GOLD

Eventful day yesterday! Recap tonight or tomorrow. I've got a family dinner tonight - our once a year "everybody's birthday" dinner where my grandparents treat everyone at their favourite Chinese restaurant. It's also my Auntie Anna's 50th!

New at Holts -- people lining up to visit the Canadian Mint at 10AM:

Love that light gray jean jacket by Vince!

Adore the colours, the products, and display of accessories!

H&M had some great stuff! I found a black jersey maxi dress to try on. 

Didn't purchase because I wasn't fond of the ruffles, but it was cute! I'm looking for one with a bit less material, too... more of a slender cut, less pleating.

I can't express just how proudly Canadian I feel right now! Canada did excetionally well and just won GOLD in Men's Hockey against the USA (the highlight of the Olympics) after a last minute goal by the US, resulting in an OT. It was an excellent game. Intense, generally well-played, and strong. I'm watching the fireworks explode in the stadium. OH CANADA!!

Testing Testing One Two Three...

So I bought the Samsung ST550 at Futureshop last night! There are a ton of pros, but unfortunately, the 1 con (photo quality) is outweighing the pros, which will earn itself a return in a couple of weeks. Other than the con, I am super super impressed. I love how haptic it is and the dual touch screens are fabulous. Also like the editing functions (changing the effects, cropping, rotating) and I find it even easier to use than a Canon! The HD video capability is also a pleasant plus.
Took a few quick pictures today to test it out:

The sticky note on the TV is mine, reminding my parents how to turn off the TV properly.. ever since we got the digital box, the TV has been left half on (has a blue hue coming from it) when I come home late. Bad!
Also bad portrait turn-outs (colour).

I think these outdoor pictures came out a bit better colour-wise, though. Less grainy, too.

Across the street... It's kind of strange. My current house is built on a new street and all the other 19 houses surrounding it are built by the same builders so they look similar.. and these houses are quite different from the other houses in the neighbourhood. When you turn into the cul de sac, you find yourself feeling as though you're somewhere in the suburbs.  My favourite part is how every house has a little tri-lamp pole in front. It would look adorable when they're all lit up!
Gloomy, wet, miserable day. We're facing the mountains but you can't tell.....

Made my mushroom orzo dish for B's bday potluck at her house~
M picked me up some mushrooms and we made our dishes before heading over.

We watched the Canada vs. Slovakia mens hockey semi-finals with a WIN for CANADA!!!! Secures us either a silver or gold medal against the USA this Sunday at noon. THIS is what I look forward to most for the Winter Olympics. OH and I'm so proud - Canada has the most gold medals out of all the countries and we have the third highest number of medals so far!
Watched the women's figure skating last night at work. The restaurant was so quiet when Joannie Rochette (Canadian) performed. Everyone stared at the TVs on the centre column. Some people were still murmuring about the sudden passing of her mother a few days ago.  Huge cheers when she landed those jumps and when she finished! Triumphant. She won a bronze medal. Kim Yuna got gold and had a super high score - no surprise there. Mao Asada won silver.
Anyway, after dinner, we played 2 rounds of Telepath which was fun ^^

Self-timer! Kinda cute how the front LCD counts down for you so you know when to smile.

Oh Karla

Darn how does she find such great vintage items?! I go into a vintage store maybe 3-4 times a year and probably when they're all picked over, too.
I am head over heels in love with this green (the best shade of green!) crocodile bag with gold trim and thin handles....... I wish she could post more pictures so I can just stare at it. Maybe she'll sell it!

(Awesome possum shoes too, eh? They're Alaïa Cut Out Wedges!)

Snaps from Karla's Closet

And It Goes On...

Bern's 23rd birthday on Tuesday! Had steak and lobster dinner at Horizons on Burnaby Mountain then they came to my house to play Clue. The first and only other time I've played that game (I was 11 or so), I think I got nightmares because it was about death and unknown secrets.. and the old version looked creepier.. I made chocolate cupcakes earlier in the morning and I swear I've eaten almost half of the full batch! I have 2 left.. which, I guarantee you, will be finished by tonight.

I don't like Rooibos

I love Chai

I don't like asparagus

I love gai laan (and pretty much all other veggies)

I don't like coffee (but I like coffee-flavoured things)

I love espresso (esp. European espresso.. the more bitter, the better)

I don't care for milk chocolate

I love dark chocolate

Did a friendship shot @ Artona (professional portrait studio) with M yesterday afternoon after running a couple errands and eating sashimi at Sushi Town North Van (yay). They were still quite quick with their set ups and all, but it seemed quite a bit less stressful than high school graduation pictures where we were herded in and out like sheep. We got the view the pictures this time. Not bad not bad. My hair was pretty light, though. My hair stylist just called - I have an appointment to redye hair a darker shade at 10AM on Saturday morning lol zzzz

M dropped me off at work right after and I  spent some time reading my article at Sbucks.  Also went to Pier 1 to look at mirrored vanities. They had a set that's on promotion until the end of the month. I'm not sure if I absolutely love it, but it's semi-close to something I've been looking for. Don't want the foldable tri-mirror though.

This one goes for $420 on promotion. From far away, it looks nice, but up close, the silver-painted wooden rim that's trying to be metal looks cheap. I'd rather have actual metal. I do like the stool, though. It's cute.

Then I hopped over to Futureshop and looked at their digital cameras. Compact Canons, beside the S90, looked ugly and roundish.. like for kids.. but they do have good quality photos... But then, I found the Samsung ST550 or TL225  (from the ST/I series)12.2mp!! Samsung is GENIUS! They come out with such innovative things. Only thing is that they specialize in such a wide array of electronics that their products fail at one part. The SA told me that Samsung's was really neat, but I can't expect the same quality of picture as Canon.  My past 2-3 cameras have all been Canons so I don't know if I could do with a not-as-nice quality, but then again, I don't take photos for anything professional and there's always photoshop (that I don't have).  I only got to play around with it for a few minutes, but so far, the configurations are super easy to use - it's touch screen, has a 3.5" screen on the back, has hd video, Haptic vibration, 4.6x optical zoom, a recycle bin (instead of trash can) so you can recover photos, AND has a 1.5" LCD in the front where you can take selcas!!!!! Only thing is that the Samsung is on promotion until the end of today at $50 off.  Came out last summer. So my only concern is the picture quality and battery life, both of which seem to be the only faults (but quite major, too IMO). Am I too persuaded by the neat gadgets to care about the quality??

Ended up being server 1 and worked for almost 6 hours. Long shift - forgot to bring a pair of flats so ended up having to wear boots which got kinda heavy after a few hours in. Some great customers and a table of not so great. Overall good night - just like old times. I like the busy-ness of just having 2 servers. None to get in my way when I turn around corners. Working again tonight woot woot quite a few large reservations.

Anyway, I gotta shower and get down to put in some hours for work and do my own school work. Even though I'm on break, I feel that there are not enough hours right now! I really gotta start on this paper and I can't find my other textbook I'm supposed to have read for next Thursday's class. I have another paper worth 10% on "my Olympic experience"... what? Gotta think how I have to tie my experience with Urban Development.. jeez. And then I have this presentation next Wednesday about white socio-spatial epistemology. The article was clear - don't know what else I could say about that but reiterate and add my own anecdotes of sorts to make it an interesting presentation.

My Visa bill is going to be very scary this month........... wimper... digging into Greece fund..

AJA!

One Week Left

Brr it's be really sunny out the past week but also really chilly in the shade! 

 

I had a full day yesterday - M and I went to Secret Nail and Beauty Supply store on Kingsway.  I got a few goodies: 10 pairs false lashes for $10.99 in a dramatic cut, crystal nail file (apparently will last forever and is much more sanitary than other nail files), another nail polish remover pump, and 3 O.P.I polishes for $5.99 each: Modern Girl, A Good Man-Darin Is Hard To Find, and Samoan Sand. Then we walked down a few blocks to look at some Korean DVDs to buy but for some reason the store was closed. But, I got a couple decadent squares of treats from this small Vietnamese/Chinese bakery ^^ Indulgence.

Then I headed downtown - the skytrain was packed! It came every 4 minutes but I had to miss 3 trains because there wasn't any room in them! Met up with Artemis and we tried scouting out restaurants/bar/lounges with TVs to watch the Canada vs. USA hockey game. After putting our names on the waiting lists at 4 or 5 restaurants with 1.5-2 hour waitlists, we wound up walking towards Denman and went to Chau - this Vietnamese restaurant (with yummy cocktails) and got good seats in front of the TV. Her friend, Steve, came to join us and it was cute - the whole 20 of us (3 + strangers) cheered, roared, and awwed it out. It was a good game even though Canada lost. 

Walked down to Denman to meet up with B and a few others at Banana Leaf where we shared Malaysian dishes! On the way back up to Granville Station, we saw those strobe "art" lights you can design and control online. 

Met up with Artemis. One of her friends is opening for a DJ at this small club on Hastings called Pop Opera.  The venue was previously known as 686 but has now changed and renovated. Quite nice inside with sleek seating, streamlined, white quilted banquettes, neat pendant lighting, and two bars - both cleanly lit from beneath. She invited me right before dinner and so I obviously wasn't dressed at all being in my scrubby work flats, a white t-shirt (my attempt to show off some canadian pride.. worn with my red and white CANADA scarf seen on every 3rd person downtown) and a casual cardigan. She brought me a black dress, though so it was fine - and my feet didn't hurt at all 'cause I didn't wear heels!

So even though cover was free for me, coat check was $5 PER ITEM. Expensive much?? That's what the Olympics bring.. inflated cover and coat check prices. Pop Opera wasn't totally happening, but A's friend, Ryan, was a great DJ! He's only 19 or 20 yrs old, too. He started off with the beginning of the Lion King's Circle of Life song (the tribal part) and mixed that which turned out to be really catchy and brought ppl to the dance floor. At midnight, everyone from PO went to Republic because there wasn't enough of a crowd to keep the club running so we limo-ed it over (my first time in one, actually). Republic was neat - also my first time there. I like it - very narrow, 2 floors, nice bar areas, nice, clean washrooms.

Sunday was Reggae night so we had this guy sing for a long time - he was so good. Sang Bob Marley and The Police (that's all I recognized haha). Ryan's cousin was in town and he wanted to show her some other clubs on Granville so we hopped across the street to Caprice. That was surprisingly a lot of fun - they were apparently playing Deadmau5 (I'm slowly getting to know these DJs...) and had overall awesome music. 

Someone mentioned that team Germany and USA? was at Republic last night... and that Alex Bilodeau was at PO on Saturday night.  I had a good time - M picked A and me up to drive us home~

Had lunch at Sushi Town with Becky today!

Oh I dyed my hair, too. It's pretty light.. we were going for an ash shade. I think I'm going to go back and get it redyed darker, though.

Man, I wish I had pictures to show you! Text on text is no fun to read or show. 

Currently typing e-mails, eating melba toast with tsatziki, blogging, waiting for laundry to finish...

Continuation of the Blue-Sky Day

Went downtown yet again - watched the Canada vs. Switzerland hockey game @ Earls On Top with Artemis and a few of her friends. Had to leave early to go to work, though.. but I caught the end... The rink was a sea of red and white. Canada won WOOOOOOOOO thanks to Crosby!!!! I'm actually really excited for Sunday's Canada vs. USA game. Might go downtown again for it

Work was slow, but good. I enjoyed it, but I know I won't stand it if it's full time. I'd go crazy! It's like my grandma's nightmare for me haha to stay and become a full time server. Don't worry Gma....

Spending too much money.. even I know. Olympic break is great, but it is sure hurting my wallet!

My closet currently needs:
- white blazer (and a supercute cropped tweed jacket)
- black maxi dress
- various jeans in different washes
- flat stylish shoes
- booties
- jean shorts
- tailored khaki shorts
- clutches*

Another Blue-Sky Day

Met up with Bich and Amy downtown yesterday~ They're visiting from San Fran + Australia or a few days :) We ate at Japadog (waited like 30-40 minutes for it!), ate cheesecake at Trees Organic, and then I took them to True Value Vintage (an underground grungy boutique selling new and vintage items) and down Robson street for shopping. It's too bad Vancouver's shopping is honestly not that great despite what we try to advertise... but we've got some great scenery and people to make up for it! We saw some olympic athletes walking around and bumped into Michelle Kwon (ex-figure skater) at Aldo. It was cold, I didn't wear enough (yes, I've become one of them silly ppl who actually wears less because it's sunny outside and WAS warm when I left the house). 

Oh yea I forgot to mention that I got VIP tickets a couple weeks ago to the Kim Tae Woo & Son Ho Young (members of the Kpop group, g.o.d) concert at the Vogue theatre on the 27th! They're coming to 3 cities: Chicago, Seattle, and Vancouver.. which I think are pretty random cities. A few of us got the tickets for Bern so we're going together and meeting a couple of friends there. Excited!

I've got work today! I felt as though I haven't worked for almost a month! Bank account is feeling depressed.. tearing.. 

Still hunting for a simple, sleek black maxi dress (that almost hits the floor, straps, not smocked all around nor tiered and no applique) for under $50!? I think American Apparel should come up with one... but then everyone would buy it.

Shopbop has free shipping worldwide now! Huspaz!

To Seattle

States trip yesterday w/ M and N! It was fun - M picked me up at 6:15AMish and then we picked N up and drove down! 3 min wait at the border - much less than we expected, so we got to Nordstrom Rack near Westfield Southcentre a half an hour earlier. Wasn't expecting to find anything there, but I ended up walking out of the store with a pair of basic black, ankle-length skinny Jbrand jeans (pretty much what I needed) and Bumble & Bumble hair thickening spray I couldn't find in Vancouver.  

Look at what the spray rang in as on my receipt! loll bum-thickening

We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (yay)

After, we headed to Westfield Southcenter's Forever 21 and spent a couple hours in that massive store. I got a light-wash cropped jean jacket with 3/4 sleeves and a cute yellow and white striped zip-up. Huzpaz for nautical! I like the yellow. It's not the fresh, creamy and happy yellow as it looks below, it's more like a Pier Imports yellow if you know what I mean.. sort of has a greenish tinge to it and more.. muddyyet it's still bright and pops.

Also ended up picking up a pair of brown T-strap flip flops from Gilly Hicks (I've concluded that GH sales associates aren't very bright...) and a Sephora Professional #45 Mineral Powder Brush (new to their line). It's around 6.5-7 inches long.

The brush is soft - I'm curious how it I'll hold up after I wash it.

We stopped briefly at Alderwood Mall to look at Forever 21's accessories store where M got a temporary wallet and then we headed back North. Started to rain a bit on the way back.  We had to wait less than 5 minutes to cross the border and didn't have to pay duty even though we all exceeded the limit by 3-4 times! Wooooot

I still have my shopping tolerance (meaning I can shop for over 9 hours and I still won't get tired) - and this was the first time I didn't nap for one bit in the car on the way down or up

Vancouver is Awesome

I was among the 1,000 people who participated in this dance yesterday on Robson street (one of the main shopping streets in downtown Vancouver).  At 4PM, the music for "Dancing In The Streets" began and everyone did their thing haha it was soooo cool to be in this huge crowd! It was seriously packed - I think it went on for a block and half! Sort of wish I wore my 4 inch heels so I could see how far it stretched  haha I forgot I wasn't in Asia anymore.  I also wish I could have found a better video, but I like this one cause it sort of shows how far it spread out and you can hear people singing along.  I was so amazed at how many people came out. There were three secret rehearsals I couldn't make and online videos to help you practice the dance.  I got downtown at 3:30 and Andrew and I joined in with some random people in an alley behind White Spot to practice twice. The whole street sang O Canada on top of their lungs at around 3:50 and we did the wave a few times. So fun!

I'm not in this video - I was about another half block to the left haha

After, Bern and I ate a cupcake and went to see the torch before going to our family Chinese New Year dinners. Day 3 of the Olympics! I'm totally feeling Canadian pride everywhere. And even when not Canadian, North American! WOOOOOOO!!!!

Almost Able To Breathe...

At Starbucks sipping a half sweet caramel apple spice (which is still way too sweet). Gosh, I've been at a Starbucks every day for the past 3-4 days... See, I've even lost track. I realize how much I've taken free internet for granted. It's been quite a hassle without it. My research proposal (6 pgs about what I'm going to write about and why it's important to write about it and my methodology....) is due tomorrow. I'm doing it on urban gentrification in the Downtown Eastside. I like writing research papers - they're my favourite academic papers to write 'cause all you gotta do is read a bunch of info from a quick search on the library journal catalogue and just compile it into sections that make sense... I really don't like citing, though. I've had to ask for an extension for my 3rd paper that was supposed to be due Friday - I'm going to be sending it via e-mail on Saturday so my Olympic break isn't going to start until after I hand that in!

Someone sent me this song - I am in love with it.

Lyn - True Story

**

It's one of those songs that sounds better when you just listen instead of watching (imo). You can feel the emotions better that way.

Ummm what else. My uncle came by with another box of papayas! YUM

Today is self-deemed scrub day. I'm wearing one of my kangaroo hoodies to school for the first time in 2 semesters. I think I wore it a couple times @ KU. I say it's quite comfortable and warm for a miserable day like today.

Movin' Along

Whoa so I spent the whole weekend moving to Burnaby. The house is quite a bit more spacious and has a much more open layout.  Even though I have lots of bins, baskets, and boxes lining the walls of my room right now, I don't know how to fill the rest of the space in my room just yet! I look like I'm a poor, renting student right now 'cause all I have is an out-of-closet rack of hung clothes I plan to eventually sort systematically into my closet in colours and kinds (I know! Sooo unlike me but I'm trying to be organized here - I even plan to have all wooden hangers on one side of my closet and all velvet hangers on the other side to make it uniform!) and a box spring and mattress on the ground because I didn't bring my bed frame + headboard over from the old house. I'm in serious need of some more closet shelves/drawers. My mom ordered these blinds that are pretty neat - you can pull it down from the top and bottom which gives me privacy in the morning 'cause I can just pull it down from the top to expose the sunlight... and I can also pull it up like a regular blind. I like the fact that it is an accordian blind rather than regular slit blinds (whatever they're called) 'cause it REALLY blocks out the light in the morning. When I wake up, it's pretty much as dark as when I went to bed so I get a good night's sleep.

I'm out of internet, cable + landline phone service until next Saturday so there's really not much to do at home and so I'm finding myself play the piano and actually concentrating on taking notes on the floor of my bedroom haha kind of sad how dependent I (we) are on these electronic forms for entertainment.  I am again reminded of the importance to limit such things from my kids...
It's really too bad - I have this window of about an hour of super good concentration when I think of the most creative ideas and I understand concepts the best.. and this time frame always happens right before bedtime after everyone else goes to sleep.

Really liking how convenient this bus stop is near my house. 5 minutes to Holdom Station (so 5 min to Starbucks - ew just tried an Ice Caramel Latte sample.. too sweet) and 20ish minutes to school which means I can wake up 30 min later. LIKE!

Quite a few pretty goodlooking and well-dressed people come to visit this Starbucks. More of a yuppie crowd, it seems.. and here I am lookin' scrubby in my pom pom toque, and oversized black sweatshirt.

My mom says that my teeth are getting crooked so I need to wear my retainer every night now. I agree, they aren't as straight as they used to be. I hardly wore them when I was in Korea 'cause I would forget and when I came back, I wore them maybe once a night every week.

My hair has been atrocious. I need to dye it again real soon. Remind me to make an appointment. What colour should I dye it? My hairdresser said I can't do anymore light colours 'cause my hair is too damaged. My family likes my hair the colour it is now.. but it has turned orange again. I'm thinking of a rich brown but I sort of want to keep my hair on the "lighter" side for as long as possible 'cause I like light colours in the Spring. Darker colours make my hair look more healthy, though.. but it also makes me look like I have less hair haha. What happens now is that when I blowdry my hair, it turns into a huge tangly frizzy mess that crunches when I scrunch it. Really want some clip on extensions...

Anyway, I've been at this Starbucks for almost 2 hours now and I haven't 

tarted any work. That's what I get for being without internet for 3 days! I gotta update myself with my blogs.

Some window seat inspiration...

Subtle pattern or solid fabric?

 

 

 

I wish I had this built-in type thing! This was what I was thinking of doing to my window seat... kinda late now

 
I really like this picture... ding ding ding

 

Buy Designer for Cheaper

I've been a member of Hautelook, Gilt Groupe, and RueLaLa for so long and get e-mails from them daily, but I've never bothered to actually click and sign in.  These sites host private, limited-time sale events for the current top luxury brands and designers for women, men, kids, and sometimes for the house.. at up to 70% off!  I think I was initially deterred from browsing because the first time I checked them out, they happened to have the BIG fashion designers (they usually don't have) like Chanel or something.. which, even at discount, was planets away from my puny student budget.
Anyway, they are "exclusive" in that you need to become a member in order to join.. and I think before, to become a member, you had to have been sent an invitation from someone else.. but now, you can just sign up. If you refer someone and that someone buys something, you will get $10/$25 credit! So ever since last Wednesday when Hautelook sold Revitalash, this eyelash serum popular among beauty bloggers that I've always wanted to try, I snatched one up (I say snatched 'cause for some hot items, they get sold out real fast and I didn't know if it would be or not!) and have been quickly browsing the sites since! I wasn't smart enough to get 2 accounts or have my friend sign up and use her account so that I would get $10 for my next purchase, but I'm happy I got Revitalash for half off! They've been getting in some great designers recently.

So basically, once you add something to your cart, you have 15 minutes to add whatever else you want and purchase by credit card/Paypal and in the meantime, they "hold" that item for you. Once your 15 minutes is up, your items are released back into the system for another buyer. Really simple. They send you e-mails to tell you upcoming brands, etc.. and the sales last approximately 60 hours.. depending... and almost always start at 8AM... but I find that when I get to it (around 10:30AM), 5 or 6 items are usually sold out. 

Sometimes they will have surprise free shipping days. The shipping cost is a bugger, though... It's $10 (to Canada, anyway) plus 4% of the cost of the item for "international fees" (whatever that is)... oh well, still cheaper than buying it up here! Oh, and different sites sell different things, of course. My favourite layout, asthetically, is Gilt Groupe's. Very sleek and it makes me want to stay on there for hours whereas RueLaLa's is more kid-like, and Hautelook's is simple and clean. More recently, I noticed Gilt Groupe and RueLaLa sell hotel room rates at boutique hotels all across the world! I particularly love how Gilt Group's Jetsetters page has really hotel-alluring pictures.

Check them out...

I love those floor candle lanterns! I'd love them to line the walkway of my backyard...

Dior New Lock

Dior has finally won me over. 

They just came out with a new version of their lock.. and while I haven't even paid attention to their old lock, I love this one!

Dior Phone

Is it me, or do the keys have the Korean alphabet on it?

What's In My School Bag...

Red Longchamp Le Pliage in Large. Love this thing - it's so lightweight and goes with 82% of my outfits and is perfectly casual for school. Fits everything - it's the black hole! On top of all that above, I could fit a thick sweatshirt, umbrella, gloves, AND a pair of flats. Has been done before and it didn't look overstuffed! I literally dump everything in and out.. it has taken quite a beating.. but still looks new. Got it at Seoul's Lotte Duty Free for a good price. Also got the little black matching coin purse not shown.
. SFU clipboard folder with this week's readings and a bunch of lined paper. 2 Korean crayon-highlighters (so coool), 2 pens (I'm a pen girl)
. Pink planner from the dollar store in Korea.. a fill-in-the-date one. Has pictures of traveling (mainly Tokyo) inside that's why I like it.
. Pink Sushigirl keychain from my Auntie Sandy
. Pong Pong Happy Panda pass holder (I use it for my bus pass.. still has all Korea passes in it)
. The best bobby pins from Daiso (a Japanese dollar store)
. LG Shine Candybar cell w/ Tohoshinki 4th Live Tour 2009 charm
. Cenix S-300 8GB w/ Bose In-Ear headphones (really good headphones)
. Capitalism text (1 of 2) for contemporary capitalism course..
. Cheapie $10 F21 black patent zippered wallet with 15 cents (yes.. poor student) and stuffed with a lot of things... like even paint chips lol
. Neutrogena Lip Moisturizer (quite a good one compared to Blistex, Softlips, Nivea..)
. NARS Lip Gloss in Chihuahua
. phantom camera is there. yea. you just can't see it.
. oh and I ran out of the Wrigley's 5 gum in Cobalt.

Agnes B Cosmetic Case (from Japan):
. Crabtree & Evelyn Gardener's Hand Therapy Cream (mmm)
. Anna Sui lookalike comb
. this free pack of wipes for buying a 350ml milk carton @ a convenience store. So odd...
. Sparkly gold swirl compact
. Red knit coffee cup sleeve M got me for Xmas haha - for those coffee runs! Allows me to be somewhat eco-friendly + saves my poor fingers from the heat of my venti Tazo tea.
. Some Scotch tape (w/out dispenser)... you never know
. 2 gum/mints from Japan


I always find it interesting to browse sites like this and this to see what's inside other people's bags. I mainly look to see if there's anything nice in them, to make up imaginary thoughts about what sort of person I think they are (minimalist, book-lover, designer-obsessed, super girly girl, really social, trendy, an artist, environment-friendly, sale-lover, someone who likes to show off, teacher by day and something totally different at night..., makeup lover, cat-lover... etc.) though I know that it's not totally representative of them 'cause that's just their bag for that day. I don't carry makeup around to do touch-ups throughout the day during school, but that doesn't make me not a girly girl 'cause I know to a lot of ppl, I am the girliest girl they know. My school bag is practical... eh eh eh?
Anyway, the main thing I get from these sites is that I'm still lusting a black Balenciaga with gold hardware, a Prada calf-skin (my goal for Italy), and a Miu Miu bag... and that I love zippered wallets 'cause you can throw a bunch of things in without worrying it will fall out (like loose change and buttons)!.. and that I think it looks ridiculous carrying around full-sized bottles of perfume (though I guess the scent does change if you put it in another bottle..).



3 more days until the move! Grarararrar. Goodbye "Vancouver Special" Asian carpet! Goodbye hill! Goodbye sunlights and roof deck that provided us with the unique 360 view of the city, a cooler house during the summers (funny, we have like 5 fans in the basement storage of our new house 'cause we think it's going to be hotter w/out roofdeck), and non-mosquito-bitten sleepovers! Goodbye small kitchen! Goodbye cool marble on fireplace (nice to sit on in the summer)! Goodbye backyard where I held a few birthday parties, chased around my pet bunny, and buried all my hammies and Kimchi the bunny! Goodbye unfinished room! haha man I just realized my room has gone through quite a few transformations! I was 2 when we moved into this house. I remember I first had colourful alphabet wallpaper (with the letter Z, for example, and a picture of a Zebra next to it)... and then when my brother grew out of this small baby room, he took over my room and I got the room next to it which was my dad's office/weight room which I turned into a Mickey Mouse room! I wasn't all into Mickey.. I liked Winnie the Pooh more, but I remember picking wallpaper from Revy (yea, before Rona) or Home Depot and that was the only acceptable one.. and then after, my mom found a matching duvet in the exact same pattern! And I had a couple of Mickey tees and even Mickey short-alls! And then I had a yellow phase when I loved wearing a lot of yellow so I painted my room Winnie the Pooh yellow (again, unintentional - I didn't realize it was WtP yellow until my uncle pointed it out). It was bright and rich - but happy! I had a bit of a yellow and red theme going on. Didn't really plan the red theme (haha), but I happened to get this red framed mirror set from IKEA for a "pop" of colour, everything else happened to be red.  My mom got me red bed sheets and sewed a simple red cloth over my headboard. It wasn't until around four years ago that I grew to like more classic, traditional, and more mature decor. Nad came over and we spent the whole day (or was it 2?) painting my room an ivory-ish colour and I had tons of plans to make it the ultimate room for me with what I had and some DIY projects and some good, flea market finds. Unfortunately, I never got around to it because I had busy summers and traveled around and, well, those are just excuses. I never made the time to do it I guess.. and my room has been a huge mish-mashed mess ever since.
So after I graduate, I will have more time to focus on my so-called 4th attempt at decorating a room (so I hope)! Btw, I didn't realize how long I've been designing. I used to put "designing" as my hobbies back in high school haha. While I was cleaning, I found pictures of a bunch of modern penthouse layout plans and blueprint types that I printed out back in Gr. 8. I had "fixed" the plans to suit my wants and then traced the layout, organized where the furniture, plants, lights, and details would be.. and then I would draw 2D versions as of what that side of the room would look like if you were facing it. Not bad. Then I remember my favourite class ever: drafting and design in Gr 12! I think it was a tie between Mr. Bae's English class where he would spend every class practicing his lines on us (he was a comedian on the side and told really really good stories.. and believable scary stories, too!!). Anyway for drafting, besides a couple of mini projects in the beginning such as recreating objects using the CAD program in 3D and drafting.. using angles and such, I got to design my own house and create a blueprint on CAD. CAD was so cool 'cause you could build a scaled house blue-print style and you could choose from a ton of options - even the style of column you wanted! There was a function where you could make it 3D and actually "tour" what you built! That is my dream come true. I loved that class so much, I was sad whenever it ended because it was too short so I worked on it at home though it wasn't homework. haha it was like playing Sims - I always thought the best part of that game was designing the house and would spend hours and hours designing it, picking the colour hardwood on the floor by its durability, choosing the cabinets.. and then I would make my characters play on fast foward just so they could make enough money so I could afford another fireplace or a fancy bouquet in the foyer that the maid would water lol. My house for Drafting & Design turned out exactly as I had imagined it to - it had a raised kitchen, tons of recessed lighting, a round solarium/breakfast room, four grand french doors leading out to the meadow-like garden, ensuite bathrooms for every bedroom (it was a 2 floor, 4bdrm, 4 and a half bath house), a skylight for every bathroom on the 2nd floor, a walk-out half-circle patio from the 2nd floor, a super luxurious walk in closet for the master bedroom, and huge windows overall. I happily achieved my first (and only) perfect grade in a course.

So yea I wanted to become an architect for a few years there (but then I learned of how much math was involved....). I remember I even took an architecture class at Eric Hamber in the summer of Gr 7 or 8.. but I recall I wasn't too impressed because we had to make our structures out of ugly brown cardboard and then paint it using generic dollar store colours. I always took some summer class/course all throughout elementary school and maybe for first year of high school because my parents had to work during the day and I guess, at the same time, they thought my brother and I needed some stimulation/learning thing. They used to be fun things like pottery, sewing, painting, drawing, there was always a sports camp I loved.. used to take basketball camp up at SFU (that was kinda brutal - they had a lot of excellent players) and Science Alive at SFU and UBC for a few years.. and then my parents made me take classes like creative writing, speech-making... wow I guess I just realized how many classes I've taken.. and that was just for summer. Just in general, throughout my childhood, I did all the swimming levels, did synchronized swimming for a term (hated it so much but it helped me get super good at treading water w/out hands 'cause we had to do it for 8 min at the beginning of every class), joined Gators (a swim club) in high school that was outside of school, life guarding course, did figure skating for a number of years during the middle of elementary school for Canskate, Brownies and Girl Scouts for 3 or 4 years, rhythmic gymnastics for a year or two (they were short, seasonal terms.. we just tumbled, balanced on the beams with help, and jumped on trampolines and things.. I was quite young), baseball for quite a few years (I really enjoyed that), art classes in random years (indifferent), piano lessons (completed gr. 8), theory (completed Rudiments 2), Dr. Chin (I think that's his name...) math where we would practice math contests every Thursday (disliked this a LOT even though I did it with Nad and we wrote notes to our friend Cass pretty much all class.. at least that's all I could remember.. oh and notes to each other, too haha), I was in Brain Child for math until Gr. 3ish (zzzz the routine of going in with my plastic folder with star-patterns, I can still remember the smell of that place, doing that computer quiz that quizzed you on what you just learned the week before and singing along with the simple tune that played when you got the answer right, then completing the math questions (I was terrible at problem solving), going to the dudes who looked like they were in their early 20's in the front to have them mark it, and then working on my homework until my parents came to pick me up. I liked the prizes, though)... and oh yea, Chinese (Cantonese) school until Kindergarten when I told the teacher I wouldn't be going anymore 'cause I didn't enjoy it (though I did pretty OK at 95.4% - not bad for a preschooler who disliked it! I remember drinking grape juice during class, the distinct smell of a high school, and those red-and-black-striped pencils that had horrible erasers at the ends.. oh and my favourite character was "little" 'cause it was part of my Chinese name and "mouth" 'cause it looked like a mouth. I thought the character for "flower" looked pretty, too) and it's funny and interesting 'cause the characters I learned then are the characters I know now - the super super basic. Shows how much you retain when you're young! I guess my grandma showed me some more, after. When I would go to my g'rents house, she would take out allll her Chinese calligraphy brushes and paper and ink and stones and her and she would show me how to hold the brush properly and we'd do easy characters like for "hand" or "mountain" and then I'd repeat after her how to say it.

That's like, half my childhood story right there. Lessons, classes, courses. I'm glad I took them - I feel more... well-rounded if you will. I guess it was part of the process for finding things I liked and didn't like and what I excelled at. My brother got the better end of the deal, though. When I quit, he got to quit at the same time, too even though he's 3 years younger. See, I can't even remember if he went to Chinese school! And you'd think from all the lessons, I'd excel at drawing or math lol...


Gosh, I yap a lot when I'm tired but don't feel like going to bed, don't I? GOODNIGHT

I Got Teased...

by Net-a-Porter today.

mmmmmmmm Macaroons
I can't believe I didn't try these in Paris... I will pay a grand visit to Pierre Herme, the macaron king, the next time I go.
Had my first macaroon experience at this little home-style French bakery (which, a month later, renovated into this luxurious bakery with a darling outstretched canopy and limos out front) in Apgujeong, Seoul . They had over 10 different flavours. The dessert, snack, whatever you call it, was introduced to me by one of my Singaporean foodie friends who loved macaroons so much, she had her friends ship her a box from Singapore while she was in Korea! After that lovely umm.. event haha (making it a big deal), I noticed that they were sold in other bakeries (can't remember if Paris Baguette sold them but I'm pretty sure Paris Croissant did..) and even at Starbucks next to the cash register!

GUH. So anyway, I'm on a hunt for macaroons. I've never seen them in Vancouver. Googled and read they could be found at a couple of bakeries in Yaletown: Thomas Haas and Ganache Patisserie. St Germain and this bakery in Granville Island apparently have them, too..  nomonomonomonom

New Colour Love

I'm loving the soft, dusty shade of pink worn in Spring.
LV has a new colour for their Vernis line in such a pretty pink!

Shopbop featured a bunch of lovely, (seemingly seductive haha) pinks

Can you tell I love their lookbook today?

I think the pink and white combo is a bit too childish, but I love the combination of this soft pink and pretty much all shades of gray... with bits of gold in it. I also think this pink and a soft peach shade look sophisticated together. Mix with sheers and lace.. perfect!

Love the neutral blazer

Stripes (a la Chanel) are back again. You know I love nautical.

And the tweed! Gmarket does have some cute Chanel-esque cropped tweed coats but they fit so small.

Thought Leighton looked good in this shot for In Style. White blazer ^^

I don't care about the gray streak trend noted @ Lovelyish... when I saw this picture, I couldn't help but go "I love the hair"! I wish my hair could do that piece-y look and texture. I guess it's the beachy-style. I think I might have to get my hands on that Bumble and Bumble styling cream or whatever... or mix a bit of salt in some water into a spray bottle. If I cut my hair "short", I'd like to aim for this style.

Pretty floral blouse from Joie! Sunday brunch with the girls, anyone? If only I had $195...

Super Muk Muk love to transparent jewelry. This is stunning. I love how oversized it is yet it's subtle because it's clear resin! This is from the AQUA (affordable house brand from Bloomingdales) -- $60! Just don't know how to get it to me without having to pay for shipping...

Such a cute 2-piece from Asos!