Reverse culture shock is a strange thing. I spent the summer adjusting to the (reverse) weather that I was once accustomed to living here four years ago. I wore red, white and blue and ran into my work colleague on the bus all decked out. HAHA!
me <===== nerd
We spent a happy fourth of July celebrating in Capitol Hill with C & P and Sarah.
We ate vege burgers at Blue Moon and watched the fireworks at Lake Union.
Vintage dress from Etsy | RWB belt, thrifted | cardigan, F21 | flats - Gap
I love the models behind me!
Waiting for the magic to happen!
babe! Sarah, fed me some frittata's that night too. :)
I am obsessive compulsive; I post photos in chronological order. In a way, it keeps me in check. If I were skipping around all over the place, none of my old blog entries for the last ten years would have ever been posted. :)
Life got so crazy hectic before I left New Zealand. I never had a chance to write about it or post any photos of what I was up to.
January - April 2012
During my last four months in New Zealand:
We showed Jonah around Auckland! Jonah, Chris, Jeff and Nancy. I miss these faces!
We visited Wellington and had the most amazing day with Phil and Jonah.
This photo describes it all...
I wished we were young forever.
We went to Laneway music festival, and I met prominent NZ news journalist John Campbell. We both love the Pains of Being Pure at Heart!
;)
I met this New Zealand top model. Does she look familiar? :)
Mt. Eden in Auckland at dusk
We hung out at Bastion Point. Photo by Jonah.
Chris and I ate the most delicious white sauce pizza in Auckland on Valentine's Day. Toto's!
We visited the Waitomo Caves in King County. The descendant of the cave's owner gave us the tour and demonstrated his love for astrology. The caves are two million years old! We saw stalagmites and stalactites. No photos because it wasn't allowed!
Partied and farewell'd NZ with my friends at work...
I hosted a swap party/ladies night and had such a gooood time!
And then...
there was our farewell party.
with my lovely lady Hayley.
I discovered my new favourite music festival, and it was a painless walk just down the street from us. Bumbershoot Festival is hosted at the Seattle Center on Labor Day weekend every year. It's a variety of music, theater, comedy, improv, food, crafts and vendors. The weather was absolutely perfect too. I don't think I can handle Coachella or Big Day Out again.
I couldn't resist this photo opp! I love Zooey and New Girl! This peter pan collar was meant for it.
The Seattle Center is a mixed use entertainment center with theatres, a city park and several venues. It's the perfect place to hold a music festival, and there are plenty of bathroom facilities, so you don't have to step inside a porta-loo :)
me = happy
So happy to see these bands again...
Best Coast! I do live on the best coast.
A few hours later, I met Bethany of Best Coast.
She is so stunning, pretty, cool and can pull off such an adorable dress.
M83 being amazing as usual. Tense times ensued when at least 100 people in the crowd tried to fight their way down the steps onto the ground level. Dozens of bouncers couldn't control it.
And then I saw my favorite band!
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart! I have to admit that the crowd was so much more subdued compared to the other two times I have seen them. It did lessen the experience even though they played amazingly! Kip, called them out, thanking the folks in the crowd who WEREN'T too cool to dance. YEP! The truth.
And then I MET them :)
We talked about prominent news journo John Campbell in New Zealand and how he had their band photo as his Twitter background for years :) Oh, I also joined the band!
The only other downside to this festival is that some of the venues reach max capacity, and you have to queue up to see some of the acts. I missed The Wombats because of this, and I preferred to see The Pains anyway! Luckily, most of the bands I wanted to see were in open spaces or gigantic venues.
Later in the night we saw The Vaselines. Nirvana covered a few of their songs back in the day.
Mind blowing moment of the night: when Krist Novoselic accompanied them on stage with the accordion. I was 13 when Nirvana played "Jesus Doesn't Want Me..." unplugged on MTV. My life in Seattle got super serious at this moment.
The night ended with Passion Pit drawing in most of the festival. They were good, but I couldn't get into most of it. I wandered around a bit more, ate an ice cream sandwich and watched a soul/funk band from New Orleans. I didn't want to go home.
The next day I walked past the stage where I saw The Pains...and felt really sad that crews were taking everything down. I didn't want Bumbershoot to end because there goes my beautiful North American summer. It's the first summer I've had since 2008! What a glorious summer it was.
Hi! I hope you've had a glorious summer. It's been treating me pretty well.
This photo was taken by my friend P when we all visited Portland. I'm wearing a 1960s ascot pleated dress from the Pasadena flea market.
Summer Wish List Update:
-visit our friends in Portland done!
-explore some secret beaches not so secret but Edmonds!
-eat at the Honey Hole
-see a couple of Seattle museums Experience Music Project, Seattle Art Museum and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry!
-find the best Indian restaurant Seattle has to offer The Taste of Seattle in U District
-explore some small towns in the Washington/Oregon state area Edmonds
-more karaoke at Rock Box twice!
-visit my family at least once once!
-Thanksgiving in July seriously worth it
-take a dance class
-take some photos on my lomography camera still going!
-collect more 90s/millennium indie/emo music I love Spotify
-go on a ferry ride we took a tour of Seattle in the sound
I was able to accomplish most of the goals on my summer wish list! I'm sure I'll dine at the Honey Hole in the near future. I tried to find some dance classes, but they all seem to clash with my schedule, so I'll opt for a YouTube video instead.
I will admit that half of these were rushed in the last month. There were times where it felt like my summer was mostly spent at work, but I really felt like this summer was worthwhile. I had a blast! (more on that later) My summer will end with a bang, and I'll be seeing a TON of my favorite bands next week like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Old 97s!!!!!!!!
I'm going to make another wish list for the fall! A pumpkin patch visit, attempts to make mulled wine and pumpkin bread making are definitely in order. What are your plans? Do you have any suggestions for me? ;)
Earlier this year, I received some sweet treats in the mail from my lovely pen pal and friends.
Brooklyn's decadent delights.
Another extremely thoughtful care package from the great American novelist aka. My pen pal L.
Auckland's dreamy music sweetheart Chelsea Jade sent me a postcard from NYC.
My longtime Vegas turned Seattle adventurer LSL sent me Vogue's Amanda Brooks "I <3 Your Style." There are hundreds of style books out there, but this one's actually a really fun read.
Deary deer Crassy Wallace sent me this houndstooth bag (and a mod belt!)
My mother-in-law gave me this beautiful Kiwiana photo album. I plan to fill it with lomography photos.
I'm going exploring with LSL today, so we'll put my restless lomo cam to good use!
Hello, it's been a while since my last style post. I was a lot better at the before, and I apologize. I'm hoping the next time I get back to Vegas I can bring back my tripod! And then I won't have to bother Chris anymore. We walked home after dinner; he was holding our leftovers and took two photos as fast as possible. HAHA!
Missoni for Target blouse (gifted from Melissa!) | F21 shorts | World New Zealand shoes | gold watch gifted from my mom | H&M purse
I wasn't in New Zealand when the Missoni riots broke out. This was a nice surprise when my buddy in NZ gave this blouse to me. She said it was more me. We swapped more clothes later!
I love bold prints.
This blog has gone in many different directions. Today, I really wanted to blog about all the old music I've been listening to lately. When I was a teenager, I grew up listening to punk, pop punk, hardcore and emo. Today, I couldn't stop listening to Sunny Day Real Estate which is so fitting since I now live in Seattle!
Some of my other old forever favourites bands from that time were Saves The Day, Lifetime, Kid Dynamite. I want to make a 90s/00 playlist. I also want to share a summer playlist loaded with all the Brit pop/indie/shoegaze/nugaze airy music that I also love.
In March, I took photos as a second shooter at my friend Maggie's Samoan/Niuean themed wedding. It was the first Pacific Island-themed wedding I've ever been to. I say that- as that's exactly what the groom asked me! (I went to a Maori wedding in 2010 where they sang in Maori, served a hangi and did several hakas! It was also held inside the Destiny Church. Needless to say, it was an amazing experience. Although, I'm unsure if Maori people consider themselves as Pacific Islanders but Polynesians.)
As the second photographer, I captured so, so, so many tender and memorable moments. My favourite part was when the wedding party stepped outside the church. Everybody was hooting, howling and grinning ear-to-ear. I met Maggie's bro who was the videographer, who's also an amazing photographer. Turns out he's a prominent Australian contemporary dance choreographer who travels around the world for dance companies. It was inspiring just being in his presence. This day was so inspiring.
The wedding continued on with several cultural traditions like singing, chants, dances, Nieuan cloths rolled out where money was collected. Apologies as I don't know what it was called, but it was a Nieuan tradition! There were Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan, Cook Island and Niuean dances! And then eventually the bride's family ended the reception with an amazing hip hop dance. The people at this wedding were so enthusiastic about dancing. I honestly want a CD mix of the fun Samoan dance music I heard that day. I can see why our friend Jeff had such a great time in Samoa dancing there!
Here are a few of my favourites that I was fortunate to catch:
I love living in the city, but it comes at the expense of small apartment living. I wish we lived in a wide open space. I'm excited with the possibility of owning our own property one day.
We haven't decorated our apartment yet. These are all ideas that I adore from afar.
...
It's imperative that funny face photos are taken whenever I touch down in Vegas. I don't know what it is about that place. The (lack of) water, the desolate desert in general, people in Vegas tend of have an extremely laid back sense of humor. Extremely uninhibited west coast vibes!
This is why I love these people so much.
I cried into laughter and started having convulsions because of this.
Don't ever let anybody talk crap about where you're from. I am determined to break down every stereotype wrongly sent my way.
I had a good life and opportunities there. My friends were amazing too.
Hi, I'm Jen. I'm a blogger based in Seattle, who spent most of her formative years in Las Vegas. I like to write about music, interior design, style, fashion, pop culture, art, travel, my adventures, and creative inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!
ABOUT ME STYLE TRAVEL MUSIC & ART LINKS
We visited Wellington and had the most amazing day with Phil and Jonah. 
This photo describes it all...
Mt. Eden in Auckland at dusk
We hung out at Bastion Point. Photo by Jonah.
Best Coast! I do live on the best coast.
M83 being amazing as usual. Tense times ensued when at least 100 people in the crowd tried to fight their way down the steps onto the ground level. Dozens of bouncers couldn't control it. 
Brooklyn's decadent delights.
Another extremely thoughtful care package from the great American novelist aka. My pen pal L.
My longtime Vegas turned Seattle adventurer LSL sent me Vogue's Amanda Brooks "I <3 Your Style." There are hundreds of style books out there, but this one's actually a really fun read.
Deary deer Crassy Wallace sent me this houndstooth bag (and a mod belt!)
Posts
