Lucky #13

January 13, 2013 Nina Penalosa5 Comments

outfit details – fox pullover: Sweater Project // skirt: Vera Wang – Princess (buy here) // boots: Blowfish (buy here) // glasses: Derek Cardigan (buy here) // peter pan collar necklace: M Style (Macy’s) // watch: Timex x Disney

I feel like I’m sooo behind on my blog posts. Actually, I am behind.

Case in point: I went to the Winchester Mystery House a couple days before Christmas with Tim and his cousin Sarah from Ohio and I never got around to blogging about it because I was too caught up in Christmas festivities. Legit excuse? So instead of blogging about my birthday trip to the zoo (which happened yesterday) I’ll go ahead and talk about the Winchester Mystery House since today is the 13th day of the year ~~and the 13th year of the 21st century~~! <– 21st century started in 2001, my bad.

How is this even relevant to the Winchester Mystery House? Well, Sarah Winchester, the woman responsible for the beautiful yet eerily funky Victorian mansion was overly superstitious and obsessed with the number 13. There are many cases where a room has 13 windows, or 13 of… whatever.

Because of copyright issues, we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside of the house (although people have because I totally saw some pics of the interior from users on Instagram. Tsk!), but we were allowed to take photos of the garden and whatnot. It’s a shame that visitors aren’t allowed to take pictures inside because they decorated each room with beautifully ornate Christmas trees! Oh, and it would’ve been a crazy amazing photo op to do for a Downton Abbey-esque outfit picture!

I’ve been wanting to visit the Winchester Mystery House for quite sometime as I’ve always seen it on the Travel Channel. The house was constantly under construction for 38 years until Sarah Winchester died. As I said before, Winchester was overly superstitious and she built the house because the spirits of those who had been killed by the rifles of her late husband’s company (Winchester Rifle) told her she needed to build a house but never complete it. The mansion’s full of strange oddities with staircases leading to nowhere, cupboards that are an inch or two deep, low-rise and confined staircases that zig-zag, and a door that leads to a good neck-breaking drop (pictured above and below) just to name a few things.

Another thing about this place is that there have been many reports of paranormal activity! As a self professed “scare-dy cat” I was kind of hoping to see a ghost or feel something… because I’m just weird like that. We also added on to do the basement tour and our guide said that guests have reported seeing a ghost down there. I didn’t see anything!

But what made the tour for me was the fact that our tour guide for the interior part of the house was a Whovian (Doctor Who fan, in case you didn’t know)! As we made our way down a sketchy hallway he warned us to beware of any minotaur that might be lurking and that totally made me think of “The God Complex” from season 6. As I walked down the hall I said, “I should’ve brought my Sonic Screwdriver” to which he said “That would have been helpful.” OMG. My nerd heart sang. It’s so fun to find other Whovians, we’re kind of like unicorns y’know? He even asked if anyone went by the name Alonso and proceeded to say, “Allon-sy Alonso!” and mentioned something about the Sonic Screwdriver not having a wood setting. A lot of people in our group were muttering “I don’t get it” but I was jumping up and down because I couldn’t contain my excitement about the Doctor Who-ness that was happening! Tim asked him if we had to be wary of the statues outside in case of a Weeping Angel attack. The tour guide’s face totally lit up. It was such a fabulous nerdtastic moment!

I definitely want to go back during Halloween because they do these flashlight tours at night and everyone wears headphones and the tour ends in the seance room! I have no idea why I want to scare myself like that. I don’t even like scary movies. o,0

Cheers,
Nina

geek style

Bah-Ram-Ewe

December 3, 2012 Nina Penalosa7 Comments

I’ve been lusting after this burgundy pullover featuring an adorable flock of sheep from Madewell for quite a few months now, but at $108 it’s beyond too pricey for me. *cries infinite tears of sadness* 😦

So I thought I’d ~~go ahead and torture myself~~ have some fun and create an outfit based around it along with the Lesportsac x Manoush purse and Blowfish booties I’ve also been drooling over.

Here’s what I came up with:

Bah-Ram-Ewe by chezfancypants featuring a bangle bracelet

~~OH MY GOD, WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?~~

Cheers,
Nina

bloop · geek style

What’s in a Meme?

September 21, 2011 Nina Penalosa2 Comments

This meme is floating about, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Also, I wore this outfit yesterday and when I was walking to my car in the school parking lot, some random dude said, “You look very cute today.” 😀

A. Age: 25
B. Bed size: Does my futon count as a bed? When it’s spread out, it’s full-size.
C. Chore that you hate: Washing dishes. The way your hands smell afterwards is disgusting.
D. Dogs: Rory! I’m bringing him home this weekend. 😀
E. Essential start to your day: Bowl of cereal and checking my email.
F. Favorite color: Purple.
G. Gold or Silver: I’ve been leaning towards gold a lot these days.
H. Height: 5’4
I. Instruments you play: Kazoo.
J. Job title: Blogger.
K. Kids: Nada.
L. Live: Stockton, CA
M. Mother’s name: Carmel.
N. Nicknames: Ni, Ninner, Neener, Mocha Bear (MB), Ninamus Prime.
O. Overnight hospital stays: Nope!
P. Pet peeves: Incorrect grammar. I can tolerate interweb jargon, but if you don’t know the meaning of their, there, and they’re, or the difference between your and you’re… *shakes fist*
Q. Quote from a movie: “I’m gonna go pee due to boredom.” – Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
R. Right or left handed: Right handed.
S. Siblings: An older seester.
U. Underwear: Y U NEED TO KNOW?
V. Vegetable you hate: I’m actually not sure. Cauliflower and brussels sprouts scare me a bit though.
W. What makes you run late: Constantly changing outfits. I usually have idea of what I want to wear the night before, but sometimes things don’t go as planned.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Dental stuff and my tummy.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Scrambled eggs with cheese. o,0
Z. Zoo animal: Giraffes. I want to feed one someday.

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outfit details:

shirt/skirt/beanie: H&M
belt: Target
shoes: Blowfish
necklace: Disney Couture
purse: Kate Spade

geek style · out & about

The Great Indoors

September 13, 2011 Nina PenalosaLeave a comment

Today I hung out with my friend, Marquis, who I haven’t seen in a very, very long time, and who I’ve known for a very, very long time (we met in 7th grade which was damn near 12-13 years ago). We drove a few towns over to Manteca to eat at Red Robbins since the one in Stockton shut down a few years ago. Plus there’s really not a whole lot to do in Stockton. We have two malls, both are only one-story and they are right across the street from each other. Isn’t that sad? We eventually ended up going to one of them though. o___0

I saw that the Bass Pro Shop was right across the street from Red Robbins and I was like, “OH MY GOD, CAN WE GO?” That store is like Disneyland for those with a great love for fishing, camping, and hunting. I love none of the former, though I’m interested in going camping again one day, but I went to the one in Rancho Cucamonga last year and I was pretty amused. Did you know you can sit in the boats they have inside? And yes, that store is big enough to hold multiple boats. The store also sells clothes, shoes, jewelry, toys, and it even has an archery range, a couple of shooting arcades, and a fudge shoppe and delicious licorice… and now I’m wondering why I left empty handed.

While there, I noticed that parts of my outfit kind of fit in with the store — my plaid shirt and compass necklace. I would never go explore the outdoors in ballet flats. x__x

The entrance to the store is decorated with antlers and two taxidermy Bambis, which I think looks cool, but at the same time I’m like, “Holy sh!t, Bambi and his friends died for this!” I know deer are overpopulated and have ticks and carry Lyme disease and whatever, but it’s still sad. And the store is basically a menagerie of stuffed animals, so if you can’t handle that kind of stuff, you probably shouldn’t check out the store.

Random Nina fact: Deers rank among my top 5 favorite animals.

Puppies
Ponies
Deer
Pandas
Penguins <– #5 is sometimes switched between tigers and otters

Anywho, I found a couple of interesting BBQ sauces at the Bass Pro Shop too:

Why didn’t I buy them???

So, this store was basically the highlight of mine and Marquis’ reunion. Afterwards we headed the mall in Stockton so he could return some shoes, and he had to wait for me while I looked around Forever 21. Haha! We thought about going to watch a movie, but nothing interesting is out right now, so we went to Toys ‘R Us (my suggestion, naturally) and TJ Maxx (also my suggestion). I found a cute bone-shaped houndstooth printed doggy poo bag dispenser for $4! If I’m going to start picking up dog crap, I might as well do it in style.

So yeah… that was my day! 🙂

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outfit details