Category: Life

2012: A year in review

It’s that time again. To reflect back on the year behind us, and think about the lessons learned. I had an amazing year compared to the heart break of last year. This one was full of happiness and adventures. Here are some snapshots.

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Hopped on a plane to Los Angeles for the weekend just to eat.

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Celebrating Mardi Gras and my birthday.

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Saw the Harlem GlobeTrotters

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Met Jo Koy on Vitya’s Birthday

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Visited my maman’s ashes in Delaware

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Took a Girl’s Trip to my home state!

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My first trip to the Outerbanks!

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Had an amazing time in Paris, and the south of France, and Monaco with my best friend.


Built hotel forts in Myrtle Beach

Lots of beach time.

Crawfish boils

Fireworks

Bought a motorcycle

Hiked

Spent a lot of the time in the kitchen making things I thought I couldn’t.

Got another sorority little sister

This little chunky joined the family.

And watch this one learn to walk, run, talk, and get potty trained.

I’ve grown a lot this year, and made a lot more memories in one year than I had years before. I learned that life is an adventure and that I should spend it for experience and memories, because that’s what I can keep forever.

I am nervous for what 2013 will bring, but I’ve filled my life with so much positive, it will be hard to get/keep me down anymore.

Cheers!

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Congrats to GMU KPL Xi Class

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I know what you are thinking, “what. you’re in a sorority?!” Don’t be like that. I know what else you are thinking, that is a lot of Asian girls, that parking lot must be all messed up. Harhar. Get this, when I was growing up, I didn’t really know much about Asian American culture. My parents weren’t the strict crazy kind that expected you to get A++. When I got to college, I wanted to make friends with people I wouldn’t have normally been drawn to, and look what I did, chartered a sorority 8 years ago that is now 56 strong, having only started out with 2 charters. That’s us below.
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As an alumni who is still around, I like to support their events, so attending the probate, and the banquet last week was a must. Also, I came out of retirement and took another little sister. This is another reason why I was so busy this fall, making sure this kid becomes a sister.

And she did! Congrats little! I am so proud to see what our colony has become. And now let me introduce my greek family.
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My littles L-R: deMILO FA12, ROCKSTEADY FA05, BEBOP FA08

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And my GrandLittles: Fawkes, Amortentia, Banksy

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What Tattoos?

If you follow me on twitter or know me personally, or read my about section, you know that I’m always trying to figure out ways to hide my tattoos when I am out and about and especially at work. Well last weekend we had a holiday party, and I am definitely not ready to let anyone know visually that I am a menace to society, trouble and a member of gang (please read the sarcasm, I am none of the above).

So I had to ask my friends, twitter and pin things to figure out ways to look fancy, yet not show a single tattoo. This of course meant my options pretty much were limited to turtle neck dresses. Which I wouldn’t have minded. After searching through and through, I decided on a black long sleeve lace dress from topshop.com

Not pictured: full back tattoo that blends into a half sleeve and chest piece, a forearm tattoo and a wrist tattoo.

WIN!

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Crafty Bastards DC 2012

Let me start off by saying, I know that this happened a little while back, but life was catching up with me!

My friend Marty and I decided it was time that we check out Crafty Bastards. We’ve missed out all the other years before, and this was our year. Armed with cash and full of coffee, we were ready to discover some one of a kind hidden treasures.

Set in Union Market this year, the booths were set up in rows, under a tent. However there was still a ton of people, so patience and a good attitude is definitely needed. There were crafty stations, where you could let your little one’s imaginations run wild, or you could learn a new hobby like crochet. Dogs were welcome, which meant you have to watch out so you didn’t trip over some people’s pets.

There were lots of unique things, and lots of great inspirations. It was all very visually stimulating. Marty and I had a pact, that if we could make it ourselves we wouldn’t buy it. She is much more crafty than I, so I was the only one that walked away with something.

I am building an altar for my maman so I wanted to collect some dia de los muertos items and I got this beauty from Michael Brown of UC Studios. They have an etsy store, but not all their pieces are up there since they have so many. So the best way is to find them at a craft show and flip through their (AWESOME!) stuff.

If you wanna plan an efficient trip…make a list of things you WANT to spend money on, and target those tables. There was stuff everywhere in no particular order, you can walk away with too much or nothing at all depending on how the crowd sways you!

 

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Comedic Hypnotist: Flip Orley

Did you just roll your eyes at the title of this post? I’m for real. Comedic Hypnotist. I’ve seen this guy 3 times…and it was a different show every time. What’s even more funny is…The first time I saw him, he just got married. The second time I saw him, he had a baby…this last time I saw him… He’s been divorced…4 times. Oh wait, that wasn’t funny? I guess not, but he made it funny. Ask him why he has 4 hoop earrings in one ear!

One of our couple friends are from Germany, and they want to experience all that DC has to offer while they are here… (they are moving in January :() So I decided to take them to a show at the DC Improv, specifically to see Flip Orley. He talks really fast (because he has to soothe and hypnotize his guests) so it was hard for them (and us!) to understand him sometimes. But the hilarity that ensued was understood in all languages.

If you’ve never been to a hypnotist show, let me break it down for you. The hypno-boy (his joke, not mine) comes out and he tells us about himself, usually in a funny way. Then he tells us about the powers of hypnotism, and how it works and why it works. He also tells us why it doesn’t work. He asks for volunteers to come up on stage, and for people in the audience to try to get hypnotized from there if they would like. Then he puts the moves on ya. After that he does a couple of things to filter people out who aren’t really hypnotized, and continues on with the show. I won’t tell you what happens next, but its DEFINITELY fun.

However, its all relative. I did see one angry girl walk out because she didn’t think it was funny. But hey she was also one of the ones that couldn’t get hypnotized so maybe she was mad she wasn’t relaxed enough. All I know I was glad she left because her stanky attitude was ruining it for the rest of us.

Be sure to find him and CHECK HIM OUT!

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Sketches

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Oh hey did you know I am a graphic designer? And the best way to organize before execution is drawing/sketching. Because we live in a digital age, I rarely spend a lot of time in a sketchbook, but just quick squiggles on a piece of graph paper. That being said, I personally think I am terrible at drawing. I could probably draw well enough to get my point across, but it isn’t anything nice enough to talk about.

So, to kill two birds with one stone, I’ve been drawing out outfits that can be made possible with the clothes in my closet. I have a lot of stuff I don’t wear, being that I’ve changed in size. I turned my second bedroom into a closet/dressing room/kitchen storage space. Now I can keep track of what I have, and all the possible ways to wear it. If you can think of more that would help!

What I wore last week:

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…and then I got tired. It’s busy super busy busy, but I guess I don’t really need to tell you that. Happy Hump Day and I hope this was a good week!

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Ramblings: If We Met Now, Would We Be Friends?

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So hopefully you have all seen this episode by now. If not, spoiler alert, sort of.

I love New Girl, like all of us girls who are a little bit awkward at some points in our life. When I was watching this, it made me think of my friendships through the years. I still have one friend, who’ve I’ve been friends with…wait for it…SINCE KINDERGARTEN.

We had a lot of ups and downs as we grew into the person we are today, but in the end, we came back around and realized we can still be friends. Time has a lot to do with relationship. You know how people always say when it comes to finding “the one” with a significant other, it is always the timing? I figured it is the same way with friends.

via Tumblr

I’ve changed a lot since those school age years. I  would not have imagined myself the way I am now, back then. Not saying its a bad thing. As for the friendships, the friends that I met AFTER college are the ones that are my day to day. Or, the friendships from my childhood that has rekindled as adults too. These will be the friends that will be “aunts” to my kids. It makes me sad though, to think of the friends I lost touch with or don’t have anything to relate to anymore.

But I think you don’t need as many friends as adults, because you’ve already been well-socialized 😉

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Happy Halloween!

A sneak peak of our costume.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Made it through Hurricane Sandy, safe and sound. We were very lucky. I just spent the extra two days, cooking up my own storm. Sorry to those I made hungry via instagram!

I’ve got a crockpot going, so when I get home I don’t have to worry about dinner and I will hop into my costume and pass out candy. Hopefully the kids will be trick or treating. This is my first Halloween at my new home and I am excited to see how many kids will come!

I know a majority of the Halloween parties happened this weekend, but mine is this weekend. What are you up to tonight?

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One Year Bloggiversary!

Guess what, hard to believe, but one year ago, miemonster.net went live! I know that my content has been around since before then, but that was when I finally decided on a dot com (yes, miemonster.com is mine now too finally!) and begin my blogging identity. You see I also have an online portfolio, miemomedia.com and that was where I started blogging. But then I realized, in my blog I didn’t write about design, so it made no sense being there. I work all day everyday with design stuff and I needed an outlet for my other interests, traveling, cooking and well, eating of course. So that’s how Miemonster was born.

So a year ago today, my brand spanking new site hit the interwebs. And if you hadn’t noticed, a new layout! (which will always be in progress because as a designer I get tired of looking at the same site all the time).

This blog has introduced me to cool people in the world and I hope to get to know many more with similar interests so that we can swap tips and recipes! There are still more adventures to come, and thank you to those who decided to join me.

 

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