REALLY literal - vancouver fashion & travel blog by Christina Chan: 2010

Thursday 2 December 2010

ace

photos by me, EY & MC
WARNING: IMAGE HEAVY. My final Palm Springs post! Yahoo! I'm sorry for dragggggging this out for so long but I just felt like the Ace Hotel deserved a post of its own. I've whittled the plethora of images down to a measly (not really...) 22 photos. SO. About the hotel.... resort? Hotel? Both? I loved the vibe as soon as we pulled up. The staff are soooo chill and everybody there were the epitome of California style aka casual aka relaxed aka duuuuuude, lets go get another beer. To me the target audience seemed to be aiming towards young, mature (?) adults and older. There were several cute quirks I loved about the place. The photo booth in the lobby, chilled cucumber water available all day, the diner, FREE INTERNET (so hard to come by in hotels), ping pong tables by the pool, movie theater, doggy park (such a cute idea), HOT towel boys, even HOTTER girls coming by everyday to refill your minibar, late pool hours, Karaoke nights in the bar, free bikes during your stay, hammocks (although they slightly terrify me...), and the fact that Perez Hilton stayed there a couple of days beforehand. Gotta love the celebrity names added to your guest list right ACE? ;) xxx
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Wednesday 1 December 2010

the last of it

(Topshop dress & OPI 'Ski Teal We Drop' nail polish)(Kain pocket tee, Forever 21 sunglasses, MAC Media lipstick, mom's old necklace)
(Topshop dress, Bakers boots, Value Village belt)
photos by EY & GM
Many apologies! The excuse of me being sick will probably become overused on this blog as I am just a v weak individual! So I apologize in advance. Anyway, these are the last few specks of sunshine filled photos. I've got one more Palm Springs post to do though but it'll be dedicated to the hotel. The last few days were filled with swimming (maybe more like wading?) in the pool, taking advantage of the photo booth in the hotel (it's hard fitting 3 girls in a tiny space!), and pretending to ride bikes after a cinnamon french toast late snack at the diner. Awww yeah ;) xxx
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Wednesday 24 November 2010

separate suits, same shade

(high/low cut American Apparel swimsuit, Forever 21 sunglasses, mom's old necklace)
photos by MC & me
Apologies for the decrease in posting. I'm falling ill (damn you cold weather!) and looking at these photos from Palm Springs make me miss the sun even more. I promise the torture won't go on for too long and I shall provide you with more winter worthy posts soon enough. In the meantime, imagine a bulbous little girl due to many layers of jackets, scarves, gloves, and all things wintry! Now onto the sunny photos... before heading to California I (stupidly) realized that I only have 1, singular bikini to bring. It was only after buying this GORGEOUS swimsuit (that also looks like it belongs in Eric Prydz 'Call on Me' video) that I (once again, STUPIDLY) realized it was the same shade as my other one. I love it though. If you look closely in the 2nd photo you can see juuuust how little fabric is holding the top and the bottom. A mere 2 inches I'd say. V high cut crotch + v low back = a v self conscious me. After numerous hours of sunbathing we went to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. I urge you to eat there as soon as you can and order the roasted pear and blue cheese pizzette and the avocado spring rolls. As for the cheesecake... red velvet with cream cheese. Now if you'll excuse me I need to find a napkin to wipe away all this drool xxx
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Monday 22 November 2010

weekly wants 05

Today in Vancouver it was -7 degrees Celsius. RIDIC. The cold was actually biting at me and my little hands definitely did NOT appreciate being in a not-so-warm-but-ever-so-stylish silk pair of gloves. The other pair I've got are a little too big for me though... perhaps I could go on a mission to attempt (key word being 'attempt') to make them smaller somehow? Hmm... I believe this would mean unstitching the whole thing and sewing it back smaller? No clue. Seeing as how I'd probably fail miserably at this task (and don't want to harm my beautiful pair of Lorick driving gloves) I'll end up wearing tight bracelets on each wrist as a means of securing those babies down. ANYWAY, I've rounded up some lovely pairs all of which include either perforated leather or ribbed cuffs or... both. And for a dash of cuteness there's always Kate Spade xxx

P.S. Not too sure what warmth the Mila and LV options are going to give... Heck who am I kidding. Everyone knows they both purely exist for aesthetic purposes. I guess (in reference to the Mila's) I find it interesting for your hand to look like you're always holding a gun?
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Friday 19 November 2010

the living desert

(random dress, H&M sandals, random pearl bracelets, Topshop dinosaur necklace, mom's old Fendi bag)
photos by EY, MC & me
This is actually day 3 part I of our vacation. Seeing as how day 2 consisted of outlet shopping, free (GOOD) buffets, and the casino... I thought I'd just skip ahead to our trip to the zoo. See, EY has this thing for animals. It's pretty cute actually. Whenever we go on vacation with her the only request is that we go to the aquarium and/or the zoo. Probably not the best day to go (although I don't think ANY day would be considered a good day when temperatures were at 48 degrees Celsius - UGH SO HOT). Even the animals couldn't be bothered to come out of the shade. I don't blame them really. EY couldn't be happier as soon as she saw the zebras and giraffes. I ended up taking more pictures of the plants than the animals... xxx

P.S. What I love about this dress is the halterneck strap that's in the design of leather belt. You'll have to look closely in the 2nd photo to see it. Reminds me of an All Saints dress that I still continue to covet to this very day...
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Wednesday 17 November 2010

madame carven

photos via carven
Check out french label Carven's SS 2011 collection! These are just SOME of the looks I love (I felt like if I uploaded all of them the post would be a little TOO image heavy, so I filtered it down to these 6 beauts). As you can see I love cutouts. Everywhere. Arms, chest, back, waist, sides, neck, you name it - I'LL LOVE IT. And how ADORBS are those shoes?! SO cute that I'm going to ignore the fact that I just wrote 'adorbs' and we'll never speak of this again. Okay? xxx
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