French Provencal Kitchen

I cut out and file my favorites from magazines

And this is my absolute favorite

A French Provencal style kitchen by Christine Pittel

She designed detailed mantel and legs to add character

And brought back beautiful knobs and pulls from France

And hid refrigerator and microwave behind those beautiful cabinets
Her detailed and classy design
Somehow is not stuffy at all
It is airy
And selene

It is so beautiful
If I had this kitchen

Everyone will be banned from cooking

Or entering

And eating at McDonald's every night



(Photos from House Beautiful Magazine)

Underwood Family Farm Part2

When our girly girls went to Underwood Family Farm

They spent a long time looking at ponnies

And Pigs, Oxen, Horses, Goats, Chickens...
Because girly girls from the city did not know what to make of them

Underwood Family Farm

We went to Underwood Family Farm today
If you live near Los Angeles
And want to get away from the city
It is a perfect place to go
Because even our girly girls enjoyed it
And even a city girl like me needs a break from a city
When honked at too much during the week

Mon Unique

I have a confession to make

I was struck by the beauty of Elin's turn of the century apartment in Sweden

And spending a lot of time looking at her equally beautiful blog

(http://www.monunique.blogspot.com/)

Her gorgeous apartment is filled with white, gold and grey

And everything else that make me go

Ahhhhh.....

Which is also making me want to put all the blues away in our house

Until they are allowed to come out again

And start decorating our house just like Elin

With beautiful white, gold and grey

And everything antique, Swedish and French

My husband told me he needs to lose some weight

And I am thinking

He might need some new projects to lose that weight

Elin's blog talks about how to antique paint furniture

And thoughtful Elin put google translate

So someone like him

Who doesn't read Swedish cannot get away from a new project

Because his lovely wife fell in love with Elin's apartment

Elin's beautiful apartment half way around the world

Will help my husband lose some weight

And make his lovely wife happy and thankful

To have found such a beautiful blog

And to have such a hardworking husband :)

(All photos from Elin's blog www.monunique.blogspot.com)

Sending My Love For Betty

I baked a chocolate cake this morning

While kids were in school

Ms. Betty Crocker helped me

So that they won't know I don't bake from scratch

I remember eating donuts my lovely mother made when I was little

Possibly

Or definitely

The most hideous shaped donuts ever existed

Because she never measured anything

Seeing her throw the dough into a wok

Made me understand how dough could change its shape

As it was thrown from a far

So here,

I will say it out loud

Betty, You Rock :)

Le Petite Trianon

Have you seen this book?

Marie-Antoinette and the Last Garden at Versailles by Christian Duvernois

The tale of Marie-Antoinette is very famous and very sad one as you know

But this book gave me a peek at Marie-Antoinette

Without a word

Recently, the Petite Trianon, her favorite residence in the Versailles had gone through a renovation

To restore the look exactly how it was

When Marie-Antoinette lived there

Just how she decorated the residence

I was struck

With the gentleness of the design

The air of simplicity and calmness

I felt as if I peeked inside of her....

Lauren And Doll Crib

This is Lauren's bed
I made the quilt and the pillows
Because she loves pink

This is an Antique Wooden Doll Crib
Which I painted white
And made a matching bedding last christmas

It took weeks to finish

Because I am a good mommy who wants to give a beautiful toy for Christmas

And when she got the beautiful doll crib
Which has a matching bedding
It reminded her of this
The days when she spent hours getting into boxes
Because she didn't know she is a 100 percentile toddler
And the beautiful wooden doll crib is too fragile to hold a 100 percentile toddler
So her mommy of three can finally learn something
And start buying plastic toys this christmas

Brown Christmas

We have pulled out our sweaters and coats a few days ago

Because fall has arrived in California

No more "Damn, Southern California's gorgeous weather!!!"

Because it has finally arrived

Cold weather made me buy a new pair of brown leather boots yesterday

Because my poor toes told me to

And I am in love with the idea of stimulating our economy

When fall arrives, it is time for me to think of Christmas

Because I was not born here

I was born in Japan

Where they didn't do Halloween and Thanksgiving when I was little

So I can hand all those responsibilities to my lovely husband

Just because....he was born here

And cooking turkey traumatizes me

By reminding me of my biology class

I am dreaming of a brown Christmas
Brown, Green, Ivory and Silver Christmas

Because I have no other responsibilities

Other than start thinking about Christmas decoration :)

(Bottom 3 pictures from Country Living Magazine)

Lovely Chloe

This is Chloe

She is 10 years old

She has requested for a blog article about her

So I took picture of her walking to school this morning

Yes, this is the one

The only one

Because I woke up late this morning

And we had to walk really fast

But don't worry...

Your loveliness is there

Your into clothing personality is there

But I have to tell what is not showing there

She is a grandma's girl

And when she cannot do her homework

And crying doesn't help

And when she is in trouble

It is her arthritis that prevented her from doing her homework

That is not there :)

Update!

3 sisters after school :)

It Is Coming

Here we go

It is coming

The day my kids get all their goodies is coming

The day they get drunk from all those sugar is coming

The day I get drunk from all those left over sugar is coming

Yup, it is coming.....




(Bottom picture sourse unknown)

Dreaming About India

I am dreaming about India ever since I came across a beautiful blog by Rajee

(http://www.rajeesood.blogspot.com/)

All of her photos are breathtaking

They remind me of the beauty of India

I traveled to India with my mom and my sister 22 years ago

My mom loved traveling

She went to Nepal when she was 18 after she got her first paycheck

Ever since, she fell in love with Asia and took us to many countries when we were little

My very last trip to Asia was India before I came to the US

I thought India was so beautiful

All the chaos and business of big cities accentuated the beauty of many historical sites

As if time stood still

As if all the noise turned to mute

It is one place I wish I can take my children someday

Just like my mom did 22 years ago

Picture 1 from www.zwedding.blogspot.com

Picture 2,3,4 from www.rajeesood.blogspot.com

Picture 5 source unknown

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday

Happy cheerful Monday

But I am sick today

So I have nothing to say today

So I just leave my favorite quote

When all the doors are closed for you

You can always come in from a window

Happy Cheerful Monday!

(Photo from House Beautiful Magazine)

Sweet Dreams

I can say this is where we have sweet dreams

But I will tell you how it is

This is our bedroom

And this is where we pass out

You might not believe it

But I bought this bed flame from a young firefighter who was moving to east coast

No, he was not married

It. was. his. bed flame.

It was brown and only $50

So sanding and painting did its job

The old wooden windows?

I saw them tossed on a front yard of a house by my kids' school

They were remodeling and they wanted something modern

I am always redecorating and I wanted something old

So I got them all

For free

I love romantic style

But if I do ruffles and flower patterns

My husband might feel the need for some counseling

To deal with all the girls and ruffles and flower patterns

So I try to keep things simple

To show my love

And appreciation

Because we have life time ahead of us

To do more projects I have accumulated in our garage

And After

Seeeeee?

It is peeerfect!