Stir Fried Eggplant with Ground Beef

Happy Wednesday!

I made this dish two weeks ago but didn't have time to post the recipe.  So since basketball season is over (thank goodness!), Wednesdays afternoons are open! 

Eggplants are tricky.  I never liked eggplants when I was a child.  But when I grew up, I loved them.  Whether it's cooked the Chinese way or the Italian way, its flavor is one of a kind.  When I cook stir fried eggplants, I usually use the Asian kinds, the long, skinny ones, that have a lighter purple hue than eggplant aubergine.  But I was craving eggplants, and I just didn't want to make the drive to the Asian market.  So I got an eggplant aubergine from Pavilions.  And what do you know, it tastes just as good!  So here I am, confident that I can present this recipe so everyone is able to buy the ingredients from their local supermarkets.

Stir Fried Eggplants with Ground Beef

Ingredients

1 eggplant aubergine
1 pound of ground beef
1 stem of green onion
1 clove garlic

3/4 olive oil
1/2 cup soy sauce (up the amount if you like things salty)
1/2 cup water

Steps

1) Chop eggplants into 2 inch long, 1/2 inch wide strips
2) dice garlic
3) chop onion into 1/2 cm pieces
4) heat 1/4 cup oil in cooking pan
5) when oil is heated, stir fry ground beef first.  when just about done, scoop up and set aside
6) heat remaining oil, throw in garlic pieces first.  stir around until golden, to flavor the oil
7) throw in eggplant, stir to coat with oil; pour soy sauce over eggplant, and stir again.
8) throw in ground beef, pour water in, stir
9) turn down heat to medium, then cover.  let cook for about 10 minutes
10) eggplant should be soft, if not, let simmer covered for another 5 minutes
11) uncover and turn up heat, stir for about 2 minutes
12) scoop up, sprinkle chopped green onion on top, and serve!

The eggplants absorb all the flavor of the garlic and beef, so it's juicy and tasty. I'm confident you'll love it!  Enjoy!

Xoxo,
Lin

Golden

Hi Everyone!

In honor of awards season, I thought I'd do a look that relates to the little gold men.  No, this is definitely not a red carpet look - how many of us get to wear designer gowns and attend such a fancy function?  Not me, that's for sure.  Therefore, with this look, you can celebrate awards season while going about your day-to-day routine; no fancy functions needed!

I recently acquired a really cute white maxi skirt from ASOS, which you can find here.   I love skirts.  I am the ultimate girly-girl, and I love everything that enhance's a woman's femininity.  Dresses, skirts, heels, jewelry, I love them all!  As soon as I got my skirt, I've been wracking my brain trying to find something to pair it with.  Lucky for me, I bought these sequined tank tops two years ago at Old Navy, when sequins were all the rage.  Since this is so old, it's no where to be found, but here is a really cute one from Forever 21, that would look super cute with this skirt as well.  Since the sequins look so festive and formal, I wanted to tone the whole look down a bit, so I decided to put on a pair of metallic wedges, which I got a long time ago as well, but I found these really cute ones here that looks almost exactly like the ones I'm wearing..

For accessories, I did chandelier earrings that I got from Francesca's a long time ago, here are some cute gold ones.  The bangles are from J Crew, and you can find them here.  I'm holding a gold Kate Spade clutch that I got last year for a Girl's Night in Vegas.  Here's a cute similar one from Marc Jacobs, and another really cute one here from Tory Burch.

Well, that's it for now!  Until next time!

Xoxo,
Lin

Beef with Celery and Fried Tofu

Good evening, everyone!

We played hookie today at basketball practice.  It was the last practice of the season, since the boys don't like the sport and I was busy all morning preparing birthday stuff anyway, I decided we could just skip it.  :P  No complaints from the boys there!

Because I didn't have to go to basketball practice, I was able to make quite a decent meal tonight.  I usually do about 3 dishes for dinner, but my hubby is on a cleanse, so he's doing a shake for dinner tonight.  Therefore I only cooked two.

The first dish is - what else?  Tofu.  :)  What did you expect??  I used firm tofu this time. I just cut them up into small rectangles and fried them until golden brown.  For the sauce, I used a special Chinese thick soy sauce, but you can replicate the flavor with ordinary soy sauce and sugar.  Again, use your own judgement for the level of sweetness.  Then I minced some garlic (for me, the more the better, so I minced about 5 cloves), then mix the minced garlic into the soy sauce/sugar mixture.  Let sit while you fry the tofu, and by the time the tofu is ready, your sauce should be infused with the yummy taste of garlic.

This is my second dish.  It's slightly more complicated than the tofu dish so I'll list the ingredients and steps for you.

Ingredients

Marinade for beef:
1 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tsp of sugar
1 tablespoon of wine (again, any wine will do)
1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 stalk Chinese celery (you can use regular celery too, I'd say approximately 5 or 6 stems)
1 rib eye steak (trim away fat)
2 cloves of garlic, cut into slices

1/2 tsp salt (more or less, you be the judge!)
1/2 cup oil

Steps

1) combine all marinade for beef, set aside
2) cut beef into strips, put into marinade, set aside
3)  cut celery into 2 inch strips (if you're using regular celery, first slice each stem vertically into 3 stems)
4) heat about 1/4 cup of oil in frying pan (or wok),
5) throw in beef strips when oil is hot, stir fry until just about done, scoop up and set aside.
6) throw in garlic slices when oil is hot
7) when garlic turns slightly brown, throw in celery pieces.  Sprinkle salt over celery, stir fry for about a minute, then combine beef with celery, stir.
8) lower heat to about medium, cover and let cook for about 4 minutes.
9) open lid, turn heat back up to high, and stir fry for about a minute
10) scoop up and serve either over rice or pasta (or eat by itself, like I do)
11) Enjoy!!!

Maybe you can make this for tomorrow night's dinner?  Hmmm??  I know my boys were actually FIGHTING for the last piece of tofu!  Can you believe it?  6-year-old boys fighting over tofu???  It was that good.  Mission, accomplished. :)  Next time, I know I'd better make 2 boxes of fried tofu!

Good night!

Xoxo,
Lin

Sneak Peak...

Ok, I wanted to show you some stuff from the beginning stages of Baby K's party.  But I only have a few hours before I have to go pick her up from pre-school, so I don't have much time, and I still have a whole lotta stuff to do.  So I'm going to show you a picture of the invitation that I made for her party.  These were leftover invitation paper from my sister's bridal shower.  And since the colors are lime green and hot pink, I decided to give Baby K a Tinker Bell themed birthday party.
 

Disclaimer: I didn't come up with the creative wording myself!

For the invitation itself, I thought it was already very pretty.  So all I did was find some Tinkerbell stickers at Party City and put a couple on each invitation.  I had leftover rhinestone stickers from the shower too, so I put one on each invitation as well.  I got the invitation paper and the rhinestone stickers at Michael's.  For the address labels, I found a Tinkerbell clip art online, and then copy and pasted it on the labels.

I hope you liked this little sneak peak of the party!  When I'm done with the birthday banner I will post that as well.  But that would take a while...and I don't have much time left!  Yikes!

Xoxo,
Lin

Valentine's Day Romance - Part II

Happy Tuesday!  I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and President's Day weekend.  For me, today is the first day of the week (long weekend for the kids), so it was the first day that I was able to sit down and blog.  I've been planning and working tirelessly for Baby K's birthday party.  It will be so beautiful!  I can't wait to show pictures to you all!

I make it a point NOT to go anywhere for dinner on Valentine's Day.  I have nothing against celebrating love, it's just that with 3 young children, we really don't do crowded areas too well.  I find the long wait for table and seats, and even when you're seated, the long wait for food, not worth it.  And to me, it's just more fun to include the children.  Valentine's Day celebrates love, in all shapes and sizes!  So I've made it a tradition (ok, it only started last year, but still...) to make a special Valentine's Day dinner at home.  All food celebrate love.  Whatever I can get in heart shapes, I get.  This year (and last) were heart-shaped pastas.  Then my husband bought heart-shaped sushi and chocolate covered strawberries.  The adults drank wine, the kids had their milk, and we all toasted to the occasion.  The kids LOVE this!  C said, "Mom, thank you for the best dinner ever!  Cheers!"  It's really adorable.  I live for moments like this.  :)  The next morning, they had heart-shaped bagels for breakfast.  The love continued!

Although we didn't go out for Valentine's Day, I still tried to dress up for the occasion.  I had a meeting to attend, so this time, I actually HAD somewhere important to go!  LOL.

Except for the first outfit on my blog, where my husband took the picture, I took pictures myself for all the other ones. Hence, the awkwardness of the poses!  With this one, since it was a Sunday, my husband was able to take it for me.  My smile was genuine - I couldn't stop laughing because I was so embarrassed!

 
Here I'm wearing a skirt I got from Target sometime last December.  I love it because it fits me like a glove.  Here's a similar one. Have I mentioned how much I love A-Line skirts??  They make you look so feminine, while hiding all the flaws at the same time.  The blush pink top is from Nordstrom, you can find similar ones here and here. I got my shoes online somewhere a long time ago, sorry I can't remember!  But here is a similar pair in nude by Nine West.  My necklace is from J Crew, here's a similar one.  if you're not willing to spend that much on a necklace, here's one on sale, and will have a similar look. My earrings are from Francesca's, these here from Forever 21 are similar.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  I sure was able to use that day off to relax a little.  It was nice.  :)

Have a great rest of your Tuesday!  See you soon!

Xoxo,
Lin

Beef with Julienne Carrots

Today I want to share with you one simple dish and another, although also simple, requires a few more steps.  These were dishes I made for dinner last night.  The boys had no basketball practice so I actually had time to make a decent meal!  As much as I complain about having to cook, sometimes I don't mind it if it means I get all afternoon to prepare for dinner, instead of feeling rushed as heck when I have the children's after school activities sucking up all my time. 

So last night I made this trio of dishes for dinner.  One of which is just plain silken tofu, straight out of the box, chopped into cubes, with chopped green onions on top.  Pour some soy sauce and sesame oil on top, and you have yourself a refreshing tofu dish.  If you're Asian, this dish is a no brainer.  You probably eat this all the time growing up.

The second dish is so. ridiculously. tasty.  Like, seriously.  And it's once again, SUPER easy to make.  Really.  Have I ever presented a recipe that takes  more than 15 minutes to prepare?  Here's the recipe for the dish.

Ingredients

Marinade for beef:
1 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tsp of sugar
1 tablespoon of wine (again, any wine will do)
1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 piece of steak
3 large carrots, peeled
2 stalks of green onion
2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 1/2 cup of oil
1 1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of rice vinegar (or any vinegar - I just like rice vinegar because there's a bit of sweetness to it)

Steps

1) combine all ingredients for beef marinade in medium bowl, set aside.
2) trim fat off steak (at least I do, I think they're so gross), cut into strips
3) put beef strips into marinade, hand toss a little so marinade covers every strip, let marinade about 10-15 minutes.
4) julienne carrots.  Set aside.
5) cut green onion into 2 inch pieces
6) heat 1/2 cup oil in pan until it gets really hot.  I use my trusty wok for this.
7) pour in marinaded beef strips and cook until just about done.  Scoop out, set aside.
8) heat remaining oil (you might not need all the remaining oil, you be the judge of your own dish), when oil gets hot, toss in sliced garlic and the white part of the green onions.
9) stir fry garlic and green onion until garlic turns slightly brown (the whole purpose of this is to flavor the oil).
10) toss in the carrots, stir fry for about 1-2 minutes.
11) sprinkle salt on the carrots.  make sure you taste as you go! some people like it saltier, some like it milder.  you be the judge of your dish!
12) pour vinegar on the carrots.  stir and let cook for a minute.
13) toss in beef that you set aside earlier, if dish looks too dry, then pour about 1/4 cup of water.
14) stir and let cook for about 4 minutes, toss the remaining green onions in.  cook for about a minute.

Serve and enjoy!

Again, pour this over a bed of rice, or you can eat this with pasta, there should be enough sauce from the dish to flavor your spaghetti or linguini.  It's SO good.  The key thing is to make sure you throw in the amount of salt that suits you.  Remember, I never measure when I cook, it's all from memory and tons of practice.  And also, what my family likes may not be what your family likes.

As you see in the picture, there are 3 dishes.  The other one is called Egg Plants with Ground Beef.  I will post the recipe for that later.  Just having to recall this one recipe from my memory was time-consuming enough!  Whew!  ;)  Happy cooking!

Xoxo,
Lin

Pork Spare Ribs

Do you ever stand in front of your refrigerator and wonder, "What on Earth am I going to make for dinner tonight?"  Of course you do.  We all have one of those moments.

Well, I'd like to introduce a dish that my mom created not too long ago.  It's so easy.  All you do is marinade, let sit for about 15-20 minutes, and pop in the oven.  Here's the recipe below.

Pork Spare Ribs

1 rack of spare ribs (mine was about 2 lbs)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 cup of wine (any wine will do, this is only to mask the meat smell)
2 cups of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of sesame oil

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then pour into a gallon-size Ziplock bag (or you can go directly to the Ziplock!).
3) Peel off the membrane on one side of the ribs (absorbs marinade better this way).  Cut ribs into 3 parts.  Toss in bag.
4) Marinade for approx. 20 minutes.  Ten minutes each side.
5) Pour ribs and sauce into either a 9x13 cake pan or a Pyrex glass container, bake for about 40-45 minutes.
6) Once ribs are done, and if the sauce hasn't evaporated, I pour the sauce over rice for the kids.  They LOVE it.

I hope you enjoy the ribs as much as my kids do!

Xoxo,
Lin

I already served one part of the three before I took this picture.  This is finger-lickin' good!

Bohemian, featuring Portrait Necklace

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I've been on hiatus for a while.  Things happen and you just get so wrapped up in it...let's just say that 2014 has had a pretty rough start.  Anyway, I did my usual Tuesday gym workout today and I'm feeling much better.  So I decided to do a blog post about this really cute dress I scored from a flash sale.

Sorry I forgot to put on lipstick!

Here I'm wearing a dress by Free People.  I got it a while back on Hautelook.com.  I still see it every once in a while online, so if you sign up, you just might come across it.  But here's a really cute one from Forever 21.  The faux fur vest is from Forever 21, but that was purchased last year.  I found one here from Ann Taylor that's really cute.   My boots are Cole Haan, here's a similar pair (totally drool-worthy).  And... I'd like to focus today's post on the absolutely GORGEOUS necklace that I'm wearing.  As you can see, these are hand painted portraits.  Painted with a SINGLE paint brush bristle.  They are actually the size of a PENNY, if you can believe it.  The artist, Heidi Gibson, is an incredibly talented person, and she custom paints these.  You can order yours by visiting her Etsy store here.  They are chained by a 14k gold chain, with one Swarovski crystal on the chain.  The necklaces come in short or long in length, and in different metals as well.  Check out the website!  Men, it might be too late for Valentine's Day, but Mother's Day is only 3 months away!  Order these now for your wives and/or mothers!

And...that's it for now.  My daughter is done with her TV show so it's time for me to put her down for a nap.  Bye!

Xoxo,
Lin

Tuxedo Pants

Good morning!

It's a beautiful Saturday morning in Southern California.  My boys are off to piano class, and my husband took our daughter to ballet class.  There is something just so sweet with daddies taking their daughters to dance classes.  Baby K is the ultimate Daddy's Girl.  She knows just how to sweet talk her daddy into giving her just about anything she wants.  :)

So here I am, finding a little time to myself so I can blog.  I've been dying to blog about my tuxedo pants that I scored on an after Christmas sale from Kate Spade.  I just love the way they look.  It's both feminine (the cut), and masculine (the tuxedo stripes) at the same time.  And structured and stylish at the same time also.

I got my tuxedo pants on the Kate Spade website right after Christmas, so they're not carrying it anymore.  But I found one here on Nordstrom that are very similar.  Yes, it's a completely different color, but the cut and the style are basically the same.  And they're Oh-So-Cute. I paired my pants with a flowy top from Brass Plum, but here's a very similar one that's totally cute too.  My shoes are Christian Louboutins, here's a similar pair.  I got my aqua colored statement necklace from Francesca's, and I think this one here would work really well too.  My sunglasses are super old from Chanel, but for the life of me, I tried to look everywhere online for you but can't find someone that sells them.  So here's a similar pair by Guess from Sunglasses Hut.

When you're a Stay At Home Mom, you don't get the chance to dress up very often.  So I express my love of style through my blog.  I hope you've enjoyed reading it so far!  Have a good rest of the day!  My boys are beyond excited that the Lego Movie is out.  You should see the looks on their faces when I told them we would watch it tonight!

Xoxo,
Lin

Chambray Shirtdress

I wanted to post a recipe for spare ribs last night, as I make a really simple yet delicious stack of pork ribs.  But, of course, things don't always go the way they're planned. As I was using my knife to cut through the plastic wrappings, I accidentally cut my pinky.  It wasn't just a tiny cut, it was deep enough that I couldn't stop the bleeding, and couldn't really see how deep it was because there was just too much blood.  So I called my husband, who told me to take the kids with me to urgent care, and that he'd meet me there and pick them up from there.  Luckily there was one close by my house, and had barely anyone waiting inside.  I was seen within 15 minutes upon arrival.  I was lucky enough to not require stitches.  The P.A. just put medical glue on me, and gave me some antibiotics.  Thank goodness.

So instead of a recipe, I'm doing another post about, what else, clothes.  The day I went into Anthropologie to pick up that beautiful skirt, I also picked up this chambray shirtdress.  It was so cute that I couldn't resist it.  It was displayed with a brown leather belt instead of the cloth one it came with, so I got the belt too.  Here I paired the ensemble with my brown boots from Cole Haan again.  For accessories, I couldn't resist throwing on a statement necklace to add some sparkles to the outfit, and some simple gold hoop earrings.

Here is the shirtdress from Anthropologie.  I can't find the belt for you online, but here is a similar one.  The boots are old, and here is a similar pair.  I got the necklace on Hautelook.com from one of their flash sales, but here's a similar one from Francesca's with the same color tones.  My gold hoop earrings were college graduation gifts from my mom's best friend (hence, super old), but here's a similar pair.

I hope this post made it in time for you to incorporate into your weekend plans!  Have a good weekend, everyone!

Xoxo,
Lin

Valentine's Day Romance

As you can see from the picture, I got a haircut today.

Thank goodness for my fabulous hairdresser!  It was about time I had to chop off some of the lion's mane.  I have pretty healthy hair, no complaint there, but it's seriously so healthy that it just falls flat.  No volume, nothing.  So I went in for a touch-up on my highlights and a trim.  Voila!  I feel like a whole new person.

And of course, which girl wouldn't want their pictures taken when they step out of the salon?   So I thought it was perfect timing for a romantic look, just in time for Valentine's Day.

So here's a little funny story about my outfit.  As you can see, the focus is all on the skirt.  I was returning something from Anthropologie last month, and as I was stepping out of the store, I saw a lady at the counter with this skirt, asking the salesperson what she can pair with it.  The minute I saw the skirt, I went to the salesperson and asked her why I couldn't find it in the store.  It was the prettiest skirt I'd ever seen!  She told me that the skirt belonged to the lady and that she'd brought it in to find something to go with it.  So of course I had to ask the lady where she got it.  She said that she got it from Anthropologie online, and that she'd gotten two, one at full price, and one on sale, so she's returning the one she got at full price.  I'm like, if it's the same size I wear, I'm SO buying it.  And of course it is.  So I told the saleslady, who said she had to tag it and list it back into the inventory, and would take a while.  I was already running late picking up my daughter from school, so I told her to hold it for me, and I'd pick it up the next day.  Of course I picked it up the next day!  I looked online, the original price was over $180, the lady returning it got it at somewhere close to $65, and by the time I got it, it was only $49.  I totally scored.  Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good the next day.  :)

Since the skirt was so beautiful, and sparkly as it is, I didn't want to throw on more sparkles.  i just wanted to wear it with some simple stuff.  Otherwise the whole look would be too overwhelming, and that's so not me.

So here, I put together an ensemble that would be perfect for Valentine's Day.  Nothing is more Valentine's Day-ish than the colors pink and red.  Therefore I threw on a cream colored sweater for a clean canvas, a red belt to add some color, and a red coat to complete the look.  I wore a pair of pale pink, almost nude, shoes with a bit of pizazz to go with the outfit.  I thought the overall look was pulled off pretty well!

As I said, I got the skirt from Anthropologie.  They don't carry it anymore, but here's a lace one I found on Forever 21 that's got the same idea: details and A-line.  The sweater is Halogen, which I got from Nordstrom, and you can find it here.  I got the belt last year at Bloomingdales, here's a really cute one from Kate Spade.  The shoes are Valentino, and you can find them here.  The red coat is a super old one from Banana Republic, here's a similar one on sale.

There you go!  I was able to write that whole post because Baby K fell asleep in the car on the way home.  So since it's been a while, I'm expecting her to wake up any minute.  Better be safe than sorry and stop blogging now before I hear her cry!  Bye for now!

Xoxo,
Lin

Plaid

Now, I'm not a big fan of plaid.  Maybe I'm more into simple stuff and simple patterns, and plaid just interweaves too much.  That being said, I did find one from Target I liked.  Maybe because the colors are blended with black, so that the overall look isn't too shocking.  Or because the pattern is small so it's not too overwhelming.  Well, anyway, I got it.  I used to just wear them with black leggings a pair of flip flops, but I found a different way to wear it on Pinterest the other day.

I mentioned that the shirt was from Target, and this one here is pretty similar.  I bought a puffy vest from The North Face at Nordstrom, which you can find on sale here.  So I put that over my plaid shirt since it's been so chilly these days.  Then I put on a pair of True Religion skinny jeans that I got at the outlet store last year, and you can find them here at Nordstrom as well.  My Tory Burch boots were from a while back too, but these here are pretty similar.

I apologize the picture isn't very clear.  I tried a different camera today and I don't know how to use the settings yet.  Anyway, here's a casual look that hopefully you like.  It's perfect for running errands in this chilly weather while still looking pretty put together.

Good night!

Xoxo,
Lin

The Magic of Makeup

You know, I've always known makeup can transform a person.  But it is literally eye opening when you see the before and after pictures of yourself  Now, I'm not very good at doing different looks with my makeup, but I have tried several brands of various eye makeup over the years, and I've found ones that I really like, and ones that aren't so great.  Thanks to my Asian heritage, my eyes are really small, with almost non-existent eyelashes.  I'm sure a lot of you Asian women out there can relate.  But who wants to go through the hassle of attaching fake lashes everyday?  And those extensions that's all the craze nowadays, they're great and all, but you can't really wear eye makeup with them or else when you try to wipe it off with cotton, the extensions get stuck on the cotton pads and come off, taking those precious few lashes you already have with them.  And let's not even mention the price.  They're outrageous.

So I'm always on the lookout for good mascaras and good eyeliners that make my eyes appear bigger.  So far, I've come across these products that I absolutely love.  And these are for everyday use.   I really like the Lancome Color Design eyeshadow palettes.  And this particular one here in Taupe Craze is my favorite.  The shimmer in the colors, the exact shade of taupe, and the fact that you can wet the sponge applicators to make the colors pop, all work together to enlarge my beady eyes.  But everyone knows what really make Asian eyes pop is the right eyeliner.  For years I was wearing drug store brand liquid eyeliners, but they all smear over my lower lids within a couple of hours.  I finally found this one here by Stila.  Not only can I precisely draw my cat eyes everyday, but they stay on ALL day.  When I order them online, I seriously order 3 at once.  I just don't want to risk running out!  Last but not least, the one thing to add the finishing touches, mascara.  The right mascara makes all the difference.  I used to stay away from the ones that create volume because they tend to clump my eyelashes together.  But this one here from Lancome creates volume without the clumping.  Before I use the mascara though, I first swipe on a layer of mascara primer, Lancome also makes a good one here.

The one tool I can't do without, is my eyelash curler.  I've used my Shu Uemura curler for years, and it is seriously the best.  You can find it here.

Here's a before and after of my right eye.  When I say makeup makes a big difference, I wasn't kidding!

Before

After

Good night!

Xoxo,
Lin

Mother/Daughter Lunar New Year Outfit Take II

I don't know about other cultures, but the Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year with a 7 day break.  Of course that doesn't apply to us here in the States, but wouldn't that be nice though?  Ahh...wishful thinking.  Anyway, on the 2nd day of the New Year, it's a tradition that the daughters return to her parents home and have dinner with them.

So after celebrating with my husband's side of the family, the next day we visited mine.  My family is ridiculously small compared to my husband's. It's just us, my sister and her husband, and my mom.  And as my sister wasn't there last night, it was just the 5 of us with my mom.  However, with 3 kids, there is never a dull moment anywhere they go.

So since it was a New Year's dinner, I did the whole red outfits thing again.  But of course we had to change it up.  I chose a red lace dress this time.  I've worn my dress so much on it's own, that I wanted to pair it with something different to create a different look.  I mean, it's easy to just wear the dress by itself and thrown on some heels with it.  Instead, I went with a leather jacket, a scarf, and black boots.  I wanted to pair the dress with something that you wouldn't expect to go with a romantic lace dress.  I put Baby K in a red Chi Pao this time.

I got my red dress on Modcloth a while ago, and they're not carrying it anymore.  But here's a pretty similar one on ASOS.com.  My leather jacket was by Halogen that I got from Nordstrom before Thanksgiving; I was really surprised they're not carrying it anymore, but I found a very similar one here.  It was my first leather jacket, and I didn't want anything too biker-ish.  So I got one that was quilted with no zippers.    The more I wear it, the softer it gets.  And it definitely keeps me warm while still looking very chic.  My boots are super old from Banana Republic, but I found a cute pair on Zappos.com on sale here.  My scarf is Gucci; I got it as a Christmas present from my mother-in-law.  You can find it here.  My mom got Baby K's Chi Pao as a Baby Shower gift, but you can find it on Chinasprout.com as well.

Well, I wish our celebration could last as long as the ones in Asia, but unfortunately we have to get back to work and school and being busy, busy, busy.   So, until the next post!  Bye!

Xoxo,
Lin

Party Planning

It's Sunday...

The only day when I get to sit around and do nothing and catch up on my  TV shows.  The kids are all out to breakfast with Daddy and Grandpa, so I get a few hours to myself.  I recorded American Idol this season so I'm watching that.  J Lo is absolutely gorgeous, Harry Connick Jr. is SO funny, and him and Keith Urban are the most delicious eye candy!  *swoon*

So...back to doing nothing...NOT!  I have to start the party planning for my daughter's 3rd birthday!  *sigh*  A mother's job never ends.  With the Frozen craze going on these days, I had originally wanted that theme, but I'm pretty sure a lot of little girls are doing a Frozen theme this year.  I'm going with Tinkerbell.  Good o' Tink it is!

As I haven't officially started planning for the party, I don't have any picture to show you just yet.  But I do have some pictures from past parties that I can post for you.  If you have any questions as to how and what to do on some of these, leave a comment below and I'll reply with answers!

These were pictures from my sister's Tea Party themed bridal shower:

There was a scrap booking station for guests to make their own pages for my sister.

These are from the boys' Lego themed 6th birthday party:

These were from my daughter's Ariel themed 2nd birthday party:

These were from my daughter's Princess themed 1st birthday party:

You know what I think is most important in planning a party?  I mean, all the factors are super important to pull off a beautiful party.  But I get so irritated when people skimp on these.  Use table cloths that go all the way to the bottom of the table.  Covering up those table legs make all the difference.  I see some extravagant table displays that are absolutely stunning, only to be ruined by not using long table cloths. And you can seriously get some cheap ones online.  They're washable; if you don't want to commit to a certain color, get the neutral ones.  White, black, brown, or even gray would do.  Trust me.  Any of those would be better than a cheap plastic one that exposes the table legs. Here is where you can buy them for the price of renting them.  And if you don't want to buy them, rent them from your local party rental place. 

And that's that!  Thanks for stopping by!  The kids are back and I've got to tend to them now!  I hope you enjoyed the pictures and are able to get some ideas off this post!  Bye!

Xoxo,
Lin