[s a s s y n e r d]

{ OOTD and some random thoughts }

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

Random thoughts for today:

Oh hey, remember when a random person from the Internet sent me the McQueen book? I forgot to mention but the mystery has been solved. The book was from Chuck, the girl who won my Clarisonic giveaway (there was supposed to be a note with the package but Amazon eff'd it up). Well, thanks again, Chuck, that was super-thoughtful of you and the book is mind-blowingly awesome. Also, thanks for not being a creepy random from the Internet.
We watched The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo and I gotta say, it did the book justice. I was expecting another book-turned-movie train-wreck but it was actually very well done. Both Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig were fantastic.
I'm a total Groupon hoarder and always scramble to spend them at the last minute before they expire, so today I had to get a Groupon pedicure (total #firstworldproblem). On the plus side, I discovered an awesome OPI color, It's All Greek To Me; on the other hand, right after getting my pedicure, I proceeded to completely fuck it up by forgetting my flip flops.
I found some OOTD pictures from like October when cleaning out my memory cards!

Outfit Details

Dress: Bailey 44 (similar)

Sweater: Line (similar)

Boots: Via Spiga Georgia

Jacket: some no-name brand from Korea (ebay find)

Bag: Louis Vuitton

{ sh*t fashion girls say (hashtag-totes-amaze) }

2012-01-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen Shit Girls Say "miniseries", you're likely living under an internetless rock. It's that video that went from obscurity to a full-on meme overnight and is now inspiring a plethora of parodies. While some are of questionable comedic value (and taste), once in a while you stumble upon a true gem.

Today, I give you that gem. This video nailed it, hashtag-totes-amaze, indeed!

{ a path to 2012: reflections & resolutions }

2012-01-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

{ via }

As the year-end approached, the blogosphere was buzzing with those Teh Awesome Things That Happened This Year!!!1 posts. At first I thought of sparing you guys, but then I started reflecting on what an interesting year it has been for me and decided to do this entry after all.

(I think my apprehension about this type of post stemmed from the seeming bragging undertones many of these entries had, and that's definitely not what I wanted to accomplish here, I promise.)

Lost of things did happen this year, new experiences were experienced and new friendships were formed, and overall, I'm in a better place than I was in the last few years.

This past year:

I switched disciplines at work to something that I'm sure will cause me a great deal of stress, but I believe will ultimately be more challenging and fulfilling than my old job. Hopefully.
I met some really amazing people this year, from Internet BFF Jenn to Dance BFF Meaghan (an actual IRL friend), both of whom make my life better on a daily basis.
I've learned to not dwell on the friendships lost. Or at least to dwell less.
I also stepped out of my comfort zone by saying YES more often. YES to meeting new people, YES to a random happy hour and YES to doing stuff as opposed to sitting in front of the TV, watching another tired episode of the Kardashians.
I've taken more dance classes last year than I have in my entire life, combined. I feel like I've improved tremendously. AND I STARTED POINTE!!!! I mean, who does that at 29???? (I first typed at almost-30, but it looked gross, so I deleted it. 29 is a lot less intimidating).
I resurrected my blog after a 39839084 year hiatus. Trust me, this deserves a bullet point of its own.
I met people from the Internet, which still baffles my mind because it's so far out of my comfort zone. Besides Internet BFF Jenn, I also met Michelle, Katrina, and almost-Megan, another blog friend from Vancouver and my monochromatic soul sistah, but alas, plans changed at the last minute. The point is, had this been any other year, it would've never happened (see also: stepping out of my comfort zone)

Overall, I feel that I'm more patient, stable and a lot less of a stress case I was a year ago. I'm still learning, and have a long way to go, but for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm heading in the right direction.

I'm making no resolutions this year, because ultimately there's no point -- I end up breaking every one of them and then feeling like shit about it. So this is a year of no resolutions, no rules and no guidelines. This is a year of not feeling like a failure because I didn't accomplish some bullet point on some stupid list. This is a year of ME.

What are you resolutions this year? Are you even making any?

{ HANAair review - this thing blows (like, in a good way) }

2012-01-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

Being an Important Internet Blogger™ I get asked to do a lot of important reviews, like, all the time, but none of the products I was previously asked to review were relevant to the content of my blog (because apparently my blog is about printing services, dandruff shampoo and cat food?), so I never jumped on the review bandwagon.

However, over the holidays the awesome folks at Misikko contacted me asking me if I wanted to review their award-winning HANAair hairdryer. Since I was actually on the market for a new dryer for what seems like forever, I enthusiastically jumped on this opportunity, secretly hoping that this HANA thing doesn't suck.

The box the dryer arrived in was slick and pretty and I'm a sucker for beautiful packaging, so bonus points to HANA for first a great first impression. Misikko also threw in a "few" awesome extras, which I look forward to trying soon.

When I removed the dryer from the box, I noticed that it was quite a bit heavier than the dryer I've been using. I couldn't decide whether to be concerned about my arms getting tired while drying my hair or to be excited about the possibility of getting ridiculous biceps in the process. I decided biceps win.

I have now had a chance to use this dryer several times and one thing I can tell you is that it wins the shit out of my 10-year old piece of crap Conair dryer from Costco. Since the first time I used it, I was absolutely blown away by its awesomeness (blown away, ha!), even despite the weight concerns. To be honest, I didn't even notice the extra weight while using it, so I guess no bulging muscles for me.

This thing packs 2300 Watts of seriously power for its size, which significantly reduced the drying time. In fact, this damn thing is so powerful it blew my hand mirror right off the counter. Take that, old Costco dryer!

Not only does this thing dry really fast, but after I styled my hair with a round brush, I was pleasantly surprised how much softer and silkier my hair felt. I didn't use any styling products except my go-to MoroccanOil and these photos were taken right after I blow-dried my hair - I didn't use a straightener, this is all HANA, people!

The only other drawback besides the weight is the length of the the cord - at 12' long, it drove me absolutely crazy, especially in my tiny condo bathroom. On the plus side, I can now dry my hair while watching The Real Housewives in the living room, so there's that.

And because I'm an engineer and I love me some specs, here's some additional info about the dryer:

Professional grade hair dryer
Adjustable heat: 2 fan speeds, 3 heat settings, cold shot
Ceramic heater: most advanced far infrared ionic heat
Tourmaline, titanium oxide and silver infused: pure tourmaline crystals add antibacterial ions and shine
2300 Watts, like whoa!
Made in Italy

Overall, I am VERY impressed with this dryer. It did amazing things to my hair and the fact that it cut my drying time in half was a huge, huge plus. It's pretty spendy, but this is coming from a person who'd never spent more than $50 on a dryer. I don't know if I would pay full price for it, but if you're looking to spoil yourself or can get it on sale, I definitely recommend it.

Requisite disclaimer: The hair dryer was sent to me by the lovely people over at Misikko, whose awesomeness did not influence my opinions.

About the company: Misikko.com is devoted to your hair and specializes in salon-grade flat irons (including everyone's favorite Chi Straighteners) and professional hair dryers. To learn more about HANA products, click here.

{ unexpected surprises, santa reads my blog, and I'm totally internet important now }

2011-12-09T21:53:00.001-08:00

So last night I came home to find a mysterious box from Amazon addressed to me. Not having ordered anything from Amazon in a while, I curiously ripped open the packing tape. Inside was this McQueen book and nothing else, no note, no receipt.

Yep, that same McQueen book I posted in my Wish List entry, just a few days ago.

Since I've only posted my wish list on my blog, I'm just going to assume one of you people sent it (see, I'm logical like that). Either that or Santa reads my blog and he didn't like the part where I called him a stingy asshole.

Either way, whoever did this - um... HUGE THANKS, it was a truly unexpected surprise and you kind of made my day. I'm also dying of curiosity here, so can you please 'fess up so I can thank you properly?

Also, since I'm now an important blogger who gets shit for free, I needed to work this into my OOTD post immediately, with proper C/O attribution, of course.

Outfit Deetz:

Sweats: Lululemon

Shoes: Homer Simpsons, vintage

Accessories: McQueen, C/O The Internets.

(The book is still shrink-wrapped because I'm kind of convinced I got it by mistake and am half-expecting Amazon to come knocking on my door, demanding it back).

Ok, done, you may unfollow me now.

{ All I want for Christmas... is a bunch of stuff }

2011-12-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Santa,

As you know, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, mostly because it's all about consumerism, and who doesn't love that. Joining the masses in their materialistic pursuits, here's my wish list of all the stuff I want. Feel free to bring me some (or all) of the following.

{ Giganto Michael Kors watch }
Leaning towards the tortoise one since everyone and their uncle has the gold one.
The rose gold is a nice variation as well.
(P.S. I may have already bought myself the tortoise watch during the Macy's F&F)

{ Curly Brace necklace }

This is probably every coder's dream necklace. Awesome, right? RIGHT??

What's not awesome is the price tag.

{ Hoop earrings }

Boyfriend's parents gave me a pair of white gold ones a few years back, but I lost one.

Then I bought another pair but managed to drop one in the elevator shaft. (RIGHT?? WHO DOES THAT?) I should just buy these in bulk at H&M because I've proven time and time again that I can't be trusted with nice jewelry, and yet...

{ YSL Arty Ovale Ring }
Below is a photo of one of my favorite blogers, Wendy from Wendy's Lookbook rocking this gorgeous ring. Need it in my life immediately, but I'm having all kinds of #firstworldproblems trying to pick a color.

via

{ Coffee table books }
#1 on my list is the McQueen book because I still have major sadz for missing the MET exhibit. Any other fashion coffee table books are welcome as well.

{ Nikon D700 }
(File this one under 'things i'm never getting ever')

{ iPad 2 }
Because it's basically a giant iPhone and who doesn't want that?

{ Naked2 by Urban Decay }
The first Naked palette is AMAZING and the second one promises to be just as great. The only problem is finding it in stock (is it even out???) - I know, I know, again with those #firstworldproblems.

{ world peace }
just kidding.

Here's to hoping that Santa is not a stingy asshole.

(remember how I was bitching about people centering their blog posts? Yeah, I totally just did that, but only because otherwise it looked awkward. Shutup.)

{ Clarisonic giveaway, the winner is... }

2011-12-01T17:40:00.001-08:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway and for all you amazing people who made a donation. I haven't told Steven yet because I'm convinced he died in the 60-mile walk, but I'm sure he's wondering where all those extra donations came from.

Anyway, I dumped all the entries into a spreadsheet and by the magic of The Random Number generator, we have a winner.

And that winner is............... CHUCK!

Congratulations, Chuck!! Please email me so that I can get your prize over to you. Thanks for playing, everyone! Until the next major blog milestone (which may never happen... HA).

{ "Jamaica, mon" or some other cliche title - Part 1 }

2011-11-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

Remember how I went to Jamaica like a million years ago and then I got a major case of the lazies and I never got around to blogging about it? Well, the good news is that I finished processing ALL the photos from my vacation, which almost never happens, so now I can actually share them with you along with the details of the trip.

So Jamaica was AMAZING! The trip was for a destination wedding, so there was a sizable entourage going. I admit it, I was skeptical about this "group vacation" at first, I'm happy to say I've been proven wrong and we had a fantastic time.

When we got to Montego Bay, it was raining, and not even crappy, drizzly rain shit we get in Seattle, we're talking about a DOWNPOUR here. I checked the weather and saw an awesome forecast of ALL THUNDERSTORMS ALL THE TIME, and as much as I love my thunderstorms, I don't want any on my tropical paradise vacation. WELL PLAYED JAMAICA!!! grr.

Once we go to the resort though, the weather cleared up, which seemed to be the pattern for the rest of our time there - gorgeous in the morning, 10 min of rain the afternoon, decently sunny the rest of the day. Naturally, the week flew by as it always does when you're having a good time. It was a week of splashing in the ocean, chillin' at the swim-up bar, and sipping poolside drinks; a week of sunbathing (all while wearing SPF 893737383, of course) and unlimited, UNLIMITED amounts of jerk chicken and beef patties. A week of all fun and zero worries.

We stayed at Sandals Montego Bay, an all-inclusive resort whose only downfall was its proximity to the airport. We're talking right NEXT DOOR. We saw planes pass overhead at least a few dozen times a day and let me tell you - those are some loud motherfuckers.

The view from our room was incredible, which made going home that much more depressing. I mean, THIS! EVERY MORNING!

And then there was that whole thing about someone making your bed every day and creating these ridiculous bed-side dioramas? I could really get used to this.

The resort had a very couply vibe, much of which probably stemmed from the fact that it was a children-free resort. Lots of honeymooning couples, lots of weddings, lots of anniversary-celebrating people. And here's me, creepo-stalking some random couple's wedding. Totally normal. um.

Ahem.... and how about more photos?

And then we met some people from Jersey Shore and I'm happy to report that they lived up to every Jersey stereotype.

Richmond Hill vs. Jersey Shore volleyball game

Did I mention that the resort was all-inclusive which meant all the alcohol we could consume in a week? Jamaican Smiles, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, anyone? Mmmm..

Drink matches dress. yep.

We signed up boyfriend for karaoke because we know he secretly loves attention. And here he is singing the shit out of a Backstreet Boys song of our choosing, which immediately got him recruited to the talent show held a few nights later. Sadly, every part of this story is 100% true.

and love is allllll i haaaaave to giiiiiiiive

At the English Pub, the only place that didn't close super-early at the resort

This is the whole group, plus a few random people we met along the way.

Say YA MON... or something.

Part 2, including the wedding is coming up soon....ish...

Did you enter my Clarisonic giveaway?

{ Birchbox: November 2011 Review }

2011-11-18T18:55:00.001-08:00

I did it - I jumped on the Birchbox bandwagon!

If you're not familiar with Birchbox, it's a monthly service, which delivers a curated selection of 4-5 deluxe sized samples straight to your mailbox. Each individual box is unique, but the products range from cosmetics to skincare to beauty tools. The best part of the deal is that what you get is a surprise every month and who doesn't love that?

The cost is $10/month and is very reasonable for what you get. I'm also loving the surprise factor and the fact that I get to try out products I otherwise would never even consider. I got my first box a few days ago so I thought I'd do a quick review of the products I received.

1. Jouer | Lip Enhancer ($14 | 0.33 fl oz)
This best seller hydrates, plumps, and conditions lips.

This product was my favorite one in the batch. I normally don't use anything other than chapstick to condition my lips, so I was looking forward to trying out something new. This lip enhancer did not disappoint - it left my lips feeling amazingly soft and moisturized, with a hint of sheer rose color. The conditioner didn't have any distinct scent or taste, which I actually prefer. As for noticeable plumpness, there wasn't any, and trust me, I checked by spending excessive amounts of time in front of the mirror making pouty model faces at myself. Ahem... Yep, still nothing.

2. Kate Spade New York | Twirl perfume ($65 | 1.7 fl oz)
Classic beauty lovers adore this flirty scent, which is a fresh update on a timeless fruity floral.

I've never tried the aforementioned "timeless fruity floral", so I don't know how it compares. The scent of Twirl is quite fresh and floral, but not overpowering, and is definitely a summer scent. While it's nice enough, but I doubt I'll be purchasing this for myself.

3. Thymes | Eucalyptus Body Lotion ($24 | 9.25 fl oz)
Put this one on your wish list: skin saving botanicals and shea butter combine in a luxurious lotion.

Holy Eucalyptus overload. Aside from the somewhat overwhelming smell, the lotion is quite nice. It absorbs really quickly and leaves skin feeling silky smooth.

4. Thymes | Kimono Rose Body Lotion ($24 | 9.25 fl oz)
Put this one on your wish list: skin saving botanicals and shea butter combine in a luxurious lotion.

I like the scent of this one A LOT better than the previous one. While it smelled very sweet in the package, once I applied it to my skin the scent decimated into a more subtle aroma of a rose garden. Like its Eucalyptus counterpart, it's super-absorbent, and leaves skin feeling hydrated and soft. This one is a winner!

5. Zoya | Nail Polish in Noel ($8 | 0.5 fl oz)

This shimmery denim shade from Zoya's holiday 2011 collection fits just right - just like your favorite blue jeans.

From this blog post, you already know that Zoya polishes are my absolute favorite in the world. I'm a little confused by the 'denim shade' description on the card since the color is more turquoise, but still very pretty nonetheless. The only downside is that I already own something very close to this shade.

6. BONUS: Alex and Isabelle | Classic Hair Ties ( $12 | 6 )

No more snags and crimps! These colorful elastics are a step up from the regular ol' hair bands.

Um.. I actually threw this out thinking that it was part of the packaging used to hold the products together in my box. I ended up fishing it out from the trash for this review, but honestly think I'll go straight back to trash after I'm done. If the card didn't mention this hair tie I probably wouldn't even know that it was one. It just looks so.... home made. Sorry, Birchbox, but I think I actually prefer my "regular ol' hair bands", at least it doesn't look like it was made by a 5 year old in an arts & crafts class, from recycled pants waistband.

Birchbox verdict: While the products you receive won't add up to $10/month and not all of them will be awesome, it's a nice little service and I'll keep my subscription for now. Birchbox offers free shipping on all the products from this month's box, which is great for purchasing full-size products you particularly liked. Plus I'm loving the the surprise element and the feeling of getting a gift every month. Err.. a gift that you pay for, technically, but um.. yeah.

You can sign up for Birchbox here.

Did you enter my Clarisonic giveaway?

{ the one about meeting more people from the internet... }

2011-11-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently meeting people from The Internet is my new hobby because on Thursday I met yet another person.... from The Internet.

If you follow Michelle from Hot Pink Combat Boots, you already know that she's spending a few post-Germany days in Seattle, so when she emailed me and asked if I wanted to meet up, I had very few hesitations.

Backstory: I used to read Michelle's blog back in 2008. She was Shasta's bff and I loved following her dating adventures. Except then she disappeared off the face of the Internet, which was a bummer, but you know, that happens in the blogging world. Fast forward 3 years - I was reading some random blog and clicked on some random link in the comments, and as I was scrolling through the entries of said random blog, I was all like holy-shitballs-that's-Michelle-from-3-years-ago! I emailed her and told her I was her reader from way-back-when and we've been blogger friends ever since. The End.

(Except, not The End, because duh, you want to hear about our meetup!)

We decided to meet up for drinks at The Pink Door in Seattle. I was nervous and excited and going through the usual array of emotions one goes through when meeting someone for the first time. I recognized Michelle instantly, even if she did text me her OOTD earlier. Michelle was exactly how I pictured her - gorgeous, super friendly, a total riot, with fabulous, FABULOUS hair. We got along great and spent hours chatting away, like old friends. I guess that's the beauty of the blogging world - you already feel like you know so much about someone that it never feels like you're just meeting for the first time.

Hours flew by at The Pink Door, but we weren't ready to call it a night, so we embarked on a mission to find a different bar, except if you live in Seattle, you know what an impossible task that can be on a Thursday night. After a few failed attempts (Il Bistro, Maximilien, Cutters), we finally settled on Barollo, which doesn't seem to close EVER. We grabbed a table in the bar area and it didn't take us long to make friends the people (and their wine) next to us. I guess the whole "we met on the internet" story was very interesting to people. I won't go into details of the rest of the night, because like I told Michelle - what happens at blogger meet-ups, stays at blogger meet-ups.

Here's a super-crappy iphone camera photo to prove that the meetup actually did happen. It was really dark inside, so that's the only photo that sort of turned out.

To sum up, I had a ridiculously fun night. Thanks, Michelle for being such a blast!!! Let's do it again next time you're in town!

You can read about Michelle's recap here.

Did you enter my Clarisonic giveaway?

{ Clarisonic Mia Giveaway (and for an amazing cause too) }

2011-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

The other day I was updating my blog and noticed that I somehow manage to surpass 100 posts. This is probably not a huge milestone for most, but since it took me about 15 years to get here because apparently I'm one of those bloggers who lack dedication, never update and quit blogging every six months, this is kind of a big deal.

To celebrate my 100-some entries, and as a way of saying a HUGE THANKS to you, my lovely readers, I'm giving away a Pink Clarisonic Mia! This is not a sponsored giveaway, this is just a way for me to say thanks to you guys for being so fuckin' awesome. Thank you for reading, for leaving comments and for sticking around through my numerous hiatuses - I appreciate each and every one of you!

To enter the giveaway:
1. Follow me via Google Friend Connect and leave me a comment telling me that you did. Be sure to mention your GFC user name so I can find you later. THAT'S IT!

For additional entries:
1. Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following -- "I just entered @lempelziv's Clarisonic giveaway and you can too: http://bit.ly/s0iMus " (2 entries)
2. Blog about the giveaway and leave me a comment with a link (3 entries)

FOR A QUADJILLION (or, something more reasonable, like 10) EXTRA ENTRIES AND UNLIMITED KARMA POINTS:
Another reason why I'm doing this giveaway is to help out my friend Steven who will be doing the Susan G. Komen 3-day 60 mile walk for Breast Cancer for the 5th year in a row. His goal is to raise $2300 for the foundation and he's currently at a half-way point of meeting his goal.

While I don't have any personal experience with breast cancer, I've known people who are affected by this terrible disease - wives of several of my colleagues, a co-worker who was diagnosed in her late 20s, relatives, friends, the list goes on.... My heart breaks for those who are fighting this deadly disease every day and for those who, sadly, lost their loved ones to it.

Please visit Steven's personal page and read about his previous experience with the walk and the reasons why he's walking again this year. The write-up is long, but it's beautifully written and is well worth the read, I promise.

For each donation, you'll receive 10 additional entries for the giveaway. I really hope your consider donating - no amount is too small and it's obviously for an amazing cause. THANK YOU!

Giveaway will close on November 30th.

{ THREAD show, girl-time & meeting @vuesociety. Also, mini-hats }

2011-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I never blogged about the THREAD show in Seattle, so here I am... blogging about the THREAD show in Seattle.

THREAD is a "curated showcase of the best emerging, trend forecasting, style breaking, genre bending fashion designers, and the music and art that rock their world.", which to me just screams GLORIFIED FLEA-MARKET.

I think I may have dragged the Boyfriend to this a few years ago (or at least something similar) and didn't remember it being super spectacular, so I wasn't planning on going again. However, I won some tickets through Fresh Jess, another Seattle blogger, and decided to check it out anyway.

Armed with cash and low expectation, my Dance BFF, Meaghan and I made our way to the Seattle Center. The event was bigger than I remembered and ended up being a pretty fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Yeah, in true Seattle fashion, there was some really random stuff, like scary stuffed toys, giant bow headbands and what looked like used undergarments, but there were some really great vendors as well.

See, I wasn't kidding about the undergarments!!

Like I said, It wasn't all weird. There were some really great booths, ranging from handmade jewelry to local clothing designers and boutiques, such as Vue Society. It was great getting to meet Rachel, the owner of this fabulous boutique. I follow her on twitter and used to read her blog all the time so it was great to put a face to a name. (see also: meeting people on the Internet)

I really enjoyed browsing through her merchandise and I did end up getting a really cute white blazer, one of my few purchases that day. Her clothes are chic and edgy and are probably bad news for my credit card. Be sure to check out her online boutique.

Vue Society

Vue Society - that first dress there is amazeballs!

Stella & Dot

I also talked Meaghan into getting her make-up done by one of the make-up artists at the event and much to my amusement, she agreed. I loved the result but she probably hated me for it :D

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I got my hair did, including putting in a pink extension, which promptly fell out of my hair the next day. Meanwhile, Meaghan mastered the art of photography by taking amazing pictures like the one below:

Eventually she figured it out though!

And then we had way too much fun at this booth selling mini-hats and fascinators. Despite the owner's best efforts to convince us that we can totally rock these at the grocery store, we didn't end up buying any.

So THREAD ended up being very fun! I'm glad I got to hang out with Meaghan, who I rarely see outside the dance studio and it made for some much-needed girl-time.

(I also have a great giveaway for you guys in the next few days, so look out for that)

{ shopping Zara }

2011-11-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is obviously old news, but you can now shop Zara.com (I know, I know, you heard it here first).

I bitch a lot about the lack of good stores in Seattle, but I actually held off buying anything on Zara until now. This was mostly due to the fact that I didn't realize they offered free shipping and free returns, but now that I know this, goodbye money, because the problem with Zara having an online store AND an awesome return policy is that I want EVERYTHING - every monochrome pair of pants, every cozy sweaters and chic jacket and skirt and and and.......

all images via Zara

The main reason why I got sucked into Zara shopping was actually this gorgeous sequin clutch/wallet that I saw on Rosa's blog.

via

When she posted it, it was out of stock, but since then I've seen it repined eleventy billion times a day on Pinterest, which I obviously took as a sign that I NEEDED TO HAVE IT. The other night I noticed that it was back in stock, so I grabbed one and in the process also bought off the entire store.

Sorry, people who wanted to shop Zara, there's nothing left. Except maybe this sweater. You're welcome.

{ Love Stories (a preview) }

2011-10-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

PNB principal dancers Kaori Nakamura and Lucien Postlewaite in the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake.
Photo © Angela Sterling, stolen from PNB FB page.

If you read my blog even a little bit, you know that I'm basically obsessed with all things dance, especially ballet. Last night a couple of my dance friends (including my dance BFF Maeghan - HI MAEGHAN, SEE I'M WRITING ABOUT YOU) and I checked out the preview for a Pacific Northwest Ballet production of Love Stories.

Love Stories is a collection of excerpts from 5 different ballets, featuring the company premiere of Balanchine's "Divertimento from 'Baiser de la fee'" and Robbins' "Afternoon of a Faun", along with excerpts from Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette" ("Balcony Pas de Deux"), Stowell's "Swan Lake" ("Black Swan Pas de Deux"), and Hynd's "Sleeping Beauty" ("Aurora's Wedding").

I've never been to a preview before and it ended up being a pretty neat experience. A preview is basically a rehearsal with the artistic director, Peter Boal, who danced for the NYC Ballet for 22 years and some other dudes giving dancers pointers and corrections. We sat right in the front row, so close to the dancers we could touch them.

The dancers, of course, were fucking amazing. Even when they're mere feet away from you, they still make it look effortless and the only indication of how hard they're working is hearing their heavy breathing as they pass by you. Watching them dance was incredible, and kind of depressing because, hello, we'll never be at that level, not even a little bit (CUE ENVY). For the most, I can appreciate the dancing, the many years of training and hard work that goes into be able to perform at that level.

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take photos during the rehearsal, but I ninja'd these two (obviously horrible) shots while the dancers were warming up.

The preview concluded with a Q&A, which was mostly adorable kids asking adorable questions like "Are all ballets about princesses?" and "where are her shoes?" (I don't even know what that means, but it was cute).

If you're in Seattle and are into dance, I highly recommend checking out these previews. The tickets are only $10 and you can find more information about this season's previews here.

LOVE STORIES runs for seven performances only, November 4 through 13 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $28 and may be purchased by calling 206.441.2424, online at pnb.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer St.

{ OOTD, where I have entirely too many shots from the back }

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Found some random OOTD photos on my memory card from that one day in the summer where the weather was warm enough to wear shorts and now I'm sad. COME BACK, SUMMER!!!!

Here, texting important things

Outfit Details

Shorts: F21 (similar, budget, another cheap alternative)

Top: Obey Tied Up Tank Top (on sale!)

Scarf: stolen from boyfriend

Shoes: Sam Edelman Ginger

Bag: Louis Vuitton Delightful MM

(same one Gigi on Jerseylicious has. HAAAAAAAAY!)

{ Jenn does Seattle, meeting people on the internet & best weekend }

2011-10-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend can be summed up as the BEST WEEKEND EVER - ALL CAPS, lots of exclamation points, hyperboles galore!!!!

Jenn, whom I met on the internet (and I say that like it's the most normal thing ever), came to visit me from NYC. And because I'm still sitting here typing this, she didn't turn out to be a creepy old man stalker or a murderer, which are all totally valid concerns when meeting people off internet, right? Right.

I can't even remember when we first started talking, but we were Twitter/blog friends for a long time and many ridiculous conversations and emails later, I was picking her up at the airport on Thursday night.

I was totally nervous that we wouldn't get along in real life, which would then result in a REALLY awkward weekend but 10 minutes after meeting we were chatting away like we've known each other forever. Turns out Jenn is like this awesome, sarcastic, hysterical person ("funny"-hysterical, not "crazy"-hysterical) and we got along just fine :D

We had an action packed weekend planned, complete with visits to the Microsoft company store and museum (because who doesn't want to see that), the "fish market", shopping, and even a Ghost Tour (uh.. thanks Groupon?), but while our "clipboard of fun" was overflowing, we ended up spending most of the weekend eating cupcakes and pizza, having inappropriate conversations, philosophizing about our #firstworldproblems and judging stupid bitches on Say Yes To The Dress Atlanta (hi boring man-hating Lori and girls who all look the same and ugly-Monte who's going to "jack you up", which honestly sounds like something that would lend you in a hospital, NO?????? )

Anyway, I'm sad the weekend flew by so fast but before it even ended we were already planning our next trip. Also, I'm pretty sure I convinced Jenn to move to Seattle anyway :D

Here are a few highlights from the weekend.

Because I don't already have about 6 dozen of the same photo

Jenn is so asian

gum wall!!

asian tourists dorks

because we needed one normal picture

During one of our downtown strolls, we saw this lady who was basically prostituting her dogs for $1 bills. These are the most well-behaved (read: probably drugged) dogs I've ever seen and a call to (fur-)child services is probably in order.

Awesome or animal abuse? You decide.

From the ghost tour. We found a ghost at a bar afterwards.

#OccupySeattle

More #OccupySeattle

Jenn makes friends wherever she goes

Did I mention BEST WEEKEND EVER????

{ 10 day 'you' challenge - 8 fears }

2011-10-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

This 10-day project is going to turn into a 10-month project, isn't it. Did I mention boyfriend has a new video game so it's impossible to even get CLOSE to a PC this day? Anyway.. 8 fears.

{ 1 } (cue cliche) Being alone
I don't talk about my relationship much here, but the state of my relationship has been less than stellar lately. 7 year itch? Perhaps, but the thought of being alone terrifies me. The only thing that's worse than living alone is dying alone, but we won't go there.

{ 2 } Lupus
I was going to say things like 'losing my hair', 'having to take steroids again', 'feeling sick to the point where i can't get out of bed', 'kidney failure' or 'crazy old lady arthritis' etc, so then I'll just wrap them up in a gift (that keeps on giving) and title it Lupus. The fear is not lupus itself, it's all the wonderful things it can be. Not knowing when the next flare hits or when I'll be too sick to function again is the hardest part, but I'm taking it one day at a time.

{ 3 } Failing at life slash my job
Need to work on that confidence thing.

{ 4 } Losing people I love
I know it's inevitable and is part of the circle of life and everyone goes through it eventually, but nope, can't cope.

{ 5 } Not being able to have children
The older I get, the more real this fear becomes. It's not like I'm dying to have children tomorrow, but what if by the time I decide it's too late? I can't believe I'm even typing this right now. WHO AM I????? Maybe I'm just destined to be a crazy cat-hoarding lady after all?

{ 6 } Severe disability/physical incapacitation
I lead a pretty active lifestyle and I'm always on the go, so the mere thought of being severly disabled (think paralysis, severe arthritis etc) terrifies the living shit out of me. Being active (dance, yoga etc) is what gets me through life, and is the reason why i'm still (somewhat) sane.

{ 7 } Public speaking
Never liked it, never will. Picturing people in underwear doesn't help.

{ 8 } Not being financially independent.
I've been financially independent since I was in my early 20s and I can't even imagine depending on someone else for financials. If I want something, I buy it with the money that *I* earned and that feels good. Having a wealthy boyfriend/husband/sugar-daddy sounds great on paper, but I would be giving up a huge part of myself and who I was raised to be. Cue Independent Women by Beyonce - yah, I pay my own bills, bitch, what?

{ filed under: tear-inducing videos/old people love }

2011-10-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

These high school sweethearts reunited after 62 years of not seeing each other (both are 82 now) and this might just be the sweetest video on the internet.

If this doesn't make you cry, YOU SUCK AS A PERSON (and probably hate old people too, which means you suck even more).

aaaaand pass the kleenex!

{ 10 day 'you' challenge - 9 loves }

2011-10-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

When I started this 10-day challenge I thought it would be 10 easy entries. In fact, I was going to try posting every day even, but then life got in the way, and then our hard drive died, and then a new video game happened, which meant not being able to use the PC EVER. So here I am, 2 weeks later.

Before, I go into Day 9, I just wanted to say thanks for all your awesome comments on the last entry. I always try to keep this blog honest even at the risk of coming across neurotic and weird and reading the comments gave me a much-needed feeling of normalcy. Because OMG I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO JUDGES PEOPLE BY THEIR GROCERY STORE PURCHASES. (etc etc). There's a lot of comfort in the fact that many of you could relate to the other points as well, things that I don't necessarily want to admit to. Major <3 for you guys!

Anyway, day 9. Loves. I'll try to stay away from cliches such as my family and friends and Boyfriend and travel. Definitely love them all, but that's a given.

{ 1 } Photography
Duh. Ever since picking up my first (real) camera, I've been in love with photography. From capturing a photograph, to spending endless hours in Photoshop post-processing, I love every aspect of it. I don't shoot nearly as much anymore, but I love it just the same. You know that question - 'if you won a lottery and didn't have to work for a living, what would you do' - easy, photography.

{ 2 } Dance
Ballet was my first dance love, but I'm also really loving modern lately. Also, I once took hip hop and that was hilarious.

{ 3 } Being Canadian, eh?
Although I'm currently living and working in the US, I'm Canadian through and through. Don't get me wrong, there are things i love about the US as well - like cheaper taxes and online shopping, but I love my country and no matter where I live I will always consider myself a Canuck, yes, even despite all the 'eh'/'aboot' jokes that get thrown my way.

Also, I feel compelled to link this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

{ 4 } Used book stores
I normally read books on my Kindle, but when I buy an actual physical book it's usually from a used book store. I love spending hours at used book stores, looking for that perfect read. Bonus points if there's a coffee shop inside. Maybe I've been living in Seattle for too long, but why kill trees when you can recycle them?

{ 5 } Clean apartment
That feeling of putting away the vacuum, after you spent 3 hours cleaning and scrubbing the apartment top to bottom - amazing.

{ 6 } Hoodies

There's nothing more comforting than throwing on a favorite hoodie and if I could live in them, I probably would. Hell, I probably can considering that a hoodie is practically an engineer's uniform. Hm.

{ 7 } Vino
Red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, box wine, it's all good! *hickup*

{ 8 } Autumn
Fall is my absolutely favourite season. Always has, always will be. I used to be that freak of a kid who actually looked forward to the first day of school, although this may have had something to do with the fact that new school year = school supply shopping? Anyway, fall - the season of new beginnings, of starting fresh, the season of brisk mornings and gorgeous foliage, love it.

{ 9 } Saturday mornings
I tend to keep a pretty regular schedule as far as bedtime, so I don't usually sleep in on weekends. I love Saturday monings, when boyfriend is still asleep and I basically have the house to myself. I get to have my breakfast in peace, while catching up on whatever embarassing TV TiVo recorded for me that week (hi Dance Moms!). YES, WITHOUT YOU BEING ALL JUDGY MCJUDGERSON, BOYFRIEND.

{ 10 day 'you' challenge - 10 secrets }

2011-09-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

I'm totally jumping on the 10 day 'you' challenge so many blogs are doing, mostly because this excuses me from thinking of my own posts for at least 10 entries. Clever? i think so. Up first, 10 secrets.

{ 1 } If I could make a living being a wedding photographer, I'd quit my job tomorrow.
{ 2 } I've lived in Seattle for 5 years and I still feel very much alone here. Cue world's smallest violin.
{ 3 } I judge people by what they buy at the grocery store.
{ 4 } Contrary to what everyone thinks, I don't have my shit together, like AT ALL. I always thought by 30 I'd be married, have a house and a kid. I'm turning 30 in 10 months and it feels like my life is more of a mess than it's ever been.
{ 5 } Social situations give me anxiety. I'd rather spend a quiet evening at home than go to a party.
{ 6 } I love to cook but i'm a totally incompetent as a baker. My cupcakes come out like bricks.
{ 7 } I can't sing
{ 8 } I hate talking on the phone. When my phone rings, I usually ignore it, hoping whoever it is goes away and sends me a text/email instead. Also, I make boyfriend make reservations and call customer service.
{ 9 } I have lupus, which isn't much of a secret if you know me from the internets, but is still something I don't share freely with IRL people. In fact, only a handful of my real-life friends know.
{ 10 } I'm totally passive-aggressive. Maybe it's because I'm Canadian.

{ Rachel Zoe Spring 2012 RTW, this shit is bananas }

2011-09-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Check out Rachel Zoe's Spring 2012 RTW collection. Isn't this shit bananas, out of control, uh-mazing, to die for and pretty much every other Zoe-ism out there?

Seriously, this collection is flawless, and if I didn't die already from seeing her Fall 2011 collection, I would totally be dying right now.

Check out the full collection here. LOVES IT!

{ I just texted to say I love you }

2011-09-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

This HAPPY FRIDAY post is brought to you by my social media addiction.

Sing it with me:

I just texted to sayI love you
I just tagged us both on our Facebooooooooook
I just tweetedHashtagI love you
Retweet it, then like and share with all your friends

{ and so it begins.. }

2011-09-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

Red carpet is rolled out, photographers are in place, fabulous people are starting to arrive.

Let the Bravern FNO festivities begin!

Bravern FNO

{ SEA does FNO }

2011-09-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

Oh, Seattle.. the Sillicon Valley of the Northwest, the land of hipster try-hards, crocs and keens (both worn with white socks, duh). A place where comfort prevails over appearance, and flannel and fleece are a way of life (and o hai, the 90s called, they want their fashunz back).

All the joking aside, though, it's time for all you stylish people of Seattle to prove everyone wrong - that beyond all the grudge and hipster nonsense, Seattle does have style!

This Thursday, September 8th, 2011, Seattle will be joining the masses for Fashion's Night Out - a global initiative created by Vogue in 2009, this is an after-hours shopping and fashion extravaganza like no other. From exclusive in-store promotions and runway shows to red carpet, food, music and champagne, FNO promises to be a fabulous. Come celebrate Fall Fashion in style!!

There are countless events around the city, many of which taking place at the same time, so plan accordingly. I haven't decided which event I'll be attending but I'm leaning towards the Bravern, mainly because of its proximity to work (i.e. leave office, take elevator, hi FNO!).

Here are some other events taking place around town:

{ Bravern }

HERMÈS: Sip champagne while enjoying a scarf tying demonstration between 6-9 pm.
DNA 2050: Stop by from 7-8 pm and enjoy 15% off the newest collection of denim must-haves from J Brand, Habitual, G-Star, Hudson Jeans, Rag & Bone and more.*
WOLFORD With a Fatal dress purchase, receive Fatal 50 black tights. A Fatal belt is your gift with purchase of $250 or more.*
JIMMY CHOO Enjoy champagne, a first look at the latest Autumn/Winter styles and your chance to buy the official FNO 2011 t-shirt. Also enjoy an exclusive gift with purchase.*
DAVID LAWRENCE Enjoy wine, light bites and a gift with purchase.* Shop the selection of his and hers from designers like DSquared², Herve Leger and Hugo Boss.
ANTHROPOLOGIE The Anthro photo booth is ready to capture your best look.
Tory burch Get the limited edition TB FNO tote with a purchase of $100+.
KAREN MILLEN Enjoy champagne and enter to win a gorgeous Karen Millen handbag
PIAZZA SEMPIONE Delight in an Italian wine tasting, enter the exclusive FNO raffle and receive a gift with purchase from 6-10 pm.*
Find more information here

{ Downtown Seattle }

via SeattleMet

Participating stores:

Alhambra

All Saints
Enjoy drinks by Tanteo and 20% off at participating stores
Aerosoles
Enter to Win a FREE pair of shoes and receive other shopping incentives!
Ann Taylor
Baby and Co.
Barney's
BCBGMAXAZRIA
Runway show. Enjoy champagne and get a .25 oz. bottle of BCGBMAXAZRIA’s new fragrance with a regular-priced purchase. Enter for a chance to win a $2,500 wardrobe and fragrance.Columbia Sportswear
Eileen Fisher
The Finerie
Free People
Gucci
Enjoy cocktails and snacks while shopping
J. Crew
Join JCrew for an evening of refreshments and shopping at Pacific Place. The first 25 clients who spend $150+ will receive a custom Fashion's Night Out JCrew tote
Mario's
Celebrate in style with our live DJ, small bites from Morton's The Steakhouse and our signature cocktail bar! Shop exclusive FNO merchandise, pose in our photo booth, and win prizes from local sponsor, Hugo Boss!
Mistral
Nancy Meyer
Nordstrom
In celebration of FNO, you're invited to an evening of entertainment, refreshments and the latest fall trends at your local Nordstrom store. RSVP via FB for more information.
RN74
Swink Style Bar
True Religion
Visit True Religion Brand Jeans during Fashion’s Night Out and receive an exclusive gift with any purchase.

and many others! details on Facebook

{ U Village }

Anthropologie
Autumn Trunk Show

Aveda
Free Hairstyling and Makeup Touchups plus 20% off featured products

Banana Republic
Styling event with Live Models

Bartell Drugs
Enter to win a $50 gift card

Ben Bridge Jeweler
Styling Event & Gift with purchase of $50 or more

Blue C Sushi
Enter to win a $50 Gift Card

Chico’s
Jewelry raffle every hour

Cole Haan
Enter to win a pair of shoes every month for a year

Eddie Bauer
25% Off your total purchase when you buy any pair of pants

Eileen Fisher
Cocktail party with Edible Seattle Magazine from 4-7pm

Fireworks Gallery
New scarf line exclusive to U Village

Free People
20% off any purchase

GAP
25% off one regular priced item

Gene Juarez
Hair trend Style Demos

H&M
$10 off any purchase of $50 or more

Hanna Andersson
Enter to win a $50 Gift Card

Impress
Create a custom twitter name tag

InSpa
Enter to Win a Spa Basket

J. Crew
Spend $150 or more and receive a FNO tote

Kid’s Club
Gift with $150 clothing purchase & enter to win a Kid’s Club gift card

Kiehl’s since 1851
Complimentary introductory kit with purchase of $45 or more. Skincare consultations and mini-facials

Lucy Activewear
Free tote bag with $100 purchase

Lululemon
Yoga demonstrations

Madewell
Gift with purchase of $150 or more

Margaret O’Leary
Stella and Dot Trunk Show & raffle plus enter to win a Margaret O’Leary sweater

Mrs. Cook’s
Enter to win a Soda Stream: Home Soda Maker

Pandora
Free bracelet with $75 purchase & enter to win a Macrame bracelet

Papyrus
10% off any purchase

Piatti
10% off your bill

Pottery Barn
Autumn decorating class & enter to win a throw

Pottery Barn Kids
10% off any purchase

Ravenna Gardens
Fall garden fashion demonstrations

Red Mango
20% off gourmet yogurt

Sole Food
Alchemy Goods trunk show

Something Silver
Enter to win a $25 gift card and CMR bracelet

Sonrisa
20% off food

Sony Store
Man Cave Destination: sports, PlayStation, gaming and more plus 50% off sheet battery with purchase of a Sony VAIO S Series

Swink Style Bar
“Fall Look” hair and makeup consultations & enter to win free lash extensions

Tiffany & Co.
Enter to win a Tiffany & Co. sterling silver lock charm bracelet

Trophy Cupcakes
Enter to win a $50 gift card

Village Maternity
20% off any 1 item

World Wrapps
50% off smoothies

Yves Delorme
Free candle with purchase from new fall collection & free tea towel with any purchase

Will you be partaking in the FNO extravaganza? Which events will you attend?

{ rent the runway review, weddings and pretty in pink & grey }

2011-09-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I wrote an this entry - the one with all my #whitegirlproblems, where I was toying around with the idea of renting a dress for an upcoming wedding. I wanted to thank you all for your thoughts and opinions. They were very helpful and I did end up renting from Rent the Runway, so I wanted to do a short write-up about my experience with this service.

The process
I was a little (A LOT) worried about fit, but RTR allows you to select a second size for free, as long as it's for the same dress. Being a crazy control freak that I am, that really calmed my nerves, especially because the dress was arriving the night before I had to fly out, so if it didn't fit, I'd have nothing to wear.

In addition to the back-up size, you can also rent a second dress for just $25 AND get a back-up size of that dress for free. You really can't go wrong with those alternatives.

Price
The prices are very reasonable, especially if you go with one of the "lesser" designers (in other words, skip your Herve Legers, Nina Riccis and Christian Sirianos (sadface)) and opt for a short-term rental. Prices range from $40 to $350 for 4-day rental period. There's also an option for an 8-day rental period at a slightly discount rate.

(Also, if you need a dress for just over 4 days, sometimes it's cheaper to rent it for 4 days and return it late, incurring a late fee, rather than to renting it for 8 days. The late fee is 5% of the Retail Value of the dress).

On top of the rental price, RTR also charges you $5 for mandatory insurance, which covers things like wine spills and dress damage. It's a small price to pay for a little peace of mind.

Shipping is pricey at $12.95 but is free on orders $125+.

The dress
For starters, I did end up renting a dress most of you voted for - Halston Heritage Magenta Floral Drape dress. It was a great choice for a summer wedding at a golf club - light and flowy and perfect for the occasion.

The dress arrived on the day it was promised. At first I had mixed feelings about the dress itself. I'm normally a size 2 (or 4), but since the dress looked kind of shapeless, I ordered it in size 0 and 2. To my surprise, even size 0 was kind of baggy, but I guess that's the way it's tailored.

Up close you could tell that this dress has been through a few cycles of dry-cleaning, but from far away it wasn't noticeable. I mean, it's a rental, so let's adjust our expectation. Both dresses were also quite wrinkled on the side, probably because it was sent in a giant envelope and the dress is silk. It was nothing a little steam couldn't fix.

Here are some pics immediately after dress arrival. You can see the wrinkles on the side and how weird it looks without cinching/a belt. Sorry for the awesomely shitty quality, but you know, iPhone pics

Dress without cinching.. baggy!

I was toying with the idea of wearing a belt, and actually did wear one for a little while but because the dress was silk and the belt was actually a ribbon, it kept sliding out of place. In the end I just went belt-less and just walked around with a hand permanently attached to my waist.

Here are a couple of photos from the actual wedding:

Outfit Details

Dress: Halston Heritage Magenta Floral drape dress

Shoes: Badgley Mischka Humbie II

Bag: United Colors of Benetton

Accessories
Because I had a $100 voucher from Mamapedia I decided to also rent some bangles to use its full value. They were pretty & sparkly. No complaints.

Shipping back
Easy! Stuff your dress(es) into a prepaid envelope and drop it off at any post office before noon! RTR takes care of the rest.

Overall, I would definitely rent from RTR again, especially for a short-term rental and when the alternative is buying yet another dress I'll never wear again. Yes, renting is basically throw-away money, but I'd rather throw away $40 than $300.

Have you used RTR? What was your experience like?

{ post card exchange }

2011-08-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

via

If you're a follower of Michelle's blog (and if you're not, you should be, because she's awesome), you may have participated in her postcard exchange. Last week I got a postcard all the way from Germany and because I loved the idea so much, I decided to shamelessly steal it for my blog as well.

The rules are simple: I send you a postcard from Seattle (because who doesn't want that??) and you send me a card from wherever the hell you're from. Once you get the postcard, take a photo and post it on your blog.

Sounds like fun? Email me at teezee@live.com if you're interested in participating!

{ not dead, just on vacation }

2011-08-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say HAAAAAAAAAY.

I'm not dead but I did go on vacation to Jamaica (YEAH MUN!!) for a week. I was supposed to get back last night, but thanks to Irene (that bitch!), our flight was canceled. I'll do a detailed post later, but right now I need to go pass out because besides rum, I also brought back a nasty cold, which makes me a sad panda, because not only do I have to deal with the fact that o hai, it's back to reality, but I have to do it with a stuffy, runny nose and a sore throat.

And on that note, I'm going to go OD on NyQuil, kthxbai. <3

{ Karl Lagerfeld for Macy's, black & white heaven, and things you can actually afford }

2011-08-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

So you know how Karl Lagerfeld is basically God and how he was designing a collection the rest of us can afford but we didn't know much about it, except random tidbits and sketches here and there? Well, this highly anticipated collection has now been revealed and I couldn't be more excited!

The collection definitely reflects Karl Lagerfeld signature design aesthetic - black & white pieces (heaven!), statement jackets, high-collar dresses, structured silhouettes, but also includes graphic tees and even a splash of PINK. The pieces are modern, edgy, sophisticated and chic, and I can't wait to get my hands on them.

The collection hits Macy's Impuse department on August 31 and prices range from $50 to $170. Get excited people, this one is going to be awesome! Here are some of my favourite items from this 45-piece collection:

All images via nymag.com and you can view the whole collection here.

{ 30 before 30 }

2011-08-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

So, fine, I'm not actually 25 like I claim to be, and there's officially less than a year before I hit dirty-30. HOW THE FUCK DID THAT HAPPEN??? Feels like just yesterday I was graduating university, full of optimism and hope and wide-eye naivete about the future (o hai, 24 year old me!)

I've been working on my Life list since what feels like forever and I've been trying to get to 100 items before I post it, but it seems to be stuck in draft-mode. So let's start small and do 30 before 30 because at least that's manageable.

In no particular order, here's all the crap I need to get done in the next 340-something days:

{ 01 } Complete a 30 day yoga challenge. Yes, I know everyone has this one, but suck it!

{ 02 } Finish Strictly Seattle Summer Dance Intensive (for the 4th time)

~~{ 03 } Take an all-inclusive vacation~~

{ 04 } Get another tattoo

{ 05 } Buy some happy-birthday-Louboutins!

{ 06 } Complete another year of ballet at Pacific Northwest Ballet, maybe go up a level.

{ 07 } Be able to do the splits again!

{ 08 } Send a care package

{ 09 } Take French classes

{ 10 } Read 20 books

~~{ 11 } Be in a flash mob~~ (another entry for another time)

{ 12 } Shoot a gun

{ 13 } Order an $100+ bottle of wine at a restaurant

{ 14 } Be in a dance show

{ 15 } Process photos from Rome (yep, it's been 2 years and they're still unprocessed on my hard-drive)

{ 16 } Go wine tasting

{ 17 } Run 5k.. like actually RUN it. TRUST ME PEOPLE, THIS IS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT!

~~{ 18 } Try Chick-fil-a!~~

{ 19 } Do a cleanse

{ 20 } Indulge self in some day-spa'ing

{ 21 } See a ballet (bonus points if it's Swan Lake. Negative points if it's The Nutcracker)

{ 22 } Learn to make macarons

{ 23 } Take a tumbling class

{ 24 } Try 5 new Seattle restaurants (so far: emmer&rye)

{ 25 } Go to NYC (or Chicago or LA or some other big US city I've never been to, except I've been to NYC, so that doesn't count)

{ 26 } Try every group class at my gym

~~{ 27 } See Adele live~~

{ 28 } Give blood

{ 29 } Complete the Insanity program - all 60 days of it!

{ 30 } Party like it's 1999 on my birthday (I haven't celebrated my birthday in 6 years, so this decade needs to go out with a bang)

Do you make lists like these? What's on your N before N list?

{ outfit of the day, leather shorts and whoa colour }

2011-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what deserves an OOTD post more - the fact that I wore leather shorts or the fact that my outfit had more than one (non-black) colour. Either way, here we are.

For some reason this "shoot" was more difficult than usual. Boyfriend was cranky, hungry, and irritable, which resulted in more than half of my photos looking like this.

Also, there was all this extra awkwardness due to numerous packs of cops swarming the area during the "photoshoot". We live right across from a police station and I don't even know what was going on down there today (police convention???? free donut day??? i kid, i kid), but they were everywhere - on foot, bikes, and um.. HORSES. I was trying to act all nonchalant about it, but it was really hard to find a quiet moment.

Oooh, I wanted to introduce the newest addition to the bag family - Rebecca Minkoff Tryst. She was a 65% off Nordstrom Rack and when I saw that gorgeous colour, I had to have her. This bag is monstrous (as in it can fit a couple of babies and/or small, furry animals) but I love it. The leather is butterlicious and the colour is divine and it's perfect for work and travel. Total love affair!

Rebecca Minkoff - Tryst
(here pictured in Butter...mmm butter)

(mine is in Salmon. mmm.. salmon)

Anyway, here's the whole ensemble. As you can see, I'm wearing, count 'em, TWO colours today! Like whoa.

In case you can't tell, i'm totally smeyesing

Outfit details:

Tank: Urban Outfitters ( similar | budget )

Shorts: BlankNYC ( similar, on sale | and these )

Shoes: Dolce Vita Pela ( almost identical by DV, on sale )

Bag: Rebecca Minkoff Tryst (on sale!)

{ zoya, nail polish hoarding and all the pretty colours }

2011-07-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Some people hoard small animals, I hoard nail polish. On one hand, I should probably see a professional for my issues, but on the other, it's comforting to know that if this whole engineering career doesn't work out, I can always run a nail salon out of my house.

Annnyyyyway....

I used to be a hardcore OPI snob but one day, as I was browsing the Deals & Steals forum on TPF, I noticed a promo for a bunch of free polishes from some company named Zoya. I like free stuffz, and despite being a creature of habit, I reluctantly decided to give it a try. Suffice it to say, I've been a Zoya junkie ever since.

Zoya features over 300 gorgeous colours, ranging from ridiculous-over-the-top-trendy to down-to-earth shades. From sheers to opaques, from metallics and fun glittery to matte, there's something for everyone in this collection.

Did you know that Zoya has been awarded as the longest wearing natural nail polish? And that it's made without all harmful toxic crap, like formaldehyde, and other things I can't pronounce?

The only downside is the availability of the polishes. Unlike OPI which is available anywhere from specialty stores to Target, Zoya polishes are only sold in select boutiques, spas and salons. There's obviously the online store, but paying for shipping is lame and sometimes it helps to see the colour in person before buying.

Luckily, if you're in Seattle area, you can find the full line at the Downtown Urban Yoga Spa.

Newest addition to my Zoya family

Midori, Phoebe, Blyss, Gilda, Simone

And the whole family.. SO FAR!

Be sure to look out for their frequent promos. They're always seem to be giving free polishes (either have to buy something or simply pay for shipping) and probably close to half of my collection was free.

Like their page on Facebook and be among the first to find out about all the special offers. No, they're not paying me to say this, though they probably should.

{ birthday stuff, RN74 and foodgasms }

2011-07-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago I celebrated my 24th birthday.... for the 5th year in a row and as such we decided to try out the newest restaurant in town - Michael Mina's RN74. Michael Mina is all sorts of famous in the culinary world and has restaurants all over Vegas, San Francisco and other parts of the country. He also appeared on Hell's Kitchen as a judge, so I was excited when I found out he was opening a restaurant in Seattle.

I was going in with pretty high expectation, considering all the hype, and holy fuckballs, i was not disappointed!

The interior/decor was beautiful - very inviting and unpretentious, modern, with vintagy touches, like the train board (below), showcasing "Last Bottle" selection. We did end up ordering from it, so we got to witness the whole board go flip-crazy and update with the new items. I tried catching in action and sort of succeeded.

train board updating with the new items

TOO MUCH CLOSE-UP, BOYFRIEND!!!

leather-bound menus.

The wine we ordered from the Last Bottle list. It was delicious

Chicken Liver Mousse.. YUM!

Tuna tartare, with pine nuts, sesame oil and fairy dust of awesomeness!
I want to eat this EVERY DAY!

Steak

Duckz!

Opera Torte

Strawberry Vacherin with basil meringue & creme freche sorbet

(don't tell boyfriend i'm posting pictures of him on the internets, esp. pictures he hates HAHAHH)

All in all, the food was AMAZING.

While the service left a little to be desired (the food took forever to come out), I think everything else more than made up it. Bonus points for being just down the street from where we live - i can totally see this place becoming my new favourite hang-out spot.

If you're in Seattle are (or SF or whatever), do check out this place! Culinary boners and foodgasms for everybody!!!!

{ getting lucky with a cop, sometimes god doesn't hate me and lessons in procrastination }

2011-07-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday was my birthday, and as I got another year older, I clearly didn't get any wiser because remember how your license expires every 5 years you're supposed to renew it? yeah, well.......

I figured, statistically, what are the chances of me being pulled over that week? I've never been pulled over EVER in my life, so what's a few more days of driving illegally?

As I was driving home from my dance class, trying to ninja my way through the Capitol Hill neighborhood, I noticed a cop behind me and I'm all like be calm, no problem officer! - I'm not speeding and I haven't hit any pedestrians and my headlights are working for once and my tabs aren't expired and everything is a-ok, except that teeny tiny fact that my fucking license is slightly illegal.

Just as I thought I was going to dodge that bullet, the lights go on and I'm all like HOLY SHIT I'M GETTING PULLED OVER - PANIC, PANIC, PANIC!!!

So yes, I went from never been pulled over to my life to getting pulled over 2 days after my license expired. It's so ridiculous that it's almost hilarious, and well, THIS IS MY LIFE, PEOPLE!

Officer comes over to my car, explains something about my tabs not being right and how they're missing the month sticker and asks for my license/insurance. oopsies! I hand it over, he clearly sees that it's expired and gives me that look.

(For a second I considered telling him that I had full intentions of getting my license renewed today, but my hair (and, well, the rest of me) looked like shit, so getting stuck with Ke$ha-calibre hot mess of a photo for another 5 years was just NOT going to happen. Clearly I have ridiculous priorities in life, but either way, I decided that was probably not a good idea so I just mumbled something incomprehensible instead.)

(serious note: truth is, I could've gotten my license renewed by mail, but that would mean old picture - the picture where I looked like a fat, prednisone-drugged up mess. Thanks, lupus - the gift that keeps on giving! It's amazing that they were able to fit my face into the little 2x2 slot on the card at all. If you've ever taken high doses of sterroids for extended period of time, you know that Moon face is not a joke!)

Anyhoo, the officer, takes my license/insurance and proceeds to sit in his car for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile I'm shitting my pants and thinking of the worst possible scenarios - anything from getting arrested, to spending the night in jail with a butch roomie Patsy who was going to rock my world, to getting deported back to Canada.

As I prepared for the worst, the officer approached my car once again and to my surprise told me he's letting me off with a warning for tabs AND license. i mean, WHAT???? THIS SHIT DOES NOT HAPPEN TO ME! DID GOD FORGET THAT HE HATES ME? this is fucking up the entire order of the universe, so please just arrest me, sir!

The officer then showed me what I was missing on my tabs -- and yes, I don't in fact have a Month sticker, just a Year one, which brings me to my next question -- WHO STOLE MY MUTHUHFUCKING MONTH STICKER???

Anyway, nicest officer EVER and, yes I still a spotless driving record. Maybe I should send him a gift basket or an edible arrangements bouquet or something, but that's probably creepy.

Things I learned this week: procrastination is bad and maybe god doesn't hate me as much as I think. *cue triumphant music*

{ water, water, water.... loo.... loo... loo... (5 years later) }

2011-07-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I flew back to Toronto last weekend for a friend's wedding. The wedding was actually in Waterloo, where I went to university, so the following day we headed out to campus to pay homage to a place we called "home" for 5 years.

I was really surprised at how much the campus has changed and how many new buildings were built in the 5 years since we graduated. What was once a green field where math nerds played frisbee and practiced their juggling ski11z between classes (and I'm not even making this shit up) is now a spaceship looking building, and as we wandered around, I was starting to feel like one of those "back in my day...." people.

First stop - Math Building, specifically THE COMPUTER LAB, where I spent way too many nights swearing at code, ripping my hair out and basically wondering what the fuck I was doing with my life.

(in other news we may have found the reason why I'm so angry all the time)

Next stop: 3rd floor - home of .... the MathSoc (Math Society).

Let's be honest - we were all nerds (I mean, math faculty, duh), but the MathSoc nerds are a special kind of species. These are some of the most condescending, obnoxious, full-of-themselves know-it-alls I've ever encountered. Way to live up to the stereotype, assholes! I'm sure that ability to recite PI to 250 decimal points really got you places.

MathSoc display case with various nerd paraphernalia, like t-shirts with math pick-up lines.

Math Faculty weekly publication! Miss those ProfQuotes

Chillin' in the lecture hall

And then I did some problem-solving Good Will Hunting stylez! UR WELCOME, STUDENTZ!!! Actually, I think this is from 1st year algebra - the first class you'll ever take as a math undergrad, but oh well, LOOK @ ALL THE PRETTY SYMBOLZ AND ALL THE SMART STUFFS I'M SOLVING.....

The building was pretty abandoned, except for an actual legit math camp that was apparently being held that weekend. For a second, we marveled at how excited these people were, until the sad realization that THIS WAS US, before all the cynicism and jadedness. Cute.

MATH CAMP!!!! "Optimal Prime"...oooh lord.

And of course, "The Comfy Lounge", which BACK IN MY DAY, was the grossest place on campus. Between the Settlers/D&D marathons and the napping math students who rebelled against showering on principle, this place smelled like a mixture of mildew, sewage and dirty socks AT ALL TIMES.

Except now it's been completely redone and the stain-covered couches have been replaced with LEATHER furniture, presumably, for easy "clean-up" (ew!) and it totally lost its charm. On the plus side, the offensive smell is no longer there.

Getting artsy

Our Numeric Computation prof - Justin 'lets-git-it-stuuuhted' Wan. God, that was an awful class.
I don't know why I'm posting this picture, except that it's hilarious if you were actually in the class and....... ah, nevermind

Midnight Sun - our solar car, the one with all the sexy controversy

Some background, because I know you care.

The 5 years I spent at Waterloo were some of the best and worst years of my life, but despite the fact that I'm pretty sure it gave me lupus and all kinds of mental problems and psychological scars, this school still holds a very special place in my heart.

Not sure if that makes me a masochist or a nostalgic sap, but that trip down the memory lane was exactly what I needed.

(The title of this post is actually our school "cheer", and I use that term VERY loosely. Yes, we were that school with absolutely ZERO school spirit. I was always jealous of my bff, who went to Canada's "party" school, where they had things like HOMECOMING and people actually WENT!

On the plus side, our school was the only Canadian university Bill Gates visited on his North American tour, so... at least there was that....).

{ maxi dresses: economy is in the shitter edition}

2011-07-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

About 18937387493 years ago (or, you know, last month), I promised to post some maxi dress finds that won't break the bank. From reading this blog, you probably know I'm obsessed with finding good deals and will rarely pay full price for anything, unless it's cheapo F21 crap to begin with. So speaking of inexpensive, where 'inexpensive' is defined as 'i try to stick to under $100 budget' here are some great inexpensive finds, which won't leave you eating ramen for 3 months.

Plus, you know, being fiscally responsible is sexy.

Aqua striped maxi dress
$98

This one is from Aqua, which you can find at Bloomingdales. They have a ton of affordable maxi dresses and really cute ones at that and I actually own the one above in white and navy and it's a total love affair, like whoa!

(Also, I'm obsessed with stripes to the point where it's probably not considered normal)

Avon (huh?)
$34

This is way too cute for $34. Would look great on petites

Rubber Ducky Halter Maxi Dress
~~$125~~ $85.99

VS Jersey Maxi Dress
$55

ASOS Racer Back Grecian Dress
$51.75

The back on this dress is GORGEOUS!!

Michael Stars Halter Maxi Dress
~~$158~~ $118

Gypsy 05 Organic Maxi Dress
$110

No maxi dress entry will be complete without mentioning Gypsy 05 - the dresses that started it all (?). Celeb-fave, these come in every possible colour/shade imaginable.
Crazy hat not included.

Forever 21 Tie-Dye Stripe dress
$27.50

Reminiscent of the Gypsy 05 tye-dye dresses, this Forever21 number is a cheap alternative.

XOXO Printed Studded Empire Maxi
~~$79~~ $40.99

Love the waist detail on this!

Pearl One Shoulder Belted Maxi Dress
~~$103~~ $55.16

............and finally this dress and its Forever21 knock-off. I mean, down to the back crochet detail, these dresses are identical. How is this legal??

Aqua Crochet Back Maxi
$88

Forever 21 Crochet Lace Maxi Dress
$27.80

If you want some more cheapo dresses, check out your local Forever21, but personally, I've never had much luck with those. Either the fit is odd and the fabric just screams Forever21 or the patterns are all crazy "boho-chic"/"little-house-on-the-prairies". That being said, I've seen bloggers find some really great dresses there, so you might get lucky.
I've been a total blog-neglector (mine and yours!). I'm going to catch up this weekend once I get over the anxiety of actually opening my Google Reader. eep!
Have a fantastic weekend!

{ filler OOTD post }

2011-06-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

I was going to do a follow up to the maxi dress post but I didn't (insert a very important reason why not here), so how about a filler OOTD post instead?

The dress is from AllSaints and I wore it to death in the winter. I initially fell in love with it during the AllSaints Christmas megasale extravaganza, but surprise, surprise, they didn't have it in my size. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because that same day I found it on Ebay for cheaper than the sale price, even with shipping from the UK. GO INTERNETS!!!

The dress is gorgeous - it's lightweight (100% silk) and can be worn year-round. The floral pattern and ruffle detail give it a feminine touch and the asymmetrical hemline and deconstructed shape give it a little bit of edge and uniqueness. Also, the back - THE BACK and total bonus points for the flowiness factor that make pictures like #3 possible.

uh, ignore the yellow leaves. someone was having too much fun in Photoshopz.

Outfit Details

Dress: AllSaints (ebay score!)

Jacket: Mackage Kimberly

Boots: Via Spiga Georgia (now 70% off)

Sunglasses: Ray-ban

Bag: Balenciaga

(Oh yeah, some of the photos were taken on the rooftop of my building, where I basically made a spectacle of myself with my ridiculous posing only to realized that there are cameras all over the place. So much awkward.)

{ maxi dresses: going-to-be-eating-ramen-for-a-month edition }

2011-06-11T18:42:00.000-07:00

Summer is slowing making an appearance in Seattle! I finally packed away my winter crap TODAY and I'm ready to embrace the season of airy fabrics, pretty dresses and actual colour.

I absolutely love dresses for how easy and effortless they are. A dress is easy to dress up or down and is an outfit in itself - just add some shoes and accessories and you're ready to go.

In particular, I'm having a total love affair with maxi dresses and they have become a staple in my wardrobe in the last couple of years. They're flattering, incredibly versatile, flowy, feminine, romantic, perfect for the beach or hanging out on the patio with friends, and pretty much epitomize summer for me in every way. I'm so glad that this trend has made a comeback this summer - stronger, bolder, longer - and can it please stay forever and ever and ever, amen?

Here are some gorgeous dresses I'm lusting after that I won't be buying any time EVER. Even on sale, they are more than I'm willing to spend, but still, it's nice to dream.

Alice + Olivia Printed Halter Maxi Dress

Milly Halter Caroline Maxi Dress
(on sale!)

Matthew Williamson Parachute Dress
(on sale!)

Winter Kate Harlequin Halter Maxi Dress

Camilla And Marc Day Break Dress

Antik Batik Palm Print Bandeau Maxi Dress

Shoshanna Twist-Front Printed Maxi Dress

Rachel Pally Long Fortuna Dress
(because I just can't give up black)

These are obviously not cheap, but there are lots of great, affordable alternatives that won't break the bank and leave you eating ramen for a month, although I'm pretty sure I'm willing to give up a body part or two for that yellow dress.

Stay tuned for Maxi Dresses: Economy-is-in-the-shitter edition.

{ baby geeselings, the freeway, and bad things that could've happened (but didn't) }

2011-06-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Today's warm fuzzies are brought to you by the Washington State DOT!

This was recorded by the DOT cameras this morning. Somehow this Mother Goose and her baby-geeselings (i'm totally making up words here) wandered onto a major freeway in Seattle. Concerned for their safety, the nice motorists of Seattle called the police, who showed up in 3 cruisers and herded the confused geese off the freeway.

Can I get a collective "awwwwwwwwwwww"?

{ OOTD, keeping it casual & why am I still wearing my winter jacket? }

2011-06-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

I feel like I spend a lot of time bitching about the weather in Seattle, but it's not without reason. While everyone else in the blogosphere is rocking tank tops and spending their summers on the patio or in the pool, sunny days are few and far between in the Emerald City.

Before moving to Seattle, I grew up in Kiev, Ukraine and Toronto, Canada and honestly, I've been used to having well-defined "seasons" all my life. All of a sudden I'm thrown into this weird city which seems to only have one season, summed up here perfectly by Matthew Inman, the genius behind The Oatmeal.

I should mention that this past weekend was amazing, and that this outfit is actually from 2 weeks ago when it was still in the 50s. The outfit is nothing special, just your basic running errands/bumming around downtown outfit.

Yep, a leather jacket in June - totally normal:

moment of pensive contemplation. no outfit post is complete without one

look back shot - another outfit post must

Looking drunk - my specialty

i'm wearing fake hair. true story.

Outfit details:

Hoodie: Forever 21

Jeans: Forever 21 (similar & on sale)

Jacket: Mackage Kimberly

Flats: Marc by Marc Jacobs from a thousand years ago (similar from TB in wine)

Bag: Linea Pelle Dylan

{ narcissism, museum of you and Intel thinks i'm fat }

2011-06-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

I came across this interactive Intel advertising campaign and had the immediate urge to share because it's just the coolest effing thing ever.

For the narcissist in you (YAY!), Intel will create a museum, chronicling your online presence by tapping into your Facebook data. The result is a multi-room museum exhibit, "a visual archive of your life", delivered in a beautifully done video, complete with sappy heart-tugging music.

Creepy or brilliant - you decide, but I'm leaning towards brilliant because I have no idea what Intel is selling, but I'm pretty sure I'm buying 3 of everything.

Here are some stills from mine - they don't do it justice (the video is 238729729 times better), but I can't figure out how to share a video. Anyway, a MUST SEE..... so go.........SEE!!!

(also just noticed my most frequent word is "EAT".. I don't even know where to go with that)

{ home alone, burger binge and there's a donut in my milkshake }

2011-06-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. Mine was mostly spent in solitude, as Boyfriend has been "vacationing" in Toronto since Wednesday. His childhood BFFs were getting married and he was emceeing their wedding (and doing a damn good job if I am to believe the glowing Facebook "reviews").

It was a glorious couple of day. I never EVER get the house to myself, so I took full advantage of this temporary freedom. I'll admit, there were moments of loneliness/sadz and desperate boredom, but I managed to channel both into productivity and got so much shit done, domestic and otherwise.

I also went shopping like 12 times this weekend.

On the third day of waking up alone I was starting to remember what it was like to live by myself again. Turns out I talk to myself. Like, A LOT! I also clean and update my Facebook status every 5 minutes. and eat junk. Like on Saturday night when I ran to Whole Foods in my fat pants, literally 4 minutes before they closed and my check-out consisted of bananas, a bottle of wine and a tub of brownies, which ended up being my dinner and breakfast, and go ahead and judge me, Whole Foods checkout lady, I don't care. Then there was pizza, McDonald's and unlimited amounts of bacon, but we won't go there.

There were many other advantages of having the house to myself - complete and utter control of the thermostat, unapologetically blaring MY playlist (HI ALL BRITNEY ALL THE TIME), having actual leftovers (of pizza in my case, but this translates to real cooking also) and all that extra closet space!

Oh, and no pants. Naturally.

Boyfriend got back last night and the following day, to celebrate the-day-before-we-both-go-back-to-our-respective-diets, we decided to binge on burgers at the somewhat newly relocated Lunchbox Laboratory. Supposedly he best burgers in town, just ask the Food Network.

Their whole shtick is food experiments and the menu features everyday items as well as daily experiments. Like today's experiment was bacon #9: Bacon deep-fried in bacon fat, which was so awesome it should've been illegal.

The burgers were good, but messy. Like OMG-THIS-BURGER-ATTACKED-MY-FACE type of messy. Take the fact that it's served with a side of utensils as a hint and for the love of God, don't go there on a first date!

The Greek: lamb patty, tzatziki and greek salad stuff

And then there were milkshakes, with flavours like Nutella and Reeses and when I inquired about the Boston Cream Pie milkshake, the waitress lady says to me, nonchalantly, like it's the most normal thing in the world "Oh, it's like a regular vanilla shake, but we throw a donut in it".

Mind. fucking. BLOWN.

In case you were wondering, there were actual donut chunks in my milkshake and it was served in a beaker and was every bit as good as it sounds. Brilliant! *wipes drool off keyboard*.

{ Rent The Runway, a closet full of dresses & nothing to wear. You know, the usual }

2011-05-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today I've come to a panic-inducing realization that in less than a month I will be hopping on the plane en route to Toronto. One of my close friends from university is getting married, which is exciting and everything except I'm yet to buy my ticket OR get a dress.

In light of this occasion, I finally decided to check out Rent The Runway - that place where you can rent expensive designer dresses on the cheap. (Air quotes). Yes, because obviously recycling a dress is totally unacceptable. I mean hello, what will all the Facebook people think?

(#whitegirlproblems)

All the sarcasm aside, I've become somewhat of a dress hoarder - that crazy lady, with a closet full of dresses that I *swear* I'm going to wear again, but more likely will never see life outside the closet ever again.

So, RTR to the rescue! A while back I got a voucher from one of those Groupon-knock-off sites (mamapedia) which was hopefully going to encourage me to be more responsible about the whole dress situation. In theory that was going go work, except here I am sitting here, ACTUALLY considering pulling the trigger on a dress that will cost me $240. TO FUCKING RENT.

Yeah. Backfire. Awesome.

The dress I'm lusting after is this HL one-shoulder number, which is random because I'm typically not a fan of HL (THERE, I SAID!). I don't know if it's the fact that they're, like, sausage-casing-tight or that there's something very mummy-like about them (oh, right, all the bandages!) but I never really understood the appeal of these. This one though.... this one is PRETTY.

The problem is that I have to rent it for 8 whole freakin days, which will cost a fortune. Factor in the fact that the wedding is in Toronto and airfare being so fucking expensive right now (seriously - what's up with that? stop it with all the fees already) + hotel + gift, and the math simply does not compute. And trust me, I'm a math major.

(Granted I'll have it for 8 days, so I maybe can get all kinds of mileage out of it. You know, wear it while taking the dog out, or when running errands. I know this dress will be a hit at the grocery store!)

Since since i'm being all budget-y here (shutup, i AM!), I need alternatives and unfortunately I haven't found many on RTR. There are a lot of beautiful dresses and many not-so-beautiful ones and if I wanted to look like shiny disco ball sausage, then I would be all over some of these, unfortunately that's not the look I'm going for that night. There were dresses that I loved, but you know - BUDGET.

Ok, so alternatives:

(All of the above are clickable and will take you to RTR site for a better view).

(as much as I don't think the lacy lingere dress is appropriate for a summer golf-course wedding, the back of it is just stunning, so I had to include it on the list.)

So, what do we think? yay? nay? boring? too much color/pattern? favourites?

HALP ME!!!!

{ OOTD, or how to dress inappropriately for the beach }

2011-05-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here are the promised outfit pictures from this day. In my defense, I didn't think we were going to hang out at Alki after that food-coma-inducing brunch, hence my all-sorts-of-inappropriate beach outfit.

On second thought, with my closet bursting with the lively palette of monochrome, this isn't actually too far-fetched.

Go to the beach dressed head-to-toe in six shades of grey and black? Yep! Frolic in the sand in combat boots? absolutely. An excuse go shopping for a colourful spring wardrobe? probably. Or, you know, just unpack my summer stuff - either/or.

Outfit details:

Sweater: Line (similar, also by Line and on sale!)

Top: Costa Blanca (from Canada)

Skirt: F21 (similar, and probably cuter)

Boots: AllSaints Damisi

Accessories: ASOS (similar from Max & Chloe)

Bag: Balenciaga

Sunnies: Ray-Ban

{ salty's superbrunch or how a buffet always seems like a great idea until it's not }

2011-05-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was another beautiful day so we ventured out to the Alki Beach. "Beach" might be too strong a word for what Alki actually is - dirty water and gross, brown sand - but it's Seattle and we take what we can get, damnit!

The reason we ended up at Alki was actually because we finally decided to try Salty's ridiculously awesome all-you-can-eat superbrunch. I have to say, it did live up to all the hype, even for an eater of a... pickier variety. I typically go for quality over quantity, but sometimes I just want to go out and eat a stupid amount of food, OKAY?

I sensed the welcoming glow of an impending food coma as soon as we stepped through the door. My gaze shifted from one pile of food to the next: from heaps of delicious seafood (crab, oysters, shrimp, lox & cream cheese - nom nom nom!) to eggs in various forms, to the pasta station, to pancake & waffles, mac & cheese, deserts and and and!!!!! The cost was $45/person - not cheap for a buffet, but worth it, as everything was fresh and delicious, the view was spectacular and food-coma was guaranteed. This is gluttony at its finest, people!

I will proudly admit that I probably did eat my $45-worth of food. As boyfriend always says I'm a skinny girl in a fat girl's body and apparently I managed to prove him right once again. Damnit, boyfriend, you win again. And you, buffet, you win also!

caramel and chocolate fountains. with twinkies for the dipping... WHAT!?

i'll take a block of cheese plz

pasta bar

crab pile

shrimp pile

these were so good

no real reason why this is here

or this

oh god desert... so much desert!

oreo cake

weakness

Smiling on the outside, hurting oh-so-very much on the inside.
(also looking awkward while doing both)

the view. pretty.

(I took some outfit pictures also, but i'm still working on them. and by "working on them", I mean photoshopping out the buffet baby bulge. ahem..).

{ when manicures attack }

2011-05-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

When it comes to doing my nails I'm pretty tame (lame?) and conservative. While I don't shy away from ridiculous colours (HI, BANANA-YELLOW ZOYA POLISH!), it typically stops there. There will be no glitter or outlandish designs or cutesy flowers on my nails, ever. My routine is boring but it works for me.

The other day I came across an article about the Tokyo Nail Expo, an exhibit/convention type event dedicated entirely to nail art. This is not the nail art you'll see at your neighbourhood One Nail salon, you know, airbrushed cheetah designs or cheeseball butterflies. No, no, this shit is hardcore! Go big or go home!

I can appreciate some designs I saw - you know, the sorta pretty ones. I can even appreciate the fact that some of these took enormous amounts of creativity, imagination and effort, but maaaaaaaaaaan, some of these? - some of these are simply horrendous, outrageously tacky and downright bizarre.

Like this gem, which looks like someone vomited partially-digested Hello Kitty parts all over this lady's hands:

via

Or this one, which looks like there's something tumor-like growing out of her finger tips:

via

And with nails like these, who needs utensils?

via

Or this... oh, I don't even know what this is:

via

So, which one of these will you going to be rocking to the office tomorrow? I'm thinking the unicorn orgy.

{ OOTD, sunny in Seattle and sometimes i like to pretend I'm British }

2011-05-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday absolutely gorgeous, and if you live in Seattle, you know what a rarity that is. That elusive bright, shiny ball of warmth called the sun was out which immediately caused the stylish Seattle people to trade their socks-and-sandals for just sandals, and their heavy winter sweaters for apparently nothing at all (looking at you, shirtless-jogging-guy!).

I admit it, at first I too was confused about all the sunshine, but then decided to grab my camera and join the herds of t-shirt and sandal clad downtown people and get me some vitamin D. The natural way!

Anyway, here are some outfit pictures of me channeling my inner Brit. This was the day after the Royal Wedding, so it was obviously appropriate.

Outfit details

Boyfriend Jeans: F21

British flag tee: F21, similar-ish

Sweater: Aritzia

Boots: AllSaints Damisi

Bag: Balenciaga

Accessories: flea market stuff mostly

(Oh and if the sunshine was puzzling to you too, don't be alarmed, this temporary glitch was fixed the next day and we were back to wearing winter coats and hating life. )

{ to my supermom }

2011-05-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mom & I in Rome, 2009

Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there, and of course, to the best (super)mom there is - my own! :)

I don't even know how to begin expressing how much my mom means to me and it's days like these that make being 3000 miles away especially sad. My mom has taught me everything I know, has ALWAYS been there for me and has loved me unconditionally despite everything I've put her through (hello, teenage years!) and I appreciate every single sacrifice she has made for us.

Though I didn't understand it then, I now see that it took every ounce of selflessness to uproot the family and relocate to a new country, where the language is foreign and everything is unfamiliar in hopes that we, as children, can some day have a better life.

I appreciate you working shit jobs when we first moved to Canada, just to make ends meet, working ungodly hours while going to school to learn English, never ONCE complaining and still putting hot meals on the table with a smile. Doing all that, while I had the nerve to complain that my clothes came from a second hand store or that we couldn't afford the material things kids my age had.

I appreciate the fact that through your (and dad's, of course) hard work we did realize the "American" dream and went from living in a piece of shit 2-bedroom apartment to a nice suburban home within just a few years of living in Canada.

I appreciate your strength, your kindness, your work ethic, and your willingness to give up everything for us. It takes a special kind of woman to do that and I wouldn't be where I am today without that.

Thank you for instilling your work ethic in me, for all the encouragement along the way, for loving me unconditionally, and for teaching me to never give up my dreams. You are a true superwoman, mom, and when I grow up I want to be just like you! I love you.

{ A habit worth forming }

2011-05-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

If you’re anything like me, you wake up to an inbox overflowing with emails from various retailers. Flash sales, private sales, daily deals and great discounts to be had all over. Whereas I used to diligently read each one and check my private sale sites daily, it's now gotten to the point where I most of my mail ends up in the recycling bin, unread.

Remember the simple times when Hautelook and Gilt had just a couple of boutiques each day? Now they have something like 10 boutiques daily and unless a brand catches my eye, I don’t even bother to sign in. Even if there’s a really hot sale, most of the stuff is sold out before I can even type in your password. If I wanted to dig through a ton of crap for that one great find, I’d go to TJ Maxx.

Choice is good, but too much choice is overwhelming, which is why I was skeptical when my little brother (of all people!!) told me about MyHabit.com. Once I got over the fact that my brother is educating me about fashion-y things, I decided to take a look. At first I wrote it off as just another retailer that will be spamming my mailbox and will eventually end up in the recycling bin, but this one is actually different.

MyHabit is a brand-spanking-new members-only flash sale site owned by Amazon, which is always a plus because Amazon is pretty much the shit! Shipping and returns are free (no, you didn’t hallucinate – FREE!) and when was the last time you saw that from a flash-sale-retailer?? The only caveat is that returns are store credit only, but that is fine with me because I do enough damage on Amazon and Endless.com anyway (you can use it on all 3 sites).

There are only a couple of boutiques a day, which is perfect for people with a limited attention span like me and so far the brands and prices have been awesome. Loeffler Randall today, Rebecca Minkoff & Gorjana in a couple of days and Elizabeth and James thereafter. Granted, it’s all pretty much last season stuff, but who really cares when you can score $825 Loeffler Randall boots for under $299??? Or the ~$200 Dolce Vita sandals I bought last year for $69.

Most garments on the site have a modeling video, displaying them in a 360-degree view, which is incredibly helpful when determining fit. (Extra eye-candy bonus: the male models are hot. I admit it - I did spend excessive amounts of time hanging out in the guy’s department today. You know, for the boyfriend. Obviously.)

So anyway, definitely sign up for MyHabit. Use code MYHABIT1 for $10 off your first purchase until June 1.

(did you notice how I ever-so-non-nonchalantly started blogging again? it's like I've been here all along. no year-long hiatus or anything.)

[so... ]

2010-01-25T13:26:00.000-08:00

So... I decided to take an indefinite hiatus from blogging. It's really a combination of being completely overwhelmed with work (and the stress work brings), health/lupus stuff and some personal shit I can't/don't want to discuss here.

I'm also finding it hard to care about things I blog about. Things I used to find joy in - fashion, beauty, clothes, bags - none of that matters right now, which should give you a bit of an indication of my state of mind right now. Half the time I think I'm losing my fucking mind and the other half, I'm just numb and indifferent.

So there you have it. Hopefully in a few months I'll be back. Right now, though, I need to focus on getting better.

Thanks for reading. <3

T

[vagina cream... on your face]

2009-12-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

(... and suddenly my blog becomes NSFW and probably gets categorized with "adult" blogs just for mentioning the v-word)

Ok, so it’s not *really* a vagina cream, but I thought it makes for an entertaining title. And now that you're sufficiently entertained, I’m about to save you a bunch of money, so listen up.

A while ago I came across a thread on one of a beauty forum where all these girls were raving about this awesome foundation primer. Imagine my shock when this awesome primer turned to be Monistat Chafing Gel. At first I thought wtf, yeast infection stuff… on MY FACE? But then I realized that this is not (and I repeat, NOT) the yeast infection cream, but rather a gel used to treat irritations in your.. ahem.. intimate and delicate areas like inner thigh, bikini area, boobies oh AND YER FACE!

soothing care.. yah it'll soothe yo face!
Being a total skeptic, it took me a while to actually try it out for myself, but now I can't stop raving about it. Until now I’ve been using the Smashbox Photofinish Primer but there’s no way I’m ever paying $40 for 1oz of primer again when I can get 1.5oz of it for 7.99. Sorry, Smashbox, but despite being totally awesome, you’re a huge rip-off and I'm dumping you from my beauty routine.

yeah... no
Just like the expensive primers, Monistat gel contains an active ingredient dimethicone, which creates a moisture-sealing, silky protective barrier between your skin and foundation. Basically, everything you need in a primer.

The Monistat gel has quite a nice texture (kinda powdery) too. It goes on silky and creates a smooth, matte surface for flawless foundation/concealer application and finish. It’s fragrance-free and is not greasy or toxic or gross. Honestly, I can’t even tell the difference from the spendy Smashbox primer that I’ve come to love.

Alright, well, let me know if you do end up trying this. I actually couldn't find it at Target when I looked, so I ordered it from Drugstore.com, which is also convenient if you find buying these kinds of products awkward. Yea, I get you, I wouldn't want that cute cashier guy at Target to judge me either.

Seriously, try it. Once you get over the association of Monistat with vaginas, you will LOVE this stuff. I promise!

[outfit of the day: 12.12.2009]

2009-12-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

Spent the whole day bumming around downtown Seattle yesterday. Hit up Pike Place Market for the first time in a while. In the summer, we go there pretty much every weekend, but as soon as it gets cold, rainy and crappy, I have no desire to even leave the house. This whole week, despite being absolutely freezing, was gorgeous, so armed with 17 layers under my coat, we braved the weather and hit up the market.

Jeans: J Brand
Tee: American Apparel
Sweater: Charlotte Russe
Boots: Apepazza Cagliari
Bag: Balenciaga
Necklace: H&M
Coat: Soia & Kyo

As expected, downtown was an absolute zoo but if you don't actually go into any stores it's not too bad. We just walked around, took some photos, and enjoyed all the Christmas-ness of the city. I absolutely love this time of the year.

I think today I'm going to make some cupcakes. I love to cook, but have never been huge on baking. All weekend though I've had this unexplained desire to bake. Actually I'm not sure if it's the desire to bake or to stuff my face with cupcakes. Like I need the extra poundage before the holidays :/

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.

[YSL Singulier mascara: review]

2009-12-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

During this year's Sephora F&F I decided to give a new mascara a try, and I'm so glad I did. YSL Singulier mascara promises exaggerated lashes and dramatic styling and boy, does it deliver. I've tried a lot of mascaras out there, and while DiorShow and Lancome Defincils have been my long time favorites, I think I'm now a YSL convert.

My eyelashes are very thin, sad and pathetic (yes, I should probably just get Latisse, but the eye-color-change side-effect creeps me out), but this mascara makes it look like I actually have lashes. I mean others do too, but this one just gives it that extra va-va-voom!

I'm having a full-on love affair with this mascara. It's expensive at $30, but if you can get it for a discount, definitely try it. It'll change your life. I promise.

[on yeah, that thing about saving money didn't happen again]

2009-11-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Aaah, Black Friday, and as usual I managed to spend way too much money. Money that I should be saving for a house downpayment, future vacations or even Christmas. But alas, I lack self-restraint, so here we are once again :)

This is just a short preview of all the crap I bought. I'm surprised my bank didn't freak out and block my credit card, but perhaps they're used to my sporadic spending patterns by now.

I think today I'll just talk about the "big" purchases. The rest was a bunch of random crap (mostly gifts) from Sephora, Charlotte Ruse, Amazon, Bath & Body works etc. I'm sure I'll talk about it later though.

so....

Last weekend we had some friends in town from Toronto and we took them to the outlets to shop. There was a watch shop there that had a Movado La Nouvelle watch I've been lusting after for like seriously 3 years. When I graduated from university my parents wanted to buy me a nice watch as a gift and that watch was one of my top contenders, but because it was $900 at the time on Amazon (retail $1600), I decided to go with a cheaper one.

Movado - La Nouvelle watch

So anyway, I saw the watch, tried it on and fell in love with it all over again. The outlet price of $650 (+tax) was still kind of steep for an impulse purchase, and besides I thought I could find a better deal online. And I did: The Watchery had 15% off all inventory on Black Friday, so I ended up getting it for $520 after discount and ebates cashback (and no tax is always a huge plus). I can't wait to get it. It's such a beautiful watch in person.

Also, I FINALLY splurged and got me a cashmere Burberry check scarf. I've been wanting one forever, but the fact they retail for $295 has been a huge deterrent. Hell, they're even too expensive at the outlets, plus the colors they have available are meh. Well, thanks to Jomashop Black Friday 30% off (code: HANDBAG30) already reduced price + a $50 credit, I was able to snag one for less than $100.

Burberry Giant Check Cashmere Ivory Scarf

I also got a Burberry wallet for $99 (code: hotdeal for $2 off hahahahaha.. no, really) from Jomadeals. My 'regular' wallet is a monster that can probably fit a small baby, so I've been wanting something smaller, especially for when I'm traveling.

Burberry Haymarket Ellie Wallet

Oh hey and I also bought myself this sweater from Neiman's on sale (+20% off with 20SALE + NMNOV for free shipping). I'm obsessed with big sweaters right now - they make my least favourite season a lot more tolerable and plus I can gain like 20lb and no one will know :D

Line - Sebastia Waterfall Cardigan

(I hate the fact that we now have a NM store in Bellevue.... right downstairs from where I work no less. Not only does it make me spend money, but I also now have to pay tax when shopping online..)

I'm so, SOOOO glad this sale extravaganza is over. Sales make me feel obligated to shop and now I'm seriously not shopping until next year. No, SERIOUSLY.

[snip snip chop chop.. and pictures to prove it]

2009-11-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

A few posts down I was trying to decide what to do with my hair. After thinking it over some more (i.e I went to the salon still completely undecided), I ended up cutting it shorter and coloring it dark DARK brown. I think it was the right call, although every morning when I have to spend a bunch of time styling it, I'm singing a different tune.

Anyway, here are the pictures. It's a bit of flat/messy since I took it at the end of the day and we all know how much hair loves Seattle weather. oooh well.

grin :D

my neck feels nekkid

side-view action

So what do you think? yay? nay? Should I just grow it out for next time?

[Hair crap that works. Really]

2009-11-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

Ever since I cut my hair short (the first time), I’ve been on a mission to find perfect hair products. When I had long hair, it didn’t matter. The routine was simple: wash, put random crap in hair, air-dry, straighten with iron, rinse, repeat. This short hair business requires a lot more attention, which of course, is a perfect excuse to spend money on hair crap and MORE hair crap.

While many of the product I tried were colossal failures and ultimately ended up under my bathroom sink, I think I finally found some hair crap that actually works. Really.

First, I decided to splurge and finally try the Pureology products. And it just so happens that they have a new line of products called Super Smooth, which I think is just their SuperStraight system, reformulated, improved and repackaged. I actually read about it in a magazine while I was getting my hair done. Hey, cool, I thought. I totally want my hair to be SuperSmooth, so why not. If it’s good enough for a hair magazine, it’s good enough for me.

So anyway, I tried it and I can’t say enough good things about this system. Aside from the fact that it’s a total bitch to find, this stuff rocks. Seriously, I had to use sleekhair.com, and the whole time I thought it was a scam website which was going to steal my identity, sign me up for Viagra and a bunch of Japanese porn. Yep, that’s the kind of stuff that goes through my head when I’m buying crap from websites I’ve never heard of, but luckily, the website ended up being totally legit. HA! I win at internet shopping.

Back my review now. The products have all the good stuff: anti-fade complex, sulfate-free(ness), natural/organic ingredients and they smell DIVINE!! While being on the expensive side, I don’t use as much as I do with the other hair crap. A tiny bit of shampoo goes a long way, so it’s going to last FOREVER.

The smoothing elixir is the third step in the system and it makes hair silky, soft, shiny (not the gross-kind-of-shiny) and all kinds of awesome. Since I started using it, I’ve even been getting hair compliments from work dudes. I mean, that’s odd, right? Guys maybe notice if you get a haircut and even then, only when you chop off a significant amount of hair and/or dye it orange.. but things like silky hair…? Yeah, not so much.

Weird.

Anyway.

Another product I’m totally loving is MoroccanOil. There’s been so much hype about it in the blogosphere, which I pretty much dismissed until my stylist put it in my hair when I cut it two weeks ago. I left the salon with unbelievable baby-soft hair. In spirit of full disclosure, I don’t have any babies and I don’t normally go touching other people’s babies’ hair, but in my mind that’s what I imagine baby hair to be like. Soft and amazing. If you haven't guessed from its name, it's an oil product, but it doesn’t leave disgusting greasy residue and a little goes a long way. Oh yeah, and apparently Rachel Zoe loves this, so it must be good.

This stuff runs for about $40, but I got it for $32ish from drugstore.com with a 25% bing cashback. Note, if you just go to the cashback site and navigate to drugstore.com from there, you’ll only get 10% off. BUT if you search for Moroccanoil and then click on the right-rail drugstore.com link, you’ll earn 25% back. Capisce? No? ok, here’s a picture.

I didn’t get my cashback right away and actually had to email customer service, but they’re super responsive and got it sorted out.

I have other stuff to write about, namely this gem from Ojon and Kevin Murphy products, but I have to go eat steak now at El Gaucho, which is guaranteed to make my lupus VERY UNHAPPY, but fuck you lupus, I’m eating steak tonight. Stay tuned?

[random thoughts from 25-35 year olds]

2009-11-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

I don't typically repost things like this, but this was a great read and I wanted to pass it along. This is the kind of stuff that goes through my head on a daily basis and it's awesome (and creepy) that someone compiled a list. No, seriously, I agree with more of these than I'm willing to admit.

I stole the list from this chick, who stole it from here. "It's funny 'cause it's true" has never been, well, truer. Enjoy!

- I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the
direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That's enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all
know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and
said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be
a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

[Sephora F&F 2009]

2009-11-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

I completely forgot about Sephora F&F until today and part of me wishes I never remembered, because as usual, I managed to spend entirely too much money. I took a 'scouting' trip to the store in the afternoon to figure exactly what I needed, and then placed my order online. Again, this may have been a bad call because whenever I end up in Sephora I seem to need EVERYTHING. yes, NEED. And in multiple shades.

Ok, this is the haul:

MASCARA SINGULIER Exaggerated Lashes - Dramatic Styling
Like everyone else out there, I usually use DiorShow mascara, but this new mascara from YSL has been getting a lot of rave reviews. It retails for $30, which is a bit outrageous (seriously, what's in this stuff? gold dust, diamonds and magical eyelash fairies??), but 20% F&F discount certainly helps. um.. yeah, I hope it doesn't suck.

ROUGE VOLUPTÉ Silky Sensual Radiant Lipstick SPF 15
I got this lipstick in Frivolous Pink, NOT red as pictures above. Red comes across whorish on me and that's not a look I normally aim for.

Make-up forever - HD Invisible Cover Foundation - in 118
Needed something with more coverage than my current Stila tinted moisturizer. Never tried this brand before, but it came HIGHLY recommended by the SA, so I'll report if it's any good. I hope the shade matches. I didn't spend too much time playing around with it at the store on account of one very annoyed boyfriend glaring at me impatiently. What is it with men and Sephora?

Sephora by OPI nail color
I got this in Set The Mood and Don't Go There. I also wanted Opening Night but had to restrain myself. Now that's awesome self-control on my part. Self-high-five!!

FRESH - Lotus eye gel
Along with my blue eyes, I also inherited the world's most awful under-eye circles from my mom. I should pretty much accept the fact that no product out there will help me with my puffy eyes and I'm forever doomed to appear sleep-deprived. I should, but I won't, so here I am buying yet another product that's sure to fail me. By the way, if anyone knows of a product that works, please please please leave a comment. I will seriously love you forever.

So that's my haul, which may not even be that bad, except last night I bought a bunch of hair stuff - Pureology's new Super Smooth shampoo/conditioner/elixir and Moroccanoil (my stylist used it on my hair and omgomgomg...this stuff is amazing). Thanks for all the hair suggestions, by the way. I had my hair appointment yesterday and decided to cut it short (maybe for one last time) & colored it dark. I like it but it requires too many hair products. Le sigh. I'll post a picture later.

Anyway, Sephora 20% off F&F code is FF2009 and it expires tomorrow. Happy shopping!

[gettin' my hair did.. but how?]

2009-10-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

Another hair appointment, another dilemma! My hair used to be all kinds of long, and then I cut it a little shorter, still keeping the dark color. This summer I chopped it even shorter and lightened it quite a bit, so i looked like this:

(you can't tell it from the picture but it's asymmetrical - much shorter in the back. it's also a bit lighter than what it looks like in the photo)

I actually liked the short cut and the only thing I wasn't crazy about was the fact that I couldn't tie it back. It really sucks on those mornings when I don't feel like doing my hair, and with a short cut i literally have to style it EVERY DAY. It's a shame too because with Seattle weather your hair pretty much goes to shit as soon as you walk out the door anyway.

Hm... what to do, what to do? Short hair? even it out and grow it out again? light hair? dark hair? highlights? reverse mullet?

help! :/

[wednesday wtf]

2009-10-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

this. is. amazing:

Told you it's amazing.

I watched this at least a dozen times today and it's still AWESOME. I didn't even know it was possible to do that. I might be having a pretty crappy day over here, but hey, at least I'm not this chick.

(Coincidentally this happened at the parking lot of a gym I used to go to in Toronto. I see 5 years later they still haven't paved that shit parking lot.)

And, if that wasn't enough wtf-ckage for you, how about this winner? I don't know if this guy is for real or not, but either way, that's FUCKED UP.

To counter the disturbing image from that last link, here are some halloween babies dressed as lobsters and things. The pudgy asian baby at the end is full of win, though if I ever have a kid I'm dressing him/her up as an air-freshner. New Car scent all the way baby!!!

[Gaultier for Target: happy dance worthy]

2009-10-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

o. em. gee.

Word on the street is that Jean-Paul Gaultier is doing a line for Target. I nearly died when I heard that and I hope it's not crappy and cheap shit like some of the previous designer collaborations. Those are really so hit & miss, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some awesomeness.

Samples and pictures aren't out yet, though someone posted these on TPF claiming they're samples:

Once the initial excitement wore off and common sense kicked in, I realized that this is actually from Gaultier's last year's Fall collection. Wouldn't it be amazing if that's the kinds of garmets he'd design for Target. I would seriously die.

Collection is supposed to hit stores on March 7, 2010. Is it too early to start a countdown? Maybe, but it's certainly not too early to be doing a happy dance around my living room.

In other news, Jimmy Choo for H&M collection IS NOT COMING TO A STORE NEAR ME. I even marked my freakin Outlook calendar to remind me to um.. go in to work.. umm.. late that day. Seattle is so freaking lame sometimes. Well, here's to hoping it's all crap anyway! j/k.. hope you ladies find some fabulous things.

Goodnight.

[endless shoes]

2009-10-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a discount that Bing is offering on Endless.com. Looks like they're offering 30% off ALL shoes through their cashback program. More details can be found here.

Also, you can get $25 off if you spend $125 on selected items (shoes eligible for the discount are indicated on the details page). Not sure if you can combine the two, but I sure as hell am going to try.

I'm at work and can't do much shopping right now (even if it's online!), so I'll have to wait until I get home. Happy shopping!!

[amazing mozy]

2009-10-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last week we got home from work to realize that the hard drive on our main PC has died. Boyfriend was screwing around with it for a couple of hours trying to get it to work and nothing. I had so much shit on that thing, it’s ridiculous (and sad). Luckily, what I care about most, my pictures, have been backed up using a cloud backup service so I think I should be able to restore them pretty easily. I would seriously flip my shit if I lost my photos. Photography is everything to me.

Goodbye my music though and who knows what else. Reminds me of last year when I came back from Christmas vacation in Toronto and forgot to copy over all my pictures (had some good ones too) before re-imaging my laptop. OOPS!

At any rate, this is the state of the PC right now until the new hard-drive arrives:

Poor PC :(
So anyway, the service I use is Mozy.com and so far it’s been nothing but great. Backing up and restoring is easy and the rates are pretty reasonable, under $5/month. You get a month free if you sign up for a year and 3 months free is you sign up for 2, but I found this code which gives you 50% off annual subscription (code: ACT). They do have a free service too but it’s limited to 2gb.

The only pain in the ass thing about using an online backup service is that initial backup takes forever. I think it can do like 5gb/day so if you have a shit-ton of data like me, it’ll take a week or two. Subsequent backups are incremental though, so they take no time at all.

K, I’m done plugging Mozy. Backup your precious data, kiddies. Better safe than sorry.

[aboot some boots (canadian edition)]

2009-09-10T20:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was on a mission to find boots and after checking out Nordstrom and leaving empty-handed, I resorted to Revolve. I'm looking for flat (or low-heel) knee-high boots, something in Chocolate brown (I already have a pair in Cognac) or maybe even black. No suede, unless I can't find anything else.

Finding footwear at a store is tricky. Finding footwear online is impossible.

As luck would have it, Revolve was matching Tobi 30% off sale and I decided to pull the trigger on Frye Fiona 3-strap boots. I'm not usually a Frye fan (not really my style) and these aren't flats, but they're pretty close to what I'm looking for and $100 off didn't hurt either.

Well, the boots arrived today, and they're beautiful, minus the teeny-tiny issue where I.. um.. can't get into them. They're pull-ons and I can't get my apparently-fat foot through the shaft! If I did, I know they'd fit perfectly but even after soliciting help from the VERY unimpressed Boyfriend, I gave up.

WHY OH WHY IS THERE NO DAMN ZIPPER ON THESE DAMN BOOTS??? I did my research and everything - these are supposed to be TTS. Clearly, the internet lies!

Now I have to send them back. I don't know if the discount will apply to exchanges since the code expired a few days ago (emailed them just to check just in case), so I guess the boots saga continues. Suggestions are always welcome (leave a comment or email/facebook/twitter me).

Adios!

(P.S. I know I'm cleverly avoiding writing about the rest of my trip. But at the rate I'm going with that, I'll never finish and I promised not to abandon the blog, so.... )

[vacation report: Venice]

2009-08-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

So after getting an awesome response to my last entry (32 commends vs. my usual 3.5, Hello!... somewhere hell broke loose), you’d think I’d be motivated to update more frequently. Unfortunately, pretty much nothing motivates me these days, hence the blog neglect. It wasn’t until I got 2 comments yesterday that I remembered I even had a blog. I’m surprised I still have any followers left hehe.. Well, blog, we meet again :D

(so to continue where I left off…)

We flew in from Paris and as usual, I was a total stress-case. There was like 35 different ways to get from the airport to Venice and I was fully convinced we won’t find our hotel and will be spending the night in some rat alley. All the other cities we visited were easy to get around by cabs, but in Venice, the boat drops you off and you’re on your own, with luggage and all. I couldn’t get the address of B&B to map on Google Maps as it was showing that address in like 5 different locations. And of course, we don’t speak an ounce of Italian (at least in Paris, we could half-ass a sentence together).

So there we were, at the airport, no idea where the hell we were going and how the hell we’re getting there. To add to my anxiety, we were supposed to meet up with my parents, which was great and all, but my cellphone didn’t work in Europe, so I was yet to figure out how to get a hold of them (they were staying in Mestre). Disaster!!

Anyway, we ended up taking a waterbus to San Marco stop and by some miracle found our B&B without any problems.

First look of Venice, from the waterbus
We stayed at B&B Diamante (Winter room), which was actually very nice and very roomy by European standards.

Our room at B&B Diamante.. pretty, eh!
Sure, the safe didn’t work, A/C was emitting strange noises and the very questionable toilet was on the verge of breaking off from the wall (yes you read that right), but overall, it was a great stay. The B&B lady spoke Russian, which was a huge plus because instead of communicating via charades, I could speak an actual human language to her.

I attempted to get a hold of my parents and bought a calling card from a very rude Italian lady who yelled at me (thank god this wasn’t a norm in Italy otherwise it would’ve been a pretty miserable stay as I tend to take these things personally). Surprise, surprise though the card didn’t work, so I used a payphone+credit card way, which ended up costing me $45 for a <1 minute message I left on my mom’s cell. Wow, epic fail. Luckily, we bumped into my parents in San Marcos while having lunch. How random! Another disaster averted.

My parents! aren't they cute?

Venice was magical, romantic, awesome and surreal, but a little too much of a tourist zoo for my taste. Still though, it’s a place everyone should experience at least once in their life. San Marco’s was insane, crowds everywhere, we could barely get through. Unlike Paris, we didn’t do a whole lot of “museum”-type sight-seeing. Instead, we spent the time just walking around, getting lost in its narrow alleys and taking in the city.

me, galavanting around piazza san marco

reflections of venice

chasing pigeons - this girl was the cutest

one of the few pictures bf & I have together

la dolce vita

lamp posts with character

Venice was especially beautiful at night and I even managed to do some evening photography, something I didn't get to do in Paris. In Paris we were constantly exhausted from daily sight-seeing marathons, but here we took our time and did everything at a much more chill pace.

Food was hit & miss, as many places were total tourist traps. Lots of good pizza in little shops, but the best meal was on our last night when we walked off to San Polo and found a restaurant tucked away in some alley. The food was sooo good and totally redeemed all the mediocre meals we had previously. Basically if you want good food, walk far, FAR away from Rialto/San Marco/other popular sites.

good eatin'

...and this concludes the Venice portion of our program, so um.. here are some filler pictures:

The full slide-show can be found here.

Tune in for Florence, which I’m sure will take me 6 months to write up 

[vacation report: Paris]

2009-05-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it sure sucks to be back. :D

It was a nice 2+ week break and a much-needed (temporary) escape from reality, but unfortunately, it’s back to the grind for me. The vacation was amazing and unforgettable – time of my life, really. Absolutely everything was incredible: experiencing the European culture, lifestyle and history, people, food, well, everything. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Paris
It was quite an adventure getting to Paris. We had a stop-over in Minneapolis, where we boarded the plane to Paris, only to find out 10 min before take-off that the plane radio was busted. Guess you kind of need that to fly. They got engineers on board to try to fix it and half an hour later announced that the issue was with the antenna, so it’ll be at least 2 hours before they can get it fixed.

We got food vouchers and went exploring the awfully air-conditioned airport, but 2 hours later, another announcement was made saying that they’ve had no luck with the repairs and that it’ll be another 3 or so hours before we know anything.
Hours later, new announcement: there’s another antenna they could use, but they had to get authorization from FAA.

More vouchers. More waiting. More empty promises.

I was getting really anxious and pissed with every passing hour. We were supposed to be on the plane, halfway through the Atlantic, yet there we were, losing hope that this trip was ever going to happen.

Well, after a 6 hour delay the pilot was unable to obtain authorization from FAA and the flight was getting…. cancelled. Wtf bitches! Cancelled??? my plane was supposed to land in Paris in 3 hours and now I’m sleeping at the airport. HUH?

(I was tired as hell too. I was at work till 2AM (yes, AM) trying to get our release out the door, and only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. I spent the whole day at the airport and was counting on getting some sleep on the plane, but I was now apparently spending the night on the airport floor instead. YAY)

What a disaster!! But as the cart-fulls of blankets and pillows were being rolled in, a miracle! FAA authorized the use of the alternate antenna and the flight was a GO! The loud cheering of the exhausted crowd overpowered the announcement, and I didn’t even care that we’ll be doing a 9 hour flight over the freaking ocean with a questionable antenna. Only one thing mattered at the time – I’M GOING TO PARIS!!

The flight was largely uneventful. And after 9-something hours of Sudoku puzzles, gossip magazines and many failed attempts at sleeping, we arrived in Paris!

Paris had my heart the second I stepped out of the cab. It’s such a beautiful city and has a wonderful vibe. We stayed at Hotel Abbatial in Saint-Germaine, close to Latin Quarter, an area that’s always buzzing with life. Location was perfect: countless cafes, restaurants, bakeries nearby (omg, French pastries!!!), walkable to many sights as well as the metro, which can get you anywhere in Paris.

Latin Quarter in the evening

Contrary to cautionary tales and stereotypes, we didn’t find the French to be rude. I was nervous about that, actually, because I tend to take everything personally. Maybe their reserve nature was interpreted as rude (we certainly didn’t think so), but most of them were pleasant and accommodating. Case in point: we were trying to figure out directions back to the hotel, all touristy with our map, when this random dude totally stopped, asked what we were looking for and then gave us awesome directions. How often does that happen? Yay! I didn’t leave my vacation thinking that all of Paris hates me.

Here's me grinning like an idiot because Paris doesn't hate me. In front of Notre Dame.

The food was fantastic too. It’s true what they say – there’s no bad food In Paris because the bad places don’t survive. Or something like that. Either way, food was amazing and I have the extra poundage to prove it. Even simple things like croissants were out of this freaking world. I could eat like 25 of those in 1 day and I’m not even lying.

It’s a totally different restaurant culture over there. You never feel rushed out and in fact you typically won't even get a cheque until you ask for it. No one hovers over you while you eat and it's kind of nice. You could literally spend hours at a restaurant sipping a glass of wine, smoking (if that’s your game… everyone smokes in Paris) and people-watching. Their cafés are set up with tables facing the street, like mini-people watching galleries. It’s neat. I had an impulse to just sit there snapping pictures of passer-bys, but I felt obnoxious doing that.

(side note: the 'lack of overweight people in Europe' mystery is solved: a can of coke costs 5 euro.)

So Paris was wonderful, even though we lost a whole day because of the flight fiasco. We spent our days walking around, taking in the culture, stuffing our faces with amazing food, and just relaxing in random cafes. We did a ton of sight-seeing too: Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, La Louvre (overwhelming and huge and awesome), Napolean’s Tomb/Army museum, arc de triomphe, and Champs-Elysees, Orangerie, Rodin, Picasso museums, and Eiffel tower of course. That’s all we could really cram into 3 days, especially considering most of the museums are closed on Mondays. There are still so many places to see in Paris, and in hindsight, perhaps we should’ve spent a whole week there. Oh well.

Seine river at sunset

getting lost in paris

The language barrier wasn’t a problem. Almost everyone spoke English and if you at least attempt to speak French, people are so much nicer to you. I think one mistake many travelers make is assuming that everyone speaks English. With assumptions like that how can you complain that locals are rude? Since we’re Canadians and our second language is French, we certainly attempted to put our half-assed French to use. Most of the time people would reply in English but definitely gave us credit for trying. In one restaurant the waiter even taught us some useful phrases. At least we think so. He could very well have taught us “I f’d your mother last night” and we wouldn’t know the difference.

Oh yeah, everyone is very well dressed in Paris. You don’t see people walking the streets in sweatpants. Well, you do, but they’re usually Americans. It was refreshing to see so many smartly dressed people and there was plenty of man-in-suits eye candy as we were shopping on Champs-Elysees. I was definitely impressed with people’s style. Or maybe that’s just normal, and I’ve just spent too much time surrounded by Msft “fashion”, but that’s another blog entry.

Overall, Paris was my absolutely favorite place and I can’t wait to come back. I have to go do some work now, but I’ll continue with my vacation report sometime this week. I haven't gotten through all my photos yet... not even close, so I had to "illustrate" this entry using Day 1 photos only. I'm a little burnt out on the photo-processing front right now, but as I get them done, they'll be on my Flickr site.

Anyway, coming up next: Italy vacationings. I know you’re on the edge of your seat.

BAI!