Aztec Mexican Dance

The dancers with my two sweet girls.

Once I was in Cancun, Mexico and got a chance to see the Aztec fire dance. It is quite a dance, the mask, the costumes, the music are so native to Mexican culture. I really obsess with any native country costumes because of its character and cultural influence.

The Aztec Fire Dance is one of the most basic manifestations of the artistic and cultural spirit of the people of Mexico. It has been referred to as a form of prayer and a total way of life and communication.

The costumes are made of colorful embroidered cloth and animal skins often adorned with polished stones or mirrors and accessories made of shells or seed pods. Most impressive are the headdresses, made of feathers of pheasants, eagles or other birds.

The chants and movements are strung together with the sound of beating the drum made of wood and gourds tensed with animal skin, or the tongued hollow log drum, with its rich spirit touching vibrations. Blowing shells and playing along with reed and clay flutes, tambourines and rattles made of shells and seeds create a very unique native sound. Seed pods and metal bells are also worn around the ankles of the dancers and serve as instruments, sounding with every step of their dance .

Summer leather

Who would wear leather for summer? it’s too hot. But when I saw this top sometime ago, I thought this one would be ok to wear it in summer ;-) . It is sleeveless. In addition, the back of it is 100% stretch thin cotton, the front is cut-out, thin and extremely soft leather material. I love its texture, interesting, unique cut and it’s kind of like a modern cave-man outfit. This outfit is perfect for a wild night date with my husband. And I’m definitely wearing this top throught fall/winter with grey turtle neck underneath. I wore it with Alexander McQueen legging, Balmain boots.

Tiger face vintage cuff.

The back of the top is 100% stretched thin cotton.

Close-up front. It’s written on the top “Open your mind-Love Peace- Share Spirit”. This top is made by Share Spirit. Do you see a skull above “Love Peace”?. The necklace is Mellisa Joy Manning.

Wish you all have a lovely and peaceful day!!! big hugs….Hanh ;-)

Ps: From the last posts, I had on Rouge Allure -Imagination pink lip stick Chanel and orange lip was a mix of Imagination pink lip stick underneath orange Heat Wave NARS. I also just bought leather strings to plan to make a necklace and I hope it’ll come out good. So, I would share with you sometime soon.

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The finish line

Hi everyone,

Thank you very much everyone from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and support of my blog. I wish I have prizes for all of you but unfortunately I just have one Giving away Gift this time. I should have a Give away Gift every month because you all are such sweet supporters. And we had many many ties. Following the rules, we had a random pick for the winner. Now, allow me to announce the winner…Congratulations to Pret a`Porter PFinally, I’d like to post my awards and tags that I’ve received from the past month from fabulous bloggers. Thank you to Fashion Titbits for giving me the Lovely blog Award, thank you The Left Look for Kreativ blogger Award, thank you Karolina for Gold Medal of the Best Blog and San Francisco Stylephile for the tag with 6 things that make me happy. Also, the Kreativ Award requires that I post 7 things that are true about me. It’s so funny that I about to post this and I got message about giving me Award from Janetteria , thank you Janettaylor. It also requires to reveal 10 things about me. Here they are:

  1. I’m happy when I see my husband and my kids laugh.
  2. I’m happy when my big daughter tries to eat something new (she’s picky-eater).
  3. Can’t wait for my parents come here to visit.
  4. I suck at computer technique, but I learn fast.
  5. I never go to nail salon, I’m happy to do it myself at home.
  6. I’m not a good driver and very bad at direction.
  7. I just remembered that my memory is not as great as it was before. I’m forgetting thing easily now, LOL.
  8. I’m sensitive person but I try to conceal it. Yes, Janettaylor, I just like you on this one.
  9. I can handle hot summer very well.
  10. I sleep with my two girls on the weekend nights because I love to snuggle with them in the next mornings.

I wore sheer black 8 or 9 years old BCBG top, Emanuel Ungaro skirt, pony fur Givenchy shoes, Prada crocodile clutch.

I wish you all have a wonderful day!!!! hugs…Hanh ;-)
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La Vie en Rose

Black is classic, elegant, modern, chic, tough, timeless, an all year round color. I love black! I have many favorite black outfits and sometimes wearing color is very refreshing from the black. I definitely take advantage of summer to wear my colorful outfits. Pink is my favorite color since I was little girl until now. Wearing pink reminds me of my Innocent, carefree childhood. Wearing pink reminds me of my very first dance with my husband when we were on dating and it also became the first dance for our wedding’s day. ” La vie en Rose”.

I wore pink Lanvin dress, bought 2 years ago at Barney’s on nice sale and Guiseppe for Balmain shoes, F21 jews.

Thank you very much to all my fellow readers for taking time to visit my blog, and a special thank you to all who leave comments on my comment page or through email. I truly appreciate it. When I read your compliments with the details about why you love to visit my blog, I’ve truly gotten emotional with your honest and kind words. It touches my heart.

Many of you inspire me for my sense of style, my travel, yummy food, also as a woman to remind the other woman can be who they want, no limitation in sight. Inspire me as a mom, a wife, a family lady. I’m honored with your wonderful, kind compliments. For young readers who may still be in high school or college, who have been sending me comments about how I remind them to focus for their school, I’m very happy to hear that. I want my kids to do the same thing, focus on studying while you could play with your fashion when you have extra time on your weekend, holidays, long summer break. To me, life’s school is very important for us. It’s a foundation of our life and we just have one life to build it with your best. It doesn’t matter who you will be, what career you have: a doctor, engineer, a fashionista, or simply a mom; your foundation of knowledge is for you and your future’s family. And thank you again to all my fabulous readers, wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead!!! love….Hanh ;-)

ps: thank you everyone for giving me the ways to check number of visitors of my blog. I’ll check them out and let you know if I have any trouble ;-)

ps: the winner of Giving away Gift will be announced on the next post!

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Pony fur Givenchy

I agree that you don’t have to have expensive designer clothing to look fabulous!!. If you have time for searching, know how to choose a great piece of a cheaper line, pairing a right piece of jewelry and a pair of fabulous shoes, you can make yourself look fabulous anytime. And if you can afford expensive designer pieces, why not go for it? As long as you’re smart about what you buy, wait for the sale and watch your spending, set your goals. And most importantly, know your pocket and don’t go broke. It’s nice to mix low and high designers.
The other day, my big girl went to her friend’s birthday party. There were over 25 kids at the party, and each kid got $20 dollars to build a bear for the party favor goodies. I said “Wow, that’s a lot to spend $20 for 25 kids, how generous!”, my big girl asked me ” Are they rich?”. I answered ” Mommy doesn’t know, they maybe rich or maybe just generous”. “Are we rich?, mommy” she asked. And I told her that if you look up, there are many many more people who are richer than us, if you look down there are many many people who are poorer than us. So we’re thankful for what we have, except it and be happy with what we have, and my girl happily smiled. To me, this is positive thinking for everyone to apply into every angle of our life. I believe life depends on you, you’re the one to set your goals, to decide the right direction that you should go…but in life sometimes, there are somethings to leave to faith. Your destiny. I feel that I am lucky to have what I have, and I like to share with you in this blog as my journal. Thank you to my husband for everything, taking care of the family and for taking these pictures!
Pony fur Givenchy shoes, recently bought from final sale at Barney’s.
I wore F21 black tank and shorts.

Melissa Joy Manning tiger claw pendant necklace and The Woods moon pendant necklace. I wore F21 yellow mini dress, crocodile Prada clutch.

Thank you everyone for entering the Giving Away Gift and thank you to you all for visiting my blog. I’ve also noticed that many of you have been following my blog for a long time and you left comments for the first time. I truly appreciate your time. Until today, I didn’t know how to check and see how many visitors visited my blog. If someone out there knows how, teach me how, please. Amee-She Plays Dress Up, taught me once through Freeonlineusers.com, but for some reason it doesn’t work for me. I hope you all have a fabulous day!!! Hugs… Hanh ;-)

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Giving away Gift

Hi my fabulous fellow readers,

I take this Giving away Gift as a opportunity to say thank you to you all for your kind compliments and continuing support for my blog. You simply leave your comment on my comment page on this post and the next two posts. Please also give a reason why you love to visit this blog with your first comment. The winner is the one who has the most comment counts and will be announced later, the prize being a $75 gift card at your choice of store. If we have a tie, it’ll be a random pick for the winner. They will be counted as 1 comment per reader in each post. Have fun and good luck to you all!!!!

Many of you already understand my style. I like to change my look from elegant but edgy, glam rock but classic, feminine with tough touch and sexy but not too revealings. To me, fashion is a kind of living art, changing the look is fun and playful. It also gives you more chances to play with your fashion sense, more of an opportunity to experiment . It’s not just for these reasons my look is always different but also there is another reason: I’ve gotten it from my marriage life experiences.

When you’re in a long relationship, such as married life, you would want to stimulate your relationship, stimulate your partner to keep your relationship exciting and fresh. There are many ways to do that. Changing your look is one of the ways. When I’m going out with my husband, I give him a surprise about my look. He has no expectation of how I would look like; elegant or punk chic, classic or modern sexy chic. I give him a different feeling every time, the feeling of going out with a different chick but actually it’s the same me, the one who he has been falling in love with and married me for who I am. I can tell he likes that. All men like us teasing them, giving them an exciting feeling, I think… Of course, I give him my signature look, the one look is simple tee with no make-up and a ponytail when I take care of my kids or in the kitchen. That’s my philosophy. I hope you enjoy it!!!

I wore CdG sheer top, Balenciaga skirt bought last year on sale at Carlo Martinengo, a boutique store in Dallas, Steve madden shoes.

Alaia clutch, recently bought on big sale at Barney’s, necklace is Janis by Janis Savitt.

I hope you all have a happy day! hugs…from Hanh ;-)

Ps: This post will open 3 days until to next post will be on Friday morning (Dallas’s time)

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Santa Barbara Flashback

When it gets hot here in Dallas, we always think about going somewhere else that has cooler climate in summer to escape the heat, maybe some place in California. This makes me recall the big family vacation trip in Santa Barbara, about five years ago. It was a great trip, full of sweet memories. Santa Barbara is a year round tourist destination renowned for its fair weather, down town beaches and Spanish architecture.

I post this also because I miss my parents very much. They’ve been back in Vietnam over one year now, and I just booked tickets for them to come here the first week of September for visiting. I’m happy and can’t wait to see them again. So, we could have another great big family vacation again. The last time was three years ago in St John.

My parents are my husband and my inspiration for marriage and life. My father is 83 years old now and my mom is 74 years old, they still love each other as their old days..their life is about helping and charity to poor people. I’ve been taught to do so. Luckily, I met my husband who also loves to do charity, and we’ve been involved with many charities here and in my country too. My father, a sweet and protective man. Family breakfast. From left to right: bother#2,father, brother’s wife, oldest sister and my back. My kids, the baby was 1o months old, the big girl was close to 3 years old. Me, a tired mommy with messy hair-no make up. And my brother#3 who lives in California. Taichi master, my brother#2. My brother who is older, the one born before me, had a long walk for morning exercise.In this picture is Mimi, a family friend, came along on the trip. I love this outdoor staircase that she stood on. Santa Barbara street scene (from Google). I’m sorry that I don’t have many pictures of the city to share. We took a lot family’s pictures on that trip. I promise, I’ll take a lot more city pictures when I have a chance to go back there and share with you guys. Studded Outfit

Hot summer in Dallas, I wore Balenciaga studded tank, F21 shorts. Barney’s Co-op studded boots. You maybe already see these boots in the post called “Traveling through Shoes River” June edition, but for the first time I post the boots with me wearing them. Wishing you all a happy day!!!xoxo..Hanh,

Ps: Please, stay tuned for GIVING AWAY GIFT coming next post!!!

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Summer White Jeans and Dessert

Summer White Jeans

Let’s talk about white jeans. In summer, if I ever wear jeans, especially skinny jeans, I would prefer to wear white more than dark jeans because they look good under the summer sun. This is my first time to have a good pair of white skinny jeans. I was cheap before and I just have one pair of white skinny jeans from Hollister that I bought four or five years ago ( although, I had a good pairs of white in 7 For All Mankind but wide legs). I’m very glad to have gotten this EVER jeans at Barney’s on sale from $252 down to $74. I’m also happy with the way they fit and feel comfy like legging. I don’t wear jeans often for some reason but when I do, I definitely enjoy it. I wore with Tao light weight jacket/shrug, Helmut Lang white tank, MMMargiela cowboy boots. Maybe you can tell that I’ve been enjoying wearing these boots lately. Whenever I’ve had them on, I feel like a fancy cowgirl with a eccentric twist on Margiela.

MMMargiela necklace.
Summer Banana desert
The weather is getting hot here in Texas. It makes me recall my life in Vietnam, with the hot tropical climate. I used to go to the open-air market to eat banana desserts, like grilled banana with sauted green onion ( it sounds bizarre, right? but it’s so good), banana tempura, banana with coconut milk, banana ice-cream, etc… I love to eat anything cooked with banana. When I cook at home, I usually cook food in a traditional way, but sometimes I love to make up my own recipe. When I do, I love to make it an east meets west style. And here are my own east meets west banana desserts.
Grilled banana with pastry sheet and maple syrup.
First, you bake the pastry sheet and grill the banana in different ovens until it looks golden brown. Then, you alternately layer them with maple syrup, top with sauted green onion in peanut oil, roasted peanut and coconut milk. To cook the canned coconut milk, you mix it well with little salt, little tapioca flour and boil. This dessert has a complex taste of sweet, a little salty, creamy coconut milk and peanut.

Banana with vanilla Oreo ice-cream cake.This one is much easier to prepare. You just grill banana in the oven until it’s golden brown. Then, you layer it with vanilla Oreo cookie ice-cream cake ( you could use different ice-cream flavor but I think vanilla goes best with banana, so it won’t over power banana flavor). Finally, you top with cacao powder. The little touch of Oreo cookies and cacao powder do not overpower the banana flavor but give your mouth a nice blending taste. Enjoy your summer dessert!! Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend !!!! Hugs…Hanh ;-) ps: you might try to make banana dessert on this weekend with your family and friends and when you buy banana, you choose the ripe one is better for sweetness…xoxo..!

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Powerful of Rick Owens

Rick Owens is my all time A list designers. I deeply love his line. He is well known for using many different materials in one piece. His look has been described as ” glamour meet grunge”. It is sweet but kind of creepy, tough but soften feeling. It’s about an elegance being tinged with a bit of the barbaric, and luxury of not caring.

I wore Rick Owens skirt. I bought it at RO boutique in Paris from last trip, was 50% off. I wore with my favorite AA body suit, Burberry pumps. My favorite F21 silver cuffs.

On the run way.
This picture was taken at RO boutique in Palais Royal, in Paris. This wax sculpture was made exactly the same his size of every inches, told by Barbara who is store manager. Rick Owens was born 1962 in central California, an American fashion designer who moved his studio from Los Angeles to Paris and live there. The opening of his first shop in the Palais Royal, in Paris and has exclusive fur collection. The second store is in New York’s Tribeca and he also has flagship one in London. Moving forward, a Tokyo store seems to be on the horizon as well for the talented designer.
Thank you very much my fellow readers for your sweet comment and continuing support. And I wish you all have a fabulous day!!!!kisses…Hanh ;-)
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The Skirt

I wore Tao by CdG top over F21 tank, DIY skirt, MMMargiela cow boy boots.

I made this skirt sometime long ago. Every time, I wear it and I need three pins to make it happen. I just need to add buttons but I never do for some reason. I never have sewing lesson but I love to sew and sometimes make clothing for me and my kids. I just do it. Anyway, this is the direction. This skirt has two layers and three sheer pieces of fabric.

The first inside layer needs 1 and 1/2 yards ( it depends on your waist if it needs more or less fabric). You measure your length and cut unnecessary fabric away ( make sure you have some fabric for a hem). You gather fabric at your waist like in the pic. At the seam, do not sew all the way up, and leave a few inches open, so you can add buttons and it can go through your hip.
The second layer is the outer layer. You need about 2 and 1/2 yards ( again, it depends on your waist and fullness of the skirt to tell if you need more or less fabric). For me, I fold fabric three times. Then gather at the waist line. This layer does not need to go all around like in the pic.
For the third piece of fabric, you need 1 and 1/2 yards. You fold it two times. This time, you gather two ends of the length. Now, you sew one end into the front waist of the outer layer, as you see the outer layer in the pic above, and the other end into back waist of the outer layer to complete your waist line. You need buttons here to attach it together at the waist. This piece hangs like in the pic.
Now, it needs another button to attach it into your waist line.
The skirt.
You could wear it with belt.
I hope my directions make sense and the pictures will help. Wishing you all have a fantastic day!!
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Le Crocodile

Last month, when we were on a trip to France, we had a chance to dine at Le Crocodile in Strasbourg, France. The restaurant has three Michelin stars. It’s about the equivalent of five stars here in America. The food is absolutely delicious with beautiful aromas. Their goose pate is creamy and has a fresh taste that melts in your mouth like pate ice cream. My favorite dish was frog legs with watercress sorbet, wow..so beautiful!. Fresh prawn with cappuccino form is delicate dish, it has great blending of the prawn and cappuccino form taste, it’s also my favorite dish. I love prawn. Branzini with white truffe..wow..has marvelous fresh white summer truffle fragrant. The last dish cooked perfect but less interesting of all. What a experience to dine there, in France. I really miss that trip!!

Goose pate. Frog legs with watercress sorbet.Fresh prawns with cappuccino form. Branzini with white truffle form. Sea bass with wild mushroom, potato puree. These pictures were taken in Strasbourg. I wore Comme de Garcons black dress, Rick Owens boots for diner at Le Crocodile. The dress has a interesting structure and its bottom is sheer material. Wish you all have a relaxing weekend!!! Hugs…from Hanh.

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