TGIF. i mean REALLY.

coming off a very stressful week. everything was due this week. just crazy.

and i stressed out and freaked out quite a bit. i'm a mostly chill person. i don't like stressing out. i don't usually stress out. but this week...a whole different story. my skin was even breaking out this week! oy.

but anyways. all done and all good. phew.

so i'll be relaxing with some blog posting. and scrapping. even though it's "required" scrapping. ANY scrapping is fun.

i just realized that i'm at the end of the month. which means it's my last POD for november. i'm thinking of continuing for december, or doing a scavenger hunt type thing like this. we'll see. i guess i should make up my mind now since it's december in about an hour.

okay. so. sidetracked. anyway.


{11/28}

i walked into forever 21 after class. for no reason, really. i like to browse. it gets them creative juices flowing. that forever 21 used to be a saks. so it looks really pretty. eye candy. so i take pictures.


{11/29}

i went to starbucks and got a gingerbread latte, finally. i wanted one last weekend but i got lost on the way to the starbucks in laughlin. i need to go to borders for that seattle's best's gingerbread latte. because they put a little gingerbread man on the top and it's the cutest thing ever. that will make me really happy.


{11/30}

so i went to bed last night and woke up this morning planning to do alison's day-in-the-life thing on skulls. so i woke up this morning took this (my alarm clock is about 15 minutes early and this was after i went to the bathroom. so technically it's before 8:30). except, i ran out of the house but forgot my camera. so that plan was scratched. i guess i'll do it sometime next week.

so in my stress, i missed grey's. boo hiss. will watch online tomorrow (the beauty of hi-speed!)

scrappy things-

the new crop addict kit is up! it was AWESOME. loved it lots. :)






there was a GORGEOUS digi freebie kit in the new CK, and i couldn't help but play immediately -




have a good one!

oh - and GO BRUINS!!!!!!!! (yes, i know USC is heavily favored. i don't care. i want them to lose. badly)

:)

recapping

{11/21}

- started off the weekend on wednesday by going out with the girls. one of them turned 21 at midnight, so we went to celebrate.

she looks not-so-happy because i was constantly shoving a camera in her face (yet again). ha.

- took off to laughlin thursday morningwith my whole family to celebrate both thanksgiving and my grandma's 88th birthday. we had to take my grandma's dog with us (everyone else stayed in a hotel, we stayed at my mom's sister's house because she lives nearby)-

{11/23}
and although she was sitting still for me to take some adorable pictures of her, even SHE started giving me the "stop taking pictures of me" face. even the DOG.

- hit the buffet with the family for thanksgiving dinner, then hit the casino to take advantage of my 21 privileges. i was quite upset that no one was carding me. i mean seriously. i really do not look 21. why wouldn't anyone card me?!

- there was an empty room so i ended up spending the night in the hotel. the next morning, went along with my mom, dad and aunt (and the dog) to kingman (small AZ town). had sonic (which we don't have in so-cal) for lunch, then headed down on route 66 with this gorgeous scenery

{11/24}
and through oatman back into laughlin.

- had prime rib for my grandma's birthday dinner. roamed the casino with my cousins, and while watching them play table games, FINALLY got carded 4 times or so (why would they not card me while i was PLAYING? geez).

- stayed with my grandma that night...went shopping the next morning and got some sweaters, a pair of skinny jeans, and some shoes, including this pair to replace my current ballet flats which have a hole in them.

{11/26}

-took a huge family picture, but some of us were missing.

{11/25}

- got back into so-cal late saturday night (sunday morning technically).

- it was actually COLD today. well, cold as in i actually wore socks today.

{11/27}

- crazy busy week ahead. if i can get through thursday, i will be good. just plenty of things due. why must everything come in waves?

happy thanksgiving!!

going out of town tomorrow morning. all 20 or so of us in the ikeji family are taking off to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday.

i'll be back saturday!

have an awesome holiday! i'll sure be enjoying mine because i'll be having a hellish week next week!

:)

a little motivation...

...was totally what i needed.


{11/20}

i took a little trip out to ucla today. mostly because i've felt unmotivated for a while and right now is the time when i should be most motivated, with transfer applications (round two) being due soon. when my original plans went awry (long story short, i was supposed to transfer this semester but i was planning to take a math/stats class over the summer, but i needed to have had taken it in the spring), my motivation tanked too.

so anyway. ucla is basically my dream school. i fell in love with it as soon as i set foot on campus back when i was a high school freshman (those were the days. ha). i'm not sure i'm going to get in because my major is crazy competitive. but i needed to see the campus again (i haven't been there in about 3 years) to motivate myself, to start pushing myself again, to tell myself WHY i should bother with stuff.

also had a chance to meet up with a friend who i haven't seen in a while, so that was cool. he showed me the dorms (the transfer dorms were NICE) and let me take advantage of his underused meal plans. i also ran into a couple of people from high school who i haven't seen for a few years, which was kinda funny because they thought i went there already. ha.

that place has a TON of stairs (and hills) though. i mean i thought it was just my out-of-shapeness, but my friend (mr. totally in shape) confirmed it for me.

a couple more pics -

(random pic i took while i was walking)


(i thought this was funny. is it because their football team was disappointing this year?)


(the library)

:)

and so it goes...

it's monday again. at least it's a short week, right?

PODs for the weekend -


{11/17}

i saw a recipe for these yummy pumpkin cupcakes (with cream cheese frosting! *swoon*) on melissa's blog a few weeks ago, and they looked scrumptious. finally got around to making them on friday. they are GOOD. i am especially in love with the cream cheese frosting. mmmmm.....


{11/18}

we went to the park. and we took pictures on various playground equipment...which is all fancy looking like this particular slide. the sad part is that the city is planning to bulldoze the place. so the reason we were there was for some rally (not really a rally, but sort of) for the cause to save it. i also ran into an old newspaper friend.


{11/19}

my jewelry box. actually only about half of my stuff is in here. it's just what i reach for the most. probably because it's in the bathroom where i can just grab it while i'm putting on makeup. easy access = gets used more in my world.


more digis. i have barely scrapped paper stuff in recent days...i did one today but you'll have to wait til later to see it....



totally random. because all i really wanted to do was play with this kit and anna's seriously COOL circle paper tears.

for this week's dare. i thought of how chriselda tries to call me to get the angst out of me and so i came up with this response.

have a good week! :)

whoo! friday!

POTDs first -


{11/15}

i happened to procrastinate all day on homework that i should've started 2 weeks ago. i also kept getting distracted all day nor did i really WANT to do what i was doing. so after it started getting late, i got sick of thinking, so i went to bed figuring i'd get up around 6 to finish up. the alarm went off at 6, i kept hitting snooze, and finally turned the alarm off and then next thing i know it's like almost 8 and it's my normal wake-up time. uh-oh, right? so i rush to finish what i can...i get to class and find out that the stupid thing isn't due til tuesday. moral of the story - GO TO CLASS.

(p.s. check out the book i had to read - the woman warrior. i hated it at first, but i ended up really loving it.)


{11/16}
my milk green tea. good stuff. and this is the one way to get me to drink milk. i hate drinking milk by itself. you wonder why i'm so short - it's because i hated milk as a kid (and, well, it runs in the family. you should see us cousins trying to compare who's taller. we get really really anal about it). but yep. milk green tea is yummy.

i've gone completely digi happy this week because, well, there are all these new goodies to play with at DD. you must check out the store on sunday because there will seriously be some AWESOME stuff in there. LOTS and LOTS of it. some previews -

this was made using a new speed byte. seriously. i love these things. love the designs pattie comes up with. and rumor has it that kellie is coming out with some templates too? also used a new mindy terasawa kit.



a really random one. i don't really remember what i used on here...except an torn edge overlay by anna aspenes...which i'm loving because i'm a total sucker for torn edges in my paper LOs and now i can use them in my digis (without trying to make my own, which as made them look quite fugly). whooo!

grey's blurb of the week - okay, next week's episode is going to be a GOOD one. 'nuff said. i'm still digesting this one. haha.

looking forward to thanksgiving weekend next week! although i still can't quite believe that thanksgiving is already next week? remember, it's still summer in my world (or mind).

off to bed now!

soooooo......

way excited about this.


okay. next order of business. some photo-of-the-day action.


{11/13}

self-portrait. love the lighting. guess where i took it? the bookstore. stop laughing.


{11/14}

so today (yesterday, whatever) i was went off in a pursuit of a "fall" picture. just because a bunch of people on my blog list >>> are talking about how they're in the holiday spirit...and i haven't even began to be in a fall mood yet because of the weather (although it felt kinda fall-ish today). i'm still in summer mode, sort of. so i wanted to take a "fall picture." this is it. even though linda looked at this and went "brown leaves on grass is fall?" pffft. that's as close to fall you get in so-cal, right? but i just love how i'm wearing my flip-flops here. ha. i live in them. so i took this at this spot in the front of campus...under this shady tree which actually had yellow and orange leaves. lots of leaves on the ground. and i thought "yep, that is fall." and so i sat and took pictures.


yeah more self-portraits. stop laughing! i know i'm vain/weird/self-absorbed/whatever. blah blah.

almost thanksgiving! whoo.i'm sad that our whole family is celebrating my grandma's b-day and going to be out of town - which should be a blast, but that means missing my aunt's stuffing (i dig the chestnuts). for the second year in a row. boo hiss. but i'm glad these girls are coming home this weekend -

yeah, the berkeley kiddos that we hardly ever see. yay.

off to work on some much-procrastinated-on homework. lovely.

mondays *sigh*

how could it be monday already? oh well. this month is moving quite fast. and i'm realizing that november always ends up being the most stressful month for me. blech. oh well.

pictures, shall we?


{11/10}

random clock picture. okay, i took this with a layout in mind. you'll see.


{11/11}

i went out to dinner with these gals, and then we ...



yeah, took crazy, very asian sticky pix. those things are always amusing. yep.


{11/12}

my mom's a gold digger! ha. the weather was nice today, so i tagged along. so my dad's friend is now into the whole gold prospecting thing now. like, really obsessed. quite hilarious. anyways. this is his hole that he unofficially claimed...but we "borrowed" it. ha.

pictures and such :)

first of all - it's my BDF linda's birthday for another 30 minutes - and she has a blog! WHOO HOO!! :) it's about freaking time :P

anyways. off we go with some PODs :)


{11/07}

yep. did you?


{11/08}

this was a random "it's 11:30 and i realized i forgot to take my picture of the day so i'll find something to take a picture of." it's a little view of my computer desk. i stuck the pencil sharpener on there because it's cute and i felt like it. it's cute, right?


{11/09}

so if you've ever been to japan, you might know that the convenience stores are WAY cool over there. i mean, not like the 7-11s over here. like WAY WAY WAY cooler. they sell cool bento boxes and other lunch items (beats those pizza roll things at 7-11). and they have cool desserts (i mean, i love slurpees and all but these beat them, hands down). so anyways. they opened one of those types of places near school. they've got a couple more locations in the LA area, and they're opening more soon. way cool. made me happy. i stopped by for some coffee and got a zucchini bread. good stuff. then i saw the rice balls. i love these rice balls in the cool seaweed wrapper. and they had lots of other cool stuff, but the rice balls. that made me quite happy (i know some of the japanese markets have them around here, but they're always out....and i never think to get one while grocery shopping). (p.s. - we're sooo going there, linda!)

so i have some new magnolia paper and a ton of pink martini goodies...but my mojo just decided to run off. not cool.

oh and grey's. SO. FRIGGIN. GOOD. omg omg omg. yep.

oh. and if you do digi, use PSE and live in the LA/OC area (or know someone who does), check this out:

Who do you know in LA/OC who digi scraps? Scrapbook LifeStyles needs someone STAT for their show- you interested? Here's the scoop- Scrapbook etc./Scrapbook LifeStyle Daily TV show is holding auditions for a Digital Scrapbook Designer to become a part of the regular cast. Watch the show www.ScrapbookLifeStyle.com to see if you think you have what it takes to be a part of this exciting team. Must be proficient in Photoshop Elements, scanning & printing and technologically savvy. Outgoing & fun personality a must, camera and/or teaching experience helpful but not necessary. Must live in Orange County/LA area. Approximately 5 taping days a quarter plus design work from home.

Send photo, a paragraph or two about yourself & link to your work to ameliau@ScrapbookLifestyle.com


:)

seriously?!

yesterday = november 6.
yesterday's high = 95 degrees.

today = november 7.
today's forecast says = 90 degrees.

um. seriously?! why is it so mofoing hot when it's almost thanksgiving?
and guess what's forecasted for next week? rain!
sheesh. gotta love the crazy, fluctuating so-cal weather.

here's yesterday's POD:

{11/06}

my grandma has several persimmon trees at her house. there are MANY growing on there this year. every year, the whole family takes home a bunch of them...my dad brought a bucketful home yesterday. my mom was cleaning them today, and had them spread out all over the table. it was an interesting sight....but i took a close-up because she was like "here, this one's clean."

i should be in bed, but i leave you with this - if you're registered to vote, please do go out and vote today. i'm no big political person, but i do believe in voting. i even wrote an opinion about it when i was on newspaper. i hear so many people whine about various things (how financial aid keeps getting cut while tuition goes up, how bush sucks and how the war is stupid.....blah blah blah) and it's like, "did you vote?" and the answer a lot of the time is "no." truth is, you can't expect changes if you can't be the change. so do it. be heard. GO VOTE.

off to bed i go.
(ETA: i love how i edit my entry 3 times after i hit post)

New look!

i finally went ahead and put up a new banner. and then i thought the page looked too white, so i changed up the colors. i hope i never have to change it again, because it was a bit of a pain to go through the template code and change all the color codes. hah. i notice that the about me part is grey and doesn't match, but that's the one part i couldn't figure out AT ALL. oh well.

anyways. more pictures of the days.


{11/02}

this was lunch the other day. breakfast for lunch. i do love having breakfast stuff for lunch, or dinner even. just not really for breakfast, because i'm not so much of a eat a lot in the morning type person (although these days, i've picked up a mcgriddle at mickey d's in the morning sometimes).


{11/03}

i took a picture of my shirt. for no reason, really. i just wanted to take a picture of my shirt. so i did. and i figured "guess" could prove useful as a scrapbook page sometime down the road. ha.


{11/04}

i do love downton LA. i originally wanted a picture because the sky was red...but by the time i got close enough to want to take a picture, the sun already came down and the sky was pretty plan. but still. love downtown all lit up like this.


{11/05}

excuse all the food photos, but i really do love talking and eating food, so i guess this is what you get. ha. this was my lunch today. omelet rice. this is, like, my single most favorite lunch food. i must have it at least once a week. my mom always goes "aren't you sick of it yet?!" uh, not yet, mom. good stuff. i'm craving one again. hahah!

took a break from scrapping this weekend. scratch that, i took a break from paper scrapping - i didn't feel like clearing off my area so i could scrap. a nice chance to clear my mind, though, since i was in a bit of a rut...did do one digi LO with some mindy terasawa goodies - sooo excited to have her join us at designer digitals. yay! that place just gets better and better!



i did do this on thursday though, and it makes me happy. and cracks me up every time i look at it.


seriously. how many cameras did we need? my other group of friends would have really hated the number of cameras. hahah!

'Tis November already...

...and I decided to join Alison and do a photo-a-day.

I think it was exactly a year ago when I started my first one. I haven't taken a ton of pictures lately, and well, I don't have that many very recent pics to scrap. I do have a lot of older pictures I could scrap, but sometimes I get sick of them and need a break from them.

Soooo...here's the first -


I like piles. Well, I don't like 'em or hate 'em (okay I do hate them when they tumble) but I always end up with them. Magazines, books, paper, embellishments, clothes...yeah my room is full of piles. This happens to be one of them 0 it sits next to my bed. The problem with piles is that when I try to get something out of them, I just try to pull it out instead of taking the stuff on top off first. Then it tumbles. ha.

Couple of scrappy things -

me and linda. lots of paper salon papers on here. good stuff.


Inspired by a Jen McGuire LO. I loved how she colored in the ledger stamps. I had digi versions (this is a newer version of them, though) so I started off my LO digitally then went hybrid. I ended up getting paint all over the place, though, and then got impatient waiting for it to dry. ha. so I did another digi -



Speaking of scrappy things - deadline for Crop Addict DT submissions are due on the 4th!! Get your entries in! Seriously. Just do it!

Yep. Happy November! :)