"The City That Doesn't Sleep"

Playing: Lonely For Her-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

 

 Since I haven't had time to blog, I thought I'd share something I had to write for school. I had to write a small essay about a place that I'm in love with and describe what we love about it, so this is what I wrote.

Frank Sinatra’s velvety smooth voice sings over the radio, “I want to wake up in the city that doesn’t sleep.” For me, it’s the same; I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps. New York, New York is a magical place, a blend of history and modernity.  New York is my favorite city in the world, especially during spring. Gothic churches dot the landscape and hide in between sleek buildings that stretch forever into the sky.  From the creamy cannolis at Ferrera Barkery to the saltiness of a pastrami sandwich at Carnegie Deli, the list of superb food is endless.  Even the parks are special in New York, especially Central Park. Central Park’s lake, which thawed at the beginning of spring,  is filled with hundreds of plump ducks swimming about in the blue green water. Flowers are starting to bud and the ground is still damp with the melting snow.  Rickshaws are scattered throughout Central Park, waiting to whisk you away.

At night New York truly comes alive. The air is cold, but a pleasant sort of cold and the wind has calmed down to a mere breeze. Art galleries stay up all night for the young and restless, while the older, sophisticated crowd can enjoy operas at the brightly lit Carnegie Hall or musicals on Broadway. Although, these all add to the charm of New York, my favorite is Times Square late at night. The neon lights light up the pitch black sky and the ever-present crowd. Street vendors shout at the tourists to buy their special deals that range from anything like socks to turtles.  Everyone is so excited to be in Times Square and you can just feel the happiness emanating from everyone. It’s truly a magical feeling to be in a place, where everyone is just so glad to be there. New York is a symbol of American strength, wealth, and fashion. It’s a place for dreamers of all kinds to get their start, whether it’s on Broadway or on 5^th avenue.  It’s a place that sells dreams and makes them.

By the way I created a tumblr that will consist of all the things I love: whimsy, fashion, and whatever else I like. Click here to see it and please follow! Also, leave your link in the comments, so I can follow and check out your's!

Fashion's Night Out

Playing: Neverending Story-The Birthday Massacre
Reading: Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
I went to celebrate Fashion's Night Out for the first time. Last year I couldn't go because of homework and this year homework almost stopped me, but I was determined to go! It was only my first day of school, so I zoomed through my homework, got changed into something semi-comfortable and picked up Jessy to go! Jackie was supposed to come, but last minute cross country stopped her, so she'll just have to come with us next year.

Here's the proof that I went to Fashion's Night Out and not just on any other random day, so here you go, a photo of the Jimmy Choo store. Jessy and I went to South Coast Plaza because I really wanted to go to Burberry. (Burberry is my love.)

Most of the stores celebrated by giving out free champagne, appetizers, or desserts. Like Max Mara gave out cupcakes, but I didn't try any of them because I hadn't eaten dinner yet and didn't want to spoil my dinner. Chanel was doing free manicures and nail painting, but Jessy and I skipped on that to look at the new Chanel flaps. A lot of stores had DJ's going on, which made it hard for Jessy and me to talk to each other about what we loved this season.

I just wanted to show you a photo of Jessy's outfit because I loved her skirt! It was so flowy and it looked amazing, when she walked. We were looking at Marni and this was actually my first time going in the Marni store. Love the coat racks!

While we were walking around South Coast Plaza, we saw this man carrying a huge wedding dress and Jessy told me the guy was on Project Runway. It took me awhile to get my camera out and that's why the photo is of his back. I wanted a picture of his face, so I could try to figure out who he was, so if you recognize his design aesthetic and know him, let me know!

Jessy was wearing wedges and I was wearing my uncomfortable vintage boots, so we had to take some breaks, as the night wore on. (OH PUN! GET IT WORE, LIKE CLOTHES? Excuse my lame sense of humor...) We sat in the Gucci store because Gucci's gowns are amazing and because we were making our way to miu miu and Louis Vuitton!

This is the only photo of me I go that night and it's a photo of me with my chubby cheeks smiling awkwardly in the Gucci store. I love how half of the photo is of a Gucci trench coat. By the way, if I moved to New York City or London, I think I would start a trench coat collection. I really like how you can wear a plain top, skinny jeans, boots/Converse, and the trench coat and look completely pulled together!

Of course, the best part of going to Fashion's Night Out was people watching! This lady had a bunch of interesting pieces on, but it didn't go together smoothly. I think each piece was good on it's own, but all together? Really, it was a tad much for me. I was going to ask her for a photo, but then I felt bad asking her for a photo, when I knew I was going to say her outfit was too much...

Overall, the evening was a nice way to spend time with my friend and to forget that school had started. It also gave me an excuse to go into so many of the stores I had never been into before. I grabbed tons of catalogs like I always do, when I go to the mall. I seriously love these things. It's like having a book with the whole season's looks. Chloe's are especially nice and last season, Prada and miu miu had wonderful ones. I'm still waiting for miu miu and Prada to get their F/W 2011 catalogs in and for Burberry to mail me mine. The people at miu miu are so nice. One of the salesmen saw that Jessy and I had a lot in our arms, so he grabbed us bags to put them in. Free advertising for them, but so convenient for us! Since Jackie couldn't come with us, I decided to give her one of my Max Mara catalogs. I hope she can come with us next year.

How did you spend your Fashion's Night Out? Leave me a link of your day, if you did a post on it!

Istanbul Archaeology Museum

Playing: Don't Ask Me-Ok Go
Reading: Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources (Chapter 2 of my AP World Textbook)
I'm going to try to post, while school is going on, and try to get through all my Istanbul memories before they become fuzzy. Trying to sort through my Istanbul photos proved to be more work than I thought, so that's why these posts take me awhile to write out. I went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum on my second to last day in Turkey and it costs 10 TL to get in, which made it one of the more inexpensive tourist attractions.

The main building of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum is home to many classical statues and things from Mesopotamia. There are burial artifacts too on the basement level from the Romans, I believe. I only looked at the basement level and the first floor because any higher than that was uninviting. The staircases weren't lit at all and it was rather dark, so I wasn't sure, if I was allowed to go up. The only reason I went was because my brother had gone up already. When I saw him, he told me he'd been on the 2nd and 3rd floors already and there really wasn't anything worth looking at. At the time I went, they had a special exhibit on the Roman Empire and the Sultans' jewels on the first floor, which were very impressive.

Across from the main building was a building dedicated to Muslim arts and the Muslim style of living. This museum was definitely more impressive than the other one, but I think I liked it so much because it's brightly lit using sunlight and it's very free and open. It was actually the home of someone before it was turned into a museum.

And then while I was inside, I decided to sneak in a photo of me using the Floo Network. Obviously, I'm off to go save the world with Harry Potter. (Excuse my derpy smile and awkward wave.) Seriously, there were a lot of wizard-y things in Turkey like the turrets on the mosques, the towers that peaked out of the city skyline, and the fire places that look like they're part of the Floo Network!

My brother and I were feeling a bit ill from being dehydrated, so we grabbed some drinks and a sandwich at their cafe outside. They have one outside, but the outside one has lovely seating that overlooks the royal gardens. I loved the Peach Nestea they had in Turkey  because it was more nectar like. Also, you can see, the audio tour system they use at the museum in the background. It's actually triggered by where you move. It'll turn on and start talking to you, when you enter the right room. Be warned, the cafe is expensive and my brother and I felt a tad ripped off. One sandwich and two cans of ice tea for 22 TL? Outrageous!

There are so many stray cats and dogs in Turkey and I loved having them around, especially the cats. I kind of miss the random cats, since I've returned home. I actually carried around food in my purse for the cats because I enjoyed feeding them so much. We ended up giving the kitty half of the sandwich we bought...

Then we headed back in to the main building to look at some of the Mesopotamian tile work. It's so cool to have seen these in real life because I learned about this stuff four years ago in history. I was surprised by how much I remembered about them and I find it amazing how they didn't just put these tile works on a plain wall, but added their own tile work to complement it. Overall, this museum was very nice, although a bit stuffy and warm during summer, and I think if you do have the time, you should visit it.

How's school treating you?

PS School isn't treating me well. I have tons of homework and tons of challenging classes to take. I no longer have the time or energy to craft, read as many blogs as I used to, or continue my John Steinbeck marathon. I was trying to read every single one of his novels, but school has momentarily stopped me. However, I'm still finding time to cook on the weekends.

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.