♫ rilakkuma 2010 giveaway!

♫ Rilakkuma Giveaway, originally uploaded by islegrl.

hey everyone! you all know i am extremely obsessed with rilakkuma. there is a giveaway that will be over in just a few days, so you should sign up if you are interested!

click the photo for more information~!

you have to answer one question; what is your favorite food? i answered,

it’s easy for me to choose.
my favorite food is spaghetti!
spaghetti is so good because it is healthy and tastes very good.
i have loved spaghetti since i was so little! XD
i hope that i win, but good luck to everyone!

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

i’d like to…

cpck, originally uploaded by Marc Johns.

marc johns. another inspiring artist.

nuff said about that.

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

chapstick and ★ braclets!

aaaaaaaaaaah i got my braces tightened…my life is over for a week! ;o; i don’t know why i’m so sensitive! i mean i can usually tolerate pain but getting my braces tightened is beyond anything i can imagine! it’s like getting 10 teeth pulled out at once! or like getting 5 cavities (actually i wouldn’t know, i’ve never had a cavity :D)

but i was browsing EGL on livejournal and i came across a star origami bracelet tutorial, which looked fairly simple and very cute. i decided to try it out, and here is the result!

at first i couldn’t fit the rubber band through the needle hole, so i decided to use regular thread…REALLY bad idea. i ended up crushing practically all the stars D: but after feeling like i was cutting my circulation from the bracelet being too tight, i decided to try to change it. i had to basically shave off a few layers of the rubber band at the end, and then pull it through the needle with the largest needle hole. and it worked, so i was happy. i would sell them, but i dont think people would want to buy them…especially not for like, $5. heehee.

the paper i used is also really adorable! you can’t really tell, but it has angelic pretty lolita designs on it. love it!

besides the awesome star bracelet, i wanted to rant about chapstick.

did you ever notice how many different chapsticks there are? i mean of course, you have the original chapstick. and you have burt’s bees. and there’s also EOS, which is supposedly really great. soft lips, which i love, nivea, and maaany many others. let’s start off with chapstick (the original company). they are great, cheap, easy to find at any drug store. nuff said. burt’s bees is delightful because it’s sort of minty and it smells fairly good. the packaging is easy to spot too, it being bright yellow and all!

i absolutely despise EOS. it smells great and works okay, but there’s so many bad things to it. first of all, applying it is really awkward. because it looks like a small pokeball and all of my classmates stare at me awkwardly when i use it…eek. secondly, it made my face swell! i’m not allergic to anything in it, but i remember i used it when i went to DC as a class trip and when i came back my lips were like fish! (juuust kidding..that would be weird.) but i immediately had to switch once this happened. thirdly, it’s really hard to store. you can’t just keep it in a small purse because it’s so oddly shaped, and it doesn’t fit in square things ALSO because of its shape. blehh. i actually do like how it smells and tastes, though. so +1 i guess.

my absolute favorite of all time (at the moment…) is soft lips. it smells really good, applies like silk, and is really thin so it can be placed into a lot of tight spaces (e.g. pencil box, small party purse, pocket.) the packaging is pretty plain but i like the simplicity of it. there are some soft lips that are tinted, which i haven’t tried, but i think that’s kind of cute because instead of layering lip balm + lipstick + lipgloss, it’s kind of all in one XD

there’s also nivea, which i was using for a while, and it doesn’t really help cure chapped lips but it’s great for prevention. all my friends always wanted to borrow it! it doesn’t smell like anything, and it’s sorta pricey ($4 ;o;) but it’s worth it. i use it when i’m just moisturizing my mouth before i put on anything that dries my lips like lipstick or really cheap lipgloss hehe!

i used to use vaseline when i was in 3rd grade, and it works okay but it’s really thick and doesn’t help prevent, just like nivea. it actually sorta made my lips more sensitive…but sometimes if i have lost all my chapsticks, i just use vaseline (and i’m not talking about the giant tubes, i’m talking about the really small finger-sized ones!)

AAAAAANYYYYYWAAAAYYYY that’s enough ranting for one day. no company paid me to write about this–heck, no company would even read my blog. waah D: maybe some day.

and…loot from the japanese market; YEAH!

the yellow package are chcolate crayons with little stickers. i love these. the green packaging are these sweet-sour-sweet apple mint things that i bought. so good! so sour…but so good! and lastly are these cute rilakkuma candies. i’ve never had them before, but i’ve seen photos and it’s sort of like..hard candy…darn it, i guess that means i can’t eat it, considering i just got my braces tightened. ;o;

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

nihon gifts from my brother!

my older brother who is a sophmore in high school won a scholarship to japan for 6 weeks to homestay and visit sony headquarters. blahdeeblah blah you can read about his awesome adventures here if you are interested.

so he left around june 11th and arrived  back july 27th (so like a day ago). and today he remembered that he bought my family and i presents! i’m only posting my presents because my parents’ were really traditional things and my younger brother didn’t really get any presents…(aww :/ but he didn’t really care i guess. i would have been PISSEDDDD)

that’s besides the point, considering he did give me presents. so i will present them to you in the order that i opened them!  these were the bags for me (not including food, which i am not posting) all together. [shown right]

remember to click for bigger pictures! hooray. the pink one is most eye catching, so i picked it first. what could it beeeee~?

it was my pal, rilakkuma!

aw! so cute. now he can be added to my collection. i told you it was growing! next was a present that wasn’t wrapped, but it was still adorable nonetheless.

how it looks on my wall. i might change the spot later. (as you can see, it’s not that big in comparison to a skateboard. but i love it! and for those of you who are curious, the katakana to the left of hello kitty reads ‘soft cream’.)

the next present was the present that the host family as a whole exchanged with my brother, as a tradition that japanese people do. it was an onigiri bag! so cute!

and lastly, my brother’s homestay’s sister ayane bought me a hello kitty pencil. so sweet of her!

i’m so happy and grateful that the family was so kind. i am going to apply for a scholarship like my brother did in two years…that will be such a great experience if i get it, too! that’s all for today, sorry for two posts in one day, people of the world reading my blog…

jya ne! (see you!)

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

rilakkuma★リラックマ!!

rilakkuma is THE MOST ADORABLE BEAR EVER. rilakkuma is a japanese character from the brand san-x, and rilakkuma (リラックマ) is a mix up of the word ‘relax’ (katakana: rirakusu) and ‘bear’ (hiragana: くま) because this bear is always relaxing..i guess. i mostly like him for his EXTRAVAGANT looks. he has a friend, korilakkuma, who is a white bear. and a little yellow chicklet named kiiroitori. my favorite animals are bears too, so this is a plus. :3

follow this link to find out more about rilakkuma because i’m not very good at summarizing it. he doesn’t really have any importance (he doesn’t have a TV show or anything), he’s just cute. yay. i just wanted to post my little collection of rilakkuma, ‘because i can and it’s free‘ (maplestory refrence…rofl). nah i kid, i just thought since it’s my blog i should be allowed  to. ;o;

to the right is my [growing] stuffed animal collection. i got the korilakkuma (white one XD) at the sanrio store, the small rilakkuma at the narita airport in tokyo, and the big rilakkuma from an anime convention that i live near. yaaaay for awkward photo. oh, and i got the hat at 2010 anime expo in LA. it was so fun!

to the left is my sleeping bag edition of korilakkuma, given to me by an exchange student buddy of mine from japan. it’s a purse…but it can’t fit like anything in it. OH WELL XD

on the left is a mirror i got at the narita airport in tokyo as well. it was pretty cheap compared to how much it sells for in the USA (and plus here in california we have such high through the roof sales tax! D: )

.

below are photos of my phone that i … pimped out? i can’t deal with a phone with no charms lol. (click for large view)

and i have some other electronics that i decorated, such as my ipod classic and my flip mino HD camera. on the left is a cord wrapper with rilakkuma’s head…and it basically ensures  that the wires don’t get tangled. even though they still do -sigh-

and then obviously my flip camera over to the right XD yay bling stickers. and below is some misc. lanyard that i hold my tickets and stuff on. i bought it at the sanrio store, and it actually came with the korilakkuma head that i put on my phone. yay?

and lastly, is my bento set. i’m going to use it for when i eat lunch, since usually my dad makes me sandwiches but wraps them in saran wrap which is…not eco…D: so i bought these and used that excuse. yay for going ‘green‘!

and the bag that i keep it in? of course rilakkuma (because i’m…a freak…>_>) currently there is tech stuff in there since the school year hasn’t started yet. aah so scared for that btw! :/

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

pink chanel suit!

yesterday i went to neiman marcus to check if my mom’s chanel bag was fixed, which it wasn’t.  i understand that it is a classy bag, but seriously…

fixing a buckle shouldn’t take over 2 months. :/ since we were already there, my mother and i decided to look around the women’s fashions. my mom has been looking for a classic pink chanel suit for the longest time. we can’t even find any on ebay!

first lady kennedy had a beautiful pink chanel suit. my mommy lovesss it. if anyone has a real pink chanel suit, leave a comment, because my mom is interested in buying one (just sayin’!)

so the lady at the chanel ‘area/booth’ in neiman marcus knows my mom personally, since she shops there so much. and i found out that i could technically just go to that neiman marcus whenever i want and buy stuff. and charge it to my mom’s account. BWAHAHA :) but i have to tell my mom in advance…which poops things up XD whatever.

it’s always interesting how the super expensive clothes always looks like nobody would wear it. i mean, i appreciate it, don’t get me wrong…but it’s just so intense.

this is the runway video that was playing while i was there. i absolutely love the music; it’s theme for great cities by simple minds.

did you know coco chanel started the trend of being tan? apparently/according to nylon magazine, she came back from vacationing and accidentally got a tan (since she was so pale, and being very pale was a sign of royalty etc. in 1930~) and when she came back everyone thought it was okay to be tan, and that being tan was the new pale or something like that. how interesting O:

i need to find ways to make money. i completely failed at making money this summer. the ‘blog’/tech review site that i write for hasn’t paid me the $50 a month they promised (mostly because i haven’t written much yet…) but please! i submitted two articles this month. but the webmaster is on vacation apparently, so he hasn’t looked at it?

and craiglist people are the cheapest poops i’ve ever met. i’m not even gonna bother with them. same with 2nd hand stores; they take 35% of whatever price they decide to pay you. that’s HORRIBLE. : (

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. i’ll make money somehow. i already made around $400 from a garage sale, and i’m making some money off of selling playstation games to my classmates…which is making good money actually, but i’m running out of good games. nobody really wants to buy neopets for the PSP for like $15 >_>

oh, and apparently i FAILED and wrote the wrong city and zip code on the package i sent to my friend in this post, so they returned it to me and i have to send it back out. which is a pain in the neck. but whatever. haha.

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

5 artists worth mentioning

[edit] D’OH i knew i was forgetting someone! i added a 5th person. [/edit]

when i was little, i wanted to be a children’s author and illustrator.

of course, after year of having my art trashed (literally) by my parents and not having enough motivation (and sucking really badly at drawing manga) i sorta decided it wasn’t my thing and that i wanted to be a lawyer.

i still want to be a lawyer though.

here are four FIVE artists who are truly inspirational and sometimes make me want to change my mind about my career.

1. joan miro – one of the most famous spanish artists to ever live. my mom has one of his real paintings hanging in my house, and 2 of the best art pieces i ever drew were inspired by him (will post later since they’re at my dad’s work)

2. julia pott – an animator and illusrtator from london. her art is beautiful to me. i want her to be my mentor in art. plus, how can anyone resist bears in freaking boats?

3. keith haring – an artist and social activist whose work responded to the new york city street culture of the 1980s. beautiful stuff. see also his kids site here.

he passed away after being diagnosed with aids, but there was a mural in NYC dedicated to him. the IDIOTS had the nerve to whitewash the wall though. selfish. :(

4. alex cornell – a design student living in san francisco, and also a singer/songwriter. he’s so talented that it’s kind of disgusting. :) this artwork is also currently my wallpaper.

5. eric carle – a children’s author and illustrator from germany (although he was born in new york). before i found out about miro when i was in 3rd grade, eric carle was my savior. i have all of his books, and even a craft book that teaches you to ‘draw’ like him. did you know all his collages are made from tissue paper? that’s what i love about carle. :)

so there, 5 artists from 5 different parts of the world XD i didn’t even realize it until now. so…excellent!

here is an example of alex cornell’s music, since i mentioned it in the first place.

this bad romance cover is  probably 3 times better than greyson chance will ever be.

plus, he has an awesome shirt.

“i try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.” – joan miro

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

in an old house in paris that was covered in vines…

a few days ago i went to build a bear with my old classmate after seeing the ad on TV for buildabearville.com, WHICH happens to be a very exciting website and is surprisingly very time consuming.

it was actaully really funny, considering the workers didn’t want to be stuffing bears for freshmans (nonetheless 3rd graders >_>) afterwards when my classmate had left, my mom and i decided to check out the nordstrom’s anniversary sale. i ended up wasting my mom’s money as usual, but i guess it’s not really ‘wasting’ if she offered to buy it…am i right >:D

click and click again for full screen pics.

charles david regiment boots. +1 to the collection, yeah! i’ll probably post my shoe collection sometime.

i also checked in with the tenants living in the condo my mom owns in san francisco. when they began renting the place, they wanted to use all of the furniture and never returned the insanely awful paintings i drew in 6th and 7th grade when an artist from england (referred to us by michelle phfeiffer) came in like once a year and offered to give kids a chance to learn to paint flowers, something like that. (oh and michelle’s kid went to my school so she thought it would be ‘fun’ i guess.)

6th grade…flowers

7th grade…jungles

i dont expect you to be enticed by these at all.

while digging up these pictures to take a picture, i noticed some bright colored boxes randomly stored next to where my mom had put the paintings. to my surprise,  they were the madeline dolls that i played with when i was really little! and they were all in perfect condition, too! i was actually really thrilled. i even remember buying them at the FAO back when they were still opened in san francisco. man, i need to go to new york with like $1,000 bucks. now. D; i’m not too surprised i still have them, considering i’m a major pack rat and i like keeping everything in the world. it’s weird, because at the same time i’m always super organized and i love being like perfectly clean. hm. i went onto amazon.com and searched up the madeline dress up ragdoll and found that now a days she sells for $100, and a lot of her costumes go for $50-100 as well. jesus christ! i would say the ‘modern day’ madeine has to be a japanese rabbit named usamomo. she’s only sold in japan and FAO in NY and she’s basically an adorablely overpriced rabbit that girls can dress up and buy a wardrobe for, etc. i’m sure when my mom bought my madeline, the teenagers behind me were mocking a 4 year old for buying a french ragdoll. hrm.

picture time! again, click and click again for full screen <- LOL what.

the poor thing got her appendix removed (as per the storyline).

and, admit it. you all know you want to see the intro again now.

AND..now for some random pictures of my cat bothering me while taking pictures. e.e”

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

japanese market ★

today i went to the japanese market while my brother went to his tutoring, and after i came out of my awful math + bio tutoring/camp thing.

aaah i had my first ever midterm today. i’ve learned to hate them. they’re not hard, just so stressful!

anyway, i picked up two random things at the market.

‘heroine’ lipgloss, from some japanese brand, and a funny lolita surprise box for my friend athena :) she will be happy to see it i think!

the boxing is kind of cute. but kind of creepy…x_x

i wonder which she will get. hopefully a cute one. e.e

creepy lipgloss. hehehe. it is really sticky and bad quality but it is shiny and glittery which is good enough for me >:D

and now, please enjoy a lovely song by schmoyoho. they are absolutely incredible. LOLOLOLOL

*warning! explicit ending ;D

♫ sara

Read Full Post »

hobbes + block?

i’m not really sure how i should start off this blog exactly. i don’t want to randomly jump into everything.

so for now, here are some sample pictures that i took of my fatty wubby dog hobbes :) he’s a toy sized american eskimo pure bred. he’s fat and puffy as heck.

anyway,  i was trying out ‘new’ lenses on my nikon d50 (olddd) today. ‘new’ meaning, i didn’t know my dad had them until he told me the other day.

usually i keep the setting on landscape, so that the picture is clear and receives all the natural lighting. but i had it set on A (aperture). i don’t like aperture D: its all yellowy from horrible lighting. usually i can cover up horrible lighting with landscape!

i was also trying out manual focus rather than automatic. i really like manual focusing, but i think if i’m out taking pictures for an event, i might keep it on automatic so i don’t get awful pictures c:

click for full size.

my favorite for today c:

♫ sara

Read Full Post »