day off

T-shirt + skirt combo, yeah!

Hey, y'all! I hope your week is going well. :) Yesterday, I met up with my friend and photographer Emma, and Alisa, to go to Rowland Heights and get some dim sum, which turned into getting boba and other tasty treats in the form of pastries!

After dim sum, which was quick, and good, and cheap just like dim sum should be, we drove a few blocks over to Half and Half, this super cute boba joint. Their cups are chubby little things, as you can see from the pictures below. Also, the inside is nicely decorated, with lampposts and flower boxes.

Then we stopped by this place that just opened up (there's a location in Irvine, too). It's this amazing bakery/cafe called 85C (or 85 degrees Celsius). The breads and pastries are perfect; delicious and flavorful and soft. Some reminded me of Filipino pastries I'd had before. So tasty! I got a cheese danish, an almond sponge cake, taro bread, and a chocolate chip bowl, which was my favorite for sure. There's apparently always a huge line that forms, but it moves quickly. You get a tray and fill it up with pastries and then they bag them for you and put 'em in a box. It's like a little cafeteria line. I'm not a coffee drinker but I hear that the Sea Salt Iced Coffee is super. If you live in the area or are visiting, I'd say you should scope it out! It's not badly priced either! Mmm, carbs. :)

New Yorker vintage cover t-shirt: Zara
light blue chambray button down skirt: Salvation Army
belt: American Apparel freebie!
shoes: thrifted
satchel: Urban Outfitters years and years ago

updates

So, lots-- and nothing at the same time-- has been happening this December, which is why I haven't posted in a while. I know that doesn't really make sense, but it's true. Since grad school's let out for winter break, all I've really done is work, read Flannery O'Connor biographies, sleep, eat pumpkin everything, drink tons of sweet tea, and re-watch a whole lot of Futurama on Netflix.

It's weird that Christmas is over. It sort of just came and went, no? I did get to decorate J's mom's house and wrap her presents to J's nieces while watching Home Alone, so that was nice and holiday-filled. We also painted her garage door and his sisters' new place. I like to paint, by the by.

Aside from that, I went on a vegas vacation last week, which J and his sisters and cousins do every year. The weather was miserable but I got to wear some coats and scarves and mittens and gloves, so I was happy for the most part. They opened up the hugest H&M out there so we went to peruse for a bit as well. We also ventured to the cutest little bar in Old Town Vegas called the Griffin. It was probably the best part about the trip. I'm not a big Vegas person in the least. Not a big drinker or gambler. I like the buffets and shows though. I still have yet to see Cirque du Soliel's Love. (I'm a Beatles fan, and I like anything to do with dancing; I took ballet, hip hop, and jazz.. Oh and tango!)

So, since it's been so long with an actual outfit/fashion related post... Here's a smorgasbord of pictures for you! Most of them are bad quality, sorry!

At the Griffin. This was the night we drove into Vegas from southern CA, and I'm wearing my broken non-up to date prescription glasses, a striped top from Anthro, and a snood scarf from H&M that I like using as a hood on the rainy streets of Vegas. Leather UO bag.


Shopping. This is my favorite outfit of late, and probably the one I'll wear to the Dressember festivities on Thursday. Too bad it's so blurry. (I like how one of my legs looks bloated from the reflective surface outside Dior. J's giant head is great here, too). It's a work outfit I put together (I work at American Apparel) and now I can't get enough of it. It's the creme silky round collar top, the black tank dress, and bordeaux bamboo tights. The camel wool coat is from Asos.com. Pale pink snood from H&M, lace up ankle boots from Etsy, leather bag from Urban Outfitters three years ago.


AZN-ing out. This is also an American Apparel outfit. We planned to go to a club, but J hates clubs, so we decided to go out and wander and be silly, while his cousins and sister braved Lavo. Lace Chiffon dress in black, basic bodysuit in black, suede skinny belt in bordeaux. Black sheer polka dot ankle socks from J. Crew.


Losing seven dollars at the Wheel of Fortune slots. I dominate at the actual game show, though!


More silly after some Shirley Temples. :)


And then! Day before Christmas, Erin from Calivintage comes into my store. I nerd out and tell my coworkers who she is, and we end up taking pictures with her.


On Christmas Eve we went to J's mom's for a gift exchange and yummy tamales and a talent show that J's brother won. Then Christmas day was spent at his aunt's where we ate a whole lot, played Kinect for the XBox 360 and board games galore. I hope your guys' holidays were wonderful as well!

cowboy up

Today we had our 10 year reunion for Cajon High School. Yes, I graduated in 2000. Yes, that makes me 28. Yikes. It was an informal one at the park near my house. Fun times with people I've only so far kept in touch with through facebook. We had a bbq and played silly games, including one where we had to name songs that were popular during our senior year. This has prompted me to make a high school playlist (not consisting of songs that were played at the reunion; i.e. the Thong Song). I won one of the raffle prizes so I got some gift certificates to this awesome Mexican restaurant we used to always go to during lunch in high school and some other cute stuff. Here's a picture of me with the other winners.



Some of our teachers showed up (one of which is married to my classmate, Cara). In this picture are Mr. and Mrs. Syphus (my English teachers) and Mr. Cech (my Theory of Knowledge teacher) in an amazing denim ensemble, along with my classmate Josh on the very left.



And then Clair and me, voted by our friend Josh as the ones who most look the same after ten years.



New vintage dress from the Tailor's Stories on Etsy! Stinkin' cute, but it needs some alterations. I just got it in the mail a few days ago and was really excited about it so I used it today at my reunion. :)

(It's part of my 30 for 30, which I still need to post up. Tomorrow for sure.)

100th post! (and opening of etsy shop)

Hello, m'dears. It's my hundredth post since I started this blog on New Years. I've had a lot of blogs before this, from xanga to livejournal, but this was the first one I started as a more public forum. Usually, my blogs are primarily for me.

I know that I haven't been much of a presence because I've been procrastinating and basically freaking out about my writers' block. The thing is that I've written plenty of published stories, but now that I'm in the MFA program working to put together a collection of short stories, I'm putting too much pressure on myself to write something that doesn't reek of student work, something that doesn't read like a workshop piece. I have three pieces due in the next two months. Wish me luck.

Now on to the post. Today J and I finally got the chance to go to the pumpkin patch we went to last year. Too bad we went kind of late so the corn maze and petting zoo were already closed. Oh well. I'll post some pictures from last year's visit in the daytime, with my short hair. Here are some pictures from tonight, first.



Candy corn fangs! Rah!


Last year, same patch.



And then an outfit shot because it was super dark at the pumpkin patch. It's candid so I look like a weirdo. But it's okay. I finally got to do an outfit post with my favorite new dress since I didn't take any full outfit pictures at the Belle & Sebastian Show. :)


Lastly, I made a pumpkin cheesecake from a recipe given to me by my older sister, Tess. I'll put up the recipe later. Here's a picture of it with the pumpkins we picked up tonight. We wanted to get some oddball-looking ones as well as some more traditional lookers. My favorites are the little white one and the green and yellow guy. I'll update with shots of our crafty pumpkins come Halloween!


Oh oh! This is a good time-- since it's my 100th post-- to let you know about my Etsy shop, HoneyBee Vintage. My name means "honey bee" so I thought it might be appropriate. There's only one listing because school has been sucking the life out of me. Tell your friends! I'll have some other things up tomorrow for sure!

everybody's talkin' at me

So today was a long and eventful day in LA. First, we went to the American Apparel factory store so I could make use of my discount on already discounted merchandise, one of the many perks about working for the company. I ended up just getting a pair of the brick red pleated pants, a really cute playsuit/romper thing (that I will post up an outfit picture of later), and a peter pan collared blouse. Good haul, if you ask me.



Then we went straight to the old abandoned Griffith Park Zoo which was the original LA Zoo before they moved to better accommodations. It was pretty great. The old lion/bear/monkey/bird cages inside the park were fun to climb through and hang around. There are picnic tables there so people there to hang out, eat lunch, take pictures, go on bike rides. There's even a merry-go-round, but it's only open on Saturday and Sunday. Afterwards, we read a little in the park; we're still going through Confederacy of Dunces. Love it. It's hilarious. And insane.



I took the opportunity to showcase my new Madewell dress, so this is an outfit post on the Betty Tea Dress. My belt is from American Apparel, and my shoes are super old Payless sandals that are falling apart, but I love them too much. Sunglasses are from Anthropologie. Sorry about the poor quality; my camera is just a point-and-shoot, even though it's a pretty good one.



Afterwards, we went to go see a documentary about singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson at the Laemmle on Sunset. I didn't know much about him going in so it was really amazing to see what he was all about and the great writing he's done and his amazing amazing voice. A really huge talent. The director and some of the other people involved were there for the screening, along with Nilsson's family. You should all check the documentary out, please.

the minor fall and the major lift

Magnetic Fields - With Whom to Dance
Beirut - Hallelujah
The 6ths - You You You You You Katherine Whalen singing a song by Stephin Merritt (of Magnetic Fields)
Noah and the Whale - Five Years Time
Jens Lekman - La Strada Nel Bosco

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I've been super tired lately, even though this weekend I did a whole lot of nothing except eat. Eat... and play my new ukulele! It's pretty pretty. I've already semi-learned a few songs, like "Hallelujah", and "Postcards", and "New Soul". I lovelovelove it! And in honor and reverence of that love, my mini playlist is comprised of all ukulele songs. There are plenty more by both Beirut and Magnetic Fields but I didn't want to make it heavy on one artist, so look 'em up!

I also spent the weekend with four crazy little dollfaced girls, which is why I'm so tired. I'm glad I have the day off today. It was a nice and pleasant surprise. I've decided to spend it cleaning, running, yoga-ing, and crafting. Doesn't sound very relaxing, but it is. Really.

Here's a picture of my new little beaut, followed by some pictures from the weekend and a ukulele session from Yael Naim. (I should have thought to take some outfit pictures. Nonetheless, I'm wearing the oversized chiffon blouse in bone with the navy tap shorts from American Apparel and then the vintage cutout schoolgirl dress from California Select.)

I hope your 4th of July was splendid! What did you all do?

s&m and bible study

Today on this fine Sunday I tried to do something fun, since I had the rare day off from work. I'd been looking forward to the Riverside To-Do at Fairmount Park and the promise of different interesting little workshops like baking, bicycle maintenance, composting, crafting, live music, etc. But when we got there, it ended up being a few sad tents and a dj along with a small scattering of people.

My friend/photographer really wanted to attend the bike workshop and I was all about the baking and crafting, but alas, we had to improvise and instead went swinging at the playground and then took a paddle boat for a spin around the lake in the middle of the park, which turned out to be fun aside from being super hot out on the lake! It seemed really tiny at first-- or I was expecting it to be, but it ended up being pretty big; and from the pictures, it seemed very Jurassic Park-ish. :) Also, there were some cute birds and friendly people out.

All in all, it turned out to be quite fun in the end!

I Know Where the Summer Goes - Belle & Sebastian





I also got to make use of my new favorite dress from Reformed. I love the sleeves, and the cutout in the back (you can kind of see the back in the second to last picture), and the pleated detailing on the skirt, and the neckline. Pretty much everything about it! It was really sunny and my eyes are very sensitive to the light, so that's why I've got my sunglasses on. They're just some cheapies from Forever 21. Anthropologie headband. Black shoes from Kimchi & Blue. (I also have the creme ones).

If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle & Sebastian