Hello Kitty Con and Hello Frustration

I attended Hello Kitty Con on Saturday with my friend, Nora.

The day following the announcement in June, I purchased tickets purposefully for Saturday, November 1, thinking booking the day of Hello Kitty's birthday would prove to special - especially since it's Hello Kitty's BIG 40th ANNIVERSARY Birthday! After taking off of work early in San Francisco on Friday after the World Series Parade, I flew into Los Angeles in the late evening to celebrate a light Halloween so that I could attend Hello Kitty Con the following day. Oops, we went to bed at 5 am.


After wrestling myself out of bed in the morning, Nora and I rolled into Little Tokyo. Nora asked me to explain my love for Hello Kitty on our walk to the Convention.  It's not easy to put into words. My love for Hello Kitty is ingrained - my love for HK is like my love for reading.

We got our IDs, we got our little booklets, and it was the beginning of the end.

I thought that Hello Kitty Con would be a quest in acquiring cute Hello Kitty stickers. Instead, Nora and I found ourselves trapped in a Sisaphean cycle of lines. We waited in line to get inside the overhang. In order to get inside the convention center, we got into another line. Inside, the space was a display of knick-knacks, many of which I owned. Raised about the convention center was the merchandise store, which to my and Nora's dismay was only able to reached after three to four hours of lines. Nora and I walked around looking at each exhibit, taking photos with random Hello Kitties.

We had to stand in line in order to take this picture:

Nora and I trapped in the extra large replica of the Hello Kitty coin purse that started it all

Here are some other photos of Nora and me posing next to random Hello Kitties, that we had to wait in line for:

Click to Enlarge!

After about three hours of waiting in lines, Hello Kitty Con shut down the merchandise acquisition (store!) line at 3 pm. With no notice in the program, my one day access to sold out Hello Kitty Con was pretty much over.

For a convention that's all about a kitty that got its start from being on a coin purse, the lack of access for someone who flew to Los Angeles for 24 hours to attend the convention where I would be able to add to my lifetime collection of Hello Kitty thing was disappointing. 

If Sanrio is going to be putting a piece of merch on display like the Hope Diamond, I'd hope that you would focus the convention on the attendees, those superfans who are present to acquire more merchandise. 

Hope Diamond? Pretty much!

It's my personal opinion as a lifetime lover of Hello Kitty that the whole convention was overbooked, and the ratio of museum style exhibit to store and purchase availability should have been flipped. Side note: when Hello Kitty Con said Marketplace, I thought Supermarket Place - just like in Asia, where you can get Hello Kitty anything inside a Supermarket. Silly me.

My favorite photo other than the first photo I posted, is this one, which is actually from the Japanese Heritage Museum!

Kawaii!

At the Japanese Heritage Museum, Nora and I discovered how many apples tall we are. I discovered that I'm the same height in apples as I am in beers. We saw more merch that I own, including backpacks from 2000-2014, and delicious and yummy bubble gum. The only thing that I would love to be able to rent is a Hello Kitty robot.

Farewell, Hello Kitty Con. You were so cute but so frustrating. I left Hello Kitty Con with a Loungefly HK pencil case and a Loungefly Hello Kitty lunch box. Other than a birthday gift with purchase at Sephora, no special events were held for Hello Kitty's birthday. All the activities that required tickets were out of tickets.

I left Hello Kitty Con with no stickers, no official merch and many disappointments. Like a paper with a poor thesis, Hello Kitty started with a good idea, but had no legs to stand on. Improve, please!

 #hellokittycon #hkcon #hellokitty

Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki

There are only 7 Aoki Patisseries in the world, one of them is in Taiwan. It's open in the newest most decadent shopping center in Taipei, Bellavita. Everyone has a different story and who has opened it and how it came to be, basically it's down the street from Taipei 101 and inside, all the most expensive stores that you would expect on 5th reside here!

I heard about Aoki through the blog, hungryintaipei.blogspot.com, one girl's amazing blog, eating through all of Taipei. If you're there, I highly recommend giving it a read through.

After I saw some of her pics, I knew I had to go. I was salivating in anticipation and shamelessly took as many pictures as I could.

macarons. drool.

zooooooom. looking at them makes me starvingggggggg

not hungry for macarons, fine. get one of these babies in your mouth, stat!

splendid! they look like works of art. it's amazing how beautiful food reduces me to only complimentary phrases.

Bonbon? Oui!

Choco covered macaron? Seriously, do you get the idea?

I wanted to sample so badly!

I recommend that you should go and drool for yourself.

I just love all the colors and the attention to detail. If you're in Tokyo, Paris, or Taipei, you should stop by Sadaharu Aoki!

Obvi click to enlarge, .....this blog had no point except me showcasing how awesome food is.  :)

OMGEE Kylie!

Kylie was on Ellen. I might have seen this about 10 times. I'm sick, I admit it!



I love her...... and she has a website for all your cute needs. www.kyliekim.com

Cupcake Chronicles

These cupcakes were too pretty not to post more pictures. Miniature cupcakes = 10x cuter than regular cupcakes. AND I get to feature the new plates from Anthropologie that I spotted in store at Christmas, which are now on sale. All I had to do was wait three months and $12 became $4.

(100/365) Hey you, on the left.

Back home and restocking some supplies at Target. I spotted these cuties hanging out.

When I run out of shampoo, conditioner and body wash, I will be purchasing some crisp apple delight! Method has the cutest bottle designs!

Running

I'm sure you've heard of the term, "hit the ground running". Some days, I get out of bed, and hit the ground running. This morning, I got out of bed, and hit the ground. It's before 6. Boo!

these kids, they are laughing at me. and so cute. 

09!09!09!

I love the repetition! Nine nine, oh nine! If I were good, I would wait until 09:09p on 09.09.09 to post.. but.... I'm a nerd for even thinking of it!

I've always loved the month of September because simply, it's a good month! Good things happen this month, namely, my birthday and the birthdays of many of my friends! Sadly, this year, I will not be in the same town as Stepperoo so I don't know I will be cutting into Hello Kitty this year.

Cake 1

Cake 2!

It's delicious slaughter!

9.24 - I cannot wait!

Why not honeymoon forever?

In honor of all of my friends that have gotten married in the past few years and for all those kids that plan on getting married in the near future, I have an idea I have been reluctant to share, but feel compelled to do so.



Immediately after you get married, don't you try and tell every customer service representative that you encounter that it is your honeymoon?

Airline counter: It's our honeymoon.

Gate agent: It's our honeymoon.

Hotel check-in: It's our honeymoon.

Restaurant hostess: It's our honeymoon.

Concierge anywhere: It's our honeymoon.

...and when you do, sometimes there are perks. My question is, why use that only once? Obvi, any vacation you take should be met with a "It's our honeymoon." Why not? Many a person that I've met have not taken their honeymoon immediately post-wedding. Why not use it, say... 3 years, 2 months and 1 day, post-wedding? or... 5 years, 4 months, and 3 days, post-wedding?

What an amazing way to put yourself in the honeymood by announcing to the world that it's your honeymoon? Why shouldn't it be?

My Littlest Pony

Images courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

I can barely type in complete sentences, because I can't think in complete thoughts right now. This. baby pony of a pony is so cute, I just want to give it a hug/cradle it in my arms!!

My littlest pony! It looks not real and super sassy!

It fits in the car!

Miniature horse that happened to be a dwarf. It is hardly bigger than a cat! OMG.

OMG. I'm in love! For full details go HERE.

Get Organized with Christine!

I know right, is this some sort of sick, ironic joke? Every time I try to actually become a clean, baggage free - simple, streamlined person, I just end up feeling like a filthier pig that I did before. I think the key to cleanliness has to do with confidence. You have to be confident in your disorganization. Hey, if you can find it, then what's the issue?

Here are my attempts to organize as different types of my life.

Here, I will continue my last post and upload and pdf some of my pages from the cool journals that I own. They're interesting to have - I recommend printing some of these out!

For pdf, click this.

For pdf, click this.

I admit that I do have about a billion more of these scanned, but I'm afraid of revealing how neurotic I am about these things. I don't actually use them, but I'm not sure what compels me to purchase them.

Blog less, make more headbands?

Lately, I feel like I've been less committed to my blog than with thinking about making headbands... then - making them.

I've already made a few, now I've made a few more. I've decided to sell them for $10 bux each - I realize now that I can't be selfish and want to keep over 100 headbands. SO. If you see something you like, feel free to tell me and I'll reserve it for you. I haven't named them, I don't want to get too attached!









This is a detailed shot of the ornamentation! (Because it is my favorite!)

Three of the buttons headbands together:

I make headbands... AGAIN.

Since going to and getting inspired by Henri Bendel's headband department - I decided to take up headband making. I haven't really made a headband since 2007 = two years later is as good a time as any to begin again! Please tell me what you think!

I call this one Plaid Caesar:
This is the Sad Midas
This is an Ore-iginal
Pink and Pansies
Yellow Fellow
My favorite: the Green and Gold!

all made by the creative mind of: