About

Hello! My name is Steph and I reside in the lovely San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up. Thank you for stopping by my blog…here’s some more about me!

Why I Blog

This blog began almost 1.5 years after the birth of my twin girls, Sophie and Sarah. At that time, I was just starting to come up for air, and even when I was exhausted, found that I could not sleep. I stayed awake, thinking of things that made me happy. This was a huge change from the period shortly after their birth, when I was dealing with something really negative…it took me 1.5 years to start letting it go and to forgive, if only inside of me. And while today I still deal with this negativity, my insomniatic thoughts have turned from sad and angry to happy and hopeful.

My blog was started to capture the happy and hopeful. Blogging has helped me focus on the positive. It is a thank you to God for His many blessings in my life, which consists mainly of my two little girls and my Lo Gung (which means “husband” in Cantonese).

Crafting

I’m also a crafter…have been for a long time! My mom taught me how to sew in elementary school, and my favorite thing to make was throw pillows for my bed (which my mom kept and are still at her house today). In high school I loved sewing clothes. My mom and I also took a lot of other craft classes together thoughout the years.

I put my crafts away starting in college. Thirteen years later I became engaged to my Lo Gung. As I planned our wedding, the craft bug bit me and I made many wedding elements myself, such as my invitations and my veil. After that, I was in wedding withdrawl and started a bridal jewelry business for two years, until I became pregnant with my girls in September 2006.

We’ve now moved from the city to the suburbs, and our home has a big spare bedroom where I’ve set up a craft corner to be next to my girls while they play. And now that they are more independent (and can understand things like “Don’t touch!”) I’m so excited to be crafting again!

Crafting is a joy to me. I feel immense satisfaction when I figure out a new design. I love the process of learning what works and what doesn’t. Some think it’s frivolous…yeah I can see why. And some have said to me that crafting is a waste of energy. On the contrary, I find so much energy from it. I am so happy to share my crafts with you in this blog, even if I can only craft 10 minutes every few days!

PS I’ve moved most of my craft tutorials to my craft blog, The Silly Pearl.

Silly Precious Piggies

I call my girls “The Piggies” because they were born in the Year of the Pig. But as a kid, I was also called various piggy-themed nicknames, even though I was born in the Year of the Rat. When I was born, I was really round and chubby, so my family called me “Fay Jee NOOT!” In my grandmother’s dialect (Toishanese), this meant “Fat Pig Roll”. This went away, thank goodness. Then my mom later called me her “Jee Jai”, which in Cantonese means “Piglet”, but she meant it to mean ”Pearl” or “Precious”. Sometimes, she would put “Soh” in front of it (so “Soh Jee Jai”). “Soh” means “Silly”. So roughly translated: “Silly Precious” or “Silly Pearl”. Or, “Silly Piglet”. Mishmashed together: Silly Precious Piggies.

Thank you for visiting my blog!