Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Inspiration in my LA {DTLA Art Walk}

Life has been interesting these last few month and the negative effect of that is the lack of posting on my blog. Summer is here. I have a new apartment. Life is active. Life is good! I have so many ideas that I need to get into motion for my little blog. 

Not only has my blog suffered, but so has my photography! I have photos that have to be edited, I have a camera that desires to be played with, and I have a beautiful city that inspires me to capture lyfe! 

I have to admit...my iPhone has become my secret lover...I am cheating on my Canon with my iPhone...and I don't like it! I love my iPhone but it does not compare to a real camera. I am ready to fall in love with Canon again (while remaining good friends with my iPhone**)

The beautiful thing about summer is that there is so much to do, so much light, so much sun, so much life! I went to the downtown LA art walk this past week and I fell in love with downtown all over again! I felt inspired!!! I plan on returning again next month...with my Canon and capturing the beauty that is my city of Lost Angels...my LA!





















"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." ~Nietzsche

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Photography: A big part of who I am

One of the main reasons that I wanted to start this blog is so that I could talk about something that makes me tick, Photography. In the last few years photography has really become part of who I am, it is part of my identity and personality. I am constantly learning how to express myself through an image and my creativity keep growing. I am a big fan of learning new things...and my curiosity is what started me on this artistic path!

Sometimes it can become hard to keep up with this blog but I REFUSE to let this platform of expression go to waste! I promise to myself to always reserve time to dedicate to this blog. Between my job, my renewed intrest in fitness (#ilovekickboxing), my social life, and my other creative experiments (trying to learn to paint, jewelry making, DIY...ect) this blog is one outlet where ALL of these things can be documented. I am not a fashion blogger, this will not be my "diary", and my aim is not to create revenue from blogging (but i'm so not opposed to it!) I am a #life blogger...MY #life blogger!  I have a notebook where I write down ideas for blogs and art project...now I just need to make time to check off those ideas!!

So here is the first one I'll be checking off...

These photos were taken and edited with my iPhone. As much as I don't want to become one of those people who considers her iPhone camera the ONLY source for capturing #life, I have to admit that I LOVE to use the camera on my iPhone...it works amazingly...and don't get me started on the all the photo app out there!!!!! I am currently addicted to Instagram, especially because it is incorporated into my job at celebrity pink. My Canon, Photoshop and Illustrator are dear to me...but my iPhone and all these photo app (and their filters) are right there in second place!


















All images captured using the Picture Show photo app


~Yen





"Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together" ~Elizabeth Taylor





Sunday, February 24, 2013

The {Art} of Makeup


I feel like I need to go into a rant. 

A makeup rant! I love makeup, there is nothing more I can say to make it much clearer…I love makeup. I love playing with it, experimenting with it, I love buying it! Being able to wear makeup so freely is one of the best parts of being a girl {that and the fact that once a month it’s perfectly ok to be a tad bit bitchy-er}

I have a relationship with the makeup that I wear, I don’t just throw it on blindly, I think of how I want to feel that day, what features I want to accentuate, how badly I need to cover a pimple or dark under eye circles. Most importantly, makeup has the power to make a superwoman out of a woman! It makes you look good even when you feel like total utter SHIT!!!! The most important lesson when it comes to makeup is this: Makeup is not meant to conceal a beautiful face, it is meant to accentuate a beautiful face! I cannot state this enough. Just because you have tons of makeup does not give you permission to wear it all at once! {please put down the electric blue eye shadow is you already have red lipstick on…just say NO!} Having tons of makeup just gives you options; smokey day one day, liquid eyeliner the next, natural & fresh another day…you get my drift!

 Makeup for me is a reflection of being a woman, it’s a rite of passage that came to me when I was 15 years old and my mother allowed me to wear mascara, eyeliner and the Jordanna Terracotta lip liner that I so badly wanted to wear. I went from being a bare faced girl to being a young lady who began her relationship with a makeup, and began carrying a makeup bag in her Jansport backpack! Throughout the years I’ve experimented with tons of makeup looks and brands; expensive, inexpensive, drug store, specialty store…and it all comes down to knowing your features and what works on you.

My day to day makeup routine is fairly easy and it takes me no more than 20 minutes to do…BUT like I said, I like to have options and I like to switch it up every now and then. The only thing that remains the same is: RED LIP COLOR!!!!! I absolutely refuse to live my life without red lipstick, red lip liner, red lip gloss, red lip stain, red lip balm, red chapstick!!!! Red, my friends, is my wonder woman color! It’s my instant mood lifter; it makes me feel sensual, sexy, and fierce…all around bad-ass-feminine! If you look inside my makeup bag you will find different options of red lip color and what dictates which red I am to use that day is how I am accentuating my eyes…I know it all sounds so fucking complicated but trust me, my fellow makeup enthusiast totally get this!!

I’m all about female empowerment but I also know that men and women are different in so many aspects {duh! Venus/Mars!} and I don’t feel that makeup makes a woman weak and superficial! Men might not comprehend why we take extra longer than they do when it comes to getting ready; but they are NOT suppose to get it, they are BOYS {but they are suppose to appreciate it}…just like I don’t get the concept of peeing standing up {I tried it once and ended up peeing all over myself…yeah…}

Makeup is powerful! I am woman, hear me roar…meow…This is my rant!





Monday, February 18, 2013

{Style Inspiration} Printed Leggings

Style Inspiration:: Printed Leggings



I have a current obsession with...Printed Leggings!!! This is so Desperately Seeking Susan and I may be trying to channel Madonna or Cindy Lauper in the 80's but I can't help it! All I see everyday are prints and patterns and I get inspired! I work for a denim company and guess what...prints are IN!!! The beautiful thing about leggings is that they are so fucking comfortable...so versatile...so curve hugging. And the beautiful thing about me is...that I think of endless possibilities of how to style them!! There is nothing subtle about printed leggings, you want to be noticed and have no problem with that!

How would you define this style?...it's all over the place...but then again, so am I!!

~Y




Wednesday, February 13, 2013

{Home Inspiration}...the joy of home decor!


I've always appreciated looking at home décor but never really found myself really putting in the effort to find inspiration for decorating! But then again I’ve never had my own place. A place where I am the sole person in charge of decorating more than just the bedroom!!! This is new and exciting territory for me and I am going ALL in with this!!!!!
 
Lately I’ve been thinking that it’s finally time to take that leap and get my own place. No renting a bedroom, no sharing a house or an apartment with a roommate. This time I want to have a place to my own! I want to decorate on my own, I want to come home to a place where I can enjoy the silence OR have the music blasting as loud as I want…I want my independence!
 
This makes me excited and for the first time I want to find inspiration for home décor!!!! One of the rooms I’m most excited about decorating is….THE KITCHEN!!! I get to have my own kitchen for the first time and go shopping for all sorts of goodies!!! I am so happy that Pintrest exist because I’ve been collecting pictures for inspiration!!....
 
Working in the fashion industry, I get excited about about shopping for clothes, shoes and accessories...but for the first time, I don't want to go shopping for any of these wonderful things because I want to save my $$$ so that I can go shopping and style MY PLACE!!!!!
 
I absolutely love and embrace the changes going on in my life. Slowly, but surely, things are coming together for me!
 
~Y







Friday, January 25, 2013

Dark Room Creativity

If you know me, you know that I absolutely love photography...and it's a hobby that keeps growing! I hope to keep learning how to capture lyfe. (if I have one complaint, it's that I not only want to be the one to capture the photo...but I also want to be the one in the photo....I want to be captured the way I capture!!)

As much as I love digital photography and editing in photoshop...I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE being able to work in the dark room and get creative with film photography!...MAD scientist over here!!!! There is something so awesome about taking the time to learn about how chemicals works and all the different ways that film can be developed!

Someday I want to be able to have my very own dark room so that I can continue to learn...you know me...always curious to know more...and more...and more about something I enjoy!!


So here is a little of what i've been working on in the lab...I LOVE the imperfection that film developing has. Classic black & white never goes out of style...I notice that I don't do much blk & wht with digital...I save that for film.