Hello...again! I know, I know, I've been so bad at updating this blog. My last post was over a month ago. October was super hectic yet went by so quickly that I felt like I never had a moment to sit down and write. So, in an effort to be more regular with the postings, I've decided to do more short, to the point updates rather than attempt entire detailed reviews. That way, it will be easier and more fun for me to keep up with this, and that should be the whole point of blogging right?? Of course, I will still write reviews on things I acquire/like, but at the same time I will post more random life, fashion, food-related (my favorite!) subjects. Like....my new favorite toy!

I went to LA a few weeks ago for a relaxing weekend, which I spent catching up with college friends and eating everything I had been missing. The bf and I went to the new, swankier mall section of Third Street Promenade and wandered into the Disney Store. The moment I saw this toy, I knew I had to have it!

Just looks like any old regular green bean...


But unzip it.....


....and you'll find the cutest little peas in a pod from Toy Story 3! They only made a brief appearance in the movie, but I remember thinking they were so adorable. I practically squealed when I saw this in the store, and even picked up another one for the boy's little sister. It's currently sitting on top of my bed frame's ledge, fully unzipped so you can see the little guys inside. :)

Anyway, it's 1am here in California, so off to bed I go. Consider this the first of many mini posts.

Ciao! <3

Over the weekend I.....

Made and carved a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner....

....along with fresh cranberry sauce, yams & toasted marshmallows, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and maple bacon biscuits. My sister made corn muffins and we also had ham and assorted veggies :) I use Alton Brown's recipe for roasted turkey every year and it always comes out juicy and flavorful

Went to grab some sushi with an old friend...my new love is salmon hand rolls!!

Some more yummy rolls

Was given the most deliciously CRUNCHY macaroon ever, along with a creamy dreamy egg tart

Watched "New Moon" with my sister

Made more maple bacon biscuits with my little cousin <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2PdDOUdfiwttp20l0kT04bE4w_BUIomI1mmiAUU4r6VfcW42DBg-yBFSny4RmBwhhofnQkiM-dFwuX76_ki_3I31JlOYEQWxZn9B0B1JcguIL_TH4DEU1XFVNnGPFyGCw_kC7c_wurc/s1600-h/Picture+492.jpg">So flaky and yummy! I got this recipe from this blog and have been making it nonstop. After I made it the first time for my roommates, they have been requesting over and over that I make it again. I made a batch for a Thanksgiving potluck, and one for the boy's family, and they've been a hit with all. This is worth a try!

How can anyone resist??? Slightly sweet and savory...and buttery and with BACON...yummm...they're best served fresh from the oven but my roomies microwaved leftovers and still devoured them

Helped my mom put up a live Christmas tree...I had to go back to school before she put up decorations, but the next time I'm home for the holidays I'll take a picture of the finished tree. I love live trees because they make the house smell so fresh and comforting...

On the drive back to LA, I encountered many things welcoming the holidays. There was the annual Starbucks red cup (love their seasonal drinks...Gingerbread Latte and Peppermint Mocha are always must-haves for me this time of year)

A customary stop at In-N-Out for a burger and fries...

....with a holiday wrapper :)

Stopped by Century City Mall to pick up some Godiva chocolates and saw a cool Christmas tree made from potted poinsettias

Mall decked out in gorgeous lights at night~


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My nails in these pictures are painted with China Glaze in Atlantic...love this polish! It's soooo sparkly in real life. I love glitter polishes!

playing catch up 11/18/09

I need to stop with these sporadic updates! Lots of things to post, but let's start with a very late Halloween entry ;)

This year I went as Snow White! The last time I dressed up for Halloween was...maybe 6th grade? I forgot that costumes could be so expensive! >:(

I opted for a big emphasis on the eyes, and did upper and lower false eyelashes. A touch of blush and some red lipstick, and I was good to go!

Mirror, mirror on the wall....haha

The finished product!

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I spent my Halloween at church for a party that was planned for the kids. It was a lot of fun!

Some cuties in their costumes. Notice the absolutely adorable Tigger!!!

We had apple bobbing for the kids. Baby Tigger only wanted to play with the water! Ignore the guy pretending to kick him haha. Btw my red lipstick is my Shu Uemura in RD 165. Loves!

We had a cupcake decorating booth, too. Among other things, of course.

The boy diligently decorating cupcakes for me :)

He made me Keroppi and Hello Kitty cupcakes!!!! :D

Baby Tigger with a tiger mask <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG22FVe7eZaNUafBCbmaJ_JMKY7GytuQD-ukgNZhdjTQsGhI8z1kchyphenhyphenAmPgyYrYR1O4iBg58iDYksNf7gBXg0HWzFSWsBotfSk3bIn4KS8sWDBd9hEYZt6l3177E7DHfBzXPVlmnRUglU/s1600/Picture+329.jpg">Closer look of the cupcakes

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To me, one of the best things about this time of year is the abundance of all things PUMPKIN! I love the flavor of pumpkin!

The boy and I carved this Hello Kitty pumpking together. It turned out pretty nicely, no?

As you may be able to tell already, I love all things Hello Kitty

Pumpkin whoopie pie with cinnamon cream from The Corner Bakery. This was surprisingly tasty. I really liked the fragrant cinnamon cream

A trio of cupcakes from my favorite cupcake shop in LA, Susiecakes. Red velvet with cream cheese frosting, chocolate with vanilla cream, and PUMPKIN also with cream cheese frosting. The pumpkin cupcake was sooo good!

My faaaavorite pumpkin thing so far, though, is definitely this pumpkin cheesecake that I tried, also from Susiecakes. The cheesecake was super fluffy and perfectly sweet. The sour cream topping contrasted perfectly with the pumpkin flavor. I need to go back and get some more! I ate this one as slow as possible in order to savor it ;)

I'll end this post with a close up of my nails with Sephora by OPI in Queen of Everything. The Sephora site describes this as a "sterling gold" but I found that it was a pretty warm silver. I really liked this color. It gave my nails a really futuristic, mirror-like finish.

A picture of Queen of Everything from far away. There's Gracie resting on my shoulder!! She's so cute <3


Next up, a look at my haul from the Sephora Friends & Family Sale! :)

playing catch up 10/14/09

Things I have been loving lately:

Rimmel 60 Second Vinyl Shine nail polish in 874 Zenith. I've had this baby for YEARS...I can't remember when I got it, but it's been hiding out in my neglected nail polish stash. I have so many new ones to try that sometimes I forget about old favorites...does that ever happen to you?? Anyway I'm glad I rediscovered it!

Two coats on my toes. I really like this purple polish; at some angles you can see a cool blue tinge.

It was ok, but then I decided to up the ante and add a layer of the holographic top coat that I have yet to try. Suddenly my toes were blinged out and dazzling! Too bad this bad photo doesn't do it justice...in the sunlight it sparkles wayyyyy more

Picked up this EOS lip balm sphere from Rite Aid last week. Isn't it adorable?? This one is Honeydew Honeysuckle flavor. Smells so good! It reminds me of those Korean melon bars...mmm.. :)

SIGH....too bad the quality of the cuteness doesn't extend to the product itself. The actual lip balm isn't very moisturizing, rubs off quickly, and isn't emollient enough to spread on the lips easily. So sad! I wanted this balm to work for me. Now, I'm mostly using it because I like it the way I would like a toy: fun to play with but not practical.

BUT I did get some Thrifty ice cream while at Rite Aid! Black Cherry flavor :) I love Rite Aid ice cream, it's so cheap but yummy at the same time! And the shape is kind of cool

One of my roomies brought back this box of chocolates from Switzerland. OMG they were the best truffles I have ever tasted! I wish American chocolate could taste like this :(

And look at this beautiful tin box! A nice departure from those paper See's Candies boxes, eh?

The same roomie also got these bags of colorful little pellets that turn into those tapioca-like spheres when soaked in water for 4 hours. They're supposed to be used for decoration, but I have been tempted so many times to eat them! Don't you wish boba could look these colors??

Random picture. Find Gracie! :)

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Something I have NOT been liking lately:

Sephora by OPI matte nail polish in Domestic Goddess. I bought this in hopes of getting a pretty purple matte. Instead, what I got was chalky ugliness. I was so disappointed! I took this one off first chance I got. It doesn't look too bad in this picture, but in real life, it was bad enough for the boy to ask me what I was wearing on my fingers. And he usually doesn't notice my nail color unless it's super pretty or super ugly. This time it was the latter. I'll be sticking to Zoya for matte polishes from now on. I realized that I don't like OPI's mattes. Just personal preference I guess

before we say goodbye...

As summer quickly fades into fall, each young member of my family slowly packs up their belongings and leaves for their respective colleges--me included. With most of them already a month into their fall semester, I am the last one in the bunch to leave for school in a few days (as I am on the quarter system). Before I say goodbye to my beloved Norcal and depart for my final year at UCLA, I met up with my cousins and our significant others for some quality time in Berkeley, where half of them go to school.

We decided to meet at Trattoria La Siciliana, a quaint Italian restaurant on College Ave in Berkeley. The reservation was for 16 people; my family is super big!!

I ordered the bucatini 'chi finucchiede', which is a Sicilian specialty that includes fresh sardines, pine nuts, currants, sweet onion, Sicilian anchovies, saffron, fennel, and toasted breadcrumbs in the sauce. It was VERY different from anything I've ever had before. Extremely herbaceous and pungeant, the flavors were striking but perhaps a little too out there for me to fully enjoy. I loved sampling everyone else's typical gnocchi, spaghetti and meatballs, rigatoni, and mushroom ravioli, though! And there was a particular seafood stew that was divine.

Me, my younger sister (far left), and some girl cousins. Coincidentally, we were all wearing dresses!

Standing outside Ici (pronounced ee-cee) to get ice cream for dessert

Inside Ici

Some baked goodies for sale

The names of the flavors (changed regularly) are hung up on the walls in rectangle frames. This time there were flavors like brandied cherry, malted chocolate chip, rose vanilla, bartlett pear sorbet, earl grey, and brown sugar gingersnap

Display case with some ice cream scoops and brownies

I ended up getting Earl Grey, a very creamy, delicious flavor with the essence of a cup of good tea. The not-too-sweet cone proved to be a perfect vehicle for the delicate taste of this particular ice cream. The surprise chocolate filling at the bottom of the cone was nice too :)

Holding my Earl Grey and the boy's brandied cherries ice cream

Enjoying

A bunch of us standing outside the sweet shop, savoring our frozen treat before we say goodbye...


I will miss all of my family and loved ones here in Norcal. However, I am extremely excited for school to start! I have a feeling that it's going to be a very busy, exciting year for me :) Wish me luck!