Coming to an end, 2013

2013 has been an extremely hard year for me. I'm kind of glad it's over. Aside from all the negative feelings I have for 2013, I am very thankful for it as well.

Thought I had a lot to say but now that I started typing, I don't know what to say anymore.

Excited for this new year, 2014...

twenty twoo ooo ooo ooo

Today is my birthday! Yay!
Actually, it was just a normal day. I went to work and I'm in a swamp of work to do for school and finals coming up, but I've excused myself of all that for today.

My family have just been so sweet to me today. It was the little things that they did that made me happy.
Here's some random pics I took (just three):

HEHE LOVEEE

Went for rice cakes instead of a cake

Some cat balloons my sister blew up and put in my room

As you can see, shit went downnn tonight, not really... but that's okay I'm still veryy happy today!

Reem Acra

Sooo, Taylor Swift was performing with Prince William and Bon Jovi, cool. But even better is the amazing dress she was wearinggg!!!

As soon as I saw this picture^, I looked up the designer and it was Reem Acra. While I was googling the designer, and picture of Olivia Wilde came up. She wore a Reem Acra Dress in 2008 to the Emmy Awards (I guess I am a little, a lot, late on news about Olivia's dress).

Olivia looks stunning!

Reem Acra does a lot of gowns that are simply dreamyyy. Future wedding dress inspirations? YES

*pictures from google (you should google more pics of Taylor & Olivia's dress, drool worthy!)

Holiday Gift Guides by Lisa Eldridge

Lisa Eldridge is a very talented, beautiful, make-up artist who also happens to do YouTube videos. She makes quality videos and because she is a real professional makeup artist, she gives the best tips and tutorials.

Last year she put up some great gift guides for the holidays and this year she has done it again, but even better! I absolutely love watching her videos and I just thought I would share her gift guides because they're brilliant!

Holiday Gift Guides for Teens:

Holiday Gift Guide for Fashionistas:

Holiday Gift Guides for Older Women:

I'm obsessed with watching Holiday Gift Guide videos (and the Lush videos) because it gets me really excited for Christmas! There are also a lottt of gift guides on YouTube, but I just wanted to share Lisa's because they are my favorite! Hopefully through the videos you can also get inspired to find some amazing gifts for your loved ones! 

Hope she does more of these videos!! (EDIT: She did more!)

oh "Shoots"

Found some great shoots/photos while browsing the web:

Dramatic Gisele

I found this on The Coveteur page.

"Drama Queen", Gisele Bundchen by Liz Collins for Dazed & Confused, 1999

Crew of Skaters

I found this on Amy Poehler's Smart Girls tumblr.

I don't know the photographer

Signe Vilstrup Indian wedding photo shoot for Vogue India

I saw this somewhere and was literally mesmerized by the beauty and color within the photos.

Find it here.

There is also a video:

Enjoy! As I will now go write my paper and study for my midterm. Ughhh, wish me luck!

Relaxing Weekends

To me lately, the weekends have been a jewel. I look forward to doing nothing or doing something exciting to release all the stress from the week and get ready for a rough week ahead. How about you? I didn't realize how precious my weekends are to me until I started to work.
This morning I slept in, woke up, did some dishes, took out the trash, made myself a cup of coffee, and lit a candle. And as I am sipping my coffee listening to music and browsing the web, I feel so relaxed.

How do you spend your weekends?



*first picture on my Canon Rebel T5i (I got a DSLR! Eeek!)

Bloglovin' and Cup of Jo

I've heard people talk about bloglovin' a lot but I never made an account because I never knew what it exactly was. It's a website where you can "subscribe" to all the bloggers you like and whenever your favorite blogger uploads a new blog post, it'll be on your bloglovin' feed. It's also a great place to find new bloggers. All your favorite blogs will be in the same spot! I always had all my favorite bloggers favorite-ed on my computer and it was hard to catch up on the LONG list of bloggers I was trying to follow. If only I started bloglovin' a little earlier! Plus it's convenient and easy to use.

I LOVE A Cup of Jo. I've known Joanna's blog from before, but bloglovin' helped me to really fall in love with her. She used to be a magazine writer so all of her posts are super interesting, especially to young woman. From the topic of fashion to relationships, you can satisfy all your girly interests on Joanna's Blog. I love her even more because she's funny too! Check her out! 

Paper Flowers

I used to want to become a florist when I was little (including a bunch of other random professions). I love flowers and seeing beautifully arranged bouquets. Recently I've seen a lot of bloggers talk about paper flowers. Flowers made by paper. After researching more into this, I began having this hunger to make these DIY flowers myself. I haven't actually tried, but here is some of the things I found while browsing.

This book is all about different paper flowers you can make! It comes with a lot of patterns at the end of the book that will help you to make the flowers. The book itself is also beautifully photographed and put together, which makes me want it so bad! Find it on amazon or barnes & noble

The house that lars built is a blogger who I follow and love. She's a very talented crafty artist, especially when it comes to flowers. Paper flowers are one of her specialties and she also teaches workshops on making them. 

Check out this blog post where she links other bloggers who show you how you can make paper flowers.

Also this one.

A beautiful mess is another blog I love that is written by two sisters. And they also had a post on how to make paper flowers. I think the website 100 layer cake partnered up with a bunch of bloggers to do a post on paper flowers so you can find more through their website as well.

I feel like I killed two birds with one stone on this blog post because I got to talk about paper flowers anddd the blogs I like!

I definitely want to try making some of my own awesome paper flowers but well shall see, because I literally have crafters block right now...

Rose Garden & Egyptian Museum

 First stop was the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden! It was so beautiful!

Wrong setting on camera, so this picture is pixelated, oops!

Next stop was the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. $7.00 for students & free parking!

Recreated Egyptian Garden

Mummified fish

Mummified monkey

Detailed paintings on a tomb

Recreated tomb

Model of first Egyptian Pyramid

No left eyeball, EEK!

Totally not worth $.50 but so worth it because it has a scarab on it!

The museum is pretty close to our house and has a fair admission price so my sister and I decided to stop by because we had some extra time today. We got to the museum a little before it opened and stopped by the beautiful rose garden nearby. A quick, necessary break from our normal daily toils.

September Favs

I remember seeing the trailer for this show while waiting to watch a movie at AMC, and I thought it was so dumb. I started watching it(because my sister) and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT SO MUCH! It's a reality tv show about the Robertson family, who created and run a business making duck calls. The show is hilarious and heart warming at the same time. I just finished season one and am onto season two! You NEED to watch it, you'll be surprised at how much you enjoy it!

I've been listening to Birdy a lot this month. Her rendition of Bon Iver's Skinny Love is one of my favssss but I never really listened to any of her other music until this month. She's only 17 but her voice is amazing. A lot of her songs are really sad, so be careful not to get too down! Check her out though, because she is really talented. 

i'll miss days like this

Getting fast food at night, chillin' in the car, and joking around with my siblings. Nights that I definitely will look back on and miss because I love spending time with my brother and sister :)

The flash makes it look like these pictures were taken with a disposable film camera, doesn't it? I like the effect.