always + forever

Back in August 2007...

FB's parents knew that we didn't have rings for our wedding ceremony so they kindly offered if we would like to wear FB's great grandparents' gold rings (still engraved with "12/24/1889" as the date they got married). We tried them on and they were quite big and it was a week before our wedding... so we asked if we could hold onto these rings and perhaps someday find a way to fit them on us.

During our ceremony, we tied red strings to each other's ring fingers instead of exchanging rings.

Fast forward nearly six years... We finally have our official wedding rings:)

The original gold rings from FB's great grandparents have been melted and has become the inner circle with "always+forever" engravings and the outer layer with the new white gold was designed with a crisp sharp profile. To us... it's the perfect marriage of the old and new... the old roots and new generation we will be nurturing. It took us this long because we wanted to work with someone whom we could trust. Thank you Annika, our fabulous jewelry designer in Hamburg, Germany... you're the best... and much much thank you to Heide & Michael for offering the very special rings to us and coordinating and shipping the new rings all the way from Germany to our home in Los Angeles! We intend to wear them for a very long time and can't get over how happy we are to have finally meet our own rings.

Sometimes good things take time.

Let your imagination fly...

I love it when our little Roo gets to explore her imagination and creativity! Often times... the magical moment is facilitated by simple toys that leave a lot of space for her to create unique stories. KURUMA, DENSYA and HIKOKI handmade by FLOWERS Studio in Yakushima definitely have become one of her favorite toys to play with!

I tried to capture some of these magical moments... and the way she is interacting with these special wooden toys on the video! Enjoy:)

A bit of art and design is good for a 2 year old:)

Who would have thought that a design school campus could be so much fun for 2 year old?? (Definitely not when I was pulling all-nighters to get my degree...)

Roo and I had an open day so decided to make a visit to Art Center. We knew that FB's Creative Strategy class had a fun assignment so we headed straight to the hallway! For their assignment, students in his class created tape drawing pieces using only black tapes just like what transportation designer do. The only thing is that none of the students belong to Transportation Design major. Some piece looked quite poetic and it was fun listening to all the buzz around the assignment:)

Roo and I walked through the hallway together to guess what each tape drawing was about. It totally made me realize that she is ready to visit some of the local museums! We can look at art and talk about it in the 2 year old appropriate way.

Afterward we headed out to the grassy area and looked at some sculptures (a giant mosaic ball!!), had a spontaneous lunch with FB and our Art Center friends... then played little more with rocks and run up and down the slopes (not me just Roo).

A good day:)

Food adventure: Taiwanese breakfast

We somehow managed to get up super early on Saturday morning... so we decided to have a mini breakfast adventure! We were really in the mood for dim sum... but I read somewhere that dim sum can give greasy after taste so we opted for Four Sea Restaurant, a Taiwanese breakfast place in San Gabriel.

I was warned by all of Yelp reviews that they spoke very little English... so I armed myself with a piece of paper with all the things I would like to order for three of us. We knew that their food was as authentic as they got when we stood on the line to order food along with other customers who mostly only spoke Taiwanese!

We shared a sticky rice (like rice burrito), a pork bun, an egg pancake, warm almond milk and a fried doughnut. I have to admit that I still got greasy after taste... but they were delicious and Roo tried most everything (but her definite favorite was an egg pancake). FB and I talked about our trip to Hong Kong 5 years ago... and how we ate our breakfast on the street. Such a fun memory...

I am thankful that my duo didn't mind taking the little adventure with me:)

Sharing [Invisibel Calendar]

One of many many reasons why I love what I do as a shop owner is... I really enjoy discovering interesting artifacts and creative endeavors! When Sasha contacted me to introduce her Invisible Calendar, I was taken back by how simple and brilliant her concept of the calendar was. It's a 2013 calendar... and all dates are printed in transparent ink on white mat paper... so dates are nearly invisible until you get really close to it. You write your important events on the calendar... letting just the meaning of the day stand out.

Sasha was kind enough to send me one sample and I am happy to start filling some dates for January! I know we are expecting few important milestones to happen in 2013 so I am really excited to see how this calendar develops as I continue to use it!

If you are interested in purchasing some, you can contact Sasha at order@sashapure.com!

A great holiday gift idea, isn't it?

Last bit of warm days

We are squeezing the last bit of warm days here in California. It was only two days ago... when Roo and I ventured out to the Marina to meet up with our favorite twins. It was sunny and beautiful... and today we woke up with rainy and cloudy morning.

I think that the change of season is really coming.

Happy fall, everyone:)

Treasure from traveling

Last few weeks... I've been dreaming about this amazing island in Japan so I dedicated our small corner in our house for our treasure from the island.

I love the depth of green in the forest paintings done by Yakushima resident artist Yuko-san... I also never take my "time flower" ring designed and made by Kei-san (also Yuko-san's husband who writes amazing blog with a seasonal photos from the island). The ring is inspired by the novel Momo... and it's such an important story to me.

I guess travel does this to our mind... it brings all these amazing inspiration to our life.

The goal is not to be traveling all the time (or wishing to be traveling)... but to let the treasure from the travel shine in our everyday. I love how these turquoise treasure shines in our Southern California home.