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)

Ski break - OOTD

Happy post Presidence day!  This week is the ski break for our school district.  Funny, right?  We get a christmas break and a ski break then a spring break, and then summer break, you wonder if the kids ever are in school.  So this weekend we took the kids to Tahoe to see snow.

We got a free deal at the Grand Sierra Hotel and I got some discounted lift tickets at Mt Rose Ski area for the kids for $5 each.   Both kids are super exited to see snow.  My son was so exited that he woke up at 4 in the morning and woke everyone else up.  It is interesting that in my daughter's mind that season is a place rather than time.  She suggested we "go to the spring place, pick up a branch so we can use the branch to hang the glove on snowman we make at the winter place".  I guess that time can be shrink with the traveling ability

I am really not a cold place person even though I am born and grew up in a cold place.  I bundle up layers and layers of sweater and fleece with thick down coat. It is almost ridiculous, I know.  I don't know how I had survived the winter in Chicago land for 5 years, but I do know that is the reason I moved to California. 

Mt Rose Ski area has a magic carpet, escalator type of lift.  It is great for beginners to try out the bunny slope.  My son is very natural in terms of skiing. I think it came from walking on the back edge of the couches and jumping between.   He won't fall normally and can naturally shift the weight on his body to avoid people,  but he gets scared when because after he gain some speed.  During that time he want us to hold his hand. Otherwise he did great.

My daughter on the other hand, pretty much turn into a wood block once she had her ski on.  She goes "Mommy, mommy, mommy, no, don't stay too far away from me, no, I am going to fall, no." and she hasn't even move an inch. At first we don't know how to help her, because she would put weight on us if we hold her hands and not using any of her core strength to stay up.  Consequently she will fall backwards on her butt once  the center of her weight is ahead of our hands.  Finally my husband figure out a way.  We would stand in front of her in a short distance and let her push us if she feel it is getting too fast.  With us in front of her, she felt much more secure.  After that she was able to let go of our hands and ski a short distance.

You can probably tell, it was a very tiring trip.  I was exhausted running backwards in front of both kids. Kids tired out too.  Both fall asleep right shortly after they get on the car on our way back to the hotel. Still, it is fun to see the snow once a year so I can appreciate the California weather.

As for the remaining the week,  our child care arrangement didn't fall through so hubby and I had to each work from home for two days for the remaining of the week so we can keep an eye on our son who will be in therapy for a good part of the day.  Today is my turn.  If you know autistic kid, you know they had the ability to escapes like Houdini.  You'll never know what kind of stunt they'd pull on you.  So if I am alone with him, no skirts.

Top: Anthropologie Two-story Cowlneck tee
Cardigan: LOFT Vneck Cardigan
Jeans: Lucky Brand Bootcut Jeans

Raise the Red Lantern

Fifteen days after Chinese New Year is the Lantern Festival.  This day in the evening, People goes to festival and enjoy the beautiful Lantern display.  Latnerns comes in all color, size and design. They are traditionally hand made and really shows off the artist's craftsmanship.

My favorite has always been the the turning Lantern.  They have different paper cut out designs on each side and turns round and round.  Some tells a story.  The others has running horse on them, varied ever so slightly in each panel, so when the designs are turning, it became animated.  It is rather fascinating to me when I was a child because at that time, TV is rare and not to mention animation.  It also is very fun since kids don't usually get to go out in the evening and this is one of the holiday we hold our own little lateen and walk in the street look at all beautiful colors.  The experience is very much like seeing Christmas lighting in the western culture.

Of course there is always food associate with any Chinese festivals.  For this festival, the feature food is "Yuan Shiao".  It is a rounded shape dumpling, with the wrapper made out of sticky rice flour.  The inside filling can be salty or sweet.  Some people put meat filling and some put ground sesame,  and some puts ground up peanut with sugar.  You can even get really fancy and put osmanthus or rose petal inside.   I had always prefer the salty one. My husband never had salty yuan xiao in his life before he meet me.  He think the salty ones are yucky and prefers the sweet ones.   I guess there is a regional difference.  My daughter's class made some and they fill it with Chocolate.  Guess that is the US version :-)  It tasted strange, but hey, anything chocolate taste good.

This year school had a event for the children to parade around the school for it.  Turns out to be a rainy day so they end up have to just walk around different classroom inside with their little paper made lantern.  She was very happy to see us because not a lot of parents show up. She made me carry her lantern and it is great to feel like a kid again.

Macy's new Launch -- Kinder Aggugini for Impulse

As I often get junk email, one new product caught my attention today.  It is Macy's Launch on Kinder Aggugini for Impulse.


This designer for less concept is not new.  Macy's sibling Target is the master of it.  However I had never quite like the clothing line Target has to offer. I don't usually shop at Macys as I get overwhelmed by the selections.  I bought some princess or Dora or Hello Kitty stuff for my daughter there once a while or Clinique face lotion when there is a Bonus time.  That is probably the extend I shop there.  My mom however is a big fan and she often stack her coupons and find super good deals.  Inspire by her, I bought some cashmere crewneck during Christmas last year and only had to return them because they fit like a grand mother's sweater.

Will this line of Macy be the same disappointment? One thing I have noticed is that most material are non-organic. On the plus side they are machine washable.

As always I am tempted by yet another dress. Left side of both pictures are my favorites.  I wish there were in-person reviews like the Anthropologie ones available somewhere.  As we all know the way a gorgeous model wear something does not always equal to real life success.
Do you shop at Macy's?  Any favorite department that works? Will you be checking out this new line?

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.