Y M I J A N

Thursday, June 16, 2011

My first: In's & Out's

I realized that I love it when other blogger post their what's 'In' and what's 'Out' for them, so I decided to do a short little one while I wait for my photos to upload onto Facebook!

IN:

- Curling my hair! I've been on a continuos hair-curling role and I love it because it gives me a clean, polished, look even if the rest of me is looking like a hot mess.

- Totes! They're so handy and fit so much in there (because I love to pack in 'just-in-case' materials). Plus, I bought so many in the UK...I gotta' put good use to those suckers.

- Chicago summer: beaches, downtown, good friends, and late night rendezvous

- Drinking tea. Oh yeah, I said it!

(Photo from Tumblr)

- Being happy...need I say more?

OUT:

- Online summer courses. I really don't understand why they exist.

- Looking at my card statements and seeing how much money I've spent. It hurts...especially when high exchange rates are involved.

- Worrying about my life in 2 years. To move, or not to move...that is the question?

(Photo from Tumblr)

I'm back!...well, kind of. I've been catching up on TONS of sleep to the point where it's annoying me. Currently I'm in the process of adding my UK trip pictures onto Facebook (Scotland ones are up, now to sort through York and London). I have a mini-picture-haul coming up of things I bought in the UK- I swear, they have the best places to shop! Especially the markets during the weekend, I could spend all day there and not get bored or uninspired.
In other news, Chicago weather has been up and down but I was able to catch some rays at the beach and hit downtown to meet my favorite person, ever! :) But my lack of imagination in my wardrobe choices lets me stay at home and read, read, read. I had to update this blog for the sake of myself, so this weekend I went out with my family and decided to shoot a little OOTD. It's really simple and casual. Let me say right now, I am probably in the worst shape ever* of my human career so I had to opt for a flow-y blouse. (*gonna go on a run right after this goes up) It's not extremely baggy and doesn't look like a potato sack (a lot of 'oversized' shirts tend to look like that). Paired it with my new leopard print wedges I recently got...I love them so much! I was able to walk around the mall with them, all day. I'm so addicted to high heels/wedges lately.

And I leave you with that. My blog will be back and running in a regularly scheduled manner by later this week.

Shirt: Primark (Oxford St., London)

Pants: Banana Republic

Shoes: Forever21

Ring: Miss Selfridge (York, England)

Bag: Guess

PS: Of course I've started to become obsessed with Lady GaGa's new CD. Here's one of the songs that I have on repeat: ScheiBe

lions & tigers & FINALS, oh my!

I wish I was writing from the comfort of the cute Starbucks down the street from my apartment, but unfortunately half of my university decided that it's time for them to buckle down and study for finals...I just wanted a coffee break. I haven't updated because my life has been bombarded by the dreaded hell week. I have yet to grasp the logic of giving projects/assignments on days that you take your final. Do you not want me to get an A? This has given me no imagination with my wardrobe choices...a lot of these days involved sweatpants, tank tops and a hoodies. I brought in the gloom with all black and a coral/peach pair of tights. To anyone taking finals: study, breathe, sleep and pass with flying colors. Summer break is amongst us, and I'm leaving the country in 2 weeks!

I like this sweater-ish shirt because the back opens up when you bend down, and yes, that's my beauty mark :P

Posting this for the mere fact that the reflection on my glasses makes me happy of the pretty view I have.

I want the sun to come out already so I can wear this baby.

Song of the month: Wolf & I- Oh Land

do you love what you do?

Bonjour!

Went on a mini-hiatus because my sister came down to my uni for her spring break! I wish the weather was better so that we could go to the downtown area, or just relax and read a book while drinking tea on the quad (yes...I'm trying to drink tea). We've had fun, but most of all..she's been relaxing and I really think she needs it because high school can be draining on various levels. Never underestimate the brutality of the school life. I know there are millions upon billions of horrible things, but sometimes even the most privileging of things can make someone feel burnt out causing such a negative view on life. I hope she's been happy here, because she's made me happy here.

She actually sparks a rare creative light inside of me. When I see her, I always want to dress her up- my own live doll. I think I appreciate her musing me because she is one of the rare people who tell me how it is and just get my personality.

So I present to you a video I made of her. I LOVED doing this. I'm the girl who advocates making videos for everything and I'm finally doing instead of just saying. Creating fun and enlightening pieces that aren't for a competition but because I truly feel happy when producing it. There's no logistics or fancy numbers involved. My heart smiles when I'm able to express what's in my head in a visual form.

In other news, I started this post in French because in my stay at the UK...at the very end, I'm going to Paris for 3 days! (or at least am going to try superly duperly hard) I leave the country so soon! My best friend Ruth also leaves very soon to be with her soulmate/fiance/lover/best man ever in his home country (won't reveal too much...don't stalk her :P ) She gives other people such hope for long distance relationships.

Everybody, smile!

& I present to you...my creation, watch it in HD and enjoy!

crimewave

To say the weather has been incredible the past couple of days would be a blatant understatement. The weekend was gorgeous and I think I, as long as other people in the Illinois region, were a bit spoiled. So to my dismay, I woke up this morning to more grey skies and cooler winds coming in through my windows. Therefore it felt utterly appropriate to post the sunkissed photos I took this Saturday. I wanted to wear what is photographed out, but I had to opt for a crop top and shorts with my grey Toms for a cute picnic on the quad of my school.

Anyways, everything about this outfit is cheap, in terms of price. Everything but my shoes (which were low-cost effective, and my glasses...which were given to me, haha!)

Let's break it down:

Crop-topish tribal print flowy shirt: $2.00 (at Marshalls...from $20)

Shorts: $5.00 (Urban Outfitters...from $69)

Knee-high red socks: $1.99 (Urban Outfitters...from $12)

Rings: $3.80 (F21)

Grey wedge shoes: $22.80 (F21)- courtesy of my father

Ray Ban's Wayfarer in turquoise color: $169 - gifted! :)

Point is...I don't spend too much $$$ because 1) I simply can't afford the luxurious beauties I lust over and 2) It makes you think about the pieces you pick up at a store. So if you ever feel like you can't have fun with your style without emptying your pockets, never fear! The sale racks are always on full display- so don't feel embarrassed and walk over there with a mission!

Inspiration music of the day:

ride the universe

Title is inspired by a song that I've had on repeat after watching Shirley's video. I'll post it at the end of the blog (which I am considering to continue doing for following blog entries). Today's a slightly different blog-post (as I say from occasion to occasion). As I looked around my room, I realized that there are multiple amounts of 'things' on my window ledges. I look around a little more and realize that there are multiple 'things' around my room, AKA, materialistic objects that are flooding my room in every corner possible. I shop too much, big whoop, but I do buy everything on sale, so I'll give myself a pat on the back for being a "smart shopper" in that aspect.

The weather has continued to be lacking in the sun department and still holds such a static gloomy state (no intention of even trying to dress up today, really). At least the degrees are slowly rising making it comfortable to throw over easy dressed or hoodies and sandles. It's days like these that make me want to lose myself in a really good book or movie and just drink tea/coffee after an amazing shower. Can you tell that I'm influenced by already-produced-fantasies of what comfort is on 'blah' days?

It's been a good day, overall, though. I feel the love and the optimism, just have to continue to work hard and the rewards will roll in.

Some of my rings--the others are lost throughout my room/bags/lost

I bought a replacement ring because (obviously) my middle finger ring's stone broke so I bought another one (one size to small...6, instead of 7, so I'm going to pop the stone out and put it on the other ring and then find a colored stone and put it on the ring finger....because I want it like that!

Quite possibly my favorite ring!

Little collection of books, the rest are back home.

A few of my favorite things :)

Some glasses.

Current fragrance obsessions: Juicy Couture- Viva La Juicy (finished small bottle, so parents got me the large one!), VS Pink- Fresh & Clean, and VS- Bombshell

Enjoy your Friday night and the song (PS: Listen to the original too! It's fantastic)

repeat offender

As I'm sitting here, thinking of something clever to write for my post I can't help but think: Man, I'm really diggin' these British artists--I'm also thinking that I should watch Sex and the City from the first episode...especially since E! plays it daily. See how my mind jumps from one random thing to the next? So, today's weather has been stagnantly gloomy giving me little to no motivation in dressing up or doing anything proactive, for that matter. When this happens...I become an 'almost' repeat offender. I wore the same shirt and shorts I wore to a friend's birthday last weekend, oops! Who cares, I spent more time thinking about what I wanted to eat than what to dress up in.

Besides the daily cheap-quickie-outfits I post to entertain myself, I wanted to speedily hit on a topic that's been flying all over the place. Confidence. I, admittedly, have been going through a time where I feel like I wish I was taller, definitely wishing I was skinnier, and praying for awesome looking skin--but it hit me like a ton of bricks: why was I letting these miniscule things stop me from being confident in other areas of my life (ie. school, going out, etc.)? I really let these things put a halt on my social life (not completely, but it definitely affected some of it). Then I sit here and listen to other girls say the same things and I give them advice...hypocritically enough. I think it's time to start taking my own advice and living my life with no aesthetic constraints. Everyone should feel beautiful. Everyone has a right to be happy with themselves.

Now I present to you my questionable outfit, haha.