i want to be there

Speaking of fashion, New York City is hosting Fashion's Night Out on September 10, 2009, which will see 250 models scattered all over the five boroughs and big names in fashion, music and film will be on hand to host the event at various venues around town. I am jealous.



Video courtesy of www.fashionologie.com

anna wintour in person

... well, kind of. This is probably about as close as most people will ever get to actually meeting the famous Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue magazine. She appeared on the David Letterman Show on August 24, 2009 to promote the documentary, The September Issue which will be coming out in September, of course. Here's the interview, in case you missed it the first time, like I did!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Videos courtesy of www.youtube.com

happy 3rd anniversary!

Today was Portabello West's 3rd anniversary and to celebrate, those who subscribed to the Portabello newsletter got an email for free admission to the market (it's usually $2 to get in). So, I dragged my sister down there to check out the local designs and products and it's a good thing I did or else I wouldn't have found this:

I've been looking for a navy school boy blazer for months now and bam! I find it at Portabello West and it's in my size, of course!. The fashion gods/goddesses were smiling down on me, so out came the credit card and in a matter of seconds, it was in my loving arms. Oh, and did I mention it's vintage? And in mint condition? With the tags still on? I love it and I'll probably end up wearing it to death this coming fall/winter.

keeping an eye over the city...

it's Batman! POW! BAM! SLAP!

I was heading to a jewellery sample sale for Simply Sublime (the designer is permanently relocating to Greece) and guess who I came across? Of course, I had to take a picture of the guardian of Gotham City (so COOL). There was Darth Vader too! But alas, my camera ran out of batteries, so no pictures.

After spending a small fortune at the sample sale, I headed over to Richmond on the Canada Line (it's air-conditioned!) and shopped at Daiso, the Japanese toonie store. It's a great place for finding little knick-knacks and stuff that you don't really need, but for only $2, you're not breaking the bank!

A cool sand sculpture inside the mall, right outside of Daiso:

My spoils from the sample sale:

Big gold hooped earrings are always in style.

This big leaf necklace is definitely a statement piece. It also looks great with a white t-shirt.

Classic white pearls. You can't go wrong with pearls.

foodie in the making

Headed downtown to watch Julie and Julia (check out my review here) and had lunch at a new Mexican place called Don Guacamole. Great tacos, and the homemade guacamole was chunky and lightly seasoned, just the way I like it. Although $8.50 for a cocktail glass of guacamole just doesn't cut it for me. And only one tortilla chip? What the hell? I need more than one tortilla chip for guacamole. But I would definitely come back for the tacos.

GAP is turning 40 years old

Yesterday, the GAP held a fashionable fête to mark the 40th “Born to Share” anniversary at their downtown location. They had their new premium denim collection in stock (the deconstructed skinny in the dark indigo wash was very popular. There was only 3 pairs left when we got there!) and scored 25% off all merchandise that night. DJ Auntie Em was spinning the tracks (and there were some old-school tunes playing! ) and lots of party favours, including mini-makeovers by Beautymark, a sweet buffet by Frankie’s Candy Bar and refreshments by Vitamin Water and Fuze. They even had a popcorn machine, like the kind you find at the fair! I hit that up pretty fast.

I got my makeup touched up by the lovely people at Beautymark (it was HAWT out and I could feel my makeup sliding off my face) and with every mini-makeover, you received a Beautymark gift card. You have to go to Beautymark to find out how much is on the card (it ranges from $5 to $500!), so I'll be sure to book it down there after work soon.

What could be more fun than a bag full of gummy insects? Mmm... spiders...

***

Today, after work, I booked it down to the Scotiabank Dance Centre to line up for the annual Spend on Trend event. The event showcases hot new designs from established and upcoming Canadian designers of clothing, jewellery and accessories. The first 25 people through the door each day will receive a fabulous goodie bag filled with great stuff such as a copy of FASHION magainze, Catalyst Reaction keychain, a yelp! shotglass and more. Hence, the reason for my speed in getting down there. Partial proceeds donated to BC Cancer Foundation supporting Breast Cancer Research and Care. It feels good to shop while support a good cause. Makes all the money spending a little more worthwhile. At least that's how I like to think about it.

mac-centric

I'm not a huge MAC user/abuser, or at least I thought I wasn't. I was riffling through my makeup bags, looking for 6 MAC products to recycle to get a free lipstick which I thought would be hard to do, since I don't own that many MAC products. Then I realized that I had quite a bit of MAC products. Enough for 2 free lipsticks, actually.

So I traded in my 12 used MAC products (!) for 2 lipsticks:

From left to right: Sweetie, Capricous and Zero (which I got in a gift bag)

I also bought the and plan on adding more eyeshadows to my MAC collection.

I bought this eyeshadow. It's called "Tempting" and it's my new favourite eyeshadow.

Sweetie is a medium rose mauve pink, with a slight shimmer.

Capricous is a "fanciful rose plum" according to their website.

"0" is a metallic bronze glaze and I'm not sure if I can pull this colour off. I'll probably wear lipgloss over top to play down the metallic.

happy bc day!

Out and about town, enjoying the weather, trying not to get a tan but still got one anyway and hanging out with friends and family. It doesn't get any better than this:

Saturday: Me and my little sister checked out the Powell Street Festival at Woodland Park. Browsed through the booths, saw girls dressed up in kimonos (even in this heat!), cute dogs, sushi plushies (who doesn't want a smiling rice ball to cuddle with?), and lots of jewellery! I dropped a lot of money on earrings, bracelets, necklaces and a few vintage items, too. I got my mom a vintage elephant brooch with rhinestones and a vintage necklace for myself. I saw a few funky items (a ring made from a Japanese compass), stuffed animals, sterling silver handcrafted jewellery, ceramics, toys, mango hand cream (that smelled divine) and cookbooks, so there was a little something for everyone.

Taiko drums (I think I spelt that right) start off the festival.

So cute!

I want a kimono. One day... when I go to Japan.

What is possibly be the cutest dog in the world.

More kimonos!

We managed to work up quite the appetite after weaving in and out and between the stalls, so it was off to the food court. There was okonomiyaki, sushi, udon, ramen, BBQ salmon, takoyaki (the line snaked up and down the street!) and traditional Japanese desserts. YUM!

Sunday: Went back to the Powell Street Festival, so my sister can look for a thank-you present. They had new booths! So there was more browsing and perusing, but I did manage to keep a better grip on my wallet and only bought inari for lunch (they were huge!) Hopped on a bus and headed downtown but we missed the Pride parade. That's the second year in a row that we've missed it! Oh well, there's always next year... Watching the aftermath of the parade (cleaning crews and police cars were still around to make sure everything got cleaned up before traffic was allowed), and did some shopping. I was good, so I only bought a belt from the GAP and this really cool bracelet that my sister picked out for me at Banana Republic:

Japanese choir singing in Japanese, duh.

People browsing through the booths for handcrafted, homemade things you can't get anywhere else.

The massive crowd at the food court.

The aftermath of the Pride parade.

I don't know if there was some cosplay event downtown, but I took this picture while the bus was turning a corner. Definitely not a great shot, but I like anyway.

Monday: despite some confusion (I was suppose to meet up with someone later in the afternoon but we thought the other person was going to phone and long story short, we didn't meet up), I had brunch with my friend Andy (aka Andrew, LOL!) and then we ended up walking all over town. Walked along 4th Ave, down to Kits beach to look for a bench dedicated to her boyfriend's father, back to the apartment for a rest stop and a glass of water before heading downtown to walk/shop around. After shopping along Robson and getting more tanned, we decided to listen to our sore feet and limped our way over to Joey for dinner. I had a delicious lobster grilled cheese sandwich (that's right, there was lobster in my grilled cheese sandwich) and Andy had the grilled chicken souvlaki. Good stuff right there.

Lobster grilled cheese sandwich with fries. There's ketchup and cocktail sauce for the sandwich. YUM.