This is the face you get when you tell my nephew to smile. Hehe, yea it pretty much melts your heart. <3

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I’ve been tagged by the wonderful Samm Blake and the rules of the game are to answer the questions, tag 5 other people, post their name then leave them a message on their blog letting them know that they have been tagged and so forth.

What was I doing 10 years ago?
10 years ago I was 16, and on the second half of my junior year in high school. I was colorguard captain (yea I was a bandgeek – NOT ROTC), actively participating in the school’s Christian club, Asian club, and in the spring musical, “The Pajama Game.” We won championships that year for winterguard, and I remember being so proud. & happy! I will even go so far as to post a picture of the guard.

Can you guess which one I am? :)

Things On My To Do list
+ more sample albums.
+ cook at home more.
+ adding more things to do with the portrait/dance side of my work, which will be revealed soon!
+ travel to europe.
+ travel to china.
+ travel!

Bad Habits
+ I sleep really, REALLY late. It’s awful how late I sleep. and because of this…
+ I wake up really, really late.

Places I have Lived
+ Sacramento
+ Oregon
+ here.

Things Most People Don’t Know About Me
+ I am obsessed with letterpress stationary
+ I just switched to Mac this past year after being a PC girl all my life – including having “built” one (I had a friend guiding me the whole way, but I put it together myself!)
+ I looove Mutts comics
+ I took three years of French in high school and can barely remember any of it. Although I’d like to pick it up again.
+ I have a thing for trees

I tag you!
(this is really hard, and I hate leaving people out, but I’m forcing myself to only pick 5 in two categories, and if I don’t pick you, it’s not cause I don’t love you, I do! I’m hoping the people I pick will be able to do one of these too ;) And I’m trying to pick people I haven’t picked before. :P)

{non california}
+ Justin DeMers
+ Kate Crafton
+ Kathy Carlisle
+ Richard & Amy
+ Jodi Renee.

{california}
+ Lisa Roah
+ Eddie Bojorquez
+ Sarah Maren
+ Junshien
+ Sarah K Chen

I’m realizing more and more lately of how much I love good food. There are days I wish I was living in Europe – going to the market everyday to get fresh ingredients, making whatever looks good. I still follow recipes, but one day! You will find me with a garden, (I currently have a black thumb and no where to plant anything) cooking whatever comes from the market & garden (think Jamie Oliver at Home – which by the way, I absolutely love this show).

Along with my love of foreign foods, I love books that incorporate food & recipes. There’s something about adding in stories along with recipes that just speaks to me. It’s almost as if by cooking these foods, you’re a part of the story. My first book like this was Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake!, which I was totally enamored by. I remember reading it over and over again and just staring at the recipes, wishing that I could make them. I can’t remember if I ever tried to, but I’m sure I probably did.

My next favorite book with recipes was Like Water for Chocolate, which I had to read for summer reading in high school, and just fell in love with.

My latest find is Trail of Crumbs, a story that drew me in the minute I read the little summary inside the book jacket. I stood at the bookstore for about 20 mins, fixated in one spot, reading and reading. For some reason I didn’t take the book home, but I definitely plan on it very, very soon.

There’s just something magical about cooking & food. Like photos, they evoke memories, thoughts, forgotten feelings. Every now and then I get a whiff of something that smells like a mixture of soy sauce and rice pasta and I’m instantly brought back to a time when my mom made me pasta that smelled just like that. Rice porridge does the same. It’s comforting. :)

Mashed sweet potatoes

Wish you were here. :)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe, so here’s another that I’ve enjoyed. :) I added peppermint extract to this to make it a little more flavorful. It’s fun – you could try to add a drop of red food coloring to make it pink as well :)

(from allrecipes.com)

PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 3 Hrs
READY IN 3 Hrs 20 Min

Original recipe yield: 3 dozen

INGREDIENTS

* 4 egg whites
* 2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Butter and flour a baking sheet.
2. In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing, and transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag. Pipe the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet using a large round tip or star tip.
3. Place the meringues in the oven and place a wooden spoon handle in the door to keep it from closing all the way. Bake for 3 hours, or until the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature.

This was actually one of the weddings I did a while back and never got the chance to blog (although, it is in my portfolio on my website). So here I am blogging about it! :) I was actually supposed to do a shoot yesterday which I wanted to post photos from, but due to the rain it was cancelled. :( Boo!

Monique & John were married in Sacramento at the Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament, with photos taken around the capital, Stanford House, and the reception at the Masonic Temple.

P.S. Notice anything with my logo/watermark? ;)

This was actually the very first shot of the day, I found Monique sitting in the sink doing her makeup. ;)

In our first place here in San Diego, there was a mourning dove nest right above our patio. I remember sitting there, watching the mother & father take turns, coming back to the nest to sit on it. I learned that during the day, the father sits on it while the mother searches for food, and vice versa in the evening. It’s sweet, really. I stole this photo during a chance moment when both were gone.

The sound of those coo’s reminds me of mornings at home.