Saru Star needs your dirty help

Sarustar makes earrings and necklaces with dirt she collects. She lives in NYC. She has a lot of NYC dirt. Now she wants your dirt, from your state.

Click here to see which states she already has dirt from, perhaps you could help her, there is something in it for you!!!

The Hills and The City

Ooooo I went to sleep anxious and a bit angry because MTV.com failed failed to upload the new season episodes of both The Hills and The City at 10pm and 10.30pm respectively. I was in bed with my laptop and wanting to watch pretty girls do nothing but gossip. DENIED. So hopefully tonight, I'll get to indulge in a bit of brainless TV, as opposed to the slightly brain damaging shows I'm addicted to.

Honestly, I think Kristin is one cool chick. She is no fuss and she doesn't let the boys step all over her. She may be a bit catty but hey those other girls are too! Who's your favourite character on The Hills?

I know you watch it...

OH MY GOSH CUTE CUTE CUTE

ENJOY! This is so adorable it hurts!

Clustered Etsy

Here are some items that captivated me while searching with the keyword "Cluster" on Etsy:

Staceyleigh's soft grey leather cluster bag

Olive vintage's magnets

Brookstreet decal

DoreenzDesignz's serving plate

Floresdesol moss cluster

A cluster of knots

Symbolic Knots

This fall, Muntedkowhai is heading into a bold cobalt direction with a lot of Chinese designs. I love textile, whether be it lace, crochet or even knotting, these arts add such a different feel and dimension to ordinary concept such as jewelry.

There are meanings into these necklaces, the way they are arranged are all part of Chinese symbolism.


Knotted pieces here.

Resumes and okonomiyaki

It is always Sunday night too soon. Oh too soon. I hope your weekends were relaxing, fun and perhaps productive! Mine was good, blessed with sunshine and a dent into what I wanted to achieve. I spent Saturday reading about how to write a good science resume, CV and cover letter. Oh boy that was a lot of reading and a lot of thinking but it just had to be done.

I also got to talk to Aaron. I was in bed as usual, with the lights off, the phone pressed close to my ears and my eyes close so that I could imagine him so very near. We talked about food, plants and things we did when we were in Dunedin. My favourite was when he drove down from Christchurch to Dunedin (a good 6 hour drive) and showed up at my door with 5 pumpkins. He proudly boosted that he had bought all 5 for only one NZ dollar! (Around 70 US cents) There was only so much pumpkin soup I could make and one evening, we got bored so we carved one of the pumpkin. We carved the nursery rhyme " Hey Diddle Diddle". There was a cat playing a fiddle, cow jumping over the moon and a dish running away with the spoon. I put a tea light candle into the pumpkin and it glowed in the night. I got lazy and it slowly rotted outside my window. (EW!) Now that it was all gross and rotting, there was no way I would be touching it.

FACT: pumpkins that have been rotting away, can blow away.
It's true because after a few months, it was gone from my window.

Oh I miss my boyfriend.

:)

I spent 5 hours rewriting my resume and CV today. That took a toll because there was 10 years of post high school education academics and research work in one page, right in front of me! Oh boy! 10 years is a long time! I've been out of high school for 10 years! Writing a resume is funny, everything after your current position seems so insignificant, especially pertaining to the job you're trying to apply for.

Taking a break from all the resume writing

I did however, make okonomiyaki for dinner. Les's creations the other week left me craving for it! For those of you who want to try something new and pretty much effortless, you must try making Okonomiyaki. Thanks to Les, here is the recipe I used tonight and it was super duper delicious. I like this recipe because not only does it tell you the protocol but it explains the ingredients. I bought all my ingredients from Portland's Uwajimaya.

Nagaimo, a starchy root vegetable

In the pan, its a Japanese pancake with pork belly!!

So my presentation does not do it justice but here is a photo from the website:


It was so so good!
A mixture of nagaimo, eggs, flour, cabbage, pickled ginger, topped with pork belly, benito flakes, seaweed, Japanese mayo and okonomi sauce!


Mmm that left my belly all warm and substantially full!

I'm in love

with DearGolden Vintage's dress and suede shoes:

The side button detail and fabric is heavenly.
As are the emerald suede heels.

Shorter = better

I have been playing with the chinese knotting earrings for the past few nights. I added three cords and made it shorter and I think it looks way better! They are now affixed with textured gold plated findings and so so very ready for showing off!!

A pair of blue knots
$30

it feels right

i just came back from dinner with my friends and it suddenly occur to me, its time to start my own life. everyone has a house, a significant other, dogs and even a baby on the way! it's just time, for me to experience all that. yes, australia, i'm looking at you.

two months

it's been two months and i can still smell the sanitizing alcohol, the stale porridge that lingers in the ward's air. it's true. sometimes you think you're over the grief and out of no where, it breaks you down and you're thinking how surreal that she is gone. the last time i kissed her goodbye, it was warm and she smelled like dried blood, like iron, from the bloody nose because of the tubes. she squeezed my hand you know, really strong, she looked at me a few times but it wasn't her. it was just her eyes opened. i miss her, oh i miss her.

Darling

I'm going to be Aaron's date for his mate's wedding in December. It'll be summer in Christchurch, New Zealand. I think this dress is precious. Also, I did not know you could not wear white to a wedding! Does this cross the line?

Fantine Dress

More more knots

Last night I decide to make lots of knots and secure them to the last of my sterling silver clasps. I shortened the knots and they look cuter! It is a gloomy Thursday today and it makes me want to crawl back into my down comforter and snuggle my pillows to sleep!


Science spew:

Since I only have two months left at work (eeep! scary thought!), I'm trying to finish up my first "first author" science journal paper. It's quite a daunting task and it's a bit hard to write a paper when you haven't finished all your experiments but I want to take the most of my down time and not leave everything to the last minute. I'm having so much trouble writing what I want to say, it has to be articulate with no frills but I love frills. So the only way to do it is to sit there and just write. Write everything I wanted to say and then go back and edit and trim and make sentences work better with less sentences. Whenever I edit my paper, I always have an image of a turkish guy slicing a piece of meat off the kebab log. (You know, the ones that has a chunk of meat and is rotating vertically) That's how I feel about editing my paper, a slow rotating procedure! Less delicious of course.

Therefore, these few weeks at work, my mind has been thinking about how to phrase sentences and all I really need to do is sit down and let my fingers throw up all the words onto the keyboards!


Hope you guys are having less of a work headache this week!

Happy Birthday Muntedkowhai!

Muntedkowhai had its 1st Birthday on Sunday! Don't they grow up fast!!

To celebrate, the lovely Jo from Cup of Jo is hosting a giveaway of any colour Lace Taco!
Hurry and enter in to win, spread the word.

Fred Flare

I admit it, I went blog hopping again and this time I found Fred Flare. An online boutique of all things funky and cool. The prices are not horrendous either! Can you tell I'm horribly drawn to dark navy and tarnished gold?

Fred Flare

Clothes I do not need but want

Sometimes I think i'm bipolar with my tastes in clothes. Everything looks workable except some outrageous clothes but I enjoy the preppy, bohemian, urban and vintage looks. I love everything!

This dress is SO cool. Can you see it with my fall boots?!

AMAZING. I'd buy this and then finish the hems and cut an opening for this "bolero"

I would shorten this and wear it exactly like this model. It's FUNKAY


Do you have bipolar taste in clothes as well?

A pair of knots Earrings

Something I made last night with the mistake from previous post:

Traditional chinese knotting

"A pair of Knots"

Mistakes

I'm going to turn this throw up of cords and turn them into some new Muntedkowhai creations

Do not buy this if you have children

What a treat for a stationary freak like me!
(as in, I would NEVER use these)

via YES! to hoboken

My fantasy

Aaron and I have our 2+ hour phone conversations on the weekends, which is when we catch up on things over the week. (We text and email during the week but I like to save some things to tell him on the phone) I am usually in bed, under my covers with my eyes closed when I talk to him so that I can imagine that he is right next to me. We often talk about food,our past travels and gossips. Every time I get off the phone with him, I have normtasy. That is a normal fantasy.

I fantasized about coming home from work to Aaron, cooking dinner together, something outrageously delicious and healthy, putting furniture together or go garage sale hunting so that we can turn a dud into a stud, falling asleep on the couch and all things normal. Soon! 4 more months until the big move!

P is for Priscilla, Penelope, Phyllis, Phillipa:

Antiquated Moss wing

Where did the weekend go?

I felt like this weekend I've been chasing events and I'm pooped! I need a weekend for my weekend!

Saturday was spent editing photos and then heading over to Marty's place to celebrate Andy's date of birth. Marty and Andy are my college friends and I can't believe I've been friends with these guys for 10 years! They're great and so much fun and very much like family. I will miss my OSU crew when I move.

Les brought his weigh along to make the Okonomiyaki batter.....

Tim and I playing a new drinking game we made up with the weigh. You have a bottle of beer. Weigh it. Say it is 155 grams. You goal is to drink 55 grams to get to 100grams without weighing it until you think you have drank 55 grams worth of beer. We averaged 20 grams in one sip. It's a science AND you'd be amazed how little it takes to reduce weight! Penalty for going over or not being close enough to the goal weight is of course, to drink more. This was super nerdy fun. Look at my face, that is fun.


Anticipating the weight

Mike and Nicole

Les's okonomiyaki. If you have never had it, get you to a Japanese Izukaya soon and try it! It's kinda like a Japanese pancake. (Yam, eggs, cabbage, shrimp with toppings of Japanese mayo, nori and something that Les put on top that was dried and moved when put onto the pancake!!)

Andy (birthday boy, see the bow!) and Ikuyo (pregnant with a boy!) enjoy their Okonomiyaki

The family sits down for lots of delicious food!!

"Victory is mine!!" Andy was happy and sweaty about his birthday!


After dinner and a very delicious cake Marty made, we played Scattergories (never played it but it was SO much fun!!! I had total brain freeze) and Apples to Apples.

Board games can only last so long before a big groups attention span turns to something else, something like Karaoke! It was hilarious, I have videos but need to upload them. The boys love to sing, sing with funny voices and Les enjoyed getting farting sounds from his iphone and playing it on the mic. Tim has an amazing flexible voice that lends itself to varying different type of singing styles! It had me laughing so hard!!

Today, I woke up early and picked up my neighbour and we joined 40,000 portlanders in Race for the Cure for a 5km walk. It was such a fabulous morning for a long walk in and around the city. It blows me away, the amount of people's life cancer touches. I thought of my aunt the entire way and it moved me to be surrounded by all the support, the positive , optimistic energy for a cure.

1 in 8 women will have breast cancer. 1 in 8. That is crazy. We are potential ticking time bombs. Be vigilant, have your yearly checkups.

Have a lovely weekend

It's been a quick changing week! Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'm feeling more carefree!

Have a relaxing weekend!!
via Capucha

~!@#$%^&*()_+_)((*&^&^%$#@!!~

To whom ever stole my debit card number:

I hope you enjoyed your two McDonald and Wendy meals. Your $500 dollar dress and geek out with the $80 worth of comics. Most of all, I hope you trip over on whatever you bought at Home depot for $1000. By trip over, I mean, land face first onto a porcupine.

Today, I thought about how I am going to leave my secured job to move to Australia. To start a new life, to be with Aaron.

Then I wondered why I didn't do this earlier. Why didn't I just stay in NZ to be with Aaron? I was scared. I didn't want to stay behind in NZ just to be with Aaron. That was not enough. I have always been a "me me me" person in terms of relationships. It was never a hard decision for me between relationship and school/career. I guess there was still a residue of that mentality when we first started dating. Something changed, its not enough just to have the career. In fact, now career seem so insignificant in the grand scheme of things and it is more risky to not be with Aaron. It just doesn't make sense to live apart anymore.

So under this excitement of starting a new life together, there is a silent bubbling of anxiety that is innate and a carry over souvenir from my previous relationships.

* Locket2you *

Portland based Locket2you restore vintage lockets and paint crazy neat florals, animals and pictorial scenes onto them. They are TOO cute. The wee wolf one has my heart!!