My new favorite part of our place

I had trouble decorating this corner of our apartment, since the windows are a little too low to put a couch in front of, and I didn't actually know how to successfully decorate window space. So first I stole these three cute blue chairs from my mom (I will have to give them back at some point, but I'm on the lookout for chairs of my own), and then I found these adorable topiaries at Pottery Barn.



And ta-da! A corner that I am now very happy with. Next I'll have to post a picture of our tv-disguising hutch.

Christmas 2009, part two

How pathetic that I'm still catching up on Christmas posts in March. But better late than never, especially when I promised to explain some of the more cryptic pictures in a previous post (recall the cow and the somewhat creepy masks).
So, during the Santa Cruz portion of our Christmas vacation, Meris and Kusie + kiddos took us to Carmel-by-the-sea. It's an adorable little town a short distance from Santa Cruz that has row upon row of perfectly manicured lawns and quaint houses, plenty of very expensively-dressed citizens walking their dogs, and practically no kids. We toured the Carmel Mission Basilica, which holds the shrine of Fr Junipero Serra. It's a beautiful Parish/School/Museum.



On the way home we stopped at this amazing view of the ocean. It was incredibly windy, but through the telescopes you could see a rock jutting out of the water, and hundreds of very fat and happy seals sunning themselves.



And here's the cow, in case you forgot her.



Joel and I spent a day in Gilroy, shopping at the outlet malls and touring local wineries. While we were trying to find the winery we found ourselves very lost on some rural back-road. Since it's prudent to drive fairly slow on those small windy roads, we were happy enough to spot this old gal enjoying the sunny afternoon. She seemed pleased to have a visitor drive by (it gets lonely being a cow), so we had to stop and take a picture.

And of course, the infamous mask photo. On a recent trip to Europe Sunny, Howard, Tio Benjamin and Aunt Lisa picked up these masks. With the wonderful details and the perfectly shaped eye slits they are eerily lifelike. They brought them out while we were over at Benjamin's house one night, which provided us with plenty of entertainment. Here's another picture of me, Joel, Daniel, and Cousin Lilly. Please take a moment to laugh at how short I am compared to them.


And lastly, no trip to Santa Cruz would be complete without some good home-made Mexican food. Meris taught me how to make tamales (yum!) and we also made home-made corn tortillas for the shredded beef we had on Christmas day. It was delicious. Don't we look domestic? :)