Loving: Friday nights! These nights have somehow turned into the official night for N64 games (whoooa throwback to childhood memories)! I’ll admit that I get my butt kicked pretty good in Super Smash Bros, but I drive a pretty mean kart with Princess Peach in Mario Kart, sweeping the medals ;)

Reading: Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques has been on my side table for the past couple months. I’ve been reading section by section at a time and it’s really light when ingesting content in chunks. Each chapter goes through different techniques for approaching problem solving. It’s pretty nifty because there are sections that talk about why our brains interpret problems in a particular way instinctively, but after thinking about a problem from a different perspective, the problem is completely changed and, in some cases, easier to solve.

Watching: I was watching Fashion Star, but the season just ended a couple weeks agpo. I’m pretty hooked on Game of Thrones too, whose episodes have been getting a little hard to stomach each week. I’m easily spooked and gore just does not sit well with my stomach, so I’ve definitely covered my ears and closed my eyes for some parts. (Yes, I’m a wimp!)

Listening to: Vampire Weekend’s new album, Modern Vampires of the City. Step, Obvious Bicycle, and Unbelievers are my current favourite tracks that I can’t get enough of.

Planning: Super last minute summer vacation. I have been putting this one off for a while since I wasn’t sure what my work schedule is going to look like in the summer months, but I’ve been itching to make a trip to the UK for some time now. *fingers crossed* that everything works out!

Working on: New bag ideas! I have quite a bit of leftover fabric from the tote bag I made last month, so I’m hoping to make some matching companion clutches or organizer bags to go with the tote. To be honest, I’m nervous about making a bag at a smaller scale with the duck cloth because turning out corners for the tote were already more challenging than I had expected since the fabric is much stiffer than anything I’ve worked with in the past. We’ll see how this goes! :)

As someone who has been wearing glasses for almost 20 years of my life, it’s been a challenge in the last few years to try to learn how to find balance in having makeup look noticeable under the frames while also being subtle enough for everyday wear. I recently got to try out the Natural Shadow Palette from BA STAR, which features 3 mineral eyeshadows and 2 glitter liners. (pssst, BA STAR is offering 50% off their palettes with code BBSMOKY)

I tried out a more natural twist on the smokey eye look using Cocoa (second from the left) on the outer eye, Nude (middle) on the inner eye, and Bronze (left) to blend. The bottom corners on the inner eye were lined with the crystal glitter gel liner. Once the base was done, I added a quick wing-tipped cat eye using my favourite liquid eyeliner, Benefit’s Magic Ink.

I was really impressed by how smoothly and evenly the mineral shadow went on. The only downfall was that the glitter in the gel liner seemed to come loose from the gel quite easily. After about an hour of wear, the glitter started to spread from lining my eyes to randomly sprinkled around my cheeks.

Do you wear glasses on a daily basis? What’s your makeup routine like? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks!

Disclaimer: This eyeshadow palette was provided by BA STAR for review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend celebrating with Mom! The day before Mother’s Day, I had the pleasure of hanging out in the Seattle West Elm store for a workshop from The Flower Recipe Book by Studio Choo. Jill and Alethea, the lovely ladies of Studio Choo, drove up to Seattle all the way from San Francisco just for this 2 hour workshop!

There were so many amazing women taking part in this event! As someone who is on the opposite end of the green thumb spectrum (uh, I may have accidentally killed a cactus last year from over-watering… I thought it needed more love!), I will admit that I was quite intimidated by everyone around me. These women knew their stuff and were ooooh-ing and ahhhh-ing over the delicious selection of fresh cut stems picked out for our workshop (I could only identify the peonies! “Pretty flower” is how I addressed everything else… oops).

Alethea and Jill started the workshop off with a demo, teaching us how to create a structurally sound base with thicker, stronger stemmed pieces before adding the focal point flowers. It was so interesting to learn about all-natural-non-processed-plant-food methods of extending the livelihood of an arrangement. We also learned how to cut and prep the stems of different types of flowers being added to our arrangements to help encourage nutrient intake. These ladies have flower cutting down to a science!

After the demo was over, we were left to explore all the beautiful flowers at our work station to build our our arrangements. Having never worked with flowers before, it was beautiful and scary and exciting all at the same time! You can see my partially finished “base” above, but I was having a bit of trouble filling up gaps and “bald spots”. Thankfully, Jill and Alethea were anxious to hear each of our grand visions for our masterpieces and offered up great advice for how to fix any problems we were having.

After an hour of fiddling around with different flowers and colour palettes… TAAAA DAAAA! Even though my arrangement was not as purposefully asymmetric as I was planning for it to be, I’m really happy with how it turned out. Jill and Alethea were so great with answering all my (amateur) questions and helping to fix a huge bald spot that was smack dab in the middle of my arrangement.

I really wish I lived closer to my Mom. This would’ve been a perfect gift for Mother’s Day! But no complaints here, as the flowers are sitting beautifully on my kitchen table. ;)

I am really excited to dive deeper into The Flower Recipe Book! I am so fascinated by the thought of caring for multiple types of flowers all hanging out in one vase and trying to keep them looking fresh and alive for as long as possible.

Happy Friday, lovelies! I’m excited to be partnering with Cushe on this month’s giveaway! I’m personally a huge fan of their shoes and am so excited that one of you is going to get the chance to win a pair of your choice.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries for the giveaway will be accepted until May 20, 2013 at 12:00AM. Good luck!

Just before the heat wave started, the weather was just warm enough to go hiking without fleece. Pretty amazing to think that a short drive away, just an hour outside of the city, is home to some of the most beautiful hiking trails with serene landscapes. This particular hike was an impromptu stop, especially since I would not recommend jeans for a hike, but the trail was really light and a nice start to the day.

outfit details:
anorak: Lands’ End (similar)
striped sweater: Old Navy (exact)
jeans: 7 For All Mankind
Molokai flats: c/o Cushe (exact)
bunny necklace: made by yours truly!

Although the outfit itself was a bit dressier than usual for a hike, I really liked how easy it was to transition from one activity to the other without having to change– the Molokai flats in particular made it easy since they’re not only comfortable, but more fashion forward compared to most other sporty shoes. They lend themselves well to multiple activities that I would usually have to swap between a pair of runners and casual flats for. Pretty much the perfect pair of shoes for the spring, don’t you think?

P.S. If you’re looking for a pair of shoes that are easy to style and perfect for everyday life, check back on the blog later this week to find out how you can win a pair of your own!

Yesterday felt like summer in Seattle! It was almost 30°C (still working on imperial conversions…) which meant an obligatory trip to the beach! There’s nothing quite like sitting on the giant rocks, listening to the water, while enjoying the biggest cup of bubble tea on a sunny day.

The discovery of the in-box Cinemagraph app on my phone (Nokia Lumia 920) was pretty awesome too.

Ending an errand-filled afternoon with a trip to the beach was exactly the thing that I needed to unwind after a long day of scouring the shelves of Hallmark and Target for the perfect Mother’s Day card. Speaking of Mother’s Day (don’t forget, it’s next week!), I’m teaming up with Sperry Top-Sider to style the blue Seersucker leather strap with Crab dial watch, which is part of their new line of women’s accessories that I think would be perfect for gifting on Mother’s Day. You can check out the whole collection on Sperry Top-Sider, Macy’s, or Dillard’s.

outfit details:
dress: eBay
belt & purse: Forever 21
boat shoe flats: Rockport
watch: c/o Sperry Top-Sider (exact)
While playing around on the driftwood, I somehow managed to get a splinter (don’t click if you’re squirmish!). It’s so easy to forget what it’s like to be a kid again, climbing on rocks and jumping from log to log. ;)

What did you get up to this weekend? Did you get a chance to soak up some sun too?

The weather’s been warming up lately and the summer goodies have started trickling into the display windows of stores. In my insomniac state, I’ve been browsing all my favourite stores and lusting over cute accessories for the warmer beach days to come.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

My ideal beach accessories include a reusable, washable tote bag (the fox Baggu one is my current fav), a pair of prescription sunglasses (since I can’t wear contacts) for waterside reading, and a pair of killer sandals. Ahhh I can’t wait for the summer! Spring just got here, but now that I’ve been teased with warm weather and sunshine, I want it. All. The. Time.

What are your beach staples?

Playing a bit of catch-up with outfit photos is always fun! If you’ve ever wondered what no makeup, less than 4 hours of sleep, and 8 hours on a Friday looks like…

outfit details:
tote bag: made by yours truly ;)
blazer: Forever 21
blouse: H&M
destroyed boyfriend jeans: Gap (exact)
necklace: groopdealz (exact)
boat shoe flats: Rockport (similar)

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, I posted a few in progress photos a couple weekends ago showing the planning and sewing a new tote bag for the Spring. I’ve been on a hunt since the Winter for a larger tote bag that can fit my laptop and have separate pockets for a large Moleskine notebook since my keys have been scratching my notebook in my previous purse.

After doodling a couple of ideas, I decided on a simple design with two pockets on the front of the bag, trimmed in a contrasting yellow trim against the navy blue body. The bag itself is made out of duck cloth, which I had no idea even existed until strolling through the aisles of Jo-Ann Fabrics. The cashier also told me that if I Scotchguard the fabric, it becomes completely waterproof– perfect for Seattle’s rainy Spring weather!

I have some blue and yellow fabric left over and am not sure what to make next. Maybe a new clutch or makeup bag will emerge in a few weeks from now?

It’s been almost 7 years since I got my first iPod Touch (anyone else still have their 2nd gen iPods?) and recently upgraded to the 5th gen version! Crazy how much technology evolves in the span of a few years. Have you seen how incredibly thin all gadgets have become over the years? wowzas.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to start hunting for a case! But before that happens, I was offered a chance to review a live wire flowing light charging cable from The Snugg, which makes me even more excited because now this means there are a ton more accessories than I realized there are for iPods now than there were back in the day!

The USB cable works exactly like the one that comes in the box with the iPod in the sense you can plug it into the computer to charge the iPod, connect to iTunes, etc. There is a visual twist though…

When the iPod is charging, the cable lights up! The lights move in the direction from the computer to the iPod, which is really cool because it looks like I’m watching the energy transfer. When the iPod is fully charged, the lights turn off. The only downside is that I couldn’t keep my iPod in the bedroom to charge at night because I’m a bit of a light sleeper and the lights from the cable were a bit too bright to fall asleep with. Otherwise, I thought the use of lights in the cable was really smart because it was a great indicator of whether or not the iPod was fully charged without having to walk across a room to turn the device on to check the battery icon.

What do you think of this cable? Would you use it?

Disclaimer: Thank you to The Snugg for providing the flowing light charging cable for a review. The opinions in this review are 100% my own.

outfit details:
dress: Korean boutique
bunny flats: Le Bunny Bleu
jacket: Dynamite
Travel Fever purse: c/o Jump From Paper

Here’s part 2 of this month’s Swap & Style with Erica of Sweets and Hearts! I wish I knew the name of the store where this dress was purchased. I bought it a couple summers ago back in Toronto where there’s a random booth set up in an aisle where all the clothing, shoes, and accessories are literally just hung up on a single display rack in the middle of the mall. I usually breeze past this “shop” whenever I go to this particular mall, but I was shopping with Deb of Ate By Ate that day and she told me that this rack gets great pieces every once in a blue moon. Completely grateful that we ended up stopping to check out the selection that day because I found this dress sandwiched between the gaudiest sequined sweaters!

I have to say that the belted look Erica put together looks so perfect for the summer days ahead– especially when paired with that hat!