Masquerade December 1, 2009

Masquerade!!

A BIG BIG THANK YOU!! to whoever sent me the invitation to this event on Facebook because it was so much fun!!! The Utah Arts Alliance organized a fundraiser for their organization.

For a $20 donation, they provided 3 drinks per person, some nice snacks, art booths with artists selling hand crafted items, raffles and a spectacular performance by Vaudeville Avant-gaarde (a fun burlesque show), Cirkus Pandemonium (glow stick dancing, hula hoops, artistic dancing etc) and belly dancing.

My friend Dane and I had visited a costume store in our neighborhood to find some masks, and we found two beautifully embroidered masks for $12 each (photo above), and were told to dress like we are going to a ball so we pulled out our favorite formal wear and showed up to the party! It turned out to be a lot of fun with many people dressed to the NINES with fabulous masks and costumes. I would definitely go again!

My mask and jewelry. Earrings from Bebe and necklace is an antique from my mother.

We are both unusually tall Asians with fabulous threads.

Our beautiful burlesque dancer from Vaudeville Avant-gaarde

Artsy winged dancers

Beautiful solo singer

Belly Dancer

Couple with the funnest costume

Dane with the funky Egyptian mask guy!

Guy with the best hand-made mask and costume

DJ’s art screen

Girls with wonderful masks

Me and Dane, my hot Asian counterpart!

Skull Candy December 1, 2009

I found an unbelievable deal at Overstock.com at the end of Summer–a brand new turn table for a whopping $27!! I couldn’t pass it up. I had an ex who was heavily involved in the Turntablist scene in Honolulu–I there met DJ Qbert, DJ Melo-D from the Beat Junkies, as well as was introduced to the wonderful tunes of DJ Neil Armstrong from the 5th Platoons. I have been hooked on Turntablist beats ever since, and hoped to own a turntable myself one day.

I happened to own a PA system I use to perform my guitar solos around town on occasion, so I bought a pre-amp (to amplify the sound of the turn table) and hooked it up to my PA system. Then I got even luckier–my best friend B happened to have a massive stack of old school disco records in his home that no one was listening to. I was in business!!

I think I will take some time to introduce some of my favorite albums.

In the meantime, I found another item that was absolutely essential to an aspiring DJ. Oh yes, my hobby will not stop at simply collecting albums. Someday in the future, with a little more disposable income I will purchase another turntable and a mixer, and will start mixing tunes. I actually think I would make a great DJ. I can always hear music that I think sound similar or that would transition well with each other, I just just needed the right tools to express them, and I am getting close!

Thanks again to great deals from Whiskymilitia.com, I found a pair of absolutely dazzling Skull Candy Ti headsets in Pink for less than $30!! They arrived today and I am one step closer to becoming a party DJ!!!

Embroidery of the logo on the headband

They are lipstick pink!


Working on my DJ gear


Peace!!

Too cute to pass up October 5, 2009

Have you heard of whiskymilitia.com? Most of my money goes to Whiskymilitia or Target, to be completely honest with you.

Whiskymilitia.com is a discount website run by Backcountry.com where they mark down one item for 20 minutes (or until it sells out) anywhere up to 75%. The quality of items they sell are high and prices are ridiculously cheap. They sell everything from Burton snowboards to Skullcandy earphones to surf/skate brand clothing. I currently have a notification on my desktop which alerts me on the latest sale every 20 minutes, and the danger of this website is feeling like if you don’t snatch it now, you will lose forever a fantastic deal.

I have, however, come into some killer deals. Burton down coat for $100 instead of $300 retail, Dragon GG sunglasses for $40 instead of $120, the list goes on and on.

This is my latest acquisition from the website. It was way too cute to pass on, and I have been the envy of every anime-loving young boy and girl. The Nikita hoodie!!

So DOPE.

Thrift Shopping October 5, 2009

As if to make a lame contribution to my regimen of shaping up with my finances, I decided to go thrift shopping. Last month I had worked very hard to stick to my budget, but I was dying to go shopping (treasure hunting). So, although it meant going over budget, I decided to go shopping anyway–at Savers.

People might say, ‘oh well that’s not so bad,’ but just the concept that I couldn’t restrain myself from going shopping to reach a highly coveted goal was quite bad. I knew I had other expenses coming up and I still went. This is why I say it was a rather lame contribution to the cause.

However, I did find treasures, YES!

Recently I had gone to Oktoberfest at the Snowbird resort. In a small tent of German souvenirs, I had discovered the German beer steins. They were hand-made and shipped from Germany, large-sized mugs with beautiful scenery carved and painted all the way around. They were so neat, I wanted to get one, but when I lifted the stein to see the prices on the bottom, I realized they cost over $100. Yikes! Someday, I thought to myself.

I had walked into Savers hoping to find a serving tray. I had bought a silver (not real) tray from Savers before and it really came in handy. I place it on my cushioned ottoman to hold drinks and meals. I wanted another tray. Luckily for me, I found a really cute one for 99 cents (see below), but also noticed a couple of German steins in the glassware aisle, and there were two matching ones so I decided to pick them up!

So Retro

Front

They were very busy with scenery and German writing, and VERY light to handle, so I was very excited for my findings. When I got home to check on the back where they might have been made, however to my surprise, they were made in Japan! No wonder the construction was so light! Japanese ceramics are made very light so they are easy to handle. I noticed plates and cups mass-produced in China were always so heavy so I have always naturally preferred Japanese ceramics.

Back

They are very fun mugs to drink out of. It holds a lot of liquid, but is still very easy to hold and handle because they were light to start with. Brilliant!! The cost of the steins? $5 each, and I still get the authentic German feeling!

Front



Back

I also went to a Pawn shop for the first time. My friend Bpet took me along and showed me the ropes. I found this nearly in brand new condition of American Psycho with Christian Bale. It’s a rather disturbing comedy that once gave me nightmares, but it’s still Christian Bale so I had to get it. It cost me a total of $2!!

Acquisition : Gustav Klimt’s Tree of Life October 5, 2009

I feel like the luckiest person in the world.
I stumbled upon a canvas print of Gustav Klimt’s Tree of Life for a ridiculously good price, and the canvas was just the right size and fit precisely where I had intended to put it. I had a poster signed by some pro skaters up in my living room for the longest time, and I had been thinking that I really needed to get more ‘mature’ art up in my living room so it wouldn’t look like a college boy’s dorm room.

The first piece I had seen of Klimt’s work was ‘the Kiss’ years ago in an art book. I was so blown away by the painting. I felt that Klimt had painted the most beautiful thing in the world–love. It wasn’t just any love, it was romantic love. He had melted the woman and the man together using a patchwork of brilliant colors and shapes. Made them one, yet separate, yet together. The brilliant gold, green grass and tiny flowers below spoke of warmth and spring. Yet the painting is in no way modest. He robed the couple in what looked to be like the garments of kings and queens. Love was glamorous and everything to be desired. He moved in me a deep desire.

Years later I saw that my friend Melissa had decorated her room with a massive hanging of Klimt’s the Kiss and had hoped that someday I would also stumble into something just as beautiful. I truly believe that this canvas print was meant-to-be!

The painting is absolutely gorgeous. According to my fabulous friend Melissa, this was originally a mural painted by Klimt, and the woman on the left is called ‘Anticipation’ and the couple on the right are called ‘Fulfillment.’ It’s so nice to have friends well-versed in art!

Art can really change people’s lives. I must say that this piece has had such impact on my life.

He had painted so many cool little things in the mural that I could literally sit for hours staring at it. The colors and shapes once again were so brilliantly chosen that I can’t help but have a feeling of awe every time I look at the genius work of Klimt.

What’s more, the tree in the middle explodes with energy in its branches. It gives me energy. The couple on the right fills me with hope. After having gone through so many failed relationships and fruitless dating as a single adult, I had reached a point where I truly felt hopeless. It didn’t matter what people assured me with, it didn’t matter what I knew to be true in my head, I had really reached a point where I felt a strange high in hopelessness, and that’s where I would have remained had I not found this print to bring home with me to remind me of hope.

Art really does change your life. I am still amazed at what this painting has done to change the energy in my home and in my life. I feel happy and very warm

Acquisition : Serving Plate October 5, 2009

Two or so months ago, I drove up to Heber City with my parents (who were visiting from Japan) to check out the Heber Farmer’s market. It had been probably over a decade since I had visited Heber. It is a small town about 20 minutes South of Park City, and about 45 min Southeast of Salt Lake City.

When we had driven up, there was a strange summer storm blowing ominously dark clouds and strong winds. Since a friend of mine was selling BBQ Shrimp up at the market and we had promised to come visit, we went up anyway. I mostly wanted to spend time with my parents so the stormy weather was not particularly bothersome.

When we got to ‘downtown’ Heber, I was quite shocked. It seemed to be made up of one major road that ran through town that consisted of fast food restaurants, a few grocery stores and small businesses with signs that looked like they had been there since the 50’s. I suddenly felt like a city snob that somehow ended up in the middle of a redneck hick town, and even had flashbacks to the early 90’s when we had visited a summer parade in Spanish Fork, Utah where we were essentially the only minority family in town and everyone looked up to stare at us from their beach chairs as though we were the parade. When we parked near the farmer’s market I actually felt very shy about showing up in my snazzy outfit and Louis Vuitton purse–sort of how I feel ANYTIME I walk into Wal-mart.

However, my shyness was quickly dismissed once I saw the food stands and art vendors. I love outdoor markets, and I found myself right at home. I also noticed that the small town people were very friendly. I guess they had nothing else to do. They would buy food and stand around and just talk, or listen to the country music being played on Stage at the corner of the park. I really began to enjoy the evening.

As we were looking at the different vendors, we stumbled upon a lady selling her hand-made ceramic pieces. She had beautiful plates and cups, and one drew my attention in particular. It was a large square serving plate painted orange but with green dye all over the plate as though they were moss. She said she had used a crystal glaze. It was beautiful, and I decided that I needed to get it. Finding unique pieces is like finding treasure. Purchasing something that someone made with their own hands and buying it from the artist is also a very special and personal experience.

So without further ado–my beautiful serving plate from the Heber farmer’s market.

Happy Clutter October 5, 2009

It’s been a long time since I have made a post. My mother asked me to start writing again, so I decided to start with sharing some of my latest acquisitions.

I am a die-hard consumer. I find stress relief and great joy in driving to various stores, walking through aisles, observing what is being sold, thumbing through countless racks, handling items and judging the quality of the materials / construction, and returning home with treasures that keep me entertained and enthused.

I have been attempting, for quite sometime, to reduce my possessions and work towards the minimalist lifestyle. I am beginning to think that this is not a way meant for me. I have heard it said often before that you should surround yourself with things that make you happy. I have surrounded myself with things that make me happy–musical instruments, movies, books, magazines, shoes, dresses, jewelry, shampoo, teas, food, lighting and artwork–and I find myself actually happy to be home. Some people can’t live in clutter. I find warmth in clutter because my clutter is made up of things that I picked up because it makes me feel good and means something to me.

So I have quite a few to catch up on, but the posts following this will be regarding my fabulous new acquisitions that make up my happy clutter

Headphonie!! July 7, 2009

A good friend of mine Mr. Dave Tada (look him up, he is a fabulous DJ and a photographer living in LA) sent me a link to this faabulous little toy-shaped portable speakers made by Eran Weinberg called Headphonies. All I can say is CUTE, and the speakers work exceptionally well for how small they are. It plugs in to a USB port to recharge and plugs into your ipod and laptop for music. FABULOUS~~~!!!!

Just a side note, if you want one, just email Eran and ask him if he has a certain model, then ask if you could use PayPal to pay for the item. Unfortunately the credit card purchase on his website does not work very well. $30 + shipping.

My New Bicycle–the Citizen Tokyo folding bike July 2, 2009

I had been thinking for quite sometime about getting a bicycle. I live a block and a half away from a great grocery store in the neighborhood, but Utah isn’t much of a ‘walking’ sort of State. Everything is so spread apart that transportation infrastructure has been mostly created for cars, not pedestrians or bikers. There is also a sense that it is ‘unsafe’ to walk alone or walk along major roads since the only types of people that seem to walk are people who can’t afford vehicles (unless you live downtown) or the fact that you could get hit by a car on major roads.

I decided to give it a try anyway. I live right behind a high school, and I see high school kids walking along these supposedly ‘unsafe’ roads all the time. The walk wasn’t so bad except, as expected, two cars honked at me and one car yelling out the window and whistling. I kept thinking, HOW ANNOYING, I’m not walking because I’m the type of girl that would respond to such disrespectful attention–I have a BMW sitting in my garage at my house just around the corner idiots, you couldn’t even possibly afford to get my attention!!! Oh how I wish I could have flipped them off but I know better.

I decided at that point that having a bicycle really might be a greater way to travel to the grocery store rather than on foot. I can get across the streets faster, and hopefully not feel so looked down upon for walking on the ‘unsafe’ street. With my bike, I would just look like a person enjoying a sport activity.

I found this absolutely fabulous folding bike on sale on a Salt Lake City Craigslist post. The person who had sold it to me had purchased the bike a few months ago but had only taken it out once or twice. It was a GREAT deal. The folding/unfolding of the bike was ever so slightly tricky to learn at first but after a few times I got a hang of it very quickly.

Being a small bike, the feeling is a bit unstable until you get used to it, but turns corners quickly and efficiently, and I can see myself riding this bike everywhere. The bike is made by Citizen, and is called Tokyo–how fitting for me having been raised in Japan It’s also like a sidekick for my car–like Batman’s motorcycle that shoots out of his batmobile. Here are a few more photos.

The bike is white and matches my BMW!!

Gundam in all it’s Glory June 29, 2009

The most glorious Japanese robot of all time, Gundam, has been erected in all it’s glory in Tokyo for 2 months. It’s apparently about 57 feet tall.

See all photos in this link!
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