top me off!

This afternoon, I headed out to find a birthday gift for my mama but made a pitstop at the Topshop Heartschallenger van (passing out free totebag + goodies) that was parked walking distance to my apartment.

Super cute! Looks like a little ice cream truck that passes out free strawberry ice cream -- heeey a girl can dream...

The girls that were passing out stuff were so cute! dressed in matching black bowler hats. One asked to take my photo and I was super jealous of her gigantic monster of a camera. Mine felt like a dinky toy in comparison :(

Spotted this awesome graffitied truck on the way to Soho. Secretly thought it was cooler than the Topshop truck ;)

Outfit details: Chloé jacket + Chloé aviators

Mixed berry noisette and Lemon Tart from Balthazar bakery on Spring Street in Soho.

Inside Starbucks enjoying my nibbles with a latte. Photo snapped courtesy of my friend Sha, aka smallzz ;)

In case you were wondering, this is what the Topshop store looks like so far. Still doing a little bit of construction on the outside but inside, everything is FINITO! Ready to RUMBLE!!

SNEAK PEEK!!!!

Inside display. I want that grey top!!!!

Get ready H&M, the british bullz are staging a massive infiltration of the American fast fashion market!! Rawr!! (pink bulldog = cutest angry face ever)

Shoe lounge on 3rd floor???? I wanna seeeee. LET ME IN!!! haha. At this point, we got shooed away for taking too many photos :(

THE GOODIE BAG:

I wanna know how much is on my gift card!! I hate surprises!!

See ya New York cats on Thursday!!!

float like a butterfly, drink like a boy

Warning: don't read/view on an empty stomach :D

On one of our last days in Orange County, the boy and I went to the Neiman Marcus in Fashion Island to have lunch at their café Mariposa. It was a bit too cold to sit outside, which was a major bummer because this location has an amazing view of Newport Beach, but we still sat by the window!




Amuse bouche to start. Couldn't eat it because it was chicken based :( But it still smelled delish!!

My mint tea -- served in a funny espresso pot

Popover served with strawberry butter. Strawberry butter > popover. You know when the butter is so good that you're only eating the bread because you are too embarrassed to just spoon the butter into your mouth? lol... don't tell anyone I told you that.

Petite truffled Mac & Cheese. Four cheese cream and golden bread crumbs.

This was by far, the BEST mac and cheese I have ever had. No contest. I dunno what kind of witchcraft they put in here, but this baby bowl was scraped clean.

Grilled Portobello Panini, with oven-roasted tomatoes, garlic aioli, arugula, and goat cheese, served with fresh fruit.

Rare Ahi Tuna Wrap, with daikon sprouts, watercress, wasabi-avocado mayonnaise, marinated cucumber and tomato, served with peanut slaw.

PART TWO: HAPPY HOUR

We met up with the boy's mama later on that day for happy hour at Yard House, which is a fun bar/restaurant where they serve a gajillion types of beers.

Their most famous beer size is the half yard, which is the length of my torso practically. haha. My kinda place ;) Look to the normal-sized glass in the background for scale reference. Huge right? Remnants of a Blue Moon and Hoegaarden.

Yard House's take on a Spicy Tuna Roll.

Good ol' fashioned buffalo wings.

Beers, light to dark. Mine is the one on the end -- Guinness. Nothing quite like a cold glass of beer. Why is it that it's considered unladylike for a girl to drink beer? And girls usually feed the sterotype. "Beer makes me so full -- bla bla bla." Eh. get over it. I know you're secretly chugging it at home. Lol.

Margherita Pizza.

On a side note, I've acquired some new bling! Chanel Camellia bling-ring to be exact ;) Made it the Happiest Happy Hour EVER!!

allegra comme la lanphear (DIY)

I'm sure all of you saw this amazing photo of Kate a while back on Jak&Jil. I was kind of floored by how the length of this top made it infinitely cooler than any other Allegra design I'd seen so far. So I decided this would be another great piece to DIY. If you've noticed, my first clothing DIY was a black blazer, which is a wardrobe staple, and this one requires nothing else other than a black t-shirt dress. I think that is the greatest thing about DIYs -- you can remake some of the pieces you already have into something fresh again so you won't just want to toss it and get something new.

What you'll need:

Simple t-shirt dress or a very very long t-shirt. I used the Crew Neck T-shirt dress from American Apparel. Any color will do.

I know all of you must already know how to shred a tee-shirt after seeing Camille's detailed tutorial on her blog Childhood flames. If somehow you have missed out or want to revisit it, you can find it here.

For this version, I shredded the entire back, the sleeves, and left the front intact. I didn't cut up the front as much as the original because I wanted to wear it more as a dress, but still snipped snipped up the front side to give it an angular look. VOILA:

Outfit details: AA shredded t-shirt dress, Intermix lace gloves, random chains.

This is just the beginning of a series of DIYs that I will be working on in the next few weeks. The next one will be a goodie I PROMISE :D

happiest place on earth

On another beautiful day in California, the boy took me to Disneyland, aka "the happiest place on earth". Okay Disney, I get that it's your advertising/branding ploy to get people to come here to make sweet sweet memories but HAPPIEST place on earth? That is a prettttty big claim you're staking. Especially when it seems that most of the people there are super grumpy, either because they are little children who are a). spoiled out of their minds b). tired c). sick of waiting in line OR they are parents who are a). tired of their kids whining b). sick of waiting in line c). pissed to have to pay $3.50 for a bottle of water.

I'm all about the analogies to help describe things so, to me, Disneyland is kind of like a double chocolate chip brownie sundae on espresso and chocolate gelato with fudge drizzle, caramelized pecan bits, topped with chocolate mousse whip. Mmmmm saliva-inducing yes? Can you actually take more than two bites? Probably not...

Sleeping Beauty's castle! Aurora was always my favorite princess since I was a little girl. Belle almost knocked her out of that top spot with her sick yellow dress but... Aurora has little animal friends. Belle has clocks. Animal friends > clocks

Outfit details: Urban Outfitters romper, Miu Miu ankle boots, Chloé Boudoir bag, Chloé sunglasses.

Not as cool as the real horses that I met the week prior but... still pretty fun!

My favorite Disney character of ALL time is Pooh bear. Everything about Pooh is cute -- from his round belly to his fingerless paws that he shoves into "hunney" pots and slathers all over his face. Bears are the CUTEST, second only to puppies.

Yes this is my favorite ride. Don't hate. HAHA. I don't do rides like Splash Mountain, Matterhorn, Space Mountain. mmmm no. I don't ever want to scream out of fear of impending/possible doom. no no no no no.

Wanna ride in my bee hive?? Look at that grill -- gangsta lol.

Saw Pooh in REAL LIFE!! haha. Yes I am really that happy to see him.. can't even wipe that slappy grin off my face.

Disney candied apples.

Gobbled this thing up in 1 minute flat.

All the Pooh-ness made the day! We did have a lot of fun despite the negative nancy intro to this post. So a big thanks to the bf for indulging my inner-child :)

cookie monster

These photos were taken on an intensely adventure and food-filled day last week. We played with more puppies, met up with friends, ate, shopped, went to the pier, ate some more, shopped, and then ate some more. haha. heeeey it was a vacation right???

So I was seriously considering purchasing this pomeranian baby girl to make future babies with Meeko. I liked her so much the first time I saw her, that we went back to play with her some more and see what her personality was like. After much heartbreak and consideration, we decided that we weren't ready for a new dog :( sigh... Maybe later when I have a house and a big backyard? Right now Meeko has to suck it up in our apartment and use the roof as his playground. Be a big boy Meeks!!

So cute :(


This french bulldog was a brand spankin' new arrival and was priced at $3500. say WHAAT. more than a chanel bag? mmmmm.... that's the threshold for being too expensive... haha. kidding. No but seriously, who has that kinda money to buy a dog??? Don't say paris hilton because I will internet slap you *WAPOW*. I've always wanted a frenchie but I hear from everyone that they have pretty bad health issues when they get older. I dunno if I have the heart to watch my doggie get sick :/


Aww... star-crossed lovers. Poor capulet and montague.. you dunno that it's not meant to be :/

Overlooking Santa Monica Pier

Outfit details: Chloé Silk dress

After the beach, we had dinner at Sushi Roku since there's one located right next to Santa Monica. We sat outside, ate sushi, drank some Kirin, and watched the sunset :D Several of you guys recommended that I go there, and several friends that I know personally told me to go there, so I did and it was good! You get what you pay for when it comes to dishes like this.

Miso Eggplant Dengaku, Kobe beef Tataki, Curry Chicken Skewer

Sushi selection

Toro di Jalapeno + Spicy Canadian Rock Shrimp with Asparagus

The beautiful Santa Monica sunset

Walking along 3rd Street Promenade

After our dinner and some shopping on the promenade, we headed over to UCLA area to have dessert at Diddy Riese. I heard about this place through another foodie website and was curious to see how good it was considering the $1.50 price tag. Basically, you select what type of cookie + type of ice cream you want to make your cookie sandwich. I heard that the line here is always quite long but the wait isn't that bad because those boys in there can scoop and smash faster than you can manage to pull quarters outta yo' pockets. $1.50 = 6 quarters my friend. Recession-friendly!!!! (gag)



White chocolate macadamia nut cookie + White chocolate chip cookie + Strawberry cheesecake chunk ice cream = gooooood.

Chocolate chip cookie + Oatmeal Raisin Walnut + Espresso ice cream = extraaaaaa gooood.

:D

oh FYI, I am back in New York now. I have so many photos to go through of other adventures during my vacation so expect belated California posts. Sorry if I haven't been able to get back to some of you guys in terms of questions you've asked me -- I was trying to be off of the computer as much as possible while I was over there but I'll try to get to it asap :)