Cinnamon Wren

Belatedly Posting Girl

2011-08-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!
Long time, no see! I have been a terrible blogger, but I have some good excuses: jury duty, barbeques, our apartment got robbed! Not to mention major friend time, getting ready for school, work drama and oh yeah...the weather is so nice!

So on to the important stuff: summer is all about throwing on a dress, accessories and sandals!
Layering only gets you bonus points, but lets save it for the fall and just embrace the simplicity of summer!

I will be honest, I am a sucker for any clothing design that has some special-ness to the back and normally I wouldn't be interested in a dress with this print! I threw on a hunter green belt to give some definition even though there is no green whatsoever to this dress....

My guy so cutely encouraged me to "wear a ribbon" over the waist to cover up the elastic...its great when someone you love gives you suggestions!

I thought the tribal-esque pattern on the wedges paired nicely with the simple pattern on the dress, which makes me love this dress even more.
Note to self, an overly simple pattern can be interpreted as geometric, or tribal, or even floral, making it way more versatile!

I have lots more to share with you guys, I have sooo much to catch you up on!
I will keep you in touch with what happens at Fashion School this fall....
I always put up tons of new vintage/handmade jewelry on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/cinnamonwren
Check it out when you get a chance!

How To Dress Warm (Skirt Version)

2011-02-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

Hello! I wanted to make a tutorial on how to dress super warm during the cold months. I love snow and being all snug and warm indoors while a snowstorm rages outside. I even love driving in the snow.
The weather in Manhattan is extreme-arctic winters and scalding summers. I always feel cold, so trying new ways to stay warm in the cold are important to me. And if you learn something new to do, then thats even better!

And winter is my favorite time to take photographs. The subtle changes in the color of snow, the glitter of diamonds when the sun hits the ice...so delicate and beautiful!

I am really addicted to boiled wool sweaters. I find them mostly at Anthropologie-they are warm, but thin. With boiled wool, you can be warm but not feel as though you are a walking bundle of layers who must waddle instead of walk.

You know how you sometimes button up a sweater wrong? With this sweater, you can button it pretty much anyway you want, and you look avant garde instead of a person who cannot button up four buttons correctly.

P.S. I am totally one of those people who has to check very carefully when buttons are involved; I will do it wrong half the time, every time.

I found this jacket at Goodwill, and I don't know if it is meant to be a winter jacket but I wear it anyway.
This was my first time doubling up on tights, I really thought that if you wore two pairs of tights, it would be very uncomfortable, but not so! I also layered knee high socks with the tights, as well. I think you could wear tall boots if you didn't want to have crazy looking legs like I do here.Its most important keep the legs warm if you are wearing a skirt in the winter; it is a good idea to double up on the tights, or wear a pair of tights with knee high/thigh high socks. It is fine to wear tights that are different weights too, and remember that thicker is not always better. Plus, wearing two thick tights might not be as comfortable. If you do not own sweater tights, I recommend them, they feel very nice on the legs and are super stretchy! H&M has a pretty good range of different types of tights-if you don't know much about tights, go and check it out!

Oh, right! This is supposed to be teaching something here. I tried to take pictures showing the layering process, but they didn't turn out so well. Foggy lens, I think. I love this necklace. But if you love it more, you can find it on my etsy shop. The whistle really makes it one of a kind.For your top half, layers layers layers!
And make most of those layers THIN. You will think that thicker layers will keep you warmer, but they will actually make you sweaty and uncomfortable. You need some sort of ventilation.

Start with a camisole, silk is fantastically warm. Or a tank top. If you like, you can wear a blouse or top over that. A thin sweater or cardigan over that is optional. Or, you can complete the outfit with something thicker, like a thicker sweater or blazer. Its really up to you! Experiment! In this outfit, I did a cami, a thin sweater, and then the boiled wool sweater. It was plenty warm!

Its a good idea to make sure your boots or shoes have some kind of insulation sole so there's not just a thin rubber sole between your stockinged feet and ice. Think about it, when you get cold, the first place you feel it are your head, feet and hands!

Next I would like to do a tutorial on dressing warm when wearing pants. Possibly jeans, because even though denim is thicker, its definitely not the warmest fabric in the winter.

Shower Girl

2011-02-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

I never realized it until now but...

Buuut this sweater makes me look like a monarch caterpillar!

Its uncanny, right?
At least my shoes are fabulous.

I got one of these bracelets for my sister, too. They're supposed to protect you from evil, because the design kinda looks like an eye. My mom found this ring for me at a garage sale.

I was really proud to thrift this skirt. Its very good quality and its from J.Crew! I always wanted to be able to get things from there, the designs are always so classy. I snatched this up right away, even though it has some wear on it. I love the color, and the bow!

Maybe I ruin it all by wearing a knit cap buuut its cold! I wear hats inside, until its summer!

Now that I've thought of the caterpillar thing, I keep seeing it.

So my friend is having a baby soon! I said that I would do the baby shower, even though I have never been to one and have no idea what it all entails. The books and websites on baby showers are disappointing, but I really love checking out this website, http://www.hostessblog.com/ to get inspired!

My favorite part so far has been gathering things to make centerpieces like this, and to come up with a menu!

The theme that I've come up with is Bean-themed, which sounds dumb, but my friend and her husband call their baby Bean so I thought I could make it the theme of the baby shower. So, obviously there will be many jelly beans at this thing. I even...made coasters using beans....

What do you think? Are these coasters too silly looking to use?
I thought maybe I could sell them on etsy after the shower, and use the money to start a college fund for the baby Bean.
What do you all think?? Would you buy these off etsy, if it was to help a baby have some money?

SwallowTail Girl

2011-02-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

FIT has this system where you can see all the materials that you've sent in...I went "Yeeeeee!" when I saw that FIT had not only received my portfolio, but already has reviewed it!!
I should not stake all my hopes on getting accepted...but I think I have, more than I meant to.

The weather has been crappy, by which I mean cold and wet. I don't mind so much snow! Its just...the cold. My friend's mother-in-law moved in downstairs this past weekend, and we had a huge moving party, where we moved her in and made about 6 different kinds of pizzas. We talked for hours, eating and unwrapping dishes until the late hours.
Our new neighbor is named Nicora, and she is the coolest, most beautiful woman ever. She is an artist who makes just gorgeous pastel pictures and paintings. All her furniture is antique and amazing. She has this desk that is from the Civil War.

I really love boiled wool sweaters. They're thin, but very warm. This one in particular I love because it has a swallowtail pleat sort of back.
I don't know if its kosher to wear wide leg pants with it, but I did it anyway.

I love the little frilled plaid hem on the bottom.

I also adore the rows of buttons on the trousers along with the buttons on the sweater.

I have really been digging the f21 shoes designs of late. They allow you to try a certain kind of shoe, like this desert shoe, without having to spend a bunch. I feel worried that the Manhattan streets eat the shoes up very quickly, but its all good.

I need to paint my nails soon.

Adore plaid with stripes!! <3 I pinned this navy brooch onto the sweater. Moss green and navy make for a great combo, as it turns out.

I just love the lines of this sweater/blazer. Its so unique.

My friend Ren sent me this great stuff! These are the perfect gifts that really exude her personality.

An edible moustache disguise? Count me in!

It just makes my day when I get something from friends! It could be a little tiny thing but its makes me happy for weeks! Its just like when I get comments here on this blog...such a small thing, but the thought behind it is appreciate so much!

Belated Holiday Goodness

2011-01-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to post some of my favorite Holiday pictures!
As per my favorite Christmas tradition, I went to Fifth Avenue and looked at all the Holiday window displays-Bergdorf Goodman being my all-time favorite.

.....you can see why, right?
I would suggest not doing this on Christmas Eve-it was super crowded, and by the time I wandered down to Rockefeller, it was more crowded than I have ever seen.

The outfits are just gorgeous!

I would willingly give my right arm to be able to work on these window displays. Also some toes.

The Van Cleef & Arpels displays played a little melody that sounded like something from Danny Elfman. It was magical.
The Henri Bendel displays decided to go with a Black Swan theme, and strung up some ballerinas. I was both amused and disturbed.

Anthropologie had the most delightful windows, I was surprised by just how delightful. They really played with scale, from pine cones with tiny houses all cozily lit and giant pines with dining rooms all set up amongst the roots.

And best of all.......Santa on a vespa.
Okaaaaaaaaaay!
That is it! Next time will be an outfit post, for sure! Promise!

Holiday Pictures

2011-01-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

Every time I want to do outfit pictures outdoors, the weather is terrible! Its this awful kind of rain today, that turns the streets to ice. Ugh! I know this is woefully behind, but here are some holiday pictures!
Way back to....November. Hehehe!
This is me cooking for Thanksgiving, in my beloved herringbone trousers!

I discovered that having fresh cut flowers is such a nice thing to have in your own home. I'm resolved to try to have them, not just for holidays! I heard tell that in Manhattan there is a flower district, and that the fresh flowers come in at 2 a.m. and THAT is when florists swarm and get the best picks. I think it would be cool one night to hang out at a bar until 2 a.m. and then get the best flowers!

We went to a holiday party at this awesome Brownstone near Union Square. I've never been in one of those houses before-they are very narrow, and beautiful, and have many floors. If you have ever seen "The Devil Wears Prada", a Brownstone is the house that Miranda lives in.

It was a fancy sort of party to me because they had a bartender that served you drinks.
I really loved the kitchen, because it was HUGE. It had two ovens and like six stovetop burners.

I tried my hardest to be outgoing and I found a new friend who is awesome! She likes British shows like I do, so it was really a great party.

For Christmas I catsat. Catsitting. Sat on cats. Whatever you call it!
Whenever some friends go upstate, I watch their two cats, Hopper and Vincent.
They really loved the tree and would sit under it, and Hopper loved to perch on top of a boxed gift.
The day after Christmas, there was the huge snowstorm. I have never seen so much snow in NYC!

This is what the storm did to our windows!

This is what my neighborhood looked like. Our street was not paved...it was crazy to see cars trying to drive down them.

Sorry if this was a boring post, the weather has postponed lovely outfit pictures!
Stay tuned!

Applied Girl

2011-01-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

Well, hello beautiful bloggers! Well today is the last day of my pseudo vacation...and even though I didn't do as much as I had imagined...(I always imagine that on my vacation I will wake up at 7 a.m., do yoga, eat a nutritious breakfast, get projects done, work on my writing, jewelry, sewing, etc.).
Anyway! I'm not beating myself up for my not using the time the way I had thought I would.
Buuuuuuuuut I DID finally send in my portfolio to FIT!
As promised, I will show you guys some things from it.

Be gentle, my friends! Hahaha

These are designs that I wish I could see out there...designs that I would love to wear...

During the making of these, I realized: I am obsessed with herringbone, I love exposed seams and cutouts and I feel that the back of a design is just as important as the front of it and should be just as interesting.

For me, the part of the portfolio that was the most challenging was when I had to make garments from scratch. I mean, I definitely use my sewing machine often ,but its usually to hem pants or to take in the sides of a top!
Its pretty easy to come up with a simple design like this one, above. Its basically a tank top with fabric from the front and back tying together at the waist. Easy, right? But its tough, the measurements, making sure its symmetrical, making sure it fits right at the waist, but flares enough for the hips, and hemming! So simple, but still so tough!
This was my favorite, I just really liked the different, unique collar. Why are collars so boring most of the time?? I think my style point of view is....why just have a boring, plain t-shirt when you could have a small detail in the shirt that makes you feel special? Why do you have to accessorize a shirt when it could be beautiful all on its own? But thats the great thing about fashion and style-everyone does it differently, everyone does what they like best, and no one is wrong!
I really fantasize about making clothing to sell on etsy...and thats my job, my career. Not going to happen, but a girl can dream, right?
Making these garments was a great challenge but I learned tons.

Pretzel Girl

2011-01-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

I have uploaded all the files for my FIT portfolio except for one part.
My goal is to upload the final part, and hence the entire portfolio by midnight tonight! Its taking a lot of courage...I think the reason it has taken me so long is that I psyche myself out...

After all, I'm applying to the Fashion Institute, FIT, of f-ing New York City. Thats huge. Its intimidating. What do they want?? What are they looking for? Is it me? Am I good enough?? I've been a coward, too scared to be like, HECK YEAH FIT would be lucky to have me! Which is how I made myself upload everything that I have already....

My sweety thought this outfit was soooo adorable.

The reason I wore it was because we had an eaten a huuuge meal with our friends the night before-salad and shrimp scampi and this kind of italian dish? It was like some kind of sauce-less, cheese-less pizza topped with onions. It was so delicious that I ate way more than I should have.

So it was a sweatshirt and a loose skirt, all the way. I don't normally dig clothing with writing on it, but the bow on the back of the sweatshirt sold me. Too cool for school.

I'm in love with these shoes. Unfortunately, the NYC pavement ate off about 1/8 of an inch of the heel the first day I wore them outside. Le sigh. I still love them!!

I always find it difficult to find a top to wear with this skirt...but then I was like, why match it?
Works for me!
I don't know if its because I haven't been wearing much makeup or because I've been working out, but my skin isn't breaking out so much. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay.

I also made pretzels recently. Its really fun! And they are sooooooooooo goooood. This is a close-up of yeast, isn't it neat-looking??

Pretzel dough ball!

Kneading the dough and forming the pretzels is the toughest part-I highly suggest that you never make pretzels on your own! Enlist a friend's help!

I was really fascinated by the boiling them part, for whatever reason. Eek, our oven is messy, sorry.

They're done!! Beautiful!

Next time, I would like to also make different kinds of pretzel dip! Mustard, cinnamon sugar, etc.

Outfit details:
top: f21
skirt: f21
shoes: f21

Wifi Girl

2011-01-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

So I am dangerously behind in my blogging. As Inigo Montoya says, "No, there is too much. Let me sum up. " A quiet Christmas, a quiet New Year. Snow like crazy. I joined a gym. I was going to go to LA to visit some friends, and it fell through...because of me. But I learned a life lesson, and will go later...maybe April!

An important thing to happen, which sounds small, is that we FINALLY got wifi in our apartment...I had been using my sweety's puter. So, whenever I wanted to blog, I would take pictures, upload it to his computer, then thumbdrive it over to my laptop if anything needed to be sized or photoshopped...and then thumbdrived back to his compy in order to put it up on blogspot. I think its why it took me so long to post...hopefully now I will blog more!

This week is supposedly a pseudo vacation for me since I didn't go to LA...though I still have my private client that I see at night...five nights a week. Bleah. I am mostly working on my FIT portfolio-which I should share here. SOON. As soon as I send it in to FIT! Though it would have been interesting to sort of get feedback through my blog first...oh well! Next time!

I wanted you all to congratulate me on not having stopped in to the New Urban Outfitters store right around the corner from me that opened up! But then today...I sorta stopped into Anthro to look at their headbands (I adore theirs)..and there was kind of this huge sale...I ended up buying some things....oh dear. Le sigh.

I think that maybe this tuck-your-scarf-into-your-vest maybe used to be a hit on the fashion internets, but I was only there for the belt-your sweater/cardigan phase, so I felt original in this outfit, even if I actually was not.

I love the proportions of a long sleeved dress with a knee hemline. There is something so great about it.
My friends introduced me to two new games-one is a board game and one is a PS3 game. I've been super tired ever since I started working out and so I was nodding off during the board game and then got super hyper during the PS3 game. But now I really want to buy a PS3 station just to play it. I usually stick to PC games, since I already have a computer.

I really adore this combination of graphic colors and patterns. Its houndstooth and some crazy kind of herringbone, correct?
While this jacket is nice, its somehow the least warm coat in the entire universe. Instead of deflecting wind, I think it sucks the cold air into itself. The wind makes a detour to funnel through the coat and my skin.
And it has a charming pregnant silhouette, none of which deter me from wearing said coat. Until now, I don't wear it now, its banished to the Fall Season from now on.

Outfit details:
shoes: anthro
socks: uo
tights: uo?
dress:h&m
scarf: thrifted
coat: free people
hat: uo

Slithery Girl

2010-12-30T10:58:00.000-08:00

So many pictures to share, so little time!

Here are a few shots of our chocolate fondue party....it was such a popular activity.

My sweety got a big brick of chocolate somewhere in Manhattan and hacked at it until it could be melted.

I gathered ladyfingers, oranges, apples, bananas, cherries, graham crackers, walnuts and marshmallows for us to dip in it.
I kept refilling the serving dishes and people kept eating it all up. We had about 12 people crammed around the table.

Then we all played Apples to Apples.

Since I have so many pictures to share, I am seriously backlogged in the outfit department, which is why you don't see any snow in this picture, and may not see snow in them for a while!

I haven't even been down to this park yet to see what it is like all covered in snow, whether the Sound is all ice....

This outfit is yet again one of the times where I decide to wear all my favorite things at once:

fur and blazer and vest and top and skirt and tights and socks and boots! If you dislike the slithery, reptilian fellows that come out and sleep on the warm stones then beware the photos coming after this one below!!

SORRY SORRY

He startled me and I hadn't seen him and I could feel him flicking his tongue out at me in distaste for disturbing his nap to take my silly photographs.

I am seriously considering getting a new camera.

The one I use is actually my sweety's...he went to college for photography, funnily enough.

Then why doesn't he take these photos???

Waaaaaaah I'm too embarrassed!!

I take them using a tripod...it takes all my courage.

Okay Okay I am definitely going to work on my FIT portfolio application now for REALS.

For RILLS REALLY.

outfit details:

hat: uo

top: target

vest: thrifted

jacket: anthro

fur: h&m

skirt: gap

tights/socks: dun remember!

boots: uo

What She Wore: Cinnamonwren

2010-12-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

This is a test.... ^___^!

Blizzard Girl

2010-12-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know what the weather is like near you, but! It has snowed like crazy in NYC! More snow than I've ever seen! It snowed all day and night...I was super happy, even though I had to go out in the blizzard to check on my friend's cats and to go to work.

Since it started snowing on sunday, no one wanted to shovel and also our neighborhood is small, so the streets were crazy! There were abandoned cars, and the only way for me to get anywhere I had to walk in the tire tracks in the street. For all the mayhem, I felt pretty gleeful.

While I still haven't done my Christmas shopping, haha, I did head out to Rockefeller and strolled up and down Fifth Avenue, looking at all the Window Displays, and saw the tree. It was Christmas Eve and super crowded, but I loved it.

I did, however, manage to work on a new necklace (its awesome) and made some earrings as gifts, so maybe...I'm not completely hopeless.

I am sorry to make you wait for pictures-I have been super stressed out with work and finishing up the FIT application...still working on it, am I? Yes...hehehe. I think I am worried and afraid of sending it in, afraid its not good enough...

Anyway, getting back to this outfit!

I decided to try something new and unexpected. Sometimes I see girls who wear camisoles and slips as dresses, and always look so chic and waifish. I wondered, can I pull off wearing lingerie as everyday?

Its always fun to wear sexy stuff under a big sweater but I wondered, could I be comfortable with pushing it further? I don't want to wear a corset or something and look all goth.

I have this sort of corset-y thing and I never wear it cuz guys don't care about that sort of thing so I decided to wear that.

I threw a big waffle knit sweater over it and wore it with herringbone shorts and tights. I thought it turned out pretty well, actually. I don't know about the fire engine red, this sort of thing may work out better when its boring black. It was a fun experiment.

I was concerned about my bosom poking out and getting cold, so I put a giant circle scarf over it.

Its hard to tell in these pix, but I tried a smoky eye. A plummy smoky eye. I even used the mascara to fill in my eyebrows! It was pretty striking. Its tough sometimes to do make up when your coloring is very light colored. I've always envied dark haired, brown eyed ladies that can wear black mascara. If I wear it, it looks too...its just too much. My friend Ren had super light hair. Like white blond, even her eyelashes. She complains about that too. Maybe its silly to think about it so much.

The great thing about this scarf is all the ways you can style it. As a scarf, as a hood, almost a cape.

This corset-y thing caught my eye because it has velvet filigree. I liked pairing it with the waffle textures, and the herringbones and feathery headband. I love all the textures in clothing.

I'm a little afraid to go out and take outdoor outfit pictures now, with all the snow and cold. The place where I usually go, its definitely covered in a foot of snow! I bet it looks really amazing.

I will try to blog again tomorrow with pictures of all the Holiday goodness!

It is worth waiting for!

outfit details:

shoes: kohls

tights: dont remember

shorts: f21

top: h&m

sweater: ae

scarf: h&m

SAD Girl

2010-12-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the poor bloggin' lately. I have been working on the portfolio to send in to FIT...its amazing how much time it takes. I'm about...80% done, I'm guessing.

My dad has SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. He moved down to Florida years ago because he really couldn't take the cold. He is miserable and sickish when the weather cools. I am beginning to think that I've had it too.

Its true that as the weather gets cooler, I feel so cold that I find it harder to function and I'm gloomier. I guess I just never thought that I might have it too. My sweety said he was reading an article in the New York Times that said that a good majority of people suffer from SAD to a certain extent.

Wikipedia says, "Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year, experience depressivesymptoms in the winter or, less frequently, in the summer,^[1] spring or autumn, repeatedly, year after year. The US National Library of Medicine notes that "some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up."

I feel really bad. I have really dropped the ball this year. I haven't sent out any Christmas cards, I haven't done any Christmas shopping. I think with work and school, and not having done any of my pre-Christmas traditions (visiting Rockefeller Center, scoping out the Bergdorf Goodman), I think my brain hasn't registered that it is the Holidays yet. I am planning to do these things before the end of the week, though!

I have been trying my best to keep active and stay social; my usual tendency is to stay in, stay bundled up and nap and nap. The SAD thing would explain why I have been napping so much.

So far we have hosted a chocolate fondue party, attended my Sweety's work Christmas party in this insane Brownstone and....what else. Hang outs with friends occasionally. I'm not into it as much, but my friends are really into watching Syracuse University games, and even attended an SU sports bar in the city. Most of them are from Syracuse.

This outfit is kinda...crazy, right. Striped top, striped pants, polka dot scarf. I really dig the hot pink lipstick, though. Makes you feel happy wearing it.

I thought at the time that it would look cool to pair a jacket with rows of buttons with pants that had rows of buttons. Now I'm not so sure, but thats what fun about style-trying new things out and finding out what you like!

Another crazy thing is that etsy sales are hopping! I'm almost thinking I should make things during the year and sell them only during December! Its makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that somewhere out there, something I've made is having adventures.

I wish it would snow more. As I dislike the cold, I adore the snow. Its so serene and peaceful, the way it twirls down. It has snowed a couple of times! I here from my mom in upstate NY that there's soooo much snow. I love everything about snow.

Check out these unicorn earrings! They really make me feel cheerful, how could they not? They're tiny unicorns!

I will try to update more, there are tons of photos to share!

outfit details:

headband: anthro

jacket: free people

scarf: modcloth

tops: thrifted

pants: thrifted

Flurry Bits

2010-12-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

While I do have outfit pictures, I noticed that I also just have lots of random photos that I take but haven't shared and don't see when I can fit them in naturally in a post. I have been really busy with work...I have this private client that I work with 5 days a week, and supposedly will be leaving in a week and I'm just...so ready for that. I have also been scrambling to assemble things for my application to FIT...did I tell you I applied?

I'm scared to death but willing to try...

Here is some pot du creme we made....

I love mangoes, so when they are in season, I look up recipes that include mangoes, including this mango mousse.

I think I just took a picture of this because I made some whipped cream and swirled it into a...I think this was a smoothie, possibly a milkshake. With blackberries. Or chocolate bits. I should label my photos better.

This was some tortelini from awhile back that I added some beet juice to-my friend's mother in law was visiting and made a tub of beet juice for some reason and she encouraged me to use it in my meals, so I added it to this to turn the pasta a lovely pink shade. It wasn't....bad. Maybe I should not have included this photo. It was just so different, I had to take a picture!

Here is a treat for you if you are still looking after the gross pink tortelini: I got some gorgeous coasters...

There are these strange, alien-looking seed pods from the trees here. They really fascinate me, I even preserved one in resin. But I thought collecting a bunch to keep in a bowl on the table would make a great centerpiece.

Every once in a while I try to take outfit pix at work:

These shoes make me feel like a pimp. They're comfy, they're grey, they have that brogue-y oxford-y detailing that I love but....I feel like a pimp, thats all.

Pictures taken at work mostly do not work; spas are not known for their bright lighting.

I thrifted this top and I know why they donated it; it has shrunk in the wash! Even I, whose every single top is way too long, is showing some of her fatty apron in this striped top! Avert your eyes!

None of this matches, I know. Its my typical I'm trying to look coordinated and cool but instead I will just throw together everything I love and its too bad if I look strange.

Terrarium update: I added some ferns and more varieties of moss and its doing beautifully!

I gave the moo cow an acorn top for a hat.

I found this kind of wool sock called SmartWool, and they are super comfy! Super thin somehow and I loooove the pattern. I don't normally wear socks that aren't knee highs but i made an exception for these beauts. They are definitely a good investment.

We have this candle sconce that has a giant magnifying glass hanging in front of it-at night, we like to play with the giant piece of glass to reflect images on the wall. Here we used the magnifying glass to reflect back an image of our lit candles. My sweety is better at it than me.

It looks so mysterious...

p.s. It is flurrying tiny little snow flakes in nyc!!

Birthday Hike

2010-11-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

Our friend Gareth had a birthday recently and his wife planned a great day for a bunch of us to celebrate it! We started off by visiting a local farm to have breakfast away from the bustling city.

Since it was so close to Halloween, there was a contest for costumes and there was an old man playing the banjo dressed up as Dracula. It was inside a barn but we sat near the potbelly stove.

It was good food and terribly corny fun.

When we were done eating, we all picked out pumpkins-the pregant ladies choosing pumpkins that matched the size of their bellies. After that, we went on a hike at a nearby state park.

We brought a ton of food and spread it out on rocks to eat near the water.

Our friend Erin has this amazing huge camera and he gets the credit for all these photos.

Out of the three, no four ladies there, I was the only one who is not pregnant! It was too cute to see these preggers ladies waddling up the hills. Me included, but waddling is how I get around in general. Here is a shot of me, so you can see my fabulous hiking ensemble.

This state park was amazing because the forest is made up of maybe 80% rhododendrons trees. We will definitely go back in the spring when they are in bloom!

This is me and Ian collecting walking sticks for those who want 'em.

This is maybe my favorite picture, because my Sweety is making the BEST face.

He is soooo charismatic.

We were full of food and skipping stones.

We look sort of epic here, no?

Maybe one of the rare times I am not making a squinty face....

Erin took maybe 200 pictures, many of the guys who have been friends for at least 10 years, so they really know how to ham it up and take great photos. I thought it might be odd to put up photos of people who...you know, don't love fashion as much as me...

This is the birthday guy and his wife, who is my fashion idol, even while pregg-O.

We depart the Rhododendron Forest for the next adventure....

Well Girl

2010-11-22T19:48:00.001-08:00

Yay! I'm mostly over my sickness and Thanksgiving is over! It was the best Thanksgiving yet-and it was my and my sweety's first Thanksgiving in our own home together!

Our system was that we combined our Thanksgiving with that of our neighbors, who are our close friends. We cooked the turkey, sweet mashed potatoes, german dark wheat stuffing, creamy corn, baked a couple loafs of bread and I made an upside down pear cake.

We ate appetizers down at their apartment, the dinner meal at our apartment, and dessert down at their apartment again. It was so beautiful. A brother took pictures so I only have a few pictures that I took. I will share them later this week.

I am still in recovery mode from the holiday and from my mom visiting. The day that I went to pick her up at the bus station, I couldn't find her. I was there for hours, she has no cell phone, she doesn't know her way around Port Authority, the subway, or NYC in general. I was there at 3pm and we didn't get home until 9 pm. I was a big mess. A big, tired, blotchy mess. All of us were, I think.

So on Sunday I literally laid on the couch for most of the day and napped. Naps are glorious.

The park where I usually take my outfit pictures also has this huge white marbled monument for WWII. Its not as far for me to walk and there is something really incredible about the way light hits it. Plus it makes for a good windbreaker.

Herringbone trousers plus white snakeskin-y peep toe flats? Yes, please.

This outfit is all about the white and greys. And it matches beautifully with the background, too, huh?

The amber and pearl necklace just looks so well with grey.

I like simple, easy makeup because I'm lazy. So what I do a lot of the time is just take a simple gold or copper eye shade and line the edges of my lashes with it, sometimes covering the whole eyelid.

Since I don't have the pix ready from Thanksgiving, here are some pix of a mango, strawberry and blueberry pie that I like to make.

Mango is really an ideal fruit to put in a pie. It doesnt fall apart but the tangy flavor goes well with anything you want in a pie-especially strawberries or blueberries. Plus the orange color is just really different and makes the pie seem really gourmet or exotic. Not to mention the taste! The texture! Mmmmmm!

I know Thanksgiving is barely just over, but now I'm thinking about Christmas, which is a great time to live in New York.

My favorite, favorite activity to do around Christmas time is to go look at the window displays at the Bergdorf Goodman store. They are the most elaborate, detailed and imaginative window dressings you have ever seen. I spend at least an hour looking and staring in admiration, taking dozens of photos.

So look forward to me taking pictures this year so you can see how amazing they are!

I found this video about all the time and effort it takes to do these windows, and it just got me excited for this year's displays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeRrIdOXVow&feature=player_embedded#!

Outfit details:

hat: uo

top: charlotte russe

necklaces: charlotte russe and f21

sweater: thrifted

pants: daffy's

shoes: old navy

Sick Girl Continues...

2010-11-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

So Day Ninety Hundred of Being Sick.

Not really, it just feels that way.

I was very very brave to take an outfit picture outside even though my nose was running like crazy and I couldnt breathe and I was very grumpy. Thats why I am making worse faces than usual.

I am wearing my DIY-tastic hand warmers yaaaaaaaaay. I have been struggling to clean the house and shop for groceries for Thanksgiving and do laundries and all sorts of fun things like that. Its even tougher when I'm whining and complaining to myself the whole time. I just hate being sick, and this particular flu doesnt let me eat or sleep so I feel half crazy and super grumpy.

I don't know how these city girl bloggers can take pix out on the street. I felt horribly awkward. There were a couple of women digging through garbage cans searching for cans and I was sure that I looked very vain and insane for not wearing a coat. I love taking pictures outside in Nature with no people around...

My lovely foyer...

I love these textures so much! Why is this writing underlined? I guess blogger thinks what I am saying is very important.

I made this ring!

I know that statement necklaces are all the rage but for some reason I found this delicate necklace in my jewelry box and have been wearing it constantly. It matches with everything!

Isn't it cool how this lawn shirt makes a cool shadowy tattoo on my bosom? Heck yeahs.

I can't tell whether these colors work or not. I think my color sense is pretty messed up right now, like when you can't smell anything when you're sick. Can I blame poor fashion decisions on my being sick?

Oh, pooh, I forgot to include a close up of my headband. Its a thin headband made of tiny black and white spotted feathers. Its awesome-sauce. I've never said that. Where'd I get that?

This is my 'i am feeling so tired and gross bleah' pose. Thanks for letting me lean on you, building.

Don't worry I am sure that I will be more witty and have better outfits/pictures soon. But since its so cold lately, I'm worried I won't be able to as much. But it WOULD be pretty neat to have a fashion shoot in the SNOW.

Outfit details:

shoes: uo

socks: can't remember

skirt: daffy's

belt: thrifted

top: uo

cardigan: f21

hand warmers: h&m

DIY: hand warmers

2010-11-21T13:08:00.000-08:00

Hey! So this is possibly the most lame DIY ever, but. I'm sick, I get bored and I start making things and taking pictures. Thats just how I roll.

I love arm warmers, leg warmers-pretty much anything that will keep me warm. Why not just like mittens or socks, you ask? I dunno. It started out as a childhood dislike of socks and went on from there somehow.

I wanted these from Free People but they're too expensive. So I made some instead.

DIY Go Time!!

1.Purchase some gloves! I found these at H&M for under $10. The Free People ones I like are $40, I think? So....yay I saved moneys!!

2. Figure out the length of them that you want. Do you want your hand warmers to just show the very tips of your fingers? Or do you want to lop off the fingers in their entirety like the pair from Free People? A good thing to think about also is, what kind of fabric are these gloves made of? If they are knit gloves, is the weave tight or loose? If its loose, it might become unravelled. In that case, don't cut the fingers too much, you may need to fold down the edges inside each finger and use fabric glue to make each finger have a hem. So no worries!

I wanted a length that was something in between...

3. You maybe don't want to wear the gloves as you are cutting the fingers off so...yeah.

It is a good idea to keep putting the glove on to make sure you don't just cut indiscriminately-if you just chop at it, when you put the glove on it might look odd, or be too short!

Since the fingers are different heights when you hold your hand up, you see that you may want the lengths of the fingers of your gloves to be different for each finger. Why cut off most of the pinky when I don't really use the pinky when I'm outside? It made more sense to me to not cut so much for that. But the thumb and the index finger I use to pull stuff out of my pocket and whatnot, so i chopped those glove fingas off like whoa.

4. When you're done with the first glove move on to the second one. This is the hardest part: making sure the other glove is identical. Unless you want to rock the asymmetrical look. I bet you could do it!

.....right, second glove! You can measure it this way. Snip, snip.

I could not for the life of me figure out how to take a picture of my own two hands except by making this weird hand warmer crab creature. I feel like when I am sick my brain doesn't work as well.

So, what to do with the chopped up bits from the glove??

Why, put on a puppet show, of course!!

Ta-daaaaaaaaaa!

Summer Girl in Winter

2010-11-16T08:19:00.001-08:00

You know how there are always articles in fashion magazines in the winter spouting, 'WEAR YOUR SUMMER CLOTHES IN THE WINTER-NOooo ITS NOT A STUPID IDEA!'

Well, today, since I'm feeling so bleah I thought I would try it out. I took out my ruffliest, summeriest dress and wore some sweater tights underneath and put a giant cableknit sweater over it and...its actually...super comfy! I wouldn't wear it in a blizzard, but maybe even in winter this could work. If you wore tall socks over the tights, and some tall boots...

I'm not sure how I feel about the belt. And I wish it weren't quite so match-tastic, but maroon and grey look super beautiful together.

After this, I'm heading to the doctor to make sure I don't have strep throat...last night i went on webMD and freaked myself out. I have a lot of the symptoms of it. I've never had it before, I'm strictly the ear infection type.

Oh! I never told you about the FIT visit. The whole thing took a couple of hours. But it was really great, and I usually hate stuff like that. The campus seemed small but fun and super cozy. They have great facilities and they even have a little boutique store where the students sell their work, and order stuff themselves to learn how thats done. I just really loved the intimate, friendly vibe. Afterwards I visited the FIT museum, which is free.

If you live in the NYC area, its just a fun little thing to visit if you're on the West side near 27 street.

Right now, the exhibit is about Japanese fashion, the deconstructionists, etc. So if you like Comme des Garcons, Jun Watanabe (i'm a horrible speller) and funky Japanese street style, you should definitely check it out! I looooove Japanese culture, so I was in heaven. Its soooo great to be able to see the garments close up so you can see the textures and the construction. Heaven.

They also have an exhibit on Eco Fashion (I think it just ended, unfortunately) but I was kind of disappointed in it. Not to be mean, but it was all ugly stuff. And thats the stereotype of eco clothing; but the thing is, organic and reused garments don't have to be, and a lot of times are not. I wish they had a better range of the eco fashion at the museum. They could have made better choices.

See now I know this is shapeless but I prefer it without the belt. I am not quite at the point yet in my fashion evolution where i wear huge oversized things with no definition and feel chic. A lot of models and fashion-y bloggers do, and it looks great on them.

I am at the point where I am getting over the idea that tight and fitted are not the same thing, and i am trying to wear more things that actually fit me and feel comfortable. In the store I will try things on and then when I get home I realize they're too big sometimes. My comfort zone is everything two sizes too big, but I think it will get better.

It doesn't help that clothing sizes are not very consistent.

This is how i feel today.

I'm taking pix inside cuz its rainy out.

Sigh. This is so pretty. I love the muted gray near such vibrant colors.

Outfit details:

shoes: daffy's

tights: h&m

dress: h&m

sweater: thrifted

belt: thrifted

Sick Girl and Sad Cat Story

2010-11-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

I am not usually a person who gets sick. I have been pretty proud of that. But this year, I don't know if its my constantly going in and outside, my prancing around outdoors near a beach with no coat on, or if I just have not been taking great care of myself, but I have just been feeling sort of ugh and bleah for months now. And since last night, my throat just plain ol' hurts. Its like a dozen tiny kittens, unicorns and porcupines have decided to play along my esophagus. I drink and i drink cold and hot liquids but its just so painful. UGH.

So i have a sad story to tell now. Then you can decide whether I am a bad person or not. I have a second job where I get home pretty late. And the other night i saw a cat and i made that standard noise you make when you see a cat. Its that weird tongue clicking noise you know what I mean? And the cat totally comes running towards me.

I love cats so, rabies or fleas or no, I bend down and start petting and cuddling this cat, more like an older kitten, who is meowing and meowing and meowing. Its a grey tortoishell kind of color, green eyes, a female. Very anxious, won't stop moving and meowing. No tag, one paw looks a little hurt. I ask passersby about it, apparently the cat has been there all day, meowing and following people.

I call my sweety, as our apartment is less than a block away. I tell him about the cat, and he is like, "Just come home, leave the cat alone."

"But...but...its a KITTEN." I say.

For the record, i LOVE cats and would love one, except in nyc, it would have to be an indoor cat and...I have always had cats that could run around outside, so to me, having an indoor cat is kind of mean to the cat.

And also for the record, my sweety....is not a fan of the cats. Long story.

Anyway! I decide to bring the cat into my apartment foyer to call Animal Control.

I call 411, which tells me to call 311, which gives me a number that is out of service...We give the cat tuna and water and I give it lots of petting, but its still pacing and meowing REALLY loud for such a tiny cat.

Eventually i learn that there is no service in NYC that will pick up a hurt stray animal, and no place that I can drop the cat off to, since everything is closed at 11 at night...I was super frustrated and crying at this point, that

a) a cat could be hurt and have no help, from the city or passersby

b) someone would possibly abandon a little animal after buying/adopting it

c) people on the phone were not being very helpful

We decide to bring it up to our bathroom, (since we didnt know if it had fleas and our house is not kittyproof) and i would take her in a cardboard box on the subway the next morning to a shelter that may or not exist (according to the phone number) or accept a stray cat.

I put the cat, tuna, water, a blanket and a hot water bottle in our bathroom and stayed with her until she calmed. She was purring, she was happy. I went back to my sweety to look at shelter info on the computer. The cat begins yowling really loud. I go back to her, pet her. She still won't stop pacing, all freaked out. But I can't stay in the bathroom all night, and then I remembered our neighbors. They have kids, they work in the morning. Most apartments have very poor sound insulation so....

The cat gets louder and starts scratching and freaking out in the bathroom.

We decide we have to put the cat outside with food and if she is there in the morning, take her to the possible shelter...its not an easy decision. My sweety wonders if the cat's behavior is why people abandoned her in the first place....I feel like a horrible person. I put her outside near the apartment in a box with the blanket, food, water, hot water bottle for warmth.

I get up at 7 am the next day....tuna is gone and so is she.

Friends that I tell the story to laugh it off, like I am a crazy person for caring for this anxious little cat. Sweety reminds me that even if i had taken the cat to the shelter, I would most likely have been charged to pay for the cat's medical bills.

He said that a lot of times, pet owners 'find' a cat, take it to the shelter so they don't have to pay their own pet's medical bills. The shelter would have no way of knowing if i was the true owner or not. And since I have no pet, I have no idea how much it would cost to fix a cat that I would never see again, anyway. Its tempting to say, I did my best, maybe it all worked out for the best, the cat can totally take care of itself but...it was really frightened and upset.

I see so many people every day on the street that are homeless, on the subway, asking me for spare change, and you would think you get used to it.

But you never do.

And it kinda kills you inside a tiny bit, every time you can't fix something or help someone.

Getting back to the regular schedule of my shallow style fixations after this post.

Orange Girl

2010-11-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Ah. I always have something that I want to blog about, but by the time I am actually typing, I forget everything I wanted to say! When it gets colder, I tend to want to stay in and windows explorer shop (get it?? window shopping!). I actually am now really in love with the Zara store.

I remember when I first moved to NYC, a friend of mine was like, 'have you been to this store called zara something? They have great clearance stuff!'

Its a store that I went into and was like, whoooa too expensive. But after looking at the website and their gorgeous designs I decided I needed to go in person to a store.

I mean, years later after living here, its sad but $40 for a top isn't considered expensive anymore.

I still consider it expensive, especially when zara has very classic, simple designs that you can find at h&m and thrift stores and whatnot. But when you touch the fabrics, you can see why it is expensive. It feels heavier, thicker.

What I like also is the design of the store, too. Its not a madhouse with racks crammed so full of clothing that its a fight to pull something out, and impossible to hang it back.

That drives me crazy.
I've been on the lookout for some nice peruvian or fair isle designs-legwarmers, arm warmers, or maybe a nice thinner sweater. I have been trying to include more texture, more inoffensive prints in my wardrobe!

And I've been making a list of these Inoffensive Prints: stripes, plaid, polka dots, particular florals. And now, fair isle (but not the kind with reindeer or snowflakes, bleh!).

Its tough. And I worry that Free People holds my soul hostage-its chalk full of fair isle and is owning me. That company makes everything look so good.

But if i were six feet tall im sure everything would look great on me too.

Maybe this mess of necklaces is not working.

Thanksgiving is coming up and i am nervous. So much cooking and planning and my mom is visiting-so stressful. We might see the Thanksgiving parade at Macy's. Gulp.

I am kinda in love with this color combo: grey, navy white stripes and orange.

I haven't put this necklace up on etsy. I'm kinda feeling disappointed with etsy lately. But its my fault for not using the chat room more to promote myself. Its tough-i dont want to charge too much for necklaces, but if i dont make a profit, i cant make more.

Im really nervous.

Im visiting the FIT campus tomorrow...going to school for fashion? It makes me super nervous. Its such a crazy plan.

Outfit deets:

hat: uo

top: thrifted

pants: thrifted

shoes: anthro

sweater: target

yellow girl

2010-11-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

My aunt has been a big influence on me. She is this tall, blonde barbie doll of a woman who loves ACDC and used to own a motorcycle and would ride it in her high heels. Yes, its all true. But she also knits and sews and she loves making those little crafty things that maybe only grandmas or crazy cat ladies make. I'm talking little stuffed animal cats holding wooden signs that say HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Or little dolls who wear aprons that say what month it is. Do you know what I mean? She is one of my idols. If I have bought high heel shoes with wooden bottoms (anytime I see a high heel wooden clog I think AUNT DONNA SHOESSSSSS), its because they reminded me of her. Do you ever do that? Buy something to wear because it reminds you of someone you miss?A friend from work gave me this cardigan that I never would have bought on my own, but I have gotten so many compliments on it.

This little sweater clip is an awesome accessory. I like to use mine to clip a scarf together or clip it on the collar of a shirt.

I don't know why I brought up my aunt, but I really miss her. She lives 3-4 hours away and I found out that I won't see her this Thanksgiving, which is the holiday I associate with going to her house. I used to worship her old house, the way she decorated it and the way it smelled.

This blouse was the first blouse I purchased from Anthro, back when I worked there for 25 seconds.

My aunt gave me her old sewing machine, which kicked the bucket some months ago. I finally broke down and bought one from target. I've been using it lately, and its like a Ferrari. I'm so used to the old, steady slow pacing of the old machine. But this new one is so fast and powerful! I yell, 'whoa, boy! whoooooooooa' when I sew now.

I mostly upcycle my old clothes and make something new to just get better at sewing in general.

Oh whoops. I wore the green shoes in my last post. Oh well!

These are my fave earrings. Such an interesting design, it looks so exotic-is it indian? Chinese? Awesome? Yes.

I should take pix of some of the things I've been making lately. I think it'd be neat to be able to make something great enough to sell on etsy along with the necklaces! I could be a one woman force of amazingness!

Outfit details:

blouse: anthro

sweater: handmedown

pants: charlotte russe

shoes: lulus

sweater clip: antique store

earrrings: kohls

The Bride

2010-11-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

While I draw or write, I love to have a movie on in the background. I don't want a foreign movie, with subtitles, because I only half watch the film. I don't want a deep, complicated movie that I have to pay much attention to.

On hulu or the watch instantly netflix are there such movies.

On hulu I found such a gem called the Bride. It has STING as dr. frankenstein.

It has Jennifer Beal, or is it Beals? And a very young, very young Cary Elwes. SWOON.

The plot is basically that Dr. Frankenstein has made a bride for his creation, but she's so hot he decides to make her his own. HAWT.

Its not a great movie, the costumes are okay but its sexy in a bad way. It entertained me.

Sting looked so short the whole time, I was like, is Sting tiny or what?? I googled his height, and he is actually nearly six feet tall. As my sweety told me, "Honey....actors are tall." Huh.

Whirligig Mobile

2010-11-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to put this up since the post about terrariums!

I should update about mine-I upgraded it and its doing super well!

Anyway. It was my bestie Patricia who got me into mobiles. She has this amazing mobile above her dinner table that is dozens and dozens of origami fish. She gave one to us, made up of three cranes circling underneath a circular peacock feather. Peacock feathers are her thing.

My thing is kinda maple seeds. I love the little seeds that helicopter down gracefully!

I found this kind of resin that you can use to preserve the maple seeds and created my own mobile. I used bamboo for the frame and I used fishing line instead of thread or string because I wanted them to twirl as if they were falling from a tree.

I hung it up in our bedroom, right next her crane mobile!

This is what they look like when you're lying down on the bed and looking up.

Its such a tough object to photograph because the seeds are thin and always spiraling around.

I actually added more to this since I took photos-I preserved many seeds to make earrings and a necklace. Thats the original reason for preserving them-I never would've dreamed about making a mobile with them!

I've been toying with the idea of making an autumn leaf mobile but the thing about resin is that its toxic and not the easiest material to work with. You're not supposed to touch it, even...and that totally happened.

Green Moss Girl

2010-11-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is a tough month-its colder, I have a psych test...and I'm writing a novel. Did you know that November is NAtional Novel WRIting MOnth...aka NANOWRIMO.

50,000 words in 30 days! Come on! I encourage you to join in with me! I did it last year and came pretty close...I just want to stop thinking and overanalyzing and just write!

Its getting colder and its pretty tough for me to take outdoor pictures without making horribly grumpy faces. But I just want to get more exercise and love to be outside.

My blue lips are possibly at this point nearly matching the blue green of the flowers on the jacket.

Excuse me while I prop my chest up on this mossy barnacled boulder.

When you bend down you can see that the pebbles underfoot also include many crab corpses! Yaaaaaaaay! But the colors are just so...incredible.

I'm so cold that in most of these pictures I have no neck because my shoulders hunch up against the cold. I'm calling it turtle-chic.

I just dig this moss at the beach and the barnacles that are everywhere!

The little belly bump that you see is not kittens but the charming thing that happens when i wear tights, i get that nice little jelly roll. I think during winter you should just wear tights everyday for maximum warmth.

I feel that green shoes are a must in every girl's wardrobe.

So I made a brioche for the first time! Its something like a pastry dough...sort of like the dough of cinnamon rolls. I doubled the recipe and this is what the giant loaf ended up looking like!

Lets get a close up of this beautiful brioche footage!

Yeahhh thats what I am talking about.

I love frying it up in slices with cinnamon blended with butter and sugar. Or making french toast of it-which is sorta unnecessary, as brioche is made up of mostly butter and eggs to begin with.

Ugh I should be studying for this psych test about now.

I think my Nanowrimo is about 4000 words...I think. I may be behind. I think you're supposed to be writing about 2000 words a day. Sigh...This year's nanowrimo is starting out rocky...I'm cranky.

Outfit details:

top: charlotte russe

jacket: charlotte russe

pants: charlotte russe

shoes: lulus

necklace: handmade, see it on my etsy!

Sheer Girl

2010-10-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

The thing about living in a metropolitan city is how boring it looks...yeah, you've got all kinds of restaurants and boutiques and new stores are being built every second...But check out this grass! Its some kind of crazy yellow red green color! And in some months it will change, it will blue and green and yellow...and its always moving in the wind. Its beautiful.

I am a texture whore. I love to touch things-fabric, wood, stone. Thats probably the second big reason I love fashion (the first is the design, but of course)-the wools, the chiffons, the corduroy....fur. It was only a matter of time before I grew my own tail, anyway.

Such beautiful, beachy colors! Pearl, taupe, white!

This outfit is the anti-thesis of something that I would never have worn years ago. A sheer top? A giant pearly necklace? Form fitting pants? Heels? Not on your life. Its so interesting how your fashion sense evolves.

Totally got these pants and shoes covered in sand and dirt. It was awesome.

And while you would think that it is crazy to wear heels out in the woods its actually very comfortable. It makes you feel really steady to be able to have a little firm platform and heel. And the impact of the soft earth under you...way better than walking on concrete in heels.

Living in NYC, whenever I see grass and rocks I feel my eyes and soul sighing with relief. I'm sorry, I will have to stop going all Walt Whitman on you.

I just finished baking a brioche and let me tell you, its terrible how sticky that stuff can be. Its super annoying. But once I took it out of the loaf pan....the smell of it was so...incredible. I will share pictures of that soon. That loaf has about 2 sticks of butter and 6 eggs, so it had BETTER be delicious.

The thing about this shirt is how elusive it is. Its sheer but it also has this slight shimmer to it which usually makes me go EWWWWW (I hate glittery clothing like it killed my pet or something) but this shirt...its okay. Its like a cloud. Is it warm? Is it thin? Its somehow both.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to a farm to eat some of the farm's food for a birthday breakfast. Then we're going to go hiking and have a wee picnic with snacks and wine. That night...who knows? All I know is, I took the entire day and night off from work to go so either way, its a good day.

Wow the coloring in this bottom picture is off, but I see many bloggers photoshop intentionally do this. It does look kinda neat, huh.

These shoes are such great quality. And they were super cheap. There's a target now in Manhattan, but its quite the walk from the 116 street station that I rarely go. Le sigh.

outfit details

shirt

necklace

f21

pants

charlotte russe

shoes

target

Graffiti Girl

2010-10-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

There is this park a bit of a walk from my house and...its amazing. Photography wise. Outfit shots are gorgeous out there. I'm from upstate NY where its millions of trees and green. To live in NYC with a postage stamp backyard and cement everywhere, I really need the green. Trees, that is.
My number one complaint is the lack of Nature here...and where there is Nature, there are ALWAYS people. You are never alone. Even in this delightful park, there are tons of people, but its great because nearer the water there are trees with so many criss crossy trails to explore and there usually aren't too many people on the trails.

There is this long, rambling brick wall that surrounds the park administration building, and where the land meets the Sound the brick just crumblies down brick by brick. Its behind the building, so the kids come and graffiti-ize it.

I think by taking pictures I begin to see what really suits my body type. While I love wide leg pants for some reason, they do me no favors-I'm too short and curvy to really pull it off (unless I wear crazy tall shoes).

But these skinnies-and cords, my favorite texture-are a match made in heaven. Not too sure how I feel about the kinda colorless taupe color but they are super comfy!I love them tucked into cuffed sandals. Btw, how AMAZING is it to be able to wear sandals at the end of October? Craziness.

And for me not to be wearing 4 layers is something of a miracle. I love me some layers, but today I walked out the door with no fear. Later, to class I changed and wore the 3 layers plus coat.

I want to be healthier, so I have been trying to drink more water and move around more in general. This park is about a 5 minute walk from home, and frolicking on the trails and along the water trying to find a perfect spot to take pictures for at least an hour HAS to burn some calories, right?

Its convenient to play dress up in your room and find a blank wall and take pictures in it but the walls, the ceiling, the still air just does not help you feel that awesome kind of outdoor energy, happiness. I am definitely cured of my shyness of taking pictures of myself outdoors.

Will I get better at being a model?

Pfft. Most likely never. But the clothes, the outfits! They ripple in the breeze, the yellow leaves are twirling down all around and it was just so much fun today.

I love how simple but cool this outfit is. Plain striped shirt, simple but delicate earrings, cords, badass sandals. Way to go, me!

outfit details:

earrings

modcloth

shirt

thrifted

cords

charlotte russe

sandals

amazon, forget the brand

Apple Pickin' It Up

2010-10-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

It is quite true that I have lived in New York state for most of my life and have never gone apple picking. I mean, I have tried to climb apple trees and pick off the little tiny crab apples, but not big ole edible, pie making kinds of apples.

Last year was the first year I actually went apple picking, you know...at a farm.

Its was blast. We went again this year:

The place that we go to is this orchard that totally becomes some kind of apple-y amusement park with a cafe and a barn full of wasps and treats and dreams.

...And wooden boards with apples and pumpkins and buses painted on them. We sometimes have a sick kind of humor. Hopefully no children were watching us.

Trish is preggers! And is the most stylish lady evar.

I look impossibly short next to her, it was totally the angle. But a giant I am not. You can hardly tell she is pregnant, and she wondered alot whether people eyeing her thought she had a 'soup belly'. I forget her exact, brilliant words. Perhaps it was beer belly.

Time for the traditional Apple Ball, and then Apple Bowling.

So i was wearing this necklace that has a tiny magnifying lens and in this picture I am studying the apple with it. I had to caption this because I know myself I had no idea what was happening in the photo until someone reminded me.

The arm warmers were made for me by my talented friend Ren who lives out in LA.

Such a great day this was....soooo perfect.

We totally drank enough cider and ate enough warm cider donuts to kill a yak. Or a small kitten.

Catch Up

2010-10-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

I totally keep forgetting to share this, but I dyed my hair. I haven't dyed it in a few years-I was curious to see what my natural color was. But now I feel as though it is ashy and mousy. I didn't want a huge change, but something...subtle. Her Mousyness.

Ah yes, by all means eat the box.

I forgot how smelly and messy it is. At first I was like, "This smells kinda good.....aaaaaaaargh!! It burns my eyes, the smell!"

Its kinda nice to see the different dyes they have now. They have this cool thing where you can dye your hair to add tones of coolness or warmth-I would need to find something that combats the red that my hair has and comes out like crazy whenever I dye my hair.

I finally went with something with 'natural' in the name...I didn't want something crazy blond or dark.

Finally the end result...subtle, except in the sunshine. Outside and certain kinds of indoor light its mad obvious that I dyed it. Warmer, blonder, redder.

I made a quiche for the first time! Its not as hard as you would think...it just seems like it cuz you have to make a crust. As you can see, I made one side have extra cheese on top. The rest of it just had mushrooms, cheese, eggs and thyme from our windowbox herbs!

I definitely recommend trying a quiche for dinner because its quick, you can put whatever you want in it-mushrooms, leeks, potatoes, meat, veggies....

Retro Hair Girl

2010-10-26T13:24:00.001-07:00

I don't know what is going on with my hair but its fabulous today. I did a side swoop and my hair was on board. It was all like, "Yeahh lets DO this I'm awesome hair!"Peter pan collar and puffy sleeves? Um yes please. Except I don't know how I feel about sweaters with short sleeves....isnt the point of a sweater to keep you warm? My arms are susceptible to cold, you know. I need a full body sweater.

I don't know whats up with me, but I have been sleeping a lot lately. Is it the weather? Am I just working too moshe? I feel like I have been doing a lot, but at the same time, I know I have been wasting a lot of my free time...
I want to be...healthier. I want to drink more water, exercise (I work at a gym for crying out loud!), and create more art! Speaking of art...check out my etsy! I've finally put up new necklaces! Still need to put up a couple more....maybe if I sell some first, hahaha. I haven't been advertising or chatrooming up my store lately...bad me!!

I love illustrating...especially vintage-y type things that are on my t shirt, for instance. I used to feel really self conscious about thin t shirts...but there is something delicious about them on your skin. Somehow pretty warm for being like tissue....

I'm wearing a necklace as a bracelet, and the whole outfit is so matchy...sigh.

There's a reason why I do that, I think. A psychological reason. I think too many people used to tell me that I never matched...am I trying to please those people??

Outfit deets:

shoes: thrifted

pants: h&m

top: target

sweater: thrifted

necklace: gap

ring: finded

Dragonfly Girl

2010-10-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the not blogging thing. Things have been sort of chaotic for me. I am working often, and I had to make a tough decision to withdraw from a class.

But by dropping that class, it means dropping out on a dream.

It has to be this way but it is the best thing for me right now. You know that kind of decision.

But by giving up that one dream, I have made a decision to carry on with a different dream that is my passion. Not like the reliable, dependable dream I gave up on, but the Ultimate Dream. Its like giving up law school to become an artist. Very different. One is more steady than the other, but if art is your love....

Its just tough...what if you love something, but no one has told you you're great at it? Its super risky to try to make a living by it....

Besides work, there is still lots of stuff going on. A close friend and another friend are preggers and will have their babies within a week of each other. It really makes you think-well, it makes me think-about families. I've never really thought about having one-I feel like I'm super young and not ready-but now I am thinking about babies and marriage, just in general. What does it all mean?? Etc etc. I think I will plan my friend's baby shower, though. An opportunity to bake and make place cards and invitations and games with a theme, HECK YES.

Thank goodness for my goodwill, I find everything there. I've always wanted those sailor type pants, with the six button closure on the front. I found these pants at Goodwill, and while I don't think the style suits short curvy ladies like me, I can't help but love these and feel stylish in them.

I have been finding really great finds at Charlotte Russe. I remember when the store was kinda ghetto fab and the quality was horrifying. Now I have been finding really great tops like this one here with long sleeves and a kind of cowl neck. I even found some pants there that are the kind that I would design myself.

The necklace here came from CR also. I have just been pleasantly surprised by the company. The quality is still kinda iffy sometimes. But the design is much much much better.

And i just love the amber of the necklace paired with pearls and with a gray color.

I found the ring on the right at CR too. I just love the depth of it because of the gold fleck layers, and i love that the ring is tough plastic and I don't feel like I'm gonna nick it on anything.

can't go wrong with striped pants.

Check out this stylish beeyotch.

I pinned a hair pin to my hat-it helps my hat to stay on my head, always a good thing.

Outfit deets:

shoes: daffy's

pants: thrifted

top: charlotte russe

vest: thrifted

necklace: cr

hat: uo

pin: h&m

Herringbone and Lace

2010-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

It has been raining non-stop for days in NYC. I think its because of the hurricanes and stuff from down south. Plus its been cooler and so that means that I am pretty useless and lazy. I don't function very well in the cold.

I love all these items together. Its totally the romantic neutral luxurious vibe that I am trying to express this fall. However, tights are not so great for this kind of weather.

Its so hard to concentrate. Maybe I shouldn't be watching anime while I blog. Its fruits basket, which I saw years ago-an oldie but goodie.

I made this pin from this neat kind of clay that air dries in a day. Then i painted it, varnished it and glued a pin backing to it. I want to make more! A BIGGER pin. I was thinking maybe I would sell them on etsy.

I made a llama pin for my friend...I can't wait to see a picture of her wearing it-she lives in LA.

This top is so crazy beautiful. I think it came from H&M. And seriously, I wear this vest nearly everyday.

outfit details:

top: thrifted

vest: thrifted

shorts: daffy's

tights: h&m...?

shoes: daffy's

pin: handmade

Kiss the Rain

2010-09-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

So....not too many detail pictures for this outfit for some reason. I also miss the layout I used to do where I would lay out the clothes and take a picture of them-a model I am not. I like to let the clothes speak for themselves.

I remember these shoes, I was with Patricia at Target and I was walking around in them, fascinated by the simple beautiful design and the springiness of the cork soles. I was like, 'should I get them?' And she was like, "You don't need them."

Long story short, I visited my mom some weeks later and they were on sale at Target....so yeah. That happened.

So this top is craaazy. I found it at the thrift store and its basically a tank top with this long piece of fabric attached at the bottom and that has these two holes in the fabric for your...head? Arms? Usually if I can't understand a garment I don't bother trying it on, why invite the frustration? But this design was more exciting, like, how many different ways can I wear it?

So I think I am a wee bit obsessed with fur. Fake, real.....is it because I can't have a cat? And I just got this fox tail from Etsy, when I opened the box I think I petted it for 10 minutes straight.

I think I may be withdrawing from a class, and its very upsetting to me. It was the first step of a plan of mine...and the fact that it might not be working out is....simultaneously saddening and...exciting. I am still in a fog...I haven't taken any action yet and now I just feel sort of depressed about it. I think I will take this day to be depressed and maybe draw a bit, do something to make me feel better and think about it more.

Tornado Watch

2010-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

So I am skipping class right now. Its one of those classes where the auditorium is huge, there are about 300 people in the class and the notes are all posted on Black Board anyway.

Plus, there is a tornado watch in nyc so maybe its dangerous to go outside. Oh wait I have to go outside anyway. Grrr. Don't want to do itttttttt.

Want to watch movies and eat popcorn.

I hope to become the Queen of Layering someday. This belt cinched like this makes my chest look huge. Awesome.

Nothing in this outfit matches and its fabulous. Salmon shoes, a black and white tweedy skirt, a floral halter top, a brown vest and yellow cardigan.

Isn't this chest in the background great? My Aunt gave it to me.

My sewing machine is broken. I had my friend Patricia look at it...so its not that I'm doing something wrong. It IS pretty old, my Aunt gave it to me.

I used Patricia's sewing machine and it was sooooo fast.

I am considering actually buying a machine. I would totally use it like crazy.

And not just to hem my pants.

Outfit details:

cardigan, gift

vest, thrifted

top, anthropologie (from the two seconds when i worked there T_T)

belt, anthro

skirt, don't remember

shoes, f21 (my first pair of sky high heels)

Oh when she holds me, nobody told me All of the fear her love would bring

2010-09-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, today is such a schlumpy day. Its rainy, its cold and I don't want to go to work.

I am super sore in a good way from doing so much yesterday. My sweety was away which meant I wasn't distracted so I did laundry, went for a run, made two necklaces (soooo exciting!), made this crazy potato leek bacon soup with eddoes and other random things from the fridge.

Whoops did not photoshop this one, kids!

Isn't that black thing in the right hand side of the picture neat? Its this candle holder with a magnifying glass in front of it. I got it for my sweety's berfday.

sooooooOOOOooooo many florals! I am in love with these earrings, too bad they're not professional so's I can't wear them to work.

I think I got these shoes after I was depressed after a biology test....I should not go shopping while depressed. Though these shoes are the most amazing thing ever. This great heel and oxford detailing. I am such a sucker for oxford detailing.

Today randomly I was on chictopia looking about and clicking on people, then their blogs and found this German girl's Etsy, except its in Germany so its DAWANDA. Check it out!

http://de.dawanda.com/

Apparently the word 'schmuck' means 'jewelry' in German. I am totally a schmuck for schmuck.

I am hoping to put up more things on etsy this week...slow going is Etsy at times. Its raining, you would think people would be swaddled up, drinking tea and looking at pretty shiny things on Etsy but noooooooo.

Get Down with the Sickness

2010-09-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend was my sweety's birthday and a group of us went to the New York Renaissance Festival.

I had never been to this one and it was a blast! A friend of ours knew lots of people in it so we stayed most of the day to see them in certain shows. The guys threw knives and axes in the games, some of us did archery, me included (I am horrrrrrrible at it).

We drank mead (I had never had it, sooooooooooo delicious!!), ate fried dough, bangers n mash. We pretty much ate a lot, walked around a lot, watched a lot.

I forgot my camera, though our friend did take some pictures. Maybe I can get my hands on them.

I was all for dressing up in full on Renaissance garb, though I decided against it since I was going to be one in eight people who would be. One of the best parts in going is seeing people wearing period costumes. <3

I should post the outfit I wore to it, it was pretty cute.

Speaking of cute, i found this top at Goodwill! I was dubious looking at it on the hanger until I tried it on. Its a plain fawn color, I can see why maybe someone might've donated it. But i can't resist the design, the tie shoulders on the arms, the side ruffles, the deep V in the back and the deep tie on the bust.

Why does my hair always look so uncombed? Sigh.

This necklace is pretty sweet too. I thought it would make me look edgy, lol!

Close-up of side ruffle, go!

For his birthday, my sweety made a cake. Before I sound like a bad girlfriend, he totally wanted to do it. I think I wasn't home the night he did it too so I couldn't even help. Anyway, I helped him decorate it. Do you enjoy the little strawberry octopus I made?

And the hello kitty toaster on our counter?

After the Faire, we all came home and made dinner. We snacked on pears, cheese and wheat thins and then made a shrimp scampi, spinach and this awesome pasta dish with squash, pasta and goat cheese. And the cake for dessert, of course.

I was starting to get sick so by the time we were done eating and watching a terrible movie called Strange Brew (A Canadian version of a Cheech and Chong movie which involves beer instead of pot and Rick Moranis instead of Cheech Marin) I was super tired and slept through most of the movie.

outfit deets:

top: thrifted

skirt: gap

necklace: charlotte russe

fun (fun is the one thing that money can't buy)

2010-09-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

I am having a bit of a dilemma.I don't know if its something to talk about on a blog. I like to keep it pretty superficial sometimes. I think maybe I need to do my best in the coming weeks and then maybe things will be clearer and less...angsty for me.

I found this top at Goodwill. Its something I thought I could never pull off or be interested in. But style changes over time and I was curious so I took it. I used to wear hoodies everyday and now I rarely wear them. What the eff, style self?

I really dig herringbone.

I really dig these shoes. They're too big and they're super heavy. My sweety doesn't understand, he's like, why would you wear shoes that are too big? When you buy things at clearance, you usually don't get too much choice in the sizes. I just love the brand Irregular Choice, and these were one of the last pairs of these. They make me feel super stylish.

So this necklace is a little more tangled than its supposed to be. I worked it.

So this top is pretty sheer. I am bringing back bras showing through shirts.

I am going to try to wear tights as much as possible this fall. I own many pairs but never wear them much because I am pretty squishy and when you wear tights and you're squishy, the tights push up your flesh in weird ways. Plus I have to wear them super high up (to my belly button) and thats not flattering. Why do I do that? I didn't think I was that short. Maybe I just need to work on that.

She's Leaving Home

2010-09-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

So, I like to have a little photo shoot before I ship off the babies from my shop...but sometimes it feels weird, its like posing in a picture with a little kid without their parent's permission.

Once something sells from my shop, it is no longer mine, even if I did make it with my own two hands.

There is a weird sort of feeling when you sell things that you make...personally, I really really want other people to like the necklaces that I create and to want to treasure them; but I also don't want them to be gone from my sight. I will never get to see them being worn, I won't get to see the adventures they go on with their owners.

Maybe I am just weird...

As for thrifting finds, it is a totally different feeling! I think I am a bit of a design hoarder, where if I like the design of a garment, I want to have it; not because it makes me look tall or tiny but because the design is so unique. But I sometimes realize when things are not meant for me...and thats why I like selling the things I find. It almost feels like I am finding things for someone else to have. I get such a thrill whenever I find something that my friend loves to wear or when something sells on etsy-it means I was right in knowing when something is great or perfect for someone.

Bye, Akiyo Necklace! I know you're going to have awesome adventures!

Jeffrey Campbell Shoe Design!

2010-09-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

On a lark, I decided to enter this contest on chictopia to design some shoes for Jeffrey Campbell.

Apparently my shoe design was put up on the Jeffrey Campbell Blog!

Craziness!

Its the second shoe down under the Akira+ Chictopia entry!

http://www.jeffreycampbellshoes.com/category/blog/page/2/

Food Library

2010-09-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

So I feel bad...I said in my little blog summary blurb that this blog would include food......and I haven't yet, not really!

Let me say a little bit about on the subject: growing up with my mom, the only spices in the house used for cooking were salt and pepper. I think once we did have spices but I did the cooking and went crazy with it and then we didn't have it anymore. My mom is just not a big cook, I guess.

When I was in college, my friend loved to cook. I helped her make curries and cookies and kugels. I was fascinated, so much more to cooking than instant rice and stuff from jars!

When I moved to NYC after college, I had my own room in an apartment and did my own cooking. It was very simple stuff and to my taste-chicken breast in soy sauce, the boxes of mac and cheese with tuna in it. This was before I knew of spices, still.

One of my best friends from College moved to LA and went to Culinary School....it seems that now its common to go to college for one thing, be unable to get a good job at that, and go to another kind of school to learn some kind of skill and get a job in that! Anyway, when I visited her I watched her cook and learned a bit more and she even lent me her cooking school manual! I remember looking at her kitchen and seeing all the utensils and the inside of her fridge and just being amazed at this whole world of cooking...

When I moved into my next apartment, I had three guy roommates, one of which was my SWEETY. Now, my sweety, he can cook! He taught and is teaching me, a lot about cooking! But I have always wanted to know how to cook and bake (much harder, chemistry is involved, lol!). We make our own bread and desserts and everything we make is from scratch. We even have our own spice plants in the dining room-rosemary, thyme, mint, lavender.

My friend Patricia in my building loves to cook, like Martha Stewart cooking-inspired. I learn from her just about how GOOD food can look....garnishes and sugared orange rind and cut up fruit in salads.

To me, visiting a restaurant meant seeing pretty food in a beautiful presentation.

But, its so not true.

I made spring rolls the other night and I garnished them with sesame seeds sprinkled on top and had alfalfa sprouts on top of the rice and dikon radish and I thought, this is my home and my food will LOOK good too.

I am always taking pictures of our food not because I am weird but I am just so amazed by how good food looks and tastes and feels...

Someday I would like to focus more on food here-how to make your own bread, desserts and such-but for now I just love to take pictures of it and share them.

*Pictured above are some of our breakfasts-french toast with poppy seeds, raspberries, peaches and crepes with powdered sugar and strawberries!

School Day

2010-09-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are a few pix from my trip upstate! No class today so....

I took some time off from work before classes started so that I could visit my mom and sister, and then my sweety joined me upstate and we stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast (oh the food, oh the house) near Ithaca, NY.

When I arrived my mom was still in work, so I walked this riverside promenade from the bus stop to her place. Gorgeous day! Its silly but I was blown away by all the plants alongside the promenade...nyc is so nature-depriving to me. T_T

August/September is blueberry season! One of my favorite fruits to pick! Can't wait to pick apples next!

Check out my guns! Blueberry faaaaaaaaaace-this was obviously taken before I had eaten so many.

Fun Fact: When I was younger, I used to walk up to this blueberry farm to pick blueberries and they would pay you by the pound! At the time I was like, sweet! Best job evar...oh to be young.

Its such a small thing but the air upstate, away from the city is so clear and fresh and i just kept breathing the air. It was sooooo goood.

Another reason why I love visiting my mom: my kitteeeeeeeeeeh! I would love to take her back with me to my apartment, but I won't get a cat when it would have to stay indoors all the time. I grew up with animals that could always go outside and run around. I would feel sad if i had to keep an animal inside.

So here are photos of the place we stayed at!

I was a dumb bunny and decided to visit Ithaca during the time when all the students are coming back to Cornell and Ithaca College so it was tough to find a place to stay! We were lucky to find such a fantastic place! The fooooood!

Oh my gaw, the food. The first nite, my sweety got a delicious steak and I had sea scallops. I also had this drink that was basically some kind of liquer in root beer. it was awesome.

This B&B has a great history and they have photos up all other documenting it and the city its in. A lot of the original architecture and detailing is still there!

Like this telephone! I wish I had left my cell phone at home so I could've used this!

So....I didn't put up any pix of the room, because it so big! It had a big bed and wardrobe and dressers and a chaise and one of those sliding doors that slide into the wall to the connecting bath!

Fun fact: the reason I chose the room was because the bathroom had a clawfoot bathtub. I've always wanted to take a bath in one.

P.S. I totally did! Those tubs are HIGH off the floor!

Even the radiators have lovely details!

We ate breakfast every morning in the ballroom (no pictures :( ) I guess there is an Amish farm nearby and much of breakfast would come from there-banana and zucchini breads, quiches with mushrooms and arugula....oh my goodness.

In Ithaca there is a nature center that has a five story treehouse (i think its 5) built by a high school class! Its sooo neat!

This is Buttermilk Falls! I looooooove the State Parks in Ithaca!

Let me know if you ever want to stay at this B&B! I highly recommend it and I can hook you up!

Hair Mess

2010-08-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we are back from our short trip to Ithaca, which was lovely! We stayed at this adorable bed and breakfast and ate delicious food the whole time.

More pix next time!

My hair is driving me crazy. Not cute at all.

This probably isn't the type of dress that you wear a belt with, but I did it anyway. Also, the obi belt goes really well colorwise, as do the shoes. It is all very match-tastic, which was unintentional.

I like maxi dresses like this that don't hit the ground, though the ones that do are fun! Its nice not to worry about it getting a dirty hem!

I really love this feathered headband with this colorful dress!

Outfit details:

dress: thrifted

obi: h&m

shoes: urban outfitters

The Fort

2010-08-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are pictures of the new apartment!

Of course by now, the pictures are a little dated-we now have a big carpet and a giant tin-stamped trunk in the dining room, along with little tiny details, like a bud vase filled with peacock feathers.

Thats a painting done by my talented friend and new neighbor!!

We wanted there to be a partition between the office and the dining room, so we put up these nifty shelves!

This is another painting that my friend did! Its just a loan, but isn't it beautiful? Its going to be in a restaurant in upstate NY!

This is a terrarium in the living room! It now has a tiny fern in it!

Totoro holds my headbands for me.

These are a couple of mobiles that are up over the bed. My friend made the origami one and I made the other one-its made up of resin-coated maple seeds, one of my favorite things.

This is a gladiolus that I grew from bulbs that my mom gave me! Gladiolus are great things to grow and keep in your house!

The great part about moving into a new apartment with little to no furniture is that you get to find stuff and hunt around for things! More than a few chairs, a dresser, a bed side table, a heavy lamp-were found on the curb in our own neighborhood!

Plaid and Pearls

2010-08-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

So apparently I have a thing for plaid. Its one of the safest of the prints, really. Even if its not exactly a print. Plus I love how plaid can be dressed down-with jeans, shorts...or it can be dressed up a bit, like here, with a skirt and pearly accessories.

Yet again it is sticky and hot and gross. Summer is pretty much the most awful time to be in NY.

The only thing keeping me going is the thought that in another week or two I will have some time off and will go on a trip! With my sweety! We can't decide whether to go to Vermont or go to Ithaca, NY...If you live in New York State and haven't been to Ithaca...its a beautiful place to visit. Its...gorge-eous...hehehe! Its a joke cuz it is a town known for its waterfalls and gorges...

Don't you love my pseudo posing? "Utilize the cardboard, me! Don't think of the boxes as being in the way, think of them as...being there for you to pose on!"

I made this ring....I love oxford detailing so I put it in a ring....and so it matches my oxfords!

Is all the bling...too moshe? Too bad! Looove it.

My short hair is growing out and its at the point now where it drives me crazy. I love short hair but its more maintenance, more salon visits. But long hair...also maintenance.

Can't I just have short hair and an assortment of wigs?

I have always wanted wigs to be more of a thing to go with outfits, like another acccessory.

That way, I can keep my hair short. But if I want to have long flowing red hair the next day, I can.

mmm Im actually a bit obsessed with wigs...I have to re-stock my wig collection.

Outfit details:

headband: anthropologie

earrings: modcloth

necklace: f21

top: h&m

skirt: american apparel (first thing i had bought from there!)

shoes: don't remember. kohls?

Plaid and Lace

2010-08-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

Well the apartment is mostly set up!

We had a nice little crew of ten and we made two beautiful pizzas-i don't remember the toppings now and my sweety made little ramekins full of pot de creme! Its basically a very rich and very thick chocolate cream and we put raspberries in it and also drank champagne-also with raspberries in it-to celebrate our new place!

Of course there are no pictures as i was playing hostess.

It was nice to just hang out and talk and eat and laugh.

And our apartment looks so lovely!

I have to say this is my favorite skirt....

I feel as though I am always missing the boat on what is in fashion at the moment.

I think Mad Men-esque skirt silhouettes are in style now, tiny waist, big pouf of a knee length skirt. But of course I would love to see more column, floor length skirts...so good luck to me on that! I don't even see many of those at the thrift stores nowadays.

its just a very light cotton skirt but it flows out when i walk...it makes me feel super beautiful!

The boxes are not actually on the floor anymore but i haven' shot anything new-i've been super busy making new necklaces for the SHOP

This scarf is the lacy bottom of a f21 top. I love the tiny crochet detail on the shoulder of this white sweatshirty top. It makes the scarf and top go together to me....

so this is my impression of Audrina Patridge...I think she is super beautiful but every picture I see of her is her looking upwards..what the heck? So this is me trying to do it. Why do I look demented and Audrina looks gorgeous! No fair!

See? She's not doing it so much on the right here...i googled her name to get this pict of her!

top: american eagle outfitters

necklace: h&m

scarf: diy-f21

skirt: gap

DIY: terrarium

2010-07-30T08:37:00.004-07:00

This weekend will be very busy for me-frantically putting together a dining room table and bookshelves for guests for a housewarming party-so I will blog like crazy and give you a fun project to do this weekend!

(I know its not really fashion related, but since I've moved I want to do all these things to make my nest amazing!)

Does anyone know what a terrarium is?

"A terrarium is a container which is designed to hold small plants and

animals in controlled conditions.The defining feature of a terrarium is that it is an enclosed replica of a natural environment which is in contact with the earth, so some sort of soil, sand, or rock must be present in a terrarium." -http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-terrarium.htm

A terrarium can have animals-lizards or bugs or what have you, but its not necessary.

I remember a while back, I saw some neat terrariums in that visually awesome film called Penelope (Haven't seen it? Have netflix? Its on instant watch and you should see it!).

You can see them on the right, how neat, yeah??

Anyway, so you are going to need:

-glass container (it will need a lid or you can use a pretty china plate or something)

-rocks or stones or gravel for drainage

-activated charcoal (found at petstores-this is to make sure your terrarium doesn't become smelly)

-potting soil (there is even such a thing called terrarium mix)

-small plants or moss (moss is a good thing to start with)

-little knick knacks for interest-shells, stones, a lego man, whatevers

1. You've got your container and a nice space to work with it on.

2. Hello charcoal! You're going to be in my terrarium!
3. Yo stones.
4. Moss babies! You can buy these online...I actually found mine in the cracks of sidewalks, gasping their last in this NYC heat. I stuck them in a ziplock bag with a soaking wet paper towel to keep them hydrated.
5. Potting soil. I intend to make this my new hobby, judging by this huge bag.
6. I want a moo cow in my terrarium!
7. lay down your gravel evenly.
8. put in your activated charcoal in a nice layer.
9. Throw some dirt on that bad boy, a nice thick layer, especially if you're including plants that will have some roots-moss doesn't need that much really.

Look at the pretty layers!
10. A jar with even layers looks a little boring. I decided to stick some stones halfway into the dirt to make hills and such. But its totally up to you!

11. If you are using moss, take a look at it and try to gently break up any huge pieces of clay that might be stuck to its roots. Thick of it as massaging its roots. You want it to be able to grab onto the soil/rocks of your terrarium. Then you will press those babies down into the soil so its tiny root legs can grow in easily.

12. The best thing about terrariums is that they are their own eco-system and you won't need to water them everyday. But you should get a nice spray bottle and spray it every few weeks. And once you are finished making your terrarium, give it a good spray before you put the lid on to start the process!

My moo cow is so happy in his new home! He is quite mesmerized by that large stone sticking up out of the moss.Enjoy! Don't forget to take care of it! Thanks so much for showing me how, websites!

Visit them if you want to learn more!

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/terrariums

http://lifeinsugarhollow.blogspot.com/2007/02/diy-terrarium.html

Shakespeare in the Park

2010-07-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

So tonite my sweetie and I are going to see A Winter's Tale for Shakespeare in the Park!

For anyone not from NYC-every summer the Public Theater in Manhattan puts on plays in this amphitheater in Central Park. And rising up behind the outdoor stage is this beautiful castle like place-its a magical experience to sit outside on a balmy summer night and watch a good show.

The last show I saw there was Hair-which was so much fun and popular that they've put it on Broadway.

You'll notice all these boxes, since we're still setting up our new apartment. I tried to take this opportunity to pretend it was a challenge from America's Next Top Model and pose with the boxes...cuz I'm a dork.

And you will notice that none of these pictures are cropped or photoshopped or are even straight-i can't find a piece of my tripod and we don't have wifi yet, so I'm stuck with my sweety's computer, which has no photoshop!

If I wanted my pictures to look pretty I would have to do this whole process where I take pictures somehow, put the camera card in my laptop, photoshop it, put those pictures on a thumb drive and upload it onto my sweety's compy....not a horrible process. But I'm way too lazy.

I love these two prints together...I just worry that they're too matchy-matchy in color.

I got this top on super clearance from Target for like 4 bucks...its so light and see through. I love how when light goes through it looks like stained glass...

I spent this morning (after my sweety went to work) trying to put away all my shoes from the move.

It was so funny...before the move he was perplexed and asked, 'why don't you just get rid of all the shoes you don't wear?'

I didn't have the heart to tell him all my shoes were going with us through this move.

Maybe if I had a little more notice, I could've spent more time trying to give them away or sell them...but the move was just too sudden, my heart couldn't take the strain of being separated from them so suddenly.

top: target

skirt: f21

shoes: thrifted

necklaces: dark one-gift, light one-bead store in nyc

Independence Day

2010-07-30T08:05:00.002-07:00

So its nearly the end of July and I finally got to see some of the pictures from the Fourth of July!

I know its overdue, but they're so awesome that its worth the wait!

I wish my camera were this great....

Thats my friend and new neighbor Patricia on the left, who always looks AMAZING

That's me and my sweetie

(I decided to wear red white and blue)

It was such a good party! I am usually the one always taking the pictures, but I just wanted to chill out on the roof in Brooklyn, where the temperature was perfect all day and night.

We ate pasta salads, deviled eggs, a trifle, chips and dip, beer...we even played a game.

Which was appropriately called, 'the Game'. Kindof like charades. In the first round, you try to get your team to guess a phrase or something by saying three words. In the next round, you can only give hints using two words and so on til you can use no words, and must act it out.

The next day, we went to Jones Beach!

I would like to see the pictures for that as well...

Cool Days Here at Last?

2010-07-27T06:31:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend my Sweety and I went to the Ikea store in Brooklyn!

I had never been, and we rented a van and devoted our whole day to it!

We spent hours sitting on every couch, debating over every table...

I felt bad for him, because I am so visual and therefore was very distracted the whole time. He would be talking or measuring something, I would suddenly dart of to go to look at something or touch something every five seconds-but he was very patient with me.

We took a break midday to eat in their restaurant/cafe thing, and nibbled on swedish meatballs and drink from elderflower juice boxes (i giggled, "I am a fairy in a magical Furniture Land who drinks a flower drink!").

We sat near the window, where we could see the Statue of Liberty.

I regret not taking my camera, because there were soooo many photo ops!! But it was more important to spend time together, deciding how we wanted to furnish our nest.

Though I have been calling it the Fort.

I actually really enjoyed the layout of Ikea-where they have their one of their couches displayed and in the end you just write down what you want, and go to the warehouse part of the store and pick it up yourself in a box. It looks so much cleaner when its done that way. Most stores, all the merchandise is laid out and I bet stores lose a lot of money when much of it gets broken by people dropping stuff or something. What if clothing stores where designed like that?

I just blew my own mind with that idea.

Sorry about my sweaty non make-uped faaaaaaaace!

Its too hot to wear much of anything, especially on the sweatiest part of me. But I just love the little frilly necklace reined in by the stripes of this vest.

So...I know the whole belt over your sweater or vest! thing is overdone and everyone has done it...but I have always been like....I have hips, I can't WEAR that.

But when it comes to this uber frilly dress (I feel like it can't be worn alone) its a bit out of my comfort zone and I needed to do something to make it feel wearable with little to no layering in t his horrific heat.

Plus...me and my new print kick...stripes AND crazy florals! Why not?

...and doesn't this H&M dress remind you of an Alexander McQueen print?

dress: H&M

vest: bananarepublic

shoes: thrifted

belt: anthropologie

"Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé."

2010-07-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever read Le Petit Prince? No? Its my favorite book. Its in french, but I am sure that there are english translations. I even own the 70s film with Gene Wilder and the songs. Umm I am not being random but when I saw this top on ModCloth, I had to get it. This was actually my first purchase on Modcloth, though I stalk the site religiously. I should do a review or something soon, I think. So if you're on the fence about buying clothing from the internets, you will know what to expect from this company.

Again with the mixed prints! I'm on fire with inspiration and creativity! Brown herringbone shorts and a graphic black and white top-YES

My best friend Patricia (and new neighbor) got me these earrings for my birthday-don't they ROCK?

Patricia, I wish YOU would have a fashion blog! She inspires me everyday.

Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé.

The fox from Le Petit Prince is my favorite character. I really identify with him. This quote translates to, roughly (my french is deteriorated badly at this point): You are responsible for what you tame, always.

I always thought that meant literally but also in the way of love. When you meet someone, you change them, and if you leave them, they are broken and you are responsible, you have done that. If you are going to leave or hurt someone...if you must, do it in a way that leaves them self-sufficient. Do it in a way that makes them stronger and better off for having met you.

Thats what I think.

That last image is an illustration from the book. Such a neat style! If you haven't read the book, I encourage you to! Its one of those books that kids love but adults can get a greater meaning from...

Outfit deets:

top: modcloth

shorts: daffy's

earrings: gift

shoes: thrifted

You're Going to be Fine, Babydoll

2010-07-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe I have been away this long...Really?

Really, me? I guess I blog in my head, and I do it daily.

Hopefully they are working on the technology where you can do that, and upload it to blogger.

Anyway! It has been hot as hades here in NYC, and over a couple of whirlwind weeks, we are moved in (technically we moved in about two days) to our new apartment!

But between work, my side work, and getting ready for school in the fall I have had about zero time for the things I love best to do-even got behind in following my favorite blogs-madness!

Its so hot in nyc that one doesn't even care how one looks! Its just like, 'how about no clothes? And how bout I eat four freezepops for breakfast and how about I don't move until it gets cooler?'

I looooove to mix prints but it has been hard-up until this summer I really shied away from any kind of print except stripes. And those aren't really a print, right?

My favorite layouts in fashion magazines are the ones with titles like "How to Maximize Your Sass-O-Meter with Mixed Prints!" and they find the most gorgeous prints and throw it all on models and it looks great-even though being five feet, I would look like an idiot if I tried that.

But the main thing to take away from the idea of mixing together florals and paisleys and plaids is that if the colors share some hue between them, it could work.

They don't have to be matchy matchy, like the red polka dots match with the red rose print , but what they say is, if its in the same color family, its ok to mix it.

And what they mean by color family is a bunch of colors that looks well together and don't clash.

But I would also venture that you could wear some kind of print that has colors that are all neutrals...blacks and browns and navy...and if you wore a neon bright print top with it, it sort of negates the fact that both items are prints. It would be the same as wearing a neutral bottom with a bright top; always looks good.

But then again, the great point debate about fashion is: wear what looks good, or wear what you love?

If you love crazy prints that look awful but you love it...who cares, right?

Oh man, if you ever wonder why in movies chicks from Manhattan have ten million pairs of shoes, its because living here, the sidewalks eat your heels.

These used to be my favorite pair but look at the heel! I want to learn how to fix that...I plan on devoting a blog post to DIY how to fix your shoes when this happens.

P.S. A nerdy post script...I have had these bermuda shorts thingies for forever and JUST NOW noticed that the belt loops are unique...you can wear the belt at three different levels on your waist, because its basically three belt loops....so crazy! squeee!! Thats why I love clothes...

top: thrifted

shoes: Steve Madden (15 bucks!)

shorts: target

necklace: banana republic (20 bucks whoo)

Someone Said, True Love is Dead, but I'm Bound to Fall

2010-06-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

I had this thing for awhile where I loved any kind of lace applique on a top. This shirt below from Forever21 was a good example of what I loved. What I dont love is that I'm a klutz and should never buy light colored tops-this one had a badly placed stain from me. I thought, I will just cut off the lace and who cares about the shirt? So i cut the lace off the bottom, which I use as an awesome necklace/scarf.
Then I thought maybe i can save this shirt, if i just cut it short and get rid of the stained area?

And this is what I ended up with because the stain was in such an awkward place. A mini shirt, with my belly? What a bad idea....But it works here because i made this American Apparel skirt high waisted. Mwahahaha!

Apologies again for the bad modeling and uncropped/unedited photos....but in the near future, I might not live here with a million roommates soon...then I will make sure I have a good spot to shoot pictures! Mysterious comment added! Now you must keep reading my exciting blog!

So this is day two with my wisdom teeth taken out-actually all four need to come out, two were impacted, two not. I could only afford for two to come out, but the experience is not so bad, not as bad as I thought it would be. I asked everyone around me about their experiences and heard so many different things, I didn't know what to expect.

But my doctor was super awesome and very considerate, even giving me his cell number for me to call him at any time and he called me later in the day after the surgery to check up on me.

If anyone needs an awesome oral surgeon, tell me, i can recommend a good one in manhattan!

Plus, my love came with me and took me home and was, all in all, a way awesome nurse and put labels on my meds, saying when i took them. And he bought me pudding and applesauce and he made jello and this awesomely thin pork chop and mushroom soup for dinner. I thought I would sleep all day, but really, i ended up taking like a four hour nap and was up and about, helping around the house on the same day. Most likely cuz I have so many good drugs. Good drugs.

I must have had two smoothies that first day.

I feel like my jaw is terribly swollen and looks wonky...its hard to swallow. But im glad it was only two taken out from the left side, else how could i swallow without anything touching the back of both sides of my jaws?

Anyway, I must go, my mom is visiting me, and I got a hotel room for us to chill out in (my house has noooooo AC, the most awful mistake to have when you live in NYC, which as the WORST weather imaginable during the winter and summer).

These are obviously not pictures of me on day one or two of my wisdom teeth out, for i look something like this (look left):

I guess that could be my love pictured on the right, being annoyed by my insistence that my face is swoooooollen, my face is alll faaaaaaaaat.

Tighten Up on Your Reins...

2010-06-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

So I have been woefully terrible at the updating-ness of this blog.
To sum it up: Stopped working at Anthro (TRAGEDY), started up an etsy shop (CRAZYNESS), new projects including an illustration gig, art directing a short film, got a new private client, filling my mouth full of cavities...

and coming up is! A visit from my mom and sister! Aaand getting two of my wisdom teeth out!
So there is a lot going on right now...

I am so in love with these scalloped shorts...so simple but unlike any other pair of shorts out there for all their simplicity.
And while I am not a fan of the color black, black and white is so classic and versatile.

In order to stay de-stressed, I tend to look on netflix watch instantly for things to watch. I happened upon the tv show Cashmere Mafia.
Its...pretty bad. Pretty shallow. But I enjoyed comparing it to Mad Men in my head. I mean, think about it, Mad Men and Cashmere Mafia is about a gender who is successful at their work. But while Mad Men shows the men moving through the scenes like slow circling sharks, all smooth and dangerous and suave, Cashmere Mafia has the women basically trot through every scene in high heels (seeing someone run in high heels always amuses me) in some kind of dramatic panic.
The men of Mad Men are smoking their cigarettes and womanizing, the women of Cashmere Mafia throw open their closet doors and unwrap things from Gucci. The women are always flitting around, sprinting through the work scenes as quickly through the home scenes. The men are always at work or doing work related things (thats where a good majority of their womanizing gets done also) and reluctantly, reluctantly we see them in their home environment.

I will admit, I haven't yet started Season 2 of Mad Men, but then again, I have only gone five episodes in to Cashmere Mafia, which I have a feeling is not going to evolve too much in any way, anyway.
Scathing? I don't know. I feel a fascination and revulsion while watching Mad Men and the same happens with Cashmere Mafia, but the latter just seems too...unrealistic. Its set in a modern day time, shouldn't it feel more relatable, even if one character's shoes cost more than my monthly income? Mad Men is set in the fifties...or is it sixties? And I relate more to the poor misogynized women in that than I do to the female cast in Cashmere. Just spewing out what my mind thinks about when I watch stuff.
I dont know why I compared these two shows, theyre decades and cultures apart....

Sunshine-y Daaaaay

2010-05-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

So...I got the job!
I was totally surprised (not to mention delighted) by this new development...
I have this thing where I always worry about money and I always have to be working. I have never not had a job since I was like sixteen....

I have been worried constantly about my job situation ever since I moved to New York...I am actually pretty lucky financially; I live with roommates so my rent is pretty low. I have paid off a couple of debts except for the large college debt (ugh) and I have a yucky credit card thing going on...but I still feel restless despite the fact that things could be worse.

I would dearly love to find my dream job, which is why I feel restless. But for now, I am trying really hard to be in the moment, and love where I am and what I do. And with this new job, a place where I have always wanted to work, I am going to do this new thing and enjoy all that it brings.

I wore this out to get groceries and a gaggle of teenaged girls passed me. They all burst into laughter and I wondered, all paranoid, if it was directed at me....so vain.

Perhaps it is the giant wooden balls hanging about my neck?

Perhaps the tiny tiny purse at my side? Its for cellphones, all the rage in Thailand!

...I find it refreshing to carry a tiny purse, when usually every day I carry around a honkin' tote bag or bulging purse...the hazard of living in a city where you don't own a car and have to carry around your whole day with you inside a giant bag.

Wish me luck for starting a new job this week!

What else should I be? All Anthropologies

2010-05-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but my brain is made of mush lately, and i have been losing things. Things i really love. And i feel as though i hardly ever lose things, so its annoying.
Take, for instance, the wonderfully amazing headband from Anthropologie.
It was not overly fancy, but special enough to make me feel like a princess, despite my bad hair, which the headband covered up.

So i decide to go back to Anthro to check out their headbands. There was only really one that I liked much so i decided to get it, remembering how amazing the last headband was. They had a sign at the checkout about there being open interviews.
You know...to...WORK....AT....ANTHROPOLOGIE.
HEART ATTACK OF LOVE.
So i totally went to the interview dressed like this, even though i am already employed...even though if i did get hired at Anthropologie, i would be unable to pay my bills because i would use the paychecks to buy everything in the store.
They HAVE to be putting CRACK in the ventilation system or something, seriously...that store is like an art installation, its genius.

I wanted to dress as cute as possible, but i dunno, maybe i looked like i was trying to work at the gap or Banana Republic with those khakis on....

Are you as in love with these shoes as I am? Theyr'e not from Anthropologie, but they look like they could be.

How did the interview actually go? It was all right. I was struck by nerves suddenly as the hiring person sat three of us down across from her and asked us questions. I am the least verbally articulate person when I am nervous...

Do purple and bright yellow go together? No? Well they should.

sweater: gifted
button down: thrifted
scarf: gap
pants: gap
belt: H&M
shoes: Daffy's

Jeans Confidential

2010-04-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make.

I don't really like wearing jeans.
I know that sounds Un-American, but its not my fault. Check out everyone around you-how many are wearing jeans? Um, many people are. Its like some kind of unspoken uniform.

I think my anti-jean-ness started with my mom always dressing me in dresses. Then I think adolescence and hormones and baby fat made it difficult to find good jeans. And then I think going to massage school solidified the idea that jeans were not the best thing to wear. You need pants that allow for movement and jeans are too stiff, sometimes too restricting. For so long i did not wear jeans that when i finally did put on a pair, it felt uncomfortable! I was like, UGH.

Now, i sort of to feel really dressed up if i am wearing jeans.

Don't get me wrong, i own jeans, i didn't toss them all away. And i love all the different styles-boyfriend, skinny, straight, ripped, dark, distressed....i want to try them all! Now i even find myself compiling a wish list of jeans, because I have gravitated away from jeans for so long. You know? I, like everyone else, is hoping to complete the Perfect Wardrobe (but first i need the Perfect Closet, which in my case, is just a closet that is a normal or bigger size than what I have now).

I am mostly used to jeans again but...like most clothes, its hard to find things that fit right. No muffin top, but i also don't want any...cracks...to be showing. Something fitting, but not too tight. Maybe i just haven't found the right brand yet. :p

Don't you just adore mustard yellow and purple together?

I also love button down that has lines that sort of mimic the lines of the necklace, which are echoed in the little oxford designs stamped into the shoe. I thought the toe opening of these shoes were very different; almost like cloven hooves, ha!

hat: urban outfitters

top: thrifted

sweater: thrifted

necklace: forever21

pants: thrifted
shoes: kohls

Dedication, Obsession

2010-04-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

i don't remember if i mentioned how i was obsessed with this vest i saw in the Banana Republic window displays on my way to work for MONTHS and they DIDN'T even HAVE the vest in the store and it was TORTURE and i had even found a less pricey, forever21 version?

Well, i got it and let me be honest. I do like the vest; i like the black/grey combination, the floaty light fabric and the pockets. In terms of length and style it is very similar to what i wanted. However, i had this little problem with the stripes.

Look up at this picture, do you see how the stripes match up on one side of the vest but not the other?

And i realize its silly, to be bothered by stripes like this (go check out a striped shirt that you own and see if the stripes match up at the seams. Do they? A lot of the time, the stripes do NOT match up, argh!)

...but i can't help it. I think we all have our own pet peeves when it comes to the things we wear. I intend to fully explore and document every little quirk i have, i know that.

One day after work i decided to randomly check out a banana republic sale going on at a store around 86 street...and they totally had THE VEST. I grabbed it to my chest protectively, noting it was the only one left. Even on sale, it was sooo pricey for me.

I think Banana Republic is my Oops Store. Every once in a while, I will buy something there; way too expensive and later i will think oops. Why did i do that. I should return this. Then i don't.

And i have to tell you, i used to be the girl who debated over buying a top that cost $20. Shoes more than that, no buying that.

I think NYC can change that about a person because the average price of a shoe is $60. $20 for a blouse is a great deal here.

Oh, the girl i once was...its always a debate, you know?

The less expensive version, or the perfect one that you will wear everyday to get that money's worth? The answer is not always as obvious as it should be. And sometimes the cheaper version falls apart or the stripes don't match up, and sometimes the cheaper version is way better and allows you to buy even more!

I think with this vest, the desire built up for so long that when i finally held it in my hands i was too determined to let it go, ever.

Is it everything i dreamed of? Heck yes. But at the same time, waaaaay too expensive for me. Oops. Bad Kay.

Do you dig seeing the white bra through the black top? I am bringing that look back.

headwrap: handmade by Dean!

top: forever21

vest: banana republic

jeans: daffy's

shoes: daffy's

Shoe Design Contest

2010-04-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

So, I love to draw.

I love to draw anything, but its really fun to draw what is only in my mind's eye, such as fabulous shoes!

Its a real challenge too...sometimes I draw something and I think its awesome: a shoe with tweed straps and an escher-inspired print, but is it really?

What if you actually made the shoe and it was really fugly? That is what I fear, not being able to know.

This is a nice set-up to talking about the Vince Camuto Shoe Design Contest.

I totally entered during the last few days (procrastinatooooor) and still have yet to see my designs up on the voting site.
Rejection. Even if they DO appear on the site, they will be about 300 or a million votes behind.
No hope.

But thats okay! I still plan on taking a shoe-making class someday SOON!

I really enjoy looking at all the designs that other people made-so much talent out there!

Take a gander at my fugly shoe designs! This will teach me to do things so late, I think my drawings would be better if I wasn't so rushed...

So this is the horrific herringbone tweed/escher print shoe. It has a wooden clog platform thing going on with some clog studs along the ankle strap.

And this is like some crazy menswear-esque sky high heel. It has cut outs and a peep-toe with a high ankle collar type thing and of course, has some oxford detailing all over.

Check out the contest website if you'd like to see the shoe designs that people have entered so far! http://vincecamutoshoedesigncontest.com

San Fran Picture Treats!

2010-04-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

So now, the long overdue pictures!
My first time being there, I had no idea what to expect. Well, for one thing, its not a warm place. I mean, I wasn't expecting it to be like a sauna or anything. But I was hoping it would be warmer than New York!
It definitely was not, it was a bit rainy, definitely foggy, but quite cold. I jumped the gun, I was so excited for West Coast weather, I packed skirts and dresses. I pretty much wore everything I brought with me and bundled up in layers until I looked quite the fashion repellent.

Here is my sweetie at the aquarium, it was so peaceful and beautiful.

Cue the Full House theme song. "Everywhere you look, is a heart, is a heart...."

I dragged my love onto a trolley ride, because you have to do this if you're a tourist. But San Fran is a really easy city to get around in, as they have about four different modes of public transportation. Buses, trolleys, a subway, these old retro looking bus things.

After another day of non stop walking, we stopped at Japantown for some amazing food! We were so stuffed, do you SEE that caterpillar roll?!

At the Ferry Building right near the water there is this marketplace, and they sell all kinds of good local fruits and veggies and pastries. Inside there are even more stores, where they sell cheeses, meats, wines, fancy olive oils, mushrooms, even olive oil trees! We bought food here to make a nice meal, I wish I had taken a picture of it. Oh, and there was this woman in an antique store who talked with us and it was a great conversation, she was quite the character, with this great cultured voice, and she was from NY, as well!

Oh, this is me in the aquarium, these pictures are all out of order. I look frumpy because I am wearing as much as possible in order not to freeze to death.

You can spend days just exploring Golden Gate Park. I especially loved the Botanical Garden (free, unlike the NY Botanical Gardens), and they even have coastal redwood trees in it!! We were fascinated by this giant chicken and hen plant! Its bigger than my first manicure! I mean, my hand! In NY, these plants are sooooo tiny.

If you ever go to San Fran, be sure to check out the Palace of Fine Arts, if you are going to go over the Golden Gate Bridge, this is right near it. Its a great park, but there is also something called the Exploratorium there. Its like a museum full of science stuff for kids, but a bunch of us older peeps went together and we still had fun there for hours!

Originally, I wanted to bike over the Golden Gate Bridge, but looking at it from afar, I just imagined myself getting winded and stuck halfway across the bridge.

Luckily, we met up with friends who had a car and we just drove over it. Lovely views!

If you love to eat crab, Fisherman's Wharf is the place to be. You can sit down in a fancy restaurant and be served on fine china and use utensils shaped like mermaids, or you could find a more down to earth place, where one man will boil the crab in front of you, bust up the shell all over, and hand it to you in a dish with fries and sauce, unbelievably fast-a dinner and a show.

We did the latter and walked a few blocks to eat on the grass at this park near the water, down below Ghiradelli Square (we later meandered up there to snarf some chocolate and listen to a great street violinist).

Thats not everything, as we packed a bunch of activities into our time there. It was such a good time. People there are super nice and everyone looks so chic and so many people exercise. Even though I was freezing most of the time, San Fran can be a bit overpriced and touristy, and there were times when we had to walk up those infamous hills to get to places, it was all totally worth it.

I did have time to check out the local Goodwill (it was all right, nothing amazing), but I found, randomly, the best thrift store. I dragged my sweetie in there to find him clothing, ironically enough, and found a couple of cool things. I was in heaven, everything looked so amazing, though the prices were maybe slightly lower than brand new. The line was just crazy long and it was crowded with people, so I didn't really do anything but sort of peruse, which I sort of regret.

I kindof wished I had gotten at least one thing.

I think maybe if I were there alone, I would have braved it out more and fought with some chick over shoes or something. Oh well. But next time I go to San Fran, I know where to head to!

Its a Mad Mad World

2010-03-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Another lame title, but things are quite mad here. And busy as all get out.

We have returned from San Fran (working on getting the pix to share) but am now working on going down to Washington D.C. for the cherry blossom festival and meeting up with my dad and stepmom there.

I honestly do not travel around so much but now that I am, it makes me feel all chic and sophisticated, putting together my little suitcases and toiletries into bitty cases. Or ziploc bags.

I am also working towards a position where I get to work on the window displays for a thrift store, but since its New York City, anything you have an interest in trying to do, there are roughly 10,000 people that are also there and have way more experience doing it than you.

But I think it would be a really fun thing to do! And challenging! And not just challenging in the way that working in a thrift store will be an exercise in self-restraint and buying shiny things!

I know that shopping in stores for clothes is fun and its nice to get brand new things that no one else has worn before, but I really like the idea of getting something at a thrift store that someone else can no longer afford to keep and had to donate, but I can keep it and love it.

Its no longer just sitting in someone's closet, unloved and unused, taking up valuable space where loved clothing can be stored. Its like the perfect thing ever. Plus, I love the thrill of the hunt and never knowing what awesome things you can find!

Its perfect shorts with tights weather here in NYC. I am pacing restlessly between the pants and dresses, the sandals and closed toe shoes, champing at the bit. I WANT TO STOP NEEDING SWEATERS AND FABRIC ON MY FEET AND LEGS TO STAY WARM.

The story for this top is that I had this shirt from forever21 when I was obsessed with lace paneling on tops. But being me, I got a stain on one that just wouldn't go away. I finally cut the lace off to keep so that I could maybe sew it on to something else. But fondling the lovely jersey soft fabric, I didnt want to relinquish the shirt either. I decided to safety pin the front of the now free-dangling puff sleeves to the now lace-less front of the top, pulling up enough fabric to hide the tiny-everlasting stain and to make the front of the shirt higher than the back, which I think is cute.

I like the fact that you can see the safety pins and that there is a little gap between the sleeves and armpit, it feels somehow edgy to me.

I am afraid that this is, sadly, as edgy as I will ever come to get. Safety pins holding up my shirt sleeves.

A San Francisco Treat

2010-03-02T14:40:00.001-08:00

Really bad title post, sorry. I am super awful at coming up with good titles. Maybe I should just use song lyrics. There are so many good ones.

Anyway, my love and I are heading to San Francisco super soon to see his sister and to be tourist dorks.
Mentally, I have been conjuring up outfits to wear there. For like weeks.
I was imagining wide brimmed hats, huge sunglasses-bigger than my whole face! Summery dresses, open-toed sandals, delicate strappy camisoles!

It will most likely be raining, but the fantasy lives on. *goes to check out weather report*
...I even drew a list of what I want to bring on the trip:

Scanner is not operational at the mo, sorry, so a pic will have to do.

I've got a to-do list on there and everything. Notice how I even had to draw 7 pairs of underwear? Sad.

To be an even bigger dork, I threw down on my floor what garments I wanted to bring, then arranged seven outfits out of them-could i wear each item with every other item? Then it could be packed.

I wish I had a polaroid camera, I totally would've taken a pic for each item, then shuffled them around into little polaroid outfits.

Actually, I really want to do that. FOR EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE.

Is this a future project? Except, I dun has an old polaroid camera. < -_->

hm...!!

I debated packing way less than this, so that I would HAVE to find a nice thrift store or goodwill of goodies to have enough clothing. But I shall also go to thrift stores anyway, hopefully.

Apologies for the sorry quality of the pix, I was in a rush.

Blue, yellow, and grey together with a kind of khaki/olive color...YUM!

Should yellow plus grey stripes plus brown plus maroon tights be paired together? WHY HECK YES.

Hmm...perhaps grey tights with this? I may be bringing red knees high socks....

May nix this sweater, its so thin...

Can I just say that I love this heels pictured here? I thrifted these recently, and it was such a surprise! The material that crisscrosses the front is a big ol piece of elastic, which makes me go eww.

But when I put them on, they are the most comfortable shoe (more comfy than, gasp, a flat shoe) and feel so light on my feet. I have to stop myself from sleeping in them, plus the new york cold crap weather = horror.

These are not even all the outfits I made. I have been narrowing this list down even more, but also throwing more stuff in....

....like running clothes! I figure if I schlep them across the country, I better gosh darn run in them, up the majestic sloping streets of San Francisco! Plus I told people I would run with them in this 4K at the end of the month in Central Park (never ran a race in my life), so yeah.

p.s.

Just checked the weather! Rainy our first weekend there, then sort cloudy and then kinda sunny at the time we leave.

But weather can change! It is gonna be AMAZ'N!

Gray Stripes Are Forever

2010-03-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

Every person has their quirks...one of mine about clothing is that I am afraid of prints...no, not afraid. Just very...particular.
It can't be too abstract a print, it has to have the right color pallette, it has to be printed on the right kind of fabric...it can't be a huge print, but not microscopic.
But stripes....stripes are much easier! A smaller to medium stripe, with the colored stripe on white or cream is always classy. Dressed up or down. Black and white is too graphic, navy and black is too muddy. Therefore, I own many a striped...garment.

I don't remember what I was listening to while taking these pictures...I want to say it was a Killers' song...I think I was listening to Muse Radio on pandora.com....I was really into it...
Still look scary, though, so apologies.
Just focus on the clothes, please and not the scary girl in them.

I think I have a problem...I own too many stripes...even the shoes have little leather strips/stripes.... *forlorn*

BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP THE WHORLY SWEATER

I drooled over this sweater and then, lo, I was way downtown, found a hidden Anthropologie with an epic clearance section (oh you, recession, oh you)-I beheld this!

top: H&M

pants: gap

tie/belt: target

shoes: target

sweater: anthropologie

Hair Makeover!

2010-03-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

Since moving to Manhattan (not that I live right IN manhattan), I haven't had a haircut. I wouldn't even get massages or facials had I not actually been employed at a spa, haha.

I have yet to get a mani/pedi.
I plan to remedy that soon.

So my hair is stupid long, in that its long enough to do stuff with...but I don't, so its stupid. When I really feel ambitious, I put it in a crooked, lopsided braid. Mostly ponytails. A 'bun'.
But the hair drives me crazy. Shampooing. Conditioning. Taking forever to dry. Lovely blowdryers that give me sunburn, it feels like.
So I turned to my friendly free section of craigslist, got a free haircut, with my love wailing and gnashing his teeth.
"It could be a crazy person trying to cut your hair with chopsticks in their living room salon!" he said, or something like that.
Psh, if he can have his hair be two inches long and not grow it long for ME, why should I have to keep my hair long for HIM?
Anyways, I always feel like a short hair kind of gal, even when my hair is not akshually.

BEHOLD!

The fiend of craigslist is actually a lovely woman working her way up the hair ladder at the Paul lebrecque (hope I spelled that right) salon, who took her careful and diligent time-over an hour-to make this baby. Hair.
I have since then mangled the style, but it looked way better than it does in this pic.
The salon, btw, on the upper east side of Manhattan, is pretty gorgeous, they have a sort of boutique and nail salon and drinks all up in there. It was pretty fancy and decadent, I never could be able to afford that. So it was nice to take a chance and be pleasantly surprised.
I haven't had my hair done in a salon in ages....I forgot how heavenly it feels to have someone shampoo your hair...
and the crazy thing is that the lady lives maybe a mile from where I live!
I had my best friend come with me for moral support and to take pix, but it just never happened. I guess it would seem silly to impose that way.
I do intend to take pix for my first manicure/pedicure, though!

Cabin Fever

2010-02-16T20:38:00.001-08:00

I think I slept wrong on my eye.

Its sore, its not red-looking, so the only explanation is that I slept on my eye wrong, right?

Well, it hurts. I took my first spin class today (you know, that gym class where you ride a stationary bike all hardcore for an hour?) It was actually sort of fun....it reminded me that I REALLY need to exercise more...

I am also feeling cabin fever, I think, which causes me to have a million windows up of forever 21 shoes, drapey vests from Banana Republic...

Speaking of which, I am totally sure that if I do not get this vest from Banana Republic, I may explode (I have been wanting it for months now, even before it was in stores but ON A MANNEQUIN TO TORTURE ME).
All the vests I own are the fitted proper work vest-type sort. Its nice to cinch your middle with a fitted vest and billowy shirt sleeves-but what about a fitted shirt or trapeze top or crop top underneath a lovely flowing knit vest! With a great texture or reversible print!
I need this one from BR...I NEED IT...its sooo expensive....

A new rule: It is time to transition from drapy open cardigans to drapey open vests-works for both the spring and fall/winter!
Is that enough justification to buy this vest from BR??

We all have the movies that we watch simply for the clothes.

*cough! Marie Antoinette! Cough Cough!*

I watched "Easy Virture" for Colin Firth.

And then for the clothes.

LOOK how long Jessica Biel's legs are in those trousers! Amazing! That dazzling smile! That cloche hat! That adorable tiny furry sweater!

I had a hard time finding screen stills of clothing from the movie-thanks Google Images-but if you were curious, the film is 1920's era, lovely sleek evening gowns mingled with smart outfits. Brazen American infiltrates and upsets a stuffy British mansion/chateau/estate...totally worth it if you love Colin Firth.

I have the shortest legs, but thanks to these pants, or the camera angle, they look SO LONG!

Do you like the weird tying thing I did with the blue ribbon? I am sooo bad at posing, apologies.

I just wanna look as great as Jessica Biel, is that so wrong?!

Check out the bling! And these shoes...I have yet to find the perfect pair of red shoes...but raspberry wedges...ADORABLES!! The knot in the shoe echoes the knot of the ribbon of the shirt...I am a dork....

My mom found this for me in a garage sale for like 50 cents! Its super heavy and I have to be careful when I wear it. The black stone cameo, I get so afraid that I will chip that sucker.

I loved how navy blue and raspberry could go with a colorless top and neutral-colored trousers. Sort of letting the shoes and ring speak. Now it just looks sort of patriotic to me. Red, white and blue.

Top: Charlotte Russe (the ribbon + lovely collar shape + lace made me buy it)

Pants: Thrifted

Shoes: Thrifted

Ring: Gift from Mom!

I Heart Colors

2010-02-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

I don't know when it started, but I have always been more of a color, less of a black/white kind of dresser.
I distinctly remember as a littl'un loving to dress myself in orange leggings, an orange stretchy skirt and yellow tank top. Thought I was the s***.
Even still, today there remain colors that I only watch and admire from afar, like yellow and neon any color. Deep purple. Pearl. Ecru.
Now I am just naming obscure wallpaper colors.
But during a recent thrifting stalk, I mean trip, I found a sweater in yellow that had my kind of neckline. I couldn't leave this sort of neckline all alone in the thriftstore! Even if it IS yellow.
I will now make it my duty to find multiple ways to wear it, whether I look good in the color or not, whether the sweater makes my arms look like muscle-y sausages or no!

So here is the first tentative attempt at yellow:

Apologies for my gut hanging out here.

My posing is always so painful (in case you couldn't tell) and self-conscious, so I thought I'd smile.

Ghastly.

I need to start wearing make-up for these shoots. Perhaps I would be less horrifying.

Isn't this jacket adorables?! Its a bit snug for my massive footballers shoulders, but I love it so! I am forever on the cusp of donating this to a lucky lady with teenier body type, but-HELLO! BROWN ADORABLE BLAZER IS TEH FUNCTIONAL! Worth its weight in gold.

The pockets slay me with their cuteness! I think this jacket was the beginning of my obsession, er, collection of blazers that I never wear...maybe obsession is the better word here. Sigh.

So...not great shots of the sweater itself but I plan to show more outfits with it, hopefully with better pix.

sweater: thrited

blazer: forever21

necklace: forever21

pants: gap

shoes: thrifted

I think it'd be really interesting to make a photo collage to see how people have changed their dressing style since they were wee...I know I want to do it for me! Except there were many years where I was camera shy...even now I kinda still am, but for my love of having others see the lovely clothings!