photo by Howard Hsueh
handmade by friends will be moving~! soon to a new web host. also handmade by friends will be renamed… i have been thinking about couple of names in mind, but i am open to suggestions. will post the new web address and the name soon~!!! =)
SEE YOU SOON!
blues cheese, pecan, dried cherry, and raisen… baked in wine, brown sugar, and apple cider sauce for 30 mins in oven.
made beef with vegetable dumplings and just vegetable dumplings. I really loved the vegetable dumplings. I didnt follow any recipe I made up the recipe as I was cooking… which is how I cook most of the time.
beef dumplings…
vegetable dumpling
steaming them… but i actually liked them more when i fried them in oil.
check out an older post for full homemade dumpling recipe.
by Cheryl
I started stitching over the summer when I was looking for a creative outlet. I never considered myself a crafty kind of person (I don’t paint, draw, knit, etc…), and up until that point, my experience with a thread and needle was limited to sewing buttons, and rather poorly. So I thought I’d expand my sewing horizons by making hacky sacks for my son. And when I got bored of making those (one can only create so many hacky sacks), I moved on to the girly stuff… Like hairclips!
My daughter received a felt hairclip as a gift, and it looked simple enough to create on my own. Best of all, no sewing machine necessary! Raw materials are basic: contour hair clips, wool felt, embroidery floss, needle, and scissors, and most of the stitching involved is even more basic. The toughest part is the detailing, but I love how so much cuteness can fit in just a little over an inch.
There is no rhyme or reason behind the nomenclature other than the fact that I love the French language and that I think it sounds prettier than English. Just for fun, I named them “Petite Fille” (fille, pronounced “FEEY”, means girl), and there are (probably grammatically incorrect but whatever) variations depending on the design… A dessert like bubble tea would be “Sweet Fille”, a city-inspired one called “Urban Fille”, etc. Yay for franglais! Anyway…
A lot of folks have encouraged me to sell these creations, and I hope to do just that in time for the holidays, with 50% of every sale donated to the International Justice Mission – a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of sexual exploitation, slavery, and other forms of violent oppression. The IJM story is of the “good-triumphs-evil” variety that you’d find in a novel. Only this is for real. They organize victim rescue and aftercare, prosecute the perpetrators, and promote functioning public justice systems.
My heart breaks for these victims who are abused beyond measure and who are crying out for rescue. How can it be that centuries after the “abolition of slavery”, there are 27 million slaves in the world today? Most of them children?
These simple little hair clips, fun as they are to make, have become a vehicle for me to pray for the ones whose stories aren’t being told… to spread the word on an issue that gets no airtime in today’s “news”… to incite the able to help the unable. Did you know that it costs $500 to help rescue a slave? The abolition of the modern day slave trade seems worlds away, and I suppose for now I’ll start with a small step of faith.
What do you think?
photograph by Eric Kim
you’ll be able to purchase these clips soon online, we’ll update on the shop soon as its running…
last weekend i was sick and in bed, knocked out all day because of the crazy weather. it was sooo cold and working late on the coldest day didn’t help. so for the weekend i kept on drinking ginger lemon tea. i was already sick, but it really made me feel better and i was able to quickly recover. my colds usually go forever, but this time i got rid of it in 4 days.
i love making tea in my teapots, actually, i collect clear glass teapots. this one is my fave but eric accidentally broke the lid this past weekend. =( I was pretty sad about it because i have no idea if i can replace it. hopefully i can.
so brewed ginger is known to help with colds, and also lemons – full of vitamin C – help boost your immune system. these 2 are the perfect combo to drink and fight the cold.
to make the tea you need:
water
fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
lemon
honey
boil the water with ginger. if you are sensitive to spice, i advise you to make it with a 2 teaspoon ginger to 4 cups water ratio. i usually do 2 tablespoons to about 5 cups. it does get really spicy. then add in about 1 1/2 lemons; slice one whole lemon and then just squeeze half of the lemon juice into the pot. and put honey to your taste and your are done.
kind of… more like into the foliage
i have been super busy these past few weeks with work and being sick. i’ve had no time to sit down and write, but I’m finally getting myself to sit down to write. so, on columbus day i went hiking with friends to mohawk, NY and the foliage was amazing. the climb was kind of intense for some but i thought it was fun. you actually had to scramble on the rocks and climb ladders; it was lots of fun.
yonnie… walking on water like Jesus.
starting our scramble
cheese~ patricia posing for pic
going through a huge rock…
we had beginners with us and had to help each other out. she was a good sport. she freaked out a lot on the climb, but she didn’t give up and finished with us.
walking between the walls of rocks… it was a really small space and we had to climb out of this place.
the view when we got out of the cave… it was worth the climb and all the sweat. so amazing…
we stopped for lunch. yummy… one of the best places to eat lunch – the view was priceless.
my lunch. patricia packed me rice balls with salty salmon and nori… it was so yummy~ and with my barley tea it was perfect…
orange berries i found on our way… really pretty
we can see our destination… the mountain house. the view is so amazing.
friends… having good company makes the experience all the better.
love LOVE this tree… one of my favorite pics i took on this trip.
another favorite pic…
full foliage, where we started off.
the end…
