my oasis

after a sick collection of water bottles (plastic, metal, red, blue, and silver), i've finally found THE water bottle to end all water bottles. please say hello to my new best friend and the sole reason why all the aforementioned bottles have been dumped like dirty diapers. hello lifefactory water bottle! thank god i finally found you for a mere $22 (not factoring in shipping and handling).

if you don't know me much, one thing you should know is that i HATE, HATE, ABSOLUTELY HATE the taste of tinted water. the metallic twang from a metal bottle, the plastic notes from a plastic bottle is plain blasphemous on my tongue. i would rather suck down a paper cup filled with my own saliva than drink from containers like those. no really. i.can.taste.ick.

when i found out about this glass water bottle encased in a silicone sleeve, i thought it was purrrrfect. no more worries about the nasty aftertaste that permeates my tongue after drinking out of a metallic/ plastic container. and FINALLY, i can bring my filtered water from home to lube up my chords. i love it. now is this the most perfect bottle if you hike, jog, or excercise? probably not...i'm afraid the silicone sleeve can only do so much if the bottle ever falls on the ground. it is glass after all. and it is also a tad heavy too.....

but for pacing about in a carpeted room, this bottle is just purrrrfect.

feed me!

staycation has been rather rad. i get to play with my dogs and to shop for things that i normally don't have time to bother myself with. i also get to cook like a pretend chef without a time constraint. that means using more than 3 ingredients at a time...yes, i am a badass.

staycation right now means cleaning up and organizing my crap in my wee house. waaaahhhh! 3 adults, 2 dogs, very little storage space, means a shot at being on an episode of hoarders. anyways, the first step was boxing everything. it's not so fun going out and buying plastic storage boxes....but THIS BOX i enjoyed purchasing. whoo hoo folks, here's my unique recipe box with my two favorite doggies in the world depicted on it :) the dog on the left is charlie and the one on the right is lucy. i looooooove the way the artist marked lucy's face. so unmistakable and sooooooooo freakin' cute.

this is them sleeping together. see the resemblance? i should probably try to take a pic of them sitting up, but they are too tired to pose. they've had a looooooong day rough housing, these darn dawgs.

the top of the recipe box is pretty darn cute too. the bird on the left is me and the bird on the right is my fiance. if you ever meet me in real life, i want to alert you now that i do have a blue belly and an ass that looks like a fan. as you can tell, the dogs are waiting for us to feed them just like they do in real life. woof!

the inside is divided with four tabs; main dishes, side dishes, dessert, and drinks. i didn't even mess with the appetizer tab cuz i don't make any, that's why. besides, isn't a glass of wine a great appetizer? hehe. so now that i have a recipe box, i will slowly organize my random recipes on cute little index cards and pack them in. i have a few of my own, but in no way do i have enough to fill this bad boy. any tried and true recipes that you would like to share? looking forward to building an awesome recipe collection and cooking authentic meals created by other peeps in my wee house.

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.