Happy New Year!!

Hello my friends! Last year was definitely one of the busiest years (if not the busiest) of my life! Last month was especially busy with work, the holiday season, and lots and lots of baking! At the end of the year I had a really nice, but too short, trip to Florida. Im sure this year is going to be even busier than last year and hopefully there will be lots of traveling, relaxing, and lots of time spent with friends and family. I also got a brand new camera for Christmas so I should have lots of great photos to share. Well, I must go to bed now, but come back soon to see the new updates! Happy New Year to you all!

Sunflower Arrangement

Hello! Thanks for stopping by!

At the beginning of this month was my bf's mothers birthday! So I made her a nice arrangement using two different varieties of sunflowers from HEB and magnolia leaves from the tree outside our townhouse. I think it turned out pretty nice and she really loved it!

Alabaster Torchiere

Good Evening! At the end of last month was Tink's birthday and I bought him an alabaster torchiere. The torchiere was designed by Martha Stewart Lighting and manufactured by Murray Feiss. Originally these would have a candle inside of them instead of a lightbulb, but Im glad it has the lightbulb as it is a lot safer and you can control the brightness (though if you took the lightbulb out you could put a candle in there...). It gives off a nice ambient lighting. The alabaster has lots of interesting patterns in is as well.

details of the alabaster

Lunch at Ra

Tink and I went to go see a movie at Movie Studio Grill in Houston's new City Centre but we were there really early so we decided to have lunch instead. We decided to try the new Ra sushi restaurant. It is a very beautiful and modernly designed restaurant. It is a pretty popular night hangout spot. So for lunch I had a bento box and Tink had Unagi (fresh water eel). We wanted to order some sea urchin (because we are now uni addicts) but they didn't get there shipment in yet. So here's lunch:

My bento box. It was very good. The salmon was perfectly done.

Tink's unagi (eel). It was also really good. The presentation was simple but different than many other places that serve the same thing.

My miso soup. I don't know why I don't like miso soup. I like tofu and seaweed a lot, but I can never eat this soup. As you can see, it's starting to separate, which looks pretty cool.

So, right in the middle of us eating our lunch our waiter informed us that they just got there sea urchin in. So we got 2 orders, which is there weeks worth of sea urchin. :P It was nice and fresh. You can tell cause it looks like a dry tongue and doesn't look like it's melting! Some places have really bad sea urchin, so this is an example of good sea urchin:

... I wasn't hungry when I started this post... but now Im starving!!!

Dining at Kaneyama

Last night my friends and I ate at a Japanese restaurant in Houston, TX called Kaneyama. I just wanted to share some pictures of the yummy food we had! Hope your mouth doesn't water too much! ;D

Unagi - fresh water eel, its very good.

One of the rolls we got with soft shelled crayfish, also very tasty.

... another roll with soft-shelled crab.

...this roll has king crab inside.

Black Cod fillet

Salmon sashimi... my favorite

...this is another one of my favorites, Uni or Sea Urchin, it is very soft like custard and melt in your mouth good.

Pinguicula gigantea x moctezumae blooming

Hi! Just wanted to post some pics of my Pinguicula gigantea x moctezumae that is blooming now. I was surprised how long the spur and scape is.

Fruit Cake

Hello! Happy Friday! This week I made cakes for two of my friends. They were both the same just different shapes; one circle and one square. Both were vanilla cakes with whipped cream frosting, almond slices, and various fruits (mandarin oranges, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries) and each cake had one layer in the middle with more whipped cream and fruits. Here is a picture of the square cake. It makes me hungry just writing about it... ;D