Happy Haul-idays!

I didn't post here for a good 2 months... but I'm back for a bit. I'll probably do a 2014 reflection (on music, tv, movies, fashion, events) in the new year, so stay tuned!

This post is just to show off what I got for Christmas and what I scored on Boxing Day, won't be too picture heavy though.

I got quite a few of the things that I wanted, some that I wasn't even thinking about during Christmas, like the sewing machine and the alpaca plush haha. The pink box in the bottom corner is all the Lush products I got from various people, including all the stuff in the Christmas Candy Box, which, as always, included the Snow Fairy shower gel, as well as Bubblegum lip scrub, pink FUN, and the Snow Fairy massage bar. Below the alpaca is a Los Campesinos! tote bag I bought myself, along with the Christmas card Gareth was kind enough to send me. Here's all the other LC! merch I was stupid enough to pay international shipping for this year.

LC!4LYF

My dad got my mom a Canada Goose jacket and it looks sooo good on me :(

My boxing day haul might be more impressive than what I actually unwrapped on Christmas morning. My parents and I woke up at 8am, were out the door before 9 and got to the Kind Exchange soon after they opened for their 70% off sale. We exchanged the creepers my dad bought me for a pair that fit, hit up two locations of American Apparel in a search for disco pants (I ended up getting a disco skirt instead), failed to buy anything during Lush's BOGO sale (they were sold out of everything I wanted), then finally settled down for lunch. My dad went to work after that, but I wasn't done yet. I finally bought a couple items at the new location of Japanese quality goods store MUJI, it was whatever they had left really, because the holiday season has left their shelves practically empty. 

When my parents went to Hong Kong in September, T.U.K. creepers were on my list of things to be on the lookout for, but I figured they had forgot all about it. When I unwrapped these I was pretty surprised, but later very disappointed to find that they were way too small. Luckily the store had a pair that were just my size when we went to exchange them yesterday morning. I also picked up some acrylic pen stands that I'm going to use for my makeup brushes. I'll probably do a separate post later about my new makeup set-up.

Topshop had racks and racks of clearance items, but I ended up just getting a couple small things; a red eyeshadow (colour payoff of this is surprisingly great?), some ankle socks and tights, and a baby blue crop top. As I mentioned before my first stop in the morning was the Kind Exchange, but I also went to another location after American Apparel, so I ended up with almost $100 worth of thrift items. In the bags below there's a huge army jacket, a grey denim American Apparel skirt and a black figure skater dress, some stuff my mom bought, a  new-w/-tags glittery Topshop dress, and a black/white striped Uniqlo turtleneck.

Merry Christmas and/or whatever you celebrate! See you in the New Year (or maybe earlier than that if I find the time to post again).

Autumn Adventures in High Park Pt. 2

Last time I was at High Park was around this time last year, as documented in this post. We did another photoshoot with a few new friends, although we didn't go to the Lesbian Feminist Haunted House afterwards this time. I didn't bring my camera so all photos are from my friends. 

taken by Lauren

outfit

jacket: Comme des Garçons (borrowed from the boy in the photos)

everything else: borrowed from Lauren

taken by Haley

taken by Anna

Anna's

Anna's

Lauren's

Haley's

Expect to see more of me in the next couple months, I'm planning to buy a bunch of stuff on eBay soon...

Alexander Wang x H&M

I had totally forgot about this collab until just now. I want like half the collection so I'm gonna document a realistic wishlist here. And I just got a job at Marshall's downtown so I can actually afford things!

nuit blanche

I totally lucked out last night at Nuit Blanche because the Design Exchange Politics of Fashion exhibit was PWYC, so my friends and I started off our night there. Unfortunately (but also this is good news), I had a job orientation to go to the next morning so I had to leave at 11:30.

Here we are! #FTB#DXPOF

kawaiiland

Welcome back! School has already drained me and I have little energy to form a sentence let alone write a coherent and interesting blog post. But here I go anyway.It hasn't even been a week since my last post, but a lot has happened! Somehow I forgot to mention the fancy TIFF party I went to last Wednesday. Unfortunately I only had the chance to see one film this year (which wasn't even that great), but luckily I have connections who got me into an exclusive party at Birks on Bloor, for outstanding women in film. Tatiana Maslany won an award, as well as Cobie Smoulders (who couldn't make it). I was lucky (and confident) enough to meet her, and I spoke to Lara Jean Chorostecki from Hannibal! Both women are incredibly small. The party itself wasn't very interesting, and there wasn't much to photograph.

I can't even enjoy the Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Summer isn't officially over, but school is back and it's freezing! And I can't even drink the PSLs because of caffeine intolerance. This will be a sad autumn.

Last time I posted here was a catch-up on the first half of my summer, up until Osheaga. The latter half included lots more volunteering, a depressing road trip to Ohio, and a pretty eventful Fan Expo.

I've mentioned I was volunteering at the Design Exchange fashion camp in July, which I went back to in August. It wasn't quite as exciting the second time around, but I did make some great friends (the volunteers, not the children), including Megan, who's pictured here and is adorable :)

The Big Easy to The Big Apple (Pie Factory)

It's been a LONG TIME since my last post. There is a lot to catch up on. So far this summer I've been way too busy to update here, or do anything really (including watching TV, which is A NIGHTMARE). The second week of July I volunteered at the Design Exchange's fashion camp for kids under 14. The building is right in the financial district of Toronto, so we eat lunch with all the business people. The camp itself is also amazing, something I wish I had the opportunity to do. There are shelves lining the walls filled with fabric and even several bins of leather. It's an amateur seamstresses' dream. I'll take some photos of the facility when I volunteer for another camp next week.

Near the end of July I visited New Orleans with my parents, which was endlessly fun. I struck gold at Pacsun, which is becoming my favourite place to get cheap trendy stuff (slightly better quality than F21 because of the brand names, better sales than H&M). The location I shopped at also carried Brandy Melville items, which was awesome because they were included in the sale. I'm drawn into the Brandy stores at home but have never purchased anything because it's overpriced for what I assume is F21 quality stuff, not to mention that anywhere you go at least 5 other people own the same item. There were also a couple vintage stores in the French Quarter that reminded me of The Kind Exchange chain we have in Toronto, but they were slightly overpriced for the kind of ugly 80s stuff you could find at Goodwill. I also found a lot of boutiques selling 50s and 60s inspired dresses, even a tiny shop with a rack of Bettie Page pieces.

the human spirits

I'm back already!!! Even though summer is just around the corner, it is a miracle that I have time to edit photos and write posts, with exams coming up and assignments to finish at the last minute (it's actually not a miracle, I'm decidedly not studying). This weekend all my time was consumed by a wedding at a cottage resort, and while I was there I took the opportunity to force my camera into the hands of anyone who would take my photo. I actually didn't know this wedding was in cottage country when I bought the two dresses featured here. If I had, maybe I wouldn't have gone with dark neoprene-esque fabrics? So goes the life of a fashion blogger (that's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek; I'm not that obnoxious).

my dad tried his hand at some.. interesting composition techniques

Still Alive...

I almost let this blog die. I only really like posting things when I'm very proud of it, so with school and friends and bad weather and other writing responsibilities, it's hard to find the time to create content for a personal blog! So far since the last time I posted (March... oops!) I guess a few things happened. I helped moderate a workshop/panel with my feminist group Boner Kill, for the Toronto District School Board, which was an exciting new experience.

I also celebrated my birthday last week on the 19th, having a joint party with my friend Sophie. I needed some headshots for the Girls Learning Code blog, as I will be mentoring with them sometime this year! So my friend who is also mentoring took my camera out just before the party (pics below). I got a new laptop, which just happened to coincide with my birthday, but really my old one was severely broken and needed to be replaced. I've also acquired tickets to Osheaga in Montreal, so I finally have something confirmed to look forward to this summer! I just have to get through exams, haha.

I've missed a whole month!

I'm terrible at keeping this blog updated. I haven't done a formal shoot in a while so I'm never sure what I should share. For now I feel like I should show that I've finally reached my hair goal of dying it blue! So here are some selfies of varying levels of quality from the past few weeks. 

Hopefully these show up okay! I'm posting from mobile for the first time. 

This is supposed to be first and foremost a fashion blog, but as time goes on I find that I don't have enough to post, and that I would really like to start writing about other things. In the coming months I might have other things going on in my life to document, and maybe I'll post some original writing. Here's hoping that this blog can become something useful and meaningful! 

post christmas/new year update

Happy New Year! Bit late I suppose. I just remembered that I've neglected to make posts about the outcome of my holiday wishlists and my end of semester projects. I spent my entire Christmas break stressing about this photography assignment and sculpture project, so I figure I deserve the satisfaction of posting my work here. The art project I was assigned is to build a kinetic sculpture using a crank mechanism.

functioning model of Howl's Moving Castle

I mentioned the Cindy Sherman photoshoot in my last post, and here it is finally! I took the photos over the course of about two weeks. The captions are the titles of the original inspiration photos.

Untitled Film Still #11

Untitled #95

Untitled #93

Untitled Film Still #36

Untitled Film Still #32

For this assignment I even wrote a 10 page essay about Cindy Sherman's work and my own interpretations, which you can read here. 

this one was a total accident but I think it's American Horror Story-esque

two additional photos I didn't submit to the teacher

As for Christmas, I got a bunch of makeup and other random stuff, but most importantly I got most of the books I had on my wishlist!

Alexander McQueen: Evolution, The Wes Anderson Collection, Rookie Yearbook Two, and Ghost World
bonus: my new kitten, Major Tom

Hans Christian Anderson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story collections, British Fashion Designers, a book about philosophy, and For Colored Girls

Now that I'm done all those stressful projects I've been making little zines in art class, which I'll probably share with you soon!