~20~ Blogger Behind The Screen (Part 2)

A few weeks ago, I started to interject some posts about me amidst the crafting posts. If you missed Part 1, you can find it HERE.

Lake Harriet & the Bandshell

As you might remember from my first "Blogger behind the screen" post, I grew up in Minneapolis, MN.  And when I say that, I really and truly mean the city of Minneapolis, and not a suburb (like Edina, Fridley, Chaska, Burnsville, Woodbury).   I may be a little bit biased, but I honestly think that Minneapolis is one of the best cities to live in.  I love everything about it: the lakes, the parks, the lakes, the restaurants, the lakes, the theater and the arts, oh-and did I mention the lakes?  Some of my fondest memories growing up occurred at or around the lakes.  The house that I grew up in was only about a mile from Lake Harriet and every summer, my dad and I would go for bike rides around the lake together.  Summers were also spent down at the lake where we'd go swimming, visit the gnome who lived in the tree by the outhouses-leave him a letter and come back a few weeks later to see if he'd written back, buy ice cream cones at the bandshell and listen to live, free concerts.  And of course, we'd ride the trolley, one of the old historical street cars that would run throughout Minneapolis back in the day.  When Jake and I got engaged and were planning our wedding, I knew that I wanted to make Lake Harriet a part of our day-and be able to show our out-of-town friends why I love my hometown so much.  As it would happen, some of my favorite pictures from our wedding were taken at the lake.

Wedding Party Picture on the Trolley

Aside from the lakes and the great parks that Minneapolis has to offer, they also have a great art scene.  Love and support for the arts is very evident in Minneapolis culture, and I'm extremely grateful to have been exposed to and influenced by this!  In Minneapolis, public schools are organized by magnets in which each school specializes in a certain educational philosophy or program.  From kindergarten through 3rd grade, I attended an International Fine Arts magnet school, that emphasized language, music, dance, and theater.  Starting in 1st grade, all students are required to learn how to play a stringed instrument.  My instrument of choice: the violin. (weird, an Asian playing the violin, I know).  This little nuance of the school however, led me to continue playing the violin into my adult life.  Shortly after I started playing the violin at school, my parents enrolled me in private lessons, which led me to play in a city-wide, reputable orchestra, to receiving a music scholarship in college, and now playing as a member of an amateur adult orchestra in Iowa.   In addition to playing the violin, I also dabbled in piano, ballet, and was given a lot of exposure to great theater.  In high school, a city-wide program gave me the opportunity to attend several high quality, professional play performances at well known theater companies such as The Guthrie Theater, Theater in the Round, and The Jungle Theater for free with family and friends.  I honestly believe that had I not grown up in Minneapolis, I would not have the fortitude and fondness for arts that I do today.

Minneapolis is such a beautiful city that offers so much to anyone and everyone.  It is so much more than just the Mall of America, funny accents, and cold winters.  Minneapolis boasts diversity, Minnesota nice, architecture, a large business hub (did you know we're home to Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, Gold Medal Flour, Kelloggs, and several other HUGE national companies??), and of course, we cannot forget, stunning nature.  Minneapolis is home.  It always has been and always will be for me.  One of my absolute favorite things is when I drive home from IA and come up over the hill on I-35 and see downtown Minneapolis all lit up.  It's then that I know I'm home.

~16~Blogger Behind the Screen (Part 1)

Now that we're 15 posts in, I thought it might be time to have an interlude from all of the crafting and tell you a little more about the blogger behind the screen: Me!  And of course, what better place to start than the very beginning.  Now in general I would say that I live a pretty boring and average life.  Nothing all that exciting or out of the ordinary happens to me.  However, I do have one noteworthy story; and I'm talking the kind of story that is 1 in a million and would get you on reality T.V. shows like Amazing Race and Survivor, just because it's so amazing! (Ok, time for me to go eat some humble pie.)

My Family

When I was just over 4 months old, I was adopted from a small province in South Korea by 2 loving Minnesotans who like any new parents, were very excited to be bringing home a baby girl.  Unexpectedly though, I arrived 2 months early.  I was originally supposed to arrive in October, but a baby slotted to be in the cohort of August adoptees got sick and I got his/her spot.  My mom got the call letting them know I was on my way just 2 DAYS before my arrival.  I landed in Minneapolis on August 8, 1985, welcomed by a very eager family.

Fast forward 3 years.  Like many toddler girls, I was enrolled in a local pre-school gymnastics class.  Among the other girls was another cute little asian girl, named Lauren, who also had a caucasian mom.  Moms being moms, they asked each other what nationality their girls were and found out that both of us were adopted from South Korea.  In my family, adoption day is equivalent to a birthday, so naturally that realization lead to my mom asking when Lauren's adoption day was.  Amazingly, it was also August 8, 1985!!  Now adoption flights aren't exactly a dime a dozen, so it is safe to say that we had arrived not only on the same day, but on the same plane. (This was later proved using family video footage of the arrival at the airport as well as pictures)

And it doesn't end there!  Many people of Scandinavian descent have a skin condition called Vitiligo, in which pigment in the skin is lost.   Both my mom and Lauren's mom have Vitiligo on their hands, which they noticed, but brushed off, chalking it up to being a common trait of their heritage.  The final piece to this story, is when Lauren's mom saw my mom's maiden name (which isn't common) on her checks and recalled having some distant relatives with that same name.  After a bit of research, it was confirmed.  My great, great grandpa, and Lauren's great, great grandpa (I think that's right) were brothers-making Lauren and I distant cousins.

Initially bonded by this tie, Lauren and I (as well as our moms) soon became best friends. We loved not only that we were connected through life circumstances, but also theoretically by blood.  We have always told people that we knew each other before we even knew our parents.  To this day, I am still amazed when I think about 2 little girls born to 2 different women, who end up traveling across the ocean on the same plane, arriving in the same state, living 2 miles from each other, enrolling in the same gymnastics class, and being distant cousins!  I mean seriously what are the chances of that happening?!

Lauren and I in 2007 at her going
away party before she left for D.C.

A few years later, Lauren and her family moved to another state due to a job transfer, but we remained very close friends-visiting each other once a year when we'd reunite for Korean Culture Camp, and as pen pals.  I still have several of Lauren's letters saved to this day.  I of course was delighted when Lauren moved back to Minneapolis prior to the start of 7th grade and we were able to really strengthen our friendship even more.   Our hope is to travel together back to Korea some day to see where we both started our lives and to potentially search for the people who initially made our current lives not only possible, but wonderful.  I couldn't imagine doing this with any other person (aside from my husband) because she truly is the only person who completely understands this desire and aspect of my life.

Over our 26-almost 27 year friendship, we have spent most of our lives living in separate states.  However,  no matter where we are, what we are doing, or how long it's been since we've seen each other, our bond has never wavered.   Lauren is not only my friend, she is and always will be my family.  

Sisterly Love

Lauren as my Maid of Honor 

~4~ Christmas Recap

Today, I wanted to take a minute while it was still somewhat relevant, to talk about Christmas.  Christmas is by far my favorite holiday.  I love the smell of fresh cut pine trees, the twinkling lights, and of course, spending time with family.  What I love most of all though, is baking!  There is just something about the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas that makes me want to bake.

Even though I'm adopted, I tell people that I inherited my baking skills from my paternal grandma and that it just runs in my blood.  My grandma Vicki, was very well known for her knack for baking all kinds of pies, which she passed on to my dad, who passed it on to me.  In addition to my dad, I also grew up baking with my sister-in-law, Sue.  Each year for many, many years, we would get together around Christmas and make cookies to give out to friends and neighbors.  Although we no longer bake cookies together, I still enjoy baking cookies in the few weeks prior to Christmas to give to our friends, and family members.

This year, I made 3 kinds of cookies-Frosted sugar cookies, Snickerdoodles, and White chocolate cherry shortbread cookies.  I was particularly excited to do sugar cookies this year because I discovered through Pinterest of course-a new website called, "Sweetopia", that showed a more polished way of frosting sugar cookies and how to use the feathering technique.  Instead of spreading on the frosting with a knife, you outline the cookie shape using royal frosting in a piping bag.  I used a #3 Wilton tip.  Then, you flood the inside of the outline with frosting and shake the cookie to even out the frosting and make it smooth.  To feather, line different color frostings next to each other and then use a toothpick to drag through it and intertwine the colors together.   When I was done with all of them, I was so happy with how they turned out!  I will definitely be doing sugar cookies this way from now on.

After making all of my cookies, I put them in a small plastic bag, and used scrap book paper and ribbon to seal the bag and make them look really pretty.

What Christmas/holiday traditions do you have?

P.S. For any of you who actually read my blog (do you exist yet??) and are wondering what ever became of my craft table-I was able to work on it more tonight, but haven't finished it quite yet.  I promise to post an update once it's done :)

Until next time,