Dreaming of... going back

I'm sure a lot of you have had those holidays where, a few years later, you find out more about the place you visited and start kicking yourself for not researching the place enough and missing out on those things... or you simply didn't have enough time to see everything you wanted to see.

Well, four years ago I went to the states for three months - I saw a lot - I counted about 25 states. But, I only spent one day in New York City and three days in San Francisco, two places I desperately want to go back to.

I was starting a tour in New York, so I had the choice of spending one day there and going straight to the tour, or spending about two weeks there before the next tour. If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken the two weeks. But, I was travelling by myself, and big city New York is a scary place for a young kiwi girl on her own. I was also not that interested in the city - I was never obsessed with Sex and the City or anything like that, I was more keen to go trekking through the desert and meeting Native Americans.

However, the one day that I had there now haunts me, simply because I saw the city at a glance, but I didn't really do anything. I took a double-decker tour bus around the city and got to see the empire state building, the edge of Central Park, Tiffany's and a bunch of high-rise apartment buildings owned or lived in by celebrities. I got off the bus where the Twin Towers used to be and had a look around the church across the road that serves as a memorial, and I took a walk around Battery Park and looked at the Statue of Liberty from afar... and then looked at the line for the ferry and decided not to waste half my day waiting.
I also went to Times Square during the day and at night... it freaked me out so much during the day I left as soon as I got there - there were too many people! Then I met up with some friends and went back that night and visited the M&M's store.

So although I did fit a lot into one day, it doesn't even come close to the things I want to see/do now... So on my next visit, in 2014, we're going to...

♥ See the John Lennon memorial in Central Park
♥ Take a long walk or cycle through Central Park
♥ Go inside the Empire State Building
♥ Take the ferry across to the Statue of Liberty
♥ See a broadway show - preferrably Grease or Hairspray
♥ Go to the Museum of Modern Art
♥ Take a stroll through West Village
♥ Watch a film at Film Forum
♥ Eat at Grimaldi's Pizzeria
♥ Have a look around Tiffany's - Or better yet, have "Breakfast at Tiffany's" haha
♥ Watch live music at Bowery Ballroom

Yeah, we might be there for awhile...

San Francisco was a different experience altogther. The tour I went on finished at LA, and most of the people on it either went to Disneyland or went home. I was tempted to go to Disneyland, but I decided that I would rather share that with Joshua or take our future children there one day - plus, San Fran was a city the hippie inside me had always wanted to visit, and it was a chance to wind down and just be by myself for a few days after meeting so many people over the three months and barely having a moment alone.

I managed to squeeze quite a lot out of three days in San Fran, so the reason I want to go back is not so much because I feel like I missed a lot, but more because I want Joshua to feel its amazingness and also just because I loved the place so much.

While I was there, I took a tram to Fisherman's Wharf, had a walk around, went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, took the ferry over to Alcatraz - which I did because dad told me to and I actually ended up loving it - went to Haight Street, the hippie centre of the Summer of '67, did some shopping in market street, ate a beautiful breakfast at Lefty O'Doul's diner every day, then finished it all off with a trip on a boat under the golden gate bridge at sunset (which was amazing).

So the places I want to go back to are:

♥ Haight Street
♥ Alcatraz

And the places I haven't been to/things I haven't done are:

♥ Cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge
♥ Eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp
♥ Go to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf before dawn to see the sea lions
♥ Go to North Beach and have breakfast at Mama's (apparently the best breakfast in town)
♥ Go up Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill (it overlooks the city and has some awesome 1930s murals inside) then take the 400 stairs down
♥ Golden Gate Park
♥ The Exploratotium - Science Museum (This one's for Joshua)

Do you have travel regrets? Hankering to go back? Tell me yours in the comments below!

stripes & florals

left to right: black floral tunic (Forever 21), black and cream striped top with crocheted back & shoulders details (Forever 21), oatmeal lace crop top (Forever 21), ruffled navy and cream top (Target), and floral burnout tank with back zipper detail (Urban Outfitters)

Here's a little mish-mosh of photos. The top one is an assortment of tops I bought over winter break and adore adore ADORE (particularly the pink & black floral bodycon tunic as evidenced by the heaploads of photobooth entries I have wearing it).

Moving back to my lovely San Francisco has been amazing so far. I am so glad to be back. This past weekend my friends and I ventured to Dolores Park and basked in the hot sunlight amidst the hipsters, dogs and wafts of weed and sounds of makeshift DJ stands. After perusing around the lawns we tried a tea shop in Castro and I had the best jasmine lemonade tea I have ever tasted. It smelled literally like a jasmine blossom and was so refreshing. We're definitely stopping by again!

In the photos I'm wearing an absolutely DARLING little white dress with an owl pattern. I stopped by Buffalo Exchange on Haight St. to attempt to sell some old clothes despite their pretentious pickiness (only made about 25 bucks but still...) and saw the dress on the rack and stopped in my tracks. OWLS? I freaking adore owls, you have no idea. I know it's sort of a cliche thing to like since they're constantly used in jewelry and things but I still love them! I could not believe my luck that it was in my size and fit pretty much perfectly, if only a tad short. Even my friend who was with me said, "This has your name engrained into it's stitching, GET IT!" And believe me, I practically skipped to the register. I just want to wear it every day of my life. It's definitely going to be one of my three Coachella outfits for this year (which I am AMAZINGLY lucky to have gotten tickets for, by the way! sold out in SIX days. craziness, yo).

...Okay well anyway, I just realized I basically just spent an entire paragraph professing my love for a piece of fabric so I think we shall move on now before I really lose it! Here are the photos from my lovely lovely weekend:




I plan to photograph some more of my clothing and maybe film another style video soon so once again, look out for more :)

xoxo

wardrobe update

I'm fairly certain that this blog is just going to be about fashion from now on, because everything else I care about happens on tumblr. so yes, it is officially decided!

As I've been living in San Francisco for the last four months, my personal style has inevitably evolved. There's so many good thrifting opportunities and effortlessly stylish people walking around hip urban settings that it's almost impossible not to try to catch up. And oh, have I!

I've spent a good amount of time, effort and dollars on fashion since I've been here so I thought I'd share a bit. These are just a few select items that I felt like sharing. There's a good mix of new & thrifted items in here...

(tan leather belt - thrifted)

(tortoiseshell sunglasses - Urban Outfitters)

(embellished gold locked necklace - H&M)

(assorted leather cuffs - SF Zoo & campus bazaar)

(golden animal ring set - H&M)
(semi-precious stone ring, golden woven ring, flower ring - campus bazaar, elephant ring - New York city via my boyfriend)


(cognac oxfords - K-Mart $13)


(red cardigan - thrifted $2, gray & white shawl sweater - Forever 21)


(high-wiasted Levi's denim shorts - thrfited, high waisted black denim shorts - thrifted)


(native-inspired printed tank - H&M)


(light denim button down - Thrift Town, SF Mission district)

- - -

I hope you enjoyed this little taste of my personal style. I hope I can update more and keep this going, because fashion really is something I love and take great care and effort in (I kid you not, I spent an entire day researching lace-up boots the other day). Lately, sharing my ideas and opinions has become more and more appealing to me. I read so many fashion blogs and watch videos and I love seeing what other people do and how they make outfits. That probably sounds lame and self-indulgent/self-centered/etc. to a lot of people, but it genuinely interests me. So I'm going with it. Huzzah!

xoxo