Monogram Mania

Hello fellow interweb friends!

How are ya'll doing on this beautiful Monday?! I am definitely procrastinating and writing this instead of reading my book for class, but it is ok! I think it is very important to get this post done today since it is Monogram Monday! If you can't tell, I have quite the obsession with monograms. If it was up to me, I'd probably monogram everything in my sight just because I think it makes everything look that much better, giving it a little bit of sass and class. 

For me, monograms are almost like pearls. They are just a classic piece in your jewelry box that can class up any outfit but can still be worn casually. Here are just a few that I have and that I am totally and completely utterly in love with!

These two are off of Etsy from Vitabravo1's shop. I got an amazing deal on these two!

 These two monograms are perfect for everyday use, class up an outfit or casual it a little bit. The tortoise shell color with the gold chain makes it very versatile since you can use it with a dress or just jeans and a t-shirt. The bubble gum pink one is definitely a lot more casual than the other one, but it is super cute and sassy for those summer spring days that are coming up. Unless you are like me and living in Souther California where winter is just pretty much summer, the pink one can be used at any time! 

The bag is from Marley Lilly, unfortunately, it is no longer available on the site, but there are still a lot of other things that you can get on there!

Monogram from Baublebar, 16' chain, large pendant in gold. 

 This monogram, unlike the two that I got from Etsy is a lot better in quality, however, it is also a lot more expensive. I got it off of Baublebar, a jewelry shop based in New York that does an amazing job with all their pieces! They have a variety of jewelry designs that are very high in quality, great price range (especially if you get stuff from the Buried Bauble every Mondays and Fridays). The best part about this jewelry shop is that their pieces are very J.Crew inspired, giving it a classic look. The gold monogram that I got is definitely a little bit more formal than the acrylic ones, but I use it both for casual and business attire! In this photo, I paired it with my white Maison Jules pearl-collared button up top just to make sure I look poised, prepared, profession, but still keeping my style. 

Sorry I don't remember the exact Etsy shop that I got the hat from, but I know for sure it is from Etsy!

Now, the last piece that I will share with you is this awesome baseball hat that I got monogrammed! This is my go-to hat when I'm having a lazy day and don't want to fuss with my hair or make-up. I just put this little thing on and go on with my day, without a care in the world!

So pretty much, if ya'll can't tell by now, I love me some monogrammed stuff! It is personal and sassy and just wonderful and I believe everyone should have something monogrammed. It is super versatile and always a classic, well unless when you get married, then you'll have to update your monogram, but there's nothing wrong with that! 

That's all for now, but until next time,

Uyen

Prioritize When You Accessorize!

Hello fellow interweb friends!

Like all y'all, I love me loads and loads of sparkly and pretty things, and especially for myself, the bigger the better! All that just sounded so convoluted, but I'm really just talking about jewelry and accessories. 

Lately, statement necklaces and jewelry pieces have been my obsession, and knowing me, I love everything to be over the top, big chunky pieces with very distinctive, vibrant colors. However, as much as I want to wear all my jewelry pieces, I think there should definitely be a limit to how much we throw on. As we want to believe more is more, when it comes to statement jewelry, more is not more! To me, the bigger the piece, the chunkier the piece, the more muted other parts of your outfit should be, and that's why I think we should prioritize when we accessorize!

Whenever we pick out an outfit, we want to show off specific pieces, and sometimes, we use our jewelry to accent those pieces. However, when you combine way too many pieces, then it just takes away from the specific piece of clothing or accessory that you want to bring attention to! Not only that, the more you put on, the gaudier you'll look, and that just ain't cute!

Dress: Maison Jules, Necklace: Christmas gift, Watch: Marc by Marc Jacobs, Purse: BP Nordstrom 

For me, I love big chunky extravagant pieces like this necklace. However, I want the focus to be on the necklace, therefore, I paired it with a more muted outfit like a faded chambray dress. It definitely keeps the focus on the necklace, but I still get to look cute and put-together with the entire outfit. 

Shirt & Pants: Maison Jules, Necklace: Baublebar, Belt &  Bracelet: J.Crew, Watch: Marc by Marc Jacobs, Earrings: Forever 21, Shoes: Jessica Simpson 

As for this outfit, I was going to an interview but didn't want the professionalism take away from my sense of style, therefore, I decided to wear this white shirt with pearl detailing on the collar. My focus of this outfit was the shirt's collar since it can be considered an accessory to the outfit as well, so I decided to just pair it with my monogram necklace and very small pave/leather bracelet on my hand along with a simpler leather watch. I tied the whole outfit together with a gold braided belt. There is definitely a lot of gold detail in this outfit, however, it is not a gold overload, I don't feel like a leprechaun because kept it balanced and kept my focus on the shirt. 

In both of these outfits, I had a focus piece that I wanted to bring out. For the first one, I wanted to focus on the extravagantly wonderful necklace and for the second outfit, I wanted to show the details of my shirt. The second definitely had a lot more jewelry and decorating pieces than the first, but it doesn't feel like a gaudy overload, which I think is important. When there is just too much going on, not only will you get tired from wearing all the big pieces for long periods of time, it really hurts other people's eyes too!

So pretty much, whenever I get dressed, in my mind, I pick out a piece of jewelry or clothing item that I want to focus on and then I accessorize or dress around that. I like keeping things simple in what I wear but with a little kick. I'm definitely not afraid to wear big, chunky, gaudy accessories, but I prioritize the pieces I want to wear so that I don't look like some kind of horrifying closet vomited all over me and threw everything ridiculous together.

Now, if you, like myself, enjoy big chunky jewelry pieces that can knock people off their feet, you definitely should check out Baublebar! I'm totally in love and cannot get enough of their stuff! Maybe I'll share with you a little jewelry collection with you guys soon!

Hope you enjoyed!

Until next time,

Uyen

Weekly Wrap-Up #5: Birthday Shenanigans

Hello fellow interweb friends!

So for this week, the Weekly Wrap-Up will be a little longer and a tad bit more exciting just because it was my birthday week! It has been such an amazing week and I am so grateful to all of my friends and family that took their time out of their busy lives to celebrate it with me. I am now officially 22, which means I can blame all my bad decisions onto Taylor Swift since she has a song about doing weird things during your 22nd year of life! My birthday was on Wednesday, but since it was smack dabbed in the middle of the week and we all have things to do like work and school, so the celebration ended up being extended all the way to the weekend, which I'm totally not complaining at all because that's just a lot more food and fun with the most amazing people in the world!

Ok, so first thing's first, you cannot have an amazing birthday without an amazing cake! So this here is a cake from Final Touch Bakery, which is a Vietnamese-French "fusion" kind of place. It is vanilla cake with strawberry filling and custard-like spread between the cake layers. It is definitely my favorite kind of cake and so I was super stoked when I found out I got the strawberry cake. The decorations are definitely super amazing! It is just very simple but still detailed and elegant. The decor around the cake is a minty-green color and the flowers were a blushy-nude color. My cousin got the cake for me and she said that she felt it was perfect for me, which I feel like is the theme for my birthday this year!

On the actual night of my birthday, I went to Incahoots, a country club/bar in Fullerton! This was my first time so I felt a little out of place when I couldn't do any of the line dancing moves, but I was ok with that! I had so much fun trying to catch up to everyone's moves that I think I started tripping over myself at one point too. A lot of my friends couldn't come because it was kind of last minute and they all had plans, but these two beauties, Laura and Megan came with me! SO the cool thing about these two is that we met each other at Build-a-Bear, were we work, and got to be pretty darn good friends. Laura and I haven't seen each other in about a year, but we picked up as if we've seen each other almost everyday; I appreciate friendships like that very much just because you know they'll be there for you whenever you need them. Anyways, Incahoots was an interesting experience since it was my first time. I didn't know any of the moves, so I didn't really dance, but since I did know most of the songs, I just sang karaoke all night long. I'd definitely go back again, even if I can't dance whatsoever just because it is such a fun/up-beat place that just makes me feel happy.

Friday was pretty much when the festivities commenced. All my friends came out to Downtown Brea - Birch Street and we had dinner at YardHouse. YardHouse is pretty much one of my favorite restaurants to go to and they have pretty darn good happy hour, so we made it a point to come there before happy hour ended so we can have a little bit of adulthood fun because another one of my friends, Jenna, just turned 21 as well. Side note, this dinner was not just for my birthday; it was a joint birthday bash for me, Jenna, and another one of my friend CC who also turned 22 just like me! SO back to the dinner, we went to YardHouse, and as you can see, Laura was there again! I love this girl; she lives pretty far from where we were, so for her to drive out just to spend a little time with me is super special. Anyways, Friday night was so much fun! We ate, drank, walked around, sniffed candles, and ate some more. We had macaroons and then went to Rite Aid to get some Thrifty ice cream - the best $2 that I've spent in a long time. All I have to say is I have some super amazing and special friends who are always there for me and I am so grateful to have them in my life, and the best party is, I met some of the bestest friends from work and then one of them, I've known since the sixth grade!

Then comes all of the gifts that I got! Let me tell you, I got super spoiled this year because all these gifts are so fricken nice! So first off, it's the Dior Creme de Rose lip balm, which I've already told you about a few posts ago. Then I got a few jewelry pieces and a super cute dress. So here's the thing, when I got my presents, all my friends told me that they felt like these items were just screaming out my name, so they had to get it for me. I was quite flattered and surprised when they said that just because I thought I'm a very confusing person and like pretty much anything, which can make it a little hard to shop for, but apparently, my likes and style is pretty darn distinctive! I was definitely a very spoiled little girl when it comes to gifts this year and I have already used pretty much all of them because I just couldn't help myself! I am one of those super bad people who just wants to open their gifts right away and go crazy over all my gifts; I guess you can say I am very easily excited, but it's fun being excited when you open gifts though. 

So of course, I also splurged on myself a little bit this year and got my self 2 pieces from Baublebar! I got a super good deal on them because I had a $10 coupon from joining and then another $25 off for something else that I can't remember. So I used both of those and got myself these two necklaces and only paid $23 for them! The cool thing about Baublebar is shipping is free and it's tax free, which is a treat just because everything is so highly taxed in California! So I already used the ivory/gold sun-ray necklace because it matches so flippen well with my pink dress that I wore on my birthday! I felt like a super cool princess and super pretty too! I will definitely splurge on Baublebar jewelry once in a while because they are fairly priced and really good quality. Not to mention, the packaging is amazig because you get a velvet pouch to keep it in, making sure it's nicely cushioned and nothing bad, like scratches, happen to it. Then, over the weekend, I bought myself a travel sized Caudalie beauty elixir. It is a setting spray for your make-up, but I also like to use it just to keep my skin nice and moisturized. I mainly got it to use it on the 18-hour plane ride to Vietnam this summer, which I am super excited for - I will definitely be blogging about my trip so you guys get to enjoy the beachy/summery scenery that is there too! 

If you guys like these necklaces, there are even more pretty ones on Baublebar's website too! I will leave you with the link and an invite code if you want to go check them out: https://www.baublebar.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/239903/! Go get yourself something beautiful and there are always amazing deals on Mondays and Fridays!

Until next time,

With love,

Uyen

Wednesday's Wardrobe

Good day fellow interweb friends!

Today was not a very exciting day for me. I just had school, hung out and caught up with my good friend, Taleen. But I thought I can start a second weekly series and it is called "Wednesday's Wardrobe" where I will be showing you my outfit of the day and what accessories/shoes I will style my clothes with! So below is a picture of the individual items of what I wore today. I wasn't sure about posting a picture of myself with everything on since by the time I thought of taking a picture of myself with everything on, it was already way late in the day and I looked like a jumbled up mess with baby hair flying everywhere!

As you can tell, my style is pretty girly and colorful. I love colorblocking, hence the hot pink pants and white peplum top. I like very simple jewelry. Usually, I don't where this many items all at once, but since I was meeting up with some friends, I thought I'd try to look nice. My favorite must have items for everyday uses are: my watches and earrings. To me, earrings completely pull together a look. It ties your outfit together with your hair even if you are just having a messy hair day with a topknot bun. As for shoes, for school, I prefer wearing flats. Flats come in all different colors and styles, and since I tend to wear blocks of colors, it is usually pretty easy for me to pair it with some flats. Today, I decided to wear flats with a little bit of a leopard pattern just to "live on the edge" for a bit; the spikes probably helped with that edginess I tried to pretend to have! 

So here's a list of what I worse and where I got them:

1. Peplum top: The Limited
2. Pink Jeans: J.Crew Toothpick
3. Chain bracelet: J.Crew
4. Watch: Marc Jacobs
5. Earrings: Nordstrom
6. Flats: Steve Madden

 

Thanks for checking back today,

With love,

Uyen