I’m trying my hand at planting. The house has been lacking of some lively plants, especially when there are no tabletop flowers to display… Anyway, meet Ornithogalum Damascus! haha, I believe the more friendly name is Star of Bethlehem. I first heard of these flowers when looking for ideas for my wedding bouquet. They were paired up with white Calla lilies, and the Star of Bethlehem petals are all silky and star-shaped. Very pretty.

According to easytogrowbulbs.com, they seem fairly easy to take care of. Water, making sure they drain well, and place in sun! Woohoo! Although, they say it blooms in April-May, so why are they in the middle of blooming now? It’s December! In any case, it’s fun taking care of a plant. Almost like mothering. ha ha. Reminds me of John 15, where Jesus proclaims that he is the True Vine and explains what it looks like for a Christian to fully abide in Him, to be pruned and sanctified, and to ultimately experience the fullness of His love in the producing of spiritual fruit! Constant pruning, but beautiful flowers that bloom over and over again.

On another note, according to Steve, the tops of the flowers look like asparagus. Typical of him to be thinking of food…

My good friends Jason & Erica are finally married!! Their wedding last weekend was so simple, but so beautiful and touching, just like the two of them. Some interesting tidbits—the groomsmen all walked the bridesmaids down the aisle rather than waiting with the groom up front; they did a sand ceremony in place of the unity candles (which I had never seen before but a really nice alternative); half of the wedding party, including jason & erica, led worship; their cake was designed to match their Godiva chocolate favors! Very cute.

Anyway, they also asked me to create something that they could have their guests write encouragement notes on and somehow hang them or pin them up onto a tree, so I created the above tree-board. The tree was hand-sewn onto muslin, then wrapped around some cork and foam board. At the reception, guests wrote on the back of their placecards and pinned up the notes on the tree! Very functional, and it’s something that Jason & Erica can hang up in their house for memories. :)

Woohoo!!! A big, heartfelt thank-you to Rachel for giving me my first—not one, not two, but FOUR sales!! I’m so excited that these 4 pieces of jewelry will be in good hands, simply because the owner is delighted by them. I hope that is the case for all future sales!

And now for the upcoming weeks, back to wedding-stuff! I can’t believe Steve and I have been IN one wedding each month since September! And that was only 4 months after our own wedding! Anyway, I’ll be working on a tree-board for Jason & Erica that their guests can pin encouragement leaves to. I’m excited to see the board all finished and hanging up in their house! :)

Sadly, southern California is always in a drought. No wonder we have so many brush fires! But this weekend it is actually cloudy and there are spotted showers throughout! I’m so happy; I never thought I would miss the rain, but I do. So when it finally rained again today, I snapped some pictures of our neighbors’ homes because the sky looked so amazing!

Perfect day for an afternoon nap… :)

Ooooh, this is so awesome! A sleek humidifier designed by Takashi Hiroshi Tsuboi for both function and form. Apparently it “can produce moisture for up to ten consecutive hours and boasts a relatively small footprint.” The official website can be found here: Middle Design but since I can’t read Japanese, the description on Cool Hunting will have to suffice.

I want one to sit nonchalantly (okay, more like prettily) on top of my dresser! Maybe it’ll be offered in the States soon?

I made, for the first time, this purple-yam-in-ginger-soup (Chinese style dessert) tonight using the thermal cooker that someone had gotten us for a wedding gift. The thermal cooker worked beautifully, but being that I had only had this dessert ONE other time a few years ago, I kind of just threw everything together and boiled it/cooked it for an hour and a half or so. Pretty easy, really: peel yams, chop into small chunks, peel ginger, slice ginger, throw everything into pot of water with crystal/rock sugar, and boil away!

The worry set in an hour and a half later when I opened the pot lid to find that the liquid and yams didn’t look purple as I had highly expected, but they looked bluish-grey instead! I called my mom right away, explained the situation, and she just said… “well, maybe it just cooked for too long…” Great! haha. So I ate it anyway because it actually tasted pretty good; tastes just like regular orange yams. And slowly as I was eating it, I brought it over to the dining table, and realized that both yams and soup were purple after all!

…it was just the lighting that made it look blue. Sigh!

Since I rarely get to use my slow cooker, I took advantage of staying home today and made this spare ribs and potato dish. The good thing about it is that I knew everything would turn out super soft and falling-off-the-bone, which is what I needed while recovering from the wisdom teeth extraction. Anyway, this dish is delicious over steamed white rice—make sure you savor the sauce! Steve couldn’t get enough of it (and ended up eating too much, hah).

Ingredients:
1/4 tsp oil
1 medium onion, sliced
dash salt and pepper
2-3 red or yellow potatoes, sliced
1 lb. spare ribs (chopped into small pieces)

For glaze:
1/4 tsp each salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp corn starch (or flour)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a skillet. Stir-fry the onion until just beginning to brown. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the onion.

2. Coat the bottom of the ceramic insert (of the slow cooker) with the onions. Layer potato slices over the onions. Place spare ribs over potatoes.

3. Combine all the ingredients needed to make the glaze/sauce. Pour the glaze over the spare ribs, potatoes, and onions.

4. Cook in the slow cooker on high heat for 4 hours, or low heat for 8 hours. Serve over steamed rice!