A coupon "giveaway" :D ***CLOSED***

About a month ago I was one of the lucky recipients of a coupon for the Naketano onlineshop courtesy of Coco at http://daddysneatness.blogspot.com/. I haven't had the chance to use it mostly because I don't do much online shopping. So instead of it being wasted, I thought why not give it to someone who will surely be able to use it. :)

If you are interested, please leave your email address in a comment.

Comment until the end of July 4th. I will email the lucky recipient on July 5th. :)

I hope to host a bigger giveaway sometime soon. Thanks, everyone! And thanks to Coco who gave me this coupon! :D

Check out their online shop here.

Long overdue Polyvore :D

Happy Tuesday night, everyone! I am fully back now, yay! :D

Sorry for the lack of comments on your lovely blogs. I can't wait to check them all out. :)

I haven't made a Polyvore post in quite a while. I was looking through the ones I made a few months ago, and I found this. This outfit is something I would wear to a graduation. The dress is not too formal, but also not too casual. I would wear flats because most high school graduations here are held in football fields or lawns or some other venue of that nature. And it also helps to wear flats because I am sure you'd be walking around congratulating your family and/or friends. :D

Have you been to a graduation this past month? :D

Lush: New! Solid Shampoo

This isn't our newest shampoo bar, we call it New because it's full of stimulating essential oils to encourage healthy hair growth. We put in refreshing peppermint and cinnamon infusions for a healthy scalp and stimulating rosemary and nettle absolutes for shine. If you're losing your mane because of hormones or age, you could go out and buy a new toupee, but first try New shampoo and see if it doesn't do the trick. Use it with The Hair Doctor for a major scalp stimulating experience. ($9.95)

*description, price, and image from http://www.lushusa.com/*

I've always had some issues with my hair. I have super straight hair (something my friends always said they'd kill for). It takes sooooo looooong to grow, and I shed more hair than is normal. Thankfully, these past few years, my hair and I have become better and better friends. I learned to just ignore the over shedding, and began to love my hair.

My sister (who is a Lush lover) bought me the New! solid shampoo. She said it would make my hair grow faster. At first I was like, "Are you sure? How do you use this? Will it produce lather like normal shampoo does?". She said just try it and so I did.

The first thing I noticed is that it does produce lather - more than you would expect from a solid shampoo. The cinnamon and peppermint smell will fill your bathroom and stay there for quite a while. So, if you love the smell of cinnamon and peppermint, you might like this. :)

How do you use it?: You just scrub/swipe it against your hair, and when you get enough lather, you knead/scrub your hair like normal. (I'm not sure about the correct words to use. Sorry!)

After a few weeks, I did start to feel new hair growing. It's a bit weird at first because you'd go and touch your scalp and you'd feel baby hair growing. Haha. But it goes to show that it really does make new hair grow. Just a word of caution, be careful when you scrub it against your hair/scalp. The first few times I did, I forgot there were cinnamon sticks within the shampoo, and mine were sticking out... I scratched my scalp with those sticks. So yeah, be careful. :D

Have you tried it? What did you think of it?

Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you! We are approaching the 4th of July weekend here! I'm so excited because it's also my 20th birthday on Sunday! :D

Travel Destination: Las Vegas

Hi, my dear blogger friends! I am so sorry I have been away from the blogging world for tooooo looooong. My last post was a week ago: crazy! Haha. But anyways, I have just been quite busy with so many things like errands, catching up with friends, and actually trying to work out (haha). I also have to take a test tomorrow. Booo. But I promise to really catch up with all of your blogs next week. I actually miss you all!

Here are some pictures from my last Las Vegas trip with my family:

the Venetian hotel where we stayed

the Wynn where we ate dinner (really yummy buffet!)

Serendipity 3

Paris hotel

Bellagio

dancing fountain at the Bellagio

I hope everyone had a fantastic week! :D


*photo editing done by my sister*

P.S. If you are new to my blog, I hope you like it. Please don't hesitate to follow and leave your link. I will definitely check out your blog and follow it too. :D

Lakers and Kitchen 24 in Hollywood :D

Almost everyone here in Los Angeles is in a celebratory mood: the Lakers are the 2010 NBA Champions!!! Woot woot! :D

I have to catch up on reading everyone's blogs and commenting on them tomorrow. I spent the whole day with my friends. We haven't seen each other since Christmas! Crazy! We literally spent hoursssss just sitting and talking. :D

Anyways, since I started this post about the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championships, I want to go ahead and share with all of you a restaurant my sister and I ate at after a night of walking around in Hollywood.

Kitchen 24 is a restaurant located near the many clubs in Hollywood. No, my sister and I did not go clubbing (Haha!), but we did enjoy the food in this "clubbers" favorite spot. It is open 24 hours (I believe that's why it's called Kitchen 24), serves breakfast all day, and has a DJ. And the food? Super delicious! They are priced reasonably as well. :D

Here are the dishes we ordered:

Grilled 14oz Upper Choice New York Strip Steak, $19.95

Hash Brown Salmon Florentine, $14.25

Chocolate Chip Cakes, $8.25

Check out their website here.

It's Friday tomorrow! One more day 'til the weekend! :D

Lush: Alkmaar Soap

If you've been into a LUSH shop, you probably noticed that our soaps look a lot like blocks of cheese. To confuse people even more we cut our soap on cutting boards, weigh it, and then wrap it in deli paper to be sold. Alkmaar is named after a city in the Netherlands famous for its cheese markets where big rounds of delicious cheeses are sold. This soap doesn't smell like cheese though! It has a creamy sexy jasmine and honeysuckle scent with smokey vetivert undertones.

*description and image from http://www.lushusa.com/*

This is my new favorite. I normally always go for citrus-y scents, so I never thought of buying Alkmaar soap before. I always go for Bohemian and Sandstone. I have also tried Vanilla in the Mist, but never Alkmaar. Fortunately, my sister gave me some of hers. I used it, and now I am hooked. I love it. It smells great and it leaves my skin feeling soft and well-cleansed. I really love the jasmine and honeysuckle tones. :D

It melts easily, though. The Lush website says that transporting it during the summer months is not advisable because it will probably turn into liquid, and they will not be able to replace or refund "may melt" items. Good news: you can most probably pop it in the fridge, and you'll still be able to use the soap. But to be sure, remember to keep your soap someplace cool! :D

Have you tried Alkmaar soap? Did you like it?

Forever21: Summer dresses

The Long And Short Of It

Long Story Short: Our Favorite Dresses for Summer

That's the tagline that will greet you when you visit Forever21's website.

Summer + dresses = perfect! :D

Here are some that I like:

Linen Blend Floral Dress, $13.50 (also available in yellow and pink)

Tropical Paradise Sun Dress, $24.80 (The straps can be taken out. Cool!)

Blooming Floral Dress, $22.80

Floral Ruffle Dress, $19.80

Heritage 1981 Women: Pleat Panel Dress, $24.90

I am only about 5 feet and 2 inches, and I don't know if maxi dresses would look good on me. But here are some long dresses that caught my eye:

Heritage 1981 Women: Striped Maxi Dress, $28.90

Knotted Maxi Dress, $22.80

Jersey Maxi Halter Dress, $22.80

Which ones did you like? :)

Movie: Julie & Julia

Last week, I watched the movie Julie&Julia. I originally wanted to watch it when it came out in the theaters last year, but I just wasn't able to, and then it took me months to actually watch it on DVD.

The main reason why I wanted to watch it is, of course, because it is about cooking and food. And in that aspect, the movie did not disappoint. It feels like I took a crash course on cooking. Yes, I cannot cook those dishes they had in the movie, but I'm happy I added a few French cooking/food terms to my vocabulary. :D

Meryl Streep as Julia Child is brilliant, as always. What else do I have to say? She's Meryl Streep, it's a given. :D

Amy Adams as Julie Powell is good too. I just miss her gorgeous long, red hair (like the one she had in Enchanted). In this movie, she blogged about her challenge to cook 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook in 365 days. As a blogger, of course, I was excited by the fact that she had a blog. :)

One thing I have to say, though, is that her character is not as lovable as Giselle in Enchanted (haha, can you tell that I love that movie?). But nevertheless, she delivered, definitely. :)

Stanley Tucci as Paul Child

Stanley Tucci is basically like Meryl Streep. He's good, as always. :)

Halfway through the movie, I was getting a bit restless and bored. But then, Jane Lynch, aka Glee's Sue Sylvester showed up as Julia's sister, Dorothy. :D

The actors in the movie were all brilliant, I guess it's just the storyline that got me bored and looking forward to the ending. Don't get me wrong, though; it's a good movie - there were quite a few funny moments. It's just that after seeing it once, I don't think I'm gonna watch it a second or third time, unless I'm at home and I see it on HBO or something.

Have you seen Julie&Julia? Opinions? Thoughts? :D

*all images are from Google*

Cherry on Top Award! :)

I want to say a big thank you to Alexa P. for giving me this Cherry on Top Award! Here's a virtual hug for you! *H U G!!!* :D

The Rules:

Thank the person that gave this to you.

Go on, give them a virtual hug!

Copy the award and put it on your blog.

List 3 things you love about yourself.

Post a picture/s you love (e.g. a person you adore, etc.)

Tag 5 people you wish to pass this award on to.

Three things I love about myself:

1. I am now more open to trying new things -- trying new and different cuisines, learning a new language, blogging, etc. :)

2. I try to be more optimistic about life. :)

3. I listen to others and try to help out in any way I can. :)

Pictures I love:

I pass this on to these 5 lovely bloggers:

CHANTELLE
Fashion Meets Food
Sarahhh.Fashion
Ms Confashion
Laura

Have an awesome Saturday! :D

What song makes you dance? And some DVDs I watched. :D

It's Friday! Haha, yet again. I can't get over how time flies. Sorry, I know I say that quite a lot.

But anyways, I just want to share this one song that makes me dance (even if I can't really dance, haha) and gets me pumped when I work out.

Put It In A Love Song by Alicia Keys, feat. Beyonce

What is your favorite dancing/ work out song? :D

Another thing, I went to the library yesterday to borrow a review book (I have to brush up on my Math skills...), and I decided to borrow some DVDs. This was actually the first time I borrowed DVDs from the library, so I found out that you can only check out 3 DVDs per library card. I had 6 I wanted to borrow! Haha. Fortunately, my sister was with me, so I had to use her card to borrow the other 3. I really love our local public library. They have tons of books, CDs, and movies available for free! :D

The DVDs I borrowed are:

Angels & Demons, Julie & Julia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Proposal, The Blind Side, and Tuck Everlasting.

I watched both The Proposal and The Blind Side a few months back, but we just want to see them again. Yes, we are big Sandra Bullock fans. :D

Tuck Everlasting, on the other hand, is a movie my younger sister wanted to borrow and watch.

The first three movies I named are some of the movies I've been wanting to see for a long time now. I'm glad I am able to check off three from my "Movies to watch" list. I will definitely make posts about my thoughts on those three sometime this coming week. :D

In the meantime, I hope you have a lovely weekend! :)

Porto's Bakery and www.freebeautyevents.com

I love anything sweet. For me, a meal isn't complete without dessert. Whenever I am too busy (or sometimes, lazy) to bake something myself, we always go to one of our favorite bakeries: Porto's Bakery.

They have the best cheese rolls I've ever tasted (I'm hitting myself on the head because I wasn't able to take a photo to share with all of you). They have a lot -- and I mean A LOT-- of baked goods to choose from.

Here are some of the yummy goodies we got:

red velvet cupcake, chocolate cake, carrot cake, and mango mousse

fruit tart

creme brulee

Is there a bakery near you that you love to visit? What is your favorite dessert? :D

On a different note, check out http://www.freebeautyevents.com/. You can enter your zip code to find out what makeover, gift with purchase, spa open houses, and sampling events are happening near you. They also have product reviews and monthly contests.

I tried putting in my zip code and results came out showing which Rite Aid or Walgreens stores near me are giving away free beauty samples. I have yet to see if I'd be able to get some samples, but it's worth a try, right? :D

Let me know if you do end up trying this and getting samples from locations given by this website. :)

Have a lovely rest of the week, everyone! :D

Designer Spotlight: Vera Wang

The name Vera Wang is almost always synonymous with wedding fashion. Many brides dream of wearing Vera for their big day. Kate Hudson, in the movie Bride Wars, even said that "you don't alter Vera to fit you, you alter yourself to fit Vera".

Here are some of Vera Wang's wedding dresses that caught my eye while looking through her website:

Emmeline
V-neck tissue organza ballgown with illusion corset bodice, and french tulle veiled metallic hand painting, with grosgrain sash at natural waist.

Eloise
One-shoulder tissue taffeta full a-line gown with asymmetrically draped bubble skirt, lilly of the valley embroidery at bustline, and grosgrain sash at natural waist.

Ethel
Strapless stretch mikado mermaid gown with draped bodice, swirling tissue organza flanges on skirt and grosgrain sash at waist.

Evelyn
One-shoulder silk crepe soft mermaid sheath with asymmetrically draped bodice, draped french tulle accents, and sheer nude corset back.

Esther

Illusion sweetheart soft a-line gown with multi-layered chantilly lace applique, sheer tulle elbow-length sleeve with floating lace, and horsehair sash at natural waist.

Didi
This bridal gown, a strapless full A-line gown with a pleated bodice, emphasis on the natural waist and a softly tucked hand painted skirt which, can be described as vivacious as well as uniquely flattering and easy to wear, could only be the work of Vera Wang. Available in Citrus Watercolor, Ivory or White.

*images and descriptions from http://www.verawangonweddings.com/*


Here some celebrity brides who chose to wear Vera on their wedding day:

Ivanka Trump

Khloe Kardashian

Jessica Simpson

*all images from Google*

What do you think of Vera Wang wedding dresses? Which one of these is/are your favorite/s? :D

Texas: San Antonio

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday! :D

A couple of months ago, we went to Texas on a vacation. We went to San Antonio and visited The Alamo and The San Antonio Riverwalk. It was a cold, rainy day, but we still had fun walking around and taking in the old world feel of downtown San Antonio. I enjoyed it so much because it has a different vibe from what I'm used to here in Los Angeles. While I don't know if I would want to live anywhere but here, I do love visiting new places and experiencing life away from the hustle and bustle of LA.

Here are some photos:

The Alamo Plaza

Trolley...

We don't have this here in Los Angeles (unless you count the one they have at The Grove), that's why I'm always fascinated by them. I haven't actually ridden one before. We didn't ride this one because we chose to just walk around and enjoy the breeze (thank God it wasn't raining at that time).

My brother bought this lollipop with a scorpion from The Alamo gift shop. He brought it home to show my sister and brother-in-law (sadly, they couldn't come with us). He's been putting off eating it after showing them, we had to keep reminding him to go ahead and taste it. He finally did, and he ended up throwing it away because he said it tasted weird.

While walking around, we realized that the breakfast we ate before we left Houston was hours ago, so we walked to The San Antonio Riverwalk to look for a place to eat. We found this restaurant... and I'm happy this was where we chose to eat. They had great food, our server was really nice, helpful, and jolly (most people I met in Texas are soooo friendly!), we had a great outdoor spot up in their balcony so we had a good view of the Riverwalk. We actually stayed in the restaurant until about 7pm (we got there at about 4-5pm).

BBQ ribs my brother ate

Texas brownie... super yummy!

the view from our table

After eating dinner and dessert, we checked out the souvenir stores. There were so many that had a lot of cute stuff. :)

Now I know it's true when they say everything is big in Texas, haha. :D

Right when we were about to leave, rain started to pour... as in actually pour. It was seriously "raining cats and dogs". We didn't have umbrellas. The coat I was wearing didn't have a hood to cover my head. We were stuck. It was a funny experience, actually. We tried to wait a while, hoping the rain would come to a standstill or something, but it didn't. We had no choice but to run in the rain because we still had about 3 hours drive back to Houston! Our other problem was that our car was parked about 3-4 blocks away. It was crazy. But we had fun. :D

Do you have any fun vacation stories? :)

*photo editing done by my sister*