Korea: Land of the Morning-Noon-Evening Rain

I just returned from a week-long trip to Korea. One of my cousins got married and the whole American side of the family descended upon Seoul for some sightseeing and family bonding. It was a great trip despite the fact that it monsooned for 5 days, preventing me from getting much shopping done.

This was also a special trip because it was the 10 year anniversary of when I first went to live in Korea after college. I taught for one year at an all boys middle school (yikes!) and then spent a second year working as a coordinator for all the other American English teachers in my program. I can't believe it's been ten years! I did visit about 5 years ago, but a lot has changed even since then. I almost couldn't find my old apartment because about a dozen new apartment complexes had sprouted up around it. Korea changes so rapidly - technologically, economically, culturally, socially, shopping-ly. They now have everything we have, plus about 800x more varieties of kimchi. Seoul makes New York City look like a small town and Boston like a quaint country village. Here's a classic example of the contrast between old and new in the heart of Seoul:

Duksugeung Palace

It was a great trip and I got everything done that I wanted to despite the rain - saw my grandmother, ate my favorite foods, went to the spa, sang at noraebang (karaoke room), bought some socks. Here are just a few random highlights:



Cat Cafe - The barista and proprietor?

Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. A cafe where you drink coffee and play with cats! Amazing! 

Pat bing soo (shaved ice with red bean)

This is just one of many pat bing soo I tasted in Korea. Look at the fat juicy dduk. Mmmmm.

Sparkly wedding

Alas, there was no dry ice at this Korean wedding, like one I went to when I was living here. That wedding also had lit sparklers as the bride and groom exited the chapel!



Wha???

Some lovely artwork for sale on the streets of Itaewon - the "foreigner" neighborhood of Seoul known for shopping deals and black market goods.

Pojagi class

And I did manage to fit some crafting in. We took a class in making pojagi - traditional wrapping cloths. I have been interested in this sewing craft for a while, mainly for the beautiful linens and silk they use. I'll post a pic of the finished project once I've put on the finishing touches.

It was a long flight home and it will be back to reality tomorrow. But I will make sure to go back much sooner next time!

Farm fresh veggies!

Last night I ran out of organizing steam, so not much progress was made on my interior design. I managed to move most of my stuff from the piles in the hallway, kitchen, and living room and back into my bedroom. So now my pristine "serenity bedroom" is going back to its usual state of entropy. But it will heretofore be known as the Serenity Room (shout out to Vicky for that designation).

Anyhoo, I'm not here to talk about furniture. I'm here to talk about vegetables!!!! Last night I picked up my first farm share box of the season with my friend Dave. I started this last year with my bestie and since she is leaving me, I roped Dave into sharing it with me this season. Even though it's a small box, it's hard to eat that much roughage all by yourself. We get our share through World PEAS - a joint venture with Tufts and the New Entry Sustainable Farming project. They help beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers with growing and distribution - got to love a dual mission organization. Since many of them are immigrants, we get some interesting stuff in our shares from Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, etc. They send a newsletter every week with cooking tips and recipes. It's a culinary surprise each week!

Last night our pickings were kind of slim because we've had some bad weather this season, but what little we had was delicious. For our first share, we got lettuce, arugula, pea shoots, radishes, kale, green onions and strawberries. Dave and I made a little green feast (with some chicken and bread), and I let him keep most of the share since I'm going away for a week. Sorry the pics aren't so hot. I was too busy eating to think about taking pictures.

Look how perfectly red and white those radishes are. I didn't even know I liked radishes until last night. But they were crunchy and spicy. It makes you realize why they sell them in the grocery store in the first place.

This looks like a sad, lonely strawberry, but that's because they were so delicious I passed out and forgot to take a real picture. Best. Strawberry. Ever. It was like a burst of berry sunshine in my mouth. Normally I only have a food orgasm over cheese or meat, but this strawberry was worthy.

I bet you're thinking - "Here we go. Another hipster Cambridge chick who shops local organic, knits, and blogs." I will have you know, my favorite food is Cheetos. And if you've seen me in person, you know I'm not a hipster. Today I look like someone's mom because I'm wearing khaki pants and old lady shoes. But if you have a local farmers' market or good produce stand nearby, I highly recommend you skip the grocery store and get real vegetables! Food tastes better when it comes from a farm! It tastes better when fewer people have to work to get it to you. Forget about the politics and do it cuz it tastes good.


Pea Shoots for Dummies
Pea shoots are the young leaves of snow pea plants. They're used a lot in Asian cooking, and are like a springy combination of spinach and peas. Wash and spin them like lettuce, and trim off the hard stems. Go for mostly the leaves. Here's how we cooked them:


1. Chop up a bunch of garlic and saute in olive oil. (If you don't like garlic, shoot yourself because life is probably not worth living. No, that's mean. You are entitled to your own opinion).
2.Stir in the pea shoots
3. Add some salt and pepper, or other seasoning. A dash of soy sauce, squeeze of lemon, whatever floats your boat!

You can also eat pea shoots raw or in a salad. Really! Even a dummy can eat it!

I heart Craigslist!

FYI, I'm posting like crazy because I want to keep track of my condo progress, and I'm going away next week. I promise I won't always be like this. I will get bored and probably stop blogging altogether in 5 minutes.

Usually I don't have the patience to find the really sweet deals on Craigslist. But I lucked out last week. You already saw my lovely dressers and nightstand in my last post, and the huge chair. I cruised CL for the past 4 months looking for a bedroom set without a bed, but they were always too expensive or old (ugly granny old, not cool vintage old). Plus I had to worry about how I would get the darned things up to my 3rd floor condo (remind me to tell you about my sofa/kitchen island woes). But those dressers were such a steal, that I figured I would hire movers to do it for me.

If there's one thing I've learned in my "old age", it's that it's worth it to pay people to do hard/annoying work for you. I am too old to be lugging crap up stairs, and so are my friends. When you're +30 and you hurt your back or pull a muscle, that's it. You will never fully recover. It's time for the glue factory. Plus, the dressers were in a 4th floor walk-up and I have a tiny Civic and no bodybuilding friends. So movers were the only option.

Since the movers had a two hour minimum, I asked the seller what else he might have for the taking. Turns out - a lot! He and his wife are moving to Hawaii and have to get rid of all the beautiful vintage furniture that was down to him by his mom. These are some of the items I ended up with (sorry the pics are from the CL posts, so not that hot. I'll post better ones when they've found their new homes):

Extendable dining table and chairs

Nothing fancy, but a great deal at $100. Nice quality wood, possibly also from Ethan Allen. I'm not totally in love with the chairs. They are very tall ladderbacks and have woven rush seats (I'm learning a lot of new vocab in this design process). I'd like to restain or paint these and upholster them in a classy, modern fabric to make it a little more design forward. This is probably blasphemy for those rush seat purists out there, but you are probably not reading this blog. Also my padded seat likes a padded seat...and they're my chairs!

Vintage record cabinet

The wood on this is stunning, like it's flecked with gold. It also comes with an old skeleton key. I will make zero changes to this beautiful piece. It is now holding all my sheet music. Maybe now that it's nicely organized, I'll actually play some of it.

Dough box

I didn't even know what a dough box was, but Google tells me that in the old days, they "provided a warm hiding place for dough to rise". (That sounds dirty, doesn't it? hee hee). It makes a nice end table and the top lifts up for hideaway storage. I'm not crazy about the stencil design and it's very dark, so maybe a nice painting project? Then it will be a Do box (ha ha).

Dry sink

Again, I  had no idea what a dry sink was but I guess they used to put pitchers or handwashing basins in/on them, which makes me think of Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables. It has a cool copper basin in the "sink" part. I'm using it in my kitchen as a cookbook shelf and bar. There is a lot of booze hiding in that little thing. Party at the not-so-dry sink!

I also got 2 lamps, a nightstand and a ficus plant. All in all, I spent about $650, including the movers! That's for a bedroom, dining room, lighting, and miscellaneous storage. I had almost given up on CL and was going to just splurge at West Elm or Ikea. But thanks to CL, I saved my back and some bucks, and I got nice quality vintage items. 

And that is why I heart Craigslist!

From Redroom to Bedroom!

Since I moved into my condo in February, I have been wanting to paint my bedroom. When my brother lived here, he didn't do any painting, so this paint job was probably over 10 years old from the previous owner. As you can see, it is a very dramatic red/maroon color:

It's not that I hate red. I love red! But I really wanted to make this condo feel like my own, since it still felt like my brother's place (more on that later). I'd been thinking about what color to paint it for a while, and fixated on gray. I researched the web and picked up some of those little paint cards, but it wasn't until last Thursday that I somewhat spontaneously decided to actually do it. My brother had just moved out the last of his stuff and the bedroom was basically empty, except for the bed. Plus, it was the only free weekend I have since I'm going to Korea on Friday. Luckily, my dearest and wonderfulest friend Pa offered to help me. Pa is awesome and always gets roped into doing stuff like this (she painted her sister's bathroom in the middle of the night while they were sleeping). But I'm so glad she did because she is a pro and I needed the help! Here's the after!

I was really nervous because a) I hadn't painted anything since I was about 14 and the color I picked was this hideous purple b) finding a good gray is notoriously hard. It can be too blue, green, beige, purple, industrial, office-y, depressing, etc. But once I make up my mind to do something, I do it! I went to the paint store and looked at a few paint cards. Took a break to get my haircut. Then back to another paint store to look at more samples and talk to the color consultant...and picked the paint I originally had a gut feeling about from the first store. That's kind of how I roll. Back and forth, back and forth, go with the first idea. It drives me (and my boyfriend) crazy.

For you seekers of gray out there: it's Nightingale by Benjamin Moore. Ohhhh, so beautiful. It's soothing yet dramatic at the same time. It's light in the daylight, and cozy and warm at night. It has a little bit of purplish-brown hue to it, not blue at all. And it doesn't look like an office gray. I. Love. It.

I splurged on the paint and got the topline Aura brand. From my online research, Benjamin Moore is generally considered the best of the mid-price range brands: better than what you get at a box store, and as good as designer brands (FYI, Martha Stewart's new Home Depot line was not highly recommended because it is has thin coverage, but I still love her). The Aura was worth the money! It's a paint/primer, so you don't have to prime. The coverage is also really good. I only needed two coats to cover up that dark red. While we were painting I was worried it was streaky, but when it dried....magic! Beautiful gray room!

I also added some new furniture from Craigslist (deserving of a separate post). You can see the bed is also in a different position than the original picture - I didn't really want to cover up the window, but the door kept hitting the edge of the bed and now it's more centered in the room. And I found it makes a natural headboard. Plus I never open that window because it is very close to the next house. The chair next to the bed is kind of hideously upholstered (Craigslist $20) and has since been moved to the opposite corner of the room where it looks less gargantuan. Perhaps it will be a renovation project - if I can muster up the courage to tackle upholstery.

Here is the view of my new/old Ethan Allen dressers that I got for $75 (plus shipping):

They are beautiful wood, i.e. very heavy. I wiped them down with some Murphy's oil soap and then lined the drawers with scented liner paper from Bed, Bath & Weapons - nerd alert! but it's a really nice touch and hides the musty smell of old, used furniture. The Korean tapestry in the corner is covering up my electrical box. I may take a class on how to make something like that when I go to Korea next week. Crafty international!

Now I have a beautiful cozy silvery bedroom with lots of storage. It looks so nice without all my actual crap in it yet, but maybe I will actually keep it neat since it is so pretty. Next phase of bedroom redesign: curtains, rug, wall art, and a chandelier! It will be quite the boudoir!

Hello Interwebs!

Watch out world...I'm blogging.

Despite being somewhat technically deficient, I sensed a gaping need for yet another crafty/DIY blog. Sorry! but why am I apologizing (because I'm Asian)? you don't have to read this. Go watch some porn.

Craft blogs are my porn. My craft obsession started with knitting, and knitting seems to go hand-in-hand with blogging. I think we knitters just like to show off our stuff, and we need to blog about it since none of our real-life friends care. Or it's not that they don't care, but they may not appreciate how f*ing hard it is to make some of this stuff. I am addicted to Ravelry because most of my friends are not knitters, and so I need virtual friends to share my knitting woes and triumphs with. But now I can post my projects into the virtual ether that is the blogosphere. I'm taking it to the next level!

I am also obsessed with design/DIY blogs since I recently became a homeowner. Ack! I'm still getting used to the fact that I can describe myself that way. One thing I've noticed about these blogs, however, is that they are usually married women with children. They build or refurbish beautiful furniture and rooms from nothing, but they often have husbands to help with the heavy lifting and scary power tool work, in spacious basement workrooms or garages. All of which is great! I do not begrudge married people or kids. But I am unmarried and really have to do most of this myself. I have a boyfriend, and I have wonderful friends, but it's not quite the same. And I have no power tools, very weak upper body strength, and no garage to get dirty. I barely know the names of the tools in my toolkit but I'm willing to look stupid and try. Because that's sort of my general rule in life - try new things, even if they make you look dumb - especially if they make you look dumb - or you will never learn anything. And your life will be boring!

Anyway, I digress. This blog will be mostly about my adventures in decorating my condo, with the occasional post about knitting, food, or my dog (a few of my favorite things). Speaking of which, here is my dog!His name is Puppy (named by original owners). He is 11, he has only 3 teeth, and he is perfect. He lives part-time with me and part-time in New York (long story). He will be featured often in this blog, because if there's one thing I've learned from Apartment Therapy house tours, it's that you need a dog or cat in your home to show how cozy and fabulous it is. And a vintage bar cart. Is this some unspoken rule of design? I have so much to learn!

Coming soon to a blog near you (i.e. this one): pictures of my weekend paint job: from bedroom to boudoir!