Green Tea Cup Spa @ LiPeony
Sneak Peek to Chibi's Mini Guide to NYC Yummies!
For a wedding for about 300 people and about 34-36 tables my friend decided to go though the DIY flower centerpiece arrangements. It took about 8-9 hours to create a bouquet of 15 roses (salmon and light pink color) for 30 odd tables. Though for the first few hours it was just two people making it but it sure got a whole lot quicker when five people were bunching them up. If you're going though the DIY route you better have time set up for:
Last Saturday I vended at Crafts in Chelsea which is a joint fundraiser between the NewNewTeam and P.S. 11. Needless to say it was a huge success! The school raised about $8,000 and imagine all the extra programs this will provide! That day was also unbelievably WINDY! There was reported 50mph gusts and I definitely do not doubt that. I was sharing a space with Linda from PurtyBird and in the midst of our stuff getting blown over, displays falling, items strewn to the wind we had a lot of frustrated fun. This was my first time really in a weather situation I found it very funny because I feel there's just so much I can do and I should just try to find the humor in the situation. Linda was the funniest and most awesome share. She was extremely helpful and very cool to talk to!
Fortunately around 12:30 we got moved to another space down on the street and it was a godsend. The wind was just a breeze, there was sunlight and it was warm. For some reason our first spot was this vortex of wind that never stopped. My display still needs a lot of work. I managed to buy some 5 x 7 binder sleeves and those are totally awesome. It makes it so much easier for people to flip though and look at my prints. They were also protected and didn't fly off thanks to the wind. I will have to buy more.That day I was surprised that many people brought prints. I ran out of my Animal Trio because people wanted to buy them for their nursery or for a baby shower.
Here's Linda from PurtyBird with her awesome felt monsters and scrabble tiled necklaces and glass tile magnets. People really liked buying small ticket items but when they did they usually brought more then one.
Here's a victory pose at the end of the fair of me and Linda! WE SURVIVED!
Due to the success of my felt pins... I'll be bringing them back to my shop later this week =)
On earthly adventures. Tomorrow is going to be my first and probably last craft fair for this year at Crafts In Chelsea unless I muster something for December. November is going to be full of helping my friend prepare for her wedding! Its on 21st street between 8th and 9th avenue. Though I heard the weather is going to be mighty windy... le sigh. Good thing I've managed to buy 5 x 7 binder sleeves for my prints. I'm planning to put them into two binders so people can flip though them like a book as opposed to just laying them flat in piles which I've always done. I'm also in the process of making a banner out of felt and embroidery thread. I'll take some pictures of it when it is done. I'll be selling mostly 5 x 7 prints, frames, rest of my felt pins and cards. Hope me luck tomorrow!
This weekend I attend New York Comic Con / New York Animefest 2010 for the first time. It's located all the way on the west side and is a pretty far trek from any subway station. Though I am a sci-fi and know a bit about comics and superheroes (I grew up watching all the cartoons of the 1990's from Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, Incredible Hunk, Fantastic Four, X-men) there was a lot more to this convention that was outside my realm. When you first see the Javits Center where it is held you are daunted by the fact that it spans some 4-5 blocks and there are hundreds of people milling about. Once you go in there's a huge "Welcome Banner." 
I went with my boyfriend and my little brother. Kids get in for free on Sunday =D. My little brother (10) loved it! Intel made up a huge chunk of the convention hall that involved gaming. The huge screen above streamed previews, live broadcasts of the newest things and also streamed live game tournaments like Starcraft 2 and Counterstrike. 
The highlight for me were these replicated race cars that people could sit and drive in a racing game. I thought that was really awesome. The line was extremely long and my little brother gave up after half an hour of waiting. They also showcase their new computers which I must say looks very nice. I'm basing this on just how visually appealing they were. They were stark white with clear inside and had all these lights and stuff. I'm not much of a computer savvy person. In that same room were autograph and artist alley section.
To the right was another huge convention hall with all the vendors. There were a lot of big companies like Nintendo, Marvel, Square Enix etc with playable stations featuring some of their new games. My boyfriend was gaga over the new Golden Sun for DS, I had a taste of FF14 the online game and saw people playing some favorites of mine like Dead Space 2 and the new Spiderman game.
Here was main platform for Marvel I believe. They would give out free things like signed posters, replicas of the characters, t shirts etc. As usual there is a huge huge huge crowd clamoring for them so I usually just avoid them. Stan Lee was also present and was signing autographs and greeting fans. I arrived late so I didn't get to see him =(. A friend did get to shake his hand and he was totally amazed. 
The wii also showcased the new Micheal Jackson: The Experience dancing game. It was a big hit. Everyone wanted to try it. Several people went up on stage to play the game and dance to his greatest hits. At the end there's always a huge explosion of smoke and everyone cheered. 
I couldn't help but take a picture of this cosplay based on a lovable game called Castle Crashers which is highly addictive and oh so cute! 
Speaking of cute isn't this SuperPooch so adorable? He was the model for the small vendor that sold pet costumes. I also saw a Yoda Pooch somewhere =D.
Another amazing sight was this remote controlled R2D2. It moved, it had lights and had all the classic R2D2 sound effects. That was really awesome to see.
Here's some more Star Wars love. Everyone was lining up for the show in which people choreographed fights using light sabers and preformed them for all to see. That was pretty nifty.
The highlight of my weekend there was being there with the cast and crew of V a sci-fi series on ABC. Though I haven't seen too much of the series. I'm a huge fan of Firefly and really happy I got to see Morena Baccarin =D . There were three cast members and producer and they were really interactive and entertaining.
It's that time again, this September 22 is the Mid-Autumn Festival aka Mooncake Festival. My friend said something very important whilst we were in bakery where people were clamoring for boxes of these mooncakes. "Why do we celebrate the Mooncake Festival?" Being born and raised in the USA sometimes we are caught too much into mainstream culture that we sometimes forget our heritage's culture and traditions.
Mooncakes are these pastries that are normally roundish. Inside has stuffing made from lotus seeds paste with a whole egg yolk in the middle. The outside is thin and flaky and the inside is generally sweet and thick Though nowadays they also make them with all sorts of filling such as red bean, mango, lychee, green tea... to name a few. The one on top is inscribed with the characters indicating the filling inside and the bakery it hails from.
I was very happy I asked because I had learned the reason on why we have these traditions and holidays. If someone were to ask me why we celebrated the Moon Festival I'd say what my dad said... to celebrate family...
Dumpling time at my house and my mom just happen to be making some and I jumped on the chance to take pictures of her in action! Dumplings are fairly easy to make and keep for a long time the freezer. It takes about 10 minutes to cook'em up which is great for breakfast or a a snack. Also you can put in a whole lot of different stuffing. The dumpling skin my mom got the premade ones and they're about slightly bigger then the palm of your hands.
First mom puts in a nice spoonful of stuffing in the center.
She dabs her finger in the egg white mixture and spreads it along the edges of the dumpling.
Then she pinches them tightly.
Then folds the outside corner. I assume this is to prevent stuffing from coming out when you're cooking them.
And ta-da! Dumpling! There are many different ways to make dumplings and many types of dumplings. Which reminds me if you don't have the time to make these little delectable there's The Dumpling Festival in Manhattan this month September 25th! Check it out =D.
The real reason I've been extremely busy this last couple of weeks was doing a favor for my buddy and making her wedding invitations. The above is the final result. The blank pocket invitation was part of a DIY from AC Moore though there are other stores online and in stores that sell blank pocket invitations. This is when those coupons come in handy! They ended up being around $11 for 25 pack that consisted of the pocket invite, invite envelope, RSVP card, RSVP envelope, and two/three various sheets of printable paper for the invite itself and maybe directions etc.
The cherry blossom design was made by me and has soft petals falling down as per her suggestion. For this I printed the invite on bright white card stock that was 4.5" x 6.5" an odd size but with some tweaking was able to print it. Using double sticky tape (ones in dispensers aka tape runner) designed for photos and scrap booking we (me and my other buddy!) stuck the invite on pearlescent pink 5 x 7 card stock and that onto the brown pocket invite. (I highly suggest not using glue for this as it may cause the paper to bubble and warp as it dries). I also printed out the RSVPs and address on the RSVP envelopes.
There was this odd little slot on the pocket for like a card to slip into but to my dismay it was smaller then business card size. My friend saw this other invite with a cute calender with the date circled on it. So we made a calender and stuck it on covering the slits.
Last but not least my friend wanted to put a wax seal to fasten the envelope. She brought a metal stamp with the character "double happiness" on it. She brought a glue gun and the wax sticks that was a champagne color but against the slightly metallic brown pocket invite looked slightly good. This one was a challenge. The wax is melted into the glue gun and my friend made a dime sized puddle on wax paper where I put the seal (that was soaked in ice cold water) onto it and waited about 10 seconds and ta-da! Every time one seal was finished I had to dip the seal in cold water so that the metal seal won't adhere to the wax. (We made a lot of booboos here)
Lately I've been busy between making something for a friend and also crocheting away a blanket for my boyfriend. I just think of it as a really really big scarf. So far the length covers a king size bed and the width is 18 inches and building. I used about 6 skeins of yarn and i brought four more but I know I will need a lot more. My deadline is the third week of September... so a bit a day... a bit a day.
It's been forever but I finally got the pictures from my boyfriend's camera! Here's all the swag I got from Otakon! Besides the usual maps/event list/magazine that comes with the Otakon bag I brought five shirts one for my old college roomier, her fiance, my other h.s. college buddy, my cousin and my sister. I also snagged some cute cute pins (I'm a sucker for pins) and went to the "Welcome to the Space Show" Panel.
Here's me doing what Yomiko Readman does best.. reading =)
Jar of Fireflies @ LiPeony
Otakon this year was the best. This would be the 3rd or 4th time I went. Between me and my bf we took tons of pictures of the cosplays and some are on my Flickr account. Here are some highlights of cosplays I thought that were cool. The above picture is looking over the fountain in the Baltimore Convention Center. This year it was so huge it took up the entire center and also part of the Hilton Hotel. The weather was beautiful and fortunate enough the weekend was between heat waves so it was very nice. The lines this year went by pretty fast with the new barcode system. I must have waited less then half an hour to get my badge. Unfortunately this year the badges they had to offer wasn't so diverse so I opted for a crab playing some drums.
The above I think is from Megaman. I love Megaman series and how they just name the characters. Like the guy that has the snake on his head is appropriately named "Snakeman" but as for the Lightbulbman I can't confirm his name. The reason I love this cosplay besides the throwback to classic games the light bulb on top of the head actually lights up! Now that's awesome. The battery pack was in the schoolbag hanging in front of him. 
Another awesome throwback is these Street Fighter group of M. Bison, Ryu and Juri. I think they did an awesome job. There was also a martial arts skit done of Street Fighter and it's always great to see one. 
The ones above are a cosplay of this fictional boy band made of top Japanese Comedians that parodies today's boy bands. They did have a very infectious hit called "Yatta" which is an encouragement song that despite the economic uncertainty you're still breathing and there's always tomorrow. They were on Jimmy Kimmel Live and hilariously weird.
Ingredients (makes about 4-5 bowls):
Ta-da easy breezy and very good for colds/flu or a weak stomach. You can also substitute other things in it like different meats or seasonings. Green onion, tiny dried shrimps and scallops are common. Thousand year old eggs are also used if you like the unique flavor. My sister appreciated the congee and said it was surprisingly good. Here's a simple recipe if you ever need some comfort food =)
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