A Trip Downtown

(oooooh~ can you guess what's inside?)

Hi,

I went to the downtown of my city with one of my best friends the other day. We just went there to catch up and such. It was only the two of us because our other friends were all busy. I'm going back to college soon and I'm really going to miss her :( We've been friends for 7 years already. We're similar in some aspects and we really get along well. I really like our downtown area because there's little shops and places to eat.

We went to the nice little crêpe place. This time was one of the few times that i didn't see anyone i know working there. We've been there before but I wanted to try something new. This time I got the dark chocolate strawberry. It wasn't too sweet and i liked that. Wasn't a bit fan of the strawberries though. I prefer to eat fresh strawberries as compared to preserved ones.

If you guessed cupcakes for what's in the box then you are right! There's this lovely cupcake shop there which i probably have blogged about before. I had to get cupcakes to eat. I think they cost $2.50 each. I absolutely love the cupcakes. It's just that something about sweets that makes me so happy. It's probably the sugar.

This first lovely cupcake is raspberry mocha. I'm usually not a big fan of chocolate cupcake or cake so this was average for me. Definitely recommend this for chocolate lovers~

This is the lovely blueberry one and it has cinnamon in the inside. It kinda reminded me of coffee cake~

This last one is the chocolate chip. I got this last time but I wanted to it again. It tasted great as usual.

It been a lovely 3 months at home but I'm ready to go back to college~ Hopefully i can keep up with the postings!

Have a good day!

Love,

M

Cheesecake Factory

Hello,

Only a couple more weeks till back to school I go. I still have to buy some textbooks and such. I'll be back a week earlier than classes start because I have to help the incoming freshman move-in. That week before classes I don't exactly get to relax because of my sorority's fall retreat. We're going to a camp nearby. Though I'm happy to spend time with my sisters I'm not too excited for the camping part. It's just that in the past I have been to cabin camping before and it's not my fav.

We've been wanting to go out for lunch but we didn't exactly know where we should go. Me and my sibs went to the cheesecake factory. The cheesecake factory near me is located in this nice plaza. I've eaten their cheesecake before but never dined -in. This is a first time experience for me. Their cheesecake is the best!

When we arrived at our table we saw this nice little setting. The ambiance of the restaurant was really nice. There was also a patio outside if you want to eat outside. Of course we decided to stay indoors because it was still a bit chilly and I don't really like to eat outside too much. The servers all wore entirely white even their shoes which were super weird.

We shared a fried mushroom, zucchini, and avocado small dish. It was pretty good especial the zucchini. The sauces fit these fried veggies really well. Bread was also served but I didn't get the chance to take a pic. 

I got the pasta da vinci. I forgot to ask for no mushrooms :( It was really good except the sauce was too savory. The chicken was really good. I like how the chicken was cooked just right not to dried or raw. Next time if i get pasta I want to get pasta with marinara sauce.

Of course the goal of our trip was to get cheesecake. On July 30 & 31 a slice of cheesecake is half off with any entree purchases. Even though this deal was going on there wasn't too much people. I got the tiramisu cheesecake. It was delicious and whip was good as well.

My brother on the other hand ordered the banana cream cheesecake. I tried a bit of his and it was also very good. I would definitely like to try other flavors of cheesecake next time.

Overall my experience went pretty well. I like this place. Though I thought it was pricy just for lunch.   I would like to go back in the future.

Hope your day goes well :)

LOve,

M

My Lokai

Hey,

About a couple months ago I saw a picture of the lokai bracelet on twitter. I really liked the concept of the bracelet. There's one black bead an one white bead. The black bead contains mud from the Dead Sea which is the lowest point on earth. It represents that sometimes we can hit rock bottom when things don't go right. The bead reminds us to stay hopeful. The white bead contains water from Mt.Everest the highest point on earth. It represents that good things with eventually happen. That bead reminds us to stay humble. 

I ordered the bracelet on Wednesday and it came on Saturday. The cost of one lokai bracelet is $18 and the shipping was $5. I paid $23 for the whole thing which I thought was a bit pricey. It was shipped in just a little pouch with nothing wrapping the bracelet. I was disappointed that the entire bracelet was made of silicone. I guess I didn't read it clearly on the website so I didn't know. The thing about silicone is that  they can get very dirty very quickly. I have a tiny wrist so I bought a small. It was pretty snug fit so I should have bought a medium instead. If you google the lokai bracelet you can see that someone actually snipped open the black and white beads. The black bead actually contains mud which is awesome. The white bead didn't have anything in it but the website claims that the water may have evaporated.

Here's a photoshopped picture of me wearing the bracelet. Though I do admit my face looks a bit fake. My photoshop skills will improve later~

Have a great day!

Love,

M

I Workout

"Recipe for success: Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing." 

~ William A. Ward

Hello,

As I mentioned in previous posts I have been working out with my gym membership. I just going to document my progress so far. I've been working out for a little more than a month. 

My workout routine is

-pre-workout stretching

-30min cardio: 15min treadmill(usually fast walking with high incline) & 15min elliptical 

I usually have a goal of burning around 200 calories through cardio

-after workout stretching including little bit of core 

-go to various workout machines usually aim at the ab muscles including 50 sit-ups when possible

My diet has not change much. I tend to avoid very greasy and fried foods. Try to not eat sweet things near night time. I've introduced fruit smoothies to my diet. 

I might make a smoothie post later if you're interested in finding out what's in mine. Smoothies are delicious!

 I still weigh around 130lbs with little fluctuation. I do feel like my stomach area has tighten a bit and so has my legs. My upper arms are starting to get muscles too. My energy has increase a bit I guess. I definitely feel better about myself. It was definitely difficult at first to get myself to go to the gym but once I'm there I go for a good workout. I enjoy know and I'm really glad I got a gym pass. 

I will be back in school in about a month. So hopefully I don't gain too much pounds. 

I hope you have a good day and thanks for reading!

Love,

M

Life Update: Food & Buys

(strawberry banana pancakes @ ihop)

Hello Lovelies,

I haven't updated lately just because nothing interesting has happened to me. Everyday is workout, eat, and work. Thats lame and boring I know. To start off this post is the lovely pancake because what is better than food right?

Today I went with my sis to a quick trip to the mall. Through the recommendation of our older sis we went to look at some earrings at the piercing pagoda stand. The selection was limited and pretty expensive. They did have a 25% off when you spend over $50. Since these earrings are known not to go rusty nor make your ears itchy we each got a pair.  There was a little selection of earring dedicated to birthday stones. The emerald earrings looked pretty nice. I decided between the earrings below which I got and heart ones. Of course I chose the ones below as you can see. I thought the heart ones look a bit flimsy.

(10k emerald stud earrings)

Since we both love VS Pink we went there first. There was any sale because the semi-annual just ended maybe a week or two ago. There was a free tumbler & mini dog with any pink purchase (excluding clearance). The shorties were also only $15 but they didn't seem worth it. Lounge tops had a $10 off but I didn't really need more tops.

We also head over to forever 21 which had 30% off clearance. I tried on two dresses but they didn't look good on me so I didn't end up getting it. Then we went to charlotte ruse which had some sells but nothing caught my eye. The last place we went to was h&m which had a 50% off clearance going on. I do like h&m because of their professional/business clothes.

 (blue blazer: $5) 

I love blazers. So I was pretty excited when they had some on sale. Sadly my shoulders are pretty broad so I only fit a size 8. There were no black blazers that fit me but thankfully this blue one did. Its very nice and its a more darker in real life than the pic. I can definitely wear it to any events that requires me to dress business professional.

 (top: $2.50, crop tights: $7.50)

Since working out I have been looking for more active/work out gear. There was a small section of active gear that was on clearance which was great! Though I want more bras workout clothes are just as good.

 (bj's graduation cake)

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated my two cousin's graduation as well as my sis's at my cousins. It was a pretty chilly day with lots of mosquitoes. After eating we had this lovely cake. I not sure way kind it was though. It was a pretty nice day to chill with the fam.

The Nike outlet is a store I adore. Whats better than having lots of nikes everywhere! This time I didn't have a particular running shoes I liked so I got these high tops instead. I've never own a pair like these before so we'll see how it goes.

Last month we celebrated my dad's birthday at texas roadhouse. Not to mention the free rolls and peanuts steaks here are amazing. We started off with cheese fries which we shared. Bacon all over the fries. This was some good fries.

I shared this lovely prime rib with my mommy. It is the best! We get the prime rib every time we're here. This dish is my favorite.

That's it for today. Hopefully more things happen so I can write more blog posts. Thanks for reading and enjoy your day :)

LOVE,

M

Pooh & Eeyore Acrylic Painting

(iced caramel macchiato)

Hi,

So I recently got some canvas to paint on with the acrylic paints. I'm painting a minnie mouse picture for my dorm next semester. I'm going to paint a pooh and eeyore for my sis. Today I'm going to list my journey in creating this picture. I only used acrylic paint and a acrylic white canvas. Both of these you can buy at your local craft store. I chose acrylics because I have used this medium before in a class. Its very good for layering and I like the vibrancy. For the brushes I used different sizes and I bought them at various places. Definitely invest in a good brush because I noticed that once of my bigger brushes started to shed. Different fine brushes are also a good investment if you want details.

Since I am not creative what-so-ever google is my best friend. Above is the original image where I based my painting of. I was going to used a more mature looking pooh but my sister preferred this baby one so I used this pic instead. 

Day 1

I made a simple sketch of the picture first. Usually if I were to paint something I would draw it out first because my ability is limited. I don't want to paint something if I know that I wouldn't be able to make it look semi-decent. 

Day 2

This is using a pencil to make a simple sketch. I started to draw it but it ended up being the blown up version of the original picture. I think that its quite difficult to estimate the distance between pooh and eeyore so i sketched a outline of the picture first. Also I wanted to make sure that this is what my sis wants before I started to paint.

Day 3

I outlined the pencil sketch with black acrylic paint. Similar to the original pic there was a black outline of the two characters. Outlining was so much easier because I had already sketch out the picture first. As you may or may not noticed I didn't used the layering technique for this particular painting.

Day 4

Now I start to color in the picture. I had limited colors at that time so i had to make my own purple for eeyore's ears. I'm quite satisfied with the result. I realized at this point that if you are going to paint a colorful big picture definitely buy variety of colors. Even if the color is easy to create with your primaries it's extremely different to recreate the same shade if you run out.

 Day 5

I have colored in pooh. Ignore my feet at the bottom I forgot to crop it out. From far away I think it looks quite lovely. Please note that I labeled each pic by days I didn't finish this painting in 6 days. This probably took me two weeks to-do because some days I just did touch-ups and very minor changes.

Day 6

Now I have finished the painting by filling in the background and doing touch ups. Originally I wanted to more with the background but I decided to not make it look too "busy" and kept it simple.

Now that i'm done I'm currently starting a new project. Look out for it in future posts!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day :)

Love,

M

My First Michael Kors Handbag

Hello,

These days have been boring for me just working out and going to work. I did clean out my room today. Even though things are still everywhere I managed to clear some things out which is good. I still need to fix up my closet. So far my plans are too:

• remove my closet doors and replace them with curtains
• get some drawer space for jeans and t-shirts
• get a new plastic container for my things that are not clothes like books and such
• somehow create a thang for me to hang my clothes

This going to be tough considering how small my closet is.

gnocchi alla ranallo

The other day I went to meet up with my friends. We met at this coffee shop place. I didn't get anything because I had already gotten coffee earlier in the day. It was sorta a last minute thing for me too. I mean I knew that this meet up was happening but I didn't say that I was actually going until the day of. After my friends finished their coffee we just walked around. We went into this cute boutique. They actually opened on June 1 so thats really recent. The clothes were very cute and stylish though a bit pricey. I loved the decor though. It mixed girly with vintage. Later on we were tired so we decided to go to this Italian place to eat dinner. I ordered the above gnocchi. It was average because it didnt have a lot of taste to it. The staff was great. They kept refilling our waters. They used wine glasses to put our waters. That made it so classy. There wasn't a lot of customers at the time. 

As I may have mentioned before I work out in the mornings with my sister. That day our mom had to go shopping for the restaurant so she dropped us off. It was really raining hard so she told us it will take awhile. We want to go to the neighboring T.J. Maxx but it wasn't opened yet so we browsed through big lot. I was still eying on things for my closet.

I've wanted a Michael Kors bag for awhile since its pretty popular and I also needed a new bag. While we were shopping we saw these beautiful Michael Kors bag. There was a lot of this kind of bag with different colors. Since we've been looking around and the cheapest mk bags are here we decided to each get one. The above picture is pretty bad because of the lighting so i took another one.

I decided to get the black Michael Kors bag because I just can't deal with lighter color bags. I'm a messy person I will get that bag dirty. Black seemed to be the best option for me. My sister got the identical one except in gold.

Pros:

• durable and water resistant
• many pockets inside perfect to put my phone
• there is also a back pocket
• reasonable price

Cons:

• a tad bit heavy
• a little too big of a bag than I needed
• it is not enclosed small things can fall out if you tip it
• older version

Overall I'm really satisfied with this bag.

I hope you have a good day!

Love,

M