peace, dove, and rock and roll

one of the best things about tiffany & co is their ability to churn out modern, cute, and chic jewelry items on a consistent basis to keep you coming back for more. if you like to lurk on their online website, their jewelry tab has a sub tab labeled "new jewelry" and there's always new designs released or updated versions of the old ones. more times than not, their items are pretty dang cute and if you have no will power like, um...me, then you probably find yourself collecting a few more blue boxes then you'd like to admit. i blame them for knowing how to grab a girl by her balls....

after picking up my love bracelet, we went to tiffany to look for wedding bands and what do i see there...the paloma picasso rose gold dove on a rose gold chain! whether or not i was under the rose gold spell of my love bracelet or just giddy from being in a big girl's candy shop....it did not take me long to decide to make my vegas gift to myself a duo :)

one of the things tiffany does best is to create very fine, delicate necklaces for their pendants. this rose gold dove looks like it's taking flight off my neck and is the cutest thing ever.

whoo hoo done! shopping ban for the next year :( i promise?

everlasting love

10 years ago, i bought a lavender jade bracelet in hong kong. it was tight enough to fit my left wrist securely and it was meant to stay on forever...that is until forever lead me to a work retreat and a masseuse who asked me to take the jade bracelet off and then....it fell off the chair it was placed on! look at the crack! i never wore it again because cracked jade is considered bad luck and i didn't want to mess with my luck. it now sits in my closet lonely and broken-hearted.

since that fateful day, my beady eyes were always on the look out for a bracelet of some sort. i'm kind of enamored with the idea of semi-permanent jewelry but not wanting to invest in another crackable item like a jade bracelet, i went without until....i discovered the cartier love bracelet! full on metal and cute to boot? hell yeah! go ahead and try to crack that you big bad chair with gravity as its accomplice!

so once my birthday rolled around, and i completed my second masters, and passed my comps, i had enough reasons to go on a vegas trip to splurge on myself one last time before i funnel all my efforts and resources on our wedding. i purchased this pink gold, size 16 cartier love bracelet on my berfday and have happily worn it since then.

i really LOVE LOVE LOVE it. the best part is that the pink gold looks lovely against my skin tone AND i have no fear of losing it. since this baby is rather shiny, i've been extra cautious about not scratching it up. but it's inevitable that new things don't remain new forever and i say so because i discovered my first scratch this afternoon :( but like a good relationship, it should be better with time and i look forward to the formation of a lovely patina on my bracelet as i rock it old woman style for many, many years to come. *happy sigh*

*******background info*******
cartier created this "love bracelet" in 1969 to symbolize everlasting and faithful love because the bracelet is locked on with two screws that fits the bracelet intimately to your wrist. they even provide a gold plated screwdriver in your metal color to complete the package. traditionally, your lover locks the bracelet on you and possesses the screwdriver to the bracelet. but if you're an independent lady and appreciate jewelry for the aesthetic value of it like me, then lover or not, this bracelet is quite gorgeous on the wrist. oh hell yeah i would buy it again!

ok, so the love bracelet is in that box, then what's in THIS BOX?!

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