So I’ve been practicing eyelash extensions! Wanna see!? It currently takes me anywhere from 2.5 – 3 hours a set. I am going to try to get my time down to 1.5 at most! Any volunteers?

 
I realized I should have done it further to the outer corners here.. But it was so hard because she has a heavier lid so it’s hard to see those eyelashes hiding! But I loved this set because she has really thick short lashes already so with the extensions, they looks so thick and beautiful!

This model has much more sparse lashes but it was still pretty! See the center of eye on the left? I made a small mistake there and did not take the time to go back and fix it so it’s a little sparse there. You really have to pay ULTIMATE attention to detail for this type of work. It’s exhausting! But so rewarding. I really enjoy it so far

I LOVE how extensions created a natural eyeliner! I don’t know how but it does it on virtually everyone! Next time I will have to remember to go with shorter extensions because it seemed like her naturally thin eyelash would have trouble holding up longer extensions.

Before & Afters! I have to remember to take CLEAR Before pictures for everyone from now on!

Some Info for Extensions:

- They last about a month before you have to get them touched- up.
- They fall out when your natural lashes shed one by one
- But if you’re rough with them your extensions (and sometimes real lashes) will come out too
- After  1 month you can tell the extensions are thinning out but still look normal, not like you have a disease that causes your lashes to fall out. Thank goodness!
- You do have to be careful when removing makeup around that area. Be gentle! But it’s not THAT bad like everyone makes it out to be. Just make sure you have a good eye makeup remover so you don’t have to get rough with your eyes. Sonia Kashuk is my favorite brand
- And yes, you CAN wear false lashes over these for when you want look vavoom! Extensions are attached to the eyelash hair itself where as false lashes are attached to your eyelid skin.
- Looks great for everyday wear! No need to curl or mascara them!

Ever since I’ve been back, I’ve been super sleepy at all hours and super hungry and craving for Pho all the time. Weird. But since I’ve been sleeping since like 6PM, I am now awake at 4AM. Ah!

With all my Vietnam posts, Won Choe has been feeling left out so he DEMANDED I write a post about him. So here goes:

Am I a “cool” girlfriend?

No. Not at all. I am the poster girl for the type of girls that guys they don’t want to be with. And whenever I read those posts about “cool” girlfriends, it’s always the opposite of what I am. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not proud of this. When I TRY to be a “cool” girlfriend, it never flies. I mean, I can’t pretend to like something when I don’t!

1. I don’t really believe in having your own privacy. It’s a deal breaker if he keeps anything a secret from me. Phones, emails, facebook, I want access to all of it. I check up on everything all the time like it’s my own. From work to friends to family. Even when it has nothing at all to do with me, I still want to know what’s going on.

2. I generally am not okay with friends, who are girls, unless I’ve met her myself and become friends with her. But especially, if I don’t like the way a girl mentions our relationship or me in passing. She isn’t going to be your friend anymore. Girls are sneaky bitches so I will squash everything before it even gets a chance to go anywhere. If his friend don’t like it? I don’t care what she thinks. If she is going to be MY boyfriend’s friend, she is going to do within MY boundaries. I don’t care how much longer she’s known him for. If she isn’t going to marry the guy, feed him for the next 50 years, and bear him the 7 kids he wants then she can shut it.

3. Don’t even think about ever being in contact with any of your exes, much less being their friend. It doesn’t even need to be an ex. Anyone with any slight attraction ever in the history of his being is out.

4. It is not okay for him to check out other girls. Ever. We are not going to check them out together and discuss how hot they are. The answer to every time I ask, “what do you think of her? is going to be, “she’s hella ugly.”

Sure, it sounds like I am insecure, jealous, and crazy.  Of course I am not going to call myself those things! I just don’t like other girls around him so it’s not going to happen. The good thing is so far I never even have to fight with yobo about anyone. I tell him I don’t like it and he takes care of it. Done and done.

5. I am very bossy. Sometimes I just like to hear the sound of my voice. “Buy me something!” Yobo only does 50% of the things I tell him to. The other 50% he just ignores. Maybe he thinks I am just kidding. Or MAYBE HE’S GOING TO SECRETLY SURPRISE ME someday with it!

6. In group settings I am extremely quiet to the point he sometimes worries if I am okay. But when it’s just the two of us, I’ll talk his ears off. I’ll tell him my gossip, other people’s gossip, gossip I hear on tv, gossip I hear on the bus, etc.. Sometimes he doesn’t even respond to my stories and just changes the subject. Or maybe he just gets confused because I tell him 2 – 3 stories at one time. Sometimes I wake up at 5AM and feel the urge to talk to someone so I call him and yell at him for being too sleepy to listen to my story. Sometimes I call him at 5AM and fall back asleep myself -____-

7. I will never be a guy’s girls. I will never even take interest in the things that he likes. The closest I will get to a game of football is buying him some hot chips and a beer for when he watches the game by himself.

8. I take 329838434349389q8403 hours to get ready before we go out. If he ever says anything about it, we will fight because I will think he is ridiculous for putting a time limit on achieving beauty! If we are late then it’s his fault for no factoring in extra time for me to get ready. And if he doesn’t think the results were worth the wait then hell will freeze over. Twice.

The good thing about me in a relationship is I love him. And I am well intending. And I laugh easy. And I am scared of him. Okay that is all. Hope you find someone who loves you too despite how weird, ugly, or less-than-intelligent you are.

The number one thing to do here in Vietnam? Go to a coffee shop, which is a strange phenomenon for me considering I grew up with Starbucks, which is a to-go kind of place. The idea of lounging around for HOURS around a couple cups of coffee is boring and a waste of time. But there I was in Vietnam, lounging around for HOURS around a couple cups of coffee and a few cigarettes. And it was.. a lot of fun

I don’t really drink coffee so I was more of a smoothies/ce cream/fresh squeezed juice type of gal.

With the gang

Pretty dessert!

One of the cooler coffee shops where your party sit under a grass hut around a little table. The best part is that there are hammocks! I ended up taking a nice afternoon nap whilst everyone around me played a couple hands of cards.

Yummmm.. fresh fruit!

I was really happy that a lot of my cousins took time off from work and family duties to come have a cup of coffee with me. I won’t disregard a cup of coffee from now on!

Other things to do in Vietnam are to go Karaoke (not my strong point), to go fishing, or to go sight seeing in their many parks!

And so the gang goes!

Here I am taking touristy pictures at the park! What have you? A simple country girl

I love how everything is bamboo themed at the park!

This fruit is usually given to away at weddings and old ladies like to chew on them until their teeth turn black and fall out! I hear they taste awful! I wonder why my grandma used to love them so much!

My favorite thing about hanging out in the country side is that the main mode of transportation is the motor bike!

My first few times I was super scared and hung on tight! But eventually I got used to it and came to LOVE the cool wind blowing against you, dust included.

But can you imagine how romantic it would be for a couple? The girl holding on tightly from behind? *swoon* Helmets only became mandatory in the last few years. But even then they’re pretty useless. They won’t shield you from anything if your bike crashes. Cost of helmet: $1.50 – $20 USD.  At least it LOOKS like you’re following the law

Speaking of following the law, my cousin and I were pulled over one time for no apparent reason. Too bad my cousin didn’t have her paperwork (license, registration, insurance) with her so they threatened to seize her motor bike. But of course it boiled down to money. So I paid them off and we were sent on our merry way. How much? A day and a half’s work (for a simple laborer) worth of money, which is about $100 Vietnam money = $5 USD. Lesson here? Blend in. Or carry lots of cash.

Toodles!

Turns out my cousin’s girlfriend is an expert eye lash extension professional. I was really skeptical when I first heard about her because she is really young and because she does most of her work in the country side versus in the big city. So I made my mom her model and OMG she does AMAZING work!! I thought I was meticulous for details but this girl is amazing! It’s like she has super power eyes! Seriously!

I had her design me a crash course in eye lash extensions. She usually teaches her students for a one month period but all I had was 3 days so 3 days it was! Haha.

Up close and personal! When it was my turn to do it, she was literally breathing down my neck. I don’t think I’ve ever been soooooo close to someone like that before. But I could not stop marveling at the attention to detail this girl has! No wonder her work looks soooo flawless.

Looks kinda scary doesn’t it? The funny thing is my cousin’s house has all boys so everyday I would practice on the boys in the house. No one would believe they they even let me! Haha imagine buff Vietnamese guys with tattoos getting eyelash extensions.  Much love to my cousins for sacrificing their manhood for the sake of me learning! No one knew that they got extensions but they sure got A LOT of compliments from the ladies for their beautiful eyes and gorgeous “natural” eyelashes.

My turn! Kinda looks like I’m performing eye surgery on a dead person in a third world country doesn’t it? Lol who wants to be my next victim?

The amount of concentration for this is really exhausting. Every time I would choose an eyelash to extend, my vision would blur because I was up sooo close to it. Not to mention by the time I finished one eye, I felt like my eyes wanted to bleed out of their socket because my eyes would be to so exhausted!

It took me 3 hours to do my first set of eyes. Hahahaha. It takes my teacher only 1 hour. Gaaah. Need to work on it. Any volunteers?!

Girls in the country side tend to be married and have at least 2 kids by the time they’re 25. I’m 23, I’m what you consider late in getting married -_____-.

Half a generation ago, it was normal to have 5+ kids. Now I think my generation is self limiting themselves to only 2 -3 kids. Still, that’s A LOT of kids. I’m talking like HUNDREDS of relatives. I haven’t even met most of them yet!

The fun thing about this is that there is ALWAYS little kids around to entertain you with their stories, jokes, songs, and dances. Also, kids in Vietnam are REALLY obedient.

This is them learning how to use my camera. There must have been 100+ photos of the most random and out of focus things on my camera from when they ran off with it for a few hours. Haha.

Kids are so… funny. One afternoon I was laying in their bed and they were entertaining me with songs they learned from school. I told them to give me a massage. The little one grabbed my leg and started squeezing my thigh. The bigger ones go on and on about how big my thigh is! Then the little one says if a fox were to eat just my thigh, it would die from eating too much -______-

Oh to be young again…

Anyhow, this is a picture of what used to be the school in the village. It’s now an abandoned structure that homeless people use to live in temporarily until they find means for a home. I was too young for school when I was still in Vietnam but I always followed my brother into his class. I think further back this structure used to be a hospital for pregnant women to deliver their babies. I THINK my oldest brother was delivered here.

The school is literally across the way from what used to be our house so I could go to school or go home whenever I wanted.

Speaking of coming and going to school whenever I wanted. To the right you see the school an to the left is the village market where my mother used to sell meat. Story has it my brother would tell me to go to the market to buy snacks and goodies because I didn’t have to be at school like they did.

Notice the dirt road. Very little pavement here! You can’t see it in the picture, but the dirt is a brownish red type of dirt that turns into paint like when wet.

This is the outside of the village market. It’s like a farmer’s market but of course Vietnam style. Too bad I didn’t take any photos inside the market for you to see (I didn’t want to offend anyone). Also there weren’t many motor bikes back in the days either so the roads were safer (20 years ago!). But apparently at 3 years old I would make my way to my mother’s meat stand to ask for money to buy candy to bring back to school for my brother. Ha! Taking advantage of his little sister!

3 weeks is too short. There was sooo much more I wanted to go, learn, and do but there simply wasn’t enough time.

Anyhow, here is a glimpse of my visit to Vietnam

We spent the 1st week in the country where “home” is. It’s funny to me how after 20 years the people in this village haven’t changed much. I mean, I hardly know who the heck my next door neighbor’s here in America are. But my mom comes back to this village 20 year later and everyone is still the same. Everyone knows each other. Everyone stays here their whole lives.

Most of my relatives from both my mom and dad’s side live here in this village so there was never a moment where I felt alone. I’m talking about HUNDREDS of relatives. There was literally someone around ALL THE TIME. That’s probably my favorite part of my trip, that I got to spend so much face time with my relatives. I mean, who needs Facebook and Xanga and Gmail when there’s someone to talk to and play with every waking minute?

Aside from a little dirt and bugs, my second most favorite thing about the country side is the AMOUNT OF EXOTIC FRUITS we have. We may be simple country folks, but we’re all expert farmers, mind you.

Fresh coconut juice straight from the coconut tree itself? That’s a normal everyday occurrance here

Vast rice paddies with people in knee-deep water picking the rice plant like the sceneries you see on television or read about in books? It’s all very very real here.

This is called the Crab of Saint John. Story has it that a long time ago Saint John dropped his rosary while on his boat. A landed on the back of a crab, who returned it to him. Saint John was so happy he blessed the impression of the cross onto the crab’s back. My uncle said it’s been almost 10 years since he’s seen it! We were truly lucky to find one that day!

The little fruits behind the crab are called Barbado Cherries. They’re can be quite sour and are best dipped in salt and pepper. One of my favorite fruits to nibble on all day

It’s a mango tree in my cousin’s back yard. Look at ALL the baby mangos that are going to grow!

 
Yum!!! Fresh sugar cane straight from the ground! I chewed so much of this in one sitting that my tongue and cheeks became raw and sore. Hehe no more!

My favorite! A Rambutan fruit tree. The change in weather this year affected the fruit so they are ripening much later this year than others. Usually this time of the year the tree would be lit up with ripe red rambutans! That’s my cousin effortlessly climbing a ONE SIDED ladder to pick some ripened ones for me from my uncle’s backyard.

Forget organic and blah blah blah, fresh picked and brewed green tea anyone?!

Not even sure what this fruit is! But it’s so ginormous! It hangs down from a vine!

Fresh beans from the vine for your salad everyday!

Bananas anyone?

Baby rabbits and chicks to play with any time I want!

 
Also, lots of super cute babies to play with anytime, anywhere.

The not so delightful side of the country side are all the geckos, rodents, and bugs! Here my cousin caught a SCORPION. Instead of freaking out like I would. She simply threw it into the pot of boiling oil where she was frying chicken (over a wooden & charcoal fireplace). Kidding? No I’m not.

Fried scorpion anyone? Pretty much anything is edible here. When I was first scared to venture out into their farm because I was scared of snakes, they assured me there were no snakes because they had already eaten them all. Har-har.

Yum…. hehe I was too scared to try it!

Look how many jackfruit there are on ONE tree!! And they have whole farms of trees like this! Can you imagine? My cousin says some times tour buss stop by their farms. And he tells them each tourist can only have ONE rambutan fruit PER tree. And they call him a cheap and greedy guy who isn’t welcoming. He tells them to just trust him. Lol NO ONE has ever been able to eat from even 1/4 of the trees from their farm cuz they have sooo many trees and fruits!

A typical fruit stand at the bus stations that pass by this village.

These pictures here don’t even begin to describe the different fruits they grow here!

Who knew my roots came from the country side eh? Before my parents came to America  they owned huge coffee bean farms. Hehe. ALL my relatives have at least a small farm filled with exotic fruits and veggies to enjoy. I definitely recommend everyone go check out the country side, if even just for a day time trip.  Be sure to wear plenty of sun screen, bug repellent, and preferably long pants and closed toes shoes. Just in case ; )

Yobo INSISTED I go visit him RIGHT before I leave for Vietnam. So glad I did because he planned the perfect weekend for us.

We started off with my favorite thing in the whole wide world… NAPPING! Hehe. I had caught a 6AM flight so the first thing I wanted to do when I landed was sleep! Then we caught Thor at my favorite place in the whole wide world, the mall! Thor was pretty good. Made me periodically curious about comic books until I realized I was at the mall and had no time for silly boy things!!

Of course we made a stop at the famous Bubble Land for something to satisfy my sweet tooth

Here he is being the lazy boss that he is. *sigh*

Then we came home and went grocery shopping because it would be officially my FIRST TIME EVER COOKING A REAL MEAL. GAHHHHH!! To make matters more doomsday, it rained!! We must have spent 30 minutes picking out the cooking wine, which I used a whole 2 splash of. And I must have picked up 5 different types of filet mignons until I finally decided which kind to get. Then I spent another 30 minutes picking out which piece was the best. Grocery shopping is soooo stressful!

We get to the hotel and surprise surprise Yobo had booked us a suite with a fireplace! It was sooo perfect since the weather was stormy rain outside..

Okay I have to say, I learned to cook from Cakalusa & Amuse Bouche’s xanga youtube video! Hahaha. She made  it seem so easy I just had to try it!

Cut cut cut. Chop chop chop. So it turned out the suite did not have an oven. After spending another 30 minutes on youtube trying to figure out how to cook a steak without an oven I decided to just slice the steak in half and use the top of the pan to turn it into an oven. Ugh! Praying it will work!

Sprinkling some salt and pepper. and whatever else yobo’s mom gave me to season the meat and mash potatoes. HEhe. At this point we’re both STARVING. DROOL! I can’t wait any longer to eat!!

I know it looks kinda grey and dry.. but it tasted yummy!! You can see my Yobo is just holding himself back!

The next day we had Korean BBQ buffet with the family. YUMMM!!! I will miss eating so much meat! And I kid you not, these people eat their money’s worth at a buffet! Half way through the meal I just sat there with chopsticks in hand staring at them with my eyes getting wider and wider by the minute. I hope I don’t have to cook THAT MUCH FOOD for them someday! Ah!

Then we made chocolate dipped strawberry at home for dessert!

Again, something else I learned from Cakalusa & Amuse Bouche’s xanga youtube. Haha. It didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to because we decided to add our own twist to it. We kind of messed it up. I was really sad until I came back down to the kitchen a few hours later to find everything pretty much all gone!

Then yobo took me on a surprise date to watch Mary Poppins, the musical! I was soooo touched! It was yobo’s first musical. He would normally NEVER do anything like this, much less surprise me without me having to even ask to go! He totally planned everything so perfecctly! The weather was really nice so I could wear nice clothes without freezing to death. But it was still chilly enough to enjoy a late night bowl of authentic pho. Yum!!

The next morning yobo let me sleep in while he went to work early in the morning. Then he came home, took me out to lunch then back to the airport before he went back to work. What a perfect ending to a perfect weekend

I love this past weekend not only because of all the things he planned perfectly for me. But also because it’s so obviously we’re growing so much closer in every way. I look back and I can definitely see how much we’ve both changed for the better and I can see a future where we both have so much to look forward to together <3

Quick updates so everyone knows whats going on ..

Pretty much tomorrow I’m going to Seattle. The day after I come back from Seattle, I’m going to Vietnam. We have been shopping and packing like mad for days. Turns out the suitcase for Seattle that I packed fulls of beautiful maxi dresses (my latest fashion obsession) must be re-packed because it’s raining the whole time I’m in Seattle!! SAD!! I am not in the mentality to wear rain clothes. That was 2 months ago. AGHH! So irritated.

I think I’m over packed and over dressed for Vietnam. Maybe I’ll get too hot and lazy and just wear the same thing every day. Haha. But it’s been SUPER fun shopping for clothes for my Vietnam trip. SUPER FUN!

Because of my travel plans, which I did not AT ALL consider my school schedule… my instructors took pity on me and moved up the finals a week a head so I would not fail by not taking the final. I LOVE my instructors. They are too good to me! Unfortunately their efforts have little effect as I will automatically be failing by default because I have accumulated too many ABSENT HOURS. Suck it.

But the hours that I DO go to school have been really positive and fun. Because I am one of the longest attending student there (not something to boast) I am the most experienced and quickest so all the salon clients have been given to me. I am doing about 3 haircuts a day, highlights, hair color, the works. It’s been pretty fun for me. Exhausting but fun.

I have been super lagging on my business emails back to new clients. But I guess it doesn’t really matter as pretty much all my dates for the 2011 wedding year is booked. And everything with my already booked clients are pretty much settled. So no urgent pressing matters to attend to. But I just like to stay on top of things.

So much to think about! Ah! Can’t wait for vacation! Nothing to think about but how to relax and torture yoebo! Hahahaha. <3

1. When my friends are around, she makes the effort to speak to me in English so that my friends do not feel left out and can understand what we’re talking about.. even though she has a VERY hard time and struggles to speak it.

2. She cooks whatever we want to eat. Even if it takes hours and hours to prepare. Even if it means she’s up in the middle of the night to make it in time for the next day.

3.  Mom has always woken up before any of us kids went to school to make us breakfast and lunch. I remembered once my brother’s friend stayed with us for a month and he said that his mother never once woke up to cook breakfast for him before so he really appreciated that my mom did. And she makes us fruity snacks when we stay up late to do school project. I don’t think she ever slept before we fell asleep.

4. After we’ve both had 12 hours work days, while I am crying and complaining about how I am going to die from exhaustion, mom makes me hand squeezed and crushed fruit drinks for energy. Then she has the strength and energy to cook us dinner and prepare for tomorrow’s meals. It’s REALLY amazing how much she can carry on. The few times mom does admit to being exhausted, she pulls it together when I need help with anything, even my own events and projects. Mom has always carried us both.

5. I can tell mum pretty much anything about my friends and myself. She always has an honest
opinion and advice but she never gets mad if you don’t listen anyway. She’s always been right so far. And when you come crying to her because you didn’t listen to her advice and you got screwed over, she’s always there to comfort you.

6. Mom is understanding of the Vietnamese-American lifestyle even though she herself has lived in the Vietnamese lifestyle her whole life. This really helped our transition between the two cultures to go along effortlessly.

7. When mom says we can choose whatever career path that “makes you happy.” She TRULY means it unlike other Asian parents who really mean that kids should do what makes their parents happy. She fully 100% supports and trusts that we will do well. That support system has been sooo valuable to me. She doesn’t back down when her friends and relatives gives her a hard time about her kids not being in “respectable” fields. She stands up for us.

8. Mom ALWAYS stood up for me, especially with my dad. She fought my battles with my dad for me. She’s kept my secrets from dad for me. She’s saved me so many times. She took on the burden and let me enjoy my teenage years.

9. My mom made a lot of sacrifices career wise so that she could be home for us kids give us the best upbringing. I know she hates the career she’s in now. She finds it very humiliating and she wished she could have gotten better training for a better job back then.

10. Mom is very kind to EVERYONE. She taught us compassion and caring by example. She’s careful not to get taken advantage of but she never hesitates to help anyone in need. She always visits friends & acquaintances when they’re in the hospital. She attends funerals when the loved ones of her friends & acquaintances passes. She makes the extra effort to show people, even those she isn’t close to, that they are loved and cared about.

11. Mom is VERY independent. Even if it means taking 2 buses for over an hour in the freezing cold. She never asks for help but she is very appreciative when someone does help. I never have to worry about if Mom can figure things out on her own. She finds a way to make things work.

12. Mom is very honest. She never lies or tries to hides her wrong doings. She is such a great role model!

13. Like most Asian moms, she is frugal but every now and then she likes to enjoy the finer things and will spontaneously buy us a nice treat! I am glad she allows herself to be happy and enjoy material things 

14. Because she gives me a hug and kiss every time we part ways in the morning! And before bed at night.

So many reasons I love my mother! What are some reasons you love yours?

Except I am really in San Francisco. And I can’t sleep. It sucks.

I feel like I’ve been stuck in a rut lately. Because I’ve been enrolled in a FULL TIME school program for the last year and a half I haven’t had time for ANYTHING ELSE besides my business. Work is doing very well, I am updating all my tools and kit because I want everything to look really chic. I have decided I am going to double up the amount of tools I have so that I can have 2 separate kits, one for travel and one for the studio so I dont have to keep packing and unpacking so much. I am also going to redecorate the studio so that its chic.

Aside from that I haven’t had the chance to do any fun artistic projects with photo shoots or fashion shows or even going to take private classes. Nothing that has helped me developed my skills as an artist. I’m doing the same work I did last year, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily. I mean, I am booking at almost twice the rate I was last year because clientelle builds with time. But personally I would like to continue developing artistically.

I get a little excited and sad when I see all these new artists posting all these pictures of photo shoots they do on facebook. Excited because I am inspired to do projects based on theirs. And sad that I know I simply do not have the time. Not for another few months at least until I am done with school. I feel like everyone is passing me up in the artistic world. And since when did everyone and their mama become a makeup artist?

I guess I am just feeling stuck and dissatisfied in myself. I wonder if my clients can pick up on it in the way I carry myself?

Let me just make a disclaimer, I am not saying I am doing bad work on my clients, no I am doing the great work I’ve always done. I just feel I should be farther along artistically than where I am.

I should also explain to everyone that the Bridal Beauty work I do is quite different than the Artistic fun photo shoot type work that artists do. Bridal Beauty will always be my main squeeze. But I want to do so much artistically too

Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts.