KC Fashion Week Recap :: Part II

Thanks for checking back in for the second part of my KC Fashion Week recap! So I attended the first night, missed the second night, but was happy I got a chance to attend the final night of runway shows, especially because I knew Project Runway alum Lauren Kathleen would be there!!! I was such a big fan of hers on the show and was excited to see her designs walk the runway in person!

Prior to the runway shows, I got to attend the Ulta Beauty media event, where I got to sample delicious drinks, deserts, and hors d'oeuvres. They certainly know how to entertain a lady. ;)

I also got in some chat time with these two lovelies, Antonia (who just launched Curvaceous City) and her sister Alexis. They're super sweet, funny, and doing some great things here in KC! We probably could've chatted the entire night, but before we knew it, it was time to get seated for the runway shows!

While walking to my seat, I spotted Laura Kathleen and had a major groupie moment. I had to force myself to go talk to her because if I didn't, I knew I'd be kicking myself later. So I'm happy to report, I did it! She was so sweet and approachable..and just look at her adorable baby bump! :)

If I had to pick a highlight of the evening, this would probably be it.

Now onto the show!


Architexture
The collection by Christina and John, the duo behind Architexture (love that name), combined structure and texture so seamlessly. I loved the sleekness of everything and can definitely see myself wearing practically everything in this collection. They had a couple of jackets that are to die for, but sadly, I didn't get clear pictures of them.

Kate Walz
Definitely one of the most notable collections of the night was this one by another young designer, Kate Walz (she's only 17!). Again, I'm just so incredibly floored by the amount of talent she already has. This is the stuff I expect to see when I think "runway"...more avante garde and daring looks that push boundaries. I loved her blend of structured textiles with more feminine silhouettes. It definitely made for an unconventional look. And just check out her final look!

 

Laura McGrew
These TOMBOY Designs looks by Laura McGrew were classic, yet edgy. I must be going through a black and white phase because I find myself gravitating toward these neutrals, along with greys and off whites, in my every day clothing lately. I love the clean, classic lines, and I also really appreciate the asymmetrical pieces (like the grey short-sleved jacket below, which I failed to get a clear pic of).

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Christian Micheal
I loved that there was another men's wear collection at this season's KCFW! Christian Micheal did not disappoint. Again, when I think runway, I expect to see more daring styles like these. I love the details he incorporates in each one of these looks. I must be a sucker for structure and texture because I really appreciate all the detailed work that went into these pieces! Just look at the quilting and impeccable stitching involved. Aside from the exaggerated collars and cuffs, they're pretty wearable. I actually kind of wish he did a version of this collection for women!

House of Cochon
Anyone who knows me knows I love jewelry. Obviously! ;) And I love a good piece of statement jewelry. So when I found out that House of Cochon was showing their collection, I couldn't wait to see it! I'm definitely digging their natural, tribal, bohemian vibe. The splashes of color are refreshing and make me want to hop on the next plane to the nearest tropical beach. It's always inspiring for me to see the work of other jewelry artists and to know how far they've come. I definitely walked away very inspired...and who knows...maybe eNVe Designs will walk down the KCFW runway too sometime in the future!

Whitney Rorah Designs
As an artist, I'm always viewing others' work through an appreciative lens, particularly imagining how many countless hours it took for this person to achieve the piece of work I see in front of me. That's exactly what was going through my mind when I saw Whitney Rorah's collection. Just look at the amount of meticulous detail that went into all those gowns! 

Laura Kathleen 
I have to be honest, Laura Kathleen's collection was much more casual and ready-to-wear than what I was expecting, given her incredible work on Project Runway, especially her collection for NYFW. So part of me was a little disappointed that there wasn't a real "WOW" moment with this collection. But that said, I still think she is amazing and I do love the flowy, feminine look of this collection. Sometimes it's hard to make black look ultra flowy and feminine, but she managed to do that here. Plus, the sunnies and the head scarf are calling me to take a coastal road trip in a convertible! Who wants to go with me? I'm pretty fun on road trips! ;)

There you have it...my entire first experience with Kansas City Fashion Week! It was so much fun that I know I'll be back for more next season! In the meantime, I think I need to get some red-carpet posing lessons! And some photography lessons! LOL

So which collections caught your eye?? Good or bad?

Recap of the KC Blogger Meetup Workshop :: How to Beautify Your Blog

 

Last weekend, I attended the first KC Blogger Meetup workshop. The topic was How to Beautify Your Blog. It couldn't have come at a better time because that's exactly what I'm trying to do...breathe some new life into this old blog of mine. If you haven't been here in a while, you'll notice that I've given it a little make-over! I wanted to match the look and feel of my main website, but ultimately, I wanted to have a fresh and airy space that would inspire me to write and blog more. So one step in the desired direction!

  

 

First to speak was Sarah of One Sparrow Creative. She is a Kansas City lifestyle portrait photographer whose work I've been admiring since I discovered her on instagram. She covered photography basics, including lighting, editing, and manual mode. As someone who takes about a million pictures a day, you would think that I would've ventured into manual mode by now, but nope. 

I have taken a couple of intro photography workshops in the past, but for some reason, my brain can't make sense of the counter intuitive (to me, anyway) settings for ISO, apperture, shutter speed, depth of field....or are two of those the same thing?? Ugh..see?? And for a couple of those settings, the higher the number, the smaller the opening or the shorter the depth or something opposite of what my brain wants to think it is. I'm not sure why I have to think so hard to process that information, but there seems to be a black hole in my brain where manual mode skills are supposed to be. So naturally, I gravitate to the wonderful and easy world of auto mode. Plus with the magic of photoshop, I can tweak the light balance in the levels setting and voila--a decent enough photo to get by on. But yes, I realize that if I want to take the next step into beautifying my photos, I need to switch to manual.

I'm so glad Sarah shared some of her photography tips and tricks, and am very glad I took notes. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of my ventures into manual mode in a future blog post, because that would mean that I didn't chicken out again and finally put things into practice.

 

  

Next up was Karrie, creator and artist of Happy Habitat, who then shared her success story. For me, it's always such a treat to meet local artists and small business owners that have found a way to keep doing what they love. And she was so sweet to chat with me and answer my business questions. I have zero technical business knowledge and often feel really intimidated by it all. So I really appreciated the fact that she took the time to give me some really useful and truthful pieces of advice. I'm trying to soak it all in and apply everything that I can.

To close out the afternoon, Lauren of Creative Reasoning laid down the laws on how to achieve a visually pleasing blog. I never gave much thought to font type, size, and color, or the colors used on a blog background beyond whether or not my color palette coordinates nicely, but as it turns out, these elements are pretty crucial. Less is more. I will need to go take another look at my layout and potentially make some more edits.

So with this refresher, I think I'm on my way to a better blog! And lookie here--I actually created a blog post! ;)

Thanks to the ladies of KC Blogger Meetup for a wonderful afternoon! If you're a KC area blogger and aren't yet a part of this group, you should definitely join!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year (if you celebrate it)!  We spent the weekend in my hometown with family, and had a great Tết (Vietnamese new year) celebration. 

We played traditional games, ate delicious food, and took the kids to see the Dragon dance.  This year was the first year they weren't crying and terrified of it, so that was a nice bonus!  It's considered good luck to feed the dragon "lì xì" (red envelopes containing lucky money) and we attempted to get the kids to feed them, but again, it was a no go.  Maybe next year.  Jax gave me his money to feed to the dragon (that's my blurred hand in the pic below).

My parents had a Hoa Mai tree (a tree with yellow blossoms that's native to Vietnam, traditional decoration for the new year) with fluttering red lì xì envelopes with different amounts of money in them.  We each took turns cutting down a lucky red envelope.  True to my luck, I picked one with only a dollar in it.  :)  But hey, it's a lucky dollar!

Chúc mừng năm mới (Happy New Year) and cung chúc tân xuân (gracious wishes of the new spring)!  I hope the year of the Dragon brings you much prosperity and happiness.  I know we're looking forward to meeting our little luck dragon, scheduled to arrive in April.  ;)  


What are you looking forward to this year?

 

Finding Extra (in the) Ordinary :: Silhouettes

I took the first photo during a sunset sometime in the spring.  It's of a little bird nest in a tree in our front yard.  I didn't even mean to do a silhouette photo, but I love happy accidents!

This was taken recently on one of our days at the park.  Jax and Kaili were playing at the top of a hill, with the playground in the background.  The rope pyramid thing you see is only the tippy top of it.  At one point, there were so many kids swarming this thing, it made me so nervous watching them.. it's  high up and so unsteady because it's all made of rope (except the pole in the center).  Crazy how perspectives change as you get older.  If I was 10, I'd be trying to swan dive off the top with no second thought to safety.  Now that I think of it though, the rope is in some ways much safer than the steel and splintered wood jungle gyms we played on as kids, where the bottoms were lined with sand, gravel, or concrete.  And I did flips off of those and I'm ok, I think.  Anyway, what was I talking about?...  ;)

After the playground, we went for a walk along a trail and I noticed a single little bird perched on this Tim Burton-esque looking tree in the middle of a field.  The branches looked like a hand desperately reaching for the sun.  I had to capture the image somehow and I don't think I did it justice at all.  I think I need a better lens, not to mention some photography lessons.

So how have your summer ventures been so far?