print on print

hello there friends. today is actually a cool and overcast day. and it's kind of chilly! yaaaaay. tights season is upon us! so i should probably go ahead and get a move on and update all my outfits from the last few sunny days we've had. haha. 

let's see things that have been going on...we signed the lease for our apt for another year so i've already gotten into remodel mode. i've got lots of ideas to give this little nook of ours a little revamp. also i want to get back to sewing so i want to create myself a nice work space. ive been going crazy on the pinterest this week looking for organization and design ideas. so if you seen any good ideas holla at me! 

now, let's get to this outfit. um i love this skirt. there i said it. when i first started at threadsence it was a new arrival and it sold out in a few days. so when i actually had some money for it it was gone!!!! sad sad sad. but don't worry because i lurked every corner of the internet until i found it, and i found it over at urbanog!  (and it's now on sale!). this skirt has two slits and it has a mini skirt lining inside but the best part of it? the print makes wrinkles very forgiving. nothing bothers me more than wrinkled clothing, but let's be real, most of us sit and move and do things all day so there's no possible way of not ending up with wrinkled clothing, so when it can be hidden it's always a major plus.

skirt: urbanog, top: urban outfitters, plaid top: thrifted, boots: urbanog, bracelets: vanessa mooney via threadsence  & amrita singh, sunglasses: rayban via macys, necklace: erica weiner, rings: thrifted & erica weiner, lip color: tarte matte lip tint in lively

 i know, i know, this outfit got a little crazy with the addition of that plaid shirt. but i'm trying to step out of my comfort zone and trying more print on print combinations. My bestie Marc will be very proud! He's the king of print on print. 

when i wrapped up my internship i bought myself this vanessa mooney cuff as a present for doing so well and surviving a summer internship. it's a copper band so it stains my skin green but it's totally cute so i find it totally worth it. hehe.

and last but not least these shoes are totally rad!! they are really well made and they look expensive even though they were actually very inexpensive! i'm on a budget yo! haha anyway i love these because when i wore them to my sisters house a few days back, my youngest niece who is 4, found a moment to tell me that she really liked my boots and that she wanted a pair lol. she's seriously the cutest kid ever. also, the side buckles make this click-clack noise when i walk, and i actually like that! it makes me feel like im wearing spurs hahaha.

Independence, My Origins, and a Dress

As some of you  may know, yesterday was Mexico's Independence day. Since i have dual citizenship i feel like it's only my duty to be patriotic on that day as well. I mean, i was patriotic this fourth of july so why not right? I guess patriotic would be the wrong term actually because that would probably imply that i would wear green, white and red. whoooops. Okay i guess we can say festive. Yeah, festive is a good descriptor here. hehe. 

We didn't really celebrate the holiday because it was a Monday but we did get together on Saturday night at my parents place to watch the boxing fight between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez & Floyd Mayweather Jr. That was really special to me. Now that i'm older i feel like i'm learning to truly appreciate my family and spending time with them is very important. Also i really like boxing (so what?) and Canelo Alvarez is my maaaaan. I love gingers and maaaaan have you seen those freckles? He didn't win the fight, but it's okay guys, he's only 23, he's got a long career ahead of him. But everyone at my parents house was pretty damn bummed (i kind of still am). 

Oh yeahhh, I'm not sure i have mentioned it here but I'm Mexican-Vietnamese. In case you were wondering why this asian girl is always talking about "growing up mexican",  i was born in beautiful Sinaloa, Mexico and moved to the states when i was six. Yes, i am fluent in Spanish and i'm deeply connected to my roots. I can't say the same about my Vietnamese side, although i do know all the curse words and words about eating and food, so i mean, i know all the important stuff, right? Hahaha but in all seriousness i'm really ashamed that i didn't apply myself and stick it out learning Vietnamese--i want to travel to Vietnam someday but i know that in order to get the experience i want, i will need to speak the language first. Perhaps that will be my goal next year, to learn Vietnamese (obviously i won't be a master at it but my goal is just to get by haha).

dress: from Guanajuato, MX, belt: thrifted, shoes: urbanog, glasses: coastal, necklace: erica weiner

So the thing you actually wanted to know: where did this dress come from!? This dress i purchased on a trip to Guanajuato in 2009. I went to visit my good friend Angie who was at the time studying aboard. It was quite honestly one of the most amazing trips i have ever been on. Guanajuato is a college town and it's full of beautiful colors and amazing people and of course the yummiest food. Guanajuato is also known for its mummy museum. Yes, you read that right. hahah maybe i'll post photos from that trip someday. i dont think i even wrote about it on LiveJournal...you know,  back in the LJ days haha. Anyway the dress was actually floor length and had short sleeves that fell down to my elbows! I really had a hard time cutting the dress because the embroidery work is just so delicate and beautiful i didn't want to wreck it! Luckily though the embroidery design on the middle of this dress fell right where i wanted it to be and i didn't have to break up the embroidery too much and then i just removed the sleeves with a seam ripper and added a hem. I wear this dress all the time (even during winter with tights) and i have a feeling it's a dress i'm probably gonna keep forever, or until the very last thread falls apart. Sometimes i wear it unbelted too!

Beauty Talk: Birchbox, Jem & The Holograms, and Me

I don't generally review anything that arrives in my Birchbox because there are just soooo many blogs out there that are specifically focused solely on subscription boxes and I feel like they have probably better ways to describe their products and such. I personally don't know much about beauty products anyway. For any of that info I consult my bestgay, Marc, who is my make-up & skincare guru. But with Birchbox's rebranding and super rad new box I figured, why not? right? right.

 Their logo has changed and it looks much more sophisticated. Now that they have expanded internationally, they needed something that looked very professional and something that really represented that they mean business. I didn't take a photo of that but i'm sure if you really feel the need you can look at their site.

The new boxes themselves have changed also. The box lids now have a much more simplistic look and i'm not sure if this new printing is anything related to this but the box itself actually doesn't smell awful. It doesn't smell like roses either but at least it no longer smells like that weird damp humidity smell that cardboard often ends up smelling like.

As with all subscription boxes, some boxes are a hit and others are simply a miss. Or oftentimes, I find myself hating most of the box except for one particular item. This time around, everything was lovely. But what mostly impressed me was the inside of the box! I know, i'm like those kids during christmas who get more excited about the wrapping paper than the actual gift. lol. But seriously. LOOK AT THE INSIDE. it's like zig zaggy awesomeness. The boxes never looked so sophisticated before! I'm totally in love. I like to keep my boxes and store sewing stuff in them usually but now they can even double up as a gift box. All you have to do is put a sticker on the top of the lid or something so it doesn't say birchbox anymore. Recycling is fun!

Anyway, the products were pretty good. They sent these adorable postcards with ridiculously cute illustrations that i'm not sending out because i'm a hoarder and i just so happen to collect postcards. Yes. I admit it. The color club nail polish is a really cute pastel green and the Davines Love Smoothing shampoo and conditioner smell amazing! D took over the shampoo & conditioner since I'm on a strict shampoo regime and can't steer off it (the downsides to color dyed hair), and he won't stop talking about how great they are. I'm assuming he's hinting at me to get them for him. lol. I just might though because I love how good his hair smells and they do a good job of keeping his locks tamed.

But the standout product for me was definitely the Laqa & Co. "Lil' Lip Duo". They are these mini lip pencils that have this super creamy texture with a satin finish. They also have this sort of minty feel to them (reminiscent of the tarte lip pencils). I got the bright pink one and it is SO RAD. It's ridiculously  bright. It's LOUD if a color can even be loud. Mixed with my hair it makes me feel like i'm living some 80s barbie dream. I think more accurately, some Jem & The Holograms dream. Haha.

I mean...LOOK at how bright that lip color is! I'm just so obsessed with it. The best part about it, aside from it being ridiculously bright, is that it lasts all day. Like FOREVER. EVER EVERRRRR. I'm serious. I only applied once, early in the day, and the brightness didn't fade away. It's like magic. Definitely something i'm going to need to order in bulk before it's sold out and i'm left lusting over it. For $16 for the mini pack, it's really not bad, considering the tarte lip pencils I normally use are $24 a pop. If you want their full size ones though, they're on the Laqa & Co. site for $18. Not bad!

See. Super bright still. I promise I will try to not look so unenthused in future photos. I sure wish D had told me my bangs were doing that awful claw thing. If you look really closely i'm wearing my glasses underneath my sunglasses. Because i'm ghetto. Actually, because i'm poor and haven't gotten around to getting prescription lenses on my sunglasses. Lenscrafters tried to charge me $300 for that and I was like, Yeah, NO THANKS. 

I'll leave you with a not so bitch-faced photo:

I'm laughing because D decided it would be a good idea to take photos and skate at the same time. Silly boy. 

Rx Glasses // Derek Cardigan via Coastal.com

Pyrite Square Necklace // Erica Weiner

Meteor Sunglasses // Ray-Ban

Denim Jacket // Thrifted

Tee Shirt // Target

Skirt // Tulle