Lunar New Year: Year of the Dragon.

Hello all!

It's been a while, I know! So sorry about that =(. I've been busy preparing my thesis and Pearlie...well, I'll let her make her own big announcement...*hint hint*

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year, year of the dragon! I think generally, people who celebrate it call it Lunar New Year, but for me specifically it's Chinese New Year. But to be fair to all who celebrate it, I'll stick to LNY ;)

May the year of the dragon bring good luck to us all.

Our family had our first dinner last night, and it was huuge. There's another one tomorrow and we haven't even finished the leftovers from last night o.O! But yesterday was celebrating the end of the year, and tomorrow's dinner is celebrating the start of the new one so that means we have to make another batch of food (ahhh so many rules...@.@). But anyway, I didn't take any food shots last night which sucks...only have this one off my phone:

Baby gets all the food, haha. This is all for five people by the way...it was nuts! Also, the wine was chosen because it's red, which is a "lucky" colour for LNY.

You have no idea how much work it is preparing for this meal! But luckily my mom takes care of it all. The rest of us just clean and decorate the house, which is equally hard work T-T. Here are some of the stuff we put up...

My mom's idea of decorating the chandelier...lol!

Pretty "plant" to bring luck

Firecrackers =D

More decorations...we hung these everywhere last night o.O

Ah yes, the flowers. In our house it's all about the colourful flowers. You can't buy the ones that are already in bloom, they have to be in their most beautiful state throughout the first week following LNY.

More flowers from my sister =)

Fruits are a MUST! The night before LNY, we always put plates of fruit in every room in the house with a red pocket, so that luck will pass through the whole house. Maybe the luck will pass from my room to Pearlie in the background there LOL

Of course, there are also other traditions that must be done every year around this time, like...

BUYING NEW CLOTHES! Lol. You wear new clothes to start a new year =) Yes this is from the F21 x Hello Kitty collab...So lucky, I grabbed the LAST one in store the other day!

And finally here's some foooooooooooood =)!

New Year's snacks! It's mainly for guests who come and give their wishes during the first week of LNY. Aside from the candies on the left, I believe every snack under the 7 lids has a special meaning linked to their names. You also can't see it very clearly here, but we have the deep fried snacks behind the candies! I think the idea behind those are that the golden brown snacks look like "gold" but I'm not sure (someone clarify this?). We used to make them ourselves at home every year but my mom got lazy =P

Ahh, saved my favourite for last...tongyuan! And we make both sweet and salty versions =). This here is the salty one, which according to my mom, not a lot of people eat. The idea behind tongyuan is the gathering of and unity among family. So, every year on the morning of LNY the whole family gets up early to make these together. Since we make both salty and sweet versions, we have to get up pretty early =P. And this year, only I was available to help out -_-"! Good thing I didn't have school today =P...

I didn't take a picture of the sweet tongyuan, I'm sure most Asians have had the sweet version before. We make ours with a small brown sugar cube in the middle, which my mom says isn't as popular compared to the version with the melty sesame filling. I personally prefer the sugar cube though, especially when it's still half melted inside. That burst of sugary goodness...AH IT'S SO GOOD. What kind do you eat/make?

Well that concludes my post on LNY. Hope all you readers out there have a great year!

The last of 2011, sort of.

So I still haven't taken pictures of all my Christmas presents because one is missing! Stupid UPS is taking forever -_-". I guess I'll combine that with other similar gifts and just show you these ones first then =).

First off, December's library challenge book! It was a gift from my mom so I decided to include it in this post =P. Most of you should be familiar with this...

The Complete Sherlocke Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Vintage Classics)

I love the material they used for the cover =D

Such a great book. I've finished the first "novel" and is currently reading the second one. I haven't gotten to any short stories yet, it's such a huge book o.O! But it's an amazing read. Even though it's written in a completely different time period, I think it's something everyone would enjoy reading today. So far, I think it's my best book yet in my library challenge collection.

If anyone is interested in reading the stories but don't want to buy the book, I think this site has a free ebook version of the whole thing...not sure if it's complete though in terms of the novels.

SO. What else did I get for Christmas?! Read on ;)...

JEFFREY CAMPBELL BAG

So nice!!!!!

So happy I got this from D! One day I thought "oooh...I want a very different style bag.." and then I saw this bag! It was meant to be =D!

Really like dark leathery material paired with gold on my bags...it's just like the next bag and also the A/X one I got last Christmas. What's great is this one has fringe!!! Only downside to this bag is that I can't adjust the straps. It does sit okay though, not too long or too short.

ALDO BAG

Stupid room light makes my bag look so ugly =(!!! HATE MY DIM ROOM.

This is the same bag we got Pearlie for birthday, which is also the same bag that Alx has. LOL! Pearlie's is beige, Alx's is grey and mine is dark blue (yeah it looks SO blue here, but it's just my stupid light). We all match, yay ;) Thanks for getting me this, V =)!

HAIR WAVE IRON (??)

Lol, sleeping cat XD

From my sister <3. I really don't know what this is called, sorry =(. Basically it's for making beach waves (soft waves) or classic hollywood-type hair (crisp, tight waves). Tried it on a friend with long hair and it looks SO GOOD. Can't wait to try it on my short hair!

EOS Lip Sphere - Strawberry Sorbet/Sweet Mint/Passion Fruit

I got lots of balls this Christmas. HAHAHAHA

I got this from D's parents and another extra 2 (pink and purple) from my sister's set which she didn't want. I gave those 2 to Pearlie and Alx though ;). This is so cute! I'm still using the red one (Summer Fruit) and I don't want to start a new one yet. I took them out to smell them and they're quite nice!

Missing gifts:
PJ PANTS - D's parents got me really cute polar bear ones from Aerie but I already wore them and they're wrinkly (and in my laundry basket LOL) so I didn't take a picture =P. SO COMFY THOUGH...want moreeeeeee!
HELLO KITTY POUCH - Another item from D's parents. It's REALLY cute! I put it in my bag already and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and grab it...so no picture for now =P. Maybe another time?
FOREVER21 GIFT CARD - Also from D's parents...haven't figured out what to get yet though! Maybe some shoes again, hahaha.
NECKLACE & BELT - got this as a SS gift from a friend ^^ both were from Aerie. Love the necklace so much!
CLOTHES - these I've already put away in my closet...they're nothing interesting anyway =P
CHOCOLATE & COOKIES! - Sorry, ate 'em all. HEHEHE...
MONEY! - Lol, no I haven't spent any of it yet! I put it all away, I'm so good =).

I think that's all, minus the two items I will talk about another time. I also got some really small stuff for myself during boxing week...I never seem to go nuts shopping during boxing day/week because I hate being around big crowds (ruins my shopping mood lol).

This works best if you're just picking up a call and only need to press the screen once or twice. Not so great for texting long messages =P

ISN'T THIS CUTE? Hope my cat won't sharpen her nails on it and ruin it XD

Woohoo, finally done! Hope you had fun looking through all my gifts, lol. WHAT DID YOU GET??? I wanna know....especially Pearlie wahahaha. Anyway, class at 11:30 tomorrow (boo!) so I should pack up my stuff now. Goodnight!

Great way to end the year.

Hello and happy new year, everyone =)! I'm so sad I'm going back to school tomorrow -_-" *sigh* well, there's no escaping it. Anyway, it was great to end 2011 with my girlfriends...fondue party and sleepover! YAY!

First up, cheese fondue. YUM! The alcohol taste was way too strong though, it totally overpowered the cheese. But I never realized how GOOD hot and thick cheese tastes with broccoli and cold ham....MMMMmmmmm!

And we also had chocolate fondue! THIS WAS THE BEST. Sooo good. Definitely buying the set again (it came with 2 types of chocolate and a bunch of toppings).

Alx brought her makeup train case! We had lots of fun with these...=D!

Lots of yum snacks and some retro games at 4am.

After we finished the chocolate fondue we tried to roast the marshmallows with candles...LOL how silly are we?

Here's a special treat for you guys. Alien head Pearlie!

And that's all we have from that night. I was the first to jump into bed, I'm getting old LOL. I seriously regret not taking a picture of our sleeping area that I set up. Imagine 6 girls squeezed into 2 airbeds and 3 tiny sofa mats (somehow Pearlie managed to not fall off those mats hahaha)! Anyway, I'm going to stop writing now, need to get ready for tomorrow...stupidly long 6 hours of school -_-". Goodnight!