A Piece of My Dreams

I've been painting since I was a little girl. It's one of those things where I can be who I am and use my imagination take its own course. It's very relaxing, too... My daughters JuJu and Soapy love it when a new painting is placed on my chair in the morning - they get so excited and give me a feedback and they're pretty acurate.

For some of my new readers : Five years ago, I gave one of my paitning to my brother in law as a Christmas gift. People who saw it loved my work and several friends asked me to paint something for them. That's when I started thinking about turning my passion into a profession. Last year December after carefully designing and organizing for eight months, I launched my own business: It's called "Barefoot Chic Design" and you can click on my logo on the right sidebar if you would like to check out the website...

I still have my part time job, but I am slowly, but surely heading towards my goal which is to have my business as my full time job. I would really love to be a stay at home mom again (I was a house wife for six years until the fall of 2008) and do what I love the best - Painting.

The photo above is my new creation "Hope" that I painted for a giveaway that's going on right now over at my dear friend Dionne's blog. Please head over there and enter if you would like.

With all of the things going on in my life and around the world, I tend to cling on the word, "Hope" - I think it's such a beautiful word, don't you agree? I always look up in the sky and hope....

Hope you're having a lovely day!

The Price of Beauty

This is how I look (my body) minus the face.


I just finished watching Jessica Simpson's "The Price of Beauty" on Vh1. She travels around the world to see what is considered "beautiful" in different cultures. I'm not a big fan of Jessica Simpson, but I also feel horrible about the way she was treated by media about her weight a while back - and I think she's trying to prove the world that beautiy comes from the inside and not on the outside...

So what is beauty? What do you consider "beautiful"? Some people may call me crazy (including my husband), but I have struggled with my own body image for the longest time. I've always been thin and that has been part of my insecurities since I moved to the U.S. I hate my arms and my friends say I'm thin like a tooth pick - I hate it. I want to have a curvy body - but no matter how hard I work out, I will never get those curvy body :( If anything my body totally resembles of Posh Spice/VB's body. You know how people talk about her - how skinny she is or she must not eat any food or looks like anorexic... I agree, if you see her pic of years and years ago, she does look like she has some weight on her compare to now. If you look at my high school pictures, I have a bit more round face (meat on my cheek) - but the whole body frame hasn't changed a lot. My trainer at the gym is build like me - very slender and you wouldn't think she's a trainer. She's told me many many times before that I need to embrace my body frame because it won't change no matter what I did.. I do love certain parts of my body though, especailly my butt.

With that said, I love the bodies of these three actresses. They are not curvy like Scarlett Johansson or Penelope Cruz, but their bodies are beautiful! I go to gym and work out hoping to achieve healthy looking body like theirs..

Cameron Diaz



Jennifer Aniston

Kate Beckinsale

So, what defines "beauty" in your dictionary???

My Love for Soccer

This is one of my favorite photo of David - oh that smile...

Every country has their favorite sports that they grow up watching and playing with. In the U.S., people go crazy over football and bascketball and baseball. In Japan, we go goo goo gaga over soccer and baseball. I gew up watching and going to see so many soccer and baseball games and I must admit soccer is one of my favorite sports of all time. I remember standing in the cold winter day - cheering and screaming for Europe's two best teams playing at the National Stadium in Tokyo. Or I cheered for Japan for their first attempt to appear at the World Cup in 1994 only to lose at the qualification final game - us Japanese people call it "The Agony of Doha - Doha no higeki-" We were zombies the next day in despair..

Thankfully, Japan has been apearing the World Cup for the past three games as well as this year's World Cup in South Africa. I'm very very excited about this year's World Cup - except, I just found out that my idol David Beckham ruptured his Achilles tendon and he will miss his last World Cup appearance - I'm devastated.

I've been a huge fan of David long before he came to U.S. to play for LA Gallaxy or long before he became Posh Spice's husband. He was just a young and awesome soccer player. I'm a bit sad about his status nowadays he is more of a Hollywood star than a true soccer player, but I know in his heart, his true passion is to chase the ball....

I would have loved to see him play for the last time at the World Cup - he's still young, but not young enough to play at his national team in four years. There are plenty young breed waiting to play in the big stage. I'm really really disappointed and sad about this.

But I will cheer for Japan and JT's favorite team Italy.

I took this photo while watching the World Cup 4 years ago on TV at home - Beckham was about to come out to the field and I grabbed my camera and took this picture. The look on his face is something people don't get to see if you're not a soccer fan.

Aw that tattoo covered arms. So sexy.

People made fun of this ad and I could understand why. LOL.

He says he is a lucky man to have his wife - I say Posh Spice is damn lucky to have him as a husband.

So, are you a soccer fan???

Alice In Wonderland

Johnny Depp - The Mad Hatter

Have you seen the film "Alice in Wonderland"???? I've been wanting to go to see it, but I have not found the chance nor partner to see it. I thought about taking my daughters with me, but I think it's a bit graphic and scary for them.

JT loves Tim Burton's films and he's seen many of TB's work. Too bad he's not here to take me right now. I think this movie will be incredible - just looking at the still photography, I get so excited - the images are amazing. Johnny Depp has done many films that cater to young children these days since he became a father. I laugh every time when people talk about "Alice in Wonderland" - "Oh, it's not suitable for kids. They must have made the movie when they were high on drugs. All the mashrooms and hallucination. It's freaky!" Maybe true, maybe not. But I've always loved the story and I can't wait to see the new version of it!!!

Yup, that mashrooms!!!!

Anne Hathaway - The White Queen

Helena Bonham Carter - The Red Queen

Mia Wasikowsa - Alice

New Official Full Trailer

So, what do you think? Do you think you will see this movie???

V-cast : "One Fine Day"

It's been forever since the weather here in FL got warm up in the 70's. We got to wear short sleeves dresses today and we decided to drive down to downtown and walk around the streets. I had my Flipcam with me, so here are some of the video clips - visiting our favorite yogurt store "White Berry" -> beach "Lido Beach" -> our favorite Italian restaurant "Epicure". We didn't get to do this for awhile (that's how much the weather has been chilly in FL) - so I decided to do everything all at once... I think it's okay to have a nice day like this sometimes, right? I was very happy to spend the carefree evening with my daughters.. :)

Enjoy the videos!

w/ Love - New Makeover

Some of you already know that I created a new business blog last year. I tried to keep two blogs going at the same time, but it's becoming totally hard. So, I've decided to combine the two. For the next week or so, you'll be seeing changes in my blog. I will be writing not only about my life with my family and friends, but I'll talk about my new business that I started past December and show you my artwork along with it.

I hope you'll like the change and continue to read my blog - I truly hope so!!!! I'm very excited about this...

By the way, did you watch Oscar??? Oh I must tell you, I enjoyed it very much. I'm planning to talk about it tomorrow:)

Have a fabulous week darlings!

xoxo

I Don't Know What I Would Do Without You....

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver is over. I'm really really sad about this. I always hear that the tv ratings get lower and lower every Olympic, but I can't believe it's true. I believe this Winter Games is one of the best olympics I ever saw. I love both Summer and Winter Olympis, but this Olympics was exceptionally exciting (except a few days last week when I decided not to turn on TV) - I coudn't wait to sit on my couch and totally gazed into the sports. There was a tragedy the day of Opening Ceremony when they lost a luger, but I think the pain and the sadness of losing the fellow athlete transformed all of the asthletes to performed better.... I respect all of the Olympians because of the endurance and strength they have - sports are amazing....

By the way, Happy Birthday Soapy!!! Today (March 1st) is my little baby Soapy's birthday - she is now "4"!!! I planned a bowling party for her with only close family and friends on Sunday, but sadly, Soapy got really sick... She only watched us play while she laid on my lap. Then we headed to dinner, but again she slept through the whole dinner. So, we decided not to open her gifts and celebrate again at grandma's the next day because we really want her to be happy turning 4... I can't wait to see her face all lit up tomorrow night!!!

So, did you watch the Olympics???? Hope you had a nice weekend!

xoxo