~ Holiday Shopping Spree ~

I must admit...I shopped a lot this holiday season. There are just so many awesome deals going on. It's very hard to resist! A few days before Christmas, my fiance and I took a little trip to Hagerstown Outlet. We were in a rush, so this is all we could grab. We had a blast at Guess outlet. We both love Guess and they had 50% off sweaters and coats plus I had another 25% off coupon. Then Kate Spade had 40% off every thing and Nike had....well just lots of stuff. Look at our spoils! :) About half of that was Christmas presents though.


Then, when my cute little cousin visited, I took her to Arundel Mills the day after Christmas. Oh my god, the parking lot was so full! People parked their SUVs and Jeeps on the grass and piles of snow. This is halfway through the mall and look at all those bags of stuff we got already.


She's so lucky though. She got to go to Woodbury in New York today. She got tons of stuff! Look at this crazy line for Uggs.


I think she took this picture to taunt me.


I also went to Montgomery Mall yesterday because my friend said Guess had a good sale. It was late after all the errands I ran because there were so many people everywhere! We only had 1.5 hours and I had a lot to do. My main targets were Guess, Bath and Body Works, and Sephora. I found this awesome faux fur hoodie at Guess that I absolutely need. It is so warm and soft and cozy!!!


They only had white at the store and it was half off. I usually wouldn't pay this much for a hoodie but I couldn't resist. I was caught up in the buying frenzy. They have this on the website, but only in black and not on sale. $118 is definitely too much for this, but $50 is not bad at all :)


Then, I rushed to Bath and Body Works because I wanted to get more of those sheep slippers that I got before. They didn't have anymore though. I had a $10 off $40 coupon to use on top of their semi annual sale. Look at all those lotions and stuff! That's all for my aunts and cousins in Hong Kong.


Then, I had to go claim my free Sephora lip glosses. I didn't know they were gonna yell out "Happy Birthday" to me. I was a bit scared. But, these are cute. I love little beauty products.


The mall was closing and I had to find my friend who was still at Guess. I passed by Benetton that had 50% off everything and Express that had 60% off stuff and Victoria's Secret with their Semi Annual sale signs. If the lotions I got from Bath and Body Works weren't so heavy, I would've ducked into the stores to get some stuff.

I have to keep telling myself that I am going to Hong Kong in Feb. I need to save up my money for that. But, with all these deals it's so hard to resist. Oh well, I should stop shopping right now. No more...except for the beads I am about to order. I need them :)

~ New Prop for Jewelry Pictures ~

I haven't been happy with my jewelry pictures lately. I see all these awesome pictures in craftgawker and Etsy. Each awesome shop has their unique picture style. Some use wooden frames, some use simple rocks, some use branches and sticks, some use books or pages in a book, some use granite tiles, some use pure white background.


I really love the gray granite tile look. I love the texture and gray just looks good with so much! But, I want a more happy, bright feel to my shop. I don't know if gray does that. Though, I am ok with this background. It's just so...flat.


I also love just pure white background. It's so clean! One shop that does white backgrounds really well is CandyBead. I am a huge fan of this shop! Everything is awesome and the pictures are great! I have a hard time making all my backgrounds white though.


So, the other day, I was walking around at Target and saw this jewelry box. I was thinking maybe it would be good to take pictures of jewelry inside the jewelry box. I know it's not the most original idea, but it's worth a shot right?


The inside of the box is lined with pink velvet. I am not sure If I want to go with all this pink. I wish it was something less girly. Maybe a purple or green. But, it is what it is. I had my first session with this box today. The model is my new Drifting Snow Necklace. Look at that. No cropping and just needed a little bit fill light.


Tried using the white as background. I think the closed drawers doesn't show that this is a jewelry box though.



Opening the drawers a little bit helps, but maybe the shadow of the inside is too dark?



Opening it more shows the pink inside and soften the pictures more.


Now a completely different angle. I like how the drawers add depth to the picture. I like depth. Depth makes picture so much cooler. Think pink is still a little too much for me though.



By the way, this is all done in my kitchen. My dad put in new fluorescent bulbs and it's super bright now. I think the crystals sparkle more in sunlight, but I like how this kitchen light is working at the moment. So, what do you think?

~ Red Velvet Cupcakery in DC ~

My lovely cousin and her boyfriend came to visit over Christmas. Last night, they went out on their own to DC and came back with this big box!


Inside was these gorgeous cupcakes!! I labeled the cupcakes in the picture as well as I could.


So, they went to this place called Red Velvet Cupcakery. I told them about Georgetown Cupcakes, but they got lost and didn't know how to get to Georgetown. But these look just like the Georgetown cupcakes. I must say though, I like the pink, cutsy look of Georgetown cupcakes more.


Though this cupcake tree is very cool. I wish they have one in my office.


Anyways, so of course, I have to take some pictures!!



But, I am not the only crazy one. The boyfriend also has a DSLR, a nice Canon XS, I think. It's always nice to have someone else be crazy with you and take pictures of random things.


Check out this menu. It's also available of their website for download. $3.25 for a cupcake??? That's more expensive than Georgetown!


I ate the southern belle right away. It's red velvet with whipped cream cheese topping. It was good. The cream cheese was excellent!


Unfortunately, Momo figured out how to open the box and ate the champagne one, the vanilla one and licked off all the cream cheese off the other southern bell cupcake! I was so mad!!!!!! He really opened the box instead of ripping it apart! *sigh* He is fine though. No diarrhea and no puking. So, I only had 2 cupcakes left. I just ate the Morning Call one a little while ago. Yes, it's bad to be eating that at 11:30pm. But, it was calling my name. It was good too! I loved the coffee buttercream, but the last bite felt too rich for me. I like the cream cheese one more.

I think $3 for a cupcake is crazy. But, it's a great treat every once in a while. Thanks to my cousin and the boyfriend! I had a lot of fun while they were here. They are super cute! Momo had a lot of fun with them too. He misses them a lot. He keeps going into their room to look for them. I wonder if he realizes that they are gone?

~ Fiberwig Mascara + Panasonic Eyelash Curler ~

Over the summer, a friend pointed me to Eki's blog post about Panasonic eyelash curler and Fiberwig Mascara. The results look amazing and I was very tempted to buy it. But, things got busy and I forgot about it. I did remember it when my friend was ordering from Sasa.com so I asked her to order the mascara for me. It was $14, which is cheaper than Sephora.


I love this mascara! I tear a lot, most of the time when I wear mascara, I end up with dark circles under my eyes at the end of the night. And then, I have to use makeup remover to wash it off. But, I was so surprised that this mascara did not smear at all! After 1 full day of shopping, rain/fog, dinner, and Dave and Busters, my eyes looked great, if I may say so myself. Sorry, no pictures because I don't like closeup pictures of myself. Also, no need for makeup remover. After I washed my face with my regular face wash, my eyes were clean!

I also got the Panasonic Eyelash Curler that Eki got. She got it from jr.com, but I got it from Amazon. When I looked, it was cheaper on Amazon. Just $12 + free shipping if you purchase $25 worth or products. I bought 4. My friends wanted some too.


I love this thing too! Though, I notice that it works a lot better with mascara. I love showing this to my friends because they are all like "what is that?" It's the coolest eye lash curler!! It does take a few tries to get used to it. Check out Eki's blog to learn how to use it and also great before/after pictures.

So, I am pretty set with my eye makeup now. I am just sad that I also got a Sheseido mascara that I don't know what to do with. How can I use anything else now that I found the perfect one? Anyway, random cute picture here. My cousin and I went shopping today and found these cute, comfy slippers at Bath and Body Works. They were on sale, 75% off so we each got a pair. They are so soft and cute! Their semi annual sale is going on online right now. The store sale starts on Monday I think. Go check it out!

~ Review: Joy Yee Plus in Chicago Chinatown ~

I wanted to blog about Joy Yee Plus after my trip to Chicago in Oct, but I lost some of the pictures. So, I got a chance to go there again last week. Overall, the food range from great to ok. But, I love how they decorated with glossy, iridescent orange tiles, plasma TVs and modern overall look. To top it all off, there are koi fish in the floor! You can step over them!!


This place has the life size plastic food at the window and a picture menu, just like the regular Joy Yees I blogged about before.


That's all very nice. There's one difference...they have a piece of paper where you check off what you want instead of the waitress taking your order.


I went a little bit over board. Everything looked so good! We wanted to try to giant bowl of noodles, but it serves 4-6 people. The group in the table next to us got it though. And it's seriously huge! We only had 3 people, so we had to get something else. Here's what we got:

The Tokyo Buffalo wings. These are not that spicy. I like them. They are a little bit sweet. My friend wasn't impressed though.



This is something like the "Crazy 8s" roll. It has octopus, black fish roe and tomato. Looks great. Tasted wonderful.


This is the spicy scallop roll. It was good too. But, I still prefer Niwano Hana's spicy scallop roll.



The scallop skewers. Wonderful! I love scallops.


I think this is the Kim Chi noodles. Very good!! Even my Korean friend said it's good.


Joy Yee Plus also has frozen yogurt with fresh fruits. I like pineapple.


Strawberry was good too.


Of course, they also have bubble tea. They also have shaved ice and other desserts and they are opened late. It's a cool place to just chill and hang out. Price is average I think. Parking can be a pain if you go during the day on the weekends, but nights seem to be just fine. Let me know what you try if you go there. Everything look so delicious in their window display that I just want to try everything! But, my stomach just can't handle it :)

~ Merry Christmas ~

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are enjoying all the gifts and food and festivities. Just want to spread some holiday cheer here and show you some holiday pictures!

If you are around Chicago, go stop by Lincolnwood! Those huge houses put up spectacular Christmas lights! They are on the news every year and some times the amount spectators there cause traffic in the neighborhood. I drove through it fairly quickly when I was in Chicago.


Look at this awesome tree!


Have you seen this much lights on a house before?


This reindeer is as tall as a tree!


This is in front of my mom's house :) She loves being festive.


I also love Christmas trees! This one is at Georgetown. Look at all those yellow lights!!!


I am also a sucker for white trees. Even if it's at Dunkin Donuts.


I didn't get a chance to go down to DC to see that tree. My cousin went last night and took some pictures. It looks awesome! Maybe I can go down there sometime next week to check it out. Anyway, Happy Holidays~!