Petite Fashion Challenge 5: Brighten Up your Winter Blahs!

This was a bizarrely difficult challenge for me because I don’t really have much color range in my closet. I have lots of brown, greys, dark navy and such but they’re all so similar to black! On top of that I own mostly black shoes and plain black stockings, therefore it's been  pretty drab. None the less, here’s my submission for the challenge. Just a quick note, as I am research assistant and I pretty much work in a laboratory surrounded by students, I have a lot of lee way when it comes to work appropriate clothing. I realize this is not appropiate for the more professional petites; =(.

Scarf: H&M pink

Cardigan: New York and Company
Onesie: Wet seals
Boots: Steve Madden

I actually really enjoyed this outfit because I love scarves a lot. I don’t particularly like the boots; they ran a little big on me and the fringes on one of them is still a bit stiff and doesn’t drape down at all! However, as much as I love this, my younger sister, Freda, much prefers this outfit:

Onesie: Wet Seal
Cardigan: JCrew
Tank Top (yellow): BCBG Girls, thrifted
Belt: JCrew
Boots: Steve Madden

I used the yellow belt to pull the yellow from the tank top. And although you can’t see it in the picture, the tank has green outlining it so I thought the green cardigan would nicely pull that together as well. Ah, I wish the picturing wasn’t so blurry that you could make out something of the outfit. In any case, I hope you enjoyed the entry even though it's really not work appropriate for you. Perhaps a weekend kinda look?

I’m excited to visit all the other entries. Visit the link above (click the picture) for the host page and other entries!

Enjoy!
Gracie.

Some Homemade Deliciousness!

This is suppose to go under the new account, but I’ve been pretty lazy and haven’t gotten any further on the logistics of the webpage. Until it’s actually done, I’ll have to continue posting the food portion on here.

For today, I  made rice crispy treats for the Boyfriend. It’s my first attempt, although I’ve had homemade ones a couple of times in the past. I enjoy rice crispy treats, but they’re just too sweet for my taste and although I should be able to alter that as I’m make my own, it was my first attempt so I kept by the guidelines. I found the recipe on food.com.

One of the reason why I wanted to try this recipe was because it specifically noted the soft and chewy-ness of the treats even after a couple of days. The one thing I really did not like about the previous homemade treats was how hard they got once they’ve cooled down. Once harden, they’re nearly impossible to bite, much less eat.

This recipe stayed true to being soft and chewy; definitely what I wanted. Although I read from one of the comments that the trick is to take the marshmallow off the heat before they’re completely cooked. I didn’t quite do that, but what I did was to start stirring in the cereal before the marshmallow completely melted. This still did the trick as the bars are still very soft and delectably chewy!

Although the recipe retained the soft and chewy properties of what I deemed as a good rice crispy bar, it was too sweet for my taste! In the next batch, which will be much much done the line from today, I will lessen the amount of marshmallows to lessen the sweetness. Will definitely keep you guys posted on this!

Soft and Chewy Rice Crispy Treats
adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter
16 Oz. of Marshmallow
1  Tsp of Vanilla extract
6 Cups of Rice Krispies (or any cereal, generic stuff)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Before the butter melts completely, add in marshmallows.
3. Stir the marshmallow, but before the marshmallow completely melts, add in vanilla (be careful it doesn't splash on you).
4. At this point, the marshmallow and vanilla should be mixed well, but still retains a bit of lumpiness to them, without removing from heat, add cereal. Stir until cereal is completely covered with marshmallow mixture.
5. Turn off heat and pour into a greased (spray Pam works great) 9x13 pan. Let cool 2 minutes. Press flat by pounding with some paddle, spoon and etc. Cool completely and cut into squares.

Enjoy!

If you’re looking for some good dinner, perhaps you’d enjoy Jenna’s quickie home dinner. Jenna is the author of Eat Live Run. I personally enjoy a lot of her recipes, and she has amazing bread recipes and shared secrets.  I altered her Linguine with Shrimp and Tomato Cream Sauce to use with chicken because of my allergies. I don’t make it look nearly as good as she does. But trust me, the Boyfriend could not stop raving about it.

Have a great night everyone!

Gracie.

Adventures: CVS semi-annual sale on cosmetics

For those who don’t know, as was I until a week ago, that CVS holds two semi annual sales throughout the year. The sales is usually on cosmetics, and ranges from 50% – 75% off from retail prices. I made some purchase to take advantage of the great prices to try out several new items that I’ve been hearing around the blogosphere. I usually picked up one items and if I liked them, I would return to pick up a second in a different color. The purchases are on concealers, bronzers, blushers, and an eye shadow trio. I don’t particularly like lipstick and the one I was most interested in (Rimmel) wasn’t sold at my local CVS.

Physicians Formula (PF) Talc-Free Mineral Wear Mineral Blush in Blushing Glow, Pink Glow
PF Baked Collection Wet/Dry Eye Shadow in Baked Oatmeal
PF Healthy Wear SPF 50 Pressed Bronzers in Light and Medium
Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer in Sand
PF Circle RX in Natural Light
PF Conceal RX in Soft Yellow and Natural Light (not shown)

I was pleasantly surprised by the great quality of the blushers and bronzers that Physicians Formula offered.

• The blushers were extremely pigmented (testimony of my clown cheeks upon first trial), and silky in texture; Blushing Glow is a beautiful matte peach that is suitable and extremely natural for every day wear. Pink Glow is a fresh matte pink that is reminiscent of walking in from the cold. They last for a good while on the cheeks, almost six hours (since I don’t remember when I did my make up today).  These were so amazing that I had to run out to grab another one (Blushing Glow) upon breaking from the multiple drops on the floor. I returned and was relieved and lucky to find the last Blushing Glow (although there was another Pink Glow (75% off) and Rosy Glow ($6) available) The purchase was only $3.25 each after the 75% off from retail. I definitely wanted to grab Rosy Glow, but I’m on my cosmetic ban so I held back. 
• The bronzers had very little shimmer as I liked, and only came in three shades; light, medium and tan. Light is really nice on me during winter, just a hint of color with really minimal shimmers; while medium will be my summer color as it is a bit dark with a tad more shimmer. With a heavier hand, it’s quite noticeable. $5.50 each.
  
• The eye shadow was decent; I don’t particularly like it but it was definitely a lot better than the other trio, Baked Sugar (not shown). Baked Sugar did not have enough pigmentation and all three shadows looked a little too similar to each other on the lids even its darkest shade. Together it was just a homage to shimmer with no color differentiation. Baked Oatmeal is also a homage to shimmer, but the colors have a bit more pigmentation so they actually have some differentiation when on the lids. They appear darker when wet, and so I suppose when you want the definition, wet is the way to go. They don’t last as well on the lids, though I have extremely oily lids. The creasing happened a few hours into wearing  but I actually like the creasing of eye shadows.  The palette does get messy from dry use of the shadows, but I can live with it. $2.75 each.
  
• The two concealers by PF (the two on the right end) were decently good. Circle RX (left) was too light for my skin tone, but covers the dark circles pretty well. It feels quite light and appears to last decently well throughout the day. I did set it with a powder. The Conceal RX (right) is much thinker in consistency. I would say it’s a drugstore version of the Amazing Concealer sold at Sephora. Like Amazing Concealer, a little goes a LONG way. Even a small dot (not bigger than a tip of a #2 pencil can conceal a good amount of area and conceal well. It is a little drying so if you were to use this on your under eye areas, take heed and moisturize. I actually have to mix the soft yellow with the natural light (not shown) to get a better more suitable color for my skin tone. I think the color on the box/tube is a good representation of the product. $2.75 each.
• Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer (left most of the three concealer, next to the shadow trio) was the first concealer that I bought after reading many reviews online, especially from Jamilla of Make Up for Professional Asian Women. The color that I use is Sand, and it’s tad bit light on me, which is alright because it’s quite suitable during winter. It has great coverage and lasts throughout the day. I use this both on my under eye dark circles as well as on any acne scars.

I’m pretty much banned from make up shopping for a LONG while since I rarely wear make up. These should last until at least summer!

Though, the real reason why I’m on a shopping ban is because I ordered a bunch of stuff this past week. I’m excited to share the items once they arrive this coming week. Which reminds me, I think I’m going to start a series on the Holy Grail items for various things, i.e. moisturizer, shampoo, soap, and etc. I know that’s a bit sound weird, but I have several items of which I religiously use because nothing has worked better than these items. They range from organic/green replacements to things I used to use but have now found better options.

Any thoughts and opinions on the beauty items I purchased or on the Holy Grail Series that I’m debating over? I’d love to read your opinions.

Revival: Taming the Royal Blue

Before getting to the outfit I put together today to revive a doomed piece in my closet, I’d like to note the changes in sceneries.  I hope you all don’t mind the current visual aesthetic of the blog as it is currently undergoing some changes. I’m in the midst of moving the food portion of this blog to a different blog, which will be revealed promptly. However, the fashion portion will be kept on here until probably a little longer. This is so that people who wish to follow the fashion or food portion of the blog isn’t getting feeds to irrelevant entries. However, this will still be my personal blog for all things; I will link the entries from the food and fashion blogs to the featured contents noted at the top of the homepage. I hope you all don’t mind the changes and bear with me for a while longer.

On to other things, today I attempted to revive by taming a royal blue dress I bought at a local Goodwill a couple of months back thinking I can do something with it. It’s this gorgeous silk royal blue dress, but it was a smidge too big, and subsequently, I realized the pleats were undone. Oh, what a hot mess it was! In an effort to make some use of it, I ‘tamed’ it altogether with this gorgeous green JCrew cashmere sweater that Freda (my younger sister) had graciously gave me. I adore the sweater, but it’s just too short on me, and makes me look frumpy in general. So two not too fitting items hopefully can do some magic?

Sweater: JCrew. S
Dress: GoodWill
Boots: Target. 5.5
Belt: JCrew Men. S

I wish I had a pair of black heels with me, and that the streets were actually supportive of foot mobility in heels, but with all the ice and slippage, that would be a total nightmare. For those wondering how that belt is looped, I actually didn’t use the prong because it was too big to fit around my waist.  I looped through the buckle and pushed the prong aside so that the belt is beneath the prongs; at this point, I proceed to do a loop for visual pleasantness.  I hope that helps some ladies who has belts that are too big and don’t have a belt puncher.

Chasing Cars

I’m starting to get into touch with my more artistic side, something I’ve left behind for many long years. This photo was manipulated in Photoscape (free version of a photo editing program). I’m looking into a few other photo editing programs that are free as well.  I’ll keep people updated on that.

Note: I don’t edit my daily photos as (to be honest,) I’m just too lazy! I am into editing photographic compositions, the ones I feel that have potential to tell a story.

So I did a little research on some basics on photographic composition; a lot of the websites I read are about the rule of third, depth and perspective. I leave those who are interested in photography with some of the websites I enjoyed:

John Harvey Photo;  Microsoft; Photo Focus; and many others from Google search engine.

This is my first attempt; very telling to my novice skill. I’m all ears on any criticism. This was taken on my walk home from work. The sun was on its way setting and the scenery was beautiful; I love the song Chasing Cars from Snow Patrol and thought this particular photo fitted quite well.


I don’t have a professional camera, and with my terribly shaky hands the images were both blurry and grainy. I hope you’ll forgive me on that. Once I have a bit more comfy financial room I’ll look into a heavy duty camera for better focus and sharper images.
On a different note, I am definitely thinking of making a separate “blog” that’s would be linked onto this page for music that inspires or touches me,  for memory’s sake.
This came about because the Boyfriend surprised me last night when he wittedly challenged (and succeeded) that he would be able to play a song I’d love.  I took the bait and with definition told him that it’s highly impossible. He whipped out a classic I had forgotten, way back into the freshman year of college with Crooked Teeth by Death Cab for Cutie.

I am astonished that he would remember such a small detail of my musical obsession back then. I heart a man who remembers the little details.
Gracie.

Holiday Fix Up–Recap

I thought I’d do a little blogging recap while I’m on my lunch break from coding.

This past holiday, I spent a portion of it with the Boyfriend’s family, mainly the new year’s portion. We went to his aunt’s home for the early New Year’s eve’s dinner; this being the first year I am attending since dating him five years ago. I was a little nervous but his family graciously prepped me with the names and descriptions of everyone who attended beforehand. I met my former Boss (his aunt), her husband, her sons (and their wives and children). They were all incredibly nice and interesting people. Everyone is involved in art in one form or another except for the Boyfriend and me, and maybe one other young adult who’s about to enter college studying Japanese. His aunt’s family is all into Music, from her to her children. They are incredibly talented, in both music and cooking (ah, wish I had remember to bring my camera along).

It was a casual dinner, so I didn’t dress up at all. Here, I  tried recreating it since I had to walk to work today. Note: I apologize for the dusty/dirty mirror. =(

The OTKs, as I had blogged about previously: here, were only ten dollars from a local goodwill, brand new! I looked for them online and found them at Target for a little less than 40 dollars, here.

It’s faux leather though it feels pretty nice and quite soft. By the ankles, it does scrunch up a little because of how ‘light’ the material is, but I didn’t mind so much because with a bit think socks, it didn’t become a problem. It’s about 2 inches above the center of my knee cap and hits nicely at about my lower thigh. I’m wearing size five, but I found it to be a smidge tight with thicker socks. The shaft is loose enough for tights on me, but I would imagine on someone with thinner calves, they’d be great with skinny jeans.

I would highly recommend you’d give them a try. EDIT: Perhaps a better deal would be at Tilly’s for $30, here, with a bit more embellishment. You can try using the sale discount ‘sale50’; it didn’t work for me.

An extra picture on how I tie my scarf. It is a pashmina scarf that I bought at a closing Tibetan store . It is my absolute favorite scarf.


I find tying scarfs or wearing scarfs to be some what of an art. I once found a website that teaches the many different ways of tying a scarf; needless to say, I was fixated with that site for hours.

How do you tie your scarf?

Gracie.

Fix You–SYTYCD, choreography: Travis Wall

I wasn’t going to post today as I’m still doing some layout reworks, however a friend of mine sent me a link to this:

So You Think You Can Dance–Contemporary Piece: Fix you by Coldplay; choreography by Travis Wall.

I leave you in awe, filled with emotions from both the melodies and the visual effects of every detail accompanying each of the notes. My favorite is the ending.

There’s so much in this piece that I can talk about for hours; the small details in their movements is an attribute to the genius of Travis Wall. You can go to this video: HERE, if you’d like to know what his inspirations are and what story are they telling.

Enjoy; let me know what you think and feel about this piece and perhaps we can have a discuss right here about it.

Also, what are you opinions on the new comment section? It took a good few hours playing around with the script I found from HERE . I modified it to work with my settings. For those who are interested in knowing more about it shoot me an email using the contact tab.

Gracie.