Japan

Back in May, I was fortunate enough to cross off one more country off my bucket list: Japan.  I went with my Fiancé and 2 of my very good friends: Kris and Trang.  

We were only going to be there for a week and we needed to cram as much as possible in that 1 week.  

We met once or twice before our trip and would FaceTime each other and made a Google docs to help us plan our trip.  All in all, it was a jam-packed week.  Below is where we actually went, day by day, and you'll see HOW MUCH of Japan we got to see.  

BTW, if you ever plan a trip to Japan, a must on the list is the Japan Rail Pass.  Totally worth the $347 it costs.  

Kamakura, Tokyo (ALL OVER: Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinigawa, Shinjuku, Ginza, etc), Nagano, Yudanaka (to see the Hot Spring Macaques!), Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and back to Tokyo.  I feel like I'm missing a lot of places.  Anyhow.  That's the gist of it!  

My good friend, Kristoffer Clark, is an amazing and talented videographer, and he captured our trip and made a music video.  Click HERE to check it out.  It was an amazing experience.  The Japanese sure know how to treats tourists.  They were so friendly and helpful and humble.  And, have also ruined food experience for me.  I can no longer eat anything without comparing it to Japan.  They take so much care and pride to what they feed you.  

(pictures top to bottom: Osaka (after eating Blow Fish), Osaka castle, and Kyoto to see the Thousand Shrines - which I matched too...)

KITTIES!!!

Two weeks ago today, I was making dinner, and kept hearing this squeaking sound.  I couldn't find the source of it.  I kept thinking it was Ricky's movie he was watching... but he assured me it wasn't.  So I thought nothing of it and kept going about my business on dinner.  But that sound drove me nuts!!! I had to find where it was coming from.  I go outside, and listened for it, and thought it came from over the fence, but couldn't pinpoint the sound.  I then REALLY listened for it, and noticed it wasn't coming from over the fence, but down a ways at the side of our house.  I step closer and closer, and the squeaking sound was getting louder by the step.  I look and see 2 little baby kittens on the ground wailing!  
I immediately ran back inside the house, grabbed a flashlight / lantern, screamed at Ricky to come help me, and grabbed 2 little towels.  He has no idea what was going on, he just saw me panicked like the end of the world was coming, and he's frantically trying to put a t-shirt on and his shoes.  We go outside, and I flash the light towards the kittens, they looked like newborns that were crawling around.  I didn't see any momma cat around, I peered down closer, and noticed why the one kitty was screaming her head off: ants.  The kittens were dumped near a line of ants, and were crawling all over the tinier one.  The other tabby cat looking one was just kinda feeling around, but not really making a sound. 
I scooped them up in the towel, and noticed they still had part of their umbilical cord attached, which means they are less than 4 days old. 

I placed the babies in the bathtub with some warm blankets.  One was still crying, so I ran to the emergency vet hospital to pick up some Kitten Milk Replacement and a bottle.  I came back to feed them and noticed they had fleas all over them as well. I picked off all the fleas, warmed the babies, and then started feeding them.  The runt couldn't stop eating, but the bigger of the 2 wouldn't eat at all.  After giving them some milk, I wrapped the blankets all around them, put them in a box, stuck them outside with a plate of tuna for the mom so she could come back and claim her kitties, but she never did.  =(  So now I've been taking care of them.

Friday came, and sadly, the tabby cat one (the larger one) passed away.  The runt one, we call her Thalia, is thriving.  She still had her umbilical cord, part of the placenta on her (we washed that off), missing still some of her fur, and eyes closed shut w/ her ears tucked down. We took her to the vet and he said she was fine and healthy and about a week old on Wednesday the week after we found her, so I'm guessing she was dumped at about 1 - 2 days old.  She seems like the preemie though, she's about a week behind on everything I've looked at.  Her umbilical cord fell off at about 1.5 weeks (it should be 4 days after birth), and she's 2 weeks now, and her eyes are barely opening now.  Hopefully by this weekend, she should have it somewhat opened.  


I've been feeding her every 2 hours (nights too!) and stimulating her to go poop and pee before, during and after meals.  Then after she eats, I burp her, and then cradle her to sleep before putting her in her nest.  She is seriously spoiled.  Before she eats, we exercise her little legs by letting her crawl around.  She is seriously the cutest little thing.  

So, baby Thalia, please be healthy and strive =)  Momma needs you to be strong!

Scavenger Hunt 4-28-12

Today was an interesting day.  Ricky had reminded me that I needed to get my haircut before we leave for Japan in 2 weeks.  I quickly got ready and headed over to my usual salon and remembered that I didn't make an appointment and was crossing my fingers that they'd have an opening.  Alas, no, there was no opening and she didn't have one the following week either.  Sooo, being the brave soul I am, I decided to just drive around and find a place that accepted walk-ins.  Completely forgot my phone too, so I couldn't even Yelp a place. Dangit! Anyhow, I found a place and got my cut [ which I'm super happy about :) ]

I came home, and noticed a note on the door.  I had to blur out the text, it has email addresses on there I didn't want public! 

Close-up of the Clue #1: 

I go inside, and look for an Apple =)

Ricky decided to plop down a large sum of money on a new 55" 3D internet TV...  so I KNEW the next clue had to be on that thing!  Lo and behold, clue #3 placed on the back =)

We were invited to The Nerdist launch party, and in their swag bag was a box for each of us, Otter Pops!  I so hoped that was the answer, and I was right!

FYI: Clue #4 says "I really wish my fruit didn't taste like battery acid"

When we originally moved to our house, we were SO EXCITED to have an orange tree in our backyard, until we tried the fruit and it was so bitter we spat it back out.  Unfortunately, we found out our tree is a Bitter Orange tree which is used to make marmalades and jam, so yeah, battery acid fruit. 

My dog, Bowie, has a fear of getting baths.  He constantly cleans himself every day so that he will never have to take baths.  It works most of the time, I only have to bathe him once every month or even longer, so I ran to our shower, and this is the clue I found next:

This is actually an inside joke that's not really appropriate to say on here! Hahaha! So I'm just going to post the next clue:

I SUCK AT VIDEO GAMES! My left & right hand can't coordinate w/one another, so I only like shooting games that are on rails so I don't have to move and I can sniper rifle them and shoot the head off, which had me running to the living room again and pull our PS move controller.  

Clue #8 had me go on a website and find it's "Case".  Which was this box in the closet, that had this note inside: 

When I turned around, Ricky was already on one knee with the ring open.  What a super cute and quirky way to propose.  =) I love you Ricky Zhang!  

Pony Project 2012

Pony Project 2012 - I'll be there, will you? 

Hasbro's MY LITTLE PONY Project returns in 2012 with a year-long global celebration of MY LITTLE PONY: Friendship Is Magic, a charitable art exhibition inspired by MY LITTLE PONY. 2012 marks the first world tour of the MY LITTLE PONY Project, engaging talents in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo, Japan.

This special exhibition launches in Los Angeles on May 5, 2012 at Toy Art Gallery and will showcase the MY LITTLE PONY Project charity ponies, 18" MY LITTLE PONY figures designed by international fine artists, and MY LITTLE PONY pop-up shop by WeLoveFine. Select shops from Toy Art Gallery to JapanLA, Joyrich, Munky King, and more will host secret pony items, turning Melrose Avenue into "MY LITTLE PONY Avenue". Please join us in celebrating the world of MY LITTLE PONY.

MY LITTLE PONY Project 2012 Los Angeles A charitable art exhibition inspired by MY LITTLE PONY. Exhibition runs: May 5 - May 26, 2012 Opening night: May 5th, 7pm - 11pm  @ Toy Art Gallery 7571 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 http://www.toyartgallery.com/ Participating shops: Munky King 7308 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 http://www.munkyking.com/ JapanLA 7320 1/2 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 http://www.japanla.com/ Joyrich 7700 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 http://www.joyrich.com/ De La Barracuda 7769 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 http://barracudashop.com/ Curated by: Sweet Streets: http://www.sweetstreetsla.com/ Sponsored by: Hasbro http://www.hasbro.com/ MY LITTLE PONY http://www.mylittlepony.com/ Mighty Fine Clothing http://www.welovefine.com/ For all event updates: LIKE Mighty Fine on facebook to get event updates and related news first! http://www.facebook.com/welovefine MY LITTLE PONY and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro. ©2012 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

Life in Plastic - is NOT fantastic.

So I was browsing around on Facebook, and saw a link a friend posted and HAD to read.  The title, "More Than Mere Magic Mushrooms". 

It talks about a group of Yale researchers who were on an expedition and discovered a fungi that could subsist on polyurethane (polyester: think plastic bottles!) in an airless environment (think landfill!!!).  That is completely amazing!  You know how many tons of plastic we produce a year that ends up in landfills? Plastic doesn't break down. In a thousand years, that loofah you bought to scrub your body will still be around, along with that toothbrush, plastic bottle you drank out of, ballpoint pen, etc.  And.... most of it will end up in our oceans, and I'm sorry, but Shamu and Flipper don't need your old loofah.  

Read the article, its an amazing read and can't believe that our earth is changing and evolving because of us.  However, just because we have a semi-solution to our polyurethane problem doesn't mean that we can continue making more and more because it'll be eaten or whatnot.  We as humans need to understand that we're destroying our home for us, our kids and our future generation by creating more waste to pollute our planet.  

REDUCE

REUSE 

RECYCLE

It's not said that way because it sounds cool and rolls off the ol' tongue, but because its in order:-

Reduce your consumption, Reuse what you can, and Recycle if there's no other option.  

Thanks for the listen! <3

7D + Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens

So I'm going to Japan in 1 month.  SO EXCITED!  And I'm going with my one friend, Kris, and his girlfriend who always captures every moment on a trip.  Our last trip to New York was crazy fun, you can click on this link to see our NYC video.  He did an amazing job!  

So, we bought a new DSLR to bring with us on the trip, and now he's even MORE excited.  Our video is going to be no short of amazing, it's going to be spectacular!  =)

I needed a lens, and went on Amazon and found the Sigma 30mm.  I googled SO MANY images of quality and videos for this lens, and its the closest thing to 50mm on a crop body.  The pictures come out beautiful, so I'm really excited to use it for Japan. Here are some random shots we took with the 7D and the Sig. 

Bowie saying Hi.  This is actually rare to see, because my dog is super afraid of the camera.

Ricky finding out that changing our aperture made a better depth of field... 

The ISO was too high on this, but I kinda like the blinding effect.  That's me by the way.  "HI" from Jamba Juice!   

Friday The 13th

Yeah... It's been awhile since the last post.  So what has happened since then? Let's recap: -


1. Wondercon Aftermath: INSANE!! I can't believe how crazy Wondercon was.  It was unbelievable.  So many fans and customers came out to tell us that our booth was the most intense there =) #PROUD!  


2. Mighty Fine: I got a promotion!  =) YAY ME!! I'm the OFFICIAL Web Merchandiser for WeLoveFine.com.  


3. My new lenses came in for our Tokyo trip: Tokina 11-16mm Wide Angle lens and a Sigma 30mm prime lens.  I have pictures, but that will be in a separate blog post.  


4. Work: CRAZY. but LOVE it.  


That's all, hope your days have been great, and don't cross any black cats or break any mirrors.  WOooooooooo it's Friday the 13th! 

Wondercon 2012

Wondercon is fastly approaching... for others it may not be fast enough, but for me who's working at the show, it's just not slowing down at all! So much still to do for it and I've got 1 day!

If you're into comics, and other stuff similar to it, you should totally go! http://www.comic-con.org/wc/ 

Tickets are less expensive than Comic-con (which I'll be working on that soon enough!) and it'll be just as fun!  Come by the WeLoveFine / Mighty Fine booth to say hi to me and my friends!  We'll have all the goods of My Little Pony, Marvel, Star Wars, Adventure Time, Invader Zim, Disney, Hello Kitty and so much more.  

We're selling our tees, bags, posters, hoodies, etc... and, with EVERY SINGLE PURCHASE, you get a smile =)  Oh, and one of the humongo bags we have too!  It's huge.  I can fit inside of it.  Don't believe me?  Go to the show and you'll see!  There's a picture of me in it.  No joke.  

Okay people, that's all and I will SEE YOU THERE! If not, I'll have a sad face.  =(


** UPDATE! **
Found out where our booth is!  See below! click it to enlarge... 

Gag me with a Toon?

So I work with a bunch of awesomely talented artists.  I mean amazing.  Seriously.  Don't believe me?  Check out WeLoveFine.com and look at the amazing art we have and tell me we don't have amazing artists... =)

Anyhow, so a lot of them are showing their works at an art show called "Gag Me With a Toon", I've been naming GMWAT because it's too long to type when emailing stuff about it. The flyer is below:

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend... I've actually got to work at Wondercon in Anaheim that weekend... so if you're in the OC area, you should totally go to Wondercon and stop by the Mighty Fine booth, and if you're in the LA area, you should definitely check out the GMWAT show.  Tell em' I sent you, when you go see my friend Tomi Monstre (Babycorn and Eggbutt are her cute new tees we've added to the site!)  I believe Hezaa is also displaying her works too.. For all you MLP-lovers out there, she's our main designer for web who has skillfully designed all the fancy Nouveau'd ponies.  Yeah, she's pretty awesome and amazing. 
Ok... I think the melatonin is kicking in, time for bed.  I hate this time change.  I love sleep. 


ZzZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thriftin....

When I was younger, my dad would make it a ritual that on Sundays, after church, we'd go to a thrift store to "look around".  I hated it.  It smelled funny and there was never anything I liked.  My dad, on the other hand LOVED it.  He loved seeing what other people thought was trash and could make it his little treasure.  I usually just went to the books and fiddle through them while I waited for my dad to find whatever he needed to find.  

Now that I've grown up and seen what people do throw out to donate, I'm amazed by what they don't find beautiful anymore! Now I understand why my dad loved going to thrift stores! 

Whenever I walk in, I usually go straight to the dishware area.  I always look to see if they have funky vases or glass decanters.  Then go to the furniture.  Now, people might re-think themselves wanting to buy furniture from a thrift store, but if you see one with really good lines, and still in really good condition, you could always buy that, and have it re-upholstered.  I think people have the same idea that I have though, because the ones I do like, almost always have a "SOLD" sign on it.  Darn it.  

The picture here is of what I found at the local thrift store.  Just the white vase and that white dish thing I got for $5 for both!  I should take a better picture.  The terrarium next to it was something I made for $20.  =) I LOVE making terrariums.  They are actually a lot of fun and super cute to have in the house. 

After mosy-ing around there, I'll head to the clothing.  Here, you must have a patient mind to go through clothing.  And I usually go through it twice. You never know! You might have missed something.  I came in trying to find something, and my eyes would just glance over everything, then I had to stop, be more patient and I ended up buying: 1 leather biker jacket, a black asymmetrical blazer, a black pencil skirt, 1 cream pleated midi skirt, 1 navy pleated midi skirt, a gold lurex top, and a slouchy grey hand knit sweater... all for $43.  WAHOOS! 

I had to grab a basket, it was too much to hold... so then I went BACK to the furniture area, and I can't believe my eyes passed this table, but it was too beautiful to not buy.  It was a long rectangle coffee table, with a mid century modern look.  I thought something might be wrong with it, so I took a closer look and nope, it was in really good shape, solid wood, and only $45.  I carried it (sorta dragged... it was really heavy!) to the front and since I already had spent $43 on the clothes, the girl gave it to me for $30 bucks instead.  AND they helped me carry it to my car.  So now, it's sitting in my garage waiting for the primer to dry.  Here's a picture of it, but I'll do a little blog later with what I did to it =) 

March 3-7-12 Mighty Fine!

So we have 8 new items on our WeLoveFine.com site!  We got em' all: My Little Pony, Adventure Time, and Star Wars. 


Loved the latest episode of My Little Pony?  Then I think you'll love the new tee we posted up for sale. Only Assertive ponies can click here.


And for the Taco eating, Gir lovin', Portal playing fanatics, we've got a shirt for you here as well.  You're welcome. 


None of those suits your fancy?  More of a simple Cloaks and Daggers kinda guy?  Ohhh.. I think we've got something for you here as well =)


Happy Shopping Mighty Finers! 

Squeaky Clean Face!

So, I ran out of a face scrub last night.... and I love exfoliating my skin.  Another thing I love: Googling.  I am a serious addict.  I just love googling random bits of things up and storing it in my pretty little head.  Anyhow, I also love Costco.  So what does that equal?  Googling what I can do with the huge bag of baking soda I bought at Costco (it seemed like a good idea at the time!) and what I could do with it.  Turns out, if you mix in a bit of baking soda, with your facewash, you got yourself a handy dandy face scrub! WOOHOO!  So I squirted some Cetaphil (another Costco buy, which is awesome because I love how gentle Cetaphil is) in my hands, sprinkled some Baking Soda, turned it into a paste and scrubbed my face away.  After I rinsed it clean, my face felt so unbelievably clean!  

You should totally try it.  Seriously.  Do it noooowwww....

Now, as a night cream, I have a routine.  I was blessed with dark under eye circles, so every morning and night, I put a vitamin K cream under these beauties to combat it.  I thought it was just an Old Ye Wives Tale, but uhh.. no, it actually works.  I thought I lost my jar for a couple weeks, and my eyes looked more like death with each passing day.  So seriously, if you have dark circles, dab a little on every morning and every night and you'll see a difference.  Anyhow, after that, I slather my face with oil.  Yes... OIL.  Apricot Kernel Seed Oil to be in fact.  Oh how I love this oil.  I only put it on at night, because its super oily, but a good type of oil, it won't clog pores and will actually make your face so supple and soft like a baby's bottom (or you can spritz a little on your salad with some lemon juice to get a nice healthy vinigairette).  I slather that stuff allover my face until I look like you could slip and slide all across my face.  Now, the last step: Alba Organics Un-Petroleum jelly under my eyes.  This stuff is amazing.  It's like petroleum jelly, but won't clog your pores and it has Vitamin E, Coconut Oil (which is naturally an anti-bacterial), and other goodies to make your face soft and young looking.  I do this almost every night, if I'm not passing out on the couch... And I seriously get people asking me if I'm 19 still. **Smiles** Bless their heart, I'm almost 30 *waah!*  Go to bed after all this, and when you wake up, your face is moisturized and soft and supple, all you'll need to do is splash some water on your face and add your morning moisturizer (with SPF! Always use a morning cream with SPF! Seriously people, more and more people are diagnosed with Skin Cancer each year.)

But yeah... just thought I'd share that since I was so proud of my baking soda discovery.  Seriously, who knew?  People spend so much money on scrubs, when you can get a box at Target for $1.00 and it'll last you for years.  I also found this site on other uses for this miracle powder. Click here to see! 

Happy Hugs and Lots of Love!  

christyjoy 

March 3-5-12 WeLoveFine additions!

A couple new tees we will be adding to the WeLoveFine shop! =)  Check em' out below!! I'll post links to each one once they're available.  

Luna Nouveau - Now on a Poster!!!! - @Dark Artsty, this is for you! 
** updated 3/6/12: we added on a womens fit tee: Click here to check it out!

Another Karen Hallion design: Only Forever.  Now on a Poster and Mens ! 

Are you a Good Phoenix or Bad?  We've got both for you to choose from!  Cyber Phoenix =)

I LOVE me some Tacos.  So thank you Bothans.  Buy it here

Cleaning House

Today I actually had some time to organize the house.  Something that I've been meaning to do since we've moved in.... almost a year ago.  Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, kinda procrastinating... but what do you expect when you work full time and then just want to sleep on the weekends?  I love sleep.  It's probably right up there with eating.  

When we first moved in I sorta/kinda organized it and then throughout the year when company came over you kinda get in a habit of shoving things in places to hide stuff so it looks well kept. The only thing I did keep organized was my closet.  Now, as every girl (that I know of...) loves, is a nice huge closet with her clothes all hung prettily and displayed like works of art... But then over time Ricky, the boyfriend, would throw his things around, and cram stuff in there and not hang it back properly (drives me NUUUTTTTSSSS!!!!!) and then after a while, I did too.. But then today, *smiles* I finally got to clean the closet.  You have no idea how happy I am.  Hahahaa!!!  So let me show you.  I wish there was a before and after, but after doing 4 loads of laundry and staring at the closet, I just decided to throw everything out of the closet and start from scratch again.  It's not 100% done, I still need some boxes to put some knick knacks in that are seasonal, but I'd say its about 75% done.  

I used to work in retail, and they were always a stickler to having things sorted out by color, sleeve length, and pattern.  I guess it's stuck in me to do it that way now... If I actually had more time to organize, I probably would have finger-spaced the hangers.  I've got a problem.  I know. 

The Boyfriend's side.  I'll probably post something in a month with a new picture of what it looks like then.  So right now... this is "before" because I know it won't look this pretty anymore in about a month. As you can tell, he's a "T-shirt and jeans" kinda guy.

Shoes... and random stuff.  I really need to organize Ricky's belts, right now they're just hanging on a hanger along with his ties.  I wanted to go to Target and get that spiffy belt / tie hook holder thingy.  But I really just wanted to clean the room and dust so I can get rid of my daily allergies. 

More shoes.... Ok, I have an addiction for black shoes.  It just goes with more things that I have... and not many shoes fit me.  I wear a size 4 - 4.5.  Yeah, I know tiny feet.  So if I'm out shoe shopping and try on a pair that actually fit, I'll buy it in an instant because that comes once in a blue moon. 

** PS if you click on any of these pictures, be warned, they will come out HUMONGO.  I didn't scale it down.  

Now, I just need the storage boxes to put some scarves and hats in now that winter has definitely left.... and maybe add a fashion inspiration collage somewhere.  A clean closet makes me so happy.  Seriously, I swear I'm in a better mood when the closet is nice and clean and fresh looking, you know your day will just be a much better day! 

Happy day everyone! 

Jareth Nouveau

So we have a new tee up on our website. Buy it here.  It's a beautiful Mucha-inspired tee featuring a King Jareth... and who doesn't love The Goblin King?!???   Great job Karen Hallion! You are a wonderfully talented artist =) 

First Post

I had a tumblr, then deleted it to have a blogspot instead... and then realized I should have transferred my posts on here before I deleted it.  Oh well, live and learn, right? Anyhow, I guess I'll be treating this blog as my online diary, random stuff that happens to me, or things I'm super excited about from work or life.  So enjoy!