tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42988387933792668672024-03-21T05:27:32.921-07:00dagmaraivonnegfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-58237098438173513202021-02-17T21:02:00.000-08:002021-02-17T21:02:55.257-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
hong kong - may 2015</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdXH9Kj4N5_kLe-fQa6SvwjJRGj19zVDBJfu83PMemKVoR4SmUpmKbIEoX2P51Xez1E31dvW-3nvknw2u-2oClEKehFZCadgFAZbLUzeAP5DZZq0S6EGlvjSpssaPS2uMVudF6xCPJ/s1600/1433363492.601459.IMG_7891.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdXH9Kj4N5_kLe-fQa6SvwjJRGj19zVDBJfu83PMemKVoR4SmUpmKbIEoX2P51Xez1E31dvW-3nvknw2u-2oClEKehFZCadgFAZbLUzeAP5DZZq0S6EGlvjSpssaPS2uMVudF6xCPJ/s640/1433363492.601459.IMG_7891.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Our airplane window paralleled the water and enormous boats from far, far away, looked like beaming stars. Far enough to look like actual little suns, close enough to feel as though we were flying right among them. It was dark, and hard to tell we were facing the water at all, so I stared hard and pretended we were that high- among the stars. We landed back on earth, in Hong Kong, my head still in the sky. It wasn't long before I lost my debit card and snapped back into reality. Our introduction to hong kong was off beat; my card, gone forever, possibly in the hands of a stranger, me, ashamed for having lost it, and it had rained all night (and the next day). Shortly after, we also realized we would not be able to make it as far as we liked into China due to visa complications, and b's heart dropped from disappointment, so naturally, mine did too.<br />
<br />
When the sun finally came out, the energy bursting through every man, woman and child we passed fueled our own. All of a sudden, we were walking and talking a little faster. We had been in third-world asia for a while at this point, so it was like we were injected with adrenaline the moment we stepped out into this busy city. We stayed in Kowloon, a condense, high-raised and fast-paced city just across the water from hong kong island, filled with delicious dim sum and indian restaurants. We walked to catch the ferry to hong kong island and released a chorus of "oooh ahhhs" at the skyline. Ever-bigger beautiful man made architecture, completely engulfed by ever-bigger mountains. It was like everything I had seen up until that point all in one place. It was the biggest city I had laid eyes on since being home in New York, but in a valley. Skyscrapers in a valley. Our first trip was to Victoria's Peak, way up a mountain behind the buildings. We took a double decker bus up to the top passing beaches and modern mountain homes. There we hiked for an hour or two and pointed at the gray blotches in the sky, wondering if it was fog from the rain storm or smog from the pollution. I leaned as far as I could over the gate separating us from the mountain abyss; the city looked endless. It stretched just as far as my eyes could see, as if the buildings planted roots right alongside the mountains and grew and grew.<br />
<br />
One of the next days we took a thirty-minute cable car ride passed a couple of other mountains to see Big Buddah. The car followed a long, narrow trail for hiking (even split between bodies of water) and I wondered how anyone could muster enough energy for such a thing. The island of the Buddah was neatly carved and beautifully organized. We were told we had only fifteen minutes to see it, so we sprinted as fast as we could passing wild cows and fancy shops, and the sweet security guard lady let us in even after she'd just closed the gates. The size of this shiny Buddah was mutually fascinating and intimidating. We didn't have much time; in a few minutes, we waved goodbye to Buddah and hopped on the last cable car back. Our little car swayed calmly, and a baby girl with her Mama and Papa huddled up closely beside us. <br />
<br />
On a clear night, we met b's friend from home and he took us to a delicious vegetarian restaurant right in Kowloon for a quick dinner. We had wasabi sweet and sour mock chicken and it was so, so good. In Vietnam, where we had flown from, the closest thing to fake meat that existed was tofu, and even that wasn't available all the time, so this was heaven on our taste buds. After, we explored the market and laughed at the fake name branded stuff. Nothing was average at these markets, every little thing on sale was either lit up, playing music, or had funny drawings on it.<br />
<br />
Macau, an island a few hours from hong kong, was our last stop before flying out. We caught a ferry and because we entered further into mainland china, we had to go through customs there and back. It exceeded my expectations by ten fold. It was as if we took a little boat trip right back to Europe. We had known prior that it had European influence, but my arrogance (from being so familiar with many places in Europe) had led me to not be impressed by this information. But this island, this little Portuguese looking place, was undoubtedly beautiful. I instantly lost any prior idea that I knew what to expect, and fell right into helpless adoration. We did no research on where to go and relied on green signs pointing in tourist destinations all over the sweet town and had a blast. We stumbled into perhaps the only raw café on the island minutes before its closing time and were convinced it was destined. It began pouring as the sun went down, and, not surprisingly, we lost our way back to the casino from which we had came. We ran quickly from corner to corner, drenched, asking natives, who pointed us in all directions, to help us find our way. Somehow, in less than half an hour we were back on the ferry to Hong Kong, clothes stuck to our backs and hair heavy from rain.<br />
<br />
Like everything else in Hong Kong, our stay was quick and over before I had time to consider it. It felt like a whole week had passed in just a day. It didn't matter if we were on hong kong island or<br />
across the water, the pace never, ever slowed down. It was a intense transition from south east asia, but a good one.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
victoria peak</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI9xZfGwl2HytRrX-JG1ywTRaB_c__uLgx7SHODVmwrOmyE8r776sgwNR5Y2l2QEiNWc9lMB618_cGYd5-9Ak_sz7Bmlw17hXWIOUdWcjthkRHtAS1BdOmDKZC330OqmhEy9yHgDH6/s1600/1433365121.777880.IMG_7864.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI9xZfGwl2HytRrX-JG1ywTRaB_c__uLgx7SHODVmwrOmyE8r776sgwNR5Y2l2QEiNWc9lMB618_cGYd5-9Ak_sz7Bmlw17hXWIOUdWcjthkRHtAS1BdOmDKZC330OqmhEy9yHgDH6/s640/1433365121.777880.IMG_7864.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtE_aXHr5uWcGASIrF9dMsIBEvQm4xb86DYHzB1F8agT_kCYQYOzWGenanrkUYr1lc8fsOqqnZMpYx6KAU1In-EO70F-4kEI2dDScWO98fyhNdXIyBZB77W8fbQO8fO7qblNEbD80l/s1600/1433363441.316772.IMG_7880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtE_aXHr5uWcGASIrF9dMsIBEvQm4xb86DYHzB1F8agT_kCYQYOzWGenanrkUYr1lc8fsOqqnZMpYx6KAU1In-EO70F-4kEI2dDScWO98fyhNdXIyBZB77W8fbQO8fO7qblNEbD80l/s640/1433363441.316772.IMG_7880.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
ferry ride to hong kong </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2s1U8Gac21rZ3a7puIJVR9A8CGZHsKAKlpepQRIPPgxN07jmtIHmZBcl8SnsbN4YgrFO0G0G7zFqaS3baz8bN918RflEQMpPUnxjqnP5tdMfpEZEC1Ts8659EyuSWCntlPY3A-uPU/s1600/1434001126.536469.IMG_7919.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2s1U8Gac21rZ3a7puIJVR9A8CGZHsKAKlpepQRIPPgxN07jmtIHmZBcl8SnsbN4YgrFO0G0G7zFqaS3baz8bN918RflEQMpPUnxjqnP5tdMfpEZEC1Ts8659EyuSWCntlPY3A-uPU/s640/1434001126.536469.IMG_7919.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
view from the kowloon pier</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4ihbu16O2aS5v7BqGLzcDsXN19vdtnCXzWac5Mj3YOUC6R4_7uCrZ_2CP0ESavY5y5wPKOf0soDb2i0RMeyaLGotHT3Oj1M25ntUu6naz4m8BzwQqtmDxqQRqY8b4dAYUvtTSgAA/s1600/1433360691.566508.IMG_7950.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4ihbu16O2aS5v7BqGLzcDsXN19vdtnCXzWac5Mj3YOUC6R4_7uCrZ_2CP0ESavY5y5wPKOf0soDb2i0RMeyaLGotHT3Oj1M25ntUu6naz4m8BzwQqtmDxqQRqY8b4dAYUvtTSgAA/s640/1433360691.566508.IMG_7950.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
the streets of hong kong<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_dz7ZT-x66U00hxVUJ6Z1chePBJBPJ783oiuwYr9zr7ejfwdpBC7nFlOxgCeJ9t-qP_pirUb1K3l1Y3AyJhYXnwimMaAFJcK8_tCbkR9XPlGpLgqmoaun6N2VQL-vPCni3hXlrkZV/s1600/1433363571.098119.IMG_7916.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_dz7ZT-x66U00hxVUJ6Z1chePBJBPJ783oiuwYr9zr7ejfwdpBC7nFlOxgCeJ9t-qP_pirUb1K3l1Y3AyJhYXnwimMaAFJcK8_tCbkR9XPlGpLgqmoaun6N2VQL-vPCni3hXlrkZV/s640/1433363571.098119.IMG_7916.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLrapDqL0VaS3VlaDGBJsOI3Dzxgu1u3Ohm_ZSJN2H60mJgnOHU63wmWPqo7_xbUBGDGZAzUcGxPNK246PjYsCtlFreqx9Ik4qw-q3p2geqS-93apKp31EzDQ3aoRFW0iotNDReKI/s1600/1433365117.867261.IMG_7909.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLrapDqL0VaS3VlaDGBJsOI3Dzxgu1u3Ohm_ZSJN2H60mJgnOHU63wmWPqo7_xbUBGDGZAzUcGxPNK246PjYsCtlFreqx9Ik4qw-q3p2geqS-93apKp31EzDQ3aoRFW0iotNDReKI/s640/1433365117.867261.IMG_7909.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
cable car ride </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRhLdEme47335T38IXTeGdxBq-cotFPikQ1VGbeH2B3REO3_PgyjpnHzdF7mwoaBQdpGyEyr12CgsVTI70ke43XsuQn5P30PhRlqR37YDss9ThwtXL1QB4WS72C4eAbJoGfhq5l5Qo/s1600/1434001054.772448.IMG_7924.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRhLdEme47335T38IXTeGdxBq-cotFPikQ1VGbeH2B3REO3_PgyjpnHzdF7mwoaBQdpGyEyr12CgsVTI70ke43XsuQn5P30PhRlqR37YDss9ThwtXL1QB4WS72C4eAbJoGfhq5l5Qo/s640/1434001054.772448.IMG_7924.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJxcGXYjAY8WTXz7WZW5EPAlBFnS86EIFUeKJEhSvO5YgYh7Qzx1l-o23lp1yFAvko4DdUXyq_oPNUpHk5GkHqAQFj-dT_cTSxaGTaSvAhQlYEo8knVdPf50oTzcrwQ_wQBOsab77X/s1600/1431617952.752802.IMG_7925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJxcGXYjAY8WTXz7WZW5EPAlBFnS86EIFUeKJEhSvO5YgYh7Qzx1l-o23lp1yFAvko4DdUXyq_oPNUpHk5GkHqAQFj-dT_cTSxaGTaSvAhQlYEo8knVdPf50oTzcrwQ_wQBOsab77X/s640/1431617952.752802.IMG_7925.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
street view from our airbnb </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKonUpjY1K9b6TkmcOXI3J0sTQ0sLIEObvBtdRLu_-KM_Y8iSSWGJ_gcGt3RTitCDDv56UaDVdBVltuxjzyhEzYQSDHwWDuexYeWhqpXfHPP7v9xT7Gd0n3KObRJmwVbADazfui9wQ/s1600/1431760381.285333.IMG_7968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKonUpjY1K9b6TkmcOXI3J0sTQ0sLIEObvBtdRLu_-KM_Y8iSSWGJ_gcGt3RTitCDDv56UaDVdBVltuxjzyhEzYQSDHwWDuexYeWhqpXfHPP7v9xT7Gd0n3KObRJmwVbADazfui9wQ/s640/1431760381.285333.IMG_7968.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
market fun</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTh1ln6Dd04X_PYGletU0mAiZgAlWCZ9Vk4qSI6VnFyeBnkQt-pnKmBMIhlRaXJb3yeWtVWMuMT3XMR0Y3kVaDSUXVQLvOsEnOYMPhee5vgvejq80BSGoJY8JDWLXxcMkgy7hSqry/s1600/hong+kong+12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTh1ln6Dd04X_PYGletU0mAiZgAlWCZ9Vk4qSI6VnFyeBnkQt-pnKmBMIhlRaXJb3yeWtVWMuMT3XMR0Y3kVaDSUXVQLvOsEnOYMPhee5vgvejq80BSGoJY8JDWLXxcMkgy7hSqry/s640/hong+kong+12.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
macau island </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OKLMmvwTg8G7sBOQlVlyGNEMupEy06sl5Te_23YYzChP2JEombSQ6jNZU4Qht5URJP3cwNkRNVeo4RFhyphenhyphenGW4O9w8-4l4LwUDUjhMiW4voXHWeb_3WJ9pLKX1CvxHymCvDLsGX-Xx/s1600/1431850678.227555.IMG_7992.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OKLMmvwTg8G7sBOQlVlyGNEMupEy06sl5Te_23YYzChP2JEombSQ6jNZU4Qht5URJP3cwNkRNVeo4RFhyphenhyphenGW4O9w8-4l4LwUDUjhMiW4voXHWeb_3WJ9pLKX1CvxHymCvDLsGX-Xx/s640/1431850678.227555.IMG_7992.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTZxiQoFDHFuCyxJ0IE21p_hW0SZY40niV1ubZ8p5lGnP1ldq0pIEY3Bqwv7CElMSedKr1cgd-tNxk7Y8LwXohSrrv6HNJ_j3ufm3f-4vxTNMHz5a9g9W3aBPxdfXsa9Hbawzc03g/s1600/1432045932.929130.IMG_8058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTZxiQoFDHFuCyxJ0IE21p_hW0SZY40niV1ubZ8p5lGnP1ldq0pIEY3Bqwv7CElMSedKr1cgd-tNxk7Y8LwXohSrrv6HNJ_j3ufm3f-4vxTNMHz5a9g9W3aBPxdfXsa9Hbawzc03g/s640/1432045932.929130.IMG_8058.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-60931001056788200732015-06-16T02:49:00.001-07:002015-06-17T01:36:30.505-07:00the different countries of fear<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbHSrDKNq76bF9IO_vqjvZClDWdpBZ6y8c-KnRiPZYmDcFvMtmNCV7n7cLp08Zy-yZaYZDpWQwMii34G3g8pD0zoIppZgi6n9feqDGdRbDmUlbrHnZ5Ky-6x_Hvo8qJTRn8yR-64D/s1600/vietnam2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbHSrDKNq76bF9IO_vqjvZClDWdpBZ6y8c-KnRiPZYmDcFvMtmNCV7n7cLp08Zy-yZaYZDpWQwMii34G3g8pD0zoIppZgi6n9feqDGdRbDmUlbrHnZ5Ky-6x_Hvo8qJTRn8yR-64D/s640/vietnam2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In <b>New York,</b> in the months preparing to embark on the longest and most chaotic international trip of my life, I feared I would never leave in the first place. I feared that working a full-time job, bartending on the weekends, and being a full-time student wasn't enough. "I am, no way in hell, going to ever save enough money to sustain myself for the following months, nor am I going to be able to register for all these online courses," I thought, occasionally. I feared my feet were rooted on the grounds on which I walked every day. Alas, I bought my one way ticket to Europe, and never looked back.<br />
<br />
Within my first week of being in <b>Italy</b>, my first stop in <b>Europe</b>, I thought "OK, this is it. I'm doing it. There's no need to be scared anymore." If only we lived in a world where emotions functioned on logic. That kind of pep-talk never worked for me, but yes I still do it. My fears escalated by ten fold. Even though I was loving every second of Italy and with b, exploring Florence and then Rome, living together in our own little hut, I feared I had made a mistake by leaving a job I liked, a home and family I adored, and a school I loved to simply travel the world. I feared irrational circumstances: that my friends and family would forget about me, and I would, somehow, never make it back. I even had dreams about people I know claiming they did not know me anymore. I was out of my comfort zone, and that scared me deeply. How could I leave behind my comfortable little bubbled life back home in the greatest city in the world?<br />
<br />
After that first month of initial home sickness, when I had finally found home on the road, b and I were in <b>Poland</b> visiting my family. At this point, I had come to terms with the fact that I would not see my friends and family for a long time, yes I quit my job, and I had found online courses to register for so no, I would not have to give up school, and all that was OK. But fear is tricky. Each family member we visited, I feared, even more every time, that they would see me as a misguided hippy with no purpose. I dreaded the inevitable questions they would ask me (so, what made you do this? how are you continuing school? what about work? and money?) I would sigh and answer anyway, but to my surprise, every single one of them were welcoming and embraced our aspirations, wishing they had done the same at their age, and pointing us as an inspiration to some of my younger cousins.<br />
<br />
From<b> Poland</b>, we had flown to <b>Australia.</b> I knew, of course, that this was going to happen. But my brain kind of didn't. I was in denial. I feared being on a continent I had never been without anyone other than b. I thought, "what if something happens to us? I have no one I really know on that entire continent. And oh, it is SO far away." Sure enough, my first week on the Gold Coast I had terrible nightmares of tsunamis washing over us. But like any other one of my fears, they were wrong. I did have a dear family friend in Adelaide, and b and I instantly grew bonds with tons of new friends we met in Sydney and in some cases, have never felt more at home. And there were no tsunamis (not that knowing someone would've really helped that situation, anyway).<br />
<br />
You guessed it: fear quickly came to me in another form. This is where I started to recall, consciously anyway, facing something I feared pretty much every single day. We walked up to the check in desk for our flight to <b>Queenstown, New Zealand </b>and it didn't take five minutes for the lady to say "do you have your return tickets?" My heart raced because I knew what was next. We were being forced to buy our plane tickets back into Sydney that moment, or we could not get on the plane. Instantly, I heard myself think "I knew we were going to spend unnecessary money going to New Zealand. I knew it. Why do we even need to go there? Isn't Australia far<i> enough</i>?" We landed and had no place to stay for the night, except in a tent on a campsite. My heart dropped. This must be a joke, I thought. This isn't happening. And in no time, we rented a camper van and camped through the entire country, facing challenges (fears) every single day. Sleeping in a van on the side of the road being just one of them (what if someone robbed us? shook up our van?). But I am so glad it did happen, all of it. I am so glad I dished out the money that very moment to get on that plane, I am so glad I gulped my fears back down into my stomach and slept on a campsite that night and later in a van, because New Zealand turned out to be thee most beautiful country I have ever seen in my entire life.<br />
<br />
In <b>South East Asia</b>, you can bet my fears came to greet me every single day. I feared every single little wooden boat we got on in <b>Vietnam</b> and <b>Thailand (</b>it happens a lot more often than you think) would somehow topple over. I feared that the sleeping floating, again wooden, river house we stayed in outside of Chiang Mai would collapse. I feared thunderstorms on the beach. I feared jumping from a cliff along the Phi Phi islands. I feared snorkeling. I feared getting my things stolen, and even things like getting too tan or crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh.<br />
<br />
Whenever it seemed like my fears were gone, and that I was this epic, world traveling, special, finally fearless human being.. they weren't. I wasn't. Fear always caught me. It was like, the only thing I could count on at one point, was fear to be present. It was always there again, taking new shapes and forms in new places. It follows me, ever so diligently.<br />
<br />
My fears never, not even once, manifested into the irrational circumstances I had came up with in my head. They were my defense mechanism projecting the worst possible outcome in any situation. They were fiction. But they look out for me. And they tell me I'm going to do something new, something thrilling and exciting and possibly life-changing. Naturally, I tried to steer away from fear as far back as I can remember. Now I run towards it. Reluctantly, still, at times, but I know now that is where the juicy stuff is. Thats where life is. When fear is around, I know I'm doing something right. At any time, in any country, fear is my safety net.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
art on the beach in perth, australia</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4Xm52ffxKYtGNt4mX9hDwqKXyPPjeW8cakJL6iuKCX3Jpya8gSh8gsm-ccJKxc1KKiKdPIoOV6HQf-ymk296LIqKPkLzewkZVBowAhJt3Qdu2djpAPLye-PJbU2d4KvgNFVLFiWu/s1600/1434447184.735117.IMG_6775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4Xm52ffxKYtGNt4mX9hDwqKXyPPjeW8cakJL6iuKCX3Jpya8gSh8gsm-ccJKxc1KKiKdPIoOV6HQf-ymk296LIqKPkLzewkZVBowAhJt3Qdu2djpAPLye-PJbU2d4KvgNFVLFiWu/s640/1434447184.735117.IMG_6775.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
vietnam</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiStoAp9vvtaaRjdTccYPT4IpKU0_79zBhFabB-CrwayST__bd07qLRLXIMkpBCzh0_Oy4fTFJirmzAMusKmFUAjTqcg30D7HTFEHZTWHDeByTdgTUPf1Z-P4028FzFUSKre77BazC8/s1600/1434447175.753127.IMG_7748.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiStoAp9vvtaaRjdTccYPT4IpKU0_79zBhFabB-CrwayST__bd07qLRLXIMkpBCzh0_Oy4fTFJirmzAMusKmFUAjTqcg30D7HTFEHZTWHDeByTdgTUPf1Z-P4028FzFUSKre77BazC8/s640/1434447175.753127.IMG_7748.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOehVwyX6a-QWdpgb0mLITW2BFrz34ilKMK8lp2PDATZDKV_SJRCuXYxAY352yx7OW2I1ZC6uIncnLl5f_L3JQG_KqErPf562oDy9nE5yBQGTegCiHQST0rMtW_u7zHz_uG6xOEkT/s1600/1434447181.887721.IMG_7551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOehVwyX6a-QWdpgb0mLITW2BFrz34ilKMK8lp2PDATZDKV_SJRCuXYxAY352yx7OW2I1ZC6uIncnLl5f_L3JQG_KqErPf562oDy9nE5yBQGTegCiHQST0rMtW_u7zHz_uG6xOEkT/s640/1434447181.887721.IMG_7551.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3rKyFwvkaoJfNtkM5ZDcYNVcxFu0cwi0HrDvze9dSvjs8vMHYoMk61mJ2QMIwNeWAtbh4Nkua6JBUfiFiH7L-eNFMOKXkcLx5cmGO4KA6gUL2Ff_TxZe-UMM2TorjGXs11Ti_XpC/s1600/1434447178.549619.IMG_7662.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3rKyFwvkaoJfNtkM5ZDcYNVcxFu0cwi0HrDvze9dSvjs8vMHYoMk61mJ2QMIwNeWAtbh4Nkua6JBUfiFiH7L-eNFMOKXkcLx5cmGO4KA6gUL2Ff_TxZe-UMM2TorjGXs11Ti_XpC/s640/1434447178.549619.IMG_7662.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyY-u2tWbZlcqQAJBtEO_E7BrIDP_cslt3F8NmhztNSOC1VTSx9zVl7oXSMLMu6uko2JwiWNJEFcaN9WwQSTfl-NRbg9juULm8BnivaDJjuSPN2QpyoHCQS4YSWtq8i3-VqxOAlgJu/s1600/vietnam3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyY-u2tWbZlcqQAJBtEO_E7BrIDP_cslt3F8NmhztNSOC1VTSx9zVl7oXSMLMu6uko2JwiWNJEFcaN9WwQSTfl-NRbg9juULm8BnivaDJjuSPN2QpyoHCQS4YSWtq8i3-VqxOAlgJu/s640/vietnam3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzBiMC-oUG8vt3cfoBwuSgdMNalB3oqQG4Ux_7d4UOscG_qqJGwnmx9TCIzj1JDXBtf06N_FobBK6cxQ31loNnAdArIzd3rIc2kl8CLaVWUIo7mA0AqIxS27AATL5bqSoAhDCdI7C9/s1600/vietnam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzBiMC-oUG8vt3cfoBwuSgdMNalB3oqQG4Ux_7d4UOscG_qqJGwnmx9TCIzj1JDXBtf06N_FobBK6cxQ31loNnAdArIzd3rIc2kl8CLaVWUIo7mA0AqIxS27AATL5bqSoAhDCdI7C9/s640/vietnam.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
queenstown,nz</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQxBGO5n_KFppDHj8G4pYq9CsHifMOgqsJa39t5w91ayzifYyyPqSldexPDWLv0j2uYjWl1Dymh-GAeELRZr0GjPWWSzGda-Cut2wnzW_kvLrhsZ_8IMNiljhTrYkcuJheresxko2Z/s1600/1434447454.729970.IMG_5678.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQxBGO5n_KFppDHj8G4pYq9CsHifMOgqsJa39t5w91ayzifYyyPqSldexPDWLv0j2uYjWl1Dymh-GAeELRZr0GjPWWSzGda-Cut2wnzW_kvLrhsZ_8IMNiljhTrYkcuJheresxko2Z/s640/1434447454.729970.IMG_5678.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
seoul hiking, south korea</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtQtITQldcMI1y6i5Tfk_s8XZTz2b_XJBUm9kLPbmgM44Ghnr7YuD-zmhb5UeTvBzlquYz5erp7uhvycnUPZI89O1vtmcQp1JYAebmrYdmPI5ULpFR_T1AQBuj1EyzoK0e2dPb2k5/s1600/south+korea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtQtITQldcMI1y6i5Tfk_s8XZTz2b_XJBUm9kLPbmgM44Ghnr7YuD-zmhb5UeTvBzlquYz5erp7uhvycnUPZI89O1vtmcQp1JYAebmrYdmPI5ULpFR_T1AQBuj1EyzoK0e2dPb2k5/s640/south+korea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-12033483252083474952015-05-17T10:53:00.000-07:002015-06-17T01:05:15.091-07:00New Zealand <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw46ceuq7G5wErpNdfvJPGCQNK6OI5ReQbcBzTc-NuNGHd2FkA8nPhcxa9z2ntGumw7VMasFcBGycu5Cmx5RndQJj8ulz1YFfUSpwu81gsJ4LDli5YcIqkjJ-nlpNcAYWDv2lLYsRX/s1600/10946561_1556501354631502_1076902475_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw46ceuq7G5wErpNdfvJPGCQNK6OI5ReQbcBzTc-NuNGHd2FkA8nPhcxa9z2ntGumw7VMasFcBGycu5Cmx5RndQJj8ulz1YFfUSpwu81gsJ4LDli5YcIqkjJ-nlpNcAYWDv2lLYsRX/s640/10946561_1556501354631502_1076902475_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I had hardly heard of New Zealand before b insisted we ought to catch the good weather there while we were in Australia. I was reluctant because I thought we would spend an unnecessary amount of money. Of course, his timing was completely right, and every cent was well spent (minus the sweets and extra iced coffees).<br />
<br />
We flew from the Gold Coast area and landed in Queenstown on the South Island, our gaze instantly widened at the overwhelmingly big mountains. Until this moment, it hadn't occurred to me that I had never actually seen mountains up close. The hues of brown and jagged edges were so beautiful, I had a few hard blinks before I could convince myself they were real. I felt so little, but so safe at the same time; the mountains always wrapped around us, protecting us.<br />
<br />
The trip was pretty spontaneous, so we had booked nowhere to stay. We nervously surfed the web once off the plane, and quickly realized finding a place to stay would be harder than we imagined. We thought we'd have a better chance if we went into town, so we hopped on the next shuttle bus. We were glued to the windows, framing the unbelievable landscape, and for a while, didn't care that we didn't have a place to stay for the night. We were here and it was a whole new world.<br />
<br />
The gentleman at the accommodation desk in town had re-affirmed our doubts: nothing was available. Queenstown was a small town, and our only option would be to camp out in a tent for the night. Half amused, half apprehensive, we agreed. Luckily, a kind group of friends getting off the bus earlier had later lent us a tent and a sleeping bag, relating to our booking mishap. Kiwis are some of the kindest souls I have ever met.<br />
<br />
Knowing little to nothing about tents, we made some Canadian friends who helped us pitch ours and ended up spending the rest of the night together. We wobbled back to our tents later through the inescapable darkness, and shivered our way to sleep.<br />
<br />
Green, fluffy mountains straddled Queenstown and felt like they were only a short stroll away. Small boutiques and cafés lined the little streets. Opposite the river, the intensely blue water lined the bottom of colorful mountains.<br />
<br />
Excited to explore the country, the next day or so we rented a camper van and began our drive through both islands. Initially, the thought of living in a van for a few weeks made me fairly uncomfortable. Alas, most of the time I found myself too busy being mesmerized by our surroundings to care about not sleeping a queen sized bed every night. "I want to stay here," I would say, countless times, to b within the first few days.<br />
<br />
Some days were rough. I would feel sick for hours while b drove along the curvy mountains. Some curves were so sharp, we hardly saw the other side of the mountain while making each turn. Some nights we struggled to find a camp site to stay in, and we never knew where we were sleeping ahead of time. But there was always beauty surrounding us. One night we looked up into the sky after a long day of poor planning and tiredly losing our direction, and could have sworn we saw every detail in our Milky Way for the first time. We hiked up and down trails, branches crunching under our every step, and fell in love with the plants, birds, and trees. We pointed at sheep, cows, and peeking mountains along the road, with excitement I could only parallel to a child's. We met people every single day from all around the world; students, wanderers, teachers, passionate creators. Some a little older than us, some a lot older. In New Zealand, we were all fellow hikers and nature lovers. We met a couple from Canada who were traveling for about a year on bike, and we exchanged stories about different continents and life back home. Sitting alone one night in the common room of a beautiful family campsite, I befriended a boy who was an adopted orphan, pitching a tent every night to save money on rent for his trip to Europe. The campsite was his home. Everyone inspired us.<br />
<br />
We drove around till dark one evening, worried we wouldn't find a campsite to park in. We were parked by a curb, nothing but land and farms surrounding us. Two Isreali boys pulled up next to us and together we found a piece of private land to park in. We drank wine and ate pizza at a restaurant down the road, while they told us about their times together in the army and what Isreal is like. "A lot less bomb-y than you see in the news," one of them said. In turn, we got to park legally on the restaurant owners land. It wasn't a campsite, but it was an experience. The land was just that, just land, and was next door to a farm. The shower-head hung on a tree and overlooked a damp piece of wood, out in open. During the night, the sounds of cows and sheep nearby made my belly ache from laughter. It was the kind of funny huffing and puffing I had only ever heard on t.v. In the morning, we drank strong Isreali coffee just outside our vans and watched the cows walk along the road, their tails and ears wagging. We all explored Cathedral Cove beach that day. I changed into my bathing suit behind the bushes, and dove into the silky water, uncontrollably laughing every time it took me under a big wave. I felt like a kid again, being helplessly washed up by the ocean. There I ran into a polish couple I had met a few days ago, and it felt nice to run into familiar faces in a foreign place. Traveling is like that.<br />
<br />
During the day, people amusingly asked to take pictures of our spray painted (breast!) van. We happily let them, smiling stupidly for their cameras. We made stops along the coast, set up a couple of chairs and a table, nothing fancy, and cooked outside. We piled our van with endless pears, peaches, apples, dates, and bananas, munching our way through long drives, the sun beaming heavy through the window. One time we spotted dolphins in the water while eating. We had no radio, so I read <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Remaking-Way-Make-Things/dp/1400157617" target="_blank">Cradle to Cradle</a></u> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Upcycle-Beyond-Sustainability--Designing-Abundance/dp/0865477485/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431881498&sr=1-1&keywords=the+upcycle" target="_blank">The Upcycle</a>, books by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, and did my homework while b drove.<br />
<br />
There was one day we drove into a small town where we would hike up to see glaciers the next day, and parked alongside a hostel. In the common room, we discovered around six more American travelers, and all gathered, naturally, in awe that there was so many of us there at the same time. Typically, its many Europeans and Australians, and only one or two American travelers in the same room. I discovered how bonding it was to meet people from close to home so far away. We sat around the dimly lit table, laughing hysterically at each others jokes, relating to one anothers experiences in NZ, and telling stories about back home until we yawned our goodbyes.<br />
<br />
Shortly after, we met a man of the Maori tribe background, and he told us about his work and enthusiasm of sustainability. It tied so perfectly at the time to my school work and the books I was reading, I felt really in tune with the universe. He went on, for hours, about his numerous solar powered homes which had trees smack in the middle of his living rooms, and about all the magical gardens that surrounded his homes. I doubted the truth of some of the things he said, but I was captivated by his stories. He was an caring, older man, and we sat politely, soaking in all his wisdom. He said one day he hopes to live in a world in which people can travel for free, whenever they'd like.<br />
<br />
Our camper van was due in Auckland. Our expectations of the city were low, many people told us it wasn't anything special. But we arrived in awe, just like we did anywhere else in New Zealand. We loved the architecture. I've grown to realize the importance of having a relationship with nature, but I can still appreciate all kinds of cities, seeing as though I am from New York. We took a ferry to an island nearby and witnessed a bloody red sunset, and ran towards it like kids. It was the most stunning view of the sky we have ever saw during sundown, not even our photos could do this moment entirely justice. It was the perfect sayonara from New Zealand.<br />
<br />
New Zealand, was, by far, the hardest to say goodbye to. The more time we spent on the islands, the more I learned and the more I fell in love. I loved how physically far away we were from practically every where else on earth but Australia. I loved that I could drink the water streaming down from the mountains, and how conscious everyone seemed about the environment and the effects their actions had on it. I loved that it was a country of so much to offer: beautiful beaches, lakes, rocky and fluffy mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, geysers, and natural hot springs. I learned about the Maori tribe and how beautiful their culture is. I've grown used to saying goodbye to the people we have developed a bond with along the way, but I've yet to figure out how to feel closure leaving a place I really, really love. It often feels a rug is being pulled out from underneath my feet, maliciously, and that helpless feeling of falling stings my chest. I console myself by consuming my thoughts with gratitude that I was ever there in the first place, and that I will come back one day.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
campsite our first night in queenstown, south island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPb3dWb_RScEJtIyiz583Q-m_QCgLAqoLPdZZLuL0I2gMHjXVWpDubLPpaMxul3ISgk_4Bqqchrc3b2op8dYHBk_6jo1pHYuK11zgX4b8nFSd1s1AraR9JP9U7lEEPlKmsF4BmzcMO/s1600/10957391_813111438726706_1440887386_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPb3dWb_RScEJtIyiz583Q-m_QCgLAqoLPdZZLuL0I2gMHjXVWpDubLPpaMxul3ISgk_4Bqqchrc3b2op8dYHBk_6jo1pHYuK11zgX4b8nFSd1s1AraR9JP9U7lEEPlKmsF4BmzcMO/s640/10957391_813111438726706_1440887386_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
more of queenstown</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZ5LGMzGfotGQa6YQPvX-EwvunAklnJNUcyKu4L6YUt69aXyKtSNGAjAEdXwSrx1g4_d2uv_GQ2niEG73WVHu2kFT_DWpOHiqUJTS_hTkPl5yB6Dh-3v1L-aBSaWPGwwqMm9svai4/s1600/DSCF2145.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZ5LGMzGfotGQa6YQPvX-EwvunAklnJNUcyKu4L6YUt69aXyKtSNGAjAEdXwSrx1g4_d2uv_GQ2niEG73WVHu2kFT_DWpOHiqUJTS_hTkPl5yB6Dh-3v1L-aBSaWPGwwqMm9svai4/s640/DSCF2145.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHs5-qnsYooocXtqc7qb_E9j4TjtIdDrZxFh8UB5pLlZPbghq7YIB4gr4JvwU3PE0f9sydWK_uOBfd7nuDY9z9gZJ7lJ4PhAInoQMGNjXyHfmVZQ785udAninX9R5r0nYGYbleVIN/s1600/DSCF2134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHs5-qnsYooocXtqc7qb_E9j4TjtIdDrZxFh8UB5pLlZPbghq7YIB4gr4JvwU3PE0f9sydWK_uOBfd7nuDY9z9gZJ7lJ4PhAInoQMGNjXyHfmVZQ785udAninX9R5r0nYGYbleVIN/s640/DSCF2134.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgjH-d_RAKiPwhSw7iq2Y_zE5e0IJ-rl0aynYYEnBEKDr6rzWJ6xzZxATX8S5QqmVH2GLYNjepTkGKvN91oQ6bmSrBjCFdikdSvHRnod_11C5ADbHRNZpm_KlGoqRKXlNU_0SuzFE/s1600/DSCF2149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgjH-d_RAKiPwhSw7iq2Y_zE5e0IJ-rl0aynYYEnBEKDr6rzWJ6xzZxATX8S5QqmVH2GLYNjepTkGKvN91oQ6bmSrBjCFdikdSvHRnod_11C5ADbHRNZpm_KlGoqRKXlNU_0SuzFE/s640/DSCF2149.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5hdgCZ0DxZKwq2xclqwo_FcRmrqUlQRu3i5mFtnFAHRHbkD6eqB6hgh8vUSvFhQ2wojGMY83lMnQu1gKC-5QYBB-xTXAtZVMTtgjI_LQLyPmyNSq8XMjffIhJUZ0LY6gr4OOyeW2/s1600/DSCF2138.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5hdgCZ0DxZKwq2xclqwo_FcRmrqUlQRu3i5mFtnFAHRHbkD6eqB6hgh8vUSvFhQ2wojGMY83lMnQu1gKC-5QYBB-xTXAtZVMTtgjI_LQLyPmyNSq8XMjffIhJUZ0LY6gr4OOyeW2/s640/DSCF2138.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
tunnel beach, south island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaXnpaYjoFpd6zCdki5DRjxjkBAa5n26_Q5HZV-eTE383ojXNGPh0n56NTAQjs60yyqep5eyeYh0VZMn-MT2pJ9esvek84fCHAZtMWTFIVGZafg5rpFBCoRFwaLriN-dazlOJgYn-z/s1600/image+(7).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaXnpaYjoFpd6zCdki5DRjxjkBAa5n26_Q5HZV-eTE383ojXNGPh0n56NTAQjs60yyqep5eyeYh0VZMn-MT2pJ9esvek84fCHAZtMWTFIVGZafg5rpFBCoRFwaLriN-dazlOJgYn-z/s640/image+(7).jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbV4Hk93bIm_wELG-7p5MML6NjqLsDkMeZGYB1NwfFqCojlY5e1Vz9j-c2jnPUdkJz_eSTsuYMBE4YePlhQ-JgxnguCcoM4eytNMLzchrOmANWJrzWk19d28kuMesjcCdO95-CWRw0/s1600/image+(4).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbV4Hk93bIm_wELG-7p5MML6NjqLsDkMeZGYB1NwfFqCojlY5e1Vz9j-c2jnPUdkJz_eSTsuYMBE4YePlhQ-JgxnguCcoM4eytNMLzchrOmANWJrzWk19d28kuMesjcCdO95-CWRw0/s640/image+(4).jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbREoym2FVJoWw3sg-vhLeOcdPi2ArYOe5q5ZvB50Wyy4zsiOwYMVxVZeFYYyhwQbnsOerYlrMz8OmkOvEE6uTe_O_FeX_AhxVsdWTlJI1YFEIERX8ZKAdWm9iC31VKU7zENwKd2ps/s1600/image+(6).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbREoym2FVJoWw3sg-vhLeOcdPi2ArYOe5q5ZvB50Wyy4zsiOwYMVxVZeFYYyhwQbnsOerYlrMz8OmkOvEE6uTe_O_FeX_AhxVsdWTlJI1YFEIERX8ZKAdWm9iC31VKU7zENwKd2ps/s640/image+(6).jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFw41MCmCQpq7Oui4zGh3IlAwuBrwRPNRLx_WzVDToTTwa3HjNzE-0xVYyrKuC1GARliD4reFwsWGhVUSBjGzIRkU2Mtf6NurIuZ09h8VADcC4jf_79-R7QkZBUH1pEfMwrNgu8dUR/s1600/DSCF2238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFw41MCmCQpq7Oui4zGh3IlAwuBrwRPNRLx_WzVDToTTwa3HjNzE-0xVYyrKuC1GARliD4reFwsWGhVUSBjGzIRkU2Mtf6NurIuZ09h8VADcC4jf_79-R7QkZBUH1pEfMwrNgu8dUR/s640/DSCF2238.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
view from our balcony one night in Queenstown<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRFTRruTudk1iUg-vuw-TdJPyodu3khZgq4hq0M00tIookfUyl1UmghnAjBBmi3K8mkFwYDJelQrna9PoI_zhfm85DYiNd5tz65InvsHkwlhJ4KbTrvju_zBzXgXeKjvDAxSET1Ua/s1600/image+(5).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRFTRruTudk1iUg-vuw-TdJPyodu3khZgq4hq0M00tIookfUyl1UmghnAjBBmi3K8mkFwYDJelQrna9PoI_zhfm85DYiNd5tz65InvsHkwlhJ4KbTrvju_zBzXgXeKjvDAxSET1Ua/s640/image+(5).jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
somewhere inland</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9wQTd5aMazYKw8DAZPDj21eAREaZJkNDOEViwyyxnfEC8mdpfvc0oKLm46aA6XWKVOl6GIm86NtKsDakOsBQPsF6t7xOJ9gH3VYwrMBTnv8XPIfRBtZzFtYNHcfeXRKG9FdS_TZ6/s1600/image+(2).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9wQTd5aMazYKw8DAZPDj21eAREaZJkNDOEViwyyxnfEC8mdpfvc0oKLm46aA6XWKVOl6GIm86NtKsDakOsBQPsF6t7xOJ9gH3VYwrMBTnv8XPIfRBtZzFtYNHcfeXRKG9FdS_TZ6/s640/image+(2).jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIOmplVtqM66niFhg3ZPXNNyWe-csSVmHRNjzTW_gQMLgwfOKgiulAOBMRSctCEqJ6N80jM0YxFP-dvhNSp7csx4no0-I3KOFA34dhUjCnhGIOBecWxPBBBbliVXaEv77rZ57ds7b/s1600/DSCF2316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIOmplVtqM66niFhg3ZPXNNyWe-csSVmHRNjzTW_gQMLgwfOKgiulAOBMRSctCEqJ6N80jM0YxFP-dvhNSp7csx4no0-I3KOFA34dhUjCnhGIOBecWxPBBBbliVXaEv77rZ57ds7b/s640/DSCF2316.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
crossing a scary bridge going to see glaciers, north island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Bblakb-UrfSHryuYtlS5vgqNMrCf0JcM_6eKbCrnGQiEjiLwf9qGwR1Q-NWglek2ux5X_dXQXXIYGCso_n3JFPhdaclKf3DyhDP22kiSTHWzFtOY-J9iY3yx53qf9rs36w34yAKU/s1600/1431761312.602010.IMG_5961.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Bblakb-UrfSHryuYtlS5vgqNMrCf0JcM_6eKbCrnGQiEjiLwf9qGwR1Q-NWglek2ux5X_dXQXXIYGCso_n3JFPhdaclKf3DyhDP22kiSTHWzFtOY-J9iY3yx53qf9rs36w34yAKU/s640/1431761312.602010.IMG_5961.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
freedom camping along the otago peninsula and raw tacos</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY19pk_O1GL2_3oL8tUFpAgvSsKDTE0C5_hiCKLjixQJmSRXxffqSbZYCLzRh6scu9R29jZWOPlSm1jZYUqq-q4uomOpf69zwaQRXO8bS160F39HW2w5UVHUBxXNoCwBTyUGoqUH79/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY19pk_O1GL2_3oL8tUFpAgvSsKDTE0C5_hiCKLjixQJmSRXxffqSbZYCLzRh6scu9R29jZWOPlSm1jZYUqq-q4uomOpf69zwaQRXO8bS160F39HW2w5UVHUBxXNoCwBTyUGoqUH79/s640/image.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
monkey island beach, south island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATxxDIV20bWozd5ySzkQd-1y2KFQw367DCkAuGfscRWBZooL9Yoj6JRezpP85y7HZu-STcf2L_fyB3yMK9NULxKT0RXnRHCNd0dh6H4GhEhgiCOJlnZzqKDs7sq0_oZ9UDOCWCiHY/s1600/11007872_424896121021450_976711303_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATxxDIV20bWozd5ySzkQd-1y2KFQw367DCkAuGfscRWBZooL9Yoj6JRezpP85y7HZu-STcf2L_fyB3yMK9NULxKT0RXnRHCNd0dh6H4GhEhgiCOJlnZzqKDs7sq0_oZ9UDOCWCiHY/s640/11007872_424896121021450_976711303_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_sJXcBl0-PaEQcCGh8mWbUx0o1KVedGn-yJ4kDFK4cXnsM8-PO4hrqImZ_m9_GXRSHzpLrOe3M7u1jSWiYI8Z8tUKJZpuLof-DNB7eHqrvluRqGiBXU4IU-phoigFsEGr3UABPgO/s1600/DSCF2282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_sJXcBl0-PaEQcCGh8mWbUx0o1KVedGn-yJ4kDFK4cXnsM8-PO4hrqImZ_m9_GXRSHzpLrOe3M7u1jSWiYI8Z8tUKJZpuLof-DNB7eHqrvluRqGiBXU4IU-phoigFsEGr3UABPgO/s640/DSCF2282.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB42Xev_CC1btbghXkzuPr91jpoMhds_MyDRH7rbSfZ9q-5UHbrapuGMlHU5r4D9xDaheoSGhD3xwADdvbmJU-9DtTLXY_pH4BD_ketSRHaQUSHh8jzWX3mE_r2ZwFOBRho1CyjjWZ/s1600/DSCF2279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB42Xev_CC1btbghXkzuPr91jpoMhds_MyDRH7rbSfZ9q-5UHbrapuGMlHU5r4D9xDaheoSGhD3xwADdvbmJU-9DtTLXY_pH4BD_ketSRHaQUSHh8jzWX3mE_r2ZwFOBRho1CyjjWZ/s640/DSCF2279.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
castle garden in dunedin, south island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwID6NLcnAheHwx7Bf3SV2u3di6eVto1WSxM7EcXP_3ps9sCdggU-ODgTEdD3DHPMH-mZ-JoNOgqIfA2bwzGejIPL3jyRkSXfU4Hb1EaCjDqw9SInP_xWxCkSAs59215KToZCZcD3G/s1600/1431761628.864577.IMG_5781.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwID6NLcnAheHwx7Bf3SV2u3di6eVto1WSxM7EcXP_3ps9sCdggU-ODgTEdD3DHPMH-mZ-JoNOgqIfA2bwzGejIPL3jyRkSXfU4Hb1EaCjDqw9SInP_xWxCkSAs59215KToZCZcD3G/s640/1431761628.864577.IMG_5781.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
volcanic valley, north island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcH7uLysCCSjUKAryZsrPbYjC_4LpfDXXUrtIbJj4p8zsDLr3YH_-XLDCYPX93Zp9ntMwTOLffUBRxcBT_J8WU-XUI2uXB_dYhZdMzszgPOGa5MGdpSqkKGyyly1ayPsUuFbS5ttJO/s1600/11023155_608849642593334_290159134_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcH7uLysCCSjUKAryZsrPbYjC_4LpfDXXUrtIbJj4p8zsDLr3YH_-XLDCYPX93Zp9ntMwTOLffUBRxcBT_J8WU-XUI2uXB_dYhZdMzszgPOGa5MGdpSqkKGyyly1ayPsUuFbS5ttJO/s640/11023155_608849642593334_290159134_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuVf7y9oMb_YYlIwPYmKF9T1ootTk1WHv2xtVFVa3E_DOYgQLbtU5t84pYicc5SK3ou2cAeQkLJAJsidDlNAwn3BCzy3WsMbZXjXUomWdg0kUI4MW1Y7goiCRrBYrlch1TvZdRpBQq/s1600/1431761564.603994.IMG_6050.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuVf7y9oMb_YYlIwPYmKF9T1ootTk1WHv2xtVFVa3E_DOYgQLbtU5t84pYicc5SK3ou2cAeQkLJAJsidDlNAwn3BCzy3WsMbZXjXUomWdg0kUI4MW1Y7goiCRrBYrlch1TvZdRpBQq/s640/1431761564.603994.IMG_6050.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXcHYgLwPu32RIBYQnzLeUXurYqsb04JC6wQqZXdauKFlVApwer3z_zl2dImBVV0o3FyEomTwERo5kGNeyl_Kr32NN4XzCtuctYI9DAlijarK5PJ3RZy_4EMNr7Pem7-LihNSwmbY/s1600/image+(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXcHYgLwPu32RIBYQnzLeUXurYqsb04JC6wQqZXdauKFlVApwer3z_zl2dImBVV0o3FyEomTwERo5kGNeyl_Kr32NN4XzCtuctYI9DAlijarK5PJ3RZy_4EMNr7Pem7-LihNSwmbY/s640/image+(1).jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
cathedral cove beach, north island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc4y0nT1OCwWVjfeNoGjO44cPUbdTqFJlkfHGNFOtipc96X3GbSLBgAi5x0i7c-s5IIRmeTkSzI4syPUWCs3j_5BXPjc2p68gBMdHAACF2KyvU-x2qgoywSMQl4iCc23yKoH6EaSqj/s1600/DSCF2479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc4y0nT1OCwWVjfeNoGjO44cPUbdTqFJlkfHGNFOtipc96X3GbSLBgAi5x0i7c-s5IIRmeTkSzI4syPUWCs3j_5BXPjc2p68gBMdHAACF2KyvU-x2qgoywSMQl4iCc23yKoH6EaSqj/s640/DSCF2479.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOKCBTf8hPK3WRIgkYVZKC_drumO80XForMHpNOVPffu79JkmYI83oZDAlXiWslw2jOvNJH5azcfetlTzaLW1coucjevVKyYO-AWjeJKI9-CJJl1SJA0jptaxu0-ipS5HsCwgBNMKy/s1600/DSCF2475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOKCBTf8hPK3WRIgkYVZKC_drumO80XForMHpNOVPffu79JkmYI83oZDAlXiWslw2jOvNJH5azcfetlTzaLW1coucjevVKyYO-AWjeJKI9-CJJl1SJA0jptaxu0-ipS5HsCwgBNMKy/s640/DSCF2475.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHsAiDQGuaiAz2akjAFR7n8-L4nNpyKDBT46se2bw-zgHP0-YdvZCnElXwHzGkvnz_O3cN72SC8fm8bFfJTQq6ib6PFWzuydVgT3XrYkGE7tsBoVIH_8DEnfr2-gg30ozEiUXZbET/s1600/DSCF2515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHsAiDQGuaiAz2akjAFR7n8-L4nNpyKDBT46se2bw-zgHP0-YdvZCnElXwHzGkvnz_O3cN72SC8fm8bFfJTQq6ib6PFWzuydVgT3XrYkGE7tsBoVIH_8DEnfr2-gg30ozEiUXZbET/s640/DSCF2515.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCuSkVuJKFt8c_c18G0pOPolgjFV3R0zpQGuSoKqvcVJ83yDZxWxLXEnc6lRlSqbMlqspQMiaHMBRQMKJSjPPuZKlZX1ofHfMjQtd0JEJujw7bkwL4dNncgJsmvib3xeeExiTDD33/s1600/DSCF2522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCuSkVuJKFt8c_c18G0pOPolgjFV3R0zpQGuSoKqvcVJ83yDZxWxLXEnc6lRlSqbMlqspQMiaHMBRQMKJSjPPuZKlZX1ofHfMjQtd0JEJujw7bkwL4dNncgJsmvib3xeeExiTDD33/s640/DSCF2522.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMF3tASg470tFJtb5cb11uHGHPQRg4V9dFHjbO9OsA_bOOQkbTCap7oFCQbxtiiqXZBngS57WhEIWt5MbldlBh4eft2TXdv3bSMIQ6WXE3PTJ_5pqpiwTdIfGM6ZxCGqpXJoDqLAs3/s1600/DSCF2518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMF3tASg470tFJtb5cb11uHGHPQRg4V9dFHjbO9OsA_bOOQkbTCap7oFCQbxtiiqXZBngS57WhEIWt5MbldlBh4eft2TXdv3bSMIQ6WXE3PTJ_5pqpiwTdIfGM6ZxCGqpXJoDqLAs3/s640/DSCF2518.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
our last night in the van, north island</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELy1sJPbdE8tLEQtZy78Z8jDA0Uj2dg_GXqbS-SICLscFzMQrxp5Y2eKs9WvhNflQKfbp0vNULwD6HpelZW98TTC0QY7SQH_QdmPFBHMBnzc_iWz8dZn3mVcjrbnKqZPYpjRqQdjk/s1600/1431761460.727597.IMG_6087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELy1sJPbdE8tLEQtZy78Z8jDA0Uj2dg_GXqbS-SICLscFzMQrxp5Y2eKs9WvhNflQKfbp0vNULwD6HpelZW98TTC0QY7SQH_QdmPFBHMBnzc_iWz8dZn3mVcjrbnKqZPYpjRqQdjk/s640/1431761460.727597.IMG_6087.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcvheQKERy_r7HnPpQKNJgtA91qigVhzy84CbGtC4fslHeFx5ZcpiD7SHB4L2Fwi5mHGTUD_V14ktrhyphenhyphenmeQSxBPzyHDhab5YNNLXOQguavDHuOKfgoCcytBHAS3dCfAp3LNRRy-X6/s1600/DSCF2550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcvheQKERy_r7HnPpQKNJgtA91qigVhzy84CbGtC4fslHeFx5ZcpiD7SHB4L2Fwi5mHGTUD_V14ktrhyphenhyphenmeQSxBPzyHDhab5YNNLXOQguavDHuOKfgoCcytBHAS3dCfAp3LNRRy-X6/s640/DSCF2550.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
+ excess</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2iyrfwvHlLq8i1iJEJp4jR-OuNBi1cAryNI8gAT52y4P-cQ1YYUKRWHd6SH60As4TkfFvi5dZJLs33V2rbO5IOm4h76Q8g9ROZqGF1F94JMqvuEh7EYTP0_wJ1exJ2D40r3YZi6N/s1600/DSCF2324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2iyrfwvHlLq8i1iJEJp4jR-OuNBi1cAryNI8gAT52y4P-cQ1YYUKRWHd6SH60As4TkfFvi5dZJLs33V2rbO5IOm4h76Q8g9ROZqGF1F94JMqvuEh7EYTP0_wJ1exJ2D40r3YZi6N/s640/DSCF2324.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Kl_sKXEPStTflffzVfPyQmPsmu7MDaoJWz6Q9RmTFZOKOGHPOnnahDHez3KOPJstik5rMBsXPdkmooQ7agGu5I2aeui_wTbTnYFfytmSC_qBVVPC60VBr6ZOMNFXBi2o9rycEnOO/s1600/DSCF2510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Kl_sKXEPStTflffzVfPyQmPsmu7MDaoJWz6Q9RmTFZOKOGHPOnnahDHez3KOPJstik5rMBsXPdkmooQ7agGu5I2aeui_wTbTnYFfytmSC_qBVVPC60VBr6ZOMNFXBi2o9rycEnOO/s640/DSCF2510.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCxZA72nhnY3sjrqU5IkmOngpBiXNDH6iONB0wkOqEhSKTFXWZl-XQyW9UAICpv9yacLKhUveCBxV5HTtHiguVkzK6hqX1By0NNqPXZdbM9QGI4nZLKZce9QQjbRxJ4P_kFuP6C28/s1600/DSCF2183.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCxZA72nhnY3sjrqU5IkmOngpBiXNDH6iONB0wkOqEhSKTFXWZl-XQyW9UAICpv9yacLKhUveCBxV5HTtHiguVkzK6hqX1By0NNqPXZdbM9QGI4nZLKZce9QQjbRxJ4P_kFuP6C28/s640/DSCF2183.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PA9nZMB_AXzYeDnhR4aAL9ax7ee96fsnwoZQH9esFwVIiZhlOCKs1YZcC-lBxjNO0IpnniLO40QPdu2yx7RDu3X1JmhvvFOc41_ekCS1HCFkMX8UEFQQC2rgPwvjohzTN2T-NKo6/s1600/DSCF2297.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PA9nZMB_AXzYeDnhR4aAL9ax7ee96fsnwoZQH9esFwVIiZhlOCKs1YZcC-lBxjNO0IpnniLO40QPdu2yx7RDu3X1JmhvvFOc41_ekCS1HCFkMX8UEFQQC2rgPwvjohzTN2T-NKo6/s640/DSCF2297.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCAf3teta8qiWBDq4G_6xHQkhCfB2AIIii2pZtlBjC9Aw027z6ucOM6WviRcVcEN-w91k0zc2QvJVPJVwz-aChnz-zAOx8SQfjhLLCvSXdaILm9aRTxHoa3Fr2XMXMk-7lL6B-080/s1600/10983575_719880341465822_1716622750_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCAf3teta8qiWBDq4G_6xHQkhCfB2AIIii2pZtlBjC9Aw027z6ucOM6WviRcVcEN-w91k0zc2QvJVPJVwz-aChnz-zAOx8SQfjhLLCvSXdaILm9aRTxHoa3Fr2XMXMk-7lL6B-080/s640/10983575_719880341465822_1716622750_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
sundown and the auckland skyline/ auckland sky tower</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFCjyZ_LOlKUed_-xzBoEKSTgTmIu6vSpa9LsGo48_ijUDwjuJ-ne0q0J-rdjObpeps1_4lfn_YBcjUPmQXWG8iZTI2e1_U09EAqdEGW0ftz-sK9-GkGdIch6Xq42Fh8y_5QaqH9p/s1600/DSCF2627.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFCjyZ_LOlKUed_-xzBoEKSTgTmIu6vSpa9LsGo48_ijUDwjuJ-ne0q0J-rdjObpeps1_4lfn_YBcjUPmQXWG8iZTI2e1_U09EAqdEGW0ftz-sK9-GkGdIch6Xq42Fh8y_5QaqH9p/s640/DSCF2627.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEI766fJiqQKC08SzcrPfBAnVQGSVZ8b4mpBh5iEhyphenhyphen5mQfOsV4ju2ysI-9W-XCYhJqC9oRkEGmMCstzacvvBzOawd_ENDy4FFhG4kb6Ic1zu2QGent7VbWnTLPguvQb-l5tuPOWT1V/s1600/11008231_899931486723584_1802685651_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEI766fJiqQKC08SzcrPfBAnVQGSVZ8b4mpBh5iEhyphenhyphen5mQfOsV4ju2ysI-9W-XCYhJqC9oRkEGmMCstzacvvBzOawd_ENDy4FFhG4kb6Ic1zu2QGent7VbWnTLPguvQb-l5tuPOWT1V/s640/11008231_899931486723584_1802685651_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7M05W55dIv_k1RjG39Ec3SRRxUPLDc0as_UgEiLTrUOn7mODe7LzpHXh4yUuNwNh_8fxfrU_zkV7gHWn-UnK-WFmA0ygYlSHdZLfhTf1ZRUqQTPJBgn6S0pZw-lOyyhpQPYTly3YQ/s1600/DSCF2610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7M05W55dIv_k1RjG39Ec3SRRxUPLDc0as_UgEiLTrUOn7mODe7LzpHXh4yUuNwNh_8fxfrU_zkV7gHWn-UnK-WFmA0ygYlSHdZLfhTf1ZRUqQTPJBgn6S0pZw-lOyyhpQPYTly3YQ/s640/DSCF2610.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
for some amazing New Zealand + Australia pre-packaged and personalized tours, check out <a href="http://www.starigrandtours.com/nz-australia" target="_blank">Stari</a>!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
keep traveling </div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0New Zealand-40.900557 174.88597100000004-65.234714 133.57737700000004 -16.566399999999998 -143.805435tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-91163909645758409742015-04-28T04:55:00.001-07:002015-04-29T12:26:35.715-07:00crochet everything<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdMf8lWs1zbMiPdDE8_IpRQj_-rNqDky__d92oJ5CiP1edwDFAWze9258BAwth-IfM9JhN_vfflFJXWZirkir5IQ01ggJmzI1bUT2iV8TxIyTgSkcUIR1yQRg14V0J3cNkA9PP4fF/s1600/cheray-ziggy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdMf8lWs1zbMiPdDE8_IpRQj_-rNqDky__d92oJ5CiP1edwDFAWze9258BAwth-IfM9JhN_vfflFJXWZirkir5IQ01ggJmzI1bUT2iV8TxIyTgSkcUIR1yQRg14V0J3cNkA9PP4fF/s1600/cheray-ziggy.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Ok, how adorable are these? Generally, flats and flip-flops turn me off because of the materials the majority are made from, and every fifth pair on the street tends to look extremely similar. The intricate design and additional ankle material on these crochet babies gives me that exciting feeling, like: finally, a cute summer shoe that is not a flip-flop or flat, and is ethically made. Alana, the founder of Luludu, is an awesome gal, and we got to chat about how she found the women in Cambodia to help her make these shoes, and where her inspiration comes from.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnM7gMZEDghd5tcsJDSsPVvY-G2QVeCaQvHtN2N2oyigfMyUZ_YYFeY1RnyEVJqI3J0-E35eNchGtsO6n-eeB19paGbWrkUZD6FsKPIXnOlJNXdwB2ayt2xJoLUP-RDJcWUqpYjl9/s1600/cheray-mustard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnM7gMZEDghd5tcsJDSsPVvY-G2QVeCaQvHtN2N2oyigfMyUZ_YYFeY1RnyEVJqI3J0-E35eNchGtsO6n-eeB19paGbWrkUZD6FsKPIXnOlJNXdwB2ayt2xJoLUP-RDJcWUqpYjl9/s1600/cheray-mustard.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgIl0fnag8O93yootKWiPHrytKLmoKmtML4HkBlmgqHJooyAPupWzmW_JKoKJA-HfcUb06aSYLBmX-J0Ut4lGNzWRmHtoHpfKsPg-2P5Cby5GEH0gqS-rO3ZlJViTSuamT_FmbH6O/s1600/cheray-cream-front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgIl0fnag8O93yootKWiPHrytKLmoKmtML4HkBlmgqHJooyAPupWzmW_JKoKJA-HfcUb06aSYLBmX-J0Ut4lGNzWRmHtoHpfKsPg-2P5Cby5GEH0gqS-rO3ZlJViTSuamT_FmbH6O/s1600/cheray-cream-front.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div>
<b>1. I love that you moved to Byron Bay to figure things out before you started making shoes. Where are you from originally?</b><br />
<strong></strong> </div>
<div>
Originally I'm from Auckland, New Zealand. But I now live in the Gold Coast in Australia.<br />
</div>
<div>
<b>2. I'm curious about the story- how did you find the three women who make the beautiful Luludu shoes in Cambodia?</b><br />
<strong></strong> </div>
<div>
Great question, but with a very long answer! I will try to keep it as short as I can without losing any important details :)<br />
</div>
<div>
Once I made the decision that I wanted to expand my business, support women overseas and teach them the skill of making these shoes, I started searching everywhere I could for an ethical crochet business. As I was just starting this journey with only a small amount of experience (but a lot of hope), I knew I needed to work with a company that was already doing ethical crochet as I needed to have someone who could help with quality control and who I could communicate with for future orders. </div>
<div>
After months searching, I finally found an NGO in Cambodia who said they could help. I arrived in Phnom Penh in May 2014 ready to dive in, but then I found out our funding hadn't been approved and there was no guarantee on how long it would take to come through. The reason we had applied for funding was because we were going to work with a community who had been displaced by the government. They had been moved 1 hour away from the city and they desperately needed skills so they could start supporting their families as they could no longer afford to travel back to the city for work.</div>
<div>
After two months (I was only supposed to be in Cambodia for 6 weeks but was determined to stay as long as it would take) funding was finally approved, but when we finally got to the village we found out the majority of the women wanting to train with me were underage, and the rest were already employed as knitters. That same afternoon I also had a very disturbing experience seeing a kitten who had already been paralyzed being mistreated by the children there, so needless to say it was a very hard first day (I did take the kitten home with me and found someone to care for it). The next day the women who were helping me with training quit, so after two months of waiting it all fell apart very quickly.</div>
<div>
Still, I was determined not to give up. Earlier in my trip I had seen a store called tonlé, and I had read about how Rachel (the founder) was already doing something very similar to what I hoped to achieve - she had set up a very successful business based on transparency and kindness. But what is also really cool about <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">tonlé </span></span>is most of their clothing is made from the highest quality remnant fabric that would have otherwise ended up in landfills. </span>I reached out to her, just wanting to talk to someone who may be able to shed some light on what I was experiencing, and thats when she offered to help me. Tonlé also has a crochet team, their staff are all paid fairly and treated very well - it all started to fall into place. I then sat with three beautiful women for 6 weeks, training them on the in's and out's of how to make these shoes! <br />
</div>
<div>
<b>3. So many of us are accustomed to picturing awful sweat-shop production facilities when we think of products being made in Cambodia. Can you paint a picture for us of what your system looks like (an office space, do the women work at home)?</b><br />
<strong></strong> </div>
<div>
Tonlés workshop is great. Its open, bright, located in the city, and everyone is laughing and chatting all day. At lunch time they share food, have naps, or go home to see their families. There are many different teams - sewing, handwork (crochet or knitting), screenprinting, design etc, <br />
and each person works in the position that suits them best. <br />
</div>
<div>
There are no armed guards, no barbed wire or large walls, and no cattle trucks (common images from garment factory's around the world). It really is an amazing place for these men and women to work.<br />
</div>
<div>
<b>4. So in essence, when people purchase these shoes, can we say they are investing in helping three women in Cambodia to support themselves and their families?</b><br />
</div>
<div>
Definitely. I have heard stories from many staff who work for tonlé, and especially from the women who make my shoes and dreamcatchers. Their stories are full of hope, determination, and happiness, despite what they have experienced in their lives. Working for a company who treats them well and cares about them as individuals has changed their lives. They deserve to be treated with respect; as does every human on this earth, and I know that supporting labels such as Luludu and tonlé is the only way the industry can move from a very unsustainable business model to one who represents a story of change, fairness, and equality.<br />
</div>
<div>
<b>5. I love that the inspiration for this brand came from your moms old crochet shoes! I get so much inspiration from my moms clothing back in the 90s. Was there anything else that inspired the design/ colors of the line?</b><br />
<strong></strong> </div>
<div>
I find kindness and change inspiring. I'm always inspired by nature and its effortless beauty. I love the bohemian lifestyle - freedom, rawness, open hearts and minds. I also love things that are a little bit quirky or different, anything too perfect doesn't really appeal to me. And I love things that are intricate and detailed - so these shoes are really all of those things in one!<br />
<br />
Check out the array of their beautiful sunny slippers <a href="http://luludu.bigcartel.com/" target="_blank"><em>here</em></a><em>. </em>I cant wait to buy a pair.<br />
<em></em><br />
<em>--</em></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv8LRIfAUJ3aqkZ_N8lIGqxWolHKrFDXUWT8SDJmTKmcBzWgWHxGt7Pl0X9IhDwlhOUJCVEMT8Fh6nMQbSF5OBVUuBD7d-TAheZ-FSYqTQW878YQVOz5SLmnyAbgrzi5RMcIRX-FcT/s1600/image+(10).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv8LRIfAUJ3aqkZ_N8lIGqxWolHKrFDXUWT8SDJmTKmcBzWgWHxGt7Pl0X9IhDwlhOUJCVEMT8Fh6nMQbSF5OBVUuBD7d-TAheZ-FSYqTQW878YQVOz5SLmnyAbgrzi5RMcIRX-FcT/s1600/image+(10).jpeg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzZTErS8C80Obc5YCNF-hxJO0RNhaU_e5u3FTTyuDCpb6uoSRi9hbJI3ESOmHcamLbtPRa8TcSCgQpuQy7nggu39If9_TM-Y04JvMJ1Wy3ov4VyXQtSwmAhXiXH9woT-LuiWwNl7x/s1600/image+(11).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzZTErS8C80Obc5YCNF-hxJO0RNhaU_e5u3FTTyuDCpb6uoSRi9hbJI3ESOmHcamLbtPRa8TcSCgQpuQy7nggu39If9_TM-Y04JvMJ1Wy3ov4VyXQtSwmAhXiXH9woT-LuiWwNl7x/s1600/image+(11).jpeg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Around the same time I discovered Luludu, I was walking around in Bali and noticed the plethora or beautifully-made crochet things. I got this top (that doubles as a bathing suit) at a tiny shop, from the sweetest woman that made these in all sorts of colors and designs. If you're ever in Bali, you cant miss the lovely women hand-making them right in the street. </div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-19056360746781739772015-03-29T08:18:00.003-07:002015-03-29T10:17:35.487-07:00Anye's Heartcore Clothing Line <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I got the chance to virtually chat with Ryan Wright, the creator of the magical clothing brand Anye. Peep our email convo to find out how you can contribute to their animal liberation fund if you're an animal lover, how you can connect if you're an artist who wants to make a difference, and then check their website to find out how their creative pricing strategy looks out for you, too. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjina0ockLf1_QXoPMU1loOtzILTUNT2S6mQoN5gpjy4okXIzOuEF5O2U0-lo-et9LQ0vZCQMSto8HC4FmjyMeitxMhyg70G2coTwlJmgTADTFlDVCIEWlL4S62AmmtPftT8n-boAI2/s1600/Love+to+Love+I+(girls).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjina0ockLf1_QXoPMU1loOtzILTUNT2S6mQoN5gpjy4okXIzOuEF5O2U0-lo-et9LQ0vZCQMSto8HC4FmjyMeitxMhyg70G2coTwlJmgTADTFlDVCIEWlL4S62AmmtPftT8n-boAI2/s1600/Love+to+Love+I+(girls).JPG" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbnItdIHTH8f0o3ETp64WSCtF1rZNsulENGYPaPsUv78NvKRy7QcpwJy1_bXVm2GgZscQPGsp6jMwnnVOE_sS0nc9K2sxEaA4DNyuRRiNsfL-JLcHs7IimVx-eBpqs5STWhehBC1h/s1600/store-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbnItdIHTH8f0o3ETp64WSCtF1rZNsulENGYPaPsUv78NvKRy7QcpwJy1_bXVm2GgZscQPGsp6jMwnnVOE_sS0nc9K2sxEaA4DNyuRRiNsfL-JLcHs7IimVx-eBpqs5STWhehBC1h/s1600/store-12.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"Anye (the Sanskrit for “others”) is an innovative social enterprise promoting altruism, compassion, and loving-kindness. The basic premise of Anye is to encourage and promote cherishing others, which is rooted in the belief that this is what leads to human happiness"</span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">1. From your website, its clear that your inspiration came from your spiritual journey while you were in India. Was there a specific moment you can tell us about that directly inspired Anye?</span></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was doing a 4 month meditation retreat in India, in Bodh, Gaya, which is the place where Buddha became enlightened in fact! The Tara Children's Project is there. It is run by an amazing dharma centre called Root Institute. Anyway, during this retreat I really just became full of a deep desire to use my life to improve the lives of others. As I write that, it sounds a bit hokey but that is what happened. I really just felt a lot of love and compassion for all living beings and wanted to alleviate suffering any way that I could. TCP is an orphanage for children with HIV and having HIV in a place like India, where there is a lot of stigma, is pretty tough. India is huge and people often get left by the wayside there especially if they have a disability, are poor, have no familial support, or have a chronic illness. So being an orphan with HIV is a pretty tough spot to be in, anywhere, but especially in India! So the idea just popped into my head one day on a break from practicing, to use my creative energy to try and help these kiddos. Medication is free in India, which is amazing but getting an education is really the most important chance they have to overcome the stigma they face. And so that's where we are trying to help. Later we added the Pundarika Humanitarian Foundation because of the amazing education programs they provide for young girls from Nepal and Tibet, girls who wouldn't otherwise maybe get a chance to go to school.<br /><br /> To be honest, I'd likely still be in India and Nepal had I not got ill over there. I got really sick at the end of those 4 months and was forced to return to Canada. So, once home, I found amazing designers to get involved with me and we just started coming up with ideas. As a side note, Animal liberation is one of my favourite practices to do in Asia and so, after coming home, we just formalized that project as part of what we do here too! You can learn more about it at </span><a href="http://www.anye.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">www.anye.org</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> if you are interested.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><strong> 2. I love that your clothing is sweatshop free! Can you tell us where it's made, and by whom?</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">For our clothes, most of our stuff is printed locally in Saskatoon, Canada on Jerico blanks. Jerico is a socially conscious apparel supplier here in Canada. They are a really great company! We have also looked into using Me to We style blanks but haven't solidified anything with them yet. We used to print on Anvil Organic as well, especially for our mens stuff as they were really great to us when we first started out just printing for local customers.. We seem to equate sweatshop-free with Canadian made or US made, etc. So as of now Jerico is the company we like the best!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><strong> 3. Your monthly animal liberations are so cool! How can us animal lovers help you?</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The best way to help us is to donate to the monthly liberation project via our website. This is a way for people to directly contribute, save the lives of animals, and get a whole bunch of sweet, virtue karma!<br /><br /> Importantly, our animal liberation efforts are peaceful, meaning we purchase the animals. They involve a lot of prayers as well, prayers for the animals and their long lives, prayers for the upliftment of all life on this planet, prayers for the environment, etc. We also try to never buy from the same store/seller more than once so as not to create more of a market for the buying and selling of animals and insects and we always return the animals back to the same eco-system they came from. This is really important. As an example, if liberating fish or lobsters we make sure to put them back in the ocean or lake they came out of. Hopefully that all makes sense.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><strong> 4. I'm from New York City, and I know there are heaps of great artists who would love the opportunity to work with a brand like yours. How can they get in touch with you, and are there any qualifications?</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times;"></span></strong><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Anye is always looking for new artists to work with. So if you know of people we would love to hear from them. We don't have any set qualifications we are looking for really, just people who would like to collaborate for social good. Giulio Rossi is our main designer right now, and he has been so amazing to work with, but we are always looking to collaborate with new people as every artist has their own amazing talents and style! Our hope is to grow to a point where we can have numerous talented designers creating for the education programs and then Anye can, in turn, highlight these artist in every way possible! Kind of like one big community of altruism! This way we would be able to highlight the social and eco practices as well as promoting the work of each artist. You can see on our site that we have a call out for new artists that might want to work with us. We are always excited to connect with new people. <a href="http://www.anye.org/artists/" target="_blank">http://www.anye.org/artists/</a><span class="im"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="im"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Photos taken from Anye website. Thanks, Ryan!</div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-38192281645062213812015-02-28T23:51:00.000-08:002015-02-28T23:56:00.807-08:00Breakfast at Tiffanys <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT878nLHGYoDHSYkFIGIL6lcmqfZ4Ru_JtT66_3SNSzlO5uGz67K8IM2R0OZrm-sfnujDJhI5eQgFJzsKRqO2qyashdv9J20eIix-_RaqEVgVOUM1JIVcYFUM_cc9rNeoIoJooWGl2/s1600/tiffanydag2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT878nLHGYoDHSYkFIGIL6lcmqfZ4Ru_JtT66_3SNSzlO5uGz67K8IM2R0OZrm-sfnujDJhI5eQgFJzsKRqO2qyashdv9J20eIix-_RaqEVgVOUM1JIVcYFUM_cc9rNeoIoJooWGl2/s1600/tiffanydag2.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg32EQ4aDBAlxE1nnTA5Q3yP4yv4Fssxav24y3tzNUy7b4HzS3oYFs7uhR5ge9vYvXmzjiyofGnXunIQ2C2QipDpyL0s6S0i0fx7u2ZNfK-ccI69odKClfS-t81tJAlpdte0kv5ugqW/s1600/tiffanydag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg32EQ4aDBAlxE1nnTA5Q3yP4yv4Fssxav24y3tzNUy7b4HzS3oYFs7uhR5ge9vYvXmzjiyofGnXunIQ2C2QipDpyL0s6S0i0fx7u2ZNfK-ccI69odKClfS-t81tJAlpdte0kv5ugqW/s1600/tiffanydag.png" height="398" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
My aunt and I wanted to re-create this scene from Breakfast at Tiffany's for her class project in NYC, so we did. The dress and turtle neck are both from BCBGmaxazria, made from polyester and cotton, respectively. Pearls were artificial and from my grandmother (the best are). Also, lets pretend its normal to eat with gloves on, cause it was negative temperatures when these were taken.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4kddB63UZMhKMsn9eCPdu3emijKTH9ThuNBbMlmB0m5QaOBYYU3V2HQ6q5BdZawlenyWCzNr2D5Urpp9B-CQmpzZ0nibKvRkzEQOSt4ckSuKrypX3gbTeZqmdu2tZp6CflpburM7/s1600/pradadag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4kddB63UZMhKMsn9eCPdu3emijKTH9ThuNBbMlmB0m5QaOBYYU3V2HQ6q5BdZawlenyWCzNr2D5Urpp9B-CQmpzZ0nibKvRkzEQOSt4ckSuKrypX3gbTeZqmdu2tZp6CflpburM7/s1600/pradadag.png" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This one was supposed to be reminiscent of the many scenes from The Devil Wears Prada. This glorious white trench is my moms from way back. Were talking h&m circa 200...2? It reminds me of THIS glorious white trench: </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFQZxxO8pUrEhEJlJ1QG_6gLa0laUj2rAPQCztYaFOQqD8vm3ok2BOEGopzuvjUpgFLCJyRjlhMvyhSszn64ZfuQzbc6YMZAL0jCNB7Bee6Kk9uxgSb8sf2Jf8xEvsdhrRnV9yrny/s1600/trench.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFQZxxO8pUrEhEJlJ1QG_6gLa0laUj2rAPQCztYaFOQqD8vm3ok2BOEGopzuvjUpgFLCJyRjlhMvyhSszn64ZfuQzbc6YMZAL0jCNB7Bee6Kk9uxgSb8sf2Jf8xEvsdhrRnV9yrny/s1600/trench.png" height="400" width="256" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Made from cotton velvet on <em><a href="http://www.karenmillen.com/washed-velvet-trench-coat/sale-clothing/karenmillen/fcp-product/013CJ00345?lng=&ctry=GB" target="_blank">Karen Millen</a></em>. </div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-87301499896783335172014-12-15T04:55:00.000-08:002014-12-15T04:56:59.408-08:00Michelle Obama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiccPJeb9ytoQ8rq-gvMW3s8Bmw9HThpCKSE9oisWZbK5ZeQrq1UeBvI6klO3Bacl6ZovdFcOWCYezOVKE85_K3LL1DXLEKCtpWWJY8Vfwd9Z7FIGm8h2mPXbdFwTaBN1ISuIMzk8n/s1600/vogue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiccPJeb9ytoQ8rq-gvMW3s8Bmw9HThpCKSE9oisWZbK5ZeQrq1UeBvI6klO3Bacl6ZovdFcOWCYezOVKE85_K3LL1DXLEKCtpWWJY8Vfwd9Z7FIGm8h2mPXbdFwTaBN1ISuIMzk8n/s1600/vogue.jpg" height="496" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mlUqvAPZOrEUKcFFJAtfVCHWAkVXvvAsXwShcgJUJLdUcCn2EW4xGqzG4FyAo3pGY_EoQqh7nUEhpq0evnzvh9kKfNf6ywZQQeiR9gpTs8Ys5jZ-P82YVyhUVig6-X4E9vg9JPBb/s1600/unnamed+(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mlUqvAPZOrEUKcFFJAtfVCHWAkVXvvAsXwShcgJUJLdUcCn2EW4xGqzG4FyAo3pGY_EoQqh7nUEhpq0evnzvh9kKfNf6ywZQQeiR9gpTs8Ys5jZ-P82YVyhUVig6-X4E9vg9JPBb/s1600/unnamed+(2).png" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
These are from a shoot with my aunt themed "try to look as much as possible like Carrie Bradshaw."</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
There's something about the Michelle Obama/ hand-me-down-shirt-from-my-mom combination that makes me feel oddly empowered looking back at these photos.</div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-91831219864014195422014-12-15T04:44:00.001-08:002014-12-15T04:44:23.094-08:00Green Carpet Challenge <div style="text-align: center;">
Does the McCartney family ever fail to amaze you? Stella recently debuted <i>thee </i>most sustainable validated collection, and aside from that amazing fact within itself, the entire event looks like, what I would imagine, fashion utopia would look like. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnx5qrMc87mtUiU54QSQNvuriQHObna6dcdXaKQO74z0FcFI2vgEI1lA7G5TmA3vy9QrCX8cSumoec-blsLpLYDm5_hPmW_3eHcO87vhl7AClyiFX2UBinOxcgA1D3dSpoHeyaXqb/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.27.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnx5qrMc87mtUiU54QSQNvuriQHObna6dcdXaKQO74z0FcFI2vgEI1lA7G5TmA3vy9QrCX8cSumoec-blsLpLYDm5_hPmW_3eHcO87vhl7AClyiFX2UBinOxcgA1D3dSpoHeyaXqb/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.27.13.jpg" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgderaym0u_BYluFYx20KXMHjIxIPAwVky2GeiUh23K5mN4YPP0zdrWFU5XLB3phJ0zFhZ7Q3i15NB3t__ilz-Pf-scSHmMzZ1tY5oK99pe6Oq__7RXcT1kDdJpShdJlfLIMKAFiSF2/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.28.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgderaym0u_BYluFYx20KXMHjIxIPAwVky2GeiUh23K5mN4YPP0zdrWFU5XLB3phJ0zFhZ7Q3i15NB3t__ilz-Pf-scSHmMzZ1tY5oK99pe6Oq__7RXcT1kDdJpShdJlfLIMKAFiSF2/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.28.33.jpg" height="438" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbJM2RUy_-zXPVuvwbioOoksqvrKuGem8AjXyF8GF4zzMNcxX0VCuivJ9FWTlFwbIRhBsKik_JtF6uAHjwAXdrJ1QIXMPCvo7mPFmo7N953nLT9BzNNnyceK1Y5eiafKOjd2oixuM/s1600/holding-04-green-carpet-challenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbJM2RUy_-zXPVuvwbioOoksqvrKuGem8AjXyF8GF4zzMNcxX0VCuivJ9FWTlFwbIRhBsKik_JtF6uAHjwAXdrJ1QIXMPCvo7mPFmo7N953nLT9BzNNnyceK1Y5eiafKOjd2oixuM/s1600/holding-04-green-carpet-challenge.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcnI6JnqC0s1uFXG-nUPg_inCBncJmyqu4KcuaqHCzX7WH5LHymrl246rGkOO9oVA7a2Z-LBkXSG_DoVu_SrkQCSEwdHp44EsvY7MKcPavcsxrCuWWeAsaj_qbD1ozU3Lo6tTgOMG/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.28.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcnI6JnqC0s1uFXG-nUPg_inCBncJmyqu4KcuaqHCzX7WH5LHymrl246rGkOO9oVA7a2Z-LBkXSG_DoVu_SrkQCSEwdHp44EsvY7MKcPavcsxrCuWWeAsaj_qbD1ozU3Lo6tTgOMG/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.28.47.jpg" height="446" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfSIb6c7JalCp6BFNlWgEwslwS630OmEBY1nMc8GeMlTfexOYK6eiqQKk9ZSZLlqNIzfXzhWp-b7CKvUOrtI776_XCRPUV1wHaTA-dHM6DsPdPqe5Fg1WC7E9i34BivwZ1F_vrUtZ/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.28.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfSIb6c7JalCp6BFNlWgEwslwS630OmEBY1nMc8GeMlTfexOYK6eiqQKk9ZSZLlqNIzfXzhWp-b7CKvUOrtI776_XCRPUV1wHaTA-dHM6DsPdPqe5Fg1WC7E9i34BivwZ1F_vrUtZ/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.28.11.jpg" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzqCNp2ncmMAq66p3mY6nlxv14O_YQzoxOmeaTUaZbLxQ6csAt6sJBPkFxuWjhqe2-UZ0kpJT55HHRRuzJx8NHL4BfYD2UmOZqWKbkwBQDrabHOck-99KTVy6ISAehnn_WClqonPG6/s1600/stella-presentation-vogue-1-15sep14-getty_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzqCNp2ncmMAq66p3mY6nlxv14O_YQzoxOmeaTUaZbLxQ6csAt6sJBPkFxuWjhqe2-UZ0kpJT55HHRRuzJx8NHL4BfYD2UmOZqWKbkwBQDrabHOck-99KTVy6ISAehnn_WClqonPG6/s1600/stella-presentation-vogue-1-15sep14-getty_b.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqwXq8Tq9rStQqFgcPl_mSo4zCKvn86SuhARP0Fd1RLthbYjY5WavDn69R7MesRevaaLpUovfRWbupG_lv_rt1vlq_MuzhYy3MxNb6h47-Tc_gUWnhcDqZb97YsIH5vBYodZtj6SX4/s1600/zoom_gcc_lookbook_carousel_279x464px_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqwXq8Tq9rStQqFgcPl_mSo4zCKvn86SuhARP0Fd1RLthbYjY5WavDn69R7MesRevaaLpUovfRWbupG_lv_rt1vlq_MuzhYy3MxNb6h47-Tc_gUWnhcDqZb97YsIH5vBYodZtj6SX4/s1600/zoom_gcc_lookbook_carousel_279x464px_7.jpg" height="400" width="243" /></a></div>
Not to mention, the list of people who attended in support!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCp81QqP5r1EeBNaXoEqU_KPPxmrJoLaqC7wE5_hyphenhyphenlfCFUhEUUll04Dkwvb7oLtZGAv3FfigZh0hVUYtD5UoTJz6lnb-FTWxD8i8NpQ1RhoByLKa1Oj7EAzWz4XJC1RZf7U5bUATD/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.27.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCp81QqP5r1EeBNaXoEqU_KPPxmrJoLaqC7wE5_hyphenhyphenlfCFUhEUUll04Dkwvb7oLtZGAv3FfigZh0hVUYtD5UoTJz6lnb-FTWxD8i8NpQ1RhoByLKa1Oj7EAzWz4XJC1RZf7U5bUATD/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-10+05.27.55.jpg" height="388" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68t-kO3Bi5kB3LsFLAJoZ5n2kCliEM2dogZrCzh1rYSkTMmhoaMalY3KD9ufrCQAWJ5cfejFifLCr7T6v9QdLr9twEsfMHvJS-Z23AYgI_yasDA_JwfGvJJnQm-321VujcCh2TC5Y/s1600/Natalie-Massenet_Anna-Wintour_Stella-McCartney_Livia-Firth_Stella-McCartney-for-the-Green-Carpet-Challenge_Eco-Age.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68t-kO3Bi5kB3LsFLAJoZ5n2kCliEM2dogZrCzh1rYSkTMmhoaMalY3KD9ufrCQAWJ5cfejFifLCr7T6v9QdLr9twEsfMHvJS-Z23AYgI_yasDA_JwfGvJJnQm-321VujcCh2TC5Y/s1600/Natalie-Massenet_Anna-Wintour_Stella-McCartney_Livia-Firth_Stella-McCartney-for-the-Green-Carpet-Challenge_Eco-Age.jpg" height="392" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCBeWWWUA0hvdeiqeiAiP4fRM-MYqQ_8ElE2Eq7xEmuzUHTTj13Y4ynEDFdH6QRCkq0DWQJWUBhzWBGG-28OuTCU0ynA_c_QMa82KVa9GDz16Dt1yIaQKXpNh77M8bO-AcbMqWYqH/s1600/Drew-Barrymore-Vogue-15Sept14-pr_b_426x639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCBeWWWUA0hvdeiqeiAiP4fRM-MYqQ_8ElE2Eq7xEmuzUHTTj13Y4ynEDFdH6QRCkq0DWQJWUBhzWBGG-28OuTCU0ynA_c_QMa82KVa9GDz16Dt1yIaQKXpNh77M8bO-AcbMqWYqH/s1600/Drew-Barrymore-Vogue-15Sept14-pr_b_426x639.jpg" height="640" width="425" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgomu7tg7BJ66xlq6teLqBRZ1VgwVdMLO4O2Gfzl8fcs_WcnGA5GMcWGymc2q4eVBPtZF8TLLDOMtt5XmracYEvmD1xLevl8SP47IYtQuDnbtbYCFw1N_lO6XabRFTx41E_Hlfgijy8/s1600/tumblr_nbwu7znKM71tw8jjuo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgomu7tg7BJ66xlq6teLqBRZ1VgwVdMLO4O2Gfzl8fcs_WcnGA5GMcWGymc2q4eVBPtZF8TLLDOMtt5XmracYEvmD1xLevl8SP47IYtQuDnbtbYCFw1N_lO6XabRFTx41E_Hlfgijy8/s1600/tumblr_nbwu7znKM71tw8jjuo1_500.png" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
If you know me, you know how much I love M.I.A,you know I've idolized Daisy, and that I love Rita. So naturally, this picture makes me really excited.<br />
<br />
The collection was showed in a serious of walk-through rooms, from what I understand, each designed after a movie set such as <i>Les Miserables</i>, using all sustainable wood and decor! Also, Stella was asked to participate in the Green Carpet Challenge as a one product participant. But of course, she offered to design an entire collection. I'm a happy fan of her overachiever spirit.<br />
<br />
I don't know about you, but beautiful models being drawn by artists in mini laced-tops and casually laughing in white gowns sounds a lot like utopia to me.<br />
<br /></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-85692957601175324702014-12-14T10:43:00.001-08:002014-12-14T10:43:50.887-08:00eVolstyle<div style="text-align: center;">
A big thanks to this amazing vegan fashion blog, eVolstyle, featuring me recently on their website. I am so beyond thrilled that blogs like this exist, and that I'm not the only one on the planet who gets a kick out of the challenge of finding clothing that is environmentally and animal-friendly. I feel like this is still such a small community, but the support within the community is increasingly inspiring.<br />
<br />
Her blog gives great tips how to live a conscious consumer lifestyle, and fab vegan finds.<br />
She is a basically a pro.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAmHcYt56uKpm3K9XfMEFuwyShX-Er91453Cl4Rw4Zpl0O0mym3a8-6W_YDIMv5gHUlxMQRdJpqZqOGSrTxfU_PdrGCdi0jWJEOtBM5p0VUpyRgsiBsZyRiCvXk4Xu71cpLQrUdI3/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-14+13.30.38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAmHcYt56uKpm3K9XfMEFuwyShX-Er91453Cl4Rw4Zpl0O0mym3a8-6W_YDIMv5gHUlxMQRdJpqZqOGSrTxfU_PdrGCdi0jWJEOtBM5p0VUpyRgsiBsZyRiCvXk4Xu71cpLQrUdI3/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-14+13.30.38.jpg" height="300" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmtBkuCh9QbHpB72fKrhaX1tCvHDfkDk7yVWxB5FE6ODJZruWNp1OYUTj00Fk9e3xNOJS3XD2J0OYgLM-wrKpAHsFNlYbn7DxV_lVZaY3gXDAM8_LDVVCl7eOKUSi8ySlA2WVJ273/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-14+13.36.53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmtBkuCh9QbHpB72fKrhaX1tCvHDfkDk7yVWxB5FE6ODJZruWNp1OYUTj00Fk9e3xNOJS3XD2J0OYgLM-wrKpAHsFNlYbn7DxV_lVZaY3gXDAM8_LDVVCl7eOKUSi8ySlA2WVJ273/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-14+13.36.53.jpg" height="340" width="640" /></a></div>
Check her out <a href="http://www.evolstyle.me/" target="_blank">here</a>, and obviously check out her fave list. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-62245851466707140772014-12-08T21:14:00.000-08:002014-12-08T21:14:34.030-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
Just reminiscing over one of the oldest Jeffrey Campbell shoes I have that are a little too worn to wear right now. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3YnQDQOauBSabPlH0lu3uhJiVvAclusSalEbtLRH91WlSHX1ZNnbTRKw2vmh2HNYXiwHbTT6o6yzEi69UmYeHTKGvz8vFcmkJAbuYwrmUiQ3IsJhHe4QUARauGUr6UYENL632CAGk/s1600/unnamed+(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3YnQDQOauBSabPlH0lu3uhJiVvAclusSalEbtLRH91WlSHX1ZNnbTRKw2vmh2HNYXiwHbTT6o6yzEi69UmYeHTKGvz8vFcmkJAbuYwrmUiQ3IsJhHe4QUARauGUr6UYENL632CAGk/s1600/unnamed+(1).png" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-42489094057355195472014-11-19T21:08:00.000-08:002014-11-19T21:08:35.625-08:00High Fashion<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's talk HIGH fashion. </span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1vYm14jE_K4_nwH7mskGVHmylw4i3o22tnnWK8wRKbOrdcoNm7wweqvKUyecaz1qAgAR0PqqKSLqN75dvpUpaePLt2UDIZcqQoyHAzjAWMYvuhX47CGi1D_xQC4kSCBAVOHAkq0i/s1600/44740353gn_11_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1vYm14jE_K4_nwH7mskGVHmylw4i3o22tnnWK8wRKbOrdcoNm7wweqvKUyecaz1qAgAR0PqqKSLqN75dvpUpaePLt2UDIZcqQoyHAzjAWMYvuhX47CGi1D_xQC4kSCBAVOHAkq0i/s1600/44740353gn_11_f.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmENJpOAOVFzlMqLwvtlgW49biuImvLa-zIcLASwm9eOMyQ6iir8PLhIJ72YjcNif23pWwQEY0s35ZGQwSGntPsAB7ZY3kNt5yn8g8hP5SO2bTKpct8YK5SwkP-ngMjdiizkqzEzv/s1600/44740353gn_11_d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmENJpOAOVFzlMqLwvtlgW49biuImvLa-zIcLASwm9eOMyQ6iir8PLhIJ72YjcNif23pWwQEY0s35ZGQwSGntPsAB7ZY3kNt5yn8g8hP5SO2bTKpct8YK5SwkP-ngMjdiizkqzEzv/s1600/44740353gn_11_d.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF_373xCEel_asop7o-EkIymvc7k6fvINfKhWY0vh30cNH8BDInhScEYt0mHxaIR1ZW3ikCw2Lz754cR4R2isq6QeKYGuwXjZcD4flypJgxDZLQMornzFoDhprj5F9DtvvW-Ol3u1m/s1600/44740351fk_11_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF_373xCEel_asop7o-EkIymvc7k6fvINfKhWY0vh30cNH8BDInhScEYt0mHxaIR1ZW3ikCw2Lz754cR4R2isq6QeKYGuwXjZcD4flypJgxDZLQMornzFoDhprj5F9DtvvW-Ol3u1m/s1600/44740351fk_11_f.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Stella McCartney, just how tall <i>are</i> you? </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I am far too clumsy for these babies, but I figured they're worth sharing, because, I mean, WOW. They're made partially from <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">Polyurethane which is a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links.</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">But these high babies,</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvZ37S4Xnn1MWeHiKhHBcMXfwVXgzGtLZIAXM1ZJA5bor8YIZCtvrl4cXHSSQxDxpoHNJkTn-ZI9XCWmtYX7pIzxADqLw3JbixWdoEBRosyKRfK3MjvQZM0VaM5PeRblRx2wamphZ/s1600/44725159ek_11_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvZ37S4Xnn1MWeHiKhHBcMXfwVXgzGtLZIAXM1ZJA5bor8YIZCtvrl4cXHSSQxDxpoHNJkTn-ZI9XCWmtYX7pIzxADqLw3JbixWdoEBRosyKRfK3MjvQZM0VaM5PeRblRx2wamphZ/s1600/44725159ek_11_f.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCs4F6YLwqFo4_JyeDJWCSteWfPf70ekZgVaaup1u4uaZpA2XI_nUjOTXWHOdqqT4BJCC27Yxh6QF8aSyQlaMZzdILN5UrHowkWujsq2uUI8aS9yGHg8LR3kVKaAvRZ3s5vxMaSZZ/s1600/44725159ek_11_d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCs4F6YLwqFo4_JyeDJWCSteWfPf70ekZgVaaup1u4uaZpA2XI_nUjOTXWHOdqqT4BJCC27Yxh6QF8aSyQlaMZzdILN5UrHowkWujsq2uUI8aS9yGHg8LR3kVKaAvRZ3s5vxMaSZZ/s1600/44725159ek_11_d.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">I would gladly wear. </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">"</span><span style="color: #030000; letter-spacing: 1.5px; line-height: 16px;">55% Polyurethane, 45% Polyester</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #030000; letter-spacing: 1.5px; line-height: 16px;">This item is created from non-leather, cruelty-free materials using highly skilled manufacturing techniques.</span></span><span style="color: #030000; letter-spacing: 1.5px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center;">This is part of our ongoing commitment to animal and eco friendly fashion." - Stella McCartney (Website)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I know, I know, I JUST posted myself wearing a new pair of black boots. I need help. </div>
</span>gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-31637487913006608242014-09-06T08:20:00.000-07:002014-09-06T08:20:55.369-07:00Grandt Mason<div style="text-align: center;">
I think I found my shoe soul mate. <b>Sustainable? </b>Check. <b>Vegan? </b>Check. <b>Carefully made? </b>Check. <b>Beautiful? </b>Check!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Grandt Mason is a former product development student who couldn't find a brand of shoes that were made with careful craft and love, so he created one- in South Africa! These babies are made with no animals, are made locally (employing the community), entirely environmentally friendly. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Mason envisions his vegan footwear as a solution to mass-produced
products and a way to reinvigorate artisan skills as well as ethical,
consumer choices. “I hope that our product conveys the love and energy
that has been poured into it. Every pair is entirely unique and with age
develops its individual character. This is the opposite of the
mass-produced footwear available on the market. Sustainability and fair
trade are very important to us and are at the heart of every decision
made on all levels of our operation. These decisions coupled with a
unique approach to design, dictate the look and feel of our footwear.” - Ecouterre</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJcxULW1wmavEoqt0ywbEHtI-m5v80kPIKv2uhF1DN3ARZnp5uVxothbxLQH2aEc64CHmGXp0gGl1hzUeehYn63D8Dsf6bViCP6Zmt4ckylapXqBra3JsMiT84t-Ck5W9Pj0ACmT2f/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-06+at+10.38.58+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJcxULW1wmavEoqt0ywbEHtI-m5v80kPIKv2uhF1DN3ARZnp5uVxothbxLQH2aEc64CHmGXp0gGl1hzUeehYn63D8Dsf6bViCP6Zmt4ckylapXqBra3JsMiT84t-Ck5W9Pj0ACmT2f/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-06+at+10.38.58+AM.png" height="442" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1ObqH4JECuG6RzHlci-bUa-dEkg_W3FseXdtSWdZsUlldz73ACwht9C8LCm4dd_xPVh4VvkBlExcU0-vnNCQVcw2881xQgenn52YBC7TPEUMonkKHP18gHcSgD8F1JW82Zli6sJn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-06+at+11.12.28+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1ObqH4JECuG6RzHlci-bUa-dEkg_W3FseXdtSWdZsUlldz73ACwht9C8LCm4dd_xPVh4VvkBlExcU0-vnNCQVcw2881xQgenn52YBC7TPEUMonkKHP18gHcSgD8F1JW82Zli6sJn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-06+at+11.12.28+AM.png" height="448" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgER5LU3flLXHGzTdA6pZh-ZBXkfpeD2F3g0vkUU6nQ1cWnpi1ID_RP-0JJPHcYMEloBVEmIUKHrXUPG8OQmtVqNep-vXhhZenZhvuegz4ZeA6SuqdNdjiQ6-kIxSul6TuUj-BugCJW/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-06+at+10.38.40+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgER5LU3flLXHGzTdA6pZh-ZBXkfpeD2F3g0vkUU6nQ1cWnpi1ID_RP-0JJPHcYMEloBVEmIUKHrXUPG8OQmtVqNep-vXhhZenZhvuegz4ZeA6SuqdNdjiQ6-kIxSul6TuUj-BugCJW/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-09-06+at+10.38.40+AM.png" height="476" width="640" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Also, how cool are the interiors of this store? </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Happy New York Fashion Week, everyone!<i><br /></i></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-46405514208079757152014-04-25T10:32:00.001-07:002021-01-31T01:04:11.027-08:00Bangladesh: Fashion Revolution<div style="text-align: center;">
Yesterday was April 24th, the one year anniversary of the Savar building's collapse in Bangladesh. This building was showing clear signs that it was extremely unsafe to work in, and the employers told the workers to continue working as they were, ignoring the signs. This resulted in more than 1,000 deaths. Fashionrevolution.org created a day we can acknowledge that factory workers around the world are not getting the proper care and attention they need and deserve. It gave us a day we can spread awareness about the unfair conditions of the fashion industry, world-wide. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/world/asia/report-on-bangladesh-building-collapse-finds-widespread-blame.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Here</a> </i></u></b>is a New York Times article that you can read for more information. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The dedication of this organization is amazing, and the response was overwhelming. To anyone who participated: you are awesome.<br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilmcH2QqqaXBQYDC3B7yKnRdKcavlfvopLDcyIrPgbiC3bWc8N4sc8G79VjfmmHOpH6-EZLZZ-Cuw7dzqA3V6BjPyE0oS4KinMSX5Sziw9NI-xVGWZrpnx1DlznBoqHPyGFxgjg0Yh/s1600/Dhaka_Savar_Building_Collapse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilmcH2QqqaXBQYDC3B7yKnRdKcavlfvopLDcyIrPgbiC3bWc8N4sc8G79VjfmmHOpH6-EZLZZ-Cuw7dzqA3V6BjPyE0oS4KinMSX5Sziw9NI-xVGWZrpnx1DlznBoqHPyGFxgjg0Yh/s1600/Dhaka_Savar_Building_Collapse.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU7HiiiUr8UifCgz5zFiQsDxm4n_mP4AwQBFPFOKs4ME_hI8RohLjMjXARQZS67skv3h3Aohwe_VYy8QZ8dz5jwDiVEiGtHK32cnWoivJa1ZpkYujoaT5FcuEwcUDlMMlmMgksY4zD/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.40.11+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU7HiiiUr8UifCgz5zFiQsDxm4n_mP4AwQBFPFOKs4ME_hI8RohLjMjXARQZS67skv3h3Aohwe_VYy8QZ8dz5jwDiVEiGtHK32cnWoivJa1ZpkYujoaT5FcuEwcUDlMMlmMgksY4zD/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.40.11+PM.png" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxzryeG-n-mAoRKVmbwePwjGg5XZY2haY9FpzkuuzgmTKSUYUMRwGRfxqsHYjsDNivO8EZb8Pgl1j7d54C-3oVkmiPD9QjpMqNpkj1NTslcmn4RKx9icd1vtBHHuExzDA4SEnzfZ5/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.40.24+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxzryeG-n-mAoRKVmbwePwjGg5XZY2haY9FpzkuuzgmTKSUYUMRwGRfxqsHYjsDNivO8EZb8Pgl1j7d54C-3oVkmiPD9QjpMqNpkj1NTslcmn4RKx9icd1vtBHHuExzDA4SEnzfZ5/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.40.24+PM.png" height="418" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZVRwxKOGXxeMl9WJgb1ivJlvnDo9WRpDp9UONf0a-OL4bApYdDENTMgFztpWHiL7_EOrg7IV1WwuNNaC69T0XyFFr0umaeCl4gFYj76wyiPiLtbuUOItUSOqVVfqclPBTaW0ClscW/s1600/Selena-factory-Made-in-China01-PBR-700x571.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZVRwxKOGXxeMl9WJgb1ivJlvnDo9WRpDp9UONf0a-OL4bApYdDENTMgFztpWHiL7_EOrg7IV1WwuNNaC69T0XyFFr0umaeCl4gFYj76wyiPiLtbuUOItUSOqVVfqclPBTaW0ClscW/s1600/Selena-factory-Made-in-China01-PBR-700x571.jpg" height="521" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCttJhlP2o07DzXaaeDQqTn3rcLHiV_lWXaIJRVI8umn5igEh7wuIIrY-diPfGuv_TwlTrYjUfOfItuW9uhcZSJHrhlD8U_vDTLalLmejllHG0OEywu13ftmCcj0Tl6I9TtwkIBDUy/s1600/Made-in-China07-PBR-700x566.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCttJhlP2o07DzXaaeDQqTn3rcLHiV_lWXaIJRVI8umn5igEh7wuIIrY-diPfGuv_TwlTrYjUfOfItuW9uhcZSJHrhlD8U_vDTLalLmejllHG0OEywu13ftmCcj0Tl6I9TtwkIBDUy/s1600/Made-in-China07-PBR-700x566.jpg" height="516" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV7sKW_RapxnUs3yDfPcFRh0tDz77cYBF9Bb3xa0UoFzdJBY4a96tvE0aouHRGo4q7eea-_B4nyI1VsD2F_EP9TC5P63WGFWBnNK821hYpvhbI7e4gs8Thu6vh2YTzQsisTyG4XKXP/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.19.07+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV7sKW_RapxnUs3yDfPcFRh0tDz77cYBF9Bb3xa0UoFzdJBY4a96tvE0aouHRGo4q7eea-_B4nyI1VsD2F_EP9TC5P63WGFWBnNK821hYpvhbI7e4gs8Thu6vh2YTzQsisTyG4XKXP/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.19.07+PM.png" height="638" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Pictures are from the new york times, wiki and fashionrevolution.org.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9iEpwYy3RtiWmzzU6mxnJcBjT3p4v0IfOWa38nJP9zG5bcrwOIo1D4_eM7TI5RlQbrKtD5cPPLWMqVHTl8PwtS3Q8cVGXsLTdHdG4C4hGYVrTPCQwcNWF7dwsRc67VnhsxgjVgxR/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.18.12+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9iEpwYy3RtiWmzzU6mxnJcBjT3p4v0IfOWa38nJP9zG5bcrwOIo1D4_eM7TI5RlQbrKtD5cPPLWMqVHTl8PwtS3Q8cVGXsLTdHdG4C4hGYVrTPCQwcNWF7dwsRc67VnhsxgjVgxR/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-25+at+1.18.12+PM.png" height="580" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Where was your clothing made? Who made it? What's it made out of? </div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-39863774254558899872014-04-23T14:25:00.002-07:002014-04-23T14:25:52.552-07:00Levi's Waste < Less<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/yW6RRx1KOJY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Levi's new Waste < Less line includes parachute-made jackets and plastic bottle and food tray-made jeans. According to<a href="http://www.ecouterre.com/levis-wasteless-denim-uses-recycled-plastic-bottles-to-create-eco-friendly-blue-jeans/" target="_blank"><u><i> this </i></u></a>article, "Levis will work with its partners to collect polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials—including brown beer
bottles, green soda bottles, clear water bottles, and black food
trays—through municipal recycling programs across the United States. The
bottles and food trays are sorted by color, crushed into flakes, and
spun into polyester. The polyester fiber is finally woven with
conventional cotton yarn by Cone Denim, which runs one of the nation’s oldest denim mills in North Carolina. " I love the idea, and I the jacket is definitely something I would wear. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTIXkilf08abW5X-b3vIBxAjifMEaAHcnCZrLENpy_5A44BIRxeqpzqbfZ4pWhN4OolH1sMCwaKZGacwU-ouxjOv-fcVVgon6TRYSRDUuDcxdNYW9fCCQ9_Kcq0nWd0XUE0TU5GHVa/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-23+at+5.15.55+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTIXkilf08abW5X-b3vIBxAjifMEaAHcnCZrLENpy_5A44BIRxeqpzqbfZ4pWhN4OolH1sMCwaKZGacwU-ouxjOv-fcVVgon6TRYSRDUuDcxdNYW9fCCQ9_Kcq0nWd0XUE0TU5GHVa/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-23+at+5.15.55+PM.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6BZ-g9LGp_zj3266HAxPUIHTWIu14XT8bDE10b_tmbHgoktuJ9XEUYUlRVMUyYkWttuM0rlqCMIhRU0LaguXLvmyZstcCxFY69YTCpQgkORRfeve-5ytqvw70WDe3ZRXZdtPFULkB/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-23+at+5.16.25+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6BZ-g9LGp_zj3266HAxPUIHTWIu14XT8bDE10b_tmbHgoktuJ9XEUYUlRVMUyYkWttuM0rlqCMIhRU0LaguXLvmyZstcCxFY69YTCpQgkORRfeve-5ytqvw70WDe3ZRXZdtPFULkB/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-23+at+5.16.25+PM.png" height="296" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
On the Levi's website they also have a similar new line called Water < Less in which they focus specifically on conserving water in the making of their jeans, and personally I like that collection a little better, aesthetically. But I didn't see these collections available on the women's section of the website? I hope it's just me, cause it'd be a shame to not offer women the same sustainable clothing. </div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-38524679212521240812014-04-19T17:05:00.000-07:002014-04-19T17:21:05.274-07:00I thought <div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It would be a good idea to visit the Vaute Couture (mentioned in one of my earlier posts <i><u><a href="http://carcassfree.blogspot.com/2014/03/vaute-couture.html" target="_blank">here</a></u></i>) store in Brooklyn yesterday and Kelsey, the lovely girl working behind the desk, convinced me to try something on. So, of course, I tried on my favorite dress possibly ever, at this point. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqpLM_CWlAdXrwL5U-MCiqxq6XomlhI5I4vQgw0R39SnO8EBRxJbDHxCd9vxwybAUjboRH9ofpoPxTwX9BkAkxrYZCuRYxUMc9zdqi6OryJtflsNdg3yIifxiIMRE9jRNDBNYxiAoJ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-19+at+7.32.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqpLM_CWlAdXrwL5U-MCiqxq6XomlhI5I4vQgw0R39SnO8EBRxJbDHxCd9vxwybAUjboRH9ofpoPxTwX9BkAkxrYZCuRYxUMc9zdqi6OryJtflsNdg3yIifxiIMRE9jRNDBNYxiAoJ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-19+at+7.32.15+PM.png" height="640" width="634" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDQhExhb_27NqcZsFs5RcJaH3tPaYVfFHhi30qMLSxXU5OK4e_zXOKgaTV2pMoHjH9hz6W_-3IqezO5nLw_xMggW3SKIa54QQqCUhyphenhyphenGtUgTJPHARtEhcApDc3JFcyj5FmZ1tGPKEy/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-19+at+7.32.33+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDQhExhb_27NqcZsFs5RcJaH3tPaYVfFHhi30qMLSxXU5OK4e_zXOKgaTV2pMoHjH9hz6W_-3IqezO5nLw_xMggW3SKIa54QQqCUhyphenhyphenGtUgTJPHARtEhcApDc3JFcyj5FmZ1tGPKEy/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-19+at+7.32.33+PM.png" height="640" width="638" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was a perfect fit, and the best part: it has pockets! The pockets are so convenient yet subtle that I accidentally left my phone in one of them, because I couldn't even tell it was in there. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was so glad I decided to visit the store. They made NYFW last season and I couldn't be happier that a company like this one was the first vegan clothing brand at fashion week, ever. I went in there and the energy was awesome. Everyone was extremely friendly, even the little doggy, Pepper! I would love, love to work for a company like this. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLz8dE6udOoG8d0Z89ARVB6BCA_qoHkH03zEjyH3xjvtohgXdJRJEDcBefBXj1om86Z4blKmEAaLVHF318J1-MzSbmQla-boPppLh_AKi_TM9rErnm6XJmCZxBYJ9o6CA6YzNXpIP/s1600/13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLz8dE6udOoG8d0Z89ARVB6BCA_qoHkH03zEjyH3xjvtohgXdJRJEDcBefBXj1om86Z4blKmEAaLVHF318J1-MzSbmQla-boPppLh_AKi_TM9rErnm6XJmCZxBYJ9o6CA6YzNXpIP/s1600/13.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGUB79d15JsgzzUFsugJP8CtQIedozkOxM7TF2iLftMCKJdzm5as9Sh-Zr7kA0475eHLer1bCGVLWbHLylDBY99R6xgXS2LbO467qcin-86med0adSMB11uMK0YRQz0zCOFXCfV3wW/s1600/a11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGUB79d15JsgzzUFsugJP8CtQIedozkOxM7TF2iLftMCKJdzm5as9Sh-Zr7kA0475eHLer1bCGVLWbHLylDBY99R6xgXS2LbO467qcin-86med0adSMB11uMK0YRQz0zCOFXCfV3wW/s1600/a11.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last two photos from <a href="http://bkmag.com/" target="_blank">bkmag</a> and <a href="http://enforcedarch.com/" target="_blank">enforcedarch</a>. </span></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-48232448989333107492014-04-10T08:41:00.000-07:002014-04-10T08:42:45.714-07:00Who made your clothes? <div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An organization called <i><u><a href="http://fashionrevolution.org/" target="_blank">Fashion Revolution</a></u></i> created an event this month (April 24th) dedicated to showing people that the power of awareness, knowing where your clothing comes from and who made it, makes a difference. In their words<i>,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cabin; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: KelsonSans; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cabin; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: KelsonSans; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><b>"On 24th April last year, 1133 people were killed and over 2500 were injured when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Social and environmental catastrophes in our fashion supply chains continue.</b></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cabin; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: KelsonSans; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cabin; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;"><i><b>Fashion Revolution Day says enough is enough."</b></i></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cabin; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQzP5Qt3sdip-CKFZDQnoCVqMJL_oZRFjGmPRZP86lkhrtLCi6l87JKEDiN_G-c2Fv3Y3fgTrmZzYjZeXtg-eKSW4tlL-6hzOefq9Ebf9PEBu4eTR_DTIb8iquTXVJnd12M0hWNGA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-10+at+11.35.30+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQzP5Qt3sdip-CKFZDQnoCVqMJL_oZRFjGmPRZP86lkhrtLCi6l87JKEDiN_G-c2Fv3Y3fgTrmZzYjZeXtg-eKSW4tlL-6hzOefq9Ebf9PEBu4eTR_DTIb8iquTXVJnd12M0hWNGA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-10+at+11.35.30+AM.png" height="465" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6x7wY3YZQBn2EaByipwa4K9M1Aj1xaKb1A8Gy3BoVdQ99V6CLauvt8l_l2rOaG6O_8KjIzOmohS-KsTKZn28I5s7gaVxr5XxUMgz7AypRmM8LQnkLJWQ-PKGZiiwHgFo-aBWi6A0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-10+at+11.35.46+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6x7wY3YZQBn2EaByipwa4K9M1Aj1xaKb1A8Gy3BoVdQ99V6CLauvt8l_l2rOaG6O_8KjIzOmohS-KsTKZn28I5s7gaVxr5XxUMgz7AypRmM8LQnkLJWQ-PKGZiiwHgFo-aBWi6A0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-04-10+at+11.35.46+AM.png" height="436" width="640" /></a></div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An excuse to wear my clothing inside out, and it's for a good cause? Count me in.</span></div>
</span>gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-69805544408224597272014-04-09T13:50:00.000-07:002014-04-09T13:50:14.910-07:00Onion Skin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
At FIT's (Fashion Institute of Technology) sustainability conference yesterday, there was an abundance of really cool fabrics and clothing pieces made out of sustainable (and some animal-free) fibers and dyes. One of them being onion skin, who knew! (I didn't)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYtjFGVsde-oWMeJvhN8G1xjl-UeFwbsWAEwST2ZFBodKc7fBAjwbos7uR9NkToMsoH5DzE6QZqHLl3k4usQWGRh9JJIO6eOkZ7V4K00YWJULl6sabwvAYPFvBSXj3f-XEEI_Uzc2/s1600/image+%25281%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYtjFGVsde-oWMeJvhN8G1xjl-UeFwbsWAEwST2ZFBodKc7fBAjwbos7uR9NkToMsoH5DzE6QZqHLl3k4usQWGRh9JJIO6eOkZ7V4K00YWJULl6sabwvAYPFvBSXj3f-XEEI_Uzc2/s1600/image+%25281%2529.jpeg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcW-GG2gKaNvfPdSElc5GIgnbZMx-jY7XTwy6AGIX_tfGkUgxoXuMDCZrHY-PaGcjrdJqRU7jk7CeI2sz2Tnh2LnSm2Ngb0fFwWgFKGPHEk7TBoHUim-4xCj-FdXtcSDQyJv8g5ly2/s1600/image+(9).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcW-GG2gKaNvfPdSElc5GIgnbZMx-jY7XTwy6AGIX_tfGkUgxoXuMDCZrHY-PaGcjrdJqRU7jk7CeI2sz2Tnh2LnSm2Ngb0fFwWgFKGPHEk7TBoHUim-4xCj-FdXtcSDQyJv8g5ly2/s1600/image+(9).jpeg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After doing a little more research, according to <i><u><a href="http://www.folkfibers.com/blogs/news/6652230-natural-dyes-yellow-onion-skins" target="_blank">this article</a></u></i>, onion skin is an amazing natural fabric dye that anyone can implement at home. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwu9hGMXmXXCaXQLiI6fvCrjtvvLSF__xXvcgBDxB4oLpkqFxy1EM4qCSzP1OFGRagtH-z3BzzD6dkx9DOAtEw7pcpnizIPl8hf5_-XQU7-CxbrXtud4G9GHhgUdqHIuih6JNTNy1/s1600/Folk-Fibers-Natural-Dyes_grande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwu9hGMXmXXCaXQLiI6fvCrjtvvLSF__xXvcgBDxB4oLpkqFxy1EM4qCSzP1OFGRagtH-z3BzzD6dkx9DOAtEw7pcpnizIPl8hf5_-XQU7-CxbrXtud4G9GHhgUdqHIuih6JNTNy1/s1600/Folk-Fibers-Natural-Dyes_grande.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
If you're a textile lover, check out an article about <i>t<a href="http://www.ecouterre.com/textile-arts-center-to-launch-magazine-celebrating-all-things-textiles/textile-art-center-magazine-1/?extend=1" target="_blank">his recently published book</a></i> by the Textile Arts Center, in which natural dyes and solar-powered farms are discussed. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK2vRawYBYdeZwHpR2l11vZEtEVwZJS9vVskYbNGGplpt2p7q_YWs-qJ8lCYUNBfsMcir4tc3Hlo4cQwqOOvAAs4_j-aepNQYPWAzKFajXHNfs9TVeMv9ciEpkQ-ydu2CB7iHErlUc/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-09+at+4.44.02+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK2vRawYBYdeZwHpR2l11vZEtEVwZJS9vVskYbNGGplpt2p7q_YWs-qJ8lCYUNBfsMcir4tc3Hlo4cQwqOOvAAs4_j-aepNQYPWAzKFajXHNfs9TVeMv9ciEpkQ-ydu2CB7iHErlUc/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-09+at+4.44.02+PM.png" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6465_wjeJuSQAE1CFss6eTf9IGsdxBKnCqHI_Qi8iMl-FoP8vUqJYXDcQ6NERRvkDxiIcjx1NK5YZcmXthzbIUZyI9tAeK2A17dUFkmnQdI2WwO6hyphenhyphen6qBI1h7KuHFFf6uG6ILlFg/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-09+at+4.44.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6465_wjeJuSQAE1CFss6eTf9IGsdxBKnCqHI_Qi8iMl-FoP8vUqJYXDcQ6NERRvkDxiIcjx1NK5YZcmXthzbIUZyI9tAeK2A17dUFkmnQdI2WwO6hyphenhyphen6qBI1h7KuHFFf6uG6ILlFg/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-04-09+at+4.44.28+PM.png" height="460" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Here are some of my favorite pieces from the conference:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB0r2MOcHO_du14b5YnnlhFa_2uIty5TIn3vL_pCV-d44dOuttPo8wJgOUQScIQh2lpt7APqOVT14LOBvgG8R-Uoy-qA0XZ5YgZ12X53EE9W-F5EtM5cSTrxteeFd_1wiYSgewG2g2/s1600/image+(2).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB0r2MOcHO_du14b5YnnlhFa_2uIty5TIn3vL_pCV-d44dOuttPo8wJgOUQScIQh2lpt7APqOVT14LOBvgG8R-Uoy-qA0XZ5YgZ12X53EE9W-F5EtM5cSTrxteeFd_1wiYSgewG2g2/s1600/image+(2).jpeg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7neyfyWiFYn-gNY-xaC1GRso33NLBt7foXc2Cr5Imh1Ksf8EQdK6dCZAQcLurCvxG_K6h9BGoXaoJDlQofaHy6WToo5EYzdKlvLgVRl_CrbXhGqE1kqhaNltisgOO1ZiMxiq6QhW6/s1600/image+(4).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7neyfyWiFYn-gNY-xaC1GRso33NLBt7foXc2Cr5Imh1Ksf8EQdK6dCZAQcLurCvxG_K6h9BGoXaoJDlQofaHy6WToo5EYzdKlvLgVRl_CrbXhGqE1kqhaNltisgOO1ZiMxiq6QhW6/s1600/image+(4).jpeg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCG0qRbw-IwWHW2ulal7k0tkFzQftdP2jtXC6nQqNUwezB0qJCsqEY9ROm_Iu2ncRNRF_ohi4f36e9BZoiOg43seEIAEkqACS4ETHYASdiRnts-3wlwk9N_89s_xnfYr3EJWPKVZxK/s1600/image+(3).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCG0qRbw-IwWHW2ulal7k0tkFzQftdP2jtXC6nQqNUwezB0qJCsqEY9ROm_Iu2ncRNRF_ohi4f36e9BZoiOg43seEIAEkqACS4ETHYASdiRnts-3wlwk9N_89s_xnfYr3EJWPKVZxK/s1600/image+(3).jpeg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCenYG35AVOHUO-5TfK9EvF9NvdI7mERHqm23nqXKf8YUheqQ_fzEZ83lH7iboH7Pi9L-hIeGInZMBBZLiVPQA_iO3BVO_a1K1oN2nAEvLpZupizhCAloTmyB5xNh7exOTaI0cPQzc/s1600/image+(6).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCenYG35AVOHUO-5TfK9EvF9NvdI7mERHqm23nqXKf8YUheqQ_fzEZ83lH7iboH7Pi9L-hIeGInZMBBZLiVPQA_iO3BVO_a1K1oN2nAEvLpZupizhCAloTmyB5xNh7exOTaI0cPQzc/s1600/image+(6).jpeg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Give me all the off-the-shoulder, gray, drapeable sustainable sweaters. </div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-90669058792925106452014-03-31T11:08:00.000-07:002014-04-30T08:52:02.432-07:00h&m Conscious Collection 2014<div style="text-align: center;">
Our beloved h&m came out with their third conscious collection, and it doesn't disappoint. It is very stunning.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwzLHeY200OLBnBSoAUsF4JVZV9Rqb2PVw6_pDKzXAlOTfTZ_9BLsLIuCX1FUWdcIHCvnhd735EUmXGJE0y0LF-O-EDWBPLQDaLa1dzxNwnhkn9DlLqEGH5MCGTEEFL2JwJcnDRQn/s1600/1154_LB_15_2857823a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwzLHeY200OLBnBSoAUsF4JVZV9Rqb2PVw6_pDKzXAlOTfTZ_9BLsLIuCX1FUWdcIHCvnhd735EUmXGJE0y0LF-O-EDWBPLQDaLa1dzxNwnhkn9DlLqEGH5MCGTEEFL2JwJcnDRQn/s1600/1154_LB_15_2857823a.jpg" height="640" width="467" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This piece is definitely my favorite. I love white, lacy clothing. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A1F9EbRN17kI7AKeV-2NO9QO7nHSTUddpIR-Epk7rydZ7tigtDfP5ByojRZkdjeijxlqg_u6zbfhAY-m3ptf_8wFWcQrA-4Uq02t48ysKu1HkiOEvrw-BGXw5ONXxquhbuewwUCS/s1600/1154_LB_02_2857815a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A1F9EbRN17kI7AKeV-2NO9QO7nHSTUddpIR-Epk7rydZ7tigtDfP5ByojRZkdjeijxlqg_u6zbfhAY-m3ptf_8wFWcQrA-4Uq02t48ysKu1HkiOEvrw-BGXw5ONXxquhbuewwUCS/s1600/1154_LB_02_2857815a.jpg" height="640" width="468" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
This piece reminds me of a particular Dolce & Gabbanna dress Lily Allen wore back in 09', I believe.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNA1fWs02z3G-jtG6aoMC8VWWyGdoqb5gbh5yByQH5XWhKdd9Z9N03gEX4JfaMfZft4ZBcGxSbAbmLmfcoAvA2vsrN8y8IoWpncXzkg8_JHTM2ReZwjHUUsqN4KtnWEJTaP2ahzoxP/s1600/lilyallen3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNA1fWs02z3G-jtG6aoMC8VWWyGdoqb5gbh5yByQH5XWhKdd9Z9N03gEX4JfaMfZft4ZBcGxSbAbmLmfcoAvA2vsrN8y8IoWpncXzkg8_JHTM2ReZwjHUUsqN4KtnWEJTaP2ahzoxP/s1600/lilyallen3.jpg" height="523" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Which is great, because that was one of my aesthetically favorite collections of all time. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIawSfknCfT_x2JMRg6IRO9Ii4w8lI-XzNWja124QyCJLeQr_wuBjkBxYNsQOYn2zXuAhj1FyhqhqqUcIla0SjtlKyvDp0y8OnGkAGsrul7bqKeyvwYsoImBfLirkxDqRI4I9cK0YZ/s1600/1154_LB_06_2857812a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIawSfknCfT_x2JMRg6IRO9Ii4w8lI-XzNWja124QyCJLeQr_wuBjkBxYNsQOYn2zXuAhj1FyhqhqqUcIla0SjtlKyvDp0y8OnGkAGsrul7bqKeyvwYsoImBfLirkxDqRI4I9cK0YZ/s1600/1154_LB_06_2857812a.jpg" height="640" width="468" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
This jacket, too. So much goodness on one blazer. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Some of the items are a little pricey, overall ranging from $17-$600. But, when we buy cheap clothing that is poorly made and harmful to the environment, we really should be paying much more for them considering how much damage that clothing does to the world around us. Hopefully, this type of clothing becomes the norm and the prices will begin to go down.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I read an<i><u><a href="http://racked.com/archives/2014/03/20/hms-third-concious-collection-is-simply-stunning.php" target="_blank"> article</a></u></i> that said the drive behind the creation of this collection was because <i>celebrities </i>were asking for more environmentally-friendly clothing. I don't know how true that is, and as happy as I am to hear that <i>anyone </i>is possibly interested in more sustainable clothing, are more everyday consumers asking for environmentally-friendly clothing? </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Sure some of the pieces are still made from leather and silk, but kudos to h&m for continuing the sustainable trend. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Let's hope this soon becomes <i>h&m's conventional way</i> of making clothing.</div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-56481320473906792242014-03-31T10:31:00.000-07:002014-04-02T08:17:33.851-07:00Average Barbie killing culture? <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In my sociology class today we spoke about the new Barbie, average Barbie. To my surprise, a lot of people in my class opposed the doll saying that Barbie, the product itself, is not responsible for the immense pressure on women to be this ideal looking woman, so why the fuss over a bland looking doll, made by a bland looking guy? My professor concluded by saying "if everything is beautiful, then nothing is beautiful, and there is no culture."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So, if the idealistic image of a woman is changed, or is broadened, or simply doesn't exist, culture doesn't exist? So is that all culture is? Ridiculously distorted physical standards that not everyone can achieve, let alone want to achieve? If so, perhaps culture needs a little adjusting. I don't think that if we begin to celebrate the different array of beautiful women in the mainstream media, that culture will be dead. I think it will open up an entirely new chapter in culture, <i>especially </i>in the fashion world. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And I do think Barbie, although is not to take all the blame, <i>does</i> play a role in why millions of women are suffering from body image diseases. Along with advertisements in magazines, television, etc.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For the people who prefer regular barbie, prefer Caucasian fashion models in advertisements, etc, that's fine, they can continue to do so. But I think it's important for people to have that option: the option to pick up a magazine that displays a different kind of beauty, that option for mothers to pick up a doll they think is more suitable for their children to play with. I think that this average barbie is a step in the right direction. I'm not saying that this should take away from the fabulous standards that many women love to live up to (because that's what they genuinely want), I'm saying that for the millions of women who do not wish to look or live like that, that that's okay<i> too, </i>and that it shouldn't be considered not art or an end to culture. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's the average Barbie video:</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/OfQu8pq0kok?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
After-all, there is a lot of great mainstream art in pop-culture that opposes the idealistic views of how women should behave and look:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/BR4yQFZK9YM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/E0CazRHB0so?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/UWJ_P-TdEJ0/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/UWJ_P-TdEJ0&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/UWJ_P-TdEJ0&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Also, how cool is Pink wearing a "die hipster scum" shirt back in 2009?</div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4298838793379266867.post-51714779477532730542014-02-28T20:34:00.000-08:002014-03-26T10:42:40.732-07:00Adidas' Knitted Shoe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqrLh-CJWkEgxUA1u62BUrHNf0XFR0MZ6VwFvRN9r7cIEvNERYxTN3b9OU-6U_fIliIatA9MWROBhqvyEevFehnpGzlj2JBugNRoDRjE3amkdxOWCRrsOB24G645388aPAuQS33Si/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-28+at+11.15.47+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqrLh-CJWkEgxUA1u62BUrHNf0XFR0MZ6VwFvRN9r7cIEvNERYxTN3b9OU-6U_fIliIatA9MWROBhqvyEevFehnpGzlj2JBugNRoDRjE3amkdxOWCRrsOB24G645388aPAuQS33Si/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-28+at+11.15.47+PM.png" height="400" width="362" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjAxyIJjJbhov7uR-KM9iN9iY2sleqXxfGLFNn7ZAh0wdTiH1zhxFZ7YdVfcdVfzAU_wvVmfAPghJF5WkaBFbV-Hkh8q_7_NO7mZDHLiGSWig11xyxJKaORQMEl8seybyuq6nEqQ8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-28+at+11.16.25+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjAxyIJjJbhov7uR-KM9iN9iY2sleqXxfGLFNn7ZAh0wdTiH1zhxFZ7YdVfcdVfzAU_wvVmfAPghJF5WkaBFbV-Hkh8q_7_NO7mZDHLiGSWig11xyxJKaORQMEl8seybyuq6nEqQ8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-28+at+11.16.25+PM.png" height="230" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I am really excited to see such a well-known brand taking on the social responsibility of being sustainable. How great does this shoe look? It looks insanely comfortably fitting, and at a closer look the knitted fabric reveals its funky colors. And according to<i><a href="http://www.ecouterre.com/adidas-debuts-worlds-first-knitted-football-boot/adidas-samba-primeknit-football-boot-2/?extend=1" target="_blank"> this </a></i>article, it's supposed to feel like you're not wearing a shoe at all while still giving your foot the protection of a regular sneaker. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbb54uk8aJzIl9RyUjtrRdeT2pFnFMlKPt3E9jEdbUIwwaYdYJcXEIyJvc89GcwqCIPdBsZSpvZECqHT6uemub5x-f2GvnyyhxJb-Geg0eWupdXzq9NbGBmQoBe6YvXQDy7H1P8fIe/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-28+at+11.23.14+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbb54uk8aJzIl9RyUjtrRdeT2pFnFMlKPt3E9jEdbUIwwaYdYJcXEIyJvc89GcwqCIPdBsZSpvZECqHT6uemub5x-f2GvnyyhxJb-Geg0eWupdXzq9NbGBmQoBe6YvXQDy7H1P8fIe/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-28+at+11.23.14+PM.png" height="268" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
To me, it's the perfect marriage between sporty and fun. While I do aesthetically like Nike's neon colored collections, these are a home run for me. The fact that no wasted materials went into the production is, of course, a plus. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
gfgfghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00187526340678673913noreply@blogger.com0