Dress Remix

That's right, Reeeemix! Said in my best Missy Elliot impersonation.

In my last Over the Weekend post I mentioned that I bought a pretty new dress at Forever 21. I love that store. I'm going to be 50 and still shop there.  It's easy to shop there since I don't really have a style it's more of  an "I dress comfortably and there are things that just have a Marisol look" type of style. Whatever that look is.

So back to the dress...I wore it 4 times, 4 different ways. In 3 days. Yeah, I got skills like that. It's a simple print dress with an elastic band tightly at the center, loose-fitting everywhere else and a little short in the back, but , nothing a pair of shorts can't fix.

 First up: Friends Birthday Party.

Did you notice something? It's my purple heels from this Shoedazzle post. I was soooooo excited to finally wear these shoes. They have just been sitting in my closet for ever! The purple in the dress matches the dress perfectly. That post also reminded me that in fact there is a name for my "style" it's cosmopolitan, modern and spirited. Ha! That still make me laugh. 

The party was at night so I threw on this warm, military style sweater and cinched it with a brown belt, and a simple creamy white, rose pendant necklace.

Second I wore it to my sisters backyard birthday party the following afternoon.

I had to dress quickly as people showed up early and this dress was laying on my bed from the day before. Paired with a camel colored belt and skin-tone strappy sandals I was ready to play hostess.

 I just love all the colors!

Intermediately following the birthday party was the SAP party so I changed to something a little more dressy and warm.

Added some black tights, black wedges, black necklace and a Navy blue blazer. I asked for theses wedges on my Christmas list, in a Taupe. I received them in black too. I think I have worn the black more than taupe. Good call, little sister!

Little Jazmin liked my blazer so much she insisted on trying on. If a toddler likes what your wearing you definitely look one of two ways... Super cool or like a Nick Junior character. I'm thinking super cool. I am too....Although, if I were a cartoon character that would be pretty cool too.

Finally, the fourth outfit: The following Monday morning, I was running late for work, as usual, so again I just grabbed the dress and here you go:

 
I paired it with a white tee underneath, a jean jacket and my favorite boots!

Now this may not seem like a proper office outfit, short dress and all, but I work for a cosmetic company and honestly they could care less what I wear. I have worn everything from business formal for a meetings to my yoga pants and a hoodie. Plus, the white tee is for "cleavage" control....hahahaha....OK, ok, enough laughing, and the shorts are for booty control.

I love these boots!

This last little photo session was all laughs. I had to recreate my work outfit this weekend so I could put it on here. Do you know how hard it is to keep a straight face when trying to look aloof like I don't care that I know how cool I look? The fact that my cousin, Linda, was visits and making me laugh plus my sister saying things like, "Love the camera, now hate it, hate the camera." That's me hating the camera in the middle, and then hiding my my face in shame...

So there you go. I didn't mean to but that's  how I remixed my dress into 4 outfits for 4 different occasions in 3 days. Mental note: wash dress. I feel a little like a fashion blogger. The heck is a fashion blogger? That's what I said. But there are thousands of fashion blogger out there. I though it was cool an all but not my thing, some outfits were just plane odd to me. Until I came across Kendi Everyday. I would steal her closet if it weren't against the law and if I were a mean person. I think she might have inspired me in my remix. She's the 50 Cent to my Missy Elliot.  

I was so proud of myself, getting all creative with my outfits in this one dress. Until my more fashionable little sisters says, "Four? that's it? I can think of at least 30 more outfits." Ouch...hmm...post idea coming up. Till next time, I leave you with a REEEEEEMIIIIX!!!!

Wow, never really noticed how dirty this song is...sorry about that.

Guest Post: Kim

It's time for February's Guest Post comes from Miss Kimberly! Or that Asian kid, or that dam Latina girl (this is a bit of an inside joke between us, I'm not racist or something.) Kim and I roll back from our HHS days, we met in NJROTC. What the heck is NJROTC,you ask? You will never know. Seriously, I think we have both blocked that time form our memories. So here's Kimmy:

Let me start by introducing myself, as I’m sure many of Marisol’s blog readers most likely don’t know me. My name is Kimberly Tran, I am 100% Vietnamese, and 100% nerd, both of which I am proud of being. I’ve known Marisol since our days in high school and I’ll be the first to admit that she and I have shared tons of great memories, and some not so great memories, but through it all, I find her still willing to be my friend, and for that I am eternally grateful. She’s put up with my mom being absolutely horrendous to her, forgiven me for watching her tumble down half a flight of stairs, and has still maintained contact with me. Now either something is wrong with her, or she sees something in me that makes her want to remain my friend.

When I first started reading Marisol’s blog I realized two things, one, I really like her writing style, and two I really like her as a person. Then when I saw that she had guest bloggers I absolutely squealed like a little girl, I sent her a message and asked her if I could do an entry in her blog, she told me I would get February’s slot and I was completely happy with that. That was like way back in October, maybe even November, the point is, I completely forgot I was writing an entry for her blog until she so kindly reminded me the week before January was to end. When I got her reminder I was so excited, and then slightly panicked. I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I had told her I wanted to write about food, recipes, restaurants I especially enjoy, experiences with food and what not, but then I got an email from CSULB saying that I was finally getting my diploma, and I was so excited I wanted to do an entry on my time in school (I spent a great deal of time in college). Marisol suggested I do an entry on both, but as I sit here watching, surprise, a cooking show, I realize there’s something else I’d much rather blog about. That something else is my dog, Pepper.

What brought on this change of topic? Well today I spent Valentine’s morning in South Central L.A getting new tires for my car. While I was there I saw at least five stray dogs. Something about stray dogs just tugs at my heart strings. Stray animals in general. It’s just these animals are so cute and deserve to live with a family that will love and cherish them, they are living creatures, and I hate seeing helpless strays wandering around in the street. On my way back to the freeway something caught my best friend’s eye, there was a cart set up selling goodies for Valentine’s day gifts, and among those gifts were TINY TINY Chihuahuas! These dogs were so little, and they looked a little malnourished and one was just WAY too sleepy, I felt like buying them just so that I could give them better homes. This leads me to my dog, Pepper. Pepper is a dog I adopted from the Carson city shelter. She was listed as a Labrador/Pit-bull mix. I am almost positive she is NOT that mix, because if she is, she is the TINIEST Lab-Pit EVER. She is a mere 35lbs, with short black and white hair. When I first took her home from the pound they told me that I had 2 weeks to return her to the pound if I found that she was in poor health. That very same night I took Pepper to my local vet, where I found that my poor little pup had a heart murmur. The vet told me that this was common among the runts in a litter of puppies. She told me that if the murmur didn’t fix itself after her fifth month of life I would have to pay for an extremely costly surgery. I was so bummed, but, there was no way I was going to return my dog, she had already wiggled her way into my heart. Besides, the way I saw it, I figured that if I gave Pepper back no one else would take her and she’d be put to sleep because of her health condition. So that night I made sure she was comfy in her new home and prayed to God that my dog didn’t die over night and that she would get better because I didn’t have the money to pay for a surgery.

She was so little….

That was three years ago, and my monster is healthy as ever. Pepper has been through so much with me in the past three years, she seems to always know when I’m sad because she’ll come sit by my side and lay her head in my lap to cheer me up. She’s smart, silly, and a great guard dog. Going to the shelter to find a dog was the best decision I could ever make. The shelter spayed her and gave her her first set of vaccinations all for free.

Over The Weekend: Birthday, Birthday and SAP

I had quite a busy weekend! Two birthdays and one sap. What is a sap? Well, you will just have to keep reading to learn about that.

First of, Saturday. This day was a beautiful day. Bright and sunny. I LOVE living in southern California. While most of the country is suffering from the evils of cold weather, I can wear shorts and sunglasses. But anywho...Costco on Saturday is madness! Avoid at all costs! Had lunch with Karen, we had some Johnny Rockets and when the bill came she said "I got this." Awww Snap! Then we did some shopping. Bought me a pretty new dress (A whole post about this dress is coming, that's how pretty it is and how much I love it!) and an orange owl. The orange owl will be back in some final Bedroom Makeover post...someday...

That night I went over to Claudia's for her hubs b-day. Sat around with my friends where a whole lot of topics came up. We went from bad strippers to plastic surgery. I refused to eat some birria (Aome beef dish. Beef..eew) but enjoyed a carb-loaded plate of beans, rice and tortillas. During conversation I made up the worn "Centimiterige," you know like mileage? Well, it made sense at the time. I mean if only 1 out of 5 people questioned the validity of the word, that's pretty good.  After some more conversation it was time for me to come home and make cupcakes. Birthday Party number 1 down, time to prep for Birthday number 2.

I WOULD REALLY LIKE FOR YOU TO COME UP WITH A CAPTION FOR THIS PHOTO! WINNER GETS A CHOCOLATE BAR OR SOMETHING...(Doreen was not harmed in the taking of this photo)

I'm never the tall one, I'm just wearing really high heels. Yes Doreen, is channeling some Sandy/Olivia Newton John moment here.

I was up till like 2am making these chocolate fudge cupcakes. Only for you little sister. Karen turned 22 on Sunday. We had a birthday party for her at our house. Lots of family, friends and food. And lots of fudge everywhere. Like, seriously, I had fudge everywhere. I kept finding it on me throughout the day. Wait a minute...I just said "Like" on my blog. The last time I val-wrote on here it was on purpose. This time was just me, hahaha. I'm a fresa sometimes! (Fresa = Spanish for Valley Girl).

I look pretty hot in that apron. It's been a while since I made cupcakes. Lesson reminded: Don't fill the cups up this much they will come out looking like muffins and not cupcakes! However...not really a problem in hindsight :)

We said the party started at 2pm. We had guest arriving from 1:30 to 5:30 pm. We expected everyone around 3pm,  so when some people showed up early we were baffled. Who shows up early? Didn't they get the Latino memo. If the Party starts at 2 that means the party starts at 3. But then again maybe we should start working on that.

It got chilly pretty quickly once the sun went down -- well chilly for us is like 67 degree weather -- so inside the house we all went. Watched The Proposal. Took a short nap during The Proposal, almost snuggled with my sister's friend in a sleepy haze because I thought it was my sister...awkward...woke up right at the end of The Proposal, then got ready for my SAP.

Well my readers, you made it through. Time to solve the SAP mystery. There is Valentine's Day and then there's Singles Appreciation/Awareness Day. Hence SAP = Singles Appreciation Party or SAP = Singles Awareness Party. Yes, that's it. That's what you had to sit there and read this entire post so you could find out what the heck a SAP was. I'm sorry.

So back to my SAP. It sounds like something kind of cool though right, like a bunch of single people getting together and meeting and having a good time, enjoying some food, drinks and being single! Well, it is and ours was just like that...except it was just 5 girls eating chips and ceviche, drinking wine and watching the Grammy's. But I promise it was fun. I had a great time. I laughed. A lot. There was a time when my stomach started to hurt from the laughter. My favorite lines from that night, which wont make sense to you since you had to be there but I think are so funny I'm going to write them anyway, are: "I'm a C", "Call the Verizon Hot Line" and "Do the Bernie!"

Definitely, a great weekend. Lots of food, fun and love. I leave you with this cute little card I found on Etsy:

Happy Valentine's Day

I was going to post an Over the Weekend post today, but I can do it tomorrow. It's that time of the year again...It's Valentine's Day.

My take on it: We should celebrate LOVE everyday. Today is just the cherry on top.
We should also celebrate all types of love. Parents give your kids extra hugs ans kisses today, pet owners give your animal companions a treat today, give your friends some cookies... so much love all around.

So I leave you with these seriously disturbing but funny as can be vintage Valentine's Day cards:

  12 Vintage Valentine's Day Cards 

  Dear Previous Generations: What the hell? Seriously.
  -- Signed, The Present Day.

This one made me laugh the most, PSYCHO!

Love always,

Computer Issues

My laptop is screen is broken.

So what is a girl to do? Take her back to Best Buy! Her? Yes, my laptop is lavender so she's also a girl. I didn't drop her, slam her or abuse her in any way and it's less than a year old.

Well...Best Buy did nothing. All they said was it's not a manufacturer problem so therefore there is nothing they can do other than charge me like $500 to fix it. Dam you Geek Squad Geeks! They kept staring at me like "Sure..you DIDN'T drop it." No, you MoFos! I DIDN'T drop it. It sits on my bed all day. It's very pampered if you ask me.

So I now have to call HP. Whom will most likely tell me there is nothing they can do as it's not a manufacturer problem. And they will be giving me that same look...I know it...I will feel it through my phone.

I bought my first laptop about 2005, 2004? No, 2005?. It was a Dell. I loved him. Him? Yes, he was gray with a white trim and sturdy, so it was a boy. I dropped him, slammed him, abused him, threw him in the back seat, carried him in a flimsy bag, and probably even slept on him.  Poor guy, he got me through part of my college years though.

He took it like a champ. He was not without his battle scars but still running like a champ. The only real casualty was a broken "Page Down" key. He now lives with my Aunt in Guatemala. Yup still going strong!

So when it was time to upgrade because I felt like I needed to upgrade to something nicer and newer, I moseyed on over to Best Buy. Why o why did I not go to Dell.com and custom order me a new laptop? No, I was lured by a pretty HP. But you my delicate HP flower, you are weak. You are fragile. You truly are pretty and fancier than my old Dell, with your built in camera, you finger scanner...but all your pretty didn't do you any good. Not to mention your built in microphone never worked either.

Since I've been laptop-less -- yes, let's laugh at how that sounds like topless -- I haven't been really posting as much as I would like to because a lot of my photos need to get Photoshoped and my laptop is the only one at home that has Photo Shop. Also, I've been using my work (Yay Dell!) and my sisters laptops (one HP, boo! One Dell, Yay!) Let's see what the folks over at HP really do tell me when I give 'em a call on Monday. Cross your fingers people!

To the MAC lovers: I don't want to hear it. I'm a PC girl. Now, don't get me wrong, sure I would love to own a MAC one day, great for my graphics and video and stuff. But guess what? I would be own both. Ahhh Snap!

Maybe right now that I'm feeling like writing I should work on an old style of post. "Over the Weekend..." remember those? Oh yeah, my finger are on fire baby!! Only I haven't been taking too many picture so it might be a bit bland on the looks department.

Physicaly fit! Physically fit!

I know you know it. You know you know it. If you don't know it... You will now:

OK so now that we got that out of the way, on to the point of this post! Getting physically fit and getting my mojo back.

I've always been pretty thin, curvy, but thin. Lucky me, I know, don't Hate! I've had it easy actually, I always eat what I want, when I want. I will never say no to the following items: baked goods, cheesy stuff and chicken. My weight always fluctuates between 115-117 lbs. I'm 5'2" and like I said, pretty dam curvy. Now while I may be thin I am not physically fit. I'm weak. I don't think I can run a mile without passing out and I don't play sports.

In the last few month I managed to pass my 117 by and amount that will remain anonymous. Let's just say my jeans do not fit and my hips don't need to extend farther than they already do. I found myself just wearing stretchy pants! Thank GOD for leggings and my new personal favorites, Jeggings! So what's the big deal. Well, I'm almost embarrassed to say... I started to feel ugly.

I have to share this one...I'm sorry...

I'm a very confident person. I wasn't always. Grades 6-12 were hell for me. I thought I was the ugliest thing ever. Somewhere around 19 something changed. High school was over, college started and I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. I somehow realized that no amount of praying, wishing, hoping and crying would ever change the way I look. This is me. Big head, big nose, big lips, short, small boobs, big butt, curvy hips, small waist, thick legs... all me. I learned to love me the way I am. And just like that, my confidence came out. The thing about confidence is, that while it's internal and personal and something only you can control, once it's there it will shine through. Like you are glowing. I smiled more, I laughed more, I finally learned how to manage the frizzy hair, I even walked better. I noticed the boys noticed... yeah that was a shocker to me.

So these past few months of living with a little more junk in my trunk, thighs, and face (that's where I gain it) plus working late and traveling every month for work, lack of sleep and dealing with a heavy emotional breakup have really made me feel like I'm in high school again. I've never felt like more of an adult than I do now in my adult life but one look at some Christmas photos where I look like a hot air balloon and I'm back to feeling like a teenager. So where the hell did my confidence go?

It's not like I always felt super confident everyday. I had "bad" days and the learning to love yourself took time to get to the level where I am now. But lately it's more bad than good. The difference is it's ten years later and the love me the way I am part is not the problem. It's the I'm 29 now and I need to take care of myself. As in, eat a little better, not diet, I would never diet, but just eat better. Put down that second piece of chocolate cake, Marisol. Get more sleep. And most importantly...*sigh*...do some exercise.

Here is the plan to get me physically fit and hopefully back into my jeans!

Eating better: Not a problem, already on that. It's not hard since I don't eat a lot of junk food or fast food. it's the bread that's killing me. Plus I need to incorporate more breakfast and less late night meals. I have a massive tea addiction... switching to more healthy options like green tea (I'm crying for my chai lattes!) and also more water.

Sleeping more: Sleeping is a habit. I need to establish a schedule for myself. This will take a lot of discipline from me but a habit is a habit. I have to first break my sleeping late habit to form my new sleeping on time habit. I really can't do much about the traveling for work, plus I'm starting to get a rhythm every time I fly so with time this will be more manageable.

Exercising more: Oy...I hate the gym. Getting me to go work out is hard. I have to really be dragged. Once I get in the comfort of my home that's it, you are not getting me to work out. The only part I liked about the gym were the classes. I do well with classes. So to start my exercising I singed up for a Yoga studio. It was a little pricey so the frugal in me will definitely push me to attend. Plus it's a class, and it really doesn't feel like exercises. Plus the calming elements of Yoga I'm hoping will help with the stress of the heartache.

That's the plan my friends..wish me LUCK!

What do you guys do to stay physically fit, physically fit, physically physically fit!

I have to end with this one: