NOTD: All Hallows Eve Ruffian.

Or in other words, HALLOWEEN!

To be honest I was so excited about my Halloween manicure. I mean, I live in a country where Halloween is just another day. Halloween costumes, as fun as they sound, are just unheard of. So where else to turn to but nail art!

I really wanted to practice my Ruffians again and test out my new Elianto #18 Orange Red polish so I combined all of it… and got something I didn’t really like :(

HALF-HEARTED ATTEMPTS ALWAYS END UP BEING FUGLY.

Even though I’d planned it for a long time, I did my nails after coming home from my Biology practical exam (more about those later) and I was tired and just wanted to get it over with. Sigh.

While I was thinking of a blog post title, I thought of Jack ‘O’ Ruffian. Then I thought WHY DIDN’T I DO THAT!?!? D: As in paint the typical black eyes and mouth of a Jack ‘O’ Lantern in my orange Ruffian :( Okay la whatever I’m giving you guys a bad impression of the mani before you’ve even seen it. Sorry!

Was too lazy to edit this batch of photos, so I just did what I could with my pretty awesome newfound camera settings (I’ll tell you about that after ‘O’ Levels) and tried out a few different white balances too (see freaky ghostly blue and Frankenstein green).

What was that nursery rhyme about the itsy bitsy spider?

Left hand: spider webs.

Right hand: spiders. Couldn't draw the webs for my right hand cause my left hand is so bad at handling the brush :( I botched up the spider on my 4th finger so badly cause it was my first try.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

RANDOM UPDATE:

‘O’ Level’s aren't as bad as I thought they’d be! It was a rocky start but things went more smoothly once I got used to it and stopped getting heart-pounding nerves every time I sat down in the Hall. There’s usually a few days break between each paper so it’s actually quite relaxed. Especially now that most of the more major fear-inducing papers are done and dusted! Proof: I’VE EVEN GOT TIME TO PAINT MY NAILS, GO OUT TO DINNER AND BLOG :D

I bet I’ll be taking all this back the day before the Add Maths paper though T_____T I think that’s the paper I dread the most, even more than Malay 1 and Chemistry 2, which is saying A LOT. But, I will comfort myself with the thought that both those papers weren’t that bad after all.

Dinner pics from a few nights ago! My sis is back right now with superbly chun timing. She arrived the day my exams started and is leaving on the last day of my exams -__- Her boyfriend’s also currently visiting and playing tourist!

Me and sis. I’m the one in purple in case you can’t tell us apart. Although I really think we look nothing alike side by side in this pic!!

Photo to show off my false eyelashes from Beauty Splash!!! (Please don’t judge unPhotoshopped pics D:) 

I love them so much, they’re so comfy and pretty natural looking while still being massive! They’re actually really wide, I cut off a lot from the edge with the longer lashes already for this pair. They’re the criss-cross type though you can’t really tell from this pic.

On a related note, I also REALLY love The Face Shop’s Perfect Stick Concealer. It’s the only other thing I’m wearing here besides my falsies and Nivea Lip Care.

If you’ve seen me in person right now, my skin does NOT look like this! Being the daunting stressful exam period, I’m having probably the worse acne of my entire life. Angry red spots all over my cheeks and chin and even some on my forehead and nose, PLUS purplish blue eyebags, really FML.

And the Face Shop concealer (I use Natural Beige, the darker of the 2 colours they have) manages to cover all of it considerably well, with a significant difference, and has totally no-fuss application! I love the soft creamy texture and it’s so easy to blend WITHOUT disappearing.

Okay it sounds like I’m writing an advertorial for Face Shop. I’m not!

To close, the lighting in the restaurant made my nails look tangerine. I should get a tangerine polish soon.

See you all November 20th and good luck for the rest of your papers if you’re weathering ‘O’ Level’s too! :)


P/S: Just read this graduation speech posted on a blog that I follow, and I urge everyone that's about to graduate to read it!! It's a bit long though, so only if you've got time to spare. http://willyyilly.blogspot.com/2010/10/lessons-of-life.html

Goodwill Shelves

Think it works?

Easter Colors

"The Kiss" - Elda Minger - 2006

Not just a clever name!

It's not that I need sex or steamy love scenes in my romances - I love many books that consist only of kisses or less in some cases (Christy - P&P) however the back cover blurb of "The Kiss" contained some serious misdirection.  

"When she finds her fiance with another woman the night before their wedding, Tess Sommerville's safe, dull, by-the-numbers life is over.  Packing up her broken heart - along with her dog - she impulsively joins her older brother's best friend in a two-thousand-mile trip cross country.

Will Tremere always had a soft spot for Tess when they were growing up - and now she's become a beautiful, intriguing woman.  He also knows that Tess is hurting, and he's determined to help her get back on her feet, no strings attached.

But by the time the pair rolls into Las Vegas, all bets are off.  Because neither Tess nor Will ever counted on finding their perfect match on the road..."

How I was mislead (into thinking I would like this book...)

...older brother's best friend - actually an exchange student from London who lived with Tess's best friend's family for a year.  Though friends with both Tess's older brother and her best friend's brother,  Will had fallen out of touch, but was planning to visit them in Colorado on his way to California. 

growing up - like I said, Will was an exchange student for one year while Tess was a shy, 8th grader - yeah, I'll bet those sparks were really flying!

by the time... - I took that to mean they'd be at the very least sleeping together by the time their road trip hit Las Vegas - they didn't, but they did do something much more absurd but is a bit of spoiler.

Maybe I read too much into the back cover, but I was hoping for a young unrequited love storyline and a road romance.  But in reality "The Kiss" struggled to find a balance between chick lit and the ridiculous through the entirety of the novel.  Will's big thing is trusting his instincts because his psychic friend tells him to - she also says Tess's dog told her he was abused by the fiance over the phone! Those are some powerful doggie vibes, huh?  Between the new age BS, the saintly hero, and the heroine who spends half the book crying - I'm shocked I even made it through to the LA conclusion. Let's just say he isn't the starving artist she thought he was.  Shocker.  

P.S.

 I always argue that pop culture references need to be classic or have a cult following, but in actuality I love when a Tom Waits song is mentioned and love when Jennifer Crusie references Buffy - but - "Desperate Housewives" is neither.  And I don't know this Bree person you speak of.  Never watched the show, and in fact, forgot it still existed.  

Fire Hooping is Awesome!

"Bridal Favors" - Connie Brockway - 2002

I really enjoy when I can place a book to the time of my life in which I read it - by the library it was checked out of.   

"Bridal Favors" - 2003 - Indiana Free Library.  

I enjoyed it then, and enjoyed the re-read.  I've read most Connie Brockway novels and love a few, but I did notice that this particular historical was full of anachronisms that I may not have noticed the first time around.  But I loved the leads and she only used the word insouciance once (page 146) so it's a keeper for me! 

"Dream Fever" - Katharine Sutcliffe - 1991

I guess it's my Third Wave-Feminist tendancies that make me cringe at most romances written before say, 1997...  The late-80's/early 90's are home to the famous 'bodice rippers' and everyone's favorite love scene - the forced seduction.  For those unfamiliar with term it's basically when a hero convinces the heroine she didn't mean 'no' when she said it, and while it is not quite rape, 

it really is too close for comfort and not at all what I want for my hero and heroine.   

"Dream Fever" was written in 1991 and has all those elements I avoid, an arrogant hero (alpha male), a painfully young (just 18) and naive heroine, and some roughness (a near forced seduction/intense first sexual encounter.)  Having just read it back in May, I must note that the plot and setting are similar to Candice Proctor's "Night in Eden." However, "Dream Fever" was written first, and although it also takes place in a new colony (New Zealand this time) and there is violence affecting the H/H it feels sweeter and much less harsh than Proctor's convicted heroine and brutally real depiction of the colonization of Austrailia.  It is a tribute to Sutcliffe's writing that I was able to like the hero and heroine more and more as the story progresses and if it wraps up a little too neatly at the end, I didn't mind because they went through so much getting there.  While reading "Dream Fever" I did get that giddy race to the end feeling - and I'm starting to think that romances should be devoured in one sitting whenever possible.

The only time I find myself wishing for an IPhone is when I'm at the used book store - I'd love to check out reviews before I buy.  I only have lists I've compiled but forget to take with me and the snippets that stick in my brain.  I found "Dream Fever" for 75 cents and vaguely remembered reading a DIK review of it.  Turns out the  review was penned by author Adele Ashworth (My Darling Caroline, Winter Garden) who still has her signed copy she bought at an airport in 1991.  Not sure if "Dream Fever" is a keeper for me (mine is unsigned after all....) but I did pick up another Sutcliffe novel today hoping for some great banter and fabulous sexual tension.

"The Darling" - Elizabeth Keys - 2003

I always hope that every random Americana book I pick up from the library paperback section will be as wonderful as novels by Pamela Morsi author of my favorite romance, which I randomly found in the paperback section years ago.  Not this time.  Struck out again.  "The Darling" had potential but lost my interest about 3/4 through, I did not finish it. 

On hiatus!

I think I’ll announce my hiatus now. Seems like a good time, since I doubt I'll have the time nor urge to blog anymore till exams are over. 

My ‘O’ Level’s run from October 12^th to November 19^th (mama mia, so bloody long T___T) so you can expect me back soon after that! In the meantime, there’s always archives or if you choose to start lingering at some other blog, it’s fine, as long as you come back in November! ;) 

Until you hear from me again, wish me luck on the most important exam of my life!!!

And don’t forget to remember me :)

Mike Tompkins - all day, every day!

Blogging at an abominable time lol! It's 3.15 am and no school tomorrow cause of study leave. Yes it feels 10 million times weirder than it sounds :S

So I'm doing cartwheels in the treasure trove of nail art blogs I recently found (but am too kiasu to share at the moment). These French girls really know what they're doing!!

Anyway, thought I'd finally get around to sharing my 2 favourite songs right now to listen to and which I keep on repeat as MUCH as possible:

Saw Ashley's Tumblr just now and she beat me to this!!! I really wish Tumblr had a commenting option for people who aren't registered with them :(

You make me, feel like I'm livin' a TEENAGE DREAM!
And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while, cause you're amazing, JUST THE WAY YOU ARE.



We gone light it up, like it's DY-NA-MITE!

This guy is SO FREAKING cool! And he's hot to boot ;) But married FML, at 23?!?!? Gratitude to Callistus for giving me the link to his videos which ultimately sparked my craze wheeee.

I can't believe I'm never gonna get to kacau him (Callistus, not Mike Tompkins) in class again T__T (As if I didn't do that till puas already last year LOL). He actually told me he's gonna miss me hahaha wtf, then I got kinda emo D:

So many people I'm gonna miss so much after this year. So depressing. Okay I'll go sleep my sadness away now, nanait.

But before that, I shall listen to Mike Tompkins one more time hehehe!


P/S: I meant to include this in my previous post but forgot. Blogger finally modified their photo uploader!!! So happy can now do bulk photo uploading, gonna save me soooo much time :D (Yes I know I'm very outdated lol.)

When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight.

Tweets from last night:

Today was my last official day of school. I thought it was worth a blog post because it's something monumental that I’d wanna remember in the coming years.

After 12 years, from my very first day in 1999 as a boyish-looking kindergartener with a Winnie the Pooh bag who would not allow herself to cry, it’s over. That’s it. I’ll never sit in an SAS classroom again.

I stood up together with 40+ other people to greet teachers with the classic monotonic “Good morning xxx” for the last time. Complained about the heat and lack of aircon in classrooms for the last time. Waited for that 12.30 bell to ring, did PE, did duty, HAD LESSONS WITH TEACHERS, closed an exercise book saying “Stella Chai 5S1”, and zipped up my pink schoolbag for the very last time.

The same old routine school things I’ve been doing for the past 12 years that I've never even thought twice about, I’m now never going to do again. This has got to be the biggest personal change I’ve ever had to face (as opposed to big changes that affect me but which I’m not actually a part of).

It’s like a little part of me that’s been thriving for the past 12 years has just suddenly died.

And I haven’t even graduated yet! (Gonna bring a whole cardboard carton of tissues to graduation because I know without a doubt that I will be crying shamelessly like a baby.)

I’m going to miss my class A LOT. Even though we’ll still see each other almost every day during the exams, it’s not just a few people that I’ll miss, but the class as a whole. Every single person that makes (sorry can’t even come close to using the past tense here) 5S1 what it is! In a way, they’re like my school family ♥

I'm going to miss my class teacher a lot too. She's taught me for 5 years and I've always loved her English lessons so so much, I don't think I'll ever meet another teacher quite like her! It was sad writing in her old tattered black diary, the same book my sister once wrote in 7 years ago.

But I didn't cry today and that surprised me. Without realizing it, I was having so much fun cherishing those last moments as a class that I actually forgot to be sad. Or it's likely I'm just in denial huh?

I realized that while I might not miss the school itself that much, what I will miss is the circumstances, the situations, the conditions. You know, “being a student”. Being part of a class, wearing uniforms, sitting in a classroom, recess, the 7-12 routine. Probably won’t miss homework and assemblies (hehe), but you never know!

This is altogether bizarre and surreal. I can’t believe I’m in the final stages of wrapping up my secondary school education. One step closer to no longer being a schoolgirl. I just wish there was a giant PAUSE button somewhere I could press, or even… what’s the opposite of fast forward??? Slow backward? Lol!

It’s all happening so fast. Somehow naïve me thought these days would never come. Where'd the time go?

I wish I could travel back in time a few years and tell my younger self to STOP WISHING TO HURRY UP AND GRADUATE. Gosh, if there’s one useful piece of advice I could tell any schoolkid, that would be it!

The worst thing is that all this should be the last thing on my mind right now. My ‘O’ Level’s start in less than a week. So I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve gotten everything off my chest first.

Okay so this blog post isn’t completely wordy, here’s some camwhoring shots from a few weeks ago where I look unnecessarily happy:

And cute pink and purple toenails courtesy of two of my new Face Shop nail polishes!

Gonna turn to 90210 on PPS for a dose of crazy unreal drama, anything to suppress the pangs of sadness <=(