The Year of the Ox

WISH SOMEONE HAPPY NEW YEAR IN CHINESE:

Cantonese:

Gung Hay Fat Choy! (may prosperity be with you)

Mandarin:

Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year)

Hope everyone has a very Happy Chinese New Year.  Chinasprout.com is a great website that features Chinese educational and cultural products...see examples below:

This dragon pinata would be fun for a party
(I know it's the year of the Ox but I thought this was cute)

 

Book with craft ideas

 Jade - a doll that comes with a book about Chinese celebrations and traditions

 

What little girl wouldn't want the Happy New Year doll?

Hope everyone is having fun celebrating.
Had to include a flashback photo. (sorry it's blurry)!

Life is about to change!

I heart this garden.  It's not my backyard...wish it was :)

I'm posting these images because the garden looks so tranquil and the room above looks so relaxing. Mid February, I'm returning to the hospital I used to work at, as a Senior Consultant/Team Lead. My team will support 4 facilities and the launching of a 5th facility (that is projected to open in October of this year.)

That being said, I will have less time to blog. I'll still be posting and visiting, just not as often as I would like. Of course I have to continue to check in with y'all and your sweet families. So, for the next couple of weeks I'm basking in the calm before the new schedule, and holding onto these peaceful images.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Wordless Wednesday (with a P.S.)

UPDATE:  This outfit has been sold!  

P.S. May be selling this Matilda Jane outfit in the future if anyone is interested.  Size 12 months and yes, fits my soon to be 3 year old.   Will sell the whole outfit for $25 and  she's only worn this outfit 2 - 3 times.

Musings of a six year old!

Jacob walked into the room and I asked, "Why do you have a candy cane on your ear?"  He said, "Mom, it's not a candy cane, it's my bluetooth!!"

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly" Lauren Bacall

Jake loves legos, especially Star Wars. With another set, he made this cottage. He said it was The Fleur-de-lis Cottage. I just love how I can see his little fingerprints all over his creation.

A "Wicked" Date

Tonight  I  got to have a great date night with my hubby --we went to see the musical "Wicked".    Glinda had some legally-blonde humor going on and Elphaba had one of the best and most powerful voices I've ever heard.  If you haven't been, I highly recommend this musical.  It's funny,  there are touching moments and a great moral to the story...to see beauty within, not just on the outside.     Hope everyone has a great week!

Favorite Foto Friday

I know it will help when Ava's hair gets longer....but does anyone have a tip for
keeping piggy tails neat and secure?

A Temporary Fix

I'm posting pics of my kitchen for Kate at Livin' La Vida Lia. She saw a snippet of my kitchen in an earlier post, and was sweet enough to say it was inspiring, as she's in the midst of a remodeling project. Well, after you see more of it, you may change your mind. We bought an old house about a year ago, and like it's character and charm. However, it doesn't have an open floor plan and we knew when we moved in, we'd have to eventually remodel (take the back wall off the kitchen and remodel/expand). After living in this space for almost a year, we realize our remodeling project will be a bigger undertaking than we first imagined. So now we're trying to decide whether to remodel or move.
In the interim, I temporarily decorated my tired, old kitchen.