New Zealand Fashion Week

Hello! I am reporting to you NOT from New Zealand Fashion Week, but I'm definitely enjoying it somewhere lurking in the background or on the internet. :) There was an outdoor fashion show held one block away from me tonight. Love that!

Here are my favourite collections so far:

Ingrid Starnes

http://www.ingridstarnes.com












all photos by Janet Rie via http://coupdemain.co.nz



Twenty-Seven Names gallery










Photos by Guy Coombes
www.twentysevennames.co.nz

Much Love Monday: August 29, 2011

Happy Monday to you! Well, Mondays are never really thhhaat bad for me, but I'm VERY happy that this Monday is coming to an end. I shall end this Monday on a positive note with a few of the things I'm loving and thinking about.

1. SPRING-
The END of winter is almost here! And I couldn't be more relieved. Our frozen-apartment-with-no-heating isn't as cold anymore. The shop window displays are all decked out in Spring colours! I was just reading about someone's free spirited summer nights, and this just made me so homesick for my old Vegas all nighters. Vegas is so peaceful and beautiful at dawn. Where did the last few years of my life go?



2. New Zealand's Next Top Model-
The show has dwindled down to a stunning Top 3! I like them all! All three deserve to be there, I love that silly Bianca! Rosanagh will probably win. Unless, the reserved Brigette pulls a big shocker in the end...



All Images/http://tv3.co.nz/Shows/NewZealandsNextTopModel.aspx


3. New Adventures Overseas-
This weekend we spent some time with our friends Hamish and Ally who are moving to Southern California in a few days! WOWWEEE! We're so happy for them and their new opportunities ahead. :)



I've been having some highs and lows of emotions right now. My friends Belinda & Dre just got married! And I couldn't be more happy for them. They are such wonderful, loving people who deserve all the best in the world. I just completed something that I was stressing about. And I just found out an old friend of mine was brutally attacked walking home in Portland. He's going to be okay, but not without a million of us worrying and fussing over him. And to my friends back East! I'm also thinking about you guys on the East Coast! Earthquakes, Hurricanes etc. Regardless, wherever you are in the world, I hope you are safe.

What Happens In Vegas...

While I was back home, I caught up with all my lovelies...

I hung out with Figga & A2




caught up w/ Christie aka. Crassy Wallace



hung out with Tony Vegas! And met his lovely gf Angela









had dinner with all my friends












(The following photos were taken by Colette!)
went to the Palms



This is Colette sitting on glass over 100 stories up!




Beauty Bar



grotty casino shots




met up with an old Kiwi friend from TVNZ, had fish bowl sized cocktails at the Fireside Lounge

Mr. Brightside

After a few days of being in Vegas, some friends and I went downtown to the old bars! And that's when I ran into a few familiar faces like Ronnie & Mark from The Killers! Hello :P I haven't seen these guys in over seven years! (The day they met with the big record execs to be exact.) Ronnie remembered me from our old university days at UNLV. He bought my friend Colette and I a round of drinks. Not without a photo of course...


And there's my Vegas celebrity sighting for the week.

If you lived in Vegas back in the early millenium, this band brought so many good times and memories to our group of friends. Nights were spent dancing at Sasha's and having funny awkward conversations with Mr. Flowers. The first time I met Brandon, he greeted me with a hug. I may never see these guys again, but all the best to them! They've been through one hell of a ride in life, that's for sure. I'll always love the original "Mr. Brightside."

And then the night ended with some skeezy, run down casino photos with my funny, lovable girl friends









Viva lost wages!

Viva Las Vegas! August 5, 2011

On the day I arrived in Vegas, I spent some much deserved time with my family. I only get to see them about 1-2 weeks out of the year, which is kind of brutal for me!

Later that night, I met up with one of my besties named Adrienne aka. A2, A-Rod, the other half of the Ashcrofts. She lives in NYC now!

Back in our old newsie sleep-deprived days, she was an assignment editor for the ABC news affiliate in Vegas. (I was a producer there. A2 now works on Wall Street.) On her third day there, we went out to lunch and have been friends ever since. She loves britpop just as much as I do, so it was a friendship aligned in the stars :) You could usually find us hanging out at the good old Crown pub listening to the Stone Roses, daydreaming of a better life somewhere else.


A2 and the Stratosphere!

I haven't seen this lady in 2 years and 3 months! I could have officially called it JV & A2 night. We had dinner at an old favourite restaurant. (I saw Mark from The Killers there! I didn't talk to him, but don't worry I ran into him and Ronnie later, which I will definitely blog about :] ) We went to the First Friday festival downtown and then had drinks at Downtown Cocktail room and the piano karaoke bar Don't Tell Mama. Griffin and Insert Coins were too crowded, but those places were saved for another night.




reunited!




Hi mom! I'm in Vegas WITH YOU! :)












what I'm wearing...
Dress- ASOS
Shoes- Franco Sarto
Belt- thrifted
Purse- Coach








Happy tourists in old school downtown Vegas




I ran into my old friends Chuck & Jared

I am so happy in Vegas! I am nothing without my friends.

Much Love Monday: August 22, 2011

Happy Monday to you! I'm back in New Zealand now, and I'm dreaming of my holiday I just spent overseas!
Which brings me to my first Monday favourite...

#1. WEST COAST, USA-
I was born and raised on the East Coast; however, I spent the rest of my life being a casual West Coaster. I have a continuous love affair with both sides of this great country. I like to think of myself as a hybrid east-westie. My mom always jokes that I was reincarnated from an old Philadelphia politician, but I'd miss the sunshine and glamour of LA/Vegas. It's true you know.
DAMN, IT FELT SO GOOD TO BE HOME in Vegas!

...where mostly everybody is no rush, and everything stays open late. It is dry, deathly hot, but the locals are like no others in the world.


#2. http://pinterest.com
I just learned about this site from Katie's blog Heart Shaped Cut Outs Of Cheese. :)
You can create a virtual pinboard of anything.

Check out my new page!
http://pinterest.com/jenvegas


#3. The amazing guest bloggers who updated my blog while I was away-

Cristina

and

My husband Chris

I had such a great time reading their posts! I want them to post for me regularly so I can see what they're up to. I am SO lucky to have such great friends and a sweet husband. I constantly want to absorb and consume all of the life that is within them. I was lucky enough to hang out with Cristina aka. Lady C while I was in Seattle. (More on that later) Lots more adventures to be had! The future is looking bright.

Much Love Monday: August 15, 2011

Hello, there! I am also not Jen Vegas. I'm Jen's husband Chris and, like the esteemed Cristina Friday last week, I’ve been given the privilege of hijacking Jen’s blog for a single Much Love Monday post. Jen is currently on the other side of the world, visiting friends and family back home in the US while I’ve remained here in Auckland, New Zealand, to hold the fort. Right now we're experiencing a freak cold snap here, with the first snow reported in Auckland in almost 80 years. Right now the New Zealand Twitterverse is engaged in an intense debate over whether it's actually snow or, in fact, just sleet. Crazy times...

I’ve heard from Jen a handful of times since she departed from Auckland Airport. It sounds like she’s having the time of her life catching up with those of you that she so rarely gets the opportunity to see. It was through the power of the internet that I learned this, so, fittingly, the first subject of my Much Love Monday post is...

The internet
I don’t think the internet gets enough props these days. I mean, just think of the rate at which we’re increasingly able to do unprecedentedly cool stuff. If you had told me even a few years ago that I’d be able to video call people from overseas for free, I’d have told you to srsly GTFO. Streaming TV on demand? Man, I remember downloading a two-minute punk song in around 40 minutes 10-odd years ago and thinking that was AMAZING.

In particular, I can appreciate what a vital lifeline the internet has become for someone like Jen - an expat American - to keep up with the world she left behind when she moved to New Zealand nearly three years ago.

Mostly, though, I love internet that is not New Zealand internet, as New Zealand internet is rather slow compared to what I’m sure many of you know and love. We also have rather Draconian “data caps”, which reduce our speeds to a slow crawl (worse than dial-up... seriously) once we’ve exceeded our pitiful allowances.

In these uncertain times, I’m even thinking of buying shares in the internet. Ironically, however, even Google (great site, by the way!) has been unable to advise on how to do so thus far.

Hot Water Music
Probably only a year or so ago, I’d resigned myself to the fact that I’d probably never get the chance to see my favourite band live. I was unable to attend the first time they came to New Zealand (I happened to live in the wrong island), and two years or so ago, they’d unofficially disbanded before making a return visit. But it was only a few months ago that Jen and I finally got the chance to see them play (with the esteemed Bouncing Souls, no less). It was an incredible and truly memorable show topped off with a riotous encore, with a mixture of members of both bands performing some of their most popular songs.

As a somewhat washed-up and jaded music journalist, I’m completely out of the loop with music happenings these days. So imagine my complete surprise only a matter of days ago when I learned that a new HWM e.p. (The Fire, The Steel, The Tread / Adds Up to Nothing) was available right then and there. As expected, I’m completely enamoured with it, and the only criticism I can level at it is that, at a mere two songs, it feels like the beginnings of a kick-ass new album... and then it just leaves you hanging. Still, it’s the first thing to come along in a long while to reinvigorate my currently dormant love affair with music (and certainly the first release from HWM in about seven years!). And the revelation of this e.p.’s existence brought with it the fact that the band is set to release a full-length early next year.

American fast food
I can’t tell you how much time I spent recently seriously trying to come up with a way that Jen could bring me back a grilled cheese sandwich from In ‘N Out when she returns to New Zealand. It makes me wish that, like Cristina Friday, I’d developed an interest in science, as I don’t think my “ice-pack and tea towel” method would quite cut it for the 12-odd-hour plane trip from LAX to Auckland. Also, like most other things here in New Zealand, Mexican food is ridiculously expensive and, obviously, not up to the standard that Americans enjoy. The list goes on, too. I’m super jealous of Jen right now, whom I hear has been making up for lost time ;)

I'm sure the cabin crew will let her store it in their fridge...

Jen
So I’m going to steal Cristina’s idea and make Jen my final topic for Much Love Monday.
Fun fact: the very first time that Jen ever wrote me on Myspace, I thought she was a spambot for a second or two, purely because it would be in keeping with 99% of the times beautiful girls had attempted to write me at random on the internet.

At the time of writing, Jen has been away from me for more than a week - the longest time we’ve spent apart in I don’t know how long - and I miss her terribly. She’s my best friend and my favourite person in the whole world - and I’m not even saying that to encourage her to attempt my grilled-cheese international importation method!

Anyways, Jen, I hope you're having an amazing time back home, and I can't wait to see you in about a week's time :)

Thanks for reading - the regular service will resume next week! Take care.

Chris