Cool Finds in Metro Alabama:
Our first trip to Disney Animal Kingdom. I'm really excited!
It is weird to not be going to Disney with all my cousins, but they will be missed during this trip. (The reason why I say this is because all my Disney's memories were filled with all my cousins. Now we are all grown up and living in different parts of the world.)
Question: How much can you really eat in one Thanksgiving Day?
Answer: A LOT! (Especially if it is my families' cooking ... everything from the traditional American Thanksgiving dishes to Dim Sum.)
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We are thankful for family and friends that are close to the heart. This calls for a Thanksgiving Tour through the southeast.
We are thankful for family and friends that are close to the heart. This calls for a Thanksgiving Tour through the southeast.
"Life is an occasion, so rise to it."
by Mr. Magorium of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
It is amazing how there are great quotes that I've received through the Brother and Sister series.
"Nothing in life is certain, so celebrate the moment."
What a Perfect Day! Got to attend my favorite art show of the year with good friends on a perfect clear fall day. What more can you ask for.
Andrea and I were so inspired by all the artists at the event. It is amazing the creativity that is sparked by one's passion.
Inspirational Artists:
Art by Michael Cole
After a long rainy day on Friday, we were able to enjoy the nice clear and chilly fall day filled with food, wine & beer tasting and arts at the Uncorked on The Green. It was amazing how many friends that we ran into and made new friends as well. We look forward to next year's event.
After weeks of 18 to 20 hours working days, no sleep, traveling, traveling and more traveling, I got to spend a nice relaxing weekend with my honey. Tried out a new restaurant, Garage Cafe, and had some fun window shopping.
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 The best taco soup |  Outdoor patio |
It is a joy to celebrate my little sis' engagement with family and new family members. What a wonderful weekend full of celebration.
What a wonderful weekend it was. It is always great to visit great friends... fun, relaxing and refreshing to the soul.
Memorable Moments:
Cool Finds in Chattanooga, TN:
This is my great find in Chattanooga. Melissa calls it the stick. It is an antique leveling rod. I just feel in love with it and just had to have it. Melissa says it is because it is graphical and orderly, which is probably true to my nature. Can't wait to hang it up in my art room. I have some creative ideas for it. Will post it later.
Thank you to The Conn family for being wonderful host to us. We love you all!
The Hawthornes were very generous in allowing me to enter their home and photograph their family.
Talk about a perfect summer day. Waking up early on a Saturday to a low 60 degree morning with a perfect clear blue sky outside. So, we had to go to the Farmer's Market to enjoy the peace and quiet of an early morning. We love the Pepper Place Farmer's Market, the best in town. We got to enjoy Franklin's Homewood Gourmet's spicy breakfast burrito with a nice cup of brew. Then slowly enjoyed the marketing while adoring the cutie kids, adorable dogs and of course the great eats.
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My favorite purchase of the day: LSU Purple Figs ... a little bit of sweetness from heaven.
Spectacular!!!!!
And yes I'm proud to be chinese. I love how they described us last night... creative, innovative and detailed-oriented (not OCD, hehe). The opening ceremony is a MUST SEE! One commentary is that we probably won't see another spectular Olympic opening ceremony in our lifetime such as the Beijing 2008. If you missed it last night, you have to see it through NBC's Video Encore.
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Photos from Beijing 2008 website.
Great link that Ali Edwards had posted on her blog. It makes me smile.
Click here for high quality video, the best!
Jenny Lam was responsible at Microsoft for designing all sorts of stuff. Windows. Stage and brand identity for Microsoft's developer conferences. And more. Now she's working at Jackson Fish Market, a Seattle firm that makes cool consumer apps and sells exclusive sponsorships to brand advertisers. We have a discussion about what companies could do to have better experiences.
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
FastCompany.tv
Hubby and I just went to a new restaurant in town, a noodle house restaurant. Yummo! We had the fried chicken appetizer, beef stew noodle bowl and the BBQ pork & wonton noodle bowl... it was all great! The restaurant is located on Highway 150, in the Publix shopping center. Try it out.
The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you. - 2 Corinthians 13:14 (The Message)
Worship last night Rocked! Not only those this scripture describe the main characteristic of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What was brought to light for me is that we should be having an intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit that God has given us through baptism. The Holy Spirit wants to guide us, converse with us, walk with us... he/she is our guardian. A revelation last night... So many of us can trade out the Holy Spirit for godly people. This isn't God's intent. The H.S. is a God given gift who is at our side 24/7, how special do you feel?
Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising. — David Ogilvy
Trust your gut, shoot what you love, be kind, don't leave if you don't think you got the shot. — Tara Donne (Photographer)
Slow down and look up. — Jeremy Holmes (Illustrator)
Look behind you. — Samatha Duvell (Photographer)
Surround yourself with great people. A smile goes a long way. Always get in the other guy’s shoes. And remember this job of photography is fun. — Eric Kiel (Photographer)
Life is filled with incredible possibilities, why not make choices that allow us to experience a bunch and try to help others along the way? — Annick Poirier (Illustrator)
Art is about communicating your ideas, design is about communicating their ideas. If every now and again I can do both at the same time, I consider myself lucky. — Eric Skillman (Designer)
Photography is my way of communicating what I see. I don't want to just capture images, I want to create images that empower and give voice to the subject, that engage and inspire the viewer. — Rod McLean (Photographer)
I always try to keep things as simple and as focused as possible; most of the time the answer is right in front of me. — Sara Remington
I find that if I keep things simple and don't over think, I get better pictures. And if I'm really liking what I'm making and I'm enjoying doing it, I'm usually on the right track. In other words, if I'm putting a lot of effort into something and it's just not feeling right, it's probably because it isn't. I guess that's my philosophy, to try the best I can to follow my instincts. Instinct is the only good monitor for art--or life for that matter! Great, now I'm giving life advice. This is not where I meant for this to go. — Alex Prager
A favorite quote by Soren Kierkegaard becomes more true as time goes on, "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." Photographs are moments captured, life frozen, to be revisited again and again. I think they may just help us to understand backwards. — Gennan Shippen (Photographer)
To do something new, thoughtful, opinionated, honest. To do it very well, and enjoy ourselves while doing it. — Paul Weeks
Since I don't have a pasta roller at this point, I found the perfect fresh pasta in the refridgerated aisle of Whole Foods. The lasagna pasta was the perfect thickness and all. It is made by Via Elisa. I took out my last bit of homemade ragu from the freezer and made another authentic Italian lasagna. It was perfect!
P.S. It only took 2 minutes to cook the pasta, after the water started boiling. How quick is that.
{ Update - New Posting: Day 01 - Roma, Italy (May 4, 2008) }
I've started posting on the Italy Blog.
It is just the beginning stages, but it is up and running now.
Enjoy!
My next step is making fresh egg pasta to go with my lasagna.
Jamie Oliver has a wonderful recipe and video.
Since our Italy trip, I can't get the memory of the Italian food out of my head. The food was extremely different than the Americanized-Italian food. The entrees were made with simple and only a few ingredients. And because the ingredients were all fresh, you could taste each simple ingredient within the entree... Great concept! The Italians know what they are doing, they only have been around for over a couple of thousands of years ;)
Now, I could never eat in an Americanized-Italian restaurant ever again. So, my only option is to make the food myself. I found this wonderful authentic Italian recipe website, and started my path of experimenting. So, I spent the early afternoon making my homemade Ragu Napoletano Sauce and finished the late afternoon in baking the Lasagna. Let's just say the result was amazing. It didn't taste exactly like Italy, but it was close considering the ingredients are from America, with the exception of the parmesan cheese that I brought over from Venice. My honey said it was the best lasagna he has ever had in America... that says a lot :)
Ragu Napoletano (Meat sauce) does not come from a jar. Ragu is one of, what is probably, the three most popular sauces in southern Italy. It is cooked slowly for several hours and has some kind of meat in it. The type of meat depends on your personal tastes but, traditionally it's ground beef.
| Olive oil (extra virgin): | 1/2 cup |
| Onion (fresh): | 1 small |
| Ground Beef: | 2 pounds |
| Tomato paste: | 4-6 ounces |
| red table wine (semi-dry or dry): | 3-4 ounces |
| Italian peeled plum tomatoes (canned): | 2 cans (about 28 ounces each) |
How to do it:
Important Note #1: If you salt your sauce too soon when it is still watery or thin, you run the risk of your sauce becoming salty by the time it cooks down.
Important Note #2: When making Italian tomato sauces, spend the extra few pennies and get imported peeled plum tomatoes. American canned tomatoes like Hunts are just not the correct variety for sauce because the sugar content is much higher making your sauce sweet.
Lasagna Tradizionale (Traditional) is one of the dishes that hasn't changed much since it left the "homeland". I've eaten lasagna in many places in both America and Italy and for the most part they are basically the same, but I'll include it anyway just so that you'll know you're preparing it in the authentic way.
| Lasagna noodles: | 1 1/2 pounds |
| Neapolitan Ragu Sauce (see above recipe): | as needed |
| bite-sized meatballs: | 30 on each layer |
| Hard-boiled eggs (sliced thin) : | 2 eggs on each layer |
| Italian Sausage (Optional): | 1 pound |
Ricotta cheese: | 1 1/2 pounds |
| Mozzarella cheese: | 1 1/2 pounds |
| Pamiggiano (parmesan cheese-grated): | to taste |
How to do it:
Important Note #1: If you decide to include sausage, you can either fry it in the skin and slice it thinly after its cooked. OR You can squeeze it from its skin and cook it so that its crumbly. Either way is just fine.
Important Note #2: Get real mozzarella cheese, the soft white circular cheese. Do not get the shredded kind.
Recipes from www.steve-slater.com.
Words can't express our experience in Italy. The trip was beyond what we could ever image. We have fallen in love with Italy and will miss her greatly. Yes, Italy is a SHE because of her beauty :) .
I'm currently in the process of sorting through the hundreds of photos and videos that we took and uploading them to my Flickr photo album. We will also be posting our experiences, tips, suggestions, etc. on a seperate italy blog. I'll be posting the URL address soon. Be checking in. :)
"Say" by John Mayer
Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ‘em in quotations
Say what you need to say
Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you only could . . .
Say what you need to say
Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You’d better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again
Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open
Say what you need to say
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Posted by John Cook at April 22, 2008 9:56 p.m.
Categories: Online advertising, Web 2.0
Plant a virtual forest in the Carbon Grove
The keg beer, off-the-wall antics and Internet talk were flowing this evening as Jackson Fish Market co-founder Hillel Cooperman enthusiastically introduced the company's latest Web application.
With more than 85 people crammed into the company's quirky Pioneer Square headquarters, Cooperman unveiled a carbon offset reminder service called Carbon Grove. Essentially, the new site allows users to take a short quiz and then receive reminders on ways they can reduce their carbon footprint.
Each time a person responds to a reminder, the virtual forest grows. Over time, it may even attract wildlife.
Jackson Fish Market is an unusual species in the Web startup ecosystem. (And it is not just the odd name or the fact that is is already profitable.) Unlike many companies that attempt to go big in one niche, it is attempting to go small in multiple arenas.
Its other ideas include They're Beautiful -- a virtual flower delivery service -- and Invitastic -- an online invitation service. (Cooperman tonight expressed his disdain for Evite, saying the invitation service is "offensive" to anyone who makes software.)
Carbon Grove, Invitastic and They're Beautiful are by no means big ideas. And that's just fine with Cooperman, who told me tonight that "we just want to make cool software."
"We don't have any predictive power over what will be successful," says Cooperman.
So they toss a bunch of ideas against the wall to see what sticks. And just how many ideas are percolating?
Cooperman says they have about 40 or 50 in the "back pocket." The idea is to roll out the applications in conjunction with sponsors, who like the idea of associating their brands with compelling new services. Dry Soda is the exclusive sponsor of Invitastic, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer group has lined up behind Carbon Grove. (One of the reasons this message appears when you try to visit using Firefox.)
In the case of They're Beautiful a sponsorship can run as much as $20,000 per month. In fact, the line between these new Web applications and sponsored advertisements is a little blurry.
For Carbon Grove, Microsoft approached the team at Jackson Fish Market to create a compelling application tied to Earth Day. (You can almost think of Jackson Fish Market's portfolio of 40 or 50 applications as the creative content found in traditional ad agencies.)
Cooperman says that many large corporations are looking for creative ways to market their products, with small Web applications one of the new tactics they are employing.
"We are making a series of destinations that brand marketers can come in and exclusively sponsor," he says.
More on the concept of small Web applications as marketing vehicles for corporations in this story from The New York Times, which discusses how Nike operates a physical fitness Web site for runners. Jackson Fish Market is a big believer in the idea (They wrote a 14-page research paper on it last year), saying that more ad dollars will go to sponsoring full Web applications in the future.
Wilna Rocks... she is so funny and honest! Her scrap project was my favorite project of the weekend.
More photos from Elizabeth Bailey, the official Scrap Etc. 2008 Event Photographer.
This is a great quote that Sally Field's character said within last night's episode of Brothers and Sisters...
"If I'm changing my mind every 5 minutes, I need to stay put."
 { Forever Friends } |  { Heidi, you totally inspire me! } |
 { New friends } |  { From Molly's tiredness to Joy's giggles... SNL was hilarious. } |
 { Girls' Weekend } |  { Wonderful Projects } |
For more pictures, go to Wilna's Photo Gallery.
We felt trimmers in the middle of the night, and guess what, it was an earthquake; north of Nashville.
I got to bring my good friend, Joy, to this year's event. I'm so excited for her... an opportunity to hear some inspirational classes and to obtain some wonderful and new creative ideas for scrapbooking.
Tonight, we got to talk to some of the wonderful teachers at the Q&A session. Heidi Swapp, you totally inspire me. She made such an impact on my life two years ago, and I'm so looking forward to her classes.
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I'm so sad. One of my dear friend is moving back home to Tennessee. She is so dear to my heart. We are bonded by heart and spirit. I will miss her, but I look forward to visiting them in Tennessee.
I'm thankful for the time that we do have together before their move. We were able to enjoy the beautiful outdoors at the Montevallo Art Fest.
