Sunday, February 27, 2011

Blogging Day 192: My Shopping Fun @ Torrid

As I said yesterday, I received my first pay check from my new position at work. Of course, before I start saving everything for a new car, I must have a little splurge.

http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Accessories/HatsHairgoods/Black-Sequin-Bow-Fedora-534790.jsp

Of course, you know about my cool new hat. I wore it when I went grocery shopping today.  I took ROTC and feel weird wearing it inside a building. I wasn't sure wear to put my hat after I entered the store. It can't fit in my purse... curious how I'm going to take care of that. Maybe I'll just suck it up and wear the hat all the time.

Either way, love it!

http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Clearance/Tops/Pink-Ballerina-Peplum-Tank-594504.jsp

I love this top, it is so soft, shimmer and too cute.  I will be wearing the cardigan over this for work.


http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Clearance/Tops/SequinedFront-ScoopNeck-Tank-523885.jsp

This is actually a creamy ivory color with a hint of pink, I original thought it would be a soft baby pink. I bought it for the sequins though. The shirt is so soft!


http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Clearance/Tops/Black-Shredded-VNeck-Cardigan-508050.jsp

I love this ripped look on the cardigan. Like I said above, I got it to go with the pink ruffle shirt I got. They look very cool together, especially with the shimmer pink showing through the rips. 


http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Shoes/Flats/Zipper-Ballet-Flat--Black-Patent-Wide-Width-584357.jsp

With my new job in a different department ,my cubical is further away from the others and walking around in my normal 3" heels is killing my feet. I, unfortunately had to invest in some flats.

 I do not like flats because I have 11 shoe size  and flats make my feet look like clown feet. I thought these were pretty stylish for flats. I wore them around today and they feel like I'm wearing flip flops. I might be converted to flats... maybe.

http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Accessories/HatsHairgoods/Black-Cabbie-with-Zipper-Trim-Flower-537137.jsp
I am not a fan of this hat, and I will be returning it. When I put it on, I feel like I look like the biker from the Y.M.C.A. music video. Not a look I'm going for. 

I love this bracelet. It is so delicate and I think rose accessories are beautiful.

That was my splurging, when I return my hat I might grab something else. Who knows.

<3 Zerila

Friday, February 25, 2011

Blogging Day 191 : Fun with Sparkly Fedora!

This is just a quick picture blog. I got a raise and decided to go shopping at Torrid!!! Do not worry, I will let you know all my fun finds! But first, I got this cool new Fedora!

http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Accessories/HatsHairgoods/Black-Sequin-Bow-Fedora-534790.jsp

 I thought this hat was hot! Torrid actually as a good selection of hats. I have recently been inspired by Vintage Vixon to start wearing hats. I think it's an accessory that has a lot of potential, but has been completely ignored recently. I plan on learning to work the hat!

First I must practice!


The only black and white taken.



I am a sucker for sequins! Sparkly things distract me...



I think this one is my favorite! New Blog Picture!!

Fun Fun! Hats off to all my curvy ladies!

Oh yeah! I got this look down! ;op



SCARY!!


My camera freaked out when I moved my eyes to fast. Look out world, I've been possessed!!!

I will blog tomorrow about my all my other purchases. They had a major clearance sell my BF clued me into. I <3 clearance shopping!

<3 Zerila

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Blogging Day 189: I'm Back!

Yes, I am back after a very long week and a half.

It was a VERY very VeRy long two day drive to get there and two days back. I took my laptop with me and spent the whole time watching movies. FYI! You must watch "The A Team"! Amazing movie! Out of all the movies I watched, and I think it was about 15 or more, that was the one I enjoyed the most!  I think I will actually be buying the movie, which is very rare for me. The lasts movie I bought was Resident Evil 2...

Mississippi was enjoyable. I enjoyed meeting and hanging out with my family. My Aunt told me I need to stay in touch with my cousins. I'm not known for keeping in touch with my extended family, mainly because they are on all sides of the country... literally! I have a pack in Oklahoma/Texas, another in California, some in Minnesota and then there is us in Maryland. My point, is no one is close and it is hard to keep touch in. Either way, I'm going to try.

I totally here Yoda's Voice right now....


Do or do not. There is no try...

Anyways, I'm back and I will start blogging everyday again.


<3 Zerila

Friday, February 11, 2011

Blogging Day 175: Sad News

This past Wednesday I received the news that my Grandpa(Mom's Dad) had past. I know he had been ill, and getting worse enough that last year they decided to put him in a nursing home. But, this had been a bit of a shock, unlike my Grandma( Dad's mom, who we lost this past June, who was very ill since I before I was born) his illness was recent. He had a rough time this past Fall, but evidently he had a turn for the worse.

Some of us are traveling to Mississippi ( until a  minute ago it was Texas, knocks one day off of driving) for the funeral. My Grandpa wished to be buried with his wife.

I am numb and raw, and trying my best to keep my mom happy. We did some product reviews for my blog and we did our nails. I took her and my brothers out for Pho, and Dairy Queen.

I will not be blogging for a week because of my traveling and other reasons. Letting you know, just in case you thought I had left you.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers.

<3 Zerila

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Blogging Day 173 : Simple Bead Ring




This is a very simple bead ring. If you remember these are the beads I bought from the thrift shop adventure in Blogging Day 68. It has been awhile since I bought them, but I finally found a use for them.

OK, let's begin!

Items you need:




About 1.5" of .5mm Stretch Jewelry Cord (I found mine in the Walmart Craft area)
10 pronged adjustable ring
20 Round beads of your Choice
NOT PICTURED: Binder Clip
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First Step:




Begin by tieing one side of the cord to one of the ends of your ring.



This is a picture later on, but leave about an inch out at the beginning and attach a binder clip to it. You want to do this because you want to know where the end is to finish the ring. I found later on that if I don't have something heavy attached to the end I lose it and the ring starts to undue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step 2:


Begin threading on the beads. For each prong you want two beads. First add on the bead, thread the string through the first prong. Add on another bead and go through the same prong and then thread the string through the next prong and repeat till you have done all ten prongs.

Do not do worry if it does not go on tightly. You want the beads to be a bit lose. As you continue on, the beads will begin to form a huge bubble like pile of beads and it will be easier to form your  ring to your liking if they are a bit lose.




It will be harder as you continue onto complete each prong. Once you have finished the first row of prongs, push the beads out of the way to the other side to be able to see the prongs easier.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step 3:

Once all beads are threaded on all the prongs, tie to the two ends of the string. I did about three knots. Do not worry the knots will be lost in the beads. After tieing the knots, make sure the ends are less then an inch long, and then wrap the ends into the ring. They will disappear into the chaos of the ring.

Shape ring into the bubble of liking.




Have fun! Remember: Be creative, Be Imaginative and Make it your own!

PS- As I am typing this blog, I had about 115 views on my blog! Normally I get about five! Weird

Veggie/Fruit: My mom made an amazing veggie soup today. Very good way to get your veggies in.

<3 Zerila

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Blogging Day 172 : Shopping @ Forever 21, Lancome & Sephora!

Friday night, by buddy and I, went shopping. Our main goal was to hit up Macy's Lancome counter because they were having their free gift special at the moment. With a goal in mind we set off to the mall and of course there were a few diversions along the way.

First we stopped at Forever 21 Accessory Store. I have never seen a Forever 21 Accessory store before, but I am definitely a fan now. Shoes were everywhere and I mean everywhere. That had the cutest jewelry and accessories. I found a few things I decided I needed( maybe the better word is wanted, because I certainly didn't need any of it...)

Super Cool Brush $5.80


I am a sucker for anything sparkly and pink. It doesn't show-up very well in the picture but the top has been dipped in light pink. I had to grab it. I use it to put on my loose powder and the brush is SSOOO soft!




These were all about $1.80 each.

These were fun facial packets. Very cheap so I decided to give them a try. I will do a future blog on these packets. They have inspired me to do a little research.




Left - Right
Flowers $3.80
Studs $4.80

More earrings for my nice earring collection. They had tons of earrings and they were super cheap!

Again my weakness for sparkly things.



There are even sparkles on the rim of eyelash curler or what my buddy likes to call, the eyelash torture device.

They had a pink color, and usually that is my go to color,but once I saw the blue-purple rainbow metallic color, I switched. Plus, one can never have too many tweezers, I always end up losing mine. Somewhere in this house I have 10 tweezers playing hide and seek.

Color Name: Navy $2.80

While I was waiting in line I found this pretty nail polish. I'm not normally a blue nail color kinda girl, but I saw a bit of purple swirled into it and yet again I fell into temptation.


Unfortunately, that purple swirl didn't stay, it is still a pretty sparkly blue.

~~~~

Macy's is the store that is currently running the free gift with purchase. If you forget which store when you in the mall, like I did, do not worry, they have signs hanging up right at the front of the store.

Top to Bottom
Designer: Metallic $17
Disco Silver $25


I was originally going to try their foundation, but I saw the Disco Silver and decided not to. It's not to glittery, as pictured above, it is a just nice splash of silver. I wear it over my purple eyeshadow and it looks amazing. This is a must have shade!

The Designer color I originally bought for my mom, because I thought this was a color she wanted, but I got the wrong color. I was planning on taking it back but I really like it. I use the color for defining my eyebrows. This is something I recently started doing. Michelle Phan is right, it definitely helps define the face. It takes a lot of practice, but very well worth the pain.

 



Free gift with purchase!


 I am a major sucker for gifts with purchase when it comes to make-up. I have not bought myself mascara in years because of them. I get a new one every three months, which is good considering everyone tells me that my mascara is a major breeding ground for germs.

Anyway, with this gift you get a beautiful make-up bag, eye make-up remover ( I like their eye make-up remover, it smells like roses), mascara, a juicy tube (Moulin Rose), sample of Genifique,  a choice of moisturizers, I choose High Resolution, and a choose of either a eyeliner, mascara base or a eyeliner brush and I choose a eyeliner brush. Eyeliner pencils are nice, but I prefer liquid eyeliner and one can never have too many make-up brushes,

The free gift is available at Macys until February 21.

I keep track of when Lancome has free gifts with purchase with this website:

I would keep this website in your favorites and I'm adding this to my awesome website list on the side. They are very accurate when events are happening. I never want to miss when they have gift with purchases, so I do check it regularly.

~~~~~

Now, last but not least, off to Sephora.



tokidoki - Donutella $9.00
tokidoki- Pink Martini $9.00
Hello Kitty  Parfum 100pt Free Gift with Purchase
Sephora- Glitter Black Liquid Eyeliner $10.00

Top - Bottom Swatches
tokidoki - Pink Martini
tokidoki - Donutella
Sephora Glitter Eyeliner
  I had already bought a lot more then intended on this trip and I was only going to buy the liquid eyeliner. I have used a few other liquid eyeliners and I prefer Sephora's brand.


Their tips are a perfect balance of thinness and thickness. I can't stand when liners are too thin, there is no support, it flops around and it is too easy to mess up.

Plus this liner has a nice glitter to it.  As I have said before I'm a sucker for anything sparkly.


Now, I'm not fan of the tokidoki line. I do not dislike it either, it's just not my go to line. I got the tokidoki bag because I like the art of the line. It's very cute and fun!

 I was looking around and my buddy started chatting with one of the store associates and she told us to check out these lip glosses. It isn't the color or the brand that made me buy these. It was the flavor; Donutella is strawberry and Pink Martini is watermelon . It reminded me of the tinkerbell  makeup that I wore when I was a little kid, so I had to grab them. They had two other colors, but it was purple and a clear that kinda reminded me of paste I used it school. You know the paste, that the weird kid in class would eat when he thought no one was looking. Yeah, not the kinda memories I want brought up every time I put on lipgloss.

I would definitely buy these, as you can tell with the swatches, it adds a very little tint to your lips, but the smell and taste will bring you back to the good old days, when deciding what outfit Barbie would wear was your biggest problem of the day.

Last but not least, the Hello Kitty Parfum.

As you know Sephora has come out with a Hello Kitty Line.

Check it out at Sephora, it is all very cute, expensive, but cute!

If you been saving up your points for something, now is the the time to spend your purchasing points, or spend a hundred dollars, because one of their 100 pt items is a cute little sample of their Hello Kitty Parfum.

I went up to the counter and started freaking out because I had just spent 500 pts on the philosophy Christmas gift set they had last month. Now before you think, she spent that much on make-up, when my mom went shopping for her make-up awhile back she put all her purchases on my card and I was lucky enough to get her points! I also bought a lot of birthday and Christmas presents at Sephora. Not to say I don't have a nice make-up addiction, I do, just not that big of one.

Anyway, I was freaking out that I wouldn't have enough points and I was quickly looking around for what I could buy in the next five minutes that would get me up to 100pts. Of course, I could have just bought the normal size bottle, but I wanted the tiny cute one! I wanted THAT bottle!

 To my relief I had points leftover and got my Hello Kitty Bottle.
The parfum smells wonderful! So, all you Hello Kitty Fans go get your butt over to Sephora!
All done! I am now broke until I get paid again which happens to be this Thursday! Perfect timing since that's when the Wonder Woman Mac set is releasing in the stores!

You can currently check it out at:

<3 Zerila

FYI- I checked and you can get grab the Forever 21 Accessories @ http://www.forever21.com/

veggie/water: All good!

   




































Monday, February 7, 2011

Blogging Day 171: My Favorite Super Bowl Commericals



















Half time left a lot to be desired. I am a fan of the Black Eyed Peas, but I didn't like their halftime performance. They are the first popular/current group since the Justin and Janet incident. I thought maybe they would do a bit better. Usher, on the other hand, was amazing! I wish I could move like him.

Besides the lack of awesomeness in the Black Eyed Pea performance, everything else was amazing. The dancers, costumes, musicians and visual effects were amazing.Their outfits reminded me of Tron, very techy and very retro at the same time.


Oh, well. The Black Eyed Peas can not be totally perfect. I'll still be rockin' to their beats.
Of course, Glee was amazing!!!!!

WOW, I'm watching FOX 45 and since when did news casters show clevage?

Craziness!


<3 Zerila

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Blogging Day 170 : Chinese New Year Celebration in DC



Before the Super Bowl even started my brother and I went to Chinatown in DC to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It was crazy! There were so many people there! I could not get any good pictures, but these are the ones I could get!


The Metro Stop Exit for Chinatown. 




The entrance into Chinatown










The only good picture of the parade I could get and that's with the sign post in the middle of each picture.


In the Gallery they had demonstrations of painting, free ice cream, tea and they even had some break dancing.


As we were leaving my brother saw this guy with a mohawk on this motorcycle helmet! VERY COOL!


All in all it was too small an area to host the celebration. I'll have to get myself to San Fransisco or New York for a New Year Celebration.


We of course made it back in time for the kick off of the Super Bowl. Do I like football? No, but I enjoy watching the commercials!

So far this is the best one:



Veggie/Water: We ate at a mongolian grill and I put tons of veggies into it and tonight we are having taco salad. Plus, I'm still on the oranges. Water is good.

<3 Zerila





















Thursday, February 3, 2011

Blogging Day 167 : Chinese New Year Inspired Cupcakes


First things first, I googled how to write Happy New Year in Chinese characters and if I did it wrong at all, I do apologize. I mean no disrespect.

Now, onto the fun stuff! The Chinese New Year Celebration has begun!

Happy New Years Everyone!
We celebrated the New Year at work and I was inspired to create these cupcakes.
Let's Begin!

Items you will need ( the numbers given will give you the above look, numbers can vary based how many people will devour your cupcakes):

Icing: I used Martha Stewart's Buttercream Icing with a tbsp of cinnamon. It added a nice flavor, I could not think of a flavor that was Chinese that would be good for cupcakes. Maybe ginger?
Icing Round Tip
Icing Bag: I used a gallon ziplock bag and honestly, they are a lot easier to use then your normal bag because it allows for more room to stuff the icing in. Just cut off a corner and insert tip.
18 Cupcakes: I used yellow cake.
Hot Water
Icing Spatula
Print out of Happy New Year in Chinese Characters.
14 Fortune Cookie
Black Gel Icing

Let's Being

Step 1:



For some reason I got some crazy looking cupcakes this time around. No worries, as morphed as your cupcakes are, it can always be covered up with icing.


Layout your cupcakes and fill your icing bag with icing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step 2:




Squirt out icing on top of your cupcake. It does not have to be perfect, just make sure you put enough icing on there.

Once done, place in fridge for about 30 minutes or more, until the icing has harden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step 3:


Once the icing has harden, it's time to smooth out the cupcakes. Taking a glass of hot water, dip the icing spatula in the hot water and smooth out the icing. You can grab a paper towel and wipe off any icing you take off, or excess water. The heat will allow you to easily smooth out the icing.

Do not put away the water and the spatula yet!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step 4:



Now that your cupcakes are all smoothed out, set aside all but four. With the picture of the Chinese characters close, use the black gel icing and write out the characters.

Do not worry if you make a mistake. Using the spatula, scrap off the black icing. You may scrap off a bit of the white icing. If you find you are making to many mistakes on one cupcake, and it looks like your are about to run out of the white icing, grab another cupcake and being again.

The last two characters were the hardest for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last step:



On the rest of the cupcakes place a fortune cookie on top.

Granted, the characters are not perfect, but a fun idea to celebrate a culture's holiday. I encourage everyone to find a city that is celebrating the New Year and check it out. I plan on traveling to DC and watch the festivities there.

Have fun! Remember: Be creative, Be Imaginative and Make it your own!


Veggies/Water: I have been eating ALOT of oranges lately! I have one for breakfast, lunch and snack. Very yummy!

Oh, I finally added a picture of myself in my profile! I was having a lot of fun with my computer's camera program.

OH!!! Big announcement! My Grandpa is getting married!!! Congratulations Grandpa!!

<3 Zerila

Journal With Me 9/19/20

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