6.30.2010

Espardenyes

It's hot. And leather flats/sandals do nothing to help the situation. That's why as soon as I get to Barcelona after I've spent some quality time with my favorite Catalan, I'm getting a pair of espardenyes. Also known as espadrilles.  They're made of straw and canvas and let your feet breathe. Please please please let me find the size, style and color that I want. I've lived and looked for shoes in Spain and it is no easy task when you wear a size 41. However, big feet have proved themselves to be advantageous, no one ever borrows/ruins my shoes except my sister and she lives in Chicago.

6.28.2010

recycle reuse



So I bought the above shoes on clearance at Miss Sixty, oh and I should mention when I bought them they were bejeweled with the purple jewels you see on my sweater, but in less than a week they started coming off. There are still two unaccounted for jewels in Nayoro, Japan and San Francisco. When the jewels started coming off I thought "I guess I could use plain purple suede flats".  Then 10 months later I decided to embroider them. And a few weeks later after looking at this post I decided to do something with jewels that were cluttering my living room. Thanks Carbon Couture, you're a genius.

6.26.2010

Flowers

Finally. I've only been to a few museums in Japan but today, by far, was my best experience. I saw the Kataoka Tamako exhibit in Asahikawa. To be honest I'd never heard of her and when Mayumi, my Japanese teacher, suggested we go I thought it was going to be an exhibit on eggs. I confused the artist's first name Tamako with tamago which means egg. I like eggs so I figured why not. Once we walked into the exhibit I was pleasantly surprised. It turns out Tamako is a painter, not an egg. She's also amazing.  I'm not going to lie the most eye-opening part was seeing that she painted Pose 14 at 100 years old. She died at age 103.
Dear whoever/whatever controls the future,
Please let me be creative until my dying breathe.
Thanks,
Aby
As you can see Tamako loved her some Fuji-san and flowers





6.24.2010

Brownie points

I'll take the jacket and the shoes...please!

Escapism

6.23.2010

Books

I had a headache for two days! I don't understand how karma works I am soooo nice. What did I do to deserve that pain?! Fortunately, today I feel great and in about 20 minutes I'm off of work! And speaking of  "work". Today at "work" I finished The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. I highly recommend it...if you're into eating. One thing I'm taking from this book that I firmly believe in is: "...a meal that is eaten  in full conciousness of what it took to make it is worth preparing every now and again, if only as a way to remind us of the true cost of the things we take for granted."
Next I'm going to read Memoirs of a Geisha...I hope it's good.

6.20.2010

32 is still a goddamn number

32 is the number of days I have left here in Hokkaido. Gonna make it count. The next 32 days I will be wearing my smile rain or shine, thinking about which clothes I'll be leaving behind and hoping that future is full of outfits like this...

6.17.2010

Hello love

Colette is having an online sale for everyone who doesn't live in Paris! If I weren't about to be indefinitely unemployed I'd take these. I've come to the conclusion that new/niiiiiice shoes are good for one's health. You know how when you get new shoes you want to take them out. I don't have any quantitative evidence to back up this claim but I'm 99% sure that when I get new shoes I walk waaaaaay more than usual. First of all I wear them around the house to break them in for at least 3 hours and then I take out. I show them all of my favorite spots, I take them to meet my friends, to the park, etc. Man I love things that are good for my health.  Now all I need is a job and then I can start in investing in Lanvin ballerines my health!

6.16.2010

Eau yeah!

I am too excited! I just read that starting July 1st Starbucks will be free and unrestricted Wi-Fi in its stores AND free access to paid content sites (!!!!) which means in bypassing the NYT's upcoming paywall restrictions. The catch: this amazingness will be offered in U.S. stores and conveniently I'm moving back the U.S. this fall! Don't worry Giselle & Bella I'll email you all of the good articles :)

6.14.2010

Les femmes c'est du chinois

Le comprenez-vous? Moi pas. I also don't understand where to get a white jumpsuit on this island!
I admit that while in Spain, I was on the fence when it came to low crotch pants BUT this jumpsuit leaves me with nooooo doubt in my mind. I want it. Give it up!

6.10.2010

Peace out!





The manicure and I are off (for a day and a half) to Sapporo!!!!! I know it isn't much time but any escape is worth writing about. Also, I've embraced embellishing my nails for the time being for the following reason. I know I live in a fashion void but when I look down at these plastic bubbly stickers that allude to pearls, I smile because they recall me of a more stylish place and time. 


Sapporo Sapporooooooo you're only a day awaaaaaaay!

6.09.2010

Vogue Nippon July 2010




Below are my favorite pages from July's Vogue.





yeah yeah I know, the day I get a scanner my life will be sooo much easier. Noted.

6.08.2010

the reading list begins...

Now that I've answered the bikini question it's time to move on summer reading. I've been reading tokyobanhbao for a while and now here first book manga is out. It's called Sérial shoppeuse: le presque guide. I'm so enticed. It's en français, in Paris and about shopping. I may have finally found the manga for me. 


A few of Tokyobanhbao's illustrations. 

6.01.2010

A flea market-less trip to Tokyo


Couldn't have said it better myself.


Did you know bonsai trees can have flowers?


Coquilles saint-jaques...délicieux


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