what I've always believed

in my lifetime I’ve come to realize that you can’t depend upon other people for what you want, and you can’t be scared to go out there and get it. You have to dream hard, wish big, and chase after your goals, cause no one else is going to do it for you. And even if things don’t work out, you’ll always be able to say you tried.

(quote from I speak female)

frugal rina

yes, the title said it, i've become frugal for quite awhile now. the thing I still dont understand is that why does ny still think im so high maintenance? i dont know, I take the bus to school, I use coupons to shop, and I even pack cup noodle for lunch! I have to admit, I do often chose quality over quantity. I dont like to settle for low quality products; I'd rather not have anything.

anyway, so far I've only use the coupons I've been collecting once at target. I really dont need that much stuff to be shopping everyday (even though you would find me at target almost everyday). I try to buy only the stuff I need, and when I do shop I would pull my coupon booklet out. I think I only saved about 25% the last time I shop, doesnt matter though, since Im a beginner I think it's a pretty good start.

it's interesting the whole coupon thing. I was amazed with this for awhile, not that Im amazed with how much you can save, but amazed how all those coupons just came to me effortlessly. for example, I was only thinking of using coupons but didnt do anything about it, and the next day I got sunday newspaper delivered to my house when I never subscribe any! and couple days later I got a coupon booklet from target! weird right? we never get coupons sent to our house before! just so weird, but in a good way. now I love going to target.com and print their online coupons out. all the coupons I have below were mostly sent to me, I seriously did not make any effort to get it. on a side note, I will subscribe to sunday paper starting next month. I had no idea how many coupons accumulated in the sunday paper insert, Im truly amazed.

just got another coupon from coach in the mail. $100 of $300 or more. I actually get this coupon once in awhile, i.e on holidays. all you have to do is sign up for their mailing list, same for dooney and burke. but $100 off is definitely a good deal! now if only louis vuitton does that haha

my coupon collection. I organized them by category, i.e beauty, food, misc. etc. and place in the a white envelope.

and tada! all my coupons are stored in this blue folder

peter and Abby's visit

last week was a pretty busy week. ny and I had to babysit our nieces <3 and then we had to hang out with Peter and Abby because they were visiting from Texas. It's not like we had to, but we wanted to. peter is a close friend of ny, so close that they call each other cousins when theyre not. nonetheless theyre good company.

I love being with my nieces, but sometimes they can be a handful. seems like they always have energy, I dont know how but they do.

originally Ny and I were suppose to hang out just the two of us because Ny took the day off from work to spend time with me, but then Peter called so we all hung out together. I wanted to go to china town so yea, we took them there too haha. but instead of the crowded china town like everyone familiar with, we took them to the "old china town" where it is more secluded and easy on the eyes.

next was little tokyo. I love this little place because they got stuff that you cant really find anywhere else. on top of it all? they got this cosmetic store which I LOVE! almost love it more than Takashimaya in san gabriel

I was wondering why everyone gather around this tree, but then found out that it was a wishing tree. some of the wishes that they wrote are hilarious lol

santa monica promenade. I've always loved that place, but the best thing there that day was the giant smurf lol

salsa dancing at the pier

santa monica pier always have weird stuff to look at, but this man kinda creep me out

memorial day weekend

yea... finally decided to not be lazy and post some pictures from memorial day weekend. that was like a month ago? dont remember.

I swear everyone was in vegas that weekend. I have friends, and friends of friends who were all there. and trying to meet everyone was a bitch too.

what better way to celebrate memorial day than vegas right? ha, not really, just as long as you get to spend time with the people you love. which sadden me a little, this was my third time in vegas this year without Ny. it's ok though, Im planning to go vegas again, just me and him, this August to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary :)

anyway, pictures say it all. went to vegas with just girls (although you might see a pic of a guy there, he was actually doing his own thing), party, eat, sleep, drink... etc. I actually didnt get to eat at any buffets this time. crazy right? I always have to go to at least one buffet every time I go to vegas! annnnd this was also my first time clubbing in vegas. to be honest, there's nothing spectacular about clubs in vegas; it's just like any clubs here in cali. to me clubs are not all that different, I just wanna dance so anywhere with music is great to me. and we went to marquee in cosmopolitan, a supposedly very hard club to get in... the ambient is nice, but again, it's just a club.

also, I would never go to vegas on a holiday again! the drive home was a bitch. it took me about 7 hrs (I did stop at the outlet) to get home when driving there, to vegas, took me less than 4 hrs. we spend most of the time being stuck in the dessert! luckily I rented a very nice roomy car. omg, imagine my little integra lolololol. im proud of myself though, I drove there and back all my by myself without stopping (except the outlet thingy)

anyway, didnt get to take too many pics since I forgot my camera most of the time. the high quality pics are from Cina's, and the low quality ones are from mine of course

so stress out right now. it's only been 3 weeks of summer school and we already have a midterm (tmrw that is)... ahhhhhhhhh!

so last weekend I found the perfect dress for my friend's wedding. his wedding is actually in November but Im slowly looking for a dress right now just because Im that excited. Im not sure how to dress, actually, since his wedding will take place in Norcal, supposedly cold? and it's in November. Another exciting thing? Ny will be his best man, so I really wanna look my best.

anyway, I was just browsing around in Angl Clothing store in Santa Anita Mall and found this dress below. the moment I laid my eyes on it I knew it will look good on me. I love the contrast in color, and the shape! omg it fits me like a glove. I know it doesnt look that good on the hanger, but sometimes you just gotta try it on. anyway, I ended up not buying it. the dress is $80!!! I'd never buy anything that expensive, especially when I could only wear it once. I really love it though, I really really do. if it's $50 I'd definitely buy it even though I have no idea where I would get the money from....

I dont know where the heck my camera went so camera phone is all I got for now

this is how it would look on the hanger. plain, I know....

I gain some weight so I look pretty voluptuous (I think Im about 107 now). nonetheless, this dress did not let me down

I hope the dress is still there. I think Imma go back and get it!!

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just another rambling thought.....

havent actually wear this earrings eversince I bought it. it actually look pretty nice, why didnt I wear it long time ago? I bought this from an asian store so it will be very difficult to find. anyway, I think it's pretty unique compare to typical american jewelry

dont mind the dots on my face. I actually didnt wear any foundation here, just BB cream

sometimes I can look hella Asian... Im proud though, I can stay young for a very long time

nothing new and nothing interesting happened to me this past couple weeks. I deactivated my facebook and that is all. There is no real reason why I deactivated my facebook, I just did it out of anger. I was mad at Ny so I did it, ha. he calls me immature for that. but whatever, I have so much to do than staring at the computer screen anyway. first I quit Kl, now facebook hmm... I dont know, I change my mind a lot. who knows? I might join those sites again one day. as for now Im pretty content with having just my blog.

so last weekend I went to Irvine Spectrum, a pretty nice outdoor mall in Irvine, Ca. and little did I know that they have a Korean cosmetic store there. Skin Food is the name of the store. I think this is a pretty well known Korean cosmetic brand cus I've seen it a lot online. if you know me, I am obsessed with asian cosmetics (mainly for their cute packaging). and what a bummer! I was so broke! but surprisingly I wasnt as upset as I thought I would be. I took it like a real woman and and bravely tell myself that it's ok haha. I did bought two nail polishes. I couldnt resist, the colors are so unique and I love buying and collecting nail polishes so figure.

below are the colors I got. pretty expensive, spend $12 on just two of these. yikes. the bottles are tiny too -__-

Drink fruit nail #6: Kiwi Drink

Im actually wearing the green kiwi right now and in love with it. I know green is usually not a complimenting color on your skin, but this one makes my fingernails look so bright.

Gunppang nail#7: Rose Gunppang

Im not sure if you can order their products off the website, but here's the link.

http://eng.theskinfood.com/Product/product_main.asp