She's Leaving Home

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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?