Costume Institute Gala 2010

Pretty insane dresses here.

T-Swizzle.

Ralph Lauren.

Looks like a wedding dress. I dig.

Sienna Miller.

Emilio Pucci.

Love the color and the design/detail.

Emma Watson.

Burberry.

Once again, another wedding dress. (Which are quite stunning)

Carey Mulligan.

Miu Miu.

ADORABLE. I dig the pockets and the swirly details on the dress.

Who wants to take me to a Miu Miu shop?

Blake Lively.

Marchesa.

Gorgeous color and detail.

Anne Hathaway.

Valentino.

Very pretty. Reminds me of Miley's dress at the Oscars, except that Anne looks better.

Mila Kunis.

Vera Wang.

Very dramatic but I like the contrast with the grey and the black tulle/chiffon/whatever it is.

Lily Collins.

Chanel.

Chanel mini dress. Simple as that.

-Nikki

Graffiti.

Fail.

A Couple of Wednesdays Ago.

I wore this.

(Photo courtesy of Jenniffer Molina)

Scarf- Rue 21

Jeans- Levi's

Boots- T.j. Maxx

Shirt- Wet Seal

Glasses- Jake

Camera- Nikon D50

Location- Somewhere along the Walkill River

-Nikki

Great.

Stepped on it this morning.

Bokeh

Is a technique used in photography to make lights look blurry.

I tried it out on my Nikon.

To do it, you need some lights (like Christmas lights or a chandelier),

a camera,

and a black piece of paper.

On the black piece of paper, cut out a little design in the middle.

I chose a heart.

Next place the card over the lense of the camera.

Make sure your camera is on a manual setting to get the blurriness.

Take a picture of the light.

See your result and keep on trying.

Here are my failed attempts and an example of good bokeh.

Here's a nice example of Bokeh.

Attempt Numero Uno-Fail

Attempt Numero Dos- Fail. Too focused.

Attempt Numero Tres- Ok. Not too bad. Looks like a strawberry.

Numero Quatro- Not too bad. Kinda cool.

Numero Cinco- Eh. Better than others.

Well. At least I tried.

If you want a well written tutorial, hit up this site

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/how-to-make-bokeh

Happy Picture Taking!

Oh by the way, its International Hug a Filipino Day :)

-Nikki

Thinking.

In life,

there will always be a time where one is troubled with numerous amounts of ponderous thoughts.

I'm having trouble on deciding on what I should do.

Put it this way.

I have two rings.

One of them, from sixth grade, and one I this year.

I haven't worn the ring from 6th grade in a while until now,

but I've been wearing the one I got this year for about two months now.

I've been wearing the same rings for a couple of days now,

and I can't wear more than one ring.

And I don't know which one to choose.

My ring from 6th grade is one of my favorites and I've had it for a while.

It's a very inspriational ring. It has deep meaning to it, and it's classic.

My ring from this year is very bohemian hippy chic.

My ring from 6th grade goes with all of my outfits,

whereas my ring from this year doesn't.

I can't really decide which one I want to keep though.

I'll feel terrible if I depart with my new ring because it's new,

but my old ring really shows who I am.

When I wear my old ring, I'm happier for some reason than I am with my new ring.

I think I just need a deep meditation session.

What should I do?

-Nikki

Jewelry

I dig rings...

and jewelry

Especially unique ones made out of fake metal.

My mumzy always said to invest in jewelry because they'll have some kind of value no matter what.

Well...that really only applies for "real" jewelry because real metals like gold and whatever have more value than metals like...the ones I have that turn my fingers green.

So I'm starting my collection now.

But here are some pieces that I really dig.

-Nikki

This owl ring is pretty sick. I think it's from Forever21.

This bracelet's really cute. I really like the big turquoise-like stone in the middle and the peace signs and the red stones.

I love the detailing on this pendant. It adds texture as if the elephant were real and the red stones add color.

Again, this pendant shows a lot of detail/texture and I really dig the owl so yeah.

This is a charm ring. It's got a red heart, a black ball with purple stone things, and I'm not sure about what's next to that, but I really like the silver color and the contrast with the colors. 

FML?

Okay so seriously,

I hate it when people have statuses and are like,

"Oh emm geeee fml...this suckss. I hate youu"

First of all spell correctly with the correct amount of letters.

Second, do not say hate and then the next day be like "I LOVE YOU".

Because hate is a strong word (Plain White T's good song)

and so is love. So use the terms correctly.

But I CANNOT stand the term FML.

FML stands for f*ck my life.

Why would you say such a terrible thing?

Yeah, life sucks at times, but to take it to the extent of saying f*ck it?

Seriously, that's life.

Things happen.

Get over it.

Stop being a drama queen/king.

Plus, some of these people do not know how lucky they are to have a life in America and to have a home and food and access to a computer.

Okay, there are millions of people in third world countries that don't have clothes.

GET OVER YOURSELF.

People don't realize how much they have these days.

Come on people. Open up your minds.

Watch what you say next time.

'Nuff Said.

-Nikki

Seriously?

Okay so I just got back from a soccer game,

and I've seen plenty of terrible refs,

but today was the most ridiculous game I have ever seen.

You cannot take a goal away from someone if it has been already played.

If the other ref is saying something to a ref, STOP the game and dont let it continue.

Seriously, the head ref was listening to the sidelines shouting the calls and calling the calls 2 minutes later.

Come on.

I think that even with all of the chaos, someone should have been carded.

That's how bad it was.

'Nuff Said.

-Nikki

Blah

Some Pics.

Enjoy

Drew this on my arm yesterday in first period Health.

My Lucky Brand ring and my blessed buddha beads my dad got me at this meditation thing.

I have to do this project for my photo class where we have to pick a subject and take pictures of three of the different thing. I chose rings.

My old rusted heart charm ring with Alissa's iPod.

Me wearing my dad's ring. I don't know what the little symbols mean though.

My mum's pearl ring with her pearls on her old scrub uniform.

-Nikki

Mood Board

So pretty much of all of April so far,

I've been working on my mood board.

A mood board is pretty much a board (in my case, a wall),

that has pictures or sayings or anything that inspires you.
I put mine in a place where I'll see it every day.

Mine has a lot of prints and pictures of runway models for m designing needs,

and I've got some little phrases on there, like shop for good and make peace, relax, eat. play. work, etc.

Some days I'm just so stressed out with school and life and I forget to chill.

Sometimes I get so caught up in taking pictures or drawing sketches that I forget about school, which is what I really need to focus on.

I've got three more years of high school, and picking out colleges will come around soon.

I'm not really sure what I want to go to college for yet though.

I really want to either pursue a career as a designer or something in the medical business such as a doctor.

I'm kind of stuck in between with the two of these paths right now, but we'll see.

The colleges I really want to go to though is Santo Thomas, or NYU.

You've probably never heard of Santo Thomas.

I think it's the oldest college in Asia and it's located in da flipz (the Philippines).

My dad said it's one of the best colleges too and they have a pretty sick medical course.

NYU is my second pick though because it's a pretty nice school and it's in New York and I really want to chill there.

New York's very diverse and you can pretty much express yourself there and its accepted and it has great shopping.

But for now, I'll just try my best in school and attempt to get some sort of scholarship or whatever.

-Nikki

Here's My Mood Board (Wall)

It's backwards because I took the picture with my webcam,

I had to cut out pics from every single TeenVogue issue that I have collected so far.

I guess it was worth it because my walls looking pretty sick as of now.

Once I get a working printer, I'll be able to add more lovely little things to it.

Style

So the past few days were gorgeous days,

and my photo class went outside to take pictures.

The first four are from today.

The rest are from yesterday

A lock from a locker.

A pretty beat up notebook.

A blooming flower on a tree.

A frog. Yummy.

I was in love with these tree.

The colors were gorgeous.

Legit, it was standing out in a crowd of dead old flower bushes.

I loved the pinks and the contrast with the white.

My camera doesn't zoom in that close without being focused so this was the closest I could get.

-Nikki

Macro

I'm really into macro photography,

which is when you take pictures of object up close and they're super focused.

So the other night it was raining, and when I woke up in the morning and went outside,

I saw that the flowers had water droplets on them so I was like, "AHH".

So I went to go and get my precious D50 and take the pics.

I also made a little quick sketch of dresses.

Happy Spring.

Enjoy.

-Nikki

Daffodil

Another Daffodil. You can't really see the droplets on this one though.

I don't know what these are, but they're purple. No raindrops here.

And here is the sketch that I drew for my dear friend Holly.

Spring Break and Love?

This week so far,

so boring.

some spring break.

Everyday, I've waken up around 7:30, automatically.

I didn't really go anywhere besides Delaware and Maryland.

Fun there, but it was only a couple of days.

Nothing special really happend.

Beiber has a new video, I forget what the song is, but it's about him with another chick.

What a surprise.

I couldn't really hang with any of my friends, so I was home every single day of the week.

I've been pondering a certain question to myself.

How do you know when you're in love?

Some say it's when you get butterflies in your stomach when you see "the one".

Others say that it's when you know that you are ready.

But how do you know if you're ready?

Also the word "love" itself is overly abused.

"I love my best friend____ (two weeks later, I HATE ____).

Seriously. Love is abused.

I hear little 12 year old kids that are supposedly "dating" saying "I love you" and they only go out for a week?

It's not cool to have a boyfriend/girlfriend when you're 12.

Yeah it's cool to brag and be like"Oh I'm gettin' some",

but honestly, you're really not getting anything, other than a huge ego.

I guess you know you're in love when someone/something is constantly on your mind all the time, and  you can't get rid of it.

I'm not like saying the cheesy scenario of a teenager daydreaming in class,

I mean if you see something, and it reminds you of a someone, and you think about the time that you've spent with someone, yeah.

This doesn't only apply to those relationship things, but with friends and family as well.

Like if you see a word, you instantly think of a person in your life.

Give me any word, and I'll name somebody near and dear to my heart.

Love also takes time.

You can't just take a glance at somebody and say "Omigah I love him/her"

You have to get to know the person.

All of these lil 8-year-old girls are like "I LOVE JUSTIN BEIBER/ROBERT PATTINSON/ THE JONAS BROTHERS" when they have no clue what they're about.

They just fall for their looks.

For all we know, they could be crack addicts (I'm not saying they are).

So yeah, the word love is abused and you don't find it, it comes to you.

-Nikki

Shoes

For Spring,

My wonderful mother and I loaded up on shoes.

One day we were walking in the mall and we stopped by this store called Traffic.

Cutest shoes. Ever.

So much variety.

They've got gladiators, booties, slouchy boots, sneakers, flats, heels, you name it.

And they're all pretty unique and the best part is...

They're all quite inexpensive.

I bought three pairs of shoes there for $75 I think.

All super cute.

Also headed to Joyce Leslie, good finds there.

And of course, online shoe shopping.

Here's my favorite pair.

I've worn them a couple of times so now they're slouchy but whatever.

It's like a pale denim material with insane hardware detail.

And the back has a zipper so you don't have to spend ten minutes buckling your shoes.

I think these were either $20 or $25, not too sure though.

Detail

Here is the second pair, bought at Joyce Leslie.

This was only $16 I think.

Again it's a zippered up gladiator and it's made up of this bronze snake skin like material.

The soles are quite comfy as well.

Both of these two pairs of shoes are Classified shoes

Now these shoes are HOT.

They're a metallic silver with wrap around detail (kinda like the shoes I draw on most of my sketches).

They're about four inches in height.

the heels like super skinny, but they're so easy and comfortable to walk in.

I could actually walk around my house in these without tripping, which is a first.

And the bottom of the shoes are lime green!

Kinda like the whole red Christian Louboutin shoe sole.

I have no clue how much these were, but they were quite inexpensive.

-Nikki

Haul?

Recently,

I watched a couple of haul videos on youtube.

What exactly is a "haul" video?

It's a simple video that the user makes to show what they got at a store, usually of clothes and/or makeup.

It usually is around 10 minutes or so and has a lot of products to show.

Every single time I watch one of these videos, I wonder how much money that person has and why they spend it all on clothes and make up.

America is in a recession right now, and all you can think about it clothes and make up?

I'm not hating on the girls (and/or guys?) that do these haul videos, because yeah they're fun to watch, but I just get so bored watching some say "Oh I got this at this and place and I got this..." and etc.

My favorite person who does these haul videos is DulceCandy87.

Yeah her videos show that she bought a bunch of clothes and her closet is like a mall, but

she actually explains how to wear the clothes and when to use them, which I love.

But this one girl, oh my goodness.

She was about 13 maybe?

She was doing a haul video of what she got on her birthday and what she bought with her birthday money,

RIDICULOUS.

This chick got like, a whole bunch of high quality make up like Chanel, MAC, and Sephora,

along with a bunch of brand name expensive stuff like Juicy Couture and Burberry.

She was just whipping out all of these brushes and eye shadows and lip liner.

LIP LINER?

This chick's 13!

She shouldn't even have that much make up!

Anywho, this girl just kept going on about her swatches and make up.

Seriously if you're going to make a haul video, tell us why you got those stuff.

'Nuff Said.

-Nikki

Chris Christie?

So I walk into school,

and immediately all I hear is

"Did you hear about the teacher cuts?"

"They're cutting art programs next year!"

Me: "Whaaaa?"

I'm thinking to myself, cuts? School cuts?

I didn't know much about it and then 6 hours go by and I walk into history class.

My teacher just happens to be ten minutes late, and then our class goes into this whole discussion about the cuts.

I actually listen to my teacher on this.

she was saying stuff about the NJ Herald's article about Governor Chris Christie cutting EDUCATIONAL programs to try and stop our debt from growing.

Alright, I understand that we're in a lot of debt as of now,

but to take away the education being given to young childrens minds?!

When I heard budget cuts, I immediately thought of the Art and Music programs.

The Art and Music programs have always been looked down upon because they supposedly "won't get you anywhere in life".

Well guess what?

The Arts are pretty much the foundation of EVERYTHING.

All of the layouts you see in newspapers, the actual newpapers, the desks, THOSE ARE ALL ART!

Anyway, more programs that could be cut are Sports and Clubs.

Okay America, if you're complaining about obesity, why cut the Sports?

And for clubs, clubs are a place for people to meet new people and find out who you really are.

Plus, without Sports or Clubs or Art or Music,

what are colleges going to look for in college resumes?

So and so is a straight A student and doesn't have any co-corricular activities?

Come on!

Honestly, if you're gonna cut Clubs, you might as well cut the clubs in the lower grade schools because most colleges look for what you did in High School, rather than what you did in Middle School.

And as for teachers,

I guess its the same as being laid off from an office like job.

But most of the teachers in the school to be honest, suck.

Most of them have been teaching for less than 4 years or so.

Most of the teachers look like students too.

Not good.

But those teachers have families as well.

So Governor Christie,

Why did you choose education?

America's education is the reason why most people come to America.

Now you're trying to take it away?

How 'bout you let us keep our education and go cut off something else like letting ourselves pump our own gas?

I honestly think that it's ridiculous that someone is being paid to pump our own gas, where we can do it ourselves.

There's probably more stuff to cut too but if you're going to make cuts,

don't make them so drastic at once.

You've got so many people mad at you because of the things we've heard.

You could at least explain to us youth why you're doing this.

'Nuff Said.

-Nikki

Letter

Dear You,

It's me again.

You're amazing.

Your kindness and sweetness sweeps me off of my feet.

The way you make me feel,

is indescribeable.

But I have three words for you.

I LoveYou.

Love Always,

Me

Young Love

Young~[yuhng]adj- being in the first or early stage of life or growth.

Love~[luhv]n-a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

One Boy.

He likes her.

He wants her.

One Girl.

She likes him.

She wants him.

Both are too afraid to admit it.

They have no idea.

He sees her in the hallway.

He stares at her, trying to figure out who she really is.

Is she the one? He thinks.

She tries not to stare.

She tries to hide away.

She's afraid that he doesn't like her back.

As they sit together in the classroom,

You can only hear the heart's palpitating of

Two.

Young.

Hearts.

His thoughts escape his mind,

and travel to his mouth.

You're beautiful. You're amazing. I wish you were mine.

She listens intently.

His voice traveling to her mind.

Her heart beats even faster.

Can this all be really true?

For weeks,

he gives her his thoughts.

For months,

she gives him her love.

The year is slowly ending,

time is fading away.

He dreams of asking her a question,

the very next day.

He kneels to the ground and asks her a question.

She says yes with overwhelming emotion.

With a smile on his face,

and a blush on hers,

A bow tie on his neck,

and a ring on her finger,

 Young Love Exists.

-Nikki