a world cup kinda weekend.

 // at seoul soondae on tuesday night watching korea vs. russia. half time. in between stuffing lots of kim bap and fried dumplings in my mouth. gosh i love the food world cup. // 

is anyone else watching the world cup? 

i'm really not a soccer fan and i don't follow any of the leagues or players, but ever since the craze that was the world cup back in 2002 for a lot of koreans and korean americans, i've been getting excited every four years, as much as i do for the olympics.

the washington post gave some places in the dmv area to watch the world cup matches and listed baden baden and cafe tu ah in annandale, va, as recommendations for folks following team korea. yangkyu and i went and baden baden was jam packed. after driving around for a little bit we found a restaurant, seoul soondae, which had a diverse mix of people in terms of age {few folks our parents age, our age and young folks sprinkled in}. i liked the atmosphere very much. 

i kept saying throughout the match that i kinda hoped that the game would end up in a tie. you know. i was thinking about piri and russian dog. i know. so silly. but you know what? the game did end up in a tie. i don't think i ever had a wish come true that fast in my life. 

this sunday we'll probably head back to seoul soondae as korea takes on algeria. forget baden baden and cafe tu ah. seoul soondae was a pretty happening place! 

what will you be doing during the weekend? 

hope you have a wonderful one. 

it's his birthday today.

we're exactly 6 months apart {i'm older}. so when yangkyu's birthday comes around we get to kinda be the same age until my birthday comes around in december. for no particular reason, i like these six months when we share the same number. this year, it's 35. 

happy happy birthday, yangkyu. i love you times infinity, times infinity. 

from where i stand {daydreaming}.

 // shoes: pons avarcas // 

from where i stand at home depot looking at pretty flowers. 

yangkyu and i also walked around looking at wooden floors, bathroom tiles, lawn mowers and a bunch of other random things dreaming big dreams and then we left with a bottle of diet coke. one day we'll purchase those big ticket items. one day. but for now, diet coke, you're coming home with us. 

*** see other from where i stand posts.

*** would you like to submit a picture? 

email me at alwayswithyooblog [at] gmail [com] with a picture {size at least 570px} of where you stand and a sentence {or a few sentences} on what your thoughts were at that moment -- it could be a feeling, something you see, a song lyric that came to mind. really, anything. there is no format. 

please also include what types of shoes you are wearing, where they are from, a url of your blog, your first name and the location of your picture {it could be a name of a cafe you're at, a street name, cross streets, city/state, country or a mix of these}. i would love to feature it on my blog. it would be pretty amazing to see all the creative "where i stand" pictures from all over the world.

this series is inspired by the instagram hashtag #fromwhereistand 

a girl and her dog: karen + miles.

i am so happy for the june feature of our monthly "a girl and her dog" series. today we have karen and miles from new york city to share with us their very special bond. 

i was first connected to karen's instagram account because we both belong to senior dogs - miles and piri are both 15 years old and while exchanging emails with karen about this series i also found out that miles and piri are both originally from the south. and they both have those adorably cute floppy ears.

miles recently has been recovering from a grand mal seizure and has been diagnosed with brain tumor that is benign but with the help, dedication and love from the human girl in his life he has been making extraordinary strides in bouncing back to the happy chap that he is. and i just have to steal karen's instagram profile introduction before sharing her and miles' story because it's just one of the most touching profiles i've read on all of instagram -- "we rescued reach other in 2000 & moved to nyc 8 years ago. this is our happily ever after. p.s. miles is a k9 cancer survivor-woof! woof!" 

here is their story. 

the girl: karen
the dog: miles, he's a rescue dog, likely an english sable spaniel mix

karen's favorite snack: truffle popcorn

miles' favorite snack: vitality chicken minis 

from: new york city, united states

find them on instagram: @rescuedboy 

miles is the love of my life. he came into my life 14 years ago when my sister found him aimlessly roaming around the stables where we rode horses. he was as filthy as they come, hungry for food and clearly longing for affection. we made every effort to find his home but ultimately found out that he had no home and had been abused. i am extremely blessed to have this incredible love hound in my life. we moved from alabama to new york city in 2006 and he has made the entire experience an adventure. miles immediately adapted to cab rides, street noise, dog runs and countless feet at his side! of course the long weekend walks in central park and riverside park, with occasional trips to häagen-dazs, made the transition fairly easy. miles turned 15 recently and while we continue to take walks, we take it a bit slower and sometimes we find just the right stoop to hang out on.  

thank you so much karen + miles. 

you can see more of the life they share on instagram at @rescuedboy. 

photos via karen. 

read more "a girl and her dog" stories here. 

wonderful thing about weekends.

over the weekend i made artichoke dip from scratch and dabbled at the idea of making my own bracelets. i have no clue where to even start so throughout the week i hope to gather some ideas. 

we also had lots of watermelon and also a watermelon juice drooling cocker spaniel. it was the cutest thing to see. and there was watermelon juice evvverrrywhere. 

oh and a couple of weeks ago, i purchased the a beautiful mess photoshop action - the folk collection and have been playing around with it for a while. the photos in this post, and this, this and this oh and this{!} were touched up by the folk collection photoshop action.

i was a little wary about buying it because before i started using vsco film, i was using actions that i was able to download for free. they were definitely unpredictable and some had kinks but i was able to eventually find ones that worked for me. 

actions definitely need some playing around and at times photos don't exactly turn out the way you think they would. but i'm happy with the folk collection. my favorites are imogen, norma, willis and light leak 4. and i love that you can use more than two actions to play around with the mood and all. i hope to purchase the other collections in the future and look forward to using these along with vsco film moving forward. 

hope you have a great week ahead. along with the bracelet diy idea, i also have another diy up my sleeve and after returning we have the secret life of walter mitty to watch next on netflix. i saw the original a long time ago and am looking forward to seeing this version.