every day life

April 28th was my birthday! I just turned to 27. This year’s birthday was rather low-key, since the baby kept both me and my husband busy. Also my birthday fell on Thursday, so we celebrated my birthday on Saturday instead. We asked my parents to watch the baby while we went out for some dinner and drinks with close friends. Although we both love our daughter, it was so nice to be out as a couple without the baby and took some break.

Andy also surprised me with a gift of pretty lingerie – I did not own a piece of lingerie before this, since Andy likes “white tank top, sweat pants and white sneakers” on women (so strange, right? totally not my style). I never felt the need to own any sexy lingerie. But I love the color he chose (purple is my favorite color), and it will be great to throw on in the hot summer night.

How was everyone’s weekend?

Let me say this, Spring weather in Japan is so moody!  Its worse than pregnant women! Saturday was beautiful, it was the warmest day we have had in months. My parents and sister came over to my place, and we had a lunch together. We went to a place called Volks, nothing fancy, it’s just a Hamberg restaurant.  Many of you may be unfamiliar with the ways of Japan will not know the Hamberg but suffice to say we Japanese took the classic American hamburger and made out of it our own creation.  Volks is nice because it comes with a salad, soup and bread buffet. This time, I went little nuts with the bread bar – I’m usually staying away from bread because of the high calorie count, but on Saturday I allowed myself to enjoy as much bread as I wanted :p My family is excited for the arrival of the baby..maybe in less than 2 weeks now!

But getting back to the weather, Sunday unlike Saturday was miserably cold. Spring weather needs to make up its mind. Andy and I went to church, had people over for the Bible study, and I cooked dinner for the first time in months. I used to cook dinner every night, but for the last couple of months I have been so busy with sewing and work that Andy kindly took over that duty and has been cooking as one of his reular assigned duties. But Sunday I really wanted to feel like a good wife and cook nice meal. In fulfilling this urge I decided to make lasagna. I used to make lasagna a lot when we Andy and I were first married living in Philly, but we havent had it since we moved to Japan. So in preparation for dinner we went to a grocery store to get ingredients, but for some odd reason lasagna noodles in Japan are expensive to the point of being obscene. It was $6 for a tiny box of lasagna, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for noodles that in the States cost $1. So, I ended up getting regular pasta, meat sauce, and cheese, but here again as with the lasagna noodles I was met with resistance.  The store didn’t have ricotta cheese. I was irritated but not to be defeated, I improvised.  I used crushed tofu mixed with salt, pepper, and cheese as a replacement  for ricotta cheese and regular spaghetti noodles as a replacement for lasagna. Below on the left is a picture. It wasn’t quite good-old Italian lasagna, but Andy and I were both satisfied 🙂 Below on the right is a picture of our $2.95 wine!  I had a taste and Andy had the rest.  It wasnt great but it was better than the boxed wine we used to drink!

As for is weekends sewing, I finished this custom order dress – a cut out dress in gingham check. I love how it came out and I think I’m going to make one for the shop as I still have some fabric left over.
I also finished the last batch of bridesmaid dresses before I go on leave. I’m happy with how the dresses turned out, all have a lovely pearl vintage button in the front 🙂 The same dress was featured on Washiongtonian.com, Etsy Stylist.

The weather was moody, my cooking attempt was weird but satisfying and the dresses were finished and I am pleased with the turnout.  Nothing eventful but not too bad of a weekend.  How about you guys?

Oh if you are interested, check out the interview I did with Girl With a Satchel! I’m also offering special discount at Fabulously Frugal.

Spring has come! At least for today. It was sunny and warm during the day today, about 15 degrees (c) which made me really happy.
On top of that, I received a package from my best friend, Kaitlyn with some make up goodies. She put together a lovely package of all Springy make up items..I love them all!

I usually spend less than 5 minutes on my make up, and I’ve had the same routine for years now – a little bit of powder, blush, eye brow, black eyeliner and mascara. But it’s always fun to experiment new items and different colors of eye shadow and lip gloss. After the two photo shoots I did in February, I have become more motivated to learn about make up and how to use them.  It really can make a huge difference! Anyway, here are the items I used today in getting ready to go out to lunch with my friend:

1. Dolce and Gabana eye shadow quad in eden This is so pretty and Springy, comes with pastel green, white, pink and bluish gray. I used the gray (left bottom).
2. annapie perfect veil, souvenir from Korea
3. Kevin Aucoin sensual skin enhancer this concealer is amazing! A little covers a lot. I tap this around my nose and under my eyes.
4. Trish McEvoy sexy petal
5. Estee Lauder DayWear sheer tint release
6. mally evercolor starlight waterproof liner
7. Maybelling the Magnum volume express super film
I think this version might be availabe in Japan only. This super film form is really easy to remove. I only use hot water to remove it, and it comes off very quickly. Best part, no black circle under my eyes! I will most definitely buy another when this one is finished!

I forgot to take a  picture of this, but I also used NARS angelika blush. It’s a pretty blue-toned baby pink with some sparkles…I love this item! I don’t think I had any items that I didn’t like from NARS.