Better Late Than Never

This year I rang in my birthday snuggled on the couch with the mister because we were both sick with the flu.  Mine wasn't too bad, but his was just horrible.  Later that morning, we attended mass as a birthday tradition.  I always have to give thanks to the big guy for the many blessings that we often take for granted.  After mass and running an errand, we picked up the family to get lunch and do a little shopping.  Thank goodness that's all we did cos we were all pooped once we got home, but of course, that didn't stop Mister B. and I from venturing to out some more.

Pre-birthday lunch fishy faces

Missing Papa B. and the middle sister

After some more shopping, I came home to Mama B's pancit and we ate caaaaaaake!  The rest of the evening was spent at Mister B's place lounging in our pajamas in bed chugging on Theraflu and watching movies and YouTube.  

Since Mister B. and I didn't do dinner the night of my birthday, we went the following Friday during restaurant week.  We had dinner at Katsuya which is located in the Adaz Hotel, formerly know as the Ivy Hotel.  We enjoyed ourselves, the food and had dessert too, but this was our favorite dish of the evening...

...Seared Albacore with Garlic Soy Lemon Butter...with TRUFFLES!!! It's such a simple dish, but the truffles make it delectable.  We savored each bite, each truffle...umami heaven.  That's probably the only thing I would go back to Katsuya for.  I had high hopes for their Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño, but it didn't compare to Nobu's.  

Although we had a little dessert, we had to go to Extraordinary to have our usual...you know because we were in the neighborhood.

It was low-key this year, but I enjoyed it nonetheless...not to mention, I got some pretty nice things too.

young, fine, and twenty-nine,

miss b.

DIY: Chalkboard Mirror

As you may or may not know, depending on whether or not you are our friends on social media/networking sites, the holiday pictures we had involved a chalkboard that we whipped up ourselves.  The girl came across a couple of mirrors turned chalkboard pins via Pinterest and found this  DIY: chalkboard//mirror.  So we ventured out to make our own and here's how we did it, with a few necessary modifications of our own due to the fact that we have never worked with these materials before.

1. We gathered the materials. The DIY we followed recommended to find a mirror/frame on clearance or to go thrifting, which we highly intended on doing.  However, we couldn't find a frame large enough or ornate enough to our liking.  So we found one at a local Target (pictured under the supplies) and then we headed to our nearest Michael's for everything else.

2. Our mirror was not removable, so I covered and sealed off the mirror with painter's tape and parchment paper. Several coats of gloss cherry red spray paint was used.  Now, I was following the DIY (posted above) but ran into a problem.  It worked for the most part, but two spots on the frame had running spray paint where the paint wouldn't stick, which I'm pretty sure was due to the fact that the frame already had a glossy finish and I was applying glossy spray paint.  Being the anal people we are, this would not fly.  So we needed a primer from Home Depot:

3. After the primer dried,  I redid the cherry red and then waited a day to move on to the chalkboard.  We initially got Martha Stewart's acrylic chalkboard paint and paint rollers.  I applied several coats of the chalkboard paint but we were dissatisfied with the results.  The acrylic paint was really thick (I didn't thin it? Was I supposed to?) and the rollers wouldn't roll.  So the process got messy and difficult.  And as you can see by the picture, the roller leaves deep grooves.  Using the roller & acrylic chalkboard paint creates a bumpy effect when writing with chalk.  Some like this effect, but we didn't so we decided to go with spray chalkboard paint. 

4. I then applied several coats of the spray chalkboard paint to hopefully get rid of all the grooves created by the previous attempt.  Let it dry, and here is the end result:

Enjoy!

Thoughts on a Year's Past

It's a new year and I have a cold.  It's OK though because I'm on winter break for a couple more days, so I don't mind resting and recuperating, especially since my 29th birthday is right around the corner.  29...I'll save that for another blog post!

2012 was a decent year and for the most part, the ebb and flow was smooth in all aspects {minus the ban of foie gras in California}.  My resolution for 2012 was to just take life and its goods and bads one day at a time.  I disregarded plans and just worked towards the goal of passing each Nursing class.  Yes, my life revolves around that.  I'm still continuing to work towards that goal and it's actually scary for me to say or rather type that I have 5 months left of it.  I'm getting anxious just thinking about it!  

I'm grateful for the people who remain in my life, the health and well being of my family and friends, the ability to travel, amazing foodsperiences, and overall stability.  I'm hopeful for a year of exciting experiences to come and that things will continue to be pretty damn good.  Honestly, there's really nothing I can complain about.  Life is grand and I'm thankful every day for the one in which I live.  So cheers/kampai/salud/salute to 2013 and to more growing, awareness, achievements, and adventures!  Whatever is in store for me, I'm going to take each thing one day at a time.

xoxo,

miss b.