Before I FORGET.

KILLIN' IT in my new dress and boots.

+Sunglasses: (my sister's) Mosley Tribes.
+Rose-printed scarf: Mitsuwa supermarket.
+Jacket: Rodarte for Target.
+Ethnic eyelet dress: PCC Flea Market.
+Liquid leggings: Target.
+Lace-up boots: Guess by Georges Marciano (via PCC Flea Market). 

**A NICE LITTLE SEGUE: This is what I wore to go buy MORE clothes, aka "Nobody gonna BREAK-A MY STRIDE (pt. II), the Thrift Store Edition".

Nobody gonna BREAK-A MY STRIDE. (pt. I)

I have sooo many pictures, events, and other various miscellanea to post that I better get to steppin' before I (almost) completely forget and all of this becomes irrelevant. ENJOY.
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Since our early years in highschool, my sister and I have ascribed to the "buy used" lifestyle. Over the years, we've patronized nearly every local thrift shop we're come across, gone to flea markets almost every Sunday, scoured randomly located antique malls, and have been known to find gems in unexpected places. 


We've managed to pick up almost every possible thing used, ranging from adorable dresses, to flammable polyester.... well, anything, to practically all of Jaya's living room ephemera (we even got a small shout out from apartmenttherapy.com!).


Ahhhh... I'm taking longer that I thought to post what I want to talk about and now I'm just rambling. Allls I gots to say before I kill this baby (hahahaha! a joke maybe only Jaya will get. or anyone who likes "dead baby" jokes.) is: BUY USED WHEN YOU CAN. 

Just get it over with and given into peer pressure because ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT.


Now let's kill this baby.


PART ONE: The Flea Market Experience.


001/ Me, me, me: 
First, here is what I wore. And you have to trust me when I tell you that I'm not unhappy, but that's how I look like, ummmm, moooost of the time? I wished that I could've styled myself a littttle bit better (fix my shirt, pull down my chin, maybe smile), but you know what folks? IT HAPPENED. Deal with it. If you're curious about what I'm wearing, just click on the photo and BOOOM, answers revealed!

002/ Others first: 

I thought beyond myself (which is truly a concept when it comes to shopping) and got some clothes for my Etsy store, which, admittedly, is realllly lacking.

I was going to keep this red/gold glitter wrap dress for myself, but then I realized, "Hmmm, I already own a dress similar to this." But if it doesn't sell THEN IT'S MINE, allll mine.

Now this dress. I LOVE this dress. I love the color; I love the hand-sewn lace on the neckline; I love length and look of the skirt portion. Unfortunately, however, it's not my size. IT'S NOT MY SIZE! But I know in my heart of hearts some lady out there will just kill it, KILL IT, in this peachy number. 

003/ Now for the excitement: 

I went into this flea market looking for what I always look for: shirts and eyeglasses; instead, I come away a pair of slamming boots and an adorable white dress.

The dress looks really unflattering in this photo but, again, trust me, it's adorable. Yes, it does look like white Hefty bag with eyelet cutouts, but put a belt on and call it a day! And (again) I ain't angry. Hahahaha.... gettin' faced by my face! Ohhhh, face!

Now the boots. They are Guess by Georges Marciano and they are RIDICULOOOOUUUS. Am I right? Normally, I wouldn't look twice at this type of boot (the pointy toe made them questionable) but when I realized that they were my size I tried them on and YES.

I'm tired. I'll post a picture of how I wore my two new purchases on my next post. Outie 5000.

For Part Two, thrift store finds. YAAAAY!

El Perro del Mar & Taken By Trees @ the Troubadour.

Jaya and I snagged ourselves a couple of tickets to see El Perro del Mar and Taken By Trees @ the Troubadour and it was FAN-TAS-TIC. Since we didn't bring a camera (stuuuupid double As!!!! shaking my fist in the air!! damns youse!), here are some highlights of the show:

001/ It was my first time at the Troubadour in West Hollywood! Parking was shit but the venue was small, loud, and super intimate.

002/ Taken By Trees' front woman, Victoria Bergsman, made me love the tambourine just a little bit more (and made me want bangs,  again).

003/ El Perro's Sarah Assbring just KILLED ME. Her bat-winged blue romper paired with her adorable soldier-march dancing... no words, just no words for the adorableness-ness.

004/ Apparently, Corazones Rojos was there! WHHHHAA? am I right? Small world. I didn't ACTUALLY see her (I'm not always the most observant person, hahahah), but in case she saw me or my sister: I was the giant (literally GIANT; I was wearing 4" platform wedges) leaning against the back wall wearing: black leather jacket with gold trim, black lace top, black bow belt, black skirt , black tights, and these creamy Jeffrey Campbell shoes (wowwee, that's a-lots o' black). Jaya was wearing her trad-ishy black shorts and thigh highs socks with our recently scored plaid shirt (the one from the last post). Awwww, I wished we had taken pictures! Double AA batteries!!!!!

005/  Both ladies sang cover songs! Taken By Tree covered Animal Collective's My Boys and El Perro covered The xx's Shelter (click on links to hear song/download mp3).

006/ Ohhhhh, lastly: the dude standing in front of us was THE BEST DANCER IN THE WORLD. He looked like a regular frat boy schulb and danced like every song was an Elvis song. He knee was going, like, a mile a minute, head swaying side-to-side... all this going on to his own beat (read: not any of the songs playing).

**OBLIGATORY PICTURE POST: Memmmmories:

Excuses, excuses.

Jaya recently told me about this Radiolab podcast on memories and how there's a "Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind"-ish pill that scientists have created which can "help" animals forget short-term and long-term memories.

Can I gets an opposites pill of that?


There's been a handful of things that we've done over the past few weeks that I want to jot down SOOO'S I DON'T FORGET WHERE I'VE GONE/BEEN/DONE (aka the whole point of this shenanigan).


Sooo here's a list of things I need to remember to do/post/send out:
001/ Happening upon an antique fair/flea market in Torrance; Gorging our faces in Japanese goodness @ Mitsuwa.


002/ Verbalizing my LOVE of seeing and enjoying El Perro del Mar and Taken By Trees @ the Troubadour (and me looking like a GIIIAAAANT).


003/ Sending out pictures of recent family birthday outings to.... family. 


004/ Giving the Facebook equivalent of the "cholo head-nod" to a couple of friends.


005/ Make a mixtape for [The Monthly Mixtape]'s "LISTEN UP!" theme.


006/ Taking pictures of my blossoming tomato plants.


007/ Blame my lack of face-time with the internet on TV and jingoism (mmmm, jingoism. one of my favorite words to say, along with antebellum and tenzing norgay.). Winter O-LYM-PICS, ANYONE?! USA! USA! Highlights for me: Johnny Weir's long program, the speedskating mindfuck known as short-track relay race, Queen Kim Yuna, and ANY men's figure skating outfit. PLUS: Lost, Modern Family, and The Inbetweeners are rounding out most of my nights.
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Let's bust one OUT and do... #001.


How to make this concise and succinct? Jaya and I started out at the Melrose Trading Post/Fairfax Flea Market and what a total bust. Tooo many people and not enough good deals. So we bounced out of L.A. and drove down to Southbay (Torrance, specifically) to eat Japanese curry and do "light" grocery shopping. 


By happenstance, we found a large-ishly AWESOME antique flea market (post-delicious lunch, pre-shopping) which made Jaya angry on two counts: 01) Vendors were starting to close-up their shops and 02) It painfully reminded her of the Paris flea markets (where she once roamed many-a years ago)  because the booths/shops were sprawled throughout the small, deserted streets of Old Torrance. Somehow the putting away of goodies does NOT deter me from snagging an adorable Native American-y (or is it Indian American-y? Maybe? Ehhh) purse for $10.

 
You can see Jaya's heart breaking jusssst about NOW.

We also duck into a Piller's (like a 90s version of a Lohmann's) where a verrrry outspoken hippy liberal owner ("Republicans hate me because I have long hair" or vice versa.) sold me on a buttery-soft (and incidentally, butter-y yellow) leather pouch purse... which Jaya is now using as an oversized necklace.

 
And YES, the purse on the left looks like the one I'm already wearing. GOTS A PROBLEM WITH THAT?? And YES PART TWO, we bought 2 purses on the same day (within one hour. SHAME).

The last part of our day was spent at a JAPANESE GROCERY STORE. Shopping. Hardcore shopping.


It was kinda a blur. 


Why?


The short-story version of what happened: Got inside and a front-of-the-store kiosk was selling winter wear for a 20% discount. BOOOOOM. New plaid shirt ($7!), "Jus' Cool" Jamaican shirt, and a rose-printed scarf (REMINDER:: Must take pictures because it's AWESOME).

 
Imaginary conversation:"Where'd you get that shirt?" "A supermarket?"

Then, we ACTUALLY get inside the supermarket and just fill our hand cart with sugary gooooodness. Before I get to the-most-fantastical-candy-I've-come-across-in-awhile, here are some snapshots of what goes on in an Asian market (for those who've never been in one). ENJOY (and maybe giggle with glee).

 

Mascara for nerdy, but sexy, bespectacled gals.

 
Ummm, I don't know. (Maybe fake) Cherries encased in jelly?

But the ULTIMATE (at least in my eyes) was this bag of PASTEL-COLORED HARD CANDY GREATNESS.  I mean COOOOME ON. 

The COLORS. The pinwheel design. If I was a candy, this WOULD BE ME. All kinds of hard, but all kinds of sweet (but I'm not sure because I haven't actually opened it yet. I'ms a-scared of ruining the packaging!). This candy GETTTTTS ME. So, that's why I bought it.

And then THIS CRAZINESS HAPPENED. After reading some post on Luxirare, Jaya tells me there's an Italian Tomato inside the supermarket (maybe that was the whole reason for going to the Mitsuwa? maybe?) and I buy this slice of funky heaven. That egg yolk-y looking thing on top is actually mango, but I'm still not sure what the brown-ish frosting is.... brown sugar? Whatevs, it was tasty.

Since I've already forgone the whole "concise and succinct" notion, I'll add in that after all that, I still bought 3 japanese magazines (including NYLON Japan), one of which came with a free shirt and another with 3 free turquoise/floral makeup bags (REMINDER:: Take picture/scan of bags because THEY'RE AWESOME). All magazines were 20% off as well! 

Sooooooo DOUBLY BOOM. Came home considerably heavier (in food and contents) but light in the pockets. 

Next time: maybe the El Perro del Mar + Taken By Trees show (which was fun and funny)? Random birthday cake pictures from family birthday celebrations? Maybe another ode to my flowering tomato plants, aka Fozzy and Killer Tomato? 

Alls I know is it's late and I'm tired. LATERRRR.