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photos by WAI LIN TSE

I first saw a link to these photos on Lena's blog, and you can see the whole set here. Hmmm, back in the 90's I despised wallpaper. I remember hating my pastel wallpapered room during high school, even though I loved it when I was a kid. My dad surprised me with a total room makeover, complete with matching wallpaper, new bed, comforter, book case, and a painting of a girl standing in a garden. It was so, so sweet. I was in heaven. But when I got older I started to realize how ugly and matchy-matchy it was. Now there is something so lovely to me about wallpaper, preferably vintage and in classic patterns. It just seems to impart a room with such coziness, which is what I always crave in a home.

I'm really starting to think about home stuff right now, since I'll need to search for a new apartment in a few months. I have to admit that I'm not eager to give up my nice big home for a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. I'm pretty sure you can't wallpaper a rented apartment. It will be SO hard to leave my house. I love this place. It isn't perfect, but it's the first real home that Joe and I have had together. But I guess it's time to move on.

I think maybe what I'll miss most is my dishwasher and washer/dryer. Last time we lived in New York we definitely didn't have those. And our refrigerator was in our living room. Haha! Maybe I'll try to dig up some photos of our old apartment and post them here. That apartment was adorable. And tiny. And the rent was much more expensive than our house payment is now. But all we had to do was walk a block to be surrounded by amazing restaurants and shops. Ah, New York.

baby moccasins

I spent the last week working on these tiny moccasins for Erica's new baby boy, and they arrived (along with the quilt) right after she gave birth. I'm so excited for her! After I saw her post about this project from The Purl Bee, I knew I had to give it a try. It was my first time using double-pointed needles, and it was so awkward for me! At first. But after a week of practicing, I finally made a pair that didn't look like total crap. This is a wonderful pattern, and the project was such a good learning experience. I learned how to pick up stitches (not as hard as I thought it would be) and do a Kitchener stitch (way harder than I thought it would be). I'm glad I've got these skills in my repertoire now because I have the feeling that more of my friends are going to start having kids soon, and I can make these ahead of time for the perfect baby gift.

good news

Brooklyn in December

After Joe didn't match with any urology residency program back in January, he had to scramble for one of four open spots that were left. He was competing with at least a hundred people who didn't match, so we tried not to get our hopes up too much. After going on a few interviews and waiting waiting waiting, we found out last night that he got one of the spots! We are so excited! So it's official. We're moving to New York in June, which is where we will spend the next six years of our lives.

gray + pale pink, part 2

from the February issue of Marie Claire

gray + pale pink

baby quilt

My mom gave me Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts for Christmas over a year ago, and I just completed my first project from the book. My first quilt ever! It was pretty easy, as it involved absolutely no patchwork. The only tricky part was squaring up the shifty linen I used. In other words, don't look too closely! I was inspired by this dress, and I think the result has a nice Muji-esque simplicity. When I get around to it, I'd love to make a large quilt with the same material and design for my own bed. This one, however, is going to a friend of mine who's about to have a baby. I love the texture of the linen and think this will make a perfect spring/summer blanket to have around, not to mention that it goes with everything.

toast spring 2009

I had trouble narrowing it down, so I'm posting my ten favorite images from the Toast spring catalog! Gorgeous. I seriously want all of these, but I can't spend any money right now. (Especially after seeing Confessions of a Shopaholic last weekend...I related to that movie WAY too much.) So I will settle on admiring the beauty from afar.

back to business as usual

I'm sorry, I have not felt like blogging lately. It's not that things are bad. Things are good actually. Joe and I are doing well, and we have new opportunities coming in. It's just that processing all this stuff has left my mind in a confusion, and I haven't been feeling eloquent enough to put it into the right words so far. We have some decisions to make, and when our plans solidify I'll post updates. But for now, I really just don't want to talk about this anymore! I'm going to ignore it for a while.

So, onto more interesting stuff....like fashion. Haha. Elly made me this dress and sent it to me. The red wool tights were also part of her gift. I like them because they're not shockingly bright red. They're classy red, dark and a little heathered. So I finally incorporated red tights into an outfit.

reasons i love blogging

You guys. Are awesome. Thank you.