Opera night

Made it to see Phillip Glass's Penal Colony tonight and enjoyed a nice dinner beforehand. 

Shirt: Target

Purse: Chanel

Skirt: H&M

Obsession Diaries: Every Tote Tells a Story

I began collecting totes on my trip to Scandinavia in 2011. I bought a tote in every city I visited and thought that would be it. Little did I know how much my collection would grow in the coming years. In recent years I bought a tote on almost every vacation and every city I visit. 
However, after assuming such an extensive inventory, I am considering scaling back and only buying totes when I encounter something truly unique or am in a very memorable place. 


Here are the stories of my tote obsession:

Nakameguro Blue Bottle store tote, purchased online, 2019

Korres tote, purchased online, 2019

Cycladic Museum tote, purchased in Athens, Greece, 2016

Delfonics tote, purchased in Tokyo, Japan, 2017

Livraria Lello bookstore tote, purchased in Porto, Portugal, 2018

Korean tote, gifted to me from a woman on the street in Seoul, Korea 2014

Astrup Fearnley Museum tote, purchased in Olso, Norway, 2011

Shimanekko tote, given to me in Shimane, Japan in 2014

Praha tote, purchased in Prague, Czech Republic, 2008

Rijksmuseum Tote, purchased in Amsterdam, Netherlands 2016

Brookyln Bar tote, purchased in Tokyo, Japan, 2017

Taipei MOCA tote, purcahsed in Taipei, Taiwan 2018

Marimekko tote, purchased in Helsinki, Finland 2011

Ornig and Reda tote, purchased in Stockholm,  Sweden 2011

Onsaya Coffee tote, purchased in Okayama, Japan 2013

The most well made tote I've received is from Monocle. It is made from sturdy canvas and has inner pockets for pens and phones. This was a gift for a subscription. 

Date night

We don't get out for dinner very often now with the baby - she goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00pm so it's hard to go out before that. However, this particular night my mother watched her. As an ode to my mom, I wore this old tacky vintage dress of hers to the restaurant, and tried to dress it up a bit. 

Dress: vintage via my mama

Belt: Dior

Bag: Delfonics

Shoes: thrift store

Obsession Diaries: Handbags

When I step back to think of the things I "collect" handbags would definitely be another category. When I looked through my collection, three main brands emerged. I document those collections here.

Ippolito

I can’t remember how and where I first heard of ippolito. This Greek leather handbag brand is one of my favorite handbag brands, and I I’ve bene buying from them for the past three years. I will buy a new piece when the collection interests me and if it will hold a unique place in my overall handbag collection.

Vintage Louis Vuitton

I started buying vintage Louis Vuitton as a college student because I could not afford new models, however, I grew to like the look of the vintage models better. I like the faded, worn look and some of the older pieces are a lot classer and more timeless than the new collections.  

Vintage Coach

I inherited my first coach bag from my mother, who bought it at a time when it was not vintage. I kept it and carried it from time to time, and ended up purchasing my own bags over the years. I really love the look of them an the feeling of old leather. 

Hanami with my baby

I try to celebrate the Japanese tradition of Hanami every year. When the cherry blossoms begin to bloom, I head to the park to photograph them like I've never seen them before. My photo album is full of identical photos of cherry blossoms, and it is impossible to distinguish one year from the next. However, this past year we had a defining photo shoot with out 2-month-old baby. 

It was a glorious day at the University of Washington, where practically all of Seattle was there trying to get a good picture. 

Dress: NM Neiman Marcus

Scarf: Vintage

Leggings: Urban Outfitters

First Airplane Vacation with the Baby

Yayoi Kusama Installation at the Marciano Art Foundation

Our daughter was two months old on her first family vacation. We drove three hours north from Portland to Seattle and spent the weekend with some friends. She slept on a mat on the floor (she wasn't rolling yet) and I breastfed her during the day and bottle fed her at night with milk stored in a mini fridge in the room. It was one of the most relaxing and fun vacations we ever had. 

But it also gave me the impression that traveling with a baby was easy. 

I could not imagine then what life would be like once my daughter started crawling and climbing and eating solid foods and demanding certain toys. 

This reality manifested on our first trip to Los Angeles, when she was eight months old. 
I was very nervous about the two hour flight, but that was the easiest things of all! Much harder was getting her to sleep at night, and making sure we packed enough snacks and food during the day. 

Apart from carrying a baby around 24/7, there were three big differences in the way we traveled on this trip. 

Packing

I knew we would have to bring a lot for stuff for the baby that we never had to bring when we traveled as a couple: baby clothes, diapers, wipes, stroller, car seat, formula, bottles, diaper bag, food, toys. But I never imagined we would need to bring her pack-and-play. We found out the hard way when she refused to sleep the first night in the airbnb, and I had to walk to Target in downtown Los Angeles to buy a pack-and-play for her. 

While the amount of luggage for the baby increased, the amount of luggage for me decreased. I left my laptop, books, and multiple outfits at home. I knew I would not have time for all that. 

Accommodations

While we love to stay in Koreatown, our absolute favorite Airbnb does not allow children. It was not hard to another find an airbnb that allowed infants, but in addition to the rental policies, I had to look for a place with a few features that can be hard to find in LA:

- an elevator (so I don't have to carry her up the stairs)
- a washer and dryer (because babies are messy and I don't want to bring 100 pairs of clothes)
- concrete walls (so people won't hear her crying at night
- walking distance to convenience stores (in case we need water or other things in the middle of the night)
- dark and quiet (because street noise and sunlight will wake the baby too early!) 

Itinerary

I had to scale back our schedule by about half to accommodate the baby. I knew this in advance and tried not to plan too much each day. This meant that we could only go to one neighborhood each day (either the Arts District or Koreatown, not both). I tried to reduce the number of Lyfts we would need to take (because getting her in and out of the car seat is a pain) and minimize long walks (so we wouldn't have to carry her carseat, or her, if she got fussy in the stroller. We needed to give her lots of breaks from sitting in the stroller, which meant crawl time in the museum and in cafes. 

I am pleased to say that we were still able to do many of the things we loved doing when we were just a couple. We were able to eat at our favorite Korean BBQ buffet, visit cool cafes, eat at a Michele-star restaurant (outside on their empty patio), and visit our favorite museum (the Marciano Art Foundation).  

While we made a few mistakes (not putting the baby in a pack-and-play on the first night, and keeping her out too late one night), we had a really excellent trip and we did almost everything on our list. 

Obsession Diaries: Delfonics

It’s no secret I'm obsession with planners and stationary in general, but Delfonics occupies a special place in y heart. I have been using this Japanese brand for my planners, file folders, pencils, cases, notebooks, totes, and pouches for a decade now, and the end of my addiction is no where in sight.

Every time I got to Japan I stop by the Delfonics  shop, although you can buy their products in many stores throughout Japan. Finally, Delfonics opened a shop online and also sells on Amazon, which is incredible.

Here is my collection as of 2019:

Delfonics Journals from the last ten years. I experimented with size and cover, deciding I like the bigger sizes better, and trying to find the most interesting and colorful patterns each season. 

Pouches, used for pens, receipts, odds and ends, and a special one for Monocle Magazines.

 Canvas pouches for stationary and pens. I have one big enough fro laptops and a smaller one for art supplies. They are too cute I almost don't want to use them!