chinese new year

Happy Chinese New Year! Even though it's a few days late, but better late than never eh? I know technically it's called the Lunar New Year and not Chinese New Year - but it's what I grew up with and celebrate since different cultures have different traditions, even though we're celebrating the same occasion.

Fresh flowers are a must, according to my mom anyway. If the weather outside wasn't inhospitable, she'd probably cut her own freshly grown flowers from the front yard!

Red and gold decorations also go up, though some of these are displayed year-round.



Mom has this orchid (I think it's an orchid) that always blooms around this time of year. I never noticed that before until one of my relatives pointed it out: "Big sister's plant is always the prettiest around the new year." She technically isn't my mom's sister, but rather my mom's brother's wife, and honestly one of the sweetest people I know.



It's also the time of year where mom busts out all her fancy teacups and dinnerware.



And probably the most exciting thing for the unmarried kids: money given out in red envelopes! My relatives keep on telling me to get married but I'm only 22, which is too young for me personally. They also keep on nudging me to bring James here so they can meet him :P

(Sorry mom, I stood on the table to get most of these shots while you were out shopping.)

life, lately #5

Hey guys! I apologize for the severe lack in posts for the past couple of days. I like posting 3-4 times a week/every other day but recently I found that it's tough to balance school, work, and a blog so I'll have to whittle it down to 2-3 posts a week instead. I haven't found time to reciprocate to all your kind and sweet comments either - it feels really overwhelming to have a backlog of comments to respond to and blogs to check out (I feel like it's my personal duty to reply/comment back on your blogs). But I'll get to that soon!

In the other random parts of life: I got a new planner! I know I got my other one less than half a year ago, but I felt like it was time for some change. Maybe half a year later, I'll get tired of this one and go back to the old one :P It tells a story of a cat and mouse with their travels in Spain throughout the pages. I'm getting some major inspiration from Angela at Paper Love Story, even though my pages look like a hot mess compared to hers. I really like writing down what I have to get done for the day so I gauge how far along I'm getting in my daily to-do's. Whether I actually get stuff done though, is a whole other story...



I went into Lush planning to get just Love Locket and No Drought and... I ended walking out with a lot more. I think that's the curse of walking into Lush: plan on buying two things, end up with ten more than you expected. I did give Tisty Tosty to one of my girlfriends as a cute Valentine's gift though. Her name is Ciara and we've been friends since elementary school, can you believe that?! We always saw each other in middle school, high school, and at our old college but we never really hung out or talked because we always had something to do or somewhere to go. She's in one of my classes this semester and it's pretty awesome getting to know her again. We still talk like we haven't been separated, though!

To say that I am currently obsessed with tea is an understatement. A few days after this order from David's Tea came in I went to Target with Pramod. I picked up another tin of tea and he gave me a look and said "You just spent $50 on tea!" I justified it with saying that I didn't get any green tea.

It's been soooo cold for the past few weeks. It's snowing pretty much every other day/two days and it's insane. I don't even remember the last time New York got so much snow. Sometimes it physically hurts to go outside because it's so bitterly cold and windy. James keeps obnoxiously reminding me that it's so beautiful and sunny every day in California, there usually isn't even a cloud in the sky.

what's in my makeup bag | charlotte tilbury makeup bag

Soooo recently I purchased Charlotte Tilbury's makeup bag, and it's replaced the bag that I took from my sister (without her knowledge of course).

neon ♥ love

A day too late to label this as a Valentine's Day makeup look, but I doubt anyone would actually wear this out for Valentine's Day. Lately I've been super inspired by some of the crazy makeup that Sugarpill features, and Dominique's work as well. When I finished my eye makeup, the colors reminded me of those bright neon signs and they're kinda romantic? I can't get over how stoic I look in these pictures, though. I swear I try to smile, but I end up looking like a doofus so I don't.

red velvet oreo truffles

Aka the easiest and tastiest truffles you will ever make. They're also great because you can decorate them to suit whatever occasion you're making them for, not just Valentine's Day. Fun fact: I don't like white chocolate. But I do like salt with dark chocolate!

I don't have an exact recipe for this since 1) I ate some of the Oreos before and during making this and 2) I didn't keep count of how many I ate. I referenced to this recipe though I do believe I used around half the amount of cream cheese they did. If it helps, it was half an 8-ounce package of cream cheese with a little less than a package of the red velvet Oreos. 

To make up for my uselessness in providing actual adapted instructions, here are some tips that might help:

• The Oreos don't have to be super crushed if you don't have a food processor - as long as pieces of it don't stick out too much when you're rolling them into balls, it'll still work fine.
• I scooped a little less than a tablespoon with a tablespoon to make the balls more uniform in size.
• Letting the Oreo and cream cheese mixture sit over a night or two will make the texture softer.
• If your chocolate has trouble melting into a dippable consistency, try putting a little bit of oil to thin it out. I used coconut oil, but I think any vegetable oil will work.
• Here's an alternative to dipping truffles if using forks is too messy for you.
• Edited to add: Soak everything in hot water for 5-10 minutes for east cleanup!

Apparently red velvet Oreos are all the rage right now, according to my Facebook friends.