chubby puppies...

Many faces of my cute puppies: afu and toffee.



Toffee (pug and poodle mix) & Afu (pug) on our wedding day

 

Afu sleeping in the car

 

Toffee sleeping on top of a fat bum on a regular day

making a cute face inside my blanket





chilling on a sunny day with mommy

I don't remember why I named afu "tiger". Perhaps I had high hopes for him? (wanted him to be a strong and powerful tiger?!?!) hmm... now he's more like a meal for a tiger. We sometimes call him "ham" and you can probably see why. He is 11 now, weights 30 lbs (I like to call him a bit on the big side of pugs), loves to eat (surprise?) and chill under the sun, and dislikes any form of exercise. He somehow doesn't like birds and loves to chase them away. He's pretty old now, so we kinda just let him do whatever he likes (except we still take him out on his regular bathroom walks which he doesn't like very much).

Toffee is 8, weights around 12 lbs and is a model dog (except she goes crazy when there is another dog other than afu). She is super loving, cuddlely, smart and energetic.

Garden (from spring to summer)

Our place doesn't have a yard (hopefully one day we will have one!) and so all my plants are in containers. I started gardening last summer and it went quite well. This year I was a little more ambitious and decided to try out more plants. I got snow peas, sweet basil, italian parsley, pole beans, spring onions, carrots, mints, rosemary, salad mix, lots of lettuces, arugula, garlic chives, and some fowers.



I started the garden early this year (in May! I couldn't wait for summer to come). It was too early for seeds to grow and so I cheated... I bought the young plants from a farm and transplant them into my containers. Here are some pictures in May and June:



Tulips and pansies in May

 

My garden in May

 

Left to right: Carrots and Snow peas in June
(look how much taller the peas grew!).
Looks like we are gonna have peas soon.



Left to right: Carrots and Snow peas in May




 


 





From top left clockrise: Lettuces, spring onions, garlic chives

 and arugula, salad mix, lettuce, and rosemary in May



From top left clockwise: Lettuces, spring onions, carrots,

garlic chives and arugula, salad mix and rosemary in June

Lots of lettuces in June. We use them in burgers and
salads all the time and they just keep growing back!

Italian parsley. There is also a edemame within the pot.
We will see how it turns out.

English mint from last summer.



Rose from last year. There was some mold

and some spittle bugs infested on it a while

ago. I sprayed with some homemade pesticides
and mold killer (made from puree jalepeno peppers,
garlic, water and liquid soap). It worked after just

spraying it one day!

Pole beans that somehow managed to climb
onto my rose! I wonder if that's ok...

Chinese dumpling

The other day when I asked my family about the recipe for the chinese sticky rice dumplings, they also gave me the recipes for chinese dumplings and spring rolls. I always know that dumplings have minced pork and veggie (like boy choy, mushroom), but when I made them myself a while ago, the texture of the stuffing was really dry. I asked my mom about it and she suggested me to add corn starch and water into the mix. I tried it again and this time I used minced pork, mini boy choy, chinese mushroom, soy sauce, salt, corn starch, water and sesame oil. They tasted a lot better than the ones I made before, but still not the greatest dumplings I have ever had. Somehow it's a bit blend. I guess I'll just have to try it again with more seasoning. (btw, I didn't make the dumpling skins. They can be bought fresh from chinese grocery stores like T&T)

Chinese sticky rice dumplings - Zong

It's near dragon boat festival (端午節) and traditionally, Chinese eat these sticky rice dumplings (粽) during this time of the year. When I was a kid, a friend of my mom used to make these really good rice dumplings. After I moved to Vancouver, I could never find the same dumplings in any stores or restaurants. Somehow I was craving for them the other night. After asking my family for the recipe, I decided to try it out. There are sticky rice, pork and soy sauce in them and they are wrapped by leaves. Here is how they look like:

They tasted exactly like how my mom's friend used to make. I'm so surprised that I did on the first try!

cute, little, lovely babies...

I don't have any kids (yet!), but lately we got a second cousin, Nora, and another friend is expecting in less than a month! So I have been busying knitting up some cozy little things for these cuties.



Puffy toy block for Nora (has a strawberry on top, her name on 4 sides, and their family
cat on the bottom)
* The cube is inspired by a pattern from "The expectant knitter: 30 designs
for baby and your growing family" by
Marie Conolly. The strawberry and cat patterns are from "Knitting motifs
for babies and kids" by Lucinda Guy.



Little grey and white blanket and matching argyles tuque
* The pattern of the argyles tuque is from "Hats & booties" by
Edie Eckman, Bonnie Franz and Debby Ware.





I love knitting, gardening and maybe cooking too!

Welcome to my blog! Hope you'll enjoy some of the stuffs that I like to do during my free time. I love to do stuff at home, like knitting, gardening and hanging out with my puppies. I don't know if I actually love cooking, but for sure I love to eat! I'm a really bad cook though, always somehow screw something up. I never used to do any of these when I was younger as I was brought up in a busy family in a big city. I just started these hobbies like a year ago and am loving them! It's never too late to start doing what you love! :)