The Apple County

It's the first one from my new series of apple inspired collection, the Apple County. You can find an apple tree in every corner in this fairyland.

Naptime

Happy Friday!

Yummy Surprise

Sometimes it feels like I've wandered in the little cottage so much that everything seems like new and first time for me. So, we decided to go to Maggiano's Little Italy. I was told it's a chain like Cheesecake Factory but it's Italian. It made the restaurant sounds more interesting to me when we were killing time in the mall, it happened that we overheard someone next to us unable to make a reservation. Isn't really that popular? Luckily, we made our reservation early.
It was a pretty big restaurant and was quite fancily decorated inside. The tables were covered with tablecloth. I noticed that not many restaurants use tablecloth these days. Instead, they use the paper placemat, or even worse, nothing. It feels different if you sit at a 'tableclothed' table. We got a nice booth. When I started studying the menu, I realized it wasn't as pricey as I expected. They have this awesome promotion called Maggiano's Tomorrow Too which you get a half portion of pasta and choose another half portion of pasta to take home. We couldn't resist and ordered the special.
Their bread is very good, crispy outside and soft inside. We had mussels in Diavolo style (spicy tomato sauce) and zucchini fritte for appetizers. They were both delish. I like the lemon aioli cream sauce came with the zucchini. It reminds me of the sauce served with calamari in Greek restaurant.
It's pretty generous for this half portion dish.The pasta dishes were quite big even they were half portion. The sauce was more on the soupy side. It tasted okay compared to Pasta Pomodoro which we like better. It seemed like they put more salt and garlic in the sauce than Pomodoro.
Overall, the service was friendly and professional. We definitely got more than what we paid, for the food, the service and the nice settings. I would recommend to try it out if you like decent American Italian food.
Happy Tuesday!

Preview of the week

How about some cupcakes? This little cupcake dress make your girl as sweet as cupcakes. Featuring the little cupcakes fabric and ruffle sleeves, it is definitely cuteness overloaded.What about her secret side? Nothing inappropriate! I just mean her double identity as a secret agent.

Happy Tuesday!

Open House

It's not any regular house, it's the playhouse! We were so lucky to have the opportunity to visit the open house at the Annual Project Playhouse. It's organized by the HomeAid Orange County in order to raise money to fund housing for the homeless. The playhouse will be on displayed for about a month and auction off. But the open house is only an one day event!

Since the playhouses are contributed by real home builders, they are like mini real houses.
My favourite was the seaside cottage.the little attic den in the farmhouselittle dog houseThey are all delightfully decorated in different theme. The French country house is so elegant and pretty.For more info, check out the Project Playhouse website.
Happy Monday!

Little Flower Girl

She loves the scent of the country breeze and enjoys collecting rare flowers.

Flower Girl

Happy Friday!

Hi Olive!

After a long while since the mushroom gang, the new dolls have finally come into shape. It's a new design resembles the classic simplicity of rag dolls. Here we are, the first two Olive dolls from the little mushroom. =) I wonder what they are looking at over at that side. Would that be a cute little pet or a pretty collar dress? Or they are just waiting for someone to come? They are crafted of 100% cotton fabric and 100% wool felt. They are stuffed with poly-fil and a bit of rice. And their hand-painted faces make each of them unique in character.

Happy Wednesday!

Something New

I've been reading quite a lot of fashion blogs and magazines. So I guess it's time to try something new on doll fashion too. Big print, big bow and a little Swarovski crystal deco, not super extravagant, but enough to be modestly fashionable for the first time.

Happy Tuesday!

New works

I've been working on some paintings and some new dolls over the weekend. And I can't wait to share with you my latest painting. It's a little fairytale of a curious girl's adventure to the Wonder Castle.

The Little Voyager

Happy Monday!

Fresh from the Market

We took a little detour from our usual grocery shopping route today. We went to Claro's for the very first time. It is an Italian market loaded with authentic treasures. Stacks of pasta, shelves of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, deli meat and cheese counter, etc.All sort of extract and oils for baking.

Plus an irresistible bakery corner, look at these cookies, it is impossible to not to grab some. We also got a little gourmet cappuccino chocolate cake.We had lunch and picked up some grocery at the Japanese market. I have to say, they have the best steak and we love their so buttery white bread. This bowl of pork on rice has been our recent favourite.Then, we headed out to the shore to the Pearson's Port. It's a little seafood market by the water. They have many creatures, like different kinds of crabs, octopus and some I don't even know what it it. I'm not a big fan of looking at live sea creatures, they are kind of scary for me. But for sure that everything is very fresh there.We were there for the spot prawns. They were huge! Five of them already weighed one pound. The thing is live prawns are not for everyone to handle, at least not for me. Here they are sadly struggling in the bag of ice.

Blue Velvet

I love the classic elegant look of a blue velvet dress. But I guess it's a bit too hot for me in this steamy summer day.

Girl in Blue Dress
Happy Thursday!

The little secret of PBJ

PBJ, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, is something that we crave from time to time. It tastes great and it always reminds us of all the good childhood times. And once we've started, we've been seeing it quite lot at breakfast time lately. But not all PBJ taste great. How and how much PBJ determines the tastiness of the sandwich. The key is not too stingy and not overly spilt. And the most important little secret is to make sure the PBJ spread to all edges and put slightly more on the corners because the edges of the bread usually taste drier, especially the corners. Slightly more PBJ will "balance" out the unpopular edges and corners. =)

Happy Wednesday!

Little socks factory

I've been working on A LOT of little socks for my girls. It is nice to see them wearing different ones instead of those boring flat white socks. Among all, I like the natural white pin hole ones and the red and black stripes ones the most. But I guess they all look great. And of course, I made some for your girls too. They will be available in my little boutique soon. And I'm very excited to share with you the yellow summer dress I've been working on. It's my favourite so far. It is crafted of a very nice Swiss dots voile and decorated with vintage beads. So summery and sweet!

Happy Wednesday!

New haircut and the standing dog

So Puchi finally got her new haircut. We were intended to request for that spiky 80's punk head but I guess it was easier said than to be done (even we tried to show the sample pic of the little Maltese from the pet shop). Therefore, we simply asked the groomer to cut it short. She was doing pretty good, except when the times she tried to jump on the groomer.So, her hair is much shorter now and seems like her body has strunk down two size. Instead of the 80's head, she has this wide and flat bottom spaceship cut (which resembles my aunts back in the 70's) which makes her look like a naughty little boy.We were trying to introduce Puchi to one of the neigborhood doggies when we were out the other day. Instead of her usual sniffing inspecting doggie hello, she went under our legs and started to make a low "hahhh....hahhhh" sound very faintly. After the couple left, I finally realized what she was doing. She was scared because the doggie was standing on two legs in a stroller the whole time. I guess she must be very confused and wondered what is this two-leg standing human like with a dog head, or the other way around.

Happy Monday!

The Yellow Dress

I was so soaked up into the yellow dress that I've almost forgot everything. I forgot about posting, listing, taking pictures of new items and even my lunch. I should have known better this gorgeous swiss dot volie fabric is pretty hard to work on, even harder than the green fabric I worked on last week. Its delicacy has been the reason why I like it and it is also the source of frustration at the same time. But I can't complain because I'm pretty happy with the almost finished work.This was from some ideas came out from the green fabric last week.
Have a great weekend!

A long wait

It has been a long wait for everyone at home. Puchi is going to the groomer tomorrow Finally! In fact, somehow she doesn't stink as bad as two weeks ago. You know, there's a saying about the ill person smell. It's probably true. Her stinks gradually fades away when she's getting better, maybe it's a chemical thing inside the body or something.
Anyways, we can't wait for her bath and her new hair cut!

Looking Up

Things are looking up!Happy Thursday!

Just like a kid

My mom told me that I used to put Everything in my mouth when I was a baby. So I'm not surprise to see Puchi try to do the same when she explores the world. But I have to say that she is smarter, or say more picky than me because she spits the stuff back out all the time. I suppose those are not tasty or even taste nasty. Instead I've swallowed many things that I wouldn't even touch with my hands these days. I still think it's good to be fearless sometimes. But not when Puchi was trying to eat a bee the other night!
Happy Wednesday!

The French Balls

I'm always curious in these balls, called gougeres. I'll be honest with you that I don't know how to pronounce it even though I did took three semesters of French in high school. Luckily, that's not important for my mission. I went online and studied a handful of recipes through different websites. And I picked this one from Chef Emeril Lagasse at the food network. I cut the recipe ingredients in half for smaller portion.

1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsp of butter
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
salt & pepper(I used 1/8 tsp S & 1/8 tsp P)
2 eggs, room temperature (pls read on about the eggs)
1/4 cup of Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheeseFirst boil the butter and milk over medium heat. Set to medium low heat and throw in flour, salt and pepper. Mix it until it becomes a dough. Set aside the dough for a minute to let cool down. Preheat the oven to 400^oF/200^oC. In a large bowl, stir ONE egg into the dough until smooth. It takes a bit time and patience here.**This is where I want to point out. DO NOT crack in the whole second egg. Because my mixture became too watery after I added second egg. Yes, I messed up! I don't know if any chef will scream at me if they hear this. But I saved my "effort" with by adding another half portion dough and it worked luckily. So I guess you may beat the second egg in a small bowl, then add into the mixture little by little until the mixture become a very thick paste.** The paste should look shiny and occasionally drop "turtle-ly" slow from a fork. Take half of the paste to a small bowl and mix it with Gruyere cheese. Use two slightly wet spoons to form small balls and drop onto the baking sheet about 2 inch apart from each other. Put the sheet in the oven and bake the balls at 400^oF for 10 minutes. Then, lower the temperature to 350^oF/170^oC and bake for 25 minutes. During this time you can work on the second batch with Parmesan or you may prepare both batches and bake them at the same time. If you are baking the second batch separately, don't forget to set the oven back to 400^oF. I found the Gruyere cheese ones are little plain but the Parmesan ones are sooo delish! I might put more cheese though next time and try it with cheddar. And, I once again impressed myself with this fun but very frustrated in the middle and ended up rewarding recipe.
There are more photos on flickr on the process.
Happy Baking!!

Upcoming dress

I'm so excited to share with you on my latest creations. They are the all time favourites, dresses! Okay, I personally think they are all cute but here's my favourite. It is crafted of this Disney print fabric from my Japanese collection and finished with mini pompom and lace trim. The new dresses will be available at Etsy later this week.

Happy Monday!

Creepily Artful

I was totally absorbed by the aimless gaze and the emptiness of these appealing sculptures when I flipped through the current issue of Hi-Fructose Magazine. Jin Young Yu, shows off her unique talent through her mixed media transparent sculpture. Featuring mostly no-expression and sad faces, her works represented much of her own insight about people. It feels like every one of them is screaming inside. Do check out her phenomenal interview over at Arrested Motion back in February 2009. You can find more photos of her work displayed at Union Gallery in London.

As you may know, the movie Julie & Julia is going to come out soon. Before that, you may want to check out the book, which is originally published by Julie Powell in 2005. It is hilarious, inspiring and so much fun to read!!Plus, found this cute little book of kittens by Rachel Hale. Her photos are always too adorable.
Happy Saturday!