~ Super Mario Mushroom Candy ~

I first saw these from a friend's Facebook pictures. They are so cute!!! I wanted them and a quick search showed a lot of websites online that sell them for $3 - $7. But, there's shipping. I wanted one, but it seemed a little silly to pay that much for candy.

So, I forgot about it for a while, till I saw them at Bed, Bath and Beyond!  I was so surprised!  They had red, green and blue and also some other Super Mario related candy.  This was was about $3.  I wanted them all, but really, I don't eat that much candy.  I just want the tin can.

Look, even the candy inside are little mushrooms!  These are supposed to be sour cherry favor.  They are not sour.  I don't really taste the cherry.  They are sweet though.  Not something I would ever buy again if it's not for the tin can. 

It looks like it's made in China, but at least it's a official Nintendo product.  I think I ate like 3 since I bought it a few weeks ago.  I don't want to waste the candy, but I just don't have any desires to eat it.  It looks good on my studio table though.  As soon as the candy is gone, it'll be housing my beads :)  Should I get the blue one and green one too?

~ Awesome Happy Hour at Cafe Chi in Chicago ~

I am sitting here, thinking about an upcoming trip to Chicago and I realized I never wrote about Cafe Chi from my last trip! Cafe Chi is located in the Chinatown Bazaar, on the Walgreen side. It's pretty hip looking and has a lot of Hong Kong Cafe style food. What I absolutely love about that place is its "Happy Hour"

Happy Hour is really more like "afternoon tea".  They have a few dishes with a drink for $3.95 from 2:30 - 6:00pm!  $3.95!!!  That's less than a Big Mac meal from McDonald's and I would much rather eat this.  By the way, cold drink is extra.  I forgot how much, but I am sure it's less than $1.

This is the Satay Beef Noodle Soup.  I like it.  I am a fan of noodle soups.

This is the Beef Brisket Flat Noodle Soup. It was good too. I just personally don't care for brisket.  But the noodles were good.

One thing I love about this place is that their tables has drawers for utensils and napkins!  How many times do you have to wait for the waiter to bring you a fork or a napkin?  Wait no more!  It's all here for you.  Great design!

Here's a picture of the menu so you know can see the Chinese name and the address.  Great little place for a quick meal!  They even have fried chicken wings with fries for their happy hour so you are not stuck with just Chinese food!  Yumm.... hungry now!

~ Yummy Green Tea and Wasabi KitKat from Japan ~

It's been more than a week since I blogged! What happened to blogging everyday?  Well, things have been crazy.  I am revamping my Etsy jewelry store, playing Picross (Yes, I know it's an old game) and eating.  Eating a lot!  Here's a little snack my friend got for me from Japan:  Green Tea Kit Kat and Wasabi Kit Kat.

Wasabi KitKat?? Yes, Wasabi. Have you ever had those wasabi peas snacks? It's kind of like that level of wasabi.  It certainly looked pretty!  It tasted pretty good.  It's strange.  The first bite, you really taste the wasabi, but that only lasts a few seconds.  Then it's just like regular chocolate. 

This is the green tea one.  I expected it to be not so sweet.

But, it was actually very sweet.  The green tea flavor is very subtle.  I taste the white chocolate more.  It's a lot sweeter than I expected.  I thought it would be like green tea ice cream which usually is not very sweet.

Here's the nutrient info if you are interested...

These kit kats are so much fun!  I wish they come out with fun flavors for kit kats in America too.  Something like pumpkin for the fall and strawberry for the summer.  I think they have strawberry kit kats in Japan.  Pink kit kats.  Must be cute!

~ Wedding Flowers from Lulu's Florist ~

I debated for a long time whether to use real flowers or fake flowers for my wedding bouquets.  I looked on a lot of websites for real touch calla lilies, but they are just as expensive as real ones!  I saw some really pretty silk flowers bouquet but I was afraid they look really fake in person.  So, about 2 months before the wedding,  I decided to just get real flowers and a friend recommended Lulu's Florist in Bethesda.

I made an appointment via the phone and went to there with my husband.  Liz, the owner, was super nice.  And the other guy, I think may have been her husband, was also very nice.  He gave us bottles of water and made us feel right at home when we got there.  Liz asked me what I wanted and explained to me what would work and what would not work for a June wedding.  I wanted only yellow and blue flowers, but she suggested some white roses and it worked out very well!  The white gave the bouquets more depth and interest.  And she was also very accommodating when I had a last minute color change from blue to purple.

Liz also worked with me on the budget.  The first estimate she gave me was over my budget so she suggested making some replacements and everything turned out so well!  All the estimates she gave me was detailed nad well written.  I knew exactly what I was getting.  I got beautiful flowers within my budget delivered on time.  I also appreciated how she was available on the phone and email.  

Even the boutonnière turned out better than I imagined.  The only issue was that a few of the flowers fell out of the bouquet.  And it was pretty heavy.  When I did the bouquet toss, I used one of the bridesmaid's bouquets 'cause I didn't want to hurt anyone.  But the flowers lasted very well!  Even 3 days later, the bouquet looked fine.

The photographers did a good job taking pictures of the flowers so I can remember them for the rest of my life.  The rings look so much better inside the flowers than on our hands!  Lulu's Florist has flowers for all kinds of occasions.  I am sure you'll enjoy your experience there.

~ UFO at Your Local Grocery Store ~

Watch out! There are UFOs in the grocery store! Well, UFO peaches :)

I usually don't care for peaches.  They taste fine, but the fuzz bothers me a little bit.  And they are so big so I can never finish one on my own.  The first time I saw these about six years ago, I just wanted one because they are so cute and small!

These are also known as donut peach or saturn peach.  These are super sweet and juicy!  They are also pretty firm and less fuzzy.  I hate mushy fruits.  One little peach is the perfect for a little snack. 

Ok, I must admit that the main reason I eat these is because they are cute!  They are great photo subjects too!  I love their colors!

This is the bottom of the peach.  Cute?  If you find these at your grocery stores, try one! 

~ My Yellow Sketchers Shape Ups ~

Before the demise of Bing Cashback program, there was 40% cashback on Endless.com and 20% off Sketchers Shape Ups. I have heard many different things about the Shape Ups, ranging from marketing gimmick to best thing since sliced bread. My skeptical side tells me this is marketing gimmick, but for $40, it was worth a try. 

Of course I got a yellow pair.  It came with white laces and a pair of spare yellow laces.  I put in the yellow laces to see which one is better. 

Which one do you like more?  I also twisted the laces a little bit to create a criss cross look.  Of course I kept it with the yellow laces.  I took walks around the lake with Momo twice with these shoes.  They are comfy but I wasn't specially tired after my walks.  I think they may work more on people's psychology then physiology.  Now that people have cool shoes to walk in and they just walk more.  Maybe they only "work" because they are heavy.  Try strapping lead plates to your calves everyday when you walk around like in the kung fu movies.  I am sure you'll loose weight that way too.

Well, with these cool new shoes, I will be walking a few times around the lake every week.  I need to loose a lil weight after letting myself go after the wedding :)  Do you have a pair of these?  Do you think they work?

~ Improved Jewelry Photography Setup ~

I used to have a little light box. It was small, like a little over 1ft x 1ft. It was a pain to position stuff in the box and position the camera since the lights got in the way.  I was rearranging my desk and found a better space for my "lightbox".  This is a little crevice on top of my bead drawers and my desk.  I taped white paper in the background.  I put in patterned paper because I was going for a gray background.  I have 3 lights, all of them use Ott lighbulbs.  Some people may think the lights are too close, but my jewelry pieces are small.  I think this distance is fine.

Here are some pictures I took of my new Elizabeth's Earrings.  I used these white wire jewelry displays because I like them :)   I think the gray background maybe a little bit too dark though.  I bought a piece of granite tile from Home Depot the other day.  I am going to try that next.

 

Am I completely happy with my pictures?  No, but at least I feel like I am improving.  And I love using this space to take pictures.  I have 2 open sides and it gives me more room to arrange the items and take pictures from different angles.  I'll post pictures after I try the granite tile.  Stay tuned!

~ Otakon 2010 ~

I wasn't going to go to Otakon but my friend convinced me to stop by on the last day. I wasn't ready to cosplay but I was told that I can go goth. So, here's me being goth.  I love this jacket that I got in Hong Kong.  You think I can just wear it regularly?

I had so much fun at Otakon, just looking at the people who cosplayed!!  The lighting was surprisingly bright so the pictures turned out ok without flash.  I felt stupid though with my DSLR without the big external flash that everyone else had.  Here are my favorites....First, Tidus and Yuna.  I was so jealous.  I wish my hubby will dress up like Tidus for me.

This is the Espada #3. Awesome costume! It's actually a guy! I love when guys dress up as girls. :)

From Black Butler....I have never seen the anime but I saw images of it.  They look very much like the anime!

Naruto! I really need to catch up on this series...

Don't know who this is, but looks cool!

Edward chibi version? The greatest part about this one is that he is really short, just like Edward!

Another hardcore one!

I wanted to buy everything there....but I bought mainly t-shirts because I was trying to be practical.

There were so much awesome stuff!  Gundam figures, other anime figures, fan art, wall scrolls, key chains, phone charms, swords, costumes, wigs, stuffed animals, handmade kawaii hats and more!! Just look at these pics!

Of course, there were some hetchi stuff....like body pillows.

Just seeing people in their costumes make me want to cosplay!  I am probably going to try for Anime USA in November in VA.  Cosplaying is hard and expensive though.  Going to start looking again soon :)