My standard uniform nowadays consists of yoga pants, a tank top and hoodie. The I-plan-on-going-to-the-gym look (“plan” being the operative word), worn mostly for the comfort. Once in a blue moon, though, I wish I had an opportunity to wear something fancy like the Valentino-inspired dress above. K saw it and said, “Is that a witch’s dress?” Hmmm…not the look I was going for.

Even if I’m not presented with ball gown worthy events, I could probably swing something fun like this:

I love painting outfits! I’ll have to do more of this.

I have another cute top + skirt combo that I made for K to share on Monday! Have a wonderful weekend, friends.

 

 

 

My parents met in New York forty-two years ago. They were in their early twenties, both from Japan, staying in a boarding house across Central Park. My mother had recently arrived via Germany, where she had been an au pair for a Chinese family (confusing, I know). My father was traveling around the world with friends.

My mom boasts that there were several choice young men to choose from back in the day (she claims to have been proposed by an African prince), but my father was by far the best-looking. Well, he must have worked his charm as well, because they were married within three months of meeting. Four decades, three children, many world trips later, they are still together, living in a sunny city, so very deeply settled into the fabric of each other.

My father told me once, a long time ago, that marrying my mother was the best thing he ever did.

Happy birthday, Ji-chan – here’s to another good year.

This summer, I read The Floating Islands, a fantastic young adult book about cities that are buoyed in the air, tethered by magic and unfathomable technology. There are dragons and wizards and the usual suspects of fantasy novels, but the book felt fresh and was one of my favorite summer reads.

I am a huge fan of young adult sci-fi/fantasy novels. From Twilight to Hunger Games to the Wildwood Chronicles (which, by the way, is awesome) – I am fully up-to-date on the latest YA hits. Maybe it stems from my elementary school days of reading and re-reading all of Madeline L’Engle‘s books starting with a Wrinkle in Time. I remember the tattered copy I checked out repeatedly from the library — the faded cover and torn edges, the odd scrawled notes I would find on random pages.

I went to a movie party held for my daughter’s class this past weekend and saw a pre-teen reading the latest bestseller (an older sister forced to attend, looked like). She was squirreled away in the corner, trying to avoid all the first graders running about. That would have been me at age 11. I asked her how the book was, and she gushed about the plot points, so excited to share the story. We had an animated conversation about other titles and I realized that I really like that a part of me is still that bookworm-y little girl, sparkly-eyed about vampires and flying unicorns and telekinesis and everything and anything impossible and magical.