Happy Birthday to the Mui*

Today's a special day. It's the birthday of My Sister. (I liked the song; the lyrics, however, actually would be more likely her singing about me - she's the sweet one, me the acerbic).

I don't post much about my little sister. Not because there's nothing to post about - there most certainly is. Tons. But she is quite the private person, and I respect that.

However, it's getting harder and harder for her to be so private, given her recent professional successes. On top of various accolades that she's received in the last few years in her field of design, she was recently one of the women featured in Toronto's Mille Femmes exhibit as part of the Luminato festival in June.

One of "1,000 artistic, creative and inspiring women from Toronto and their protégés, who embody the passion and heritage of the city."

Yeah, that's her standing under her photo; and the one word she chose to describe herself , "OPTIMISTIC" is perfect. We visited the exhibit after the Father's Day brunch we had as a family in the Richtree restaurant.

Growing up she was a spitfire; and so very driven. Sometimes it's hard to believe she's the same little girl who I considered pesky at one time, who worshipped everything her older sister did. We were and are so very different, but also extremely close. I ended up admiring her adventurous spirit, as she travelled around the globe to pursue her studies and further fine-tune her craft in Europe. But I was ecstatic when she came back home once I had my boy. The pull of family was still strong for her.

To say that I am proud of her is such an understatement. When she told me about this exhibit, I almost jumped out of my seat. She'd just been so busy, she hadn't had time to tell the family, but did want to share it before the exhibit came down! A part of me has just been screaming to post this for the longest while, to shout out to the world how amazingly talented she is.

She's designing buildings and state-of-the-art interiors. Whereas, moi? I can barely draw a straight line (just ask her- I volunteered to help her out during an all nighter in design school and she had to send me home...).

Architect, designer, mother of a very busy almost 1 year old, wife, mentor ... she's covering it all. Astonishingly well. I honestly do not know how she does it, and always with a smile on her beautiful face. All the while thinking about everyone ELSE.

She is making a difference in the artistic landscape of this city.

And this is just the beginning. I bet she'll be taking on the world soon enough.

So here she is again, featured in the "Making of ..." video; you'll catch her at about the 5:12 mark.

Happy Birthday Sis!

*little sister in Cantonese. She thought she'd lose that pet name once little G was born; but no, she's still stuck with it. Because she's the original.