Williamsburg Getaway 

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - Posted by Jullie at 12:30 AM
Last month, Mr. Rhee and I took a mini vacation to Williamsburg, VA. It was his first time visiting the historic area and my return after 15 years. It was perfect timing, hubby was switching between jobs, and I needed a little break from my studying for the boards. Oh and if you didn't know, I passed my Nurse Practitioner boards! PTL!!!

This historic town was the perfect place for us, it had a wide variety of fall foliage, historical ambience for Mr. Rhee, and it was just far away from the big city, but not too far that we had to take a lot of time off. I think I love historical towns because of the old brick buildings, the characters who walk, talk, and breathe as if they were in colonial times, and just the simplicity of it all.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

 walking under a bridge to get to the colonial town

 At the governor's palace





 I really wanted a colonial floppy hat =)


Silversmith Shop

Fife & Drum

Waiting for Dinner at one of Williamsburg's many restaurants


We stayed at a cute little B&B called Colonial Gardens, near Jamestown.



Inside the governors side of the courthouse

Wigmaker

Blacksmith


We really enjoyed our trip, the weather held out a nice low 70's for the few days we were there. Hopefully, we can visit the other two towns in the colonial triangle, (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown) soon.

What was your best short getaway?

-Jullie

Oh and if I don't post until then, Have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving!!!

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Two words... glittered pumpkins! 

Monday, November 14, 2011 - Posted by Jullie at 12:02 PM
I definitely thought I submitted this post already, but my apologies..

This post is dedicated to my crafting buddy Gina...
Together we conquer the world of crafts, by stalking Martha Stewart projects, bring a little glitter to all boring things... like my dining room floor, and spend countless hours wandering Michael's.

We're an awesome crafting pair, and to that, these glittered pumpkins are dedicated to her!



So, we started our project by picking cute little gourds from our local supermarket. I picked up a couple small pumpkins from Butler's Orchard.

Then, you paint on a thin layer of white glue, we used Tacky Glue. In the picture above, I tried a different method of gluing the bottom half first then glittering, wait to dry then glue the top. This technique works better for pumpkins with short stems.

If you have a bigger stem, it's easier to glue half the pumpkin (ex: right side), then pour glitter of your choice, wait to dry, then repeat on left side.

Just some of the glitter cans we used =)


See the difference a little glitter can make? After all the glitter dries, we painted the stems with a nice copper to finish the look.

Susan, came over on day 2 of glittering, to make some really pretty "Easter" colored pumpkins.



They're so pretty, it's nostalgic. It's worth all the glittery mess over the table and floor. Poor hubby is now terrified of glitter, but for the most part it cleaned up fairly nicely.

Soon, I'll post how I displayed the pumpkins and the new wall in our dining room! =)

Happy Crafting!

-Jullie

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Butler's Orchard 

Sunday, October 23, 2011 - Posted by Jullie at 10:04 PM
Every season there's always a must-do activity planned. For example;

winter: sight see amazing Christmas decorations, complain about the cold, forgetting to get my car waxed before the snow/ice (as you can tell winter is not my favorite season).

spring: visit DC to see cherry blossoms on the tidal basin
summer: beach trips, carnival/fair, outdoor movie festivals
fall: explore fall foliage either in the Shenandoah, Old town Alexandria, somewhere on the GW parkway, and of course visit the pumpkin patch!!!!

Over the weekend, Mr. Rhee and I along with our close friends the Lee's visited Butler's Orchard for their annual Pumpkin Festival! I think little E enjoyed the petting zoo part, while we enjoyed the corn maze and the pumpkin cannon!


Eugene showing off his throwing skills


Feeding the goats


Little E staring at the sheep



Yay for not getting lost in the corn maze!

My favorite thing to do, is shooting pumpkins out of the cannon. Surprisingly, when it was my turn, the pumpkin Mr. Rhee chose for me hit the target that was sitting on top of a van! First one to do it all day apparently. The best part was when the target got knocked down, I of course screamed in excitment... it made my day.. no week! =)

Before we left, we had to stop by the market to see all the goodies on sale. I ended up buying a few more mini pumpkins.... to glitter later that day =D


Hope all the young adults at church enjoy their hayride/bonfire night at Butler's this weekend! Glitterred pumpkins post coming soon!


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Mandu Making Party! 

Saturday, October 22, 2011 - Posted by Jullie at 1:17 AM


Mandu (만두) is the Korean word for dumplings, and Koreans sure do know how to make fantastic dumplings. Whenever I think about making them, I always reminisce about my childhood days when women of the family would gather around the table, catching up, talking about their lives, and gossiping. My aunts, mom, and grandma would make hundreds of dumplings! Well, now it's my turn. So I invited some girls in my small group to come over to have a girls night.

First, I premade the filling. The filling has tofu, kimchi, green onions, jjap chae (sweet potato noodles), cooked ground pork, sesame seed oil, salt, pepper to taste.

Before you mix the ingredients together, you have to get rid as much water as possible. So with the tofu and jjap chae noodles, I put them inside a cheese cloth and squeezed the heck out of it. Then, I continued on with mixing the filling to taste.
Then, we all sat around the table, and take the dumpling wrappers and fill them, I personally like the Korean brand called sweet potato wrapper, but you can also use wonton wrappers. We had to make sure not to fill it too much because we have to leave room around the half the outer part of the circle to close the dumpling.

On that outer edge we used our fingers to dip it in a bowl of wisked egg and used it as paste.
If you notice that the dumplings are getting stuck on the table, we floured the surface.


(photo creds to angelica)
You can close the dumplings in pretty shapes, including making cute circle shaped buns, or moon shaped buns. Then we split the batch in half, and steamed them and pan fried the other half.
Before they were cooked

And here's the final product!!


We made so much, when our husbands came back from boys night, we fed them and some guests the next day!
Such a fun and delicious way to get together with some gal pals. I truly enjoy spending fun time crafting, cooking, and talking with all of my girlfriends... I'm truly blessed to have you all in my life =)

-Jullie

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Fall Wreath Love 

Friday, September 30, 2011 - Posted by Jullie at 5:47 PM
My lovely friend Gina came over on her day off to help me make my next craft project! I love fall colors, and fall weather (except this day we saw no sun...). So I wanted the wreath to represent the loveliness and simplicity of fall.

So here was the process:

I started with a simple wreath I bought at Michael's.. love that store!

Cut felt into these shapes, which Gina thought looked like bear ears

Glue them togther, and add a special girliness on top =)
Love the pearls, gives it a soft effect



There it is the finished product!


We're having too much fun!
 


On our door!

Maybe my next seasonal purchase would be a pumpkin... glitter pumpkins anyone?? Saw in my Martha Stewart subscription and I HAVE to do it, if hubby doesn't veto =)

Happy crafting everyone!

Love,
Jullie

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goodbye summer nights... hello fall! 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - Posted by Jullie at 6:11 PM
I must say, this summer felt like it went by super fast! As much as I do not like the hot humid Maryland weather, summer was nice because of it's smell... yes smell... I love the smell of the beach, and cool brisk air at night. So as my farewell to summer, I must reminisce the past few months. These are some pictures from Hawaii trip earlier this year.




 The sweet smell of plumeria flowers

Our new friend born in June right after our vacation =)
college friends reunion in LA
last minute visits to my cousins on the west coast

Summer is also great because it's both me and Mr. Rhee's birthday


And... we also celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary this year, we went back to DC for some delicious crab cakes, and went to visit our engagement site: the Jefferson Memorial



The restaurant was right next to the White House, so we took a quick stroll before heading to the memorial.



Although we had a pretty good season, Fall is definitely my favorite season for many reasons:
1.The colors/ fall foliage
2. The indefinite number of pumpkins, apples, and leaves 
3. The cool air, and many different wardrobe options =)
4. The activities...hiking, apple picking, camping, sight seeing, etc..
5. Crafting, I recently just made my fall wreath, hopefully I'll post about it soon!!!
5. THE BAKING! I have so many new fall treats planned, can't wait to try them!


Today, I will leave you with one of my latest craft projects, a new addition to our living room:


I painted these canvas' with a fun aqua blue and mounted a cute wall decal I got from Single Stone Studios.
I wanted a continuing picture, so it was cut into sections, then mounted, and finish!




Now I look back on it, the color may be a little bright for my living room, but it definitely gives a pop of color! On the plus side it matches my leaves & bird theme. Can't wait until the room is complete!

A lot more to post soon, so stay tuned!

Love,
Jullie

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