aka Greer TaiTai (太太).
Where art design and parenting collide and spark, this blog captures the creative chaos of juggling both worlds.
Recent Posts
Photoshop Skills II
Such an excitement to see the full rainbow right after the rain. The original picture can't really express that excitement but I’ve practiced some tricks to quickly restore that WoW moment!
Yard Leveling
Kinda feel like it’s something you would do when you have nothing else to do. Mick always wanted to level the yard by filling up with the sands. I was against this idea but thought to give it try this time. I genuinely felt lost like being in the desert when seeing the grass gone but look at it now in just about two weeks! The grass is back!
2nd Year Still Dinosaur Cake but with Lego
Following my 6-year-old-to-be boy's wish, looks like I needed to continue on the dinosaur path but maybe came up with different ideas and tried not to duplicate the cake from last year. As he grows more interests in Lego, adding some “edible” Lego blocks plus Lego dinosaurs to the cake seems like a good idea. Btw a two tier cake sounds more representable for the birthday party.
2023 Adventure - Austin TX New/Popular Parks
I'd heard about these popular downtown parks in recent two years. Why it took so long to visit now? Because Mick didn't want to deal with downtown traffic, my weekend proposal had been rejected. Now I was determined to go anyways. My boys were more than happy to follow Mommy for fun. I was going to drive anyways and Mick was allowed to tag along to the second park and the following ones after he did his homework about parking and the park attractions.
Festival of Cultures - Welcome to Taiwan 🇹🇼
Success for our debut 🇹🇼 at Meridian School Festival of Cultures. Special thanks to my Taiwanese friends' support for the flags, snacks, souvenirs and the interactive games to make our booth one of the most popular ones. Taiwan is small but our heart is big! I'm glad to have the opportunity to showcase my country.
Happy Lantern Festival (Year of Rabbit)
For the year of the rabbit, I went to the craft store knowing I would at least get plastic cups/holders for the LED candles and some decoration materials. With a vague rabbit lantern image in my mind, I had these selections to begin with.
100 Days of School Kindergarten
I scrambled through pinterest for 100 days of school ideas. Seems like anything can work as long as it’s 100 items. Inspired by my son’s passion about dinosaurs, I’ve decided to make 100 dinosaur foot stamps.
We Celebrate Both New Years
Continue the party vibes from the end of last year to the beginning of this year. It's the year of rabbit 🐇.
Beef Curry Udon Noodles with Egg
It’s always a success using the pressure cooker on my beef stew recipe with tomato and carrots. Simply adding the Japanese curry cubes for another delicious flavor.
Chinese New Year Flower Arrangement
This year I got a week ahead of CNY to Trader Joe’s and I bought three bunches of pussy willow & pom-pom craspedia flowers. Thought to bring gold and silver as a symbol of fortune to the family.
Make Playroom Even More Playful
Post Christmas, I moved the string-lit polaroid pictures from staircase wall to the playroom. Realized the tape is difficult to hold a string of pictures and I used the tiny command decorating clips to perform the perfect job!
Backyard Firepit Addition
The next day we finally made our mind to make one after attending a friend’s party where we got to enjoy a nice campfire.
A Month Countdown to Christmas
The best time to transform the house splendid!
The Best Time Alone
This is the mid-day view I enjoy very much when I take a quick shower after workout in the gym. Yes I prefer to quickly come home to relax since we are only three minute drive distance from there. And Yes I need the clock to remind me not to miss next meeting time or any other arrangement for the kids.
Photoshop Skills
About two months ago, I started to ditch Google One photo edit function ($1.99/m plus 100 GB storage) and VivaVideo ($4.99/m) and transitioned to Adobe LightRoom app ($49.99/y). Especially the “Mask” feature pops out colors and contrast of interest without exposing too much light or losing details.
Backyard Tiki Vibes
Our kids love our neighbors next door so they like to call out to him whenever seeing him grilling or mowing the lawns. We could basically see several houses’ backwards down the fences because our two-story house has higher foundation.
Backyard Night View
Every night before bed, I like to walk out to enjoy a few minutes of natural air and temperature. Tonight the sky just drew my eyes. The full moon in the picture got a corona shinning perfectly among clouds without shades. I think that's Jupiter simmering in the dark away from moon's glory.
Second Birthday (Real) Cake in 2022
Hmmmm….so delicious! No kidding! It doesn't look very trashy but you get my point. I also recycled the leaves from previous dinosaur cake for this time haha why not! Funny thing is kids just love those crunchy “trash” and like to add some to their sliced cake.
Second Birthday (Practice) Cake in 2022
Can't make an exception for my other son so we decided to make a cake for him too! Ideas always come from Pinterest. Now we are thinking where to collect those delicious “trash” for the dump truck.
Zongzi Festival
Aka Dragon Boat Festival. I made an easy and healthy version of zongzi (rice dumplings) for celebration.