2010, I will not miss thee.

2010 was no doubt a year full of ups and downs which I'm glad is now over. Since I started this blog in May, I can only reflect upon my life within the last 7-8 months. Anything before that is very faint in my memory =( But in the second half of 2010, I


1. had my first alcoholic drink


2. met up with some awesome ladies


3. fell out of love


4. pulled so many all nighters that I now am a self-proclaimed pro


5. had my first frozen yogurt


6. got a job in retail (obviously not McDonald's)


7. fell in love... with food =D


8. fell in love again, with more food...


9. and more... okay you get the point.


I use to make resolutions but have found them to be pointless because realistically by the second week of January, I would have forgotten them already. But there are two goals that I hope to achieve on an everyday basis for the rest of my life:

1. Be happy. Be happy with who I am and who you are. Be happy so that I can wake up every morning with a smile on my face and go to sleep at night with a smile as well. Be happy with everything negative because there's always something positive to them.

2. Be healthy. For now this means to gain weight. This has been a goal of mine for the past 6-7 years. And no, I cannot just eat more. It's like telling someone who's overweight to eat less. If that works for everyone then obesity wouldn't exist.

Let's all say goodbye to 2010 now and welcome a new decade with warmth, love and fun. See you all in 2011!

-Helen

Meeting New People (part 6)

Current Songs: Auburn - Perfect Two, La La La, All About Him

Well if it isn't another Toronto Beauty Enthusiast hangout! This time I got to meet Vo, whom I've never met before, and Maria, whom I've met once before but have yet to feature on my blog =)

Sushi Couture - 456 Bloor Street West

Menu

Edamame

Spider Maki

Chirachi

Unknown 2

Salmon Teriyaki

Fresh Oyster

Unknown 3

Unknown 4 with crunch (HAHA)

Unknown 5

Unknown 6

Unknown 7

Unknown 8

Unknown 9

Unknown 10 (This was on the house! Some sort of fish...)

Sandy | Jen | Joanna | Vo | Fiona

Sheryl | Maria | Me | Irene

You can read about our Summer (and first) get together here! [click]

Busy December

Current Songs: Hilary Duff - Happy // Rihanna - Slower to Heal

Hello cupcakes ^_^ I've been on holiday for two weeks now and this post is indeed over due. I have less time to blog now than when I still had school *sigh*. But speaking of school, here are some of my go-to meals from this past semester:


Muffin & Tea Special
I have a love and hate relationship with McDonald's. Yes it's unhealthy but how can you pass on the coffee and muffin special (in my case, tea and muffin special)? I've tried all the muffins and blueberry is hands-down my favourite. YUM!


Breakfast Happy Meal
If I'm early for class and not feeling too lazy, I'll have the breakfast happy meal, aka hot cakes happy meal. I substituted the toy with cookies.


Beef Udon
There's a (very) small Japanese Restaurant in the food court across the street from school. The employees are Japanese and sorry to disappoint sushi lovers but they don't serve sushi. Sometimes I order take-out because I have to be in school and do work. Otherwise, I sit in.


Curry Don
This is curry with rice, I order this with when I don't want to fuss with the udon broth (above).


Bulgogi & Mango Slush
My go-to meal. I've had about 20 of these in the past 6 months (no joke). The place is owned by Koreans so you know it's legit. I've tried bulgogis elsewhere but they just don't compare!


Cookie & Banana + Ice Cream
One of my latest late-night obsessions is banana with ice cream. It's a mix made in heaven.


100° Hot Pot (650 Highway 7 East)
And to finish off the semester, friends and I decided to go to all you can eat hot pot! The place was jam packed on a Thursday night; thank goodness for reservations. Hot pot is indeed messy. The good thing about all you can eat is unlimited desert!!! I had a scoop of coconut ice cream, a scoop of red bean ice cream and two orders of mango pudding (it was soooo good!). I will go back just for the pudding haha.

Hope you all are doing well and have finished your Christmas shopping already ^_^
Take care.

Today is a blue day...

Current Song: Rihanna - Slower to Heal

Bonjour mes beaux petits gâteaux!
(Hello my lovely cupcakes! Although technically it translates to small cakes haha)

Why are you speaking French Helen?!?!
I'm trying to improve my French! I didn't enjoy taking French when it was mandatory in school but now that I don't have to, I actually want to. I think it'll come in handy when I visit Quebec in the future.

Am I glad that it is the end of the week or what! I certainly did not enjoy this past week since I turned to retail therapy a couple times D= I will share with you guys my lovely purchases in the next post though ^_^ I didn't have work today and the meeting that was originally planned for today got cancelled too wohoo! Yet.. I'm still sitting here in my room and feeling blue. The ups and downs of life can really ruin a person's mood, seriously.


Blue makeup collection
Sometimes I wonder why girls have so much makeup... yet I look at my stash at home and think damn, why did I get sucked into those sales. Why do I even have all these blue eyeshadows? I rarely wear blue because it's so unflattering on my eyes. But I've decided that whenever I feel blue, I'm gonna wear these.

Speaking of blue, I haven't shown some of the school assignments that I have completed recently.

Disney Project
The assignment was to sell Disney to baby boomers. My partner and I decided to go with a subtle sexy concept, hence we came up with the line "Disney After Dark" *wink* *wink* But this is the billboard which gets people to go to the actual website (made-up website of course). I'm pretty sure the whole class hated this assignment because we're so use to Disney being associated with children and fun family time, not for people our parents' age.

Toronto Police Service Project
I did not enjoy this assignment either =( First of all, it's 3 foot by 2 foot, costs $40 to print and I struggled with the concept. *sigh* But it's done now. I have never spent so much time on an image before in Photoshop.. yet I sat there hours after hours trying to manipulate this fingerprint so that I can integrate the copy into it. *note to self* do not mess with fingerprints again.

Sorry for the rather short and pointless post. Sometimes life just makes everything so blue and gloomy. What I learned this week is that sometimes being nice is actually a hurtful thing to do. Do everything in moderation and life will be okay. Tomorrow is a new day.

Meeting New People (part 5)

Have I ever told you guys how much I love writing my MNP series? Like Joanna mentioned in her post, it's like going on blind dates haha. Yes I finally met Joanna! Would've been sooner but for varies reasons I wasn't able to attend some of the beauty enthusiast meet-ups from the past months =( Oh and Kevin from MNP part 3 was in this meet-up too =p But he's old news (just kidding =p).

7 West
How the place looks like. Very nifty. You can choose the 1st, 2nd or 3rd floor but we were cool enough to choose the patio (but really it was because the waiter told us the bigger available tables were reserved for bigger groups -.-''). The patio was cold initially and it took a while for the heat to fill the room but I can imagine it being a lovely place on summer nights.

Menu
The design for the menu isn't bad although the lights in the patio were quite dim. The candles they brought us didn't help much and to say the moon provided light is a bit far stretched haha.

Joanna's Beer
The mountains didn't turn blue did they?

My hot chocolate.
I thought it was a bit chilly for cold beverages so I opted for hot chocolate :s Wish I had beer though.

Appetizer: Nachos (A single serving of tortilla chips, tomatoes, melted cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole & jalepenos)
We shared this plate of nachos (and all the other food). Some of the nacho pieces were ridiculously tiny! The cheese hardened quickly as well.

Sandwich: Proscuitto Panino w/ crisps (proscuitto with bocconcini cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and avocado spread)

I agree with Joanna on this one, it was a bit too salty. I liked the chips though haha.

Pasta: Penne Arrabiata (Italian sausage, red peppers, onion & garlic in a spicy tomato sauce)

I love pasta, but this was nothing too special. Sadly, this picture doesn't make it look too appetizing either.

Pita Pizza: Sicilian pita pizza w/ side salad (plum tomatoes, garlic, goat cheese, kalamata olives, fresh basil, mozzarella cheese)

This was my favourite dish =D The pizza was lovely (though we all agreed that portion wise it could've been bigger). The salad was very fresh too - Joanna's favourite!

Piggies.
YES WE ATE IT ALL. Pigs. Remember now, when we dropped food on the table, we just pushed it down the cracks *evil laugh*

Bit of Bliss: Chocolate Banana Cake
This was so yummy =D Great way to finish off the meal hehe. I tasted banana pieces in this one! It was indeed lovely (not a fan of chocolate chips though - Kevin loved it).

The most photographed award goes to the chocolate banana cake. Why? Because when we took photos of it, it just looked unappetizing from every angle. I think I've captured a decent shot.

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On a separate note, I have exactly 2 more weeks of school left for this semester! No free time whatsoever until then. Essays, assignments, work ahhhh!!! *Helen freaks out* I have many post ideas for December though! Stay tuned cupcakes ^_^

Partner in Crime

Hello my lovely cupcakes ^_^ Last week was by far the toughest week of the semester. I lacked so much sleep that I went straight to bed after dinner on Friday (6pm) and woke up at 10am the next morning haha. Anywho, this post is dedicated to a good friend =)

A couple of weeks ago I was having trouble with an essay and can you believe nobody was able to help me out!?! O_O Then came Edward to the rescue! Wohoo! Ed and I actually have 4 of 5 classes together. He's my ultimate competition in school at the moment, and he knows it! But thanks for helping me with my essay! I feel very bad for getting a higher mark in the end though LOL. I don't know how that happened.


Menu.
We went to O&B Canteen for lunch a couple days later (somewhere on King St.) Now this is a menu I enjoyed looking at! Nicely designed and one-sided only =)


Chef's Daily Creation (Pasta)
Sorry I don't know what I ordered since it was their daily special :s


Gnocchi (Pasta)
This is what I originally wanted to order but Ed beat me to it -.-'' Clearly this picture wasn't taken by me since my pictures aren't usually this dynamic =p


Toronto Reference Library
Ed also "introduced" me to the Toronto Reference Library. I've always known its existence but never had the need to spend time in a library. Alas, the day I decided to go, I bumped into Ed. 'Tis a small world hm?


4th floor.
My partner and I in the distance working on our assignment. Ed wanted to know what we were working on so he could copy us! There was definitely some stalking going on! Just kidding haha.


Just playin'
Ed has a DSLR and I was playing around with it hehe (gonna get my own soon! I'm saving up right now!). Just look at this picture, you can see my desktop AND my reflection! This and the previous two pictures were taken with Ed's camera.


Sho-yu Ra-men
We also went to Kenzo Ramen the other day. Ed didn't know I blogged about Kenzo recently haha but it was fun =)


Net-Su Ra-men
This was quite spicy according to Ed.


C'est Moi! (It's me!)
Why the sudden French? Well Ed is from Montreal and so he also speaks French. He knows how to piss me off - by speaking fluent French to me knowing that I can't understand shit. Anyway, I found this picture on my camera LOL. Ed took it while I was working on HIS assignment. It was such a pain to make his copy work that I kinda just gave up haha.


Me again.
Okay, before anyone flips out on me for not being "lady like" in this picture, mind you I go to an Art school and no one gives a damn what you do, how you dress or how you look. Plus, I was so tired from thinking about assignments that I just needed to sit back and chill for a minute. But since we're on this picture, I should also mention that these shoes just happen to be my favourite pairs of shoes ever! As much as I love boots, flats and heels, I would give it all up for my Reebok. It's funny because technically these are actually wrestling shoes :s And I guess you can consider them "classics" since Reebok doesn't make these anymore =( I'm so sad!! I want back-ups! I want a pair in hot pink!


Me 3
Last Friday, my 8:30am class had to present our Disney assignments. It was the perfect opportunity to wear my Minnie Mouse ears! I even forced my partner to wear it with me *chuckles*. It was a good way to wake the class up since presentations are usually boring anyway and most of us lacked sleep from the night before trying to finish up the assignment. I know the smile looks deceiving but that face only slept for 30 minutes and had on minimal face makeup. (I remember getting home from school at 1:45am and only having to leave home at 6:20am to go back to school LOL.)

Well this post covers the past three weeks. I'm about to pass out from a very tiring day - worked from 7-4 today o-m-g. Good night.