Go Explore!

It was another busy weekend, packed with series of adult and children activities. Like what my father usually says "What good does it do by sitting around the house; go explore!" Growing up, I never thought myself as a compliant child and I think my parents would agree with me on this. But as I grow older, I found myself practicing my parents’ preach quite a bit.

The moral of the story is that parental nagging does have its long-lasting and effective impact on children, at least for me.

Paper Paper on the Wall

It seems that lately from design magazines, newspaper to blogsphere, you cannot help but notice wallpaper has been making a huge comeback. When I think of wallpapers, I get the mental picture of the 1960-70s raised, embellished and dated patterns. I think that image has to do with the yellow-greenish wallpaper we once had at my parents' house. But what you will find today is a much wider range of designs from classic, modern to Avant Garde.

However, knowing myself, I’ll never commit a wall to any hard-to-reverse design ideas. Perphaps, just perhaps I can frame Lizzie Allen’s whimsical “changing guards at buckingham palace” or Hanna Werning’s “kastanjetrast” and hang them on our desperately empty walls. Warren is already complaining that my project list is getting longer and longer because he realized long ago that he is actually the person to execute them. Well, didn’t he notice the word–perhaps?

Images from Hanna Werning & Lizzie Allen

Orange Pumpkin, Black Spider or Else???

As summer gave its way to autumn, Halloween is upon us again. It’s one of my favorite holidays in the US. Since I was not lucky enough to participate as a child, now I have the luxury of dressing Ryan, which to me is equally fun. However, the older he gets, the harder the costume shopping becomes. He has been a blue octopus and a yellow duckling for the previous Halloweens. What is he going to be this year then?

While browsing through the catalog for ideas, I asked Ryan for his opinion. After a glance of a page of costumes, he quickly picked an orange pumpkin outfit. Of course, I should have known better---a food-related costume. If you know Ryan well, you know that he has a thing for food. Although a pumpkin outfit is cute, it’s not exactly what I had in mind. I was hoping that he would pick the cool black spider. I have a feeling that this is the beginning of our future endless conflicts on clothing choices.....

We have a few more weeks to dwell on the decision. Orange pumpkin, black spider or else?

Judging a Book by its Cover

On a recent trip back to Taiwan, we brought back quite a few Chinese children’s books for Ryan. One reason is for him to have more exposure to Chinese. Secondly, besides the works by Taiwanese authors, there is an amazing selection of award winning children's books from Europe, Japan, and US all beautifully translated. Lastly, in all honesty, I’m a big fan of these picture books. Those colorful images and adorable characters are my eye candies!

When it comes to selecting the books, I’m totally a "judging a book by its cover" type of person. If the color, design or the illustrator’s drawing style appeal to me, I’ll go for it regardless of whether the storyline is appropriate for a two-year old….Therefore, we’ve got a few lovely books that I enjoy but certainly not appreciated by Ryan. Well, if you know how many times a mom has to repeat the same story in a day, you’d not blame her for choosing the ones she will at least enjoy herself.

Thanks for Grace and Vivian's book recommendations which kept me not too off-track from age appropriate books.

Grand Loup, & Petit Loup by Olivier Tallec & Nadine Brun-Cosme is one of our favorites.

The Rock Rice

I still remember those countless hours spent looking for toy ideas at Oompa, and Talbot's. However, as Ryan is getting older, I found my passion for scouting out good quality toys has diminished. I think partly it's because the products designed for the babies are too adorable to resist, partly because we found ourselves gradually giving way to toy trucks, trains and more trucks in the house. But most importantly, I realized too many toys could limit children’s imagination and creativity.

While I was researching a good kitchen set for Ryan, one day I found him layering his little cereals on the latch system of an old high chair. I curiously asked what he was doing. He happily responded “I’m baking my cereals.” It suddenly daunted on me that if he’s got a well-designed and sleek looking kitchen set, could he still think of the multiple mini-shelves latch system as an oven? My conclusion is no.

Now, Ryan's favorite activity with cousin Tony is to play chef at the backyard using our retired mini grill, park found pine cones, rocks, sand, and the only real cooking ingredients, thyme and rosemary both planted in the backyard. They named their master creation the Rock Rice.

In the picture, Ryan was busy firing the grill. Well, at least, according to him.

The Gardener, my all-time favorite store

The Gardener was mentioned in my previous posting but I think it deserves a place of its own. It's one of my must-visit stores on every trip to Berkeley. The store was founded back in 1984 by Alta, a former garden designer and photographer. It was originally intended to sell a collection of garden tools and hardware. Over the years, with Alta’s fabulous style and taste, the Gardener has evolved into a lifestyle store.

What you may find at the store today is a great pair of Japanese flower scissor, the local Heath dinnerware, a tribal Noah bell to an organic dinning table from Indonesia. With its well-edited merchandise collection and constant change in store display, no wonder many people come to it for gift ideas, a new piece of garden furniture or simply inspiration. Most importantly, the Gardener portraits a modern, organic indoor/outdoor living style, we Californians all long for.

The Gardener, my all-time favorite store.

"Give me another cup of BitterSweet, please!!"

Over the weekend, we found ourselves wandering around Berkeley again. Yes, again. We always love the city's artistic ambiance and the number of independent shops it offers. In addition to my regular pilgrimage to some of my old-time favorite shops such as Gardeners, Lilith, Twenty-two Shoes, and etc., I know I might just stumble across my next must-go shop. It’s just this thought that keeps luring me back to the area.

Well, as always, Berkeley didn’t disappoint me today. While strolling on College Ave., we happily encountered a cute chocolate cafe-BitterSweet. With two enthusiastic chocolate lovers in our group, we had to give it a try. The store offers an astounding variety of chocolates bars from all over the world. It also makes its own confections and chocolate drinks. We tasted its hot chocolate. It's rich, creamy and as if you are sipping a hot fudge cake. It's just divine! This time, it’s me, who asked “give me another cup of BitterSweet, please!!” instead of Ryry.

We will come back to it on our next visit to Berkeley, which I'm certain will be in the very near future :)