Sunday 31 August 2014

Have a Soulful Sunday

♡`º◇º`♡Have a very good Sunday and make marvelous  memories!♡`º◇º`♡

ƸӜƷ •✿ •✿ ƸӜƷ
......*¨`*•. (¯`v´¯) (¯`v´¯) .•*¨`*•✿....
......✿•*¨`*•.¸(¯`v´¯)¸.•´*¨`*•✿....
ƸӜƷ..*✿•Happy Soulful Sunday!•✿*..ƸӜƷ

. ✿(◕‿◕)✿



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTuPbJLqFKI
A Sunday kind of song for you
Sunshine Superman by Donovan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSlVxWtxEfE
And of course one of my favs always

"Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you've
  got to let it grow" .-John Lennon 
≧◡≦≧◡≦≧◡≦



I love Siamese cats =^..^=

I have had many in my life and loved them all

✿*´¨)*
¸.•*¸.• ✿´¨).• ✿¨)
(¸.•´*(¸.•´*(.¸. •*Grace and Peace be with you!
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I want to see if they have the Book The Song of Everlasting Sorrow
A Novel of Shanghai by Wang Anyi at the Library

and also read again the book I so enjoyed Shanghai Girls


http://www.lisasee.com/shanghaigirls/

I want to reread the book Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business. Though both wave off authority and traditions, they couldn’t be more different. Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life ... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules. At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends, who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection. But like sisters everywhere, they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other but they also know exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other sister the most. Along the way there are terrible sacrifices, impossible choices and one devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel by Lisa See hold fast to who they are – Shanghai girls.

"If you're looking for one of those wonderful "take me someplace exotic" books for summer, you won't do better than Shanghai Girls, the latest from novelist Lisa See, who has carved a rich career chronicling the lives of Chinese women. In Shanghai Girls, she takes readers on a lively journey both tragic and hopeful, from the Shanghai of the 1930s to Los Angeles' Chinatown in the mid-20th Century. She renders both settings with loving, precise strokes that create a world her narrator, Pearl Chin, and her sister May fully in habit along with the reader."
--The Dallas Morning News
"Stunning emotional depth"
--San Diego Union Tribune
"Lisa See excels at drawing her readers into the rich history of China and providing her narrators with voices so unique that readers truly know and care about these women within a few pages, if not paragraphs… Shanghai Girls is a graceful, meticulous examination of the lives of two irrepressible sisters, Pearl and May, first in Shanghai, and then in California, from 1937-57… And See, whose writing is as graceful as these "beautiful girls," pulls off another exceptional novel."
-- The Miami Herald
"See's skillful plotting and richly drawn characters immediately draw in the readers, covering 20 years of love, loss, heartbreak and joy while delivering a sobering history lesson."
-- San Francisco Examiner
"Shanghai Girls is … engaging …with many poignant images."
-- The Sunday Oregonian
"[A] compelling family saga…Satisfying on so many levels, See's latest is above all a confirmation of unbreakable family bonds, as two Shanghai girls survive seemingly insurmountable setbacks, both at home and abroad."
-- Bookpage
"A powerful new story."
-- Costco Connection
"Shanghai Girls is a rich work, one that portrays an immigrant experience as well as plumbing the relationship of sisterhood, with its friction as well as its support…See brings their experiences to life with thoughtful and deft prose. The result is as compulsively readable as it is an enlightening journey."
--Sunday Denver Post
"Shanghai Girls is much loftier than its cover art's stunning portrait of beautifully adorned Asian women…The detail is thoughtful and intricate in ways that hardly qualify this book as the stuff of chick lit."
-- Janet Maslin, New York Times
"The author of Peony in Love returns with an absorbing novel set in Shanghai in the 1930s."
--The Times-Picayune
"See is a gifted writer, and in Shanghai Girls she again explores the bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish American immigrant experience…Readers from many backgrounds will see something of their own history in these two sisters who, homesick for their native land and viewed with suspicion in their new one, trudge with determination along the American way."
--USA Today
"This is See at her most compassionate and wrenching."
-- The Sacramento Bee
"See's splendid new novel opens in China in 1937, where sisters Pearl and May work as models…The story delivers an emotional punch as the women journey to the U.S. and struggle to assimilate in L.A.'s Chinatown."
--More Magazine
"[A] book group favorite."
--Bookmarks
"See's emotional themes are powerful but familiar -- the bonds of sisterhood [and] the psychological journey of becoming an American…Shanghai Girls...bravely moves [See's] oeuvre into the challenging terrain of more recent history."
--Washington Post
"An engrossing tale of two sisters… Its ties to Peony [in Love] are strong, to Snow Flower [and the Secret Fan] even stronger."
--Time Asia
"[Lisa See] is the queen of the book clubs."
--National Post, Toronto
"If you're looking for one of those wonderful 'take me someplace exotic and unfamiliar' books for the summer, you won't do better than Shanghai Girls… See masterfully weaves the intimate story of these sisters and their extended family with the larger tales of Chinese immigrants struggling to get along in an unfamiliar, often hostile land."
--Arizona Daily Star
"See's Shanghai Girls is one of those books I could not wait to continue reading, because her characters' stories are so compelling told."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Fast-moving plot takes readers from glamorous Shanghai to the louse-infested Hong Kong waterfront to Los Angeles Chinatown's ticky-tacky souvenir shops and greasy cafes."
--The Seattle Times
"A buoyant and lustrous paean to the bonds of sisterhood."
--Booklist
"Well-researched and highly readable."
--Ms Magazine
"Rollicking read."
--Marie Claire
"Satisfying on so many levels, See's latest is above all a confirmation of unbreakable family bonds, as two Shanghai girls survive seemingly insurmountable setbacks, both at home and abroad."
--BookPage
See demonstrates the almost life-giving strength women can gain from sisterhood—and the ways in which they can tear each other apart without even trying."
--The Christian Science Monitor

Saturday 30 August 2014

Happy Labour Day Weekend

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/travel/searching-for-anne-of-green-gables-on-prince-edward-island.html

I love Anne of Green Gables and Prince Edward Island


A blast from the past me and my cousin Cheryl at Point Pelee always side by side
always giggling and having fun

Thanks Cheryl for this photograph I had never seen this one before.
You are a
Beautiful Blessing to me
❇✶~✶❇✶~✶❇✶~✶❇✶~✶❇


Here’s what children can teach us about happiness…
1. They go with their gut. Small children don’t spend a lot of time fretting over whether they made the right decision. They’d much prefer to spend time fretting over whether you gave them the right colour of cup at lunch.
2. They live in the moment. They don’t dwell in the past. They don’t worry about the future — unless they are being told that it’s almost bedtime.
3. They believe. Little children believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the power of Band-Aids. If nothing else, trying to peel the backing off the adhesive distracts kids from what ails them. When all else fails, put a Band-Aid on it.
4. They make stuff. They draw. They sculpt. They glue. They paint. They cut anything they can get their hands on. Seriously, keep your scissors hidden and don’t say you weren’t warned.
5. They dance. Do you know the expression, “Dance like nobody’s watching”? They do that. Except for the all the times when they want to make damn sure that someone is watching.
6. They sing. They break into song at the drop of a hat. Anytime. Anywhere. Even in the bathroom. Who are we kidding? Especially in the bathroom.
7. They hum. Little children hum to themselves quite a bit. Why do they hum? Because they can’t whistle.
8. They say what they mean. They speak their mind. They don’t need to get anything off their chests because they’ve already said everything they needed to in the first place. If adults did that, there would be a lot less drinking on New Years Eve.
9. They get excited. They get so excited! {But have a hard time understanding the “future,” so be careful when you tell your son his birthday is coming up… in a couple months.}
10. They don’t care if it’s new. A child’s favourite movies are the ones they’ve seen again and again. Their favourite books are the ones they’ve been read over and over. And if they have a favourite outfit, they’ll want to wear it every day. But adults? We’re obsessed with new. We want to be the first to eat in a new restaurant, see a new movie or wear a designer’s new “It” bag. Adults are really annoying like that.
11. They stop and smell the roses. They’re big on smelling things. Of course, the irony is that so many small children aren’t potty trained and don’t seem to give a sh*t about their own you-know-what.
12. They don’t discriminate. Until taught otherwise, they’re accepting of everyone. Well, everyone except babies. The number one insult from a small child is being called a “baby.”
13. They admit when they’re scared. This lets us help them alleviate their fears. Sometimes, the solution is as easy as turning on a night-light. If only all of our fears could be solved by turning on a night-light.
14. They accept compliments. When you give a child a compliment, she’ll probably answer with either “thank you,” or “I know.”
15. They nap. They may go into it kicking and screaming, but most little children nap and wake up new-and-improved. We’d all be a little better off if we napped. {And richer, too, since we’d spend a whole lot
less money on coffee.}
16. They go to bed early. But it’s not by choice and it takes a lot of effort on our part because they actually believe the expression “you snooze, you lose.”
17. They engage. Psychologists call immersing oneself fully into an activity the secret to happiness. They call it “flow.” Children often become so deeply engrossed in what they’re doing that they don’t hear you when you call them. Tip: If they don’t answer to their name, try whispering the words “chocolate chip cookie.”
18. They march to the beat of their own drum. Literally. Little kids can often be found marching around their houses banging on things.

{Source: Huffington Post /


http://augment5.com/video/32079284
I love these films from In the Moment Photography
on Facebook

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right.”
~ Marianne Williamson ~


╔══ღ═════╗
• ✿ღℓ σ √ ε ღ✿ܓ
• ╚═════ღ══╝smilesssss:))))))Hugs
Life is a gift,and it offers us the privilege,
opportunity,and responsibility
to give something back by helping others
ourselves by becoming something more

Maneki Neko is Japanese for "beckoning cat". Legend has it that a wealthy man was caught in a storm and took refuge under a large tree near a temple. As he stood there he noticed that a cat, near the temple gates, was beckoning him to come inside. In awe, the man moved from under the tree to get a closer look. As soon as the many moved away from under the tree, it was struck by lightning.

The wealthy man felt his life was saved by the cat that day, he became friends with the poor temple priest and his beckoning cat. The priest and cat never went hungry again.

Placing a beckoning cat in a business, home or other place gives a message to people, "come in, you are welcome here".

Photograph and text from Land of the Rising sun on Facebook



≧◡≦Cats are connoisseurs of comfort!≧◡≦
An adventurous life does not necessarily mean climbing mountains, swimming with sharks or jumping off cliffs. It means risking yourself by leaving a little piece of you behind in all those you meet along the way. ~author unknown

Friday 29 August 2014

Welcome to the world Delilah



Delilah Khuong
Born August 29th at 12:25am
8 lbs 13 oz, 20.5 inches long

My beautiful friend Nia and her husband Chris and their gorgeous family
have welcomed their 4th child into the world another Princess to love.

Blessings from above.

A child is a gift from above
One to cherish and adore
One to love.

Congratulations to you all




✿*´¨)*
¸.•*¸.• ✿´¨).• ✿¨)
(¸.•´*(¸.•´*(.¸. •*I hope your day is fabulous. 
Hugs always!
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Weekend weekend cha cha cha

Happy Labour Day Weekend everyone

I hope it is a safe and happy one







"The real source of inner strength and self-confidence is warm-heartedness."




♡═════════ღ❣•*¨*•.¸¸(͡๏̯͡๏)¸¸.•*¨*•❣ღ═════════♡

░L░I░V░E░░L░A░U░G░H░░L░O░V░E░ 

♡═══════ (͡๏̯͡๏) ═══════♡


and enjoy your weekend

Flowers on my table
this photograph courtesy of me all the rest
are from Facebook


Mellow Yellow


I love flowering tea
this is japanese flowering cherry blossom tea
from Geisha moments on Facebook

Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away. ~Elbert Hubbard


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6PvjSg3d0E&app=desktop

Thanks my lovely Cheryl for always putting a song in my heart
I love you so very much

☆¸¸.•*`*•.♪♪♫☆☼♡ ♡ℒℴѵℯ♡

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpP6dTtTOpc

Love this


“The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, 
your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. 
Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. 
Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”
~Norman Vincent Peale❥

Thursday 28 August 2014

Garlic Lemon Chicken

GARLIC & LEMON CHICKEN WITH RED POTATOES & GREEN BEANS !
(Gluten free. Low Carb, Diabetic Friendly and so simple to make)

INGREDIENTS
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound trimmed green beans
8 small red potatoes, quartered
4 chicken breasts
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400°F ( 180). Coat a large baking dish or cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.
In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the chicken, green beans and potatoes and toss to coat. Pour this mix into the pan and spread around evenly.
Roast for 50 minutes or until cooked through. Serve warm.

My cousin Wendy has made this delicious meal for us................
It is wonderful indeed.

Recipe also seen on Facebook

http://www.jwustudio.com/
I love the creations of Justin Wu

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻ღϠ₡ღ¸Thought for Today✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ
"The most wonderful places to be in the world are: In Someone’s thoughts. In Someone’s prayers. And in Someone’s heart."´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

✿*´¨)*
¸.•*¸.• ✿´¨).• ✿¨)
(¸.•´*(¸.•´*(.¸. •*Have a fabulous day in every way 
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Milky way over Yellowstone
Beautiful


☆`º○`☆Too sweet for words!☆`º○`☆ 


I love the illustrations of Inge Look


Summer Breeze

Today I send you to Shanghai


http://www.shangri-la.com/shanghai/pudongshangrila/


Wellness check








"What lies behind us and 
what lies before us 
are tiny matters compared 
to what lies within us."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

..




Photographs are from Facebook and Pinterest


Autumn holds more gold in its pocket than any other season

Attitude is everything!
Photo: Attitude is everything!


From the John Tesh site on Facebook