4.26.2016

Currently... (19)


"Currently..." updates will be every 2 weeks or so. Going to try to update on Tuesdays when Katy Upperman posts hers.

I found the Currently post at Kate Hart's blog, who got the idea from Amy Lukavics, who found it here. Please join in and link me in the comments if you do!


LOVING
  • My second trip to Coachella~! This time, I was more prepared to have my allergies destroy me, so I took the appropriate medication. It was also windier than last year, which made taking a fashion cue from Star Wars' Rey kinda prudent. Oh and the reason we ended up going to Weekend 1 when we hadn't bought tickets? The Sister won tickets! I think this must be her super power...

A video posted by Alice (@girlontheroam) on



  • Being able to share this poem with you for National Poetry Month! I'd written the poem for a contest/challenge in February, and I really liked how it turned out. It was written during my February flurry of poetry writing. In any case, when the poem came back to me, I didn't really think about sending it elsewhere and since I wanted to share it, I did. :) If you haven't read it, I'd be delighted if you took a look: "Well-Met"
  • Poe Dameron Day / The Force Awakens - this was at the beginning of the month, but obviously, we bought all the comics, wore our T-Shirts, and watched the Force Awakens again - with our (sphero) BB-8! BB is actually not a good person to watch the movie with. He beeps at all the most dramatic moments but is so cute! And yes, we still love TFA a lot!

  • Meeting up with Tweeps - especially the writing kind. As I mentioned last time, I got to see long-time Twitter friend Lydia Kang when she was in town for a conference. It was also great finally meeting Jessica Love in person! (We now have matching Hamilton-Schuyler Sisters shirts.) Bonus! Seeing Elizabeth Briggs again and commiserating about Comic Con Hotelpocalypse. :P


READING

The HAMILTOME! This book, guys!!! It is BEAUTIFUL. Great content aside, I just love everything about the design of Hamilton: The Revolution. It's bound like a history book, has deckle-edged pages, and the inner layout - the photos, how they're presented with the lyrics and text - is just gorgeous. I love it so much, and I'm loving all the stories about how this crazy thing came about.




WATCHING

The Jungle Book - so beautifully done and a classic family film.

The Night Manager - only one episode has aired as of my writing this, and I can't tell how much I like it in terms of plot so far. BUT my goodness is Tom Hiddleston just wonderful to look at and listen to, and basically, however this show turns out, it is still a gift to me because I get to see TH on the small screen once a week for 6 episodes.

Game of Thrones - Yes, this show continues to upset me with how it chooses to handle certain characters and story lines, but I still desperately want to know what happens - and there are still aspects of the show I enjoy. So really show, stop pushing me away!

Lemonade - I wouldn't say I'm part of the Bey Hive, but Beyoncé's visual album for her new album Lemonade was all kinds of amazing. It's visually stunning, but her music and choice of visual is so powerful. It's intimate, gorgeous, political, introspective, and moving.


ANTICIPATING

  • YALLWEST! It's the West Coast companion to the much loved book-fest YALLFEST that takes place in South Carolina. Anyway, this is Yallwest's second year, but it'll be my first year going! I'm excited because I'll get to meet up with some blogger and author friends AND there's a Hamilton sing-along.
  • Also, it is almost time for Captain America: Civil War - and given how much I loved Winter Soldier, I am so excited for this.
  • TURN: Washington's Spies - we're getting really into the Revolutionary spy game now. This season? Benedict Arnold's betrayal! (Also, I hear we're finally getting some Hamilton!)
  • Roshani Chokshi's debut The Star-Touched Queen, which is out today! I've read her poetry and short stories online, and her writing is so beautiful! It's vivid, rich, and lyrical. I cannot wait to read an entire book by her!
  • And, of course, today is the release day of THE RAVEN KING by Maggie Stiefvater. It's the final book in the Raven Cycle series, which has arguably been my favorite on-going series these past few years. I'm already so sad to have to part ways with this magical world and amazing, amazing characters. I love them all so much! I'm so excited to find out what happens.

A photo posted by alice (@threadedpages) on


THINKING ABOUT

What new Annotations posts I'm going to do next. Don't know what this is? It's a blog supplement to my new bookstagram Instagram account, Threadedpages. The first post is here: Annotations.


MAKING ME HAPPY

  • Hanging out with the Founders squad this weekend. We watched the boy-band zombie-Western flick Dead 7 (it was...really bad. Eck!), listened to Hamilton on vinyl (absolutely incredible - like the violins are in the room with you), and then re-enacted part of the opening number when we realized our friend's house kind of mimicked the stage. Here's a gif from our efforts.


  • Seeing Years & Years perform last night at The Fonda. We missed them at Coachella, so we were so glad we'd gotten tickets for "localchella." Every show with them is a party. Love it.

A video posted by Catherine (@catherine) on


Q4U: What's up with you Currently? Also, if any of you are going to YALLWEST, please let me know! I'd love to see you! :D

4.13.2016

Geekchic OOTD: Looking for a Mind at Work

April somehow conspired to be a great month for my Hamilton interests. This month marks one year since I wrote this emotional and somehow coherent review of my experience of Hamilton at the Public in February 2015, and the Hamiltome is finally out in the world! (Deliver my book to meeee quickly, BN!)



And last but not least, one of my favorite geek ladies, Jordan of Jordandené, is offering a Hamilton-themed shirt (or tank) for her April Shirt of the Month. It features a quote from the song "The Schuyler Sisters," which is the show's introduction to the eponymous sisters - amazing women of the Revolution.

So in honor of all things Hamilton musical, I am making my first Outfit of the Day post, featuring Jordan's "Looking for a Mind at Work" shirt. (Stick around to the end for a surpriiiiiise~!)



A little background:

I'm an unabashed fan of Jordan's simple-chic, hand-lettered geeky shirt designs, and I love the Shirt of the Month feature because it means getting a new design on a monthly basis. So when Jordan reached out to me for Hamilton quotes for the April shirt, I didn't hesitate to, frankly, bombard her with quotes. Anyone who has listened to the musical can sympathize; it is brimming with quotable lines.

But I ultimately pushed for something from the Schuyler Sisters because I love these resilient, brilliant women and thought they ought to be represented on more Hamilton merch. I couldn't be happier that Jordan went with the quote "Looking for a mind at work!"





Full disclosure, Jordan sent me an early preview of the shirt for helping, and I was so excited about it that I resolved to do an outfit post for fun. And then once I started, I felt like I had to do 3 different outfits - you know, one for each of the sisters. :)

Note: The shirt I'm wearing in these pictures is an XS. I normally order T-Shirts in S for a looser fit. In the tanks, I usually order in XS because the S tends to run a bit big on me.


ANGELICA - I know her dress isn't really pink, but it's a warm and vibrant color. Angelica is a lady, but she's independent and strong too, so I thought this feminine floral skirt paired with bold lips and the sassier cat-eye frames would represent that well.



Outfit details: SHIRT (Jordandene) // SKIRT (Forever 21 N/A; Modcloth-similar) // SHOES (Eileen Fisher) // SUNGLASSES (HotTopic) // NECKLACE (Forever 21 N/A) // LIP COLOR (Bite Beauty custom coral; similar in 'pickled ginger')


ELIZA - Eliza's color palette is soft blues and greens, and her personality is more subdued than Angelica's. Hers is a quiet, honest strength. So I went with a sweeter look.



Outfit details: SHIRT (Jordandene) // SHORTS (Dear Creatures N/A ; asos- similar) // CARDIGAN (Target- similar) // SHOES (Forever 21- similar) // FAUX LACE COLLAR (vintage) // LIP COLOR (Bite Beauty custom nude; similar in 'meringue')


& PEGGY - The youngest Schuyler sister has become something of a fan favorite as perhaps the sassiest sister (and if you read about her, you'll find she was badass too - like saved her family by lying through her teeth to Redcoats & scaring them off). So I stuck with her yellow color palette and gave her my most youthful and work-work outfit.




Outfit details: SHIRT: (Jordandene) // SKIRT: (Forever 21-similar) // TIGHTS (Blackmilk) // SHOES (Nike N/A) // NECKLACE (Forever 21- similar) // BRACELET (BombDotComGeekery - similar) // SUNGLASSES (Ray Ban) // LIP COLOR (ColorPop in 'Beeper')


And as a gift to my wonderful internet friends for putting up with my endless Hamilton obsession, Jordan has given me a discount code to share with you!

You can get 25% off the entire Jordandené site, including the Hamilton shirt with my code workwork. The code is good through May 31st, but remember, the Hamilton Schuyler Sisters shirt will only be available until the end of April!


Already have the Hamilton shirt? No worries because there are other great options - like my other favorite, the Matt the Radar Technician/Kylo Ren tank.

HAPPY SHOPPING! (And special thanks to Jordan Ellis!) Huzzah!


Q4U: Which of these outfits was your favorite? What Jordandene goods are you getting?

4.08.2016

Annotations on ThreadedPages


As I mentioned in my last Currently... post, I started a new Instagram for my book-related photos and I wanted to talk a little more about it. My personal account (akangaru) has always been a mix of everything I love - food, friends, fandom, fashion, travel (couldn't keep up the alliteration, I'm afraid). So it wasn't that I wanted to streamline my Instagram aesthetic (it's a thing) there, it was more that I wanted to have a separate, more themed account.

I like taking photos. I like books and clothes and have a lot of both. I've also done a few "bookstagram" posts before with outfits inspired by or matching books, and people seemed to respond well to those. It made sense then to make the new account themed to books + fashion with a dash of geekery (because I am that at heart, if nothing else). Besides, I hear having a theme to your bookstagram is a good thing.


I asked my friend Jenn, who is incredible with puns, to help me come up with something that would reflect the theme, and she came up with my current handle. Thus, threadedpages was born!

Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to have a feature on this blog called "Annotations" to talk about some of the bookish looks I post - basically, behind the scenes or why I picked a certain pairing. For example, this can be a very short first post using my first new bookstagram pic of the account.


This came together very spontaneously. Since Daredevil Season 2 was premiering and my friend had leant me her DD comic, I wanted to do a post. Originally, it was just going to have the book + the shirt, but I remembered the Sister had a stained glass-print dress.

Matt Murdock's Catholicism is significant to his character motivations and is an important part of who he is, so the "cathedral dress" seemed to be a fitting way to reference that. Not to mention, the show itself has referenced quite a bit of religious art in its own promotional materials.

Outfit Details: T-SHIRT (Teepublic) / DRESS: (Blackmilk)


Hope you enjoyed that! Also, I wanted to end on a few bookstagram accounts I've discovered in my short time in that world that are similarly themed to what I'm doing with threadedpages.

TheWovenWord - where she's dressing for the novel (not the weather). I loved this Outlander outfit.




DressyBook - simply dresses & books, but oh, are they perfectly paired!




SuperSpaceChick - Kristin is a geek girl blogger and friend of mine, whose Instagram is mostly a bookstagram account now. She's always been great at mixing fashion with reading, and so I love that she's started a Book Look OOTD series on her blog.

A photo posted by ♡ Kristin ♡ (@superspacechick) on


And special shout-out to another online geek girl friend, Alice of The Geeky Burrow, who always takes such gorgeous Lord of the Rings book pictures. I was so encouraged by her enthusiasm when I started my own bookstagram. :)




What are some of your favorite Bookstagram accounts?