Vampire Masquerade Ball

A couple of weekends ago I took a trip down to Portland, OR for their annual Vampire Masquerade Ball, this being the 10th year and my first. I was a bit worried it would be hokey, but had quite the blast and was quite blown away at the attention to detail of the people who put it on, especially Lady Raven. There was a midnight waltz with live music by several members the Portland Baroque Orchestra, trapeze artists, various vendors and free food, including a chocolate fountain. D. and Jamie came along and I couldn't have chosen better travel companions. Jamie and I attempted to waltz, but it ended up a bit more improvisation as she knows Viennese and I have a rough memory of the box step.

D, me & Jamie at the end of the night

Despite originally having chosen completely different outfits, we both ended up in silk velvet 1930's dresses, great minds think alike I guess! Even D. danced, which I haven't seen him do in 10 years! There were some great outfits there that night and I am hoping they add a photogallery to the website soon as I didn't take that many photos as I was too busy dancing*. (you can see some more that I took on Flickr).

*Jamie actually took a great one of me and D. dancing but unfortunately I can't find it right now.

Window shopping

Earlier this evening I went to the dress rehearsal of the ballet, it was great fun and I love the more modern pieces. Also on the bus ride home a jolly drunk sang me a catchy song about a gold fish that he had composed at 3 years old. It was quite amusing, especially when the guy next to him wanted to sing too and there was almost a sing off. There is really nothing like public transport! But that is not what this post is about... nope it is about me wasting time window shopping on the internet! So here are are a few of my (current) favorite things!

First of: Modcloth (I've never bought anything from them, but they do have pretty dresses). For example these:

 Unfortunately the ones I like are always out of stock, which I suppose is good for me pocket book.

Next up and in a different style: VirginBlak
They are a Korean mens wear store, but a lot of the clothes are rather androgynous and slim cut so good for women too. Their style is probably closer to my daily style than pretty dresses. I actually bought the top from them (though it hasn't arrived yet). I almost got the pants (I want some checked pants) but wasn't sure about sizing.
 

 

And now on to etsy for jewelry (my friend Jill introduced me to these guys, one of these days I'll break down!): Screwpulous Jewelry (HaremRoyal)

This piece is just amazing!:

All the pieces are stunning and they state that: "The materials are sourced from ethical outlets, keeping things as eco friendly as possible. All of the organic materials are either recycled or come from reliable, legal sources or they are antique. It was ensured that no animals were harmed for the sake of the jewelry." Which is good as I'd rather not have something killed just for fashion.


And lastly: Face Lace. These are lace-like face appliqués by Phyllis Cohen, they'd be so fun for a fancy dress ball or just going out! Unfortunately they aren't on sale yet and I am not sure if they are shipping to the US. Here are a couple of my favorites:


















For now maybe I can try duplicating with eyeliner and a very steady hand (though I have a feeling that will be a disaster!).


The witching hour has come and I ought to step away from this glowing screen, so good night!

Lazy Sunday

Today the clocks sprung forward, but not I. No springing for this lazy lass, instead indulged in utter sloth. (I did go grocery shopping & for a short walk. Would have walked further, but feared the wind would blow me away). I am hoping to kill the early signs of a cold with copious amounts of tea, food and lots of naps. Time will tell if it works!

waiting for the movie to start.

For now I thought I'd post a short update on life since my last  post, or some of it at least. Mainly I have been incessantly checking my emails to find out if I have gotten in to any of the grad schools to which I applied, so far the verdict is... check again later. *sigh*  Last month in February, the lads and I went to one of Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays at the Paramount. First off that place has the most beautiful bathrooms ever (sorry no photo). Actually the whole place is quite stunning and beautiful setting for a silent movie. Also this is one of the few events in Seattle where the average age is probably over 50. Anyway the movie was Wings starring Clara Bow, the music accompaniment was on the historic Mighty Wurlitzer organ by the very talented Jim Riggs.

The silent movie night start back up in April, not sure what the theme is, but will try and make it out again!





Oh and if you have been curious about my sugar free experience: I am off the wagon, though I am trying to keep it on the lower end (ideally around 40 or so grams a day). Though I did lose weight, my skin did not noticeably improve. I think the flushing was a little less, but that is hard to tell and it certainly didn't clear up while I was sugar free, in fact it is clearer right now. Still I think keeping my sugar intake at a more reasonable level will be a benefit in the long term and not only for my waist line. Also the very expensive skin cream sample (copper peptide stuff) was nice, but not any better than some drugstore brand, which is good as it means I don't feel the urge to run out and spend $80 on a tiny tube of it!

Also picked up an issue of Zipper Magazine at Kinokuniya book store. I'll claim I bought it to improve my Japanese reading, but really I just look at the pictures. It came with a ridiculously cute (& pink) bag... I had hoped it was a t-shirt, but obviously my Japanese needs a lot of help! Speaking of street snaps one of favorite sites to peruse is: fashionsnap.com 
(it is in Japanese, but you can use Google to translate or just realize that at the bottom 次のページ will navigate you to earlier pages. 次の (tsugi no) = next). One of these days I'll post some of my favorites, for now I'll just say I love all the fun patterned tights! I wore mine yesterday and received a lot of comments, mainly good though a few were a bit out there (but hey I work in Pioneer Square, a lot of people there are a bit out there!)

That's all for now, need more tea! (& maybe a snack...)
こんばんわ！

Norwegian Wood and Ludus Sanctus

new shoes!

Tuesday, D. and  I went to go see SIFF's showing of Norwegian Wood. Visually it was just stunning and it followed Murakami's book pretty closely. D. had been a bit hesitant to watch it enjoyed it as well. I thought the acting was very well done and was happy that the dialogue was minimal as I could follow along a little with out having to read subtitles. (Or I should say I was happy I could follow anything at all, my Japanese is pretty shabby). Anyway also bad at reviewing movies! If you liked the book by Murakami or just like visually lush movies I highly recommend it! Oh and I wore my new Jeffrey Campbell wedges which I am very happy with.  The only downside to the experience was the movie theater was FREEZING! We were both shivering by the end of it, despite wearing our coats and in my case gloves.

Tobi in front of her art

dancer

Today, I went to see my friend Tobi's visual art and performance night, Ludus Sactus, at Capital Hill Art Walk. Tobi shared the walls with another artist Rae Diamond. I wish I would have gotten a close up of some of Tobi's pieces as you can't see them to well in the photo. There was also a performance of harmonic singing and gamelan with traditional classical Indian dance. There were several little kids in attendance, as it was held in a funky kids clothing store, I was really impressed at how generally well behaved they were. They did seem to like the part of the dance where he was the Monkey King! The dancer (who's name I did not catch) was quite expressive and it was interesting seeing the story danced out. At one point he was an old man and his whole face and body transformed, I was too busy watching to take a photo. He gave us a quick walk through of what the different gestures meant and a brief translation of the song, which helped.  The singer and musicians were also quite talented, I just tend to focus on dance as I understand that more!

PNB Don Quixote

before the ballet

Friday I had the chance to go to opening night of Don Quixote at Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) with my friend Jamie (She had an extra ticket, yay!). The costuming and sets were amazing and I loved both Tom Skerritt, as Don Quixote, and Allen Galli, as Sancho Panza. The dancing was quite good, though I must admit I am not a big fan of "gratuitous dancing" which tends to be predominate in a lot of classical story ballets. Basically, those parts where everyone stands around and watches the principle dancers show of how many fouette turns they can do or high they can jump, etc. (Granted these tend to be big crowd pleasers and bring in the money for the ballet company so they can put on the more modern ballets that I prefer.) The biggest weakness was Carla Korbes as Kitri, admittedly a hard dancing role and this was her first time dancing it. My favorite part was Act 2, probably because I liked the dream sequences with cupid and also Don Quixote's battle with the very Hieronymus Bosch inspired demons. I wish they had been on for longer! Oh and the strange cactus people! (note the trailer for the ballet is not of the PNB dancers, though the choreography and sets are the same, I think the clip is from the Dutch National Ballet)

love conquers all

Another fun part of going to the ballet is the excuse to dress up. The dress is a 1950's wiggle dress and I've been waiting for a good excuse to wear it. I only had 1/2 an hour to get ready after work (including quick shower) so my make-up consisted of red lips and I didn't have time to iron (linen is very wrinkle prone!) I don't think the shoes really went with the outfit, and the fact that the back strap would not stay up with the tights on made walking more of a challenge than I cared for. Need some sky-high silver heels. We tried to take some photos with Jamie's iphone at the ballet, but they turned out rather bad so not posting them! Oh yeah and Godzilla stayed home, my strange cat thinks he's her friend so he tends to hang by the heater.





Below is Natalia Osipova dancing as Kitri, she's absolutely amazing! (maybe unfair to compare Carla to her)

2 weeks sugar-free

(stock photo of sugar cubes)

It is week 2 of my sugar free diet experiment (or close enough), and despite my initial misgivings today I'm a believer! The best part is the unexpected benefit of having lost several pounds and even better I appear to have gone down a clothing size. Considering I have not been dieting, at least not in the sense of reducing calories, I'm amazed. As for my skin it is harder to tell. It doesn't look bad right now, but it tends to fluctuate so I can't say it is the lack of sugar in my diet. There is also the fact that I have been concurrently testing out the free sample I received of Blue Copper Firming Elastic Repair by Osmotic (gah what a mouthful). The lady at Nordstroms told me it was a miracle skin cream, one can only hope! I have however stopped using my retin-A (mainly because I ran out). I took a photo of my skin yesterday and will compare it to a photo in 2 weeks and see if there are improvements. I still won't really know whether it was the cream or the lack of sugar (or maybe a combo) but if it keeps getting better from here then I know something is working!

Oh and sugar seems to be making news, especially after an article in Nature. Here a article from the SF Chronicle: UCSF scientists declare war on sugar in food. Well I am not 100% sure that sugar is the root of all evil, moderation I think is usually the key. Still I am now more aware of how much hidden sugar is in foods and I think most people end up eating way more than they realize.

pretty things

The other day the amazing Mr. D. surprised me with this lovely 1940's dress I had been eying at Pickled Vintage's Etsy shop (recommended!) It fits almost to a tee, though I will probably take it in to have the waist slightly lowered (curse my long waist).

Now I am trying to justify a pair of Jeffrey Campbell wedges ( I doubt they'll go with the dress). They are completely impractical to my current life... but maybe changing my life to accommodate them would be a good thing! Especially since life right now has been very work centric. Need to get out!

Oh and my sugar free diet is still going, my big craving today was hot chocolate. I am not really seeing any amazing results, but will give it full month before I decide if it helped anything.