It's time to go green everyone!
If we don't do something to save the Earth, it'll be either we die or the Earth dies.
Make your commitment to do at least the following 8 things in your daily life:
1. Recycle Aluminum and Steel Cans
- you can save 414 lbs of CO2 in one year.
2. Recycle Newspaper and Magazines
- you can save 581 lbs of CO2 in one year.
3. Wash Laundry on a Cooler Setting
- you can save 349 lbs of CO2 in one year.
4. Switching light bulbs to low-watt energy savings light bulbs
- you can save 500 lbs of CO2 in one year.
5. Turn down the temperature on the Thermostat
- you can save 1300 lbs of CO2 in one year.
6. Follow the Speed Limit
- you can save 15% fuel and 1500 lbs of CO2 in one year.
7. Turn off electronic devices that are not in use
- you can save 1608 lbs of CO2 in one year.
8. Change home appliances to green-power products with Energy Star sign
- you can save 75% energy and 20,508 lbs of CO2 in one year.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Infiniti EX35
We finally bought a new car! It has been 8 years since I wanted to buy a new car. With my indecisive mind, it was nearly impossible to choose what car to buy. Now with dual income, decision making seems to be easier. Everything comes with a tag and luxury comes with a higher number on the tag.
After doing a lot of research, Q and I narrowed down our selection to Accura RDX and Infiniti EX35. They are both cross-overs, bigger than the regular sedan but smaller than the SUV. Although we also considered hybrid cars, the maintenance costs and 10-year battery life drove us away from hybrids. We will do more recycling and use less electricity and water to do our share of protecting the earth.
We first took out Infiniti EX35 for a test drive and we both fell in love with it! The new car technology of keyless door lock and engine control is so cool. It has auto head lights, bluetooth, dual temperature control, auto folding/unfolding backseats, and many many more little cool features.
After doing a lot of research, Q and I narrowed down our selection to Accura RDX and Infiniti EX35. They are both cross-overs, bigger than the regular sedan but smaller than the SUV. Although we also considered hybrid cars, the maintenance costs and 10-year battery life drove us away from hybrids. We will do more recycling and use less electricity and water to do our share of protecting the earth.
We first took out Infiniti EX35 for a test drive and we both fell in love with it! The new car technology of keyless door lock and engine control is so cool. It has auto head lights, bluetooth, dual temperature control, auto folding/unfolding backseats, and many many more little cool features.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Our Wedding- May 24, 2008
It took us about a year to plan for this special day. We are so lucky to have so many families and friends who helped us pull it off. We started the day at 8am as I believe more sleep will make everyone look prettier and more refreshed. I paid extra $ to have both the makeup artist and hair stylist to come to our place at 8am. It was great that I didn't need to deal with the traffic at all. Annie stayed over the night before and we were both ready to go when the hair stylist showed up at 8am. Mom and Vicky arrived at around quarter after eight, and the makeup artist came at around 8:30pm as she claimed that she got lost. While we were getting our hair and makeup done, flowers were delivered on-time right and Q got everything organized before heading over to Dave's place to meet with the boys.
Aunt Cynthia, Sumei, Juo, Aunt Paulina, Christie, Jason, Dad, Yuan, the photographer and videographer all showed up shortly after 10am. I had a lot of help with putting on my wedding dress. Thanks to Vicky, Annie and Aunt Paulina! Everyone loved my dress, tiara, necklace, veil and bridesmaids' dresses!! They were all amazed at how I found these quality items at such low costs.
As for our wedding cake, we were originally opting for cupcakes because normally western wedding cakes costed from $5 to $15 per slice. And cupcakes were about $2.50 each. However, we found out out that there were hidden costs like renting the cupcake stand, taxes and delivery charge. It added up to be also about $4 per cupcake. Therefore, we decided to go with this cute cake from St. Germain and it costed $420 including taxes and delivery. We received a lot of compliments from our guests and were really satisfied with how the cake turned out.
Flowers also turned out nicely. We spent a little less than $800 on the flower package which included 1 bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, 10 boutonnieres, 2 pillar flower arrangements, 2 small head table arrangements and 30 gerbera daisies. The bouquets turned out a little smaller than what I expected, but the 2 pillar flower arrangements were really nice. The 2 small head table arrangements didn't last to the reception, so it was kinda a waste. We also received a lot of compliments from the guests about our centerpiece idea. With the water pearls and LED light in a square vase tied up with blue ribbons, they created good atmosphere and tied in with the blue theme colour. I just wished the photographer took more photos of the glowing centerpieces at the reception.
For the greeting table, I've put in a lot of effort into decorations. I've made 7 bears holding English letters spelling out "WELCOME". Also, 6 more bears holding the wedding photo thank you cards for guests to take for souvenir. The most difficult part was the Ferrero Roche chocolate tree and bouquet. It took some skill to put them together and thankfully it didn't get ruined during transport. My brother had done a tremendous job on our wedding day. He managed to moved everything from our house to the venues, kept the vendors on-time and even took care of Yuan as a ring bear. We were very very impressed with how much he helped out and pulled everything together for us on that day.
The one and only hiccup we had was that the videographer didn't show up at the reception. Apparently, he was only aware of the tea ceremony and the wedding ceremony at QE park. Since he's one of Mom's friend and we never really paid for the service, I didn't really have a right to order him around to get what I wanted. It was really unfortunate, but I really can't complain for a service that I didn't pay for. Hopefully, we will be able to get the ceremony part of the video from him and retrieve some pieces from other guests for the reception part.
If you are interested to see more wedding photos, you can check them out HERE.
Aunt Cynthia, Sumei, Juo, Aunt Paulina, Christie, Jason, Dad, Yuan, the photographer and videographer all showed up shortly after 10am. I had a lot of help with putting on my wedding dress. Thanks to Vicky, Annie and Aunt Paulina! Everyone loved my dress, tiara, necklace, veil and bridesmaids' dresses!! They were all amazed at how I found these quality items at such low costs.
As for our wedding cake, we were originally opting for cupcakes because normally western wedding cakes costed from $5 to $15 per slice. And cupcakes were about $2.50 each. However, we found out out that there were hidden costs like renting the cupcake stand, taxes and delivery charge. It added up to be also about $4 per cupcake. Therefore, we decided to go with this cute cake from St. Germain and it costed $420 including taxes and delivery. We received a lot of compliments from our guests and were really satisfied with how the cake turned out.
Flowers also turned out nicely. We spent a little less than $800 on the flower package which included 1 bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, 10 boutonnieres, 2 pillar flower arrangements, 2 small head table arrangements and 30 gerbera daisies. The bouquets turned out a little smaller than what I expected, but the 2 pillar flower arrangements were really nice. The 2 small head table arrangements didn't last to the reception, so it was kinda a waste. We also received a lot of compliments from the guests about our centerpiece idea. With the water pearls and LED light in a square vase tied up with blue ribbons, they created good atmosphere and tied in with the blue theme colour. I just wished the photographer took more photos of the glowing centerpieces at the reception.
For the greeting table, I've put in a lot of effort into decorations. I've made 7 bears holding English letters spelling out "WELCOME". Also, 6 more bears holding the wedding photo thank you cards for guests to take for souvenir. The most difficult part was the Ferrero Roche chocolate tree and bouquet. It took some skill to put them together and thankfully it didn't get ruined during transport. My brother had done a tremendous job on our wedding day. He managed to moved everything from our house to the venues, kept the vendors on-time and even took care of Yuan as a ring bear. We were very very impressed with how much he helped out and pulled everything together for us on that day.
The one and only hiccup we had was that the videographer didn't show up at the reception. Apparently, he was only aware of the tea ceremony and the wedding ceremony at QE park. Since he's one of Mom's friend and we never really paid for the service, I didn't really have a right to order him around to get what I wanted. It was really unfortunate, but I really can't complain for a service that I didn't pay for. Hopefully, we will be able to get the ceremony part of the video from him and retrieve some pieces from other guests for the reception part.
If you are interested to see more wedding photos, you can check them out HERE.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Kitchen Reno is ALL DONE!
After planning and working on our wedding and kitchen renovation, we have successfully completed both and had a lot of fun during the process. We kept both projects on budget and also received a lot of compliments from our families and friends.
Before Renovation:
After Renovation:
More photos of every step of the way can be viewed HERE.
Before Renovation:
After Renovation:
More photos of every step of the way can be viewed HERE.
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