End of Summer Shopping

Playing: Stereo Hearts-Gym Class Heroes Feat. Adam Levine
Reading: The Language of Composition (Chapter 1) by Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses (AP English textbook)
One of my posts that got the most comments was my End of Summer Shopping I did last summer, so this is my attempt to make this an annual thing. It's kind of interesting to see how different my gets are this year compared to last year. No cutesy graphic tees or hair things...Maybe I'm dressing more boring now? Or maybe I'm just changing?

My stylish friend, Jessy, introduced me to American Rag Cie and I've been loving it. I grabbed an interesting sweatshirt from Mike Gonzalez there and a grey knit tank top dress by American Vintage. I haven't worn dresses/skirts to non-formal events in a long time. In 4th grade, I realized how great jeans are and I haven't looked back since! So this is my attempt to wear non-jeans once in awhile...

At Urban Outfitters, I grabbed a cardigan from BDG and a lace button up shirt from Sparkle and Fade for only $10! I've been into primary colors, so this was my attempt to incorporate them into my wardrobe. Also, I love lace and button up tops, so this shirt was pretty great for me. I  like how it's lace, but it's not white or black like most laces. (Edit-The lace shirt is horribly made. I wore it for one day and the seams started to get fussy and the elastic in the lace is popping out, so it looks like there's clear hair growing out of it. I will definitely not be buying another Sparkle and Fade product in the near future.)

Nordstrom's junior department has been so disappointing for me. A lot of the clothing feels cheap and ill constructed. I expect Nordstrom to sell higher quality clothing than what I used to find at Mervynn's. A lot of the brands there, I haven't even seen ever since Mervynn's went out of business. I grabbed the striped nautical sweater by rubbish at Nordstrom and then headed to Barney's Co-Op. Barney's is so lovely. I love almost everything there, but things are a bit pricey and I feel guilty buying expensive goods, so I only grabbed this red and black striped top from Splendid. I took a picture of the back because the back is the best part. I love how they did the stripes. Oh my, it seems I've bought three striped things already...

Now these two items are my pride and joy from my shopping extravaganza. I bought a sheer grey button up from Karl Lagerfield for Impulse. Karl is such a genius and I wanted so many things from the collection. However, I could only get one, so this is what I got.  I wanted a top that had Karl Lagerfield's image on it, but I knew my friends would think I'm wearing just any elderly man's image on my shirt...Since it was rather expensive, my mother decided to get the Macy's card, which gets you 20% off one purchase and 15% off the rest of your purchases, so I decided to grab this Giorgio Armani perfume I've been eying for awhile.  Acqua di Gioia has been my favorite for a long time, so I'm delighted to have gotten it. For awhile I was thinking about getting L'eau D'Issey instead, but I decided to go with my long time favorite instead of my new infatuation.

Have you bought anything cool lately? It doesn't have to be clothes. It can be a cool appliance like a panini press...

PS I feel like I'm running behind on my posts because I haven't even finished my Istanbul photos or started on my Northern California trip...

Adventure at McDonald's!

Playing: Slipping Under-William Tell
Reading: Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources (Chapter 1 of my AP World Textbook)
Summer is over! School is here and that is most unfortunate! Let's go back to the good ol' times and by that, I mean summer. One of the best things I did was spending a day with Sarah and Rebecca. We went swimming, but I don't have any photos of that, so I'll show you what we did afterwards.

We ordered a 50-piece Chicken McNuggets and a large thing of fries for only $13.23. What? You don't believe me? Well, look at my receipt! I've been wanting to order a 50-piece for awhile, so this was pretty cool.

Most of my friends like to hate on McDonald's because "the food is unhealthy and their Chicken McNuggets are made of seagull meat!" Oh calm down. I don't mind and McDonald's couldn't get away with seagull meat in their food. Even if they do put seagull in, it still tasted good and I've never gotten sick from it. Rebecca and Sarah agree with me that we love McDonald's! I was expecting one big pile of Chicken McNuggets, but instead, we got five 10-piece boxes.

To our surprise, we finished it all. Originally, we were planning on bringing some home...How we did this is beyond me, but I'm actually impressed by how much the three of us ate. You guys probably think we're disgusting now, huh?

While walking home, we decided to take a different way by going through these bushes my neighborhood planted. It's like a perfect path back there. However, I had trouble walking because the ground was covered in leaves and I was wearing flip flops, so it was slippery. Sarah led the way with Rebecca and me following.

Sarah wanted to get a photo of the three of us, so she hung up her camera on a branch and it looked kind of cool, so I took a picture. My friends and I love to make fun of those artsy people that are wannabe photographers by acting like them. "OH LOOK HOW DEEP THAT IS! IT'S SO EMOTIONAL AND DEEP! YOU JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND!" I exclaimed, when I saw the photo. Rebecca's response?

"NOT AS DEEP AS THE MATTRESS THERE!" We saw two mattresses, a chair, and a table in the bushes. Who would dump that there? Just toss them in a dumpster. So, as you can see my friends and I are such hipsters and so indie at the same time! (Sarcasm)

I parted ways with the two of them because we live in separate directions, so it made no sense for me to walk to Sarah's house with them, when I live in the opposite direction. While I was walking home, the sky looked great, so here's the photo to prove it...Like I said, we're so artsy!

How was your summer break?

Labor Day Weekend

Playing: Get Back-Alexandra Stan
Reading: StyleWatch September 2011
School is starting on Thursday, so I'm a tad nervous. I hope I have tons of classes with my friends and that my teachers are understanding. Hopefully, my classes will be interesting and won't be too stressful. Once school starts, I will try my best to blog as often as I have during summertime. However, I can't make promises because I'm taking lots of AP and honors classes this year.

On Saturday, I did some charity work at South Coast Plaza for the Festival of Children and guess who I saw there? Hello Kitty! I love Hello Kitty, so I just had to take a picture of her made out of canned food! It's amazing what people can do with the most ordinary of things.

I went to Pink's Hollywood because I've been seeing them all over Food Network. I tried the one at LAX, but I really wanted to go to the real one. It's cool how the person that takes your order also makes your order. It's like an assembly line.

Mushroom and Swiss Dog, Mullholland Drive Dog, Lord of the Rings Dog, and Onion Rings

My family and I are pigs. We ordered three hotdogs, a burrito, and an order of onion rings. I have to admit that their onion rings are some of the best I've ever had. The Mushroom and Swiss Dog was good, but compared to the others, it was only alright. The Lord of the Rings Dog was tasty, but it was basically a hot dog with onion rings and barbecue sauce. Since it's named after some of my favorite movies, I still had to get it. The Mullholland Drive Dog was the best one I got that day. It come with three slices of bacon, grilled onions, mushrooms, and nacho cheese. It was absolutely delicious. The chili cheese dogs are what they're known for, which I got at LAX, and it's probably my second favorite after the Mullholland Drive Dog.

Pink's also has a great selection of vintage sodas, so I grabbed a Peach one, which was too sweet. I should've gotten the Bubble Up! I used to drink Bubble Up! all the time, when I was little.

Afterwards, I went to the Griffith Park Observatory because lately, I've really been into space and stars. One day I would like to go to space, but not until it's perfectly safe and foolproof. I'm too scared of being lost in space forever...

Griffith Park is also great for hiking and looking at Los Angeles because the view is great. You can see the Hollywood sign in the background. There were so many tourists taking pictures with it in the background including a French and a German family! I love seeing foreign tourists wherever I go...

While I was driving around, I saw a Blockbuster, so I had to go run in to grab some movies. All the Blockbusters by my house have closed, so seeing this one made me happy. I grabbed Sixteen Candles, Beetlejuice, and Big Fish because I love 80's movies that star the Brat Pack and I'm trying to watch all of the Tim Burton movies. I also bought The Breakfast Club at Blockbuster and Gillian let me borrow The Blind Side. All of theses movies are great, but Big Fish was the best. It's an adventure that took a lifetime to make. (You'll understand that statement, if you've watched it.) I actually want to buy Big Fish now...

What did you do this Labor Day? What type of movies do you like?

Sawdust Festival

Playing: Tonight Tonight-Hot Chelle Rae
Reading: Vogue September 2011
This summer I went to Sawdust Festival for the first time after I got back from Istanbul. Sawdust Festival takes place in Laguna Beach along with many other art shows like Pageant of the Masters. This is my second summer attending at least one of the festivals going on, but I was kind of disappointed...

Made in Heaven by Missy sells little fairy key chains and ornaments. The set up was interesting and I liked the lights and crystals draped across the ceiling inside. It looked like what would happen, if you gave your daughter a tree house. Or if Tavi was given a tree house...And I mean that in a good way.

They had some really creepy stuff there too like this painter's roof. It was crowded with old toys and random memorabilia. I wonder how much the people at these booths can make in one summer. I really didn't see people buying any paintings. The people who sold jewelry sold some, but now a whole lot.

These paintings by Bonn were a lot of fun. They reminded me of the Mexican paintings, only with brighter colors. They had several paintings of fat cats that I thought would look great in my room, but I can never get myself to spend a lot of money on paintings.

Lupe's Floral had the best ceramic things there. I loved all the mushrooms and how bright everything was! They had frog pots too for your mushrooms? This reminded me of my friend, Sophie, who used to be interested in mushrooms. It'd be cool to have a garden full of these.

Jones had these amazing pots that you use to separate eggs. Not only humorous, but useful too! At first, I thought it was all a joke, but then I read the description and I was shocked in the best of ways! I think that these pots would make great gifts for your close friends. Weird? Completely so.

They have an area, where you can sit and listen to whatever band they have there. The area is quite lovely and they have a waterfall going, which I found very unexpected. I suggest eating there because all the stalls looked very interesting and it's all very cheap too. I think the main reason I didn't enjoy this festival as much is because it's aimed at an audience that's old enough to be my parents and/or my grandparents. Also, it's not so much of an art festival, but more like a craft fair. If you're into crafts and are in the area, this is a pretty good way to spend your afternoon. The admission is fairly cheap and it's interesting enough. However, I don't feel like it's a must see.