Merry Christmas!

 

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and time at home with family and friends. :) I just made it home two days ago from school, and it's been quite relaxing (and much warmer!!)

Hello and happy holidays from Albuquerque! 

  

I love the look of Christmas lights. They're so romantic. The lights are so tiny yet they manage to give off such a joyous sparkle that make me feel so ridiculously warm and merry (hehe) inside! :)

 

Some Floral Layers for the Philly Cold

 

 

 

 

 I had this funny phase where I was completely obsessed with owning a fedora. :P Even though the ones I've found are all one size, and my head seems to be slightly small...I still love them! I was also absolutely crazy for these owl knee socks when I saw them at the store. It was amusing listening to the girl behind me in line talking about how creeped out she was by everyone loving owl stuff so much. Oops. What's wrong with owls?! THEY'RE SO CUTE!

 

 

Coat: Anne Klein

Fedora: TJ Maxx
Scarf: NY&Company (from my Secret Santa last year!)

Dress: Forever21
Cardigan: Kohl's
Belt: Thrifted
Gloves: Target
Tights: J. Crew
Owl Socks: Forever21
Boots: Target

Happy December everyone! It's been getting colder and colder in Philadelphia these days, and to make it worse, it's getting windier! Earmuffs, hats, scarves, and gloves have become my best friends. I've been trying to make as little bodily contact with the cold air as possible--if only I owned a ski mask so my face could be warm too. :( Some days I have fantasies of wrapping my scarf completely around my head like a mummy. Ridiculous!

Days have been flying by, and I didn't even have time to realize how long it's been since my last update! Things have been really busy here. The weeks after Thanksgiving were packed with assignments, and now it's time for finals. Just one more week to go before the semester's over, which means I'll be headed home for Albuquerque, New Mexico soon (hopefully it'll be warmer there, or at least less windy...) 

It's pretty strange thinking I have homes in two places. I really look forward to going back--it'll be the first time I've been home since last winter break. It'll be fun lounging around the house with my hyper little sisters (they're twins!) and my fobby asian parents. :D I'm excited to FINALLY see my best girl friends who are like sisters to me. I still find myself calling them up at 2 am in the morning to ask for advice or to cry when I've had a rough week. There's something comforting when I hear their voices over the phone. Is that corny? I love them to death. I'm really unconvinced that I could have survived those rough teenage years without them. :) And even if they would tell me otherwise, it wouldn't have been nearly as crazy and beautiful as they made it for me. It's so odd that we're growing up, and I never really get to see the different places they are or where they're going or the new people who are important in their lives. Hopefully winter break will change that, since I'll be meeting and spending time with some of the boys in their lives :D It's exciting also because my boyfriend will be visiting Albuquerque, and we'll get to go on many crazy New Mexican excursions together!

Stay posted for some New Mexican scenery soon! Have a fantastic week! :)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Philadelphia!

It's been a busy few weeks at school, but this week is Thanksgiving break so hopefully I'll be able to update everyone with a real post soon! 

Last Wednesday, Joseph Gordon-Levitt came to our campus to speak about his collaborative production company hitrecord.org. I was super excited about the event since 500 Days of Summer was such a good movie, and he was just so darn cute in it. :) Charley and I bought tickets for the event a week before, and the entire week, I kept thinking how amazing it would be if we got to take pictures of him for Jing & Charley? I saw him dressed quite snazzily in GQ and Nylon. Two days before the event, I'm yammering on about how excited I was about seeing Joseph Gordon-Levitt to my friend in class, and this girl asks me if I'm going--turns out she was on the planning committee for the show! I ended up sending her a few samples of my photography, and she let me be the event photographer. Of course, Charley was my guest. We had reserved seats and everything! I ended up sitting in the center aisle near the stage so I could get some nice pictures. Charley used my camera for the event, and my boyfriend let me borrow all his super nice camera gear. :D

At the end of the show, we got to go backstage with the event planners to take some pictures with JGL. Right when he was leaving, I mustered up enough courage to ask him for a picture. :D Charley was so selfless and let me have the picture with him (since we couldn't find someone who was willing to take the camera to take a picture of the two of us).

Blazer: Walmart
Tank Top: Kohls

Jeans: Forever21

Bow: Forever21

Earrings: Korea

Pretty plain outfit. I didn't want my ability to photograph everything to be affected by what I wore, so I decided it would be best to play it safe. Good thing because I did a lot of fiddling around on the floor in the aisle and probably would have flashed a bunch of people if I had decided to wear something more daring.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for everyone reading this blog :)
<3
Jing

Read the whole post for more pictures!

Shirt.Woot Derbies are FUN

 

Hi everyone! Just a quick update! I entered this t-shirt design competition at shirt.woot.com on Friday. My entry can be found here. And yes, breadthless is me!

For those of you who have never heard of shirt.woot, it's a site that sells one original graphic t-shirt a day (one design...not just...one shirt). So usually the shirts are designed by shirt.woot's designers, but the cool thing about the site is that every week, there's a competition (they call it a derby) where anyone can submit a t-shirt design based on a theme chosen by shirt.woot. Voters determine the top three designs and on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the top three designs are printed and sold. So the first place design is printed and sold on Friday, and the second on Saturday, and the third on Sunday. :) It's pretty neat! 

So what I'm getting at is I'd really really reallyyy appreciate it if you guys would vote for me :) To vote, you need to have an account, and you need have bought a t-shirt from shirt.woot.com or an item from woot.com (the main site which has one product deal a day) before. Voting closes on Wednesday, so make sure you vote before then! Even though my design is far from winning, I'd like to see how far it goes! And if you can't vote, I still encourage you to go check the site out, they have quite a lot of incredibly adorable designs. Also, I have a question for everyone, do you think wearing graphic t-shirts has become completely unfashionable? I feel like every fashionista outgrew graphic t-shirts in middle school, but I still find them so much fun to wear!

Have a lovely week <3

Jing

Everything We're Dreaming of Will Soon Be Ours

 

Hi again everyone! Meet my friend Jenny! I've known her since my first night as a wee college freshman during our school's new student orientation. I knew we would be amazing friends when we immediately bonded over drawing tablets that first night we met. As fresh college students high with new found freedom, we decided to talk Wacom instead of typical just-unleashed-kiddies topics. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Turns out we had a great deal more in common than just our mutual interest in tablets; Jenny is one of the most fracktaculously amazing artists I've ever met. I find endless inspiration every time I look at any of her artwork. I secretly stalk her website (jennyfan.com) even though she's only mentioned it a few times to me. :D Am I the only one who clicks friends' blog links hidden in various corners of their profiles?

Now that the cold weather is here, it's time to break out the coats! Every girl needs that fitted black wool peacoat, right? I know I just went on and on about the drabness of winter colors, but there is just something really sophisticated about a nice black coat. I do find this to be discouraging sometimes. I wonder "Why should I spend money on colorful outerwear if I'm not going to look as put together as the girl next to me wearing just black?" I do find looking through images from Gossip Girl a good inspiration since Blair Waldorf always seems to have an answer for style conundrums. :)

Wouldn't it be fun to wear summer dresses under all those winter layers? I wonder how odd it would look to go to class, take off your coat and extra layers in the toasty classrooms, and be the only one wearing clothes obviously meant for really really hot weather. No tights, no knee socks, no boots, just a sundress and legs! :D 

 Coat: Miss Sixty, Borrowed from Roomie :)
Blouse: H&M
Skirt: Forever21
Leggings: Beijing

Flats: Shanghai
Robot Necklace: Beijing

Heart Earrings: Beijing
Headband: Borrowed from Roomie

Anyone recognize the title of this post? It's from the Thumbelina soundtrack!! Jodi Benson has such a lovely voice. :)

HERRO Charley

HERROO everyone! I’m Charley (the other half of Jing & Charley)! Since Jing had a funny picture as her first one, I thought I’d contribute one of my own (not gonna lie, it took us ten tries to get this one and it still doesn’t look like I’m running in the air…eh close enough).

Anyways, once again, welcome to our blog! This is actually the second fashion-related blog that I’ve written for, the first one being the now defunct the3st.com. However, this is the first time that I’ve done a personal style blog with a focus on outfits, so I’m basically completely new to this. (Be nice!)



When I think about it, I guess I really got into the whole fashion scene once I entered college. I just found the entire industry to be fascinating with its wide range of personalities and the unique marketing aspects of it (there’s that pre-professional focus in me coming out…sigh). I figured, what other way to find out more about an industry than write about it constantly aka blogging?? Plus, I just looove the blog community. =]

The one thing I don’t like about winter is how people just resort to giant north face jackets and ugg boots (for girls at least, they just remind me of mutated Teletubby feet especially when they're color...). I will admit that I do tend to bum out sometimes when I’m lazy, but my favorite thing about winter is that there are so many more options for outfits! It’s hard to layer in the summer since it’s so friggin hot, but in the winter you can do whatever as long as it’s warm!



This outfit is actually one of my favorites! I like to call this my fashion brand whore outfit (I swear I’m not a brand whore though). Even though it is “high-end”, I still consider it as smart casual and not over the top, or at least I hope so… The layering is really what makes the look in my opinion as without the sweater vest, it’d probably look a bit too formal. And I also love how the shininess of my jacket matches my tie (horray for shiny things!)



Speaking of shiny things…if you also like shiny things, this last picture is just for you! I love watches that can act as conversation pieces, and all of Nooka’s watches are definitely eye catching and interesting. The other accessories are Jing’s and another one of our friend's (it’s also a sneak peak into our next post!!).

Jacket: Marc Jacobs
Sweater Vest: Y3
Shirt and Jeans: Express
Tie: Thrifted
Sneakers: McQueen for Puma
Watch: Nooka

OHAI JING.

Ohai everyone. My name is Jing. Apologies for the awkward photo; I'm a tiiiny bit camera shy, but I promise I'm working on it.

I've always had an obsessive interest in all things crafty and artsy and just in general anything aesthetically pleasing. :) In the past, I've always thought of clothes as just whatever I could throw on that would keep me warm (or cool), but in the last two years, I've come to love the textures, materials, and combination of different fabrics, and I've completely changed my view of fashion as more of a form of art and medium for self expression than anything.

This January, I purchased my first DSLR, and it's come to change the way I view fashion even more; I love how photography can be a medium for capturing all the rich colors, textures, and patterns of design. Browsing through others' lookbooks constantly inspire me to try new styles and experiment. Currently I want to become more immersed in the art of design; I'm looking to purchase a sewing machine, but being a poor college student...who knows when that will happen. (Even if I wasn't a poor college student, I'm too much of a serial hobbyist to tempt myself) A girl can dream. :)

It depresses me how winter is on the verge of arriving any day now. Philadelphia has no real fall--or at least not fall by my standards. My ideal fall temperatures would have to be around 60-70 degrees, but the weather here has already fallen considerably lower than that. I envy those girls who blog about throwing on a cardigan or another jacket if it gets too cool--I'm practically pulling out my wool coats and chunky scarves here! Though in all fairness, I'm kind of a cold blooded creature, and anything below 65 degrees requires major bundling up on my part.

I haven't figured out a way not to look just incredibly drab during the winter. With my fear of the cold, all I feel like doing during days like today (48 degrees, what is wrong with the world?) is living and swimming in layers of ugly but oh so fuzzy and comfortable sweaters. Also, winter colors are just boring. I miss colors, prints, and romantic fabrics of summer! I realize I'm idealizing my memories of four months ago too much since I know at the back of my mind that summer was unbearable--too hot and WAY to sticky, and I didn't wear that many colors or prints because I was too busy being immobile and lazy from the insufferable heat. BUT I just can't imagine living my life in shades of gray and UGG browns and maybe a colorful headband or scarf when I think of the next "few" months (more like half year) of freezing weather.

Blouse: Thrifted

Cape: Newport-News
Skirt: Forever21
Tights: Urban Outfitters
Bracelet: Amazon

The day these photos were taken was actually quite chilly. The cape wasn't nearly warm enough, but I'm glad I charged through this photoshoot so this first post could be here. Knowing that this blog exists and someone somewhere might be reading it and taking something from it (whether it's inspiration or even just a break from boredom or homework) makes me feel so happy. :)