UNDER CONSTRUCTION

So I've decided to put some life back into this blog...

I've revived my passion for photography...and it's time to stop hiding behind my alter ego, "Ryree"

Stay tuned...this is going to get exciting!

Loving My Private Jet

Of course I don't have my own flying aircraft. One of my guilty pleasures...well not even guilty because I'm not ashamed...is my love for reality television. It's great entertainment! One of the shows I follow regularly is Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Great show, right?!

How many of you remember that episode where Kim 'finds' the chihuahua on the street? Well, when she finds that pup, she walks into a nail salon and asks them if they had OPI's My Private Jet. Me and my sister were really curious to know what color that was. Who really knows why we were so intrigued. I mean, it's only nail polish right? And if you really think about it, it was probably just an advertisement plug. Regardless...it worked and we wanted to know what nail color Kim was looking for! haha!

I haven't gotten my nails done in a while. Well, lately I've just been painting them myself. Now that I'm trying to be more aware of how I spend my money, getting my nails done just seemed like a waste of money. But sometimes a girl just needs to pamper herself and the other day I had some time to kill before going out. I drove to the small, local nail place near my work that I've gone to in the past. It's your typical asian owned place where they do manicure, pedicure, haircut, and wax. Those places are usually really cheap and get the job done.

I walked in and they were pretty busy with ladies getting their nails did. So they told me to wait a little bit and pick my color. I was in the mood for a dark grey/gun metal type color. Out of the 100+ colors they had on the wall, I could not find the one that fit my mood! It was quite upsetting. So then I started looking for something dark but with a metallic or glittery flare. I had a couple colors in my hand, but then saw this brownish/greyish color that had glitter. It looked brand new, so I picked it up and looked on the bottom. Yes. I'm sure you've guessed...it was OPI's My Private Jet! It was meant to be. I love the color. She did two coats, but now I kind of wish she did three.

Here's what it looks like. It's lighter in person. Isn't it kick-ass? I am slightly disappointed because I felt like Kelly (my nail lady) was rushing, and after closer inspection from these pictures, I can see som messy spots. Oh well...life goes on...(if you know me then you know what the next line is..hehe)...

Reason #3 to Watch the Super Bowl

Before I go into the third reason to watch the Super Bowl, I thought I'd share the first two reasons just for consecutive order's sake.

Reason #1: Football players are so freaken hot! I've had a thing for football players since high school, which is the reason I became a fan of the sport. Out of all the professional athletes out there, football players are definitely the best eye candy.

Reason #2: Is a follow-up to reason #1, I'm a fan of the sport! I just find it exciting and it's fun to watch games live or on T.V. It's easy to follow, and even if you don't know all the flags or penalties mean, you can still figure out what's going on.

And now Reason #3: The commercials.

I was very unimpressed with this years commercials. There can be numerous reasons for that. I hear that Pepsi chose not to buy any airtime this year and instead will use that money to help those in need. The economy is still in the shit-hole, so that may be another reason people didn't put much of an investment into Super Bowl commercials. In any case, I do have two favorites this year.

The first one is the Google commercial. When I was actually watching it for the first time on T.V., I didn't get it because I wasn't really paying attention. But I saw all the buzz on Facebook about this, so I YouTube'd it. It's so cute! Check it out below:



The second one is the Bud Light T-Pain Auto Tune one. HAHA! Absolutely high-larious!

Wake-Up to Make-Up

Once upon a time, I was a morning person. I'd love waking up early, getting ready, and would always be one of the first people at school. That was a long time ago...

Now, you'd be putting yourself at risk if you try to wake me up in the morning. In the past, I'd kick myself for sleeping in until 10 am on weekends, because half the day was practically wasted! But now I just can't get enough...I do, however, avoid naps during the day, that's where I draw the line.

With the loss of 'getting ready' time in the morning, I've found some short cuts and routines that help me 'catch-up' with time. One, in particular and the reason for this entry, is my make-up routine.

Make-up is one of my favorite things, so I really try not to skip that step in the morning. I'm a sucker for Limited Edition MAC pallets, so I have quite a few of them. So going through each of them trying to figure out what colors I want to use and which brushes and how I want to wear them can take some time, believe it or not. So to save some of the few precious minutes I have in the morning, I've chosen to stick to one make-up look for weekdays. It saves me time and the more and more I do it, the faster I get.

Disclaimer: I'm in no way a professional, nor do I claim to be one. I just know what I like and like to experiment with make-up! Take this as it is...

I'm always in search of a good eyeshadow primer. What I find that works best in my morning routine is MAC's Cash Flow Paint Pot. It goes well with the eyeshadow colors I use and I like that it adds a gold shimmery hint.

And these are the four colors I use. As you can see, all neutral colors so it goes with all outfits. I put Mulch (the darkest MAC) on my lid, Mocha (Motives from Pure Blendz) on the corner, Kid (the lighter brown MAC)blended on the crease, and then finally Rose Blanc as the brow highlight.

And then I top it all off with MAC Black Track Fluidline. This is one of my favorites, I absolutely love this eyeliner. If I'm super late and I have to skip they eye shadow part of my routine, then I'll simply just slap on some black eyeliner.

As you might have noticed, all (with the exception of the Motives shadow) is MAC. I have other brands, but I just really love MAC's eye shadows. :)

Cheers to morning routines that help us save time!

Go Go Gadget...GO!

One of my cousins recently commented on my obsession with gadgets. To be exact, she said, "I never noticed that you are gadget-y(I had to add the "-[dash] y" because it just didn' t look right as "gadgety") for a girl." Apparently, the only people who can be gadget-obsessed are males! haha...I kid, I kid.

I wouldn't say I'm the most gadget-y female out there, but I do like to keep up with the times. Although, keeping up with the times can do a number on my debit card. My most recent buy was a Kindle 2. Love, love, love it! The company I work for got a sweet discount, so I just HAD to. That same cousin I mentioned just got the Nook and we compared the two. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, they are both digital readers. Kindle is through Amazon and the Nook is through Barnes and Noble. We are both happy with what we have, but I like the fact that the Nook shows the colored book covers on the bottom touch screen, as opposed to a list of book titles in the reading screen of the Kindle 2. I'm a more visual person so that appeals to me. Another more obvious difference is the Kindle 2 is WAY lighter than the Nook.

A couple months ago I made the switch from PC to Mac. I've actually worked on both, but 80% of the time on a PC. So I traded my Sony VAIO CR-Series Valentine Edition laptop for a MacBook Pro. I love it and haven't regretted the change. Except for the fact that my Adobe CS3 programs are PC versions!!!!!! I know, tragic, right?! I do plan to purchase the Adobe CS4 creative suite for the Mac, but as you know (or maybe you don't), they are so freaken expensive! I haven't been able to edit photos...I'm Photoshop deprived right now. I'm hoping in the next month or two I'll be back in action. Did you want to make a donation?!?! No? Yeah, I figured...well enjoy two photos to Project 365...
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PROJECT 365

01-07-10
I must say, this is an absolute first for me. On this day, I received my first bouquet of used flowers. That's right, I said "used." Haha...it was actually a very sweet gesture. On of my colleagues got promoted this week and she received said flowers as a 'congratulations.' Well, being it was Thursday and she was going to leave on Friday for a long weekend, no one would be around to enjoy the pretty-ness of the flowers. So she left them with me to enjoy. Told you, sweet, right?


























01-08-10
Apparently, my mother has turned me into the bad guy! She calls me to punish my nieces when they are bad (of course when their mother isn't around) instead of punishing them herself. I'm sure you all recognize Tates. She got in trouble, by me, today. What did she do? Well, in her words, she "stole my sistahs bind-a (aka binder) and punch ha (aka her) in ha back." Her punshiment was to sit in her chair and face the wall. Look at her chillin with her legs crossed like she's grown! This one...she's trouble...lol!

There you are, 2010!

Happy new year! It's been quite some time since I've blogged, hasn't it? Now, I could have my first entry be about my new years resolutions, but I haven't decided yet if I want to share those. So instead, I want to show off one of the Christmas gifts I got from my sister, Share (you can check her out at Share's Tabo List)! There is kind of a story behind it, that I'm a bit embarrassed to share, but here it goes anyways.

I like to watch make-up tutorials on youtube.com (that's not the embarrassing part!), and one night I randomly came across this one chick's channel. She's 16 years old, and after I watched one of her videos, I was just annoyed! They way she talks, her expressions, everything! But (the embarrassing part), I kept watching her videos. Like, she's so annoying that it's kind of entertaining and I actually now subscribe to her channel. So I watched a couple more and learned a thing or two! I love make-up and shopping for make-up, but there is so much out there, I never know which one to try. I watched her review on Kat Von D's make-up and I just had to have a pallet of my own! hah! So I put it on my wishlist and viola, I got it and LOVE IT.

Here's the pallet I got, Beethoven (also got the Underage Red lipstick):

Thank you JuicyStar07 a.k.a Blair.

I Scream for Maggie Moo's Red Velvet Ice Cream

My obsession began a couple weeks ago on one of those lazy Sunday afternoons. I was watching Food Network, specifically it was an episode of Unwrapped. I swear, that show always makes me crave whatever they are featuring. They're good! During this episode good ole' Marc Summers featured an ice cream shop called Maggie Moo's. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this because one just opened up near my house a little while ago, I've just never tried it. It's right next to a Jamba Juice so I always end up opting for that. Well, that's not the case anymore, my friend.

On that episode, they featured Maggie Moo's red velvet ice cream! Well, let me back up just a bit. If you're not familiar with this place, it's very similar to Cold Stone where they have various flavors of ice cream and you choose your mix-ins. Well, unlike Cold Stone, they have more unique flavors such as buttered popcorn, very yellow marshmallow, cinnamoo bun (hehe), and red velvet! I just couldn't get that out of my mind (I love ice cream!), so a week later, I drag my nieces with me to get some. Janelle got vanilla with oreos and Caitlin got chocolate with gummy bears. Of course, I absolutely had to get their red velvet fresh escape, which is red velvet ice cream with brownies, pecans, and fudge mixed in. YUMMO! I swear to you, this is the creamiest ice cream I've tasted! It's sooo good! If you get an opportunity to try it, I highly suggest you do!

If you live in the Bay Area, then you have two options, there is one in Hayward and one in Richmond. I've since been back twice and am still as amazed as the first time. Here's a picture of the dee-lish treat taken by my handy dandy Blackberry (please excuse the blurriness).

"Get Bitten!"....I'm Trying!

So as many of you shopping goers out there know, Steve & Berry bit the dust and joined many others in the bankrupt-economy in the sky. It happened a couple months ago, but for some reason I was thinking about it today. I've only been to Steve & Berry once or twice, and it was towards the end of its time with us. I wish I listened to long-time BFF and name-twin when she told me to go there because everything was so cheap!

During my shopping visit, I discovered Bitten. Bitten is Sarah Jessica Parker's affordable clothing brand! I bought a pair of jeans for under $20 and because they were closing, it only came out to like $5.00!! Great deal and it's one of my favorite pairs of jeans. Everyone knows that it's hard to find a great pair of jeans, and if you find a brand you like, stock up.

Well, today I was thinking that I need to stock up. I know Steve & Berry has been gone for a few months, but in the back of my head I didn't worry because there is always online shopping. I've been looking for an online store for the past hour and haven't found any! I've found some on ebay and other sites like that, but I don't want those. I came across an article in People magazine online and it said that SJP has gotten offers from retailers to be the new home of Bitten, but she wants to make sure she is making the right move for her customers. The right move is to make it available online, like now!

If anyone knows where Bitten is being sold...like a reliable online store...let me know!

Messy Little Tates

I don't consider myself a photographer, but I'm hooked on the I Heart Faces blog! This is the first time I'm submitting something. When I saw the them for this week was "Messy," the first person I thought of was my neice, Tates.

Silly Girl

It's Fix-It Friday again! The wonderful people at I Heart Faces posted another image to fix. Check out the edits I did below. I used PhotoShop CS3. Cute baby, huh?

Original

After

Wonder Girl

As some of you know, I am totally into playing around with graphic design and such, that's what I went back to school for! I came across this awesome blog called I Heart Faces and found out they do this thing called Fix-It Fridays. I'm no photographer, just your typical digital camera user, but the Fix-It Fridays give me a chance to practice with Photoshop CS3. The task is to take the un-edited photo and fix it up. Check out what I did below.

Before

After

Another After

Congratulations to My Boys

I was so nervous during the 4th!! Both teams played a great game. I wish there were less penalties and more play time, but whatever. *Sigh* Until next season...

A M A Z I N G

Are You Ready for Some Football?

I'd like to send out my congratulations to the 2008 AFC Conference Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers!

Hines, honey, we need a speedy recovery from you! As some of you know, he injured his knee on a reception in the first quarter and wasn't able to play for the rest of the game.

Tomlin also reports that Ryan Clark and Patrick Bailey should be fine. Clark, you gave us a scare, but glad you were able to walk off the field. Unfortunately, Raven's McGahee had to be carried off on a stretcher after colliding with Clark.

I may be biased because I have a major crush on him, but my MVP award goes to Troy Polamalu. He was absolutely amazing! ESPN said it best:

"With Troy Polamalu ending any chance Baltimore had for a comeback with a 40-yard interception return, the Steelers bullied their rivals 23-14 on Sunday to reach their seventh Super Bowl."

And check out my man here doin whatever it takes to get the job done. But yeah, I do have one request for my beloved Troy. Please shave that beard. Maybe its something your doing for this season, but after you win the superbowl...please shave it off.

Congratulations again and see you guys on February 1st! If (and when) they win the Superbowl, they will hold the record for most Superbowl victories! Here's to win #6!