Early Birthday Present

The last day of November is my birthday. Living alone as a student from a foreign country for years made me dislike my birthday. Although I have great friends who would always celebrate and share precious memories on my birthday, there was always this one spot that felt empty: my family (don't get me wrong beautifuls! I am always thankful of your friendships!)

As I married my lovely handsome darling in the year of 2012, that missing piece has patched up because now I am always with my husband and Richie by my side. To be honest, my husband was never a romantic type. As you may all know by now, I seek romance in everything I see and feel (even when I eat). I was often let down by his insensitivity or sometimes even shocked! But over the years he has picked up some of my traits and today I felt like I am the one who is actually lacking romance.  This is what "Romantic Ryan J." did today.

"Hint 1 - 1st floor or 2nd floor?"

On his letter he wrote several hints of where he hid the gift. It reminded me of the movie "Gone Girl" where the psychotic wife left hints to lead Ben Afflect to cellar full of gifts. Yikes..!

After several hints later, I found my gift inside the suitcase side table I posted about a few days ago.  (Refer to: http://natalieskirakira.blogspot.ca/2014/11/the-should-i-do-areas.html for details!) 

Homemade Lemon Tea (Nat's Attempt)

I thoroughly enjoyed Viv's homemade lemon tea and decided to try it myself. After all, we all need that squeeze of vitamin C! My first batch was of 3* 500ml containers. Realizing this is actually fun and the feeling of accomplishment this brought me, I decided to turn my evening into lemon tea factory to gift my colleagues and other important people in my life.
For Vivian's original post on how to make homemade lemon tea, please follow the link: http://natalieskirakira.blogspot.ca/2014/11/easy-recipe-diy-lemon-tea.html :-) !!

Read more after the jump!

Etsy: Custom Portrait

It is always hard to buy a gift for my mother. Since I am living so far away from her, want to give her something unusual and special. This year, I loved the custom painting I got for my anniversay so much so I thought I should give my mom a portrait as well.

My mom has lots of unique paintings decorating her wall already from contemporary artists. So instead of going with oil painting, giving her a classic water color painting with some wit would be a perfect addition to her collection. 

When I was hunting for my own, I have added "The Bazaar Studio" into my favorites list already, thinking I should get a portrait done from her in the future.