Lover

Quickly putting together a blog for tumblr. I think this will be one of my last posts on blogspot, so goodbye (unless tumblr suddenly fails to impress).

So earlier on today at Starbucks, I ask for an "Iced Vanilla Latte, light ice", as you can see clearly labeled.
I drank it fairly quickly.. but gee.... I wonder what a regular iced Vanilla Latte would be......

More than 3/4ths of it is ice!! I would have said something but they were really busy.

My uncle brought over a case of avocados and a case of my FAVOURITE FRUIT: PAPAYA!!!!!!!!!!!
SOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY I'M JUST WAITING FOR THESE BABIES TO RIPEN HEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHE

Thinking of my grad dress. It's not a big deal, but it's just fun to think about.
I haven't thought too much about it, but I'm thinking of going towards a non-black dress... and peeptoes. I don't want sexy so nothing form fitting all the way through.. but not really into cute, either. How about chic + classic? Yea I like that. Maybe a pretty spring colour. Flowy, possibly. Fun abstract floral, possibly. I like the colour of the dress above and the subtle, structural details of the bodice.

And would like to try a blow-out from Blo Hair Salon since I never know what to do with my hair and do not want to make it another High School grad (disaster) where I went last minute to some $7 haircut salon where the lady gave me curls that made my cheeks look wider and a 70's bang-do I undid at home and used some 15+year old product. :( Hope my hair will stay a good length by then. It should be a few more inches longer than it is now. Colour change is also needed. I probably have time for one more dye before the 'grad dye'.

Anyway, just random thoughts. More on it later.

Cetaphil Adoration

I want to dedicate this post to Cetaphil. Ever since I ran out of it near the end of my stay in Korea (and I think, combined with the humidity my skin wasn't used to) and using other cleansers that were popular in the Korean market, my face broke out like crazy.. so much so, that I had acne.. which was sad 'cause I was 21! I know I know.. "adult acne" lol. It was awful 'cause it was red and bumpy (the worst part.. bad texture you can see through foundation) and full of blackheads that continuously came up so randomly and out of nowhere (yes, it was gross). When I got my facial at Skoah back in August, the esthetician commented on my "congested skin" which led to a whole convo on products etc. She really approved of my use of Cetaphil (which, at that time, I was almost out of and had only been using it once every 1.5 weeks).. and I can finally say as of about a month ago, my skin is back to what it used to be after using Cetaphil every night (like I had been before Korea) for the past 3 months. I would also like to think that my use of Lush fresh face masks (I think it's Cosmetic Warrior during the end of my 4-5 month acne battle.. it's for teenage acne-prone skin lol.. I felt olddd) and the Lush Tea Tree Toner really helped quicken the acne-rid, too.
Now, I just have scars left ('cause yea I touched my face..), but Bio Oil has really been helping to fade the acne scars. I slather Bio Oil on my face every night before bed and let it soak in so I hope I don't need to wear hardly any foundation anymore. Bio Oil makes my skin look nice and plump and smooth the next morning, too haha so Cetaphil and Bio Oil are my skin saviors.. Oh, and my skin is quite fond of Pond's Cream for dry skin, too. Soaks it all up like a sponge. Honestly, when I first heard of Cetaphil and how so many ppl raved over it, I didn't want to like it 'cause it was nothing special. It didn't lather up nicely and just didn't seem like it would work. Plus, the bottle looked horrendously generic and cheap and not very nice to have on the counter. Obviously having gotten past that, I now know that it is a fantastic cleanser that gets rid of all my face makeup super gently. My eye makeup needs eye makeup remover, though.. and Neutrogena's Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover has been doing a great job. So tadaaaa! Happy products. Now I know, the search for my "HG" (Holy Grail, as they say in makeup forums) cleanser is complete.
My whole body loves sleep.. so I'll go take a nap now...

10 Ways to Make Yourself Feel More Beautiful

I really like this list. This isn't written by me. It's taken from my Xanga subscription to Lovelyish:

For 2010, instead of more New Years Resolutions to post, I've decided to write about a few things that have helped me better my life and resolve my old resolutions. So, without further ado, here are 10 things I've learned over the years and thought I'd share and perhaps "enlighten" some girls who need a minor "pick-me up"! (Boys, feel free to use this advice, as well. haha)

1. Clean up your life by getting rid of: Bad friends who put you down and neglectful boyfriends (princess complex is OKAY to a certain extent if you know you're a great gal and have a lot to offer..just don't let it get to your head!) And by organizing: your room, car, and any space you spend a great deal of time in. When you de-clutter your spaces, life all of a sudden feels much more peaceful. You'll be at peace with yourself and have a lot more positive energy!!

2. Invest in a bed with a comfortable mattress, a bed frame that best represents you and a comfortable goose feather comforter. You spend 1/4 of your life in a bed, so make it count for something! A bad night of sleep can make all the difference in the world for your next morning and day. Oh, and I wrote a previous entry on how I found my bed at a thrift store. For $35, I got a shabby chic bed that I re-sanded and repainted....HAPPY BED = HAPPY GIRL (in FACT--my mom just got me a new mattress and sleep is 10,000X more beautiful now---seriously!)

3. Organize your schedule with a daily planner. Not only that, but keep it neat. Even if you can write things in it that aren't relevant to work (a date with your girlfriends, lunch with your sister, etc) you'll feel at ease since you'll know exactly what you need to do in a day and how to have time to accomplish those things!

4. Take an extra few minutes to "un-frumpify" yourself whether it be with something as simple as lip gloss (nivea+mac lipglass in my case). Also, DO your hair, use a shampoo and conditioner that you love the smell of (I'm trying to find one that works and smells gooood!), and if you're going to use makeup---use better products (Totally agree!)---your face, after all, is something you have to live with the rest of your life so you'd better be using the best of the best on it. It's not so much a matter of vanity---but I realize one of the worst feelings for me is when you go somewhere and don't feel confident because you don't feel you look your best.

Everyone's "best" is different---for some, it might just be something as simple as letting their hair down which leads me to my last "un-frumpify" point. Spend the extra money for a good haircut. That extra $50 goes a long way!!! (A haircut every four months only comes out to an extra $10-12 a month! That's basically one or two meals of eating out per month). If you need a great hairstylist---please let me know if you live in the OC area---my hairstylist is the BEST!!!!

5. Flowers and Candles. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE candles!! I go around to a lot of boutiques/home good stores and smell a lot of them. My favorite scents are vanilla, white tea and ginger, and gardenia. There's something about candles that make you feel awesome even if you're in a pair of sweatpants and a tee at home by yourself! (Oh, but make sure your room is clean before you go lighting things in your room!) Oh, and make sure you blow it out before you leave the house! Also, flowers are a cheap way to feel beautiful as well (Flowers!! Love flowers!). Trader Joes has "Stargazers" (my favorite) that blossom into HUGE flowers and can last about a week and a half if you clean the water every other day! They look pretty and make you feel pretty for a few bucks. Why not??

6. Have alone time to veg out at home in your room, paint your nails, read a book, drink some hot tea---all while blasting your favorite tunes on Pandora. (Rejuvenation at its best!)

7. Read! Don't ever stop learning...educate yourself, achieve higher education! There are plenty of great books at the local bookstore. OR, if you want to save some big bucks, go to your nearest library. Sometimes they have a library bookstore where the books are a couple bucks each!

8. Learn to do everything in moderation---for me, it's eating. When I love the way something tastes---I want to horde it!!! That's hard for me to do because of my love for food, but one day at a time.....

9. Dress to impress yourself. (Yayyyy - life is too short to dress badly) It doesn't have to cost a lot to dress nice. I snubbed great deals and for me, personally, the key to the way I dress is choosing very solid colored pieces to mix and match over and over again. I don't buy things with a ton of patterns. Instead, I'll dress up my outfits with accessories---big earrings help, a fancy bracelet, long necklace. (Not all at once---though! You don't want to OVER accessorize) The worst is when you go out and feel frumpy, [see #4] so do yourself a favor and wear something that you'll feel great in! (take, for example, Reese Witherspoon!)

10. Make time for girls night out! I do this weekly (sometimes 2-3 times a week!) with my girlfriends and it's really paid off to invest in friendships with a few great girlfriends. They're the ones that will be there for me when relationships fail and have had my heart broken, the ones that you can laugh with endlessly, they're the ones that will give you REAL advice and most importantly, constructive criticism when you don't want to hear it. (Albeit, this takes time to develop. Fortunately for me, I've had the same group of close-knit girlfriends for the past 12 years!) (I do and will do more!)

Breakfast In Bed

AND so the procrastination has begun. I've finally found a new blog host site (whatever you call it)- called tumblr. It looks awesome (and I hardly ever use that word unless it's followed by possum) and makes blogspot look super outdated. Tumblr even has a function where you can call in your post and have an audio-recording! How cool is that.

I like this shoe. It has nice proportions. Wish it came in nude. Platform pumps all the way.

So my tiny tiny bathroom singlet ensuite of the house I'm moving into has one of those mirrors that span the whole wall (really not that big) that I thought was only done in houses built prior to 2000... but I guess not.
Here's a way to make it more modern, though! Too bad my sink isn't in the centre of the mirror so I can't really do this.
I like the towel bar in the mirror reflection. I had no idea towel bars could be so pricey...Picture credit: http://citified.blogspot.com

This is pretty - paper flower wreath
Gah! Where did Alexander Wang get this mirror!? Perfectly ornate. The dresser is lovely, too, but it wouldn't fit in my room.
Glamorous shoe storage (drool)
Ih. Not keen on dusting my shoes...
Love full, luxurious drapes like these.
A framed fireplace!
I love ivory, beige, and white for rooms. This is too white and I'd like more substance near the desk area for me, but still glam... but after staring at it a bit more, I'm like it less and less...
I like this bedside book holder.
As of 2 days ago, my Gmarket order has arrived in Vancouver. Now where is it?
(Wow just quickly scanned my post.. sorry for the terrible grammar.. I will sleep now)

Finding a Balance

Got an eventful weekend lined up, but starting to wonder if I really should.. I can sense some bad, lazy school habits starting up soon.. really need to coffee shop it up to read read read! It's where I concentrate the best. Got seven 20+pg articles and 4 chapters (62 pages) to read this week... and it's just the 1st week. Whoopdeedoo. Today, my Contemporary Capitalism TA added on discussion questions to hand in starting in 2 weeks. I gotta say I love taking notes on my mom's little netbook. It's so great for these 8:30AM classes where I can't really understand everything at the rate it's being spoken to me 'cause it's so early so I just write what he's saying word for word along with notes on the powerpoint and make sense of it later at home. Contemporary Capitalism tutorial today was interestingly small lol.. I've never had such a small tutorial before! Only 6 ppl (compared to 18-23 usually) so I'll probably get to get to know my classmates more than usual. Also means more participation needed. UM yea. Kinda interesting - first time in all my classes/tutorials that I'm the only Asian. There are hardly any in the Geo department, but I see about a handful in my lectures and around one or two more in my tutorials. Not like it's gonna change anything and I don't feel any different, but it's just something I noticed. In another way, it's kind of a shock, especially coming from Korea lol
Anyway, this Fri night, I have dinner + gonna watch Avatar 3D in IMAX (woot) bought advanced tickets so we can get in for sure. On Sat, I have lunch with one of my friends who just came back from exchange in Taiwan and then I have a going away party/dinner for another friend who is going to Australia for a while with some possible dancing plans after. On Sunday, I possibly have lunch plans, will do lots of packing (I already packed 1 box that seems like 1/3 of my closet.. wow if I can fit my entire wardrobe (minus outerwear) in 3 boxes, I'll be surprised and kind of sad), and am attending this Wedding Soiree thing that's apparently like a fake wedding receiption w/ 3 course meal + manicures + even a bouquet toss lol yay an occassion to possibly wear a Forever 21 dress I've had sitting in my closet for 2 years. In between, I will try to fit in some coffee/reading.. yea good luck to me. I have my first paper (out of 14) due next Thursday and I haven't had a full lecture on the material, yet.
I'm exhausted.. gonna take a nap... (it's 6PM). See you in a couple hours... and then I will have to read 4 articles (65 pages).

Way to Store Handbag #1

I LIKE!

Great idea to use Ikea bookshelves in this way.

No dust and so nice to look at ;)

Small LV cake! Very cute

A Sing-Song Mood

Watched Sherlock Holmes w/ B, D, Jason, Wennie, and Howard in Richmond last night. Pretty good, actually! I surprisingly thought Jude Law was quite charming, me not being a usual fan of his. There were a few moments where B and I were the only ones in the theatre laughing.. don't know if it's 'cause we were the only ones who understood the quirky part or got it, or if we were just nuts lol Saw Emily like 5 rows down! Wow... another coincidence 'cause I just saw her at the New Years party and I had no idea she would be there, either!
I was actually pretty excited to watch Avatar 3D, but it was sold out as usual.. hopefully one day soon! I hope I'll like it.
Then we all went to Jason's house to eat cheesecake. It was nice :) Don't often get to hang out together.

Had work @ the restaurant (only shift this month) earlier today. B, our friend Shogo from Japan, and my old coworker Helen (coincidentally know each other) and a bunch of their friends ate there but I didn't get to serve them. Had another excellent work night wooooooo :) I even got off a bit 'early'.
It's great to see how the hosts improve so much. At first, they're all "try hard, but don't really succeed" and some try to test out how much they can get away with and don't finish their job which is annoying for the people who have to deal with it the next day... then after about a month, they finally realize that it won't get them to being a server so they go over and above what's expected and they're really helpful, fast, and super fair about allocating tables.. and finally so reliable. BAM wow. Like today, I only had to clean 1.5 tables out of my 12 'cause they were just so on top of it.

Then after, I walked down to meet up w/ B + the group for a bit as they went to Cheesecake Etc. after (really don't know how they could still eat, but it sounded pretty yaaaammy). They had an old man playing on a keyboard. Dark, sleepy, candle-lit atmosphere that's pretty romantic now that I think of it but not in a chic way lol but I actually kinda like it. Maybe I'll go back one day and try their cheesecake.

Anyway, in a reflective sort of note, I guess I've been feeling really great recently 'cause of so many things. I feel like I'm finally getting to know myself more, much more comfortable and satisfied with myself and in my own skin - a more defined picture. Things have fallen into place - I'm graduating, I finally understand what I've been studying for the past 5 years (Geography) 'cause I was soooo confused before *** (big one!), I'm confident at what I excel at, I'm so much more independent in most ways (sometimes, comparatively, the thought of going to Seoul by myself - knowing absolutely nobody, not speaking the language, not knowing some of the customs - seemed intimidating, but right when I got there, I realized it was so very much doable.. and now, it's like "give me more!"), suddenly my love for fashion is being put into some use (and in a fun way, too), my style is evolving to something way more "me" than before (more coherent though still needs a ton of work.. I'm going from "liking" items I buy to "loving" them, and my "basics" wardrobe is almost complete!), after all these years, my truest friends are so clear (none of the "i'm your friend because I see you almost everyday" sort of thing) and they're fantastic (esp. 'cause they put up with me lol), my family is all happy and healthy, from packing, I'm able to get rid of things that have been weighing me down.. things that I know I should get rid of but haven't.. and just so many other things I can't think of right now that I'll probably think of later and want to add to this - I feel like I have a clear mind, now. Overall, I feel much more mature than even a year ago. I'm growing up, ma! lol I guess some other things that would complete the picture, so to speak, is learning how to drive, boyfriend, and a career.. and more traveling.. but those can all wait (except the traveling).
I'm happy with everything now.