red hot

muhahaha....

happy birthday to me AND a red reward for completing my 2nd masters.
yes, i know how to spoil myself rotten :)~

of wedding things and wedding bling

oh weddings. weddings. i will be having one of these in A YEAR so this beautiful skinny girl that you see in this picture...isn't me. she's my cousin-in-law and that's my very happy cousin. their wedding was absolutely gorgeous and made me so teary-eyed....

when i first got engaged, i was just basking in the glow of being engaged and would admire my bling in all sorts of lighting....i still do as a matter of fact. here's me shamelessly checking out my ering bathed in candlelight at their wedding reception.

but as time steadily progresses, i feel more and more choked...venue, colors, guest list, budget, photographers, themes...ACK. i know i still have a year to plan, but REALLY, how does one plan for something that they've never planned before and how does one make it as beautiful as my cousin's wedding pictured above? to be continued.....

meet lucy!

having charlie is enough. it really is. he is the best beagle doggie ever with the most velvety ears and the smoothest of smooth coats. let's just say, he gets molested by strangers all the time trying to rub his gorgeous little head...and i don't blame them. he does have the sweetest little face and super expressive eyes. if you saw him, i'm pretty sure you would be compelled to rub is furry head too.

here is my fur bag striking a pose in a sculpture piece at ucla.

but he seemed kind of lonely with us. i don't know, maybe i watch dog whisperer too much and got guilt-washed, but dogs belong in packs and it didn't seem right for him to only have two-legged pack members. besides, we don't always play with him cuz we're tired after a long day at work and it's pathetic when he rams his toys into our legs hoping to provoke some playtime. attention whore? neglected fur baby? sadness? yes. :(

then i found out a coworker's dog had 12 pups and when i told my fiance they were a labrador retriever mix, my fiance was sold. his two favorite types of dogs combined into one! holy smokes! it's like a chanel/tiffany/vca store for me but err...doggy style. i didn't want to say no to my fiance and ultimately, i think charlie would benefit from having a sibling so soon enough, we picked up our new family member and named her "lucy." (i nicknamed her "juicy" though cuz she squirts so much pee. it is ridiculous how much she whizzes....i know, she's a puppy, but goddamn!).

she also requires a lot of baths because she pees everywhere and likes to roll around in it for fun. not to mention that one morning when i found a piece of turd stuck to her side. ugh puppies!!!

but it turned out i couldn't have two dogs because the chinese character for dog, once doubled, means "cry" "wail" "moan" so basically, bad luck. even though my parents don't live with us, they sure can nag persistently from afar so in order to appease my dad, the uber superstitious one of the two, i got a third dog named "spike."

spike is a good dog and does not pee everywhere like lucy does. he even has balls! i like him a lot.

i'm not sure if my dad cares much for this trick, but he's not protesting as much anymore. besides, he can't argue the fact that charlie now has a four-legged friend, even though lucy dominates him and plays so rough! poor charlie!!!!

i'm pretty sure everything will smooth out between the both of them and i hope they grow up to be good, old friends. my day is pretty complete when i have my family and my four-legged buddies around me.

it all leads back to prada

not too long ago, ucla hosted the annual l.a. times festival of books. as an undergrad at ucla, i would go because it was convienent and i had a parking pass. nowadays, if i want to go, i would have to make a real effort to do so because it's on the other side of town and driving on the 10 freeway is not my idea of fun...not so much going there, but the going back home traffic. though i technically don't drive much since my fiance does the chauffeuring, but my butt still gets numb from sitting too long. either way, BAD...and yes i do ramble.

anyways, when my sis found out that an artist she jocked was having a signing at the festival of books, she suggested that we go. not wanting to say "no" to my little sis, the whole pack of us piled into my fiance's car and off we went to ucla. oh my, i forget how lovely this place is!

walking around the campus sure brought back a lot of memories....

and the day was crazy crowded. look at the human ant hill we have here. i'm just amazed people still read given the fact that every day in my teacher life, i struggle to GET children to read.

but seriously, reading for entertainment has gone down the dumps as people trade print for other distractions no? oh sadness if that is the case. there is something magical about getting lost in a book...which reminds me:

as we milled about, the sheer number of people closing in on us made our decision clear and quick. do we book ass to the signing and then GO HOME? boring? probably. sane? most definitely yes.

we finally found her artist, james jean. he looks like a young dude, but probably not. you know what they say about asians looking young right? he is no exception. this mofo is 30 years old! but holy crap, he looks like a baby.....anyways, he creates some pretty amazing artwork. disturbing, yet beautiful, with a touch of disneyland. it's hard to describe so go google his work and you decide for yourself.

i was pretty taken by this particular print that was available on site, but did not want to cough the $80 to take it home, even if it meant he was going to sign it which would have made it extra special. it is rather clear to me the things i choose to spend my money on. but pretty though, don't you think?

after the signing, we visited the ucla student store to pick up some gear. during the ride home in horrible traffic, i asked my sis if james jean ever did anything else because his artwork looked so familiar to me but i couldn't figure out why. as soon as she uttered out, "he designed some bag..." i yelled out PRADA! of course, james jean designed the fairy bags that i was drooling over in 2008 but it was too late for me to nab a bag during that time because it was so popular (check out post 1 and post 2). dude, if i had that bag, i would have TOTALLY asked him to sign it...and i wonder if it would have looked weird if i did. anyways, what i wouldn't have paid for a picture, i would have certainly paid for a bag and that fairy bag james jean designed was hawt!

well, no bag or picture for me, but i got charlie a new ucla collar and leash. he looked sooooooo collegiate with his ucla gear on. smart doggy.

a pouchee in a purse for this bag whore

the bigger my bag, the longer it takes to dig things out of it like my wallet, keys, cell phone, my kitchen sink....until pouchee came to my rescue and sent me their outback pouchee in tan so i can give their product a test run.

the pouchee is a rather compact purse organizer and there are tons of compartments to take care of your credit cards and loose personal items, you know, the stuff that usually ends up knocking around the bottom of your cavernous purses. this particular leatherette look gives the product a hint of lux while the metal rings allow for easy transfer from said bag to another said bag. i don't personally use pouchee as a replacement wallet because i stuff my wallets like i stuff my bra so you know i need more space than this pouchee can offer, but it's useful to hold my other loose items.

i tried it in my chanel jumbo, but found the leatherette pouchee to be slightly sticky inside my chanel....

it definitely works a lot better in my bottega veneta which is huge and in need of some organizing.

a few days later, i was also sent a regular orange cotton pouchee to test that as well because i thought the leatherette might be slightly heavy and the last thing i needed was a heavy item for my already heavy bags. i was told that both materials weighed exactly the same, but in my head, the cotton one felt lighter...go figure.

after toting both for roughly 2 weeks, i find that i prefer the cotton pouchee so this orange cutie has found a permanent home in my marc by marc jacobs hillier hobo. here it is hanging around with a ton of other junk in my bag (i spy a micky d's arch...)

thanks to pouchee for organizing my mess! and lucky you, they're having a liquidation sale on their short strap pouchee so you can grab your own for $20. perhaps you can pick up a pouchee for your cavernous bags as well and become an organized diva just like me :0

work bag for the work horse

for someone who spends so much money and time gawking at handbags, you would THINK i carry a rockin' HOT one to work...but alas, i don't. i carry a very modest, broken in black lesportsac nylon bag. i know...whut?! not only is it nylon and bleh looking, it's also ripping at the seams. shame on me, i KNOW! and i call myself bagnatic.....poser!

but you see, i can look rather homeless when i go to work; t-shirt, baggy jeans, flip flops during the summer if i can get away with it. my chanels and bottega would never do and honestly, i would have happily toted this broken in bag for another few hundred years to honor my homeless look, IF the ripped seam didn't cause my cell phone to fall out! for a few days, my phone was zappy and i was so MAD! ahhh! that's when the thought of replacing my pathetic lesportsac took root.

so flash forward a few months later and a few days of NO INTERNET and i was ripe, RIPE i tell yah to do some shopping damage since i was so bored out of my mind. so a harmless stroll through the mall led me to nordstrom which lead me to the handbag section and what do i see? the marc by marc jacobs dr. q hillier hobo in black!

PERFECT!

it is made of nice black pebbled leather which makes it durable and luscious (oh how i love leather bags!). the black color makes it less scratch prone and is big enough to house all my neccessities. the short handle and a detachable leather strap also allows me to tote it four different ways which i liked. not to mention it looks pretty cute and will be the perfect bag for me as i go straight to happy hour after a hard day's work.

messenger style with the bag towards my rump.

to the side using the long strap.

right up against my armpit when i carry it with the short handle.

and lastly on the crook of my arm (no modeling pic for that one). methinks it's the perfect purse to use when i carry it to work. i was about to go nutty and pick a colorful one, but i reminded myself that this is suppose to be a basic black bag for work so i reined my drag queen proclivities back in and settled for the black one. i just hope marc fits in my desk drawer when i get there. regardless, i am happy with my replacement. the nylon one will be kept around for hiking purposes. woot!

i'm blaming it on the internet

i was without internet for a few days and needless to say, being the mouse potato that i am in my daily life, it was cruel and unusual punishment indeed. ugh. talk about silent screams in my head!

boredom usually breathes trouble for me so i visited the mall instead which lead me to nordstrom which lead me to marc by marc jacobs which would have totally been averted if my DARN INTERNET CONNECTION HAD WORKED! and yes, it's ANOTHER bag!