Happy Lunar New Year! It’s the year of the water tiger 🐯🌊Oh, and I got tested positive for covid on LNY Eve. This is my second time getting it. First time was right on my birthday 2 years ago! Yeah, not smiling and happy over it :( My husband, Milton, and I were supposed to go celebrate with my family. It’s one the most special holidays for me because growing up it was always a tradition to be at my family’s Asian grocery store (Saigon Market) and experience the typical New Year of lion dancing, kung fu, loud firecrackers, and exchange of li xi (money red envelopes). Afterwards, we would grab brunch at dim sum. It was also the ONE and only time in the year that my family actually closed the grocery store and we’d all go on a family vacay together. So yeah, growing up LNY was a big deal for us and always a huge family event!

So, to combat my FOMO and seriously missing my family, I made it important to take advantage of this time to do something creative and still celebrate the holiday in my own way haha

I brought out my qipao (Chinese dress) which was the dress I wore for our wedding day during cake cutting (btw, will be sharing a whole blog about wedding day so stay tuned). I wanted to bring a more modern vibe by pairing it with my Lulus felt hat and my tan shortie booties. And of course, added my dried baby’s breath to complete the look.

Also! Don’t be fooled. I am quarantined at home because I have the ‘vid (bah, don’t remind me again) so I did the shoot all in the tiny living room of our 1-br apartment. I’d like to give a special shoutout to Photoshop. Without you, my photos would look like this.

Before…