Monthly Favourites!: February!

Valebat Compilation: Third Week of February

Valebat; adventure in Latin

Hi there! Initially I was planning to post something else today, but I didn't get to take proper pictures during the wedding as I was on duty most of the time and couldn't find the time to do so. So, I decided to let you guys know about my hectic week which 

For your information, I am addicted to Starbucks. When I was in high school, sometimes I would to go to the Starbucks at Avenue K to study because I love the view there and I guess it was a nice environment for me to study in, plus the wifi there is great. If you wanna hang out in Starbucks, you have to get something from there so usually I would get a glass of mocha frappuccino. Now that I've finished high school, I still have the urge to go and do my work at the same Starbucks. And sometimes I don't even have any work to do, it pretty much turned into a quite unhealthy habit. Anyway, enough about my coffee addiction, earlier this week I decided to go to the Starbucks in Ampang Point which is nearer to my house and give it a shot. The place was decent, the view was great. So I got my drink, sat down, took out my laptop, notebooks and what not and was so pumped to start my work. And the guess what, the wifi wasn't on. I got quite annoyed because there wasn't any notice whatsoever. I pretty much bought a glass of their drink for no reason. 

Starbucks, Ampang Point

I also just officially started my driving lessons this week. During the first class, I got to drive all the way from my house to the IMKEDA (Driving Institute) in Keramat. My instructor was in the passenger seat, obviously. I drove on the MRR2 highway, I was quite nervous but I guess I did okay. 

IMKEDA Keramat

During the second class, I drove all the way to the IMKEDA in Hulu Langat. If you don't know, Hulu Langat is a hilly area so it was pretty terrifying. I've never been a fan of the roads there, not only because of the winding roads, but also because of how there's no streetlights at most parts of it. The IMKEDA is really near to my old school and my brother's house, so I pretty much know the roads. I messed up the whole gear-clutch-break thing so it got pretty scary, but I made it home safely. 

Yesterday morning my cousin got married, and for the wedding she selected me as one of her bridesmaids. On the night before that, I slept over her house and the bridesmaids gathered at her house to get our hands drawn using henna. I only did mine on my left hand, and I absolutely love it. We got to choose the designs and the lady who did it was actually the bride's cousin. The wedding itself was amazing, the decorations were great, and my aunty even set up the photobooth herself with some help from my cousins and my brother, and I must say the it looked beautiful. I am so proud of her!

My look for the wedding!

The bridesmaids and the newly weds

Today, I skate to the roti canai shop in my housing area and had my breakfast there. Then I spent around 20 minutes skating around the neighbourhood, went home to grab my work stuff and took the bus to Avenue K. I went to their Starbucks (duh!). grabbed a mocha frap and did some work and studying until the wifi password has expired. Then I walked to KLCC and visited the Galeri Petronas as they're currently having an art exhibition. I also visited the Sasa store in KLCC and got a few sheet masks. I'm not sure if they've always had this promotion but they were selling 4 sheet masks for RM10 for a few weeks now and I thought it was a great deal! I got 4 last two weeks and got another 4 today. Around 3.15pm I hop on the bus and went to Ampang Point's Octopus Sushi and had lunch there. The service today was really slow, I had to wait for my food for almost half an hour. After that I walked around, got some stationaries from Popular and went back home. 

Some of the pictures that I took earlier 

I actually posted these pictures on my instagram account too, if you wish to see more of it :) I have to say, this week has been really hectic and to be honest, I liked it so. Also, happy belated Chinese New Year to those who celebrate it! I'll sign off now, let me know if you would like me to post more about my weekly adventures! :)

-am-

DIY! - Gift Ideas (Mail-friendly)

Hello! As you've seen in my previous DIY post, I made a birthday card for a friend of mine in Aussie. Today, I made a few gifts for her that I think will be suitable to be sent to her through air mail. I made two different type of gifts; the first one

is printed pictures, the second one is a very simple painting.

First Gift: Printed Pictures!

So for this gift, all I did was Google some pictures of nature and put in Pages, sized them to my liking, printed them out and got them laminated at a local bookstore near where I live. I think this is a great gift for people who live in temporary places as its easy to pack up, and if you wish to put them on the wall you can use glue tacks and it won't leave any residues or marks, and the laminate makes it last longer and it is a very good alternative for glass frames which break rather easily. You still can frame these, of course, if you wish. 

Second Gift: A Painting!

Just to make it clear; I am not a painter. Painting is not my forte, I like the idea of painting but I'm not very good at it. But I thought it would be a sweet idea to make a handmade painting as a gift as it shows that you've put in care and effort into it. Also, this kind of painting is rather special, its one in a million, and you can't buy it with money! 

Things you'll need:

1. Clear spray paint (used here: glossy finish)

2. Glitter dust (used here: silver)

3. PVA glue or Elmer's glue

4. Acrylic paint of different shades/colour (used here: 50 shades of blue; lol jk only 3)

5. A white canvas of any size

6. A paintbrush you don't mind being ruined

7. Marker pen (used here: black)

8. Metallic marker pen (used here: gold)

9. HB pencil (or anything lighter than 2B)

10. Scrap paper

+scissors

How did I do it?

First, I drew a heart shape on a scrap paper and cut it out to make a stencil. Then, I used the stencil to draw out heart shapes on the canvas. The arrangement was completely random. Next, I picked up the darkest shade of blue (Reeves' Ultramarine) and painted huge strokes on the canvas. Do this randomly but don't fill in the whole canvas, and try your best to not paint inside the heart. Make sure there's still white left and try to make it look textured and streaky. After that, I picked up the next shade (Reeves' Turquoise) and did the same thing, followed by the lightest shade (Martha Stewart's Surf in satin finish). Remember to wait for a while between each layers so that the colour don't get mixed up and the strokes can be seen. Now comes the glittery part! I used a brush (you can use Q-tip if you don't have a brush) and filled the hearts in with glue. Do one heart at a time to avoid the glue from drying too fast and tapped off the excess. Then to amp it up I used the black and gold marker pens to outline the hearts. I also used the gold marker pen to draw dotted lines connecting the hearts and wrote down the cheesiest quote know to man - If there is a will, there is a way. Last but not least, the most important part of all, I sprayed clear paint over the whole canvas to prevent the glitter from falling out. The clear spray paint will set everything together and now the painting is safe to be transported from one place to another without being ruined.

Progress pic yo!

Again, I am not good at painting and in my opinion this painting isn't very beautiful either. But I hope the idea of it will spark the creativity in you and your paintings will turn out much better than mine did. I know the gifts are extremely simple, but I think it is worth the effort and it will mean a lot to the person who receives it :)

If you have any gift ideas for college students or just gifts in general, do share it with me! And let me know what you think of these gifts ^^

-am-

Haul: Statement Bracelets & Necklaces

Hey there! 

This is my first post under the Looks! tag and it is a teeny-tiny haul of statement pieces that I've bought early this year (+received last year). 

Haul: Statement Bracelets & Necklaces

So, I bought the three statement necklaces from Forever21 earlier this year. They had this buy 2 free 1 offer, at the same time the necklaces were mostly sold at half price, so basically the original total price of the necklaces is RM120, but I managed tot buy these for RM40 altogether. I personally think that is a really good deal!

For the bracelets, the blue one was given to me by a good friend of mine last year. I know I didn't buy it, but I thought it would fit in really well as the other two bracelets are of the same type. I bought the other two from my sister for RM7 (she used to buy a bunch of these and sell them to relatives/friends at a cheaper price, but she don't do that anymore) but I think you can get it any stores that sell bracelets form RM15 or even cheaper.

Here are the pieces!

1. Translucent coral/light pink square-shaped diamonds

2. Flowers with white beads as petals and pink beads as the center

3. Opaque geometrical blue/turquoise crystals

4. Metallic brown/green beads

5. Black beads

6. Blue with a bunch of different coloured beads

I thought it would be a neat idea to pair them up, and here's how they would look like paired up!

I still have yet to find the opportunity to style them, but hopefully I will be able to include them in a lookbook or just an OOTD post in the near future.  :)

- am -

First Impression: Simple Kind To Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser

Hey there!

Lately the weather in Malaysia hasn't been very consistent, and it has caused my skin to become extremely dry. I've been using Artistry's moisturiser before this, but I felt like it wasn't enough to keep my skin moisturised and since it has SPF in it, I couldn't use it at night when I go to bed.

Simple Kind to Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser; RM16.90 (after less)

So today, I decided to get a new drugstore moisturiser and bought the Simple Kind To Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser for RM 16.90 from Watsons. I think they had a promotion for all Simple products, and the original price is around RM20.. I'm a huge fan of the Simple Facial Wipes, and since I've been seeing good reviews of their product all over the internet, I thought maybe its time for me to give the moisturiser a try.

The product comes in a "squeezy tube" and there's 125ml of it. I think a the packaging is nice, simple and convenient at the same time. The texture is quite light as it claims to be, its white in colour and the scent is similar to all the other Simple products. If you're not a fan of scented products, don't worry as it doesn't linger after it is applied. Application wise, I think it's really good! It is absorbed by the skin really fast and doesn't leave your skin feeling greasy. As you can see in the picture above, it also doesn't leave any shiny residue on the skin. I am really particular when it comes to moisturiser as most of them are greasy and stays on top of the skin, which makes me feel really uncomfortable and prevents my makeup from staying as long as they're supposed to.

Packaging & Ingredients

Ingredients wise, I am not really an expert when it comes to this matter so I can't really say anything about it. The only thing that matter to me was as long as it does not have any SPF in it its good enough for now.

Since this is only a first impression, so I won't be judging the effectiveness of this product. But I will post a review of the product next month on the 18th so do check it out if you'd like to know if its worth the purchase or not. My first impression of it, really nice texture and packaging, and since it is a drugstore product, so far I'm glad I bought it.

If you guys have used this moisturiser before or have any better alternatives, do let me know! Hopefully it will work the way I expect it to :)

-am-

DIY! - Personalised Birthday Card // TS

Hey there! :)

For my first DIY post, I'll be making a birthday card for my best friend who just flew to Australia a few days ago to further her studies. She's a huge fan of the colour blue, so I hope that explains why the whole card is blue in colour. 

Here's the card!

First of all, I'm sorry if the burrito looks nothing like a burrito at all, do forgive me as I've never had burritos before and neither have I seen any in real life :p 

Anyway, the things that you will be needing are:

Colour paper (used here: blue)

White paper

Colour pencil

Metallic marker pen (used here: gold)

Black gel pen

X-acto knife

PVA glue or any kind of paper glue

Cutting mat

Steps:

1. Fold the paper that you would like use as the main part of the card.

2. Draw out the basic shape of the burrito on a paper that you chose as the burrito shell.

3. Cut the burrito and cut a slit at the top of it.

4. Take another piece of paper and draw out the line of the slit on it. Cut it out.

5. Glue the paper into the slit. Now you have a (blue) cheese! 

6. Cut a few pieces of "vegetables" from different colour papers. 

7. Arrange the vegies to your liking. You can even make tomatoes and what not to, you know, make it look more like a burrito.

8. Use colour pencils to draw out textures and to do some shading on the burrito.

9. Cut a piece of white paper to form a background for the burrito. This will make it look less plain. Use a marker pen and a gel pen to add more details to the card. 

Burrito is an inside joke among my friends and I, and it came from a Vine that was made last year. Since the birthday girl is currently living in a new place and making new friends, I am hoping that this card will bring back good memories she had while she was in Malaysia :)

Hope this post helped inspire you guys to make even better birthday cards! 

-xn-