July 4th Picks

Happy July! I can't believe it is already the second half of 2014. In a couple of months I will be starting college!

What do you think of my first collage? At first I thought this would be so easy to make and it probably is, but I struggled. I used Photoshop if you were wondering. Sizing the images, organizing the layout, and the border were things that took some researching and time to get right, but I think it turned out pretty well.

July 4th is tomorrow and I know this is kind of last minute, but here are some of my picks for July 4th.

1. Valentino Rockstud Clutch 2. Splendid Indigo Dye Dress 3. J.Crew Broken-in Boyfriend Jean 4. J.Crew Scallop-Pocket Short (on sale) 5. Loeffler Randall Starla Sandals 6. Loeffler Randall Lock Clutch (on sale) 7. J.Crew Brass Star Earrings 8. H&M Denim Dress 9. J.Crew Floral Organza Tee 10. J.Crew Rosebud Underwire Top 11. Pret-à-Surf Star Hipster 12. Joie Louisa Tote (on Final Sale) 13. H&M Distressed Denim Shorts 14. Baublebar Sapphire Tiffany Collar

***Maybe you already tested it out, but hover over the image and see what happens***

Loving These Links // 1

I've seen other bloggers do posts like this where they share links and funny articles to read. I have found so many interesting things through those links that I decided I would share my own.

• Found this link. I would consider myself a slight feminist. But "like a girl" in this video, when is it every bad to believe that girls can do things just as well as boys. I feel like the word "feminist" has a negative connotation, but why is it looked upon negatively that girls and boys can be equals?
• One of my favorite shows is back! I remember watching this show every weekday night at 11:00pm on ABC Family. The one with Drew Carey. Now The CW has brought it back with new host Aisha Tyler. To be honest, I like the old ones better but this one is still good. I don't like the new thing where they have guests. I mean it's cool to see celebrities from other shows but I don't think they are that funny. I would much rather have them go back to the original setup of Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and a guest comedian.

Well that's pretty much it. I know two links is not that much but I promise you the next one will have a lot more. I've been busy this past weekend and haven't been able to peruse the internet much. Hope everyone is having a good Monday!

I Graduated High School!

Two weeks ago I graduated high school. It's been long and it's been short. It's been stressful and it's been fun. It's weird to think that I've been at my school for four years. I can still remember the awkwardness that was me on the first day of freshman year.

College is the next step for me. I will be living miles away from home and even though I am excited to be living on my own I can't shake the feeling of anxiety. How do you transitions to this big change? No one to cook dinner for me, no one to do my laundry (I know; I should have learned how to do my own laundry by now. Don't worry, it's one of my summer to-do's), no one to be there when I miss my family. On the other hand I am super excited to meet new people and see what living on my own is like.

One of the things that I didn't think about until now is that the friends I made in high school might not be there 24/7 anymore. My best friend and I are going to different colleges in different states. It's weird not being able to see your friend almost every day. Currently we have made it a plan to Skype in college and vow not to drift apart.

My question for you is have you graduated high school? Did you go to college? How was the transition? Easy/Hard? Did you still keep in touch with friends from high school? How? And finally, how was college, is it was you expected?

P.S. Sorry I don't have any photos. I don't want to put any picture of my graduation online because after all, this is the internet. I don't want people to know exactly where I live and what high school I went to. And there are some of my classmate in the photos, I don't want to put them on the internet without their consent.

Philly

Happy Memorial Day!
I hope you all are enjoying your long weekend, spending time with your families, and taking a moment to remember all the men and women that have served in our armed forces.

...

From my post a couple of days ago, you might know that I wasn’t able to put up a post last weekend. I was travelling and had limited access to the internet a just didn’t have much time. Getting home though was also pretty troublesome, but I won’t bore you with the details. From missing 3 days of class I had a lot of things to catch up on and still do.

But let me get started. I went to Philadelphia for five days (May 16 – May 20) and took a very short trip to New York City for my sister’s graduation. Flying in wasn’t the best welcoming, it was pouring pretty hard. We rented a car (which was a flashy bright red) and drove to get my sister. From there we drove to New York City. It was kind of a bittersweet moment because NYC is my favorite city in the world but everything was wet and dreary. I got a few pictures but they were from the inside of the car, so not the most professional shot.

 But as you do in NYC, we parked the car and walked briefly around. We went to Madison Square Park but again, another bittersweet moment: I guess I thought wearing new shoes would be a good idea. The back of my heels were really hurting and I had no Band-Aids.

Driving back to Philadelphia, we ended the day with dinner at an Asian fusion place.

Day 2 (Saturday): It was super bright and sunny which kind of made me sad because the previous day was the complete opposite. Anyways, we had a family day where I just spent time with the whole four of us.

 

 

We went to Kohl's later that day to get my dad better looking dress pants. It’s been years since I last went to Kohl’s and that is because I always thought that their things were cheap and low-quality things. But let me tell you, I walked away with 3 things that I really like and are definitely new things out of my comfort zone.

Day 3 was part 1 of my sister’s graduation. It was for her program in college. Afterward we went to my sister’s friends’ graduation for their program. To be honest, that’s all I really recall for Day 3.

Monday was pretty event filled. We woke up early and went to part 2 of my sister’s graduation: The big one, all graduates of 2014. 3 hours of sitting in the hot sun. After we explored campus a little bit waiting for part 3 of graduation. 3 more hours of intense heat. After baking for hours, we had one last dinner as a family on the 5-day trip. We ate at a small little restaurant with a not so small price tag. Guilty, I ordered one of the most expensive meals on the menu: a $22 Grilled Salmon and Corned Hash. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. It was good but not something that I would pay $22 for. The sauce was barbeque sauce.

 

 Ending the day, we said goodbye to my sister and drove back to the hotel.

If you do the math, you might realize that I said 5-days and I only described 4 days. That is because Tuesday was just for traveling. We had some issues traveling home and we ended up getting back to the Midwest in the late afternoon.

To sum it all up, it was a good trip. I wish we had staying in NYC longer and I wish I had more time with my sister before parting but it was fun spending time with the family. Now as we get older, family time is more limited and I have to learn to cherish family time more.

Also, lesson learned: Be prepared for the sun. I made the mistake of forgetting to put on sunscreen and now I have really dry skin and an awkward sandal tan (I literally have a triangle on my foot)

Blog Update

Do you notice anything different about the blog?

 

I've have been working for hours trying to get those buttons on the right. It has been quite the process; from drawing out the buttons, getting them to follow a link, getting them to darken when hovering over them, and finding the right sizing.

 

The first two buttons are pretty obvious but the last one, in case you were wondering, is Bloglovin' (some people use the +, but I like the heart).

 

So to wrap up this quick blog post, check out those links! I actually pin a lot on Pinterest (so beware). Also know that I have pinning spurts (I tend to pin a lot in a short periods of time).

Update

Just got back from a short vacation. A new blog post will hopefully be up over the weekend. I know I have been slacking on blog posts and that is because as the school year ends I have a ton of stuff to do. But be sure to check back over the weekend; I will try my hardest to get a post up.

NOTW: Essie Hot Coco

 

(Urg! I don't know why, but every time I try to rotate the image, it just turns out vertical not horizontal)

 

Hey! Long time no see! Well I guess to explain myself, I have been SUPER busy. As a student, I have had loads of tests because the school year is coming to an end. However that was only part 1, I still have part 2 (Finals). Everything is pretty chaotic this time of year so I apologize in advance if the post are not on a timely schedule. If you were wondering, I get off of school around early June and that is probably when I'll have more time dedicated to this blog. And after all of this end of the year stuff, SUMMER!

 

Nails wise, this is what I have been wearing on my nails, Hot Coco by Essie. After rummaging through my nail polish collection, I realized that I don't have that many summery nail polishes. The majority of my collection are darks. I am now making it a chore to get a good, clean, white polish and maybe a light pale blue too.

 

Here's more pictures (again, for some reason I can't rotate the image)

The color definitely changes in different lighting

 

 

 

Review: Soludos

For such a long time I lusted over the Chanel espadrilles and I still do. I wanted a cheaper alternative and somehow I arrived at a brand called Soludos. When I first bought this pair I had never heard of the brand; I thought they were a small company that sold some shoes. But recently, in these past weeks I have seen so many other bloggers talk about Soludos. I was really excited because I bought them for only $20, on sale at Nordstrom. Now even the solid color pairs are more expensive (Also, I was pretty happy thinking I was hipster; having the shoes before other people even discovered them)

To start, if you are looking for durable shoes refrain from buying these. When I first saw them I knew these weren't lasting shoes so it wasn't really a disappointment; I was kind of waiting for them to break. As you can see from the photo above, I've started breaking through the toe area. And if you look at some of the pictures below you can see the fabric start to break away from the base (not sure if that's what it's called). Oh, I guess I failed to capture it, but in some places there are some loose threads. So as far as durability goes, it fails the test, but like I was saying, I expected this. (If you were wondering, I've had these shoes for a couple months now)

Now the reason I bought these shoes was because I was looking to buy some sort of closed toe casual shoe. I had seen espadrilles were gaining some popularity and decided to take the plunge. And as far as how they look, they are average. They definitely don't look super expensive, but they're okay.

Overall my opinion about these shoes are not the greatest. With the money, I would rather buy a cute pair of sandals. And, as far as if I would buy them again: no. If you have the money to spare and want to try out the espadrille style, feel free to buy them. They do come in cute patterns for spring/summer, so I'll give them that.

 

Dove Advanced Hair Series Oxygen Moisture Shampoo & Conditioner

Every time I run out of shampoo and conditioner, I go to the drugstore to find something new. I'm not faithful to any one product or brand because I find that most of them work in the same way.

 

However, this set has redefined the way I look at shampoo and conditioner. In the shower I didn't notice anything spectacular about either product. It was only after drying my hair did I find out how amazing these two products are.

 

I dried my hair and it was super soft. My hair had a weightless feel to it. (mind you that I have a lot of hair, and I always feel its weight) My hair was a little frizzy, but it always is after blow drying.

 

My favorite thing about the set is difficult to explain, but I'll try. I usually take showers at night, blow dry my hair on medium heat, use the cool shot to set my hair, and go to sleep. In the mornings, I always find that my hair has some texture in it; the bad looking texture that looks like extremely limp curls with a big crease near my shoulder. I believe the culprit is my pillow; I think my hair molds to the pillow and curls around it. 

Now, my natural hair is straight, so I hate it when I wake up and it is not that. The very first day after using the shampoo and conditioner, I found that my hair was, in fact, straighter in the morning. I hadn't done anything differently so I knew it was the shampoo and conditioner. But like any good experimenter, you can draw conclusion with one trial. I've been testing this shampoo and conditioner for about a month and my conclusion is that it does leave my hair straighter than usual with other brands. However, that first trial was the only time I was absolutely shocked. The times afterward, my hair was straight but not as straight as the first time.

 

Another conclusion is that I won't use the shampoo and conditioner every day. I don't know; I just found that they didn't work as effectively when you use it every day. (maybe try every other day or once a week)

 

At such an affordable price, I recommend you try these two products out. I believe on their site they are offering $1 off. Also, they have another set in the Advanced Hair Series: Pure Care Dry Oil. I can't wait to try out that line, especially because Dove says it has Macadamia Oil in it. As opposed to the Oxygen Moisture line, which gives your hair volume, the Pure Care Dry Oil line claims to make your hair silky and smooth without weighing the hair down. 



Pastels

With Easter approaching, I decided to pick out some of my favorite pastel polishes. In case you were wondering, the colors are:

Green: Essie Turquoise and Caicos

Lavender: Essie Lilacism

Pink: Revlon Temptress

I was apprehensive about showing this but I thought it might be helpful. I wanted to do something different, so I tried doing some stripes. If you've seen my past blog posts you know I love using tape to make a lot of designs. Well I used thin strips of tape and only one nail came out looking decent. As far as the others, the tape got stuck and broke. The problem was not the time it took because I tried all different times. I think the problem lies in the base color. The one that came out looking decent was with Revlon's Temptress as a base. The other ones with the Essie colors as a base didn't turn out well. This isn't a post to bash the Essie polishes but for the purpose of layering, I don't this these two polishes are good. Lesson to be learned: try out different polishes; consistencies of multiple brands are different. (It's all about trial and error right?)

Oh and here's the result of my attempt with stripes (on my right hand)

As you can see the only nail that came out looking decent is the pink+purple nail. The green+pink nail is okay but not up to my standards. And the purple+green nails are really bad; the tape just broke.

**Also this is my right hand so it is more messy considering I am right handed. These pictures were taken the same day I applied the nail polish. I usually clean up the edges in the shower because the hot water makes the nail polish on the skin remove easily.