it's gonna change

My younger sister is coming to Salt Lake in a week for school, and she'll be staying with us for a little while. While she and my parents keep telling me that she won't cause any changes in my life, I'm sure it will.

I know you'd be confused as to why she's staying with us. Beats me.

I just hope the dogs don't get too excited when she and my mom arrive here in a week... yup my mom is coming, too, but she's going back to Taiwan after 3 weeks. Yup 3 weeks.

and they are friends too

I think Nuki is Jasper's favorite dog in the whole world, because most of the time they hang out together in the front room, the kitchen, the computer room, or my crafty room.

And then I found that Jasper likes Naicha, too. He starts to lie down by her quite a bit!

tiny acorn

We have quite a few Oak trees in the yard, and there's always a bunch of acorns lying around, big and small. Usually they are big and beautiful, but sometimes you'd see these small ones that are green or not completely formed.

When I took Nuki to the backyard I saw this very tiny acorn that looks like a "full-grown" acorn (in color and shape). I think it's the smallest acorn-looking acorn I've seen. Too cute!


tiny acorn compared to a quarter

in search of the perfect embroidery machine

I've been looking at some embroidery machines lately. I don't really care much for the Disney edition ones or the ones that allow you to buy and use design cards. I want one that's compatible with my laptop where I can create some designs of my own to use with the machine.

After doing some research, I've noticed that the Singer Futura CE-200 is quite popular among crafters; however Singer machines do have a bad reputation of breaking and not being compatible with Windows properly. I then found my dream machine, one that's not pro grade or outragously costly, but very attractive and will allow me to make my own designs. It's Brother's Innov-is 4000D!

Now if I can only convince John to get me one of these!

katrina's animal rescue

I watched Katrina's Animal Rescue on PBS this past weekend and my heart was just broken. The thought of a dog or a cat being left behind when his/her family was evacuated made me sad. While a dog is a pack animal, what was he thinking when his family/pack left him?

The program also showed how rescuers try to save the penguins and dolphins that were endangered by the powerful hurricane. There were also stories where the animal owners try to go back just to get their animals back, and not for anything else. Consider for many of us our pets are our family.

No pet should be left behind.

best friends

We got Jasper about 4 years ago when he was about 4 mo. old from the Humane Society. When he arrived at our house he was a bit kennel sick, and Nuki, who had been living with us for a few months then, would try to lick Jasper and clean him up a bit... but what we got would always be a soggy kitty! Jasper of course would have to clean himself up afterwards, but since then Nuki and Jasper had been best friends!

And the friendship is still going strong!

smiley

Nuki smiles a lot!

language school students are cool

A group of language school students from Internexus here in Salt Lake City came to our caffe with their teacher Gloria today.

I wish they would have called ahead, because when Gloria asked if John and I would talk to the students about our shop, the city, and some other stuff, it made me feel like saying, "I'm shy," again.

Jill who worked with me when I was teaching ESL at Horizonte brought her group of foreign students from Internexus to the store a few days ago, and apparently the students liked our little "presentation," so Jill recommended that Gloria brings her students to see us as well.

The students introduced themselves and listened to us talk about our little journey of opening the shop. I also told them about my own experience as a foreign students a few years ago, and recommended that they play their favorite American (English) movies over and over so they can listen to how the people speak and use the langauge. The students seemed convinced. :)

After answering a few questions, a lady from Korea told me, "Thank you for speaking. You speak very clearly. You sound like an anchor woman."

*blush* Ummm... I don't think I speak like an anchor woman, thank you, but "I'm shy."

the best ramen ever!

John was studying one of our traditional Japanese cuisin recipe book and saw this ramen soup stock recipe and wanted to give it a try.

He modified the recipe slightly and cooked konbu, pork ribs with bones, onions, chicken thighs... (and I should have him varify all these some time) in the slow cooker for like a day and a half, and oh my, the stock smelled wondeful in the whole kitchen.

Last night he chopped up some pork he marinated in miso, mixed with both red and yellow miso, and added some other spices and made a pork "paste".

I helped cooked some yellow ramen noodles, and John mixed the miso pork paste with the stock and we made the best pork ramen ever!

guard dog?

Every time I go to the bathroom upstairs, Yama would come into the bathroom, sniff around for a little while, and go lie down by the door. If other animals come by, he'd sniff them and make sure they are OK before he takes his eyes off them. Ummm... is he a bathroom guard dog?

practice

I was really tired this morning... after a night of seemingly-endless dreams! It was crazy, but after talking to my parents last night over the same old "issues" and about my sister, my sleep just wasn't that great following the phone conversation.

While I was feeling exhausted after coming to the caffe, I figured I'd pull some espresso shots and practice pouring some latte art... that did help waking me up a bit!

I poured a few and realized that the milk was a bit too frothy and therefore the definition of the rosetta was a bit weaker. Ahh I guess the day is still long and I'll be practicing a bit more. At least I'm not feeling as tired any more.

lookin'

Sometimes the dogs all go by the front room window together to look at something or someone of some sort. I'd join them sometimes, but I usually don't see anything. Hmm...

big eraser

I'm still searching for good erasers to carve into stamps, and with some of the more complicated or larger stamps I'd of course need larger erasers.

Today, I found one! I've never carved a pink eraser, but when I saw how large this eraser was I decided to get one and see how it works. It's large, but thinner than most erasers, so I'll have to be more careful carving it.

And it smells like a clean rubber tire!

rainbows

It was a bit stormy while I was driving back to the caffe from home, and guess what I saw! A double-rainbow!

teapot mat

I've always wanted to make cool and funky quilts, but have never succeeded in doing so. Actually I've never made a quit until today. I'm not even sure if I could call it a quilt. *shy*

We found this Japanese tea set at the second hand store. (It was only $5, mind you. *thumbs up*) I loved it because the theme on the set is owls. I'm into owl designs these days. The set doesn't look complete, and it also looked lonely on the table, so I managed to make a little mat for it.

Seems to work just fine!

5th anniversary

It was John and my 5th anniversary yesterday on the 7th, but we didn't get to celebrate because of the shop, so we took today off so we could enjoy a nice dinner at Takashi's!

We had the omakase from Takashi himself, and it was fabulous. I didn't even bring my camera this time. I just enjoyed every moment and every bite!

Happy 5th anniversary to John and I! Jia you la!

yoda

We were driving near the U and I saw a cloud that looked like Yoda!

latte art

I think I should be practicing pouring my latte art more often, and take photos of it so I can track my progress. The outside crescent need to be more "round" on this one. Working on it.

and they like each other

Ginger the little cat is a bit skittish, and Naicha the big dog is a bit in your face.

They've been loving to hang out together by the kitchen door recently.

purple kitty

My family and friends know that I'm really trying to be a hip crafter, and yes I'm still trying.

This past weekend I managed to make a purple pointy kitty. I found a free pattern on Wee Wonderfuls, which is an amazing blog that I love to read on a daily basis! I wish I could do a better sewing job, but I'm glad the finished (well, not quite, 'coz I didn't attach her eyes and nose to her head yet) kitty actually looked like a little kitty... even Nuki and Yama thought so.

car mom

I was driving down 400 south and saw a car whose license plate said, "My Mom." And it got me thinking...

dana's new hairdo

My beautiful friend Dana has a new hairdo. I think she's super pretty, and the most amazing part of this is that she cuts her own hair! Now that's talent!

I think the hairdo suits her very well, and she's just as beautiful as she's always been!