♥ First Crush ♥

Just finished watching a Thai movie called ' A little thing called Love' which tells a story of how a girl had been trying to change herself (in a good way) for a guy that she had been secretly admiring. It's a really nice chiclit movie which I think pictures almost every teenage girl during her high school years. But the ending was sorta too fairy-tale-ish as such a hot guy would actually fall in love for a nerdy girl? Somehow that doesn't happen in real life. Maybe, but one in a million I'm guessing. The girl's transition from a super nerdy girl to a very pretty girl was very real and awesome, that actually added a lot of points for me of how much I love this movie. haha!

The movie actually reminded me of how I used to be. I'm not saying that I drastically changed my apearance and I look so pretty and hot, which I am not, I'm just saying like how I would wanna change myself for a guy I liked for a good 2 long years. I admit I did a lot of naive mistakes when I was in high school but yea, I believe I ended up pretty good right now. The mistakes didn't ruin my life I suppose but at that point it was like end of the world to me.
So yea, I used to like this guy in my high school. He's, at least to me at that time, super handsome, cute, mysterious, tall, smart, and funny. And he was popular in school too. Yeah, he's like the ultimate dream guy for me back then. hahaha! So I got to know this guy when I was around form 2. And as you guys know, I was a super nerd. I was dark, nerdy, slouchy, with the worst haircut, no boobs nor bootie (until now also. sad..) nyeh, I wasn't exactly the popular type of girl, I'm like the type you would typically see sitting at a corner and being ignored (either that or being treated like a guy).

(First from the left)

This is a picture to show you how unattractive I was. LOL! Fun shot. HAHA

see the resemblence? HAHAHAHA.

We actually started talking in msn. So everytime I would wait for him to message me, then I'll get super duper excited and happy, if he didn't I would always wonder why he didnt, was he busy, etc.

In the movie, the girl asked permission to go to the toilet and she actually took a longer route to the toilet by passing by the guy's class. Which, that was what I used to do. His class was actually upstairs of mine. I always try to find excuses to pass by his class so I could get a glance of him. HAHAHA. Yeahhh. I actually did that. Sounds very desperate right. But I'm just your average teenage girl. hahaha. And another year which I think is during form2, his class was actually right opposite mine I think, in another block, so I would always try to look out the window to see him. And right after recess or before school starts I think we would all gather outside of our classes, I would always look right opposite and aim for him. haha. then wave. ;) hahahha!

Come to think of it, I actually learned Photoshop and gotten into all these designing things because of him. He was in the editorial board so I was quite hoping I could get in so I get to see him. HAHA. yeah. pfft. So I tried to pick up some skills and I managed to join the team. Yeehaww. Then on I get to see him a bit more than usual. Another thing I would really look forward to school is because I would get to talk to him or say hi to him before school starts. Me and my friends would gather at a spot everyday and he would come over, or, somehow just pass by that spot. I'm like so tactical right. LMAO.

The thing of all these is that I didn't know how he felt for me. Cause we never actually confessed. I was really confused, I didn't know whether he had feelings for me or not, I somehow kept myself thinking that its impossible, I'm so ugly and he's like one of the most popular guy in school and there are so many pretty girls in school that likes him. I don't even stand a chance. I started to wear contact lens, and like do other diff things to my appearance just so I would look better. I try to work harder so I won't be look down on. But yea. I don't regret anything cause all that made who I am today. And the guy most prolly didn't know all the silly and childish things I've done hahahha! After form3 I had to move to Penang. So that's when I don't get to see him forever. just kidding. But I really don't get to see him anymore so the only way is just to forget him, which was really really hard. I guess firsts are always hardest to forget. It's like you see that person every single day in school and now you don't get to anymore. Bummer. But when you get over your first crush, things are somehow, easier, like for me, confessing to someone or talking to the person I like seems a little easier than how it was.

So yeah, It was fun reminiscing about my high school life. XD!

God bless! Good night!

Ways to get Fairer Complexion!

Hey all! Been really busy lately but coping real well. So anyways, for this blog post I would really wanna share the ways of having fairer complexion. I know most girls would actually want fair skin. And I'm one of them. Don't get me wrong, females with dark skintones are actually really sexy and attractive, like Kim Kardashian, Megan Fox, Jennifer Lopez and the list goes on and on! But personally for me, dark skintone doesn't suit me at all. I look super odd when my skin was tanned. As pictured below:

Can you spot which one's me? hahaha. The one at the most right. LOL. Super tanned right! This was after I was exposed long hours under the sun wihout proper sun protection regime done. Yeah, I'm so dumb. I totally screwed up my skin. The sun is good but too much of that with all the UV rays, I think alot of cells just died :(.
Ok so throughout the months and years I desperately want to have healthy fair skin. So I did a lot of research and tried products after products to achieve the fairness. Bear in mind, if you're borned with dark skintone, it would be impossible for you to be as fair as a caucassian or whoever korean actresses or whatnot unless you bleach yourself, inject yourself with those skin whitening thingies or you paint yourself. Somehow I feel that people get the misconception that to be fairer, the products are actually peeling off layers of your skin to achieve that or like a 'bleaching' process. But it's actually the process of returning your skin colour to the original skin colour you were born with.

The following techniques would only work for people that has fair skin to start with just that because we live in Malaysia, humid and hot country with blazing sun for 365days throughout the year, eventually became darker and uneven skintone (tanned skin on the hands and legs).

So the simple ways to be fairer I have categorized it to two groups, Cure and Prevention.

Cure
Firstly is to cure your tanned skin, to heal your skin so that it would regenerate new skin cells faster hence you will get fairer quicker. The way to do it is through your daily skincare regime.

1) Whitening skincare products
Replace either one of the skincare steps to a whitening product. (Eg. Use a toner with whitening properties, the rest has no whitening purposes.) I find that if I use whitening products for all of my skincare products (Cleanser, Toner, Moisturizer) it would be too harsh on my skin. Normally I would replace my cleanser with a whitening cleanser.

2) Hydrate Skin
Most importantly remember to Moisturize your skin!!
Hydrated skin = healthy skin = Fast cell regeneration = Faster fairer skin.
So use a moisturizer that really hydrates your skin. Gel or cream, make sure you pick the right one, cause I had an epic problem with cream moisturizers, so yea, some people might break out after using cream moisturizers and some would find that gel is too drying for their skin. So yea. It differs from one to another. 

4) Whitening Serum
So if your skincare regime is set, as in you must use these certain basic products, maybe you can add in a step instead of replacing - Whitening serum. They work great! Hada Labo offers a great range of whitening products, do check it out!

5) Exfoliate!

Exfoliating would remove the dead skin cells (The main cause of dull skin tone) on your face. It encourages cell regeneration and takes away the dullness almost instantly! I use St. Ives Apricot Scrub. Works great and I like coarse exfoliants! If you have dry skin, you might wanna use mild exfoliators (Dermalogica Daily Exfoliator is really nice!)

Okay, now we're done with the skincare, it's time for your dietary!
6) DRINK alot of WATER!
And eat food like celery, green veges and fruits that has high anti-oxidant properties. Just keep your body healthy so it would work perfectly, hence again, cell regeneration would be faster. Yeah, it's all about cell regeneration!

7) Whitening Body Products
Not forgetting our body, for me I used all whitening soap and lotion. For this I did a lot of research cause the body is the hardest part to get fair because of the constant exposure to the sun (driving, walking, sitting next to the window, etc.).

So I found out that there's this soap called LIKAS papaya soap which is great at whitening the skin. But it can only be purchased in the Philipines. Thank God my mother always travels to the Phillipines so I managed to get my hands on it. This soap is A.w.e.s.o.m.e! You can google to find reviews online :).
Like seriously, my skin got so much fairer after using it for 1month. The single bar lasted me for 3 months so I guess it's worth the price (Around RM10)! Screw those super expensive whitening body shampoo and lotions! hahaha.

So anyways, since it's a soap, it will be drying, so I topped it off with Vaseline's Whitening lotion. I love this lotion! Not sticky and greasy at all! It absorbs to the skin like straight away. and the scent is lovely. *thumbs up* So yeah, maybe you guys would wanna check it out. Oh if you want the soap, I have tons of it at home, cause I stocked it up like a lot. If you wanna try it, then do tell me alright, I can sell it to you. :) Sorry that I can't just give away because it's quite costly for a soap if I give it out to everyone.

Okay, now let's talk about Prevention. This is the step that you need to continue doing it, FOREVER! Hahaha, if you wanna maintain having fair skin that is. The Cure steps are only when you are tanned and if you have already turned to the fairness you want, you can just skip the cure step and only go for prevention steps. Get it? Hehe alright. This step is to give your skin time to heal itself daily, let it resume itself to it's original skintone and prevent furthur damage done to the skin by UV rays and what not.

Prevention is easy, all you have to do is
1) Stay away from the sun.
This sounds really ridiculous but what I did was, for example, if I wanna walk from a building to another, first I would aim for a shady spot, then get prepared, head on dashing towards the shade and then rest, then the cycle just goes on and on for the whole journey there until I reach the building. It works :) HAHA Another way, which is less stupid, is to use an umbrella. But i really dislike carrying an umbrella wherever I go so yeah.

2) Use sunscreens!
Preferrable SPF30+++ Not lower than that nor higher. I read that sunscreen that has SPF above 30 it would do damge to your pores, as in clog the pores. Normal sunscreen will already clog your pores if you don't use makeup remover to remove it everynight before you sleep, but high SPF would clog your pores even more and even make you break out. So yeah. Remember to remove the sunscreen before you sleep everyone! Well apparently I'm allergic to sunscreens. I tried Biore's milk sunscreen, Neutrogena's Daily Sunscreen and they all broke me out. So I don't use sunscreens daily unless I'm going to the beach, or I know I will be out in the sun for an event or something, then I will use them. If not, I will just stick to hiding away from the sun. Works okay for me. haha!

3) Drink a lot of water and stay healthy!
Remember, cell regeneration is super important!

7 months after following the regime.

Okay so that's all to share! That's how I turned fairer. I did become fairer after 1 month of this routine, but to be honest it took me 2 years to actually become this stage of fairness (4 shades lighter than the photo of me above) I'm currently a MAC NC15/NW20 not sure which one cause I have foundations in both shades, still I think I am not fair enough :( Cause of the uneven skintones on my body so I know I can still be fairer. *fingers crossed* But it's good enough I guess! It takes time for your body to heal itself so just be patient alright!! :)

So Yeah, I hope this helped out y'all!

And this is a photo I took outside of my balcony. When I saw this sight I was in shock! Had to run to get my camera and shoot it quickly. It only lasted for 5mins? Not sure, but a really really short time. Then the rays slowly faded away and the sun had set. God IS AMAZING!!! Only He can create such beautiful things.
God bless you!

Pea, Lettuce & Lemon Soup

So finally once in my life I've made a soup out from scratch. :)
And it came out really good, tasted really similar to the one I've tried in Suffolk. So I guess it's not a super hard soup to make after all since the ingredients are just a few and the steps were easy. If you're a non-vege lover, you disgust of vege, or you hate the colour green, then I would say this is definitely not the soup for you. Haha. So lets get to it!

I've done the recipe with reference from the 200 really easy recipes by Louise Pickford.

Recipe serves 4.
Ingredients:
Soup
2 tablespoon of butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
425g (14oz) frozen peas
2 Little Gem lettuces, roughly chopped
1 litre vegetable/ chicken stock
Grated rind and juice of lemon
salt and black pepper
Finely chopped mint 


Croutons
2 thick slices of Multigrain bread, cubed
1 tablespoon olive oil

Machines(lmao)
Oven
Stove
Blender/Processor

Make sure you defrosted the peas and wash all the vegetables thoroughly alright!

(I actually have taken all the pics but they were all in my Macbook so yeah. I lost my laptop so everything went with it. Sorry guys)

 First off, prepare your chicken stock. I just used those concentrated ones and add in water to it. 7 teaspoon to 1 litre of water. Apparently I got the chinese herbal stock wan so yea, super asian taste to it, LOL, cause of the herbs and stuff, but yeah, did made the stock a little more saltier than usual.

Next, keep your chicken stock boiling, and melt your butter in another pot. Add in the finely chopped onions after it had melted. Cook gently for around 5 mins until the onions had softened..

After that it's time to add in the Greens and Yellows!
Add in the peas first, give it a toss around the pan, then the lettuce, followed by the lemon juice. Then grate the lemon zest into the soup.

Add in some salt and pepper for taste then bring it to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and let it simmer for 15minutes.

At the mean time we can prepare the croutons babeh! Just cut your bread into cubes, lightly coat it with olive oil in a roasting tin, and toss them in the preheat oven (200 celcius) for 10 minutes or until golden.

When your soup is done, let it cool and then transfer it to a blender. Blend well.
Transfer it back to the pot and heat it up.

After that it's time to serve! Isn't that easy?
Top the soup with the croutons and mint!

So yeah, it's that easy! So I'm quite satisfied with the soup. Great book really! :D

God bless you!

Lost Lappie

I lost my laptop and all of my recent photos so yeah. Was really moody and sad so I didn't want to blog. Plus my internet connection is a pain in the ass. Streamyx is killing me. My laptop's a Macbook 13inch aluminium cover with Sesame Street stickers on it, it was in an orange Madagascar pouch I bought in Singapore and my Bamboo graphic tablet was in it too. So if anyone sees it, please help me to tell her to give it back to me :(. Or if YOU are reading this, come on, have a heart , pretty please? :( I lost it in Gurney 2nd floor new wing bathroom. Technically, it was my sis that lost it. So yeah. Super sad. And I lost it during the last week of my semester where I needa hand in all my final projects. So I had to redo 'um without Adobe photoshop or Illustrator because I have none of these programmes and no laptop to use.

So anyways, I've watched the Royal Wedding Live on E! news and it was such a fairy-tale wedding! And Kate looked absolutely gorgeous!! It made me feel like you know, fairy-tales do come true sometimes. The world's not that harsh I guess. But how will Kate's life change for the better or worse, we are not sure, but God bless her! William seemed to be one awesome guy! And he used to be super duper cute, until his bald spot started showing then he wasn't so cute anymore, but still, an awesome person just like his mother.

And I've been watching a LOT of Glee! Oh man, why can't I sing and dance!!! Super fun to watch tho I wish I could sing and dance like them. Sigh. So I guess everyone's different.

And also I went Taiwan during my sem break. Was really hesitant whether I should go at first but I glad I did. Didn't know all the drama would happen before I fly to Taiwan. Cause I should be saving for a new laptop or something. But I've already bought air tickets so might as well just go right. Really fun trip with Sara Ooi, Chris Tay, Kiv Tay and Jia Qi!!! Hope next time we'll go travel together again! It's like a girl's-week-out. Here are some photos to share. All taken by Sara Ooi! She's a really talented photographer by the way! She does weddings and event shoots. ;) Not going to explain. Just show you how much we've enjoyed Taiwan. Really took my stress away.

I <3 Taiwan!!!

God blesses me abundantly with like, everything! But sometimes I find when something bad happens to me, like when I lost my laptop, everything went down hill, a lot of bad stuff just continously bomb-dropping on me and I just felt like God had forgotten me. But after a while I realize, I shouldn't be dwelling on the negative things, I should start to see the little things or things that I took for granted that God had blessed me like food, clean water, health, family and friends. Things like laptop or assignments or rude people and etc. shouldn't bring me down but to draw me closer to God and make me a better person. Things all happen for a reason I believe. And I have been a stranger to God so I think God's trying to lift me out from this doubt zone and to tell me that He's always here for me no matter what. Alright I hope you guys understand what I am trying to say cause I'm just overwhelmed and I just type whatever that is going through my head.

God bless you!

Cream Puff

Aloha! I thought the blurry effect in Olympus Pen was a waste but now I know how nice it was. Haha. The colour looks really soft compared to the normal with the harsh coloured lighting and stuff. yeaps. The only thing I don't like about it is, the blur. If only the colour is a setting of its own. Cause the photo just looked like I have smudges on the lens.

Had been watching Zettai Kareshi yesterday. And it made me really wanna eat Cream puffs! And it's hard to get the super huge cream puffs here in Penang. So instead I got a super mini one. Haha. This was actually bought before I even watch the show. But neways, love love love, super small and yummy. So cute. :)

Going to show you a little of what I've done this week. Mostly the colour pencil work I've talked about in my previous post. This is also my first ever colour pencil illustration that I'm happy with. And the background was improved by my awesome principal Mr Leong. Super cooooooool.

The most frustrating part is getting the toning right. You might spot the colour but yea, if the toning's wrong, everything's wrong.

The Final Illustration of the African Lady.

Now I need to work on the last piece of A2 sized illustration. Oh gosh this will take me forever!
2 more weeks to go! Can't wait for the semester break. Really really need it. Oh! And I've bought new masks~ Teehee. Going to try them out tomorrow.

And yeah, my pea soup made it. Yippies.

God bless you!

Elva Hsiao

Today's Earth Hour day! So Imma make it short and post it before I had to switch everything off!
I'm not going out tonight, since I have like a shit loads of assignment and deadline next week so I'd better get my ass back to drawing. Off your lights people! Come on, the Earth's already falling apart, do your part to make it not get any serious!

I'm colouring an african lady today. My principal said I chose one ugly reference but I liked the photo. The eye contact is really strong I felt. And this reference to me, is easier to catch it's colour changes compared to the ones I've tried before. :)

Anyway, I'm going to go blabbers about my current female obsession. Elva Hsiao蕭亞軒! Dayum she's sooo hot and pretty and talented and stylish and this chick has pretty hair! She sort of reminds me of Angelababy a lil'. Especially the cheek and chin area. She has super sharp chin and high cheekbones. Love love love. Shoooo pweeetyyyy. And her skin is absolutely flawless! She sings super well and dances super awesome. Gosh. She's perfect! I rarely listen to chinese songs by the way but yea, because of her I guess I'm listening it right now while I do my assignments and stuff.

Oh my gosh look at her side profile. sooo naisss.

On the other hand, I'm sad to hear about the earthquake (again) in Myanmar... Sigh. Can the earth stop cracking like dry dough? Pray for Myanmar and continue to pray for Japan alright!

God bless you!