Camel & Sable

H&M camel poncho // Forever21 skinny jeans (26) // Forever21 grey LS top (S) //

Merona mustard yellow scarf // Taiwanese camel faux fur heeled boots (36) // 
Thrifted camel leather satcel bag // Claire's beaded feather earrings

Photography: JJ and myself

It's a dreary day in St. Louis. Is there anything spring about this Spring Break? What with the nice disk of snow sliding at a rate of 1 mm/hour off the patio table, the bundled up pedestrians and bland expressionless sky. I woke up to flurries outside my window, still adjusting to DST. Still, we headed to Kayak's for some caffeine and shelter. There's something about editing photos in a coffeeshop and feeling like you have all the time in the world even if the same cars seem to slide across the scene in front of you. I love to people-watch from cafes but instead of seas of businessmen and rebellious teenagers, it's oceans of mini vans, falling-apart sedans, the occasional truck. I did bump into some classmates and introduced the world of blogging to one of them. One more architecture blog in the world would be so rad.

Grainy photos taken in the subway station. The lighting there is crap but at least my auto function made it minimally blurry. I went a little crazy with the Lightroom effects but I like the sci-fi feel. Too many camel pieces all thrown together and the first time I tried the french braid hairstyle (all the talent goes to my friend and suitemate - this is her signature look haha) while trying to stay warm on this "wth weather" day. The two of us are being silly and trying to look like twins. Of course putting the coffee on the top of our heads was my idea, duh. No one else is that weird.

Okay, okay. Now to address the point that I DYED MY HAIR JET BLACK. Yes, I finally tired of the dark roots and upkeep but I pretty much regret it. I miss my light hair SO MUCH I do a double-take every time I step in front of the mirror. However, having my almost natural hair colour back is more professional, and that is what I hope to become for my future's sake. I miss feeling special and weird and carefree. Now it'll be easy to tell which outfits are old, eh? In fact, my hair hasn't been this black since I was 5, so this is really freaking me out. It has been a super dark brown-black all my life, with random brown streaks that were also natural. The ombre idea didn't work out so well so I just combed the dye thoroughly throughout with the help of my friend. Hopefully this is the last time I dye my hair for a long while?

I was reading Rumi Neely's blog today and it was so eye-opening and heart-shredding to hear about the disaster in Japan first-hand. With each new aerial shot and video, I wish that Mother Nature would be more caring, but she is dispassionate about her victims. This is in no way, shape, or form the country or the people's fault. I am deeply embarrassed for my fellow countrymen who have blurted out inappropriate statements about karma or previous politics. My heart goes out to the people.

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Poncho Honcho

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H&M camel hooded poncho (S) // F21 harem pants (XS) // 
F21 leopard wedge boots (6) // Shopruche leather messenger bag //

Photography: JJ

In a little over 24 hours, I will be home stuffing my face with my parents' amazing homecooking, done with finals, and 63% done with college. Where has this semester gone? I'm a bit sad that SoCal won't have the pretty snow that we get in St. Louis, but I'm thrilled because I won't have to go everywhere looking like an overstuffed marshmallow. It's kind of ridiculous that some people can't go home because of finals until Wednesday. That's 2 days before Christmas D: ... all this time just rushing on by. I'm feeling the effects of time dilation and Lorentz contraction and their inverses and all of a sudden it's almost 2011.

I wore this outfit to the singing contest last last Friday to support my friends and basically this is the look with a poncho over my cropped top. You can't see the harem pants as well this way, so I separated the outfit into two lookbook posts. I absolutely can't get enough of the poncho and would wear it every single day if I could. I'm going through a heavy poncho/capes obsession recently and honestly, who needs arms when you can hide them away inside your cozy top? 

Lightroom update: Finding that clarity, brightness, vibrance, and contrast are usually the things I want to increase the most. These do a ton to bring colour back into washed out photos. Also I want to figure out how people create beautiful light in their photos - the overwash that lightens the entire frame ... PC Vignette Edge Effects 1 and 2. I had to bring out Photoshop CS4 too (must find time to explore with CS5 as well because I hear it's awesome). My skin turns tomato red if I use Direct Positive or Old Polar, but I liked the effect on my clothing so I just magic selection tool'd my face and hands and decreased the vibrance. Over break I hope to sit down with some tutorials and get my BA PS skillz on.

Last but not least, it's a very bold endeavor to instate an everything ban right now, especially during the holiday season. I figure it's time to revamp my closet and experiment with all my old pieces instead of throwing away cash on similar new pieces. In fact, right now I've become quite obsessed with un-shopping and finding ways to scrounge up funds for a nice lens and SLR. Right now I'm eyeing a nice prime lens (Canon EF50mm f/1.4 USM) and the Canon Rebel T2i body. Checked my bank and realized I'm going to have to spend 100 hours+ torturing myself with psych experiments. Anything for the blurrrrrr. Meanwhile, I'm going to be revamping my layout a bit so I can make my pictures even bigger and expand my sidebar too. For now, it's back to memorizing the properties of five million types of channels and toxins that stop them in their tracks.

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Inuit Intuit

 H&M camel hooded poncho (S) // H&M electric blue sweater (XS) // 

F21 navy and red striped skirt (S) // F21 sweater tights // F21 circle scarf // 

Merona thigh high socks // Hypnotic boots (6) // Thinsulate thick knit gloves //

Shopruche leather messenger bag // 

Photography: JJ

Look, I found the North Pole! Saturday night, it started snowing like crazy. Of course this morning it was a whopping -8 degrees Fahrenheit but I got my fair share before the cold sun melted all the fun. My boyfriend and I ran out for five minutes to throw snowballs at each other yesterday (it was like powdered sugar and wouldn't pack) and danced in the flurries. I absolutely love crisp, clean pure snow - eating it, throwing it, rolling around in it. 

Of course I piled on half my closet to avoid breaking out the marshmallow coat. This H&M hooded poncho is a new favourite. Despite its whopping price ($50), I just couldn't let go of its darling little pom poms and the cool knit design. The blue H&M sweater was another attempt at finding a cozy winter sweater but I'm not in love with the super deep v-neck and generally how HUGE it is for being XS. The poncho is my last piece before I'm going on a saving spree for the entire year of 2011 or until I can afford my dream SLR and prime lens. No more buying things left and right just because they're cheap or because "I've always wanted one." Time to pack up that savings account. I figure having a nice camera will finally help me achieve the style of photographs I want (applebottom jeans and boots with the blurrrr). After all, fashion is all about the image. Not everyone needs a good camera, but come on, you're probably trying to convince me of this as you're snapping away on your fancy 17 mm. 

I have a whole list of bite-size objectives to help me accomplish this. I'm going with shorter shoots (5 minutes), trying for outside even if it's cold, 30 minute posts. I won't get to blab or fluster in Photoshop as much but Lightroom helps a lot in getting me in and out. This means, more frequent posting, more recycling of old pieces, and opening a blog shop. 

How am I getting by during reading week (aka three days before finals start)? Making hot milk tea for myself, playing Kirby's Epic Yarn and getting defeated by a child's game D:, writing this @$#U! manuscript that won't ever end, sipping coffee while I read through stacks and stacks of procrastination regrets. There's the good and the bad, the chic and the sweatpants. All's well that ends well.

Meanwhile, please enter my giveaway because it's your last chance (it ends NOON CST on Wednesday)! I don't want to keep tagging this onto every single post xD

 

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Cape Abilities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H&M Cape // H&M Long cowled sweater in Camel (XS) //
H&M white tank // Forever 21 Houndstooth pencil skirt (S) // 
Merona Blue sweater tights (S) // Forever 21 Lace-up Oxford booties (6) // 
Rain Totes giant rainbow umbrella //

Photographer: Tripod & self-timer; Boyfriend helped with umbrella photos

Trying to write a post in record time, as this week sets off to a running face-plant with much more work than anticipated. There's something about fall and winter that evokes some giant mammalian hibernation potential from within, namely I want to sleep sleep and sleep some more. Especially when days are gloomy and the sky leers with ominous clouds, the wind lashes at 25 mph and the temperature jumps from 70 to 30 in an afternoon.

That was two days ago, when I was adamant I wanted to take pictures of these new sweaters from H&M. They were a buy one get on free deal (normally $34.95 for cape, $24.95 for sweater) but for some reason I just can't see myself wearing them all the time. For one, the cape is great and high fashion but I look like an armless alien. Good for photography, bad for walking around campus and trying to write. The cowled sweater features a shapeless blob of a neckline and I either have to fold it over my shoulders or let it drape like a mushy uncooked donut/doughnut. XS is also surprisingly too tight to breathe on me, so maybe extra petites would have better luck with this. So I went back after risking frostbite in uncomfortable areas and trying to photoshoot without my tripod blowing away in the parking lot a few stories above. I picked up two more sweaters that I'll show you soon - one I'll keep, another that still won't do. The red one with the big cowl keeps nagging at the back of my mind. You think I would learn.

Most of these pictures are sideways because my tripod was having a fit in the wind. Gives it a cool sideswept effect though. My favourite part was being blown away with my umbrella, which I lugged around expecting rain but none came. Super big comfortable umbrella my Dad bought me that flies open with the press of a button. When it's gloomy and it doesn't rain, it feels like having something that you can't get off your chest. It's like missing a step when you walk down the stairs.

When the sun sets at 4:30 PM ... I want to sit underneath the yellow gingko trees by the library. I want to enjoy a cup of coffee unperturbed, unrushed, people-watching to my heart's content. I want to be able to feel a minute pass, feel a tangible time. Something strange happened in Physics class today. I felt love. I felt undeniable love for a subject I abhorred for the longest time. Relatively is some pretty cool jazz and it finally gives the dreamer in me a chance. Oh the crazy things that happen the week before turkeys, pumpkin pie, and family.