Blogging And Making Friends A Long The Way

I must say that blogging  has been a positive outlet for me physically and mentally. Through blogging I can express myself in an artistic and crafty way but more than that I made friends with other bloggers. It just happened naturally when you connect with someone through blogging. Don't you think!

I considered all of my followers are my friends and supporters. And I would do the same to them. 

Yesterday I received this beautiful napkin rings that I won through a Giveaway contest.

I was blown away by the beauty of the packaging. I can tell that the person who wrapped the gifts was wrapping them with extra care and gave a lot of thought and detail on it. The person is Deborah from Green Willow Pond. I was even more excited when opened the package to have seen the beautiful napkin rings that Deborah made for me.

 

"Thank you so much for the lovely gifts, Deborah!

I am grateful that I have been blogging this far. So far; blogging has been fun for me.  And I am excited to see where this blog will take me in the future. I am imagining only positive things will happen in my life while blogging. And can't wait to share my story, craft DIY, recipe, etc. with you.

Thank you so much for your support and following me.

Hope you had a fantastic week end! 

Thank you for reading!

Bird Art Embroidery from Genine's Art Blog

I always love Genine's art.

As an artist myself; I too love embroidery. 

Genine's embroidery bird is just stunning. I love anything she creates. They are just beautiful!

Check out her the outside raining video; so simple and yet captivate the mood as if we are there with her witnessing the pouring rain itself.

All images are from; Genine's Art Blog

For more images and video; please visit Genine's blog {here}

Have a great week end Everyone!

Re-visiting New Hampshire/Vermont

Even though this trip was for a medical reason; Steven and I always love coming back to Hanover, New Hampshire and surrounding area.

It has been a year since I was treated at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire {here}. And I could not be more happier because and after the surgery everything goes very well with me. A few days a go on July 3rd, we went back to see the surgeon. He wants to see me personally.

In a heart beat Steven and I accepted the date of appointment; July 5th. So we went.

I fell in love with the charm of this area first arrive here last  year in June. The historical small town are very pretty, the rolling hills covered with small wild flowers. The charming cottage homes tucked inside trees and it's foliage. So lush green, quiet, serene and beautiful. And of course the food is organic and delicious. And what I love also about this area  is all the antique stores or the out door flea markets. Every Saturday and Sunday there are many out door 'farmers market' where you can get good quality vegetables, organic flowers, home made jams, home made pies, and other home made crafts.

I planned months before of what I was going to take picture out of over there in New Hampshire and Vermont. I was almost fell down to my knees when arrived in our inn found that there was no battery inside the camera. I left it at home being charged. I could not believe it; I left it at home. Steven said I could use my camera phone. I was sceptical at first but  in the end I did.

~~~oo00oo~~~

 "Norwich Inn" a small charming old house where we stayed for 3 nights.

Charming convenient store that sells the most amazing Texas Brisket bbq.

You see the dog is chasing our car? I wanted to take picture on the side of the road with the barn and small lake background {I was not even in the house's yard}. As we stepped out side our car doors; 3 dogs barking and charging at us that were coming from the white house next to the barn. At first I thought these dogs were just barking but they were really running toward us and seriously trying to hurt us. So Steven said get in the car! So we drove off. Still those 3 dogs growled and barked chasing our car all the way to the main street. Then I immediately took a picture on the right. In the car we were talking that whom ever own the property must be very safe with those dogs guarding and trained very well too.

Then we found this spot. Was not the best spot I wanted  but I was not as exciting because I did not have the right camera with me. So Steven took these pictures for me.

Dr. Powell shook our hands when he entered the examining room. And he delivered the good news that everything looks like what it supposed to be; the abdominal aorta has shrunken quite a bit in size. And I could do what ever my heart desire wanted to do. It was short and sweet. I am very happy!!

Thank you so much for reading!

Pink Roses {Feel Blessed, Happy and Lucky}

Next month we, Steven and I will be married for 8 years. That is on 21st July exactly.

I honestly say that I am the luckiest person to have met Steven 9 years a go. Mainly because one year later when we were dating I had an emergency major aortic repair surgeries and was hospitalized for 2 months. I remember how devastated I was in the hospital bed not knowing if Steven still wants to be with me. I had no family in the US but him. My parents came but Steven came to visit me every single day and took care of all medical paper works and medication for me. 

Long story short; he supported me all the way through until I gained my health back. One year after I released from the hospital, he proposed to me. We got married July 21st 2005. I was very happy.

It has been a very happy 8 years. 

Since the surgeries 8 years a go; my outlook toward life has changed a little. I no longer as ambition as I used to be. I enjoy the simple things I have, my simple life  in New York and what's day to day life has given to me. As long as I am healthy and with Steven beside me, I feel safe and very happy.

~~oo00oo~~~

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

       

I really love these little jars! I think I got them at a yard sale in Delray, Florida. Can anyone tell what are those for originally?

Happy Friday Everyone!

Thank you for stopping by!

Puerto Rico Holiday {February 2013}

I am very sorry that I have not posted anything for a while. We went to Puerto Rico for our yearly holiday with Steven's parents.

I found it hard to post a story in a blog while vacationing. Although I have all the software that I need in our laptop I just could not find the time to do it.

Well, let me start by saying that beach in Puerto Rico are beautiful. Everywhere you go; the beach and the water is blue and clean. Our first staying was at Isla Verde. We want to be closed with Steven's parents. The beach is parallel with the street that filled with 5 stars hotels and local restaurants. Staying around this area is not my idea of vacationing; it is way too many people. But Steven's parents love it there. So after spending two days with them we moved to a secluded resort where the beach and islands are spectacular. And there is nothing around the resort complex but nature and beautiful beach.

Steven knows that vacationing in Puerto Rico for me is to look for dead shells laying on the beach. So I was very excited about it. But when we checked in at El Conquistador Resort; I was disappointed that the beach has no dead shells at all. In the past we stayed at the Grand Melia not too far from El Conquistador at Fajardo and I found many dead shells on the beach there.

If you have not been in El Conquistador, I recommend that you check this place out. It is so beautiful. Our room was at a section called Las Casitas. Las Casitas means "cute little houses" in Spanish. Since all of those houses built on the top of a hill by the cliff; our room has fantastic 180 degree view of the ocean. So beautiful!

I love Puerto Rican food. I love Ropa Vieja {the shredded beef with sweet fried banana and black bean}, Camarones Al Ajilo {garlic shrimp} and I love empanadas; a savory pastry with either chicken of beef inside. They have these delicious snack almost at every local restaurants and they are all delicious. I also love their coconut ice cream. Everywhere we go; I always look for this coconut ice cream. For desert you can't go wrong with Cream Caramel or Vanilla Flan. Hhhmmm....so silky smooth, sweet and delicious.

The beach and the bluest water......

Happy Valentine Everyone.......I hope you will have a lovely valentine celebration with 'your love one'! 

This small flowers I picked on the ground. They were falling from the tree. I took them to the room and arranged them then took this picture. 
{Oh no! I forget to put the picture. My apologize....}

Thank you for stopping by!

Enrolling E-course Blog {Design} Love - RedVelvet Shop

Hello,

I am in the middle of designing a new look of my blog;  'CuriositaEllya' right now. It has been little over a year since I have been blogging and if I remember correctly from reading a book about blogging; it says you need to change the outlook of your blog once in a while. So that readers will not get bored to see the same style again and again. 

Since my blog does not have a fancy button, navigation bar and basically followed template provided by Blogger; it's about time for me to take this blog to another level. And now that I am more serious about blogging, I think it makes a lot of sense to re-design the blog entirely. Initially I was going to hire a website designer but I stumbled upon Blog (Design) Love e-course from Red Velvet Shop  and after reading their brief description about the course I jumped right in. For only USD 34.00 that covers 20 sessions I think it's a bargain ! 

Currently I am at session 5 so I can not really say much about it. But from further reading I am excited to learn on how to make and create my own design buttons, navigation bar and other functions using html codes. I have been using Photoshop for many years so as you can see below it's a lot of fun for me to design header from picking colors, fonts, etc. This time I want the header to have images of my creations so I took a few pictures from blog postings in the past. I also want to embellish the image with words that suit my personality and my blog so I chose words; LIVE - LAUGH - LOVE - CURIOSITY - CREATE !

Here I was trying to see which color combo I like most. Finally I am settled with color combo no. 5 as you can see on the above header blog.

Well, so far that's about it ! Next I am going to create navigation bar and again I am  excited to choose the design, font, colors, etc. 

Thank you so much for reading !

A Sweet Short Post From Overseas {Australia}

My long time friend 'Ine' lives in 3 continents; Asia, Australia and Europe. At the moment she is in Perth, Australia. I envy her life moving and living in each continent every couple of months or so. We communicate through Facebook and few days a go she posted these pictures {the one with  Lemon Tart and a cup of tea}. Ine is one of my blog followers. When saw these pictures in Facebook, I asked her if she would not mind for me to post these pictures in my blog. And I asked her if she could provide me with her lemon tree pictures that grows in her home garden in Perth, Australia. She agreed and later I received this lemon picture.

Like myself, Ine is a vintage china lover. The last time I saw Ine she came to New York accompanied her husband travelling  for business. She took the opportunity to visit me {here}. 

I can not help myself but to share some of Ine's vintage china collection and how it seems that she enjoyed the Lazy Ellya's Lemon Tart that she got the recipe from my blog {here}. She said she was trying to take the tart out of the store bought tin pie but it broke. I would not know the difference anyway ! Good job Ine !

Here are those pictures ! These pictures were taken by Ine. I then processed them in Photoshop to create a collage as seen here.

I do hope you enjoy this short post !

Thank you Ine, once more time, your vintage cups are beautiful !

Thank you for reading and have a lovely week-end !

Miss Mustards Seed's Inspiration Story

I have been blogging for little over a year now. Like any other bloggers; blogging is a journey for me. At the beginning I did not have any specific intention first time I post my story. I was just looking for a place where I could record the creativity in me. I was an artist and at the time I painted a lot. I thought through blogging I could tell a story about and what behind the art that I created. But painting is not the only hobby I like to do, I like doing many things involving art, craft and design. One lead to another I started to post stories about what I love most like  my vintage china collection, journal art, home decor, cooking,  fashion even my deepest emotion when I about went through a vascular surgery. Now this blog has grown and I think  is still growing. 

In the past there were moments that I was not quite sure about blogging anymore. There were moments that doubt started entering my mind. I was not sure why am I blogging. I lost the purpose of  blogging and where it will go. These feelings came when you see other people's beautiful and successful blogs. How dynamic their blogs are. How beautiful when they composed the words in telling their stories and how beautiful those pictures tucked amongst paragraphs. 

I know blogging is not easy and it takes a long time to develop one. I know because I am in the middle of this blogging journey myself. As a beginner blogger; I think it is important to take  blogging e-course as many as you could. I took blogging e-course Blogging Your Way of Decor8 6 months a go. I think learning from blogging experts is important because not only you will gain technical aspects of blogging but what equally important or may be even more important is the motivation, the drive, the why you want to blog, what it takes to blog successfully, etc. These expert bloggers will tell you the same story of struggle that you are going through at the beginning of blogging. But they have interesting story and mission to share so they kept on going. They built followers and readers and people want to know what they are doing post after post and  story after another.  When I read other successful bloggers' story I learned that they are all share similar story and their advice to us beginner bloggers are; 1. to keep blogging, 2. to be true to yourself, 3. never quit. Eventually your blog will becoming like your personality just like who you are. And with all my heart I truly believe it. And my blog is slowly becoming me, my personality.

I think reading other people's blogs occasionally is very important because you will be inspired and gain an insight about what makes them so motivated and how they go about to do it and what it takes to make a successful blog. And I think this is important to keep you inspire and to be motivated to post your story regularly. And there are tons of bloggers out there for you to be inspired about. 

Here I want to share with you Miss Mustard Seeds 'The Secret Ingredient To A Great Blog'

In this article and on the paragraph You Are Special she wrote;  'You don’t have to be a grammarian, spelling champ or term paper whiz to write a blog post.  Just write the way you speak and let go of the insecurities about it.'

And on other paragraph You Don't Have To Be Anyone Else she wrote; 'You don’t have to measure yourself against the success of others.  I think women do that especially.' 

I remember when I took an e-course blogging from Holly Becker of Decor8, she taught us to NEVER QUIT. And those two words is stuck in my head until now. I can only suggest you take a look at Decor8 e-course. If you are a beginner blogger like myself I can only suggest you taking this e-course, you will not be dissapointed.

Marian is the driving force behind Missmustardseed success. What inspired me is that her beautiful vintage furniture that she madeover herself. Her story is a true inspiration to me. You can read her story {here}

About Marian {Missmustardssed}

Sources; Missmustardseed

So far blogging has given me so much joy and satisfaction; it is the extention of my day to day feeling of happiness that I know I can share to the world through blogging.  It can be as simple as telling a story about drinking a cup of tea, sharing my vintage finds, or sharing an emotion about my health like I have in the past. The readers out there are your friends, whether they are there or not to read or listen it is not important; let's pretend they are  and that is what  makes me happy.

~~~~

Thank you for reading and have a lovely week-end, Everyone !

Full of Spirit & Laugh Over Dinner with an Old Friend

So Linda asked 'Ellya, when are you going to cook dinner for me ?' when we took her to P F Chang for dinner first time we met after she moved to Miami from New York then recently  moved to Boca Raton,  near by us 'Delray' Florida. I said, 'you can come tomorrow plus you have not seen our place yet !'

The next day I cooked dinner for her and us as promised. She was very kind and brought me  gifts; a silver mortar and bouquet of sage {which I forget to take picture of}. She suggested that I must use the sage to bless the house and I should also bless the home in New York to give positive energy to help selling the house. I laughed and said isn't sage is being used to clear a house from ghosts ? But I totally get what she meant and the next morning I walked around the house with a burning sage saying happy prayers for us and for the home.

We were having so much fun over dinner. Linda is becoming very spiritual, free spirit, happy, and we clearly see that she is very exciting about her new venture owning a vintage clothing boutique in an affluent down town Boca Raton, Florida. She also into living healthy and told us the reason she is loosing weight is that she does master cleanse every 6 months for 10 days. Master cleanse is a body cleanse to achieve physical health, mental clarity and to lose weight and get rid of body toxins  by only drinking lemonade. Yes, only drinking lemonade for straight 10 days. I was totally sold on what she said and I want to try it out myself. So I search in the internet and found here. So if you want to loose weight fast; and like Linda which I was impressed by her look, you can follow this diet. After all, I like the idea to cleanse my body from toxins every 6 months or so.

At some point of our conversation,  we took turn and telling each other on what we will be doing if we were a US President. And of course this is rather silly conversation as to no one was really knew what they talked about; certainly not me ! And then we talked about the Illuminati Society and so on. {Oh my, what the heck is that ! I only knew it from the movie 'Angels and Demons'} A part from having a car accident that day; Linda looked very happy. She told us that someone ran through the  front part of her car andripped the entire vendor off which later she showed us the vendor sat on her back sit car. When this happened she took a deep breathe and try not to get up set, she told us as a part of her supposedly try living with a positive mind set without getting emotional too quickly. 
So yes, it was nice to see Linda again, very up lifting and very positive toward her new venture and life.

I wish her a happy and successful endeavor in what she is doing. I really do !

As I mentioned earlier that I always look for a new project while visiting Delray. So I went to Goodwill {love kitchen stuff, picture frames in this thrift store ! Most of them are junk anyways but the most fun part is when you found things that are really beautiful and useful for projects for  very little money.} I got these lovely wine goblets for 90 cents each  that  I wanted to create a group  of dining table center  out of. I bought the votive candle  for USD 2.00 for 6 and various glass candle holders for USD 1.50 each from Target.

Do you see the sage she gave me ? I brought it back to New York and blessed our home hoping to have better energy and yes, to finally sells !

When Linda left  my husband 'Steven' immediately said,

"Thank you for delicious dinner !"

I smiled and felt  happy that I created a small lovely moment to spend  together over a nice simple meal  in our home. {Not very often, but I truly enjoyed it}

I should punish myself for not taking pictures of the entire meal course including hors d'oeuvres and desert. I can only imagine with those pictures it will enhance the collage above and the overall ambiance of our dining experience that night. Oh well, I just have to have my camera stays close next to me for next time.

Thank you so much for reading !

The Usual Fun Trip Back in Delray Florida

Having a second home is a privilege I must say; even though it is a small condo. Not to mention when it is dead cold winter in New York; we are so looking forward to our trip in Florida to enjoy the sun, sports, beach  and friends. I am especially exciting about this area because I can do lots of thrifting.  So I always look for a project to execute in Florida way before our departure. It is so much fun, you know what I mean !

This time is quite special trip because I unexpectedly met up with an old friend from New York whom recently open up a vintage clothing consignment store. Oh boy...did we have so much fun together at her store {will post story about this later}.

This swan {we call her "Swanee"} was in front of our back porch door all the time. I was having breakfast and a cup of coffee when taking this picture and enjoyed watching her.

I am not a golfer but gave it a try and this time I managed to hit the ball over the lake.  I confess that quite often I am so impatient with this sport that made me even more frustrated.

Thank you for reading !

A Very Special Guest Visiting Us in New York

I do not get to see my son very often as he is living in Jakarta Indonesia. As a mother I miss my son very much and very often. So when he came to visit us almost 2 weeks a go for 5 days I took the opportunity to spend quality time with him. He is 26 years old.

I was very happy when I saw him again at the airport. The last time I saw him was in Bali, Indonesia. We spent 4 days just the two of us together. {Last seen here}

We {Steven, Buck and I} had so much fun together. We went to Fort Greene Flea and Williamsburg Flea. He told me he wants to get vintage items in the flea market to bring back to Jakarta. We took him to the US Open. We went out watched a movie one night. We had dinner with Dr. Chang (Cardiovasular Surgeon) and his wife Lucy one night. We dined out a lot although the first night I cooked him an Indonesian dishes as per his request. But he loves New York Italian food especially pizza.  I took him to the city {Manhattan} to do  some shopping. We laughed, we joked, we discussed, we talked, we hugged, we disagreed, we just do what typically mom and son do. 

He is back in Jakarta, Indonesia now. We miss Buck very much. It was fun when Buck is around; we always have something to laugh about. It was a nice feeling to be a real Mom when your son is around. And I miss that more and more now !

We said good bye at the airport and before he left he said 'Mom jangan nangis ya?' {Mom, please don't cry?} We hugged and we watched him left and disappeared behind the entrance gate. I just knew that Buck can take good care of himself. And somehow I could hold my tears knowing he will be alright.

Thank you for reading !