Year of the Dragon

Some friends gave us grandstand tickets to the Chinese New Year parade so we loaded up the family SUV and headed over to downtown LA where we caught the metro to Chinatown. It was a fun outing but way too warm for January...














Lots of lag time in between stuff; the kids lasted about 1.5 hours so we headed back to Union Station for a rest/snack break.


Slushies helped cool us off and the nice courtyard.


Time to catch a train and head home...

sunset at the beach

Lately the skies have been gorgeous with the warmer weather and scattered clouds. I've been wanting to see the sunset at the beach for the longest time but the boys's homework and activities prevented that. Yesterday, everything came together...the boys finished their homework and we had nothing else scheduled so I rushed them out the door.

Of course, in my haste I forgot the memory card in the reader for my DSLR but I did have my little Fuji in my purse. So these are the pictures of the lovely sunset at Torrance beach.













Short but sweet time. I can't wait for the longer days at the beach.

Portait Session

My friend V and I go out when we can and practice our photography. We usually shoot flowers, landscapes and whatnot but people portaits is what we've been avoiding. So last week, we headed over to the marsh to see what we could do...

It's a weird feeling to be in front of the camera instead of behind it but we had fun and these are the 2 photos I liked the best. I adjusted them in LR3 but I like the mood and look.




We are beginner level portait taking so it's a start.



I used Erik Kim's Lomo preset on LR3 to get this effect but I like how it's backlit and has that kind of dreamy quality to it.

Knitterly mood

I can't seem to focus on my socks so instead I pick other things to knit. I have plenty of non-sock projects waiting to be finished but no, I have to start a completely new project. Yes, I admit that I have a problem.



First up is the Everdeen beanie from the book Weekend Hats. Lovely and stretchy, I think I will keep it for myself. :)

And the Infinitude scarf (although it's a cowl) which I have a like/dislike attitude. I like the idea of looping it around the neck up to 2-3 times without the ends coming undone or losing the scarf but it just doesn't feel right or comfortable to me so I set it aside for the gift pile.



Now I'm off to find more stuff to start so I ignore my socks...

Weekend update

 No ice hockey for Joshua, we didn't have any either to go to (I watched it on TV) but Tyler did get his blue belt in kenpo on Saturday. We're hoping he gets motivated and focused since Josh will soon start.









It was nice, chilly & rainy this weekend which brings up another favorite thing...a nice fire in my wood stove! After many years of lighting fires in the stove, I have come up my routine to start a fire. I used to have a difficult time getting enough kindling to get the logs to catch but one day, Hector & I happened to be at Lowes and found in the clearance section, these things called Lightning Nuggets. I can't remember if it was the box of 24 or 100 but it was marked down to $1 so we thought sure waht the heck we'll try it. There was another box that Hector said I should get but I said no, I'll try these first.

Well, these turned out to be awesome. Yes, Hector still reminds me of the time I missed out on the 2nd box I could have bought for $1 since I can find them online at $26 per 100 so I missed out on that. :) A box can last about a year or more...

I still use kindling but not nearly the amounts I did in the past. So when I want a fire, it's super easy and quick which makes me a happy girl...

On with the remodel

I think it was in November when we helped a neighbor who wanted to do a backyard redo but couldn't get proper access with heavy equipment so they asked us. It worked out because we wanted to have our wall redone.

Well, that was complete and we have a nice yet ugly cinder block wall with the other 2 side fences falling down. Finally after consulting with more neighbors etc we have started demolishing the fences.

Now I can see what our neighbors yards look like! Nothing exciting.




My poor avocado tree is down to almost nothing and barely hanging in there. :(





Today is the concrete footing...everything is moving along.

Monday

Since it was MLK day, Sherri and I decided to get the kids together for some time at the tidepools and look for whales at the Point Vicente center.

It was a nice cloudy day and the kids were excited to enjoy the day. Unfortunately, Tyler fell on some rocks, scraped both knees and hands. He sulked for a bit but he soon cheered up and had fun breaking rocks with the others.

Here are the pictures which explain much more than I ever can...

















A great day and fun to be with good friends!