Birthday Fun at the Huntington

So, I'm still struggling to finish the same dissertation chapter I talked about last time. But I'm getting so grumpy from lack of sleep that I thought I'd take a break to post here and fondly remember some recent events. My dear friend M and I had a ladies day out last weekend to celebrate my birthday. We went to the gorgeous Huntington Library and Gardens and of course we dressed up. It turned out to be perfect weather, and really the whole day and evening were fantastic. What a gift.

Dress and sash: Tulle via Modcloth | Cardi: Banana Republic | Leggings: ? | Shoes: Fluevog Erika (different colorways available)
M is also wearing a Modcloth/Fluevog combo. Her boots (compliment-magnets, I tell you) are still available (Bartoli in red).

My dress without cardi or sash

With cardi but no sash

Trying for fierce expressions

Closeup of my new glasses. This is my usual expression when I look at people/cameras.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Huntington, as expected. We loved walking around the place in our pretty dresses and even better-looking and comfy shoes. Our favorite thing was seeing the mind-blowing Archimedes manuscript exhibit. Archivists and restorers are hardcore. Seriously.

Of course we had to eat somewhere special, so we went to the famous soup dumpling restaurant, Din Tai Fung, in Arcadia, just a few miles away from the Huntington. If you've never been and you love delicious fresh Chinese food and you live in SoCal or are visiting, I highly recommend it.

Then of course we got dessert, despite being already stuffed. These were from J.J.'s in the same plaza as the restaurant.

Then, what do you know, in the same plaza we found a cute little clothing store. Their markups were unfortunately too much. We tried on a couple of things anyway, including these adorable rompers that caught our eye from the window. They're certainly well-made and of good fabric, but much too expensive (at least for us -- does $140 for a romper sound reasonable to you?).

Special thanks to dear M for making my birthday special this year! Oh, and thanks also for drawing this for me:

Can you guess who it is? Ah, she knows me so well. Hee hee! #Cumberfangirl

xo, Gladys

Christmas, Doctor Who Edition 2013

Do our outfits remind you of something, or maybe someone?

That's right! My sisters and I dressed as three different Doctors. From the left, my older sister is dressed as #10 (David Tennant, probably my favorite Doctor), my younger sister is dressed as #11 (Matt Smith, her favorite), and I am dressed as #9 (Christopher Eccleston, the fantastic one-season wonder who is my second favorite).

In contrast to our (sorta) ass-kicking faces above, here we are channeling the goofy and fun aspect of the Doctor:

ON ME: Suede jacket: Ann Taylor LOFT (from many years ago) | Top: GAP | Jeans: Gloria Vanderbilt via Costco (!) | Shoes: Fluevog Qtee via Amazon

It made me happy that we all managed to get into some kind of costume. I think the casualness of our interpretations was perfect for the holidays (it wasn't Halloween or a Comic Con, after all) ... although I wish I'd worn boots rather than my admittedly-gorgeous but still-not-appropriate Mini Qtees, at least for the pic.

Anyway, here are some of my other favorite photos of the day, with lots of kiddos, yummy food, and a last look at our growing family.

Happy New Year's Eve! If you'd like some inspiration on making your New Year's resolutions, here are a few articles and video that I enjoyed:

• "Here's The Science You Can't Not Know Before Making That Ambitious New Year's Resolution" via Upworthy
• "How to Actually be Successful in Achieving Your 2014 Goals" via Good
• and "The Most Important Thing You Can Do In The New Year To Lose Weight, Get Sharper And Live Longer" via HuffPost

All thought-provoking. The takeaways? Let's make our resolutions specifically for the New Year in order to harness the power of optimism on this occasion. Instead of roaring out of the gate and being immediate-results-oriented, we should start with small steps to build strong, identity-based habits that will last throughout the year. (We won't burn out so quickly that way.) Finally? Get more sleep!

And with that, I bid farewell to the good and the bad of 2013, and look forward to a wonderful start to 2014! I wish you the same! See you in this space next year. :-)

xo, Gladys

Ilona Andrews in San Diego

Posing with the husband-wife writing team, Ilona Andrews

I don't talk a lot about my reading habits on this blog, but it's one of my favorite hobbies in the world and I will always have books to fall back on. It's my fantasy to live in a huge house with its own dedicated library room (kind of like the Beast's library in the Disney Beauty and the Beast). If only, right? Reading was my first love growing up and I even wanted to make a career out of it once; after all, I was a graduate student in English for a long time.

But I definitely don't read high-falutin' books all that much anymore. These days, my reading diet consists mostly of genre fiction. Confession: I ended up as a graduate student in literature partly because I was a romance-novel junkie in my formative years. I moved to the United States from the Philippines when I was about seven years old, and in the ensuing years, I became adept at reading, writing, spelling, and speaking English mostly because I read romance novels all the time. You know, the racy but quick-reading Harlequin Presents stuff. Then I moved on to longer stand-alone historicals, contemporary romances, and then paranormal romances (a subgenre which exploded into the publishing scene back when I was a late teenager). In the middle of all that, I also read the more age-appropriate The Baby-sitters Club series and the occasional sci-fi/fantasy and young adult book (think Norma Klein and Lois Lowry), but it's really the romances that got me started. Once I read Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre in 8th grade, I was hooked into a literate and literary life for good.

In the mid-1990s, while in my tender high school years, I found Laurell K. Hamilton and became a fan of dark urban fantasy. When I got tired of the constant sexxx0ring in the later books of her Anita Blake series, I looked around and found Kim Harrison, who introduced me to a funner and funnier version of the subgenre (I highly recommend her Hollows/Rachel Morgan series -- start with Dead Witch Walking). That led me to several other authors later on, particularly Ilona Andrews, whose Kate Daniels series also had a lot of biting humor and excellent romantic tension that never took over the plotting or world-building.

Reading these novels was my little secret for a long time. You may not know how many people scoff when they hear me talk about romance novels. And this is from people who've never read any (sorry, Jane Austen doesn't count). Only my older sister and one of her friends ever read genre fiction the way I did, and my sister now reads mostly contemporary literary fiction. So you can imagine my surprise and delight when my son and I visited his classmate's house for a playdate last year and I found that his mother's bookcases carried TONS of genre fiction, with lots of crossovers with my own collection. Michelle, the classmate's mom, used to be a young adult services librarian, and she even has a book review blog documenting her prolific reading. We've been exchanging books since then, and I have been happy to get lots of recommendations from her. I slowed down my personal reading quite a bit while working on grad school projects, and it didn't pick up again until this summer, when I managed to knock off at least 6 novels plus several novellas from my mountainous TBR (to-be-read) pile since July. (That's a lot for me, by the way. I'm not a fast reader by any means.) I even re-read a couple of books to remember context. I just wish I didn't need sleep! Anyway, Michelle is a huge fan of Ilona Andrews books, and when she told me about their upcoming visit to San Diego and invited me to go down with her, I said yes.

It turned out to be a grand experience. Her friend Becca kindly drove us down to the awesome independent bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy, and then we met up with Maggie, one of Michelle's blogger friends, after the talk and signing. The talk was really an hour-long Q&A with the husband and wife team that is Ilona Andrews. Ilona is a Russian immigrant with a charming accent and really fun sense of humor, and Andrew is an ex-military guy with a quieter but complementary kind of humor. They were so wry and funny together, and you could see how it's possible that they haven't killed each other working so closely together everyday. It was also fun to see how each of their personalities is built into their characters, especially Kate and Curran (if you're familiar with the series). What was truly wonderful, though, was how nice they were in person. They were so generous with their time, signing ALL the books that people brought/bought, and then taking a little extra time to take photos with their readers. Even though they must be exhausted from traveling (Ilona said she has a lot of anxiety flying on airplanes), they are so good with their fans. If you'd like to get a taste of their writing, you can check out their blog where they have hilarious posts as well as free stuff you can read.

We ended the outing with sushi and a visit to a huge used-book/CD/DVD emporium called Book-Off, which was conveniently across the street from the yummy sushi place we found via Google Local. We stuffed ourselves ridiculously full (I didn't take photos of the spicy seaweed poke salad I polished off) then treated ourselves to even more books. Gah!!

Aside from requiring such long drives (special thanks to Becca for getting us there and back safely as well as going to the nearby Japanese grocery and providing us with fun candy snacks to keep us awake on the drive home), it was a perfect day with new friends that nourished mind and body both. Bonding over good books and good food is no small thing. What a great way to cap off my summer vacation.

xo, Gladys

Birthday Haul

Last year, I shared the awesome birthday presents that my husband gave me (geekery extravaganza!). This year he gave me Seasons 1-3 of Community AND made a generous payment towards my purple polka-dotted Derby Swirls currently on layaway at the Melrose store. I'll share pictures of those once I have them in my hot little hands! For today, I thought I'd share some of the lovely presents I got from other dear people in my life.

This shoe cubby bench (exact) came from my parents-in-law. It's perfect for our entranceway. No more shoe clutter in a house where we take our shoes off at the door. And it's a great place to set things down and sit for a spell. We'll have to replace those dinky little Ikea stools with something else, but we've got time to look.

E's presents spoke to the foodie in me. There was more delicious chocolate in her gift bag, but it was quickly and pleasurably consumed. That Bubble Bakery soap smells ridiculous (in a good way). The sweet coconut smell is so strong and real that it seems edible.

M's presents spoke to the crafter in me. This array of goodies was very inspiring. I love the framed snapshot of our group of mommy friends. I can't wait to go through the magazine, but most of all, I can't wait to try out the awesome vintage patterns she managed to find! I just wish I had MORE TIME. I'll probably try the plaid jumper pattern first.

ETA: I forgot to take a pic of these beautiful rice bowls from my friend MC. MC's house and household goods are just what I like, and these delicate little bowls showcase some of her tasteful style. I absolutely adore the colors!

xo, Gladys

Food for Spring

Contents of CSA box from March

I've been slightly obsessed with food lately, constantly bookmarking new recipes to try and making sure that we use the contents of our weekly organic CSA box before they go bad in the fridge or pantry. I'm ashamed to say that I allowed the latter to happen far too many times during the winter months (I always waited too long before using the leafy vegetables and I ended up with too many radishes). But I am trying my best this season, especially since, sadly, it looks like our vegetable garden will not be as fruitful this year.

(Regarding our garden: this year, we used heirloom seeds from a company we'd never tried before and planted in late March, but so far only the corn has sprouted. It's possible that the winds and heat here were too harsh for the seeds. My husband started some of the seeds inside the house which seem to be doing well, so we'll try to transplant the seedlings soon. Crossing my fingers that they take, especially the tomato plants. I absolutely LOVE tomatoes in the summer and want to make more homemade marinara sauce.)

Here are a few of the dishes I enjoyed recently and also managed to photograph.

Parmesan frittata from The Elliot Homestead. I managed to fit it all (8 eggs plus filling!) in my cheap but great little 8-inch Lodge cast-iron skillet. This was the perfect opportunity to use the fresh kale and spring onion from my CSA box. I didn't use fresh rosemary or sun-dried tomatoes; instead I used 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning and 3 Tbsp chopped roasted red peppers. Very delicious. The Parmesan cheese was great. I ate it all in a couple of days for breakfast.

Panko-crusted tilapia topped with my own simple tomato-and-onion relish recipe. The fish came from Trader Joe's frozen section. While it was heating in the oven, I diced a quarter of a large yellow onion and chopped one medium vine-ripened tomato. I sauteed the onion until tender, almost caramelized. Then I added the tomato and salt to taste. I cooked them together until the tomato was warmed (I don't like my tomato falling apart), and then I topped the fish with the mixture. Add some chopped fresh Italian parsley if you have any, and lunch is served.

Tomato salad recipe from Martha Stewart. I didn't have beefsteak tomatoes so I used 4 vine-ripened tomatoes instead (I could easily have used 5 or 6 given the amount of dressing). I also used 1 whole small red onion instead of shallots, since marinated red onion is one of my favorite things. I love the dressing on this. This is one refreshing salad. I ate half in one sitting and ate the rest another time (neither my husband nor my son likes raw tomatoes, their loss). This dish would be great to bring to a potluck.

3 Minute Chocolate Paleo Mug Cake from Delighted Momma. Well, mine would have been totally paleo except I added 1-2 Tbsp of milk before nuking in the microwave to make it more moist. Without the extra liquid the mug cake is a little dry/thick. Maybe you could add water, coconut milk, or almond milk instead. Otherwise, it has a very good flavor. This has nothing to do with my CSA box. I just wanted to share because it's dessert, and dessert should always be shared.

Now I just have to focus on all the beets we've been getting. I think I avoid cooking them because they stain so much. I don't have that excuse for carrots, however, and those are also languishing in my fridge. Sigh. Better get cracking on those recipes. Maybe I'll make beet and carrot desserts.

xo, Gladys

Red-Letter Birthday Weekend

Dress: A. Byer via Amazon | Belt: taken from another dress | Shoes: Fluevog Liz (Kitschy Kitschy Boom Boom family)

I feel the need to share my deep gratitude for some wonderful friends and family who made my birthday extend into the last days of April. Last Friday, my parents-in-law visited us, bringing some super-sweet Camarillo strawberries and fun food items from a recent trip to New Orleans (including beignet mix!), and took us out to lunch at BJs. They'd already had my big present shipped to our house, an awesome shoe cubby bench for our entryway, which they got to use during their visit.

But the big day was on Saturday when E and M dressed up and joined me for a fancy, delicious dinner at Fresco II, a Mediterranean/Italian restaurant none of us had tried before. Of course, M and I wore some of our favorite Fluevogs to help celebrate (in the photo above, M is wearing her Operetta: Bartoli boots that I blogged about here, and I'm wearing my KKBB: Liz maryjanes once again ... and we should get E into a Fluevog store soon!). The food and service were fantastic; we recommend the chicken marsala, four-cheese tortellini, eggplant Parmesan, as well as the mushroom appetizer and bell pepper salad. But my favorite part hands-down was the conversation. I love these ladies so much! We followed up dinner with several hours of contra dancing (well, E played the flute in the live band for us), which was super fun and required a lot of athleticism this time around. I definitely broke a sweat. During the break, M surprised me by bringing out some amazing finger desserts -- mini cheesecakes, coffee cakes, and cannoli -- and making me blow out candles! Everyone at the dance was so nice, singing "Happy Birthday" accompanied by guitar, and I loved that our families were there with us to celebrate, too. Many, many thanks to my dear friends for making me feel so special! (And for the wonderful presents that just seem superfluous to their friendship.)

Sunday was spent quietly at home with my two guys, watching movies and eating together. My husband did all the errands, including the grocery shopping which I usually do because he dislikes it so much. So I got to stay home and bum around, clean up occasionally, read for fun, play Candy Crush on my iPhone, and generally do what I felt like doing. It was a luxurious way to end a red-letter weekend. Hugging myself at the memory... :-)

Happy May!

xo, Gladys

Sweet Life

Just some food pr0n to kick off the weekend properly. :-)

Oreo Dream Extreme cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, my kiddo's choice. He's such a ham! He knew I was going to take a pic of the cheesecake, so he posed with the cookie crumb halfway to his mouth like that! Hahahahahahahahaha! I've trained him well.

More cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory: (l-r) Dutch Apple Caramel Streusel, Kahlua Cocoa Coffee, White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. OMG my mouth is watering. My brother and sister-in-law swear by the apple one. I chose the Kahlua Cocoa Coffee, but I think my fave was the Raspberry Truffle.

My kiddo declared that these cute pancakes were the best he'd ever had. I'd have to agree. They're closer to crepes than traditional pancakes since they're made with several eggs and with sour cream (!), with a relatively small amount of flour. Sour Cream Pancakes recipe shared by The Pioneer Woman.

These cupcakes are paleo and they're a winner in this house, passing muster with the kiddo and husband both. Recipes for Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes and Paleo Chocolate Frosting by Elana's Pantry.

My Cupcake Monster was not posing here but simply stuffing his mouth (and nose) with the cupcakes. Yummy.

xo, Gladys