Tuesday, May 31, 2011

~ Hong Kong Style BBQ ~

In all honesty, I don't care for American style BBQ. Hot dogs and burgers don't appeal to me much. Perhaps it's because I grew up with Hong Kong style BBQ.  I think I just like the fact that everyone is supposed to gather around the grill to cook.  This is a lot more fun, except it was super hot yesterday!

After a little while, we got lazy and put the food on the grill, American style.  Except, we still have HK style food.  You can't have a bbq without chicken wings!


I guess hot dogs are good too.  But we also like fish balls, pork balls, and beef balls.  We like to glaze everything with honey too.


We also grill shrimps and mussels by wrapping them in foil and adding some black bean and garlic sauce in it.  Sometimes, we also do veggie packs.

Yummy pork chops!  Thinly sliced and marinated overnight.  Awesome!

This is fruit salad.  Basically, it's apples, pears, pineapple, potato and whatever else you want to put it.  Just not mushy stuff like banana.  Then, add mayonnaise or miracle whip and mix!  Some people likes to put some black pepper or egg or fruit cocktail too.  My sister-in-law put some dried cranberries this time.

This was the most awesome watermelon!  Very sweet and juicy!  We also made a dessert soup with mung beans and seaweed.  It's very good to drink mung bean soup and eat watermelon to counteract the "heat" of all the grilled food.  I had a great time this weekend and I hope everyone else did too!  Can't wait till the next long weekend!

Monday, May 30, 2011

~ Happy Memorial Day with New Handmade Jewelry ~

Happy Memorial Day!  I hope everyone is having an awesome long weekend!  I spent my weekend watching movies, eating and making jewelry!  I thought it would be fun to make some patriotic items for Memorial Day and upcoming Independence Day.  Here's a bracelet...


Here's a necklace... this one is fun!  Love it!  

I was going to make some earrings, but I already have simple star earrings in red, blue and clear.  These match pretty well together.  

I will be having a BBQ today!  Hope you are having a wonderful time too!  

Sunday, May 29, 2011

~ Nail Polish Obsession ~

My friend came over today to chill and how do girls chill?  We do our nails!  She wanted a peachy color and I don't have one, so I mixed some pinks, yellow and white and got this...It's a nice soft peach color with a glossy pearl finish.  Mixing colors are fun!

 She had a little fun counting out my nail polish.  Over 40 bottles!  I have a huge variety of brands from Orly, OPI, Zoya, Sally Hansen, Missha, Deborah Lippman and more.  No black, no browns, mostly girly colors.

And mostly sparkles or micro glitter finish.  Not a lot of plain cream finish.  I am just love glitter!

I think these are my favorites right now... Deborah Lippman Some Enchanted Evening which looks awesome with a pink or black base.  Deborah Lippman Today was a Fairy Tale that is awesome with everything.  OPI Nicole's One Less Lonley Girl, which is awesome over lilac or on its own.  OPI's Glow Up Already which looks great on its own or to accent greens, yellows or reds.  And Zoya Crystal because it's just awesome.

This is a quick NOTD with Sally Hansen Yellow Mellow and accented with Some Enchanted Evening.  I like this color, but the formula is pretty streaky.  I had to put 2 really thick coats to make it look decent.  In general, I have been pretty disappointed with Sally Hansen nail polish.  Either the formula is hard to use or the colors are much more sheer than I thought it would be.  

Ok, seriously, no more buying the nail polish!  Unless..... it's really glittery :)

Friday, May 27, 2011

~ The Shopping Spree Begins with H&M ~

I have never really been a fan of H&M.  I always go in to check it out, but I rarely find anything that fits me well.  Always hopeful, I went in about a month ago and came back out with a few tops and dresses!  I love the maxi dress trend!  I got a couple of tops and floral dresses.  Here's my favorite comfy maxi dress.  It was $25.  One reason I like it is because it's not a deep V.  I have many dresses that are deep Vs and it shows too much and it's annoying to have to find shirts to wear under or over them.  Please ignore the door knob.  I was too lazy to photoshop it out :)


This is another floral dress. I like the style and the pattern.  It's a very romantic soft pink roses with a hint of vintageness.  The cutting and fabric makes it look more safari to me and makes me think of a brave fashionable scientist on the African safari.  Ok, my imagination is a lil bit hyper today.

I got this pretty pink rose shirt with ruffle sleeves too.  It was like $12!  Very pretty and I love it with my white skirt.

I was also obsessed with this white organic cotton maxi dress for a while.  I really wanted it but it was $60.  More than I usually pay for a simple dress like that and from H&M where clothes are supposed to be cheap.  I know I am supposed to support organic blah blah blah, but at the end... I didn't get it.  I did end up getting 2 more of the green floral dress in 2 more colors because I saw it on sale today!  It was $15 each.  Crap.  I threw out my receipt for the green one so I can't get my $10 back :(  Oh well, I got the dark blue one and light blue and peach flowers.  I am ready for summer!

I also stopped by New York & Company because my step mom wanted to check it out.  We got some nice stuff!  These flip flops are only $10!  I want the turquoise pair too.  I am debating whether I should go back and get them.  So cute!  And they have a bunch of stuff for 70% off.  I got 1 solid color maxi dresses for $20 and a pair of shorts for $9 and a skirt for about $9.  Gotta love a good sale!

By the way, I saw these awesome nail polish at Forever 21 today.  There's one that looks like the Deborah Lippman Today was a Fairytail and one that looks like a Rock Star blue and pink glitter polish that I have.  It's a pretty awesome set for $10.  If my mom didn't yell at me about the health hazards of nail polish last night, I probably would've bought it.  Mom, I get it.  It's not too good for my body (fumes, toxins, etc) but it's so pretty!  And that's why I buy Zoya nail polishes :)


Ok, soooo, I was good and returned stuff from my previous F21 haul.  But, I am bad because I have $500 worth of beads at various supplies stores and masks and skincare on Sasa.com.  Ooo the shopaholic has broken out of the cage and is doing some serious damage to my wallet!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

~ NOTD: Mermaid's Tears and Zoya Promo ~

I have been battling a bad case of flu and to make myself feel better, I... did my nails!  I really wanted to use One Less Lonely Girl again because I love that purple but I wanted something fresh.  I am too tired to go to Ulta to get the minty green polish from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection, so I made my own!  Here it is... my very own Mermaid's Tears!  I am holding a light blue flower so you can see that it is a little bit green.

For this fun project, I used Zoya Ginessa and Orly Halley's Comet.  The mix is about 60% Ginessa and 40% Halley's Comet.  I think I put too much Ginessa though.  I will try 50-50 mix next time.  I also topped it with my beloved Deborah Lippman Today was a Fairytale for extra sparkles.

I have a bunch of these contact lens holders lying around so I am using that as my polish mixer from now on.  When it's in the lens case, it looks darker. 

Of course, I also topped it with Seche Vite top coat.  I got a new one because my old one is way too thick to use now.  I am probably going to get Seche Restore to fix it since I have 2 bottles of Vite.  I hope Ulta has it so I can get it using the coupon.


By the way, this manicure looks pretty similar to Crystal Fairytale that I did before, which is Zoya Crystal topped with Today was a Fairy Tale.  That was a more muted color though.  Mermaid's Tears is definitely more appropriate for spring and summer.

Zoya is having another promotion that ends on Monday.  According to the Zoya blog, "For a limited time with any** purchase (excluding Zoya Color Spoons) on Zoya.com you get Zoya Nail Polish in Caitlin and Zoya Nail Polish in Dove for free!! Just enter the code ZB52 when you check out!"  I am tempted because I really, really want Pippa!  But I don't care for these two colors.  Ok, I am going to behave myself.  If you want these colors, it's a great deal! 

Friday, May 20, 2011

~ Awesome Chinese Food at Imperial Inn at Atlantic City ~

I recently took a mini vacation at Atlantic City and one night we went to this dingy little Chinese restaurant called Hong Kong house.  Seriously, it was a hole in the wall and dim and not that pleasant looking.  The food was ok though.  So, I was a little bit nervous when my companions suggested another Chinese restaurant.  Thank goodness this place was awesome!  It's called Imperial Inn, a couple of blocks away from Tropicana.  Let's start with the food pictures!  We got the 4-people dinner which starts off with Mustard Greens, Salted Egg and Pork soup.  Very tasty except the mustard leaves were very bitter.  But the bitterness didn't come out in the soup so that was tasty!

 This is pig tongue and pig stomach boiled in a soy sauce mix.  I actually like pig tongue a lot.  My dad makes soup with it and it's so tender and yummy!

This is Pepper and Salt Fried Pork Chops.  Also very tender and flavorful.


Black Pepper Fish on Skillet... so very good!  I usually don't like to eat fish (except for sushi) but this was so good!  I want some just looking at it now.

This is chicken, actually it's half of a chicken with bone and everything, which is the authentic way to eat a chicken.  The chicken was very flavorful and tender.  I was quite surprised because this dish is actually hard to make well.

Vermicelli and Vegetable and Dried Shrimp ... casserole?  Is that the right description?  Also very flavorful and the dried shrimps were very good.  I have had dried shrimp before where it's just rubbery and bland.  But these were good!

There was even free dessert!  I think it's called mung beads in English.  In Chinese, it's just "green beans".  It's very good for you.  It's common knowledge that mung beads are very good for acne.  which is great for me because I have been breaking out like mad. 


Definitely need to return to Imperial Inn next time I go to Atlantic City.  It was so bright and pretty inside and the food was awesome.  And the price wasn't bad at all.  I think it came out to be less than $100 for all that food, which fed 6 adults and 2 kids.  It sure beats all the typical chain restaurants scattered throughout the area!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

~ Playing around with My Sigma Macro Lens ~

After days of dreariness and rain, the sun came out for a lil bit so I decided to play with my Nikon D90 and Sigma 50mm Macro lens.  Here are some of my favorites...  First off, one of my least favorite creatures.... the stink bug!  It was just chilling against the glass door so I snapped a few shots.  They like to invade my home and I like to flush them down the toilet.

The first rose of the year!  Last year, my roses didn't do so well, so I was surprised that this lil beauty popped up. 

There are a lot of flies and bees.  A carpenter bee actually made a hole in my bench!  I feel slightly bad that my dad had to seal the hole with a glue gun.  What if there are baby larvee in there?  They are trapped!  Anyway, I am afraid of the bees, so I took picture of the flies :)

Now, I hate flies too.  But you have to admit they have a cool green/orange metallic looking body.  I actually caught one lifting off!  Too bad it isn't very clear.

This is one of my favorite favorites.  I love this color!

I was surprised this one turned out clear where I intended it to be clear.  It was slightly windy and the flowers were swaying.

Ok, this last one is not taken with the micro lens.  But, I love it.  I like taking pictures of kids though it's very hard!  They just keep moving and not listening to you.  There's no plan to set up the pictures.  I just wait for them to do something cute and snap away :)

I am at a point where I feel that I should take pictures of things other than flowers.  Everyone and their moms take pictures of flowers.  I need cooler and more unusual subjects so I can impress the most important critic of my photos... my brother.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

~ Forever 21 Haul ~

It's been a while since I purchased from Forever 21.  Maybe I am getting too old to shop there.  I ventured to their website after Elle from InsideOutElle blogged about some face masks available at their store.  I didn't see the one that she mentioned on the F21 website, but I did end up seeing other things... so glad maxi dresses are trendy now!  I got 2 :)  This is the Wild Flowers Maxi Dress.  I love the flowers and I love how it's not a deep V neck like many of their other dresses.  But, it is very, very long.  I am 5' 7'' and it's still very long on me.  If I am not wearing heels, I will trip over it for sure.
I also got this Floral Maxi Dress.  I love the print but the top half is totally weird!  The 2 little triangle covers about 75% of my chest and I am small!  I can't imagine anyone above a 32A wearing this dress.  I am thinking about returning it even though I love the print.  Or I may have to find a nice top to wear over it.


I got another floral skirt too.  It's actually long enough.  One of the reasons why I stopped shopping at F21 is because all their dresses and skirts are so short!  Either I have out grown their clothes or people nowadays just love short short skirts.

I also got 2 pairs of their leggings to wear with my rainboots.  They are one-size-fits-all and they fit, but they are very snug.  I should've known better than to buy one-size pants.  They are cheap though and are good basics to have.  Another fun item is this tweezer!  It's so cute and it's only $1.8.  I love it.  Does the cuteness make it a better tool?  YES.

I was also tempted to get their nail polish but I am waiting for the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection to come out.  I think I want that lilac and the silver shatter.  I saw it in the Ulta ad today and there's another $5 off $10 coupon!!!  Here's the link:  http://www.printablecouponfeed.com/ulta/27024  Ok, time to do my nails.  They have been naked for too long!

Monday, May 9, 2011

~ The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef ~

I went down to the Natural History Museum in DC a few weeks ago and saw this amazing coral reef display. Everything was made out of yarn!

It was not a wimpy display either.  It was full blown, life size corals and other sea creatures!  I was so mesmerized by it that my family just left me there by myself.  Can you just imagine how much work it was to create all these creatures??


They also have some made with wire crocheting.  I have seen similar items on Etsy I think.

They even have some made with beads!  Wow!  It's amazing!  Can someone give me a pattern to make this please?

Maybe I should start with this smaller one....

Unfortunately, I was busy and didn't write this up sooner. It was a temporary display that ended on April 24th. You can still find a portion of it in New York though, if you want to see it in person.  I love the Natural History Museum!  Can't wait to go back soon!
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