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CREATiONS

of the weekend

I made this scarf last week and I couldn't wait to finish it.

I love the colours and I'm so glad I got it done quickly so I can wear it for the remainder of the cold months.

Casual Fridays rock my world. I wore this on Friday.

Sorry for this odd angle, it was all the effort I was willing to put in.

The leggings are from uniqlo; the best store with tons of funky leggings.

They are one of my favourite purchases from Japan.

The plaid blue/black shirt is from Target.

A cookie I made for Eric this weekend.

I make him a custom cookie or two every Saturday that I work.

Toby is our cat.

His second one. This one is our cat in cookie form.

I custom made the frosting to try and match his colour using brown, black, white, & yellow.

I used a #233 tip for his body.

See here;

Aw, Toby!

A custom order I did for someone who ordered a design I made up in the shoppe.

Just got done watching the SAGs. I will imput my opinion sometime tomorrow, but all I have to say right now is that Tina Fey rocked her Oscar de la Renta and Julianna Marguiles gave the best speech of the night. Take it easy; keep that Sunday groovin.

-Tessa

'Our Man In Europe'

THIS

has to be one of the most inspiring fashion compilations that I've seen in awhile.

ENJOY.

cookies I decorated today. teehee.

Hey, Mr. Postman

My onslaught of magazines have started to arrive and I couldn't be more excited.

I came home last week to;

How sweet they sent me the December

This cover is perfect.

It reminds me of Honey West re-vamped for 2011

and I think Lily Donaldson looks beautiful here.

Getting a magazine in the mail reminds me the days of being 14 and receiving my "Teen" magazine in the mail. I still remember those colors, those covers, and that block font like I pulled it from the mailbox last week. Through some rough google searching, I was able to find this gnarly little fucker;

YES!

I think this was the first issue I actually got in the mail?

It's cut up, taped on some 6th grade notebook or binder, and long gone by now.

But it's nice to re-live the good old days!

Seeing all those old magazines via google is especially odd. When I got those magazines, we just were getting internet rolling in our house. The old ads, those silly quizzes where I feverishly circled A, B, C, or D, and those covers that were covered with tacky yet catchy little phrases that kept me reading about whatever the hell my little mind wanted to wrap itself around, oh man.

So, my goal for dealing with all these magazines that are about to bombard me (Vogue, W, Nylon, Bazaar, V, Pop, & Vanity Fair) is to read them in order. So December W was first on board. I found my new shoe adoration among these pages and I am so excited about them even though I most likely will never own a pair. After that statement, I feel like I should note that I am not a shoe person--shoe person as in "crazy obsessed girl has to have every pair she sees". The first sentence of the article was "Remember jellies?" Cue to me grabbing the magazine with both hands and holding it up in honor. OF COURSE I REMEMBER. I've only been mentioning them in random conversations for the past 10 years. Kartell, yes, the contemporary plastic furniture powerhouse teamed up with Moschino, specifically Rosella Jardini their creative director and out came this beauty of a flat;

kartell.com // moschino.com

Ah, the time has come;

Bottega Veneta came out with a watch, the BVX, by creative designer Tomas Maier

You can watch the vid about the creation HERE.

now go get your $14,600 and buy it :D

The "What" pages in this magazine are tuning in so nicely to my interests.

21 drops.

this seems interesting.

For 28 bucks you can snag yourself an aromatherapy blend that are created to cure various ailments/moods/feelings. I'd be interested to see how effective they are.

Don't worry, if they don't make the aroma for your therapy, you can get your own for $415. Jesus.

ugh. As winter continues to carry on, I still find myself in the same jean-hating phase I dove into over a year ago. I just find denim deplorable and I don't see an end in sight. Any asshole can wear jeans, but its about more than that. Sometimes I will accept jeans on my body, but I am just never pleased. Nobody is praising your outfit when denim coats your legs. I find myself in them today and I just feel--extremely boring.

On another note, something to perhaps get you on your feet. My cousin the other day introduced me to this music called "dub step" and it's pretty groovy in the weirdest way. When he described it initially, he said that the music "wobbles" and it does. This song was the first song he played for me and it has been in my head ever sense. Move a little furniture or find some open space and move around a little bit to THIS--especially if you want to honour Jack Lalanne just a tad more (such a sad passing)

Hopefully you're settled into the week. Make it a good one.

-Tessa

'We are Electronic Performers'

YES!!

RED CARPET SEASON.

I love watching these award shows--so much I went out of my way to make the font red and it doesn't even matter if I've seen the nominated films or not. I didn't see the biggest winner of the night (fucking The Social Network). It actually makes me want to see the movie less and I don't know why. But whatever, I watched them like a giddy 6 year old. Now that I think about it, I didn't see most of the films that were nominated this year with the exception of seeing Black Swan the night before (will have its own mention in another post) and sleeping through Inception. I just enjoy the spectacle; the Oscars are really the best, but I'll take the Golden Globes. I didn't watch the pre-show this time around, but I got the idea.

Angelina Jolie

in

Atelier Versace

Honestly, when does she not look perfect?

She is almost fail-proof. There are so many people this gown would look wretched on.

She owns this colour. It's the perfect shade for January.

Natalie Portman

in

Viktor + Rolf

I feel "eh" about this dress.

It's so rare I like anything strapless & the colour is too innocent after such a dramatic role.

But maybe it holds some symbolism...

Anne Hathaway

in

Armani Prive

I can dig this for sure!

It reminds me of a disco ball all rolled out and made into a dress.

I love the flare on the shoulders & what this colour does for her.

Helena Bonham Carter

in

Vivienne Westwood

Okay. I don't really like how anything looks on this woman.

However, I appreciate her style and what she tries to do, but she just doesn't pull it off for me.

She has great concepts, I like the idea of two different shoes and of course, Vivienne Westwood, but it's not the dress, I feel like this dress could be great on someone else.

I just feel she looks sloppy all the damn time. She always looks sour too.
If you're going to dress crazy, you have to be fun and bubbly as hell.

January Jones

in

Versace

Ha. How hilarious. You can tell this is a Versace from a mile away.

The colour is perfect for her, but the cut not so much.

The strength of this dress comes from the colour.

I just think she is someone that doesn't need to show so much...

like this dress belongs on Megan Fox.

Emma Stone

in

Calvin Klein Collection

Wow. I loved this dress. The cut is phenomenal.

It went remarkably well with her hair colour too.

Does anyone else think she looks a tad like Lindsay Lohan?

But a better looking Lindsay Lohan?...

Tilda Swinton

in

Jil Sander

When I first saw her come out I thought "woah, she looks so high fashion".

Ultra masculine, she is in with the trend, but what I don't like is the two tone.

I think it would look better all one colour or if the shirt was black & the pants were some bright jewel-tone.

Lea Michelle

in

Oscar de la Renta

I have never seen Lea Michelle in anything, but this gown makes her blogworthy.

I love Oscar de la Renta and I love this gown. I love the color. It's reminiscent of Gwyneth Paltrow's Ralph Lauren gown back in 1999. I don't know why she looks so irritated in this picture, but this dress is amaaaazing.

Catherine Zeta Jones

in

Monique Lhuillier

I really like this gown. It reminds me of moss or something.

I love the shade of it and I love that it looks so cool and textured.

I'm shocked I like it because it's a strapless dress, but she gives it power.

Olivia Wilde

in

Marchesa

How fun. I feel that she could wear anything and it would be okay.

It's a bit prom-y. But that is what makes it fun. She should be chewing bubble gum.

Leighton Meester

in

Burberry

Aw, a gossip girl! I really like this dress.

I love how it is long sleeved and has a certain movement to it.

It was a really good choice.

Jayma Mays

in

Alberta Ferretti

Holy shit. I love this dress. Apparently this chick is in the show Glee.

I had no idea who she was until I came across her in the slideshow.

Very good.

Mandy Moore

in

Monique Lhuillier

I don't hate it!

perfecttttt shade of blue.

Sandra Bullock

in

Jenny Packham

I think she looks really good. I like the bangs.

The dress is good and very innocent like with a soft flow.

A good choice for her.

all pictures in this post came from style.com

Ah. Some very good dresses this year.

I should make my way over to E! and try to catch the 590,234,983 replays they air of the Fashion Police.

If you want to see Japan...

Then this is the post for you, my friend!

Oh, Japan; It's been too long since I've posted any pictures of your wonderful territory. I picked a few of my favourites out of nearly 500 photos. I tried to keep them in order in accordance to events. Enjoy!

I was extremely fond of walking around and snapping pictures of people with reckless abandon.

I wanted to get a feel for what this country was all about and that includes its people.

I also was really curious about how everyday folk dress for school/work/etc.

Here are some school kids that I snagged a shot of on our first day.

Aw. Father and I. I feel like we barely have any pictures of us together, so I thought this was nice. This is just after I took the picture of the school kids above. We were heading to lunch.

I loved their walk signs! Each time I said "DICK TRACY! YOU MAY WALK NOW!"

How was I not going to post this?? This was in Machida.

Ah. This made me so happy. It was official; I was in Harajuku and needed a marker of it.

This was the one place I wanted to be. A huge motivator (besides my family, of course) was knowing that Harajuku would be there for me to float around while wearing something absolutely bonkers.

This is a picture of me and my sister-in-law, Miyuki.

We were trekin along in Harajuku and decided to cozy up and get a picture of us :)

This was the Oriental Bazaar/Dior right next door.

This was along the streets of Harajuku which reminded me of Michigan Ave/State Street...except more ritzy for sure. And CLEANER.

An outfit that was along the main streets of Harajuku.

Clearly you can see why I loved it here.

Also in Harajuku. They are all looking at my camera and they all looked kinda spooked out.

I told you I was a crazy street picture taker.

My brother and I on the train coming back from Machida.

I have my matcha green tea in hand.

We went to Kamakura to see the big Buddha! This was really neat!

Us in front of Buddha.

My big bow headband was one of my favourite purchases, along with my tail.

This was where the real tradition kicked in.

We stayed on an Army base for the majority of the trip on Camp Zama

We went upto Harkone to stay in this awesome hotel.

It was very, very traditional and it was great to have the technology gone for awhile.

What a beautiful place!!

My bed for the night! I wanted to be close to the window and these beds were SO comfy.

The room was actually quite large. There was a full "sitting" dining room, two bathrooms, a washroom, a sitting area, and two balconies. After our large dinner (some pictures below) my brother and sister-in-law came up to the room (after my dad had gone to bed) and we stayed up late talking. I loved this night so much. I can picture myself in the room perfectly.

This hotel/atmosphere will most likely be something I'll never experience again.

Our view from the balcony. I still feel so lucky.

Oh, Japan cuisine--you were certainly tricky!

(I lost a lot of weight) heh.

Part of the same dinner.

And still the same course. I actually find myself CRAVING this.

You take that raw beef and they give you some boiling water and you pop that in there...

WOW. It was perfection.

To know how big this dinner really was....

There were 7 of us (one baby)

Wow. Can you tell how happy I am that they had brought rice along with our 12+ course meal?!

I felt extremely awful for not being an adventurous eater, but there is only so much raw ::insert anything with fins here:: I can gnaw on. So yeah, there I am with my beloved rice!

This was the washroom. Bathrooms are not in the same area.

What I thought was hilarious was that EVERYthing in this room was in Japanese.

Except the fixtures were in French. Ha.

This was the Hot Spring. Hot water from the mountain flows into this tub.

You can add more water to it, but it is almost always hot and full.

You also have to shower before you get in here, because, well, the water doesn't really drain.

So ya gotta get scrubby before hoppin in the spring.

This was a rose outside of our hotel. This is kinda artsy, right?

We got on the ropeway the next day. This was such a groovy time. We went passed Mt. Fuji and took it to Lake Ashinoko,

View from inside!

This was a huge tour ship that took us across the lake to our destination where we would be having lunch.

View from the ship. What a beautiful sight.

I took some pictures of this, but really wanted to soak it in.

This is a picture of my dad and I on the boat. This picture is so funny to me because I feel like it sums up our relationship. I probably made some "wise ass" remark and my dad is giving me his famous "what the hell did you just say?" look. It's hilarious. You'd have to know our dynamic to get it, I suppose.

This was on the last day. Miyuki and I went out shopping together since I didn't really have a chance to shop very much when I was there (believe it or not).

This bathroom was so cool! I had no problem modeling for it.

We were so lucky to have seen a dance competition on our last day there in Machida!

I was so excited and wanted to run out there, grab a fan, and do a lil jig myself!

I hope these photos gave you a good taste of Japan. Again, I wanted to capture so many aspects of the country. I wanted to post so much more, but it would be getting a little ridiculous. What an amazing experience. I still can't believe it. It seems like it happened so quick (except that damn suck-the-life-out-of-you flight) I miss it so much and I miss the people that reside there. Japan is efficient and definitely holds a certain funk to it. If you want to see anything else or anything specific I might have, email me! Tessaabee@gmail.com

-Tessa