EARTHQUAKE!

It's been awhile since our last significant earthquake here in L.A. It wasn't so surprising - afterall, we've been having what's been deemed "earthquake weather" for just about a month now. Carrie's office was approximately 13 miles from the epicenter - and she was definitely rockin' & rollin' in the Fullerton/Brea neighborhood. Ed's office in Tustin is only about 18 miles away - and he was definitely shakin' too. But all is well, and we're happy that all of our friends and family are fine - that's the important part!

While we did okay at work, the real surprise was when we got home - our little place in Long Beach really was a mess! We are sad to report that we lost some of those great wedding gifts we received ... wine glasses, beer steins, glass trays and picture frames. Cupboards were jostled, drawers were disheveled, and there were 2 very frightened cats! Nothing major, just a big, inconvenient mess! But that's about all.


Ricki, "hiding" behind the curtains.


Sophia, underneath the laundry basket.


Our bedroom: The aftermath.




Glass & olive oil - not a fun combo to clean up, just ask Ed!

Christmas Eve with The Kims!

This year was the 2nd annual Kim Family Christmas Eve Dinner here at our house, and we had a blast. We really enjoy putting on dinner for our family and we like seeing how excited they get over our preparations. :) It was nice and cozy - a party of 6. Ed's Dad, Mom, Aunt and Uncle all were in attendance and it was a really nice time.

First, we got the table ready. We like to make make it look Christmas-y, but still in our signature modern aesthetic. Here's this years table setting:



Then, off to the kitchen. Both of us enjoy the cooking!

Carrie works on her signature antipasto salad ...

The final product!


Ed prepares the scalloped potatoes ... (thanks to Carrie's mom for the recipe!)

About to go in the oven!


Tonights menu consisted of:
Ham (we've never made a ham before, it turned out pretty well!)
Scalloped Potatoes
Garlic Green Beans
Antipasto Salad

and ...

Peppermint Chocolate Sundaes for dessert!

Afterwards, we enjoyed lots of coffee, a great political discussion, and of course - the gift exchange...

Dad is happy about his digital photo frame/clock/calendar/radio combo!

Aunt Grace got a pretty hip shirt ...


We had a lovely time and are so happy to have our family enjoy the holiday with us in our home.


Merry Christmas!

Korean Cooking Lesson, number one.

Yesterday we went to Mom's for a wonderful lesson in Korean cooking. The goal was to learn how to make bulgogi, which is a most scrumptiously marinated, thin, flank-type steak. It's delicious. We were anxious to learn - Carrie's gotta know how to make the husband's comfort food, and Ed enjoys cooking too! In true Korean-mom fashion, she prepared an enormous lunch first before the cooking began - but we certainly weren't complaining!

Bulgogi ended up being a lot easier to make than we thought...it's basically onions, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, and more green onions! We made so much that mom insisted we take home 2 large tupperware boxes full of individually bagged portions. We're knee-deep in bulgogi now, so ya'll come on over and try it before we end up with record setting cholesterol from eating red meat everyday! We had a great time though and we really enjoyed the lesson.

Here is tonight's dinner:

















That's the bulgogi in the bowl, on top of rice. To the right, we have bindedduk, which are Korean pancakes made out of egg, onions, kimchi and seafood...and the green stuff is our favorite: sauteed spinach.



















Look at Ed...so happy!

















Carrie feels pretty proud of herself - yum!

Elfa Evolution: Complete!

Well, we're finally finished with the closet. While it didn't turn out exactly as we'd hoped, we still think we did a real good job. Bottom line is, we're real people with a considerable amount of stuff. Although we try and maintain a "minimalist" household, we've still got things we like to use and really do not want to get rid of. But the goal was met - to get the space to serve as more efficient and practical storage. So now for the pics...

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Just to keep with the documentation of the process...here's where we began this morning:


The Elfa system works by installing a top piece, and then everything hangs from it:


Ed assembling the sliding drawer system:


Starting to take shape:


Installation is complete!


Well, here's where we decided we've got too much stuff! And we even sorted through everything more than twice! Oh well, at least everything has got its place. And Carrie's dream - to have an organized easy way of accessing all of her varying paper - has been granted!


Our solution to solve the overloaded appearance of the space was to hang some curtains. We had an extra shower curtain rod, so we butted it up underneath the lip of the top of the closet and hung them. It's working for now!


How'd we do? :)

Elfa Evolution

Well, we got our tax refund this year (Yay for being married homeowners! Shocking!) and we finally were able to make a move on our dream to change the closet space in our loft/office. We have wanted to organize the big closet up here and turn it into a real art storage space. There's gonna be a place to store Carrie's straight-edges and portfolios, our laptop bags and art books, and even have good looking "junk" storage. The Container Store is a bit overwhelming, but it's inspiring, and it definitely makes you wanna get all crazy with the organization. Game on.

So, since we also knew that some really sporty folks who used live across the lake from us also designed their closet Container Store Style, we decided to check out the fancy Elfa system. Man - that stuff is awesome! So many options, so many possibilities. And, its simple too...you just install the upper frame and everything clicks and hangs from there.

We took the dimensions and headed over today (we started last weekend by doing some serious spring cleaning and eliminating a lot of crap) and ended up with a great plan to transform the space. We decided it would be fun to document the process - how Top Design of us - so we'll begin with Day 1:

The "BEFORE" pic:


Chiseling out the icky-ugly closet rod and shelf:




It's outta there!


Patching up the nail holes/prepping to paint:


Try not to laugh, but we are newbies with the home improvement!

Tune in tomorrow for more exciting progress! :)

We're Grown Ups!

We hosted Christmas Eve Dinner for the Kim Family last night. It turned out awesome. We were so excited to have everybody over and do some serious entertaining with all of our fancy new wedding gifts!

Here's an aerial shot of the table:



Carrie wanted to be fancy so she made little placecards with candles for everybody. :)


The food even turned out good! Thank goodness for Carrie's mom, she helped out by doing a trial run with us on Friday night. Both Mom & Dad came over and they were our food tasters! Here's a pic of the finished birds, we can't believe we made these, it's way too adult-like. Look out next year, we might be making the Thanksgiving turkey!


The menu:
Mixed Green Salad
Cornish Game Hens
Wild Rice
Ed's Special Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus w/Bearnaise Sauce

Here's Ed excited in the kitchen:


One of Carrie's family Christmas traditions is having mom's Ribbon Salad for dessert. It's made out of lime jello, cherry jello and a middle cheesecake-like layer with lemon jello, crushed pineapple and cream cheese. Usually mom makes it in a jello mold, but we used our fancy-schmancy wine glasses for everybody to have their own individual dessert. They were a hit!


And finally - the family.
Top Row: Ed, [future bro-in-law] Mani, Shannon, Mom
Bottom: Dad, Imo, Uncle
Yay for Christmas Eve '06!