Europe here I come!

I have no idea why I haven’t talked about this yet but I am really excited about a trip that I am taking this year. In July, I will be spending two days in London before getting on a cruise ship to go on a 12 day Scandinavia & Russia cruise. I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED! Everything has been booked and I am ready to go. This will be my first time traveling to Europe and my first time going on a cruise. We fly out from SFO to Heathrow and will spend two days sightseeing. What makes these two days more exciting is that my cousin (who lives in Spain) may be able to meet us there. We are already planning to get into some trouble during those two days.

Our ship departs from Harwich and then we will be off on an awesome adventure. In a matter of two weeks, I will be in 6 different countries. The ship will dock in...

Copenhagen, Denmark

Stockholm, Sweden

Helsinki, Finland

St. Petersburg, Russia for 2 days

Tallinn, Estonia

Gothenburg, Sweden

...and then back to Harwich.

I have no idea what to expect but I am so looking forward to it. I can't wait to experience the culture and try the different cuisines. I need to make sure I know all the settings in my camera so I can capture it all. I have been researching what excursions we could go on while in the different cities so that we take full advantage of this trip. Some of my friends have told me to take some good walking shoes. Most of the tennis shoes I have are Chucks which aren't the best walking shoes so any suggestions anyone has would be appreciated. Actually, any advice on cruises and places to go to check out while in these countries would be awesome.

Whoo hoo!

Liberty of London haul

Not buying beauty products lately has been hard. So many awesome collections have come out so far this year but I have been good (with a tiny slip up). My twitter stream is the biggest enabler not only when it comes to beauty products but also home decor. I had heard of the Liberty of London collection for Target but it wasn't until I started seeing people post pictures of their purchases that I was interested in getting a few items.

I've been wanting to get new throw pillows for my couches and I really like some of the ones that this collection offers. My living room is mostly espresso brown with a some splashes of teal. The walls are white and I have a large mirror on one of the walls that is also espresso brown. Target only had 4 pillows left and although they weren't the same pattern, I think they will add some color to my living room.

I also got two photo frames to put around my house and a storage box for my DVDs. I've been taking the DVD's out of their cases and putting them in white sleeves so that I won't have a need for a DVD shelf. My apartment doesn't have a lot of space for storage and it's small so the less things/clutter I have in it, the better it looks.

So random...

Mission Ranch Lodge in Carmel

Been napping off and on all day and just wanted to post something fun. I spent yesterday in Carmel and I am exhausted.

Three names I go by

1. Marisol
2. Mari
3. Maricha

Three jobs I have had

1. Courtesy clerk at the Commisary
2. Student Caller at the Alumni house at Cal State Fullerton
3. Frozen yogurt server extraordinaire

Three places I have lived

1. Mexico City
2. Fullerton, CA
3. Novato, CA

Three favourite drinks

1. Arnold palmers
2. Malbec
3. Grape juice

Three TV shows I watch

1. True Blood
2. Glee
3. Damages

Three places I have been

1. Chicago - most go back when the weather is friendlier. I went in February. bbrrr...
2. Guadalajara
3. New Orleans

Three places I would like to visit

1. Spain
2. Australia
3. St. Augustine, FL

Three favorite old TV shows

1. Gilmore Girls
2. Sex and the City
3. Friends

Three favorite dishes

1. chicken with rice & beans cuban style
2. albondiga soup
3. vegeterian flautas - made with cheese and potatoes with tons of guacamole and sour cream

Three makeup/beauty products I cannot live without

1. NARS Sheer Glow foundation. I think it's become my HG.
2. Smith Rosebud Salve
3. shu uemura Lash Curler

Three things I’m looking forward to

1. My trip this summer....squeee!
2. Seeing U2 and Lady Gaga in concert this summer
3. Hopefully getting a new job this year

Three people I tag

Everyone who wants to participate.

Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger

I heard that Lady Gaga was going to be in the Bay Area and wanted to go. I posted about it on Facebook and boom! Now I am going to the show. I was able to buy our tickets during the presale and I have to say, I think we got some pretty excellent seats (xx's mark the spot).

I haven't always been the biggest Gaga fan. In fact, Poker Face used to annoy me so much. It wasn't until she was on an episode of Gossip Girl performing Bad Romance that I started to like her. I've seen a few interviews with her and now I am a fan. I don't even want to admit how many times I have seen her new video with Beyonce since it's 10 minutes long.

From what I heard, she puts on an amazing show. Can't wait!

Beauty makes people come together

Yesterday I got a chance to meet Thais who I met through a make-up forum a couple of years ago. We were both active users of the site. But we both stopped posting to it for various reasons and we remained in touch through Facebook. She told me at the beginning of the year that she would be in SF for a short visit due to work and we managed to spend sometime together. Since San Francisco was having some decent weather, I took her to a couple of tourist spots and then since we both love make-up, we hit the MAC Pro store, Sephora & Lush on Union Street.

We were supposed to keep each other in check with our spending and we did ok. I drooled over the Tarina Tarinto make up line while she got some samples from different foundations that she wanted to try. Everything that she wanted to check out at MAC was sold out so off we went to the Lush store. I've been meaning to get a new shampoo & conditioner since the one I have been using (Bed Head) has not really been working our for me. I had read some great reviews on two hair products from Lush (Big Shampoo & American Cream conditioner) so I ended up getting them along with the Oatifix mask. These were things that I needed so I didn't break my no buy. I also got a sample of Curly Wurly shampoo and Mask of Magnaminty which Thais loves. I used the three products I bought & was really pleased with the results. My hair felt clean, looked shiny and soft. And it had so much volume which is a plus. Since the weather has been cold and dry here in the Bay Area, the Oatifix mask which has oatmeal, banana & almonds left my skin feeling supple and soft. Although I did feel like I had baby food smeared all over my face for a bit.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Patxi's Chicago Pizza in the Marina. Since Thais is a vegetarian, we split the spinach pesto pizza. OH.MY.GOD. So good! I had a great time hanging out with her and she already wants to plan another trip out here.

Alternate title for this post - The day I felt like a troll :)

Could my hair be more troll like? Seriously! This weather is horrible for my curls.