Polka Dot Apron

Around a year ago, my mom wanted to make an apron so we browsed Anthropologie and picked some style to copy. I chose one with these cute diagonal ruffles. They have since discontinued it so I can't even show you what it was "supposed" to look like. I wasn't really happy with how it turned out so I didn't exactly know what to do with it. Every time I looked at it I thought it looked liked I had just messed up the ruffle instead of doing them on purpose. I didn't have enough base fabric to extend it and make it a sharper angle so I was at an impasse. Then last week my madre suggested I define the top edge to make it look more purposeful. none of the ribbon I had worked, but I like the solution we found immensely. And it is still washable :)

Kdrama-Rama: Words You Should Know

As you embark on your quest through Kdrama's a few words pop up in the subtitles you may find confusing at first. To assist you, I'm going to share the results of my Korean immersion and various google searches.

Noona: This means older sister. It is a term only used by boys referring to a blood older sister or a female he has a sister like relationship with. It is very informal. Sort of like Sissy.

Unni: This means older sister but is only used by girls. Same relationship as Noona, but the girl form. I've seen it spell oonie too.

Hyung: This means older brother and can only be used by boys. Again, it doesn't have to be a blood relative but still means you are very close.

Oppa: This one gets a little tricky. It is the older brother term for girls to say. It is also what you call a boyfriend. Little girls can call their big brother oppa, but after around 12 years old, you use it to refer to your boyfriend.

Aigoo: This is a fun term and fits in lots of different contexts. It is like Golly or Gosh. Like, "Aigoo! This place is a mess!" or "Aigoo, your mother is dying of cancer but if you donate your bone marrow your secret identity will be revealed." Or if your friend comes out in a ridiculous looking dress you can respond with "Aigoo."

Aiish: There is a little debate on whether or not this is a curse word. It depends on the context. It isn't like the F word which is always bad . It seems similar to "Ah crap" or D*mn. If someone is angry, it is a swear word of sorts.  It is sometimes a sigh of exasperation. I didn't even think of it as an actual word, more of just a sound/expression. Like going "ppfff" out of the corner of your mouth when you can't believe what someone did. Little sister looked it up though and found it to be a little more complex. Mostly it is used in anger or frustration.

All of the kdramas inspired a table change for our take out. And some inspiration for our poses.

This heart pose is straight out of My Princess

K-drama Rama: Where to start

It's a tricky thing giving recommendations. Whether or not you like a book or movie or show depends quite a bit on your expectations going in and where you are in your life. I like to relate it to the book Twilight. I had a chance to read it when it was new and I didn't know anything about it other than Madre Dos lived near the author and told me, "It's about vampires. I think you'll like it."  As a newlywed I wasn't sure what made her think I was into vampires (this was pre-vampire craze so I was of the mind that vampire love required copious amounts of black eyeliner). Madre Dos was absolutely right though. I LOVED it and told every girl I knew to read it. But if you read it after the mania hit, you probably couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Your real life may have made you want to slap Bella silly because you just wish people could make up their minds gosh darn it! Or if you can relate to junior high angst you may have cried along with Bella. Totally get it either way. It depends on the person you are at that moment of reading it. Love it or hate it though, you can't sit and tell me what a stupid story or how poorly written it was. It's young adult lit. You should know what you are getting into. And if it was such terrible book, it would be rotting in the bin of a dollar store, not the million dollar franchise.

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Korean dramas. That prologue was more of a disclaimer. And I should also say you are not allowed to judge me for how many I have seen already. Lil' Sis and I had a big debate on which title to recommend to people first. Do we initiate people with the best first to try and get them hooked? It risks disappointment with all others. Or do we start off with a pretty good one so they have the best to look forward to? With reluctant readers, you start them off with the best book you can. But with a tv show, you have to start people off on a mediocre pilot so they get enough back story to think the funny episodes are funny. Tricky business. You know your personality best so I'll let you choose. Netflix has most of these titles, as well as hulu and dramafever.com for you viewing pleasure.

The Top Picks:

The first Kdrama I recommend watching is Boys Over Flowers




This is sort of the Gold standard of Kdrama. It started out as a Japanese manga, had a Japanese drama made out of it (those are called Jdoramas in case you wondered) by the name of Hana Yori Dango. I watched a couple episodes of the Jdorama and the Korean is WAY better. I'm pretty sure the title is the Asian version of Bros before Ho's.

Why I love it: Geum Jan Di is a strong female lead, a bit of a bad-A, and is always working hard for what she wants. The side romance stories are also top notch when you can't figure out who you want the lead to end up with.

Downside: It's long. 25 episodes. There are moments of total soap opera silliness near the end, but that isn't always a downside.

Next is my personal favorite, You Are Beautiful



Why I like it: What's not to love about a girl training to be a nun who pretends to be her twin brother in a Korean boy band to find her long lost birth mom? You just can't go wrong with that story line. I really like how light-hearted it is and it is full of comedy.

Downsides: The leading man's hair. We are talking Spiderman 3 emo. Then there is the multiple man pony tail going on later. Overall though, only a minor issue. If you don't like cheesy awesomeness, this is not for you. I happen to love the balance of it in this one, but I can see how it might be a little much for others. These others should probably not watch Kdramas and should stick with Cannes award winners if they are going to view subtitles.

Then there is my most recent love, City Hunter



It's like the Bourne Identity and As The World Turns had a korean love child. It is the only kdrama  I've watched with a male as the driving character. I mean, the cover doesn't even have a girl on it. This made me put it off until recently, but I was not disappointed in the romance department.

Why I like it: The villian is a complicated man who is legitimately bad (with redeeming qualities), not just a conniving family member like in almost every other drama. This one has another strong leading lady (I'm prejudiced against girls who get walked over). There is also a lot of fun action scenes so if you have to make your spouse suffer through a kdrama with you, this is a good pick. Mine still declined, but what can you do? This was also the first drama I actually found an actor attractive. Only took me 10 dramas for the asian persuasion to hit :) Then to my surprise, I find out that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me! I thought I was falling into the "all asians look the same" trap, but Joon Pyo is Lee Yoon Seong! I should also include the music in this one, both instrumental and kpop.

Downsides: The last episode needed some kissing in it. Hand holding just didn't cut it for me.

Second Tier Dramas:


(These are still good. Just not "I am in desperate need to talk to someone who understands!" good)

Lie to Me



No, not the same as the Cal Lightman crime fighting fellow. This is the second one I had ever watched and a great pick if you want to work your way up to phenomenal.

What I like about it: The chemistry between the leads is awesome. You get drawn into the plot rather quickly.

Downside: It looses steam in the last few episodes and sort of fizzles out near the end. They should have just crammed the last 4 episodes into 1 and finished it already.

Secret Garden




I think it should be translated as Mystic Garden, but that is my translation snobbery showing.

What I like about it: The body switching is especially funny to me, even though I'm not a huge fan of the Freaky Friday genre. Except for 17 Again. That one was a good time. The gender switch makes this one particularly funny. I also really like the runner-up fellow in this one. He wins for best English accent.

Downsides: Ugg. The dude is a bit of a d-bag and the girl is a push-over despite being a super cool stunt woman. Apparently, I really don't like sissy females. Still worth watching though, if only to hope she ends up with the runner-up.

Star Falling From the Sky



This one is a little more serious than the others. It makes you wonder what you would do in the same situation.

What I like about it: The little kids are cute. I like how the lead girl really grows up through the end. This one also gives a bit more info on Korean parenting culture. Take it with a grain of salt, since it is a hollywood equivalent, but I liked seeing what a Korean baby carrier looked like and things like that.

Downsides: I found the nephew to be annoying by the end. I know he was supposed to be the comic relief of sorts, but it got a little old.

My Princess




The one that started it all. My sister had already watched the first 5 or so episodes so when I joined her so I still haven't seen them. But I still enjoyed it enough to get hooked on Kdramas, despite being the annoying person asking 100 questions on the back story the whole time.

What I liked about it: The main couple had a great style of banter for me. There were also some really funny jokes about "erotica" and I laughed every time they said the word. It just doesn't sound dirty the way they say it.

Downsides: I wanted to yell, "STOP BEING A BABY AND MAKE A DECISION ALREADY!" a couple times. It also started to fizzle out in the last few episodes.

Flower Boy Ramen Shop




My friend posted on facebook that she liked this one. Technically she commented on a post a made to my sister, so I thought she was making fun of us with the crazy names of kdramas. Nope, she was a believer and Flower Boy Ramen Shop is an actual show. It was so highly rated online that I sought it out on Hulu and actually watched commercials. The same three commercials. Over and over. Husband did the math and said there was about an hour of commercials throughout the whole series. I mourned how I could have spent that hour on yet another episode.

What I liked about it: It was very light and playful. They have funny drawings on the screen and the girl is delightfully awkward. Not always delightful I suppose. Lots of bathroom scenes about constipation. Poop does make everything funny though. Now that I think about it, there were lots of important scenes that happened in the bathroom in this drama. My favorite part of the series was probably this fellow. <---link to gratuitous scene of the fellow showing off his muscles.

I had to call my sister and ask if he was real life attractive or just kdrama attractive. She said real life attractive, but I don't know if I can count her opinion because she is living in kdramas too. Thankfully there are enough korean fangirls on the internet so we can share this picture with you and you can decide on your own.

Downsides: I just couldn't shake the teacher-student yuckies. Sure the student is 19, she stops being his teacher, and there is only a 5 year age difference, but gross. And the kissing scenes are awkward at best. Like slobbery 12 year old awkward. And the creepy winking. But really, isn't winking almost always creepy?

Kdramas I'd pass On Unless You Really Need a Fix


Pasta




What I liked about it: I liked seeing how all the food was made. It made me crave pasta every night for a week until I finally made some. The meet-cute in the first episode was sweet. There was also more to the story line than just romance and that was nice.

Downsides: AGG! The chef yells at the girl all the time. Yes, they try and spin it so that yelling is his sign of affection but, dude, terrible message to send. I love you, so I'll yell at you. Bleck. The girl had no backbone. From the cover photo on netflix, I thought she'd be cute and quirky, but instead she was meek and submissive. Of course she's going to fall of the guy who yells at her all the time, not for the sweet one who has been looking after her for years. Although he didn't really have much backbone either.

Playful Kiss




I probably shouldn't review this one because I only watched one episode. It is also a classic and highly recommended so there may be some Korean girls yelling the equivalent of "Blaspheme!" seeing it in the "I'll pass" column. It could be in part because it was more high school than I was in the mood for at the time. It may still be good. Yet Lil' Sis watched them all and said the lead fellow is a total jerk and doesn't even get nice after the whole "I'm mean but I have a heart of gold" part of the story. If I'm going to waste so many hours, I want a strong leading lady.


Husband keeps trying to tell me they are all the same plot: rich guy who is a jerk, poor girl is nice and falls for the jerk, runner up guy is nice and loses.

I tell him all stories are the same. A girl pretending to be a guy, that's never been done before in a rom-com. Shakespeare anyone? A girl falls in love with someone she originally hates, ever heard of You've Got Mail or Pride and Prejudice? It's the characters and the flow of the story that makes it fun so keep that in mind if you work your way through these.

Enjoy! And feel free to call me when you need someone to fangirl to because your husband just doesn't understand your need to tap his knee repeatedly when a good part happens.

K-drama Rama

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of J pictures and crafts on parade to share with you my latest obsession: Korean Dramas. Or as people who truly understand call them, K-dramas.

Friends, they are AMAZING! If you are my facebook friend, you have probably seen my effusions on there. Now you get to read more of them here since I just finished one and have that energetic happy, hollow feeling akin to what you feel after reading a truly fantastic book.

Lil' Sis introduced me when we visited in Seattle (I still need to post about that. Sister, send me the pictures of the tree sweaters. Yes, readers, sweaters for trees) and since we were quarantined from an infectious case of pink eye, we indulged in what netflix had to offer us. I will also tell you we watched all the available episodes of Downton Abbey. IT DOES NOT EVEN COMPARE TO KDRAMA AWESOMENESS! And trust me, I pretty much adore anything British. Double the adoration for 18th Century.

I feel a little isolated in my fangirldom because it seems like no one knows what I'm talking about. I am even isolated on the internet since everything about them tends to be in Korean or poorly translated English. I know I'm not the only one watching them, since there was a very clear reference in The Office, episode:"Turf War," minute 20 (youtube has failed me on the clip, but Husband recorded it to show me since he couldn't believe I wasn't the only American out there watching these shows). My cousin also told me NPR ran a piece on Kdrama's rising popularity, although I have yet to find it.

Now I'm a little afraid my exuberance will give disproportional expectations. Despite being labeled in the "foreign film" genre, you should know these are almost pure fluffy chick flick. I put them in the Amanda Bynes category. Predictable plot, handsome fella, happy ending. (Although I think it takes a minimum of 20hrs to start finding the actors attractive. Maybe less if you have an Asian fetish) If you prefer original plot lines, this may not be the genre for you. Now if you still aren't sold yet, let me give you a few reasons to indulge.

1) They are clean enough to recommend to your grandmother. And I mean my apron-wearing, perfectly curled hair grandma, not the lovely quirky one who could tell you a few stories of what happens when you live out of your purse on a Greyhound bus for two weeks. There are zero sex scenes and the music builds dramatically to a kiss on the forehead or a touch on the shoulder.

2) They have a fixed number of episodes. Like a telenovela, the story is written to begin and end in around 18 episodes. That means the plot doesn't require some of the ridiculous turns employed to keep seasons fresh. And you thought the 6 hour version of Pride and Prejudice was a long chick flick. But really this is a good thing people. Imagine if Gilmore Girls was distilled into one excellent season. You could happily watch as Loralai and Luke fall in love without suffering through Max Medina. Of course there would be the on and off again with Christopher, because there is still 20 episodes.

3) You will pick up on a little bit of Korean. Lil' Sis and I have become somewhat snobby in our translations since we've watched enough of these. "Aigoo" doesn't actually translate into anything but we can tell you when it is appropriate to use it. I may write a whole post on this, including Oppa versus Hyung.

4) You will laugh hysterically at the random bits of English they throw in, like "yeah, boy." My favorite is "fighting!" which is always accompanied with a fist pump. It also made me realize that we do the same sort of thing here when we say "oy vey" or "Cest le vie" or "Ciao" in conversation. Then there are the truly fabulous parts when the storyline calls for a character to use their true English skills on a telephone call or something. Then Korean subtitles layer on top of the English ones. You can tell who can actually speak English and who memorized a few lines. Best accent award goes to Im Joon Soo in Mystic Garden who holds multiple conversations and sounds like he's from California.

5) You get to play what I like to refer to as The Korean Fashion Game. You try and decide if what a character is wearing is in style for Korea in general, a fashion forward ensemble, or just universally weird. Do all men in Korea wear half-sleeved cowl neck tops or is it because he is supposed to be a pop star? Are the Koreans thinking WTH too? I try not to judge too harshly. I love to wear bright red lipstick. Open any magazine and I will show you multiple examples of the daring lipcolor, but my friend still asked if I was going for a Lady Gaga look. I'm sure a Korean girl could ask the same thing. Do all American women wear bright red lipstick? Just movie stars and models? Or is this girl just crazy? I need a Korean exchange student to be the judge and help me tally the score.

6) The music! Again, there are bits of English mixed in. There are my favorites, "Hello Hello You Shiny Boy" and "Lovin' Ice Cream." Unfortunately they tend to get stuck in your head. Trust me, getting a song stuck in your head without knowing any of the words, just random sounds, is worse than the Brady Bunch.

Oh look, they are even on youtube! Enjoy!

And I found the song from City Hunter that I legitimately like. Of course it may be a Pavlovian response since it played at the credits of every episode. You'll have to actually listen to it and tell me the truth. Is it catchy or just me?

Stay tuned this week for some recommendations on which kdramas to watch first

Ruffle Skirt

 Since I had left over fabric from this dress, I decided J needed a sassy little skirt out of it too.

She was more interested in finding the perfect pair of shoes to go with it

Embroidering Paper

I was inspired by this post on embroidering cards made some cards for my cousin. The states and hearts represent where her children's birth moms are from. They go along with some necklaces she found, so really none of the concept is mine.



I totally cheated and had my silhouette cut out all the tiny holes. It keeps you from bending the paper like you would with punching your own holes. Making them brought me back to kindergarten with those big lacing cards. Husband had no idea what I was talking about. I tried unsuccessfully to convince him it wasn't just a girl thing. I failed.

Maybe It's Time For a Blog Redesign

Sometimes I miss the old me. You know, back when I used to be funny and write about humorous things on this here old blog. It has been a gradual evolution from college student to my current infatuation with my child and camera. The title moved from "Happy Thoughts" to "Hazardous Undertakings" in the course of a couple of years.

Lately, I've thought up some new possible titles:


"Pictures of my kid!"

"Stuff I've made from other people's ideas!"

"What happens when a perpetual academic overachiever stays home with her kid all day!"

"Something to read when you have a smart phone and the need to go #2"

"Item #5 on the post email compulsory website checking queue"

"Your link list to other people in the family"

"Adventures I went on to make my life cool! Or at least seem cool when looked at months/years later"

or probably the most apropo,

" PLEASE VALIDATE MY LIFE, FRIENDS AND STRANGERS OF THE INTERNET!"

You know, I adore looking at other people's blogs who post pictures solely of their kids and life in general. They are pretty much a favorite. Even when I don't even know them, although I do chant my mantra of "Lurking does not make me a creep. Lurking does not make me a creep" after indulging in a friendship that exists only in my head.  My version of the lifestyle blog will just never seem as interesting simply because it's mine. And because I live in Arizona. I'm pretty sure if I lived on the east coast or somewhere where the water is blue instead of lentil soup green.

This silly "whoa is me" attitude is a partial result of reading someone else's exceptionally funny prose. I just read another Laurie Notoro book and got crazy jealous because she writes about how she started playing the Sims and almost got divorced and I'm laughing hysterically. I'm not jealous of the Sims playing. I succumbed to a summer of virtual peopledom once in high school and emerged looking for the bladder bars under people's feet and trying to figure out how they didn't manage to kill their children because my virtual children always died. One summer was enough for me.

I can't even tell you the year of that summer because I lost so much to that game. I could probably deduce it from a vague memory of the family computer being in the study instead it's final resting spot in the family room, but since no one else judges time by furniture placement, I wouldn't be able to confirm it. Now if I could correlate it to boyfriend my sister had at the time, I wouldn't even need carbon dating. Although I don't think she dated a boy named Carbon, but I could be wrong if it happened that summer.

So this book. And the other book I read by her. Most of the chapters are stories easily summarized into two sentences For example, "I went to Disneyland with my nephew and soaked my white Tshirt on Splash Mountain. I fell in the dirt later and kids laughed at me." Yet I find myself cackling  like a 3rd grader who just correctly identified the kid guilty of a loud stinky fart. Then I do the annoying thing readers do to people in the room privy to their literary giggles: I try and explain and/or read the passage to my husband in an effort to share the hilarity and get validation that it deserves an out loud laugh.

Really I just get a sample of my husband's amazing ability to patronize me without making me feel patronized. This talent of his brought me to the state of matrimony in the first place so I happily continue reading him passages. Usually I get another two in before I get annoyed at how long it takes to read out loud versus in my head and my husband's kind eyes start to veer back towards whatever screen he graciously pulled himself away from.

If listening to someone else explain a funny part in a book isn't true love, I don't know what is. he even muted the basketball game for me.

So in an effort to stave off my feelings of "Look what my life has become!" I decided I needed a  humorous Laurie Notoro-esque ranting post, if only to prove to myself I can still do it like I did in my adolescent infested teaching days. Back when the white couch was parallel to the walkway in the front room and the sectional still had the wedge in it.

Vertuccio Farms, Picking Peaches style

When my sis in law invited us to go peach picking today, we were definitely game! We had a great time last year and learned to wear hose-able shoes. We went to Vertuccio farms this time and it looks much different than in the fall.

She is actually pretty good at putting them in the bag

She's training for the shot put

Eating dirt is fun too

I plan all of these fun things to do and my kid prefers to just sit and play with rocks

But she isn't neglecting her shot put practice

Next week's adventure will be canning all the peaches.