Hawaiian Recap Part 2

Before I forget and these beautiful photos get lost in the bajillions I have on my computer, I thought I better post the second part to my amazing Hawaiian vacation. For the second week, we moved down south, to a town called Poipu. It was an alright town, with alright views. Nothing to brag about or anything ;).

On the subject of not bragging, I also played the best game of golf I have ever played in my life. I haven't played THAT many full games of golf in my life, mind you, but it really is crazy that the less I seem to play, the better I get. I hate to say it, but I think my Dad's lifelong dream may be coming true. I think I actually enjoy playing golf. And rarely do I throw my club and burst into tears anymore.

j.

Hawaiian Recap Part 1

First of all, congratulations for making it to the end of all those photos! I know, there were a lot of them, but that wasn't even all of them. I spent the first week of my vacation in Lihue, which is on the east side of the island of Kauai, near the airport. My brother and his wife were there with my parents and I so it was a lot of fun. 

There was lots of beach time, games and going out for dinner. Have you ever heard of the game Bananagrams? If you are a Scrabble aficionado like myself than do yourself a favor and go get it. It is so. much. fun. But then again, I am a huge nerd and like word games so...

My sister-in-law and I went for a photo walk into the town of Lihue and had fun capturing the old school charm of the local watering hole, the Nawiliwili Tavern, along with all of the gloriously tacky but oh-so-wonderful shop signs.

On New Years Eve day, the three of us went on a mountain tubing adventure in the Hawaiian back country. You basically float down the island's irrigation ditch for miles, going in and out of tunnels. Sounds random but it turned out to be a lot of fun! 

After a week, my brother and his wife went home. I stayed on with my parents and moved down to the south part of Kauai. Stay tuned for photos of my second week in paradise!

Aloha,

j.

Relax, have a pineapple

pineapple tee {Billabong} - denim skirt {Old Navy, way old} - bronze sandals {Steve Madden via Century 21} - 

triangle necklace {gift, from Urban Outfitters} - sunnies {Forever 21}

I have been on island time in a big way for the past ten days. I have a hard time planning what I am going to do in a couple hours, let alone the next day. Kauai is basically paradise on earth, I'm telling you. It's all lush greenery and vast open skies every which way you look. It's been quite rainy the past few days, but I will take rainy paradise over anything any day!

After all this lounging in the sun, reading (for pleasure!) and going to bed before 10pm on the reg, I am going to have a real hard time adjusting to life back in the city. But that's not until Saturday so let's not rush things here. A small part of me is excited to start my final (!!!) semester at Parsons and a bigger part of me is excited to start my new internship at a PR agency (!!!). But more on those later, when I'm not running on beach time.

Aloha,

j.

Happy New Year!

So, I've been saying "Happy New Years" all day because it sounded right to me and came out naturally. But then when I went to write the title to this post, I looked at it and realized that perhaps it was not grammatically correct. So I battled for a few seconds, typing the "s", then deleting the "s" a few times before settling on the singular version. Considering that this was my biggest challenge today (and I even went on a backcountry mountain tubing adventure this morning), I figure the last day of 2012 has gone pretty well.

Happy New Year, you guys! I hope everyone has a great but safe night!

See you next year ;)

j.

Bicycles, Clutches & Cliffs...

...Oh My!

This is the third and final part of M and I's mega Hawaiian photoshoot. You should really check out part one and part two now that you're here. Might as well. Usually I photograph the outfit that I am wearing for that given day. But when you're in Hawaii and have jammed your suitcase full of clothes, you have to take advantage of the scenery and make your excessive packing worthwhile.

          

bicycle tee {Ricki's} - blue shorts {Gap} - yellow belt {Old Navy} - silver gladiators {Aldo} - aviator sunnies {Windsor} -

white watch & clutch {Palm Desert street market}

I got home from Hawaii on Sunday. Calgary welcomed me home with a seasonal chinook. Sadly the mild temperatures did not last long. This morning welcomed a few inches of snow. Hard to believe I was wearing shorts and t-shirts a few days ago.

j.

Open Double

This is the dress I was wearing when I opened my email to find that Parsons had finally emailed me my housing assignment. A quick scan of the email was all that was needed to see those two words sitting beside one another. Standing alone, those two words are quite ordinary. But together in this email they were glaringly conspicuous. I have been assigned to an open double room. Not only do I have to share a room with another person, I have to share it with the kitchen and living area. I think I preferred not knowing. At least I had this view and time for frollicking in this pretty dress to take the sting off.

orange striped dress {Winners} - black cut-out sandals {Nine West via DSW} - gold cuff {thrifted}

Before I left Vancouver Island, I visited a tea leaf reader in Nanaimo. She told me something that didn't make much sense at the time. Something I brushed off as random. She told me that I wasn't going to sleep very much in New York. I laughed and chalked it up to late night study sessions and perhaps a party or two. Looks like I may have thought wrong. Oh well. I am determined not to dwell on things I can't change. In keeping my new year's resolutions and thinking of mantra number five, all I can do now is embrace what is. So, here's to meeting new friends and being closest to the fridge. May my roomie please be pleasant. Pretty please.

j.

Crazy Boat Lady

Welcome to part two of M and I's mega photoshoot. You can check out part one here. One quick outfit change in the parking lot (class act right here) in the little town of Koloa and we were off to find new backdrops. Enter decrepid boat on stilts. Complete with a crazy boat lady. Well, to be fair, she was more confrontational than crazy. She definitely thought that we were crazy. Okay, so here's the story. We saw this boat and felt it would be perfect as a backdrop. There was a lady working in the adjoining yard, so being the respectful young ladies that we are, we decided to ask her permission for me to pose in front of the boat (OK, fine. M was the respectful one who asked). Turns out she worked for an ocean tour company and this was one of their out-of-commission boats. What we thought was simply a courtesy question turned out to be a completely foreign concept to this skeptic. In a not-so-friendly manner, the boat lady interrogated us about what we were going to do with the photos. Here we go, I thought. Try explaining a fashion blog to someone who wears wool socks with their birkenstocks on the regular. I gave it a go, being sure to emphasize that I only wanted to stand in front of the boat, not get in it or anything crazy like that. Her feathers continued to be ruffled at the thought of the boat's name (and hence the company's name) appearing in the photos. What she thought we were going to do with the photos remains a mystery. I quickly assured her that the name would not appear in the photos as I would only stand on the one side of the old boat. I was about to tell her to forget it when she reluctantly agreed, probably only because she was tired of talking to the crazy girl wearing wedges. We seized our opportunity and M snapped a few pics of me posing in front of the old brute. Moments later a truck pulled up and a man got out. I thought, oh great here we go again. With a smile on his face he asked if we were making fun of his boat. Quite the opposite, I told him. M relayed that we had just asked "his wife" permission. He swiftly and determinedly corrected her mistake. Ha! Don't blame ya, buddy! He chatted a minute longer with us, telling us what he planned to do to refurbish his baby. His parting words to us were, "I better see those pics on Facebook!". Now that's the response I was looking for.

fuschia lace blouse {Urban Outfitters} - best tank ever {Costco!} - dark denim skirt & yellow belt {Old Navy} - aviator sunnies {Windsor} - green wedges {The Bay} - flower hair clip {ABC Store, Kaua'i}

Since we decided not to loiter for too long by the boat, we moved along and found this old white garage for me to pose in front of. Turns out it was covered with a weird chalky substance that came off on my hands. Why I decided to smell my hands is beyond me, but I did. And they did not smell pleasant. So being the classy lady that I am, I rolled my skirt up and wiped my hands on the inside of it. What? I wasn't about to wipe them on the outside of my skirt!

Between the crazy boat lady and the gross chalky garage, we managed to get some good shots and have lots of laughs. Stay tuned for the third and final part of our mega Hawaiian photoshoot.

j.