Photo Diary: Halloween Fun and more.

The week leading up to Halloween has been busy and fun! So much so in fact, that I am utterly exhausted and looking forward to relaxing this weekend!! Here is my Photo Diary of the past week :)

1. My super cute phone, I bought a white Galaxy S4 and wasted no time in making it pretty!

2. Cat makeup for Halloween! This was for the little Fall Festival my neighbourhood puts on.

 3. At the Fall Festival!

4. Went to Curry House in Irvine for Japanese curry! It was the first time Desiree and her family have been and they loved it. I like to share my obsesso love of Japanese food with everyone (*_*)

5. The obligatory peace signs!! Desiree had a Cat Woman mask painted on from Halloween festivities they went to earlier. That's the great thing about Halloween week, you can dress up every day and nobody pays you any mind!

6. Bought another phone case, a Hello Kitty glasses case! It's so cute, I love having a white phone because all the cute cases look better on white phones.

7. Mini Jack O'Lantern's for my son's Halloween party at school! These are so cute and easy.

I am now all Halloween'd out and am ready for Thanksgiving to come! Also I am on the hunt for pretty Christmas lights, because I plan to have them up nice and early. Hope you all had a Happy Halloween (if you celebrate it) and have a great weekend!

Photo Diary: Las Vegas Pt 2. *PIC HEAVY*

Welcome to part 2 of our Vegas Vacation...

The other most important thing on a trip... FOOD.

I really wanted to go to a buffet while we were there, since Vegas is pretty famous for buffets. The one I'd heard a lot about is the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's Palace. It was damn pricey, so we went early for lunch instead of dinner, the good thing was we didn't have to wait to be seated. We sampled sushi, roast duck, prime rib, pasta, fried chicken, chili, rice paper cold rolls, pizza, steamed dumplings, banana leaf wrapped sticky rice and more.. all in little individual sized servings.

Mmmmm pasta...

Photo Diary: Las Vegas Pt 1 *PIC HEAVY*

So Summer comes around and it was time for a family vacation. In fact, some family fun away from the humdrum of our regular routine was desperately needed! So where does one go when in need of some family R&R?......

Las Vegas!

I know what you're thinking... Vegas? For a family vacation? Are you crazy? No, but really, I don't gamble, my drinking days are well behind me and all I'm really interested in is sightseeing and eating. So sightsee and eat were what we did....

We drove there, since it's only 4 hours. I've never seen the American 'desert' before, so this was a new experience... definitely a far cry from our red desert in the Australian Outback!

Check out that scenery!

This is going to be a long one, with LOTS of photos, so click through to read more :)

@Ipsy Generation Beauty event, hosted by @MichellePhan *PIC HEAVY*

So last weekend I was lucky enough to go to the Ipsy Generation Beauty event!

I don't follow a huge amount of Youtubers, but the two main ones I do are Michelle and Promise Phan. I am a huge fan of Promise in particular, her transformations are absolutely AMAZING! She even has memes made about her :D To have the opportunity to meet them in person and participate in the Stylist meetups and  workshops was super exciting!

I went down to LA Live with my BFF Mai and we trekked up to the top of the parking garage where the huge-ass event tent was.

We got there pretty early, but there were already a good amount of beauty enthusiasts there. The brands that had booths were:

As soon as we walked in, we saw ThatsHeart!

She was doing a meet and greet, but I didn't want to get a photo with her because I was afraid I'd look HUGE next to her, since she's so tiny! So I just took a creeper photo like a stalker O_O

Next we headed to the Anastasia Beverly Hills booth for an eyebrow makeover. Apparently it's pronounced AH-NAH-STAH-SEE-AH and not ANN-AH-STAY-SHAH or whatever. I'm not a linguist dammit.

HAIBROWS

Mai kept asking me if I thought she looked like this Japanese comedian that has really thick eyebrows.....

No, I don't know what she's on.

We met up with my friend Jazz who was working at the Toni & Guy braid bar. The Toni & Guy stylists were giving everyone beautiful braids, they even did Promise's hair!

So we got our braids did!

Michelle Phan gave some opening remarks and they showed a video which hinted at some big things coming from Michelle very soon. She seemed excited to be there, but she must have been super busy leading up to the event since she said she wrote her speech that morning and read it from a piece of paper.

She is also tiny....  I loved her gorgeous blue maxi-dress! So perfectly Summery.

Then we stuck around at the main stage and watched the Stylist Talk with Promise.... and four other girls. Sorry, I don't know them!! I'm really not an avid Youtube watcher, preferring to read blog posts =_=;; I really didn't know who any of the other girls were. I now know that one of them is Kandee Johnson and one of them is Andrea...... and that's all I know. Please feel free to berate me for my ignorance.

They were all really interesting, informative and funny! I took a video, so I'll be posting it on my Youtube channel sometime in the next couple of days. It will mostly be of Promise, but if you want me to do another one on the other girls' responses, let me know!

After schlepping around for a bit, we watched Michelle give a seminar on video editing and techniques:

It was mostly stuff I've read up on, like what to use for lighting and etc, but I picked up a few good tips. Then we went to the Bare Minerals booth to watch Promise give a workshop on transformations and contouring. Since we got there early and waited at the front, we managed to get right in front of the stage! I'm such a fangirl. There was a girl who made her way right to the front and even pulled up a chair and got comfortable LOL. Afterwards she basically strong armed onto the stage and I won't say she *made* Promise take a picture with her, but pretty much. Anyway, Promise talked about the proper way to contour and how to get certain results, like a taller looking nose or hiding your double-chin. I kicked off the Q&A session with a question about hiding under-eye circles since everyone seemed to be hesitant to speak. Here's a dandy lil gif of Promise in action..

And we got to meet her! She is REALLY sweet and friendly and took time to talk to everyone individually. We talked about how she used to be nervous about speaking in public, how she has family in Australia and our nail polish :D She also thanked me for being the first one to ask a question lol.

The Benefit lounge had a photobooth!! If you know me, you know I love photobooths and purikura :) I wish I had taken the giant glasses off for a couple of frames.. eh well..

When you tagged your photos #GenBeauty they showed the feed on the big screen! You can see our photobooth pic on there :D

We went and entered the SOHO giveaway, they were giving away a bag of your choice that you design! The cool thing is you can pick the pattern, the liner pattern and the colour of the zipper too. I thought their bags were super cute!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand look at all the goodies I took home! They had a 'happy hour' where all the brands were giving out free products. I completely made out! Full size Benetint, NYX makeup palette, a SOHO mini cosmetics bag, full size pixi products, a smashbox goodie bag, light up tweezers, a NOPI nail polish and soooo much more. I'll be doing a haul video too if I can get some quiet time.

It was such a great experience! I had lots of fun and it was great to meet my favourite Youtuber and get tips from all the Ipsy girls. I'm going to try and plan to go next year as well, hopefully for the full 2 days. This year I could only go on one day, since I didn't want to leave the baby two days in a row.

Did you go to the Generation Beauty event? Are you planning to next year? If you are, we should plan a meetup!

Photo Diary: Beauty For the Beasts Event in Beverly Hills hosted by @weheartthis

So I had been meaning to post this before now, but a nasty cold got me! The weekend before last, I went down to Cristophe Salon in Beverly Hills for the Beauty For the Beasts event! This was a charity event hosted by the ladies at weheartthis to benefit The Rescue Train, an animal rescue organisation.

My BFF Mai and I headed down from the OC to Beverly Hills. We decided to make a girls day out of it :)

Mai decided that a ridiculously unflattering up angle shot was in order...... Thanks Mai =_=;;

**Pic Heavy!!** See more pics after the jump :)

Auld Lang Syne.

Warning: this one is going to be wordsy.

This year was like a catalogue of ups and downs, extreme highs and crushing lows. So much happened in this one year, that I feel like I lived through several lifetimes already. In January we moved into our new house.

Ya, that's one side of my house. And my patchy grass.

A house we own, not just a rental, and while it's a wonderful thing to own your own home it's also a big responsibility. In addition to the fiscal responsibility, on the very DAY that we moved into the house, my husband had a huge fight with a family member. We are constantly having drama with this person and after that instance, spent half the year (literally.. til July 4th) not speaking to them. Family is extremely important to me, but sometimes when you just can't seem to get along with someone I feel like it's better to just keep your distance. The relationship is ok as of this moment, and I guess everyone is being careful to keep it that way.

Come February/March, I was actually working with a music producer. If you didn't know already... I rap. Yep, you read that right. Rap and Hip Hop have always been a huge part of my life and I've been recording music at home on and off for years. This year I had an opportunity to actually do some recording on a professional level, with a great producer that lives in my neighbourhood. Unfortunately the late night recording and writing sessions weren't gelling well with the early morning starts and demands of having two young children (totally not dat Rap lyf). I was getting so tired and missing the time with my family and then... surprise, surprise, I found out I was pregnant with baby no 3!

The stick I peed on. Very faint horizontal line, but it's there!

I made the decision to focus on my family and the pregnancy and gave up (for now) my dreams of being the next... errr emcee that is nothing at all like Lil Kim or Nicki Minaj, those 'ladies' (I use the term loosely) that usually come to mind when most people think 'female' and 'rapper'..

So, as for new baby, my husband FREAKED out. He is a worrier. We'd just taken on the responsibility of a house and now we had the added expense of an extra child. He is the sole income earner (supplemented here and there by my blogging/website design), so he felt the pressure. We talked, we raged, I cried, we made up, after a LONG time he eventually started warming up to the idea of number 3 and even getting excited about it.

"Yay! New baby!"

Baby bump!

In the next few months, battling pregnancy brain (aka forgetful as heck) and fatigue, I soldiered on and even managed to fit in a blog post or two. My most popular blog post this year was probably my DIY Ombre Hair, which I actually did while pregnant. A lot of people will tell you it's not safe to dye your hair while pregnant... guess what? That's not necessarily true. Yes, you should avoid dyeing in the first trimester, but there's no reason not to past that (just do it in a well ventilated place!). I think I dyed my hair 4 times in the past 6 months.

Ombre hair

unnecessary selca

About 9 days before the baby came, we had another arrival. Family from Australia! Since I've been in the US, I've battled feelings of loneliness and isolation :( I miss my family terribly and although I have great friends here, family really is irreplaceable. The past month really drove home how much they mean to me and how alone I feel here. Honestly, I am dying to go back.

Family! And me looking like a blimp.

Mama & I on the way to the hospital...  me looking even more blimpy.

Baby was 4 days overdue and I ended up having an induction. Everything went smoothly (apart from some baby daddy drama over baby's name... men are so stubborn) and I had baby no 3 (still unnamed) at around 5.30 pm on the 29th of November. Finally, (after more drama) the next day we named him Cassius.

The past month after he was born has been wonderful. Having my own family with me filled a void that I didn't even realise I had. Christmas was lovely, no dramas, no stress, just relaxing, fun, quality family time. That's how it should be!

Christmas!

My resolution for 2013 is to keep in touch with my overseas family more, to spend lots of time with my good friends here and to focus my energy on doing things with my husband and three beautiful boys. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we can visit Australia within the next year and to keep the connection with my family there strong, especially for my kids. Life is too short to spend it on stupid things, we should invest in what really matters and that's the people who love us.

Celebrate!

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's and discover what's important to you in life. Make sure you make those resolutions matter!

Life Update: New Baby, Birthdays and more.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind.

My beautiful baby boy was born a little over a week ago and after much debating, arguments, tears (on my part) and compromise, we named him Cassius :)

He is a beautiful, happy baby who just wants to eat, sleep and quietly listen to what's going on around him. My older two boys were so happy and excited to meet him and have been extremely good with their little baby brother. I feel very blessed and content and I am recovering from a natural birth very quickly :) Having my husband and Mum around to help has been really great.

On Saturday we went down to Santa Monica pier and met up with an old friend of mine from Australia. It was a nice day, spent walking around, taking photos, shopping and drinking ice cold milkshakes even though it got freezing after the sun went down.

Cassius slept pretty much the whole time. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

That night we had dinner at Kaido Sushi on Santa Monica Blvd, it was quite good.

Crunchy Roll, Unagi Roll and Rainbow Roll

Sunday was my 27th birthday. It's strange, but as the years go by I feel less and less excited by birthdays. This one passed very quietly, a gift from my Mum and the kids in the morning and then a little cake from my lovely friends at a Christmas party we attended.

Since it's my husband's birthday as well (yes, we're on the same day), we are thinking of just going out to dinner some time during the week and having some alone time. Since he hasn't gotten me a gift yet, I'll be posting a 'holiday' (and birthday) gift wishlist in the next couple of days ;) Let's see if he actually reads my blog, ha!

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend and please forgive me if my updates are sporadic (more so than usual)... My lovely friend Mai will be doing a guest post on a nail art tutorial and ... a giveaway! Stay tuned, I think you will definitely like what she has in store :)

And don't forget to enter the Blogazons $500 Giftcard Giveaway!