Rickshaw

Time flies! I can’t believe I took these before Thuy went back to school and she’ll already be back from SCAD next week. I’m excited to see what she’s been working on. One of my most worst faults is I am awful at keeping in touch with my siblings, friends, and family. I hate using phones and have never even skyped. But enough is enough: I do want to save up to visit you guys, and in the mean time I’m going to make a more concerted effort to catch up and stay in contact.

During our trip to Portland, a lot of my relatives were staying over at my uncle’s place, so he kindly put us up in a cozy little room he built in the backyard. It was awkwardly dubbed the honeymoon suite (we get it, y’all want kids), but we could see everyone through the windows and vice versa – not so romantic. But it was surrounded by his beautiful garden and there was no doubt he put care and love into that space.

Rest of the wedding photos. After the ceremony, ice cream at Salt & Straw, dinner inside the Portland Art Museum, and flowers and favors by my aunt. Good times…

Some of my favorites from the first roll. The whole weekend evolved around family with both sides of my family coming and spending the last days with Thuy before she went off to school.

more here.

The morning before the wedding, BJ and I gave ourselves a few hours for brunch. We wanted to squeeze in at least one Portland establishment during our quick trip. In an Asian family, eating out is a hard task because every aunt and uncle we visited en route insisted that we sit down and eat (and they all are amazing cooks). It ended up taking longer than we expected to get ready, but once we hit Broder, we + my cousins had 45 minutes to eat and drive to the ceremony. Ahhh, it was so worth it. I’m still thinking about the breakfast sandwich (can’t go wrong with adding a runny egg!). Before going to Portland, I check out Bonnie‘s recap of her trip, and she was spot on!

Back from a very short trip to Portland for a family wedding. And this time, I was related to both sides (they met last year during our wedding!) Unfortunately we barely got to spend time with everyone – I’m glad we squeezed in whatever time we could. I didn’t plan out the previous week so well and stayed up till 3am grading, but more posts and lots of pictures to come!

Goodbye, summer break. I’ll miss you. My focus for this school year is balance. I want to continue working on my own projects and be able to spend more time with family and friends.

Thuy & her summer workspace

Pen drawing with digital coloring.

Inspired by my mom. Never ceases to amaze me when she just tossed a seed after eating the fruit into the garden (her version of composting)  and it blooms. So far the backyard has yielded mango, bell peppers, lemons, grapefruit, and cantaloupe. I can barely keep a plant alive.

All week, I had an itch to get out of town so on Saturday, we set off for Austin. The highlights include eye candy at Kickpleat and Spartan, meeting up with my cousins and sharing fresh seafood at Perla’s, a 1 am Homeslice pizza run, bubble tea from Toy Joy, delicious brunch and drinks at South Congress Cafe (Carrot cake French Toast!!!), picking up vanilla cones twice at rest stops, listening to music non stop and taking in the changing scenery during the drive back to Houston. Yep, most of these are food related. PB&J for the rest of the week!