Flowers on a glass

Too bad these are not real flowers pressed into the glass. Love the concept! And of course my favorite pansies...

Pressed Flower Glass at Urban Outfitters ($16 for set of 2)

Pansies on a beanie

This pretty hat! Lavender! Pansies! All my favorites in one place. 

But $825! I need to win the lottery. 

From Jennifer Behr

Tiffany ring for a girly girl

Tiffany Sparklers ($2,900)

Purple amethyst with rose gold and pink sapphires!

The wonderful lilac clothing rack

For my dream all-purple bedroom, I need a pretty clothing rack that holds jackets or day-old clothes (not yet ready for laundry, but not clean enough for storage in the closest). This simple pale lilac style is just perfect! 

Urban Outfitters Cameron Clothing Rack 

Accomplishing the purple cow

Remember my life goal of experiencing the Purple Cow? I finally did it! I told myself if I ever came across an individual can of grape soda, I would buy it to try it. For some reason, they hardly sell individual cans of purple grape soda at my local groceries, and I would not want buy an excessive liter or a 12-pack since I'm not particularly a fan of soda in general.

As destiny would have it, I have been enjoying the "Free Friday" digital coupons at my favorite grocery store Fry's Food. Each week, I can download a free item, usually some new product a company is trying to promote. Well, the lucky Friday came when they were promoting this Mountain Dew Kickstart drink, which comes in a variety of flavors. Of course, I picked up the "Midnight Grape," which is close enough for my purple cow experiment, and it has some real juice in it, so that makes it a bit healthier right? 

The soda itself is a deep wine-purple hue. 

The soda tasted like a mix of Welch's grape juice and carbonated chemicals. The hue is very pretty, like an amethyst gemstone in my drinking glass.

I didn't have plain vanilla ice-cream on hand when I decided to try to this experiment on a whim. But there was a leftover box of Neapolitan ice-cream my dad left in the freezer. Thus I used two small scoops, making sure I scraped more of the white ice-cream part, then watched the wonderful action of the foaming and fizzing as I poured the purple soda into it...

It turned out more like dusty-lilac rose color. Smelled and tasted like grape cough syrup, not the greatest. But the ice-cream soda was mighty pretty and interesting to look at...

Hooray for my first Purple Cow! 

Asian Barbie takes over the world

Remember how excited I was about the new Asian Barbie doll, to the point that "Lea" even became the face of this blog and my Instagram? Well, something must be going on at Mattel where they are marketing Asian dolls like hot pancakes! I was beyond thrilled when I noticed a plethora of Asian Barbies lining the racks at my local Target stores recently. This is just bizarre and joyous for the little girl in me! Times are changing! Wish they had these when I was a little girl 20 years ago! (Then again, my parents probably wouldn't buy these for me due to their frugal living situation back then, so maybe the timing is just perfect right now!) 

 

1. Barbie Nurse ($9.94 at Walmart) - same face and black hair as my Made-to-Move Lea, but with a career in nursing.

2. Barbie Fashionistas Chic ($19.99 at Target) - same face as my Lea with browner hair color. This box includes 3 city chic day-to-night outfits. 

3. Barbie Fashionistas Ruby ($7.99 at Target) - same face as my Lea with brown hair and bangs, and red lipstick. I bought this to be Lea's sister! 

4. Barbie President & Vice President ($24.99 at Target) - for the Asian girl with bigger eyes and bespectacled. Also cool highlights in the hair. 

5. Barbie Fashionistas Pink Pizzazz ($7.99) - this is the new body-proportion style of dolls in "Tall". Based on the double-eyelids and height, not the stereotypical Asian features, but she looks fresh with the mid-length hair and great smile! @dolliemine makes her super stylish! 

Goodness, it seems like I'm more consumed with Barbie dolls as my hobby now instead of "all-things-purple." But I did spot a PURPLE-haired Barbie at Target that was breathtaking...

Barbie Endless Hair Kingdom Purple Princess ($8.89) - isn't she the prettiest! 

Edible flower in a lolliop

Most genius idea ever! And the purple & yellow pansy is my favorite flower :) 

My first purple carrot

Checkmark off the bucket list! Funny to think last year I had never seen purple carrots before, and now I see them everywhere! Great thing about that is, I was able to taste my first purple carrot without traveling far distances or expending too much. Found these rainbow colored carrots at my local Albertsons (on sale nonetheless):

Funky how the insides of the purple ones are actually yellow:

Different-looking, but taste like normal carrots.

Organic purple carrots must be the new "it" vegetable, even in baby food! I've also been seeing the ingredient as added coloring for juices. 

Put a lavender fur ball on it

So unnecessary but pretty.  

Kit Kat Purple Sweet Potato flavor review

Our newest tradition among my siblings during Christmastime is to exchange yummy snacks and sweets. Of course, I received a bunch of funky purple treats. First up, let's talk about these Japanese Kit Kat bar, Beni-imo (purple sweet potato) flavor...

Packaging is appealing (especially if the recipient is a lover of pink and purple girlishness). Although I do wish it had more English words on the nutrition and ingredients label. No clue what's in this! But it does taste like purple yam, earthy sweet flavor. The actual coloring of the Kit Kat is a bit muddy lilac, not as pretty as illustrated on the package, but still a sweet surprise in an unusual way. Since I'm not a huge fan of sweet potato or yam taste, I probably wouldn't buy this again for myself. But fun idea though! 

Asian American Barbie Lea taking over this blog

This year is definitely the year of the Barbie doll for me. Ever since I discovered Barbie Style on Instagram, my inner child "really really really wants a Barbie doll" again, and especially when I spotted the Asian model! First time ever Mattel came out with a doll with an Asian complexion without the heavy too-glamorous eye makeup. I owe it to my little-girl-self wish come true. I decided to buy myself my very first Barbie (at the age of 33, ha!) Of course they don't stock the one I wanted at my local stores, so I went on Ebay and ended up buying two for over $50! A little bit crazy, but I can afford it now! Yay! But of course, a few days later after I purchased my dolls, I noticed ToysRUs  (and Amazon) began selling the same doll on their website for only $14.99. Yes, I got jipped. Oh well, that's how life goes when it comes to wishes. But I'm happy with my "Lea" Asian Barbies, definitely worth the $50's! This one can do yoga and wears a PURPLE top! I'm so excited about this, I'm revamping this Blog and my Instagram for Lea to take over and be my spokesperson from now on! Also changing the title to "Búp Bê Life" (meaning "doll" life in Vietnamese). 

Purple potato chips kettle cooked style

Remember my excitement over the discovery of the PURPLE POTATO in Portland, Oregon? Well, I'm over the moon when I found these Lay's Kettle Cooked Medleys (limited edition) at my local grocery store. Made in purple, red, and gold potatoes...best part is no food coloring! 

I'm happy to report they taste like normal potato chips, crunchy and salty. The red ones are actually more like a magenta hue, and the purple ones are a dark vampy purple (perfect for the Halloween mood today)! The colors are so much fun! I'm surprised there aren't more companies making natural colored potato chips a staple. Well, maybe not, I can think of one reason...I did find that the darker chips may leave little visible bits on the teeth (like spinach or Oreo cookies), risking embarrassment in social situations.

Click on picture for larger details.

Purple Label at Ralph Lauren

Why do men look better in purple? Is that why Ralph Lauren has a collection called "Purple Label" for men but not for women?

 I am especially crazy about these purple socks on this guy... 

From Ralph Lauren Mag. Issue V111 Fall 2015 pg. 14

$30 cotton version here (expensive $110 cashmere version here)

Purple dress fit for a princess

I cannot seem to take my mind off this breathtaking purple dress after seeing it on the gorgeous fashion blogger Mary Orton of Memorandum 

Black Halo Karlowe Gown in Orchid

Worth the $650?

I think it's worth every penny on Mary O. at least! 

Doesn't she look like a princess?

A fairy tale! I couldn't help saving snippets of her beautiful photos here. 

Spooky Halloween bouquet looks pretty

Was at my local Michael's and spotted this really cool Halloween decoration....loving the polka dot vase and the stripe gold canes (reminiscent of whimsical witches in Wizard of Oz). Not a big fan of the scary skulls and skeleton hands, but I like the idea of the pretty gold, black, and dark purple combination! 

Edible flowers made of kale

If I were throwing a party today, I would like centerpieces decorated with edible kale in hues of purple and pink like this! 

From Better Homes and Gardens October 2015 issue:

page 111

page 68

page 71

...and maybe add some fresh plums to the kale decorations too! Yeah!

My Little Pony Twilight Sparkle for Halloween

I saw this Little Pony hoodie in a Kmart advertisement last week and thought to myself "I need this for Halloween!" Granted I don't really celebrate Halloween anymore, but if I had to wear a costume, I just want to wear this hoodie:

1. There is more than one purple shades in it.

2. The pony has bangs (so do I!)

3. I probably can fit into size girls XL (yay for being a petite)

4. I read about "Twilight Sparkle" online, and the character is very similar to my kind of persona (student, librarian, magic, friendship...love her!)

Best toddler recycled dinnerware ever

I may be on a roll with amazing purple sightings on Instagram for a long time! Today, it's these Re-Play recycled plastic dining sets for kids! Spotted from one of my favorite fashion blogger Nini's Style instagram:

Lavender purse on sale at ASOS

Pieces Leather Mini Shoulder Bag

 Why I'm loving this:

• Sleek minimal classic style
• Lavender of course!
• On sale for $27 (from $63)
• The small size is perfect (not too tiny nor too big, just right to fit the necessities)

Donating toys with purple hair

Speaking of purple hair, this weekend I went to Target to buy toys to donate for my local children's hospital. Wow, July is a good time to buy toys! Lots of clearance items. A true girly girl at heart, I spent almost all my time in the Barbie doll isle and became inspired about toys again! I was excited to get these with the purple hair and purple outfits of course..

I know there's a lot of controversy over Barbie dolls over the years and present-day for being unrealistic bad role models for children, but I grew up wanting to own a Barbie doll, and it did not influence me in getting plastic surgery, nor spending my money on figure-tight clothing, nor having low self-esteem in comparison to my own image. I just love Barbie dolls because they have cool hair to play with, one can get creative with her outfits (use of arts and craft skills), imagining fun stories of the places she'll go with her makeover, and just appreciation of fashion and beauty. Barbie dolls are pretty, and when I see something pretty, it makes me happy! There is a saying..."a thing of beauty is a joy forever!" - John Keats