My Dream Job

It's very difficult to get anywhere if you don't know where you want to go. When I decided to pursue a degree in apparel design, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and that was to design disc golf wear for women. As I went through the program and was introduced to more areas of fashion and design, I wasn't so sure of what I wanted to do anymore. Now, coming to the end of the program and closer to graduation I know what I want to do again. The funny thing is, it hasn't really changed much, it's just including different things than I originally planned.

So, my dream job now is to design outer wear in Asia. I would love to come back and start my disc golf clothing company, but I feel so much more complete knowing I can combine the love of functional design with amazingly different Asian designs. This epiphany came about by watching this video: Big Bang & The North Face

Please give it a watch! It's great! And here's some photos in case you are too lazy:

And my favorite from Big Bang:

Can't get any more CUTE!!

Always around Christmas time and holidays, I find myself perusing the web just looking at stuff. My website of choice this year has been deviantart.com. It never ceases to amaze me the kind of talent that is found on that website.

Recently I discovered Oboro Charms, which are soooo CUTE!! If you didn't know, there is a whole sub-culture of Japanese Kawaii (cute) that has ridiculously cute everything. This store is bringing that idea to the states. Had I made this discovery a little earlier, these would have made great little stocking stuffers my fam! Oh well, maybe a future birthday gift :)

Here are some of the Holiday charms that I think are soooo adorable!

Now go check out their website!

Must-have Nikes

I think that these shoes might be perfect for the tomboy-type of girl. I can't believe how many different color ways and styles are offered in this high-heeled shoe. Definitely on my need to buy list!

Oh the drama!!

Today at work, I was helping a lady with her fabric and her phone rang. Her ringtone was an SS501 song that just happened to be the theme song of the Korean drama I watched earlier this summer called "Boys Before Flowers." I was SO excited! I told her that I knew the song and that it was from that drama, and we shared a little moment of Korean drama and Korean pop discussion!

I was very excited to find out that the heart-throb in "Boys Before Flowers" is now starring in a new drama called "City Hunter." She also recommended that I watch "IRIS," which has one of my favorite band artists in the cast (TOP from Big Bang!). So now I really have to watch some more dramas! Kind of makes me wish I was trying to learn Korean right now instead of Japanese...

Here are the links to the shows if you are interested. After I watch them I'll post a little review:

City Hunter
IRIS
Boys Before Flowers

A note about "City Hunter": this show is currently going on in Korea, and isn't supposed to end until August. If you are interested in watching "Boys Before Flowers", I definitely recommend it, though the end gets a little cheesy and ridiculous (still cute though!).

And here is a photo of Lee Min Ho. This is why these dramas are so addicting :)

No News is Good News?

Hello! I'm back! I will try to catch my blog up to all of the big events that have happened this year that have been preventing me from blogging! For now though, I have a different topic on my mind.

I have heard the phrase "no news is good news" before and it seems to be a true statement. In reading back through my blog posts of this year, I came across my posting for Japan's tsunami. Isn't it funny that when this tragic event happened you couldn't go anywhere without hearing about it. The rising death toll. New satellite photos. Fukushima's nuclear disaster.

I still see the occasional "donate to Japan" on some websites (might be more frequent for a person like me who visits Asian websites...), but I don't really hear any news about what is going on. I would assume that Japan is getting on with rebuilding and turning their misfortune around.

I have made the decision to visit Japan after graduating from Oregon State next year, and with this decision comes a need to convince my parents. My mom brought up this topic of rebuilding, so I decided to see what I could find on the internet for any news.

One article stated that 7 of the 9 regions reported an up in the economy views. As I read the rest of the article, it appears that the the economies are doing a little better, but some regions are still in a severe state. With the Fukushima incident, there are several obstacles in the way of reopening and utilizing that power. Production is encouraged to go overseas, and consumers are told to limit their use of power to prevent a black out. Another article reported that the man appointed as the Disaster Reconstruction Minister has stepped down already after scolding a governor of one of Japan's regions not doing well. If you want to read either of these articles, here they are:

BOJ: 7 Out of 9 Japan Regions Up Econ Views
Matsumoto Quits as Japan Cabinet Minister

So it looks things are moving towards progress, but I don't think anyone can say it's "good news" yet. On a lighter note, here is a fun bike helmet I'm looking at, from a website that allows you to buy hard-to-find-things from Japan! (I've also added this website to my links).

For the love of shoes!

You may have noticed that I have added another friend to my blog roll. This lovely lady, is Mandi Kremer, whom I had the opportunity of dressing at Portland Fashion Week. As I found with a lot of the models, they were so much more friendly that I thought they would be. The other amazing thing about Mandi, is that she designs her own shoes. (Designing by adding things to her shoes and making them spectacular!)

Miss Grishley wrote an article for the Daily Barometer talking about her fabulous shoes after Portland Fashion Week.

She recently designed some new ones, and I am now saving up my monies to buy a pair!
Here's a bad picture of the shoes, go to Mani's blog to see them better!

Tsunami

It is amazing to me how news can travel so fast in this world. We live over 7,000 miles away from Japan, and yet, moments after a devastating incident, we know about it. It's too bad we don't have a way to prevent these things from happening. The wonderful thing that comes from our current technology, is that we can send help and aid that much faster. Even Lady Gaga is contributing by selling bracelets.

Somewhat-comforting thoughts are that of all countries to get hit with this, Japan is most prepared (at least for the earthquake part). Less people have died than could have, but that is still people who are gone and family and friends left to miss them.

As you may or may not know, I'm trying to get an internship in Japan for Fall term 2011. I know by then Japan will be up and running again, but I feel so sad for what's happened.

Here's a good article about what's happened in Japan. And I leave with the image of the Great Wave.

Asian Zippers

Hey! 3 posts this month! I'm on a roll!

If you don't know, I have an internship thing going on at the Rain Shed here in Corvallis. If you don't know what the Rain Shed is, it is a specialty fabric shop with lots of great outerwear fabrics and more!

Every I leave that place, I learn something new or am extremely inspired. A couple weeks ago, one of the ladies there introduced me to this awesome zipper company's website. I have yet to see if they sell retail, but some really fun zippers!

She thought they were a Japanese zipper company, but it turns out the headquarters on Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). The company is KCC (Keen Ching Industrial Co.). You should definitely take a look at their zippers.

I love this zipper:

Alright, that's my quick post for the night. Hope the zippers inspire you as much as they inspired me!

Year of Peace

So a couple of weekends ago, I went down to San Francisco to visit my little sister and watch the Chinese New Year Parade. The parade was awesome! I didn't realize that it would be set to be more at night, but it makes sense, because they have so many chinese lanterns and fireworks and the like. The parade started at 5:30pm and my sisters and I left at 8pm and it was still going! If we had prepared a little better for the cold, we would have stuck it out a little longer.

There were a lot of cute little kids with bunny ears (actually, lots of things with bunny ears). I also really enjoyed the tiger leaving (2010 was year of the tiger) and the rabbit coming in. Sadly, I used Kambria's camera instead of mine. Hers does not take very good pictures at night, and she has it, so I can't get any of the good pictures off of it! So enjoy the googled images!

Cassandra was saying that the year of the Hare is always a year of Peace. It comes before the year of the dragon, which can be a changing kind of year. So enjoy 2011, friends!

Recycled Fashions for 2011

Hmm... two posts in January, two posts in February? Perhaps I've been busy? Well, this last Thursday was the 21st annual OSU Recycled Fashion Show: Dumpster to Diamonds. I created two garments for the show, because I'm crazy and seem to love being busy.

The first garment I thought of last year: The Yin Yang Dress, made of black and white karate uniforms. My lovely model Christina did a fantastic job, made for an exciting part in the show with a fan snap!

My other creation came from trying to figure out what to do with the plastic bags my curtains came in. Then I remembered how many of these zippered bags my mom has, I told another lady about it who has lots of them, and so before I knew it I had lots of plastic zipper bags to make a dress with!

My beautiful sister Kambria modeled this dress in her best runway walk yet!

I was also really happy to have Heidi to do hair for my models, both of my amazing models did their own make up. I think I see a future of styling for Heidi in the future.... :)

It was a really great show, and if you would like to watch it, go see it on KBVR!

Some special things to note, were some of the awards my friends won:

Ashley Bates: Most Innovative Design This dress was made of her old school bag and a suitcase!

Megan Amadon: Creative Use of Material As you can see, her dress is made of footballs and turf!

No awards for me this year, but I'm very proud of my designs!

Shadowless Sword and Chocolate

It's been a while since I've posted anything related to Martial Arts, and to relax a few weeks ago, I watched some martial arts films we've had lying around. Lucky for me Devynn is always up for watching some action movies:)

The first one I watched is called : Legend of the Shadowless Sword. It was great! It's a little unique because fist, it's a Korean martial arts film (In case you didn't know, the best and most of the martial arts film come out of Hong Kong). The other awesome thing about this film, is that the plot has very strong female characters. The premise of the story is a woman warrior going and finding the banished prince so he can come back and be king. I wouldn't want to give away any of the plot, but I really enjoyed the movie as a movie and the martial arts was pretty awesome too. Lots of good sword stuff.

The second movie I watched is called Chocolate. This movie comes from the same people who did the movie Ong Bak. I loved this one! It takes place in Thailand, and is a little slow to start, but it was so good! I believe what I heard about the making of this movie, is that the director wanted to produce a movie that showed that a girl could do everything Tony Jaa does. So again, the main character is a woman. This movie is also interesting because the main character is a "special needs" child. It's a great movie, with AMAZING action and I recommend you go watch it!

Be sure to let me know if you do go see either of these, or if you would like to borrow one. And I forbid you to watch either of these movies dubbed in English. It completely ruins the film. Now go watch!

January's Challenge

As promised, here is finally the one post I am making for my challenge for the month of January.
In case you forgot, I had a little poll going on what accessories or clothing items I should incorporate into my daily looks for the entire month of January. There was a three-way tie between scarves, hats and jewelry, so I decided that I would just do an outfit with each for each week.

Then as the first week of January began, my wireless internet was not functioning in my house, making it very difficult for me to post three times a week. I still look the pictures for the first week, and that was a hassle in itself! So I only got through one week and will show you the outfits that came of it. Kudos to all of my blogging friends who do outfit posts, they are a lot more work than I would have ever thought.

So here is day one: (hats)

The whole look: old brown houndstooth hat from I don't remember where, old white collared shirt, brown O'Neil v-neck top, Brownish vest/shrug from Ross, Athena Owl coin necklace, pearl and gold 'happiness' earrings, skinny blue jeans, black boots.

Close-up on the Owl Necklace I got from my sister 4 or 5 Christmases ago.

Close up on the inspiration piece (my hat) and the lovely earrings my mom found for me in San Francisco's Chinatown.


Day two: (scarves)

Black & White Hong Kong scarf, Old Navy Cardigan, Teal Cotton dress from Hong Kong, Victoria's Secret leggings and black boots.

The inspiration piece for the outfit!

And I had to show my brightly colored Nike jackets, because the day I wore this entire outfit I had so many compliments on my coat. I even had someone compliment me as I rode past them on my bike....


Day Three: (Jewelry)

I decided to go with my birthday "going-out" outfit! My sister Kambria picked out the black tank top for me from Wet Seal, and I decided to highlight the black with yellow. Yellow ribbon, yellow flower, my black Nike golf skirt, black tights and my yellow Hong Kong heels. Oh yes, and my yellow dangle earrings! (Not exactly the inspiration, but a perfect touch!)

Just for fun :)

Hope you enjoyed the one post for my January Challenge. Remind me to not try to add something like that to my already busy life!!

Rain Check Fashion Show

Hey Friends!

So I know I was supposed to be posting some outfits and such for this month, I don't think I fully thought through that challenge. I did manage to take pictures of 3 outfits the first week, but I have a lack of internet connection at my house, so that made things difficult. Anyway, I'll get the outfits posted that I did do, and I think that will be the end of that challenge. I don't think it is my thing to post outfits of myself... kudos to those of you who do, it's a lot of work!!

Now then!! If you weren't there, the Rain Check Fashion Show went amazingly well!!! I am so happy all of my hard word paid off! We even got an article published about it in the Gazette Times!

After an all-nighter and plenty of late nights.. some parts of my collection finally came into reality! You can expect a few more of these lovely garments for the Spring Show in May!

Now to start work on the Recycled Show! Mark your calendar for March 3rd!

Always the bad guy....

I finally got around to watching the new version of Clash of the Titans, and I was not impressed. I really wasn't expecting to be impressed, so it wasn't that big of a disappointment, but it was interesting how they changed things from the original plot. (The original plot I am referring to is the old 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, still not really based solely on Greek mythology.)

One of the most interesting changes of plot was the motive of Perseus to defeat the Kraken (the Kraken is Norse mythology... not Greek). Instead of wanting to save his love Andromeda, he wants to seek revenge for his family against Hades. Man versus the gods. Interesting.

There was a few things that particularly annoyed me about this movie (and many movies loosely based on Greek mythology).

One: Why do they always depict Greeks in Roman dress? The Roman toga and the Roman soldier's uniform was not that exciting. The mohawk on the helmet is probably what annoys me most! And don't even get me started on Perseus' buzz cut!

Two: Seriously, if some of these writers would actually look at the stories in Greek mythology, they would see how ridiculous and crazy they already are and just make a movie from that. I don't understand the need to mix the mythology of multiple cultures to create some new story.

Three: I know Hades is the god of Underworld, and associated with everything related to death, but is that a reason to hate on him?

One of the things I particularly like about Hades is the fact that he is one of the Greek gods that doesn't run around. He did trick Persephone into staying in the Underworld, but that was his wife and he didn't mess around with anyone else. Very unlike his brothers Poseidon and Zeus. Another thing I like about Hades is that he pretty much sticks to ruling the Underworld. He doesn't get mixed up in all of the silly things between the gods and man.

I think that another reason I don't buy into Hades being a bad guy is because I am kind of sick of the bad guy plot. In reality, there aren't really any real bad people, not like the sadistic bastards that we put as the antagonist in movies anyway. If someone is bad, there are reasons that person became that way, and I love movies that illustrate this. One of my favorite movies that sort of lacks the bad guy, is Princess Mononoke. It's an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki. Go see it if you haven't, it's great!!! :D

Any other comments on the movie or other bad guy topics?