Copy Cat

15 more days and my baby Cayenne will turn one! I spent the whole day blogging and hanging out with her. She is quite the copy cat full of tricks. Blowing kisses, clapping hands, refusing things that she dislike, dancing when she hears her favorite music, and the best part, giving juicy kisses. Just when I thought I am getting bored with motherhood, there comes a curve ball. I found myself starting to talk to her and she looks at me like she understands. Instead of lets play with the ball, now I have to say lets throw the red ball. She is addicted to Cbeebies from BBC, there is a lot of positive programs, talking about friendships, dancing and learning about animals. I caught myself watching with her as well. There are actually quite a number of kids channel, Baby TV, Disney, Nic..the lists goes on. I think they are all good, but for Cayenne being so active and need constant stimulation, Cbeebies works for her. She has no interest with Baby TV, I think because their cartoons are too slow and soft for her. She likes jumpy music and also looking at kids play. I am not too sure if I like Disney yet, their theme seems to evolved around princesses and fairy tales. I am not sure if I like the dreamy part of things and teaching her about the whole princess world. Why do one want their kids to feel like a princess??? I really don't get that. Can someone explain that to me? I was never brought up as a princess, maybe that's why I don't get it.

Now that Cayenne really is registering knowledge in her brain, I have to be careful of what I teach her and what not to let her get away with. Like all of a sudden, she hates everything with straps. Car seats, high chair, strollers...O G she is one active little monkey. Other kids stay nicely in their high chair, but Caye manages to crawl out of the high chair and climbed onto the table. Not sure if that is teachable. But then, her monkey strength is what I admire about her too. She is strong at an early age. At two months, she already wants to stand. She doesn't like to sit unless we folded her legs and make her sit. She wants to walk, and now boy can she climb and crawl. On the couch, off the couch, all day long if I let her.

Before I have Cayenne, I always think, my dogs are more or like kids, they eat, wine, poop, make a mess, want to snuggle and know when they did something wrong. But with Cayenne, I now understand my responsibility just got bigger. I cannot let her see the ugly side of me, she will copy, she will learn and she will take advantage of me if I let her. She is already copying me and I just don't know it!

Art Jam wonderland

I have never heard of the concept of Art Jam until I moved back to HK. Bonart is the company that I used( highly recommended ). They bring all the things like paint, brushes, canvas, easels and all the special tools. The best part is, no clean up. So all you need to do is just to show up and paint your hearts out. The first time we had a bunch of friends at my house and I did and 7 course dinner with champagne and the second time we did it at my mom's gallery for an afternoon tea Jam session. It was truely an experience. Looking at how people paint and using different tools, people's true charactor really comes out. Family portraits, pets, daughters, smiley faces, abstract scenery, rain drops, letter Cs, favorite colors, so many different styles and thoughts. If you want to know them well, just ask them to paint with you and you will see what they care about.

I have always been scared about painting. The first time, I was really worried and scared of making the wrong moves. Is this color right, should I do this first or I should use this brush. I guess it was the unknown that caught me off guard. But then, the second time, I felt a lot more at ease. Free flow painting is always difficult, what do you really want to say, how should you say it and what people will think about it.

But with all the expression and looking at what other people painted, you really find out that art does not have a form. It is what you feel at that moment. You might not like what you painted, but others might think it is impressive. It is not like a conversation, you said something and you forget about it. When you paint on a canvas, it is perminent, unless you burn it, it will stay with you forever. It is a diary of your thoughts with colors and imaginations. Every time you paint, is different from the last, leaving you much room to desire for the next.

Painting is also risk taking. Kinda like daily lifes, should you do this first and then add this or should you jump right in to the hardest part of the painting. Do you second guess your decision? I wanted to paint flowers with long grass, but it didn't come out the way I wanted it, should I paint it all over again or how do I add something to cover up my tracks? This is all that went through my mind. Painting, is drama, is scary, is risky, is remembering, is releasing, is relaxing, is imagining, is an expression, is life!

Let there be cake

So another cake experiment. Not too shabby this time. I put a twist on Jonathan's childhood birthday cake made by his mother Janet every year. I turned it into a chocolate cake for my dad's 60th birthday cake. It was a chocolate cake mix with orange juice and zest, top with meringue and berries covered with chocolate whipped cream. I decorated the cake with Linden Chocolate thins, mixed berries and for the cake topper, I cut out big 60 with butter cookie and royal icing and added edible gold for glamor. The cake was so tall after all the decorations, I was pretty nervous holding on to it on the ride to the restaurant. It was only a 9inch cake but it was enough for 30+ people. I did had fun making the cake topper, butter cookie was a lot harder than I thought, the royal icing was a bitch to be clean, definitely need practice. The humidity and heat here make it hard to dry. Need to remember to work on it sooner next time. The taste of the cake was well received. I reduced the sugar in the recipe and also substitute with Equal for some of the sugar. Since it is a health conscious crowd, I want to make sure it is on the light side. That is also one of the difficulty in HK, people like light fluffy cakes, not the intense flavor that I am used to in the US. Lots of my favorite recipes had to be adjusted to HK taste. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it is just wrong. Always trial and error.

Then I also made some edible picture frames for name cards. It was so well received, I put some of my dad's best pics on it and made it look like a picture frame. When people found out it was edible, they were so excited about it. They most likely will not get eaten but it was the wow factor for the evening. I would definitely use it again for weddings or other events. I know Chinese thinks that its not such a good idea to have pics on a cake and be cut or eaten, but we don't have to put pictures, we can put logos, symbols, even fun clip arts. With some imagination, old tricks can be chic and different.

The waiting game

Today is not a good day, I had to deal with my least favorite, the waiting game. Waiting is definitely something that I am not good at. Why is it so difficult to wait for the right moment, why do I always jump into things. I guess sometimes I think if I don't do it right away, I will loose the moment or I chicken out and got lazy. I also hate waiting to open presents. It drives me crazy at Christmas when people send me gifts and I cannot open it right away. I also cannot wait for people to open the gift that I give them. I always get so anxious when they open my gift. Is impulse good? Impulse gets me up to do things and do something different. But impulse also got me into trouble before. So when is a good time to wait and when is a good time to jump into things, I guess, I still have to learn a lot more to find out.

Out playing

July 23rd, hottest day of the year! Woke up early today but not sure what to do. I hate that feeling. So I signed myself up for some tough yoga at Yogalimbs. I had no choice but to take Vincent's class. He always end up killing me, today is no exception. 4 Chairs, 4 triangles, 4 bridge, wheel, countless intense sun salutation and abs work. That did me good! Sweating bullets, who said yoga is just relaxing. I do feel really good after that, actually feel more energized. Then I went to the slowest nail salon to get my nails done for the weekend. I usually do my own nails, but once a month I get it done so it looks and feel nicer.

What's next? I took Cayenne to the playground at Po Lum. It was a nice big new park with lots of slides and swings. Cayenne was not so sure about the swing at first but after much convincing, she was doing it by herself. Then we played with the slides, then her shoes fell off and then she got wild and start crawling every where, up and down the slides. Besides from getting black toe nails and a few mosquito bites, she had a ball! I was worn out after chasing her around. Good exercise for the both of us. I really like all these facility at TKO, we have awesome pools, playgrounds and new malls. That's something hard to find in the US. Especially in a public estate environment.

Open rice or Throwing Rice?

It has been non stop eating since the beginning of July jam packed with dinner engagements and birthday parties. After being back to HK for a year now, I am getting back into the entertainment scene. Jonathan being a wine distributor definitely opens a lot of restaurant doors. Just for the past month or so, we have tried....ahaa........... Bo Innovation for people watching lunch and dinner; BLT Steak becomes our good steak for the buck; Roka which was ok, but feel sorry for them for not having much dinner business; Thai Basil, don't know why I keep going back there and getting pissed off; Top Deck, sucks when it rains and you are the only one table for the night; Vero Chocolate, too good to eat the chocolate, Cafe Deco, old but still remains; One Bar, endless oysters and not so noticiable New Zealand wine; Wooden Table, amazing cheese that took all the attention; The Pawn, to die for fish and chips and good drinks, not so much anything else; Morten's Steak House, The STEAK and The CARROT CAKE and The BILL; Classified Mozzarelle Bar, cheese is more expensive than meat. O my god, out of breath! Each of them deserve a page on their own...I will slowly work on it.

I have used openrice.com when I first came back to HK. Jonathan rely on me to read OR to see which restaurant to go to because he cannot read chinese. So at the beginning, I religiously check everytime I try some new place, I even wrote a couple comments myself, but then, it starts to disappoint me. It seems to me that the standard of people varies on openrice.com. Taste is so subjective, depends on age, ethicnicity and experience, I think it is wrong some people give such harsh and personal comments. Maybe I was once in the restaurant industry, I have an extra appreciation on what goes behind the scene. But I also have high expectation when it comes to service and price. If I am paying top dollars, I better get good service and a good piece of meat. But if it is a cheap joint, I won't complain if my utensils are chipped or the service is bad. Being realistic is very important when I dine. There are certain restaurants that should not make it and there are restaurant that simply is not your cup of tea. I think there is a difference. Openrice.com is a good place to find what is in your neighborhood, but don't take their word for it. Remember, they are not words of professional, use your own judgement!!!

Clean Slate

The day that I found out I was pregnant with Cayenne my whole world changed. I had a successful Catering business, I had employees, I had clients, I had respect and boom! I can care less. All I can think of is how I can take care of both babies. My business was my baby. I sleep and eat with my business. Always trying to find new top clients, try to introduce new things to the menu. Always busy on the go, one Christmas after another, one party bigger and more challenging than the other. Then the idea of Cayenne comes around and all the drama and hard work seems less important. I became lazy with work, I don't care as much and to the point, I am done with it. It is like I fell out of love with Y.Lo Epicure. How is that possible, something that I have worked so hard for all of a sudden felt unimportant. I was luck enough to have sold my business to a passionate young lady. She was perfect at it, if not even better than I was.

Fast forwarding to now, me sitting in my living room writing my blog, Cayenne taking a nap in the other room, me thinking of what to do in the afternoon with Cayenne, playroom or swimming? Why not do both! haha...I would have never guessed life would be so different from a year ago. I don't think the stay at home mode will last forever, but at least for now, I am taking a break from being the career women. I think when Cayenne is in grade school, then life will be different as well. I learn to never say never, there is always a time and place to everything, so long if you give yourself a chance and live it up with no regrets.