I went to the mall with my sister on Friday and I finally decided to see if this makeup was really worth it.  They have their own store in the mall called “BareEssentials“, so I was excited to visit a real dealer.

I walked into the store and the lady told me to sit down.  I told her that I wanted to try the makeup to see if it was the perfect match for me.   She pulls out a tray of all kinds of colors and etc.  She then begins to color match me.  She explains how I need to moisturize my skin more, since it help prevents dryness and uneven skin tones.  She gives me a tutorial on how to wear and apply the makeup.  Once she finished applying the makeup to my face, I looked in the mirror and I was blown away.

The colors were right on, and the makeup gave me what I had asked for, a natural light look that looked absolutely stunning.  You couldn’t tell that I was wearing it.  It felt very light and even the texture of the makeup had nothing to it!  It was something I had to invest in.

When I purchased the kit, with the brushes, foundation and primer, they gave me a really nice bag to carry my new makeup in! Its a re-usable bag that you definitely don’t want to throw away.

This is the kit I purchased below, including the primer and the foundation you see below.

I am very glad that I gave BareMinerals a chance.  I’m going to only wear it on special occasions and etc.  I’m sooo thrilled to finally say goodbye to my icky sticky liquid makeup that feels heavy and gross against my skin.  I’m glad to use something that makes you look amazing, yet feels incredibly natural and light!  I would definitely recommend this.

Even though, when I look back on it, 2010 was definitely a challenge to me and now I can finally say that I can take a deep breath and just relax.

It was a year of good and bad.  The bad being a lot of family drama and the good of me growing up and living life.  I can honestly say that 2010 is a year that has changed me forever.  I have developed and grown into a stronger and more bolder woman than ever before.  I am very proud of myself.

WEDDING – October 24th, 2010

I was very happy yet disappointed with my wedding.  We had very limited money, so the outcome of the guests were very small (we had a limit).  It had to be family only as well (which disappointed me too).   There were strict rules made that I had no control over whatsoever.

Overall, It was a gorgeous wedding.  We had one amazing Officiant (who did such an outstanding job!!), and one amazing wedding venue (Which was featured on “The Knot!”).   We had an amazing Harpist play for the guests and for the wedding ceremony! It was definitely a dream come true.

Chet and I were married on October 24th 2010 at 5:00 p.m.

THE HONEYMOON – October 25th – Nov 1st, 2010

Our honeymoon was in Tokyo, Japan.

It was very fun and exciting.  It was everything I expected and more.  It was definitely a learning experience.  I have been in love with Japanese culture for a very long time and it was a dream come true visiting Tokyo.  We are hoping to go back in the near future.

I did speak a little bit of Japanese and I’ll admit it, the experience was amazing.  We went all over Tokyo:  Harajuku, Shibuya, Yoyogi Park, The Ghibli Museum and Akihabara.

The only thing that I was disappointed in was the food.  We couldn’t find many places that offered english menus/english speaking waitresses.  I guess I didn’t do enough of my homework on available food choices in Tokyo.

I’ll tell you what, Japan puts America to shame.  The Japanese society is so sophisticated and friendly.  I loved it so much there that I didn’t want to go back home.  I never realized how much of a foreign place would feel so much like home to me.

I felt like I belonged there.   I do miss Japan a lot and I can’t wait to go back!  The 14 hour flight is not that great, but in the end, it was all worth it.

2011 and whats to come

I graduate from school in the fall with my degree in Graphic Design.

I hope to create more income with my businesses (they are progressing).

I finally updated my online portfolio:  http://www.melanieweaver.com and I hope to build my portfolio more.  I do have a lot of missing artwork I need to find and showcase.

I am working on my mental state, trying to stay focused and positive on life and on the people around me.  I’m appreciating each day more and I feel like I am able to achieve and express amazing amounts of happiness and gratuity. I am definitely a new person now and I am continuing on bettering myself more as each day passes.

2011 will be a challenge for me, being a full-time student, spending time on learning how to be a great wife (I am already awesome, still, it’s all new to me).    My husband is the most incredible man I have ever met.  He is definitely one in a million and I am so glad that we met and progressed into a beautiful and healthy relationship that brought us into an amazing marriage.  I love my husband so much,  more and more each day.  This man has brought out the best in me.

I hope to blog more this year too.  I haven’t blogged much because of all the exciting (and stressful) events that I’ve been going through in my life.  I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings me!

Chet and I have finally moved into our new beautiful home!!

I’ve been very busy with cleaning, unpacking, putting in new appliances and more. We moved in at the beginning of September.  I couldn’t be happier.  The home is now finally starting to come together and since I’m done with house chores for now, I’ve been working on the itinerary of Chet and I’s honeymoon trip to Japan!  The wedding is only a month away and since things will begin to get busy soon, I decided to go ahead and plan out our trip!!

Chet and I bought our tickets back in July.  They were very expensive, they were about 3,000 bucks for our round trip!! I began to work a little bit on the trip, but stopped since I didn’t have much information then.

On Monday, we finally booked out hotel.  We are staying at the ANA InterContinental Tokyo hotel located right smack in the middle of Tokyo itself!! Chet’s dad travels a lot and he accumulates so many points with a certain hotel group.  Well, he was so kind to give us his hard earned points and he booked our hotel for us.  We are staying for a week.  The only thing I am NOT looking forward to is the loooong 14 hour flight.  Our sleeping patterns are going to be flipped upside down once we begin our stay in Tokyo.

I thought the flight to Hawaii was excruciating, but this one will top the cake. Who knows, we might meet some cool people on the flight to Japan and chit chat the whole way there!  Also on the flight, we will have power outlets for our net-books..so that will also help pass the time.  I’m sure the whole way there, I will probably be studying my Japanese and also going over our destination and hotel routes.

Today I’ve been studying the Japanese subway, JR systems and it was really confusing at first, but I managed to pick up on it quick.

The places we are planning to visit so far are:

• Tokyo Tower
• Ghibli Museum (I can’t wait to see this!! I’ve been a HUGE Ghibli fan since I was very young)
• Akihabara
• Shibuya
• Mt. Fuji

Thats about it so far.  There is sooo much to do and see that I know it will be enough to make our heads spin!  I can’t wait for this trip and I am kinda more excited about going to Japan rather than attending the day of my own wedding! lol, crazy I know, but its been a very long time dream of mine since I was a kid.  I know that week of the wedding/honeymoon, I will NOT sleep.  I will be too overly excited and its not going to help me at all with sleep!!

Sometimes I wonder if I am dreaming because soo many good things have came my way and soo many great things have already happened that its almost too good to be true.  I guess I’m just a girl who lives a very blessed and happy life.  I thank god everyday for giving me the life I have.  I am very happy and I couldn’t ask for more. These past 4 years of my life have been the best.  Ever since 2007, nothing but great things have came my way.  A lot of my dreams have came true and the future ahead of me is soo bright and beautiful that its really breathtaking.  I’m very excited and I can’t wait for a lot of things in the near future to come!!

Right now I feel like the happiest woman alive!!  Its the best feeling in the world!!

Its our first house together!

Its a cute house that we instantly fell in love with when we first laid our eyes on it.  We actually have the house, but we are just waiting for a few things to go through and then the deal is done.  Closing is in less than a month and will probably be here in only a matter of time.

We have a lot planned for the house.  We are getting all of are house accessories from Bed Bath & Beyond and we are re-doing the whole kitchen!  We plan on buying the kitchen from Ikea.  :)

I’ve packed a lot of my stuff already.  The only thing that I need to pack is the crap under my bed, but besides all that, Im almost set to gooo!  I’m really excited and happy about this!

We go out to eat a lot and I can’t wait to finally cook food and be a wifey.  Its going to be one amazing life!!!

I wouldn’t want it any other way !!

The wedding planning is going fantastic!! Things are finally coming to a close on vendor choices.  I’m so glad to have the hardest parts done and over with.  Next month, Chet and I will apply for a marriage license!!

These next few months are going to be amazing.  Getting the house, getting married and celebrating by going to Japan for our honeymoon.  He already bought our tickets and I could not sleep that night because I was sooo thrilled!!

I know during the week of the wedding, I won’t be able to sleep AT ALL!!! Its going to be crazy, especially going to Japan with the time difference too.

Its going to be lots of fun and it will all be worth it in the end.  I am soo happy, this is the happiest I have been in many years.  My soon to by husband is amazing and I love him sooo much.  We make the perfect team and I’m soo glad hes in my life.

Words can’t even begin to express how happy and in pure bliss I am absolutely in.  This life is going to be beautiful!!

For the past 3 years, its been amazing and things just get better and better as time moves on.

I’ve had zero problems with software/hardware.  :)!

Check out my current Screenshots :

The Droid X has multiple screens you can flip through.  You can have one screen as a your music player, calendar and etc.  You can customize it any way you would like!

The Photo/Video quality is superb and records in 720p

Chet and I are planning ahead and since we are about to move into our new home, he suggested that I should get a new phone.  Now to shed a little light on why a new phone so suddenly is because of few things.  Before the Droid X, I owned a phone called the G1 under the service carrier, T-Mobile.  I’ve had this phone for about 2 years and it went to crap status in no time.  I absolutely got NO service.  I hated T-Mobile with a passion and every time someone would call me, they would NEVER be able to reach me because I had NO service!!  The only time I did get decent service was if I was in Tampa or Orlando.  It shouldn’t even BE that way.  I was getting very aggravated when it came to missing important phone calls.

How amazing this phone is:

• The battery is too good to be true:  It lasts longer than any phone I have ever owned! It hasn’t even died on me yet.

• The screen is amazing!!  Its nice to text with and look at, especially when you have nice widgets on the front page.

• Its fast.  You can use it for web surfing, texting, emailing, listening to music (Nice ipod replacement), Facebooking (Is that really a term now?)  The point is, you can do ANYTHING without it slowing down on you.  You can really multitask.

• You’re on Verizon!!!  The network is the best network out there!  I’ve had all 4 bars stay up the whole time!  No dropped calls, no lagging or disconnected service.  Its been unreal and I’m not even used to the incredibly fast network yet!

• You can personalize it by adding widgets, launchers (Launcher Pro), and tons of amazing apps that you will never get bored of!

I don’t have ANYTHING bad to say about this phone.  Its like a second computer to me and I love it death!  If anyone out there is looking for a fast and fun phone, then I would highly recommend the Droid X!  I’ve already had plenty of people stop and ask me what phone I am carrying and if thats a good phone. I love seeing people’s eyes light up when I pull out my phone.  Having this phone is a life saver to me,  I can definitely rely on it and not worry about missing phone calls or important events.

This summer Chet and I have been doing things differently. We are getting out, doing new things, trying new things. Going to places we have never been, seeing things we have never seen. Everyday is a new adventure and soo much is happening! I am having tooo much fun. All of my worries (the little worries I have) seems to disappear when I’m having fun. I just love being in the moment of a good time.

This summer has been great so far. We picked up on glow stringing this month. At first, it was really difficult for me. I kept trying to do a few moves and I just couldn’t get them down. I began to doubt myself and I kept thinking that maybe glow-stringing just isn’t for me. Deep down I had this desire to master the moves, but in reality, I thought that it would never happen. So this week, I woke up early and practiced all day, for many hours, trying to master some of the hardest moves for beginners. In the end, I eventually mastered and perfected these difficult moves. I’m glad I didn’t stop learning because I was really close to just giving up, but something told me to keep going. This taught me something very valuable, if you tell yourself that you CAN’T do something, then you won’t do it. You need to push yourself, work hard, because in the end, the result is very rewarding. Now I can glow-string many moves:

The Butterfly
The 2 Beat Weave
The Windmill
The Corkscrew
Simple leg/arm Wraps

Today is friday. I practiced these moves on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Wednesday, I had most of them down. I find it hilarious because in the end, I bruised myself really bad. I have bruises all over my arms and legs. The ones on my legs are disgusting lol. I even have bumps on my head from hitting myself sooo much from trying to learn the windmill. In the end, it was worth it. I have learned how to swing my sticks without hitting myself now haha. Here are some pics and videos of our glow-stringing moments! **You may want to “right-click and open in new window” when viewing the videos and pictures.

Gallery

Also, check out the videos too.

Videos

Conclusion

Its been a lot of fun learning how to glow-string. Learning something new gives me a good feeling. Its nice to do things outside of the box from time to time. The summer has just started and so much has happened already. I’m having a lot of fun and I’m liking it waay too much! Hehe.

A lot have been going! So far, this summer is probably one of the best summers of my life. Probably because I’m never bored and we are always doing something fun and interesting.

Chet and I are still “house shopping”. We did fall in love with a house that was a short sale, but we really don’t want to wait 8 months before we can move in. We want something that won’t be a pain in the butt when it comes to closing on the sale. Its still pretty exciting and fun.
I’m planning my wedding still. We’ve made a lot of changes to it and the progress is still coming along nicely. I wan’t to have all of my vendors by the end of August at the latest!!

Anyways, Chet and I have been experiencing a lot of fun events lately. We wen’t to a rave a couple of weekends ago at a camping site and it wasn’t all that great. The music was horrible and the weather basically ruined the event. It was my first time experiencing a rave, so I was a little disappointed in how it all came out to be. In my eyes, it gave me a bad impression that raves were all horrible, but I decided to go to another one this weekend and it was awesome!!! This rave was on the beach and the music was more my taste and speed. I was thoroughly entertained! This rave was actually free and it was trying to advertise their upcoming event in Sarasota called “Vinyl Music Festival”, which is in July and it will be on the beach!! This music festival looks promising and fun!! I’m looking forward to it a lot since I was able to get a little taste of it.

This past weekend was a blast. I loved it and I had a grin from ear to ear because I was having soo much fun!! I’m looking forward to more weekends like these.

Today Chelle, Chet and I went to Coldstone Creamery for some sweet treats and it was soooo good. Chet and I shared a vanilla with caramel topping ice cream dessert in a waffle cone and it was simply wonderful! Today we had a blast. It really wrapped up the weekend well.

Tomorrow Chet and I will be meeting up with the realtor again to scope out more houses on our list. I’m really looking forward to that. House shopping is fun and serious business at the same time.

Also, since T-Mobile or (T-Fail) isn’t doing any good for me anymore, Chet is looking into adding me onto a Verizon plan! I’m really liking “The Incredible” phone. Its a very nice phone and I can’t wait to get my hands on it soon! !

I’m loving this summer so far and I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!!

Today I made some Hiragana flash cards. I used my Cricut paper trimmer, thick card stock, my awesome Canon printer and my handy-dandy vector program, Adobe Illustrator, to create these cool flash cards!!

Before The Cuts

They took all day to make because I had to cut them individually, one by one, page by page. I’m glad I didn’t run out of ink! I got the idea from a website I found today. This website sold Katakana/Hiragana flash cards and it was slightly expensive, so I decided to create my own!

Since I worked really hard on these cards, I plan on not giving out the template. Though, there are already a lot of free/ready to print- Katakana/Hiragana flash cards online. I would recommend in looking around online for the free ones. There are a lot of resources out there to learn the language!

I’m doing well with the language. I’m using Rosetta Stone (I HIGHLY recommend it!) and I’m also using a workbook that is really helping me. Hehe !

I wanted to go with something cute but also with a touch of my artwork implemented into it. I wanted to go with something light, web 2.0-ish and just… fun! I think I did accomplish that look. The layout is kinda made for larger resolutions. Smaller resolutions do no justice to the layout itself, but since I have a pretty nice screen, I felt like I had to take advantage of the large resolution.

I created the graphics in Illustrator and then edited more in Photoshop. Having these skills makes me realize how lucky and fortunate I am because any crazy and creative idea I have, I can easily bring it to any design since I have the skills. I like cute, simple and clean designs and thats why I have chosen this type of “Kawaii” artwork for the website. The artwork on this new design is very similar to the first launch design of Panda Sweets. I wanted to bring that art style back because its just too cute to pass up! Hehe

I worked very hard on the artwork. Vectoring isn’t easy, especially since you are using the pen tool and the results the pen tool gives is not always 100% perfect. I pay a lot of attention to detail and I am very intricate and picky when it comes to perfecting a piece of work.

Enjoy the new layout design!! You will be able to appreciate it more on a larger screen, I promise !

More goodies will be added to the layout, like a music section, an updated About Me page and many more… so stay tuned!

Melly Out!

My favorite and current apps that I really recommend are these below: