My Aunt's Home Cooking!

So when I was in St. Pete Florida this past May I was able to go visit my Aunt and Uncle in Tampa. My Gram and I went over for dinner and it had been wow, probably 6 years since the last time I'd been to their house. My Aunt Wei is Chinese and cooks  DELICIOUS food! This time she was just getting started when we arrived so I got to help her in the kitchen a bit!

 I love how crisp vegetable are when they are cooked in a wok. Aunt Wei had these super long Chinese green beans that she stir fried and then in a rice noodle dish she had some kind of squash that looked like a cross between a zuccini and a melon. 

 Teeny tiny shrimp for flavor and some kind of chewy black vegetable rehydrating. Yum!

 I primarly helped by putting the shrimp on the skewers with pineapple and par cooked onions & peppers. 

There was SO MUCH FOOD! Grilled Salmon, Tuna and Swordfish, the shrimp skewers, stir fried green beans, the rice noodles with squash and a roast duck that they had picked up!

 It was a serious FEAST! And more importantly it was a really fun evening spent catching up with family. My cousin Jeannie got married last year and I wasn't able to make it to the wedding so it was great to see her and get to meet her new and very entertaining husband Kiki. 

They also brought dessert and were so sweet to find me a gluten free vegan treat at Whole Foods so I didn't feel left out! 

Hmm, I think I need to get down to Florida to visit this side of the family more often because it was so much fun seeing everyone!

Dinner With Gram

So for as much of a foodie as I am, I'm surprised its taken me this long to share about my food adventures while while visiting Florida in May! 

The 1st night I got to my Grandmother's in St. pete we went to The Peninsular Inn for dinner in Gulfport where  was able to get a gluten free meal!

It was a gorgeous night with a nice breeze and a band playing on the adjacent patio. 

 We had a wonderful waiter. Seriously, he was literally the most knowledgable and accommodating person I've ever met in any food service related role when it came to gluten free and immediately put my "eating out" nerves at ease! Not to mention the way he addressed and interacted with my Grandmother was hilarious with is light and totally joking sarcasm and referring to her and her friends (who frequent the place weekly) as "those girls" as if they are always up to no good.

It was quite nice and Gram as I call her told me all about her Ladies Club that goes meets there for dinner every Wednesday for the Early Bird $2 a glass wine special... cuz you can't beat that! ;)

A Weekend Visit!

So we had some last minute and oh so welcomed guests this weekend! My cousin (who is basically my big sister) and her husband came down with their adorable babies, my niece and nephew. Us cousins are all pretty close and 3 of the 12 of us are only children, so we all refer to each other's children (those who have had children) as nieces and nephews and are like-wise Aunts and Uncles to them.

This is the 1st weekend the weather and our pool have been nice enough to use and we had a lot of fun playing with the cute kiddos and just having some relaxing family time. Reminiscing about the old days when our Nana and Grandfather were still alive and we had a central meeting location in Towson, Md to have big family get togethers where as many as all 12 of us cousins would play together in their big back yard pool with our aunts and uncles. My dad is the middle and R's mom is the oldest of 7 children.

 These are before all of us were born... circa 1989-1990 probably!

 That's me in the middle of above & below photos.

And this would have been 1994 maybe.

Its really nice to be able to continue that tradition even though we don't have that beloved warm grandparent home to go to anymore. 

 Call me biased, I don't care. This little girl is one of the most beautiful little darlings I've ever seen! Look at those delicate curls and long eyelashes!

 And don't even get me started on my nephew! What a handsome little heart breaker!

 My parents love kids, but my Dad in particular is so great with them! While I had the pleasure (and occasional embarrassment) of getting to have him full time as my Dad, I know all of my cousins on both sides of my families loved him as an uncle! He is so good with kids! And just like his Dad, my Grandfather, he just loves babies :)

 I love that crab on C's bum, his matching shirt read "PINCH ME! I'm cute!"

Hopefully there will be many more weekends like this with these sweet babies! But for now we are just savoring how fun it was to have them this weekend! :)

From Creative Stock

Three summers ago, while up at the family summer cottage in the beautiful Adirondack mountains, I was digging under the eaves looking for treasures and came upon a box full of my Poppy's photographs and even older images of my Grandmother's side of the family from the late 1800's. It was pretty sweet and I set out to spend the rest of the summer scanning all these images and setting them into an acid free scrap book style book to best preserve them.

Below are scanned images of some of my Poppy's orginal's. He worked at the Binghamton Press for 30 years the majority of which he was their Chief of Photography. I just loved finding these as I inherited all of his cameras when he passed away in 2001. I had never really known he was a photographer until after his death and those camera's awoke a deeper creativity in me that took me on to photo classes in high school and pursuing and completing a degree in Studio Art in college. 

I LOVE the one below, it so captures the essence of the 1970's to me!

Binghamton, NY gets a lot of winter.. I love all of his weather shots.. I have about 20 different prints and tons of negatives. 

Just wanted to share these. It always amazes me when I look at these discoveries as well as those about my Dad's Dad- The Grandfather and see how deeply my love of art, creating and appreciation is rooted in my family.  I grew up at my Grandfather's knee watching him paint, inherited all my Poppy's camera's when I was 13 and when my Grandfather moved to a nursing home while I was in high school, my Aunts and Uncles graciously gave me all of his painting supplies (and it was A LOT). I completed my Bachelors in Studio Art from the University of Mary Washington going on 3 years ago and honestly.. aside from a few odd supplies.. these gifts from my grandfathers saw me through 4 years and not having to buy much of any supplies for my photo, drawing and painting courses. I can look back at my film photographs and know that I captured those images through the same lens and view finder as my Poppy and when I look at my paintings.. I know they are painted by the same brushes, palette knives and paints that my grandfather once used. 

I dunno.. to me, that's just really special!

Party Up In Here!

Ok so actually neither of the people who's birthday party we'd be celebrating are here. But I'm just gonna pretend there is a party happening anyway! 

My family has two birthday months... January for myself and my Dad and April for my mom and brother. April 19th for my mom and April 20th for my brother! 

Strangely enough neither one will be home on their birthdays because my mom is on a women's church retreat and my brother had tryouts for next years cheerleading team up at JMU if he decided to stay up there after graduating in a few weeks. They'll both be home tomorrow though, so we'll just be celebrating a little belatedly. 

But I'm gonna celebrate them now, here! 

So Happy Birthday Mom and Phillip! I love you both sooooo much and can't wait to celebrate tomorrow with you! 

 My mom will probably hate that I'm posting these photos but I just think she is so darn cute!

This is with my Great Great Nana Coco and Great Nana Mary. 

 My parents on their wedding day... no wonder Phillip and I are so dang attractive!

 Me and mom... circa 1998 and present day... clearly I've shot up a few inches on her in the past 15 years :)

Looking good mom! I love all the fun adventures we go on together as mother and daughter! 

And then there's that brother of mine...

 Look at those cheeks! Perfect for pinching!

 Hello 90's... hello Denim OVERLOAD! We pulled it off well though.

 Always the goof ball... as pictured above with our cousins and below with Dad... clearly its a Hollji gene ;)

Can you believe the picture above and the one below are just 1 and 1/2 years difference!? He just keeps getting more and more muscular and more and more handsome! 

Love you Phill-bop! Thanks for making me laugh all the time, for being the best brother ever and for acting the protective "older" brother when needed... its two in one.. except I still get to claim being oldest! ;)

Happy Birthday to my amazing and beautiful Mommy and my charming and handsome younger brother... I may be a bit biased but really, they're the best!

Meet Hank and Irene... the Elephants

I love Elephants. I also happen to collect them.

 My love of them is closely tied to my Nana as she had an affinity for them as well.  She passed when I was only 8 but I recall even in the years after her passing finding little elephant statues here and there around my grand parent's home. When their estate was divided upon my grandfather's moving to a nursing home I was given the majority of her elephant collection.

It is a beautiful collection that includes her travels all over the world as the wife of a Naval Doctor- my grandfather. I cherish it. And recently I have started adding to the collection myself whenever I see a unique or pretty statue here or there and have expanded from just statues to include broaches, pendants, earrings, home decor.. really anything that represents my love for them in a unique way.
(Update:)
I always knew my Nana only collected Elephants who had their trunks turned up and that it had something to do with luck. But after reading this post my Aunt Juliet shared with me what it was she used to say.  " The luck never runs out of an upturned trunk!" I'm so glad I finally have the quote now! My Aunt shared one more quote with me which I also love considering the meaning!
" You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time!"

So I am continuing the tradition and only collect elephants who have upturned trunks.

Today, I thought I'd share the two who have their namesakes with you all on this dreary rainy day. They also happen to be the largest ones in my collection.

This big fellow is my favorite from the ones I received from her and will one day reside in a special place of honor when I have a home of my own. He is about 1 1/2 feet long and 8 inches tall and as very small children I and all of my cousins liked to sit on him when he lived at Nana's and Grandfather's. Good thing he is made of metal! He withstood our rambunctious age gracefully and has aged with a beautiful patina.

My Grandfather's name was Henry and a lot of people called him Hank. Maybe its because this fellow reminds me of the strong domineering personality my grandfather had. Maybe its because my grandfather lived and fought Alzheimer's for the last 6-7 years of his life and even then only ever forgot mine and my Dad's name once. In fact he became incredibly upset when he realized he'd forgotten my dads name. And Elephant's likewise have incredible memories. Or maybe its just because this guy has wrinkles and and an air of dignity about him, much as my grandfather did, but I've decided to finally name him and call him Hank. It just seems right in my head. And everytime I see him I always think of my Nana and Grandfather anyway. So Hank, welcome to the family, even though you've been around longer than I've been alive!

Meet Irene the Indian Elephant. My Nana's name was Irene. My Nana, as I've mentioned, loved Elephants. Call me weird or crazy or senile, but I like to think that she and Hank are dating. 

This beautiful girl is one of my newest additions. My mom found her in an antique shop we like to stop into now and than and came home to tell me about her and I wasn't sold when she described her as bright orange but I figured I'd go check her out anyway. 

 When I saw her I still wasn't sold, but since we were there and well, I do love elephants and want to expand my collection, I said I'd take her. So my mom got her for me as an early birthday present. Boy am I glad I did, because over the period of about a week she worked on me. I'd pass by our sunroom where she currently resides and see that POP of orange and I couldn't help it. I fell in love! I can't wait to use her as a beautiful accent of color and visual interest in my future home one day! 

In the mean time, I like to think that they have similar personalities to my grandparents... she's stylish and sassy and he's strong and stern. and I imagine that she and Hank go on adventures around the house when no one is home. Kind of like how my grandparents Hank and Irene went on adventures all over the world when he was in the Navy.