celebrations | kimberly ah

Mar 01 2013

homemaking

March-ing On

Usually February drags on slowly for me. The brutal cold, the dirty snow that won’t melt away, holidays a distant memory, the fresh start of the new year wearing off…February might only be 28 days, but usually it feels like two months rolled into one.

Not this year. February flew! I think it had something to do with the Week of Indulgence, Naoto’s surgery and the fact that it hasn’t been overly cold or snowy this winter (so far!) The charm of the chill and the snow hasn’t worn off quite yet. (But take note, Spring…I’d love to see you soon!) Whatever the reason, I cannot believe March is already here!

In March, I’d like to…

…get back into our gym routine (We broke our habit while Naoto was recovering–I have no excuse–and now we need to work back into a good routine.)

…try out some new recipes (since every stand-by in our repertoire is off-limits until Naoto heals completely)

…finish an embroidery project (because it’s been too long)

…finish the bathroom & share it here on the blog (again, it’s been too long)

…finish clearing out the guest room (oh, how this project has dragged!)

…finish my framing & hanging projects (are you sensing a theme here?)

…plan a little birthday celebration (that includes something sparkly, like champagne!)

How about you…any plans for March?

Calendars: Rifle, Heather Lins Home and K is for Calligraphy

Tagged celebrations, decorating, home, home improvement, homemaking

Feb 15 2013

Over the Moon

I like to send silly greeting cards to Naoto at his office (the translation office, not Trader Joe’s). I do it because he mostly gets the boring mail at home and because I have a compulsive habit of falling in love with the perfect greeting cards for him and buying them too often. I love going to visit Naoto and seeing them all displayed on the ledge behind his desk.

When I saw this card with “Presley” flying over the moon, I fell in love (as I do with all Rifle cards!). I decided to send it to Naoto as a little pre-Valentine. I also made him a special blue washi tape bunting (because blue is his favorite and all of the pink ones just seemed too girly!) and tucked in inside the envelope.

I decorated the envelope with some blue washi tape and a vintage paper heart from this set by K is for Calligraphy and I used one of our leftover wedding invitation stamps for the postage (because who else wants to see that stamp!).

When I went to Naoto’s office on Wednesday night, he had the bunting all strung up by his desk. You can see his little card collection in the background (along with the all-business bulletin board information!)

For his “real” Valentine, I bought him a box of Choco Tacos (mentioned recently here)…I’m pretty sure he appreciated those more that the washi bunting!

Tagged celebrations, crafts, decorating, diy, holidays, mail art, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 14 2013

9 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, snail mail

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I know some of my Valentine’s are still en route, being lovingly handled by the post offices in a few countries, but I wanted to share them before red and pink become as stale as Christmas cookies in February.

I had the little gold foil heart cards in my stash from last year. They are from the Paper Source (and are apparently out of stock). I also bought these postcards from Rifle Paper Company. I am pretty much in love with anything Rifle and once I saw the little flying cupid postman and the postage stamp edging, I knew I wanted these in my stationery stash.

Last week I pulled out my washi tape stash and some twine and started making some simple washi tape buntings. I got kind of addicted to playing with different colors and patterns and ended up with more than a dozen of them so I tucked the tiny buntings into little glassine envelopes and sent them off with some of my cards.

I miss the Valentine’s of my school days when my classmates used to add little stickers or candy hearts in the tiny, thin white paper envelopes of their store-bought Valentines, so this seemed like a good way to bring that back.

I hope you have a super Valentine’s Day! Whether you are spending it with your significant other, your family (both human & furry!), I hope your day is full of love and good mail!

Tagged celebrations, crafts, holidays, mail art, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 04 2013

3 Comments

celebrations, snail mail

Pink & Red Cheer

I love Valentine’s Day…not in the Naoto-buy-me-flowers-and-jewelry sort of way (Oh how I dread the flower and jewelry commercials that will be playing over the next week around here!) No, I like it because it’s a tiny celebration in the middle of the gloomiest days of winter. I like it because it gives me another excuse to mail out some pink and red cheer to friends and family. I like it because all of the good Valentines have a pun. I like it because Dove dark chocolates taste a little bit better in heart shapes.

This year I bought some sweet Valentines, and a couple of supplies to make my own. I wanted to buy a box of classroom Valentines at the drugstore to tuck in with my letters this month, but I couldn’t find anything that didn’t have a licensed character on it. I wish they still made Valentines with generic cute people and quirky animals and silly puns (oh, the PUNS!), like my vintage selection above.

Other than cards and some lighthearted decorating (pun intended), we really don’t celebrate Valentines Day around here. The first year I knew Naoto, he tucked a tiny box of chocolates in my apartment screen door. I ended up tripping on it and smashing it a bit, but it is still one of my favorite Valentine gestures. We were just friends back then, so it was an unexpected treat.

Are you making or sending Valentines this year? Or do you consider Valentine’s Day to be a “Hallmark holiday” and completely ignore it? What’s the best Valentine pun you’ve seen?

Tagged celebrations, holidays, snail mail, Valentine's Day, vintage

Jan 09 2013

3 Comments

adventures, cocktails

Cocktail Perfected: CAP

I was introduced to lychee liquor in a Chinese restaurant in Japan. It was served with sparkling grapefruit juice and it was really delicious. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so when we came home, it didn’t take us long to seek it out at the liquor store. We came home with a bottle of Soho Lychee Liquor and got to work experimenting with it in cocktails. If you’ve never had a lychee fruit, it is really unusual. It tastes kind of like a pear crossed with a grape and it looks kind of fleshy (for lack of a better explanation). They are not the most beautiful of fruits! You can buy them fresh, but I’ve never seen them anywhere around here. We buy our lychees in a can at Mitsuwa. Even if you don’t try the cocktail, I highly recommend the lychees!

We came up with the CAP* cocktail after experimenting with the lychee liquor and a variety of juices. Once we found what we thought was a good combination, we served it to our friends who found it super-drinkable (as in, they drank way too many!) and delicious. We’ve served it for both of our birthdays for the past two years and for other cocktail occasions.

*CAP is an acronym for a little joke in our home: Caucasian Asian Persuasion. (What can I say? We celebrate our inter-cultural marriage.)

CAP Cocktail

1 oz pomegranate juice

1 oz vodka

1 oz Soho lychee liquor

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour in a martini glass and top off with a little bit of sparkling water. Drop in a lychee fruit for garnish.

I know this cocktail is a lot more “cosmo” and a lot less “old-fashioned” but trust me…it’s a nice little treat.

UPDATE: Last night, we replaced the vodka with gin (my favorite, Clearheart, which is slightly more flowery than a London dry gin) and ohmygoodness!!! So good! I can’t believe it took us so long to try this–now we need a name for the gin version! Any suggestions?

Tagged celebrations, cocktails

Jan 07 2013

5 Comments

celebrations

The Naoto birthday recap

Naoto’s birthday was full of friends, food and fun (and cocktails…)

We had a huge dinner at Izakaya Sankyu (Naoto & I are pictured above in a very un-flattering Instagram filter). I discovered my new favorite sushi roll, Tekka…which is sliced tuna with wasabi. It’s like a nose-clearing surprise in every bite. Just when I didn’t think I could love Sankyu more!

After dinner, we all came back to our place and had cocktails, Japanese beer and Portillo’s chocolate cake. Portillo’s is a Chicago chain of hot dog/Italian beef restaurants. If you are ever in Chicago (or the suburbs–they are all over) you should eat at Portillo’s…you really can’t go wrong: get a Chicago-style hot dog, an Italian beef (my dad never visits without getting one…or two), cheese fries, a milkshake…but definitely get the chocolate cake. You can buy it by the slice, or the whole cake (get the whole cake).

The birthday guy approves!

And we all enjoyed the Adami-Hasegawa signature cocktail, the CAP cocktail. I will be sharing the recipe later in the week…two and a half batches were mixed up on Saturday night (that’s about twenty cocktails), so there’s no denying that the CAP is a hit among our friends. I think this night was a perfect start to Naoto’s year!

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, food

Jan 05 2013

2 Comments

celebrations

Happy, Happy Birthday Naoto!

Happy Birthday to my dear Naoto! May the last year of your thirties be one of your best!

xoxo

*This picture was taken a few weeks ago at Sankyu, our favorite Japanese restaurant, where we will also be celebrating tonight.

Tagged celebrations

Jan 01 2013

1 Comment

celebrations, Merry & Bright

Happy New Year!

We ended 2012 with a delicious meal at the Golden Steer under their “festive” red bar lights. We enjoyed yummy onion soup and salad and steak and baked potatoes and wine, along with plenty of sesame sticks and garlic toasts from the cracker basket. The Steer had a special New Year’s Eve menu (pictured above) that made me wish we had a couple of party hats to wear. We rang in 2013 all cozy on the couch watching/laughing at the ridiculous coverage from Times Square and then the local Chicago countdown stuff. Naoto barely made it to midnight…partly because he was tired, but also because he doesn’t have the same patience that I do for absurd television.

Today Naoto worked and I made some 2013 plans, worked on my 2013 planner, watched the fiscal cliff coverage (ugh.) and thought about taking down the tree…in fact, I’m still thinking about taking down the tree…it’s time.

Tagged celebrations, holidays, home

Dec 31 2012

5 Comments

celebrations, holidays, Merry & Bright

Goodbye 2012

I’m a little sad to see 2012 go…not just because it was a super-fabulous year (as all years are, in my book) but because I have to say goodbye to my lovely Rifle calendar and Mister Donut/Snoopy planner.

I’m usually not a fan of art calendars. I prefer the little practical boxes for writing in birthdays and events. But last year I couldn’t pass up this pretty botanical number…and now I’m trying to dream up ways to help it live on into the new year (cutting it into envelopes perhaps?)

And my Mister Donut (Misdo) planner was a gift from my sister-in-law in Japan…she knows me too well (I ate donuts at Misdo every day during our trip to Japan in 2011. And I’m probably the first person to go to Japan and gain weight!) and I looooved that every time I consulted my planner, I was met with Snoopy and Woodstock munching on cute donuts. Sigh…I’m going to miss those guys. (But maybe I will be less hungry for donuts in 2013? Probably not.)

In addition to working on my 2013 calendars, I’m trying to get the ol’ apartment (somewhat) organized today so Naoto & I can enjoy a cozy New Year’s Eve at home. We are going to an early dinner at our favorite old-school steakhouse (Golden Steer, for you locals…for me it’s all about the cracker basket, the baked potato and the french onion soup!!) and then we are coming home to enjoy a bottle of Adami prosecco in our new glasses.

Simple, quiet, easy…just the way I like it.

Happy New Year, Friends! Thanks for coming along with me in 2012 & many wishes for peace and happiness in 2013!

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, forest park, holidays

Dec 29 2012

1 Comment

cocktails

wobbling cocktail glasses

Sticking with the cocktail theme this week (I guess I’m in the mood for New Year’s Eve?), today I’m sharing another new addition to our cocktail cart. These cocktail glasses were a gift from Peggy. She got them from the MOMA store and they have rounded bottoms. They wobble around, but don’t fall over, even when filled with liquids. They remind me of those Weeble toys that I didn’t have as a kid! (I was more of a Little People kind of a kid.) I was going to use them on Christmas night, but we had to postpone cocktails for another time…well, I’m feeling better now, and I can’t wait to try them out!

Tagged celebrations, cocktails