watching paint dry.

i found a new apartment--new neighborhood, new outlook on vancouver.
and while i watch the paint dry in my old apartment (hurry up paint--it's getting dark and i don't have any more lights here) i figured i'd reflect on my new-found attitude and personal aesthetic.

i've decided to fully embrace the vancouver lifestyle and my daily outfit consists of at least 12 layers, skinny paints (usually black, usually luon, usually from lululemon), and one seriously chunky pair of army boots.
my hair just touched my shoulders (in the shower, soaking wet, but that's not the point) and i've begun listening to mid-90s grunge rock. i always wanted to be angela from my-so-called-life and now, thankyouvancouver, i finally can be.


i also used to DIE over jared leto. notsomuch now since the whole '30seconds to mars' androgynous thing he's got going on, but whatevs. you'll always be jordan catalano to me, jared.

dirty pete update

(yes, that's his actual screen name)

says he's 28 and divorced. i say good thing he went with a movie.

and the options keep getting better and better...

at this point, i really have to question why i'm still single. i mean, if he's that devoted to a movie, imagine how he'd be in a relationship.

my BHAG and the setting of one massive intention.

i'm putting this out to the universe: by christmas (of this year) i will be in a committed relationship with an amazingly scruffy, successful man. he is a writer, with a collection of plaid woven shirts, crisp denim jeans, and sperry topsiders lining his closet. when it gets cold, he dons a pea coat and minimalist gray thermal scarf.
he doesn't believe in socks, which is great because neither do i.

he opens my eyes to the world of literature, i open his to the world of fashion. together we shop the farmer's market on the weekends, walk the sea wall, and take in a new restaurant, exhibit, or movie.

i've tried plenty of fish (as you've all witnessed) and i've tried match.com. this man i'm describing does not believe in internet dating: he prefers reading to internet surfing, and only opens his laptop up to blog or download documentaries in itunes.

this means that i need to:
1. get the hell off POF
2. get out in the real world.

i'm taking a challenge: the 'how i met my man' challenge (as desperate as this makes me seem).
i want to know how you (all 3 of my readers) met your husband/boyfriend/partner, and i'm going to re-enact these events and see what happens. call it my version of a 30 day challenge.

email me your stories @ kthrn_douglas@yahoo.com
let's make this happen.

been a while since i've had a good POF story.

attached to a message:


i don't really have much else to say.
he's been single for 6 months, looking for someone to spend the winter months with, and lives in burnaby.

he told me he liked my pics. i told him i'd recommend not flashing ass until at least the second or third message.

gut check.

i was skimming over previous blog entries i'd written and came across this excerpt from one of my very first entries, in which i'd set my intention for the year:

my mantra or words for 2010.
happy--i will find what makes me happy and i will own it.
trust--i will learn to trust myself first. when i can learn to trust myself and my decisions i've made in life, this will then open me up to trust my friends, coworkers, and hopefully, potential mate in life.
calm--i will learn to let go, and i will learn to relax.

the year's half way over...but i don't feel as though i'm half-way there.
not even close.

time to reset and commit.

amazing.

out of control and absolutely delicious.

as photo-ed at london fashion week by tommy ton.

boobs out on the runway.

boobs on the runway is neither sexy nor shocking and i'm SO over it.

maybe if it was a white dress shirt unbuttoned just to there channeling a naughty secretary madmen revival, but a sheer shirt with full on nipple i just find distracting and mildly disturbing in an 'i watch you shower through a peephole' sort of way.

boobs out at jason wu.

boobs out at alexander wang.

boobs out at thaikoon.

fall=boot season

i found these today and i think i'm in love.
they'll love me for a long time and keep me warm at night. i wonder if they like cats and cuddling.

over the knee boots by jeffrey campbell. i'd give you a link, but i want to be the first and only to own them.

clogs update.

somebody please take away my credit card because for some reason, i think these are the best things since sliced bread.

creative constipation.

i got a bit of flack at a baby shower yesterday for not maintaining my blog.
so i promised i'd blog today. this one's going out to you katy lewis. you'd better be reading.

the problem is, i'm a bit stuck lately. you could say i'm creatively constipated.

i wanted to blog about things i'm inspired by or mildly obsessed with...but at the moment i'm in a bit of a dark and uninspired place.
perhaps that's why the two biggest items i've been craving lately is a pair of nude colored legging and a black leather handbag with feminine details?

both are simple and uncomplicated. reflective of how i'd like my life to be right now.

i'm not sure if this mood is vacation backlash or a PMS preview, but whatever it is, i'd appreciate if it'd lift itself as i kind of have some designing to do.

(i had to draw a picture of the leggings...but if anyone knows where i can find a pair of ballerina pink leggings with little gold zips at the ankles, please let me know. the bag is chloe, and if i were to find a thousand dollars on the street, this bag would magically appear on my arm.)

shoe porn

ever since celine launched their wooden clogs for spring'10, i've been a bit, em...obsessed. like, 'gotta get me some clogs or else my heart just might stop beating tomorrow' obsessed. and since moving to vancouver, i do not wear any sort of elevated footwear, at all. the most elevated my feet have been in the last 10 months is heels over toes in down dog.

but these gorgeous creatures have been occupying my every dream:

forget hooking a hot guy on POF....i'd rather have these keeping me warm at night.

after scouring the streets of new york back in april and coming up empty handed, i'd almost forgotten about my little obsession until i was leafing through marie claire on the way to asia last week and discovered a nearly identical pair of lucky brand wedges. i cannot find them anywhere.
other knockoffs are too heel-like. their wedge was perfect...so similar was the slope of the platform and full-coverage leather upper that i'm beginning to wonder of the editors at marie clare have mislabeled their photo.

i mean, these JC's are close, but...



and there's a big difference between the slid, and the full on clog. full-on is much more chanel, much less celine:





i have the non-wedge version of these. fans at work call them my 'armadillo shoes'. really here nor there, they're just rad. but they're still not celine.



and these are just awesome. in my new york strutting pre-vancouver life, these would be mine.

if i respond, it's for the automatic win.

'...from someone not stupid enough to waste their time on here, yet again. if you really like VERY well hung men, please talk to me. If not, then please just delete this message. Thanks.'




i kind of want to call and meat...i mean....meet up just so i can maybe snap a photo...

so wrong....

bet yet so right.....in kind of an 'f-you and your 10 months of rain vancouver....i'm still going to look like a bad a$$'

awk. ward.

apparently this guy believes the best way to handle awkward topics is to get them all out of the way right at the intro.

Where do I start? Well; I am originally from Tanzania of Indian heritage. I immigrated to Canada in 1991 and since then I have been to Nunavut for four and seen a bit of Ontario and settled in BC since 1994. I am a social worker by profession and I promise one thing about me is that you will enjoy talking to me if nothing else : ). I love politics, social interaction, I tend to be socially concious, love activities, travel, reading etc. Interestingly I have not been in a long term relationship and I am in my fourties! OK I will let you go; I hope to hear back from you!By the way; I am seeking a long term relationship. Touch wood.

touch wood i don't run into him at the coffee shop one day. eek.

not sure which is worse...

the fact that the dog looks f*ing TERRIFIED or the fact that he clearly took the photo himself in his own little studio set-up.

monday night is a night of winners.

good to know.

day 1 and i'm done.

seriously.

the one thing i forget when i'm not dating is that dating is a serious pain in the a$$.
i went on my first POF date yesterday. while i'd LOVE to blog all about it, he's fairly tech-savy and i'm a bit scared he might stalk me on facebook and then read my all about it here.

so instead, i'm going to procrastinate the mounds of work i needed to do tonight and take the next 20 minutes blogging about what NOT to do when online dating.

i probably won't meditate tonight, but trust me, this'll be equally fulfilling.

RULE #1: just because we finally meet and i turned out to not be a leper or a guy who's real name is 'bubba', you do not now have free rights to begin telling me about all of your horrendous online dating experiences. we've all been there. the only reason why we go online is because a friend of a friend of a friend swears their sister/brother has a coworker who met their husband/wife online even deep down we're all fairly certain it's just an urban legend. please do not further remind me of how much it sucks and subsequently add yourself to my own personal 'list'.

RULE #2: when meeting for the first time in person, it's great to keep it casual. beer in the park--nice. tall-boys from your backpack while walking downtown, notsonice. although who doesn't like the threat of open intox on a sunday afternoon.

RULE #3: i do not need to hear the word 'ex' EVER. and i mean EVER. i like to think that before me, all other women repelled you. hearing you talk about your ex during a first date is only an indication of what i will hear for THE REST OF OUR RELATIONSHIP.

RULE #4: do not name drop. this does not impress me. i do not care if you know the DJ, the chef, or the pope.

RULE #5: do not email me between the hours of 1-7 AM. same goes with texting.

RULE #6: F*ing PROOFREAD.

RULE #7: if i don't email you back, it means i'm probably not interested. emailing me to the point of carrying on your own personal conversation will not score you 'cute' points. and when i DO finally email you to ask you to stop, please do not accuse me of being uptight. the only reason why i didn't tell you to f*** off was because you now know what i look like.

and it's only day 2.

best reply to my ad yet.

to get this dating contest started (PS-yesterday was officially day 1), we put our profiles up on plentyoffish.com, a free dating site.

and let me tell ya....i've been reeling 'em in. they seem to bite during the hours of 2 and 3 am though...not sure what that's all about.

best reply yet?

my pic:



his reply:


(that's not him, thank GOD.)

dating contest rules-update

two new amendums:

1. it does not count as two dates if you wake up next to him the following morning and there will be no additional bonus points awarded if you sleep with him.

2. a date with a one-eyed pirate lesbian=automatic win. if she has a peg-leg that's an additional bonus...but just for you.

mother f***ing marc jacobs.

seriously marc? i hate that i love you.


how perfect would this be with just a heathered grey cotton tank from american apparel and a pair of navy high waisted shorts?


and seriously? i live in f***ing vancouver. of COURSE i need this!

the dating contest.

we take life far too seriously....especially when it comes to matters of the heart.
i seem to have a particularly hard time.

i've tried all the dating sites. match. e-harmony (no matches, thankyouverymuch), even plenty of fish. i got picked up on myspace a couple of times too, come to think of it.

either way, the only thing any of these sites has given me is the self-dubbed title 'queen of the first date'. i think i went on roughly 7 or 8 last year alone. painful.

so to get over this first date hump, or at least to rack up some more and to kick off this summer of awesome i'm embarking in a...

dating contest.

the rules are simple.
-one date=one social function with a person with romantic intentions in mind.
-dates have no time minimum. a bad date is a bad date. there's no need to suffer if you need to bail.
-multiple dates with the same person can be counted as long as they occur as specifically different functions. i.e. dinner and a movie does not count. dinner and a movie still doesn't count even if you are at dinner, the subject of a new movie comes up and you then decide to go and see the movie after dinner. dinner and a movie DOES count if it happens on separate occasions i.e. different days.

at the end the winner is whomever has the most dates racked up at the end of 30 days.
the winner doesn't really win anything per se, other than some great stories, possibly a future significant other, and maybe the title of 'master dater'.

to start, all participants will be posting some awesome profiles on plentyoffish.com. blind dates and hook ups from friends are also encouraged.

easy enough, right? who's in?

i have to warn you, i'm a bit competitive. while i don't have a ton of friends, i do feel that i have more than enough to warrant a few blind dates. so go out and scrounge up all those single guy friends of yours. i like 'em not too tall, not too short...a little scruffy. cooking skills definitely a plus.

summer of....AWESOME.

i find moving/relocating kind of like getting a tattoo.

the first one is easy.
yeah, it's painful. sure you might wince once or twice...you might even cry a little. maybe you had to close your eyes first and squeeze someone's hand super tight while you did it...maybe even you had to get a little liquored up first before you could commit. either way, you did the deed and like it or not, you learned to live with it.

over time, the memory of how painful the experience was begins to fade. you get accustomed to how things are, where things are, the idea that maybe a butterfly won't look that bad on your hip when you're 80. slowly...you begin to crave something new...that thrill....that sense of adventure...and before you know it, there you are, in the chair....remembering just how much it hurt the first time, wondering just why the hell you thought it was going to be better the second time around, and once again vowing never, ever, EVER to do it again.

a year or two goes by...and maybe you're still cool with that butterfly and his little fairy friend. maybe you're still happy with your dynamic little duo. or...maybe...just maybe...you want another. barbed wire across the small of your back, 'love' in chinese. 'just breath' on your rib cage. whatever it may be...and once again, you're in the chair listening to the hum of the needle gritting your teeth screaming in your head 'for the love of all things holy, i swear this is the last. time.

...until the memory fades once again and....

my history of new jobs and new cities reads as long as my list of tattoos. i've just hit number 14 in the tattoo department, and recently relocated to city number 4.

vancouver:
oh how i love to loathe thee.

new job, new city, 9 months of rain....consider my a$ officially kicked, vancouver.
while the easiest thing to do would be to moan and groan and complain my way back down to the border, i'm taking a stand. no more moaning...no more groaning (although i did do a LOT of both in the past 9 months)

i am hereby declaring that from this day forward it's:
the summer of AWESOME.

Vancouver, you've been consistently named amongst the top 5 best places in the world to live, and damnit, i'm going to find out why.

all you out there--consider yourself warned. because i'm blogging about this awesome summer i'm about to embark on.

starting with....

the dating contest.

bitter procrastination...

and the one thing that would make me happy tomorrow (besides yoga at 6:45am)...


i'm supposed to be working right now, but i'm so over this weather right now that i can't do anything other than daydream about how delicious it would be to rock my Flow Y bra from lululemon with my uniqlo overalls. granted, i know it's the pacific northwest and it rains a lot, but seriously people? it's almost june! i'm desperate for an early 90's moment...work with me here mother nature!
on the positive side, i guess i've got some time where i *could order this delightful little pendleton backpack i found at opening ceremony.

ahhhhhhhhh...sunday workouts.

i *heart the leisurely attitude of a good sunday workout. i used to covet and cherish my saturday yoga, but now that i'm blessed to be able to enjoy these sessions during the week, it's become a constant that i still cherish, but don't uphold in the same unabashed gluttinous glory as i do my leisurely sunday workouts. perhaps it's because my yoga sessions still tie me to some sort of clock or schedule...i don't know.

all i do know is yesterday i had the best practice EVER. and today i enjoyed a 4 mile run along the seawall with a little dirty dancing inspired weight session after. minus the head bands and hot shots of my a$$ in tight shorts, of course.

and it's 2 pm and i still have yet to shower.

MAN i love me sundays.

happy memorial weekend to all my american peeps.
jealous because ya'll get TWO sundays this week. i had mine last week. i believe it wasn't raining. although it might've been raining and in my head i chose to remember it as sunny and 75.

happy May 2-4

i'm spending mine watching daytime television with a cat in my lap followed by a bit of antiquing in the 'burbs and topping it off with a side of yoga...
how are you spending yours?

just to clarify for the few friends of mine that actually read my blog (amanda, that's you). since you're all american, this is pretty much the equivalent to our 'memorial day'. apparently in canada, we celebrate the queen's birthdays whereas in the US we have military inspired holidays. although it's canada, so they call it 'may 2-4' because that's how many beers come in the case you buy to drink on 'may 2-4'. this year it's extra special because it actually falls on, well, may 2-4.
interesting.

just a little update for me...i haven't fallen off the face of the earth, or (unfortunately) been so wrapped up in my own happiness that i've neglected to blog for the past three months. just been busy...a trip to NY, another trip to asia...no wonder i've chosen to spend the majority of my long weekend on a couch with a ball of fur in my lap.

off the top of my head, here's a few things i'm particularly loving today:

• i'm loving the fact that backstreet boys are performing live on the early show....kind of wishing that i was there singing along. i also love the fact that nick carter still does his hand thing, they still do the 'squat and walk toward the camera shuffle' and that they're coming out with a new album. delicious. i also love that AJ's still rocking the role of bad-a$$ heart throb. it's like i'm 18 all over again...*sigh*. now play 'don't break my heart' so i can have a little dance party in my living room before i get ready for my day of antiquing.

• i'm also loving that refinery29 posted a little blurb about skinny drop-crotch jeans. i vote 'rad'. i mean, who doesn't want to feel their crotch dangling down by their knee caps? guys--you should be particularly excited about this one. think of how much easier your pick-up's on a friday night are going to be.

• the weather...for now. it's not raining at the moment, and i believe i can see a sliver of blue sky peeking through. i've stopped looking at the weekly forecast...last i checked it was rain or showers (i love it when the string of weather is so depressing they try to mix up the terminology, as if that will make it better) and a high of like, 57. last i checked it was supposed to be damn near 90 in michigan. how does THAT work out?

• LOST finally ended. no offense to you LOST-ers, but i never started watching it, and i don't intend to. thankfully it's over so now we can talk about far more important topics of conversation at work, like real housewives NYC or whether kristen really IS preggers with rob's baby.

• SHAKSUKA! i got to go to israel on my last onsite and experienced the delicious wonders of poached eggs in tomatoes with pita. make it. eat it. it's life changing. i've also been slightly obsessed with sugar free pistachio jell-o pudding, but i wouldn't recommend it to the general population.

• the ball of fur in my lap. happiness is a four-legged creature sprawled in your lap each morning. i'm convinced we could have world peace if we just enforced a mandate that all government leaders must start their day with a dose of this. or a jimmy dean's commercial....just sayin'.
  

What i'm NOT loving at the moment:

• FYI: AJ is engaged and off the market. i'd say 'give up the dream' but it's not official till there's a ring on that finger, right? BSB's have also decided to sing a little 'i want it that way'. slow songs should only be used for bathroom or beer breaks during long concerts. give me some 'backstreet's back', damnit!

• brittany murphy's husband was found dead this morning. that whole situtation....messed up and sad.

• the oil spill. BP=IDIOTS. why wouldn't you create and 'off' switch somewhere? Obama/US government--you should've taken action sooner. with all our modern technology it's a shame and travesty that it's still leaking oil. the damage to the environment is going to be irreversible.
  

so that's what's new in my world...i'll try and be a bit more proactive about updating this amanda, since you're the only one that reads it. ;) i'll read yours, too. we can be each other's biggest fans.

brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXI-RWiu32Q

yes, please

miu miu=deliciousness

happiness is good food

i stumbled across this site today.
http://www.rawmazing.com/
i'm not overly familiar with the raw food movement, but the recipes look amazing.
and by 'recipes' i mean 'pictures'.
there's some killer food porn here...

makes me want to start cooking raw, like, yesterday.

happiness is not coming in to work at 9 am and finding out an artist has passed.

a coworker emailed me this morning and told me alexander mcqueen was found dead in his london home.

i thought he was kidding-like when i heard heath ledger died. apparently it was suicide. like many other great artists, he must've been dealing with his share of internal creative demons.

his sp'10 collection left me without words. the prints, the shoes, the embellishments...it was sick. the models looked alien-like what the blue people in avitar should've looked like. his mind clearly works in an alternate universe.
i think this has to be (next to stella mccartney's watercolors) one of the most-photographed-in-editorials prints this season.
and we all know how much lady gaga *hearts* the shoes.





please put tilda swanton in this for the oscars and call it a day.


he was best known for being slightly macabre...morbid glamour at it's best.
F'06 was great...with the feathered (as in taxidermy not native) headpieces.




i loved SP'05. the sailor suits, the lace dresses, striped tights and candy colored palette...talk about ahead of the curve...it was like a watercolored 'alice in wonderland'





the collection had its misses...like the body armor trimmed in hair and the weird metal mouth guards that were far too similar to the not-so attractive head gear i had to wear to bed in junior high.

but who could forget those carousel dressers? if i were ever to get married, this would be the one.

RIP alexander mcqueen.

happy, interrupted.

the problem with happiness, i've discovered, is that it's really f*ing hard to be happy all the time.
during a recent goal coaching session with a fellow designer, she shared with me that she choses words to set her new year by instead of making new years resolutions (which as we all know are too easily broken).
i thought this was brilliant. i'm not a new year's resolution fan at all (see previous paragraph above) and i often find the intentions to be hollow and forced.

in class new years day, my yoga instructor advised instead of setting resolutions, she was vowing to never say anything to herself that she wouldn't say to a friend.
i also thought this was brilliant. how much harder are we on ourselves? how many times have we (or i, in case this boat might be more of a canoe, or perhaps a kayak) stood in front of the mirror in the morning thinking 'how the hell did that get so large?' only to turn around and reassure a girlfriend 'you're crazy, you look amazing' even though yes, she actually does look like she gained 5 lbs?

so far, i've failed miserably at following my yoga instructor's advice. however, i am determined to follow in the footsteps of my coworker. thus the birth of 'own your happy'.
i've decided my words for 2010 are 'happy', 'trust', and 'calm'. all of which are separately achievable yet fully dependent on each other.

i feel like for the past 5 years of my life, i've been constantly in search of something...a new job, the next promotion, that covetable pair of pierre hardy GAP wedges (last year, in case you forgot). i've said 'yes' to every opportunity that's come my way--and as a result i've had a very successful, and very fulfilled career. i've gotten loads of opportunities, i'm well traveled, and i've been to asia more times than i can count on two hands. my passport just had new pages added, and one of them now has a work permit for canada attached.

however great these accomplishments have been, lately it's been feeling like it's not enough. all the traveling is pointless if there's nobody at home waiting to welcome you back. i love my cat to pieces, but even he could've cared less, especially since i left him at a cat hotel where he got fresh catnip and playtime every minute of the day.

maybe it's my birthday coming up this week. i'm turning another year older, and again, the only remarkable accomplishments i have to sum up number 27 is a new job and a new city--the same as number 26...the same as number 24....the same as number 23...

this year i had an additional accomplishment--it was the first time in my life i'd ever been on unemployment. i was laid off back in june. i'd felt like my life had been ripped out from under me and i wasn't even sure i wanted another job in the industry that had just betrayed me. a career change felt right, however, poverty did not, and i took a new job in a new city in a new country.

maybe it's the jet lag from asia...maybe it was spending a weekend in fast-paced hong kong...but i've been having doubts as to whether this was the right decision. i miss my old friends, my old city. i miss normal television, kashi flakes, hot vinyasa flow, and decent sense of fashion.

i broke down on the phone last night with my mom. this happened around thanksgiving as well. despite my doubts, i know that the real deep-seated issues are not the new job, the new city, or even the new country with it's skewed sense of fashion--it's because i'm lonely. no matter how much i want to pretend that i'm fine being single, it's not fine any longer. i haven't dated (aside from the occasional first date) in a very, very long time. so long, i was actually still in school. i'm not even going to assign a year--it's far too embarrassing and far too painful. i've watched way too many friends/classmates get engaged/buy houses/get pregnant (some in that order--some not) and recently all the other eternally single friends of mine are no longer so. 'a killer career' only gets one so far in life. i actually envision coworkers shaking their heads and muttering 'work-a-holic' when they see me. why? because i remember saying the same thing about MY boss when i was younger--chalking up her long hours not to the fact that her position might actually demand it, but instead to the fact that she must have no life.

well, looks like the shoe's on the other foot now.

getting back to my original intention--my mantra or words for 2010.
happy--i will find what makes me happy and i will own it.
trust--i will learn to trust myself first. when i can learn to trust myself and my decisions i've made in life, this will then open me up to trust my friends, coworkers, and hopefully, potential mate in life.
calm--i will learn to let go, and i will learn to relax.

it's a small start...but it's a start nonetheless.

hair happy

for some reason, every time i decide to grow out my hair, pixie cuts come back into style--it never fails. Ever since VB rocked the pixie at the MJ show last fall, i can't help but notice it em, cropping up everywhere.
and it doesn't help either that the cut looks great on all the super fem starlettes rocking it. makes me start to re-think my desire for the pulp-fiction-meets-flapper bob i've been envisioning for the summer.

my obsession began when carey mulligan chopped off it off after 'an education'. i LOVED her look at the golden globes--she was my favorite. i've been sporting headbands lately (not because of this adorable photo) but now i kind of want to trade in one of my super wide black ones for a tiny little gem encrusted number.



here's miss mulligan looking a bit more au natural...



more pixies i heart:

ginnifer goodwin. best move ever....i can't even remember what she looked like with longer locks.



refinery29 highlighted the pixie today after maria wasikowska (that'd be alice in that little low-budget tim burton flick you might've heard about) sported one on the cover of teen vogue. again, i love:



*sigh* if only i could afford extensions so that when i tire of the novelty and crave my bob again i wouldn't have to suffer the pangs of growing it out....

happiness tonight was a bowl of kashi go lean crunch and an orange

i'm home, finally, after completing quite literally the longest day of my life. my flight left hong kong at 1 am saturday morning and i landed at 8:15 pm tonight (friday)--good luck figuring out THAT one.
my vegetarian vegan meals were at least recognizable, however, steamed vegetables and a wheat roll can only carry me so far.
i had the cab driver stop at a 7-eleven on the way home so i could get some skim milk. further bonus: they had oranges.
it was total bliss.

happiness is a hot flow yoga class at 7:30 am.

which means i need to go to bed.

'night kids.

happiness is the perfect spring outfit

i'm having a striped anything with a side of metallic and army green moment.
throw on some pearls and it's the perfect balance.


topshop parka/marni necklace/APC shirt/current elliot jeans/jcrew macalister boots

happiness is not a family of asian tourists

...staying across the hall from me in a thin-walled boutique hotel.
seriously. i thought for a minute they were like, in my room.

serves me right for wanting the green room.

happiness...i don't know where it's hiding, but this year i'm finding it, damn it!

i've got a week until my birthday (not 30 yet, in case you smart asses were wondering) and here i am...blogging again.
i've put it as a goal, and i've got to maintain it...so here i go.

this blog is devoted to the quest of me (a single, pessimistic 27 soon to be 28 year old accessory designer and yogi) finding and owning my happy.

i've got a successful career (despite a minor set back last summer when i was laid off--thanks victoria's secret--i'm not bitter) and i've lived in a ton of great places--ohio, new york...canada. yet, for some reason, i still feel like my life is one-sided. like i'm missing something. like i'm the chocolate pudding looking for my graham cracker crust.

so this is the blog that will showcase it all.

could be a new pair of shoes...could be discovering a new beer or yoga position. if it makes me happy, i'm writing it down for the world to read about. and i'm owning it, damn it. it'll be mine. my own little graham cracker.

talk soon world...talk soon.

happiness in hong kong can be found at the bottom of a can of guiness.

1 can guiness + 1 pomelo + 1 mug full of muesli = 1 happy katie.

i'm in asia...the last leg of a two week emergency 'get in and get samples before CNY' factory tour. hong kong is usually the highlight of my trip, however, by this point in my trip i'm so over asians (no offense guys--rickshaw dumpling is one of my favorite places to eat at in NYC) and so over random asian fast food (THAT you can take offense to. fast food korean, japanese, chinese--it's all disgusting. especially the plastic food displays...i mean, i like to know what the hell i'm eating, but come on!)

anyway, after wandering the food court of a supposedly amazing grocery store, i finally settled on a can of guiness, fresh pomelo, and an early preview of the muesli i purchased for tomorrow's breakfast.

the guiness was absolutely brilliant.