12.13.2012

food that helps me get through the week

So I currently have a splitting headache because I drank a White Peppermint Mocha on an empty stomach, and I just realized that those Starbucks holiday drinks are basically lethal because they consist of caffeine + a ton of sugar OR a ton of sugar + more sugar... And when I came home, I had a Lean Pocket and cupcakes. ...I don't know.

All I can say is thank god tomorrow is Friday. And after tomorrow, only three and a half more days of school until winter break!!!! Which brings us back to the cupcakes - I knew this week was going to be pretty crappy, so I stopped by my favorite local place to get cupcakes on Tuesday - Jeseca Creations!

It's a small little shop in a shopping center that doesn't get much traffic, so it's usually empty when I go, but the cupcakes are easily the best bang for your buck you can get around here for $2 a cupcake. Once in awhile, I get a coupon in the male for buy 3 get 1 free, meaning 4 cupcakes for only $6! I always make sure I go when I have the coupon, but even without it, they're still the cheapest you can get from a bakery. They may even be the best in terms of quality because I was so blown away by the four cupcakes I picked up this week!

First, I'll start with the ones I got back in October that I never got around to blogging about. I didn't like them as much as the ones I got this week, but they were still good.

12.10.2012

this is a naked palette appreciation post





I am definitely set on my neutral eyeshadows. No more, I swear.

11.28.2012

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Buys

I honestly didn't do much damage at all on Black Friday! I ended up with a $20 giftcard to Windsor after waiting in line for 40 minutes before midnight (not bad at all, right?) and the loafers above that I scored for only $7 :D I've been on the hunt for the perfect pair of brown riding boots, but the pair I was going to order from Macy's sold out in my size :( Oh well! I also had a weird, extremely strong desire to own a pleather skirt, so I'll see how much I like the ones I ordered and will end up returning at least one of them.
  1. JCP I 'Heart' Ronson Faux Leather Skirt - $17
  2. Romwe Lovely Style Black Backpack - $47.11
  3. F21 Faux Leather A-Line Skirt - $17.80
  4. ELF Small Tapered Brush - $1.50
  5. ELF Angled Blush Brush - $1.50
  6. ELF Angled Contour Brush - $1.50
  7. ELF Blush in Tickled Pink - $1.50
  8. Milani Powder Eyeshadow Palette in Abstract - $7.19
  9. Nature Breeze Leila-14 Flats in Camel - $7
  10. ELF Essential Holiday 15-piece Nail Set - $7.50
I regret not getting more things as gifts for people #selfish

11.18.2012

the perfect sunday

  1. Wake up early
  2. Go walking
  3. Eat a delicious, hearty brunch
  4. Run errands
  5. Take an early afternoon nap
  6. Work
  7. Watch TV/a movie
  8. Eat a home-cooked dinner

9.30.2012

plus or minus a few things

Hi, lovelies! Hope everyone's enjoying their last few days of September!

As you can see, this blog has underwent a name/URL change! It's not called plus or minus (+/-). bowtiex was just a placeholder because I never really had a name that I liked, but I'm pretty happy with this one so far. Need to go and make a header to fill up the emptiness...

I did a bit of damage this weekend, so expect another haul post hopefully within the week! For now, here's a few sad pics I took with my phone one day.

You know Pinkberry's chocolate hazelnut flavor? It's SO GOOD. With rolled chocolate hazelnut wafers, coconut, almond roca, and dark chocolate crisp things. So good. Except, I can't afford Pinkberry with toppings, so I've been considering buying a take-home size and eating it with Ferrero Rondnoirs. Did you know that if they already have one that's been sitting in the freezer for a certain number of days, you can get it for $5?!?! That's how much a small with toppings costs.



So. Good. I've already almost finished one box by itself, but it would be so perfect as a topping...



I'm actually not the hugest fan of frozen yogurt - ice cream wins any day because I always go for the creamy, sweet flavors of froyo anyway. It is light and refreshing and tastes great with fruits, though! I got some white chocolate macadamia yogurt (yum!) with strawberries and pineapples and coconut and it was extremely satisfying. I forgot to take a picture :( so here's the cute penguin spoon.



My Coterie package was waiting for me when I got home! So glad I missed the BOGO Butter London sale at Ulta because these were such a better deal! Love love the colors and got 4 + a matte top coat for $11.xx - less than the regular cost of one BL polish!



Look at the gorgeous duochrome in Knackered! I have it on right now, and ok, to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of these purple/gray/green duochromes, but what really makes this polish so pretty is the teeny holographic glitters that are subtle but very apparent.



Coterie + my collar tips deliveries and a new Ulta catalog with a $5 off $10 coupon? Plus a sample of Daisy, which is one of the few of those designer perfumes I actually like. Pretty much as perfect as a school afternoon can get.

9.18.2012

easy breezy

Yes, my skirt is off-center. Sue me.

Some of my favorite things to wear when it's hot outside but freezing inside the classroom are chiffon, light knits, and skirts. You know when your thighs get sticky on the plastic chairs on your desk? Disgusting. It's because they make shorts so freaking short nowadays. I recently bought a pair of comfy Hollister shorts that are supposed to be "midi" length... but I think they're the shortest pair I own lol. So there you go. Skirts are great when it's hot because they're probably longer than most shorts you own, but they're nice and breezy so you don't get hot. I also regret not collecting a few more chiffon shirts this summer, but I don't think I'll get much use out of them when it starts getting colder anyway.

It was on the chillier side this morning (today was only 91 degrees... compared to the 100+ expected later this week T_T) so I opted for my midi high-low skirt and this 3/4 sleeve knit top whose color I am in love with (it's a bit greener irl). I love this outfit because it's casual and feminine but totally comfortable.

Personally, I don't feel comfortable "trying too hard" with what I wear to school; I always choose something simple and practical. Whenever I'm not posting here (which is like 350/365 days of the year?), I literally just wear something along the lines of jeans and a t-shirt lol. I'm making a personal goal to make my outfits a little more special with accessories but still keep things simple.

Top: Forever 21
Skirt: Forever 21
Arrow cuff: Forever 21
Claw bracelet: eBay
Sandals: Target

9.16.2012

back from the dead

Sorry for not posting for the last month of summer! Senior year has started, and I've been having some personal issues. I think I'm okay for the most part, now. So here are a few outfits I wore last week!



Outfit 1 // 2 // 3
Top: Forever 21 // H&M, Goodwill (denim shirt) // Forever 21
Bottom: eBay // Forever 21 // Celebrity Pink (Macy's)
Shoes: Reflection // Target (black/gold t-strap sandals, not pictured) // Reflection
Bag: Jason Wu

The third outfit is what I wore to an interview for a tutoring job, which I got! I'm so happy but a little nervous. I still have to wait for clients to call the company, so I won't start for a few more weeks. But omg. An income!!

8.06.2012

Speak When Spoken To, Lollipop



Excuse my wrinkly hands...

Yay, finally did my nails in a way that I love so much that I can't stop looking at them! Been trying to get that satisfaction for awhile, but something has always gone wrong the past few times I've done my nails...

8.05.2012

nothing like a good day of shopping

First of all, a quick announcement! If you haven't already noticed, I replaced links to outside sites in my recent posts with adf.ly links. If you're unfamiliar with adf.ly, it basically creates a 5-second detour that shows an ad before you can reach the site you were linked to. It's completely harmless; I just don't really recommend clicking on any ads. For every visit on any of my links, I get like a thousandth of a cent lol. Obviously since this blog is fairly new and doesn't have many followers, I don't expect to make bank, but every little thing counts! I'm just another poor teenage girl! So, while I'm not saying you should go around clicking every link in my posts, I'd really appreciate it if you'd all understand and have the patience to wait the extra 5 seconds to see anything you might find an interest in while being here (no sarcasm - I truly understand how off-putting those 5 seconds can be). All of the links I include in posts are a genuine effort to be more informative and helpful to my readers :) If you're interested in using ad.fly on your own website, please use my referral link!

Moving on... I bought more stuff today. Yes, you can see I have problems. Shopping in general makes me happy! I love running errands. I went a little crazy buying dessert stuff because most baked goods are soft and so easy to eat (my humongous sweet tooth doesn't help either). Other than that, I ran around returning a bunch of stuff, but I figured why return when you can exchange and get new stuff?! I am an idiot that has no idea how to save money. However, I am super duper happy with what I got! I also threw in two tops I got recently because they're so gorgeous.

8.02.2012

ZARA lust


Zara may as well just kill me now.

7.31.2012

wait for me

Hooray! Now that I don't have to eat everything through a teeny tiny tube, I can go around taking pictures of food without feeling bad! Missed a lot of good photo ops today, now that I think about it, but heck, I realized that I've developed a lot of habits that'll take some effort to break over the past five weeks!

I don't think I've blogged about it on here yet, but this Thursday marks six weeks since I've gotten upper jaw surgery + genioplasty. To be honest, recovery has been a lot harder than I thought it would be - mentally, not physically. Sure, I've lost weight, but that's probably from muscle loss since my body fat percentage isn't too noticeably different. I loaded up on calories from daily ice cream shakes with peanut butter and oreos - none of that low fat stuff! Those things pretty much kept me alive... living off thin soups and fruit juice is not fun, but I don't think I'll ever get sick of ice cream, peanut butter, or chocolate :Q Besides the obvious horrendous lack in variety of meal choices, though, not being able to talk really affected me negatively. I was always frustrated and impatient at not being to express myself (writing things down is a lot of work, time-consuming, and doesn't have the same effect). But! I went back to the hospital today and got unwired, so I'm ecstatic. Seems like I'm going to have more issues physically, though - it's kind of weird and hard to understand me some of the time, and I have to be careful because it hurts if I open too wide right now. And it actually takes a lot of effort to talk! Just let me go back to being a hermit lol.

Enough with the wall of text! Time to move on to the fun stuff. Good morning, smoggy LA.



7.25.2012

shopping haul!

Someone needs to hide my wallet (not that there's much in there anymore anyway...) until I get a freaking job.

My excuse is that I got some really awesome deals.

Let's start off with the nail polish!



7.11.2012

life through instagram


  1. The Amazing Spider-man in two words: Andrew Garfield. 'Nuff said.
  2. 4th of July @ my aunt's new house! Couldn't bare to look at any of the delicious food, so you get a picture of my aunt's cute Maltese, Peonie.
  3. Flowers delivered to my house from my orthodontist's office once they heard I'd gotten my jaw surgery! So sweet. My mom and I were disappointed that I didn't have a secret admirer.
  4. Sad attempt at galaxy nails.
  5. My first diy project complete! Studded high-waisted denim shorts - I love them!
  6. In the midst of studding. Thought the inside of my Levi's were so cool.
  7. Lamborghini on the road *_*
  8. Scrumptious fruit tarts from Porto's Bakery. I want one so bad.
  9. Two new Hello Kitty dolls to add to my collection! From my aunt and cousin as get-well-soon gifts.
Follow me @toyboxes !

summer breeze


6.11.2012

even the sun sets in paradise

Yes, I love Payphone lol.

HEY GUYS, IT'S SUMMER! You don't even know how relieved I am to finally have time to just do whatever I want (that includes blogging!). The past few days have been pretty eventful, and I can finally say I've been using my D7000 more than Instagram haha. Seriously. I'm scared of Instagram because of how convenient and addicting it is. My next post will be a photography one, but for now, I just wanted to share some of the stuff I've recently acquired!


Jewelry. I finally got my perfect silver chain collar necklace! *_* When I saw it on the F21 website I seriously freaked out. When I went to the store a few days later I was so excited that they had it! I don't usually buy a lot of jewelry, but there have been so many semi formal events lately that I really wanted some gold accessories to wear with my dresses. I'm kind of obsessed with the gold necklace on the right - it's the perfect length and this really pretty rose gold color! I'm still a bit too conservative to pull off statement necklaces, but the chains are big enough to "make a statement" haha. All of the jewelry except for the bracelet are from Forever 21.


Here's a closeup of the claw bracelet I ordered from eBay! I love love love it. It fits my small wrist nicely and also has a bit of a rose gold finish (definitely not as yellow as it is in the seller's photo).


Beauty. Yes, that's right, I finally got the American Apparel nail polish set I've been dying for. Ordered it when AA was offering free shipping on all orders during Memorial Day weekend, which I figured was the cheapest I was going to get it for. Also picked up the Revlon Kissable Balm Stains! I am so in love with them. The colors are so perfect for the summer - they're very bold but sheer enough that they're wearable? Not sure how that makes sense, but they work. Rendezvous is the perfect orange! I spent the longest time deciding whether to keep Sweetheart or Lovesick (even though they're so similar so it's pretty dumb) and decided to keep the former because I think it suits summer so well with it's simple bright pink color. Lovesick has a tiny bit of purple to it which is so gorgeous - it has a bit more of a pinup-y/mature feel to it. I'm not good with swatches, but I'm sure you can find tons on other blogs.



My aunt gave me this gorgeous fake Chanel bag because she knows I am in love with them... even if I never get to use them because I don't go to fancy evening parties. I already have another one that's more of the classic style with the turn lock, but I really love how smooth and modern this one looks. And here are what my first diy shorts look like so far! I'm being really cautious with the distressing... I'm scared that they'll look weird when I cut them shorter and won't be able to fold them up to fix them, but I really like the cut-off look so I think I'll just take the plunge later. I'm really excited with how they came out so far! Not as much as a failure as I thought. I just ordered some pyramid studs, so can't wait to get those~ I'm really tempted to do an ombre bleach, but I think I'll just play it safe with this pair.

4.18.2012

seventeen

So I definitely should not be blogging (or playing sims social or going through tumblr) right now because I still have a pile of calculus homework that I have no idea how to do and a physics test to study for and stuff to pack BUT today's my birthday so I deserve to be cut some slack! (that totally rhymed) ...Which will result in major stressing and a lack of sleep but anywhoooo here's my bday ootd!





Tbqh this birthday was pretty lackluster. I wasn't excited in the first place but needed a reason to wear some of the new clothes I bought... Not many people knew it was my birthday because I left the food and presents from my friends in my car. And since I literally wear sweatshirts and jeans every day, this was considered super dressed up and everyone would compliment/ask questions and I would just be like ha ha ha uhh. Plus I barely got to see my friends because there was an AP meeting during lunch :( but my two closest friends stopped by and made everything better! Too bad I'm still not in the mood to work.

Lame post is lame. Hope you all have a great week!

3.25.2012

electric grape


Sorry for not cleaning up all the way!

Blogging is hard work. Even though it's loads of fun! Seems like I'm just programmed to resist anything that requires any amount of effort.

The weather has been a bit cold lately and honestly, whenever it's below 65°F I just end up throwing on a sweatshirt and some jeans. I want to wear my spring clothes! :( So, to cheer myself up, I decided to paint my nails this nice bright purple that I picked up at F21 the other day (not sure if it has a name, it's just labeled PURPLE). I've been wanting an electric purple nail polish forever, but the particular one I've been lusting after is from this set of neon red/coral/violet from AA, and this bottle was like less than $3! Love the color; formula was not great. I really need to get my hands on some nail polish thinner. But it worked fine, nonetheless, and now I can't stop looking at my nails! :) I still REALLY want that AA set, though. Just look at how pretty all three of them are *_*

2.14.2012

Valentine's Day, more purchases, and chocolate-covered strawberries

♡♥♡♥ Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! ♡♥♡♥

Despite being single, I actually had a pretty great day, and I hope you all did as well! I'm in such a good mood that I decided to forgo doing my homework and brought out my camera and made chocolate covered strawberries :)

I started off the morning with a card + some money and chocolates from my mom hehe ♥ One of my favorites - the dark chocolate Ferrero Rochers! Dark chocolate is definitely becoming my obsession... I had a white chocolate-covered cake ball today and it was just way too sweet.



I am totally fine with being single, but man there were so many couples at school... My friends and I just complained to each other all day lmao. Fourth period came around and I already knew I wasn't getting any Valentine grams, but two of my guy friends made my day by getting me one! :D Kinda dumb I guess, but I really love surprise holiday grams; they're a nice, cheap way to be really thoughtful. You guys will never read this but I LOVE YOU GUYS HAHA. Here's the carnation it came with :)



After school I ran some errands and picked up this got2b Dry Shampoo and two Sinful Colors nail polishes in Cinderella (has the prettiest pink shimmer) and Nirvana. This is my first dry shampoo, so I may edit this post later with a quick review. I decided I may as well try it - it's only 99¢ at CVS/Rite Aid with a $3 off coupon! The nail polishes are on sale for 99¢ at Walgreens this week :)



I made an impulse decision to pick up some dark chocolate chips since I already had some really delicious strawberries at home (after seeing every 3rd person at school with some). When I got home, I found cards from my dad :)



And then I cut off the tops at the end to make them a little easier to eat :)



Hope you all had a nice day with your loved ones, be it a significant other or friends :)

1.31.2012

EcoTools BOGO FREE at Rite Aid!

If you haven't already heard, Rite Aid is currently having a sale on EcoTools - BOGO FREE! You can make this amazing deal even better by signing up here for a $1 off 2 EcoTools products!

I believe it started this Sunday and it goes on until February 2nd, so hurry to your Rite Aid before everyone else does! This deal is way too good to pass up. I just stopped by today and surprisingly there were still a lot in stock, but I wouldn't wait too long.



I picked up the 6 piece eye brush set and the 6 piece brush set all for $9.99 ^_^ Not bad for 12 brushes, huh?

princess nails!


First of all, I just have to say I am in love with my nails right now! I feel like a freaking princess ♕ The finish is so squishy, shiny, and sparkly, and they finally satisfy the prolonged desire I had for a jelly nail polish!

But -- what you see is with five coats. I was ready to put on something sheer and on the natural side (after suffocating my poor nails with a combo of 3 polishes and a total of 6-7 layers), but when I applied the first coat, I was so disappointed -- there was no pink at all! I know jelly polishes are supposed to be sheer since that's what gives the jelliness, but I feel like it could have been a bittt more opaque. I kept on layering on more and more and finally the pink showed through. All in all, I love the end result, but I think next time I'll put on a light nude pink to make it a little more milky like how it looks in the bottle.

As for the glitter top coat (which contains yellow stars, white stars, pink hearts, some blue/purple microglitter, and silver string gitter), you can see how sparse it already looks in the bottle. Good thing I already had decided beforehand that I was only going to put it on two nails... it took forever to pick out the hearts, which I wanted the most! The combination of the glitters is very cute though, and I think it added a nice subtle finishing touch to my nails :)

I bought the pink PA polish for like $4.39 and the glitter for $4.99 which is pretty expensive considering how tiny the bottles are, but they are from Japan and pretty hard to get a hold of in the US. I got them at a Japanese store in a local mall, and it actually has quite a large selection of PA polish plus other things. I was only really interested in these two (thank god lol) since you don't really find these types of nail polish in non-Asian stores.

1.23.2012

e.l.f. 100 shadows!

So a few weeks ago, I found the e.l.f. Studio Endless Eyes Pro Eyeshadow Palette online at Target for only $6 (+ free shipping)! It normally retails for $10 (it's still available here), so I immediately ordered it without batting an eye :P Free shipping is always what seals the deal for me! I figured it'd be the perfect palette to go to in case I ever feel like experimenting with. I've heard a lot of things about a couple shadows being broken when they arrived, and as you can see from the picture, it was really... dusty? So I was a bit worried, but luckily all of mine were perfectly intact! It's an amazing palette, even at $10! I definitely recommend it, especially if you can get it for even cheaper!
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