a haul post & iron deficiency

My laptop is alive but my hands are in a stupid sort of pain.



School starts soon. (When this is published, it'll start in about 3 hours.) I'm slightly more excited about this than I was a week ago, because I just found out the Harry Potter class (2 units, P/NP) is still on this year.



Here's a bunch of my aunt's and cousins' old stuff I claimed for myself while helping them organize a garage sale in June.

A butterfly brooch and a ring that was probably from a machine at the supermarket.



An Aladdin pencil pouch, because I've been looking for a replacement one for a while, because I like my pencil pouches transparent.



A Belle Rose bag. (My second one. The first one, I thrifted.)



A dress. This, like a lot of the things I decided to purloin, is a bit small in the waist because my aunt, like my mother, didn't actually break 110 pounds until after pregnancy. They both had very small (possibly so small they were only theoretical) waists. I am not nearly so small.



A pink sweater. Because I don't own enough pink. And I like giant sweaters. (Side note: while helping my aunt sort out her clothes for garage sale-ing, I had to start an Ugly Sweater pile (because they were too menny), which ended up filling up maybe two check-in-sized suitcases.)



This Gloria Vanderbilt button-down which fits like a dream and is sweat-stained like a newly pubescent teenage boy's PE uniform. I'm not sure what to do with it - I was thinking about dyeing it, but I don't know how much it'd change the design.



Another dress, also sweat-stained to kingdom come, although less noticeably so because of the intense floral pattern. I think this is probably some disagreeable synthetic, though, so I'll probably end up layering it instead of wearing it in warm weather anyway.



ONE ANIMAL PRINT SHIRT TO RULE THEM ALL. This is not just leopard (or cheetah? I cannot be bovvered to Google it) print; it's leopard (or cheetah) print INTERSPERSED WITH ACTUAL GIRAFFES AND ZEBRAS (as opposed to interspersed with giraffe and zebra print). I don't normally condone animal print in my wardrobe, but this is the lone exception because it is absolutely ridiculous.



High-waisted, light-wash denim shorts.



STRIPED DENIM SHORTS. I wore these every other day for three weeks immediately after acquiring them.



My cousin tells me this is something she used to wear under her dresses (like a slip, I guess), but I plan on wearing it as a risque (insert Pokemon e) dress.

A sleeveless collared shirt, because I have a weakness for them almost as bad as my weakness for pussy bows.

And another.

WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY THE GREATEST T-SHIRT IN ALL OF EXISTENCE. A Space Jam t-shirt, because my brother and I probably watched it more than a hundred times. (And Mulan. We watched Mulan so many times I lost count.)



AHAHA this is a terrible wildlife/art/mail-order t-shirt or something, and I love it.



My cousin's very small sweatshirt that I am determined to cram my upper body into.



And some wool skirts and a pair of pants (non-denim pants!), because I can't resist a good plaid.

Now I know this is going to say "I write stuff after the jump" but today's bit is more like "I throw up a little after the jump."



I write stuff after the jump.

House is all around you & W1L 021: Write one leaf about your pen (or other writing instrument).

Have a photo dump.

This is a picture I didn't take of a ring I don't own. It's my cousin's, and it is quite exciting.

This is a Harry Potter bookmark that my youngest cousin got for me. If you tilt your head, you get...

VOLDEMORT!!!

I think I took a photo of this Harper's Bazaar while I was waiting at the dentist a few months ago... In any case, the print on that Dolce & Gabbana dress is still beautiful, and that cream sweater off to the left is knitwear perfection.

This was the wall in my room, as it appeared right before I took everything down because I'm moving to a new apartment to finish my last semester. Not the most exciting wall, but it was the only configuration I liked consistently (of the many picture/text combinations I tried) during all my time at my old apartment.

Oh man, that print in that length and weight of material, that hat, that coat, those boots, THOSE FINGERLESS GLOVES. This outfit makes me weak in the knees.

Coat, boots, silhouette. Perfect.

THIS FRIGGING EYE MAKEUP WILL HAUNT ME FOREVER. I CANNOT GET OVER THIS.

A poem by Ellen Bass, the presence of which on my wall is, I think, indicative of how glad I am to be 1) moving out and 2) graduating next semester.

That which I wish to always be able to say.

THE COSMOOOOOOOOOS.

I write stuff after the jump.

miniature photo dump and #reverb10, December 13 - 15

One time, my roommate canned tomatoes. I was like, "How Berkeley can you get?" She shot me a look over her bowl of organic yogurt and granola, picked up her mason jar, and sipped her tap water superciliously. I responded by pushing my glasses up my nose and staging a protest by sitting on our plants and refusing to eat.

A couple of her tomatoes were deformed (not a euphemism). We staged a scene.

We also found a worm friend in our leafy greens.

One time I took this many bobby pins out of my hair in one go, and then I remembered that time I couldn't get past the TSA metal detectors because the pins in my hair kept setting them off.

Our stain remover is totally awesome. Like going back to Hogwarts after summer holidays.

Our apartment had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner, which consisted of butternut squash soup, salmon, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. It was delicious, like the plums in the icebox.

Our method for photographing all of us with the food was quite innovative. Also dangerous.

Some #reverb10 prompts after the jump.

I write stuff after the jump.

this is a rather large photo dump

With unintelligent commentary. Just to make up for having no pictures yesterday.

I am not a photographer. (But Yvan Rodic is. And my miniature recap of last night's fashion forum is at the end of this post.)

Starting off with...

The fabric-covered frames my roommate glued and stapled with her own hands and brought to put a little color in our living room. I kind of wish that instead of fabric-covered frames, we had a giant wall of fabric swatches instead. Oh my God that would be so cool. Actually, maybe I'll do that over my headboard.

And these thrifted ... glass frame things.

Above, the rather ambitious family dinner my mom roped me into helping out with.

Lamb, salmon, pile of vegetables, pile of vegetables deux. I don't know what's up with my mom and arranging vegetables, but it's a pain.

SUGARRRRRRRRR. (Store-bought, obviously.)

Above, an unrelated food photo from another meal.

A monster-sized grape.

MY GRYFFINDOR PEN. On my linguistics textbook. It doesn't know which team to play for because if you turn it over, it's...

MY SLYTHERIN PEN!!!

Above, epic fail of the my-head-is-too-heavy variety: glasses with headphones with a headband. Don't do it. So much pressure on your temples!

I don't know why I took a picture of this, but I like the colors. That's my grandma's purse. She's a baller. And then I changed into these clothes. For real. I looked 6 years old.

Uh... obligatory flower picture because it was in our kitchen.

In case you were wondering, "sloe" is a plant. It was the last word my cousin and I got stuck on.

Hahahha... from my Java textbook. Also from my Java textbook:

We all know what the answer to that question is.

It's 11 PM. Do you know where your children are? It's November. Do you know what you're thankful for today?

So last night I heard Yvan Rodic from Face Hunter, Liz from Late Afternoon (she works for Chictopia), and Laura from On the Racks (she works for Shop It To Me) talk at a fashion forum hosted by UC Berkeley's BARE Magazine and FAST.

(In attendance were... at least Jennie from Going West, Christina from Profresh Style, FAST model Tiffany (you are sweet! I didn't get your contact info! Email me!), Anisa from The Laugh Slut, Chandamheer from pancakeSTACKER, and Brittany from Work It, Berk. These three ladies were also supposed to have been there BUT I AM A CHICKEN AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MEET PEOPLE SO I HAVE NO IDEA IF THEY WERE THERE BECAUSE I SUCK AT INTRODUCING MYSELF.)

I'll have photos of what I wore later (probably much later...), but for now, here are my takeaway points:

1. A big part of blogging is being extraordinary. The other part is luck.
2. Bloggers are early adopters. Not trendsetters. Because everyone (including Liz's grandma but excluding Yvan Rodic) knows who Snooki is, but not everyone knows who Rumi is. The kind of audience a blogger commands is still nothing compared to even a reality TV star, no matter how big they are on the internet.
   
3. If a man with a French accent opens his mouth and no racial slurs come out, I have already removed my pants.
   
4. Biz Stone (of Twitter) said "Creativity comes from constraint," and Liz (smartypants) said something along the same lines, about how what a blogger puts online is an edited version of real life, the nice parts, the not-wearing-cat-and-dog-hair-covered-pajamas-sitting-in-front-of-a-laptop parts, and therein lies the appeal. It's a combination of aspiration and accessibility - as in something for a reader to aspire to and relate to.
   
5. The Bay Area at large has no remarkable style, probably because of its function-over-form aesthetic.
   
6. Some street style blogs actually have product placement and staged outfits. (This blew my mind.)
7. It is often a good idea to go where things take you.