hello :) maily. hliyaj

What's in my bag-- a little too much

2012-05-13T16:31:00.001-07:00

Hey there. I know I said that I'll try my best to keep my blog updated, but I haven't been doing so lately because I was busy trying to catch up on some of my school work and packing/ cleaning/boxing a few things; getting ready for our moving this summer back home to California. Sorry if I haven't been keeping up with my blog. :)

Last night Benjamin and I end up staying up til 4 am (actually I stay up til 4 am, but Benjamin didn't sleep til just this morning around 8-9 am). Crazy as it sound, we usually stay up very late on the weekends and I'm sure we're not the only one. Yesterday we spend a few hours doing some hygiene and office supplies shopping at Target and Office Max which I end up picking a few items, but I won't go into details on that. Tomorrow I will post up the items and do a separate blog on that instead including some of the thrifting clothing that I purchase a few weeks ago, but just never got the chance to blog about it.

A few hours ago I was cleaning my bag and decided to reorganize all the things that I had inside it. It never came across to me how much items I have inside my shoulder bag. If you don't know, I'm the kind of person who like to collect and over buy things that I don't even need. I tend to buy and hoard myself with unnecessary items (I admit I am a huge hoarder). I tend to over buy things such as lip balm, hand lotion, and any writing notebooks or note stickers/tabs that I find attractive to me. Yes it's a very bad habit of mine and sometime I buy them without realizing that I don't need it. After laying everything out in front of me, it sure hit me hard in the head making me realize that I really need to stop and control this bad habit of mine. Yes it's a lot.


I'm surprise that all of these thing was able to fit inside my mid size shoulder bag.

Too much hand lotion? I think so.

These are not the only lip balm that I own. I found a few more in my other hand bags and a $25 Starbucks gift card from Benjamin love.

This is my biggest and most baddest hoarding problem. Sometimes Benjamin even had to drag me out of the store. For some odd reason, I just love collecting notebooks and notepads. Is it bad? These are just a few that I like to carry it with me in case I was stuck in traffic, at the DMV, or somewhere boring and that I can just take it out and do some doodling on it or write notes to myself. The others are display on the shelves. Yes I also purchase notebooks for home decor too.

A pair of 3D gasses from the movie.


A couple bandages, a few hair-ties, and some of my medication.

I think it's time to update to a bigger handbag or maybe I just need to downsize some of the items that I had in my bag and take a few things out? It's not really good to over carrying items for it may cause some health damage to your shoulder, but it's ok to over pack your bag sometimes. You know what they say: "It's better to have multiple then not having at all". So I can't really argue on that because it is true. Isn't it in a girl's nature to over buy things though? What do you think? I just hope I'll be able to stop myself the next time I encounter some of these items that I am attempted to buy every single time. It'll help save me a few bucks :). Have a good day.

Simple retouch book holder

2012-04-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

So this week I made a quick trip to the Salvation army and to Good Wills again. I came across a few home decor items that I end up picking up. Of course as usual, I end up coming back home with more than I plan on purchasing, but it was ok because I got everything under a good budget (which I feel guilty about it sometime).

One of the item that I found was a curtain rack holder. I'm not really sure what exactly you would call it (if you do, please leave a comment below), but I know that it is use for the curtain rack; the kind where you'll have to drill it and hang it on the wall and that explain the two big hole in the center of it. Well I've been trying to find a few book holders to put on the shelves, but gosh I have to admit, those things are pretty expensive. So when I came across these my husband suggest that maybe I should purchase them and use it as a book holder since they're only .79 cents a piece which is pretty cheap. It was an awesome idea because it doesn't cost me a lot at all. After a whole day of thrift finding, I came home and decided to do some paint retouch on it since the color kind of wear off a little. In the pictures below you can't really see the color of it, but it was just a very neutral color with a little bit of white wash. I didn't do anything much to it. What I did was just repaint the whole thing white and let it dry. Just very simple. I thought that I'll go white and later on if I want to paint it a different color, I can just simply go over the white with another color. It took me about an hour and 30 minutes because I have to coat it 3-4 layers of paint to make sure it is well cover. Overall, it was a quick and simple DIY and cost me no more than $2.

Just regular non-gloss white paint. I purchase these from Walmart (for my canvas).


I have to give some credit to Benjamin- my awesome husband for the photos.

He decided to be creative :) It was his first time behind the lens and he did a pretty good job.

After all, they make a pretty nice decor and books holder on the shelf. I love it.

Something Spring. Something Pastel.

2012-04-18T16:16:00.003-07:00

This week inspiration is all about pastel and spring. I was given a task to create a bridesmaid bouquet design and my mind completely explode with a whole bunch of ideas. So after I made the design I decided to go on ahead and do a little set up to go with it. With everything comes together, I'm just really excited and happy that I was able to find little things around the house to bring the selecting colors of my design to life.


Color board: Teal, Sage green, ivory, peach/salmon, & tangerine

This is the color board that I created with the selecting pastel colors that I was inspire to come up with. And Finally, da-da-da-daaaaaa here are the photos of my design.

I had such a fun time planning and putting everything together. With so many ideas popping up every time I was pretty overwhelmed with joy and excitement, but then I had to limit myself with the ideas and just focus on the main one. If I could I would go on and on because there are so many endless ideas out there that inspire me a lot to just go beyond my imagination and creativity, but obviously I can't. While brainstorming the whole display, I thought to myself if only I could go back in time and re-plan my whole entire wedding. That would be awesome. I just can't wait to do another one soon. Oh yeah, and did I mention these are silk flowers? No way, they are.

Thrift hanger transformation- DIY project

2012-04-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

This week I left the house to do some thrift shopping. I chose the perfect day to go because I found a lot of stuff and brought it home with me. My intention of going thrift shopping this week was to go and find a few old home decor and furniture so that way I can do some DIY projects. The first stop that I made was at Good Wills since it was closer to my apartment. There was a huge sale going on and everything was 50-70 percent off. I bought about 5-6 items that would have cost me about $12-$17; for each items is about $2-$3 a piece, but with the discount off I got everything altogether for only $6. Each items was only .50 cents a piece. After that I stop by at the Arc store, but couldn't find anything that I wanted. I came back home feeling satisfy.

So this week finding, one of the items that I bought was a old wood wall hanger. Its just a very plain piece that I pick it up while looking around. I've been trying to look for pieces like this for the past months something for my necklaces, but can never find any. Luckily I found one that day.

So what I did was I use some of the leftover black paint that I bought a while ago and just paint it all over the hanger. I could've use a different and more feminine color of choices, but because most of the furniture are black and because of my husband; I decided to go with black. Of course I have to go over it a few coats to darken it and make sure that I get all of the spots that I miss. After letting it dry over night, the outcome of it turn out to be pretty nice and decent.

Here's a another photo of the finish project after putting it up on the wall inside the closet. Nothing special about it. The black paint made it a little bit more modern looking. What I love about it is that the hanger is very simple, its adjustable, and it doesn't cost me much at all. Yes I got it for .50 cent and that was a great deal compare to spending $15-$25+ for a really well made one at Walmart or Target. I'm pretty satisfy with it.

My very first perfect drawing- Peppermint Girl

2012-04-13T19:05:00.001-07:00

I always wanted to draw, but I can never do so. There are many times I try to register for a drawing class, but because there are so many classes that I wanted to take, I always end up having to sacrifice my drawing class for another class that is require for my major. Sometimes I will be tempted to do some sketching for fun just so that I can better myself at drawing. Honestly there were never a success. Let's just say that I'm not good at it. Last year I end up taking a basic painting class and it went really well. It wasn't hard at all. I was able to create art just like that because to be very honest painting doesn't really require for a person to draw. All you have to do is just throw in some color onto your canvas and if you like you can make some quick sketches or lines and that could already become a great piece of art. So it's been a while since I last do some sketches, but yesterday I decided to take out my sketch book, pencil and coloring pencils and started a sketch. At first it was about a basic side view picture, but then as the clock start ticking off the picture develop into a pretty girl. I have to admit I really like it and I am very proud of myself (even though it's not the best and is just very drawing).

A little quick note on the side- last year I started a drawing a little girl whom I name it Peppermint. She became my little symbol and kind of like my logo. These are the first few pictures that I ever drew of her when I first started. She just kind of came to me.

Anyway, this picture that I drew yesterday, you can say that it is a more anime/realistic-ish version of how my peppermint girl will look like. Can you see the difference now between the drawings? :)

Anyways, you may find myself blogging and repost a lot about my peppermint girl every now and then. I really hope you won't mind.

Confession of an Obsession

2012-04-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

Benjamin and I have been crazily obsessing with Captain America for a while now. And when I say "crazily obsessing", I mean crazy to the point where every Friday night (our date/movie night) we would watch Captain America over and over again. We can never get tire of the movie. We've been so crazy about it that we even bought t-shirts, buttons, key chain, and every little things that is label with the hero icon. I know maybe we were a little too carry away, but we seriously love-love-love C.A.

On the other note, I've been also obsess with this new backpack that I just recently bought. For ages I've been searching high and low for a perfect backpack, but most of the time, many were too over price, too small, or just not my taste. To my luck this one happen to caught my eyes. I just love the size, shape, and especially the color of it.

DIY Hangers- Scarves/Jeweleries/hats

2012-04-08T17:30:00.002-07:00

One of my newest DIY project that I just recently did. A new handmade scarf and hat hanger :). At first the temptation started out with just an idea when I stumble upon some of my old canvas while cleaning and storing some stuff. There were a lot of brainstorming and ideas on how I'm going to put those old canvas to good use, but after a long while I decided to use the wood frame of the canvas to make myself a hanger for my scarves and hats. I'll be honest, the outcome of the hanger wasn't so satisfying as how I thought it would turn out to be, but of course I can't expect to much out of it, because I just use what I had. Although it was just a small and quick DIY project, I thought it was a great idea to make something out it instead of just throwing it away :).

Happy Spring- 2012

2012-04-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring. Last week weather was so bipolar. Here in Colorado we had both the sunny warm and snowy storm weather. As much as I expect it to be like this, we do get a lot of the nice warm weather too. So Last week the weather was pretty amazing. We had a wonderful time spending the weekend in Denver and Boulder with families and new friends that we made. It was pretty crazy because we never knew that we had relatives here in CO. It was pretty surprising to find out about it out of the blue, but overall it was pretty fun and we had a great time. Other than that, I was amaze to see the tree in front of my window sprouting leaves. It was so pretty that I just had to capture it while I still can. The feeling of spring has finally arrive, but we all know what this could also mean. Yes spring season is also allergy season. It's a good thing that I don't have any allergy reaction when it comes to Spring.

So this week weather was also pretty awesome. I was so amaze when I saw that the tree was now blooming flowers. Just last week or maybe a few days ago it was only sprouting baby leaves. I guess Spring is going by quicker than I thought. Sadly it was a little cloudy this afternoon when I took a snapshot of the photo. You can't really see the beauty of the bloom, but it was such a pretty sight. Such a wonderful day to have tea and sweets.

Wedding shoes+bouquet

2012-04-04T01:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, finally after months and months of missing out on my blog, I was was able to manage the time to go through every folder in my hard drive to look for all of my wedding photos. It has been a very long time since I last blog, but I do apologize for not blogging very often as I should have. But I do promise that I will put more time and effort into this from now on.

Anyways, above is a photo of my bridal bouquet that I personally hand-tie it to my own personal taste and style and along with my bridal shoes with a little of DIY touch. As you can see the fuchsia rhinestone on the shoe was something that I personally just added to make it more me. I love the outcome of how it turn out. A little DIY bridal project that can turn out to be something that look like it'll cost you a fortune, but to be very honest, it only cost me no more than $25- $30. The shoes cost me about $24 and the two rhinestone cost about $3 each I believe. It's been awhile so I could be wrong on that. It is very easy to make and it is a great project to do for weddings, proms, or for any special occasion. So what you'll need is:

tools: hot glue gun, rhinestone of your choice and colors, a black marker, and a pair of pump/heels. Rhinestone can be purchase at your local craft store. I just purchase mine at Wal-mart.

Directions:
1. Set up and prepare the hot glue gun. Wait for 5-10 min. until the glue is gun is hot enough to melt the glue.

2. Take the rhinestone and preposition it to your liking without gluing it on. Take your marker and mark the spot where the rhinestone will be glue on.

3. After when you finish marking the spot where you want to place the rhinestone, carefully glue the rhinestone directly onto the shoe before the glue cool down.

4. Give it a 10 seconds wait until the glue is complete cool and dry

Tip: Before gluing the rhinestone on, put the shoes next to each other and make sure that the spot where the rhinestone will be place is completely line up evenly.

Simple as it seem, I promise that this DIY project will save you a whole lot of $$$$. Think and be creative.