Looking Back on my Blog~

Hey guys! I know I've been gone for a while (over a year in fact!), but I have been just busy with life and questioning if I should return to blogging. It wasn't until recently though when a few of my readers emailed me with questions/comments that I really thought about my blog again. It's crazy for me to think that people actually read my blog, have questions and even just praise for me. I've been gone so long that I thought my blog was forgotten about, but I'm glad to know that isn't completely true. I took a look back on all my post this past week and I honestly was amazed at the flood of memories that came to me as I read each post and saw my photos. I felt as if those memories were just not so long ago, but at the same time so long ago. It's been about two years since I've seriously blogged and while that doesn't seem that long in terms of time, I feel as if I have changed tremendously since then.. those changes largely having to do with college.. It really feels like a different world here than back at home despite not even being that far from home!
I started blogging all the way back during my sophomore year. At that time in my life, I had loads of free time on my hands and wanted something to do which is why I decided to write my own blog! Throughout high school though, times got stressful for me and soon blogging became a way for me to relax and gave me a way to have time to myself. I enjoyed writing my post and putting my thoughts down onto something. I think a lot.. My brain is always thinking and writing it down helped ease my brain. At the same time, my blog was slowly gaining attention and growing in readers which was a great thing. I did begin to feel some pressure to post better content/more frequently and while it wasn't bad, I was not able to keep up with it once college started. Everything was new in my life once college started and I wanted to enjoy it. Blogging took a back seat and there were times where I would think about writing a post, but chose not to due to a variety of factors such as "pressure to write more," "making the post interesting so people will read," and other excuses. I'm thinking now and I do miss blogging a lot. I miss having a place to write things down, a place to share my ideas, share my experiences, and a place to connect with others. I am planning to start writing a few post here and there again, but probably with different content than before. I'm excited to share with whoever is still reading experiences, ideas, and advice that I have. If no one is still reading, I still may post honestly. As I said before, blogging turned out in a way to be a stress reliever for me and I'm hoping it will help me deal with my college/exam stress that is coming up haha! =)
Now for the fun part of my post.. I've included some photos from 2016 to now that I wanted to share. They are just little snippets of what have been going on with me!  Enjoy =)

This photo is from Chinese New Year! I am here with my mommy and we are enjoying dinner at a restaurant. It was a great night and I greatly enjoyed being away from campus for a little bit! 

These were some pictures I took that I found adorable.
The first is a squirrel in the middle of snow! This year's winter has been "on and off" so I bet all the animals were confused.
The second is absolutely beautiful and I couldn't believe I captured it with my phone. The snow flakes that day were perfect flakes.
The last two photos are from right before spring break! I took a trip to the beach and there I walked my boyfriend's dog as he hung with his friends.. (I personally prefer animals over humans...!)

A picture from Valentine's Day! Call us crazy, but my boyfriend and I went to New York for the day to celebrate! We got up at 7 and drove 3 hours to get there.. Our destination, a hot pot buffet followed by walking around in China town and shopping! It was an amazing adventure <3. 

These pictures are just some funny/cute things that I've encountered this past year. The first is a creative bunny sculpture made from food that I saw in the dining hall. The second photo is from my Valentine's trip to NY. During our exploring, we discovered a store that was selling the cutest items including this set of adorable "lover's" cup. My third photo is from a club/volunteering group. One of the kids that I was working with made this scary magpie with a bunch of eyes. He thought it was scary, but to me, I thought it was the funniest, cutest bird ever! I mean just look at it! 

My last set of photos are from spring break! The first is me (I'm sure I look different from last year..!) on the train towards NY. I was trying to keep myself entertained by messing with my hair and lots of snapchat filters. The last photo is a delicious homemade green tea matcha cake made by my cousin! All I can is that it was DELICIOUS and way better than anything you get from the store. I actually am craving it now as I am typing! 

Even looking back on these pictures, there's so much fun memories that I have already had this year! Crazy to think that it is April! I have less than a month less till finals and then after the exams, freedom from anything academic! I can't wait! I hopefully will be blogging ~ once a week or so from now on. Writing this post was relaxing for me and I miss reading other's blogs! In my down time, I will be going around and seeing what everyone has been up to the last year! Take care~

Cash Cash + Throwback OOTD

Happy Belated Valentines Day everyone!! I hope you guys all had a wonderful day yesterday filled with love whether that would be with your family, friends, or significant other! For me, I had a simple night in filled with tv, candy, and happiness! Tonight my bf and I are going out to eat to celebrate Valentines! (restaurants were booked last night haha!) I am hoping to be able to do a fun little "Valentines day post" next week!

As I am slowly trying to ease blogging back into my life as I go to school, I have been craving to do outfit post again. However, it's really hard to find not only the time and place to shoot pictures especially with living in a dorm! These following picture were from the summer, weeks before I started college! It's crazy how fast the time has past!

So as you can clearly tell, it is not winter when these photos were taken! I could actually see the ground haha! (I haven't seen clean ground or grass in weeks!) I cannot wait for it to be just a bit warmer again so I can stop wearing my big poofy coat and break out my dresses and skirts! I think the weather right now has been making me quite tired along with everything that is going on. I am much more involved this semester (volunteering and a job) and while my classes aren't killer, I find myself feeling sleepy and having a short fuse. 

I'm very fortunate though to have a single!! It does get lonely at times and while I miss my old roommate, coming back to an empty room after a long day is the best feeling! I'm not going to lie though, now that I have the whole room, my room has gotten extremely messy. I guess I gave up trying to be neat for my roommate! 

For my throwback outfit post today, I am wearing quite the colorful outfit! I have on a bright orange crop top that I got a while ago. I don't find myself wearing crop tops often, but when I do, I like to pair it with something high waisted. The thought of showing my belly with an outfit isn't what I am used too. I like for my belly button to be covered haha! For my skirt, I have chosen a dark blue high low skirt that I got a while ago. This skirt is one of my favorites since it has something that my other skirts don't have- pockets! Yes pockets are so useful and appreciated to me! These pockets are located in the perfect place for me to put my hands into.

For my jewelry, I opted to wear a necklace that I had made a while ago in my jewelry class. The necklace is made of gold hoops linked together with green beads. For my earrings, I found this cute pair in my closet. The earring is also a gold colored flower with a pearl on the bottom. For my shoes, I have on some tan colored flip flops! 

Crop Top- Wetseal

Woven Mini Skirt- Forever 21 or Dresshead

Necklace- Made by me! 

Earrings- Similar @ Kohls

Flip Flops- Forever 21

In other news, our school hosted a Winter White concert for us and Cash Cash came!! I had decided not to go, but last minute, I wanted to go! This resulted in an overpriced ticket, but pretty worth it in the end I felt! 

Are you guys over winter as of now?

How was your Valentine's Day?

Are you a fan of Cash Cash? 

My Vacation in Cancun

It's been quite a cold week for me here! The winter storm Juno hit us pretty hard where I am. We got ~2 feet of snow and a day off from school! (Yay for sleeping in!) As I am writing this post, I hear of more snow coming towards us tomorrow night. I can't say I am excited, but I won't complain if we are to get another day off from school. (which is just confirmed.. no school tomorrow!)
I actually can't believe right now, but today is the first day of February. This year is going by too fast and I can't believe that about a little under a month ago, I was having the time of my life in CANCN with my boyfriend and his family! This vacation marks the first time I have left the country since coming here haha. I was extremely excited to the point where I did not sleep the night before our flight. (It also helps that the flight was at 5 am and we had to leave at 3:30 am) I just chose to stay up until then! Since it was my first time out of the country and going on a plane in a long time, I didn't know much about the rules and regulations.  I actually ended up running into a few issues that were easily resolved. One issue was with my passport. My passport was set to expire March of this year and I never knew of the 6 month rule. After googling and some phone calls, I was relieved to hear that Mexico was one of the few countries that did not require the 6 month rule!! (phewww.. or else I don't know if my new passport would have come to me in time!)

This was an amazing, but scary sight!

The flight itself to Mexico went pretty smoothly. Since it had been so long since I've gotten on a plane, I was incredibly nervous. I'm not that brave and the feeling of being so high in the air freaked me out. Luckily I had my boyfriend there next to me to keep me from passing out... though he kinda laughed at me for being so afraid!
We took two flights to get to Cancun. Our first one landed us in NJ. There we waited a couple hours for the 2nd flight which took us to Cancun.

When we finally arrived in Cancun, it was about 3 in the afternoon and we were exhausted! You would think sitting/sleeping on a plane is refreshing, but no, it was the complete opposite. However being in a new place definitely brought my energy levels right up.
Cancun was a completely new place for me. It was so tropical and relaxing especially when compared to back home for me where it was near 0 and freezing! The first thing I noticed there was the sun and all the palm trees! You don't see palm trees in New England! I also noticed the scent of Cancun.. The air was warm and it smelled so tropical.

We had to wait around the airport a bit in order to get our rental car. It took a couple hours, but we were finally off to our hotel afterwards. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and grand! We pulled up and there were people at the door to aid us. Never have I seen such an amazing place. I felt like royalty haha!  The hotel we stayed at had many buildings. The building we were at was the one by the beach. We got super lucky and ended up with an ocean/beach view room!

On our vacation, we planned many a few things to do as well as a day or two of just rest/beach/exploring the hotel days! On one of the days, my boyfriend and I went swimming with dolphins! (keep in mind that I am terrified of water so my lifejacket was my best friend) We got to touch, high five, kiss, and swim with the dolphins. It was an amazing experience! The dolphins were really gentle and they looked like they were having lots of fun with us!

Check out all these cool creatures!

Another place we went on our vacation was to a water park called Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha was basically a huge lake that we float in. Along the way, we could stop at various activities including zip lining and walking across a tightrope. I was brave enough to the zip line!! It was the type where you had to hold onto the bars instead of sitting!! We also went on this bike ride "in the air" type ride and let me say, it was so much fun! We were basically suspended in the air while peddling a bike. I didn't find this ride particularly scary because I was having soo much fun up there. I could see everything and it was so neat to be in the trees!
At the park, we also saw some exotic animals! Among those animals, the Coati was the coolest looking one! When I first saw the animal, it was crossing my path and freaked me out! I thought is was a raccoon with a tail! lol!

On our trip we also stopped by Chichen Itza! This place is known as one of the wonders of the world and I have to say after visiting it really is a wonder! I highly recommend it! There were lots of tourist there and it was quite exciting.

The animals there were amazing ! 

Yummy food!!

I loved my time in Cancun! It was such a new and fun experience there! I got to see so many new places and enjoy a new cultural. I loved the food there and even picked up a tiny bit of Spanish. The week there went by super fast there and I can't wait to go back someday!

Have you ever been to Mexico?
Where was the last place you visited?

What I Got For Christmas + Updates

Can you believe that January is almost over??! I remember counting in the New Year like it was yesterday! With the being said, my post today might be extremely late, but I still wanted to do it.

For my Christmas break this year, I spent it all over the place. I was in New York with family for a week, then to my boyfriend's house and then finally back at my home! I wanted to catch up with everyone, but they all lived so far from one another haha!

For Christmas, I got a few gifts! I know your not suppose to pick favorites when it comes to gifts, but my favorite one was the one my boyfriend got me.

 I actually had no idea what my boyfriend was getting for me as a gift.. He mentioned a gift to me and I was so curious to know what it could have been. Trust me when I say I guessed so much. I constantly asked for hints and eventually I got it! He had gotten me these pink fuzzy bear slippers! They are so cute and match me perfectly! I brought these to college with me and when I wear it around, I always get the best compliments! =) I love these slippers so much! 

As for my gift to him, I chose to get him a new water bottle (since his previous 2 were broken, Christmas underwear, and a bar of his favorite chocolate !

The next gift that I got was this beautiful jewelry box. This little heart shaped box is absolutely so pretty. I love the blue color and the pearls and crystals on it make it so much more stunning. I brought this little box with me to college cause I love it so much. I'm not sure what to put inside, but right now I actually have a few rings haha.

This necklace was given to me by my boyfriend's mom. The necklace is of a swan on a thin gold chain. I really love this necklace as well. This is a huge coincidence, but swans are *one* of my favorite animals! They just look so elegant and majestic. I know they sometimes aren't the nicest animals, but they are so beautiful. Plus does anyone know the story of the ugly duckling... ? I think I kinda resemble that duckling who turned into a swan sometimes! 

The next item that I have here are socks. Being someone who loves running (Though not in this cold. snowy weather), I am always in need of new socks. My socks always get dirty within a few runs. I'm actually not sure why this is, but I guess when I run through grass, that happens. These new socks are so perfect for me! I will definitely put them to good use!

The last item that I have here is a bag of chocolate. Who doesn't love chocolate?? These are sooo good and lets say that they were all gone within a week.. oops =)

I'm moving into my second week of college right now and I have to say that I'm getting back into the swing of things. The first few days were a struggle. I went to class and I just didn't feel it. I didn't feel like I was back in class and I felt like I wasn't actually there. I kinda zoned out the first week, but now I am getting used to it again... I'm going to miss my sleep though haha... I don't get much sleep in college and ohh it sucks, but it's only 14 weeks. I can do it!

Some of you may have heard about this (especially if you live on the east coast), but there is a forecasted snow blizzard coming towards us.. ekkk. According to the weather reports, we are expecting anywhere between 1-2 feet of snow with strong winds. Having my college located on a hill, I am anticipating more towards the 2 feet of snow with very strong winds. The wind is always strong here... I'm pretty nervous too since the news makes it seem like it will be a huge storm! I'm kinda expecting no classes on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday...haha

I'm crossing my fingers that it won't be too big since I want to be able to go outside, but a day or two without classes seem really nice! 

How was your Christmas and New Years?

Are you expecting snow in your area? 

Finally an Update + Happy New Year!

HI EVERYONE! (long time no see!)

It's 2015 and I am alive!!!!! 

I know it's been forever since my last update!!! In fact my last post was in August 2014, right before I was heading to college. I'm looking back on my old post right now and the promises I had made to keep up with blogging once I was in college and ohhh how I failed at that. I got caught up in college and just adapting to everything. It was really a different world up there. Everything was new and while I had fun, I constantly found myself drained of energy for no reason. (may have been the business and crazy sleep schedule and my insomnia....) I'm on the last 1-2 days of my winter break right now and I find myself really missing blogging. I'm going to try my best this semester on to keep up with my blogging! 

A lot has happened since my last blog post.... I'm not going to go into too much detail right now on everything, but I will give you highlights and promise to go into more details later!

A picture of my vacation in Cancun (which I will explain later) 

•  I completely my first semester of college and ended with a great GPA as well as chosen my major for sure.. which will be elementary education!
• I'm in a RELATIONSHIP with an amazing guy and we are almost 5 months strong! <3
• I've learned to live with a roommate and this semester I *may* just have a huge single room...
• I made lots of new friends in college and learned a lot more. 
• I did a mystery room in NY (so much fun!) 
• I went to CANCUN a few months ago. (this is huge.. first time out of the country since my birth haha)
• Swam with a dolphin, kinda conquered my fear of water, ate a ghost pepper (random I know) and much more...

Until my next blog post (which will come I promise!), enjoy some photos from the remainder of last year and the first few weeks of 2015! 

An oxygen bar

My side of the dorm room.. kinda plain I know! 

This was a double rainbow!!!!

Korean BBQ

Followed by dessert

A mystery room!! 

My vacation to Cancun and the Mayan Ruin 

As you can tell, quite a bit has happened in the past few months! I feel like I've changed a lot in just half a year. College really changes a person!!! I'll be trying my best to get back in the blogging world over the next few months!  I may be limited to just using my phone to take photos, but to be honest, my phone takes some pretty nice pictures! Not as good as a DSLR, but still decentI'm pretty busy next semester (I got a job!!) but I'm making time to blog! 

What have you guys been up to lately? I miss checking out all your blogs!! I will be playing catch up right now! 

Ulta Haul

Whooo! I'm back in New York with a friend and it feels awesome! I feel like I've spent my entire summer here actually! In just less than 1 week, (ekkk!!) I'll be moving into college and gosh am I nervous, but excited. This summer has flown by and soon I'll be a freshman once again. 

While I was at home, I was frantically running around and picking up all the necessities of college! Everything that I got is laying in my home and the first floor of my home literally looks like an explosion of college supplies. Whoops... I'll be going back home the night before move in day so I think that will be pretty interesting. haha. I'll be tired, but the excitement of getting my new room, finally meeting my roommate in person and welcome events will keep me awake! 

For my post today, I am doing a haul from Ulta. I actually got these products a while ago, but I've been too busy to actually show them! I'm pretty pleased with the items I got here and I use most of them quite often! I sometimes visit ulta's website online, but I rarely go into their store for some reason. I'm glad I did though since I got to pick up a variety of new beauty products to try for myself!

The first product that I got is the Anastasia Eyebrow Powder in the color granite. This eyebrow powder comes in a very cute and sleek package with a beautiful rose gold A on the cover. Inside the eye powder compact is a mirror which makes me love the product even more! This brand of eyebrow color has quickly become my favorite due to how perfect the color is for me. I find that this powder looks very natural and flattering on me and can resist fading throughout the day! (huge plus especially in the summer!) I like how the powder gives me the ability to mix two shades to get the perfect match! The dark color is a medium/dark brown while the lighter color is a light taupe color. Usually I'll put the darker on the inside of my brows and fade it out lighter using the lighter shade. 

The next product that I picked up comes from Lorac. It is the Lorac Duo 3d Lustre Liner in Diamond/Black Ink. These liners are truly gorgeous and stunning combo of colors. One side of the liner pen is a similar to a black liquid liner injected with glitter while the other side is an intense shimmering white packed with chunks of sparkle. The liner comes with a small thin brush making it easier for application. For me, I simply use the black liner first and after it dries, I place the white right above it for a stunning 3d effect! Despite the beautiful finish, I do have to say that to achieve a beautiful look, it might take some patience and practice. The liner takes 2-3 minutes to completely set and if you aren't careful (like me the first few times..), you may end up with a messy eye! 

Stila is one of my favorite brands for lip products so I was pretty pumped to get to try one of their new liquid eyeliners! I have to say that this line from Stila has some very lovely colors. I was stuck between a few colors, but this teal color was just calling my name. A pop of teal on the eye just screams summer to me and there was no way I could resist it! In the summer, I tend to go very light/no makeup at all. I'll probably just do my eyebrows and eyeliner at most! One thing I do have to warn you about with these liners are the tip. They are much stiffer and harder than expected. You need to press down pretty hard to get enough pigment out of them.

The next item is a classic. It is the Nivea Caramel Lip Butter. This chapstick was more for my sister since she has always wanted it. She tried her friend's Nivea lip butter in caramel and fell in love that she wanted a tin of her own! I'm not the biggest fan of caramel, but she loves it. The lip butter has a very pleasant, but not overwhelming scent in the tin. The scent reminded me of caramel popcorn in a way lol. When applied to the lips, it's not as noticeable. The color of this lip butter is basically clear. On the lips, the balm goes on smoothly without feeling too greasy and the staying power of them is pretty nice!! A word of caution though about these is that they tend to melt very quickly so keep this out of the sun!

The Body Shop Lip Butter Pink Grapefruit is the next item that I got. I love the body shop and have always been curious about their lip butters. This little balm comes in an adorable, tiny pink tube which is cute, but hard to use. When I have to apply the balm, I have to dig my fingers in which can be a bit gross. The actual formula of this lip balm is very thick, similar to butter. It is hard, but melts easily with heat when applies to your lips. The scent of this lip butter is just amazing. It smells fruity (like a grapefruit), sweet, and delicious enough to eat! For me, this lip butter last 2-3 hours!

The last item in my haul is Pacifica Hawaiian Ruby Guava scent! I opted to get the roll on of this scent instead of a spray since rolls on's are much simpler to carry and they don't give off an overwhelming scent! The specific scent here is very tropical and instantly reminds me of summer when rolled on. It is a very sweet smell, but not too sweet, but rather a fresh beachy scent in my opinion. I usually apply this scent to my wrist and neck and the smell last the whole day! I can still smell it before I shower at night hehe! =)

Today is Saturday and in 6 days, I will be moving in!! I honestly cannot believe it, but I am so excited!! I've been chatting with my roommate over text and we seem to click pretty well!!! =) I can't wait to meet her in person!!

Have you tried any of the products above?
Do you remember your first days of college?
Have you ever had a roommate? This will be my first time truly sharing a room with someone for so long so I'm kinda nervous! 

To The Brooklyn Bridge!

This week has been quite frantic for me! That explains missing my post yesterday.. I actually think I may have to go off my Sunday + Wednesday schedule for the next month or so as I'm travelling and moving up to college! I might just end up posting once a week or so when I have time! I will continue my blog no matter what though!
These past few days, I have been running everywhere picking up stuff for my dorm room haha! I've gone online and hunted down a few "what to pack for college" list and used them as the basis for my list. As of today, I've gotten the majority of my items. I've decided to try and just bring the "basics" first and then build up my dorm room from there! I'll be doing a college haul/packing post later so I'll talk more about those items later! =)

My post today will be part of my vacation recap (part 1 here)! I have been looking through my photos and I can't believe how fast the time went!! I'll be back very soon, but time feels so weird to me right now. I think it's because I know there are big changes up ahead so things just feel odd.. haha.
One place that we visited while I was in NY was the Brooklyn Bridge! We actually went there twice so the pictures that you will be seeing here come from both visits. The first time we went to the bridge, we were just under it walking around the park. It's actually a huge park and super relaxing. The second time that we went, we took the subway to get to the bridge. Once there, we went to walk across the bridge!! Being on the bridge gives you an amazing view of the city!

Climbing down rocks near the park!

The view at both the morning and night are amazing!! I could see all the buildings and I have to say that there are a lot of people there! The streets in NY at night are busier than the streets here during the daytime! While I was out and about, I depend on my cell phone's camera lot! That's actually where the majority of my photos for this post come from.. my cell phone!!

On the night that we walked the bridge, we also got to see the streets under the bridge. I didn't know this before, but I had been to a lot of places before. I just didn't put the locations together to realize that all these places were connected!! For example, I've been to the marry go round before, but I never noticed that the ride was right under the bridge until that night! It's so cool how everything is connected!! I definitely enjoyed being able to see everything in person. It's so much cooler!! Everything is just so alive in the city even at night time! 

After our walk around the park the first time and on the bridge the second time, we got ourselves some dinner! Both times, we visited a nearby pizza shop known for it's pizzas! (though I don't know the shop's name at the moment!..) The pizza was ohh so good!! The crust was on the thinner side which I liked since that gave more flavor to the toppings! The second time that we visited, we picked up 4 huge pizzas to split among 8 people, two of which were little kids lol! That night, I think I had 5+ huge slices of pizza... ! It was very tasty though!!
The first time that we went, we ordered just enough pizza for us to be satisfied but not overally full which left room for ice cream!! We got out ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. The ice cream that I chose to have was the butter pecan and gosh was the ice cream delicious. It was pretty surreal eating ice cream and pizza under the bridge at night hehe!

Have you ever been to the Brooklyn Bridge?
What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Any tips for what to pack or what not to pack? I have a feeling I am probably over packing some things and forgetting others lol.