Sugar Shots

Carnival Cruise [Part 1]

2012-01-26T12:53:00.012-06:00

你好!

I've decided that (surprisingly) since its a bit difficult to think of new greetings for every post, I'll start every further post with "你好" (: If you don't speak/read/write Chinese, that's ok! All it is is Hello/How are you (ni hao). Or for a literal translation... You good! hehe (: I'm going to be posting the whole trip in hopefully 3 parts! Some days are going to be mushed together because some pictures were on my dslr and the others on my iPod touch so they kinda got mixed together >_< .

So here is part 1 of the cruise! Hope you enjoy (:

This is the halls to where the rooms were!

I had to try and be all photographically artsy :P they had daily "drink specials of the day" and this was the only one I got the whole trip because I'm not too fond of alcoholic drinks ):

Y and not even half the food he eats per meal.

This was the inside-ish eating area/cafeteria thats a buffet! Pretty, no?

I managed to get a shot of a kid going down the water slide :D

The main deck area place with lots of lounging chairs facing this big LED screen thing showing football / movies at night!

A mini pool/hot tub in the back + a bar

One of two formal dining areas on the ship (: Y & I were in this one & absolutely loved the people serving in there.

View of the elevators from one of the top floors~ How fancy does it look?

The opposite picture! Instead of looking down, looking upwards (: You can see the elevators on the right side.

And here is the magnificent lobby!

One of many bars. The Oxford Lounge.

Of course there has to be a casino on a boat.. I mean, what boat doesn't?

This was my first exposure to gambling (in real life xD) & it is addicting. Blew $100 easily in an hour >w< but it's just so much FUN.

A couple more artsy photos. Depth of field never fails!

Here is a cafe/lounge area. I really liked the style.

Some Sorbet/Ice cream served there!

& right next to the cafe was a hole in the wall leading to this cave-arcade area!

Past the hole was the Hollywood Dance Club. It looked pretty nice, and it was empty (besides Y and I) because we went to explore the ship while people were up on deck watching the boat depart.

The dance floor where later nights I saw these 2 old asian men getting down xD They were good at dancing!

Sitting area & the lights changed colors too!

Right outside was a wine bar with these display cases of really intricate large wine glasses.

Yet another lounge (where you will be seeing other pictures later!) the Piano Lounge!

Some pictures of the Rio Club where they hosted Comedy shows (18+ (; )

The sun was starting to set so I HAD to get this (in my opinion) sweet picture.

So to end this first post, here are some iPod Touch taken pictures of the formal dinner we had that night. (Didn't feel like taking a bulky dslr into the dining room xP )

The starter was a fruits in something sauce/sweet thing. Y & I got the same starter.

My entree was very fresh tilapia with sides of carrots and strangely good macaroni. I forgot to get a picture of Y's plate though ): (either that, or he already ate half of it before I can get one :P)

My dessert was Strawberry Cheesecake! I was actually disappointed with it because the cheesecake wasn't made from cream cheese, it was made with gelatin to keep the shape without having to bake/refrigerate it. (I KNOW. Baking/Pastry/Dessert fanatic here!) And so it wasn't very tasteful and the texture was awful in my opinion. The sauce was good, however!

Y on the other hand, got confused reading the dessert menu and thought the fruit plate came with ice cream, even though they were separate & so after confused communication with the waiter (Everybody was foreign too! From all places in the world), he ordered a fruit plate with sherbet. But then another waiter came by to figure out what he meant to order, and so he got some pineapple sherbet as well LOL. What a fatty.

xoxo

Sugar

Update + Cruise

2012-01-15T13:45:00.004-06:00

Good afternoon pandapops (:

Its been pretty much a month now since I've blogged on here and I really don't have excuses except that I've been....

-Having family matters

-Trying to get 2 cats and 1 cat get along

-Attempting to get used to cooking more

-Christmas-ing

-Stayed with a good old friend for a few days in second-home town

-Transfer student orientation

-Waiting 4 hours to register for classes

-Trying to figure out FAFSA things

and....

On a cruise for 5 nights!!

Basically, I sorta have some downtime now a couple days before uni starts again and decided to write a post before Y wakes up and we have to clean or do whatever.

So, yeah (: Y and I went on a cruise called Carnival Triumph (Carnival is the company line and Triumph the ship name). It goes from Galveston -> Progresso, Mexico -> Cozumel, Mexico -> Galveston.

This was the FIRST cruise I've ever been on, so the least I can say was that I was excited. The service was phenomenal and the food was decent enough (with a 24 hour froyo machine which I would've hit that more if Y would've let me... ). The only downside was the wind was pretty, well, windy, and so the waves hitting the ship made it rock a bit more than comfortable according to Y. I never was able to walk in a straight line. But I had plenty of fun! I'll be splitting the posts about the cruise into 2 or 3 so it gives me more lazy-time and you guys more pain of reading~

Here's a photo to get you guys hyped:

xoxo

Sugar

Electric Nails

2011-12-15T16:58:00.007-06:00

Hello buffalo grass (:

Quick post!

I was Christmas shopping at the mall with Y and was in Forever 21 when I came across these babies:

Electric Nails by love & beauty. I fell in love with the colors & thought it would be a great idea to buy it ($9.80!) and split up the polishes to give to different friends.

But then I was so curious and wanted to see how they looked on the nails, as I'm sure a lot of girls know nail polish colors can look a lot different on the nail than the bottle color.

I apologize for the bad quality. I recently got a new point and shoot digital camera and I'm not used to using one again after I've been shooting with a dSLR so much. I think it might be the lighting confusing it or something, it was pretty gray and rainy outside.

Here's how it looks on my toes! From left to right, orange, green, pink, blue, purple.

Picture of the toes with flash.

Orange: I never was fond of this color for my nails, or clothing or accessories or anything I suppose. When I first painted it on, I didn't like it so much, and I still don't but it's not so horrible in my opinion. It has enough color to be able to see what color it is.

Green: This green is brilliant. The color is bright and not quite the lime green. I wouldn't know what outfit to wear it with, but I'm loving this green.

Pink: I was pretty disappointed with it. I honestly thought it would be a lot more vivid like how the bottle looks but its still wearable for florals maybe...?

Blue: Astonishing. I never really went for blue colored polishes, because my first one came out plain ugly, but this blew me away. It's absolutely beautiful and I only had to go over with one or two coats.

So you might've noticed, I only covered 5 colors... and there are 7! I ran out of pairs of toe nails to paint ):

But then I remembered I have fingernails~

This is the steely charcoal-gray with little glittery sparkles.

With no flash. Again, sorry about the picture quality.

But this color is beautiful and I'd say pretty elegant. If I ever go to a nice dinner out or somewhere formal I wouldn't mind wearing this color. It's dark, but it's not so dark where it looks black and with the added tiny glitters, I like it!

Here is the gold, and I never liked the color of gold on my skin tone, but from the first nail I liked the subtle-ness... is that even a word? If you're looking for the opaque kind of gold, this isn't it. It's pretty transparent with a hint of the color. However, compared to what the bottle looks like, it is disappointing.

Hope you guys enjoyed this and it was useful! Sorry for the badly painted nails, I was in a hurry because I'm supposed to be packing to go to Y's parent's place for the night!

xoxo

Sugar

Big Changes

2011-12-06T19:51:00.010-06:00

Good evening smily stickers!~

So there've been a couple changes in the past few days/week/whatever.

First:

I've pretty much sort-of settled into Y's apartment. The desk is *kinda* crowded, if I do say so myself. & I kinda took over his closet, hehe.

Second:

We adopted two cats!!

They're fully grown, one is a fluffy rag doll with *stunning* blue eyes named Puff Diddy, and the other is a tabby with *gorgeous* green eyes named Sneezy (due to his constant sneezing when we first got him).

They're 6-7 years old and are extremely attracted to open doors for some reason.

Puffy is the more cuddly of the two, he likes to cuddle up and nap next to or on you as well as squeeze under the covers!

The lighting in the apartment isn't the best, so its hard for me to get a good picture of his eyes ):

But he's very calm and easy to take photos of~

Enjoying the fuzzy blanket (: (:

Sooooo adorable!~

Here he is cuddled next to Y while he does things on the computer, hehe.

Sneezy is the fatter one (doesn't seem like it, due to Puffy's long fur/hair!), and he is a lot more active and responsive, thus making it harder for me to take any photos of him because he moves so much! And when he sees you coming when he was still, he gets up and rubs against the camera =.=;

LOL, looks like he's drunk.

I don't think he was too happy with me taking photos of him either ^^;

Look at those eyes! I'll get a good picture of them one day, promise~

Precious kitty (:

Here they are together! The adoption person wanted to keep them together and so had a special two for one adoption fee etc. They have been together for quite a long time, and so we took them in~

D'awwwh...

xoxo

Sugar

Fall To Winter

2011-11-29T10:53:00.006-06:00

Hello Cherry Pies!~

I hope you all are doing very well! I haven't been posting in a while because I've had quite a busy Thanksgiving break this year, and just hadn't had the time or were too tired. Overall though, it was wonderful (: I spent half the time with my own family and the other half with my boyfriend and his mom~

Just recently in Texas, the weather started getting a lot colder (finally, at the end of November lolz). So I thought, why not show off some more photography skills and have a picture of "Fall" and a picture of "Winter"? & While I'm at it, why not put two random photos that I thought looked cool on here too anyways?

Enjoy (:

This was at Y's apartment! I haven't seen these kinda lights with those twisty light switches since my elementary days. And I thought the B&W lights and shadows contrast was pretty sweet.

Here's a shot I had to do for my Ambiguity photography assignment. Wasn't the best, & the concept was a LOT harder to do than I thought. Didn't think that the phone camera would make the pictures smaller than how it looked etc etc.

I know, cliche Fall picture, huh? & it's not even the good kind, there's mud and dirt everywhere but I get credit for showing realism? Lol.

Finally, Winter! Hot cocoa! Or in this case, a fake hot chocolate in the form of a chocolate cup, chocolate cupcake inside and chocolate cream on top with marshmallows and steam coming up behind which I didn't photoshop! It took me a long time to get the steam right!~

Stay warm, every one and try not to get sick like me~

xoxo

Sugar

China Town

2011-11-21T15:31:00.008-06:00

Happy Monday, pork buns!~

This past weekend I went to China Town in the ATX. I was with Y, his best friend, and one of my best friends that came to visit me, awh (:

We met my brother and one of his friends at this restaurant called "Korean Grill" just to try it out since none of us has ever eaten there before. A lot of the stuff was some spicy stew and such and most of us ended up getting fried rice. Went sort of like this:

Me: Combo fried rice

Bestfriend: Shrimp fried rice

Y: Beef fried rice + egg rolls

Y's bestfriend: Chicken fried rice

Brother: Some Korean beef dish with rice (see picture later)

Brother's friend: ^ same as above

-Excuse the bad quality pictures, using phone camera!

This was the Korean side dishes they gave us all to eat :D I only tried

like two of the dishes cause everything else looked spicy.

Y & his best friend. Loooove their facial expressions lol.

Alan on the left is my brother & my childhood friend :D Grew up in the same

neighborhood and same church + now attending same University as him.

My brother, Enoch, just getting at it at his beef. That stuff was really

good, too! I had some yumm.

Handsome Y offering egg rolls. Looks so young but is secretly old :P

My best friend's (who doesn't want me giving out her name or picture, hehe

so I'll call her Violet since purple is her favourite color and calling her purple

might be kinda weird and Violet is a girl name anyways) shrimp fried rice.

After we ate, we split up (brother + friend went to get haircut) and we went to the MT supermarket there. Lots of asian goodies~ On the way out we saw this Lotus car!

Looks good, ya? So tiny and cute.

xoxo

Sugar

6th Street

2011-11-19T17:57:00.008-06:00

Good evening Lollipops!~

Last night me & the girls (my roomie/bestfriend from high school [I shall call S] + bestie from middle school [I shall call Violet]) and my boyfriend Y went out to 6th street in Austin to party party! & Y's friend came down from D-town this weekend for work as well as to go out and have some fun that night (:

My digital camera is broken and I didn't think taking out my dSLR out, so I give you these pictures I find online, hehe (:

This is what 6th street looks like! Lots of bars/pubs/clubs on this one street and college kids from UT & ACC & anywhere else comes out to have some fun. We went into The Jackalope, but after we found Y's friend + work buddies, sat down and got some water the waiter came over and asked us for ID's since it was 21+ (probably cause we didn't order drinks LOL). Anddd~ we (just us girls, Y is legal drinking age) got kicked out.

After that, we couldn't figure out which place was 18+ so decided to go to Midnight Rodeo and daaaaance! Heard The Rankin Twins play & Cory Morrow after play live. Fun fun fun, but we (us girls again) got our hands x'd [or in this case, T'd] at the door ): No alcohol for us. Not that I like drinking anyways~

Poor little ole us (:

xoxo

Sugar

Cursy

2011-11-17T22:32:00.011-06:00

Hello lovelies in this lovely world~

I decided to dedicate this post to the first pet I've ever had growing up (erm. well I still am growing, but you know..) besides a betta fish!

So some background story: Cursy [Curse-ee] (what we named him, forgot his original name) had abusive owners and was kicked and had things thrown at him (explains his fear of shoes). Dad has a friend who's fiancé loves helping out animals and she saw him one day on the balcony of an apartment and saw his bad condition & (kudos to her courage) went up to the apartment, knocked and asked if she could take care of their cat which they just gave him to her.

She takes him home & she and the guy already have 2 cats and a dog. The cats didn't get along and so they were searching for a new home.

Adopt me please!~

Tadaaa~ we took him in! (after much begging on my part). He was a wonderful cat and first pet. He had a very interesting personality, and sort of sad at the same time because his habits were centered around survival and finding safe places to sleep after being abused for so long ):

Hi, I'm Cursy. I have big, round & beautiful eyes :3

He had this interesting way of laying down that I've never seen or imagined any cat (on tv and neighborhood cats) lay down. He would stretch out his neck.

Stop taking pictures of me, I want to sleep...

Nooo.. you've found me again!

I'll try hiding in here...

But nope, I always found him (: Cute ball of fur.

His ending is sad, so don't read if you're really sensitive like me ):

Cursy started eating less and less, and we couldn't figure out why for the longest time. We just thought he was tired of eating the same food so we tried different brands and canned food and didn't think much of it. But one day my brother pointed out a strange bump on his side and whenever we tried to examine/poke it Cursy would move away and try to hide it so we couldn't touch it anymore. We took him to the local vet and they couldn't make sense of it either without an x-ray, and was considering cutting him open which we were like NO. Then we took him to the vet in College Station which I hear is one of the best veterinarian places where they diagnosed him with Feline Leukemia . He got it from his mother and because his first owner treated him so bad he never got checked up on it and now at 3 years old it was too late to treat it and save him. We were told he had probably a month or two at max to live but we had the option to put him down. We took him home and his appetite was still gone, and it was heart breaking watching him and so after discussion, we decided to put him to sleep so to end his suffering through the last month. I was in the room with the vet petting him when they did it and it was one of the most painful things to watch in my life even now.

His was the first [major] death I've ever encountered in my life and I cried for months. I still tear up whenever I talk about him. He used to sleep with me every night and follow me around the house. I miss him, but he's in kitty heaven now (:

&& now, because we missed his presence we adopted 2 cats!

The siamese is K.O. (Knock Out), and the white one is Cursy jr.

They grew up to be big and fat. + we had to give Cursy jr. Away after a while ): So now we just have KO who is for another post another day (:

xoxo

Sugar

New Beginnings

2011-11-15T16:23:00.018-06:00

. . . or almost anyways, lol.

For a number of things! Such as--

1. This blog. Decided to try to have a personal blog [again], and upkeep it all nice-like. But I will still keep my creative writing blog~

2. After this fall semester of University is over, I'm transferring! To a different one about 4 hours away (: and shall be living with my beau! Very exciting and scary at the same time. Exciting because we love each other and have mini adventures every time we're together even when its not on purpose, hehe. Scary cuz it means I'll have a lot more responsibilities concerning taking care of the home/apartment, the pets (fish tanks, + will have kitty(s?) &/or dog(gies?) ), cooking most of the days and getting a job to help support us financially not to mention full time student studying/homework! Sheesh.

and I'm only 18... !

3. But because of this transfer & living w/ Y (as I'll call him in my blog (; ), I get to do so many things that I wasn't able to before. Like what? Like doing gymnastics lolz. Parents never let me as I grew up cuz they were afraid I'd kill myself, and the gymnastics club at this school only lets in people who already knew how to do all those flip stuff. But the one at the new school lets in amateurs like me! (*so obsessed that already looked up and stalked them*).

+ if I can convince Y enough, save enough money and learn to ride / get a motorcycle. As much as I say I'm serious, I don't think he's going to let me so easily. I mean, it is dangerous, ya.

Okay~

That's about it for now. To make this first post less boring, I'll put a picture.

Did I mention I'm a pro photographer? lolol.

No, really. Look at this! (:

Are you still not drooling yet??

xoxo

Sugar