little family

Friday nights are for friends and food, bars that allow music requests, painting the boys lips with lipgloss and laughter.

Big, big belly laughs that spill tears from the eyes and hurt the stomach muscles.

We started at the coffee shop and moved on to a local haunt to celebrate two of our dear co-workers departure from our school. 

We had a strange diet of squid and sausage, beer from the tap and requests ranging from Christina Aguilera to The Kinks.

I love my sweet-spirited Noonas (sisters) so much~ and damn but aren't they gorgeous??!

we all march on

February 2013 is a month I won't be sorry to turn my back on.

It left an aching hole in my heart and in my apartment that can't ever be refilled.

It left scars, emotional and physical.

It left circled dates on my calendar that are not of the romantic variety.

We all have bad years and bad months, upheavals in our lives.

Right now it feels like someone changed the record and I don't know how to move my feet to this new and unfamiliar beat.

But the band must march on.

I want to begin this new month with positivity and intention.

Dallas and I are lucky enough to have nurtured a healthy friendship despite the break-up... that is a huge blessing to me. 

Friends were sacrificed, but they left space for focus on new and healthier friendships.

My korean noonas and friends from home have created a circle of love and support around me...and  it tugs and tugs at my bruised heart to know how lucky I am to have them.

There is a lot to mourn, but so much more to be thankful for.

This one goes out to the heart tuggers and how I couldn't have got through this without them.

❂ bisous ❂

Today was a slow burnin', takin' it easy, kids are off on spring break kind of day.

I spent the best half of this morning re-organizing our school library with children's book dust up my nose and in my hair and the delicious smell of musty, well-worn pages.

I so badly wanted to take my cup of chamomile and curl up in a corner with a stack of books and just read and read.

Children's book titles are simply the most enticing things to ten-year-old Louise's brain: 'The Accidental Zuchinni', 'Willie the Dreamer' and 'I love Cloud Bread' were some of my favorites of the day.

I love the dreaminess of kid's books, how the author can just flip open their head like a lid and let their imagination fly out onto the pages.

I have a secret little dream to be a children's book writer one day

When I was tiny I would lay in bed and Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton would take me by the hand and lead me on the most fantastical adventures every single night.

When I think back on those stories of magic and whimsy I am reminded of pure joy and happiness.

I'd love to to do that for a child one day too.

❂ bisous! ❂

threads & kicks

One of my favorite parts of winter is getting to layer up snug against the chill for an outing.

Usually I don't have the right figure to carry off current "trends" but I'm all over layering this year.

Wooly knee socks, leggings, cable knit tights and chunky woolen knits are the order of the day...

and I am head over heels for this pair of dark brown faux suede Tugo boots that Blowfish sent me.

They are unbelievably comfortable, have a flattering little wedge in the heel and they just suit my style to an absolute tee~ I love my boots to be belted and buckled like a pirates ~.^

I wore this outfit out to eat Vietnamese with Dallas on Sunday and paired with the Tugo booties it was just the right combo of style, comfort and warmth.

I think I'm going to be living in these till Spring starts singing her song and my toes can come out to play again!

Thank you Blowfish!

Outfit details//

Boots: c/o Blowfish

Navajo cardigan: Hellhound Vintage

Cream Knit Sweater: GMarket

Moon necklace: Free People

Black dress: American Apparel

Leggings: Uniqlo

Wool socks: Uniqlo

the sunday slowdown

There's nothing a little tea and a sweet letter can't fix.

I love the peace and the quiet of a Sunday,

the way it bookends the week with a little pocket of solitude and wind-down time.

This day of the week keeps me sane and centered.

I dance to a slower melody.

Today I checked the mailbox and found the sweetest snail mail from a dear friend who knew exactly what I needed to lift me out of a little mood rut.

I made myself a hot cup of British tea to remind me of home, set out fresh roses and set aside an hour to slow sip, read over fond memories and just be.

I'm forever blessed to realize I have friendships that have survived time and distance and prolonged absence.

Swoony, cozy, cups of tea-filled Sundays are where it's at.

^^

kindie teacher moment of the week

Give two six year old girls a Batman mask printout and they'll quite literally turn him into a big ol' Queen,

beauty spot and all

 ~.^

You can also find me filling in for Nat over at Modern Buttercup today sharing this cute teepee stamp DIY.

Go check it out!

& finally a big congratulations to Natalie, she was the winner of my cute Korean stationary giveaway!

Peace, love & triple high fives people x

<<< tiny >>>

Welcome to my 7 am morning view as I wait, bleary-eyed, for the elevator to collect me from the15th floor and spit me out into that metropolis of high rises where I will become another tiny ant on the sidewalk, marching alongside the others to work.

I love the romance of this craggy mountain and the way it lends its poetry to Korea's typical white apartment building landscape.
I love that no matter where you travel in Korea, there is a looming, omnipresent mountain never too far away. Reminding us just how tiny we are.
They are the silent, giant observers of our day to day business. They witness scores of sunrises and sunsets, rain clouds and fogs and snowstorms. They are the harborers of stories and superstitions and lore.
You can look at a mountain and feel at once how small your worries are, how immaterial your cares.

When I look through the window and see this mountain every morning I can't but picture myself atop it, sleeping ,cooking, walking  it's crags and battling it's lonely wilderness like Kerouac in Big Sur.
Mountains are commonly used to symbolize obstacles, but I see a mountain and feel only reverence and transience. The thrill of it's loneliness and solitude, the awe at it's magnitude and the longing for it's wild expanse.

Mountain, Field or Sea?
These days I am comforted living under the watchful eye of the mountains.

{{via}}

there is a crack in everything

The older I become the more I "get" the importance of purging.

It is such a healthy act to constantly strip back, shed like a snake, expel the negative and the things that are holding you back from growth and forward movement.

Purging can be applied to all aspects of our lives; from the company we keep, our diets and our social habits, all the way down to our list of friends on Facebook and the blogs that we choose to read.

Just recently I performed a mass purge in my bloglovin reader. 

Over time I was realizing that quite a few of the blogs I choose to read follow the same cookie-cutter formula:

same impeccably taken photographs of household items, same beautifully put together outfits, same "ain't life sweet" smiles and same lines about an amazing weekend/ brunch/ birthday party/ date with a boyfriend.

I'm not attacking this style of lifestyle blogging.

Of course we should blog and celebrate the joy in our lives and our homes and everyone has the right to post as they see fit.

My point is it that for me it can get tiresome seeing the same life-is-as-sweet-as-cherry-pie posts over and over again.

What's wrong with sharing the "I'm having a bad day"/ "I feel down this week"/ "I'm having relationship issues" posts?

I find it way more refreshing  and relatable to read posts by bloggers who aren't afraid to show their vulnerability or problems alongside the good stuff.

Me, I'm all for putting my best side forward in this blog, so far I've used it as a vehicle to showcase my adventures in life, travels, my job and my loves.

But I have been guilty, like the bloggers I described above, of putting a Stepford-Wife smile on things when they haven't been as rosy as my blog posts may have portrayed.

For instance, my ten year battle with anxiety disorder and the fact that last week I had a Valentine's date with a therapist rather than a boyfriend.

I guess my reason for writing this post at all is to break the mold a little bit. To show to other bloggers or readers that behind the pretty photos and the upbeat posts there is a real person battling real demons.

I'm not special or alone, everyone has their flaws and I think flaws can be just as beautiful, or maybe even more, than the "perfect" image.

There is a lyric by Leonard Cohen which I love and that verily sums up my feelings:

"Ring the bell that still can ring//

forget your perfect offering//

there is a crack in everything//

that's how the light gets in."

I am cracked, flawed. 

Demons? I has em.

But show me a branch of oak as smooth and stainless as a piece of cold steel and I will feel nothing.

It's the knots and swirls, the cracks and indents and crevices that make it something different, special and interesting.

Never be afraid to show your flaws. 

They are a part of your perfect whole.

3 little things

One week, three tiny joys.

1. Free shoes!!

When Blowfish offered to send me a free pair of their new Spring season shoes to showcase on my blog I said "HELL YEAH!"

They arrived last week and they are beautiful.

Keep your eyes peeled for my first ever style post next week. 

 (not a direction I ever thought of taking on this blog but what girl can turn down a  free pair of shoes? 

"Not I", said the cat.)

2. Breakfast of champions

Lately this chilly season has me reaching for the kind of tasty comfort foods that are usually bad but oh... so good!

I've been treating myself these cold winter mornings to a breakfast of creamy chocolate milk and tuna and mayonnaise samgak kimbap, or triangle kimbap, which is basically rice wrapped in dried seaweed with a tuna and mayonnaise centre.

I know everything about this breakfast sounds wrong, but trust me, it's delicious!

3. Baby Wig Wams for my baby matryoshkas

I found the template for these adorable paper craft teepees on the same site I found the printable feathers for my cupid's arrow diy post.

Just so happens they are the perfect size to house my ceramic matryoshka beads.

Tiny joys, friends, tiny joys.

~.^ 

a sponsored post: DIY cupid's arrows

The happiest of Valentine's Days to all of you gorgeous people ♥ 

The old lady who lives inside me who loves to stitch and sew and make things with little glass beads rocked a little faster back n forth in her rocking chair when the lovely people at online craft supply store Wholeport offered to send me a parcel of goodies to craft with ^^

Among other pretty little doo-dads they sent me this lovely packet of masking stickers~ this is basically the sticker version of the Japanese washi tape that has been taking the crafting world by storm.

I've been wanting to use washi tape in a DIY post for a while now and the love-heart decoration on these gave me the inspiration to make these sweet-as-can-be Valentine's cupid arrows to give to your sweetheart on Valentine's day.

Behold the materials:
~ feathers (I searched high and low for craft feathers but they are apparently a rarity in Korea , so I made do with this feather printable)
~ washi tape/decorative sticker strips from Wholeport
~ bamboo sticks
~ craft wood chips (I sifted through untill I found some that resembled the shape of arrow heads)

Step 1:

Take a strip of decorative tape and carefully wrap it around one end of your bamboo stick. Repeat until you have an assortment of decorated sticks.

Step 2:

Gather together a sprig of  3 or 4 feathers.

Or in my case if you are using the feather printable, cut out a bunch of feathers.

Step 3:

Use invisible tape to attach your feathers to the decorated end of your bamboo stick.

Step 4:

Using a glue gun apply a small amount of hot glue to the bare end of your bamboo stick and attach your wood chip.

And you are DONE!

You can give your Valentine an arrow along with their card or, like me, use them as a wall decoration!

Lemon squeezy.

A special thank you to the wonderful folks at Wholeport craft suppliers for sponsoring this post. 

Check their site out for cute and extremely affordable crafting treats~ I have my eye on their beautiful selection of beads and feathers ^^