Braids and blings.

Hectic, hectic, HECTIC schedule this past two weeks!! Been running from Science practicals to Inter-school Drama Festival play rehearsals (which are coming along well, btw!) to tuitions to Sports Day tryouts!

And trying to fit in meals, homework, blogging and whatever else, whenever else I can. The next thing that's coming up is the Inter-house Malay Debate Competition, otherwise known as Bahas.

And to add even more celebration to the party, Mid-Year Exams are coming up fast! Time and tide waits for no man, but I really wish it would wait for just this one girl here :(

When people say Form 5 is no ride in the park, they are not kidding! It is busy as hell. But I realized something just now, in the car on the way home from Add Maths tuition. I'm actually truly and completely happy. Everything I need is here right now :)

Things are finally going right in my (busy) life and I'm content. I'm not wishing for anything... unless you count more free time on my hands.

And maybe a new pair of shoes wouldn't hurt? :D

I shall try my best not to mess this up! Better knock on wood. Anyway, enough digressing!

I love hair braids (on your head, not anywhere else! Cause I think I've heard about braiding hair down there before -_-"), but they take practice to perfect and I'm just a lazy girl.

A few days ago after school while waiting for Biology practicals, JiaJia our resident cheesy cougar puffs, did this to my hair!

It's a hairband... literally!

I've wanted to try out a braided headband for so long but I couldn't do it with my curly hair, and my hair (although rebonded continuously since 2007) has never been frizz-free enough to do it.

It finally is, though! Thanks to a new Pantene hair product I'm using called the Pantene Hair Mask which performs miracles on my hair! I used to always despise cheap Pantene products but this one is a huge surprise.

It makes my hair unbelievably soft, smooth and straight with lots of weight and volume to boot. Before, I was using a Wella Professionals leave-in cream that cost like... 5 times more? It was like B$20 a tube!

But sadly, it wasn't working very well for me anymore and my hair was doubling in size and becoming tangled, rough and unmanageable. It even stuck out at my shoulders -_-" Looked like crap, basically.

But no more! I heart my natural-looking straight hair now!! From past experiences (wahseh, sound like expert!), I have an inkling feeling that the Pantene Hair Mask contains silicone, which does absolute wonders for hair! <3

I also finally did something I've been putting off for a few weeks. I blinged the whole back of my phone! :D

Woohoo, my phone is officially pimped out!

Left lubangs for the camera and flash.

It's such a glitter princess now! That sure took care of the fact that my phone had been starting to look plain and lack-luster. My phone's almost 1 and a half years old! But still works like a charm and I love it to death.

I haven't blinged the front yet though. I used the sticker-type blings that are easily removeable. I just cannot commit to applying crystals permanently with epoxy glue! I am non-commital. Fuck.

That would explain a lot about some of the decisions I've subconsciously made in my life :( My brain tells me yes, I want this! But my heart tells me no, I'd better not. (Or is it the other way around?) Grrr!

No no, happy place, go back to my happy place!! I am supposed to be extremely blissful, remember? Yes :)

P/S: Phew, now that this blogging thing's done, I can continue catching up with new episodes of Grey's Anatomy! PPStream is love. And that's a fact.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

You wanna be famous? You wanna be a star? You wanna in movies? 

You wanna have boobies...? xD

Being in Form 5, with graduation only 7 months away (:O!), each and every one of us is pressed with the tough choice... what happens after that?

Our childhood has flown by, and now we have to make the hardest decision yet. Where will we go from here? Who will we become? What will we do with the rest of our lives?

We've always thought that leaving home was so far away, in the distant future, that we didn't have to think about it yet. But now we do. It's looming upon us. We have to think hard, and choose fast.

I know what I want to be. I want to be a lawyer. Ever since I was 8, I've known I wanted to be a lawyer. A lot of people ask me, what made you decide? I always reply "It's a long story."

I think today is the day I tell that story.

When I was 8, I watched a movie. It was about an underestimated blonde girl who loved pink and had a big dream to prove herself to everyone.

Her name? Elle Woods. The movie? Legally Blonde.

"Meet Elle Woods. She's a lawyer with a heart of gold...and a mane to match!"

Okay, please don't laugh. Yes, I know how superficial it may sound, I chose my future career based on a Hollywood movie when I was 8. But Elle Woods made being a lawyer look so pretty and sophisticated and PINK!

I was mesmerized by Elle Woods, who was a college sorority girl and stereotyped bimbo who got dumped by her boyfriend and then decided to become a Harvard law student to win him back. She soon realizes that her boyfriend is a total prick who doesn't deserve all her hard work, so she ends up becoming a lawyer to prove that she's more than just a dumb blonde. And some other nonsense about overcoming obstacles, and nobody believing in her, etc etc.

She showed that you could have brains and beauty, and she's so strong-willed and opinionated and never gave up. She's sweet and bubbly and bold and most of all, CHIO! (This is also the movie where I fell in love with Reese Witherspoon.)

I know it's just a story from a movie, but I soon realized that we had some things in common, and I also had a lot of the qualities necessary to become a lawyer. 

Plus, I could already imagine myself in pink suits and high heels like her, sauntering around a courtroom, flipping my hair; buying a chio Mac laptop (not in a bunny suit lol!); getting my nails/hair done while studying.

I literally want to BE Elle Woods. I can just see it now!

Did I mention ALL THAT PINK she wears??? And THOSE SHOES?

Please, don't think I'm naive. I'm not. I know what lawyers actually have to do. It is not a fashion show and the courtroom is not a runway. I actually have personal skills that I consider to suit the future career of my choice.

But I found out recently that I have been HORRIBLY DECEIVED! (Okay la, maybe not so kua zhang?) 

It turns out thaaaat... lawyers can't wear colourful jewelry NOR PAINTED NAILS when they go to court.

FML!!!

AAAARGGGGHHHH!!! The nails, omg the nails! The sheer thought of not being able to do my nails is killing me. Can you imagine me, my whole life, with NAKED NAILS??? I think I'd rather die. Really.

You know, I think I'm such a mass-comm girl. I wanna be able to wear chio clothes to work, dye my hair and style it nicely, Konadicure my nails and wear killer heels. I don't think there are any sensible, high paying, professional jobs where I can do that!!! Sigh, so right now I just feel very tortured :(

Next time I go to any education fairs, conventions, talks, etc, the first thing I shall ask about the Law course is: Am I allowed to have fancy nails when I work as a lawyer? If they say no, I'll spit in their face!!

I MUST FIND A COUNTRY WHICH ALLOWS THEIR LAWYERS TO HAVE CHIO NAILS!!! I WILL MOVE THERE WITH NO HESITATION PLZ!!

Orrr... I could always go to beauty school! And then become a certified manicurist :D This is one of my more deep-seated and less-known dreams. My dad would sooner kill me than even think about letting me go to beauty school.

Although ironically, my namesake Stella, actually came from the name of none other than... a beauty school in Malaysia! It's called the Stella-In Beauty Academy!

My mom was undecided over what to name me after I was born, and then she saw the sign for Stella-In and thought that Stella would be a pretty name for her adorable little newborn. Interesting, huh? I bet you didn't know that! Maybe it's fate?

Okay, I'm digressing.

I guess, as always, I want to have my cake and eat it too. Maybe as an adult, you just can't do that anymore.

Pictures courtesy of Fanpix.net, IMDb and Google Image Search.

Back to school blues.

While today was everybody's 5th day back at school, it was only my 3rd (screw food poisoning!). So I think it's still not to late to post about school? :D

So we all went back to school, with our new stationery and school books (in my case, I had neither, so jialat D:), and resume our lives 6 hours a day seated at desks in classrooms.

My nails have gone from long and fabulously Konadicured...

To short, clean and stubbily hideous. I still stare at them every day and sigh sadly. I miss long nails!

(As much as I like my digital camera's "soft skin" mode, used here, because it gives a nice bright glow to the skin, I can't use it for my nail photography because it doesn't give the kind of sharp focus for near objects that I need. So instead, macro. Plus hours of editing.)

I actually took a photo of all my nail clippings cause they were just so long! And discoloured la. And the two culprits responsible for it: my nail clipper and nail file.

My hair has gone from hanging loosely around my shoulders...

To tied up in a not-so-typical ponytail.

Decided to try Cheesie's 1 Minute Hair Bun for the 1st day of school. Let me tell you, my hair is so thick luscious, it took me much more than 1 minute to do it. 14 extra minutes in fact! But I do like the end result.

Left side.

Right side.

I can has super exaggerated kawaii poses! ^^v

Jia Yee said I look like MULAN! *eyes shimmer and lashes fluttering rapidly* xD But probably in the part where she buns up her hair so she can pretend to be a guy and join the Chinese army -___-" Nvm, Mulan still = chio! LOL!

And Callistus said I look like a typical Chinese girl. Then he proclaimed "I hate Chinese!" Aaron Sia style. Omg, can't believe I sat next to him for a year. Callistus, not Aaron Sia. YOU LOVE MARGE SIMPSON!!! Ahem. There, payback :)

I also went around the whole morning saying konichiwa and bowing to everybody like a Japanese girl. Stella-chan. Very high :D

And check out what happened to my hair when I took it out of the bun...

:O! Crazy wild mess! And not even nice waves -___-"

(Excuse me if I don't look so great in the photos, I took them after one whole day at school, was really tired and sweaty.)

Now, 5 days a week, I am a schoolgirl. Oh, the misfortune D: May I please request your shoulder to sob on?

Perhaps I'm sad for a whole other reason. This is my last year in an official school system. At the end of 11 more months, we graduate, go to prom, and then say goodbye and part ways... maybe forever.

For 11 years, school has been one of the stable constants in my life and I don't deal well with big changes. Maybe this will be the one year that I actually cherish before we all grow up and leave the nest.

But fret not, you the reader lose nothing. I'll still be blogging on a regular schedule. Blogging shall be my new stable constant :)

But on the other hand, all the stress that is gonna result from this year being the big 'O' Level year makes my head spin just thinking about it. I'm seriously dreading it. The pressure, the expectations. Gah!

Oh my God, I'm growing old. Form 5 is always thought of by lower forms as "grown up" and "matured" and now, whaddya know? I don't feel very grown up, nor matured :/


P/S: Why are some juniors so omfg disrespectful?!?! CCBs!! D=< Maria, Lilian, Jia Yee and Fadli will know what I'm talking about. Maybe we blogger types are just too nice and not intimidating enough. Lol!
But nvm, I shall not let a few bad apples spoil the whole basket. For now.

My return to straight hair.

The long-awaited hair post is finally here!

I moussed my hair for the last time on Wednesday, because after one long year of curly/wavy hair, it's time for a change. A drastic one. I still absolutely love my wavy hair but honestly I'm getting sick of maintaining it.

So it's goodbye super long, thick, wavy Megara hair (I can hear Jia Yee's heart breaking)...

AND

...Hello long, layered, straight hair with side-swept bangs ala Reese Witherspoon!

Went to Kedah on a roadtrip on Thursday, and got my hair rebonded at Aunty Soo Lee's salon in Alor Star. Aunty Soo Lee is the hairdresser for the Sultana of Kedah (the Sultan's wife). Her mom, my Chim Poh, used to be one too. How cool is that?

I did ZERO PHOTOSHOP on myself in all the photos. Reason is because after taking 2 days to edit the colour of the photos, I was just too lazy already. So it's all 100% ME! And I'm actually surprised at how chio I look :D Makeup does wonders.

Before:

December 2008.

When my editing skills were horrible and my makeup skills were non-existent, I look like bloody shit T__T

December 2009.

Purposely wore blue to match my nails! :D

In the car on the way to Kedah (my stupid phone camera always makes me look like a splotchy boiled lobster in sunlight -_-").

The last time I straightened my hair was in December 2007.

Contrary to popular belief, I am NOT picking my nose. I was scratching it.

After 5 hours in the salon...



...accompanied by lots of crunchy goreng pisang, yummy hot porridge and iced rose bandung provided by my Chim Poh's maid...



...and Jia Yee's Sweet Valley University storybook (which now kinda smells like the salon, sorry Jia Wee :S)...



...FML sit so long until my butt also pain...



...But it was cool to actually be able to see what was happening to my hair because I had my trusty (also expired, lol!) contact lenses on...



...TADAH!

For the first time in 12 months I can actually run a comb through my hair... and it feels sooo damn good.

See, this was what all those hair clips I bought are for.

So I don't end up looking like this! :D

I think my hair looks pretty good with my glasses too.

And I can even do the "sexy librarian" look *wiggles eyebrows* HAHAHA!!

My new wonderful smelling Herbal Essences Dangerously Straight shampoo and conditioner. It's chio and pink! Honeysuckle and silk.

In a Queensbay Mall baby diaper-changing room on Friday. I officially love baby diaper-changing rooms; spacious, clean, cold, nice big mirror, sofas and always empty! Yes, that's my sister at the back, changing Ava's diaper :P

And if you think I look nasty with my new hair, please, just keep any of your negative comments to yourself. Know why? Because I LOVE it. For those of you who preferred my wavy hair, just break up with it already! I sure did.

For rebonded hair, it's actually not THAT straight? It looks like other people's natural straight hair. I say "other people's" because my natural hair is not straight at all. It's a huge, frizzy, out of control disaster! Which is why nobody has seen my real hair since 2006 :D

My old hair made me look slutty and a "hot mess" (both not described by me) but with this new hair, I think it makes me look more sophisticated and um, sweet too I guess? I'm not really used to looking sweet. It also makes me look quite effortlessly chic. Which I like :D

It's funny how something as simple as a hairstyle can entirely change your look. Thank you so much Aunty Soo Lee!

Talking about hair... how 'bout someone with no hair? ;)

Just look at all those rolls of fat and those chubby cheeks! Don't you feel the urge to pinch them right nao right nao?? :D