Floral Fixation.

An unglamorous day of running errands. Stopped into the supermarket for a quick grocery run with my family and I moseyed over to have a look at the flowers. Ah, the suburbs.

I'm jealous of people in NYC who have constant access to a huge variety of gorgeous flowers (and sold by the stem to boot!) Anyways, these flowers are pretty common in the typical grocery store in the suburbs.

I tried to reduce the noise as much as I could in Photoshop but I'm not sure if it made that much of a difference. Anyone know what gives? Suggestions?

If anyone reads this thing, I hope you have a great weekend ;)

Sun Up and Sun Down

Speeding by today! Had some more simple food-making on my day off. Like I've said before, super undomesticated girl, right here. Gotta start somewhere, right? ;) 

EC whipped up the delicious korean fried chicken. It was double-fried and heavenly! Whew!

 

Baked Eggs in Bread Bowls recipe from MyRecipes.com and Seasoned Fried Chicken recipe from Maangchi.com. :)

Short Week

These kinds of weeks always speed by so quickly. Hope everyone's having a great week!

An Afternoon Snack

 As a post-lunch snack, I roasted some brussels sprouts.

Left: Just washed and raw Right: Roasted and seasoned.

After these shots were taken, I melted some grated cheese over half of them.

Mmm, hit the spot. Totally satisfied my craving. 

In the Kitchen

Being that I'm super undomesticated, I tend to avoid spending time in the kitchen. But I was home alone tonight and I didn't feel like eating out, so I decided to try my inexperienced hand at cooking dinner.

 The result: Seared scallops with Mango salsa. I went to grocery store on a mission to top my scallops with delicious blood oranges (since I was massively craving them all day), but they had none. Boo, maybe next time. 

I was also seriously craving kale and brussels sprouts. I was able to pick them up so I intend on snacking on salt and vinegar kale chips and roasted brussels sprouts this weekend. Oh goodness, I can't wait. 

Yes! Extended weekend :D It was a pretty exhausting week at work so I'm going to hit the sack. Gnite!

Tweets!

Forgive me. I have just figured out how to embed Tweets into my blog. Hooray!

I went through my Tweets to see which one would be appropriate to post for kicks. I figured I would post this one, since it connects anyone visiting this blog to my twitter AND pinterest. Win.

Floral Fixation. So gorgeous! pinterest.com/pin/2272207436… via @pinterest

— Tiffany Lu (@oddlittleperson) February 9, 2012

I have no idea why I find this awesome. Anyways, carry on! Nothing to see here :P

Valentine

Here's a little something about me: I love flowers but I'm not a huge fan of assorted bouquets. If a bouquet has more than two types of flowers in it, it's cramping my style. And I dislike roses. For some odd reason, they don't look pretty to me. Personal preference!

Luckily, I received tulips on Valentine's Day. Tulips are one of the few flowers that makes it to my short list of favorites. :)

Anyways, lunch break ending now. Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone! :)

Droid.

So. My heart skipped a beat when I saw this.

Eversince I tried my hand at embroidering an android onto a tie for Eric, this little guy has grown on me.

So I had to post this. And I usually don't post other people's work on my personal blog unless I'm borderline obsessed with it.

Crocheted and photographed by Xuan Nguyen. See more of the creator's work here. :)

I'm definitely inspired to start a crochet project because of this.

Sunday Afternoon in the City

When I'm in the city, I usually don't wander around East Village. But on Saturday night, I caught a glimpse of the area and decided that it would be nice to visit during light hours. So, the twin and I trekked out there on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was pretty cold out. I could barely feel my hands and feet so I decided that we had to stop into a cafe for a hot drink. By this time, I saw the word "coffee" on a front sign and just pushed my way through the doors without a second thought. I ordered some tea and got in some photo-practice while we waited for our hands to thaw.

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Most of the baristas here had that personality mix of nice/indifferent that I often come across in this part of town. I know I don't venture out here often enough to make a fair judgment, but in my short experience, a lot of people here give off this endearing artsy "up-turned nose" vibe, if you know what I'm saying. (I don't mean any offense!) I will say, though, there was this one lady behind the counter who exchanged pleasantries with customers-- I love that. I wish more people did that these days. On my way out, I stole a glance at the full name of the coffee shop: Bowery Coffee. Definitely a cozy place to stumble into. :)

And then a few outdoor photos. I barely brought the camera out when we were walking because my hands were so cold!

We passed by this adorable place nearby called Peels and I really wanted to stop in there as well. Unfortunately, they were closed at 4 for some private event.  Next time!

P.S Go Giants!

"An Oldie but a Goodie."

I went to NYC with some of my family yesterday. After getting Vietnamese for dinner, my oldest sister's boyfriend suggested that we stopp at Pete's Tavern, the "oldest continuously operating restaurant and bar in NYC." Not my usual scene, but I definitely appreciate the look and feel of the place. :) It was an enjoyable evening.

Where diners go to pay for their meals. Pretty neat, huh :P

G'day everyone!

P.S I can't wait for Eric to come home from Switzerland!

Playing with Headers.

Tried to freehand a new header for the blog today. But I didn't like it so I scrapped it.

I think it has too much pomp and I'm not sure how I feel about the all-caps.
Also, I think the lines of the laurels need to be thicker.

Maybe it would look better if the stems crossed each other at the end. Hmm.

Then I realized that the "tea leaves" above the text looks too similar to the Sundance Film Festival Laurels.

Oopsies.

Carry on, everyone!

HAPPY FRIDAY :)

Surf Taco.

I've always been drawn to downtown/urban-esque areas particularly for the art. Being that I grew up completely engulfed in the suburbs, Downtown Red Bank was the first encounter I had with lively, unique, non-cookie cutter store decor. I loved how it seemed like there was a different world in every shop -- these shopowners clearly do not skimp on interesting and thoughtful interior design. To this day, I prefer good interior design/decoration of a restaurant over good food served. =X What can I say, maybe I was born with taste buds in my eyes instead of my mouth. :P Anyways, for these reasons, Downtown Red Bank was one of my favorite places when I was younger. Anyone who lives close enough should wander around. Oh but I should warn you: the place is a flocking station for hipsters, complete with an "indie" movie theater. But I ain't a hater, hipsters need love too. :P 

Anyways! Stephie and I decided to go out to dinner together. I get really excited when I go out to dinner with her because we rarely have meals with just the two of us. In fact, I could probably count on two hands the number of times we've eaten together within the last year. Being that the weather was fantastic yesterday, we decided to drive down to Red Bank and see what was new around there. Of course, so much changed since I last visited a few years ago. This place called Surf Taco opened up, and we decided to try it out for the first time. 

On the way back to our car, I snapped a few photos of the closed shops. I'll probably come back with a camera on a sunny day. There are plenty of sights to uncover here.