Pelican Hills Resort

Yesterday I went over to the Pelican Hills Resort in Newport Beach to help set-up for the BBW corporate conference.  We got to assemble mini gift bags and sampled all the upcoming new fragrances for Fall!  I'm super excited and can't wait for them to hit the shelves soon =)

During our fifteen minute break, Leslie and I explored the resort.  This place is absolutely BREATH-TAKING!  The view is incredibly gorgeous and the architecture inside is soooo fancy smancy.  Man, I wish I could escape reality and stay there.  My own little mini paradise...right by the beach!

This is the main hotel lobby

The view from the balcony!  The beach was so close yet so far...!

I want your purse Leslie!

Their pool was huge!

And don't even get me started on their bathroom...this place was heaven! haha

It was fun meeting some of the BBW corporate team members.  Everyone was so nice =)

Afterwards, I hung out a bit with Truyen.  Guess what I saw at Hmart? 

It's Taeyang! x)

They had water bottles with Big Bang members on them! ahaha I couldn't find TOP though...

I just had to take a picture with it (excuse my gross hair x.x)...too humorous!  Truyen is somewhere in the background rolling his eyes for sure =P

Speaking of Big Bang, I love this commercial they did for this phone:



I can't stop laughing whenever I watch this hehe

<3,
Juju

Tokidoki Love

So today I waited in line for 3 hours to meet Simone Legno, the artist and creator of the brand Tokidoki =) Man, I felt like such a nerd waiting in line all by myself while everyone had at least one other person to share their excitement with haha... but it was still fun.  He was signing autographs in Sephora over at South Coast Plaza.  I rushed over there after work--still in my apron and everything--and ended up being second to last in line so yay!  I thought he would've been gone by the time I was done with work x) So apparently you need to get a wristband in order to wait in line...and in order to get the wristband, you have to spend $25 in the new Tokidoki make-up collection.  So I decided to purchase this eyeshadow quad:

The Top View

I really like the green!  The colors are shimmery and pretty decent.  They don't have much staying power so you'll definitely need an eyeshadow primer...but they are actually more pigmented than I originally thought.  The packaging is simply ADORABLE, as with all other Tokidoki merchandise.  Yes, I'm one of those girls that fall head over heels over packaging (don't laugh at me Truyen!).  The only thing I thought could be improved is the mini brush.  To me, it is completely useless because it barely picks up any of the colors.  Also, having a mini mirror in the palette would be nice...it's not necessary, but it would be convenient whenever you want to do any touch-ups throughout the day.  OH!  I forgot to mention...(this is probably the main reason I bought this)...the palette comes with a Bastardino keychain!  It's one of my favorite Tokidoki characters...soooo adorable!  I still can't believe it's called "Bastardino" though...such a cute character with such a bizarre name lol

The whole make-up collection is indeed "criminally cute."  I love it all! =)

It was so fun meeting all the Tokidoki fans in line--everyone was so sweet and friendly.  I took some more random pictures while waiting:

There was a person who dressed up as Sandy

I love the cactus kitty!  I'm actually not sure what its' name is but I just call it cactus kitty x)

Apparently Simone wasn't just giving out autographs but also individual sketches of whatever Tokidoki character we liked!  I originally wanted him to draw Bastardino but instead I requested the cactus kitty because I thought it was cuter.  I kept debating if I wanted him to sketch it on my BBW apron or on the inside of my tokidoki purse...in the end, I asked him to sketch it on my apron because I felt like he would've had a wider canvas to work on. 

Here he is sketching Tsuru for a girl in front of me

lol when I showed him my apron, he asked me, "Wow, this is the first time someone asked me to draw on their apron!  Do you like to cook a lot?"  And I told him "Uhm...I actually have no idea how to cook...that is actually my work apron" and he gave me a funny crooked smile hehe  

Dude he is SO TALL.  He's not even standing up straight in this picture either because he had to lean a bit lower since I'm a short oompa loompa LOL.  But he was super sweet and down-to-earth.  And I love his thick Italian accent ahaha I can't believe he spent six hours meeting fans and sketching character requests straight through!  I heard he didn't take any breaks at all so it must've been equally tiring for him as it was for his fans...The first thing I said to him was, "How are your wrists holding up?  I hope they're not going to fall off soon" and he just laughed. 

So yeah!  I'm super happy now.  I don't think I will ever wear this apron because I'm too afraid that the sketch will fade away lol.  Maybe I should've asked him to sketch it on paper instead...oh well!

Afterwards, I went to go eat at Hmart with Diane.  I ordered the bugolgi tofu stew and she ordered some noodles (I forgot what the dish was called):

Sizzlin' hot!

I didn't get to try it but it looked yummy

It was sooo delicious!  Haven't had Korean food in awhile~

Now I'm so tired and full!  Gotta wake up early tomorrow for church and find Pelican Hills at Newport Beach so I can help set up for a corporate conference.  Dun dun dun...

<3,
Juju

Eventful Weekend

Warning: this is kind of a long post so don't read if you're tired, busy, or disinterested.  And if you're disinterested, why are you here in the first place...? O.o

Hey everyone! Hope your weekend was relaxing and fun. I know mine was! =)

On Friday, I was on a tea-hunting craze:

I went over to Mitsuwa to stock up on some more of my mashta green milk tea.  While I grabbed some of those, I noticed an interesting product next to it: Maxim's Green Tea latte.  Immediately I thought, "Green tea + coffee?  Interesting combination...must buy!"  I actually haven't tried it out yet but I will let you all know what I think of it later.  I wish Mitsuwa sold more of the strawberry kit kats...those were sooo delicious!  That's what you get for falling in love with a limited edition product...

Afterwards, I went over to get some boba at Lollicup.  I originally wanted taro milk tea but I decided to impulsively try the royal milk tea they had.  I'm not sure why I even did because I'm not a huge fan of the original milk tea since it's a bit too sweet for me.  But the royal milk tea was super delicious!  I think it might even be my new favorite *gasp* haha.  OH, since we're on the subject of tea, I wanted to say this before I forget: do not try the korean grapefruit tea at 85 degrees, unless you're a fan of bitter tea with chunky grapefruit skin.  I'm not sure if I got a bad batch, but that thing is just blech...never again!  >.<

Anyways, later that day I went to watch "Iron Man 2" with the sister.  I wish I re-watched the first one though so I could refresh my memory about the storyline but I pretty much got the gist of it.  At first, I thought it was going to be any other Hollywood action movie--a couple of gun shots here and a little bit of explosives there and bam!  Everyone's instantly awed by it.  I mean, yes there were some great action scenes (I think my favorite character is Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow!  I wish I was fierce and sexy like her =P) but I was hoping there would be a decent storyline with it as well.  And it turns out, there actually was!  I won't give anything away of course but overall, I enjoyed it--probably even more than the first one (gasp, what's this?  a sequel dominating the original? lol).  The only issue I had was it seemed a bit long...maybe it was because I was super tired that day but I kept slipping in and out of dreamland.

On Saturday morning, I helped Diane get ready for her Senior prom.  It took about an hour to do hair and make-up.  My main theme for her was a cute princess/dolly look.  Here's a picture of her final look (are you happy now Jackie?  You finally get to see her head LOL. UR!):

Since her dress already had shiny sparkles and her dolly eye make-up was boldly defined, I didn't want to add too many distracting accessories.  So she decided to just wear my red cherry necklace and my pink bow that I made =)

Close-up shot

I wanted to get a quick picture with her outside before I left for work hehe

Later that day, I came home early from work because they were cutting hours (AGAIN! >.<) and watched "Butterfly Lovers," the 2008 movie starring Wu Chun and Charlene Choi.

I mainly wanted to watch it because I was in the mood to watch a traditional Asian movie and I heard it had some martial arts in it.  And also, Wu Chun was in it.  haha!  I actually thought the movie was like a Chinese version of Romeo & Juliet.  It was sweet but I hate those tragic endings!  Call me a hopeless romantic but I like my happy endings, thank you very much.  I was inspired to sketch a picture based on this one depressing rainy scene in the movie:

It's been awhile since I've touched my sketch notebook so I felt a bit rusty...I'm still surprised I decided to add color to it since I hate messing up my sketches with color.  It's only because I suck at coloring so I always feel like it ruins my original work.  Note to self: work on color techniques and how to sketch hands so they don't look like weird mushy balls!

Last but not least, today I just went around with Dad and Diane.  We stopped by Fry's because they were having their 25th anniversary event and a bunch of blu-rays were on sale for $8!  But by the time we got there, everything was gone =( However, I did buy season 1 of "Glee" at Best Buy afterwards.  Gleeks unite!

My dad kept asking me if I wanted to eat ice cream all day.  And later, when my mom came home, she kept asking me the same thing too!  I don't know if they're trying to pamper me or get me fat...

Anyways, that was mainly my weekend.  I will stop ranting now because I'm afraid you've all fallen asleep... x)

<3,
Juju

Asian Beauty Ideal

Most Asian cultures view pale skin as beautiful, pure, and feminine.  If you look at Japanese and Korean skin care products, there's many out there that help promote a brighter, paler complexion.  "Skin whitening" has transformed into a huge industry in countries like China, Korea, Japan, and India.  My dad told me that in the past, pale skin signified higher status because those who were more wealthy remained indoors while others had to work under the sun.  I remember talking to a Japanese sales associate at a Shiseido counter in Macys, and she told me that many women in Japan are obssessed with whitening their skin.  One image that they promote is that if you can be whiter, you can be as beautiful as a cherry blossom.  I honestly think that women who strive for this ideal actually experience more anxiety than happiness.  And this applies to body image in general.  However, I admit that there are days when I miss my natural pale skin I had when I was younger.

I think since I started taking swimming lessons at age eight, I started getting tan every summer.  Although I didn't look like some burnt piece of charcoal, my tan was still pretty bad.  But it's difficult to maintain whiter skin, especially in Southern California where it's bright and sunny most of the time.  I don't want to be like those older Vietnamese women walking around the park in broad daylight with some bizarre umbrella haha.  Today I'm not as dark as I used to be, but compared to my family and friends, I'm still pretty tan here and there. My mom usually likes to tease me and say that she has a Mexican daughter lol. So if I want to be "Asian pretty", does that mean I have to have skin white as snow?  The closest I'll ever get to that is this:

LOL.  I apologize if this picture will give you nightmares. =P And please excuse my panda eyes (I think I have the worst dark circles in the world).  But anyways, that's my main topic for the day.  What are your opinions?  Is anyone else obssessed with maintaining their pale skin?  I know different cultural aspects affect a person's perception of beauty, so we would all have different unique views.  It's just interesting learning about everyone's individual ideals =)

Before I go to bed, I wanted to show you what I bought today while hanging out with Jackie at Mitsuwa:

It's a phone holder!

Keke I think it's so cute! ^^

Alright, good night everyone!

<3,
Juju

My first bow ring

I decided to get in touch with my creative side tonight and worked on a mini sewing project.  Earlier, I remembered watching a video of Momusu performing "Aruiteru" in their NINE concert and wanted to replicate a bow ring that Sayumi was wearing in it.  It took about 30 minutes to sew (by hand) and I'm quite pleased with the end results:

I never realized how wrinkly and gross my hands are until now lol

Front View

Back View

The actual bow itself was a bit bigger than I originally wanted but I think it's still pretty cute; Sayumi's bow ring was actually bigger than mine and covered more of her hand.  The ring is definitely an accessory for girls who like the Japanese Hime/Princess look...or even for girls who like to cosplay (lolita or maid, perhaps?).  I actually made the ring from leftover black fabric and white lace that I used to make my Japanese maid cosplay last year for Anime Expo x) But honestly, you can use any colored fabric/ribbon to make this.  The ring itself is a piece of ribbon, so it's not quite sturdy.  One way you can remedy this is by using a hot glue gun to attach it to an old ring that you might already have.  However, I do not own a hot glue gun so I'll just bear with my flimsy ring. 

I'm debating if I want to make a video tutorial on how to make this, because there aren't many out there on youtube.  However, there's a million tutorials on how to make the actual bow haha.  What do you guys think?

<3,
Juju

Mumsy's Day

今日は母の日です!
Happy Mumsy's Day to all! Hope everyone had nice plans for their mothers today =) My family and I basically went to eat at the Hokkaido buffet in Irvine yesterday night. We knew it would be jam-packed today so we tried to think smart and ate a day in advance...and it was still pretty crowded! I forgot my camera so I wasn't able to take pictures of all the yummy food. I know, I'm a terrible blogger.

I did get a picture of my outfit of the day though (for anyone who cares lol):

 Dress: Abercrombie & Fitch

White tee and hair bow: H&M

Necklace: DSK Jewelry

Black knee high socks: Target

I know it's a bit blurry but I was in a rush since I wanted to arrive at the buffet asap.  All the yummy food called out to me!  

Tried to get a closer shot of my bow but kinda failed.

I felt extremely full after my first two plates haha!  My appetite's been fluctuating a lot lately...I don't think my stomach is suitable for buffets.  Plus, I'm always tempted to eat the dessert rather than the actual entrees lol!  I can't help it, my eyes keep wandering over to the all the delicious sweets treats they have at the dessert bar...

Mom definitely enjoyed eating her usual crab legs.  She seriously ate and destroyed the whole tray of crab legs offered at the buffet.  It's a good thing I didn't have my camera because it wasn't such a pretty sight to behold =P Plus, everytime I saw her munching on a leg, I kept thinking of that one scene in the "Little Mermaid" where Sebastian tries to escape from Chef Louie's evil clutches.  In the end, my mom just gives a big sigh of content as she rubs her big belly full of crab legs.  Gotta love the mumsy.

<3,
Juju

Prom is coming up~

So I've dedicated the last two weekends to hunting for the perfect prom dress, shoes, and accessories for Diane's upcoming prom...and let me just say I am exhausted!  It may seem like I love to shop till I drop but I really only shop for 2 hours or less.  I don't know how some girls can stand walking around all day and browsing through multiple stores.  Maybe it's because I feel older now so I'm not as genki like I used to be?  I think Diane and I visited every store around the block...my feet and head hurts... 

BUT--

We finally found a dress for her!  Here's a pic of her wearing it:

I think it's sooo cute!  It's definitely something I would've worn to my high school prom since it perfectly fits my personal style.  I'm surprised that Diane even liked it since her style clashes with my own; she kept exclaiming on and on about how she never thought she'd pick such a girly pink dress.  The major thing that stood out to her was how it sparkles.  Apparently she's all about sparkles and glitter...she probably wouldn't even mind wearing a disco ball to prom.  I love the fact that the dress is a soft pink baby doll with gorgeous cherry blossom patterns on it!  The more she wears it, the more she loves it too so no more drowning in endless prom dresses for us!  I will probably steal the dress for a special occassion or two in the future also...ehehe...I'm still amazed that we found it at such an unexpected place and at such an unbelievably affordable price!  The place?  Ross!  Crazy, right?  Well, for us both anyways...I hardly shop there because I can't stand the crowds and the messiness of all the merchandise.  You really have to have patience shopping in places like that...and I don't have much patience x) Now Diane just hopes no one else wears the same exact dress lol.

She was starting to lose hope for finding a dress too.  We stumbled upon this display at Macy's today and thought it'd be cool if she wore this to prom:

すごいですね!  It's created with actual playing cards since it's inspired by "Alice in Wonderland!"  Gosh, wouldn't it be awesome if I could construct something like that? *dreams*

Since I've been trying to think of make-up and hair ideas for Diane, I decided to share one hair tutorial on youtube.  It's a look that's inspired by the pictures in my Japanese magazines...I absolutely love the soft, loose curls and the double-braided headband!  I was too lazy to scan the original photo of it from the magazine, so here's a picture of Sayumi from Morning Musume modeling it:

She looks much cuter with it than me keke

 Here's a back view of the hairstyle on me.  Again, they're very loose, natural-looking curls:

Sorry for the bright lights.  I was standing under my skylight which wasn't such a great idea...

I know that there are probably other youtubers who have already replicated this look before me, but this is how I personally achieve the look.  I don't want anyone thinking I stole their idea or anything...I never even claimed it was my own personal creation; it's just something inspired from my magazines as I mentioned earlier.  I will probably remove the video by the end of this week--after prom is over for most high school students--because I just feel weird having a video of myself for all to see on the internet.  The only reason I uploaded it in the first place was b/c I suddenly felt inspired to share any tips with the public...but once I uploaded it, I felt embarrassed haha.

Hope you all think it's helpful though~

<3,
Juju

P.S.
I just watched Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" and thought it was such a cute movie.  The animations remind me of those classic Disney movies I used to watch as a kid =) Also, there's this one funny blind old voodoo lady named Mama Odie who has a pet snake.  Guess what the snake's name is?  JUJU!  So I kept bursting out laughing everytime Mama Odie screamed for Juju in a high-pitched voice when she was in a tough situation haha!

Too tired to think of a decent title for this post...

This is what I came home to after working for what seems like 10 hours today.  I love my dad's steak!  It's so juicy and full of flavor =) And a steak dinner is never complete without a side of mashed potatoes for me, yum yum.

It was quite busy at work today.  Apparently, the weekend of Mother's Day is the second busiest day for BBW, the first busiest being Christmas time (Omg I can already hear the overplayed holiday music playing in my head..."Last Christmas I gave you my heart..." x_x).  Since customer traffic has been quite slowly lately, I enjoyed today's refreshing fast-paced energy.  Plus, customers shopping for gifts mean I get to offer complimentary wrapping...and I LOVE wrapping gifts!  It's so fun!  Well, it's not so fun when you have a million to wrap in a certain time frame but I love the challenge.  So whenever anyone needs their gifts to be wrapped, you can call on me haha!  Hmm, speaking of gifts...I still need to figure out what to get mumsy for Mother's Day...she's such a picky woman.  I might just eventually end up treating her to dinner since food always makes her happy keke.

Okay, gonna watch the recent episode of "Personal Taste" and then head to bed.  I'm too pooped.

<3,
Juju

Little pasta shells

I haven't eaten pasta in awhile so I decided to cook some with my favorite Prego mushroom tomato sauce.  These little eggshells were too adorable to eat!  Thankfully, I didn't burn down the kitchen (or myself) while cooking these little cuties.  Om nom nom...

DSK Jewelry arrived!

So the other day when I was watching youtube videos from my subscribed beauty gurus, I noticed that a lot of them praised this one line of jewelry called DSK jewelry.  The collection is handcrafted by Stephanie Nguyen and "DSK" stands for her initials.  I checked out her blog and was stunned at all the adorable necklaces, earrings, and bracelets she made.  What amazed me more is that she creates them all by herself, which really inspires me to start getting artsy again (better go pop open that dusty old drawer full of scrapbook stuff).  Although her jewelry is a bit on the pricey side, she's been having a couple of her pieces on sale for Mother's Day.  I decided to purchase two of her necklaces because I couldn't resist how beautiful, sparkly, and adorable they were!  Keke...this is how I get broke so easily...T.T

So this is what arrived in the mail this morning:

She even sent me some Baskin Robbins candy~ おいしい ^^

This is the Marisa necklace (Stephanie names some of her pieces after her greatest supporters).  I absolutely adore how incredibly sparkly it is!  My camera does absolutely NO justice to how beautiful this necklace is when you see it in person.

This one is called Holly's starfish/moon necklace.  I love the pink and gold colors--so sweet, cute, and simple =)

I've been sporting this double-braided headband for the past couple of days.  I think it adds a simple feminine touch to your hairstyle--I'm all about braids this spring and summer! 

Everything is sooo beautiful and elegant!  xD Here's the link to Stephanie's blog if anyone's interested in browsing or buying her jewelry: http://www.dskjewelry.blogspot.com/  All her pieces are created with genuine, authentic swarovski crystals. 

Alrighty, better start studying for midterms...it seems like I have one midterm/paper every week.  So exhausting...but it'll all be over once mid-June arrives!

<3,
Juju

Review: Imju Fiberwig Mascara

Hey guys, so I recently purchased the Imju Fiberwig Mascara at my local Sephora the other day to try it out.  I actually gathered up all my courage and created a youtube video so I can share my opinion about it.  So now I feel so...exposed to the world haha!  It's really weird talking to a camera...^^;; Anyways, I hope people won't be mean or critical about my video...otherwise I'll just delete it lol.

Basic pros:
- creates natural-looking long lashes
- doesn't smear/smudge
- water-resistant yet super easy to remove!

Basic cons:
- it's super expensive!!!  I usually don't spend that much on mascaras since you're technically supposed to throw it out every 3 months due to bacteria build-up...so I wish it was a bit cheaper...
- doesn't create any volume
- takes more than one application for any decent results

Since Ray pointed out that he didn't see the link that I talked about in the video on my blog, I will post it here just for him haha: http://www.imomoko.com/

<3,
Juju