning was wrong... but we were correct in that Game 5 ended the World Series and it was still pretty cool to be there.  We got to see the very best of both teams' pitchers play and they truly were fantastic to watch.  They each had such different and distinctive styles.

Cliff Lee vs. Tim Lincecum

Neftali Feliz vs. Brian Wilson

    

The Giants played a really great game and they ultimately deserved to win so I'm ok with the outcome.

Photo by Brother

And now for some random World Series photos... former President George and Laura Bush were in attendance.  (We were sitting absolutely no where near them.  Josh's zoom lens is just that good that I could snap this picture.)

I happened to be snapping a picture right at this moment too... the blurry thing in the upper left hand corner would be Josh Hamilton's bat flying out of his hands and into the stands.

And I'll end with this super cute picture.  I did a double take the first time I saw her.  At first I thought it was just a panda stuffed animal but then I realized it was her baby.  Aside from the fact that it's WAY too expensive to buy a ticket to the World Series to bring along a baby... I'd totally dress up my kid like that LOL.

Photo by Jeff

Now let's hope it doesn't take another 39 years to get to another World Series...

  

Happy Halloween from Zoey!

Last weekend, the Velvet Snout hosted a customer appreciation celebration which included a dog costume contest.  If you know me at all, you know I couldn't resist the opportunity to dress up Zoey!

We went as matching witches.  Me, a Candy Corn Witch.  Zoey, a Super Cute Dog Witch.  (If you're one of those who doesn't believe in dressing up dogs and thinks dogs hate it... look at Zoey's happy little smile and then try to tell me she doesn't love it.)

For actual Halloween, we dressed up again.  This time Zoey was my pumpkin to go along with my witch outfit.  (Last year after Halloween, Target had their dog costumes for $2.50 each.  It was such a great deal I bought 4.  Yes... seriously... 4.  So this year to justify last year's purchase, I had to make sure to use more than one.)

We sat on the porch and handed out candy to the trick or treaters.  There weren't that many which was disappointing but it was still fun.

One Year Older, Hopefully One Year Wiser

I love birthdays.  Not just my birthday (although of course I do love mine!) but all birthdays.  It has nothing to do with the gifts or the birthday cake or the good wishes.  I like that it's a day of celebration that's just for that one special person.  It's like random holidays sprinkled throughout the year.

This year I had a birthday week celebration.  Family dinner (with Grandpa in attendance this year!), coworker lunch, dinner with friends, and Anna Bolena (opera) with Josh!

It meant a lot to me that my friends were able to find time in their busy schedules for my birthday dinner.  And Ashley drove all the way from Mansfield!  It's moments like these that remind me just how loved and truly blessed I am.

Josh and I shared a delicious dessert - pumpkin cheesecake!  (I am a sucker for pumpkin.  It makes my world go round.  YUM.)  And look at Josh's baby face!  Bye bye beard, hello 10 years younger!

I have no pictures of the opera - they weren't allowed.  In short, we almost didn't make it and we were SEVERLY under dressed... BUT! it was fun and I really enjoyed it.  Thank you Brother for the front and center orchestra seats!

Here's to 26!  Hopefully I'm a little bit wiser... but if nothing else, I'm sure it'll be a better year than 25 and that's enough for me!