For you

I've got some graffiti here for you. Or maybe it's for me. There's a ship in there. Now I understand that graffiti is everywhere, especially in New York, but there is a difference between art and vandalism. I found the first one on the stairs in the architecture building on campus. And I found the second one somewhere around 17th and Market in San Francisco.

The Bulb

So the weather here hasn't really changed much from two months ago. Aside from the absence of rain and rainbows, the mercury has been pretty stagnant, which I think is really odd because in Chicago there are 5-10 degree differences every month. The rainbow below was from a field trip on a rainy day to the Albany Bulb, a landfill that is now used as a park.
It used to be a dumping ground for construction debris and rebar, but some sort of lawsuit stopped that. So today it's a park and wetland habitat. Because of all the debris, a lot of urban art has been constructed (above). Some people call it garbage, others call it inspiration. It's also a popular dog park and there's a homeless community somewhere in there. It's not very strictly regulated by any sort of authority, so the community gets free reign as you can tell by the art and inhabitants.

Leanne M.

Leanne Marshall, our favorite PR alum has given us a sneak peak at her Fall09 lookbook over on her blog, Petals and Waves.


I love the gradiating colors on the skirt and how it seems at first glace to be composed of shadows. It's amazing how she managed to translate something as mundane as peeling paint into something so beautiful. I absolutely adore her design aesthetic and hope to see more of her work in the future. Plus, she's one of few designers championing the use of eco friendly textiles.

A fate or it's a desire

Is it me or are these the most amazing tights you have ever seen? I may be over exaggerating just a little bit but I almost fell out of my chair when I saw them. Well, I'm actually sprawled somewhat haphazardly on my bed since it's 1:30 in the morning but you get the idea. This month seems to but quite full of these falling out of my chair moments.

Anyway, these tights are a DIY project by a Miss Cocorosa. I'm very tempted to try to recreate my own as well as inspired as to what other embellishments I could try adding to a pair of tights. Maybe some patterns using strings of small beads? But alas, it will have to wait until after my exams are over.

It's no secret I love hosiery, especially unusual ones. I'm even somewhat okay with that whole leggings as pants thing... somewhat.

All I want to do is have some fun

Baking is my attempt to not let school be all there is to life. Or rather, baking is my attempt to procrastinate. Here is my latest experiment. By experiment I mean the edible kind, not the sorting out roots in a lab kind. Though I'm sure the roots are nontoxic and all, but they just don't quite appeal to the taste buds in the same way. Chocolate caramel crackers. Spreading the chocolate was the most fun part. I think next time I'll reduce the amount of caramel on each cracker. They're a bit on the sweet side. I know A doesn't like crackers, but they're more sweet than salty and can be made with graham crackers instead of saltine crackers. See the melty chocolate? Spreading it was the most fun part. Waiting for them to cool was the least fun part.

Velociraptor Awareness Day

Today is Velociraptor Awareness Day. Do you know how to protect yourself? Velociraptors are dangerous. They will eat you. They will be unsympathetic to your pleas, cries, and offerings of candy. Watch out for velociraptors. They are vicious and merciless. How can you tell a velociraptor is eating you? It is large. It has sharp pointy teeth and they hurt. It has short arms. It has a chunk of your flesh. Enroll yourself in the nearest velociraptor routine exercise protection program immediately. Tell your friends and family. Let's get together to safeguard the world against velociraptor attacks. Together we can make them a thing of the past.

Something green this way blows

Earthweek 2009!Earth Day is next Wednesday.
Here at Berkeley, we celebrate with a week's worth of festivities.
I'm excited.
I've been organizing the Green Business and Innovations Fair on Monday and I'm really hoping
it doesn't turn out to be a complete disaster. Eep!

You should know it's true, just now, the part about my love for you

Like many, I seem to have at some point developed a love of the way the world was and especially how people dressed in the latter half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. As a result, I find the livejournal community Vintage Photo infinitly fascinating. People have put up pictures of favorite celebrities of yore, photos from historic events such as the Nazi Olympics or WWI, and even their own family photos that have been handed down through generations.

These recent ones are some of my favorites.

Beach!


A 1910 photo by Heinrich Kühn


John Lennon and Yoko Ono


Paris circa 1934

Hoppy Bunny Weekend

I smell spring approaching...

~ Cherry Blossom Festival this and next weekend in Bay Area
~ Easter this weekend --> candy on clearance
~ Ceylon banana bread in the oven
~ bees buzzing around for nectar
~ closer to home

I like to dance this way

Created and produced by the amazing Shien Lee, Dances of Vice is a monthly NYC event that celebrates everything about the Roccoco, Victorian, and Jazz Eras. People dress up in thier finest period clothing and enjoy performances from the likes of Voltaire or jazz tunes from Shanghai. You might think the big mish mash of time periods would be horrible but everthing blends well into a common feeling of decadence. Each event also has a theme, the latest being "La Vie Parisienne."


Personally, I'd go for the opulent fashions so whether your vice is Prohibition Era alcohol or Victorian opiates, just make sure you dress your finest. You may not want to outstage Princ Poppycock but that is the point afterall.

More info can be found here or here for pictures.

"Basically, what we have here is evidence that the first lady is a hipster. And we think we're OK with that."
-Racked

Bubble bath?

Hey, lookit! Bubbles!

This here is the fountain on Sproul Plaza (we don't have a quad, but I guess this is your equivalent). Sometimes it's just water. Sometimes it's a bubble bath. I've yet to figure out if it's administration or students. The other day someone was sitting in there in his swim trunks like it was a hot-tub and he was filming a segment for something. Last week people slept around it to wait for Dalai Lama tickets. This fountain sees a lot.

trunk show

I think the big goofy grin on the right picture kind of ruins the effect. Her hats really are beautiful in person.

"Children like to think they are less bigoted than ther parents, for example. In fact, they are simply bigoted about different things: fatties, smokers, and people who drive Humvees, rather than blacks or homosexuals"
-Lexington, Anger Management for The Economist

Art in a heart

Hey, look. It's my first art project from last semester. These were all hand-stitched. I would not have killed for a machine, but would have greatly appreciated one. This one was the biggest effort I gave to all my projects. After this one, I realized that minimal to no effort was more than acceptable. The next projects didn't begin construction until the night before. And judging from the looks of some of the other pieces in class, conception didn't have to begin until half an hour before class. I got a bag of scrap fabrics from Creative Reuse. It's a store full of fun. I gave the hearts to the YMCA nearby. I don't know what they did with them, but I hope it made someone smile.

It’s only water and sand

This is either really stupid or really deep.
http://davidhorvitz.tumblr.com/

In the mood

Little Romance - Ingrid Michealson
Can I have the last chance
to be your little romance
Can I have the last dance
I'm in the mood for love

Valentine's Day merchandise on clearance!

Guess what I did today?

It was in this warehouse across the street from where I volunteered for the Y-3 show last year. Note: this translates to I did not get lost going there- at least not much.

The racks were arranged into little stations. Other than at the stations and the art installations, the place was not well lit at all which equals grainy photos.

There were only ten changing rooms and it took forever. A lot of people didn't want to wait and tried things on in the main room. I need to find someone to do these kind of things with.


I really liked this top except for the print on the blue fabric. I'm tempted to recreate my own except I absolutely hate working with knit fabric. It's so annoying. It stretches all over the place and my thread breaks all the time even though I'm using the correct stitch.


This skirt was not made for short girls. If they had it with petite proportions/shorter and with a more nipped in waist I would have loved it. You have to admit, it looks great on the Blythe doll. And the lining fabric was a sheer plasticky type material that I thought was cool but it collected tons of static during the minute I had it on. You need petticoat to make it flare out correctly anyway.


This dress had the same print as the top and it's pretty much your standard 50s-esque strapless dress except maybe a bit punkier with the print and studded belt. I can't be completely sure but I think the belt was real leather which for Target items is almost unheard of.


And lastly, of course I tried on the dress. I couldn't find it on the sales floor but I did see it floating around in the arms of a few women so I knew it existed. Turns out, whenever someone would try it on unsuccessfully, it would get scooped up by other women who were in line for the changing room. The one I tried on was a size too big but this dress was so hard to find, I tried it on anyway. It was beautiful. There's not much you can do in terms of tailoring to make clothing fit people of different heights but I saw this dress on women of all different shapes and it looked great on all of them. If it weren't for the 70 dollar price tag, I would have gotten it then and here. This is just more incentive to find a job. I have until March 4th.


The walls were covered in fresh graffiti(You could still smell the paint when you stood next to the walls) campaign posters and chainlink fences. And then there were the art installations.

There were also two videos playing but I didn't stick around long enough to see what they were.

Sometimes I wish I had a sugar daddy

I would put these on display and only wear them at home because I'd probably fall over and die after a step or two.

Playing with dye

Is it weird that I'm a little bit in love with Moschino's S09 line? Their perfume ads I can't stand but their combination of bows, harlequin prints, and spring colors has won me over.


What really stood out to me were the sheer blue tights and with a little help from the abundant number of tutorials to create last year's ombre tights, I made my own.


These were the tools plus some laundry detergent and water. H&M currently has some 20 denier tights in colors that I personally don't care for and this light blue pair worked for my project.


Yes, that is my sink and a toothbrush. I probably should've covered everything around it. There was a thin layer of blue powder all over the sink counter when I finished and the blue water turned my gloves green. not cool


I soaked them for about 15 minutes before rinsing them in cold water.

I'd love to do a whole monochromatic look but I don't think that'll happen anytime soon due to my current and neverending lack of funds. I'm still working on that whole getting a job thing. I prefer them with white shoes but I bought these online and they're a tad bit too small. Plus, even though I love the backs, they have a horrid 80's pointed toe. Now I need to figure out how to get rid of them.

I suspect I was a bit delirious the day I wore them to work. I think it looks fine in a mini skirt but even though my coat ended about an inch above the knee, it looked slutty in a not necessarily good way with my coat on. Sheer tight will do that.