LOLZ remember when i used to blog on a sort of regular basis?

Brown Fashion Show 2013!

love and right triangles,

april

campus dance

what i'm wearing:

neon yellow dress, made by me.

necklace, Aldo.

belt, F21.

shoes, Michael Michael Kors via Salvation Army (best find)

I haven't graduated from college yet - I still have another year - but I stuck around for Senior Week and Commencement this year to work, hang out, and most importantly, say goodbye to my favorite class of '12ers. They had one final week to party hard, make mistakes, and check off all their unfinished college bucket list items, and then suddenly, they became real people.

On Saturday, I moved in to my summer apartment in a beautiful Brooklyn brownstone, and it's crazy to think that in a year, I'll be moving to the city for real (I hope). I can't wait to be a real person. I have plenty of goals in life, but the most important one is to live in New York. I can do any number of things, get married or be single, have kids or don't, be rich or poor, whatever, but I have to live in New York. That part doesn't change. I'm dying to graduate so I can finally move here.

But of course, I'm also excited for senior year and all that comes with it. And this is my last real summer!

I start my summer internship tomorrow, so real outfit posts are coming, I promise.

Congratulations to the class of 2012!

love and right triangles,

april

internet, i've missed you

School is finally over, I'm home with nothing to do, and I'm moving to NYC for the summer next week!

Here goes a bajillion hours devoted to my Google Reader which has not been read in a bajillion years.

love and right triangles,

april

Brown Fashion Show 2011

MAJOR apologies for being so nonexistent, but here's why!

I have been in a black hole of designing, pinning, cutting, sewing, trimming, hemming, ironing, and fitting.

The first ever Brown fashion show was held on Thursday night and I declare it a GREAT SUCCESS.

The video is of the whole show, and the photos below are of my stuff.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-check it outtt.

Now that I can finally join the real world again, I promise you will be seeing lots more of me!

love and right triangles,

april

back to the real world

The past couple weeks have been the craziest weeks of my life.

I went home for spring break, and then went with some friends to Montréal, and that was awesome.

Then, I came back to school on Monday and turned TWENTY!! Aahhh. My friend once pointed out that when you turn 20, you are now in the 3rd decade of your life. Which is CRAZY. But actually, I can't wait to be a real person, so I'm excited to get older.

Ssometime in between that, I learned that a friend from high school had committed suicide. Dealing with that made my week pretty insane. I hopped on a bus home so I could attend his funeral, and it was completely worth missing 4 classes, a presentation, a class discussion, the housing lottery, two work shifts, and time to work on the magazine to get the closure I needed, to hug his family, and to reunite with friends I hadn't seen in a very long time.

SPEAKING OF THE MAGAZINE:

I don't remember whether or not I announced it, but my friend and I founded a fashion magazine at my school, and we've been working super hard to get the first issue out. So, without further ado...

I am proud to announce that after a 12-hour stint in the library on Thursday night, it is now complete and online!

You can view it HERE!

So. Yeah. Crazy week.

So crazy that I missed the first half of APRIL COLOR WEEK!

Della of Della Grace's Life is wearing awesome color for a week which I obviously whole-heartedly approve of. And of course, I will be wearing color too :) (But I will probably be celebrating April Color Week for the rest of my life!)

I obviously need to catch up. Here we go.

Birthday outfit:

 I wore this on my birthday (Monday) because ALTHOUGH I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU NEED AN EXCUSE TO WEAR SEQUINS, I would also argue that birthdays are the best days for sequins. Also, check it out -- New Blazer Number 1!

dress, thrifted & diy.

blazer, thrifted.

tights, Betsey Johnson via Marshall's.

shoes, Payless.

Spring Break outfit:

I showed my friends around my hometown of good ole Niskayuna, NY so we checked out Lock 7, one of the locks along the Erie Canal.

Also check out New Blazer Number 2!

top, Forever 21.

skirt, Forever 21.

blazer, thrifted.

tights, H&M or Target?

boots, thrifted.

sunglasses, NYC street vendor.

bag, NYC street vendor.

I'm obsessed with blazers.

MORE COLOR:

Over spring break, I bought some colorful cardstock at CVS and redid my wall!

Hurray for color!

Stay tuned for New Blazer Number 3 tomorrow! :D

love and right triangles,

april

President's Day with the President

Okay, okay, so maybe I didn't "hang out" with Mr. Obama but I was nearby!

Yep, that's right. As this horribly blurry photo shows you, I was in Washington, D.C. for the long weekend!

 

 We ate lots and lots of delicious food. Like burgers at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, VA. I highly highly highly recommend. It was delicious. I was in a food coma for days.

Said food coma was also due to the ridiculous number of Georgetown Cupcakes I ate. I may or may not have consumed seven cupcakes in three days.  

 Sittin' on a bench at Georgetown University, eatin' DELICIOUS Georgetown Cupcakes is, like, a new tradition for us.

 [outfit details: Aldo canvas sneaks, Target knee socks, thrifted blazer, diy tank, Target shorts, Forever 21 earrings, random record store in Saratoga Springs, NY crazy 80s "8-bit" sunglasses]

 So many cupcakes! They were cupcake-gasmic. YOU NEED TO PURCHASE ONE DOZEN AND EAT THEM ALL. Please. Go to Georgetown. BUY CUPCAKES. YOU WILL NEVER THINK OF CUPCAKES THE SAME WAY AGAIN. I PROMISE.

 I suppose we didn't do much typical DC stuff. This is the only picture of a monument I got, and we were just walking back to my friend's dorm - we didn't even go to any monuments! Which is kinda sad, because they're awesome, especially at night.

We did however, go shopping :) And OBAMA was dressed in American Apparel in their window display. Bizarro?! Disturbing?! Hilarious?! Ridiculous!? All of the above?? Yes. Well, at least he's lookin' fly. 

[outfit details: selfmade dress, Forever21 leggings, Aldo canvas sneaks, thrifted blazer, Forever21 belt]

Be prepared to see this blazer a lot. I'm a fan. :)

And back to school we go! We not only had Monday off, but we also had Tuesday off, so this week is fantastically short and also pretty light on work. Must apply to summer internships! Blahhhh

love and right triangles,

april

ruffles, knee socks and sequins

Oh, how the title of this post perfectly describes my obsessions.

 I totally underestimated how chilly it would be today and decided to forgo a pair of tights AND a scarf (A scarf! I always wear scarves! what am I thinking!!) and almost froze to death walking outside between classes.

 But it's okay because for the rest of the day I'm working (ugh), and dress code requires long pants (double ugh).

 In other news, I had the greatest weekend I've had in a while, and even better is that it was a totally sober weekend (although I did smoke hookah) - partying (i.e., drinking) in college is just kind of repetitive after a while and gets boring, so I took a weekend off. I did, however, follow my drunk friends around on Friday night which always turns out to be hilarious.

On Saturday night, my friend had a birthday dinner followed by birthday PAINTBALL which was the most fun thing EVER. I still have a few marks on me from where I got hit :D

After I got back from paintball, my friends and I decided to start ice-picking and shoveling and digging into a giant snow mound on the green and turn it into an igloo...

 ICE CAVE SPELUNKING! muahahaha

It's a work in progress. After two hours, we were about to die from hypothermia. Igloo-building to be continued...

outfit deets:
dress, selfmade.
cardigan, Target.
knee socks, Target.
sequin brogues, Forever 21.

Happy Monday!
love and right triangles,
april

PS: If you haven't noticed, I've started doing a series called Musings on a Monday which are just random thoughts I have turned into a blog post. Check 'em out right HURR
(I like the way you do that right THURR. -the immortal words of Chingy)

Inspiration for life

This year, I'm going to finally lose the weight I've been steadily gaining for the past...forever.

Inspired by this post from Diary of a Mad, Fat Woman, I just wanted to post my goals.

According to The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans, I have to list long-term and short-term goals, along with how I'm going to achieve them and how I'm going to reward myself along the way. This I've thought about plenty before even reading about the project.

(Shoutout to Tieka of Selective Potential, whose post on her weight-loss success was a HUGE inspiration for me)

For me, I need to focus on health-related short-term goals.

In total, I want to lose 40 pounds.

After the first 5 pounds, I'm rewarding myself with new hair!

After the first 15 pounds, I'm allowing myself to buy new clothes (which I won't do before then)

After the first 25 pounds, I'm gettin' myself a new swimsuit - just in time for Spring Break

After the first 35 pounds, I'm finding myself the hottest, sexiest, fanciest dress my minimum wage income can buy and WEARING it out wherever I happen to go that day, even if it's just walking around campus.

Once I reach my final goal, it'll be summertime, and I'm going to vacation to somewhere where I can lounge around in a bikini all day, every day, with close friends :)

I'm planning on losing 2 pounds a week, with the help of loseit.com and the loseit iphone app - both of which I've been using for a while and I love.

Wish me luck!

And guys, I apologize for lack of outfit posts. I have been doing nothing all day every day so I haven't really been getting dressed.... I'll be back to school in 9 days though, so brace yourselves until then :)

Also, by 'nothing all day every day' I mean I've been redecorating my bedroom at home, so you'll be seeing that transformation shortly :)

learning how to own it

self-portrait. fall 2010. oil on canvas.

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things..."

...like dreaded New Year's resolutions. But I know exactly what mine is going to be this time around.

Recently, a good friend said to me, "This year, I'm all about owning it and loving who I am."

I've been thinking about it ever since. Especially because I know she's not just saying it - last year she was quiet, shy, a little awkward. But this year, she's hott (with two t's) and she knows it. H-O-T-T: sexy, confident, and knows she's completely kickass in every way, and everyone else can plainly see it too. She's totally comfortable with who she is, and it's amazing to see that in a 19-year-old woman. (I would know - I'm a 19-year-old woman myself! And lemme tell ya, that kind of awe-inspiring confidence doesn't come easy).

Recently, another friend said to me, "I don't think you have a lot of confidence."

I've been thinking about this ever since too. Because I was caught off-guard - I've never been told that before in that way, point-blank. In fact, I've been told quite the opposite. So of course I thought for a long time about why this friend would believe something that I couldn't see. Maybe I was in denial about how much self-esteem I possessed, but is that even possible? Can you build up fake confidence so well that even you can't see it? Is one person all it takes to see right through that fake confidence and deflate it just like that?

No. I don't think fake confidence can exist. You can certainly fake confidence, but that's derived from real confidence, to trust in your ability to show others how freaking awesome you are. And maybe you shake off initial nerves with a bit of self-promotion and an Ugly-Betty-esque personal pep-talk, but once people see that confidence, phoney or not, they react and only serve to boost it until it manifests itself into your one-and-only, true and bonafide self-esteem.

So, in shaking off that one person's comment about my seeming lack of self-esteem, and in taking that other person's truly inspiring words to heart:

This year, I'm all about owning it and loving who I am.

Which I realize may sound totally cliché, but hey, being cliché is who I am, and I'm all about owning it now, aren't I?

love and right triangles,

april

PS: happy christmas!

PPS: what are your resolutions?

two more finals and i'll be back, i promise!

It has been a Really Really Really Long Ass Time. 

Like, more than a month!? what?!

It's because school got really busy, I got really uninspired, I stopped reading other blogs altogether and never put much thought into what I wore. But have no fear!

Tomorrow I have two finals: Chinese and contemporary art history, and then I'm DONE with the semester! I'll be hanging around campus for a few more days, working and relaxing, packing and having fun, and then it's back home to lame-o upstate New York on Saturday. Let's hope this winter break brings you new DIY projects, new outfit ideas and more writing for you to read :)

Let's get y'all updated on my life in the last five weeks or so:

Thanksgiving feast, dorm-style.

it took a really long time for him to stack those lumpy clementines

After five years of trying to see them live, I FINALLY got to see OK Go in concert and now I am newly obsessed to the MAX.

It was a really epic show. And Damian Kulash <3 <3 <3 I love you <3

Adios,  Painting I, you were good to me. (there'll be plenty of artwork-related posts to come!)

There'll also be an outfit post tomorrow, I promise - I like to dress up for exams :)

Back to studying!

I missed you guys <3

love and right triangles,

april

back soon

hi! i promise i'll be posting more regularly soon.

gimme a week or so.

i've got to sort my life together.

love and right triangles,

april