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Playing: Bizarre Love Triangle (Shep's Club Mix)-New Order
Reading: Man Repeller by Leandra Medine

Once again, it has been forever since I last blogged, but I thought I'd just have you guys catch up with a few things I did on my birthday. My parents, being the ever indulgent beings that they are, fed into my love for puffer fish by getting the most adorable cake ever from Kiki Bakery. It was surprisingly flavorful for an Asian cake with rich vanilla frosting and cake, stuffed with candied fruit. The workers there were very compromising and even customized the fish a bit more to make it look like Jacques.

Later on in the night, I went to go see Twenty One Pilots for the second time at the House of Blues with my friends, Hannah and Jessy. The concert was general admission and we got to the concert kind of late, but we still ended up with decent spots. The crowd was surprisingly calm with no moshing and tall people letting you stand in front of them, especially during Sirah's and Robert DeLong's performances.

Once again, Twenty One Pilots gave an amazing performance and my friends fell half in love with Joshua Dun, the drummer, while I still think the lead singer, Tyler Joseph, is super cute. I even like his sheer, floral kimono, which has me debating over whether or not this Topshop kimono is worth its price tag. I really like it when bands talk to the audience and how you get a sense of their personality from that, so I appreciated it when Tyler talked to individual fans during his performances and shared stories with us about his family.

After the show got out, I ran into Travis Clark of We the Kings. I told him how I had seen We the Kings at the same House of Blues a few years ago with A Rocket to the Moon and he told me he loved me for that. We also shortly discussed his chihuahua, Elvis, and how everyone in We the Kings has a thing for chihuahuas. Meeting him was such a middle school dream of mine because when I was in seventh and eight grade, We the Kings was one of my favorite bands.

Other than the Balenciaga purse, I got  few more lovely things from my parents and friends. I've been eyeing this Marc Jacobs sequined sweater for a long time, so that was great to finally get my hands on it. Tina, Sophie, and Achint all got me lovely things. You probably can't see it, but the box is suppose to look like a Ladurée box. It has a pun on the label of Ladurée and my name, so that it came out like Adurée. Anyways, hope you guys are doing fine and I'll be sure to catch up on reading all of your blogs!

Also, the title is the Twenty One Pilots symbol in case you guys were wondering.

250 Follower Giveaway-Closed

Playing: Yellow-Coldplay
Reading: Harper's Bazaar March 2013

Hello readers! I'm pleased to let you know that I reached 150 followers (153 to be exact), so I thought it was time to hold a little giveaway to thank all of my followers. There are two prizes. The first includes a floral pouch, mamegoma erasers, mamegoma stationary, and a Rilakkuma key chain, while the second includes a polka dot pouch and two glittery nail polishes.

You must be a public follower of this blog. To follow this blog, just click on the bar on the right that says "Join this Site" under "MY SECRET LOVERS." This will get you one entry.

To enter leave a comment to this post with the following:
1.) Your name:
2.) Your email:
3.) Which prize you would prefer or let me know that you would like either one.

To get a second entry, blog about my giveaway or link it and leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.

This giveaway ends two weeks from now on March 14th and is open to anyone in the world. There are two winners and the winners will be announced on my blog and emailed. If the winners don't reply within a week, I will choose another winner. Good luck everyone!

Christmas Day

Playing: Let Your Heart Hold Fast-Fort Atlantic
Reading: An American in Paris, Again by Eric Wilson

Merry late Christmas! This Christmas day post is a tad late, I suppose, but I still wanted to share it with all of you. Since my grandparents come over every year for Christmas and they always go to bed at a ridiculously early time, my family has Christmas lunch instead of Christmas dinner. Every year my dad and I make prime rib with au jus, mashed potatoes with gravy, and some kind of a vegetable along with some biscuits. We've been discussing stereotypical French Christmas meals in French class and that got me thinking, what is a stereotypical American Christmas meal? I don't think there really is one...

This year there wasn't really anything I was dying to get my hands on other than a few CDs, so I mostly got cash, which I'm saving for some future splurge.  The Patrick Wolf CD is my favorite from him after "Lupercalia," while the Something Corporate CDs are to replace the ones my brother's idiotic friends borrowed and never gave back. Sophie gave my everything that I like-cute stationary, sparkly nail polish, sweets, and a yetti button. The Burberry scarf is actually my mum's gift to my dad, but I plan on borrowing it, since I've been wanting one for myself for quite a few years.

My dad and mum didn't communicate with each other, when they were getting gifts for me, so I ended up with two purses. In the end, I won. Actually, I'm probably going to return both of the purses, so I didn't win. The Alexander Wang tote is too heavy for me, while the Marc by Marc Jacobs purse is too safe for my liking. Since I already have a plain black purse, I don't see why I need another one and I'd rather save my "purse money" for something I'm dying to own. I want to keep the Alexander Wang purse for school, but some jerk is going to stick gum on it or something, so I know it's not safe to bring it to school and I don't want to keep it if some idiot is going to ruin it.

The day after Christmas, my family went to Bruxie, since my dad has never been and I tried the Green Eggs and Ham there, which was very good. The pesto oozed out of the sides and I liked how gooey the cheese was. The only improvement I can suggest is cooking the egg less so that the yolk oozes out too. Surprisingly, the mayonnaise added a nice creaminess to it even though I normally dislike large amounts of it.

Since Bruxie portions are rather small, my brother and I shared the Seasonal Creme Brulee, which was very good. The burnt sugar really made it taste like a real creme brulee and the custard was extraordinarily creamy. My brother and I both agree that we ordered more wisely on this trip to Bruxie than last time. Another nice thing about Bruxie is their seasonal menu, where you can get Egg Nog shakes around Christmas and Turkey Dinner waffles around Thanksgiving. It's a very cute place to try, if you're ever in the area. Hope your holidays went well! Let me know what you did and how you celebrated!

A Very Merry You-Survived-the-Mayan-Apocalypse Christmas

Playing: Christmas Lights-Coldplay
Reading: Holiday Traditions: At Home with Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes by Jane Aldridge

Sophie and I hosted a Christmas/Sophie's Birthday/Surviving the Mayan Apocalypse Party just last night and being the best hostesses on the planet that we are, we spent about three hours decorating for the party. Admittedly, a good half hour or so was spent getting ourselves tangled up in Christmas lights and another hour spent laughing over stupid inside jokes, but still, we put a lot of hard work into this party.

She baked a brownie birthday cake and had me help her ice the cake. It was my first time icing a cake and I had no idea what design she wanted, so I just did the white icing and helped smooth out the cat's fur a tad, while she did the whole laser cat design. I have to admit that I think we did a pretty good job with it and everyone else seemed to like it quite a bit.

John Paul, Sophie's dad, and I did all the cooking for the party. Even though this is going to sound pretty egotistical, I think John Paul and I deserve our own Food Network show. It'll be like Down Home with the Neelys only with us yelling at each other and telling each other to get lost. Oh and a whole lot less deep frying...I made some penne arrabiata plus some vegetable dip, John Paul made a citrus marinade chicken along with some sort of a beignet, and Sophie's dad made mac and cheese for all of us.

Sophie did the most amazing thing ever and surprised me with Aadil! Oh, how I've missed Aadil and his wisdom! We totally claimed him for our game of ghetto Scrabble and put him on our awesome team, +3@/\/\ K|(K@$$ (TEAM KICKASS). Unfortunately, we didn't really kick ass, but it was fun being able to not use proper spelling. By the end of the game, we went from ghetto Scrabble to redneck Scrabble and I'm really not sure how that happened. Since Aadil doesn't want me to post any photos of his incredible dancing, I will have to end here by just letting you know that we ended the party with tons of dancing that vacillated between being really ghetto, borderline mosh pitting, and being reminiscent of 80s new wave moves. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get to spend time with everyone you love!

A Social Celebration of Halloween

Playing: Elle Me Dit-Mika
Reading: "Tim Burton: The Rolling Stone Interview" by David Breskin

Over the weekend, I went over to Sophie's house for a Social Celebration of Halloween aka a movie night filled with Halloween fun. Sophie baked some super cute cupcakes for us to snack on. I love the spider one she did! Everyone there brought snacks and we pretty much just acted like fat kids, while we watched Corpse Bride, Shaun of the Dead, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. We also played Scrabble and Sophie was on my team, so we deemed ourselves Team Kick Ass and unfortunately, we didn't kick ass.

With some leftover icing, Sarah drew little faces on her fingers to make petite people and she ended up licking them all off. Does that count as murder or cannibalism? Either way, that's not good news.

I went to Sophie's party dressed as a female Victor from Frankenweenie, but for the photo shoot we did, Sabrina gave me her kitty ears to match Sophie. We were doing a commercial for water brought to you by Mother Nature and our goal for the photo campaign was to make water look positively seductive. Just kidding. And now is a great time to tell you what I'm wearing. I'm wearing a Faconnable blouse, Bullhead shorts, my dad's leather belt from his college trip to Italy, and my favorite oxfords in the world by the marvelous Sam Edelman.

Sophie and I also practiced the delicate art of bitch facing and being artsy together. It was extraordinarily hot that day, so that's why we look worse than usual. Or it could be the fact that we're just being rebellious teenagers and that rebellion doesn't suit us very well.

But then Sophie, Sabrina and I just got weird. We had Breanne photograph us acting silly, doing parodies of popular poses that kids at school do, and pretending we were a part of Salvador Dali's Le Chien Andalou. Things just got weird. Let's expand on what weird is though. We started by vogue-ing Madonna style.

And we ended by trying to show off our Halloween spirit by holding pumpkins. We also danced around with bowls, mocking English teachers' interpretations of how bowls are a symbol for female sexuality. Overall, we just acted goofy or silly, while getting in the mood for Halloween by watching film after film. This is my second costume so far this year and I'm planning on going to school as cat on Halloween and then dressing up as Boy George. Man, I'm really getting into this Halloween thing.

Photo credits to Sophie, who told me to write this.

"Shoot, Bang, Fire!"

Playing: Heroes-David Bowie
Reading: Elle October 2012

Lately, I've been in a creative mood, where all I want to do is create and draw in my notebook. I bought some tools to help with that last weekend. I have an obsession with colorful pens and markers for multiple reasons. First of all, I like colors. Second of all, I have hoarder tendencies, when it comes to stationary and office supplies. Thirdly, if I take my school notes in colored ink, I'm more likely to soak up the information. It's a win-win-win. Plus, the pastel highlighters are just so pretty. How could I not buy them?

Also, last week was my mum's birthday, so my dad bought a Burberry purse for her that he picked out all by himself. He has impeccable taste, doesn't he? It's a dark turquoise color in really life and when he bought it, it wasn't even available to the public yet, so they had to get it out of the backroom for him. Unfortunately, my mum is thinking about returning it, since it's so heavy.

Anyways, here's another outfit I wore to school. My English teacher has started to notice that I have a crazy shoe collection and will point out my shoes to the class on a daily basis. The boys behind me in English asked me if I ever wear the same shoes twice, so I smiled and told them, "Absolutely not." Haha, their faces were priceless. I hope they knew I was messing with them. I'm wearing a Zara blouse, a Zara sweater, Bullhead jeans, Cole Haan oxfords, and a Topshop backpack.

Here's a close up of my collar, which has metal edges. I was going to use another photo with my hair pulled back, so that you could see the metal edges better, but I wanted to show you how brown my hair is now. All the redness has faded and I'm back to being a brunette. I have a new hair stylist, who gave me layers. He told me he wants me to dye my hair a lighter color and blonde is the last color I need to try, so I'll probably dye my hair back to black and then blonde. What other colors should I try? I feel like I should try different shades of brown and go for a redder color.

Title from "The Magic Position (Sundark and Moonlight Version)" by Patrick Wolf

From California

Playing: Ruthless-Something Corporate
Reading: Light Boxes by Shane Jones (Reading this for the 4th time. You must read this book at least once.)

This is a bit of an update, I suppose, but over the weekend I tried a cute cafe called Haute Cake Caffe, where I ordered the Orange Ricotta Haute Cakes. It's actually just gourmet pancakes with orange zest and ricotta cheese mixed into it and topped with berries, but it's still good. One of my dad's friends used to come to this cafe every Saturday for their chocolate croissant, so I'll have to try that one day. It's in a very cute area, so I recommend bringing friends here to show them that you know quainter areas than they do.

After lunch, I went to a Kinokuniya Bookstore to buy some gifts for my twin cousins' birthdays. I grabbed them a bunch of cute items, but I really wanted to buy this set of alpaca pirates for myself. I have no idea what I'd do with them, since I don't play with my stuffed animals as much as I did when I was little, but they're so cute.

Talking about cute stuff, my friends brought me back/sent me stuff from their travels. Sophie also visited Cannery Row, so I got a postcard from her, while Vivian sent me a DIY postcard from Taiwan. Jessy also sent me a postcard from Las Vegas, which always makes me think of the Killers. Tina brought back some cobichon from Japan, which she knows I'm obsessed with, plus a pack of stickers and some corn snacks that Vivian says she ate as a child, when she lived in Taiwan. I haven't tried them yet, but they look good. My friends really love to spoil me, don't they?

Some of you have mentioned that I should post photos of my outfits, so here we go. I enlisted my slave my mum to take outfit photos for me from now on. (Please excuse the fact that I rarely smile in photos unless I'm laughing.) I'm wearing an Ann Taylor LOFT collared top, Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, my dad's old belt from his college trip to Italy, Candies shorts (Don't judge me.), Madewell boots, and a Kimchi Blue purse.I got quite a few compliments on my outfit, but I wasn't completely happy with the top. The side flares out to make room for hips, but my hips are nonexistent, so it just made me look fatter.

To make up for my boring outfit, take a look at one of my favorite outfits Rumi Neely has ever worn. I love all of her outfits, but this one is extra perfect. I love her berry velvet blazer from Theory with the not too girly skirt and the clunky, Balenciaga shoes. Plus, the hat! The hat just makes everything look more playful. I could only dream of looking this good during my trip to Paris. By the way, I really am going to Paris this summer. Any recommendations? I want to know how the weather is so I can start planning out extra chic outfits.

★All American★

Playing: I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor-The Arctic Monkeys
Reading:Vogue September 2012

It was one of those weekends, where I had no idea what to do and decided to just head down to the beach area. Recently, the USS Iowa moved to San Pedro, so I decided to go check it out. (Smooth transition!) Down in San Pedro is Gaffey Street Diner, which is one of those all-American restaurants that looks like a complete dive, but actually sells really amazing food. I originally saw it on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, but I've gone back to it many times. The breakfast food tends to be better than the lunch courses, but my Country Fried Steak With Biscuit and Home Fries was pretty good although it was a tad burnt. The gravy is definitely one of the best things at the diner, so I highly suggest the Biscuit With Gravy there.

Parked in the lot right next to the USS Iowa was this wonderfully retro car. I feel like the cars from the fifties and sixties had more personality than cars do now, but I suppose that's because car manufacturers are aiming for more aerodynamic cars to increase fuel efficiency nowadays. You can actually see a lot of these vintage cars around the beach areas here.

As for the actual ship, it was incredible how large it was, but you didn't get to see a lot on the ship. They roped a lot of it off, so it felt like a tour, but the traffic was awful. You'd be standing at one spot for ten minutes to get into a room and then you'd be rushed through the rooms. In a few years, I think they'll improve it to a near perfect tour. However, this launched my dad into one of his Proud to be an American speeches that he gives me whenever we visit anything semi-patriotic. Like baseball games...

The whole area of San Pedro and Long Beach is filled with areas for commercial shipping. The boat pictured here carries around crates that are later attached to eighteen wheelers and ships them from country to country. Also, the red nub, for lack of a better word, protruding from the ship's front is used to break waves for a smoother ride and the people who operate the machines used to load and unload the crates make around $400,000 a year. Sounds like a good job to me and sorry for the random facts. My friend, Chelcee, always complains that I share useless facts with her. It's a trait I picked up from my dad.

Overall, the area around the USS Iowa is very lovely and if you're into military stuff and the USA's defense systems, I suggest visiting it. I actually saw quite a few foreigners there from Germany, France, and I believe, Belgium. At least, that's what I picked up from listening to them speak. If you'd like to, San Pedro and Long Beach also offer deep sea fishing trips, helicopter tours, seafood dining, and lots of Mexican culture, especially at this one port that is filled with Mexican seafood places. It's actually one of my favorite places to get seafood now.

 Also, I recently bought some Alexander McQueen sunglasses for myself, so that I can go out in the sun without my eyes watering, plus a Vince Camuto blazer. If you would like to see more photos of them, you can see them on The Suburban Urbanites. I did a perfume trade for the first time, where I got Dolce and Gabbana's Light Blue in exchange for my L'eau D'Issey. Super excited to wear it! At Target, I bought 10 Things I Hate About You, which is one of my favorite movies ever, and some notebooks for me to jot down ideas in. I like how each one is focused on some of my favorite cities: New York, Paris, and London.
Ooh, and then I purchased some more Sentimental Circus stationary to use for writing to my friends. It's so cute in a creepy, Tim Burton-esque way. Anyways, I hope you're enjoying your summer, while I sit at home doing my summer assignments and moan about how school needs to leave me alone.

Spain: Day 6 Part 1

Playing: Heartbeat Slowing Down-The All American Rejects
Reading: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

For our sixth day in Spain and our first full day in Madrid, my family and I kind of got tired hunting for inexpensive breakfasts, so we just went to a fast food place called Pans & Company, which was a sandwich and pastry chain. I'm not sure what the name of this is because I just pointed at it and said, "Uno por favor!" I do know that it was a cranberry muffin stuffed with vanilla yogurt though and it was surprisingly good.  The only issue I had with it was that after the first half, it tasted too sweet and too much like a vanilla cupcake.

After breakfast, we walked around and I looked at all the grafitti that was on the buildings. It's surprising how much grafitti was in Spain and how everywhere you look, there's grafitti. It's like your in the seedy parts of Los Angeles...I kind of liked this one though. It looks like me after my AP World teacher announced that we were going to have three more projects after we took the AP test. Either that or a psychotic toad. Not much of a difference to tell you the truth...

When we got to our destination, the Palacio Real, it was thirty minutes before the opening and there was still a line. I was standing behind these two girls, both over six feet, complaining to my mum about how she should've given me growth hormones. The Palacio Royal is a stunner, but it looks just like any other European palace to me. The most unique part of this palace was that we got to take a look in the royal pharmacy, but the armory was so confusing for the audio tour. I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking at. For this, you really should get in line before it opens because when we left, the line was at least two blocks long.

For lunch, it was another one of those times, where I pestered my dad into letting us eat anywhere because the heat was killing me and the walk felt like it was never going to end. We ended up at this little place called Cafeteria Otero, which I really liked because it felt like you were eating in your grandmother's kitchen. I ordered the Filete de ternera con champinion (veal with mushrooms) for only 7€, so this was my cheapest meal in Spain and probably one of the best ones I had. The veal was buttery and tender, while the mushrooms were lemony and full of garlic. Even their French fries were amazingly crisp and salty, which I stole from my family members' plates. You wouldn't have expected this, when you first stepped in because the place was empty, but I definitely recommend it to you. 

After lunch, we walked to the Plaza Mayor and here you can see my lovely parents standing right by the entrance to it. My dad's camera ran out of battery at this plaza, so he took over my camera asking me to take a photo of this and that for him. We both have camera sharing problems, so that's why we needed to get our own. We used to get into fights over it.  Anyways, this particular little entrance had all these cute places to eat and look at.

For example, look at this! How adorable are those giant gummy bears made of well, tiny gummy bears? It reminds me of the time we set fire to gummy bears in chemistry and how my chemistry teacher would always be snacking on them during lectures. Also, these long candy vines looked fun with all their bright colors, but I wasn't quite sure what they were. Are they licorice or what?

In the Plaza Mayor, there were locks attached to all of the lamps, so I'm guessing they serve the same purpose as the ones on Pont de l'Archevêché. It symbolizes couples everlasting love and then they usually toss the locks somewhere. That's what I'm guessing right now, but I could be wrong. If you know of this, let me know if I'm right! Thanks for reading!

PS Today is my last day of SAT prep class, so I'm celebrating by going to an All American Rejects concert with Rebecca!

Up to Nothing Much

Playing: Everybody Talks-Neon Trees
Reading: The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

It's summer, which means I'm slowly rotting my brain away until my mum sends me to SAT prep classes or until I start panicking from all the various summer assignments I have from school. Either way, it's a lose/lose situation for me. Until then, I shall be busy eating delicious meals such as the Penne alla Amatriciana at Renata's Caffe Italiano, which is penne with fresh tomatoes, smoked pancetta, green onions, roasted garlic, onions, and fresh basil. On Chopped, judges criticize contestants for "over saucing" a dish, but I personally like having extra sauce for the bread, so I liked how there was leftover sauce once I was done with the penne.

While walking around in the parking lot by Renata's, I saw on the car next to us that they had a Hello Kitty exhaust pipe! How adorable, right? I've seen photos of this online, but I've never seen it in person, so I just had to grab a photo for all of you to see.

I also saw this at a store awhile back and I wanted to share this with you. I looked at the sign and of course, I read it, so when I left, the girl yelled at me, "You're a unicorn murderer." So there you go, I am an alleged unicorn killer.

I also painted my nails a blush borderline cotton candy pink color from Essie called Flawless. Although I like how this pink is toned down, I was disappointed to see that it chipped really badly within the one week that I wore it. I find most Essie polishes to be highly pigmented and a tad runnier than what I normally like. I'm still shocked by myself that I would wear pink nail polish. Pink is NOT my thing.

What color are your nails right now?

Customized Shoes and Food Galore

Playing: This is Your Life-The Killers
Reading: Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

Over the weekend, I was going through my attic, searching for some decorations, when I found these. My grandmother, who passed away from breast cancer before my parents ever even met, loved to get dressed up and while she lived in Taiwan, she got her clothes custom made for herself. She would buy the fabric, draw a picture, and take those two things to a tailor to get her clothing made. I found her calf skin set of shoes, a coin purse, and a purse up there. Even though the shoes were custom made for her feet, they surprisingly fit me perfectly. I want to wear these out, but I'm worried I'll ruin them somehow.

After I was done digging around the closet, my family and I went to some food trucks to pick up some lunch. I ordered the Caprese Crepe from Crepes Bonaparte, which was on Food Network's Great Food Truck Race. I would like to say the crepe was amazing because I liked Crepes Bonaparte a lot on the show, but it was only alright. It tasted just fine, but it wasn't enough food for me.

I ended up splitting The Rhino from Rancho A Go Go in order to fill myself up. It's a super filling pulled pork sandwich served on buttery bread with macaroni and cheese stuffed inside. It sounds completely gluttonous, but it's really an amazing sandwich. Having barbeque sauce on your macaroni and cheese makes for a nice touch. I'll definitely get this next time, even though it probably is quite deleterious.

After lunch, we took a quick trip to Marukai to buy a rice cooker for my brother's new apartment. It's funny how fobby Marukai truly is. They have a Shiseido makeup counter in there, toys, clothing, fountains, and even light up plants in there. A boy looked at me oddly, when I was taking a photo of the fobby light up plants. He was cute too, but now he'll never look my way. The things I do for this blog.

These little, pastel jellies are so cute. I like the clear, ice cube look to them and the simple packaging. I was tempted to buy them, but they looked awfully artificial, so I wasn't too sure if they'd be any good. I ended up skipping on these and I think I'll make my own version of these over summer, when friends come over or something.

For my Chemistry class (because I love them all so much), I bought some hard candy to share in interesting flavors like honey dew, pomegranate, and blueberry. And just for the cuteness factor, I bought a small packet of Hello Kitty pasta, which is almost too cute to eat. My parents used to make me Hello Kitty pasta in order to get me to eat because I was an extremely picky eater, when I was little. Just in case I have friends over or I'm in the mood to play chef, I bought some easy to make cream flan and I want to try the black sesame version. Are black sesame products any good? They look kind of sketchy to me.

PS I'm back from Spain!