My Garden

Ever since we moved into our new house a couple of years ago, my dad has sparked an interest in gardening. With his stressful days at work as an engineer and a realtor as a side job, things can get really hectic. So I guess this was just a way to relax and calm down, while still being productive- similar to how I craft and paint my nails to calm myself down. It's quite nice to see all the beautiful and colorful flowers all over our house. I just love walking around outside and observing how the flowers and vegetables (we have a vegetable garden in the back) are doing. 

So while they were still fresh, I decided to take a couple of pictures of the flowers:

These are just a few out of the many we have. I made sure to snag a picture of those purple flowers on the top right corner especially for my mom since she really loves those. Unfortunately, the daisies died and the white flowers on the left-hand corner (along with some other flowers) were eaten by some invasive Japanese Beetles that are common in our neighborhood. 

You know, after some tough research about pesticides for my huge paper in my English class, I grew to be very against using harmful chemical pesticides. The other day I saw my dad spraying a whole bottle of pesticides and I felt horrible. Who knows how that's affecting the plants and other species besides the beetles? What if beneficial bugs are dying as well?

But then again, the beetles are beetles and they're killing the plants we tried to hard to grow. 

I wish we could use other alternatives- like spraying oil on the plants or something. From my research I've learned that most oils remove a neurotransmitter from bugs' bodies, causing them to spasm and die. I guess that's a better solution than using pesticides, but it's not as efficient either. 

Well, I just wanted to share my thoughts and ideas with you all. 

Have you been gardening lately? I'd love to see what you've grown. :)

-H.

Helloberry Jewelry

So for a while I've been seeing some bracelets by Helloberry featured on ThatsHeart's Instagram and Youtube. I've been seeing these styles of bracelets worn on SO many people lately. I don't blame them though- they're super cute.

Aren't they adorable? I love the huge chain attached to it. I probably wouldn't pay $15 for this though- I'd rather make it for around $3-4 max with the extra time on my hand and some jewelry/craft materials. What can I say- I'm a DIY person with little cash to splurge. 

Here's another type of bracelet made by them. I believe the lanyard is wrapped around a ball chain for this.

And lastly, one of my favorites - the Helloberry Vine necklace. The ones pictured in this is actually 3 stacked together. Normally, it is just one super long and thick chain with one row of colored beads. Each color has a unique name to them- like the navy blue one is named Katy and the light Parisian pink is named Emmeline. I really do love this one and want to try it out soon. It's so simple to make that I might even make a quick tutorial on it on the blog! 

Gosh, i want it so bad, but I can't afford to pay $28 for it. :3 

That's all for now - I was planning on uploading a huge haul post, but all the pictures are on my mom's laptop! :(

Till next time, 

-H. 

Bath and Bodyworks Semi-Annual Sale!

Every year, Bath and Bodyworks and Victoria Secret have 2 sales. One is in January and the other is in June. I decided to make use of this wonderful opportunity and purchase some items. I only really buy things from Bath and Bodyworks when they have this sale because otherwise I probably wouldn't get them.
So here's what I got:

I apologize about the "glowy" look that my camera is capturing. Normally it wouldn't be this over exposed, even with this type of light! But yes, this is the bag. I like the packaging because it captures a cute, yet simple essence.

So one of the items I picked up was this Black Raspberry Vanilla scented fragrance mist. And let's just say that I LOVE IT. The smell is fruity and sweet, yet sophisticated. And once again, the packaging/design is nice and cute. I've been using this everyday for the past week and a half and I've been really enjoying it. As you can see, the original price is $14, but with the sale it's $2.75. However, the cashier priced it wrong and had me pay $3.50. I only realized this when I got home, but I'm not going back to get a mere 75 cent refund.

The next one I purchased was this Japanese Cherry Blossom hand soap. I love Bath and Bodywork's hand soap's in general. They always smell good and work wonders. The good thing about these is that they're anti bacterial and they aren't tested on animals. My mom chose this out for herself, but if I were to chose a soap, I probably would have gotten a girlier flavor in their collection of foamy soaps. The foam is so fun to use when washing my hands! :) The price for this is originally $5, but I got it for $3.

Now this one is a Cherry Blossom shower gel. Bath and Bodywork's shower gels are the best ones I've found yet. They smell good, lather well, and keep you clean. The scent lasts quite a while on your skin, too. Plus, the cute designs on the bottle make showering a little more fun. The price is originally $11, but I got this on sale for $3. 

I got this Pink Chiffon shower gel as well. The lady at the counter said that this scent was the girliest one they had so of course I had to get it! It was the same price as the one above. It truly is very girly and flowery, but that's what I love about it!

Right before we were about to pay, I added this to the list of items to buy, so I guess it was more of an impulsive purchase. Originally I wanted to buy a candle from the Summer collection, but I couldn't pass this one up because of it's wonderful scent. The scent is light, yet floral. It's not overwhelming, so you can't get sick of it easily. 

I'm not usually a candle person, but I wanted to try this out to see how it is. That's why I got the mini one instead of the larger one that costs $3 or the largest one that costs $4. This one was $1.75.

This is my last purchase - a Sweet Pea Scentportable car fragrance. On the back, there is a clip to attach to your mirror or visor (the thing that you can attach your automatic garage door button to). This one is for my mom to put in her car. We got it once, but it was thrown away so I hope this one stays! 

That's all I got from these sales. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anything from Victoria Secret or the store's PINK line, but maybe next time I'll be able to. I'm happy with this purchase and hope to use these products well. 

So, did you get anything from these sales? I'd love to know!

- ♥ H

Birthday Celebrations

As some of my readers may already know, I turned 16! In celebration of that, my friends and I spent some time together and went out for dinner. 


My first birthday dinner was at Moonwok with two friends the day after my birthday. It was a way to relax from AP Exams while kicking off the weekend to a good start. 

Moonwok is basically an asian restaurant. They have a really cool buffet-like option where they give you a bowl and tongs and you basically pick and choose what you want from the buffet area. There were so many options to choose from: water chestnut, snow peas, green beans, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, fat noodles, skinny noodles, white rice, brown rice, baby corn, celery, carrots, bamboo shoots, peanuts, pineapples, ginger, peas, mushrooms, and so much more! I pretty much put a little bit of everything in my bowl since I love a variety of veggies.

At the side they have a station in which you can add your sauces- I mixed those too (Korean BBQ, BBQ, Teriyaki, and Szechuan).

My friends and I had such a good time and even later we found other friends walking in the area. I realized that the two friends I went with are really the closest friends I have in my school. I never have to think twice about what I’m going to say or plan it out. I feel like that’s definitely big when it comes to friends - not having to plan out what you want to say 5 minutes ahead of time and rather just conversing to the flow.

One of the girls out of these two is moving in the summer. I don’t know how I’ll survive Junior year without her. Who will replace my sarcastic, teasing, smart, awesome buddy? No one.

~~~

Anyways, later on I went to Moonwok again a week later with another friend. She treated me this time, which was super sweet. I also had Imran come and he finally got to understand the awesomeness of that restaurant that he constantly trashed. 

While getting my food, silly me dropped the huge rice cooker lid on my thumb to create a huge gash on my finger. Luckily, it's been healing. Afterwards, we stopped by at Red Mango to pick up some delicious yogurt. 

~~~

The day after, last Saturday, I was supposed to go to a friend's birthday party and had a chance to go to the beach or Six Flags. Instead? My grandma made plans to go out to eat for my birthday. I kind of got tired of eating and all at this point. We went to Usmania Chinese. It's an Indian/Pakistani owned Chinese restaurant with a Chinese chef. It sounds weird, but it was probably tailored to those people who can only eat Zabiha halal meat (if those of you who don't know what that is, it's similar to Kosher meat). 

Coming back home from this little celebration at the restaurant, my relatives decided to give me some gifts. My grandma gave me money and my cousin gave me clothes. Now, I know this is a bit weird and all, but my aunt knows I love pasta so she got me this thing called the “Pasta Boat.”

I admit, I was genuinely excited to use the thing. Hahah. The other day I was feeling a bit hungry and decided to try it out. I put some pasta in it along with some water to the mark they tell you and put it in the microwave. After around 18 minutes, I took it out, attached the straining lid, and strained it. At first I was concerned about using it because its plastic, but it worked wonderfully. Plus, in the instructions, it shows you how to make other things- not just pasta. Rice, steamed veggies, mashed potatoes, so much!

If this lasts, I’m definitely keeping it for college when I have a dorm. It may take twice as long to cook something, but it’d be so much better than eating sandwiches everyday. 

Overall, these kind of things just remind me how fortunate I am to have all these people love for me and care for me. Thanks everyone - for an awesome, memorable sixteenth birthday. xx 

Mini Haul!

The other day, my mom picked these up for me while my brother was getting a hair cut. 

Now I just want to start off by pointing out that Supercuts is totally trying to attract women to their store with these bags full of men and wonderful cuts. And it's working. 

Anyways, one of the items my mom purchased was this:

It's the Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Relaxing Balm. She got it around $2-$3 since it was on a HUGE sale at Supercuts. I tried it once or twice and was satisfied with it. It's pretty much a two-in-one product for those girls with frizzy hair like me. You can tame some of the frizz and blow dry it at the same time (since it works as a heat protectant). I skipped out on blow drying for a long time, but started getting back into it so I was thinking about getting a heat protectant anyways for my hair. Yay, mom!

I like how it has a pump at the top and the smell is okay. It just doesn't mix with my shampoo sent real well, so I'm glad that I'm getting a new, different shampoo soon anyways. 

My mom also got me this shatter polish:

The pink color of this was dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness month - cute color! And the bottle was $3, which is pretty cheap compared to the normal price ($8.50). 

I don't know why, but my mom has been purchasing a lot of OPI shatter polishes for me. I don't even have any opaque colors of OPI... just shatter. Haha. And the sad part is that I don't really enjoy shatter. Sure, it's cool, but when I have the time to do my nails, I'd paint designs on them rather than skipping out with this. 

Also, I personally have a grudge against shatter polishes. I had my other ones for about 2 months and kept them sealed tightly. Looked back on them the other day and the black and white were as hard as a rock. The only ones that stayed *OK* were the red and blue ones, which I cared for less compared to the other two *le sigh*.  I don't believe I've used one of those shatter polishes on all my nails before besides one time with the black and once with the white. Since I only wore the red polish on my left hand once to test it out, I decided to send it to my cousin in Pakistan along with a goody bag full of other girly items. 

I might buy some nail polish thinner to fix this, but I'm not sure if it'll work. I'll try to use this pink one for once before it dries out too. 

But I'm still thankful for my mom getting me this. She was so excited to give it to me- it was so cute :3

Room Tour

So my recent addition of fairy lights made me really excited about my room- I HAD to take pictures of it! Plus, I cleaned my room, which is a once in a month occurrence, so this was a pretty big thing to me. :)
Anyways, I took a couple of pictures of my bed, dresser, desk, and new fairy lights.

So here's my bed. I know, everything is so girly! I love it and dislike it at the same time. At one point I want a simplistic room with white walls and bright or sophisticated colors as accents. But at another point, I love everything that I put in this room and don't want to change. My fairy lights make the bed look like it's almost on fire teehee.

And here's my end table. The table itself didn't come with the bedset from Ikea. My parents felt that it wouldn't hold well on my carpet and keep falling over. As much as I wanted that instead, I'm still happy with this. I kept the items on here simple and clean- just some books/magazines/my art sketchbook and a cute little curli-que decoration. My alarm clock has had those butterflies since I was in 6th grade, but I still love it that way. :) Oh and that glass was there because I like to drink water before I go to bed. 

And here are just some more pictures of my fairy lights. They light up the darkness so well in my room. I feel so comforted when I sleep with them on. They're so whimsical- I love it! At first I was going to put white ones up, but I couldn't find any in my house so I put these up. I'm pretty happy with them nonetheless. 

AND HERE COMES THE DESK. I used to have this desk situated perfectly in my closet. It fit so well and I thought it was pretty nice that I could pretty much close my closet door on myself hahah. I got tired of it though, so I decided to move it back to my original location in front of the window. It's so distracting to have the shades open when I work (because I tend to just stare outside), so I just keep them closed for the most part when I'm working. I decorated my window with these girly hanging beads or whatever you call them. I purchased them from JCPenny if anyone is interested. I also got this fabric to hang up, which gives it more character. 

These are just some items on my desk. There's a pink board with magnets on the left and a cup of gel pens for sole decoration. I don't really put any notes with the magnets and the gel pens don't work anymore - don't tell! On the right I have a little mini-hamper filled with a bunch of pens and pencils to use while I work. Since I use nail polish so much while sitting on this desk, I also put my box of nail polishes here. I used to have this cool swivel thing that I got from a Starbucks gift that I stored nail polishes in, but my polishes didn't fit them anymore so I'm just using this storage as decoration until I get some more drawers to use. 

I put some candles by the edges of my window - I got a 4 pack of these citrus candles that I refuse to use because the color is so pretty. I think the other smaller candles were from Ikea - the white ones and the purple glitter. The white used to actually be pink because I melted the wax and put food coloring in it, but the food coloring evaporated some how leaving it a bit lighter pink everyday. 

On the right of my desk is this bookshelf. It's pretty messy, which bothers me because everything else is clean, but I'm too lazy to clean it up. I basically just have a red picture frame with the sample picture it came with from Ikea. I got it when I was small, so I don't know the price. The bookshelf is from Ikea as well - pretty much every major structure and mirror in my room is from Ikea if you want to know. The bookshelf just has some of my candles and a little vase on it, along with some Sunday School trophies and obviously books. On the bottom shelf is all my crafty clay items.

This is my dresser, which I adore because of it's simplicity. On the left of it, you can see a blue container that I store some of my other art supplies in. The markers and color pencils are in a drawer of the dresser though. On the top left you have a little peak at my pink dry erase board, too. 

Here are just some of the items I have on my dresser. I have a little stand that holds all my bangles (churiya, really). In the middle, I have a little jewelry box that I got as a gift - very Vera Bradley-esque. I also have a little heart bowl to keep any extra things in there. On the right I just kept some of my products that I use often. The rest are either in my bathroom or drawer. If you want to know about any of the products, don't hesitate to ask. 

And here comes the end of our journey around my room - the corner between my bathroom and closet doors! I bought this circle chair from Walmart for around $25. I was actually eyeing a bigger one with better quality for $30 from Target, but they stopped keeping it in stock in store. :\ On my walls I just kept a painting I made in 6th grade and a bulletin board. I usually just put pamphlets of events and other cards that I get on there to sort of express what I've done for a while. I also have a little towel that expresses the 50th anniversary in our school and my 8th grade graduation tassel. That blue pillow is actually an ipod speaker, but it sucks. Still, it's pretty soft and I love the color. I also have a little scrunchy pillow from 5th grade that I bought at a fair at our school for $4 and a build-a-bear from my friend's birthday party. 

And there you go! A detailed tour of my room. Sometimes it almost seems like I'm living in some cotton candy land because of the colors. If you want to know what my bathroom is like too (I decorated it), let me know. I just wanted to document this amazing moment when my room is actually clean, really. If you have a room tour on your blog, I'd love to see! 

-Huma

♥

Eclectic and Cute Mix from Urban Outfitters!

So I found a couple of cute clothing websites today while surging through the web. This one was probably the most well-known out of the bunch, and I knew that there's probably an Urban Outfitters near my home.

I never thought about going to Urban Outfitters - when I thought about it, I always felt that it was a little too hipster for me. Even though I had to pick and choose on that blog, I still really adore the things I found. 

I'll start off with the more eclectic and unique things that I thought were pretty cool! :) I'd totally impulsively buy them. Be forewarned, my friends. 

By the way, I'd just like to tell you how cute the website is. The design is very edgy, yet simple. Love it! 

Oh and I tried to find things overall within a certain price range for those who don't want to spend too much. I'll update this post soon with a link and price!

• I thought this was pretty clever, considering you just clip a bow on your hair! Probably won't work for a girl who has hair texture like me, but for girls that don't have frizz, it'd be pretty cool and practical. 
• The bag at the top right corner is very unique. The fact that it looks like a tux with pink details makes it so cute and eclectic. 
• The lace fan... *swoon*. It looks so pretty! Someone tell me that these aren't really cute and possibly seductive. I dare you. 
• DO YOU BELIEVE THIS IS LIPSTICK?! I find it so funny/cute that there's a little cat on the end! The color is pretty, too. However, I don't see myself ever using this baby- I don't wear lipstick anyways and would hate to ruin the cute cat! And it'd probably be a bit hard and uncomfortable to apply with the ears and all. 

• I've been meaning to get a pair of everyday studs. I'm not really a pearl person so I don't wear the ones I have much. Although I'd love to have some (faux even) diamond studs, I thought these were pretty cute too. I'd totally wear the hear or stars ones everyday, and can see myself using the moon and stars together while mix-matching. 
• I think these feather earrings are pretty and sophisticated. Don't know if they'd suit me well enough, though!
• The last two pictures are of the same things. I love the threaded bracelets - the color combinations are a little out there, but I still think they're pretty cute! And they give 6 other gold bracelets as well. 

• I've been wanting a watch for a while- specifically the Michael Kors watch that I have a picture of on the bottom right. Isn't it beautiful? I think it'd go with a lot of outfits because of the rose-gold color. The name is Michael Kors Rose-Gold Baguette watch, but it's so expensive! I'd never get my hands on a $300 watch like that. 
• So I started looking for some alternatives and found a couple of watches on Urban Outfitters. I thought the mustache one was pretty unique and cute! It's a bit simple though for my taste, but nice nonetheless. :) 
• There was also this typewriter-style watch. It can come in a variety of letters. If I were to get it, I'd get 'h' of course. :) It's also a bit simple like the mustache watch. 
• The next two are the same types of watches, but different colors. The floral design adds a cute feminine touch! 
• The next one is the one im COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH. It was originally priced $50 but only online its $15. It comes with two bands- the white and blue, and has 3 beveled edges. The two on the bottom right of the picture seem to have some rhinestone border, while the other one on the watch has a nice design. I want this so bad!! 

• I've always wanted a beanie. They seem so effortless and cute. They could also hide up some strands of hair that I'd get frustrated with when I try to keep my hair down. I like this color, but I have nothing for it to go with. I'd probably choose a light brown or creme color instead. :). I found out how to sew these together too, so I might do a tutorial for a pink one (it's refashioning out of an old sweater!). 
• These umbrellas come in a variety of trims. I chose blue here to make it clear how the trims look. I'd probably get a white trim or maybe even this one (depends) and decorate the inside with cute drawings by a sharpie marker. The sharpie wouldn't fade off especially since there's no water hitting it- it's a cute idea. :)

And that's it from what I found to like on Urban Outfitters! I'm sure I could look into clothing and other accessories, but it became a bit time consuming. Have you every shopped at Urban Outfitters? What'd you get and how do you like the store? :)

-Huma 

XO