NATM: 39 & 40

September 12

China Glaze Shower Together

September 20

E.L.F. Mod Mauve

Polish Count: 55

D-Dang Good Weekends

I'm back to regular weekends of just relaxing, but I wanted to look back on the past four great weekends :)

August 24

Not sure why Keegan Allen from Pretty Little Liars decided to visit Emeryville of all places, but I'm glad he did! I went with Rachel (Hi, Rachel!), and Alane & Cheryl who met up with us later. Keegan signed photos (and Alane's magazine) for us, and I got to give him a Plushtography shirt since Rachel told me he likes photography. We all embraced our inner tween that day.

August 31 & September 1

I went to Disneyland!! The reason for going was to do a 5K run. My friends and I wanted to dress up as a group so we decided on dressing as the characters from Wreck-It Ralph. I was going to write a post about the making of my costume, but there wasn't much DIY to it, because it was pretty rushed. The only bits I made were parts of the hat, the striping on the tunic and the stripes on the leggings.

L-R: Stanley as Ralph, Shaina as Vanellope, Me as Taffyta, Jason as Felix.

The Disneyland Family Fun Run 5K was my very first run, and it was a lot of fun (mainly because most of the run took place within the park, which is motivation enough for me!). I ran the race in about 38 minutes, which is about what I've been doing at home. However, I did not run the entire time, because of the humidity and it was pretty much impossible. Since it was just a 5K, the runners consisted of people of all ages, so most of them were there to walk and just take pictures. Most of the time I was stuck behind walls of people, so I was forced to walk. Looking back now, I wish I had brought my camera with me, and had just taken my time and enjoyed being in the park.

After the race, I went into the park with part of my DOC crew. Kevin & Kevin were missing due to financial and other grownup reasons. I know I wrote (D-) Disneyland onto a CA Adventure picture, but we actually didn't take a proper group photo in Disneyland.

I don't usually buy things for myself while I'm at Disneyland, but what I did buy this time around was a new pair of Mickey ears. I like collecting the Mickey ear hats, and my only other pair of the original ears were probably from 1989, so about 24 yEARS later, I got myself a new one. 

Foodwise, I tried the churro bites with chocolate dip and red apple freeze from the Cozy Cone Motel, finally tried the Dole whip, and had a fancy dinner at the Wine Country Trattoria. Everything was amazing.

September 8

Backstreet Boys concert! I went with Cat and Lan. Perry was originally suppose to be with us, but he was in New York instead. It just made me so happy to see them all together again!

September 14

Chris Hardwick's stand up at Cobb's Comedy Club in SF. I'm a listener of The Nerdist podcast which Chris is the host of. It has kept me entertained during some slow times at work. I went to the show with Ada who is also a fan of Chris Hardwick. She's had a few personal internet-y interactions with Chris via facebook and twitter, and she finally got to meet him after the show!

I was super nervous upon meeting Chris, and I tend to blab when I'm nervous. You know how sometimes you'll just create conversations in your head? Well, I've actually imagined the moment I'd meet Chris. I had planned for my opening comment to be that I've loved him on Boy Meets World. (He had a small part in one episode, because he was the host of Singled Out and Eric Matthews had gone on the show in one episode.) So I did just that, to which Chris chuckled and replied saying I'm glad that's still around. And then I went on to ask him whether he'd go on the new spinoff and then said some other things about Girl Meets World and Singled Out. I probably shouldn't have digressed so much.. Oh, well. I got a hug, signature and photo. I'm happy :)

NATM: 35 - 38

August 14

Essie In The Cab-ana

Essie A Stroke of Brilliance

Sephora by OPI It's Bouquet By Me

August 22

Essie Cute as a Button

August 28

Alane's OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where?

September 5

Zoya Alegra

Polish Count: 53

Smile From Ear to Ear

I just noticed that it is exactly a month after Alane's birthday. What a coincidence! This gift was a little late, because I kind of lagged on making it. I had picked up a clear plastic lipstick stand during my last trip to LA. I know Alane loves her lip products, so I thought this would be a nice gift for her. However, I couldn't stand (ha ha..) that it was clear. I mean it's nice that you could see the products, but how boring is that? It was just asking to be decorated.

I knew I wanted a Disney theme, so I narrowed it down to either Cinderella, since she's Alane's favorite princess and this was a girly gift, or Mickey, because she loves Mickey. I had thought up designs for both characters, but ultimately went with Mickey. I chose Mickey mainly on its color scheme. I felt Cinderella would have been too powder blue, and I wanted this to have a more mature feel. She is turning 25 after all.

Mickey's color scheme is generally red, yellow, white and black. Like I mentioned before, I wanted this to feel less childish, so I went with a more earthy tone of each color.

The design was kind of random, but as I was making it, I realized that I was subconsciously making Alane's home pillows which I had helped touch up whenever I was visiting.

I forgot where exactly I had found the quote, "smile from ear to ear," but I know I had seen it on one of the party hostess blogs I follow. I liked the quote, because I felt it suited the lipstick stand and Mickey theme nicely. 

I had written the quote using a black pen on paper that had a glue adhesive on the back.

I cut each word out using my little craft knife. It seems tedious, but I found it to be quite relaxing.

I used black lettering, because I felt that it would show up the best against the red, gold and brown background.

The paper that had the glue adhesive made adhering small pieces a little easier. Using a q-tip and a bit of water, I attached each word and Mickey ears to the background piece.

To make the sides, I traced it against a sheet of black paper.

Why the stand is lined with what looks like white paper is because I originally I had a different way of going about attaching the pieces. I will spare you the details, and just tell you that it failed.

The two sides and the back piece will be black.

I found Mod Podge to be the best way to attach the paper pieces to a plastic surface.

To decorate the sides I took the glue adhesive paper and gave it some color with gold nail polish.

I wanted it to look like confetti, so I cut the paper into little pieces using my craft knife.

Do not sneeze.

Using my craft knife, I carefully took each piece and dipped it into water to activate the adhesive.

I then placed each piece sporadically on the black sheet of paper. 

Originally, I had only wanted to decorate the outside of the stand. However, as I was making it, I thought the inside looked too bare, so I went ahead and made pieces to cover the inside.

 I traced and cut rectangular pieces out of the black paper.

I used Mod Podge to glue each piece. I also used a popsicle stick to help me hold things in place.

To make the stand a bit more personal

I wrote "alane" onto the adhesive paper, cut it out using my craft knife, and colored it using a gold gel pen.

And here's the finished product.

Alane filled it with the 12 lip products she is currently using.

Happy birthday, Alane!