On the coffee table, there’s a mountain pile of tissue soaked in green phlegm, 1 Logitech universal remote control, 36 short films amounting to 11 hours on 4 DVDs of Charlie Chaplin’s short films, 1 copy of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing by Kathleen Fasenella, 8 caplets American Fare Cold & Flu medicine (may cause drowsiness), 2 empty wooden coasters, the Maxx Barry novel Syrup, 1 Webster’s New World Pocket dictionary, and a tube of cherry-flavored chapstick. On the couch, there’s me and a black corduroy comforter. Bah, it’s been over a week. What the duck, antibodies?! Get with it!

After we took these photos some few weeks ago, I asked Francis to scrap them because my outfit was sort of plain Jane. Thank goodness he didn’t because today I’m caving to the sound of those awful chirping crickets.

Sometimes I find myself more open to an outfit/collection/artist/opinion/everything if I can see where it’s coming from:

Cover art for the Broadway musical Once on This Island. This also prompted me to blast the original score on repeat for three-days-straight. You should have seen Francis’s head explode. Poor guy.

I’m not quite sure what’s what with teenagers these days—somehow I get the impression it’s gotta involve that Michael Cera dude or forget about it—but back then, professing your love for Broadway musicals was tantamount to committing social suicide. The art kids created visually stimulating drawings. The band geeks made magic brass and string harmonies. And the choir could lull you off to oblivion like Sirens.

But the theater guild (read: drama freaks)—we were like the bottom feeders of the fine arts electives. Not the surgeons saving lives and stuff, just the dentists pulling teeth. The irony was that people I’ve met through theater were always the most genuine and sincere in real life; they were the coolest. Either that or they were really good actors. Which, let’s face it, is not the case particularly with live theater when everything has to be over-exaggerated for the stage.

Reena used to say, “I have no room for drama in my life,” but she lied because our lives revolved around it.

peasant dress & wooden necklace – self-made
beaded bracelet – Gallop USA
silver rings – gifts from Loraine
mint green sandals – Ecote

Photos by Francis

Babysitting duties and a conversation with my boyfriend and niece… babysitting my boyfriend, not my niece, just to clarify.

Francis: You wanna watch Alice in Wonderland?

Kristen: Oh, I watched that! There’s a rabbit with the watch and it’s ticking. Then she falls in the hole and her hair’s upside down…

Francis: I don’t think she’s seen it; it’s not even out yet.

me: She probably saw it in the theaters. Listen, she’s explaining the entire plot.

Kristen: And then she gives the monster back his eye. And the white queen—

me: Play something else. What about The Fantastic Mr. Fox? Have you seen it?

Kristen: Oh, I know that

Francis: Hmmm… I doubt you’ve seen that one, what happens then?

Kristen: Uhhh, their neighbors are not like, that fantastic.

striped top – Comme des Garcons
necklace – originally Francis’s pocket watch (I used it as a pendant xD)
trousersuit – self-made from men’s trousers
silver rings – gifts from Loraine
socks – eBay
checkerboard shoes – Betsey Johnson

It’s not breaking and entering if there are no doors.

polar opposites dress – selfmade
evenstar necklace – eBay
studded bangle – selfmade
silver rings – gifts from Loraine
beaded clutch – vintage
platforms – Pierre Hardy for Gap

Three awesome new additions to my jewelry box:
1. The leaves of Lorien
2. Arwen’s evenstar necklace
3. Gandolf’s brooch

These are so fun! I can see the brooches as a quirky touch to my everyday twee outfits on colorful cardigan sweaters. Arwen’s delicate necklace would pair well with soft chiffon maxi dresses with low necklines or even a sheer Edwardian blouse with long, billowy sleeves.

This Slytherin locket was originally what I was searching for when I discovered the LOTR costume jewelry—keyword spamming is not such a terrible thing after all. Since forever ago, I’ve been wanting a long antique gold necklace with a gigantic pendant to top my simple sundresses with. And because everyday is a summer day on Guam, I wear A LOT of sundresses. Which is to say, I’d wear the necklace a lot. So I wanted it to be special and kind of esoteric and a Slytherin locket seemed like the best bet. Problem is, it’s nowhere to be found! Well, at least not the version pictured above. I’ve searched the ends of the internet—every crevice in eBay, etsy and google—and the only thing that comes close is this locket from The Noble Collection:

Bummer it’s in metal :/ I have to admit how much I love that they included Regulus Black’s letter to Voldemort though. Even if it does seem a little gimmicky.

Since we’re on horcruxes though, how’s this for Marvolo Gaunt’s ring?

Except I imagine it to be encased in tarnished gold. I like how a gem, something that’s normally meant to be elegant and polished, can also be as raw and imperfect as this one.

On a side note, my big brother is a bona fide Harry Potter haterader. I can already hear him snickering under his breath all the way from Gainesville at the idea of a post even remotely relating to HP. So as a preemptive move against his backhanded remarks, I just wanna say—go do some calculus, or physics, or how about reverse engineering YOUR SKINNY BUTT, smarty pants!

Ahem, now where were we? Right, so while I’m still on the hunt for a horcrux (get it? get it? ha ha. I can be so lame), these *hunches forward and taps fingers together in an all-conspiring gesture* preciouses will suit me just dandy.

mustard cardigan – vintage
Leaves of Lorien brooch – eBay
ascot top – Zara
polka dot skirt – thrifted (no label)
mary janes – Nine West

I kept my outfit neutral, wanting the make-up to emphasize all the color. But it wasn’t applied dramatically enough to show through the camera and instead ended up looking like I was crying all night. Oh well.

I like the way red and green look together; they are complementary. But for some people, it looks too much like Christmas. What do you think—hit or miss?

I made this basic striped shift dress for me, but ended up liking the fit so much that it’s now a new addition to the shop.

I ordered these shoes for two reasons: 1. because Keds never go out of style, and 2. to enter the Chictopia/Keds contest. But they arrived one day shy of deadline. Damn it.

I bent down and yelled Hello! into one of those hollow poles behind me. But it didn’t say anything back.

military jacket – Ralph Lauren (borrowed from my boyfriend’s closet)
silver rings – gifts from Loraine
studded bangle – self-made
striped mini – Neneee (self-made)
shoes – Keds

Today I’ll show you how to make one of my favorite staple foods. Fresh lumpia comes in different varieties. There’s the minty Thai version, the light Filipino version, but my absolute favorite is the delicious Vietnamese version. I like to have this right after a good run because it’s heavy in refined carbs, but also has some lean protein and healthy fats thrown in for good measure. It’s just what your body needs to replenish those glycogen stores.

INGREDIENTS
(makes 4 servings)

for lumpia:
8 large dry rice papers (or 16 small ones)
2 cups rice noodles (boiled and strained)
4 pieces romaine lettuce
1 cup bean sprouts
2 pork chops (vegetarians can substitute with tofu [I'm looking at you, TOOTS!])
12 pieces cocktail shrimp
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup hot water

for dipping sauce:
hoisin
peanut butter
club soda

To prepare the ingredients first rinse your veggies. Cook rice noodles to the recommended time on its package and strain. Slice and salt pork to taste and steam; trim the fat. Then butterfly your shrimp all the way in half.

Add hot water and sesame oil in a deep-ish plate. Dip rice paper for about 5 seconds on each side making sure all ends are covered in the mixture; try not to soak the wrapper for too long ’cause it’ll soften as you add the filling. Lay it out on a flat surface like a cutting board or in this case, a sushi roller. *Note: I’m using 2 small overlapping pieces of rice paper. You can also use 1 large piece instead—it’s actually easier—but our grocery store was sold out.

Now, about 2 inches from the end of your wrapper, layer your lettuce, rice noodles, bean sprouts, pork, and more rice noodles in that order. Try not to overload on ingredients because it might make the wrapping part a toughie. Fold the 2 inch excess wrapper tautly over ingredients, then do the same for each side. Roll once.

Then lay 2-3 pieces of shrimp orange side up just above the wrapped portion and roll ’til the end. Done. You can repeat the same process for as many pieces of lumpia you like.

For the sauce, I didn’t make any precise measurements, but instead mixed just about equal parts hoisin and peanut butter (maybe a little more peanut butter, I love peanut butter!). With club soda, I diluted the mixture until it reached the consistency of a creamy salad dressing like Ranch. I’m pretty sure restaurants use 7-up, but didn’t want to add any unnecessary sugar to an already sweet mixture.

Serve immediately and enjoy ^_^ om nom nom!

How cool is it to find the ultimate present for your mom in the toy department? She can spend months on end assembling her 10,000 count jigsaw puzzle, admire its completion for five minutes, then take it all apart and toss every piece back in their box like it isn’t anything. WTH. If you want to know where I inherit my OCD tendencies from… Thanks, Mom!

One time, Francis and I worked on a jigsaw puzzle together. This was a very long time ago—when our metabolism was more forgiving and we were still easily upset by things beyond our control. When he would wait for me to clock out at the corner of the bar, meanwhile slipping little haiku’s written on the back of beer labels or prose on paper towels into my jacket pocket whenever I served him his next round. Still very restless after hours, I’d hijack borrow a bottle of Black Label from inventory and a liter of Coke and with that, we’d plop down on my back yard and talk about absolutely nothing.

What I remember him saying was, “Did you know Courtney Love used to be a stripper on Guam?” and I said, “Ah, you read Spin, too?” And there was something familiar in somebody whom I didn’t have much in common with. Like feeling at home in a foreign country; that’s how I wanted to get people, how I wanted to be gotten. Even if we both felt a little smug in our knowledge of the most random useless information. Blame it on adolescent arrogance if you will.

Another time brought us well into sunrise. We took a drive to 7-11 in my beat down piece-of-crap ‘92 Jeep Grand Cherokee for the largest cup of butter toffee coffee ’cause it was too late (or technically, early) to fall asleep and the chemical that tells your brain to wake up when sunlight dilates your pupils had already kicked in. We found ourselves crashed out on my bed by afternoon only to wake up still dressed in the previous night’s attire with bloody bad breath and boogers in our eyes and no weird feelings about sleeping together without ever actually, you know, sleeping together.

“Sorry I left without saying bye. You were still asleep and I needed to take a dump. I’ve been thinking about you all day though; I even thought about you in the crapper,” he said. A regular Casanova.

The things I come away with from those days—a dozen crinkled Bounty sheets, a magazine subscription circa 2004, a completed jigsaw puzzle—sentimental reminders of a time during courtship and carelessness. At first glance they don’t amount to much, but there’s something to be said about that. Something The Sunday Best said well, best when he quoted so-and-so (I forget who) in defense of fashion, “‘You can’t have depth without a surface.’”

straw boater hat – eBay
pink jabot top – reconstructed Kamiseta
denim shortalls – thrifted Calvin Klein
bag – Jill Stuart
mint sandals – Ecote

braided headband – eBay
charcoal knit cardigan – Forever 21
jabot blouse – Zara
black velvet bow – diy
rock bracelet – gift from Michelle
brown leather belt – Polo
kelly green shorts – gift from Lydia
lace oxfords – cool, casual by Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Lydia, my internet pal over at Style is Style sent these shaweet shorts for a clothes swap we did last month. After going through her box of goodies, I knew it was the first of the bunch that I wanted to wear. But as with most vintage pieces, it needed a couple of modern alterations before making its debut—taking in at the waist with some pleats and permanent cuffs at the hem.

Fit is so crucial to me. You can have a great fit in the grossest fabric and still look fantastic, but hardly ever vice versa. The truth is, I’ve been living in my jammies. mostly holed up sewing custom orders for the past month—with intermittent snack breaks over Breaking Bad reruns so as not to go completely bonkers. Sometimes I’m so preoccupied trying to dress other girls up nice and spiffy; it hardly affords any opportunities to dress myself up.

But over the weekend I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and it kinda broke my heart and left me with an increasing need to ditch home and appreciate the outside world a little more. Well, that, and also we were down to our last slice of Roman Meal and last cup of Egg Beaters. And like the man and the boy, I was forced out of hibernation to make a quick food run.

So thankies Lydia for allowing me to do it in KELLY GREEN SHORTS! For sure, you’ll be seeing some of her other awesome picks in future style diary entries. But for now, look how cute she is in the cupcake skirt I made as a part of her care package:

I feel the same way about interior decor as I do about web design. That is, I’d rather strip it down to only the most essential. No flash (or flashy stuff) and if it doesn’t have some sort of utilitarian or sentimental value, then there’s no need keep it lying around.

This has something to do with an impressionable freshman year in high school and the first time I ever watched Fight Club. I remember entering my bedroom with a twenty gallon Rubbermaid bin for squeezing all useless crap into—all the Spawn collector’s action figures perched on top of my computer desk, all the fuzzy stuffed animals perfectly arranged on my perfect little twin-sized bed (save for a teddy bear from my nephew and gorilla from my big brother), all the hand-carved geometric scented candles that I never actually lit because its fancy form would melt into gunk. The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to maintain, the more stuff you have to lose. It was a relief to stuff that burden into a giant plastic container and send it off to the goodwill.

But I mean, that’s not to say the practical stuff can’t also be awesome. Suramics offers these tiny tea bag rests in her etsy shop. But they also make nifty soap dishes—just the right size for those leftover bars of soap that are enough to build up a decent lather for your hands, but not on your entire body. I always feel guilty about letting those dry up in the shower rack and go to waste.

The dishes feature little hand drawn animals on them. Here’s one with a fox in our master bathroom:

And a bulldog for our guest bathroom:

Naturally, my favorites have to be the canids I’m considering this cute Dashchund for our kitchen, but hoping she’ll add more to her collection in the future. Maybe a Blue Dane or Chocolate Lab, or even a Jack Russel Terrier—I love their little eye patches! Especially when they extend to only one ear, it’s like a beautiful fault.

A while back one of my customers, Molly, asked if I’d be able to make a custom moon unitard for her show. It’s pretty safe to assume that anyone who has the strength of character to sport a unitard in front of hundereds of strangers is awesome (see: David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, that cute girl in the American Apparel ads). Molly is no exception; she is also very sweet. But what I really wanted to share with you guys is how talented she is. Check out some of her amazing tunes here. My faves include The Pillars of Modern Convention and Drugged Inter-invention.

If you noticed the album cover for Interjection from the Sad Violins, there’s a miniature violin resting on the palm of a hand. Do you remember that conversation about tipping with Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs? How he rubs his pointer and thumb together and says, “You know what this is? It’s the world’s smallest violin playing a tune for the waitresses.” You guyzzz, that is totally the violin he was playing!

You can download Poppet’s first release here for free. It’s an EP with songs about birds.

Molly’s adorable sketch complete with little notes and a smiley made it super easy for me to figure out how she wanted it to look:

Molly performing in said show (and said unitard):