RE-uphostery project

As part of my room renovation, I decided to re-upholster my little stool. The existing fabric wasn't necessarily ugly, but it was getting old and dirty, and generally it just needed a lil fresh makeover. I went to Joann and purchased 3 quarters of this wonderfully vibrant and fun fabric for.... $4.44! haha I found a 50% off coupon and thus, this makeover is more or less done for about 5 dollars including other little materials like staples for staple gun...etc.

I'll share with you the step by step photo-comments style for the entire process, and the finished product at the end! ENJOY!

BEFORE

Honestly not a bad fabric. Nice texture and subtlety! I didn't want to strip it out, so you'll see me just re-upholstering right on top.

There were 2 screws on the bottom to hold it in place. I removed them using an electric drill.

Every furniture is different, and hopefully yours is as easy as mine!

Ta da~!

Detail of the previous upholstery job.

Put the cushion face down on top of the fabric to chalk out the outline.

Scissors Time!

Now start stapling away!

For those of you who knows how to stretch canvas, this would be a piece of cake.

I didn't think heavy duty staples were necessary. I am using light duty arrows (?) brand staples.

For those who don't know how to stretch canvases, I will be showing you the special double folds to create more seamless corners!

Staple all 4 sides, leaving about 2 inches of free ends on each sides of the corners. (Corners are free)

1. Pull one side of the corner tight. (In this case, the upper side)

2. Form a fold that feeds from the outside corner of the cushion. It should be near 45 degree angle.

3. Never letting go of the stretch, carefully place it down upwards.

4. A second fold feeding from the inside corner would naturally form. Grab it and pull it tightly.

5. Carefully place the 2nd fold down on top of the first one, as flat as possible!

6. Staple the hack out of the folds!

This is the special double folds! Repeat these steps for all corners

That's about it for the special instructions! Afterwards, place the cushion back on the stool and put the screws back in. Simple and easy enough!

You ready for the final product???

Hope you enjoyed~!

and

Happy New Year of 2012!

Vlog #1 08/05/2011

In response to Amish's suggestion to make video blogs, here it is! It took forever.... So I really need to see how I can fit vlogging into my daily schedule, but it was quite fun doing it! Maybe look out for more? hehe

http://youtu.be/RBWjw5nsAvk

you and me between sheets.

a little sweet taste. sweet tune. sweet memory. sweet inspiration. sweet elation...

Imogen Heap - Between Sheets

New York City with my Mother

Today is my 4th day here in Brooklyn. I am in NYC for a summer internship at Anthropologie at SoHo. I think I'll start writing posts and putting pictures here with my thoughts and comments, while I still continue to spam post all my videos and pictures on facebook.

Sooooo let's go through each day////

June 1st, 2011 Wednesday

I got up at 3:30am to take a shower and get ready to leave by 4:10am to LAX. Sweet Susie offered to give us ride so that we don't have to worry about parking at LAX (We meaning my mother and I. She will be coming with me and staying 2 and a half days at NYC to help me settle and to make great memories together as this will be my first time ever having a trip just with my mother!). I struggled to meet the 50 pounds weight limitation on both of my luggages (my sweet mother will be carrying one for me, as I can take 2 baggages for international flights: my flight to Italy after the summer as I will be going there directly from NYC) till the very last minute, and it turns out that both luggages weigh 52 pounds at the check-in, and the kind lady let me pass with 2 pounds overweight.

So off we go, leaving my sweet home behind, which I will miss very much for the coming 6 months.

It was very eerie and mysterious californian early morning. There was a slightest lightening of the sky, getting paler and paler blue as we drove up to LAX. There were barely any cars, and we enjoyed a nice ride up 405, and then 105, finally getting to the airport. Check-in and security was a breeze, although I did not appreciate them touch-checking my mother! Argh, such a violation of personal privacy! but I cannot blame them for just doing their job. Oh one thing I must add: the cute lil top hat that my sweet sister gave me was a sensation! I should have counted the number of compliments I received regarding my hat. It is so adorable and I shall post a picture here:

Anyhooz, after a delay-ish detour around chicago due to heavy air traffic in JFK, we finally arrived at NEWWW YORRRRRK <3 Baggage claim was a breeze, and we took a cab (with a very friendly Indian driver with the last name Singh) to my place in Brooklyn Heights - St. George Weller EHS housing! IT is a housing recommended by my awesome internship advisor back in USC, Penny, and she forwarded me this awesome non profit housing org that basically provides temporary fully furnished units for students and interns. I like my double single room that has two sets of furniture, so it was great for my mom to stay for couple of days.

So after we arrived, we checked in at the front desk (I got my card/key with my ID photo with my adorable hat! yipee) and then we settled down a bit - put the beddings on the beds, unpacked my luggages and organized the place a bit. The EHS gave a lil tote bag with one TP, NYC guide, Metro map...etc and a snack! How adorable! We decided to explore the infamous Korea town @ 32nd street. We took the subway to 34th street, and walked to K town, passing by Madison Square and Pennsylvania hotel, and Greeley (?) square and Manhattan mall...etc. I actually was completely pointing at the wrong direction and we walked quite a while in the very opposite way, and discovered B & H photo and video store that I always buy my electronics things from! haha

First we went to Shilla, the restaurant we went to 3 years and couple months ago when we came to NYC for an east coast college tour my junior year of high school. It was strange to go back there again, and to feel my memory of the past in the present. Mom ordered 칡 비빔냉면 and I ordered 물냉면 and for appetizer we ordered 해물파전. gosh they were really good, and not so cheap! I mean it's nyc. I should get used to the overpriced everything! haha Afterwards, we went to THE FACESHOP and got some goodies, I got my extra sunscreen that i absolutely love that I'm almost running out of, and a very fragrant and light and fluffy body lotion that I also very much love. Mom got some goodies too, aloe spray, which she ended up leaving since she only brought carry on baggage, and extremely good BB cream that she loves. Afterwards, we went to CVS to get some things, Paris Baguette and got some green tea latte action, and got back to our place in brooklyn via cab.

June 2nd, 2011 Thursday

Oh boy, I was tired! I woke up rather late T_T and took a shower (gosh it was sticky hot yesterday!). My mother has already woken up, taken a shower, and got back from a trip to radio shack to get the internet cable cuz mine got broken argh! haha Thank you mommy! We headed to K-Town again to conquer the other restaurants that we didn't get to go to yesterday. First, we went to KyoChon chicken (which my best friend Aisha absolutely loves!), which was, as usual, very very good, went to CVS AGAIN! to get some staple medication things like coldsore ointments, bandages, cold pills...etc.

THEN we headed to SoHo! The wonderful area where my internship is located! I was pleasantly lost in the area, completely passing by Anthropologie.... for some very odd crazy reason that is very hard to understand... haha but I got to know the area well! I found Anthropologie again and went in with loudly thumping heart. Oh what a lovely store! Picture of the outside:

It is a gorgeous store. I love the experience you get by just being in this store. Everything is ever so carefully laid out, all the different colors and patterns and shapes and ahhh! Handmade sculptures add so much more interest in this place. It's a fairly large space too. I was just getting so excited that I will be working here and get to be part of the 'making-of-the-visual-presentation' of one of my very favorite retail store. I actually got to say hi to couple of the interns that already started working. They were painting the window piece, which was a collage of different geometric wood pieces that they were painting with different shades of blue. I cannot wait till Monday, my very first day of work!

Afterwards, we returned back to my place: mostly cuz I chose the wrong shoes for the extensive walking job, and my feet were getting very sore. I took a short nap, and we decided to go watch the musical Chicago! Oh it was very lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed the musical, and it was wonderful to watch it with my mother... Then we went to Miss Korea, as my cousin recommended, for very late dinner (11pm ish?) in K-Town and had the last meal of extravagance ahahaha. It was very very good, and I had a very interesting 쌈 with bunch of diff fruits (Kiwi, strawberry, pineapple - my fav!). Then we went to Pinkberry for a lil after dinner treat. oh it was very delicious! Afterwards, another yellow taxi took us back to our place.

June 3rd, 2011 Friday

After failing to wake up multiple times with my alarm, I woke up at 9:30am ish, and woke up to an already-all-ready mother about to leave to the airport. Oh mother, thank you so so much for coming out here and helping me settle into my new home for the summer, and to get me all the wonderful things and share the unforgettable memories with me in the sparkling city of New York. I had such a great time with you and was so sad to see you go in the yellow cab. I know you don't even enjoy plane rides, and I cannot thank you enough for what a great mother you have been to me for these past 2 decades, and I love you so much!!!

I will be posting more posts on my adventure here in NYC.

Love,

Angela

05/03/2011

"I'm going to start taking the things I want because I deserve it and even if I don't I will become worthy"

I absolutely love the confidence. There's much to learn from this...

-Angela

FOOD: 09/01/2010

I have nothing else to say...

other than....

that.........

BEST 냉면 EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[at least from the instant 냉면 category!!!]

FOOD: 08/31/2010

Okay gonna go thru what I made/ate today~~~~~~

Italiano~~~? well my take on it neways...

So~~~ this was Bread Pizza. I had it with a nice cup of welch's concord grape juice. yum!

Milk toast, Ketchup, sausage, baby spinach, mushroom, and cheese

best brunch everrr

PASTA

fresh mushroom tomato sauce with lots of veggies~

broccoli and 2 diff kinds of mushrooms. more veggies than sauce, i think.

I pan fried garlic in the pan with olive oil n lil bit of salt n pepper till it gets brown and put ground meat n panfriend those two till meat was almost done n then put all of veggies - washed n sliced [chunky slices].

when vegetables r a lil more than halfway cooked, I put the tomato sauce.

lovely ribbon pasta

That was my day of food!

All About Bikes!!!

Okay no food post today cuz it was uninteresting but I will tell you all about bikes and keeping bikes in USC.

I've had a horrible experience of getting my ever-so-loved bike getting stolen in the beginning of last semester. Okay I was a freshman and I am from Irvine California. Yeah. I know nothing about things getting stolen other than occasional scientific calculator robbery in high school.

Well so my bike is gone. Initially, it was hard for me to swallow cuz I DID PARK IT N LOCKED IT ON THE BIKE RACK when most people just leave it free standing...

but guess what I locked my bike with~~

Yeah a plain old thin bike cable.

Yeah that's totally enough to safeguard your bike -_-

So I learned my lesson.

So after a whole semester of no-bike-ing on campus, I realize how much longer everything takes for me to get to places... sure I'm spoiled after having a bike, but I come to realize I would be much much more efficient with time if I have a bike again. Still that was not enough to convince myself to get another bike when I'm scared to have it stolen again [I become quite attached to anything I own... I guess I should use Buddha's teaching of detachment...]. BUT 2 reasons have prompted me to search for bikes again...

1) My work is on the very very opposite side of campus and i work alot @_@ Walking late at night from my work is much less safer than biking back, I figured. If anything happens, I can spritz my pepper spray and pedal for my life. [my work is just a street across from the school boundary

2) I like with my sister and she has a bike. It's hard when we are trying to go somewhere and she wants to use a bike, but chooses not to since I don't have one. I feel bad for her and she's been trying to make me buy a bike.

So here I go again looking for my bike and I found a nice bike with my fav color with rather reasonable price. Yes much less expensive than my last one [this place is doing a no tax promotion with cash payment whoop whoop! that is alot!]

Gorrrrrgeous. Promotion goes for $139.99 or smth. Okay so before I even begin attempting to get a bike I went on a research about bike locks.

So I am going with Kryptonite New York Mini lock. Highest security rating and designed for, as the name goes, ppl living in high crime area like New York! [or, in my case, LA!]

It's called a fahgettaboutit or smth like that. well i don't think i'll ever not worry about my bike every again =( but it'll give me a lil peace of mind.

ALSO! I am getting a kryptoflex cable to loop around my wheels n seats since bikeparts-stealing is pretty common here too. I don't wanna hafta worry about spending another 30 dollars getting another seat [and the inevitable inconvenience in the morning of missing-seat-discovery]. So why not get a cable that's 13 dollars to wrap around the whole thing. I know it might look CRAAAZY every night doing that but everything's worth it more than worrying about losing my bike again. Yeah i got quite paranoid n determined now.

OKAY so my total expense for having another bike would be around 200 dollars. That's a big investment and I don't want it to go down the drain. I am saving big time right now for it n hopefully i can get it soon. I'm pretty excited for it! You know really, I am not that bitter about my bike theft incident. I'm pretty sure those bike thieves don't wanna b doing what they r doing - sneaking up to a college at the middle of the night and putting frowns on bike owners... who'd want to do that? I feel rather bad for them. If my bike had given them extra money to get rid of one wrinkle off their face even just for one day then I am happy. They need that money way more than I do... I do understand that. Hopefully they can put a smile on their children or dependent family.

Anyways, that's my little investigation of bikes and how to keep bikes properly locked and what not. Wish me luck in not having it stolen again. I really like this bike much more than my previous one so hopefully i can get it soon... I am saving very diligently for it! It's all my hard-earned money so don't think i'm spoiled hahaha. well i know i am but on this one, i'm working hard for it!!!!!

Love, Angela

FOOD: 08/25/2010

I had a hemp protein shake with almond milk for brunch

then I had a very late dinner... picture~

Rice, kimchijjigue [김치찌개], egg dipped meatball thing [동그랑땡], and dried seaweed.

water~

sort of small dinner

Enjoy~

FOOD: 08/24/2010

Imma start doing blog more often. Hopefully. hahaha

Imma try to post up some pictures or just details of what I ate that day. I dunno why but I'll do it!

Breakfast - quick cereal.

Lunch - soy sauce fried rice with mushroom, broccoli, and egg.

Dinner - [pictures~~~~]

view of the whole thing

미역국 [seaweed soup] omg sooooo good! and healthy! lovingly made by mom.

There are some beef pieces so yay protein

Our side dish!

Kimchi on top,

Rolled egg thing in the middle,

Tiny anchovy thing on the bottom.

Good stuff. I made the egg thing by myself! Pretty hard but I'm mastering it now!!!

If you aren't careful n adjust the heat setting and timing poorly, it won't roll!!!!!

Tofu with soy sauce.

Soooo good. Organic tofu, alright?

This is really not hard at all to make.

You slice the tofu in edible pieces and microwave them for 3 minutes.

While that's rollin, put soy sauce, little bit of vinegar, salt, pepper, sesame seeds, sesame oil, green onions, and most importantly - ground garlic in a bowl n mix em well. Sauce done! For ground garlic, I usually buy the pack n keep it in a freezer.

Once the tofu is microwave-d arrange the tofu slices and put the sauce on top.

Yay!

and Rice of course. and water haha

Enjoy~

I stop barking when I think about the one I love

Kaiser, a very handsome and adorable siberian husky I encountered on youtube the other day, stops barking when he starts thinking about his love. Maybe I'll stop barking too when I have the one to think about ahahaha




Love, Angela

Past memories...

sometimes i come across a moment when I am too occupied with thoughts about the past... Little things in my life help trigger my remembrance of such memories... like an old email that I accidentally came across or a little post it that I kept that somebody wrote to me years earlier... Sometimes the relationship with that person is still well now, sometimes it isn't. And if it isn't, it makes me really sad. Having a bad relationship with anybody really sucks... I wanna go back and fix it if I can but I know I cannot. I try to mend it in the present, but it feels like shattered shards of glass... Broken pieces of memories... heart broken moments and tears... result of anger and frustration. It feels so hurtful and so fragile that I am too afraid to approach... I am too afraid to step barefoot into those shards of glass and hurt myself... Make it even worse than how it is now...

Then I come to a moment where I tell myself to stop thinking about the past. Maybe that person is happy now. Why bother to bring up the sad past and remind him/her sad memories unnecessarily? So should I leave this like this? and then on and on it goes my stream of thoughts... Sometimes I am so sure with my decisions and what to do in my life, but sometimes I have these moments where I stop the reins of my horses. Is this the right way? Did I make a right turn?

So I go again with heartful of questions, both answered and unanswered, to conquer my life.

Love, angela

Day with Aisha and Sylvia/ Lip Piercing Day - not me tho!

Today, my bestie got a lip piercing!!! ahhh! It's so awesome on her. It was very very nerve wrecking on my part i dunno why. I was so nervous for her but she said it didn't hurt that much and it turned out all good!!!

Love you Aisha <33333333333333

We were gonna go to the vietnamese spring roll place @ Huntington Beach first tho but it was closed!!!! They were doing some kind of renovation =( innnnng I really love their rolls...

The Piercing salon was called Somatic in Long Beach. It is registered with one of those organizations for safe gun-less piercing... The lady there was super nice and good (except for the hesitant piercing procedure! Aisha said that the needle went in part by part. eeek!) Other than that it was a goood experience for both of us!!!

We went to CVS on our way back to the freeway to get non-iodized sea salt for cleaning her piercing but they didn't have it. We went to Ralph in the same mall but it didn't have it either. They all had epsom salt tho. what the hack do u use it for? what a strange name...

We went back to Irvine and went to the District. We were hungry so went in to Chick-fil-A and got ourselves a dinner. Then we went into the WholeFoods Market to get the salt and they had it!!!!!! yay we got it and went out to hot topic which was closed, so went into Borders instead. We got some goodies and then met up with Sylvia at Pinkberry! Lots of chit chat and bye bye @ around 11 =D

T'is was a goooood day. I love hanging out with Aisha. She's the bestie of besties and I love her soooo sooo much!!!!! I love you Sylvia too!!! Got to share a bit of my day with you!!!! It was a great great day yay!!!

oh when Aisha dropped me off at the back gate she honked at me. =P but the car that was goin by really fast behind her heard it and braked sooo sharp cuz of that ahahahaha I felt so bad! BAD GIRL AISHA <3 sooon ="">

Love, Angela

mehh i feel like u really don't like this pic. i should have asked ur permission neways... Mianhae!!! luv you much n think its a real cute pic of u but if u don't like it i'll take it down =D