An olive green Christmas

Finally we have a picture with all of us together! Our outfits looked like it's part of a collection, haha. Totally unintentional. We just gravitated towards neutrals and olive greens for some weird reason.

We had a lot of fun on Christmas as always. One of our aunts continues to give us childhood toys in our annual gift giving. The past years we had play-doh, dolls, cars, action figures, toy guns, etc. This year we had sipa for the boys and mi pao for the girls! It immediately invoked memories of countless hours playing mi pao at the elementary shool yard along with jack stone and chinese garter. Such a fun gift. Even though the "kids" are technically grown up, childhood toys never fail to amuse.


On C - romper - F21 ; sandals - Nine West ; necklaces - care of Achi
On H - white top - Zara ; black cardigan - Bench ; shorts - F21 ; oxfords - Trunkshow ; necklace - gift from Achi
On J - see post below

Pecans roasting over an open fire

Wore this for the rehearsal dinner of my cousin. For the last 2 days, my mom, aunt, my SF cousin, and I have actually been baking nonstop for the wedding. We roasted pecans and filled 168 bottles for souvenirs, then baked 7 different kinds of cookies and bars for the groom's table (apparently there's such a thing as a groom's table). Even though it was technically a "chore", it was my dream come true. Baker's heaven. We were doing recipe after recipe in a beautiful, spacious, well-equiped kitchen. I kept on eating raw batter though and then eating the "damaged" pieces. I think I had my share of sweets for December.

And on a sidenote, my SF cousin is hilarious. She has a dry sarcastic humor that I wish I have. Case in point, she named her pet fish Sashimi. heh.

white dress - Chocolate ; black knit cover up - gifted by sister ; black wedges - Parisian

Switching around

Your eyes are not fooling you: it is the right background, but a different sister :)

What a switcharoo, ey? Haze has flown from the coop, whilst I've flown home. Haze is now layering up, whilst I've been stripping down. Don't worry, Haze will be back soon enough, and you'll see double in these photos.

In the meantime, I'm continuing my obsession with carrot pants, pants with manly silhouettes, you name it. You know what else I'm continuing? My thesis. It's still not done. Boohoo.

In spite of that, it's great to be home. At the very least, the change of environment feels like it's contributing to my productivity. The change in environment has also opened my eyes to... a fresh perspective in fashion :) Fashion here and fashion in Germany are so different! It's more colorful here, more individual, more expressive. I've been seeing these wide, cropped, kimono-like sleeves around the city, or wide-collared, A-line, cropped blazers in bright, solid colors, or a combo of both. I want! The blazers lend such a cute 60's vibe, plus they'll be great additions to my work wardrobe for next year :)

Okay, but first I need to finish my thesis. I've slept so less the past few days because of cough and worry...I wonder how I'll survive this.

white top and carrot pants - Zara; black tank - Esprit;

sandals - Deichmann; earrings - Bijou Brigette

Times Square and the giant F21

Day 2 and final day in New York. Yea, short trip. This time we went uptown. Times Square, Rockefeller, 5th Avenue, and Guggenheim. For lunch we had kebabs from the sidewalk vendor. Previous day we had hotdogs and pretzels. They were really good, except that we had to eat outdoors which was freezing. This is all pa's idea by the way. He wanted to eat authentic NYC (street) food. Do what a New Yorker does perhaps? :)

coat - The Loft (borrowed from cousin) ; gray knit - DKNY (from bargain store) ; 

scarf - Bayo ; jeans - New York 101 ; ankle boots - F21

Downtown

Day 1 at New York. Had a lot of fun with parents and cousin. We walked around downtown with no real plans. We just kept on walking and walking until we can't feel our fingers anymore then we'd duck inside shops to warm up. This serves me and my mom the best excuse. "I'm freezing! Let's go inside that store for a while." 30 minutes later, brand new Levi's jeans (on sale) :D

No famous landmarks on this day, but we did ride the double-decker tour bus, which I hate to admit is a very effective way to see New York. You can see the streets, the people, and all the busy activity going on. Everywhere you turn there's just something to oggle at. The vibrant energy is simply infectious. I love NYC!

blue sweater - Terranova ; floral dress - SM dept store ; 

ankle boots - F21 ; scarf - Beijing tiangge