Tiny Iron Fists

A Big Hit: Whale Cookies!

For Lulu's second birthday, I knew that we didn't want to schlep a birthday cake out to the beach. So I decided to bake cookies instead. I knew I wanted to make whale cookies but having never baked anything that required serious icing skills, I turned to my sisters Kiki and Kaly for help. I showed them the cookie I liked, that I found online for $10 a piece. That's right. $10 per cookie (who the hell pays for that anyway)?!

The Hong sisters decided to bake our own cookies to save money. In the end, it took five adults and half a day to make 100 cookies for our guests. While labor intensive, the cookies turned out super cute and very tasty (says our guests). Following are the recipes we used to create our own whale cookies for much, much less than $10 a pop. Good luck making your own.

Warning: royal icing and flooding is a pain in the ass!

Joy of Baking's Shortbread Cookie Recipe:

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

Shortbreads: In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated.  Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour or until firm. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch (.6 cm) thick circle.  Cut into rounds or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter.  Place on the prepared baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. (This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.) Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Shortbread cookies with keep in an airtight container for about a week or they can be frozen.

Makes about 20 shortbread cookies.

 

Kiki / A Blithe Palate's Royal Icing Recipe:

3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted so lumps are removed
2 large egg whites (or equivalent with pasteurized egg whites)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Beat the sugar with the egg whites until it gets thick.  Add sugar to thicken if it still sems too thin.  Add in the lemon juice and blend well. The finished icing should be shiny and thick - separate into different bowls and color, adding one drop at a time to get desired colors.

This recipe makes icing that hardens fast; cover when you're not using the icing.

 

Additional supplies:

Whale Cookie Cutter

Icing Eyes White (1/2 inch)

Self Sealing Cello Bags (4 x 6 inch)

 

Also very helpful was Cake Journal's How to Flood Cookies With Royal Icing instructions. Her beautiful photographs and simple tips are brilliant. While flooding royal icing is much harder and labor intensive than it seems, I'm sure with a lot of practice every cookie can eventually look as perfect as Cake Journal's.

Rainbow Bright!

Lulu wanted to rock some hardware and dress all girlie today so we busted out all her fine necklaces (she opted not to wear her bracelets). This is the best I could do. Girlie, right?!

Outfit: Polarn O. Pyret dress, DPAM leggings, and Native Corrado shoes.

The Skull Session(s)

Lulu had fun collaborating with Silvio on a piece titled, "Tête de Mort", one of her new favorite words/phrases. Maybe this work will turn into a series. Who should get the first piece?!

Outfit: Polarn O. Pyret dress and Hello Kitty underwear.

Kidding Around at Dwell on Design

   

While many media outlets are going to cover all the buzzworthy,  green, and delightfully designed housewares and pre-fab architecture at Dwell on Design, I'm going to wax poetic about how kid-friendly the home and design expo was.

It's been five years since our kitchen was featured in Dwell magazine. And in those five years, a lot has changed, yet much remains the same. We still dig clean, good and innovative design but now, eco-friendly products are more important to us. Why? Because we added Lulu to our team and we actually pay more attention to what we bring home now.

Cruising through the Los Angeles Convention Center, I noticed that more vendors have added kids' products to their furniture lines. More so than in years past. Or maybe I'm focusing on the kid stuff now that I've got a tyke of my own. For what it's worth, children seemed to be welcomed and encouraged to hang out at many of the booths (including the environmentally sound Unearthed Purely Natural Paints).

Lulu had a great time. The hip chicken shacks with live chickens were very exciting to her and the Modern Family Zone (curated by Inhabitots) was a great place for her to shake off some energy. After hearing me say, "please don't touch that" several times, Lulu was happy to have a space that she could climb, touch, jump, and mess around in, freely. She was not alone. All the young turks enjoyed the children's lounge furniture and toys.

To close out a great morning, Lulu won a Green Toys firetruck in an Inhabitots giveaway, thanks to her Tata Carly (who dropped in a business card for us when I hadn't brought any).

Next year, I hope to see you and more families enjoying the future of design! In the meantime, here's a little slideshow of 2011's expo:

Outfit: Polarn O. Pyret dress and Native Corrado shoes.

California Sunshine. Ekoh Generation.

Meet my friend Sunshine, one of the first three friends I made in LA, beautiful woman, inspirational mom, and Brand Specialist for Dwell on Design. I met her in 1996 when we both strayed from career work to hang out in a Dogtown coffee shop/Japanese record store/performance art space for the summer. It was a great summer.

Fast forward 15 years. Meet Ekoh, Sunshine's wonderful daughter. She and Lulu are buds. Even though they've moved away, we are so lucky to have them in our lives, still. Life is beautiful.

Outfit: Keiki Kruisers Mo'o Lio t-shirt.

Give Me a Handstand!

Michelle dared me to do handstands for her birthday. I hadn't done one in years but I knew I still could. For me, it's like riding a bike... and for someone who spent a lot of years upside down, it all came back easily and naturally. It took me a couple of kicks but I got up quickly. Not bad for someone nearing a 39th birthday!

I was having so much fun, Lulu asked me to help her do a handstand to, so I scooped up her legs and held her upside down. She's been wheel barreling since since six months and is a natural gymnast. I'm confident Lulu's inherited my daredevil tumbling genes.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to do a handstand, go for it. It's simple. It's fun. It's easy. Here's a pretty cool tutorial if you want to start practicing in your living room:

Laurie Lipton and Lulu

How lucky are we to be invited to artist, Laurie Lipton's studio for tea and a visit?! She kept us laughing with anecdotes of her new life in Los Angeles including stories of building furniture from scratch, the inhabitants, the cars, and the abundant sunlight which makes this former London-resident want to go outside to play instead of staying inside to work. It's a good thing, Laurie's pretty damn dedicated to her craft.

Seen above, Laurie points out an exception (a little secret) in her 2007 work, "Delusion Dwellers" to Lulu. The pencil and charcoal work is mind-blowing up close and in person and just when you think it's impossible for Laurie to draw more, upon closer inspection, there's a whole 'nother level of work to process. I can't imagine the kind of patience it takes to create such work (and such a large body of it); patience must be one of her virtues.

The New York-born artist has fallen in love with the City of Angels. High five, LA for bringing us another creative force to reckon with. And welcome, Laurie. We are so happy to have you here!

Life on the Ledge

Every day, several times a day, Lulu climbs up on one of two chairs and walks back and forth across our dressers on a 12" ledge. She plays with the toys on our shelves (including my office equipment) and often teeters on the edge. Yet, she's never fallen. Like me, she has an incredible sense of balance. And everything they say about children being natural born climbers, is true.

Of course friends who see Lulu climb the dressers, get all pointy-fingered and worried but they know me better. More importantly, they know that Lulu understands the deal. Even though accidents happen, she actually understands that if she falls, she can hurt herself.

Lulu looks like a 1000% Kubrick toy or life-sized doll floating on our dresser. She's having so much fun playing quietly. I really like this image.

Outfit: Rabbit Moon dress and Juicy Couture bottoms.

Sweet... Books and Cookies in Santa Monica!

We finally visited Books and Cookies, a book store, bakery, and enrichment center on Main Street (a few blocks from home) today. They opened doors exactly one month ago and since I've been traveling and recently hosted two large, back-to-back parties, we haven't had a chance to visit until now. And the kids' space totally lived up to my expectations.

Upon entry, you're smacked in the face with the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies and greeted by the friendly staff, including former teacher and owner Chudney Ross. The shop is a little warm with the kitchen sandwiched between the library and cafeteria area, but it's not uncomfortable. In fact, it's very inviting. The  space feels welcoming and for once, children are encouraged to climb, sit, crawl, push, and enjoy the space as they please (with parental guidance, of course).

After reading several books in a few comfy nooks, Lulu had fun exploring the space (especially enjoying the teepee) and eventually settled down to snack on a tasty cheese sandwich, juice, and milk. Then she danced a bit in the activity room with a few other kids. I had to drag her out to head home for nap time.

Books and Cookies is a great addition to our neighborhood. Now one of our new favorite places is home to two of our favorite things. Anyone want to meet us in the neighborhood? Holla!

Outfit: Rabbit Moon dress, Juicy Couture bottoms, and shoes were a gift from China.

Crazy Horse Lover

Oh Lulu. Must you kiss the scarecrow-horse across the street too?!

Outfit: Tea Collection flamenco dot pocket dress and gifted shoes from Asia.

Happy!

Grimace the Menace

 

Lulu's obsessed with grimacing now when I point the camera at her. My sister Hani says all kids go through this phase. It's been a couple of months and I hope it passes quickly. 'Cause even though it's cute, it makes all of Lulu's new pictures look weird upon further inspection. Like, check out the big-sized bottom left photo -- she's cute from afar but looks like Diablo up close. Whereas in the top right photo, her natural smile is so much sweeter. At least Lulu has cute chicklets for teeth!

Outfit: Gymboree sleepwear top, American Apparel infant cotton spandex jersey legging, and Native Corrado shoes.

LMPP'S Dogtown Digs

Here's a sneak peek at Lulu's Dogtown digs (it was totally inspired by our surf/skate neighborhood and all the outsider artists we know). I'm not exactly sure what constitutes a nursery, but I guess it's that too. Lulu's room has been a work in progress for over a year and we finally finished it this week. While there are still a few things to tweak, it's pretty much done now. I've never seen another room like it and I'm stoked with how it's turned out.

If you follow the kick ass kid's shelter blog, ohdeedoh, they'll be profiling it soon. I'm also trying to catalog everything in her room for a future post, but since some of you have been following the room's progress, I thought you'd enjoy a look now.

Thank you to all our artist pals for the art on her wall and to all our friends for picking up such unique gifts for Lulu. It goes without saying that our kid is loved and one lucky little gal!

Lulu's 2nd Birthday Beachnic!

 

Lulu turned two while we were in Florida. Since we did not get to properly celebrate her first birthday last year with local friends and family, we invited everyone out to the beach for a morning picnic this time. Thank you to everyone who marked the occasion with us. It was a blast. We had so much fun in the sun and sand with you.

Happy Birthday, Tiny Iron Fists! We love you!

Lulu's Second Birthday!

 

Mang, I can't believe another year has passed so quickly! It seems like only yesterday... ZOMG. Quit it! I'm beginning to sound like all my old ass relatives who hem and haw about the past and how quickly time's flown by... and here I am, doing the same dreaded thing!

This year, for Lulu's birthday, we found ourselves in Florida for much happier occasions. My beautiful cousin Michelle was getting married, we were commemorating my dad's one year death anniversary, and we were going to celebrate Lulu's second birthday with her cousins.

Our family really enjoyed today's milestone and the party was a blast. It was utterly loud and a bit chaotic with so many generations under one roof, but for our famiy, it was perfect and fun. While the amazing cake was amazing, the icing on the cake was the delicious home-cooked spread (pate chaud, fried rice, pho, etc.).

We celebrated Lulu's second birthday with Vietnamese food, a kick ass Hello Kitty cake made by my Aunt 8, a lot of family, and an eventual visit to the water park. It was a fantastico day.

Happy birthday, Lulu... people are nuts about you, kiddo!