hello weekend! + Happy Chinese New Year

Posted on January 31, 2014 by hanalei

This photo was taken when Aust & I went back to Taiwan & Hong Kong, May 2013

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂！Chinese new year is, like, THE holiday in Asia. When I lived in Taiwan, the new years celebrations would include 2 weeks straight of eating delicous food until your eyes popped out. And people were giving me 红包 (red envelope) with money inside $$ (but I couldn’t accept it because I was a church missionary at the time!). It’s a great holiday; older family like parents, Aunts & Uncles, would give us red envelopes (hundreds of dollars!), but once we were married they said ‘Sorry! No more!’ So last year I gave my little brother the first red envelope I’ve given out, and it made me feel old.

This week I’ve been learning a new language, and you should too! When someone starts to learn a brand new language at 21, you’d think it was too difficult an endeavor and almost unachievable. Well I started learning to speak, read and write Chinese when I was 21, and somehow I achieved a basic grasp of the language in a short 18 months. Granted, I had God on my side (literally–missionaries are promised the gift of tongues!) because I honestly could not have done that on my own. But this time around, I’m picking up a language at 26 (did I say I’m old already?)! I’ve been taking free online courses from Code Academy and I HIGHLY recommend them! I’ve been able to pick up the basics of HTML and CSS and have been tweaking my new website aaaaallllllll week long. My eyes hurt, but I’m pretty excited to show you on Monday!! (Thanks for all the help, Ivan!)

Eat lots of good food , try learning a new language, and 恭喜发财 ‘congratulations on obtaining riches’!

hugs, hanalei

Is it Monday already? + an amazing house in NYC

Posted on January 27, 2014 by hanalei

I have been busy figuring out a new blog layout….hopefully you can see it all in a few days (eek!). I’m still just dabbling with the whole coding/html/css thing but even so, the new layout will be leaps and bounds better than this template.

I LOVE creative people! People that do things differently–that think outside of not just the square, but the circle, the triangle, and the octagon. I would never in a million years have thought to do what these people did… have you seen this video? Did you love it or hate it? I had to watch it like five times. Whether you like it or not, you have to admit it was pretty darn creative. Hope this brightens your Monday!

weekend wardrobe

Posted on December 17, 2013 by hanalei

foggydress_hiking

foggydress_hiking While a lot of my friends across the country are enduring below freezing temperatures, I am soaking in the heat & sun of a California winter.
^^ We found this awesome, old, broken down car. I wonder how old it is.

I lived in my hiking clothes this weekend, as we walked all over the hills of Diamond Bar. I wore pants but almost wished I didn’t because of the heat. My hiking boots are my best friends, guys. If you haven’t purchased a good pair (they’re pricey, but I got mine on sale) then you should ask Santa for some. I have these, but would really love these for cold weather hikes.

foggydress_hiking So many soft, rolling hills! You could see LA in the distance (not in the picture above, that’s facing the other direction), it was that clear and that beautiful.^^ I can never get him to look at the camera… hugs, hanalei

Playing Tourist: At the J. Paul Getty Museum

Posted on December 5, 2013 by hanalei

foggydress_getty I’ll only say a few things, and let the pictures tell you the rest.

First, the Getty Museum is FREE! All you pay is $15 for parking. We loaded up 7 people in one car last weekend, so it was a bargain.
Second, GO FIRST THING IN THE MORNING! We were there right at 10am when they opened, and breezed through so many exhibits with almost no lines & very few people. When we were leaving around 1pm, there were massive lines and loads of people. Go right when they open to avoid Disneyland-like queues.
Enjoy the view!

foggydress_getty My pretty cousin Beth ^^ loves flowers almost as much as I do. She is an amazing artist, I’ll have to show off her work on the blog one of these days…