My favourite cake

from Breadtop

Dormo Young

my Seal Point Selkirk Rex, he behaves like a dog and follows me all around the house.

he's the one welcome me home and who waits outside my bedroom everynight.

how to not love him?

such an adorable darling.

Young, come here and give mama a cat hug.

conscience over mind control

I find this exercise revealing in many ways. I had mentioned in class that I really needed someone to go to the the Kanye concert with me, so a concerned student asked me today (also in class) if I had found someone yet. I was bummed to report all my friends are anti-hip hop, have hip problems, or simply too old to hop. Then began the pity party that poor me has to go to the concert by my

Ah...Sweet 16

Many of you probably have watched or heard a reality TV show called "My Super Sweet 16" presented by MTV. It depicting the travails of spoiled brat teenagers planning over the top parties. This show makes me sick to the maximum regarding to the behaviors of these innocent yet over maturated kids who are turning sixteen. Oh god, I was bored. I hated myself for turning on the TV. And what do you

For the first time...over and over

Hey all,So, I've been ridiculously sick...that made for a weird memorial day. But, I do have to say, because of month long responsibilities, me and Jon Chang are the most competant captains to ever graze houseboats. We have paperwork to prove it too.So, since I've been sick, it's been pretty easy following the terms of the assignment, except for getting up and being alive. I haven't really had

insomnia my friend

I can't sleep. So instead of going to bed I'm reading. I've been cleaning out my closet all evening and I even painted my nails...it's been a while since I last paninted them. Might give sleeping a try after all now...or maybe I'm going to read some more and go into work late tomorrow. G'night!

Busy, Busy

Now that the end of the school year is fast approaching, I luckily haven't had much time to think about all the products I could/shouldn't buy.But this past Memorial Day Weekend was particularly brutal, with all sorts of sales going on and my family's tendency to spend our quality time together shopping. But I managed to not do any frivolous spending. I did encounter something interesting over

Hypothetically, I could be saving lots of money

I say hypothetical because prior to this project I was already living a frugal life style. Let's say however, that instead I have been able to save $200 at the end of this project. If I continued saving at this rate through the span of the year, I would have saved $2400. That is a lot of money! Now if this moolah was invested properly, say in a mutual fund, then after compounding and interest the

Biking- The New Fashion Trend

So far so good. The only thing I’ve been buying is food. There’s been many temptations to purchase some new clothes, but thanks to this project I have an excuses to walk away. Although I’ve been doing well in refraining from buying new stuff I don’t need, I have been spending a lot of money at the gas pumps. $4.65 a gallon. Are you serious?!? In an effort to save some money on gas I got

Slippage

I slipped mightily over the weekend because of an unholy closeout sale and then at a shoe store where I purchased the last pair of heels that fit me like a dream at a third of the original price. It would appear that the shopping gods deemed it necessary for me to serendipitously find those heels and an amazing stock of clothing at the closeout sale with my sizes still available. In Knockouts

:)

I work at a bookstore. I won’t disclose which one, but I do work at a bookstore. At this bookstore I literally get paid to surf the web for stuff I can’t afford and give customers intimidating looks so they avoid asking me for help. There were a lot of young elementary aged kids in the bookstore on this particular day, so I had to turn up my customer repellent a few notches.

Over the weekend, when I was at my parents’ house I was surprised by yet another gift from my mom, a Salwar Kameez. And guess what- It didn’t fit me. I was mad, but it wasn’t the first time this has happened. So I asked her to return it but there was the catch—She can’t, because she ordered the dress from a high-end boutique in India and had it shipped here. Talk about diaspora connections!

Bindi...blog # 3

Man!! I LOVE being Indian. I love the traditional attire, (mainly because I look hot in them =) the music, the movies, the bindis and everything else that is Indian. Even though im a third generation Fijian Indian (which means that my great grandparents were from India and every generation thereafter were born and raised in the Fiji islands), I like to think of myself as "Desi". This is because I

Reflection

I am not sure about everyone, but some times I sit in front of my computer and reflect on life (I think most people call it procrastination). Most of the time when I do this, I think about one person: my grandmother. My grandmother passed away 5 years ago, but I constantly think about her because of all the hardships she went through to support her family and her survival through the chaos of

I neeeeeed new flip flops

ok maybe this is a cry for help or something because I really need new flip flops. I usually get my flip flops from old navy because i'm broke and they come in a variety of colors and fit well and comfortably. I obviously cannot buy them considering the agenda at hand but i really need flip flops. I guess what this blog is more about is the consideration of ebaying it. I have never bought

Vietnamese ao dai... blog #3

Last weekend my mother attended a typical Vietnamese wedding and wore a fushia and purple "ao dai," the traditional Vietnamese dress, that she purchased in Vietnam a few years ago. I've always looked at the ao dai as being the same as other ao dais that I see other ladies wear. But since taking this fashion class, it made me wonder what would an "authentic" ao dai be like. Is there are

ok so I did slip (entry 3)

Okay, I admit that I did slip over the weekend but, in my defense I blame the long weekend. I bought a bikini top that went with a bikini bottom that I had bought two weeks ago while on a shopping excursion with my aunt. I found the bikini top on Ebay and was not hesistant whatsoever in purchasing it because it completed the set! After I had bought it them I realized that I was the epitome of

Chanel No.5 Commercial

Such a beautiful short film and it remains me of Roman Holiday by Audrey Hepburn.
A runaway princess who fall in love accidentally with a handsome man.
How romantic, how sweet!

photo credit: hepburntribute.com

hello kitty....blog 2

I always liked hello kitty as a child. I was never really that feminine or so called girly at all but one thing I did realllllly like was hello kitty because they had yummy gum and cool stationary. I already have a few things like necklaces and alarm clocks that are of hello kitty characters(btw I bought these recently). I went to vacaville today to help my shopaholic friend feel better from her

Pheeeew, that was close!

Thank you class! Thanks to this be green project, I saved myself $400. I was this || close to buying an over priced shirt I didn't need. I'm an impulse buyer, and it's been killing me financially. This shirt that I was so close to buying is a Visvim shirt, a popular Japanese brand, considered to be the high fashion of street clothing.I think it's interesting how Japanese Fashion has become

Asos Order

I did it. I ordered the YSL-esque heels from Asos and also got myself these leather buckle ankle boots that were on sale. Also ordered some nice cosmetics to justify the expensive shipping costs.

Summertime

Christina Ricci in L'Officiel May 2008

back from houseboats!

This memorial day weekend was awesome! My friends and I spent 4 days living on houseboats at Shasta Lake not having a care in the world. The trip can quickly be summarized as drinking, sleeping then followed by more drinking. Overall it was pretty helpful in terms of our project because I was completely away from society and thus unable to make purchases of any sort. What I noticed however, was a

These concepts are not static...

So, it's been almost an entire week of not buying outsourced products, and it's been rather interesting to say the least. Because I am involved in several extracurricular activities, I have also had a lot of semi-formal, end-of-the-year events. Being the self conscious person that I am, I felt like I had to buy a new outfit for each of these events. But this time, I couldn't do that because of my

Fashion

Memorial Day weekend came and passed, while I stayed at home hesitant that if I go to the mall I will definitely end up buying something. I did go grocery shopping however, and tried to buy everything Organic which has definitely doubled my food expenses.Anyhow, so I sat at home and watched the Cannes Film Festival on TV as the the celebrities attending the Cannes Film Festival appear one by one

I almost slipped

I have to admit that this weekend was the hardest for me especially with all the sales that were calling my name and the fact that I usually shopped when the weekend came around to release stress. It was also torturous sitting through my daily conversation with my best friend Liza who was incessantly talking about her recent purchases at Nordstrom during their annual sale which is advertised as "

Encore

I have been without cable television for the past year so naturally I don’t watch too much TV. When I do want to watch TV, as was the case this Saturday, I turn to the web. While I was relentlessly searching for Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference Finals online, I had stumbled across a few mislabeled Kobe Bryant Nike commercials. These commercials are relatively recent and I have never given

Im FULL

This weekend was in many ways perfect. No school to worry about on Monday, the weather wasn't too hot, and most importantly I kept up with my goal to be green. It's been almost a week and now I feel great, especially because I am still going strong. So, I rewarded my dear boyfriend =] to dinner. It wasn't just any dinner, we had sushi/Chinese buffet! Too much food plus too much soda equals major

cooL!!!

इ थौघ्त थिस वौल्ड बे कूल hmmm... just thought i'd throw this stuff in here..hindi script..too bad i can't read or write in hindi..speak it fluently though!! haha-D@$H!

Indian clothes ..blog # 2

Ok so im trying to think if I accidently bought something which we've been trying not to. It's weird but I feel like I buy things unconciously. Like I know that we're doing this little experiment and I'm trying to be really good about it. But you can only imagine how hard it is when I have to sit here and think about whether or not I unintentionally broke any rules of the experiment. But glad to

Each day gets harder!

I don't know about everyone else, but this project is getting increasingly harder. I am a make-up brush collector (weird - I know, but whatever!). At the end of each month, I head over to Sephora and buy myself a make-up brush. I call it a treat to myself for working so hard this month. However, this project is breaking my tradition! So Friday came and I headed over to Sephora, but all I

New Identities

Joycee here. Looking at labels is only the beginning of our newly-evolving consumer consciousness. If there was one surprising fact I learned in this course, it is that Forever 21 is the brainchild of a Korean family. The creation-manufacture-retail convention in corporate franchises over here on these shores goes from western idea, outsourcing of labor, and finally into western consumerism.

necessary evil? ... blog #2

This weekend while cleaning out my closet, I decided to actually look at the labels of the clothes I own. And of course most of the items in my closet were produced abroad in countries such as China and Vietnam. When you shop for clothes, you don't think what were the conditions that these clothes were made under, whether or not it was humanitarian ("Santa's Sweatshop"). You think about

yO! This is Ari.

yO! This is Ari. So our mission is to not buy anything new. Great! This sounds easy enough considering that I’ve been doing this with my clothes for the past 6 months. This may sound gross to some of you, but I’ve been wearing the same pair of jeans for the past 6 months. That’s right, you read it correctly. The same jeans every single day for the past 6

And So The Battle Begins...blog # 1

Initially, when the Professor mentioned the Anti Consumerism Movement, I thought to myself "wow, that must take a lot of determination, sucks to be them!" I truly thought that I would NOT be able to do something of the sort. I was an only child uptil 9 years of age, so I got what I wanted. Then when I turned 15, I wanted to feel responsible and buy everything for myself, so I got a job.

Hello Kitty... blog #1

Sanrio has always been one of my favorites stores ever since childhood and through this class I have began to look at it through a different lens.I can remember the days in elementary school when things like Hello Kitty and Lisa Frank were popular items. I remember as early back as the third grade when I would buy different stationaries that featured characters such as Hello Kitty, Twin Stars,

baby GAP

For most of us, GAP doesn’t conjure images of young women working in sweatshops and even Nikes continue to be the fad item we all yearn to own. We are a part of the excessive consumer culture ever so present in the US that it has almost become synonymous with us Americans. Being on the receiving end, we do not understand or just simply neglect the relationship between excessive consumption and

FIRST!

What simpler way to preserve the world and all its wonders than by not contributing to its destruction. The idea of preservation through conservation is not so much a challenge requiring the contributions of every individual, but rather a solution. Despite what those “haters” may think, I have decided to approach this Compact experiment semi-seriously. I’ve already begun to cut back on my

Made in China

Joyce here. "Made in China." Magical words that inspire the worst thoughts. For the bike exhibition at the MU on Tuesday, we used six Ikea wooden easels made in China. As the day got older, forces beyond our control (i.e. the wind) blew our huge timeline measuring 3' x 12' standing on four easels to the ground. Luckily, the timeline which was mounted on four gator boards fell as one and thus

Just Got Paid

It's the 22th of the month again. I've been looking forward to this date for a long time. In fact, I wait every month for this date because I get paid on this special day. Usually I reward myself for my half month of hard work as a server and go shopping , maybe buy myself some new shirts from Forever 21. But this time with a mission to be green for 28 days, I was determined not to spend my

Like most college students here in Davis, I am broke. More often than not my wallet is empty and my checking balance is near or below zero. I can’t even afford the luxury of buying second hand clothes, let alone Seven jeans or whatever overpriced items they’re selling at the mall these days. It wasn’t always like this. At one point when I was working I spent most of my earnings getting some

As I am sitting in my apartment, packing for the wonderful long weekend away from Davis, I remembered our wonderful ASA final project. I wonder, how many people took part in the production of my jeans? It said "made in China" in bright yellow letters, but what were the conditions of the workers there? Sitting there, I realized how disgusted I was at my jeans. If felt like a contributor to the

Blog Entry #1

In our current society, where food is bought in a store rather than grown and picked and clothing is bought in the mall instead of hand-sewn, the average American consumer seems to have lost any capability of self-sufficiency. I realized this as I was searching through my closet for an outfit for the Asian American Studies Banquet. Idleness settled in and I immediately wanted to go shopping for a

I was pretty skeptical on the first day about how I was going to go about doing this project. I had to admit I was excited and scared at the same time. Shopping is an essential for me it is a way for me to relax, waste time, etc..I did not know how much embarking on this journey would affect me until yesterday when I was forced by my friends to go shopping. When I entered the mall I was faced

The Rules

http://www.junction49.co.uk/caves/article1158.htmlThe Rules: In brief, the rules of The Compact are to buy nothing new except food, essential medicine, consumables such as shampoo, and utilitarian socks and underwear. Some leniency is extended regarding children's pyjamas, gift items sold by local artisans, gift items received by charities, and fresh flowers from local shops. Professional art

example posting

blog #1 - ValverdeAs a professor I constantly look for innovative pedagogical tools. Learning is not about regurgitation from texts but rather using the text as a springboard to gather more knowledge. Memorizing facts to later spew it out in tests may or may not ensure quality learning. So, I was not adverse to the idea of finding alternative ways to process and measure learning (in lieu of a

Be Green 101 Welcome Note

Here we are, trying to make a difference one person at a time one day at a time. We chose to participate in Be Green 101 because we care about the environment and are critical of consumer culture. There exists many ways for us to act upon our beliefs. For this endeavor, we chose to only buy secondhand items (with a few exceptions) in line with The Compact movement that originated in San Francisco

Yves Saint Laurent RTW SS 08 - when the stars go blue..

The Yves Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2008 collection is one of my absolute favorites of the SS 08 RTW season. The ad campaign with Kate Moss is amazing - it made me fall in love with the collection all over again. The collection features a lot of grey, black, blue and most importantly STARS! The strappy heeled sandals with star details are one of the key pieces for me and guess what, Asos.com has a pretty good knockoff ^o^ I might order them...not sure yet but they're only £25...ahh so tempting. The thing is thatI'd have to order some more things to justify the high shipping costs (not that this would be a problem, Asos has tons of nice stuff but it would get quite expensive). Gah...I'm torn. I've been thinking about the sandals while riding the bus home after work today...you know, how I'd combine them, if I even own something that goes with them and so on. First off I think you really have to tone down the styling so they stand out. I love how the shoes are worn with masculine pieces in the YSL collection. With slouchy high-waisted, ankle-cropped trousers for example.
I think the shoes would look striking worn with chinos or simple jeans and a heather grey top. The Swedish store Monki has some great pieces that would go perfectly with my desired shoes:

Also the American Apparel tri-blend Raglan Pullover would be a good choice ^o^

shopping - couldn't resist any longer

I just couldn't resist this wonderful Balenciaga-esque floral top from H&M any longer. I had already decided not but buy it when I saw it in the store for the first time and instead bought a very cool retro bathingsuit with the same print. But it's been haunting me ever since...showing up on many great fashion blogs and it always looked so damn good on everone. At frist that was even more so a reason not to get it but when I saw it again today I just got it. Hah.

Well it's not like anyone else here is likely to buy it as people in this city are far from fashion forward and pieces like this often end up on sale (which is even better for me).




G'night XOXO

transparent

So last week my AA order finally arrived. I am very happy with the Micro-Mesh T-Shirt and I can't wait to wear it. It's the perfect piece to mix and match with basically everything in your closet. Looks nice worn over a tight spandex dress or under a corset style top.

outfit: last night

Last night I went out dancing with a couple of friends. I wore my brand new skirt that the wonderful Alma H. made for me. I love the skirt, it's so perfect and well made. Thank you again, Alma!

I also wore my other new love: the Burberry-esque Zara belt. So glad I got it, I've tried it on with a million outfits already and it really goes with almost everything. The reason I didn't but the belt when I first saw it in stores was because I was worried that I wouldn't find an outfit to wear it with. But the belt totally proved me wrong, it's so versatile <3. You will be seeing a lot of it in the future!

top: h&m; skirt: made by lovely Alma; belt: Zara; shoes: skopunkten

PS: I know the skirt is not ironed but for going out to the club I couldn't be bothered.

my short trip to England

London:

Shopping in London

Shopping in London was great, I just love to shop there! It's quite expensive but I still got myself a couple of things. First of all these wonderful gladiators which I bought at Topshop:

I also got myself a lovely tiered floral skirt at Topshop. Apart from that I bought very cute PJ's at The Gap. And what I'm most happy about is a Burberry-esque belt from Zara which I've been looking for ever since I saw it online on Runway Today's blog.

I also got a few nice clothes to wear to the office at Uniqlo. I loved this Store when I discovered it in Japan last summer and was really happy to be able to shop there again. They had quite a few items on sale so I got 3 knit sweaters/cardigans, a jacket and a shirt for a bit over £50!

I hadn't had time to really experiment with my new clothes yet but I will do so this weekend and will definitely post some pics of me wearing the things =)

such a perfect day ...

I'm in England now, visiting one of my sisters who's living here in a town in the middle of England. It's very beautiful here, the English countryside is so idyllic. The weather is amazingly warm and sunny...it's perfect. I'm here with my other sister (with me on the picture below), her boyfriend and my boyfriend. We're only here for 4 days and then I'm going to stay in London for 1 night and do some shopping on Oxford street, yay!

the maxi skirt

I bought this on e-bay last year after seeing a picture of an Olsen twin wearing a light colored maxi skirt with a wide black belt. I got really obsessed with the idea of owning a maxi skirt, searched everywhere and ended up with this beige colored one from Topshop. I even got myself a wide black patent belt to go with it but somehow I never wore this skirt. It disappeared in the depths of my closet. For some reason I thought of it today and searched my whole closet looking for it - it's a bit crumpled but who cares. I really like it with my new striped t-shirt and the belt but I also tried another combination:
edited: Haha, after looking at it again and again I really started to hate this combination. I will remove it now so I don't always have to stare at it when I open my blog ^o^
I think the Olsen twin (I'm sorry, I don't remember who it was) also wore her maxi skirt with a white shirt. I really like that idea but I'm not quite happy with my outfit yet. Maybe I have to try it with a different shirt, a black on perhaps?
It's hard not looking too boho/hippie - ish when wearing a maxi skirt.
I definitely have to iron my skirt before I can leave the house, haha >.<

all your secrets were drowned...

i-D August 2007.

scans from fakingfashion

shopping: the denim jacket

My best friend Nicky recently discovered her mom's old jeans jacket and I loved it so much on Nicky that I couldn't pass on this slightly darker denim version I found at H&M's Kids Dept. I think it's a great alternative to the presently totally overexposed leather jacket. It works great to spice up girly outfits or the add that rock 'n roll touch.

I also got this navy striped shirt at Zara and a nice hat (I loove hats although I don't own many and rarely ever wear them >.<)

I paired it all with black pants and patent red ankle boots.

it's a man's world...

Both from Topshop

dancing in the moonlight

I got this gorgeous bathing suit from H&M last week:


I love the retro pin-up style. I dunno yet if I'm going to wear it to go swimming as I prefer bikinis for that but I think it makes a really nice top.

Shopping: florals

As I mentioned in a previous post I did some shopping last weekend, or was it two weeks ago? Anyway I finally found the perfect floral printed dress and a nice silk top with a floral print at Zara. I think this should satisfy my craving for floral prints for now. I also picked up two jeans shorts for summer and a fringed black clutch at H&M.



^please ignore the stupid face I'm making in this picture..haha. >.<

click on the thumbnails to with the full sized pictures

French riviera at Topshop

1. Deck Chair One Piece, 2. Striped Riviera Skirt, 3. Sporty Strap Sandal by Unique, 4. Sporty Strap Sandal by Unique, 5. Gingham Bandeau Bra, 6. Gingham Skirted Mini

I need that one piece bathing suit! Fortunatley I will visit my sister who's living in the UK in two weeks so I might get it there at the store ^o^