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Thursday, May 13, 2010

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

Sunday, May 9, 2010

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!

Friday, May 7, 2010

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

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

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...

Monday, May 3, 2010

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

Saturday, May 1, 2010

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