New Living room Feng Shui

I have always loved the idea of Feng Shui... although I probably have a simplified understanding of the concept I still enjoy it...

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive qi.

Anyways sometimes I find myself needing to change everything, or at least some things... I arrange my furnature and painting and photos how  I think they look best and enjoy them like that until one day I just think "THIS IS SO WRONG" and I know exactly what to do to fix it... Maybe its good that I have to move every three years and get to change EVERYTHING! I think if i lived in the same house for 20 years I would end up repainting and changing everything about every three years anyway.

BUT the whole point is I changed my living room... I realize now... looking for old photos of my living room, you guys never really saw it... so I will tell you what changed... cause it looks WAY better!

I hung up my Thailand Paintings, hung up my shelf I made out of a piece of a shipwreck, moved some glass bottles onto it, hung up my mirror on the right and moved the splatter paintings from the right wall to the left wall... I think they look better against the red!

I found this piece of wood at shipwreck beach, I think it used to be part of one of the shipwrecks... I sanded it down, dug out all the rotten parts, and mounted it on these brackets I found at Homac... Those bottles are all bottles I found on beaches here in Japan and I want to put some sand in the clear ones... probably some black sand from the beach right by us.

On this wall is where the splatter paintings used to be and the mirror was leaning on the wall by the door to the kitchen... I finally got the balls to try to hang this thing... it is so heavy and we don't have wooden studs.. we have metal ones... SO our friends the Nations were over while I was contemplating what to do, he saw me measuring and marking and measuring and thinking, and asked what I was doing... he eventually told me about butterfly screws where you put he scew in the wall then it expands behind the wall so you can mount heavy things on the wall without studs... SCORE... so another two trips (I got the wrong ones the first time) to Homac later... the mirror is hung.

Where the splatter painting are now is where our diplomas used to be. Our diplomas are now above the computer... that door is where the mirror used to sit on the floor. We want to buy a bar (they look kinda like THIS) at the Bazaar and we want to put it behind the couch, so good thing the mirror is gone!

There is a giant blank spot on the wall cause that is where our clock was supposed to go but I hung it before I hung a couple other things and when I was hammering it fell off and shattered everywhere... it had a glass face... I think I still have glass embedded in my foot... my bad.

Beef & Garlic Festival

Pulling up to the Beef & Garlic Festival there were all these scarecrow looking guys with garlic faces... this one had a garlic face painted like a cow that is licking its face... so weird..

Inside the main grilling building... it was pretty smokey. They were also grilling half a cow on a rotisserie thing in here... it was huge!

Since it was so smokey we grilled outside! It was such an awesome fall day, cool, cloudy, and super fun!

 LOOK AT HOW BIG THOSE GARLICS ARE! One of those giant weaves of huge garlic is 9,000 yen... or about $110!!!!

Masks from a vendor at the festival

 To see the rest of the photos click HERE

Thailand Paintings... Finally

So while we were in Thailand we bought these awesome elephant paintings... but to get them home we had to take them off their frame supports and roll the canvas up and put it in a shipping tube in Dericks suitcase... well the lady at the gallery took them off off packaged them up and we put them in Dericks suitcase... 

And as of yesterday there were still in the tube... BUT now that Derick is home and have been revitalized to do projects... I have like 5 going on right now... I am sure they are driving him crazy (he hates disarray) but he doesn't say anything cause he know how much I love to projectsize all over the house!

So I went to "HomeEc"the Lowes of Japan and bought wood... I then took it to the wood shop since I have no saw (except a hand saw and hell no to cutting 45 degree angles with that) and told the dude what I needed and two hours and $10 later I had all my wood cut. 

This is me assembling the frames... Derick was asleep on the couch so I had to use my feet to hold the stuff in place, it probably worked out better this way anyway... cause I got to do everything how I wanted with out his "help" ; )

I just built a frame like you see here using those little middle metel peices to support it before I screwed the wood together for real support, then I added support beam across each corner and strung and wire in the middle and stretched the canvas across....

NOW THEY ARE ON MY WALL! 

FINALLY!

Air Force Ball 2010

Derick and I at the ball... he always looks so good in his mess dress, and it reminds me of when we got married!

 Special thanks to Haley for the fantastic dress! It was perfect! 

I had "plumage" in my hair... i walked out after I did my hair and Derick was like "really... more feathers?" 

DUH! I love feathers!

Here I am with some of girls from our squadron, they are all fantastic!

Our place cards... "Oar" Gee... so classy

 Derick in his new party shirt he had made in Korea... 

M I Z... Z O U

 Everyone from our squadron that was there. WOOD!

Underwater Hokkaido Pictures

These are photos I nabbed from my freind Kelly who has an underater camera... they are all from Hokkaido. 

This first group is from Shiritoko National Park, there is a "hot waterfall" where all the geothermal activity heats up water and it come up out of the ground and forms this waterfall... it was fun, although we couldn't hike as far up the waterfall as we wanted due to falling rocks. 

and we were the only people lounging in the pools of the falls... everyone was looking at us like we were crazy.. it was awesome

These photos are also from Shiritoko but from the very northern point you can drive to... we got out even though it was rainy and explored.. it was really cool

WWHS (whole wheat honey sweetened) Cream Cheese Marble Brownies

Here is another one of Derick's favorite recipes! He LOVES brownies and has missed them since he went on his diet four years ago... SO being a super awesome wife I adapted this recipe for his birthday last year... and now I am sharing it with you... enjoy... guilt free!

Cream Cheese Marble Brownies
Adapted from "Cookies Brownies & Bars" by Elinor Klivans p.84

for the brownie batter
1/4 cup butter at room temperature
4 oz. chocolate semi sweet chocolate mini chips
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cut honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

for the cream cheese filling
6 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1 large egg
1tsp vanilla extract

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325. Press a piece of aluminum foil onto the bottom and over the sides of a 9x9x2 inch baking pan. Butter the foil.

2. To make brownie batter, in a metal bowl (I used glass) that fits the on the rim of a saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Place the bowl on the saucepan over, but not touching, barely simmering water. Heat, stirring often, until the chocolate is melted and smooth, 3-4 minutes. Gently lift out the bowl and set aside to cool slightly. In a small bowl sift together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In a large bowl combine the eggs and honey and whisk to blend, about 1 minute. Add the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and the vanilla and whisk until the mixture is evenly colored. Whisk in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

3. To make the cream cheese filling, in a bowl, stir together the cream cheese, honey, egg, and vanilla until smooth.

4. Pour two thirds of the batter into the prepared pan. Spoon the filling over the batter, Pour the remaining batter over the filling and, starting in 1 corner swirl a spoon through the batter and filling creating a marble pattern. Repeat starting from another corner.

5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes our with moist crumbs attached, 35-40 minutes (mine took 50 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack and let cool until the top is room temperature, about 1 hour. Holding the ends of the foil, lift the cooled brownie onto a cutting surface. Using a warmed knife to cute the brownie into 25 squares. Store the brownie in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Surfing

I LOVE SURFING!

I love feeling the pull and swell of the waves... the rush of them crashing beneath you and the feeling of flying over the water when you catch one! I love the feeling of your arms being SO tired from paddling you can barely move them but you want to catch just one more... always just one more! I love fighting to get into my wet suit and then peeling it off when I am done like a banana! I love sitting and waiting for the perfect swell, and I love when I see my shadow on the bottom of the ocean and it freaks me out cause I think its a shark! IT IS AWESOME! I have done quite a bit of surfing this summer with my friend Kelly! She is fantastic and loves adventure just like me. AND she just got an underwater camera! here are some photos from one of our surfing adventures...

Here I am waiting for a swell... I look pretty serious

We went out after I got off work and the sky was gorgeous!

Catching a wave!

Kelly dug herself a hole and I am making a sand angel! What could be better?

and it finally got too dark to do too much more surfing

and we finished off the day with the perfect post surfing meal... SUSHI!