the only doctors i'd be willing to see are dr. martens.

I wear my Docs more than any other shoe, so I've been thinking of investing in another pair before I go to college. Lately, I've been looking out for styles that I might get. Some time ago, I searched up galaxy doc martens, and these came up.
I was dying for them to be real. If I'm not wrong, fallie shopped them. When I was still in the galaxy docs mood, I shopped a pair of my own. Gosh would I love a pair of galaxy docs.I've been contemplating getting some materials to paint my own pair.

On the Dr Martens site, the pastel ones also stole my heart. They're all so pretty. I would love me a pair of pink ones. Maybe those mint ones, too. Pink and mint are two of my favorite colors.I don't know how much I'd wear pastels, though. As much as I like looking at them, chances are I'd only be admire them in my closet instead of wearing them out. So I was considering buying these buckles ones. They have a zipper on the side, unlike a lot of the other docs. My docs take a pretty long time to get one, so a pair with zippers would be convenient.
Knowing me, florals are always on the list. These two pairs were out when I bought my first pair. I was also thinking of these two pairs, but went with the Victorian Flowers instead. I don't regret it.
I found this pair on etsy. I wish I bookmarked the seller, but I didn't. I can't remember who was selling them. Typography shoes, mmm.
If I can find a pair of old docs at a thrift store, then I'll DIY them. Though, I've been looking for old docs for the longest time, and I've never come across a thrift store pair.

Love, Kai

sweatshirt thursday.

I have a love-hate relationship with my hair/hair color. The last time I dyed it was January, I think. It looks alright indoors for the most part, but I get that orangy tint under the sun. I tried to cancel it out with ash dye, but it didn't work.
Also, my hair does that flippy thing when it gets to a certain length. It looks alright on the left (your right) for the most part, but the other side has a mind of its own. When I go to Taiwan, all the girls my age have perfect hair. I don't know how to do it.
Yeah, so about today's outfit. My friend Sabrina has what she calls "sweatshirt Thursdays." It's like casual Fridays except with sweatshirts and on Thursdays. So today I wore my GTFO sweatshirt that I just received on Tuesday. GTFO is an acronym for "Get the Funk on," a dance crew that consists of some kids at my school. I figured I should show my support so I bought one. Sweaters are always nice, anyway.

GTFO sweatshirt, plaid shirt from Goodwill, jeans from some store in Japan.

It's not very noticeable, but I wore it with my plaid shirt.
I wore them with my plaid Converse, but they were outside so I didn't want to go out to get them. I had a huge plaid phase when I would only buy black clothes and plaid clothes. Especially red plaid. I hunted down those plaid Converse. They weren't even the type of plaid I liked. I would have liked these back in the day.This reminds me, I was looking for Docs a while ago and stumbled upon these on ebay. I grew out of my plaid obsession a while ago, but these were tempting.

picture from ebay
They weren't my size, though. I don't remember what size they were, but they were kids size. I think I'm making a Docs post soon.

Love, Kai

black on black.

Casual boring black on black today. The usual. I woke up pretty uninspired this morning. My dad started knocking on my door this morning at 6:27am, asking if I was awake, when my alarm clock is set to ring at 6:30. He doesn't usually try to wake me up unless it's almost 7 and my lights aren't on.

Obey Top from Buffalo Exchange, pin from H&M, F21 cardigan and skirt borrowed from my bestie

I used to wear a lot more black. It's not as extreme now. Find me a few years back, and there wouldn't have been a hint of white in my closet. I'm stepping out of my box. It's kind of a funny story. I used to be a pretty gloomy kid, and I found solace in black. At that time, I replaced almost everything I had in my closet and swapped it all out for black clothes. I got accustomed to wearing just black, and it was hard to switch out of that. It's become instinct to grab the first black thing on a shelf when buying something, or when I'm getting dressed.

...slowy switching to light colors.
Look at all these light colors! Remember that post with my new H&M dress? I bought the white one, but still wanted to go back for the dusty pink one. My best friend knew and bought me the other one when she visited San Francisco on Sunday. I should have been suspicious when she called to ask for my size.
The colors are actually pretty similar. This is me holding both of them together. They blend together! The white one on the left and the pink one on the right. I will wear them lots this spring!

Convention season is coming up, so I'll be spending lots of time on art for the next month or two. Just finished up on Pokemon stickers today. So much cutting to do.
I'll be keeping up on my blog, but if I mysteriously disappear, this is the reason.

Thank you everyone who entered the giveaway! I used a random number generator to determine the winner. So, congratulations to Rosemarie!

Love, Kai

a few sizes too big.

I'm really fond of oversized clothing. You guys probably know that already. Sometimes I get comments and questions at school asking if I'm borrowing my dad's clothes. My mom wants me to stop buying big clothes or I'm going to drown in fabric eventually.

Hooded T shirt from Taiwan, oversized cardigan from Salvation Army, brooch from Harajuku Hearts, black gauze skirt from GLP, cream dress from H&M, Doc Martens

I used to wear tight clothes, too. Back in middle school and freshman year of high school, I pretty much only wore cotton pants, jeans, and logo tees from Pacsun. That was until I realized that I didn't like tight clothing or junior brands, and I only shopped there because I used to shop with my friends and those were the kinds of stores they liked to shop at. So I started thrifting and wearing oversized clothes in my sophomore year.

I haven't drowned yet. Though the flared jeans I used to wear were pretty dangerous. It's so easy to trip in those.

Love, Kai

fashion designers wear sweats? blasphemy!

One of my biggest peeves is judging people based on the little knowledge one has of another person. Such as "because his parents parents are rich, he must be spoiled." Or "because she's overweight, she must be bad at sports." On the top of my list is "because she's wearing sweats, she must be terrible at designing." I get this. All the time.


Jacket from H&M, Japan Dinosaur tee from Seibei, PE sweatpants from school, Doc Martens

I love dressing up. But the thing is, I don't like dressing up every single day of my life. On an uninspired lazy day, I just want to wear pajamas around. On a day where I only have one destination and only want to pick up a couple things from I store, I wear an oversized tee, comfy pants, and Asian lady sandals.

I went to get my biannual teeth checkup yesterday, and just slapped on some sweats and sneakers and headed out. My dentist is a real talker, which is really weird considering he has his hands in my mouth and I can't talk anyway so it's more like he's talking to himself. But the conversation went to college and what I'm majoring in. When I said fashion, he looked an my clothes and went "oh." It ended there. I get that a lot. As in extremely often.

What does it take to design? Studded heels? Or overflowing juices of creative power? Heck, Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen wore jeans and flats to her own show, but that doesn't influence her ability to design. She is phenomenal.

I do believe this is the most rant-like post I've ever made. I don't talk about pet peeves much. So, since I've talked about my own peeve, what peeves you?

I was painting yesterday, when I messed up on Connor's arm. I was going to cut it out anyway, so I figured it would be alright if I drew another arm and just cut that out. But I messed up again and soon he had three arms. My brother passed by and told me to make Connor into an octopus and he'd buy it off me for $4 so I could buy another board to paint on. So I finished it.
Connor the octopanda.

oh wind, just take me away.

Thank you for all of the input on yesterday's post so far! It makes me smile just reading them. This was yesterday's outfit, but I fell asleep before finishing the post. Actually, I fell asleep at 4:30am, but that's a different story.

I had planned on going to the San Francisco cherry blossom festival last weekend, but because I was stuck in New York, I missed the festivities. So instead, my best friend and I caught a train to go to San Francisco together this Tuesday.

Elle cardigan from Goodwill, dress from H&M, parasol from Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Zigi Soho shoes from Salvation Army, pearl necklace from Angelic Pretty, DIY timepiece necklace with parts from Taiwan.
Missing my second leg in this picture, woops. I think it's just conveniently behind my other leg. Sneaky. Here are the things I bought in San Fran, minus the eyelashes and hanger from Daiso. I forgot about those.
I was desperately in need of going to San Francisco before the parasols at Baby sold out. I broke my white one by opening it too fast, and a string snapped. The dress and top are both from H&M. I haven't bought new clothes from a retail store in so long. It feels good.

I always end up wearing what I buy on the next day. I wasn't going to wear the dress for another week because there was a same style dress in dusty pink that I really wanted to get too. But I already have a couple dresses in that color, so I didn't let myself buy it. Regretting it a little bit. But I might be regretting it too if I bought it. It's a lose lose situation.
Also, I don't buy white very often. I don't like how white looks on me, so I try to buy things that are more of a cream shade or something dark and neutral like grey or black.
This parasol is flipping amazing. It's my sixth one. I don't mind spending on parasols as much as other things because I have to take one out when I go out every day. This is my first Alice and the Pirates one, though.
My friend spotted a similar necklace at Angelic Pretty in San Francisco. It was the same one in a darker pink, but it was $20 more than I bought it for in Angelic Pretty Osaka. Darn import and exchange rate.
Wearing the cropped jersey cloth shirt I bought at H&M. Ten bucks well spent. It's so incredibly comfy. I'm missing the general basics in my closet. That's why tees and tanks make me so excited.
Showing off my white bag. I bought it a year ago in Taiwan, but it's the first time I used it. Taiwan has a bunch of awesomely affordable things. Planning on buying extra things this year to give away here. My face looks the same in every picture. It kind of creeps me out. But I guess that's how faces work.
I love how flowy this dress it. It makes me want to, I don't know, go to the beach or something. With a boater hat, with the wind blowing. When I was little, I use to be blown away by the wind. I hadn't had that happen to me for years. Until I went to New York. Being carried away by the wind. My dad though I was being silly.
This has got to be one of the longest outfit posts I have. It's kind of awkward to stare at myself for so long.

Love, Kai

from me to you.

To all my blog readers, thank you for supporting me! I've been blogging for just about half a year now, and I wouldn't have been able to keep going if it weren't for all of you. It sounds cheesy, but it's true. A blog with no readers would really just be a personal diary. To thank you all, I'm holding a small giveaway.

This bag is from the Japanese brand x-girl. I bought it in my animal print phase. It's foldable and portable, so you can take it around and whip it out anywhere!

To enter, just leave a comment! Not too many rules, really. Include these few things: 1) Leave a way for me to contact you, blog, email, whatever. No phone numbers, please. 2) Tell me a bit about yourself! Whatever you'd like me to know about you. I'd like to know my blog readers just a bit better. Anything you'd feel comfortable letting me know about yourself. 3) Give me some feedback about my blog! How did you find me? What kinds of posts do you like the best? Anything you'd like to see in the future?

You don't need a blogger to enter. Have you never commented before? Don't worry about it! I have my blog setting to accept OpenID and anonymous and all that fun stuff, so you can still comment.

Not from the United States? Don't worry about it! I know that not all my readers are from the states, and it makes me really happy to know that my blog reaches people who are geographically very far away from me. The internet is magical.

Not a reader? Don't worry ab-just kidding. If you're not a reader, I'll never know. I'd prefer if you only enter if you're a reader, but I can't stop you if you're not. If you happened to have stumbled upon my blog just in time for the giveaway and decide to stick around, looks like that makes you a reader! Hope you'll stick around for good!

I'll contact the winner in about a week, on April 26th.
Good luck, everyone!

Love, Kai

terminal situation at terminal five.

Sorry for the lack of updates! I left California Thursday night for New York. It was my first time stepping foot in New York since I moved away. And my first time in the big city. I was supposed to be back two days ago, but unfortunately had some trouble catching flights at the airport. I'm finally back!

With only two weeks left to decide my college, I went to New York to visit schools to make the decision making easier. Unfortunately, I'm not any closer to making a decision now than before. I literally only had enough time there to go look at the schools and then fly back, so I didn't get to be very touristy or go shopping at all. The only thing I bought was one of those touristy I heart NY tees at the airport.

I didn't get very many pictures at all. Mostly because it took too much effort to take out my camera. But also because I felt kind of uncomfortable taking pictures when no one else was. Here's me being touristy in front of the George Washington Statue at Union Square, while I was on my way to check out the Parsons dorms.
It was a lot less cold that I had expected, so I overdressed a bit. I looked pretty terrible the whole weekend, but you know. I prefer being unfashionably warm than stylishly cold.

I took the tour at Fashion Institute of Technology first, and then went on to Parsons. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I had a pretty good first impression of FIT. My dad didn't want us to be out at night, so we headed to the hotel in Brooklyn. Hotels are dead expensive in New York City. It cost $250 for a three star hotel; $100 more than in California. Here's the view from my room. It was all like auto parts and centers outside. Kinda felt like downtown Los Angeles.

On Saturday, I spent the day at Pratt Institute's accepted student day. Pratt was my first choice school when I first decided that I wanted to go to art school. But as I started to apply to more schools, I forgot why I wanted to go so badly. When I took the tour of the campus, I suddenly remembered why. Pratt has such a gorgeous campus. And the buildings oh my god.
I went to UCLA last week for their accepted student day for the art department, and their campus is extremely pretty too. I took pictures on my Minolta SLR and tried to scan them, but the scanner is too old to use on my Windows 7, so I can't scan it. But my point is, as pretty as UCLA is, I like Pratt's campus better. And that's saying something.

I will need to decide what school I'm going to by next week, so I'm trying to make it easier by creating a pro and con chart for each of the school and tallying up points.

JFK airport is probably the biggest and most beautiful airport I've seen in my life. Minus Taipei International airport, maybe. Though I'm probably just being biased. But the best national airport, hands down. It's so incredibly huge and spacious.

On Saturday evening, I was supposed to fly back home, but a storm was brewing and my plane, which was flying in from Dominican Republic, couldn't make a landing and flew to Boston instead. After that, my dad confirmed a different flight to a more far away airport. We were able to board that one, but I sat in the airplane for over an hour, when the intercom went on and told us that the captain could not fly because of a certain 16 hour rule. There was a lot of swearing reactions going on. We were kicked off and the second flight was canceled.
I lived at the airport for the rest of the night, unable to get a flight. All the flights on Sunday were booked, and the earliest flight was Monday night, to an airport that I've never been to in California. We booked that one, and was put on standby for some of the full flights.

I wanted to go to Manhattan to check out Nintendo World, but because we were on standby for so many flights, we had to stay at the airport. I spent all of Sunday at the airport until finally catching a standby flight on the third try. Third time's the charm.

Goshdang, I love California. I love California. But I am a hundred percent sure that I want to move to New York for college. I'll need some getting used to.

Love, Kai

let's go to the beach.

This week is the California standardized testing week, and seniors at my school have the day off. A bunch of my classmates planned on going to the beach today as a whole class trip, but apparently I wasn't on the friendlist of the person who created the group on Facebook, so I wasn't sent an invite. That's ok. I stayed at home and tended to my cold like a coolkid.

shirt from Tokyo Fashion Co Taiwan, thrifted dress, short skirt from Charlotte Russe, thrifted longer skirt, hair clip from Swimmer, Secret Shop shoes.

My stay-at-home outfit. I found this old nightgown dress thing that I bought at Goodwill ages ago and never wore.
Sometimes I wish I could buy a digital SLR just so I could get those jumping pictures. It just doesn't work with point and shoots.
I don't have a necklace that goes with this one. Dilemma of the day. Actually, that's not true. I wasn't assigned a Fanime artist alley table yet, meaning I've been thrown into the pot of people up for table lottery. It's pretty nerve wracking. Necklace dilemma would go after that.
I bought this blue bow at Swimmer when I was in Japan a few years ago. It doesn't really go with anything I have, so I don't remember ever wearing it. The blue cloth under it is a screen cleaner that I found in my drawer today. Which is weird because it's not mine and I don't wear glasses. But if I did, I could just wear it in my hair everyday and have my glasses readily able to be cleaned all the time. Haha convenient.
Shoes are Angelic Pretty replicas from Secret Shop. I wish I could afford the real thing. I also wish I didn't buy blue. I don't even like blue. Should have gotten brown or mint or even pink, maybe. I think I've only worn them out once since I bought them.
Tomorrow's a busy day, and I'm going on a school visiting adventure. I can't decide if I want to take my digicam or film camera. Hm.

Off to study for my government exam. Ugh. Fun.

Love, Kai

well that didn't work out so well.

While I was down in LA last Friday, I stopped at Bel Air Camera. To my surprise, they carry Impossible Project polaroid film. I gathered up the remains of money I had and bought a pack of the PX 600 Silver Shade film for a little over $25 after tax.
I didn't realize there was a different darkslide in every box! Which is pretty cool. Makes me want to buy more.

Of course, I've had zero experience, and my parents have never used a polaroid before either, so I was a little bit worried about how my pictures would come out. The first one came out kind of overexposed.

I gathered up enough courage to take another picture, but it came out worse than the first one. I tried using the box to cover the film when it came out, but it didn't work out.
When I first flipped it over, I kept bashing myself for wasting the film. But the more I looked at the pictures, the more they grew on me. Sure, they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but there's a certain beauty to the abstractness of the pictures. Anyway, I can learn from my experiences.
This means I'll probably be dishing out another $25 or $30 for another box of these. My wallet is crying.

If the second picture had come out right, this was what it was supposed to look like. Apollo and Remy just chillin.

I've been showing off a lot of oldschool cameras lately. I wish I could show some of the pictures that I took, but I haven't been able to develop them yet. My dad got me a new digicam yesterday, because my old faithful blog partner is getting old and problematic.
It's a Canon Powershot E1 in pink. The pictures it takes is about the same level as my old Canon Powershot A540.

Love, Kai