Yesterday Joe brought home this heart-shaped cake for Valentine’s day. He mentioned he picked it up at Whole Foods so I looked online to see if there was a name for the cake, but no luck! I couldn’t find this cake anywhere online! The cake was mainly a creamcake (not cheese cake) with a raspberry layer in the middle with a thin cake layer at the bottom and strawberries on top. As Joe was figuring out how to cut into the cake, I suggested we just slice it down the middle and each get half a heart! (Which is what we did.)

Over the weekend we flew up to Seattle for a quick trip for our niece’s wedding. A pretty, pretty wedding, the bride and groom looked very happy!

For the wedding, several family members stayed at my mother-in-law’s house where a few of us made valentine’s day cards with my niece’s niece (my grand niece?) who had to make about 20 for her classmates. I don’t think I ever handmade cards for my classmates, but it definitely brought back memories of choosing which card to give to who.

These were fun to make! But of course the biggest challenge was to get a 5 year old to sign her name on all of the cards.

Last weekend I helped my friends during the Chinese new year festival which took place downtown (I was at the booth in front of the Chinese Historical Museum). I loved seeing the lion dance and everyone I met was super friendly, I had a super nice time!

Today in Japan is “Setsubun” which marks the day before the beginning of spring. Traditionally, each household chooses a member of the family to wear an “oni” (demon?) mask and everyone else throws roasted soybeans at him/her saying “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” which means “demons out! Good luck in!” and is thought to drive out bad luck from the home. We don’t do this at my house, but we do follow the custom to eat the roasted soy beans for luck. How many beans? One for each year of our lives (and one more for extra luck!).

This is a flyer/poster I designed recently for the Arnette booth at the SIA(Snowsports Industries America) tradeshow happening this weekend out in Denver.

I was given a lot of freedom in the design for this project and I had fun working on it. Once I get a project, the design process is 24/7 — brainstorming for a concept, sketching out ideas, working out content, and fine tuning — it’s nonstop until the piece is ready for print. I’ve been busy with several projects so I’ll share more soon!

Last week was restaurant week in San Diego — did anyone try any new restaurants?

Joe and I went to The Prado in Balboa Park. We had tried desserts there long, long ago but had never gone for dinner. I had always wanted to try, but always seemed to forget. I always associate Balboa Park with museums and the zoo!

I decided to get the calamari as an appetizer, salmon for my entree, and pumpkin creme brulee for dessert. It was all super delicious, we were still talking about how good the food was days later. The food was good, our waiter was super friendly, and we were seated at a table by the window overlooking the outdoor patio. Definitely would like to come back again!

*I took a photo of Joe’s dessert, a dark chocolate hazelnut mousse bar (also yummy), because someone <ahem> already started eating my creme brulee.

Happy Lunar New Year!

I read that wearing red today will bring you good luck for the coming year — I was already dressed at this point, but I did remember that my geraniums were blooming bright red, they seemed even brighter so because of the rain and overcast weather we’ve been having. So during a break from the rain, I went out and snapped a few photos.

Maybe writing about something red today might bring good luck? (Might be stretching it a bit.)

OPS as in other-people’s-sketchbooks.

I recently purchased “Fashion Designer’s Sketchbooks” by Hywell Davies. This book gives the reader a peek into the sketchbooks of fashion designers such as Dries Van Noten, Eley Kishimoto, and Vivienne Westwood to name a few.
Love, love, love books like these that show the process, the notes, the sketches of creative people. Very inspiring.

This image is a page from Antonio Marras, the artistic director for Kenzo.

My pink breath of heaven is in full bloom in the backyard right now. It smells really nice too — reminds me of the scent of lavender.

This image is a screenshot of video I took over the weekend. Me, with the camera trying to be as still as possible trying to ignore the bees that were hovering all around…

Happy New Year!

Over the weekend I cleaned up and packed away all of our Christmas decorations including the tree, but here’s one more holiday post before I wrap up everything Christmas! This past holiday, I made several bags of spiced almonds to give away to friends. I love making these, they make the house smell so good!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! It’s been super busy around here, lots of handmade things, cooking, and snowboarding! I have lots to write about but in the meantime, here’s Rocky introducing my card for 2011.

Happy New Year everyone!