Pics taken with my ipad

Is it possible to have these many colors in your hair? 

I've been thinking about cutting my bangs since I've been doing that for the past two Fall seasons. People get bangs because it's stylish; I get bangs because they're stylish and functional (hides my big forehead--hehe).

Hope all the college students are surviving midterms. For all you other folk: hope the crisp, autumn air and the pumpkin spiced lattes are treating you well. 

Toodles! xox

My DIY Project: Revamp'd Backpack

 A new school year means new books, new classes, new notebooks...and a new backpack! As an economically-challenged college student, I cannot afford to dish out $40 for a fashion backpack that can barely even fit two notebooks. Thus, I reupholstered my old backpack using an old pair of jeans & my grandma's handkerchiefs. 

Before:

After:

It took about 9 hours collectively to hand sew the material onto the backpack. Note to self: learn how to use a sewing machine. I now understand why handcrafted items are redic expensive...you need that money to treat the inevitable carpal tunnel that you'll get for not knowing how to use a sewing machine.

"It's better than tiramisu!"

...,claimed the employee at the International Food Emporium in Old Bridge, NJ. Let me tell you...it's definitely better than tiramisu. I can't seem to find words to describe the taste without my mouth watering, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

DIY: Sock Donut

Okay...I would've done a whole DIY/sock bun making tutorial but it's ridiculously difficult taking a picture of the back of your head & pictures of mid-hair-styling. Primp & Wear does a cool job giving a sock bun hairstyle tutorial. Check it out cause it's awesome. In the meantime, I will give my own rendition of making a sock bun thing. 

Materials: bobby pins (for keeping hair in place), scissors, tube sock (I used my dad's old sock since my parents' closets are my favorite places to go shopping)

Cut the sock half-way down the foot since the tube part of this tube sock was not long enough to make a good-sized bun. If the tube (ribbed part of the sock) is 10 inches or less, cut halfway down the foot part. If the tube is more than 10 inches, cut off the tube at the ankle of the sock.

Start at ribbed end and roll the sock in an outward fashion down toward the other end.

Roll all the way to the end and...

Here's your hair donut! I like the rough texture of the inside of the sock because it makes good contact with your hair to hold it in the bun. Put your hair into a pony, follow Primp & Wear's tutorial, and use bobby pins to secure the bun. If you have a lot of hair (like me), you can probably skip the bobby pins.

Enjoy! 

Recipe: Cheesy Bread + Vodka Pizza Bread

I'm so in love with fresh herbs and using it in my cooking. In this recipe, I decided to use some rosemary to give the toasted bread a unique aroma and flavor. If you don't have access to fresh rosemary, I'm thinking the dried stuff works just as well, too. 

Ingredients (forgot to take a picture of this oops) : 8 hoagie rolls, 1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese, penne vodka sauce, 3 sprigs of rosemary, olive oil, pepper, salt(to taste)

Arrange the hoagie roll halves on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the bread  and sprinkle with rosemary leaves. Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree oven for 7 min or until the  bread starts to get a little color and the fresh rosemary is toasted.

Remove the bread from the oven and sprinkle, liberally, mozzarella cheese over the warm bread to cover. More cheese=more yum. Sprinkle more olive oil over the cheese to so we'll get a nice golden color after returning these babies to the oven to melt and ooze and be delicious.

If you want variety, I used some leftover penne vodka sauce that I had in my fridge and sprinkled cheese over the sauce to make a pizza bread. I wish I could tell you how much I used, but I forgot to measure it out & you can use your best judgement to spoon out the sauce to get the appropriate sauce to bread ratio. Here's the link to Giada De Laurentiis's penne vodka sauce. If you don't have hours to slave away in front of the stove to simmer and reduce sauce, then I highly suggest buying store bought vodka sauce. You'll thank me later. Don't forget to sprinkle olive oil over your cheese!

Return the baking sheets to the oven. For the cheesy bread: leave in for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted through.

For the pizza bread with sauce and cheese: leave in for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted through. Cool the bread for 10-15 minutes. Cut in half. Serve. Devour. Enjoy. 

Fall, please come faster so that I may start wearing chunky sweaters.

Source: web.stagram.com

Hairdo of the Day

It is so hard to take a picture of the back of your own head.

[*Vegetarian] Recipe: Zucchini Onion Pie

This recipe came from the Taste of Home magazine & is supposed to be a Zucchini Onion Pie. I didn't have any zucchini, so I used whatever I had in my fridge (which were baby carrots and potatoes). Isn't cooking about improvising anyway?

This was a really easy recipe & was actually tasty. You can probably substitute other veggies(e.g., potatoes, squash) for the zucchini if you don't have zucchini in your fridge. I highly recommend trying this out!

Here's the original zucchini recipe :

Zucchini Onion Pie

3 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup canola oil
1 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
3 cups sliced zucchini
1 cup biscuit/baking mix
1 small onion, chopped

In a large bowl, whisk the first seven ingredients. Stir in the zucchini, baking mix, and onion. Pour into a greased 9-in. deep dish pie plate. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Head wrap of the day

Tip: Use a lightweight scarf as a head wrap to keep your hair up and out of your face on those hot summer days!

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Moving Forward...

"Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You've got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it."

 -Ray Bradbury

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Outfit of the day

Date night!

Top: Free People

Bottom: Kimchi Blue (Urban Outfitters)

Shoes: Alfani

Outfit of the day

Top: Urban Outfitters
Bottom: Indian pants from my aunt
Accessories: Jewelry (Forever 21); Headband (PacSun)

Instead of spraying air freshener, try toasting some fresh herbs on the stove.

We have a littler garden in the back where we're growing things like rosemary, basil, and mint. It's really great growing fresh ingredients right in your backyard--gives your dishes a special touch. Today, I decided to make a balsamic vinegar-oil dipping sauce with rosemary for some ciabatta bread. So I was toasting the rosemary on the stove & found out that it leaves a pleasant aroma in your house. Instead of spraying air freshener, try toasting rosemary in a little pan. No oil. No salt. No "BAM!" Just rosemary and heat.

I hope you got my Emeril reference up there...

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Too Many White Button Downs

Is it normal to own this many white button downs? Please note that there are 15 shirts pictured above. Maybe I can start a specialty white shirt store...

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Pomegranate & Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

I'm so happy that Ree Drummond (The "Pioneer Woman") has her own cooking show on the Food Network! I've been such a big fan of her recipes ever since I got introduced to her food blog about a year ago by my friend. Her blog has so many easy, tasty recipes with useful step-by-step pictures to make cooking possible for any person. What I also like about her recipes is its simplicity; She incorporates ingredients that you can find in your own kitchen with techniques that you've probably learned in your introductory Home Ec class. In other words, you can make tasty food with little skill by using her recipes.

Today, I made Pomegranate & Strawberry Oatmeal Bars. It was supposed to only be Pomegranate, but I only had a little bit left in the jar so I ended up using a bit of Strawberry jam to help stretch out the Pomegranate jelly. Some tips I leave to you (if you decide to do this yourself):

• Use softened butter when you're cutting your butter into your mixture, but make sure the butter is still cold, too. 
• Use 2 knives to cut the butter into the mixture if you don't have a pastry blender. 
• Don't fret when the preserves/jam start to bubble through some parts of your oatmeal topping...that's normal!

Honestly, you won't go back to eating those Quaker Oatmeal Chewy bars after trying one of these bad boys. After all, things taste 10 times better if you make it.

Recipe Here

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

The Beauty of Dancing

More often than not, I find myself connecting more with dance than I do with music. Great music works its wonders by sending goosebumps all over my body, but great dancing makes me want to get off my ass and try it. But since I am the least flexible, laziest bum around with discontinued training in any form of dance, I remain seated on my ass imagining doing the moves myself. Suckstosuck, I guess.

I wish I had continued ballet lessons from my childhood or had committed to ballroom lessons from 7 years ago. I keep wishing for these things, but what I should really be doing is working on this fickle characteristic that inhibits me from staying committed to one thing. Maybe I will pick up some ballet lessons in the future if time and money permit. For now, I'm content with knowing how to salsa dance. 

Featured video: I came across this video of these 2 dancers (Nicolas Besnard and Shenea Booth) on facebook. My GOD, the way Booth controls her body is incredible, and Besnard's strength is amazing. This video will probably remind you of a Cirque du Soleil show...how appropriate since Besnard was in Cirque's "Zumanity" for 4 years. 

Enjoy!

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Hidden by Image Noise

Damn, technology.

I've noticed that people tend to look more attractive in pictures taken with a phone than in pictures taken with an actual camera. Then again...who carries around a camera anymore when everyday moments can be captured with a small, compact iPhone? With the growth of Instagram, it seems that everyone has become an instantaneous photographer. The cool filters turn an ordinary picture into a work of art that looks like it should be displayed in a gallery. 

Don't get me wrong--many of the cameras on today's phones take surprisingly good shots (in well-lit, natural envrionments). But there are still pictures that people take in poor-lit places with a camera phone or with a shitty, 2 MP webcam. These are the pictures that inspired me to write this post. People hide behind these pixelated, grainy photos because they create an air of mystery, I think. No one wants to clearly show what they are doing but show enough [in a picture] to make others comment, "omg where r u?" I know for a fact that every one of you who has taken a drunken photo with your phone is thankful that the poor quality masked your inebriated ass enough so that you can still upload the picture to facebook (to partially show off to the world that you're out there having fun. Don't worry I do this too. Don't we all?) without feeling too embarrassed by the way you look. And girls: don't tell me you haven't defaulted a grainy or blurry picture because you looked good since the low megapixel count covered up all your blemishes and imperfections and made you look [almost] perfect. 

Here's a visual of the point I was trying to get across, since I suck at words:

** The asterisk denotes the few cases of people who look like models in high quality photos because these pictures are either edited, the people look nice all the time, or the people are actually models. 

Don't hide behind a blurry picture because everyone would rather see your true beauty without all the noise!

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it. 

Introduction

Honestly, there is nothing that can keep me away from writing...especially blogging. I've had other blogs (Xanga and Tumblr) before but none of them were actually serious. So that's why I made this one. Consider this to be my "coming-of age" blog: Mature. Serious. Less of that petty boy problem shit. I created this blog to express myself through pictures, words, and music since I believe we should express ourselves through more than one medium. This blog, I hope, will provide you with entries that entertain, commentaries that clarify, and music that moves. It won't be another blog written from the point of view of an angsty teenager, I promise. (Since I'm almost going on my last teenage year, anyway.)

Enjoy the posts and I hope that we can relate to each other, whether we're the same age or not.

Happiness comes when we stop searching for it.