We've started #theredscarfproject as foundhers and founders to take action in making a difference.  :)  A lot of us, we see the challenges, we've experienced some of them, and we feel like we have the power to help make it better.  Even a little, for at least someone out there.

We're working on getting it off the ground.  To share with you a little bit about the mantra, it's about being a shining light of what is possible.  We want to help inspire others to not just point out what's wrong, but take it a little further to help action what "right" is.  And as we all know, often it takes a few iterations until we all really figure out what "right" really is.  Our current focus is on spotlighting heroes in our communities who play by paying it forward.  Doing for others what you wish someone had done for you.

Our initial thoughts on what it means to be a part of this:

• Be a resource for all the other groups and organizations
• Our focus is on SPOTLIGHTS > creating a voice to share the stories of each of our members.
• Really truly support and champion each other, as people AND each other's businesses.   ***  Actually advocate each other's businesses.
• Be authentic, vulnerable, real to inspire others
• Action oriented --- we DO to make a difference
• Act with grace towards each other.  We're all busy.  Offer help to each other.  Ask for help. 

If you'd like to keep in-the-know of what's going on as we launch this, please LIKE our new Facebook page.

We're working on building our humble startup fund, so if you'd like to donate as we work on our website and building the team, we'd LOVE you forever!  Please DONATE here.  (Any amount helps: $5, $20, $50, $100, $1000, $1Million).  Thanks in advance!  :D

More updates to come.

We all rise when we lift others up.
Arry

It must be the season or something.  I feel like there's just too much noise.  There are too many distractions.  This is the home screen on my iPhone 6plus phablet BEFORE I made the change.  

This is my NEW home screen on my iPhone 6Plus phablet.  I focused on only keeping apps that I 1) use every day or should use every day, or 2) apps that I really enjoy or want to prioritize up in my life.  Somehow, Amazon.com has made the cut but they just make it too freaking easy to get all those shopping errands (household items, diapers, etc...) done with 1 thumb.  And, dudes and dudettes, I love Words with Friends.  :)  Turned off the notifications on most of the apps.  I just don't want to know.  I have to do that to email too.  I generally don't enjoy emails, text messages, ... actually, I DESPISE Facebook messenger, and voicemails.  

Most of this (80%)... will get deleted if I don't try it within a few months.  Even if I do try it, if I don't use it again, it will get deleted.  A few items are just "hanging out" here.  The Settings and the Calculator are exceptions - it's just I don't want them on the main home screen.

And yes, there's our baby Lentil's face there, reminding me that there's much MUCH more to life than social media or online videos.  

There REALLY is such a thing as TOO MUCH.  Too much noise in the world today.  We're all paying attention to the wrong details about what matters.  We'll see if this helps me.  I'll report back in a few weeks on this.

--Arry

1 year old.  Some milestones or highlights going on right as I type this:

• He has the biggest smiles ever.  I like to think that me making these crazy big smiles at him from the day he was born helped train him to do so.  Whatever, his smiles are amazing and light up my world.
• He stands. Stands on his little two feet. 
• He is starting to walk.  5-15 steps.  Short distances.
• He LOVES music. Favorite songs are Humpty Dumpty, Rain Rain Go Away, Daddy Finger, Row Row Your Boat, ABC, ... actually there's just too many to even list.
• Loves to eat.  One dinner recently took a good 1 hour 15 minutes for him to chow everything.  Sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, bread, rice crackers are among the favorites.
• His hugs are amazing.  He squeezes as hard as he can, you can just feel the love.  It's amazing.
• He loves to play with cars, little balls, blocks, and his little baby books.
• He hates hats.  I get him to wear the hats when we are out though.
• Sleeps though the night (about 8 hours at a time). We can usually feed him and convince him to sleep another couple hours too.

Seeing him grow, this amazing human baby grow from infant to little boy has just been amazing.  It's also been just so exhausting too.  Dae and I are a little older for first time parents.  I don't think we could do this without all the help and support we get from our own parents.  It seriously takes a village.  Our friends have been amazing, too.  The hand me down clothing and toys have helped us save money.  We are so thankful.

--Arry

We recently celebrated our 5 years of marriage.  Time has just flown by - Looking back at ourr wedding photos (the cool ones above were done by Thom Milkovic, an amazing creative), it brings back so many memories.  One of the most happy memories I have to this day - LOVE our wedding.  Everything about it.

We planned our wedding in 2 weeks (we had the benefit of me having done event planning for over a decade).  Dae proposed and we told everyone about our engagement officially on December 1, 2011, and about 5 weeks later, we had our wedding day. Crazy fast.  And still to this day, I say I LOVE our wedding day.  We did it differently - like the way we are living our lives, from what's expected normally in society - and it was just perfect for us.

How we did it differently (memorably, and efficiently):

• First 50 people that came to our heads, that we had seen in the past 6 months were invited (well, mostly because timing was tight, we had to move fast).  We handmade all of the paper products used to invite people and during teh wedding using some nice shiny paper, Elmer's glue, ribbon and pearlescent plum pearls.
• We picked a location that needed minimal decor, just a few extra flowers (by Miki's Flowers) to bring it together.  We chose the Smith Tower in Seattle for that reason.  Plus the wedding was in January, so a wintery night looking down from many floors up high was guaranteed to make for some beautiful photos, no matter what the weather turned out to be.
• Catering had to be good quality - organic, local, sustainably grown.  We were committed to this being the top expense for our wedding.  We used Tuxedo and Tennis Shoes catering, a father and son business out of West Seattle.  Our guests to this day, still say it was the best wedding food they've ever had at a wedding.  Oysters, meat skewers, salads, chocolate truffles, salads, cakes, ...  For events, people only remember really awful or really amazing food.  
• Music - we went with a wholesome self-selected with love music by Dae, an iPod, rented speakers and a friend who managed the various lists.  
• We had a videographer too.  If you're debating on whether to get one or not, get one.  We watch our wedding video every year and "oooh" and "ahhh" at all the great memories of that day and days since.
• Photography was by Jonathan and Lindsey King.  We love them so much they've back back to do family photos, and they will be capturing our baby Lentil's first birthday soon, too.  
• Our friend, Chris, a lawyer and licensed to wed from the internet, married us.  During the ceremony, we had everyone stand up and hold hands around us as a symbolic gesture of our community coming together to support and guide us on our marital journey.  Having done events for over a decade, I know that other than really bad or good food, what people remember is a feeling they experienced during the wedding.  I wanted our guests to feel communal warmth from our wedding event (the people, food, ceremony), so that was the focus.  
• For my dress, I bought the shape (A Line) and material (organza) I liked, then had a lot of the dress gutted to take out all the stuffy heavy wedding dress stuff underneath and rebuilt it with all of the details I wanted to be exactly what I liked by a wedding dress maker and seamstress.  I recommend this as the best way to get exactly what you want and save tons of time (and cash) in finding your "perfect dress".  
• Cake was of course, by Simply Desserts (Fremont in Seattle, WA) and their amazing White Chocolate Strawberry cake.  This has literally been my favorite cake for more than a decade.  We had a round cake and a big rectangular cake (aka the Groom's cake).  This was also the most cost effective and fun way to have the most amazing tasting cake with plenty to share with all of our guests.  
• We also ended the ceremony with a modern twist to a traditional Korean wedding, by taking the time to bow to our parents in respectful thanks.  

Ah love.  It's a journey.  This year, for our anniversary, we went out to a steak dinner (we rarely ever eat steak, like ever~)....  and then both of us ended up with food poisoning for 3 days.  It's been a fun week.  Benefit to that is that we'll forever remember our 5h wedding anniversary.  :)

--Arry

In 2017, I am OFFICIALLY committing to do 1 blog post a week.  #postaWeek2017

LET IT BE KNOWN.

​Here we go.  Post #1.  ...  I need to queue up some blog post ideas....  2017 really crept up on me.  I don't know where 2016 went.  All I know is that I have created the most precious being of my life with the most awesome husband of all, the Lentil. Lentil is now almost a year old.  A little over 30 inches tall, a little over 25 pounds, says a handful of words already, stands proud, has been taking his very first few steps and is already working on walking.  Well, since I'm letting everyone know about this #postaWeek2017 challenge, I might as well share some other "resolution" thoughts I've been working on this week.

Not in any prioritized order, here are five "resolution" top-of-mind thoughts:

1. #postaWeek2017: Minimum of 1 blog post a week on www.arryinseattle.com.  Extra credit if I do a post on www.giftstarter.com.  Really, I should do the minimum of 1 blog post a week on GiftStarter.  I'm doing it on ArryinSeattle, mostly because I need a place for me.  
2. Say Thank You a LOT: A LOT.  Especially to my husband, my mother, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, my baby, my GiftStarter teammates, my friends.  Thank you for being you.  Thank you for all that you do.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.
3. Affectionately touch my husband A LOT: From the 5 Love Languages.  It seems, physical touch is his preferred method of receiving love - more than words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, or receiving gifts.  I always thought it was words of affirmation til recently.  Lately I've been rethinking that.  
4. Schedule in me time:  I tried practicing this towards the second half of 2016.  It fell off the schedule by December 2016.  I'm trying to get back into it.  I'm starting with small acts like getting my nails done, getting massage... I'm hoping to get the courage to set up a girls' night for happy hour or drinks or something.  I've lost myself over the past decade into work, becoming a mother, a wife...  I think I need to give myself space to breathe and just be me.
5. Redesign/brand ArryinSeattle.com:  I threw this website up back in 2010 over a weekend and basically haven't touched it since.  CRAZY!  You and I, we both deserve something way more visually appealing.  

That's all I got writing today.  :)  Thanks for reading.  

--arry