I was cleaning through a junk drawer last week and found a pair of plastic Barbie earrings from my childhood…and I JUST KNEW I had to turn them into something new!!! They were far too adorable not to wear somehow, and since I don’t wear earrings, I decided to turn them into a necklace and ring set for myself. 💕
I’m not certain what year this Barbie is from, but I’d have to guess late 80’s/early 90’s!
Aren’t they cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m in love! 💕
The second crafty thing I did recently was turn a regular skater skirt into a suspender skirt. I sewed on elastic bands and that was all it took! I wore this same suspender skirt in my last blog post but hey, I find myself wearing it a lot now. 😋
And of course, cat ears. They just make everything better! 💖 And Barbie? Now that’s the ultimate! 😉
Ahhh…an espresso-rich iced mocha, warm weather, and diving into old articles from The New York Times. 😌☕️💕 (Oh, and re-reading my favorite book about the Berlin Wall for the 4th time now!)
Recently, I came across an awesome offer from The New York Times: for just $4/month for a year, I could have digital access to their newspaper vault, all in its original context! (For a history nerd, this was like finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow). My little fingers couldn’t subscribe fast enough!
Some say that newspapers are a thing of the past. Not so! I have newspapers to thank for this new hobby of mine, which is, searching the NYT archives for articles about the Berlin Wall when it was still standing! It’s feeding my Cold War obsession and I’m actually learning a lot.
I’m finding tons of articles and little snippets about the courageous people who escaped or attempted to escape over the Wall. My favorite snippet is about the border guard who literally just walked off from his duty post and crossed the line into West Berlin without any of his fellow guards noticing…
And my other favorite article, of course, is about the night the Berlin Wall came down, pictured above! I took a screenshot of how the newspaper looks in the archive. So cool!
I was just a few weeks shy of being 2 years old when the Berlin Wall fell, so I was too busy drooling all over myself and probably drooling all over the carpet to take note of international happenings. But now? I have the whole world at my fingertips, that can take me straight to the past in one click. And for that, I’m soooo thankful for today’s technology! 😌
Secondly, I now have panda hair clips!!! 🐼💕 They were custom-made for me by a really sweet seller on Etsy, and I couldn’t be happier with them! IS IT CHEESY THAT I WENT TO GET MYSELF PANDA EXPRESS WEARING THESE? 😆
It’s become a new thing where I find myself wearing something animal-related in my hair! Whether it be cat ears or now, teddy bear heads. I purchased these on Etsy and I absolutely love them! They’re made of felt and super squishy. 🐻💕
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m always on the lookout for fashion inspiration, because it can pop up anywhere!! I was thinking about this topic lately. I remember back when I was in high school in the early 2000’s, there was a girl at school who would use an umbrella with a panda face on it, and it had ears on top. If I recall, it looked something like this:
She used it as a parasol with her goth-like outfits, and I’d see her walking around campus during lunch hour. It was the most magical thing everrrrr, and I’ve never forgotten it. She was like a ray of sunshine on an otherwise beige-and-cement-colored campus. Even all these years later in my thirties, it inspired me to embrace cute animals for accessorizing! (Perhaps I shall try to track down some panda head hair clips…hmmmm!) 😉
Don’t you just love those little moments where someone inspires you, fashionably? I sure do. Sixteen years later, I still remember her and how she totally owned holding that panda parasol. It’s like a little flash of a moment in time where someone’s ensemble makes the world a little more magical, and in turn, you want to make the world a little more magical, too. 💖✨
Anyway, the black suspender dress I’m wearing in this first outfit is an old school uniform apron from the Soviet Union days. 😋 The second dress is from Gowntown on Amazon! (I hemmed it up to a shorter length, so it’s been altered).
Because really, doesn’t life need a little more magic? A little more quirk? I’d definitely say yes. And it starts from something as simple as an umbrella, or an outfit, or something you put on your head. From there, we can make the world a little sunnier. ☀️
Hey, hey! ❤️ Finally I own a pair of black socks with white stripes; I have always wanted a pair like this! I have these and now, a burgundy pair of socks, which you’ll see in the second outfit. 😃
I have been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather here in Central California AND!!!!!!!!!!!! I TRIED THE NEW COFFEE-FLAVORED COCA COLA DRINK!
I enjoy a soda every now and then, and I knew I had to try this bad boy! (I was honestly pretty crazy-excited to try this).
There are three flavors: Vanilla, Dark Blend, and Caramel. I figured the Dark Blend would be too strong for me, and I don’t like Caramel. So Vanilla it was!!
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. That’s right, five stars! It has three layers of flavor you experience when you take a sip. First you taste Coke, then vanilla, and then after you’ve swallowed it, the coffee taste lingers on your tongue. An absolute joy! Drinking it was an experience and I savored each sip. ❤️
My tripod was positioned all kinds of crooked when I took this photo but I still love how it turned out!! Like my new red coat? I also have one in khaki that I’ve had for a long time and both coats are featured in this post. You can find them here on Amazon!
I love the week leading up to Christmas. It has a special feeling to it. ❤️✨ So I made sure to go out and enjoy it by walking!
And here I am wandering around Woodward Park! I love coming out here because I get to appreciate nature and see people having a good time – whether they are jogging, cycling, walking their dogs or playing with their kids. (Funny side-note: I think dogs are super cute, but I never want to own a dog. Same with kids; I think kids are cute, but I neverever want children!) Woodward Park is huuuuuuge, so there is so much to see.
Here’s a close-up of my accessories; Easter necklace near Christmas, why not?
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas! 🎄🎅🏼 See ya next time!!
Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday, so I was all too excited to bring out the Christmas theme in my wardrobe!!! 🎄❤️ My mom and I went for our yearly walk through a neighborhood that lights up their homes each year for the month of December, and it’s definitely magical!
So this is the outfit I wore for it, complete with Rudolph and Clarice hair clips… 👌🏼❤️
And here is my tree this year! I couldn’t decide between Disney princess or Starbucks theme, so it’s BOTH, haha. 💕
Now for the color pop outfit: 💙💖💛 I really love this jacket and I wear it often during the colder months. The khaki color makes it easy to add colors with accessories!
Floral pin by The Tote Trove
On a whim last Saturday, I decided to get myself sushi and boba tea and read at a park!!! It was so good, and FUN. This was the Banana Taro Milk Tea. 💕✨ 👑 Gotta try more flavors in the future!
I realized this past month I have been wearing mainly neutral tones, WHICH IS GREAT, TOO. But I feel like I really needed a color splash into my outfits. And thus you have THIS LOOK with an array of colors! Yeah!
I also feel like I haven’t been utilizing all the hair clips I own, which is a lot. So I doubled it up with butterflies! I actually am really happy I did this, because I didn’t realize how awesome it would turn out. 😄
I’m not sure how I slipped out of wearing brighter colors, but I’m happy I’m back at it. It just felt GOOD to be wearing brighter colors again! Sometimes I slip into habits and look back and realize, wait, when did I stop wearing bright colors? Then I lasso myself back into it again.
Once again, Mikhail Gorbachev, the host with the most glasnost, graces my blog post! I finished reading Perestroika and then discovered he wrote a new book this year! (Did you know he’s 89 years old!?) This one is really cool because it deals with current international affairs. So I’m learning a lot about the “state of the world”.
I love Gorbachev’s writing style. He provides that informative guidance; he’s like a father figure, but rather than guiding me through life choices, he’s guiding me on why nuclear weapons are bad.
Know the social/political commentary comic, Doonesbury? That was mainly all I read during my childhood years! My earliest memory of Doonesbury was reading commentary on the Gulf War. Kinda dark stuff for a kid. Imagine me reading that in Beauty and the Beast pajamas as I downed a pouch of Capri Sun. The visual is accurate.
But, looping it back to my outfit in this post, regardless of my heavy reading choices, I’m still all about the rainbows and butterflies when it comes right down to it! 💖 And on an ending note, here’s a cool photo I took of my car with lots of pretty colors:
I typically am not a soda drinker, but occasionally I will indulge and have one. I did just that, late last night, living on the wild side and opening up a bottle of Hello Kitty strawberry soda to get the weekend started!! Yay.
I really love this outfit…and the socks!! In fact, I love this outfit so much, and I find it so endearing, that I just might propose to myself on Valentine’s Day.
I found my KISS album, and this made me so happy. It’ll be playing in my car all weekend! YEEEAH! ❤️
They could be bigger. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think they are the perfect size to balance my gigantic hair. It’s February, a.k.a Valentine’s month, SO IT’S ON! Let the pinks, reds, and hearts fly! 💕❤️
I made these bad boys (the heart clips). I have another pair in red, too! They bring me great joy.
This past week, I successfully made chocolates – something I’ve been wanting to do for a LONG time. I’m experienced with baking sugar cookies (my signature ones I’ve made throughout the years with edible glitter, pearls and flowers).
But chocolates are new to me, and they came out way better than I hoped for! I’m going to make some more this week as gifts to a couple of friends. 😄
eeeeeeeeeeee!!! Don’t they look so cute? The colors!!! The chocolate ones are semi-sweet. The pink ones are made out of candy melts. I’m super excited to experiment with baby blue, yellow, and lavender. Of course, I’m even more excited to present these to my friends and see what they think! 😍
The Big Hair Diaries 