quarante deux: bonne anniversaire

Chère bff,

29 years ago, a little girl was born.
She grew up to be become a loving sister, a talented photographer, gardener extrodinaire and a create DIY enthusiast.
Most importantly she became a shoulder to cry on, an ear to rant to, a confidante, and a voice of reason and encouragement to another little girl who was born 63 days later.
Born half way across the world from each other, these two little girls somehow found their way to each other and bonded over their love for tea.

Happy happy birthday ma belle.

❤ pour toujours,
j

p.s I set my alarm to remind myself to say happy birthday when you were actually born. What ended up happening was me staring at my clock for 10 minutes waiting for the alarm to go off...

quarante et un: against all odds

Chère bff,

A little blade of grass pushed through our newly paved driveway the other day.
How such a tiny fragile thing was able to break through the pavement was beyond me!
Like this blade of grass, humans are resilient beings.
Even when we hit a concrete wall, we somehow find a way to overcome it.
It won't be easy, but we need to have faith that happy days are to come.

Bonne anniversaire, ma belle.

❤ pour toujours,
j

quarante: radish tulips

Chère bff,

Sometimes we get bad news.
And yes, it's awful and horrible and every terrible feeling there is in the dictionary.
But then in the midst of all that misery, we see how loved we are.
Like receiving tulips that look like radishes (because someone remembered you giggled at them once) as a cheer up surprise.
Being offered words of comfort and encouragement.
Or having someone get more upset than you at the cause of all this heartache.

Life may throw lemons at us every so often, but the people around us are like the sugar that makes it into yummy lemonade.

You are one of my biggest sugar cubes and I hope I can be the same for you :)

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente neuf: photography as inspiration

Chère bff,

Just a reminder of how strong women are. We don't go down without a fight and fighters we are!

http://www.jaimemoorephotography.com/2013/05/09/not-just-a-girl/

(I especially like Helen Keller's quote)

♥ pour toujours,
j

trente huit: oh puddles

Chère bff,

The clouds have been looming around and making everything gray lately.
If we look on the bright side, at least it gives us puddles to splash in!
But sometimes it's really difficult to find the fun in this dreary weather.
Let's focus on splashing in puddles rather than looking at the cloudy skies, shall we?

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente sept: awkward family photo part II

Chère bff,

Do you remember my Chinese New Year family photo?
We were all wearing pinks and reds...
(even yoshi)
Yesterday, for Mother's Day, the women in my family unintentionally all wore black and gray.
Well, I lied.
The majority of the women wore black and gray. My grandma actually scurried upstairs to her room to put something gray on for the photo!

One day I will frame all these photos and arrange them in rainbow order :)

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente six: violet

Chère bff,

I went to the grocery store and came across this itty bitty item that reminded me of you.

It is purple.
It can be squishy, watery or grainy.
It is a bit gross when you really think about it.

If you guess it right, you can have it bahaha

❤ pour toujours,
j

p.s the photo is fuzzy on purpose :P

trente cinq: gimp and chains

Chère bff,

There is something missing in our friendship that all friends should have.
It's mostly a child hood thing, but I think we should carry on the tradition of friendship bracelets.
I'm going to make DIY helloberry bracelets for the trio!

This is my inspiration: http://www.helloberryinc.com/

Hopefully, I'll have these done before the end of summer.
But you know me and my attention span...

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente quatre: turned tables

Chère bff,

One of the things I love to do at IKEA is watching people stand and stare into their trunks, trying to visualize how all the products are going to fit.
Today, Nathan and I did just that.
All those years of playing Tetris was not for moot.
(I was giggling the whole time we were struggling)

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente trois: silhouettes

Chère bff,

There's something about silhouette and shadow portraits that I love.
I think it's because people don't often focus on the outline of a person.
We're always looking at the details like the eyes, the smile, teeth, skin, clothes even.
There's also a bit of mystery in a silhouette which my over active imagination appreciates.

Enough about silhouettes, how was your day?

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente deux: in the family

Chère bff,

Today I realized that being needy runs in the family.
Pictured here is yoshi snuggling up to me while watching tv.
He likes to be close to people and constantly bugs me for belly rubs.
I wonder if people's traits rub off on their dogs...

Something to think about before bedtime!

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente et un: sunny colours

Chère bff,

Nathan showed up after work with a small bouquet of these yellow beauties.
Soon he won't need to buy flowers anymore and just pick them from your garden!

Would you consider opening up a flower stand on your front yard?

They sell cardboard stands at IKEA for $15. It's meant for lemonade, but I think we can use it for flowers instead!

Okay, I better sleep. My mind is going into the crazy zone...

❤ pour toujours,
j

trente: supermarket adventure

Chère bff,

Look what Nathan and I found during our latest trip to T&T!
I don't know of this is poor translation or Nathan and I being ignorant.
But we had a good giggle in the tea aisle.

I actually contemplated buying it...

(hope you had a good laugh!)

♥ pour toujours,
j

vingt neuf: sakura

Chère bff,

Here is a photo of the lovely blooming cherry blossom tree to tie you over until you plant your own.
I think plum tree blossoms are actually more pink.
Perhaps an ombré forest in your backyard is in order - that way we can see all the different pinks!

Next year, we trek down to high park together to take photos.
I need your help fighting the crowds...I had to take a picture with the small neglected trees...

♥ pour toujours,
j

vingt huit: up up up

Chère bff,

Sometimes when I find myself in an exceedingly difficult and frustrating situation with another person, I try my best to try to think of a list of positives.
You never know what you might find when you look up.
Much like this wooden antler-esque chandelier at Soma!

♥ pour toujours,
j

vingt sept: snipped

Chère bff,

I gave in and cut the tag off the h&m bag today.
I think that the wait to use it made me appreciate the bag more.
At least we now know it wasn't an impulse buy!
That is definitely a bad habit that I need to get rid of. No time like the present for self improvement!

I think if I wait another week before I cut the tags off the other goodies, it will make May Madness a bit easier for me.

Let's hope this month will be as easy as March :)

♥ pour toujours,
j

vingt six: skin food

Chère bff,

Here's a random tidbit of info...
Not only are oranges tasty, the vitamin c will help repair skin cells and also brighten your complexion!
It also helps with breakouts.
I wonder if rubbing an orange on my face will work
(I was tempted to this morning when I was cutting it up)
Perhaps I will save that experiment for some other time.

For now, I sleep!

♥ pour toujours,
j

vingt cinq: changing old habits

Chère bff,

I still haven't cut the tags off the bags I bought the other day.
Sometimes I do things just to get them over with quickly.
Like running up the stairs.
Writing exams.
Sometimes even eating!

With purchases, I tend to cut the tags right when I get home so that I don't have the chance to even think of returning the item.
I realize that this is a bad habit that I need to get rid of - especially since I tend to do a lot of impulse shopping and end up never wearing/using a lot of the things I buy.

I suppose old habits can be changed!
I hope you're proud of me :)

♥ pour toujours,
j

vingt quatre: curieuse

Chère bff,

Remember back in high school (and even university), chain e-mails would be sent around and sometimes it involved sending out questions for your friends to answer.
I used to love receiving those and sending them out.
So I've come up with a few questions that I would like to know.

1. If you could go back in time, what year would you pick to relive? Why?

2. If you had to choose between using either ketchup or mustard for the next fifty years, which would you choose?

3. Would you rather learn a new language or learn a new craft?

4. If junk food was good for you, what would you pig out on?

5. Would you rather spend money on a lens that you've been eying for a year, or would you rather spend that money on vacationing?

6. What was your favourite picture book growing up?

7. What is the most nostalgic movie for you?

8. Would you rather tell a white lie or hurt someone's feelings?

9. Green kiwi or golden kiwi?

10. What is your japh tolerance level in hours?

C'est tout! ... for now.

You can post or e-mail me your answers when you have time :)

♥ pour toujours,
j