salt is kind of analogous to hair accessories.

I was eating broccoli for lunch today and it didn't taste all that good so I added salt. All of a sudden it tastes so many times better.

Recently I've been really wanting to get a haircut. The back of my hair was getting unmanageable and the front is overgrown. The plan was to go last week, but I didn't have time so my trip was postponed to today.
Hair salons make me feel a little uncomfortable, actually. I never really know what to say or what to ask or any of that. I've never had a stylist that I felt really comfortable with, so I'm still pretty awkward. I went to Shine Salon in Brooklyn Chinatown to get a haircut, after reading reviews saying the price is affordable and the cuts are pretty good. I'd actually looked up and found the salon(s) that I wanted to go to before even moving.
The location isn't hard to find; it's only a short walk from the subway station. I freaked out a little bit when I didn't see it right away when I got to where I thought it was. I was on the wrong side of the street.

Since it's Chinatown, I'd hoped that the stylists there would be able to speak mandarin, because I feel more comfortable being able to communicate in mandarin. They spoke to me cantonese instead of mandarin, so communicating was a little more difficult because I'm not familiar with the language. I found out from my stylist, Raymond, while he was cutting my hair that all the stylists can understand mandarin, but don't speak it.

For my haircut this time, I asked for something like a helmet bob, with clean, straight bangs. Something like what I already had except shorter in the back and more tidy.
Raymond gave me the nice clean cut that I asked for. With the wash and massage, and then the extra wait from other customers, my cut took about an hour. It's the same cut I had when I started my blog, just a little bit shorter. In about a month's time, it should look pretty similar.

I wanted to dye my hair too while I was at it, but I didn't know how I should ask, and how much it would be, or how much time it would take. Fortunately I didnt because since it's cash only, I dont think I would have had enough money to pay for a dye job. After the wash, massage, cut, and tip, I paid $22. I'd never been to a salon myself before, so I didn't understand how paying worked. When I paid the total, the lady at the counter asked me where the tip was. So I paid that too, but looking at her expression, I'm guessing my tip was unsatisfactory. Woops.

On my way back, I passed by a shop with cute decor and it was instinctual to go in. I'm generally not very spendy, but something about getting haircuts makes me really want to buy hair accessories. I bought a hat-scarf and a cute hairclip that I forgot to take pictures up. Maybe I'll make a purchases post soon.

I've been wearing the scarf I bought ever since I bought it. I'm not usually this happy about purchases! It's so soft and nice and warm that I don't want to take it off.
It has bear ears and button eyes!! Makes me feel a little better for not having been able to afford the polka dot neck warmer bear hat at Peace Now San Francisco last winter. Actually I'm still kind of hung up about that.

This is my third post this month! So terribly few! Gosh that makes me really sad because I had a whole bunch of outfits that I wanted to post and didn't get to take pictures of because class starts in the morning and goes on until the evening, so the sun is down by the time I have time to take pictures. And I have events that I want to blog about. I'm part of Teen Vogue Fashion U's class of 2011; graduated last week!

And Kinokuniya shipped in both the November and December issue of KERA, which I bought both of. I'd like to write about those too. And I don't think I ever got to my wishlist post last month. Or this month, for that matter!

And I didn't write about my birthday!
Gosh, this has been a busy, busy month.
So is next month, for that matter.
Steppin up my game...

Love, Kaia

weekends are made for relaxing.

It feels like on weekends I have to work extra hard on homework, which really sucks because that's all I do all day every day on weekdays. But for the most part, I work on homework all through weekends. That's what I've been doing, at least. But last week I decided that I really needed a break so over the weekend, I did some cookhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifing, had some friends over, and went to Comic Con.

Now I'm more tired than ever.
Tee from NYCC, jacket from H&M, pants from Zara, Converse

I got this shirt when I was at Comic Con this Sunday. It's a print of Star Wars storm troopers. I bought a few shirts while I was there. Comic Con was fun. I did a little reflection kind of thing on my tumblr.

Oh and now these shoes I'm wearing. I needed new shoes because my old Converse are reaching five years old and the number of holes and rips are increasing fast.

Black leather Converse from Michael K in Chinatown/Soho area. They have a pretty good selection of casual shoes. Big section for Converse styles and colorways that I've never seen before,which is kind of cool.
Yeah, back to work.

Love, Kaia

a much delayed post.

Prize winners from my anniversary giveaway were chosen today! It should have been done ages ago, buy it'd been delayed for weeks. I cut out slips of paper and wrote names on them and put them in two separate bowls for the two giveaways and drew names from each of them.
Names that were drawn! Winners have been contacted. Congratulations~ I gotta get shipping supplies, and prizes should go out later this month.

Ohph! Forgot, I'm wearing a sweater I got on my most recent thrifting trip. I haven't wrote about that yet. Time will come! Time will come! I need more time in a day, I really do. I hadn't had sleep for three days, and yesterday I had been planning to go to the studios to do some homework, but I was also really sick so I went back to my dorm with the intention of going to sleep after I eat dinner. But being the student I am, I started to do sketching homework for next week, and felt like I couldn't go to sleep until I finished that.

This month is so busy! It's just one event after another, one quiz, one project after another, and then BAM! Midterms. So much fun. I'm dying.

Still sick today, but I think yesterday was the worst of it. I should be on my way to getting better. I....need to go to the studio to do homework. Debating whether I want to go now or in the evening.

Love, Kaia