Monthly Archive for July, 2010

Craft: Another flower for my love

Published on July 30, 2010 in Craft Project and Pebbles&Thread. 1 Comment

I finished another flower for my cousin’s friend’s wedding.  This one was to be pinned on my cousin’s bridesmaid dress.  It took me a little while to get started with this flower, and the other one I made, because I was running around looking for the perfect material, beads, feathers etc.  But, I have to say that I had so much fun making it.  They end up being really enjoyable to craft and develop.  I hope to have more projects to work on soon.  So, email me if you are interested in a custom piece: metamorphstyle@me.com.  I was daydreaming about starting an etsy shop with my creations and even came up with a name… Pebbles&Thread.  What do you think?

navy and periwinkle chiffon, gray silk blend, ostrich and dyed chicken feathers, pearls, crystals, and silver embellishments.

You spin me right round

Published on July 29, 2010 in Personal and Random Thoughts. 2 Comments Tags: .

Did I mention that I am in love with vinyl records?  I remember always admiring my parent’s player and flipping through the album art as a kid.  Recently, I came across all of these old albums that were being donated and I scooped them up!  I was excited to borrow my Dad’s player only to find out he recently threw it out.  Instead, I was able to borrow another one from a coworker.  Mark hooked it up to our speakers at home and we relaxed on the sofa listening to classic standards and the distinctive crackling of the vinyl.

This made me want to pick up a record player of my own.  I perused Amazon and saw relatively inexpensive new ones from Sony for under $100, but ideally I would love love love to purchase a vintage player.  Unfortunately, I was reading up on authentic vintage players and experts say it’s hard to find quality ones that are still in working order. I guess I’ll be looking out for these vintage-inspired ones from Crosley instead.  Apparently, this beautiful green two-toned player was available through a partnership with Urban Outfitters, but now are sold out.  Too bad we don’t have UO in Hawaii so I hadn’t heard about this item!

Side note, I picked up this great pendant at a new event called ART + FLEA that will be held monthly at Fresh Cafe on my street in Honolulu.  More photos and vintage items from that event coming up soon!

apartmenttherapy.com
turntabling.net & esquire.com
turtleneck – Forever21 many years ago
skirt – thrifted
necklace – mishmash from ART+FLEA @ FreshCafeHi
glasses – Vera Wang

Come on and love me now (Photo shoot pt. 2)

Published on July 27, 2010 in Ensemble. 0 Comments Tags: .

Remember that band The Cardigans?  The swedish group that got their fifteen minutes of fame from their song off Leonardo and Claire’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’ soundtrack,”Lovefool”.  I admit I was one of the giddy girls who loved that movie and soundtrack tremendously.  But, my favorite song by The Cardigans was actually “Carnival” – in reference to the title of this post.  I think I even had it play at our wedding.  Something about the song was catchy, but it certainly didn’t have the most riveting lyrics by any means.  What’s interesting is that rereading the lyrics now, they are actually much darker and have a sadness about them that I hadn’t noticed before.

The same thing can be said about these photos that we took at a real carnival – The 50th State Fair.  We were more than happy to be there posing with our wonderful photographer Christie Pham, in fact it was our last stop on our amazing whirl wind photo shoot day.  But we couldn’t help but notice an unspoken sadness reverberating throughout the air.  The fair itself felt dilapidated and had lost some of it’s luster.  The families looked more rundown and their happiness strained.  We still had a lot of fun, so maybe we were just reading more into it that we should have.  But, it all felt kind of quietly tragic.  We were at the fair right at the end so the crowd was thinning a bit.  I actually love how the photos seemed to capture the muted tragedy with our expressions and the lack of people. It feels deserted, like our own private playground.


dress – Make Arrangements Dress from modcloth
tights – jcrew
shoes – theory
rose brooch – vintage
strand of pearls – grandmother’s
On Mark: Levi’s 505, Penguin polo, Chuck Taylors, Tag Heuer Carrera watch

Lilies to make you smile

Published on July 23, 2010 in Ensemble. 0 Comments

Fresh flowers are one of those things in life that instantly make you happy.  I never buy enough of them, but I intend to more in future.  Right now, I’m in the process of cleaning up my apartment.  Since last year’s wedding craze, we’ve had boxes of stuff lying in every nook and cranny of our modest living space.  Last night, I finally attacked them and started assembling some form of organization.  Given the cleaner look, I am inspired to fill the place with fresh foliage.

I took the day off, and this second I am happily sitting on the couch and enjoying ‘Julie & Julia’ on DVD.  It’s funny to watch a character going through the trials of writing a blog – questioning why you are writing it, if anyone is even reading, what qualities it adds to life…  but in the end, it’s true that it feels nice to have something regimented to do every (couple of) day(s).  For me, it was something to keep me inspired and thinking creatively.  It’s also nice to have an excuse to frequent dusty thrift and vintage stores and justify all the time you spend rifling through old things.  I also appreciate that I’ve gotten to share it with Mark and my sister, who in turn get to practice their love of photography.  And oddly enough, it’s made us a little more adventurous by going to new places or events and hoping to get good shots.  These photos were taken by my sis for her photography class.  Happy Friday!

dress – Target
belt – Forever21
sweater – hand me down
boots – Aerosoles
lily – from the centerpiece of the wedding I attended last weekend

Sunshine & Polka Dots (Photo shoot pt. 1)

Published on July 21, 2010 in Ensemble and Personal. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I am so so so sooo excited to be able to show off photos from my one year anniversary shoot with the best wedding photographer ever!  The lovely and talented Christie Pham (I feel like I always refer to her as that – maybe that should just become her full name – LATCP for short) took these photos of my husband Mark (I think this post may be the first time I’ve used my hubby’s name) and I a couple of weeks ago. We chose fun locations and just went for it – changing clothes, hair and accessories in the car along the way.  It was such a fun day and I was also so excited to show off some vintage pieces that I have been hoarding for a while.

Among those vintage pieces was this blue polka dot silk top.  It was one of the treasures that belonged to Mark’s  grandmother.  In it’s original state, it was rather large, but I sewed in the seams and voila! Perfect fit!  Also worn for the first time were my $5 vintage, thrifted tiger fur wedge heels.  I don’t have any close ups of them, but believe me they are fabulous.  You can see detail photos from a previous post here.  And finally, another first was this lacquered coral and gold chain that I also thrifted.

I have 3 more looks to go so get ready for a bombardment of photos from this crazy shoot!

blue polka dot silk top – vintage
high-waisted shorts & belt – Forever21
tiger fur wedges – vintage
necklace – thrifted
sunglasses – max mara
On Mark – J.Crew polo and shorts, Chucks, Versace sunglasses, Tag Heuer Carrera watch