have a great weekend + links

can you believe it's already the weekend? and it's labor day weekend at that! yangkyu took the entire week off next week so piri and I are stoked to have him with us for 9 full days. we were supposed to go to miami next week but after i quit my job back in july, things shifted a little and so we're doing a little staycation {which i haven't planned yet.. oy!}

do you have anything special planned? whatever it is, we hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

ps - i also decluttered our entire home this week {it felt *so* good} and have loads of stuff to donate and sell at a used bookstore over the weekend. yay. hope they make their way to new homes soon. 

also enjoy... 

 // brilliant advice from calvin & hobbs comic strip artist bill watterson. so good.

 // squeeze in a last minute summer pie. 

 // i love this facebook page. 

 // wabi-sabi & hyggelig all the way. 20 awesomely untranslatable words. 

 // snacks of japan from the wonderful folks over at the cat, you and us

 // beautiful fall lookbook from one of my favorites.

 // which harry potter character does jk rowling miss the most? 

 // on repeat. 

 // possibly an all time youtube favorite. dog barks softer and softer and softer... 

 // six amazing pictures from the 1963 march on washington 

xoxo, 

jane 

one day our little dreams will come true

1. one day we will own a little home with a big yard for piri and his friends and bbq parties

2. one day we'll be able to go back and visit korea and wonder how we never met as little kids {we apparently lived in neighboring towns}

3. one day our wedding and honeymoon scrapbook will be done 

4. one day we will have a chalkboard wall

5. one day we will become parents and it'll be the most exciting adventure yet

6. one day we'll take a road trip across america 

7. and make sure we make a stop in utah 

8. one day you'll finish lost

9. and get me to watch it you

10. one day we will settle in san francisco or maui or some place warm and never experience brutal winters again

xoxo, 

jane

life lately, according to my iphone

what the camera didn't, the phone did.

can't believe we're heading into the last weekend in august...!

xoxo, 

jane

thrifting adventures -- it was maui dropping us a hint. a nudge. to get our butts over there stat.

just when we thought that we weren't going to bring home a neat thrift find at a goodwill store in herndon, va, i decided to take a good look at this sign that was buried under a bunch of other home decorations. i passed by it three times and was too lazy to rummage through, but something nagged my heart to just go over and take a look. and boy was i glad those heartstrings of mine were a tuggin.

when the words "my other home is in maui" stared back at me, i knew this was meant for our home. 

i've talked about this many times before and have blogged about here {as well as on my former, now demised blog}, but yangkyu and i fell in love with maui when we first went in 2010 -- she has sort of stolen our hearts and hasn't given it back to us quite yet. and we take everything for a sign. like this. when we come across things like this, we think it's maui giving us a sign to meet her there.

while we're still dreaming of sunshine, in the meantime, i'll be finding a space for this sign to hang in our little home. it'll serve as a good reminder of the unforgettable time we had there and the wonderful people we got to meet along the way. 

happy thrifting! 

i lectured yangkyu & piri about household plants that could be harmful to dogs and they said we are in the clear because no plants ever survive with me in our home.

ok. so they are kinda right. although the plants we bought a few months back are doing fine {just looks a little dry. but not completely.}

did you have a good weekend? 

ours was pretty low-key. we all got groomed. piri is shaven down and looks like a little pig with floppy ears. i finally trimmed my bangs and yangkyu is sportin the messy spiky look that i love so much. i think piri thinks it's fair when we all get groomed. it's not one of his favorite things to do but if we all go through it then it's not so bad in his eyes. 

we also thrifted something simple yet neat {i'll write about it tomorrow!}, spray painted a few more frames and came up with another week of meal planning {does anyone else do this? it's done wonders for us in terms of saving money and not wasting food}. i'm kind of excited to be making hamburg steak for dinner. yum. 

ps - in case you were also wondering which plants are toxic to animals, here is a great list provided by the aspca.

have a great week!

have a sunny weekend + links

i bought these sunflowers at the beginning of the week in hopes that it would be just as cheery, fun and happy. it ended being just that. i should buy sunflowers more often!

hope you have a sunny weekend. 

also enjoy: 

 // wife tells husband "nacho" joke and it's the sweetest thing ever.

 // i'm in love with this retro look for the fuji instax camera.

 // i am definitely an introvert. are you? find out here. 

 // epic cake.

 // how and why to use whom in a sentence. 

 // even bears like doing the gangnam style.

 // running of the... corgi pups? i think my heart just burst into a million pieces. so cute.

 // itay talgam on ted talks: lead like the great conductors. this is brillant.

 // these scarves get the limelight. and we get great ways to tie them. 

 // cute sunnyside up dress. i would wear it with loafers. 

xoxo, 

jane

#tipsfrompiri - if you want to get away with something, make this face

i told him to stop stealing my pillows and he gave me this look.

yep... with that face, he just about gets away with pretty much everything around here.

happy thursday. our *favorite* day of the week!

xoxo, 

jane

well you just might as well call me chef jane. homemade mandu (korean dumplings).

third time's the charm? you bet. 

i made mandu for the third time and they are my best batch yet. i used my favorite korean food blogger maangchi's recipe. i definitely can't say i can cook well. yangkyu actually is way better than i am. and i think i take after my mom. i make things a bit saltier. yangkyu a bit more bland {just like his mom!}. but i can follow along to maangchi's recipe just fine and i haven't had a huge taste gaffe yet. {thank goodness}

i think my favorite part about the mandu stuffing are the shitake mushrooms and asian chives. they smell incredible. 

i won't repeat the entire ingredients and the how-to here. if you're interested, visit maangchi's page. she also has a whole variety of recipes you can try. 

i tried this one as well. so good. yangkyu gobbled it up in a flash.

happy eating! 

ps - oh and this is my 200th blog post. it's kinda exciting! 

thrifting adventures - these frames had my name all over them

last friday, yangkyu and i headed over to goodwill to see if anything would catch our eye and these wonderful frames had my name all over them.

i picked up a bunch and decided to give them a quick makeover by spray painting them white {i used krylon - gloss white -- it was a bottle leftover from this wishing tree i made for a friend's babyshower}. 

i really like how they turned out. i have a couple more drying on my balcony right now. the two square ones i really love, but for the life of me i couldn't figure out how to undo the back so i decided not to use them. 

i may have to look for more frames depending on what kind of collage look i eventually want. but i think this process is going just fine. kinda excited! wall collage, here i come! 

and as always, i'm inspired by wendy over at young heart and her thrifted tuesdays. 

xoxo, 

jane

outdoorsy time at billy goat trail

have you ever just got up and went wherever the road took ya? 

we sorta did that on saturday. we actually had a brutal start. we got up way too early and didn't sleep well. we dragged our feet around the house for hours before we finally said enough! let's take the dog, pack up our hatchback and go for a drive. the road eventually led us to billy goat trail. 

yangkyu and i hiked one of the trails here a couple of years ago, but this time around we just walked along the main walkway since dogs are not allowed on the trails. it felt great to be outdoors but there were lots and lots of bugs. eecks! but the scenes didn't let us down again this time. it's absolutely gorgeous here. next time, we'll actually have to go on a hiking trail.

and piri, you're making dog shoes cool. there was nonstop talk and comments about them. as usual. ha.