NYC Food Adventure!

This past weekend, my family and I decided to embark on a less-than-24-hour food excursion to not only celebrate the new year, but also because my parents' vacation time was winding down. They picked me up right afterschool on Friday and we drove to New York City. We stayed for one night at the Strand Hotel (which is so swanky, damn) and left Saturday afternoon. For our little food fest, we ate a dinner at Sik Gaek and a lunch the next day at Momofuku Noodle Bar.

Sik Gaek was quite an experience. The waiters all wore ahjumma pants (which was hilarious and cute at the same time) and yelled/blew horns/hazed people with a giant black afro if it was their birthday. There were three victims the night we went. We sat in long shared tables with tall plastic stools. The place looked so purposefully rundown. It was pretty...pretty...one of a kind.

Complimentary self-fried fried eggs.

Hung our jackets on floating coat racks in the middle of the restaurant.

The stools we sat on.

Complimentary tteokbokki.

Live Octopus Sashimi!?! I was too scared to try this, it was MOVING.

Kimchi pancake.

HUGE Seafood hotpot. HUGE.

The claw kept clamping and unclamping over and over again.

Night//Morning - perfect view of the Empire State Building from our hotel window.

Times Square Disney Store -- hadn't been in one in years.

Times Square! The ball was still up.

Momofuku Noodle Bar was a lovely little lunch (hah, alliteration). The famous pork buns were heavenly, the ramen had the perfect soup-to-noodle ratio, and the noodles were perfectly cooked. However, I hate to say it, but it was just a tad overpriced. I did love their restaurant design! The bright wooden (I'm thinking bamboo) furniture was on point. I would go back with friends one day, though, when we can all split the bill. But I will have to find a cheaper alternative to get my ramen fix next time!

Their menus change everyday.

Those famous pork buns!

Momofuku Ramen.

And that concludes my family's mini food feast this past weekend. It was compact but still so complete. With a little advanced planning and a GPS, we can fill our bellies with delicious foods we can't find in Boston! Have you ever gone on a one-day food trip (or just a one-day trip) before? If you haven't, you must! It is quite an experience. Have a great week! :)

Colors Around the House: Soft

Announcer: "And we're back with the second installment in our Colors Around the House series!"

This time I found things that seemed to be rather soft, gentle, and fluffy. I think I might start making each post have a specific theme for what things I pick and find. For this post, I found a creme-colored pleated skirt, one of my many Hello Kitty dolls, and my hunter hat.

I'm quite in love with the muted, soft tones of this picture.

I bought this skirt from Urban Outfitters this past summer. I loved the pleats and the soft, elegant color of the skirt itself. I thought it would be a perfect staple in my closet. I've worn it many times, but the weather has been far too cold lately for this thin little skirt. To match the soft creme of the skirt and its subtle flashes of pinkier/peachier tones, I picked out Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Vintage Lace, Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Recess, and MAC Eyeshadow in Naked Lunch. I think Vintage Lace is literally my skirt in eyeshadow form. The pattern on the eyeshadow pan helps with the effect as well.

It's all about the pink with Hello Kitty.

I was quite an avid collector of Hello Kitty in my childhood, supplied mainly by my mom but also by everyone in my family. I was obsessed. But as I grew up, I started branching out to other interests and characters (like Domo) and Hello Kitty fell by the wayside. I didn't play with my dolls as much. Though now I still have to sleep in Hello Kitty sheets, dolls, and pillows...because well, I can't really get rid of them. This was one of my favorite dolls, because of its fluffiness and how it was Hello Kitty in her simplest, most well-known outfit. I focused on the two pinks and picked out The Body Shop's Born Lippy in Strawberry, Tarina Tarantino Lipstick in Showroom, and Revlon Superlustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pop.

Don't you just want to run your fingers through that furriness?

This hunter's hat was basically my BFF in 9th through 10th grade. My dad got it for me from a trip to NYC and I was ecstatic. The faux fur was so soft and smooth and the pattern reminded me of tweed jackets. I've since abandoned this for less-obnoxious beanies, but I think I might give this hat a second chance. I wanted to duplicate the warm patches in the fur with MAC's Cocomotion pigment, and also the two colors in the pattern with Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable and a gray-beige like Benefit's Birthday Suit.

 

I'm digging the Cream Pleats trio, reminds me of soft linens. So I'm getting back into the swing of things with this blog, hallelujah! I'm falling back in love with blogging again. :) What objects or products have been striking inspiration for you recently? Or, what have you been rediscovering lately?

After NYE Bling

So my New Year's Eve celebration this year (or this past year, rather) was going to the outlets with my mom. Quite a wild party indeed. My mom told me it was time to buy me "more grown up" clothes, so we wandered into Banana Republic (with much reluctance from me at first) and LOFT. The sales were pretty darn amazing. Banana Republic had always seemed grossly overpriced to me, but surprisingly we left with a big bag of clothes (for both of us) for just over $100. At LOFT, I scored an originally $80 dress for $15. And it was also there that I found this gem, which is a huge understatement, of a nail polish for $2.99.

Ahh yes, the wonders of sales shopping.

We were about to check out when I saw this. I had already been quite surprised to see LOFT now carrying nail polish, but wow my eyes went straight to this. So. many. colors. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Let's take a moment to take that all in, shall we?

When I saw it, I thought, wasn't there a Deborah Lippmann nail polish that looked exactly like this? Yes, there is! And I must say, I actually like mine a lot better. And it was 6x cheaper. Yup, I think I win.

I think what really drew me to this nail polish was the fact that it was so densely packed and that all of the glitter particles were the same size. They were all the same big, chunky hexagons. Here is two layers of the nail polish with a clear top and bottom coat. For the first layer, I dabbed and jabbed the glitters to spread as many as possible over my nail, then I just filled in the gaps for the second layer.

I'm definitely going to enjoy looking down at my hands for the next few days.

And the glitters were so sparkly and blinding that Domo could not even compete. He was petrified.

Also, Happy New Year, ladies! Wishing you all a great year full of love, happiness, good health in 2013 and beyond. :)

Ringing in the New Year

...with style.

I just took a shower after finishing my last college essay (2-3 pages for Cornell...), and I thought I would report back to you guys. Fresh-faced, towel wrapped around my head and all. Shabby webcam pictures, but a report back no less.

What can I say? I'm F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S.

Let's hope these bags go away soon...

How does one come back blogging in full force after being gone for so long, slaving away at applications? This is quite a dilemma for me as photographing products (or anything in general) and typing up posts have flown out of my routine as of late. The posts on this blog this past month have been...a mess, I don't even know. Very bleh. I don't quite remember how to approach this right now. But I'm sure I'll come back to my senses soon enough.

But huzzah! I am done with college applications! At long last, I. AM. DONE!!!!!! 

This year has been great, however. It was nearly a year ago when after a long mental tug-of-war that I decided that I'd give blogging a go again. I really did miss it, and I'm so glad I came back. I reconnected with old blogging friends while making new ones. I know I haven't been the best blogger so far, but I really do hope to be a better one this new year. It's definitely one of my resolutions.

But anywho, I hope that you're all enjoying this lovely New Year's Eve with your loved ones! Let's ring in the New Year with warm, positive attitudes. I'm going to go enjoy the local fireworks tonight with my parents. Do you have any New Year's Resolutions?

Merry Christmas!

I hope you're all having a lovely holiday/day off with your loved ones. I'm going out to watch Les Miserables today with my family. A really unorthodox, and kind of...y'know sad, celebration but hey, we all love the book so dearly, so we gotta make seeing the movie a family affair! I'm excited.

This Christmas was a lot more low-key and a bit rough (emotionally) for us, but the important thing is that we have each other. For better or worse. 

Didn't really get to photograph any festivities, so here are some recycled snapshots from last year. I've also been too busy to even touch my camera (it's been so neglected this past month).

Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful day, and I hope Santa brought you bountiful gifts. Let's hope you don't get a case of Present Face, though. ;)