Konad-ing

Hi ladies! Apologises for the lack of updates but I've been busy preparing to start uni next week. I have all these readings to do before Tuesday! I'm going to be pretty busy for the next 2 months or so as I'm studying fulltime (3 subjects) while still working fulltime so my posts most likely won't be as frequent =( but I will endeavour to post as much as possible of course especially when procrastinating hehe.

Well I have now officially entered the addictive world of Konad! After work on Wednesday I purchased a kit containing 2 plates, 3 special 5ml polishes, stamp and scraper and also a liquid pump dispenser (not part of the kit). It would have been cheaper to purchase them on Ebay through seller jr8686 but you don’t get to choose the plates and I didn’t particularly want the ones in the kits.


I got plates m36 and m59 to start off with and polishes in black, white and purple. I also got a konad 2 way nail buffer thrown in for free too. My 1st attempt with the black polish failed abysmally as I didn’t scrape the polish away properly and the black just got everywhere! So I gave up with the black and tried the white instead. The white polish turned out much better, at least you could tell what the design was supposed to be! I feel like such a noob but here is my 1st attempt and just experimenting with the colours:
Not so good 1st attempt!
How much polish do you need to put on the plate ladies? I think I may be putting too much because it didn’t all scrape away cleanly like in the how to video.. I tried CG Ruby pumps with the plates and I thought it worked way better than the special polishes! I’m dying to try out some more designs and with other polishes. What plates do you have and what do you recommend?

I tried out a new(ish) little Japanese restaurant opposite Capitol square last week that I've been wanting to try for a while. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place but it's on the corner opposite Umi and Harry's Pies. They have alot of bento boxes which I like as they have something of everything. I got the wagyu beef bento which included: 2 wagyu beef skewers, salad, seaweed salad, 2 takoyaki, 2 grilled cheese sausage (YUM!) and rice. The boy got the grilled lamb cutlet bento which included : 3 lamb cutlets (YUM!), salad, seaweed salad, soft shell crab, 2 takoyaki and rice. Each bento was only about $16 so quite reasonable and it was very filling.

Wagyu beef bento
Grilled lamb cutlet bento
I've been totally procrastinating tonight so I thought I would make ruby grapefruit iced tea. It's made with just ruby red grapefruit juice, earl grey tea and some sugar and I add some fresh (or frozen) berries to garnish. It's delicious and really refreshing!


Back to study now! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

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Help for Haiti parcels

I love parcels!!!Left parcel from England and the right parcel from The Netherlands.
Yesterday my little sis and I recieved 2 parcels in the mail that we had gotten from the Livejournal Help for Haiti Auction. It involved bidding on items from all around the world that people put up for auction with the winners donating the amount to a specified charity to help Haiti. My sis "won" 2 packages - one from England and one from the Netherlands.

Inside the English package
I am a HUGE fan of sweets and in particular British sweets - sherbet lemons, flying saucers, wine gums, fruit gums you name it i love it! This box contained some quintessential British choccies and biscuits and some really cute candles too.

Inside the Dutch package
British stuff is pretty readily available (thought pretty pricey) in Sydney so my sis and I were really excited to open the Dutch package. The girl who organised it was so sweet and thoughtful as she handwrote little notes on every single item explaining what the item was and if it was a food item how to eat it etc.


She included SO much stuff in the package it must have taken us at least an hour to go through everything! There were Dutch sweets, mints, pancake mix, biscuits, waffles, chocolate, nougat, postcards and clogs. We can't wait to try everything but then again everything is just so special we want to save it =p

British sweets are available in Sydney from shops like Treats from Home and The British Lolly shop but they charge quite steeply for this privilge. That's why I was totally shocked and totally excited when I saw Chewits and Maynards winegums on sale for only $1 (!!!!) at Go-Lo today at Broadway.


The packaging of the winegums is different to the red packaging I'm used to but the winegums taste similar. The chewits are exactly the same but waaaaaay cheaper. Score! I didn't get enough time to see if they had any other sweets of interest because the textbooks I'd hiked out to get were weighing me down but next time i will ;)

Last night I made pizzas for dinner with lebanese bread which is quick and easy and (what I like to think!)a healthier option to normal pizza. It was yummy!


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China Glaze haul

I got to purchase some China Glaze polishes I have been lemming for ages today. Yay!!! I LOOOOOOVE CG polishes, they just have so many colours to choose from and they last for days with hardly any chips especially when used with my HG (holy grail) top coat Seche Vite. I find that CG works best for me compared to OPI which is a great brand but chips on like the 2nd day for me. I haven't tried Orly or Essie yet so can't compare to them but I'll get around to it when I have time!

From L - R: Innocence, Ruby pumps, Lubu heels, Emerald sparkle, Up all night, Secret Periwinkle and 5 golden rings
Apologies for the quality of the pics as I took them in a hurry.

Innocence
Innocence - This colour is a sheer pink which is perfect for french manicures. I only applied one coat to my finger but you get the idea.

Ruby pumps
Ruby pumps - The colour that everybody raves about! I'm not sure if I got a dodgy bottle or what, but the colour of this isn't as red red as the swatches of others I've seen. I only applied 2 coats which is maybe why mine came up as more with more of a pinky undertone. Oh well, still a gorgeous glittery red =)

Lubu heels
Lubu heels - a black polish with red glitter through it. This is supposed to be for a "Lubu manicure" which means you apply Ruby pumps on the "sole" or underside of your nail and Lubu heels on the "upper" or top of your nail so it resembles a Christian Louboutin heel. Pretty cool huh?!! It's a pretty thin polish so it applies quite sheer so needs to be built up to be opaque. I only applied 2 coats here so it's still quite sheer but you get the picture.

Emerald sparkle
Emerald sparkle - a really nice glittery green. I'm not brave enough to wear all those lovely minty and bright greens that have been so popular! I applied 2 coats here.

Up all night
Up all night - I've been after a navy blue polish for some time so that I can do a navy french mani. This one is ok, applies nicely and even with one coat here is quite dark. There's no glitter or anything in this polish. I think I'll try Rodeo fanatic or Calypso blue next.

Secrect peri-winkle
Secre(c)t peri-winkle - The name of this gorgeous peri-winkle colour is "Secret" peri-winkle however on the bottle there's a typo - "Secrect". Hehehehehe. It applies really smoothly and is just a gorgeous colour! The boy liked this colour the best.

5 golden rings
5 golden rings - A pretty gold glitter polish. Applies quite nicely, I applied 2 coats here for medium coverage. I'll be using this for tips!

Of course I'm lemming a whole load of other colours such as most of the gorgeous summery colours from CG Up and Away collection but this has to do for now!

I am really really really lemming a Konad kit but I just don't know if I can afford the time and effort associated with it. Of course with practice it won't take long at all but I'm starting my postgraduate studies in early March which will be fulltime WITH fulltime work I can't afford any other distractions! I first encountered konad about 5yrs ago when I was in 1st year uni and my friend brought it in to to uni to try out. I thought it was super nice but not worth the effort. But now after seeing all the pretty designs on so many blogs and knowing that there's no way I can do it freehand I am majorly lemming a kit!

On a foodie note, the boy made Thai sukiyaki for dinner last night which we are BIG fans of.

Our delicious hotpot spread
We'd been mourning the closure of the Thai place in Capitol square that had all you can eat sukiyaki for the last 3-4yrs before we found MD suki on Oxford St the other month. After having it again after so many years we decided to make our own. I had to work yesterday so the boy toiled away making the delicious broth and his very own sukiyaki sauce from scratch. It was so yummy! We had fresh veges, beef and chicken, assorted seafood balls, noodles and quail eggs.


Home made sukiyaki sauce
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Homewares haul and Japanese dinner

After seeing the Dr this arvo, I decided to kill some time before meeting the boy for dinner by doing a quick browse at Pitt St Mall. My sis has been bugging me for aaaaaages to buy her a new muffin tin so I thought I would finally get her one.

Muffin pan and basting brush
I went to Myer and what do ya know - they had 30% off all bakeware! I didn't get anything special, just a simple 12 cup muffin pan and a basting brush as extra little something.

I also finally picked up a Bodum iced tea maker which I have been lemming for MONTHS and months at 30% off! =D

Bodum ice tea maker with filter
I 1st saw these at T2 and sooooooooo wanted one but I refused to pay $29.95 for a plastic jug. I'd checked out Victorias Basement a while ago since I know they stock Bodum goods but alas they didn't stock this particular item. As luck would have it, Myer has 30% off all Bodum tea and coffee stuff atm!! The RRP at Myer is slightly more at $32.95 but with the 30% it only came to $23.10!!! Now I can properly present my fruity iced teas yay!

The boy and I had a quick dinner at Umi in Chinatown tonight.

We had wanted to go to Wagaya where you order things via touch screen but as always they were booked out. Umi however, is always a great backup. Umi is a sushi train but also has a la carte menu items which we usually go for. The food is always fresh and extremely yummy, however it is a little exxy so it comes under the "once in a while restaurant" for me.

Tuna nigiri
I started off with one of my favourites tuna nigiri from the train.

Special of the month: Salmon and prawn rolls
We then had one of the specials of the month "salmon and prawn rolls with salmon roe" or something.

Kingfish carpaccio
Kingfish carpaccio - another one of my favourites mmmmmmm. The dressing is tangy and combined with the crunchy roe, onions and kingfish is sooooo good.

Lotus root chips
Lotus root chips - Hmmmm another one of my favourites! We seemed to be getting all my favourite dishes tonight =p I devoured 99% of these myself as they're "full of carbs" which was fine by me!

Assorted sashimi platter
Assorted sashimi - this was demolished in about 2minutes. We have no self control when it comes to fresh juicy sashimi!

At this point I was full but the boy powered on with 2 serves of the cheese oyster large size (this smelt SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO darned good!!) and seared salmon nigiri.

Cheese oyster
Seared salmon nigiri
Before we headed home, we decided to browse Miracle supermarket at World Square and I saw this little Mochi plushie at the mochi store they have there and just had to have him:

Mr Mochi. I may be an adult but I still have a soft spot for cute plushies ok!!
All in all a very productive day. Hope you guys had a great day!

Purple NOTD

It's a beautiful Sydney day today however I'm feeling a bit under the weather for no apparent reason as I have no motivation to do anything. I thought I would do my nails though so here's my purple NOTD.


Here's what i used:
From l-r: China Glaze Princess Grace, CM nail art polish in purple glitter, Nail Star 2 way art pens in black, white and purple and Seche Vite top coat
China Glaze Princess Grace is a pretty pastel purple colour that needs to be built up otherwise it can be quite streaky, I used 2 coats for the base colour here. It does take a while to dry which I found out the hard way because I wrecked 2 nails ARGH!

Hope you like them =)

Tuesdayitis

I'm currently on a weeks leave atm so I've been sorting out mundane stuff that I never get time to do since I mainly work Monday - Friday. Went to the bank, HCF, medicare, supermarket and the dreaded DENTIST today. I decided to treat myself to a new headband after my horrendous time at the dentist.

Excuse the bad hair!
I bought this from a Korean store that sells all sorts of hair accessories, makeup, clothes and shoes. Apparently the headband is all the rage in Korea, it had photos of female celebrities wearing the headband next to it. I'm a HUGE fan of headbands and this makes a nice addition to my collection. I'm having a hard time finding nice headbands that aren't black though which is annoying since I'm trying to mix more colours into my palette.

Ena over at Shanghainese Dumpling is holding a 1st birthday giveaway and there's some fabulous prizes to be won!


She's giving away a Mickey Mouse 2G Iriver Mp3 player and Vitacreme B12 Regenerative Cream and the newly developed luxurious Vitacreme B12 Anti-Aging Serum. To enter you need to subscribe to Shanghainese Dumpling on google friends connect and become a fan on Facebook. For another entry you need to mention the giveaway on your blog. Follow the link above and checkout her blog, it's a great read!

Retail therapy works a treat

Last week was a particularly tough week at work for me so I decided to take a half day ADO (Allocated Day Off) and do a little bit of retail therapy at my local Westfields for a very mini but nonetheless mood lifting haul.

I think cheap and cheerful finds are always good to lift your mood! At Sportsgirl I purchased a pearl and rose bracelet which was $19.95.

Pearl and rose bracelet
I also purchased Sportsgirls All Night Fighter - under eye brightner, a steal at just $12.95.


All night Fighter - under eye brightner
I normally use MAC Select Moisturecover for under eye circles etc but I thought I would give this a go for times when i don't need to look my absolute stunning best (HA!) such as for work. The applicator is a bit annoying to use so i just blend with my ring finger or if I have time with a concealer brush. Coverage is OK for me since my skin is very fair.

Swatched without blending
I would definitely repurchase All night fighter as a cheaper alternative to the higher end brands.

My last haul was clear tool box from Riot! Art and Craft. I've been searching everywhere for the perfect clear carry box to store all my nail stuff and I finally found it! I wanted a box that was clear, sturdy and with a large compartment on the bottom for polishes and a tray on the top to store odds and ends and most importantly within my $20 budget. After searching high and low in the dollar shops, Target and Kmart I thought I would try my luck at Riot!. Here's what I found:


It's large enough down the bottom for all my polishes and nail art polishes too and the top holds all nail related bits and pieces perfectly. Annnnd it was only $19.99!

How do you store all your nail supplies?

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!! This year is the Year of the Tiger which happens to be my zodiac. According to Wikipedia people born in the year of the Tiger are "Unpredictable, rebellious, colorful, powerful, passionate, daring, impulsive, vigorous, stimulating, sincere, affectionate, humanitarian, generous. Can be cold, restless, reckless, impatient, quick-tempered, obstinate, ruthless, selfish, aggressive, unpredictable, moody". I have to say that some/alot of the above things quite accurately describe me but I won't say which ones =p

The last 2 years I've been fortunate enough to spend most of the Chinese New Year holiday in Hongkong with my extended family and my bf however this year we were unable to. I really miss being around family, the holiday atmosphere, the festivities like the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park, the fireworks and of course all the wonderful glorious food!

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! I know Valentines is tomorrow but because it happens to fall on the same day as Chinese New Year this year, the bf and I decided to celebrate a day early. We aren't really that big into Valentine's as I believe it should be EVERY day (ha!) so we usually just have a nice meal together.

First we'll start off the with my nails of the day (NOTD). I decided to just keep it simple mainly due to the fact that my fimo decided to not cooperate with me grrrrr.



Valentines nails
I used Seche Clear base coat, 1 coat of Seche Rose, 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy dust, fimo was added and then Seche Vite used as top coat.

What have YOU got on your nails today?

For dinner we made reservations for Encasa which is a Spanish restaurant on Pitt St in the city. We decided to only have tapas instead of ordering mains or paella. My apologies for the photos below as they were taken with my camera phone which doesn't perform too well at night or indoors.


Gambas al Ajillo
Gambas al Ajillo - Peeled king prawns in sizzling garlic oil and chilli. So garlicy and delicious the taste still lingers in my mouth!


Patatas Bravas
Patatas Bravas - Fried potato w/ garlic mayonnaise and spicy tomato salsa. One of my favourites! I love taters and this is no exception. The crispy taters with garlic mayo are just too yummy.


Pulpo a la Plancha
Pulpo a la Plancha - Grilled fresh baby octopus. This would have to be one of the BEST grilled baby octopus I have tasted in a long time. Absolutely delicious!


Pinchos Morunos
Pinchos Morunos - Prime lamb fillet skewers marinated in Moroccan spices. Lamb is my favourite meat and this didn't disappoint. The meat was juicy and tender and hit the spot.


Chorizo a la Plancha
Chorizo a la Plancha - Grilled Spanish sausage. The chorizo was too salty for my liking tonight, we didn't even finish half of it.


Ensalada con Queso
Ensalada con Queso - Lettuce, roasted red capsicum, goat’s cheese, olives. Very yummy salad to accompany our meal.

By this time we were absolutely stuffed but needed a sugar fix so we headed over to Capitol Square for dessert at passionflower. No pictures of our dessert "The masterpiece" as it was far too dark.

Of course no trip to Capitol Square is complete without walking around the skill tester machines upstairs above the restaurants were every 2nd girl and her bf have their arms full of the toys that they've just won. Needless to say I don't have their luck, the bf and I have only managed to win stuff 3 times from what seems like 100+ tries, thus why I prefer buying my stuffed plushies from Ladies Market in Hongkong =p
But cupid must have been smiling down because my bf won me a Mario Galaxy mushroom plushie to add to my collection!!!


Isn't he adorable?
To top it all off I was given a beautiful Thomas Sabo bracelet for my currently homeless charms as a gift(EVEN THOUGH WE HAD SAID NO GIFTS).

Thomas Sabo sterling silver bracelet. I'm spoiled!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day no matter if you're in a relationship or not.