A Love Letter

Thursday usually is the day I want to dress in absolute comfort. It is the day I volunteer in my daughter's Kindergarten class.  I avoid anything that would prevent me from bending down or sitting on the floor comfortably or too low cut or delicate to withstand the innocent pulling of young children.  I have seen other bloggers who are teachers, looking gorgeous in their pencil skirts.  I am always curious how they manage to do that.  Maybe they are upper grade teachers.  I love pencil skirt, but  try getting down to the eye level of 5 year olds, it can be a difficult task.  

(Outfit detail: Top: Nordstrom Caslon color block tee. Cardigan: JCREW Bottom: Vince Camuto Riding legging. Boot: from Hong Kong 10 years ago.)

On aiding day, I also make sure I go to bed extra early the night before.  I tend to be very impatient with kids when I didn't have enough sleep.  

Today's greeting is something I haven't seen in the past few month.  They each take off a shoe and put in the center of the circle.  Starting with the child of the day, they pick up a shoe, match it up to the owner and say Hi!

Thursday routine usually consist of writing and making pretzels and choice time.  While the pretzel starts to get a bit boring for me now that we are onto letter "M".  I also realize the mistake of wearing black.  The dusting flour shows too well on the black pants.

Writing time is always fascinating to me.  The classroom takes a free spirit approach during writing.  Children write, or mainly draw at this stage, anything that they might fancy.  It is amazing to see the different ideas flourish during this time.  You definitely see the difference between boys and girls.  While girls carefully details out rainbow, flowers, dog,  princess, or other beautiful things and write things like "I like flowers" or "I love you",  boys boldly explodes not only with colors and lines, but also sound effects during the process of making laser guns,  black hole, or ninja and write things like "blizzard", "Poke ball (as Pokemon's weapon)" or some other fancy sci-fi world that completely out of my comprehension.  

Choice time is always the children's favorite.  Today it seems everyone is into making something.  The crafts table became really crowded.  There are a group making airplanes and flying ships.  Later two boys ask me if they can go outside to test out their results.   I thought that would be a good idea and accompanied them to the kiner yard.   Today is a very windy today.  One flied and the other one plunged like a rock with all the stables. I ask them to observe why one worked and point out the winds and hollow body and why the other one not (it was a chunk of paper with lot of stables)  Another group was making shields and swords. 

My daughter generally love making something. but today she was busy writing something on a chair.  There were no room on the table.   Since she didn't complain about it, I let her be.  A while later, she handed me a letter, with a hand made envelope:

 

Oh, I love you too, baby!

Fall

It still feels like summer last week.  This week we starting to see some of the gloomy thick fog lingering longer during the AM hours. Still, by no mean it is fall weather yet.  I was a bit impatient to put on some fall toned outfit with the light weight summer piece.

(Top: Anthropologie  Bottom: JCREW Petite café trouser in linen  Caridgan: JCREW island linen cardigan in cinimon spice.)

There were quite some goodies go on sale at Anthropologie today including the Verdant Slip dress, it is super gorgeous on Lisa. (see it here) but on the other hand, I have a feeling she'd look gorgeous with a paperboy on.

Ah weekend!

After running around like chicken without a head the whole week, I am so glad it is finally weekend!

We had a blast last weekend at the beach even though the weather is somewhat cold. But that is just the norm for northern California beach.  I laughed so hard every time the kite plunge its nose to the sand.  Hubby eventually got pretty good at it.

(In the picture, my daughter is wearing JCREW fedora hat ($9.99 here),  JCREW terry sweat shirt, Disney small world skirt, really love the print)


Happy weekend!

J CREW classic

Untitled (clipped to polyvore.com)

First Day of Kintergarten

Today is the first day of Kindergarten for my daughter.  Parents are asked to stayed so they can explore the school campus together.  I don't think my daughter is as exited to start school  as I thought she would be. Maybe it is just too early and she was half awake after I drag her out of bed.

Somehow I felt more pressure dressing for those occasions than dressing for work.  I guess whenever you had to meet a lot of new people, you want to dress appropriately so you won't leave the wrong impression.  Considering I might have to bend down, jump up, run or do some strange thing, dress, skirt and heels are out.  I guess with an autistic son who has the skill of escape like Houdini, you can never be too paranoid. Now even with my daughter, that paranoia kind of stayed.

It is interesting during recess time, one of the parent ask me if I had been in this school before because I seem to know a lot of what is going on.  It is a parent participation school so there is a lot involve.  I told her I am a new parent and I am just as clueless as all the other new parents.  But I guess I look confident enough to pass on a false impression, haha :-)

First Day of Kintergarten by inkmark featuring scoop neck tops

Aka "mule"

A co-worker told me her niece came visit from China through a summer camp.  First day coming to the states, the teacher took them to Union Square in San Francisco. The group of ten to fourteen year old went to a shopping spree, buying on average 6 or 7 regular price coach bags.  One boy even bought a channel for his mom. My first reaction was "wow, I don't even own a channel bag, those children are spoiled."

Hubbie's comment after hearing the story: aka mule -- I think that refers to some kind feature you can enhance yourself  to carry more weapons and goods in the Fallout game he played.

He's got a point.  Those bags are probably not for the kids themselves, but for the family and friends.  Parent probably ask them to bring those back because it is authentic and cheaper than in the China market.  They could probably even resell them at a higher price.

Still, it feels wrong.

If parents spend money to send your children abroad.  What is the purpose?  I thought they would want to let the children experience the culture.  It would be more meaningful to walk along the twisted street of lombard, or hop on a cable car, or witness the iconic golden gate bridge.  Shopping at Union square and be weight down by those luxury goods early in the trip just didn't seem to fit into my idea of camp. Adding the airfare and camp fee, I am not sure it is even economical.

Having said that, I did spend my birthday checking out the anthro store at Union square.  They have so much more selections than the Santana Row store, especially the sale items. Some items are sold out on line.  I end up getting the Mementos Maxi Dress with the birthday discount.  I think most likely I will end up wearing it on the weekend.  Somehow maxi dress says weekend and vacation to me. Is that just me? Will you wear maxi dress to work?

Dress: Nordstrom ECI print maxi dress.  Necklace: Anthropologie Curiosity Shoppe Necklace

Somehow pencil skirt spells work more seriously. I wasn't much of a pencil skirt person, but lately I had grown to love it.

Top: Expanding Horizons Tank
Bottom: JCREW Ikat skirt
Shoes: Anthropologie

Dress up your tee

I saw this entry by Shopping with M the other day about how to dress up a tee.  That is such interesting topic because I have qutie a few graphic shirt and I usually wear it with jeans.

My favorite in the looks she showed in that entry is this one.

This is what I try to recreate with what i have. Hubby said I look like a student in uniform.

Top: JCREW polo and graphic shirt. Skirt: JCREW pleated poplin skirt (wow, so wrinkled at the end of the day)

Wishing from the past

Today I pulled out a dress I got from JCREW years ago. It was my birthday and JCREW happened to have the end of the season sale when they had the additional 30% off sale.  It is funny somehow the more I love a dress, the less I wore it. It is like I am waiting for the right moment to wear it or something. I was more of a t-shirt and jeans kind of gal so I felt very self-conscious about wearing a dress to office.

(Dress: JCREW Cardigan: JCREW island cardigan (buy it here) Shoes: Anthropolologie)

There was a time JCREW's dresses are fun and colorful.  I wish they would bring some of that back.

So do you have a favorite item you wish from the past? 

Red stripe?

I was returning some stuff at Anthro last night and there is a lady came in asking for suggestion because she is attending a 4th of July parade.

This is what I immediately thought of.

And guess what did the SA pull out?  The same shirt, haha, except they only have the navy blue left, but then you can just reverse it by wearing a red cardigan over it.

In fact I like the simple stripe red stripe the other stores carried more.  This anthro shirt is a bit over the top for me. Somehow when I think of 4th of July, I felt more casual.

 Here are some choice:

JCREW version:  Whisper linen stripe tank.  Honestly, although it is made of linen, I don't see how it justify the $41 price tag

From nordstrom: Splendid Rugby Stripe Slub Knit Tank on sale for $34.90

Old navy: Women's Diagonal-Stripe Jersey Tanks

Even gap kids have one and it is $4.99 right now.  who knows, the XXL plus might work out fine.  The red is the most crisp.

Now here is the disadvantage of on line shopping. You can not feel the fabric, try out the fit.  It is pretty much a wild guess.

What would you pick?

 I ordered the gap one.  I know, it is shameless, but the price is too good to pass.  Here is another shameless outfit featuring the anthro cat dress, and a Crewcut cardigan.  I love this cardigan, it is very light weight and the color calls for a sunny day. I love it so much that bought both my daughter and myself one.

the "short" story

Bay area really isn't a good area for shorts.  It hardly ever get warm enough and those days do get hot usually falls in a working day.  Notherless, some of those shorts roll out for summer are so cute.

 J Crew is currently having 20% off all shorts. Those three are my favorites. Somehow I am always drawn to clothing that has appliqué  on it.

More J.Crew...

However, my favorite short for the season would be this one.  How cute are those sail boats. The price is pretty reasonable too.

Land's End Canvas
Women's Sailboat Mini Shorts $39.50

Are you a shorts person?  

Layers- OOTD

Spring time dressing is always tricky.  I was fooled by the sun the other day.  Now I really learn my lessons. I have always admire people who tolerates tempature changes. For those blogger who took bare leg shots outside when the snow is still not melting?  I am totally in awe!   I inherited my mother's sensitivity to temperature, especially during the spring allergy season.  A little bit of cold air, I will end up sneezing non-stop for half hour.  Not a pretty sight as you can imagine.   Here is how I prepare for the day when there is a wide temperature ranges.

Witout the jacket

And without the sweater

OK, I am still more comfortable with having the shirt out.

Jacket: J CREW Chord
Sweater: Anthropologie 2010
Top: Anthropologie Soldierly Sparkle Top
Bottom:  Anthropologie Mendoza Codex Skirt
Boots: Super old from Hong Kong (10 + years ago? Wow, showing my age here)

This weekend my daughter is class-free.  It felt strange.  I had stopped her gym class because she wants to try out the ice-skating.  Then we book a trip to Hawaii for this summer and we felt it might be useful for her to learn swimming before the trip.  The swim class won't start till the end of month.  I am almost at lost with the free time all the sudden show up.  Maybe I will book a facial for myself.  Got any plan for the weekend?

Twin sets - OOTD

This morning after shower, my daughter walked in and ask if I have a long sleeve navy dress.

It turns out I do.

Somehow at this age, she likes everyone to dress the same.  In the past she felt exited if the whole family wore jeans one day.  I think somehow it gave her a sense of belonging and comfort.

I would had preferred wearing jeans on weekends, something like this.

Tee: Anthropologie stripe henley
Cardi: Anthropologie Before 5  Cardigan
Bottome: Gap Jeans
Boots: Hush Puppies


I also felt silly because she insist that we should wear exactly the same thing,  or as identical as our wardrobe allowed.  On the other hand, I don't mind humoring her on a lazy Sunday morning just to see her smile.

So here is today's outfit came out her highness's dictatorship.

My daughter's outfit : I am listing hers first because this is what she throw on and make me copied.  After this, she happily announce: "That is great! Now we can be twins" I'd felt much happier if I hear this 15 years down the road.

Dress: JCREW jersey dress
Cardi: JCREW Chiffon Bow Cardigan
Legging: Gap
Boots: Nordstrom
Belt: borrow from her Disney princess Jeans.

My outfit:

Dress: JCREW jersey dress

Cardi: JCREW Dulphine open cardigan

Belt: Anthropologie Soft Bow Belt

Shoes: Hush Puppie

Tights: JCREW dotted tights

Pin: Borrow from a JCREW skirt

A forgotten dress

Do you have a dress that you felt you have to have it in the beginning and then at some point, you forgot all about it?  A sign of too many cloth, right?  That is the case with southward stop dress.  I saw Kristin rocking her Southward Stop Dress (here)  the other day and it had recharged my love for this dress.  I also had a problems with sameness, that is with food or clothing.  I can never eat something repeatly even I love it.  I don't know how one of my friend can have a turkey spinach Sandwich 5 out of 7 days and still wants to meet at Sandwich shop after we haven't seen each other for a while.   Luckily that problem with sameness doesn't apply to people.  For a dress, it is difficult to get a new look with it so that is why I don't wear a dress too often.   Here is my attempt to create another look with it and then I forgot about this outfit in the camera, haha. 

Dress: Anthropologie Southward Stop Dress

Sweater: JCREW cashmere sweater

Jacket: Kenna-T Leather Military Jacket

You can see my other outfit with this dress here and here.

Review: Kinder Aggugini for Impulse Stripe Jersey Dress + OOTD

I get to go to the office yesterday and to show my appreciation of being able to go to work instead of chasing kids around , I put on this "official" outfit.

Top: LOFT flower tank

Caridgan: JCREW cashmere v-neck

Skirt: JCREW double-serge pencil skirt 

Belt: JCREW skinny belt

Shoes: Sam Edelman "Echo" Oxford (buy it here)

This reply email came from my manager this morning and I thought the conversation was kind of funny:

In Manager's previous email: I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday.  I will be checking email from home, and occasionally working.  I will probably be coming in tomorrow afternoon, though not related to work – I have Girl Scout cookie duty :O

My reply (b.t.w. this is the second girl scout cookie sale we got this month in the group): Girl Scout needs serious reform.  Even cookie monster from seasme street starts eating fruit and promotes health concept nowadays.... :-P 

His reply: That’s lame.  This is a direct result of all those nanny/democrat/liberal/environmentalists trying to interfere with the happiness of children!

Back to today's topic, one of the dress arrived from Macys, it is the Kinder Aggugini for Impulse Dress, Striped Short Sleeve Draped Jersey.  And here is how it looks on me and you can be the judge.  For reference, I am wearing a XS and it is not tight at all.  It is very thin and unlined so it clings to the body. Because it is clingy, it shows every bump and lump on you.  The designer remedied it  by using the black and white stripe in variable width to give the dress an overall sliming effect and distract you from the imperfections.  The neck drapes very nicely.  It is made of polyester and is machine washable.  It is pull on style. I like the style and the print, but I don't like unlined dress in general. Hubby hates the black and white contrast. So this one is going back, but I don't think it is too bad for its price ($69+25% off with coupon code MUSTHAVE)

Doodle for Google

Have you notice how Google changes their logo due to the occasion for the day?  It is truly a array of beautiful artworks.   Around this time of the year, Google also have a competition call Doodle for Google every year for the students to exercise their artistic talent to design their logo.  The finalist gets to put their work on google's web page for one day along with the scholarships. You can find out all the details on how to enter your little artist on the website provided above.  You can also see an array of artwork in this them here.

My daughter is still too young to enter this contest,  but she did her version of her own in the art class the other day. While she is totally missing this years design theme of "What I’d like to do someday…" I really enjoyed her work.  I especially like how she use "e" as a hamlet. :-)

 I think her version should be named "The world according to Evelyn". That horse like thingy at the right top corner, b.t.w, supposed to be a unicorn.  She was quite offeneded when I ask innocently "is that a horse"?

Well, while playing with the template features of blogger.com, I accidentally lose my original template and I don't like what it is right now. I can't quite revert back because I didn't back the original up.  Well, it will take sometime before the skin turns to something to be desired...


Last I leave you with an outfit from this past weekend.  This is my favorite pair of jeans after the previous one got a hole on the butt.   Oh, how I wish I can wear that to work, but as casual as our company are, I didn't felt  it is appropriate to wear salvage jeans :( but they are super comfortable.

Top: Anthro don't remember the name
Bottom: JCREW Selvege jeans,
Cardigan: JCREW cashmere crewneck sweater

Valentine's day

Did everyone have a good Valentine's day? Or are you planning on celebrating this weekend when there are more time and leisure? I use to think very little of Valentine's day.  What is up with roses cost $100 for a dozen that dies in a week, right? However when you are older in life, everything became routine and comfortable, it is one of the day that remind you to put some extra thought to it.  You can do that everyday, but one day is a good start. Sometimes when you say everyday, it became no day because there is always other things distract you and prioritize over.

I want to wore something pink for the occasion, but I still have to go to work.   I don't want to look completely business like with the pencil skirt, so I tried out the idea of adding the foolproff slip with a pencil skirt that LC has come up with in her blog Bella Seattle.  You can check out more of her idea with the foolproof slip here, also how I wear it with my jersey dress here.

(Top: Anthropologie Vanilla Bean Blouse, Cardigan: JCREW femme cardigan in deep coral
 Bottom: JCREW double-serge  pencil skirt, Slip: Anthropologie foolproof slip, Shoes: Stuart Weitzman Tipband )

I really want to add the valentine's day gift I received to my outfit, but then it is a bit too shiny.  So What did I received?

Yes, the Katespade necklace that I was drooling over. No, he did not guess it.  Basically I was browsing the Nordstrom catalog and said "This is so pretty.  It is exactly what I want for Valentine's day".  I guess sometime you just have to say what you want :-)  After a long marriage, you learn that men are generous towards the women they love, but don't take hints very well.  At least mine doesn't.

As I mentioned before, hubby and I went to the Ocean Blue Sushi Club for lunch.  It is hard to believe how nice the restaurant from the outside.  It is in a rundown strip mall.  If it hasn't been the high review at yelp, I would have never went in. The interior is very modern and chic with low lighting. There are many walls showcases Kimonos with complicated embroideries.

The presentations of the dishes are beautiful. I came here three times already but this is the first time I remember to take a picture of it :-)

My favorite dish is the grill squid.  This version adds a little bit of Basamic vinegar to the sauce comparing to the traditional way they made it in the Japanese restaurant and I love it.

The sashimi and the rolls are very fresh and portion is generous.

In the evening, after dinner, my daughter offered to play "To love somebody", which was in the practice song list this week.   She kept making mistakes even though during practice she played much better.  She got a little frustrated so I told her that music is something she should enjoy rather than stressed out about.  I asked her to take a break from it and just play anything as if she is some famous pianist.   She started playing something randomly on the piano and insist my husband and I should dance to it.  We slow danced to the soft tune she played.

It was my favorite moment of the day.

Always be beautiful.

Before I start, I want to thank Lisa from Confession of  a Call Center Girl  for the shout out.  When I check on line today and first thing I notice is Laura, who has not comment before.  When you are a  blog that had hardly any followers, you notice a new face :-) I was further puzzled by  Laura's comment "I'm visiting you, becasue Lisa obviously thinks very highly of you." It is only till later when I visit Lisa's blog  that I realized that she had introduce her readers about my blog.  Thanks Lisa,  it is so sweet of you.  I had been doing this blog for a while although I am not always diligent in terms of updating.   Despite lack of followers or comments,  the few that does feel very close and personal to me.

Among the few who I felt close to in this blogging world is Cindi from Simply Cindi.  We came from a similar background. I like reading her blog because I can relate to a lot of things she said.  But I didn't know about that when I first visiting her blog.  What draws me first was her beautiful wedding photos.  They are stunning!  Now she is starting her own wedding photography business with her husband Chris.  They are great! I think a great photography is not only great because their fancy equipment or superb technical skill, but also a great eye for details.  They are able to find beauty from the most common subjects and capture that special moment that flees in a blink.  I think Chris and Cindi are that type of person.  You can just tell by the way they planned their wedding and the shots they have shown us so far.

Anway,  I was reading Cindi's blog on DSLR 101 the other day and find it very interesting.  I was inspired to do some experiment on my own according to her suggestion.  I borrow hubby's Nikon, and set the mode to manual.  ISO 800 because low light, Speed 1/60 and aperture F1.8 which is the max I think.  Here is the result.

The mistake of this experiment? I choose the wrong subject of study.  It actually doesn't matter how the photo turn out.  My daughter will always be beautiful to me so I can't really judge my experiment is successful or not.  Haha! We will just call that a success :-)

Valentine's day is coming up this Monday.  Do you have any special plans? Any special outfit to  celebrate?  Getting any fancy gift?  With kids around, it is kind of hard to do anything but hubby did made reservation for lunch at my new favorite sushi place. So sweet of him!   Of course, what would be Valentine's day without the chocolate, right? These dark chocolate covered almonds from Trade Joe's are divine!  I don't think there will be many left on Monday though. 

(Top: Antro Topsy Henley

Cardi: Lumière ruffle cardigan in papaya 

Bottom JCREW Cord Atlee skirt in brown 

Legging: Madewell Denim )