If You Like Green Piña Colada...Tea

I bought a Groupon for the Chado Tea House in Downtown a few months ago. Now, if you are like me, you buy these things and forget about them. Good thing I have this week off from work to take advantage of the oddly sunny and warm weather to enjoy some afternoon tea with my bff. Another tea lover like myself.

We shared 4 different sandwiches, scones, cakes and tea. It was enough for both of us to feel really stuffed at the end of our meal. We also got to take home some loose leaf teas. Including my new favorite Green Piña Colada Tea. We conversed through lunch while peeking between the sandwiches and scones. Literally, between them, since the table was so small.

After our lunch we took a little stroll around Little Tokyo and came across a wishing tree...

 so i made a wish...

There were many different types of wishes, for world peace, for love, for prosperity, well wishes for others, for babies, for friendships, and to meet Justin Bieber...seriously, to meet him? Oh well. Wonder what this person wished for...

We kept walking around trying to forget we had already stuffed ourselves so we could eat some sushi or Japanese curry...the smell was so numbingly decadent...but we remembered...

We rounded out our afternoon with a quick visit to a bookstore where Claudia got her Anime fix and I discovered a Korean series called "Boys Over Flowers." It looks riveting. By the way, only in Downtown LA will you drive through China and Mexico to get to Japan. All thanks to adventures in Groupon-ing. Tune in next time for the Jamba Juice Swirly Hunt, true story.

♥always,
Marisol

Thanks A Lot, WHAM!

Everybody, and I mean everybody has heard some version of the song "Last Christmas." If you haven't, well, at the end of this post you will. I'm usually all "Christmas-y" and love me some Christmas jams. However, "Last Christmas" is making me cringe. 

Originally the song was written by Wham! Yeah, those guys. To be fair their version is not the problem. The problem is that since it's creation in 1984, this song has been covered roughly 485 times. I am not kidding or exaggerating the number, I thought there must have been over 100 versions but this site blew me away! There are only so many ways to make one song sound different. The worst version is, and probably no matter how many more times it's covered will always be, Taylor Swifts version. The only ones that I actually like are Wham!'s, also known as the original version, and Cascada only because it's catchy and dance-y and she has a pretty voice (Taylor Swift... not so much on any count. I'm sure she is a lovely person.)




Oh and how funny is this? I went on YouTube to find this video and guess what the top 3 search results were? Yup. Wham! Cascada and Taylor Swift. Oh and go ahead and add Ashley Tisdale to the "worst" list for this song, while you are at it.  Not sure what possessed me to click on it.

Please, music industry, STOP making covers of this song. Pretty Please?

♥alwasy,
Marisol

Vehicular Blow Dryer

You have your basics like eating while driving (easy), and your not so basics like changing your pants while driving (tricky.) But today I discovered a new one: hair drying.

If you are running late out the door with soaking wet hair, no worries. Put your car heater on high and blast it, lean a little forward and aim the vents at your head. In less time than it would take a blow dryer, your hair will be dry! I just got an infomercial vibe to those last sentences. It also helps that I have short, fine hair but still, very impressed at the speed I was able to dry it (about 4 minutes on the freeway.) Would also recommend some sort of frizz serum before leaving your house. Oh man, I'm going to keep doing this...although it might not work in the summer as it will be too hot to take the heater on full blast. Also, maybe not on the freeway, how about at red lights?

Why yes, I am a bad driver.

♥always,
Marisol

My Jam: Liam Bailey - It's Not The Same

This groovy ditty was introduced to me by the boyfriend. He's always finding the jams before they become mainstream jams.

Good stuff...

♥always,
Marisol

Moving on...

I'm moving, let's just say she's in progress. Yes, my apartment is a girl. She's having some major work done ;)

Cant wait to see her final look.

♥always,
Marisol

Owl Be Darned

You know how even as a kid you start to develop an affinity for something? Some times it's something big and so important it turns out to be your career or passion. Most of the time it's just a weird fascination/obsession with a thing or a color or an animal. Think Mariah and her butterflies.  Growing up I wanted a "thing" to be my "thing!" But alas, nothing came. Nothing. I tried being into stars for while but it just wasn't well, my thing. I went through different colors, forest green was big for a while, it even was  my Quinceanera color. But again, not one color stuck. So maybe my "thing" is to just phase in and out of things? If that's the case, I'm really in to Owls right now. They fascinate me and so does the color Teal. So when I saw this little guy, my heart fluttered a little bit.

His name is Leo and he would have made it onto my Christmas list if he had not been sold out. :(
I know, I was sad too. Anyway. Back to other owls...

in a necklace...

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in the kitchen...

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by the front door...

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on me AND the boyfriend...OK, so that last one is not gonna happen but a girl can dream. Moving on...

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On a cake...I must bake this!

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Pretty much everything at ModCloth...

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As for the teal thing, I've always liked teal, in fact I know it's the color that looks best with my skin tone but rarely wear it. Recently the teal obsession started after I saw this...

I got the teal fever. I went on a mad hunt trying to figure out what color this was for a project I'm working on. Yup, I'm painting. And as much as I would love this whole living/dinning area the paint is actually for a bedroom. What's your "thing"? Is it owls, please say it's owls? Or teal, that can work.

♥always,
Marisol

Super Saver

If I can get something on sale, It's like a high! It makes me really giddy. For example, last week I bought some stuff online at Target. Target is not very pricey but if you buy a bunch of things, you know what kind of trouble I can get at Target. But I found some discounts...

Here was the deal, spend over $75 on clothing (which I was already doing) and save 20% plus a holiday discount for 15% (thanks Facebook!) plus $7 of on sweaters (although everything ended up having $7 off...no complaints) and free shipping on orders over $50.

So I ended up saving $55.93. I was very giddy. I could have paid the full price, no problem, but I would rather pay what I did. This doesn't always happen. I spent $100 for a rain jacket once when I could have just bought a cheaper one for like $20. I figure with all the discounts I try to use I can splurge here and there.

I say be frugal, use discounts!! Easy to do if you "like" the stores you shop, sign up for their emails, and also check websites like retilmenot.com. Trust me, the saving giddy is awesome.

♥always,
Marisol

30 Letters

As part of my Birthday Challenges, I challenged myself to write 30 letter to 30 different people. I am now slapping my self silly. That's a whole lot of letters. My of the top of my head list only included about 10 people. The plan was to write a letter to 30 people that in some way shaped the person I am today. But as I started to write these letters I realized I don't have 30 people I would say shaped the person I am today.

{Source: weheartit.com via Van on Pinterest}

I started with the obvious, my parents, siblings, loved ones, best friends...then I got a little stumped. So I started with teachers, dead people, even one celeb (Enrique Iglesisas if you must know, something about being the obsession of my tween age year and allowing me to fantasize...blhblahblah...don't judge me I was getting desparate) and to people that even affected me negatively because in the end they shape the person I didn't want to become therefor shaping who I am. I also started to write letter to events and things in my life. These letters got really personal and some even made me cry. While I share a lot on here, these are too precious for me to put on here and too long to type out. I got old school and hand wrote them. In the end I only wrote 28 letters. Now, in order to fulfill the 30 quota here are two short letters that I will share with you:.

Letter #29
Dear Childhood Books,
You captured me. You kept me company and taught me all kinds of things. I would like to specially thank you Babysitters Club Series, the Velveteen Rabbit, The giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk End, Alight in the Attic (basically all of Shel's books), If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Where the Wild Things Are, and many more. You all inspired my imagination and started my love for books. You have no idea how much you affected me. Because of you I discovered Jane Austen and because of you I loved to still to this day sit on my bed and get lost in a story for a few hours.    

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Letter #30
Dear Trip To Spain,
I knew I would love traveling. You proved me right. My first solo experience outside of this country, I felt free and alive and grown up. With highs and lows...tears and laughter you carved a deep little part in my heart. You made me more adventurous. You made me want to see this whole world. Every trip I took afterwards or will take in the future was because of you.  

So there you go. 30 letters, even if I only shared 2. Well, 3 if you count the Enrique Iglesias blurb. Seriously I was desperate. 

♥always,
Marisol

Photography Challenge: Day 22-30!

We've come to the end of the challenge. While this little project did not really go quite how I expected it was definitely fun and I'm glad I did it.

Day 22: Hands

I feel like they look like I'm about to grope something...

 

 
Day 23: Sun flare

I had a much more awesome photo of this with the palm tree but I somehow deleted it and didn't realize it till later and so my 50 attempt to recreate this photo failed...

Day 24: Animal

So...doe this count? I wasn't anywhere near a live animal this day or this month. 

Day 25: Something Pink

If a hot pink feather Christmas Tree doesn't get you in the Holiday Spirit I don't know what will...

Day 26: Close Up

I love looking at this picture because you can see all the texture from the wood.

Day 27: From a Distance

Same piece of wood as above, not as interesting but bet you didn't know what the top picture was til now. 

Day 28: Flowers

Pretty...

Day 29: Black and White

I never park in the back lot at work, but today I had no choice. This also forced me to try and figure out what the heck this thing was and wonder why it was just parked behind the building. 

Day 30: Self Portrait

I'm not looking my best today...well, I'm sure I look just fine but I don't really like my outfit, hair or makeup today... so this is a self portrait of my shadow, she looks great!

So that's it! 30 Days of photos that I never would have taken otherwise. I did miss a few days but as far as I'm concerned, it was a success. It challenged me and that was the whole point!

Recap:

In the beginning! Also known as day 1-3

Day 4-6 

Day 7-9

A big chunk! Also known as day 10-21

Thanks for following along!

♥always,

Marisol

Photography Challenge - Challenge!

Between being sick, actually celebrating my b-day and being swamped at work,  I've been lagging with the pictures and in fact I missed some days. Not only because I forgot or didn't have time but because of my genius idea to use my iPhone to take the pictures. I did not realize, or better said I did not think about, how some of the challenges were meant for people with those fancy cameras. You know the kind that you can change setting on and stuff like that. Anywho  So here goes day 10-21!

Day 10: Childhood Memory.

This was the first photo challenge that stumped me. then as i sat in my room watching the final hours of the day pass I looked at the one thing left in my room from my childhood. Meet Max.

Day 11: Something Blue.

I am secretly obsessed with blue eyeshadow. Yet I never wear it. I always look like i got punched and have a black eye.

 

 Day 12: Sunset.

I kept trying and trying but either I missed it or it was raining or a million other reasons this didn't make it. So how about a picture of just the sun...

Day 13: Yourself with 13 things.

Things or rings? Well, rings are things.

Day 14: Eye.

Hi Dad! Love that you didn't even ask what I was doing, you just sat there and let me take your picture.

Day 15: Silhouette.

Good morning!

Day 16: Long Exposure.

Hmm...yeah, need a fancy camera. But THIS is what it looks like.

Day 17: Technology.

This will always look cool to me no matter how many I see or how fancy they get.

Day 18: Your Shoes.

Shoes. Plural people, plural!

Day 19:Something Orange

Day 20: Bokeh

Again, fancy camera needed. I do hope to take it later though... it looks pretty!

Day 21: Faceless Self-Portrait.

There is more to this picture but, I think this is my favorite so far. I would also like to confess to the fact that I did not in fact take this photo. The Boyfriend did. I said, "Take a picture of me holding this to my face, don't ask me why"

I'm not doing any better with the 30 letters but in any case those can take more time as I want them to be special. The pictures are coming along great though, can wait to share those with you!

♥always,
Marisol

I'm Thirty

Yup, 30. Feels like 29, and 25. So really I'm 25. And I'm sure 31 will feel the same too. I wanted to write out a long post on turning 30 and what it all means but honestly, It just means I'm 30. Maybe after a few days when it's all sunk in I'll write something. For the time being here is what I look like at 30. Pretty much the same way I looked at 20. So really I'm 20.

♥alwasy,
Marisol 

Birthday Sinus

This weekend was grey and ugly. Friday I started sneezing. I only sneeze under the following conditions: 1) Dust in the air 2) Cheap perfume that smells bad 3) I'm getting sick. This case it was numero 3. So I hibernated all weekend in hopes that plenty of rest would get rid of this sinusitis.

No dice. I'm still sick. This was most definitely not in the birthday plans. But I'm staying positive, I will be fine or as I keep saying "I'm Find!"

This however has hindered my letter writing and photo taking. I managed to get in Day 10 and 11 but I will have to owe you the rest of the images at another time. Not to mention it's a little difficult to capture a Sunset when it's raining. But I'll be back full force with the photos by day 18. I promise.

Also on other random and not related news, I got a haircut. Now, normally this would not be such great news or blog worthy except that I cut it off pretty short. I like the length but I don't like the style, but hey, it's just hair, right? More on that later, I think my hair will deserve it's own post.  Oh and also I found my first GREY hair. Seriously? I fainted. Well, I didn't faint in reality but in my imagination I did. 

I'll leave you with this image... Before my sinusitis, before my grey hair discovery and before the rollers came out and I hated my hair...

♥always,
Marisol