Monday, September 30, 2013

September Favorites 2013


I have so many things that I've loved this past month, I feel like I can go on and on. But don't worry, I won't. These are the things I extra-loved during the month of September:

1. LOUIS VUITTON Speedy 30



I bought myself this beauty of a bag while we were in Paris this past July. I originally wanted the bandouliere (which means it comes with a shoulder strap), but they were sold out everywhere in Paris. I just adore this bag and have been using it a lot this past month. It doesn't look like it, but it is enormous inside and can fit a whole bunch of stuff. I'm very excited about this purchase and I know I'll be able to use this timeless bag for a very very long time.

2. MAYBELLINE Volume Express The Rocket mascara



I don't even know why I bought another mascara, I already have three others I'm using at the moment. Ugh! I wish I had more self-control. But, I'm glad I tried it because it's a lovely drugstore mascara that gives me lashes for days. Definitely worth a try if you don't want to spend a fortune on a good mascara.

3. JO MALONE "Grapefruit" scented candle



This candle is amazing and the thought of it running out is so depressing! If they weren't so damn expensive, I'd buy up the whole store.

4. MOLESKINE notebook



My girly pink Moleskine notebooks have not left my side since The Fiancé put a ring on it and I started planning our wedding. They are light and beautiful and I write all my wedding lists and notes in them.

5. FRENCH SOLE Sturdy flats



Yes, I got more ballet flats... Don't even ask. It's an illness, really. Anyway, these are my favorite new flats. The quality is wonderful and the cap toe will surely protect it from wear and tear. 


What has been your favorite things this past month?

Friday, September 27, 2013

5 Things I Love...


I Love...

1. ... dogs, and this adorable website created in their honor.

2. ... getting my hair done. Nothing like a fresh cut and color to make you feel like a million bucks. (Also, the free head and shoulder massage they give you at the hair salons here in Taiwan is a huge plus!)

3. ... that all my favorite TV shows are starting their new seasons now. Who's as excited as I am about the final season of How I met your Mother!? And I can't wait for season 3 of American Horror Story.

4. ... that for each kid that annoys the crap out of me at work, there are at least ten kids that will make me smile.

5. ... how quickly this week went by. Hello, Weekend!


Have a happy weekend, lovelies!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

GUEST BLOGGER: "What's in my Purse?"


I haven't had a guest blogger post here on Pretty.Random.Things. in quite a while, have I? Well, we're back with a bang! Because I got the lovely Sarah of Coffee Rings & Southern Things to share with us what's in her purse. Yep, the nosy-ness (is that a word!?) continues...


Hello! I’m pretty sure Liesl didn’t tell you, but she and I had planned on doing this a while ago, so I am way late on this. [Her post can be found here on my blog.] I apologize, even if you didn’t know. That’s so very flighty of me. But I’m SO glad to finally guest post for Pretty.Random.Things!

I am a blogger at Coffee Rings & Southern Things, a lifestyle blog where I pretty much write about any random thing that pops into my brain. Some days it’s fashion, books I’m in love with, recipes I’ve tried (though I really need to find more time to write on that topic, as I absolutely adore cooking), or just something that happened in my day-to-day. Like adopting our precious kitten, Shadow. And I felt so honored to have been asked by the folks at Warby Parker to write a product review/announcement for their Fall 2013 collection!

Today, however, my goal is to take you deep into one of the [usually] scary places of my life. My purse. I call it scary because this is typically where the random things I acquire every day end up. Like receipts from the Star gas station down the street in my small town of Toano, Virginia. Why must I keep a reminder that I purchased an extra-large bag of cheddar Ruffles and a Twix bar last Friday? Why?!


‘Twould be my purse, above. Ain’t she pretty? I love the pale pink color. I bought it from Charming Charlie a few months back and only just now started using it. When Liesl emailed me about guest posting, I’d been using one of my favorite Liz Claiborne bags – an oversized brown purse with gold buckles and lots and lots of zippered compartments to store every little thing I could ever imagine.

I knew it was time to switch things up when I realized I couldn’t find anything in that sucker. When you’re standing in line to pay for something and don’t get that wallet out right away and the cashier says Six fifty-two, please.” and you spend about five minutes just trying to find that dang wallet, and all the customers behind you are sighing loudly and shuffling their feet and sweat creeps down your forehead in little nervous trickles… there’s your sign. Get a new bag. Preferably one smaller in size.

So I pulled out the little pink purse – little, meaning only slightly smaller than my Liz. Even though it’s nothing special, just a cheap thang from Charming Charlie, I really like it. It’s easier to carry with me, and I find everything I absolutely need fits in it, and I’m not tempted to pack it full of anything extra. Although I do picture one thing down there that doesn’t fit in this bag (it shockingly fit in the Lizhowever), everything else fits comfortably in the cute little pink purse I’ve needed in my life for so long.




Minus my Droid Razr Maxx 4G LTE cell phone [used to take these pictures, even though I’m ironically a photographer and have a super expensive camera at home I could have just as easily used], everything you see above is with me just about every day. Makeup, glasses, and little Moleskine journals are musts. 


I bring my glasses and a little container of eye drops because my contacts aren’t always that dependable. Sometimes I can’t take it anymore and put my glasses on. But sometimes – especially in the summer when it’s way too hot to even think about having metal frames around my face – I can suck it up with a few drops and carry on with my day. If I don’t have either of these, I panic. And you don’t want to see me panic.


This is my wallet – also from Charming Charlie – and even though I’m ready for an update, this one’s lasted me quite a while. I’m a huge fan of this style wallet, mainly because it has enough space for all my cards, cash, coins, and identifications, without looking as if it’s going to explode.


That book, as I mentioned, doesn’t fit in this purse, but I never ever leave the house without something to read. I’m a book addict, and I don’t mind one bit. This one, The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley, is really good, actually. In fact, I can’t put it down. 

I’m a big history nut, and I’ve always been really interested in the weather, as well. Whenever we get hurricanes on the East Coast, I track them the whole time, watching where they end up as opposed to where they were predicted to go by meteorologists. It oddly fascinates me. Deep down inside, I’m a huge nerd, and I feel that’s okay. 

But one hurricane I’ve always been astounded by was Katrina. The history of this storm and the cities it affected interests me greatly and probably more so that my guy is from Mississippi and weathered the storm himself. Usually I read novels, [my last book was The Last Girls by Lee Smith] but sometimes, nonfiction grabs my attention, too.


Ah, my business cards. I designed these myself, with my own photography on the front and back. I never go anywhere without them. What use is it to not have proof of my business if someone is interested in seeing my work? Rather than simply tell them, I can dig a card from the inside pocket of my purse and hand them the key to viewing my portfolio. I can’t stand not having them when I need them the most. It’s a lame feeling, let me tell you.


Lastly, these are the other fillers in my bag. Small Moleskine journals, my favorite Sharpie felt-tip pen, some of my favorite makeup products [just in case, of course], something to tie my hair up with if I need it, and a pair of sunglasses never leave my side. I always go with the Wayfarer look when I buy sunglasses, and even though I used to work for Sunglass Hut, I can’t find it in me to buy the real thing. I use the absolute crap out of mine, so I don’t see the point in spending over triple the amount just to have a name brand if I’m just going to mess them up.

All in all, I’ve found that the smaller the bag, the more likely I am to not jam too much in there. I carry a book in my arm, and a coffee in my hand, but I will never overstuff my purses again. If I need to bring something extra, I’ll probably switch to something bigger just for the day.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it, and hopefully Liesl asks me to come back again soon to see you guys! [Next time, of course, in a timelier manner.]

XOXO, Sarah

Friday, September 20, 2013

5 Things I Love...


I Love...

1. ... long weekends. (Here in Taiwan most of us are currently in the middle of a 4-day weekend!)

2. ... nail polish. Applying it, wearing it and collecting it. (My favorites are Essie, Butter London and Chanel)

3. ... Pinterest. I get sucked into pinning almost every day. I might have an addiction...

4. ... that Ladurée, the famous French bakery, opened up a store in Taipei. Macarons, get in my belly!

5. ... online shopping! No surprise there.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

My First Time


If you clicked on this post to read about my first time... you know, that first time... then I'm sorry to disappoint you and your nosy self. However, this will be a post about many of my other firsts. This is the "My Firsts" TAG

What was your first tweet?
"I must be the luckiest person on this planet right now." - April 2009. The fact that this is my very first tweet makes me so happy, because this was around the time I met The Fiancé and I'm pretty sure he was the reason behind this very happy tweet. PS. If you were wondering: "Liesl, how the hell do you find out what your very first tweet is!?", click here.

What was your first Facebook profile pic?
This photo was taken some time during my 3rd year in university which was in 2006. We were at a friend's house party in Cape Town. (Yes, I only got Facebook that year...)


Do you still talk to your first love?
Nope. Although, he is a Facebook "friend" and I wouldn't ignore him if I ran into him somewhere. It was such a long time ago, we were only teenagers.

What was your first alcoholic drink?
I'm pretty sure my very first alcoholic drink was an accidental sip of my grandmother's beloved afternoon whiskey and Diet Coke... 

What was your first job?
My first job was as a teenager, working part-time at my parents' shop. I had to restock refrigerators, wait on tables in the café, work at the cash register and eat a lot of soft serve ice cream... oh wait, maybe that last one wasn't mandatory.

What was your first car?
I'm 28 and I've never owned a car. I've always hated driving and only got my driver's license when I was 22. I've lived in Asia for the past 5 and a half years, and use the very convenient public transportation options in Taipei City. Definitely no need for a car here. (Thank goodness...)

Who was the first person to text you today?
My man, of course. 

Who was the first person you thought of this morning?
Myself. Don't even pretend that you don't think of yourself first in the morning! 

Who was your first grade teacher?
Juffrou (Afrikaans for "teacher") Snyman. She was very sweet and I still remember her very soothing voice.

Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?
It was a domestic flight; Cape Town to Johannesburg. And on the flight back, a flight attendant came up to me and asked if I'd like to sit in the cockpit for landing at the airport in Cape Town. "Hell yes!", I said, and got to see the magnificent descend around Table Mountain into Cape Town International.

Who was your first best friend & do you still talk?
My first best friend, that I can remember, was when I was about 4 or 5 years old. Her name was Irene and she lived down the street from us. Our dads worked at the same company and I think my mom was friends with her mom, who sadly passed away from cancer when we were around 5 or 6. We were always extremely close, like sisters, until the age of 19 when she passed away in a motorcycle accident. There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could talk to her again.

Where was your first sleepover?
I really can't remember the first one, because we had sleepovers at our friends' houses every weekend since I was about 7 years old.

What was the first thing you did this morning?
I drank a glass of water. (I do this every single morning.)

What was the first concert you ever went to?
It must have been some local artist, because we didn't have many international acts coming to South Africa way back when. I think my first international concert was "Black Eyed Peas" in Cape Town, but I might be mistaken.

What was your first broken bone?
Even though I was quite active and stupidly fearless when I was young, I've never broken a bone in my body. 

What was your first piercing?
My ears. My mom got them pierced when I was very young, because I didn't have any hair and people thought I was a boy...

What was the first foreign country you've gone to?
Namibia, one of South Africa's neighboring countries. We used to go there every year when I was a little girl and we'd stay at a hot spring resort at the end of the Fish River Canyon.

What was the first movie you remember seeing?
The first movie I saw in the theaters was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", but I'm not 100% sure about my very first movie ever.

When was your first detention?
I was way too good to ever get detention. Too good to get caught! *wink

Who was your first roommate?
My sister. We shared a room since I can remember until we were teenagers. 

What was the first sport you were involved in?
I remember doing all kinds of sports in elementary school; swimming, athletics, netball, tennis. Although, I was never exceptionally good at any of them. I did enjoy being active and running around with my friends playing games. But I've never really had that competitive streak in me.

What is the first thing you do when you get home?
Well... my commute is about 40 minutes and I have a bladder the size of a pea, so I usually have to go to the ladies' room.

When was your first kiss?
I remember a boy kissed me in kindergarten one day when we were playing outside during break time. Or did I kiss him!? I don't remember that well.


If you do this TAG, please leave a link to your post in the comments, I'd love to read it!

Friday, September 13, 2013

5 Things I Love...


I love...

1. ... planning our wedding with my mom, and how she supports, helps and understands me, even when I act like an evil Bridezilla.

2. ... laminating stuff! (fellow teachers will understand)

3. ... mornings.

4. ... the look on my friend's face when I surprised her with an unexpected gift.

5. ... this song by Macklemore.



Happy Friday, everyone!

Friday, September 6, 2013

5 Things I Love...


I love ...

1. ... that, slowly but surely, fall is starting to creep up on Taipei. (I hope!) 

2. ... The Fiancé, especially after suggesting an evening of shopping for our date night this weekend. (Could he be any more awesome!?)

3. ... having lots of candles and fresh flowers in my home.

4. ... fresh baked goods.

5. ... Franck, the wedding coordinator, from the Father of the Bride movies.

What random things do you love?

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

My favorite Fall 2013 nail polish collections

Just as the new season creeps up on us, as if from nowhere, so does my favorite nail polish collections posts here on Pretty.Random.Things. As a nail polish enthusiast, I can barely wait for companies to release their new collections each season (*shivers with excitement). I know... I'm a weirdo. At least I'm a weirdo with pretty nails!

I'm seeing lost of metallics this year, which I'm usually not that fond of for nails, but I guess I can give it a shot. Let's jump into it:

1. ESSIE For the Twill of It Collection


Left to Right:
After School Boy Blazer, Cashmere Bathrobe, For the Twill of It,  The Lace is On, Twin Sweater Set, Vested Interest

Essie rarely disappoints and I'm loving the navy blue, crimson and green polishes. I already have colors similar to the red and green ones, so I'll probably only purchase After School Boy Blazer.

2. OPI San Francisco Collection


For all the color names CLICK HERE

No surprises here! These are all the usual suspects for fall nail polish colors every year. Of course, I love all the maroons and reds, which I already have a million of, so I really shouldn't even be looking at these...

3. CHANEL Superstition de Chanel Collection


Left to Right: Élixir, Alchimie, Mysterious

Élixir is probably my favorite shade out of ALL this year! Definitely going to add that to my ever-growing pile of polishes. Not too fond of the khaki greens though...

4. BUTTER LONDON Color Clash Collection


TOP Left to Right: Silly Billy, Cake-Hole, Wellies
BOTTOM Left to Right: Pimms, Cotton Buds, Giddy Kipper

Say what, Butter London!? To me, this looks more like a sunny summer nail polish collection. That said, I'm liking the idea of wearing bright colors this fall and winter. I'll wear all these, except the yellow and white ones. I just really don't like yellow on my nails and the white(!?), it just reminds me too much of what my nails would look like in 7th grade after a boring class and a very willing container of Wite-Out.

5. DIOR Mystic Metallics Collection


Left To Right: Destin, Galaxie, Mystic Magnetics

Okay, metallics, I'll give you a go. My favorite out of these is probably Galaxie. So if I'm going to give in to my no-metallics-on-nails rule, I'd go for that one.

6. TOM FORD Nail Lacquers Collection for Fall 2013


Left to Right: Show me the Pink, Black Sugar

Be still, my heart. I'm in love with both of these shades. I already have a similar brown shade though. The pinkish-nude is just to die for! Although, I don't know how it'll look on my fair skin.

What are your favorite nail polishes for fall this year?

Monday, September 2, 2013

August Favorites 2013


I'm just gonna skip the part where I go on about how quickly August went by and how I can't believe it's September, because I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times already.

August was my birthday-month, which meant I got spoiled rotten and have lots of new things and products to ramble on about. Here are my favorites from the past month:

1. Revlon Lip Butter in Wild Watermelon


Seriously, how many times has a Revlon Lip Butter been in my favorites posts? I just love these lipsticks and this past month I've been all over the shade Wild Watermelon. How perfect for summer! It looks red, but it definitely has a pinkish look from some angles. It will certainly be put to good use during fall as well.

2. Olivia Burton Big Dial watch


I can't even count how many compliments I've gotten on this watch. I ordered it from TwistedTime and it arrived in Taiwan 10 business days later. I was concerned that the dial might be too big for my wrist, but it's actually just perfect. I got the black and gold Big Dial watch and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be wearing it all the time this fall and winter. The watch is very light and so comfortable to wear. Now I kinda want it in brown as well...

3.  Avène Light Hydrating Cream



During the sweaty summer months in Taiwan I really can't handle a heavy face cream, and decided to try the Light Hydrating Cream from Avène. I really like it and think it's perfect for the warmer months. It is hydrating, but doesn't make my face too shiny. I don't expect it to be hydrating enough during the winter though, as my skin tends to get really dry. I'm excited to try more products from this brand. Any recommendations?

4. Repetto Ballerina Cendrillon flats


I wrote a detailed review on these flats that you can read here. It's been raining a lot in Taipei recently, so I haven't worn them that much. But I can't stop looking at them and they are definitely one of my favorite pairs now.

5. "Girls in White Dresses" by Jennifer Close

Many people actually recommended this book to me, and I'm glad they did because I enjoyed it so much and flew through it! The characters are very relatable and I felt that the story was written about me and my girl friends. I'd definitely recommend it to other 20-something ladies, if you're in the mood for a laugh and an easy read.

What are your favorites from the past month?

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