Finally Fall

Happy Autumn!
The weather is finally cooling down this week. The leaves are starting to change colours. It is the best time to make a cup of hot chocolate and cuddle up with a lovely book by the window watching the falling leaves. How romantic! =)

Puchi's tummy has been making funny sound the whole morning. I certainly need to keep my eyes on that. Sometimes I do worry that she may eat something bad when she wanders around the house by herself.
Anyways, here're some of her recent photos.

Feature of the Week

This week I've tried something different. Instead of the classic muslin bodice and cuffs, it's fun to mix and match with patterns, like polka dots and floral.Finally, I've found the Petite Blythe in the Littlest Pet Shop collection. There's something about it make me pass on this one, probably the eyes.

Happy Thursday! =)

The Peking Duck

I promise I'll try to keep this the last post about our little road trip. I've almost forgot share this delicious meal at Great China in Berkeley. If you like Chinese food, Northern Chinese cuisine to be more specific, it is a great place.
This is the Hot and Sour Soup, next to it is a cold rice noodle appetizer mixed with shredded ingredients like mushrooms, egg, cucumber and meat, etc, and tossed with special sauce and mustard.
The Peking Duck was carved into pieces of crispy skin and chunks of meat, served with steam flour crepes, scallions and hoisin sauce.The Walnut Shrimps and Stir-Fried Green Beans were fantastic too.

Unfortunately besides their delicious food, they are also famous for their rude service. To be honest, I think they are not that bad, they are just not that smiley.
Happy Tuesday!

The Little Danish Town

We always like Solvang. The traditional Danish architecture, the windmill, it is just relaxing walking in the downtown and tasting some of authentic Danish pastries. There are many unique boutique shops, antiques, Scandinavian goods, crafts, etc.
The lovely old fashioned black forest cuckoo clock we've got there. The front and side scenery is beautifully hand-carved. And the precious piece from the Wee Forest Folk we adopted, named Li'l Jar of Jam. This little one is only an inch and a half tall. The details and the craftsmanship is just amazing. Besides downtown, there are many scenic routes around the area. It is best for some country pictures.Happy Thursday!

Never Let Me Go

When we first heard of the movie, we felt in love with the beautiful trailer. Despite the mixed reviews(people either love it or hate it) had made us felt kind of fifty fifty, we decided to see it. After the movie, my feeling was in between the reviews, it was okay. But in the past few days, the more I think about it, the more I like it. It is those kind of movie which makes you think a lot.

As much as I like it, it is certainly not for everyone. But if you like the trailer, I would recommend to give it a chance. The movie is as beautiful and as subtle as in the trailer.

Preview of the week

It may seem familiar when you first spot at the little dress of the week. It is a lovely baby doll dress crafted of the adorable little forest fabric. The little baby green fabric works surprisingly well in the dress.

Besides The Aquarium

Besides the Aquarium, the Cannery Row Antique Mall is another wonderful place to check out in Monterey. The two stories building is filled with tons of treasures.
Rarely seen fluffy puppets by Steif

The Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of our favourite places along the coast. There are two things I would definitely recommend to do if you are there. First, try to capture a masterpiece at the jelly fish exhibit at the outer bay. You'll find a lovely crowd trying to do the same. =)Second, enjoy an oceanview lunch at the cafe. They offer a variety of choices and great food at reasonable prices.
my creamy clam chowder and cheese plate
Have a wonderful week!

Feature of the Week

Red, Red, Red!! This week we are featuring two new creations coordinated with the beautiful red. First up is the little red stripes baby doll dress. The lovely desaturated red and cream colour give this little dress a very vintage look.The next one is this delicate red pin dot princess sleeves shirt. I love the princess sleeves and the round collar. They are just totally adorable and so vintage.Happy Thursday! =)

At the Broadwalk

I've always wanted to take some doll photos at the fair but it has been always difficult to choose between the doll and the rides as you don't want to carry too much stuff if you plan to go on the rides. I'm glad I chose the doll this time. Here're my two favourite shots.

a few more on my flickr

Happy Wednesday! =)

Marshall

It is always nice to take a little break to just play and eat everyday. Here, we are at Marshall, a little town about 40 minutes drive along the country road from Petaluma, California.
The thought about eating whatever you want, as much as you want, is one of the best thing when traveling. At Marshall, oyster is the one. We first stopped at the Nick's Cove. It is semi-causal fine dining restaurant. They have quite a selection of raw and grilled oysters. When it comes to raw oysters, the smaller are always the better. These baby ones are as small as half a lemon wedge.We also tried the grilled ones and the mussels. It was great but if I've known about The Marshall Store, I might have skipped the restaurant. It is a little shack by the bay. They have a very small menu of a few seafood items. It is definitely a very casual self-serve place. We ordered the grilled oysters and found ourselves comfortably on the deck. The delicious oysters we enjoyed. The bread was good too!
Happy Tuesday! =)

New Petites

I'm so excited to hear that Hasbro is launching a petite Blythe collection. They come with the Littlest Pet Shop collection and many adorable accessories. You have to see those little glasses! Some of them resemble some older Takara petite Blythe which is great. The Cold Weather Cute is kind of like an American version of Skate Date. The little red coat and the polka dot stockings are just totally adorable.The only thing holding me back is that some of them don't seem to be quite Blythe like. Especially the photo card, it doesn't quite resemble the Blythe that I'm used to. I guess I need to go check them out in person and see. =)
Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! =)

Say Cheese

Growing up with a lot of Kraft slices and Laughing Cow, cheese has always been one of my favourite food. Among all, the Laughing Cow cubes are still the best. There are so many flavours, mushroom, onion, peppercorn, blue cheese, and my favourite tomato. It is so much fun even just unwrapping the little cube.

On our last grocery shopping, we came across the selection from Yancey's Fancy. Their story traces back from the 20's when one of the founders moved to New York from Germany. They make a huge variety of flavored cheese, like buffalo wing, horseradish, jalapeno, strawberry chardonnay, so many to choose from. Maybe this can be my new favourite since the cubes are not sold around here.
The first one I tried was the buffalo wing cheddar. It had a very intense flavour, smooth texture and quite spicy and salty. It was kind of like hot nacho cheese in a very rich way. It will make a great snack with crackers. I think I'd love to try the fire roasted tomato cheddar next. =)
Happy September!

Preview of the week

The whole time I thought those little patterns were doll faces until recently I found out it should be read the other way around and those were little flower buds instead. Silly me! =P Oh well, it is not the first time to see things in a different way, like the cranky face of an electrical outlet and the creatures in clouds. All you need is just some imagination I guess. =)

Little Doll Dress Happy Tuesday!

Feature of the Week

It's baby doll dress time again! This little one features the lovely chocolate pin dot fabric mixed with toddler's treasure print fabric. A matching fabric ribbon is added to the bottom to make it even more adorable. =)

Happy Thursday!

Hi from Puchi

It's me again. Time flies. It has been almost a year since my last post. I'm a year and eight months old now. In the past year, I've grown quite a bit, taller and chubbier and weigh a bit over five pounds. Here's my little update and a few more things about me.

1. I've learned more new words. My favourite word is 'steak' and my least favourite words are 'not for you'.
2. I've learned how to dance and play dead.
3. My new favourite snacks are dried sweet potato and chicken breast.
4. I love playing hide and seek.
5. In a hot summer day, I like to take a nap on the cool wood floor.
6. I love sniffing beautiful flowers.
7. I like to sleep with my head upside down.
8. I like fresh socks(from your feet) but I will take the clean ones for substitute.
9. I do a little stretch routine in the morning, front stretch, back stretch, side stretch.
10. I take bits of whatever food on the coffee table when no one is watching. shhh... that's my little secret.

Here's a snap shot of my adorable back and little leg.I hope you are having a lovely summer and wish you enjoy the rest of it. See you around. Ciao!

Feature of the Week

I'm so happy that my favourite round collar is back! Many thanks to the Coordinate Recipe 8! =) The little book has really saved me out from the frustration on the round collar.
So, may I present you the adorable vintage princess shirt.It features the lovely round collar, vintage beads deco and princess sleeves. It is crafted of cotton navy pin dot fabric and it has the classic mushroom fit, darts in the front and back. There are only beads on the chest so that it will fit well underneath dresses.

And the little coffee stripes baby doll dress is totally cute. Tips: wearing a pair of bloomers underneath the baby doll dress will make it look puffier.

Happy Thursday! =)

A Few Things to Share

Hooray!! Our first ever beautiful juicy tomato is finally ready to harvest. =)We've started growing different things for quite a while and it hasn't been easy. Most of the plants didn't survive for a bunch of reasons, too little sun, too much water, the dry climate, etc. These tomatoes we've been growing since February and they are right from the seeds. It has been a long happy journey to see them grow.As I mentioned earlier, we are slowly putting up our treasures in the showcase. This little lovely one is from a pretty exclusive collection called the Wee Forest Folk which we don't see much around, at least in California. Each delicate piece is cast from an original piece sculpted by the members of the Petersen family and hand painted carefully.This delicious Three Cheese Semolina Loaf is from La Brea Bakery. The three cheeses are Asiago, Parmesan and Romano. It would be nicer if they put some melted cheese crumbs inside.  Be sure to heat it up before enjoying it.  It will make a world difference!Have you seen the Nanapus, banana X octopus, before? It's an old commercial a friend shared with us last week. It is so silly. =)
Happy Tuesday!

Mini Outing

We went on a mini date to Santa Monica over the weekend. It is always nice to head out but we have been pretty much discouraged by the traffic nowadays. Fortunately, the traffic was pretty good and we made it to our brunch stop before noon. California Chicken Cafe has always been one of our favourites. It's fresh, delicious and healthy, only if we could resist to not over order. =)

This was our little brunch for two.We then headed to Wertz Brothers Antique Mart. It had quite a decent collection of fishing and hunting stuff, seaside cottage furnture. I've found this little moody guy sitting in the showcase. It seemed like he had been trying hard to get out and finally gave up. Poor little guy! =]
Happy Tuesday! =)

Something Familiar

I've been thinking of re-making two of my favourite pieces for a while but somehow it has been pushed and pushed. It is definitely nice to stay one of a kind but it will be wonderful if I can share these lovely ones with a few more of you. =) Here we are, the adorable yellow cupcake dress and the delicious strawberry ruffle shirt.

They will be available at the little shoppe tomorrow.
Happy Wednesday! =)