used to be one of the rotten ones

On Saturday, some of my friends from work and I had a potluck barbecue at Karlee's beautiful house. Her dad likes to garden and he did a great job! So, once I got off work I stopped by the store to get things to make lumpiang shanghai (a skinny Filipino eggroll made with ground pork and carrots), and summer sangria (my own recipe below), which is sort of my specialty, even though I've only made it twice but it always comes out magnificent if I do say so myself! We had a lot of fun making all of the things in the kitchen together.

Here's a video of us as I man the grill making burgers and hot dogs and everyone else sets the table for a homemade feast of Filipino lumpia, vegetarian Vietnamese spring rolls made with tofu, deviled eggs, chips, dip, salsa, bean salad, sangria and cherry Coke. Set to a beautiful song, "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" by Broken Social Scene. (I was commissioned to put my iPod on shuffle.)




Accidental outfit coordination, part 1


Woodland fairies.


Karlee had never bbq'd before so I showed her the ropes.


Accidental outfit coordination, part 2.






Nature's table! Our thighs were burning from squatting :)






Apples to Apples by lamplight!




Summer Sangria
1 small jug of Carlo Rossi sangria (you can use 2 bottles of red wine if you like it stronger, but for summer I like it less wine-y)
2 large oranges
2 lemons
2 limes
3/4 cup strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup chilled ginger ale
double (or triple) shot of cherry rum

Pour sangria/wine into large pitcher. Cut one orange in half and squeeze the juice from the half. Cut the rest of the orange into circle slices. Do the same with the lemons and limes. Add sliced strawberries, sugar, and rum (I threw in a few blueberries too). Put in fridge for at least two hours to let the flavors marinate :). The chilled ginger ale should be added right before serving so it's still fizzy.
(If you don't like red wine, use white wine, still use oranges/lemons/limes, but try different fruit additionally, like peaches, apples, grape juice. Fruit selection is really up to you!)

Cleaning up to "Absolutely Cuckoo" by the Magnetic Fields


Check out the post below for my first ever CLOSET SALE!

photo shoot

I'm not too comfortable being the center of attention, so getting my picture taken is something of an ordeal for me. I think I'll slowly get the hang of it though. Today I had a mini shoot with my friend Emma, who is an amazing photographer. Here's a link to her website, Honey Honey Photography. Check out the post previous to this one to see the new spring additions to the shop.

Anyway, here's a couple of shots featuring a blouse that's up for sale in my shop, HoneyBee Vintage (weird how both of our "businesses" have the word honey in the name. Fate!) :) as well as a floral twist scarf, chiffon single layer skirt, and opaque tights all from American Apparel, and Swedish Hasbeens from ModCloth.







I played around with pretending I had short hair for most of the shoot. It's actually pretty long. I'm flirting with the idea of cutting it again...

More to come once we get the look book done next week. It'll be all cute and outdoorsy fo sho.

there are two things that everyone loves, cats and lasers!

I have to say that I had mostly negative experiences at American Apparel before working there, mostly as a customer at the one in Huntington Beach when I still lived in Orange County. I always had the impression that the employees were a bunch of snobs. I remember getting rung up once, and the whole time, the guy didn't look up once or say one word to me except to tell me how much it cost.

The same can't be said for the amazing staff at Victoria Gardens :) I must admit, unbiasedly, that we are the friendliest and pretty much the greatest. Also the most really ridiculously good-looking (though there's more to life than being really ridiculously good -looking, of course). This is not an opinion. Only fact. Agreed?



Yesterday we had our holiday party (a little belated this time round). We went bowling, which I always enjoy but hardly ever do. I am probably the worst bowler ever, but I love it. I took turns with J, and I alternated between missing every pin and bowling a strike! I think my highest score ever is an 80 or so. :)

My secret Santa was my coworker Michelle who loves the Laser Cats skit from SNL with Andy Samberg and Bill Hader. For her present I bought a navy knit sweater from H&E in Redlands, for a nickel! (All clothing, accessories and linens were a nickel yesterday, and today they were a penny, though by now it's definitely slim pickins.) I put cat patches on the sweater and sewed lasers coming from the cats' mouths, and voila! A one of a kind laser cat sweater! All under the $25 limit. I was excited to see her reaction, and she liked it so much she wore it the rest of the night!

ruffling in the sun

There She Goes - Velvet Underground


At American Apparel, the music we play is through a site called Viva Radio, and it's filled with ads that run in the midst of the music. My favorite one (I usually get mildly annoyed at the ads, but I love this particular one) is the one with this guy with a southern sort of twangy accent, talking about "ruffling in the sun" with the petticoat or packing the twist scarf in a lunch. Anyway, that's a boring little sidenote that explains the title of this post, as well as what me and two of my coworkers did on our day off yesterday in Venice Beach. There were so many weird wonderful people there that I wanted to take outfit pictures of but I was shy. (My top is from Anthropologie on sale for $9.95!! I also bought some cute bottoms there for the same price. I'll post those up another time. I lovelovelove finding steals there because it's so very rare).











Afterwards, we went to Guppy Tea House in Cerritos for some shaved ice with strawberries and mangoes, butter coconut brick toast, and popcorn chicken, along with some Thai iced tea. Yum. I hadn't been there in so long and now I want to go back already! (I forgot to take pictures I was so hungry, so these are from yelp, but it's what we ordered anyway). Enjoy!