2008 in Review

Movies
♥ Sex and the City
♥ The Dark Knight
♥ The Secret Life of Bees

Music
♥ Mariah Carey
♥ Estelle
♥ Ne-Yo
♥ Usher
♥ Lil Wayne in everyone's songs

New Addictions
♥ tivo (Jon & Kate Plus 8, Crash, etc.)
♥ anime/manga (Naruto and Bleach)
♥ NARS
♥ Blogger

Books I Read

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami

Poupee Girl and More...

Yume-chan posted not too long ago about Poupee Girl, a Japanese website where you create a character and earn ribbons to buy her fashion and beauty accessories by dressing her up daily, uploading your own photos of your fashion-beauty-related goodies and leaving comments for others. While it's a Lost-in-Translation adventure navigating around the site since most of it is in Japanese (what are the shells for, Yume-chan?), some of it is in English and I'm sure you'll be able to figure out most of it! If you want an invite (done through e-mail), just comment me with your e-mail because we'd each earn 30 ribbons when you sign up through a friend's e-mail invitation.

Christmas Wrap Up

It's too cold to do anything but cozy up in bed and blog on my laptop, haha. This Christmas was truly madness...sooo hectic, as much as I love (or loved?) Christmas, I'm glad it's over. It's nice to finally have a break and just relax and reflect on everything. Though I'm still not ready to think about the entire year, I just wanted to think a bit on Christmas-related things.

Favorite Holiday Movies
♥ Bridget Jones's Diary
♥ About A Boy
♥ Serendipity
♥ Elf
♥ Love Actually

Favorite Holiday Songs
♥ "Winter Wonderland" Jason Mraz
♥ "Yule Shoot Your Eye Out" Fall Out Boy
♥ "Merry Christmas, Baby" Otis Redding
♥ "Grown Up Christmas List" Kelly Clarkson
♥ "Angels We Have Heard On High" Christina Aguilera
♥ Mariah Carey songs

I actually have a lot of holiday music...it was my intention to give cds to people but uh, too late (except for Princess Leah). My sister had also bought really cute handmade Christmas cards and I'd wanted to make some too...but the best I could do was make one (it took quite a bit of time).

My sad handmade card and its inspiration...

Christmas Humor and More Pics from My Swap with Yume-chan

Merry Christmas if you're on the other side of the world!!This is a super long post! Sowwie.

"I told the witch doctor I was in love with you, I told the witch doctor you didn't love me too, and then the witch doctor he told me what to do, he said ohh to the eee the ooh the ah ah, to the thing to the tang, walah walah bing bang!"

Do you know where that's from? HINT: "ALVINNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!" haha yes, the damn song was stuck in my head yesterday and it's from the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks. I thought I wouldn't like the movie but I tivoed it and it's grown on me. I like listening to it in the background as I wrap gifts or do other things. My favorite scene of the movie is the Christmas scene where the chipmunks give their gifts to Dave, it goes something like this:

Tagged Again!

Another busy weekend and I still have things to do and send out!! Never enough time, is there? But I just wanted to say Pink's pow wow last night was a lot of fun, I'll post pics later this week after I finish my Christmas things! (It was great meeting everyone! I'll be adding your blogs to my list later this week.)

I got tagged by Mimi about a week ago and wanted to do at least this...so here goes!

16 random things about me...blah blah, you know how the game goes. =) If you haven't done this yet and want to, consider yourself tagged by me!

1. I am an enigma by choice. I show different people different sides of me, but very few people really know me well or know all of me, including my family.

Preview: My First Japanese Swap with Yume-chan!!

I am sleepy but I just wanted to post a quick entry about my first swap! It started out with me asking Yumeko about KATE eyeshadow palettes last month and turned into a super swap! I was so excited to receive my parcel in the mail today. It feels like Christmas, totally made my day and made up for the not-so-great mood I was in yesterday.

December Pretty Pink Boxes

My Pretty Pink Boxes came yesterday! I was very excited about December's boxes because the participants included NYX, Honeycat, and full size Tu Bella perfumes! This month's box was $10.99 + shipping, so I bought two like Wuz always does so that I could double my chances of getting the products (or even more of the same products) that I was looking forward to trying out.

mark Flip For It and Reviews

Last month I'd wrote that I won the My Pretty Pink Box October contest. My prize was the mark Flip For It palette in South Beach. It's really nice! Thank you, Linda at My Pretty Pink Box!!

Tag Tuesday and December My Pretty Pink Box!!

I went to bed early last night (before 2 a.m. is early for me) and woke up before 7 a.m. so I could order the December My Pretty Pink Box!! Last month's box sold out in two hours while I was dead asleep, so I had to make sure I got mine this time. Also, there won't be a January box so if you want one get it now!!!

Since I'm up early, I started replying back to comments and found that kawaiikao/Amanda tagged me...so here's that.

A.)Answer the following questions using only one word.
B.)Pass this on to 7 people...

Weekend Goodies

I went to Mitsuwa yesterday where everything was 20% off! (Excluding alcohol, cigs & dairy products. 20% off sale is this weekend only, so you can still go today!)

I also took my nephew with me for the first time and he loves Mitsuwa. We were there for over an hour, maybe close to two hours. He even bought himself 2 wooden swords! They are black and pretty nice...real life size. He told me he's going to use one for his Halloween costume next year. (Sorry...I didn't take any pics of his swords, haha.)

Here are the goodies I got!

Shiseido White Tsubaki Shampoo & Conditioner...I've been eying this for months!

"The Quickie" Mini Contest!!

I know there are so many contests going on right now (ask Wuzzy if you can buy a contest schedule spreadsheet from her *wink*)...but hey, I want my piece of the pie too!!

I never knew that I would meet so many beautiful sweethearts through blogging. I didn't write a "thank you" post for Thanksgiving, but I am thankful for the blogging world because of the many new friends (I'm also thankful for the reviews and tips, but that's another subject). You girls have become my online sorority. I try to check every day for comments and new blog posts so I can stay up to date with my "sisters." You are all so sweet, sincere, helpful, generous, gorgeous, in one word - AMAZING!

Review: Cosmo's Sexiest Beauty Secrets

Thou Shall Not Be The Same Girl Twice...Finale

Super pic heavy...but here are my fourth and fifth looks for Yume-chan's contest, "Thou Shall Not Be The Same Girl Twice."

You knew this look was coming when you read I have the MAC Smokey Eyes palette...

IV. the "Smoke in Her Eyes" look

Thou Shall Not Be The Same Girl Twice...Part II

This is my third look for Yume-chan's contest, "Thou Shall Not Be The Same Girl Twice" where the challenge is to create five looks with only five pieces of makeup (palette = one piece). I'm still using the same makeup from Part I.

III. the "Party Girl" look

The name speaks for itself...

Thou Shall Not Be The Same Girl Twice...Part I

Indeed, I shall not...

This entry is for Yume-chan's contest, "Thou Shall Not Be The Same Girl Twice" where the challenge is to create five looks with only five pieces of makeup (palette = one piece).

My five pieces of makeup:
♥ MAC Warm Eyes palette from Passions of Red Holiday '08 collection
♥ MAC Smokey Eyes palette from Passions of Red Holiday '08 collection
♥ NARS The Multiple Duo in Orgasm/South Beach
♥ Lancome Virtuose mascara
♥ MAC Lipglass in Coral Grade (Limited Edition from a past Nordstrom's anniversary)

New CranberryCocolat Hurrrrrr...

Finally I had some time to get a hair cut and bang trim this past weekend! Woot woot. I'd noticed my layers had grown out and my hair just seemed long, straight and boring! Don't believe me? I'll show you! Nevermind, I'm too embarrassed to show the ragged state of my hair...but here it was before my hair cut (hair color dye L'oreal True Match 5N, the lighter parts of my hair are from highlights back in April):

MAC & Sephora Goodies

More Japanese Goodies and Reviews FTW!! ♥

Okay, don't be mad at me if this post makes you want to go shopping!!

First things first:

DIANA-APPROVED Sana Salon De Porejo Peeling Gel

Magazines and Magazine Scans: Cosmopolitan December

I bought the December Cosmo magazine and made sure I skimmed through it tonight because I'm guilty of having but hardly reading two magazine subscriptions this past year.

I read books way, way, WAY more than I read magazines. So every month when I get my magazine subscriptions, they get placed into a stack until I have nearly a year's worth of two magazines cluttering my room. I've noticed that I rarely buy magazines at newsstands anymore, partly out of guilt of having unread magazines at home, but also because I rarely see a magazine that I flip through and must have (Japanese magazines being the exception). Also, when I think I want a magazine but don't get it, I forget about it and life goes on, and literally new issues come and go.

Blog Makeover ♥

Hello, my lovelies!

Some of you may have noticed I gave my blog a new look, yippie!! I've been wanting to do this for a while (since the beginning of October), but I put it off because it was neither important nor urgent on my list of things to do. BUT...the thought has been nagging me for a while, especially as I started checking my bare blog daily, so I spent the last 24 hours playing with/working on this (with breaks of course, gotta sleep and eat!).

I used to have a website (I've had several, actually) and when I first started this blog, it was meant to be an addition to my website. Now, I've let my web hosting expire ($200-$320 to renew for the next 2-3 years? no thanks) and my domain, http://www.diananguyen.com/ forwards to this blog. I'm still a Blogger newb...quite apparent tonight as I was cleaning through my labels for my new tag cloud and accidentally published two unfinished drafts, lol. I didn't even realize I'd done that until I saw comments on those entries in my e-mail.

Bye Bye November Pretty Pink Boxes

November My Pretty Pink Boxes sold out in two hours this morning!!

What the hell, people...I was asleep! lol Grrr...I was up 'til 5:30 a.m. so I was knocked out between 7 and 9 a.m., when you early bird bastards were buying up all the boxes! I had no idea they'd sell out so quickly...or I would have just stayed up another hour and a half. Oh well...saves me money this month. =)

Sooooo who got a November Pretty Pink Box? Don't worry, I won't shoot you...I'm just curious. ;)

Yesterday's Oprah Show featured Dr. Oz and his new book, You Being Beautiful, which just came out this month and is about how beauty and health are related. Of course I love all things beauty, want to be/stay healthy, and I love reading so what better than picking up a copy of this? It already has positive customer reviews on Amazon.

I Won My First Contest!!

I got an email tonight that I won the My Pretty Pink Box October Contest! My prize is the mark's South Beach Flip For It fall color kit (a $20 value)!

"Inspired by trend-setting cities across the globe, South Beach features matte midnight and shimmery taupe shades for eyes and a soft peach shade for cheeks. Flip the palette around for four lip tints, ranging from matte desert rose to shimmery peachy-pink."

How fun does that look? I can't wait to try it out!

Also, this month's Pretty Pink Boxes go on sale this Thursday, November 13th! Last month's boxes sold out in just six days, so if you don't want to miss out, get yours asap. I believe there will be another contest, so who knows, you might be the next lucky gal to win...like me!

Lolita Diana

I felt like a doll in these Gothic Lolita inspired pictures, and it was a lot of fun as I'll prob never be able to wear that look elsewhere. =)

"I feel so pretty, picture perfect, beautiful (picture perfect, beautiful)
Don't you feel pretty?...Like you're putting on a show
And the cameras go
Click, click, click, flash" -Ciara

The Audacity of HOPE Indeed!!

I am so moved by today's outcome on our new President Elect Barack Obama!

It's amazing...I never thought I'd be interested in or truly qualified to take a stand on politics, and yet tonight I felt the electricity of witnessing American history happen in my very own lifetime! I feel so blessed that I could partake in making it happen, not to mention exercise my right to vote when so many people throughout history and the world have been denied that very fundamental right.

Monday Makeup Mega Post

I got the greatest gift in the mail!

Victoria's Secret and Sephora Discount Codes

Last night my friend sent me an email on how to get two bras and a panty from Victoria's Secret for just $20 including shipping! I heard the info is also on several forums. I don't know how long that deal is good for so don't sleep on it! UPDATE: As of Wednesday, 11/06, I've heard the codes don't work anymore. For those who missed it, sorry! =(

I ordered mine today. Original merchandise price $51.50 became $12 merchandise price + $5.99 shipping + 1.48 tax = $19.47!

Just in case you didn't already know, here's the info on the Sephora Friends and Family 20% discount!

Love at First Scent

This candle is seriously yummy in a warm way. I went with my sister to Target and came across this delicious soy candle. It's called "Harmonize - Tea Leaf & Papaya (Peace And Tranquility Soy Wax Candle)."

Peace and Tranquility is a collection of fine fragrances combining aromatherapy concepts with ancient cultural beliefs. Carefully selected fragrance are combine to balance the mind, body and spirit. Create an ambiance of warmth and serenity, while softening your spirits with scents of the tropics. Tea leaf, a haven of purity with origins from sun-drenched Asian fields, revels in its blend with fellow anti-oxidant, papaya fruit. Bring peace and harmony to your home with this fine fragrance.

TAG Tuesday

Whoa...I'm up at 7 a.m. and I didn't even stay up all night. Full moon?

I was tagged by Alyssa so I thought I'd get this done now.

the rules:
Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them comments letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

10 Years Ago:
1. I was a church girl
2. I was an honors program student
3. I weighed about 100 lbs or less
4. I took my first creative writing class where I met my dear friend Jamie
5. I smashed my face into a windshield when my friend drove and hit a tree in a parking lot (and I hadn't buckled my seat belt yet)...it left quite a mold of my face in the cracked glass

TAG!! I'm It...Who's Next?!

I was tagged !!

Here are the Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on his/her website

Six Random Things About Me...

1. I am what my friend Hannah calls a "Japanophile" - fascinated with all things Japanese. I'm slooooooowly learning Japanese and I really want to go to Tokyo to shop and go wild, haha.

My Natural Look...

Somehow turned into my "beach" look for Ms. Mimi's "Natural Look" contest. (Natural look for a So Cal/beach gal?)

Here are the three items I used:

♥ Dramatic Parfums Dramatic Volume Volume & Curl mascara
♥ MAC Bronzing Powder in Refined Golden
♥ MAC Lipglass in C-Thru

and my freebie item:

♥ Benefit Play Sticks in Jump Rope

Green With Envy

Sooo...earlier this week I bought the Kate eyeshadow palette in green, thanks to Alyssa's blog (which did it more justice than I'm about to)...and here are the results!

It's the sad-girl-looking down look...

Think Pink!!

"Ahh...here it is, here is our answer: PINK!"

I'm actually watching "Funny Face" right now.

Anyway, I came across this blog and loved the idea of WuzzyAngel's first contest "Pink Eye," in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month...so don't laugh, because the camera whore in me felt compelled to toss my hat into the ring and enter!

Surprising, I know...

My Pretty Pink Box Brings All The Boys to the Yard...

I just opened my pretty pink box today and it smells delicious! It's soooo girly, so pink and sweet.


This is one of those times when I love being a girl...so I can enjoy playing with makeup and beauty products, and smelling all sweet and yummy! This pretty pink box came with lots of samples to play with.

i heart Japanese goodies

Warning: Picture overload AND kawaii overload. Proceed with caution.

Yesterday this Japanese + beauty product-crazed gal dedicated her time to doing serious damage at Marukai, Ohayo USA and Nijiya.

I started off with lunch at Sushi Boy inside Marukai, enjoyed a Rainbow Roll and Washington Roll...washed down with candy-flavored apple juice....mmm.

October is...

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and apparently a lot of other things too).

I may be misquoting but I believe Oprah said every hour we lose one out of every eight women to breast cancer. Wow.

While I'm not here to lecture, I just wanted to say that if you don't know, please educate yourself, be aware, show your support for the cause and help if you can. In the spirit of this "Pink Ribbon" month, I'm also doing these two things:

♥ reading A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That
♥ and purchased My Pretty Pink Box

Rice Bran Beauty Review

Just tried the Komenuka Bijin Cleansing Powder...first let me say I was a little put off by how the powder looks when it mixes with water, sort of like dissolved aspirin in your hand (and honestly it kinda smells that way too), but it did feel very gentle on my face and my face felt soft after I rinsed it off. Then the boo factor...I applied night cream and felt a mild burning sensation in my skin again. Nooooo! It wasn't painful but felt like I'd scrubbed my face raw. Bummer. I really wanted to like this product since I love the concept and Asian (particularly Japanese) products but I think perhaps my skin is allergic to one or some of the ingredients. So much for being Asian and using an Asian product. My bank account thanks me though. I hope if anyone else tries it you fare better off than I did. I'm thankful I got samples to try before I threw away $30. I caution those with skin that is somewhat dry or sensitive...everyone should definitely try a sample first!

UPDATE: Whoops! This was actually an unfinished entry (and therefore my very raw thoughts) that I accidentally published while doing my blog makeover on November 16, 2008. If it weren't for your comments, I wouldn't have realized, hehe.

Sadly I've come to believe that rice bran beauty isn't for me. I tried the Komenuka Bijin shampoo and conditioner samples. They had a clean scent or hardly any scent to them, but within 24 hours my hair felt like it had a sticky residue coat to it.

Sweet Sunday

I love sweets...I stumbled across a local cupcake shop today so of course I had to try my first red velvet cupcake! I can't compare it to Sprinkles since I've yet to go but it's nice to find a local cupcake shop. I love cupcakes so much I even own a book just so I can drool over the pictures...and maybe one day when I have my own kitchen I'll try all of the recipes.

Japanese Rice Bran Beauty

Look what this lucky gal got in the mail!!


Those are Komenuka Bijin Cleansing Powder samples!

What's in Her Purse?

It's more like, what's NOT in her purse? First of all, I saw a few other girls doing this blog and thought how fun! I've always wanted to do something like this when I was younger and often saw something similar in magazines, so here it is.

Proudly showing off my Tokidoki Mamma Mia in Citta Rosa bag!

What every girl should carry...the necessities! Keys, cash, and a sh*tload of cards (credit cards, store cards, ID, gym membership card...oh, I don't carry a wallet or coin purse)

You thought I was kidding but I wasn't! I'm a girl on the go...

♥ ipod classic
♥ cell phone and bluetooth headset♥ makeup: MAC powder, eye liner, concealer, mascara, lip gloss, lip pencil, eye shadow quad palette, and mini brush set (because I always think, what if a boy makes me cry or I need to touch up or salvage my face?)♥ hair stuff: hair clip, hair claw, bobby pin, and an extra hair tie♥ Vaseline Lip Therapy in cherry (for soft, kissable lips)♥ pink Japanese tissue (that my sister thinks looks like a maxi pad!)♥ Japanese pink blotting papers♥ sunglasses♥ Hello Kitty band-aids (they were cute!)♥ gum (fresh breath is a must and they clean your teeth...*ahem* morning after for long party nights)♥ calcium chews (to be taken with food so for after dining out)♥ Visine Tears and rewetting drops (I wear contacts)♥ Hempz body lotion (for body, duh) and antibacterial hand lotion (hands only, after washing hands or sneezing)♥ not pictured, my pink JDM camera!

On a tangent, I'm always curious how and where people keep their makeup and beauty goodies (aside from the bathroom, which by the way, is not the place to keep makeup...all the humidity from showers makes it a breeding ground for bacteria in your makeup). I've always wished for (and still do) a nice vanity table, Hollywood starlet style with the big mirror surrounded by bright lightbulbs, a little haven for my goodies and where I can beautify. I'm talking without the clutter of anything else...no papers or pens or coasters, etc., lol. However, I have a small room so I won' have my dream vanity table any time soon...so what I did instead was dedicate part of a bookcase to beauty.

Everything's in front of a window, a great natural light source for me. You can see my makeup brush holder and Merlot™ moisturizers I've blogged about previously, as well as flower vases from Gaby's wedding reception and a JDM makeup bag with my favorite goodies (the pink box is my Sexy Mother Pucker™ gift set)

The left side is all body butters, lotions, favorite hair products, and perfumes

The right side houses my train case with my least used goodies, Pond's Clean Sweep towelettes, travel brush set, makeup remover, Too Faced The Quickie Chronicle palettes, Clinique loose powder, and Benefit blush in Dallas

And guess what? The mini pink drawer holds makeup too!

The top drawer holds my lipglosses...

And the bottom drawer holds miscellaneous eye goodies, like my Darkness falsies

I think I'm a girlie girl but I try to keep the balance between what's necessary and what's luxury or a splurge. I try to be a minimalist but my indecisiveness and love for change makes that quite challenging. After all, I enjoy trying new things but not to the point where it becomes maddening clutter, unused goods, and money down the drain! The beautiful thing about blogging is that I get to *research* new goodies by reading reviews and sharing our opinions and information. =)

Brush Much?

I copied a Sephora-inspired makeup brush holder and made one for myself and also my sister. The vases were $4 at Michaels and the mini gems were $3 at Walmart. You can probably get them even cheaper at a thrift store or 99 cent store.

Moisture Mania Review

Quick review of the new goodies I'd gotten in Moisture Mania.

The Merlot™ Grape Seed Moisturizer is simply wonderful. I was lucky to get a small sample packet at Walgreens to try beforehand. The texture was a bit thicker than my usual moisturizers, and somewhat like a soft, non-greasy petroleum jelly. It absorbed quickly, and my skin was super dry so I reapplied after a few minutes and that absorbed quickly as well (no icky layer of moisturizer over your dry skin). Note though, when I bought the full size jar with the free travel sample, the texture was completely different; it had the light, fluffy texture I'd expected from a face cream. It's advertised as "fragrance free" but has a light grapefruit scent.

Hair Today, Dye Tomorrow

I admit it...I'm addicted to dying my hair.

From the time I was 16, I've had red highlights, purple highlights, and all various shades of brown hair and highlights (sometimes stepping dangerously close to blond or brassy orange-brown). I'm fortunate that I have genetically nice hair butI also have very thick hair, lots of it and long, and naturally jet black hair...so changing my color every other season has its challenges.

Anyway, these days I'm not so fixated on my hair color and opt for a more natural look, close to my natural shade so the maintenance won't be high (yuck to black roots with hair 4+ shades lighter). I also want my hair to stay healthy, regardless of the many changes I put it through, and I don't want the hassle of going to a salon (color charge, tip, fitting your schedule into your hair stylist's, waiting, traffic, etc.) so I turned to box dye...and look what I found.

Moisture Mania

Based on a friend's rave review, I went to Walgreens to buy the Merlot™ Grape Seed Moisturizer and Moonlight Radiance Night Cream. Yay for antioxidants and very affordable prices ($14.99 for the moisturizer, $20 for the night cream, both are 4 oz jars).

Crunch Time Vs. The Holidays

I've been thinking about it all year and now I'm finally applying for grad schools. Applying for an MFA program is different because the most important thing I'll be submitting, aside from transcripts and letters of recommendation, is my writing portfolio. My 20 or so pages of fiction have to showcase that I have great potential as a writer, and basically knock out hundreds of other writing submissions...but hey, no pressure.

The best thing that eases my mind is knowing my friend Jamie will also be applying, so we're doing it together and able to motivate each other and share information and perspectives. That's the way it's been for 10 years with us (we met in my first creative writing class in high school and both graduated from college as Creative Writing majors together) and I'm so thankful to have her. I love you, J!

Haruki Murakami Drops Knowledge on Me

"It's not a question of better or worse. The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness...Abandon the self, and there you are." - page 51 in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

This is not an entirely new concept so as much it is a hard-earned one, what I hate to but will call a life lesson because I believe it comes with experience. Simply put, it means there is a time for everything. But it's just written so well and presented in a slightly different perspective.

Birthday Doll

Today was my birthday, yay me, happy birthday to me! It was chill as I'm not really in the mood to celebrate this year, but it was still nice for so many people to remember and wish me happy birthday (thanks MySpace and especially Facebook!). Some people forgot but it's no biggie since I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it anyways and didn't bother to remind anyone.

My sister took me out for sushi, but we discovered that our favorite local spot was closed due to a kitchen fire last Friday, BUT they had another nearby location so we went there for the first time. It was pretty yum and it's always nice to find a new local sushi spot. Our sushi chef was cute and the owner heard my sister say "It's your birthday" to me so she sent me some birthday ice cream and they did their birthday cheer (I was an unsuspecting victim, thinking "What a coincidence, it's someone else's birthday here today too!" haha).

Getting Crafty

I've always been a fan of creative, handmade items, from scrapbooks to cards, etc. so I spent a little time dedicated to being creative this past weekend. I went to Michaels and Joann's (haha, sounds like I'm referring to people not stores) to pick up supplies and I made my first book thong and clothespin geisha dolls!

And yes...my friend and I had a great time joking about our handmade glass-beaded thongs.

I must admit it's been a while since I've sat down to just solely concentrate on a craft project (I am the queen of multi-tasking), so it was a bit of a practice in patience for me (hence why there's only one book thong and two geishas thus far). It was a nice break in my usual routine though, and these beaded book thongs will definitely serve their purpose with me always having so many books and the habit of reading several books at the same time.

the geisha goodies

Asian American Films

One of my favorite girlfriends, Leah, and I took a weekend trip to SF two weeks ago. We were lucky because not only do we both love the city, but we were also able to check out the 26th Annual Asian American Film Festival in Japantown!

I look pretty happy to be in Japantown...'cause I'm a Japanophile at large! jk