Lumberjack

I really liked my outfit today because it was so effortless, but I still kind of looked like I put some thought into it (must have been the boots). Flannels are like a second skin to me in the winter. I took a quick glance at the mirror as I was rushing out the door (a daily occurrence), and I thought...wow I look like a lumberjack.

(Too many parentheses.)

I also wanted to show the boots I recently bought. It's kind of like a riding boot, which is what I'd been looking for forever and a day. I love the buckle detail on the side of the boot. This might just be me, but when I gain muscle mass, I gain muscle mass. I'm not one of those skinny-mini Asians. I do track and tennis, so my calves are rather muscle-y/huge. I was really happy to find boots that fit my legs! :D

Plaid Flannel - Macy's, Black Camisole - Aeropostale, Jeans - Gap, Belt - Talbot's, Boots - BareTraps

Something my friend said about my outfit:

"Maggie, you look like a lumberjack today.........................-creepily whispers into my ear-...I like it."

She's one of the funniest people ever.

Sunny Day Colors

It was an unusually sunny, warm day today at around 45-degrees. Or maybe it just seemed really sunny because the past week has been gray and dreary. But I had to squint my eyes so hard to shield the sunlight out, I didn't even see where I was walking half the time I was out.

The gorgeous blue sky and blinding sunlight reminded me of late spring/early summer. Though winter is my absolute favorite season (I love the cold), I couldn't help but think of summer days today.

View of Boston skyline from my apartment. Pretty, yes?

The CNY flowers my mom bought are blooming! Including those fuzzy ones...hmm what are they called?

And so, the beautiful weather inspired me to go through my stash and find some products that reminded me of summer and its warmth. I just felt like playing with my much-neglected makeup. Here is what I ended up with:

• Revlon Superlustrous Lip Gloss in Coral Reef -- a gorgeous creamy coral pink color. By far one of my favorite glosses.
• MAC Eyeshadow in Evening Aura -- a shimmery pastel orange shade. The first MAC product I ever got!
• Benefit Velvet Eyeshadow in Nice Melons -- a gorgeous pale peach color with the prettiest gold/pink sheen. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's the prettiest all-over lid color ever. Will definitely show y'all in an FOTD when I get the chance.
• Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti -- a sheer, shiny orange. Will tell more about my thoughts on this in a post to come!
• L'Oreal HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in Gold Charge -- a gorgeous gold eyeliner. The color is so gold and intense, one of my favorite products ever. It really brightens up the eyes.
• Stila Charmed Eyeshadow Palette -- a beautiful array of warm, summery shades. This palette just screams 'summer' to me, from the eyeshadows down to the gold palette. And y'know, the buttery texture of the eyeshadows is a plus too.
• MAC Blush in Springsheen -- A peachy pink with a strong gold sheen. By far the most beautiful blush I own. The sheen is just so I-don't-kn0w-how-to-describe-it-but-it's-so-freaking-pretty.

I made an animation for the swatches. It might not have been the best idea, but I didn't want to bombard y'all with pictures of basically the same thing. So! If you can pick out the products and their corresponding swatches, ten points to Gryffindor (or whichever house you prefer)!

Top to bottom: Nice Melons, Evening Aura, Gold Charge, Coral Reef, Tutti Frutti, Springsheen, Stila Charmed Palette

Well, even though it's a little confusing, let's just take in and appreciate the nice, bright, summery colors. How has the winter weather been faring for you guys lately? :)

The Cute Blog Award!

I haven't been tagged for one of these in a while! This one seems really fun (and cute) too, it's the Cute Blog Award. Thanks Kar Yi (AngelicBetrayal) for tagging me! :)

For this award you:

1. Link back to the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the award questions.
3. Tell something about yourself you haven't told anyone on your blog yet.
4. Award as many blogs that you think are worthy of this award.
5. Make sure you let those you gave the award to know that you awarded them.

Award Questions:

1. What is your go-to makeup product?
Definitely mascara! It really wakes up my eyes and lifts up my face. I have pretty long, but straight lashes, so just applying a bit of mascara instantly gives life to my eyes. When I'm being really lazy, I'll just put on mascara and I'm all set.

2. What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?
I reeeeaalllly love color blocking. I'm a sucker for minimalism and color blocking is a pretty simple trend, but it takes a bit of thought in order to make it look good. The juxtaposition of colors just gets to me for some reason. The clean, sharp contrast too. I don't know, I just fell in love with color blocking, and I'm sure this trend is here to stay! Nowadays, all I wear a solid-colored clothes -- I rarely wear prints anymore!

3. What is your favorite dessert?
Ooooh, this is much too hard. Hmmm, I'd have to say it's a tie between green tea ice cream and creme brulee. I just loooove green tea anything, but green tea ice cream is just the best. I really love the crust on creme brulee...and then when you crack it? MMMMM...darn now I want some dessert.

4. Favorite color?
Yellow! I just love how bright and happiness-inducing it is. It's just a color that makes me smile instantly. Lately, though, I've been loving navy blue and maroon and gray. Well, actually I'm more of a color-whore. I love all colors -- whenever I see something in a really nice color, I'll be swooning over it and pondering on whether or not I should buy it. Without any consideration as to whether I'd use it...bad habit. I've been eye-ing those Pantone products for so long...

5. What is your middle name?
It's my Chinese name in Pinyin/Romanization: Jia Ying (嘉盈). I think it means 'good fortune'!

6. What was the last song you listened to?
Sparks by Coldplay! One of their best, but most underrated songs, in my opinion. Take a second to listen. :)

Something you don't know about me yet:
Well, I'm still in high school right now (which some of you know already), but my dream career/what I want to be when I grow up is an architect. Yes indeed, a pretty ambitious dream. I just love seeing the tall skyscrapers, their little details, the ever-changing design of buildings nowadays, etc. I've always wondered how ancient civilizations made such beautiful, gigantic, enduring structures with such barbaric technology in comparison to now. It's really scary and stressful thinking about becoming an architect, but at the end of the day, nothing compares to this dream. I really want to make it a reality, but at the same time, I sometimes want to give up and take an easier route out. As this blog (hopefully) continues over the next couple of years, I hope you'll join me in my anxiety and excitement of growing up and achieving my dreams (...hopefully).

So uhh, I might or might not have ended this on a rather somber note, so I'll get on with the tags! I tag:

-Jian
-MakeupMorsels
-Nic Nic
-Shop N' Chomp
-Connie
-Rolala
-Jane
-Popcorn

This was actually really fun, y'all should definitely do it! I'd do it just to have that cute award picture on my blog LOL. :D

Week in (Food) Pictures 1/14 - 1/21

There's nothing really that interesting in my life besides school (if that's what interests you) and food. I thought the latter would be a teeny bit more appealing and well, interesting to you all so here are some pictures of the food I ate this week.

And maybe some other stuff too.

Saturday, 1/14: I hadn't cooked with my mom in such a long time. We're a pretty dynamic duo in the kitchen, so last Saturday, we decided to tackle some Japanese cuisine for dinner! We made this lovely Miso Udon Noodle Soup with fish cakes, fish balls, tofu, mushrooms, beansprouts, and shrimp. I made our bowls look super pretty, in my opinion, hahaha.

Sunday, 1/15: I was looking for my winter jacket in the closets and found this amazing film camera. I was freaking out. My dad hadn't touched it in 20 years, so it is now mine! I've been interested in photography all my life and I did not know my dad owned this beauty. Now I must buy some film and batteries, and also learn how to use this.

Monday, 1/16: I had the day off, so I made this delicious linguini for lunch. I first fried some bacon and added a spoon or two of sun-dried tomato pesto sauce. After that, I added in the linguini and tossed it all together! It was very very delicious. I saved some to bring to lunch the next day too.

Tuesday, 1/17: A wet and rainy day. I snapped this on the way back home from club activities. I had brought my camera to school to film our club officer introduction videos, so on the way home, I took it out on a whim to snap this photo on the street. I really liked the little droplets on the parking meter. Spontaneous shots are sometimes the best shots. I got some pretty weird looks though.

Tuesday, 1/17: I braided both sides of my part back this day. I really like how it turned out and got a lot of compliments on it. I couldn't really find a good angle to show the braids, so I settled with this (ignore the silly face haha). I took this right after coming home. It was a rainy day, so I look like a hot, sticky mess here hahaha. Please excuse the no-makeup face (besides mascara).

Wednesday - Friday, 1/18-1/20: Pretty uneventful days (school, school, school, school...and more school), so I didn't take many pictures. I did, however, try to take this artsy-fartsy picture of me holding a clementine. They are always the sweetest during CNY! Is it bad that they're all I've been eating the past couple days? I've finished half a box already...umm...

Saturday, 1/21: Went to dim sum with my friends for brunch! It's always been a yearning of mine to go dim sum with a bunch of friends because I've always gone with my family. It's really nice to experience something so familiar with a different group of people. Even though it was a smaller group because of the snow, I'm glad that we still had fun and lots of laughs. I love the concept of dim sum; it's the type of setting where you're welcome to talk a lot. What are your favorite dim sum dishes?

Saturday 1/21: It snowed...6 inches! It finally looks like winter! HUZZAH! I really love snow; it's so beautiful. I've been waiting for a snowstorm like this for months. Despite the heavy snowfall, I still stayed out to take some pictures. The snowflakes were so big and fluffy. This was taken near the end of the storm, so the snow/size of the flakes had dwindled down.

So, as you can tell, I love food...and taking pictures...and snow. Would you guys like to see more of these kinds of posts? I probably won't do them weekly, but definitely one here and there!

Last night, my family had our pre-CNY dinner. Our relatives gathered at our house and we hot potted the night away! We also webcammed with the rest of our relatives in China. I can't believe how big my nieces (cousin's daughters) are now. One of them is 10 y/o now -- I didn't know our age difference was that small! I swear the last time I saw them, they were still chubby little babies! Like, what in the what?

Anyway, for those of you who celebrate Lunar New Year, I hope you all had or will have a great day with your family. Eat lots of good food too! Wishing you all another year of good luck and happiness! Extra luck to all the Dragons out there! :D

Dis Blush be Bouncin' around

As I was walking home from school, I went into CVS to grab a little something to snack on. However, I happened upon this display of the new Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blushes. The font for 'Bouncy' was so ridiculously cute and bubbly (I'm a sucker for typography), it drew me in instantly. There were only a couple colors left, so I picked up one of the darker shades, Plum Wine. I didn't own a dark blush, so I thought, why not?

I had heard many things about the interesting texture and well, "bounce." It is indeed really different from anything I've tried before; it reminded me of a thicker version of Jello. It's like the perfect hybrid of a mousse/cream blush and a powder blush -- right in the middle of the two. It says it dries to a powder finish, but I feel like it still retains some of the moisture.

Plum Wine was moderately pigmented, but I'm sure it's much more pigmented than the other colors in the range. (I heard the lighter ones were a bit sheer.) It's certainly not as dark as it looks in the pan. I would describe the color as a berry-like stain, almost as if you rubbed strawberries on your cheeks --which I very much like! It also has a really nice, subtle sheen.

So far, I'm really intrigued by this blush, but I don't think I'll be purchasing other colors from the line. The colors are all too typical, though Orchid Hush and Coffee Cake do look a little bit more interesting. If you want to try this blush, I'd suggest getting a darker shade (due to its overall sheer pigmentation) unless you're really pale!

Have you tried these yet? Do tell me what you think about them! :)