My Cat is a Bus

Happy Halloween presenting my cat, Yun Yun as the Catbus! This year’s costume is from Miyazaki’s animated film My Neighbor Totoro. It is a classic children film about two sisters’ discovery of magical creatures and the adventures they have together. Definitely a CUTE movie … just like my kitties:) So I’m excited to dress up my cats as the Catbus and Totoro. They have the perfect resemblance and spirit of these characters.

Making the costumes was the most fun and I’m happy it turned out so well. I know dressing Bumbe as Totoro will be simple. He is already fat and grey. So I just plucked a leaf, taped it to his head and done! For the Catbus costume, I had to cut out felt fabric and cardboard, added extra legs, sewn and hot glued everything together. Plus the little mice with sparkly eyes act as headlights, which made for the perfect finishing touches. I think this is their best costumes yet! (Although Bumbe and Yun Yun look cute in their other homemade costumes too!)

Can’t wait to see everyone’s Halloween costumes!

Celebrating Moon Festival

Happy Moon Festival! This year I am making an effort to celebrate Moon Festival on my own. Since moving away from home for a few years now, certain holidays have just been casually acknowledged. Moon Festival is such a great holiday to bring family and friends together, it is definitely a tradition I want to keep and pass along. In my childhood, we will lay out fruits, tea, and mooncakes on a table by an open window facing the moon. At night, mom will gather us together to observe the bright, beautiful full moon with lit lanterns and candles. Then we’ll go ahead and eat throughout the night until bedtime. In my nostalgic endeavor, Yip and I went to the Asian markets to buy mooncakes and an assortment of fruits. Here are some festive fruits we got:

Longan “Dragon Eye” (Doesn’t it look like an eyeball with its lacquered black seed)

Star Fruit

Dragon Fruit

Lotus seed paste and egg yolk mooncakes are Yip’s favorites. Most friends I know simply eat a slice and we are good for the year! Yip is the only one I know who can eat a whole box of mooncakes by himself! So it was difficult for him to wait and not eat them before I got to perform all my celebratory duties like taking these pictures. We celebrated in our community Movie in the Park event. Instead of lanterns, kids here were running around with glow sticks:) With the beautiful moon in sight, we had a little picnic with mooncake and fruits while watching Back to the Future.

Happy Birthday Bumbe

April 1st is my cat Bumbe’s birthday! It is no joke, although he probably thinks we’re fooling him every year. Bumbe is 7 years old today! And I’d like to share with you 7 interesting facts about my cat.

1. Bumbe has a Chinese name, Juebalbal (珠波波). We call him that at home.
2. We adopted him from the SPCA, due to returning a sick kitten.
3. During his first year, Bumbe had another cat roommate named Tigey. Then mom and dad decided to live together.
4. He is a star in a college newspaper comic strip entitled, Bumbe the Cat.
5. Every night 10 minutes before midnight, Bumbe always remind me it is bedtime and cuddle time.
6. He is toilet trained!
7. Bumbe snores! Loud!

Here are some pictures from his birthday party. Usually we only have one other cat, Yun Yun the guest of honor, at the party. This time we included more kitty guests! Well…make believe ones. Anyways, Happy Birthday Bumbe!

Cute and awkward picture together:) They were extremely tolerant of the whole shenanigan. Perhaps years of posing in outfits for me. Cat party inspired by Oh Happy Day with lots of fun, cute party ideas and hats.

Happy Birthday Bumbe!

Take a look at my cat’s previous birthday looks from my very first post! Yip bought me and Bumbe an elegant lady cake to celebrate:D

Purrfect Costumes for Cats

Halloween is starting to become one of my favorite holidays. When I was growing up, my family would turned OFF the lights on Halloween, no dressing up and no trick-or-treating. Since going off to college, I started to include Halloweeny culture in my life. Honestly Halloween specials on tv are the best and hilarious! Black cats are so cool and come on…FREE candies, especially chocolate! I love pumpkins too! The main thing that really got me into celebrating Halloween is how crafty and creative everyone gets with their costumes.

I have to admit, I am an extremely last minute person when it comes to dressing up for Halloween. Usually, it’s sort of whatever in the closet/play it safe kind of costume. But I do make up for the lack of scary spirit with awesome cat costumes. That is Halloween costume for my cats! Can’t get cuter than dress-up pets:D

Here is a collection of homemade costumes :

Little Red Riding Hood Kitten

Cat with Wings

Bumbe as the White Rabbit, Yun Yun as Alice

Alice in the Wonderland- Cat Version

Pumpkin Hats

This year I thought of the perfect costumes for my cats. It is still in process, I will manage to get it done and carved a jack ‘o’ lantern too by Oct 31st. Come back to see what Bumbe and Yun Yun are dressed as!

Happy Birthday to Yun Yun!

My cat Yun Yun is 5 years old today! To the kitty who never sit stills, sweet, curious, and always up to something: Happy Birthday! We got Yun Yun when she was 3 months old at the SPCA. She was a tiny kitty with a squishy face and beautiful colors. Yun Yun just brings a lot of amusing moments into our daily lives and is a very special member of our family. For her birthday, I made her a pink princess strawberry cake.

Cake didn’t turn out so good. It was too hot, everything just ended up melting:( The ball and string is Yun Yun’s new favorite toy.

Let’s make a wish! You’re a big kitty now

Easter Egg Hunt

Happy Easter! Yesterday, we went to my friend, Wendy’s birthday/Easter party. We had an Easter Egg hunt for adults. The little girls from across the street helped to hide the eggs, while us older people searched. To make the hunting more difficult, some eggs were spray painted brown and they camouflaged really well in the garden. It was not easy to find. I don’t know how Bodie, Wendy’s dog found 2 eggs even before the game started. After the egg hunt, we sure worked up an appetite.

Delicious dinner with ham, butternut squash, potato salad, grilled veggies, potsticker, and green jello. My favorite part, dessert! Rocky road chocolate cake, Blackberry polenta cake, Strawberry & rhubarb pie

Bodie, the 11 years old Anatolian dog with bunny ears and happy smiles.

Someone left their Easter egg treats and I got stuck taking home the candies:) Well, I ended up getting a few extra chickies for my cat to play with.

Davis Farmer’s Market – Pig Day Out

Recently, I have an obsession with pigs due to my local farmer’s market celebration of National Pig Day. Every year in March, Davis Farmer’s Market throws a pig theme party. There are pig shaped bake goods such as sweet bread and cookies. Also plenty of pig relates food for sale like bbq ribs, pigs in a blanket, pulled-pork sandwiches, and mmm mmm BACON. For children, there are craft tables where they can make themselves pink pig noses and girls can get their hair braided in cute pigtails. Oh and I can’t forget, the little piggy petting zoo:) It’s a fun activity for family and friends to meet up for a picnic in the park.

Taking a pig balloon back home to enjoy. Stay tuned for my recipe for sweet pig shaped buns.