Rainy Days and Sundays

Yesterday was a dreary day so Pat and I were all about comfort. Comfort food, that is. First it was a beautiful fritatta full of cheesy goodness, veggies, and bacon!

Before...

Voila!

Then...it was homemade ravioli for dinner. I'm teaching a pasta making class in the coming weeks so we thought it would be fun to pull out all of the accoutrements for a refresher. It's a production but totally worth it!

Looks nothing like pasta.

Coming together nicely.

Waiting...

Hard to get an action shot when I'm taking the pictures and turning the crank on the machine.

Almost there!

Look at that!

Tossed with butter, fresh sage, and proscuitto. Words can't even begin to describe. Heavenly!

Until next time!
Lisa

Driving in Korea...DISLIKE

Saturday we decided to load up and head to Seoul because the hubby really needs a new computer and we weren't having any luck finding one here. First mistake...we drove. It takes about an hour by bus but why take the bus when you have a car and it's so convenient to have your own car because then you don't have to walk everywhere or carry all your new found treasures all over creation. Well, I think we wish we had riden the bus.

This country has grown so quickly that it's outgrowing itself!

This was the scene for 3 hours! Incidentally, Seoul is less than 40 miles from where we live.



See that bus cutting across 4 lanes of traffic? It was actually an ingenious move on his part. He totally blocked traffic and allowed 3 other buses to get in front of him. (The bus lane is the far left lane.) Pat and I were totally impressed by that maneuver.



What's wrong with this picture?! Hope he has good insurance.

So, we finally made it, had lunch, found no computer, had a Starbucks, and headed home. It only took two hours to get back.

Here are a few pics I've added just for fun. Enjoy!

I tried to keep my distance from this guy. Yikes!



Love this one! Notice the sign on the top of the stop sign and the taxi cab parked right on the railroad tracks. This is right in front of Liam's school and there is someone parked on the tracks every day.



I just thought this was funny. "Best Taxi Driver"

Until Next time,

Lisa

Songtan style Part I... of many

The town right outside the gates of the air base, Songtan,  has been through so many changes since my husband was here the first time in 2002. I was here to visit a few times back then and I can personally attest to it. The main drag was full of bars, strip clubs, massage parlors, street vendors, tailors, blanket shops, and purse shops. Much of that remains today but there is a slow emergence of cute little shops and restaurants that are reassurance that things are changing.

First, a little bit of the strange and unchanged.


Do women really wear these?!




These are some of the creepiest masks I have ever seen!

 

This cute little guy has an orange tail! I also saw a poodle with pink ears but missed that photo op.

Very clever. Get a tattoo and a movie at the same time! Why haven't they thought of this in the US?!

 
Now... on to the "change" I was telling you about!




This is a great little coffee shop with good desserts. It's a nice quiet place to go with a friend or your honey. (Mine is not even remotely interested, but maybe you could talk yours into it.)



There are now quite a few of these little boutiques popping up all over. The shops are super small but the owners make a fantastic effort with merchandising and utilizing the space. We could learn something here!




I love this little pottery shop. And she's doing classes now! How cool is that?!


Songtan also has an amazing array of restaurants (good ones) to choose from. There are any number of Korean restaurants, a fantastic sushi place, three Brazilian steakhouses, a Vietnamese noodle house, awesome Thai, Chinese, Peruvian, Mexican, Phillipino, Turkish kebabs, Greek, and Italian. I'm sure I'm missing something.

Koreans are incredibly innovative and have the ability to change and adapt very quickly. I really admire that about them. This place will be unrecognizable in ten years. I'm sure of it!

Until next time,
Lisa

For ages 7 to 9 yrs old...

If only his frustration could have been captured on film. We all had to leave the room! Notice the instructions strategically placed on leg for quick reference.

The finished product. It now lives in a high place where it will not be touched until the boys reach middle school age.

Fabric! Lots and lots of fabric!

Bolts and bolts and yards and yard of beautiful fabric! That's what Happy Quilt is made of. And boy does a trip there make me happy! Last year, a very creative friend who happens to be a fantastic photographer and seamstress(see her creations here), introduced me to this amazing place.

I've been behaving myself and trying to use up the material I had but today I decided I needed some fresh inspiration. It was a great day to go. Lots of new designs I hadn't seen. I seem to be drawn to Riley Blake fabric designs seen here. Just about everything I picked up was Riley Blake and a shade of orange. I guess I'm in need of some color to pull me out of this long winter.

I spent a joyous hour wandering around and taking it all in. It was 20 degrees farenheit outside and probably 15 inside but I would not be deterred. (For those of you outside of my Korean bubble who don't know, Happy Quilt is a huge warehouse with cement floors and no heat aside from a few heaters in the back of the store for the workers.) I wore running shoes and I promise you, it took at least an hour and a half for my feet to thaw.

This is some of what I came home with...

Washed, pressed, and ready for action. Stay tuned. This is going to be fun!

Until next time,
Lisa

Super heroes on the cheap!

Liam and Samuel are obsessed with super heroes. What three and almost five year old (in less than 12 hours) isn't?! Well, I decided I was going to do something so cool  for Liam's birthday. I was going to make capes and masks for everyone so they could all be supers. Did I mention, I made this decision on Friday afternoon and his friends were coming over on Sunday afternoon? We were expecting 16 to 20 kiddos between 2 and 6. Holy cow! What was I thinking?

Anyhoo...I was determined to make this "super hero" thing happen. I mentioned it to my amazing neighbor Lorri who had already lent me her ginormous cake pan and allowed me to raid her fridge. She then produced a pack of party masks.

So, here was my brilliant idea. I was going to cover these masks in adhesive felt in "super hero" colors.

I traced and I cut.

Behold! The finished product! Easy peasy. Now on to the capes.

I cut out rectangles, six per yard in black and pink (because not all supers are boys!). I then folded the top of the fabric down 1 inch and pressed. No, I did not finish the edges. Call me lazy, but we are talking about preschoolers here and cutting and sewing about 20 of these suckers.

Sew baby! Sew!

I had a ton of 1/4 inch ribbon so I cut it into 20 inch pieces. I then took a safety pin and feed it thru the channel I created with my seam. (Pardon my hands. They don't seem to care for Korean winters or doing dishes.)

This is the back of the cape. I cut a lightening bolt design out of adhesive felt. I pressed it to the fabric and then sewed it in place with a zigzag stitch.

Ze front...

Ze back...

Ze end!

Until next time,

Lisa

Playin' hookey

Since this is what it looked like last night...

This is what we did today!

That's a dog. I can see it. Can you?

Scary Black Widow!

If you've never tried Bendaroos with your kids, do! They are pretty darn cool. You'll end up doing most of the work but the kids love it so who cares! Great activity for a rainy/snowy morning:O) Check them out here.


 On to the next activity.


My friend's twins. So cute!



Team work!



"I'm tired Mommy."



Lots of walking up and down the hill.

Look at that face! Was he having fun or what?!

And when it was all over, this was the end result...

A good day. Wouldn't you say?

Until next time!

Lisa



A little spring infusion

So, it's been incredibly cold here in Korea. We've had single digit temperatures and minus windchills. I'm getting a serious case of cabin fever and keeping these little boys indoors is enough to take a mom right over the edge! I needed a little "pick me up" and thought I would share some photos of a really great place to kick those winter time blues in the bottom.

My friend Heidi took me to a wonderful wholesale flower market last summer. If you are on the peninsula and want coordinates, I'm sure I can get them for you!

This orchid was incredible! It reminded me of an angel.



This was just a sampling of the orchids. There was a greenhouse the length of a football field full of them!





 

This fountain display reminded me of a scene from Avatar.

There were several greenhouses full of any kind of plant imaginable. It felt as if you could walk forever and never reach the end of the building. A friend once told me that to Koreans, "it's not done until it's overdone". If you have been here, you totally understand.

We finally made it out of the greenhouses and crossed the street heading toward an industrial looking two story building. Heidi told me this was where we would find all of the fresh cut flowers. Now, Korea is full of lots of smells in the summer time. Many are quite unpleasant. As soon as you walk in the double doors of this building your nose is immediately overwhelmed by the most amazing smell of millions of flowers and it hits you like a brick wall. Roses, mums, daisies, eucalyptus! They had any and every type of fresh flower you could ever want.  It was so unexpected. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. I''d never seen anything like it!

Mums anyone?



Have you ever seen roses stacked like this?

 The second floor of this building was where you would go to buy things like ribbon, vases, artificial flowers, and gift items.  This was also where you would go to have floral arrangements done.

So much talent!

There was so much of everything floral that I ended up leaving with very little and I haven't been back since.  I have to make at least one more trip before we move this summer or I know I'll kick myself.

Are you ready for spring now?! I know I am!

Until next time,
Lisa