18 Days Left

I can't believe there's less than 3 weeks before my official due date. We aren't ready yet but then again, what parents are truly ready? Jamie and my dad have been working on finishing our laundry room and baby room so that we can get the dresser and such set up. I feel pretty useless because I'm just waddling around the house doing odds and ends. I can't get all the baby clothes and linens ready because we have no washer and dryer. I wanted to catch up with my Project Life but I've only printed photos up until August 2012 so I'm still 2 years behind. This week will be my last week at work. If baby cooperates, hopefully I'll still have some time to get last minute things done. 

On Dramafever, I've discovered that they have some good old Hong Kong Cantonese dramas (only 3 though) so I'm on my second drama. It's nice to play those in the background while I'm doing things because I don't have to read subtitles! One episode showed the gang having a HK BBQ with hotpot meatballs so I was craving them yesterday. We invited some friends over and stuffed our faces full of meat and marshmallows. It was the first time we used our fire pit this year and might even be our last. Hopefully I can fit in one more fire pit before baby's arrival because I've forgotten how tasty s'mores can be. Top it off with a preggo belly and I've got zero guilt binging! Cheers to not counting calories! 

The Big 3-0 = A Big Year

No, I didn't just turn the big 3-0. As a matter of fact I'm closer to 31 than I am to 30 now! I didn't do a year in review on January 1st like I did last year but I'm going to do a "30 years old" recap instead. I rung in the big three decade birthday surrounded by friends. It was a fabulous day full of food, laughter and great people. It rained all morning and cleared up so that we could have a nice BBQ and fire pit. This picture makes me smile and it's only one in a series of 5. Cracks me up that whenever someone says "let's do a funny shot!", all the Asians will automatically bust out of the peace fingers. Can't wait to look back at this when I'm 40, 50, 60 etc. 

July also marked a year since starting a new management job. I survived a year in my not-so-new job and that in itself is a big reason to celebrate! 

Fast forward to November and I did the unthinkable! I bought a new car and sold my 1991 Honda Accord. That Honda served my parents, then my brother and lastly, me oh so well. If definitely cost us over the years but I had the joy of having my own car at the age of 16! The freedom was priceless! I drove that car for 14 years! To think that it only sold for $500 makes me almost feel like I just threw it to the curb. As +Van Tran and I drove away, I couldn't help but cry tears of sadness as we left behind my baby. Hopefully it serves the buyer as well as it has served me. Almost forgot to tell you what I replaced the Honda with! I got myself a 2014 red Subaru Forester. It's been lovely to have heated seats. 

Mid November +Jamie Khau and I went on our 2nd "honeymoon" to Hong Kong, Thailand and Korea. It was fabulous to get away for 2 weeks to explore 2 countries we have never visited before. The awesome part was that we were able to meet up with +Marilyn Song and +Carmen Mah in Seoul! How cool is that?!? 

December creeps up as usual and we got an early Christmas present: a baby Khau! It's been such an amazing pregnancy so far and I have nothing to complain about. Minimal nausea, fatigue that's no different than my normal laziness fatigue, no weird cravings and almost no food aversions. I get nauseous all. the. time. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that I was pregnant and one of the lucky ones that could eat whatever and not hug the toilet after! Hopefully the rest of the pregnancy goes just as smoothly. I'm due August 22, 2014. Only 186 more days left to go!  

   

A Brief Reflection

Happy New Year everyone! January is always such a unique month. It always gets people thinking of ways to better themselves, whether it be the common ones like more exercise, be healthier etc. or more specific things like learn to paint or get a dog. Jamie made it a point to start eating healthier and start working out again because his skinny clothes are no longer fitting. I told him I would join him in his working out ventures as long as we could agree on a time. I'm not a morning person and he's not a night person so I can't wake up early to work out and he can't do it late. Oh the dilemma!

2012 brought some amazing memories. We started off with some photography goals set with +Jinnee Barazzuol. I never did manage to post 366 photos but I sure did take them! Some of you might remember that I was introduced to Project Life. I wasn't able to keep that up to date despite how easy it was supposed to be, but I am officially on March 2012 so it's a good start! There was also some major travelling done. I got to visit San Francisco, Vancouver and Las Vegas again for some rockin' stagettes with some great friends. We also had our amazing honeymoon that landed Jamie and I in Europe for 4 weeks. I call it a trip of a lifetime and I'm so happy we did it. We also got to see quaint and beautiful Victoria, B.C. and I've concluded that I'd like to retire there. 

I learnt some new skills to add to my hobby/crafting list. I took a quilting class at Sew Divine with +Jinnee Barazzuol and I also picked up crocheting. I did manage to finish some projects with both newly acquired skills! I'm a proud owner of a rail fence quilt and I managed to finish 4 Catherine Wheel circle scarves. Jamie continued to dabble in his knitting and officially had one meeting for his unofficial knitting club. 

Jamie and I both took some big leaps in our career by taking on management roles. It was by far, the hardest interview I've ever had. We're both definitely more stressed and busy at work and it's been challenging trying to get home every evening in time to walk Khuno. I think we've figured out a good rhythm now, but for a while there we were constantly calling each other to say we were working late and asking if the other could go home to walk Khuno. 

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary and although it wasn't a big celebration, Jamie got me the most perfect gift. Paper. I Know that sounds a bit odd, but the reason it was such a great gift is because he filled the paper with his thoughts. I've read and re-read these two sheets of paper countless times and I still feel all warm and sappy each time. 

My brother and sister-in-law ( +Cynthia Chau +Van Tran ) announced that they are expecting their first baby, which means I'm going to be an aunt! She's due this June and I can't wait to have a little baby to snuggle! 

To end off this post, I want to share one last bit of a story. Jamie and I were chatting last week and he asked me something interesting. "If high school you were to talk to you today, what do you think high school you would think of who you've become?" It took us a few minutes to realize it was a question we couldn't answer because high school me was so long ago that I have no idea what I would have thought at 17. It did lead us to a conversation about what we thought of ourselves now. I realize that I am very happy with the person that I've become and I'm so ridiculously content with everything in my life right now that I feel so blessed, lucky, fortunate, the list goes on. I have an amazing husband, a handsome pup, family and friends I love, a job that's challenging me to grow, even my neighbors are amazing. 

I don't know who all actually reads this blog, but I want you to know that I love sharing bits and pieces of our humble lives and I hope you enjoy stopping by. Happy 2013. 

366 Photo Project - Photo 56: Twinsies!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing some of my good friends who are expecting TWINS! We got up super early to catch some of that morning sun and although I don't have a lot of experience in using this golden light, we still managed to capture a few decent shots. Here are some of my favorites. 

Another Year Wiser

With the wisdom comes many other things... Age, gray hairs, fine lines, belly fat, the list goes on and on. With each birthday that passes, I find myself less wanting to celebrate but more wanting to reflect on the year gone by. Remember when we were young and birthdays meant family dinners because we hadn't started school yet to make friends? This was me up until grade 7. I had the occasional birthday with neighborhood friends, but because my birthday is in the summer, I never had classmates come. Fast forward to the age where birthday celebrations meant nights out with friends and significant others, eating, drinking and celebrating. I've done my fair share of those as well. The past couple of years I find myself more wanting to revert back to the good ol' days where birthdays were celebrated with a gathering of family and good food. 

Today I celebrated my birthday by going to the downtown City Market with my husband. We had a great lunch at Dauphine's Bakery & Bistro, which included the Trio Plate and the Croque Monsieur, both came with fresh farmer's market salads. Jamie got a latte and it came in this massive bowl that neither one of us has seen before. The waitress said that's how it was traditionally served. 
After lunch we stopped into our favorite coffee shop, Credo, for a London Fog w/ Rooibos tea and a latte.Sipping our drinks, we strolled along the market and purchased a variety of goodies! Fresh peaches from BC, more fresh organic peaches, lemon stuffed olives, whole wheat pita with chili hummus, cherry tomatoes, assorted tomatoes, dandelion honey, and elk antler/bones for Khuno. I also dragged Jamie into my new office building to show him where I work now. 

We got home shortly after and I came downstairs to find a hand drawn card from my hubby, inspired by the London's famous, "Keep calm and carry on" fad. Then we headed off again with Khuno to Rivercree for a buffet dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. We left Khuno with Audi together alone for the first time and when we returned home, poor Khuno was so exhausted. 
It's been a while since we had a fire pit night so we cranked that baby open and made some s'mores. My amazing friends came over and brought birthday cinnamon buns with them for roasting on the fire, something that we've never done before. Something about fires that just makes people want to roast things on a skewer! 
This past year has been full of changes. We became husband and wife, went on an amazing honeymoon, witnessed several of our friends get married, and I took on a new challenge in my career. It really has been a year for adventure and I know the next one will be just as, if not more, exciting for our little family. Our next big project: re-shingling the roof. 

366 Photo Project - Photo 43: Lashes

Remember baby Ella that I ported over from my other blog? Well, she isn't so baby anymore! She's growing into this adorable little toddler. Growing along with everything are her stinkin' eyelashes! Are they not amazing?!? It wasn't easy capturing this photo but I'm sure glad I did. 

Baby Ella

I originally started a separate photography blog called Live Love Capture Photography (original, I know), but after the one post, I discovered myfotojournal and have since stopped using the blogger version. You can see my other blog here. I know what you're thinking, enough with all these blogs already! I totally agree! I'd like to keep my card making posts kept strictly on my StampNStuff blog, personal posts on here and photography only related posts on myfotojournal. In trying to pull away from the blogger version of my photography blog, I've pulled the one and only post over to here. I will try and find time to post it under myfotojournal as well. Here's what I posted back in November 2011: 


I wanted to start this blog as a little photography journal. I enjoy taking photos and I'd love to have a special little place to share it with everyone. My very first post is going to be sharing an afternoon spent with lil Ella. She was a trooper and by the end of the hour all she wanted to do was eat her lunch! Here's a few of my favorites from the day. Hope you enjoy them mama Amber! 

366 Photo Project - Photo 42: Rebecca

Remember when I posted the little twinsies blankies I made for my friend and her girls? I went to visit her a few weeks ago and decided to bring my camera along to sneak a few pictures in. I'm not sure if they have been officially declared identical or not, but I was able to remember that this little cutie is Rebecca! So bright-eyed and perfect. Congrats Mandy. 

366 Photo Project - Photo 35: Puppy Date

I've spent my entire day (literally from 9:30-3:00) processing photos from my camera. As I've said before, I may not post a new picture everyday for this 366 Photo Project but that doesn't mean I'm not taking them! I finally got around to processing the past 2 months worth of photos and I'm so happy to finally delete them off my camera. Jamie has this thing for keeping raw files but they are just so darn massive and annoying to keep. Why you might ask? Because I end up deleting a lot of photos while I'm processing them in Lightroom but I don't keep a list of all the ones I delete. So when I go to clear out my memory card, I don't want to have to sort through them to see which ones I've kept and which ones I've dumped. What happens then is that I end up keeping all the raw files! Jamie's rationale, which I totally agree with, is if I ever needed to go back and edit the photo, the raw file would be a lifesaver. But it's just so many photos!!! If you have any suggestions for me on how to improve my workflow and backing up of files (I'm directing this to you Justin), please let me know. 

Anyways this photo is from way back in February. Julie and I decided to have a Project Life night so she packed up a bit of supplies and her puppy for a night of scrapping and doggy fun. It was really funny watching Toffee because she didn't want to play with Khuno at first and when Khuno finally got tired of waiting for Toffee, that's when she decided she'd poke the big white bear. Don't let her size fool you though because she definitely put Khuno in his place whenever he was being inappropriate. We couldn't get Khuno to sit up beside Julie no matter how hard we tried so we just settled on a laying down picture. 

Stella & Dot

My good friend, Amanda, recently embarked on a new adventure. As if having 3 girls wasn't enough, she decided to become a Stella & Dot stylist! I love independent businesses and that's exactly what she wanted! A business. Not just something to start to get cheaper jewelry, but to actually  make a business out of it. I'm so proud of her and am so inspired. I find myself having less and less excuses for things when I think about Amanda. I have no kids. Plain and simple. A dog doesn't count. Not even remotely close. So I've got a lot of things going on in my little head lately which I hope to share one day. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple photos. I just wanted to show you all the orders sorted out and how super cute the packaging is. The second photo is of the all the amazing jewelry. I didn't mean to capture her face in the mirror... It's creepy but I love the shot of all the jewelry so we will all just ignore creepy Amanda in the mirror. Have a great night everyone. 

My First Flannel Blanket

I managed to sew my very first flannel blanket for little baby Ethan a couple weekends ago. I have never sewn a blanket before but as Jamie would say, "How hard can it be?" I purchased some flannel and after getting a friend to help me wash and dry some of it in her nice front loading washer, I cut out two large rectangles. I put the "right" sides facing each other and had to lay it out on the floor to pin it because the table just wasn't big enough. After pinning it, I took a large bowl to trace the rounded corners and trimmed off the excess fabric to make a nice straight edge to sew along. I sewed a 1/4" seam along the entire edge, leaving about 5" to flip the blanket right side out. I stitched up the hole by hand and then did a decorative zigzag stitch along the edge about a 1/2" in. Turned out super cute. I found a lady that makes her own labels by stamping on ribbon and heat setting the ink. I tried it and haven't hard yet if it washed out or not. I attached it to the blanket using the heat & bond stuff to hem pants with, but I should have added some stitching too. Hopefully the label stays and the words too! Jamie was madly knitting a little toque for Ethan. It turned out more like a knitted helmet. He stitched on a lightning bolt so I told him, "You do realize that people will call him Harry Potter now right?" We paired all of that with a little gift set from Birth Source for some natural bum cleaning stuff. Is the blanket perfect? Nope. Do I, Penny or Ethan care? Nope. (I hope)