Clothes – ❤️Love, MidoriLei

Office wear + athleisure, the Netflix comedy Nate and I love, and my favorite winter pants

The rain is back in Seattle, but I got out during a break and walked Scout today so that was a win! Here are some thing I’m currently digging-

Athleisure + office wear

I’m lucky to have a very stylish bestie, and she is a master at pulling this look off- athleisure + office wear. I love the juxtaposition of something fancy + something casual. It screams effortless (which is actually quite funny since it takes a lot more thought!)

This outfit was inspired by her- a crisp collared button down (office) and a red flat cap + Nike sneaks (athleisure). I’m also wearing my new fleeced lined leggings I wax poetic about below.

The Netflix comedy special Nate and I loved

Not only is this guy absolutely hilarious, he somehow threw in some very thought provoking commentaries on dating, the current immigration crisis, and parenting. It’s a rare and masterful art to be able to teach an audience something so important while simultaneously making them die laughing. I cannot recommend this enough.

The pants I’m going to wear all winter long

Just recently, I inherited a pair of snow pants from Buy Nothing. I have lived in Seattle since 2009, and it was the first time my legs weren’t cold in the winter. This was actually revolutionary to me. I had always just assumed everyone wore big puffer jackets on their upper body and that everyone, just like me, had cold legs. I wore my summer leggings in the winter and fall. I wore my regular jeans all year round. I always had cold legs.

After I felt the coziness of snow pants and realized I had gotten tired of friends constantly saying sarcastically, “Oh, hitting the slopes today?!” I decided to go on a mission to find the warmest alternative to these pants that didn’t look like I was about to do anything athletic.

I got some recommendations for fleece lined yoga pants but again, I didn’t want to look athletic. I also wanted the absolute coziest, most plush, and thickest lining I could find.

I found these on Amazon and have worn them three days straight. They look just like a casual legging but hidden in the lining is the thickest, coziest, warmest, most plush – soft, fleece Sherpa to be exact! I am obsessed!!!

Anyways, it’s 11pm and it’s time to go to bed! See you tomorrow!

A lazy day fit check with a trick for choosing hats that look right, the lazy salad I make almost weekly, and a case for having more than one child that maybe you haven’t considered?

Choosing the right sized hat

Happy Monday! Sunday I had my “regular” with my brother Allan. We had vegan Chinese food, and went to Goodwill, Costco, and the library. It felt like a lazy day for sneaks and comfy joggers. I’m kinda obsessed with my new red hat. ☺️

As someone who wears hats a lot, I’ve noticed the way to make them look right is to make sure the top of your head is touching the top of your hat here-

This is to make sure the hat doesn’t look too tall.

The lazy salad I make almost weekly

You know you’re a woman of a certain age when your favorite salad dressing is a combo of olive oil and red wine vinegar. 🤣

I crave some variation of this salad almost weekly. This is for one serving- like a big bowl for one. All it has is

5ish slivers (must be slivers so it’s not too much of a bite) of red onion
Equal parts of any of the following, whatever I have on hand- garbanzo beans, chopped parsley, tomatoes halved (best is on the vine cherry tomatoes), hearts of palm, cucumbers, red, orange, or yellow bell peppers, or marinated artichoke hearts
A capful of olive oil
A capful of red wine vinegar
15 turns of freshly grated salt (or more)
15 turns of freshly grated pepper

Amazing with any meat dish and rice. My favorite is fried fish.

A case for having more than one child

I know not every couple is able to have more than one child, but if you are, please hear me out.

My father was just in the hospital with a host of problems after a bad fall he took last month. My brother Allan, in the medical field, was a much needed resource navigating this. My brother Dee, who works remotely, was able to drop everything in the states at a moment’s notice to fly to the Philippines to physically be with my dad. I’m mostly useless here, so the only job I had was to call and make follow up appointments for my dad. We have been on WhatsApp a lot over the last few weeks discussing all the details. My mom also needs 24 hour care.

It’s already so very stressful and emotionally exhausting to have a parent in the hospital, and I can’t imagine doing any of this without the support of my brothers. There are two of them and three of us.

So, please consider that if you only have one child, there is only one of them and there will be two of you to care for when you’re elderly. This is not something I have thought about until just now with my father’s stint in the hospital, but it has gotten me thinking about just how grateful I am to have my siblings to talk to, share with, and maneuver any health issues my parents go through. So, if you’re a couple with only one child and are debating about whether or not to have any more, please take this into consideration. I know there are many reasons to have one child or more than one child. This is just another case for the latter.

What do you think? I’d love to know!

Happy New Year! Sharing my current favorite green smoothie, my favorite socks – super warm and super stay put, and why your pet would make the best influencer 🤣

Happy New year! Do you do any resolutions? I do Gretchen Rubin’s 26 for 2026 list and am currently trying to fill mine up. I would love to know your lists and resolutions! Here are few things I’m currently obsessed with.

My current favorite green smoothie

Not sure what it is, but the combination of kale, apple, lemon and ginger is something I’m craving. It has Jamba Juice vibes and you can water it down to your preference if you don’t like a thick juice. I make some kind of variation of this once a week!

• 1 cup kale (stems removed, packed)
• 1 apple (Granny Smith or Fuji work well; core removed, chopped)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger (peeled, roughly chopped — adjust to taste)
• 6–8 mint leaves (fresh and optional)
• 1 cup cold water or coconut water
• Juice of ½ lemon or lime (balances the greens)
• And 1 full dropper of stevia

Super warm, super stay put winter socks

A sock is a sock is a sock right?!! That’s what I thought until I tried Quince’s Merino Wool socks. Who knew my feet could be this toasty in winter! I’ve tried alpaca socks and my feet were still cold. Also they would slide off and turn to the left and right and omg they were so annoying. These socks have kind of like an arch band but not too tight? They don’t slide off or wiggle left and right. I had no idea how many years I had put up with the inconvenience of socks that didn’t keep me warm and also ended up with heel side up or slid down my foot. Wowza. Also I stepped on a wet spot at my brother’s house and it dried up pretty quickly! I was again, in shock. They aren’t as expensive or as tight as Bombas or Darn Tough socks either!

How am I waxing poetic about socks? I’m still not done. I did a lot of research. The last thing I love is that they come in a four pack of all black socks. The last thing I want to do is try to pair different colored socks. One less thing to think about and challenge myself with come laundry day!

Why your dog would make the perfect influencer

I have a friend of a friend who has about 400k followers on tik tok and a YouTube page and makes 10k per sponsored video post. This is just to say there’s so much money to be made in the influencer space. BUT you say, you don’t want to end up a famous meme, right?! I get it. There’s a lot of haters out there. Believe me, I only have less than 2k on my dating advice Tik Tok and they come after me. You want to remain anonymous? You want to protect your family and have your privacy? You don’t want anyone bullying you or your family or making AI generated videos and pics of you or your family?

Yes, yes, yes.

This is why your pup would be the perfect influencer. Bully the pup! He won’t know or care. Hide the family and hide yourself! Everyone loves a dog and a funny animal video. So yeah, just a side hustle idea for the new year featuring man’s best friend! At least maybe he can pay for his own Farmer’s Dog food eventually?!? 🤣

Anyways Happy New Year!

New favorite top, Aging with your siblings, and another ChatGPT prompt

Hi friends, hope your holidays have been a good mix of relaxing with some moments of quiet family time and energizing with some parties and festivities! Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.

All things funky, eclectic, and loud

I’m really obsessed with this bright violet fuchsia peplum top. The style I’m loving right now is everything over the top like flouncy sleeves on this! I’m loving funky, eclectic, and loud. Maybe this is me trying to hasten spring and survive the gloom of winter.

Aging with your siblings

One thing I never thought of when I was growing up was just how weird it would be to reach middle age with my brothers. We fought a lot when we were young and stuck under the same roof, but as we’ve gotten older, we have dropped the bickering and really do support and love each other. I wish my parents could verbalize what the secret sauce was because I know not all siblings are as close and well- meaning as we are. I don’t see or talk to my older brother Dee as often as I’d like, but he has always been a spiritual head to me. He has enlightened me to ideas like OMAD and intermittent fasting, homeschooling, and hiring someone on Craigslist to help me cook when I was working full time.

My younger brother has always been one of my best friends, and he moved to Seattle to be closer to me. We have a weekly regular date every Sunday where we share a meal, or I clean his condo, cut his hair or we walk through grocery stores together. We are so different, but we share our love of food, good gossip 🤣, and our entrepreneurial spirit. It just feels so weird to see us all aging. My brothers really will hold the longest friendship with me of any people because we knew each other as kids. That’s crazy to think! Anyways here are some things I think my parents did to help make us close-

They never compared us with each other. No “Why can’t you be more like _____?”
My mom really emphasized the importance of human relationships over material things. Her famous line was always, “We may not have much, but we have each other.” And somehow that really was engrained in my psyche.
They created an environment where teasing was absolutely not allowed.
They created an environment where no topic was off limits and there was no action or word spoken in our home that allowed for shame or guilt. Our home life felt completely free and open.

All of this has made for a very free and open relationship as adults!

Ask ChatGPT to choose your BBQ sauce (spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, sweet chili sauce, enchilada sauce etc) on the spot

Did this at grocery outlet yesterday, and maybe everyone’s already doing this and I’m the last one to get the memo but just in case, this was so helpful with decision fatigue. You know how you stand in front of the shelves and there are soooooo many options? Then you google or chatgpt, “What’s the best BBQ sauce?” And then that option is not on the shelf?

So frustrating if ever there were a first world frustration.

So instead, just snap a photo and ask ChatGPT, what is the best BBQ sauce on this shelf?

It worked brilliantly! My kiddos approved.

Do you have a tv/movie/celebrity style icon?

I’m guilty of watching movies or tv shows merely to watch what the characters wear on screen. Anyone else? I’m also a sucker for a bright colored, vivid, romantic tv show/movie. So… of course Emily in Paris fits the bill in every way. The shocking thing was that I fell in love with Camille’s closet instead of Emily’s. Her closet is fearless, fresh, funky, and very French- that effortless but cool I-can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-why kind of fashion sense. This outfit made me decide I must have red boots in my closet pronto. Now they are in my outfit rotation on the regular and I love them.

Here are three outfits I feel like Camille would wear! What do you think?

A funky puff sleeve black dress with side and back cutouts and red boots. This dress is out of stock but it’s an “Edition” dress, this one is cool too. Similar red sued boots.

A funky geometric dress and cape. Similar cape.

All black with pops of red and funky shoes

Funky puffy sleeves. Similar here.

Funky mix of casual and formal. Similar skirt here.

I think the thing that sticks out the most about her style is there’s always something fresh (unexpected) or funky about her outfits. What do you think? Do you have a favorite Camille outfit from Emily in Paris? The real Camille Razat who plays Camille on the show also has incredible style!

The perfect vegetable side dish in an Asian rice bowl, Billy Joel in concert, and the most comfortable summer shorts EVER.

The perfect vegetable side dish in an Asian rice bowl

Call me the queen of lazy cooking, aka the lazy foodie. One of my favorite meals is a hearty Asian rice bowl. It could be chicken, tofu, salmon etc…, some kimchi, (my brother Allan made this, and it’s BOMB), some grilled veggies, some pickled veggies and rice of course, maybe topped with a fried egg for good measure. I just discovered my favorite vegetable side and it’s super duper easy to make- lightly sautéed salted cucumber. I had never cooked my cucumber before. Now I’m a believer! Here’s the recipe. If you’re not a lazy foodie and just want to make a big bowl of bibimbap, this is the recipe to use. I made all these sides for my brother one Sunday and it took a long time. I told him to enjoy the meal because it would be the last time I made it. 😂

Billy Joel in Concert

Billy Joel is my husband’s favorite artist. It was our first ever concert, me at 42 years old and him at 43! I have a newfound appreciation for him as an artist having seen him live. I think that’s what live shows do. He was really funny and self-depreciating. “My piano can move right and my piano can move left. That’s all the theatrics you’re getting tonight,” or something like that. I might be paraphrasing. Before another song, he admitted that the song made him nervous because of the high notes. I can’t imagine if I was Billy Joel’s grandkid. At 75 or 76? years old, he’s still a rock star! I can’t imagine just sticking to one field of work for so long and being so good at it and having so many fans. My favorite song was “New York State of Mind.” I don’t know how he does it, but it just sounds like New York.

The Most Comfortable Summer Shorts Ever

These short are soooo comfy. They have this wide stretchy garter band of a waist. They are the perfect short especially if you are an apple shape because horizontal lines in the hip area give the illusion of wider hips, which give the illusion of a smaller waist, and I don’t know why, maybe it’s all the layers of fabric, but they don’t shimmy up the center of my legs like most shorts do. I’m in LOVE.