Big sis is ENGAGED!!

Despite  horrible weather on Saturday, it was a great ending to a long day.  I spent the whole day running errands. In the rain, with crazy allergies.  It was a drag, but it was all worth it.

This is how they wrap our balloons due to the rain!

Why was it worth it?

Because, my big sis got ENGAGED!!! Congrats to her and Greg!

Didn't want to announce it until she had officially announced it herself.  But I am so happy I get to post about it.

Greg, her fiance, had contacted some close friends and family to plan a surprise get together to celebrate their engagement.  And of course, I was jumping to joy that this day has finally come!

Check out the sweet view from their super suite

Amazing corner room

I made these cute little wine charms that was inspired by something I saw on my friend's blog.  Please check out her blog, there are some amazing DIY arts and crafts projects there. Super talented and very inspiring.

Decorations

Set up

Celebrate with Champagne and Strawberry shortcake from Ambrosia Bakery

Gorgeous ring! Even this picture does not do it justice!  You need to see it in person!

Another not so good angle

Greg is super sweet for planning all of this and I am so happy for the both of them.  Let the celebrations begin!

Overall, I had a wonderful weekend! Two celebrations in one weekend <3

Congrats to my BFF

My best friend since middle school will be graduating from UCSF Pharmacy come May.  Now that she's done with her externship, I'm pretty excited that she'll be moving back to the city.  Hopefully, she'll be less MIA and make more time for some girls bonding.

For the past couple of months, she's been anxiously waiting to see which Pharamcy residency program she'd be matched up with.  On Wednesday morning, she notified us that she got matched up to one of her top choices: Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Stanford! So excited for her to embark on this new journey.  Wishing her nothing but the best! <3

To celebrate this exciting news, her boyfriend decided to plan a surprise dinner for Friday.  With such short notice, a handful of us were able to make it to dinner.  We spent the evening downing warm sake with delicious sushi from Sushi Bistro! **UPDATED: Check out our food adventure here.

It was the perfect way to celebrate!  She explained to us how the matching up worked and though there are 3500 applicants nation wide, the programs can only take 2100.  She was hoping not to fall amongst those 1300, who are not matched and selected.  Of course I had absolute confidence that she'd get one of her top choices!  There were only 4 slots available for the program she applied for.  To me that obviously means something; that she stood out amongst the hundreds of applicants for that specific program.  She's smart and hardworking and most definitely deserved it.

To celebrate, I got her a Red Velvet cake from Sweet things.  I had it for lunch in celebration to AJ's birthday and it was so good that I knew it would be the perfect dessert for the occasion.  We all loved it! Moist cake and lovely home made frosting.

Scrumplicious!

TGIF

Thank goodness it's friday!  I can't concentrate and there's like 50 million things going through my mind.  I have so many errands to run today and tomorrow! Despite the chaos I am very well looking forward to my weekend!

Date night at Park Tavern tomorrow night! I can not wait!

My friend wanted to know what was wearing to dinner, so I sent her some snapshots.  I have to run some errands before dinner and won't have time to go home to change.  I guess I'd have to wear this out to dinner, bowling and even possibly out to 25 Lusk tonight.  She's going to wear a dress... I guess I'll just be a little under dressed. Oh well.

Happy early birthday to AJ! Delicious red velvet cake from Sweet Things in Laurel heights.

More sweet things to look forward to. =]

throwback thursdays with some crafting

Not sure why, but today seemed like a blur.   Anyhow, another semi productive day.  Folded laundry, tried to organize some junk and did some arts and crafts.  I've been inspired lately to start crafting again. Though I am not the most artsy fartsy/ crafty person amongst my group of friends, I have moments where I feel like making something.  The problem is just that I don't have enough room and I don't know exactly where all my supplies are.

Anyhow, I made a couple of cards today.

Where we store our nail polish.  I love how durable this Issey Miyake box is.

I was complaining about how I think my pants shrunk.

 

My coworker suggested me folding it up to make it look more like cropped pants.  I liked the idea and wore it like that the rest of the day.

Wacky weather wednesday

Happy hump day everyone!

Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the work week for a few reasons:
1) Half way done with the work week. Mondays are always a drag and Friday always puts a smile to my face knowing that I'm close to the weekend.
2) It's the most chillax day of the week. No docs. Time for catching up.
3) No docs= free dress day.  I think teachers get free dress on Fridays, well I get it Wednesdays!
4) I get off earlier, which means more time to run errands after work before the sun goes down.

A few exciting things today...

I was happy that I not only got to run errands after work, but I also efficiently ran errands during lunch. Returned something, exchanged something, checked on something and got something.  It was so nice out that I didn't want to return to work.  The sun was out, it was warm and there was no breeze at all.

During the weekend, I found the perfect top to wear for Coachella.  It's this orange crochet top from Cotton On at Stonestown.  At the time, I decided not to get it, but through out the past few days, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  So during lunch, when I was at the Westfield mall, I tried to find it again, but it didn't have my size.  My heart dropped.

I made it a mission to get it after work!  Luckily there was one left in my size. Phew!!  I was so happy!

I saw this in my dressing room as I was trying on the crochet top.  I guess my Aussie name is Sare.  What is an Aussie name anyway?

I returned to the store that I was talking about in my last post; with all cutesy arts and crafts stuff.  The name of the store is called TYPOS.  Something new caught my eyes.  These magnetic frames. How cute!! Another inspiration for a future arts and crafts project.

A big congrats to the BFF for getting matched to one of her top choices for her pharmacy residency program!! How exciting is that.  This good news was the start to my morning. =] I am so proud of my beautiful and smart bff!

Lastly, my new bag came today! More pictures soon to come!

Despite the drastic weather changes throughout the day; cold crispy morning, warm sunny afternoon and a foggy night, I hope everyone had a productive and wonderful day!

March Highlights

A month of festivities. Some highlights so far. What a great birthday month so far.

Coachella Tickets came

So excited to attend my first Coachella.  Unfortunately we won't be able to make the first night's performances because we'll be flying into LA area after work on Friday evening.  All my flights are booked, which makes it so much more official!! Coachella 2012, here I come!

Kokkari's kitchen

I love that it's open and the pots and pans hanging as decoration. Rustic and beautiful.

**UPDATED: Check out my wine and dining experience here.

Birthday flowers

Enjoyed 3 days after delivery. I didn't get to enjoy these beautiful flowers the day it was delivered since I was off for the day, but it was bloomed by the time I got into the office on Monday.

French Laundry goodie bag

YUM!!

**UPDATED: Check out my wine and dining adventure here.

Cutest birthday card of the bunch! Thanks BFF!

Instagram March photo of the day. March 20: Before and after pic.  I chose a two pictures of my sister and I. One from last year's bday event and one from this year. <3

My messed up nails. I wanted to paint them yellow. All ten fingers were painted yellow and as I was about to apply the second coat, I grabbed the wrong color.  Since I was too lazy to take it off, I just decided to use this pearly peachy pink color as the second coat. Oh wells, I guess it's better than bare nails.

Hope everyone had a happy Tuesday!

A Windy-ful Weekend

We originally had plans to go up to Tahoe this weekend, but due to the horrible weather on Friday and Henry's strained neck, we decided not to go.

I heard it was a winter wonderland up there with fresh powdery snow.  Part of me wishes that we had gone, but part of me was glad we got to stay in and just do us this weekend.  With the past month of festivities and long work weeks, it was nice to have quality time to ourselves.


Though the sun was out both days, it was quite windy. It was so chilly it pierced right through the skin and flesh onto the bone.  It was absolutely unbearable both Saturday and Sunday.

We were both so tired from a long week of work that we passed out early on Friday night. Oh the lives of old fogies.

We had planned to have brunch on Saturday morning.  I wanted to try something different, so we decided on Pork Store Cafe in the Haight.  As I was getting dressed, I wanted to dress comfy to match my make up less face (I had left my make up at home and spent the whole weekend make up less, sigh).  Good thing I didn't really have to get dolled up for any reason.

I threw on the comfiest articles I had.  I might not have looked like the trendiest person, but I was sure comfy.

I threw on my H&M Knitted turtle neck sweater with some leopard tights and my Top Shop Moccasin booties with my small little Top Shop side bag.

My Chile Piquin Pork Sausage with sunny side up eggs and potato has with wheat toast. The sausage was a bit spicy, but it was super tasty.  I loved the fact that it's house made and there's chopped up cilantro bits in the sausage.

After a hearty breakfast, we made our way to Stonestown to return some gifts I had received for my birthday.  I had to exchange some stuff because they didn't fit.  While we were at the mall anyway, we walked around as well.

Came across a arts and crafts store on the first floor where the old bebe used to be and fell in love.  I was inspired to do some arts and crafts of my own.  Here are some items from the store that I found interesting, cute and inspiring.

And so we ended the evening with some Shabu House. Perfect evening for some Shabu.  Henry and Phil got the all you can eat, while I opted for the regular. Thanks to Anna for the extra tofu and Sake on the side. We all turned red and the guys blamed me for them not being able to finish more meat.

 This stuff is so good. Can't believe I've never had this before. YUM!

Birthday Suit: Twenty Six

Good bye twenty five and hello twenty six. Geez, that sounds old. The end of my mid twenties. 

Twenty five was good to me; rekindled old flame, project 365, ran a half marathon, attended two weddings, traveled and a lot of wining and dining.

There's really not much of a story to tell and if there is maybe you'll one day get to read about it on our wedding website. Basically long story short, Henry and I had dated our senior year of high school and went our separate ways after we broke up.  We somehow became friends again and around this time last year, we started dating again.

It was also March of last year when I started My Photo Diary: Project 365.  I was inspired by my pledgesister, Christine, as I saw the start of her project starting the beginning of 2011.  The mission of this project is to document a photo a day for a year (365 days).  People usually start it at the beginning of the year so they can reflect on what has happened to them in that one year.  Since I did not discover the project until way after the 1st of January, I decided to start it on the first day of my birth month.  I have just completed one year's worth of picture (though I've missed a few days here and there).  As I scanned through all the photos, I realized how rewarding this project was. It definitely puts a smile on my face!

I can't believe I ran and completed the Nike's women half marathon. With minimal training I completed the half marathon in 2:44 minutes.  One more thing knocked off my bucket list. It was such a rewarding experience and with the city's scenic routes, the time passed by really fast.  Both my toe nails got bruised and eventually fell off, but it was all worth it!

We're slowly approaching the age where lovebirds in our circle of friends are starting to tie the knot.  In May, I attended my friends Bo and Ray's wedding in Hawaii and in September, I attended Sabrina and Mike's Wedding in San Francisco. Check out pictures here and here.

2011 was a year full of adventures and travels, all of which was with wonderful company, particularly with my boo!

1. First Warrior's game 
2. San Luis Obispo
3. Maui
4. Chicago
5. Sac State Fair
6. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
7. Los Angeles 
8. Beijing
9. Suzhou 
10. Wuxi
11. Shanghai 

And of course a year with me means a year full of eating, check out all of my wining and dining adventures at my food blog.

To celebrate my 26th, I had dinner at Don Pisto's with some of my nearest and dearests, followed by a chill night at Bubble Lounge.  Here are a few pictures from dinner! Enjoy! **UPDATED: Check out my food blog here for our food adventures.

 

My birthday outfit! I knew this would be my birthday dress the second I laid eyes on it, so vintage, classy and conservative.  I loved the details in the front and the back.  So elegant, I had to put my hair up and wear minimal jewelry.

Dress: Nasty Gal (same exact dress here)

Belt: Nordstroms

Shoes: Arden B

Pearl Earrings: Tiffany's

Accessories: Michael Kors Watch (rose gold), Pearl necklace worn as bracelet, Nadri bangle