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Saturday, October 27, 2007

Guilty Pleasures

Having had a stressful few weeks, I decided to treat myself to a day of guilty pleasures.
  1. My top guilty pleasure is sleep. And by that I don't mean the usual 8 hours. I mean sleeping for however long and whenever I want. See, I'm not a morning person. Hence I never feel like waking up in the morning. So this morning (afternoon), I woke up late. And then I went for guilty pleasure number 2......
  2. Romance novels. I find the newer novels these days to be much too formulaic and tedious to go through to find a good one. Hence I love reading the old ones that I know are good. The classics never get boring. They are all the same anyway, its just the quality of the writing that differs. Besides, all I'm looking for is a happy ending to escape from the real world. One of my all time favourites is Jill Mansell's, Miranda's Big Mistake. Its super sweet. Mansell is generally pretty good, though I can't say much for her newer books......And while I was reading by the window next to the warm sunlight, I indulged myself some more and rest my eyes whenever I need to.
  3. Next on my list is endless hours of mindless TV shows. These days I watch just about anything, Greys Anatomy, Samantha Who, Gossip Girl (love it), ANTM etc. But my ultimate favourite is still the chic lives of the girls on Sex and the City. I can never get bored of them. They are classic!
  4. And we must not forget nourishment. Guilty pleasure number four: eating ice cream out of the carton. Then you can really eat as much as you want. And the ultimate pleasure of all? Sleep after you eat. I know that it is highly not recommend it. But succumbing to food coma is just the best thing I can imagine. Even if you cannot sleep for the rest of the night after....
  5. But thats ok, because then you can indulge in guilty pleasure number 5: talking on the phone with an old friend and going down memory lane- for hours. 4 hrs and 5 minutes to be exact. There is no path better than memory lane. Now I really want to read all those Christopher Pike books I loved to read when I was 13...... especially Starlight Crystal. Its about this girl who falls in love with this guy but a few days later she had to go on a spaceship that is designed to be a time capsule that observes human evolution over time. And then something goes wrong and there is this huge time warp and....I just remember it being more cool than it sounds now.
  6. Staring into space and letting your mind wander...and closing your eyes for a few minutes whenever you like. Especially nice if you have a nice view or a clear sky to stare at.
  7. And the last of my guilty pleasures? List making. I love list making. I make lists about everything (observe this blog). And diary writing. It really keeps track of your thoughts and clears your head up. Besides- its awfully entertaining to read a year later....especially if you make interesting lists, like new years resolutions and checklists... I highly recommend it.
And this is my list of guilty pleasures I like to indulge in on my "me" time. What are your guilty pleasures?

Image Source: Amazon.com

Friday, October 26, 2007

Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School Tokyo - Hauntingly Good

The Halloween edition of Dr Sketchy's Tokyo was a spooky spectacular.
Dr Sketchy in Oct
Goth beauty and stirring strength oozed from Akiko's on stage poise. The professional singer and performer stunned the audience with her rendition of Mozart in a truly powerful vocal performance, bringing a new and spine tingling element to Dr Sketchy's Tokyo.
Dr Sketchy in Oct
Dr Sketchy in Oct
Dr Sketchy in Oct
Leila kept the sketchers entertained as the new Dr Sketchy's Tokyo MC.
Dr Sketchy in Oct

Curl Your Lashes

Last year, my routine was just tinted moisturiser and blush (on the days I actually wake up on time). This year, I have officially added eyelash curling as the final step.
If you have read any top beauty secret lists in magazines, then you would remember that curling your lashes is always one of them. Curled lashes are supposed to make your eyes look bigger, make you look more awake -basically, brighten up your whole look. I always took this advice very lightly because it seemed that whenever I curled my lashes and applied mascara, my lashes just became straight after 5 minutes, so what's the point? However recently, I've started curling my lashes at the end of my makeup routine. Surprisingly when I get home after school, my lashes are still curled, and sometimes, people even ask me if I have mascara on.
The point I'm trying to make is, try curling your lashes everyday before leaving the house. It takes less than a minute to do and really livens up your eyes! And at the end of the day, you don't even have to wash it off. Convenient huh? Makes me think we should listen to conventional wisdom more often!
Image credit: www.sephora.com

Here comes Halloween


Here's to good health (mama), costume creation, a Friday night in out of the rain and the night before Tokyo's biggest Halloween parties!!!

Kampai!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Hedgehog


I saw this one on the internet, so it's not an original idea... but i wanted to see if i could replicate it- it was a really good learning exercise! after 3 tries i finally got it right ;-) and now, it can go on to the collection of hedgehogs i'm putting together for my sis!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Pink Cow Tokyo



"I had so much fun just chatting, I didn't want it to end"
Masao Tamaoki

This is how every night should be!!


Tomokuni and TiFdyL with their Bax Bear at Dr Sketchy's Tokyo, the Halloween edition.

Tapir


it was meant to be a hedgehog for my little sister... this was attempt 2 and somewhere along the line it went wrong... but i'm working on another one! 3rd try is the charm right? anyway, this guy was still cute i thought, so I kept him.

Vivienne Tam Dresses

I am constantly amazed at my mom's ability to be so up to date with the latest going ons in fashion. Her latest discovery are the trendy dresses at Vivienne Tam. Surprising isn't it? I've always related her style as western with oriental influence and wouldn't exactly call it trendy. So when my mom told me she'd bought me a dress from there, I was like, what?
Luckily for me, the dresses over at Vivienne Tam seems to have gone through a revival and are much trendier than I'd imagined. The dress my mom got me was this one, except mine is black and made of a woolish material. Now to be honest, when I first saw the dress (and identified it as this one in the catalog), I didn't like it very much. It was past my knees and it has the most awkwardly positioned tie thing in the middle. That is not exactly the most flattering cut. But after playing around with it, I've tied it at the waist, such that a little puffy effect is created and is shorter, which is kind of cute with ankle boots!
This of course got me looking into the rest of the catalog and now I am lusting for more Vivienne Tam dresses! They have more simple casual (kind of shift) dresses. I especially love the grey one in the middle. The color is also so nice and wintery without being too black.

And check out those silver Mary Janes! I WANT a pair. They look so perfect in the winter with all these cute short dresses!
For something more sophisticated, there are these more polished creations. The dress on the right is my favourite! The bottom frills gives it just the right touch of girliness to the otherwise sophisticated and simple design.
Something a little more fun, there are these printed dresses. The rich silver brocade dress is so adorable! And as a side note, I really like that look on the far right (sorry about the bad scanning). Its so simple to achieve too. All I need is to go out and get myself a cute printed mini!

Who would've thought that these creations were Vivienne Tam?

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Kate Moss Top Shop AW07 and Christmas Collection

Remember back when the Vogue preview of the Kate Moss Top Shop SS07 collection came out and I was really excited about it? Well, since then I have seen the collection in real life, applauded Photoshop's ability to beautify cheap material and lowered my expectations for the clothes. While I really don't like the idea of Top Shop basically recreating some of Kate's designer wonders from her wardrobe, I can't deny I'm really excited about some of the designs I see.

With this line, you really need to see the clothes in real life before buying anything. The quality is really so-so and the photos you see are really photoshopped (or taken under clever lighting.) For example, this dress in real life? I felt it in real life last week and was surprised by how bad the quality was. The material was coarse and felt cheap.

Another thing I don't completely get about the clothes -some of the tops and dresses are very sheer. Yes I realise you simply have to wear a camisole underneath, but it's hard to find the perfect v-neck camisole to go underneath, preferably made of silk.

When you look through the collections, you would notice that there are sequined T-shirts are an essential part of the collection. The tops aren't bad, but I'm not sure they're worth paying 35pounds (tank on the right) for.

OK, so onto the AW07 and Christmas collection:
When the AW07 collection came out in Aug/Sept, I was disappointed. What's with these preppy clothes? The school girl look is cool up to a point, and pink is certainly past that point.

The one thing I've been eyeing has been this Zig Zag dress. Thankfully I've been too indecisive to buy it, and it just went on sale on topshop.com. Obviously I've bought it now. I love the side where the dress is short and the tie around the neck -gives the dress a unique, stylish twist.

After the disappointing AW07 collection, the new Christmas collection is about to be released. From the photos I've seen so far from topshop.com, Gracia magazine and ID, the Christmas collection looks way more fabulous. There are some really cool, edgy little dresses -perfect for the coming Christmas and New Year parties!

I LOVE this dress, especially the patterned beads that look like a belt! It looks so stylish and pretty in the image. I'm trying not to get too excited though, because the dress could possibly be of bad quality in real life.

This ID image got me excited about this Deco style dress. It's fun, edgy and trendy. I love how the sequined top has a solid fit, and the bottom chiffon skirt bit is soft and flowy.

Here's the Deco dress again on the right. On the left is a dress that looked decent in Gracia magazine but looks kind of cheap on the topshop webstie. I'm still hoping to try it on in real life though. Who knows?

And then there's this pleated mini dress. When topshop describes it as mini, it really does looks supremely mini. it doesn't even go down to Kate's legs in the ID image! But hopefully it won't be that short on me since I'm short anyways. It looks demure on the top, but short and young at the bottom.

The Christmas collection is supposed to hit stores on 25th Oct -that's this Thursday. I can't wait! I only hope Top Shop stocks enough of my size for once. Clothes-shopping-wise, there's nothing more annoying than finding a design you like and the shop doesn't have your size left.

Image credit: www.topshop.com, ID magazine images

Monday, October 22, 2007

Top Weekend in Tokyo

I am yet to have a Tokyo karaoke experience that I fully remember but that is not completely unforgettable. Oh the memories, however blurred. Thank god for technology and the peeps who embrace it. Thanks to my karaoke buddies some highlights were captured...thus the memories live on!

Lindsey's birthday bash started off innocently enough with her on a Tokyo scavenger hunt. Naturally the night ended with jugs of undisclosed liquids, wild screams of joy (or pain) and some sweaty looking singers in some questionable pics.

Happy Birthday Lindsey!









ps Thanks Lindsey, Mark and Fintan for the pics (I stole them without asking!!)

The Hills Season 3

Season 3 of The Hills is rumoured to be its last season, (because supposedly, Lauren doesn't want cameras to follow her everywhere anymore.) I don't know how many of you watch the Hills or read enough paprazzi to know drama between the characters, but I'm not going to get into it here. Yes, I know the so-called 'reality' isn't quite reality, but sometimes it's just funny watching how dumb and annoying people can get. Plus even more importantly, their clothes look too fantastic not to watch! It's sort of like watching a 'reality', Lalaland-version of Sex and the City mixed with Gossip Girl.

The first thing that I noticed about Season 3 is that the clothes have become more fabulous than before! In episode 1, Audrina looked amazing in this silver dress, (which is by Alice + Olivia). It's perfect for this summer (short, super short,) and a good choice for a date + clubbing.

Throughout the season, there has been scenes of Lauren and Whitney at the Teen Vogue office. Strangely (uh huh,) they didn't actually do much other than compliment on each other's clothes and reviewing Lauren's feelings about things that had just happened to herself. It's always nice to see the clean, pretty interior of the office of Teen Vogue.
And there are scenes of Heidi and Spencer being annoying together. I swear Heidi's decisions never really make sense to me. And Spencer should really shave everyday.

In Season 3, Heidi has felt the need to flash her new assets every oppurtunity possible. Those dresses are seriously low-cut!

Somehow I feel like I've got a similar personality as Lauren, so I really like watching Lauren's funny expressions and reactions to situations.

We're going to miss Lauren's headbands!

One thing I really liked about the show was the group hanging out at cool hot spots. Everything just looks so chic.

Maybe even more importantly, the girls just talking with themselves. It's so nice to hear sort of normal conversations on TV. It's sort of like watching yourself talk with your friends, except they live together (-so jealous!) And any show that has such a strong friendship element in it is definitely my thing!

And of course I'm going to miss the drama. Real or not, it's just so entertaining!

Thankfully, (unfortunately if you hate them,) the cast will probably still be attending events and be photographed for another while. I can't wait to see them in new, fun party dresses. Here, the girls are at the The Hills' Season 3 premiere party. The FCUK dress Lo's wearing is still available at FCUK stores in a few colours. It's actually affordable so I really have to get myself to a store to try it on!
This is one of my favourite Lauren outfits. LOVE the Alexander Wang dress on her. It's prettier and chicer than most of her plain dresses, but still simple enough to be 'her'.

I read that they're still filming. When is Season 3 going to end? I hope not anytime soon because it's one of the things where I get LA style inspirations from. Anyways, the Hills is still on air so don't forget to tune in!

Sunday Afternoon Success

We have been busy singing karaoke and having amazing parties where all of friends come to see what the TOKYOMADE creators have been up to recently. Yesterday afternoon was the first of what we hope to be a string of successful Sunday afternoon events for LADE clothing and TOKYOMADE.
Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
(Getting ready at And Zone Shinjuku, Tokyo)

We got off to an early start as we rolled into And Zone Shinjuku at 10am, extremely early for a Sunday morning post Saturday night karaoke. Meeting up with the LADE guys, Eshimasa, Tomokuni, Michi, Cometman and Machie we all got to work splashing, colorful, creativity and products on the white walls of the gallery.

Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
(Eshimasa, Tomokuni and Machie getting their pieces ready for display)

The open plan gallery was really perfect and things fell into place smoothly with each designer having their own piece of wall with enough room to showcase some hot street wear labels from Canada, a projection space, TiFdyL live painting and a super fresh dj area pumping out some mighty fine tunes during the 8 hour set.

To make things even easier And Zone is a divided space with the gallery on one side and a very cozy lounge serving some top veg curry on the other.

Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
A huge thank you to everyone that was able to come and celebrate with us and LADE clothing, without you our Sunday afternoon would not have been half as enjoyable. A special thanks to Eshimasa, Tomokuni, Michi, Cometman, MacBag, Sci-Fi, Ichigo Seijin, Tiny Azure, Shojono Tomo and Ryo Honda for being part of the TOKYOMADE collaboration/ family.

We realized yesterday that in a few short months TOKYOMADE has grown into something so much more that we originally imagined it could be. TOKYOMADE has become a collective of talented, inspirational and positive artists that share their creations, but more than that we have become an international group that shares life and laughs and that is more than we could ever have hoped for.

Of course the biggest thank you must go to the LADE clothing trio, their partners, friends and family for their vision, hard work and for inviting us to be part of a very rad Sunday afternoon. We are very excited to be apart of many more events just like it.

Sunday Afternoon Party in Shinjuku
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