Get ready for a veeery photo heavy post! 

I'll be less verbose in this blog post and let you guys just focus on the pictures. This year, I decided to just decorate my living room/dining room space. Next year, I may branch out to the kitchen and bedrooms as well. Hope you enjoy! 

Let's start off with the sofa. You might recall the crimson side pillows from my fall apartment tour. I kept those the same and changed out the accent pillow. 

This accent pillow is also from HomeGoods for $24.99. I went holiday decor shopping in mid-November and was so surprised to see that everything, including the decorative pillows, had all been picked over. I got super lucky with this find! It's a beautiful standout piece and pops against my dark gray sofa color.  

I looooove the way my side table turned out (don't mind the white chips in the table, though). I'm obsessed with the gold flecked mini Christmas tree, which was only $9.99 from HomeGoods. It may be hard to see in the picture, but the branches are speckled with gold glitter. I hung some mini snowflake ornaments that I found at Walmart for only $1.99. The block sign is from HomeGoods for $3.99. Under it, I put these cute mini gift boxes I got from Michael's last year. Of course, I couldn't resist getting these cute wood animals decked in winter gear that I found at HomeGoods for $5.99 and $4.99.  I just love how festive this side table looks!

This is my coffee table centerpiece. Again, the gold tray is recycled from my fall apartment decor; I purchased it at Target over the summer for $16.99. I also recycled the pine cones from my fall tour. I love how pretty ornaments look mixed together with pine cones! These red and gold sparkly ornaments were from Dollar Tree for only $1! The mason jar vase is actually from my parents' house. My mom was planning on throwing it away, so I took it and decided to use it as part of my holiday decor. The gorgeous stem inside it is from Michael's for only $7.99 (and by that I mean $3 with sales and coupons). It's super sparkly and looks like freshly fallen snow on pine branches, very festive!

This is my Christmas tree this season! I couldn't get the lighting for the photo right so sorry it looks a bit off in this photo. It's a cheap-o pre-lit 7.5 feet artificial tree from Walmart for $39.99 that took me about an hour to get the branches splayed just right so that it didn't look bald. It doesn't look perfect by any means, but for the price it's not too shabby.

Here's a close-up of the Christmas tree. So, surprise, it's actually a black Christmas tree. I misread the box and didn't realize it until this morning when I was looking at my tree up close. You can't tell in the evening, but in the daytime it definitely sticks out as black. The ornaments are from Target, a box of 24 was $5.00 each and they have tons of color schemes to choose from. I picked up a box of red, green, gold ornaments and then another box of blue and silver ornaments. Love the way they look together! I didn't put any specialty ornaments this year, but I might next year.

Here is my dining table decor. I'm not completely satisfied with the way it looks, to be honest. It looks a bit plain and could benefit from a table runner. But, for now it will suffice! The poinsettias are artificial stems from Michael's for $9.99 (approx $4 with sales and coupons). Placemats are from Kohl's for I believe $7.99 each, but were on sale for $4 each. Tablecloth and cloth napkins are from HomeGoods for $14.99 and $5.99, respectively. Crockery is recycled from fall apartment tour and is from Pier 1 Imports. 

Here is the view from my dining table. Love how lit, warm, and inviting the space looks with these additions.

Along my furnace, I hung some clear white holiday lights that I picked up from Target for only $2.99. On either side of the heater I hung my mini stockings I got from Michael's a few years ago. These are soooooo cute, not sure if they still sell them, but they were only $4.99 regular price each!

I finally found the perfect piece for my long furnace area! For the last few months, I've struggled with what to put in this area. Luckily, when I was in Pittsburgh over vacation my mom was also planning on getting rid of this cute little dish/tray. But I decided to take it and use it for my furnace since it's so long and fits so well! I wanted to put some large ornaments inside, but didn't have a chance to go pick any up from the store. Instead, I put some small stems I had from Michael's and extra ornaments that wouldn't fit on my Christmas tree. 

Last but not least, I have to talk about this light pink Christmas tree on my work desk! Not the best picture, but I'll have better shots in my work desk decor post coming up in a few days. I loooove this tree. I think it might be one of my favorite pieces from my holiday decor haul this year. It's a baby pink-gold glittered bottlebrush tree from Michael's that was only $4 after sales and coupons! This fits my bedroom decor so well, and really makes my work desk pop.

#healthyholidays Day 11: Ahhh, nothing major today. I guess I'm happy that I didn't binge this weekend! 

Massive Winter Haul: High-End Beauty

Hello, hello everyone. Well that hiatus was short-lived, huh? Luckily the situation got sorted out fairly fast and I'm feeling tons better now. With the grace of God, no patient harm came out of the situation. I'm finally getting around to cleaning out my makeup drawer and unpacking my huge beauty haul from this past November/December. Yes, I realize it's three months later...time flies! As you can tell from the flood of personal posts lately, I've been in a really bad mood ever since coming back from vacation. I've been on this constant go-mode since November and I'm just exhausted at this point. And the whole issue with the HIPAA violation just got me really really upset. I've been mustering as much energy as I can, and I hope things will be different now that match day and graduation are approaching. 

Anyhows, enough of my personal bantering, on to the makeup! I split this haul up into two parts -- high end and drugstore. There's just SO much stuff and I would be incredibly overwhelmed if I went through both parts in one post, so hence the splitting. Interestingly enough, the high-end side is much larger than the drugstore side this time. Usually it's the opposite!

So let me go through each product one by one. I haven't used any of the products yet, but I swatched most of them so I can offer my first impressions at least. In no particular order, here goes. The ones without links were limited edition holiday products that are no longer available.

bareMinerals Tutorials: Neutral Eyes -- Let me be honest, the main reason I bought this kit was because I had a 20% off coupon at Ulta including prestige brands, and this set caught my eye as I was about to checkout at Ulta. It's actually a pretty handy. It comes with a (full-size?) eyeshadow duo, a mini size of their 5-in-1 BB cream shadow, a eyeliner, and mini eye brush. Plus, it comes cased in a  gorgeous reusable metal tin. I really like this set, but I am a bit disappointed with the eyeshadow duo. I expected it to be more warm-toned based on the picture on the back, but it's in fact a bronzey-taupey mix. I'm hoping it's still wearable on my super-warm skin tone, and I'm definitely looking forward to using the other products in the set. Neat little gift idea and it would make a good starter makeup set.

Clinique Whole Lotta Chubby Set -- I saw this cute little holiday gift set as I was online shopping for a cream blush stick. I was about to buy the full size of the Amp'd Up Apple, but I stumbled upon this set and decided to buy it! For $25 you get deluxe sizes of five products from their "Chubby" line -- a cream blush stick, an eyeshadow stick, one regular chubby lipstick, one baby tint, and one intense chubby lipstick. The shades are Amp'd Up Apple (blush), Bountiful Beige (eyeshadow), Curvy Candy, Mightiest Maraschino (intense), and Poppin' Poppy (baby tint). Overall, I'm very glad I bought this set since I'm a huge fan of their Chubby range. I never finish a blush, and this set allows me to try a bunch of other shades and products from the line. Also, the sizes in the set are quite generous!

Clinique Even Better Makeup Foundation in Cream Caramel -- I've been wanting to get a heavy-duty foundation from a makeup line that emphasizes "good ingredients" and sensitive skin. I'm not a huge fan of the bareMinerals or Tarte foundations, so I thought I would try a Clinique foundation. It's an old formulation, but it got excellent reviews on multiple sites. I'm going to have to experiment with it a bit more before making a final verdict, but so far so good! I put it on my face using a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and it applied well, blended seamlessly, and was lightweight. Going to have to use it a bit more to determine if it's a good color match and if it's heavy duty enough.

Clinique Stay Matte Sheer Pressed Powder in Stay Honey -- To match my new foundation, I picked up this powder from Clinique. Not much to say about this one. I didn't swatch or test this, but I imagine it functioning like any other old pressed powder. We shall see!

Too Faced Love Flush Blush in Love Hangover -- I've wanted to try a blush from this collection for sooooooo long! Yes, the packaging is definitely what sucked me in. I didn't fall in love with any of the shades in the collection, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with Love Hangover which is a dusky rose shade with a slightest bit of sheen. It's a gorgeous everyday, natural sort of blush. This shade is perfect for the spring and summer!

Burberry Wet & Dry Silk Shadow in Pale Barley -- This product was a total splurge! I love dabbling around with luxury makeup, but I don't have the funds to purchase them on a regular basis. So every time I feel like it's a particularly challenging time of year for me, I splurge on a makeup item and remind myself that I've worked incredibly hard to get where I am and I should be treating myself, not being down in the dumps. This time, it was application and interviewing season that had me feeling really nervous and frantic, and I decided to splurge on one of these shadows. It's one of those products that just makes you feel extra fancy everytime you bust it out of your makeup drawer. The shade isn't particularly unique, but the formula is really silky soft as the name suggests. This color leans more cool than I initially thought, but it's not as ultra-cool as other taupes I've played around with. Definitely not a product you need to rush out and purchase, but definitely check these out if you need a little pick-me-up ;)

Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Pepper/Fig -- Recently, Bite Beauty started making mini size duos of their lipsticks at only $12 a pop. I bought the Fig/Date duo last year, but the colors unfortunately didn't suit my skin tone. This Christmas, they came out with new duo combinations and one of them happened to have Pepper, which I've wanted for a long time! It's a beautiful dusky pinkish-red shade and the perfect MLBB shade. It has the signature creamy Bite Beauty formula and I love the way these duos feel on my lips. Unfortunately, the duo came with Fig, which is in the other duo I have, but luckily Fig looks gorgeous when topped with a pinky gloss!

Fresh Sugar Rose Ritual -- During holiday shopping season, I'm always excited to see Fresh's holiday gift sets. Since a full size of their lip balms are quite pricey at $22, getting a bunch of different colors and types of Fresh lip products in mini sizes is my favorite way to try Fresh. This year, they had quite a few awesome holiday sets to pick from. I ended up picking up one that had both a lip treatment and a lip balm, and was reasonably priced -- the Rose Ritual set was perfect. I love the wash of sheer red the lip balm gives me, and am super pumped to try out the Rose lip treatment counterpart, which is just a glossy version of their lip balm.

Tarte Fanciful Favorites Deluxe Discovery Set -- I bought this at the Sephora black friday sale. I'm a sucker for Tarte's Amazonian clay blushes and so I always pick up a set during the holidays to try out some new shades. The Tarte Amazonian Clay blushes blend so beautifully, are packaged well, and last all day on my cheeks. This one is a nice everyday matte (I believe) medium pinky rose shade that has the awesome Amazonian clay blush quality. The set also contains a sample of the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara that I have been dying to try and a small bottle of their Maracuja Oil.

Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask -- I believe this was a deluxe freebie Sephora was offering around the time I put in my online order. I decided to include this because it's one of the best face masks I have ever used and does an excellent job at cleansing my pores. Granted this is the only high end face mask I have tried, but honestly it's quite affordable for how well of a job it does. The deluxe sample I got was 1oz, which is very generous for a sample considering that the 1.7oz tube is $17! Hands down my favorite mask and I would encourage anyone, especially those with oilier skin, to try this awesome charcoal mask!

Lorac Pro Metal Palette -- I saved the best for last! Out of all the stuff I bought over the holidays, I'm most excited to try this palette. This is a permanent item, but it was discounted at 50% on Ulta over Black Friday I believe. Or it might have been after Christmas, I'm not entirely sure. I was skeptical on getting this palette at first because I've been buying way too many eyeshadows recently, but after I read some reviews on this palette, I knew I had to get it. I absolutely love metallic pressed shadows and this palette featured a lot of my favorite colors. I could definitely see myself wearing more than half of these shades on a regular basis. It has a rose gold, olive-gold, buttery golden, and a copper which are all amongst my favorite neutrals. I'm also excited to try out the grayish taupe shade and cobalt shade even though they are slightly more cool-toned! The quality on these shadows is AMAZING. Super buttery and richly pigmented, and very very metallic for all of us metal lovers out there. I loved the palette so much that I took a close-up of it below. Isn't it gorgeous? So excited to play with this baby in the next few weeks.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope everyone who ends up reading this post/blog had an absolutely wonderful holiday season this year. Even though Christmas may be over, there's still lots of holiday fun to be had with the sales and New Years celebrations coming up. In fact, I'm blasting the Michael Buble Christmas CD as I'm writing this post! Being a busy as I am, it's hard for me to carve out time to fully enjoy the holidays each year, but I try to do my best each year and spend quality time with as many friends and family as possible. I may not get to see, call, text, or hangout with all my friends regularly but I still try to send all my close friends a holiday card each year to keep in touch and let them know that I still care about them. For me, the holiday season isn't so much about getting as much as it is about giving, even if it's something as simple as a holiday card or a $10 personalized gift to my closest friend. It's honestly the thought that matters, at least for me, even if I get nothing in return. The fact that people have stuck around in my life as long as they have means a lot to me.

This year, as with all years, I had an absolute blast with my family. We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day we had a home cooked Indian lunch and just relaxed together in our den as a family. The highlight was the holiday quiz game my brother made for the family! It was a super fun and silly time! Today, we went up to Erie and had a nice lunch by the bay front area and then ate some cake and coffee at the Sheraton. On our way back, we stopped at the outlets, where my mom and I purchased a bunch of goodies from Bath & Body Works (their sale is legit SO good!). I also bought a ton of sweaters from Old Navy for only $38! Love that place.

As for the rest of the holiday break, I have a ton of projects planned. My biggest project is to reorganize my room at my parent's house. It's such a huge, cluttered mess that really needs to be redone even if I'm not going to be living here for a long time. And plus, the New Year makes me itch to redecorate and reorganize, so this is perfect! I also want to get organized in other ways including using a planner to organize my life and an expense tracker to budget myself better. Plus, I have some smaller projects like making some holiday brownies, getting my eyebrows done, thinking about my residency rank list, etc. Plus, packing for my trip to India and London that's coming up in a few short weeks. Lots and lots to blog about and hopefully I can continue my blogging spree until the New Year!

10 Things I'm Grateful For This Thanksgiving Season

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I spent an absolutely wonderful day with my family today -- especially considering this may be my last Thanksgiving at home for the next 3 years! Although it's easy to get caught up in all the Black Friday deals (which can save you a lot of money!), it's important to remember the true meaning of Thanksigiving. Stop and count your blessings. For so many years, I've spent the majority of Thanksgiving making sure everything's perfect, coordinating the food, rushing to make sure I have all the appropriate food ready, making sure my family's into the food preparation, making the table all pretty that I never really stopped to consider the true meaning of this holiday. It's not just about how delicious the food is or how many sides you have prepared. It's about spending time with family and being grateful for all you have, no matter how little it may be. Even if you only spend Thanksgiving with one or two other people or get the majority of your meal as takeout from Boston Market, the people you spend it with and the comfort you get around them is more important than anything else. And it's about thanking the good Lord for all that he has provided you -- the simple necessities and comforts of life that we often overlook. So this Thanksgiving, I thought I would write out all of my blessings and things I'm truly grateful for, not just today but throughout the year. Even though life has me down sometimes, I feel like I'm truly blessed to have such a wonderful life and God has provided me with so much more than I deserve.

1. A really amazing family who's incredibly caring, supportive, and always there for me through thick and thin.
2. Some really great friends, some new and some who have stuck with me through the years.
3. The ability to have gotten this far into my medical training with hopes for a prosperous future in a field as rewarding as pediatrics.
4. Getting a bunch of great interviews this application cycle despite all the hardships I had to face during medical school.
5. Living in a country full of opportunities, freedom, and resources.
6. Having the financial means to live a comfortable life.
7. Good health for myself and my family.
8. Experiencing the beautiful colors of fall and the cozy season of Christmas...and writing this post whilst drinking a steaming cup of hot cocoa!
9. My overwhelming stash of beauty goodies.
10. Our family's holiday traditions, as non-traditional as they may be!

Happy Holidays everyone. Here's to a wonderfully cozy, comforting holiday season ahead! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope all of you had an excellent day full of laughter, happiness, and joy. I spent the day with my wonderful family. I don't have a very large family, so it's usually just the four of us (my mom, dad, and brother). We had a yummy Christmas lunch, then went to the movies, and ended the day with Chinese food for dinner. All in all a very eclectic Christmas day to say the least!

Holiday Red Lips

It's almost Christmas and that means it's time for lights, food, festivities, family time, and of course lots of glitter and sparkle! This is definitely one of my favorite times of the year -- everything just feels so extra special and cozy! I love decorating, baking, relaxing, and sharing the joy of the season with family, friends, and neighbors. I didn't get to do too much fun stuff this holiday season since school went so late into December but I'm glad that I still got to enjoy some of the season with loved ones.

I wanted to dedicate this post to a bit of Christmas makeup, since this is definitely my favorite season for experimenting with different looks. I tend to go a tad overboard when it comes to buying holiday makeup, gifts, clothes, candles, etc. but it's just so irresistible with all the cute holiday stuff out there. One of the classic winter makeup trends is of course cherry-red lips and sparkling eyeshadow looks. I love love love trying out new eyeshadow looks, but one of the things I shy away from every single year are red lips. For some reason, I have no problem wearing green eyeliner or donning a shocking blue smokey eye, but when it comes to wearing vibrant shades of lipstick I always get really nervous and self-conscious. However, being the beauty addict I am, I still like to get my red-lip fix in during December and so, over the years, I've discovered the perfect solution for this problem -- sheer lip glosses!

The one pictured above is the Philosophy Tinsel Town Lip Shine (which I picked up last season, but I believe is no longer available). It's a gorgeous sheer berry-red lipgloss with tons of sparkle that is perfect for this time of the year. It gives my lips a wash of red color, but without going overboard to full-on red lipstick territory. There's tons of other sheer red glosses out there (some of my other sheer red favorites are Sephora's Glossy Gloss in Cocktail On The Beach and L'Oreal Le Gloss in Red Ravishing ) that are equally good for those of us afraid of venturing into the red-lipstick territory. Even when it comes to other "bam-in-your-face" lipsticks (hello plums, hot pinks, and corals), I recommend trying more toned-down versions of the colors in a lip-gloss or even a tinted lip balm format. That way, you can still enjoy the color without going fully opaque and flashy.

I hope you're all having a great Christmas Eve! Despite this holiday season being craaaazy, I'm still got to enjoy one of my favorite Christmas traditions -- our annual family trip to Oglebay, the most beautiful and cozy winter/holiday lodge!

Happy Holidays everyone! :)