Life Lately w/ the Yeh Girls // Part II

Hello! Erin here! I have been MIA, sorry.  Apartment renovation, wedding planning, and work has taken up most of my waking hours and I’m guilty to say that I’ve been spending much more time on my apartment than wedding planning.

My favorite home design website at the moment is houzz.com. I love it because you can find pretty much any room and style you want for inspiration.  You can even search for specific furniture and see how others match the product to the room, or find out where and how much you can buy a piece of furniture you like in a photo.  Below are some of my favorites.   I also recommend checking out Courtney’s many interior and DIY boards on Pinterest, she picks out the good stuff (at least I think so). ;)

The catch for me is that living in Hong Kong makes things tougher.  There’s no Home Depot for a one-stop-shop, and there’s not much space to DIY.  I also can’t buy furniture I find online as they're often either not available here or if they are, they're likely sold at a premium price.  If you don’t have a contractor to help you source, you basically have to allocate a lot of time to visit many stores to see what's available.  But, the one good thing about HK is, if you want a piece of brand name furniture but you can't afford it, you can have it custom made in China just by showing them a photo. They're just right across the border.

I have one tip for those who plan to renovate their apartment... perhaps don't spend too much time looking at the home design websites; as great as they are, it makes decision-making much more difficult because there are so many great products to choose from and you'll want everything.  I suppose HK’s limited options is a good thing for an indecisive person like me after all.

 Love the industrial feel of the whole room
love the cozy work space and cool room partitions
love the sliding doors into study
love the brick tiles and bronze faucet
like the dining chairs
like the see through kitchen and dining room
like the cement and wood
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And just a quick update other than apt planning:
shared my second birthday with maddie... though she was way too cool for school
while visiting the lower primary school with Trish, we had to visit the most memorable part of the campus - the gym! we still got it!.. kind of
sister's trip to taipei for our cousin's wedding - here's us enjoying some authentic taiwan noodles... yummmm

 - Erin

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Stayed tuned for Part III w/ Court tomorrow!

Life Lately w/ the Yeh Girls // Part I

It's been a busy month of traveling and birthdays! After returning from two trips in May (one for Ed's college reunions, hence the matching shirts on the kids), we threw a birthday party for Maddie early this month and celebrated mine with close friends last weekend. We also attended a farewell event for our alma mater's (HKIS) lower primary section, which is scheduled to start renovations soon - we feel quite connected to the school as Ed attended from 5th grade (I didn't attend until 11th grade at the Tai Tam campus), my mom was in the first class of HKIS when it was founded in the 60s, and my granddad had a part in the design of the upper primary campus, not to mention that Ed and I wouldn't have met if we hadn't been in the same class there! Don't ask me why Maddie had to hike her shirt up for the photo though, haha.

- Trish
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Look out for Part II tomorrow with Erin!

7 Cool Ways to Wear Birkenstocks

Are Birkenstocks back?!?! I've been seeing a lot... I mean A LOT of them lately. Their marketing team must be really stepping up their game! If you're from Hong Kong, you may understand my feeling towards them.. They weren't very cool before because they were worn by the old grandpas in their wife beaters and boxers.. or the tourists that came from mainland China with their huge beekeeper-like sunhats and (fake or real) LV purses.
But I'm totally digging this look right now! These fashionistas make me want to buy a pair too!
1 - La Cool et Chic
2 - Sincerely Jules
3 - Andy Heart
4 - My Dubio
5 - Pinterest
6 - Pinterest
7 - Caroline's Mode

Blogshop LA

I had the most awesome time assisting Bri and Angela this weekend at Blogshop LA! Blogshop is a two day Photoshop intensive for bloggers. They teach a plethora of basic and some advance techniques to make your blog look more professional and eye catching. I would definitely recommend the class if you are just in the beginnings of your blog, and want to learn how to do it like the pros! Although the class is 7 hours per day, time goes by pretty fast. Not only are you learning great tools for your blog, you also get a cute goodie bag, a scrumptious lunch, a networking platform and delightful surprises here and there! 
I wish I took this class when I first started blogging, because I went through a very steep learning curve. A lot of the things they taught I had to experiment and research myself in the early stages and then go back to my old posts to fix everything that was bugging me now! 
I find it super difficult to explain how to use Photoshop to beginners, but Bri and Angela did an AMAZING job organizing the curriculum! I even learned some new tricks myself! I left this workshop feeling very inspired. So happy I was given the opportunity to do this :)
Setting up...
Beautiful flower arrangements by Glasswing Floral
The pros...
Catering by Heirloom LA
sooooooo good
Inside the goodie bag!
Lovin my strawberry and dragon fruit Museum Nails
Blogshop ended with some summer fun!

Be sure to check out a class near your city, or you can always try their online streaming course too!