The gifts

Here are the pictures of the gifts I talked about yesterday. I am not a professional, so don't laugh at my skills.

This first one is the fun bag I made for my sister. She only likes black leather, so I made her this black and white fabric bag. I didn't want some boring design, so used these small sample pieces I had. I think it looks cute.
These two are the market bags I made for her. The pear and apple one is medium size, while the other one is quite big. People shop at local market daily in HK, so she doesn't need huge bags. She can use the pear and apple one for light stuff, and the other one for heavier stuffs, since it has stronger fabric, and a lining too.
These two pictures are the same bag. I made it reversable, for my niece. I really like this leave design, it's very modern, and has lots of vibrant colors. I think it's great for a little girl, and it's not those boring pink or purple most girls have. So, it is unique.
And I made a pencil bag, coin bag, sunglasses case for her, using the same fabric.
I bought this gorgeous Japanese umbrella fabric recently. Even though it's a little bit dark for a little girl, I though she might like it. I even sewed a simple bow with that brown polka dot fabric, but it's really hard to see in this pic.
And finally, I am going to give my niece some of my bookmarks, bracelets, necklaces, etc. Haven't decide which ones fit her better, but here are some bookmarks she probably will like.

Exhausted

at 10Am! I could barely get out of the bed this morning, after 8.5 hr sleep! I think from now on, I will need to sleep 10 hrs each night, plus some naps during the day!

I wanted to make my sister and niece some cute bags. But since I have been super lazy lately, nothing got done. So, from last Friday, I gave myself a week and pushed myself sitting in front of the sewing machine and piles of fabric. So far, I made 2 market bags and a fun bag for my sister, and for my 6-yr-old niece, a yellow purse (with matching pencil bag, coin bag, and glasses bag) and another one with beautiful Japanese umbrella fabric. They didn't tell me what they want, so I have to guess. My niece is in a very nice school, and everyone has to wear the uniform. So, cannot really buy any cute outfits for her. Maybe she can use some of these little bags during the weekends. My sister only likes black leather bags. But I think those are too boring. So, I am trying to add some color to her life. She can keep those very cute market bags in her black purse, and use them when she go to the market. I want to make more, but it all depends on how much energy I have left. I am sending them to HK next Monday. If I cannot make more bags, they will just have to wait till next time. I will try to take some pics of the bags before I ship them out.

AK's $500 Slipper Orchid

is blooming so nicely! Four flower spikes! And each flower is more than 4" wide! He got it as a gift, none of us is that crazy, there is no way I will spend $500 on an orchid. But WOW, it's AMAZING!

Fun Quiz

Saw this one on Jessica Jones's blog How About Orange, played it, and thought it was quite interesting. So here it is. It's Ikea's tool, to help you determine your design style, of course base on Ikea products. So, if you never liked Ikea, the result could be way off. I happened to like Ikea, and always wanted to get some of their stuffs, but DH is not a big fan, so we only got some curtains from them so far. Well, back to the quiz, turned out I am a "Scandinavian Natural", 80% Scandinavian, and 20% modern. I knew I don't love country or southwest, so pretty happy with the result. Now I have to find out what exactly is Scandinavian!
What is your style?

Oh, here is a couple of new pics of AK's Den. Nobile. He borrowed my camera and took the pictures this morning. They are very cute.

Update On My Orchids

Here are some new pictures of my blooming orchids. And two more are opening up, I will show you those pictures later.

Since I Am Always Hungry Now

I checked out one of my favorite blog, Bakerella. So many goodies, and step by step instructions too. If you are thinking about baking your love a surprise cake, or cupcake, go check her out. Or, if you are really challenged in the kitchen, maybe you can ask her to bake something for you. Here are just some of her new creations. Oh, you can also make the last one into a broken heart instead, if that's your choice. But broken or not, I think I can eat them all.

Sweet And Sour Pork With Pineapple

OK, here is the recipe I promised you yesterday.
It is the easiest Chinese recipe I have ever seen.

Ingredients:
- pork about 1lb, you can use rib or just pork meat, cut them into 2" cubes.
- a can of pineapple, drain it, you can keep the sauce for other desert recipe.
Seasonings:
- salt, 1 tsp
- sugar, 1 tsp
- Chinese vinegar, 1tbsp
- tomato sauce, 5 tbsp
- soy sauce, 2 tbsp
- some scallion, sliced ginger, and all purpose flour

Step 1:
Put pork cubes, soy sauce, salt, scallion and ginger in a bowl, mix together.
If you are using fresh pineapple, you can slice it or cube it now.

Step 2:
put some oil in a hot pan, (I used canola oil in a nonstick pan), on medium high. Coat the pork cubes with flour, and fry them for about 5 minutes. (I used about 1" deep oil, so had to turned the pork cubes once, so needed more frying time.) Take the pork cubes out when they are golden on all sides. Once all of the cubes fried, turn on the heat to high, and put them back into the pan and fry again, for 3 minutes this time. This way, the outside won't be too dry, and the inside will be totally cooked through. Drain them.

Step 3:
Use the same nonstick pan, this time only add about 2-3 tbsp oil. (I used the oil from step 2). Wait until the oil is hot, add tomato sauce, sugar, Chinese vinegar, and just a little bit of water. Stir, when you see the sauce is thickening, and there are some bubbles, put the fried pork and the pineapple back in. Turn them, make sure they are all covered with the sauce. Put everything in your favorite plate, and you are done.

How easy was that! And it was my first try with this recipe, it turned out sooooo delicious! This recipe is from one of my favorite Chinese recipe book I bought several years ago on sale. I LOVE IT! I will post more recipes soon. Frankly, I never follow recipes exactly. With Chinese cooking, you can adjust seasonings to your taste. It's not rocket science, just try and have fun.

I totally forgot there is a Chinese New Year celebration at my hospital lobby today, so didn't bring my camera. It was quite nice! There were two lions, a golden yellow one and a black one. During a lion dance, people always focus on the head, of course, it's very colorful, and eyelids can move, and they got to spread around the oranges and cabbages. But for me, I like to watch the guy playing the tail. It's harder, since he has to bend his body all the time, he cannot really see anything but the guy in front of him. He has to move his feet with the head guy, not exactly same speed or steps, but somehow make it look like it's a real animal, with some jumping and turning. And occasionally, he has to lift up the head guy to do some trick. When the head spins, he has to turn around really quickly, without exposing himself. Trust me, it's really hard. If there is a Chinatown in your city, please go and experience it yourself. Only then, you can feel the rhythm and the energy, and learn to appreciate it as a wonderful form of art.

Happy Chinese New Year!

This year is the year of ox, my baby's zodiac. I read on Wikipedia, that a person born in the year of ox is "Dependable, calm, methodical, patient, hardworking, ambitious, conventional, steady, modest, logical, resolute, tenacious. Can be stubborn, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid, demanding." OK, mostly good. The link above has lots of great information about Chinese astrology, zodiac, five elements, etc, some of which I don't even know. You can check out what zodiac are you, and whether it was ying or yang, and what element was it for your year. And if you know exactly what time you were born on that day, you can learn more. It's a lot of fun.

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year! Read more about our biggest holiday here. Yesterday, the new year's eve, I was really in the mood of cooking, surprisingly. So, I not only made lots of dumplings (check out this tutorial I posted last year), but also cooked 4 dishes and a soup for dinner. Actually I cooked 7, but 3 of them took too long, so didn't made it to the dinner table. I tried some new recipes, and at least one of them turned out really great. I will post the recipe tomorrow, I need to scan the picture in. And we watched the national new year party, did the count-down together with millions of Chinese people. Too bad fire crackers are illegal here. =( Traditionally, Chinese people will try their best to go back home and have the big new year's eve dinner with their families. That's why around this time, there is the largest human migration, ChunYun. Since we are too far away, and don't have the chance to go back home at this time, we have to call our parents and say "Happy New Year" (Bai4 Nian2) to them before the midnight. My father-in-law is still in coma, so we couldn't call him. But he was definitely in our thoughts. This is one of the Chinese holidays that really makes you homesick.

What Are You Doing On This Historical Day?

I will be working and hoping. Hoping for a safe and successful ceremony. Hoping for a better future for the people and the country! Hoping for a more peaceful world! What are you doing today?

Safe Landing

Oh, did you watch it on the news about the plane crashed into Hudson River? I watched it on TV last night and this morning. Amazingly nobody died. The pilot did a great job landing that plane on water, without flipping it, and the flight crew members got everybody out of the plane very quickly, and all those rescue people got there really fast as well. I never really read those instructions when I board a plane. I didn't know that in a water landing situation, the back doors are not supposed to be opened, because it will let the water in and sink the plane too fast. Some people I talked to this morning said they are afraid of flying now. But I actually feel safer knowing that the flight crew know what they supposed to do and can handle situation like this. This is truely an amazing survival story.

Handmade Soft Toys

Here are some cuties that made my wish list.

This cute owl is from Manic Muffin. They have so many different colors, you definitely can find one that you want to adopt.
How about these stuffed felt numbers and letters? They will come in handy when baby start to learn to count and read. They are from MiChiMa. They also have lots of stuffed felt animals that are really really cute.
This little lamb, from Judy Elizabeth's Flock, just stole my heart.
Want to make this very huggable Rhino? Or this Koala bear? Or this little monkey? These are all from Funky Friends Factory. There are so many patterns for sale there, and they said even beginners can follow the instructions. Guess I will be visit them a lot later.
Oh, how about this cute kitty pattern from DIY Fluffies. Or this little dragon?

As Promised ...

Here are some pictures of some of my newly opened orchids.

This is my trustworthy Oncidium. Love the intensive color, and it always remind me of those fancy yellow dresses on a dancing floor. I thought I lost it this summer. The old bulbs were shrinking, and I detected rotting smell from its pot. So, I repotted it and found almost all the roots for the old bulbs were rotted. Only healthy roots are the ones on the new bulb. Now look at it! You cannot really see the bulbs in these pictures, but they are all very 'fat'.
And here is a pic of my Hawaii orchid, Blc. Mem. Bernice Foster. It had 3 spikes in summer, but only one flower opened. All the rest were chewed off by the ants lived in the pot. I flushed it and got rid of the ants. And now it is rewarding me with 4 gorgeous flowers. Two are totally opened, one is half opened, and the last one just started opening this morning. I think they are very elegant.
Oh, here are the before (summer) and after (now) pictures of my cyclamen. Remember I told you that it bloomed for me non-stop for almost two years, and then finally went dormant. I knew cyclamens do this, so didn't throw it away. It looked so dead, like a rock, for almost 8 months. But look at it now! And I just saw some tiny flower buds this morning. It will put up quite a show later.
And this is the only 'before' picture I can find, during its 'rock' stage. I cut it out from a corner of a big picture, that's why it's out of focus. But you can still see why I called it a 'rock'.

Orchids Update

Here are some pictures of AK's orchids, that are blooming in the office right now.
I actually have several orchids at home just started to open. I will take some pictures and post them when they have at least one flower fully opened. So far, 11 of my orchids are blooming or going to bloom soon. It's kind of earlier, compare to the past two winter. Told you my house is more beautiful in winter, I will have pink, white, yellow, orange, and burgundy flowers among the different shades of green. And I am pretty sure my Amaryllis will bloom again, it is the rich red color. And my cyclamen came back from dormancy, it has tons of leaves, and I think some of the leaves actually belong to baby bulbs growing around it. There is no sign of flowers though, but I believe it will bloom very heavily and happily for me again. It bloomed nonstop for almost 2 years before it went dormant, and the dormancy lasted very long, almost 10 months. I actually thought it was dead, looked like a rock. We will see.

Oh, I made some keychains last night. I was making something else for two custom orders, then I got into the mood. Yeah, I am those kind of people who's very moody, and I have to be in the right mood to create. I left the tails on all of them, in case someone like the tails. They can be easily cut off upon request. I am giving the dark green one to one of my coworkers as birthday gift, the others will be in my shop soon. I took these pictures before I left the house this morning, so the white background was the easiest. If I had more time, I would use some colorful background.