Awesome moments of 2017!

I can’t believe 2017 is almost over! It has been such an amazing year, possibly the most amazing in my life thus far! I've settled nicely in my new home city and explored both NYC and JC pretty extensively, such that I've found regular go-to places. But exploring wouldn't have been half as fun if not for my new friends! You ladies know who you are, and I love you all to bits!

Alright, I’m gonna jump right in and start listing off all the most memorable moments this year. They are in no particular order because I didn’t think it was fair to rank them.

I got on a Billboard!!!

Ok, if you’re a celebrity or a professional model, you’d probably sneeze at this like it’s nothing, and also, thanks for reading my blog even though I have no idea how you found it, LOL!

For mere mortals like me however, this was BIG. I never expected to be on a billboard for any good reason, and yet it happened!

Photographer: Anthony Mitchell (Mortimer Visuals)

It started with my growing obsession for thrifting, which led me to tag Goodwill in my outfit photos on Instagram. I hadn’t done it for any specific purpose, other than to share my outfit details with whoever was interested, and also to spread the word about thrifting because IT IS AWESOME. I’m so thankful I did it because that was how JasmineSkyy Forcer (Social Media Manager for Goodwill NY/NJ) found me! She asked if I would be interested doing a shoot for their new store in NJ, which I obviously agreed to, and then I realized later that they were intending to put it up on a billboard too!

It was an exciting day when Mark Malolos and I took a Lyft ride to see our billboard. Funny story - Neither of us can drive, and we didn’t have the exact location of the billboard apart from knowing it’s along Route 22, so we were really thankful to get a Lyft driver who was so patient and understanding! He basically drove along route 22 while we looked out for our billboard, and when we finally arrived at it, he parked by the road shoulder for us to take a million photos, before driving us back to our pick-up point like we requested. We tipped him well, of course, because he totally deserved it.

Best Halloween EVER!!!

If you know me, you’d know that Halloween is straight out my FAVORITE time of the year. I’m not a huge Christmas person, and I don’t even care about my own birthday that much. Halloween is THE DAY for me because I love looking at all the creepy decor outside of people’s homes, and I love seeing everyone all dressed up! It’s like seeing a whole different side of the world and everything becomes so much more fun.

Halloween started looking pretty good when Jasmine from Goodwill invited me to be part of the Halloween shoot. I got to dress up in 7 or 8 different outfits, and those images went up on social media and at some Goodwill stores around NY and NJ.

And then it became WAY FREAKIN’ COOL when Jasmine put me forward for a TV appearance with the awesome Evette Rios! Alas, I got to be on the Megyn Kelly Today Show, wearing the “It’s Raining Men” outfit!

Screenshots: NBC / Megyn Kelly Today Show

I also got the chance to help build Evette’s costume, which was a lot of fun!

I’d never been on TV in the US before so the whole experience was just really exciting for me. I had to wake up at 5am for the car to pick me up at 5.30am, and by 6am, I was at NBC studios getting ready for the show! Then we did rehearsals and figured out where we all had to stand, etc... It was all just a lot of fun.

Better yet - I actually saw and smiled at Shania Twain without realizing who she was! She had her Cheetah (or Leopard?) make-up and costume on so I totally didn’t even recognize her because I had not watched the live broadcast of the Today Show, and then I realized who she was after the show. #epicfail... LOL.

Jimmy Fallon’s studio was just across the hall (and right next to my dressing room) so I got to go in and take a look at the set!

The morning went by so quickly and before I knew it, I was back on a car, which brought me home by 10.30am so I could go buy 20 packs of Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters that evening, which was also a first for me - I’d never given out candies on Halloween before this year!

Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing Halloween - first time on US National TV on my favorite day of the year!! - and I’m not sure how I’m going to top this, but we’ll see!

Julie Mollo 2017 Campaign

So I first met Julie when I bought some super cute clutches from her at Broadway Market Co. (some of you might have read that blog post from last year), and I kept on going back for more, which was how we became friends.

Needless to say, I was super stoked when Julie invited me to be part of her 2017 photoshoot, and it was the first shoot I’d done for a fashion designer!

Photographer: Meredith Truax

Fellow models: Claudia Peters (my shoot partner), Michaela McPherson, Yesenia Linares

It was also extra special because I love Julie’s brand and all her fun glittery stuff… I’m basically a Julie Mollo hoarder at this point, and I’ve bought at least one clutch for all of my closest friends!

Just to give you an idea of just how many Julie-made items currently live in my apartment - I currently have 7 clutches, 6 bows, 1 tote, 2 retroversible skirts, 1 signature tee, 3 pairs of glitter resin earrings, 1 pair of confetti heart earrings, 1 confetti heart tote, and 1 confetti heart sweatshirt.

Yeah, for real, not even joking. And that collection's just going to keep growing!

Anyway, if you’re my friend, you’d have heard about Julie Mollo by now. If you haven’t heard of her, please check out JulieMollo.com! Life's way too short to miss out on the awesome sparkly things!

Goodwill Thrift-Styling

Again, shout out and big hugs to JasmineSkyy Forcer from Goodwill for all the love she’s sent my way this year.

In celebration of National Thrift Store Day, I was invited to be a stylist at Goodwill’s Union Square store. This was really cool because I’d always only ever styled myself, some friends, and occasionally Justin, so having the opportunity to style complete strangers was really exciting!

Styling at a thrift store can be challenging because there are so many designs and there's only one piece of each, so if I found a design that was suitable but was not the right size, that option immediately went out the window. It's very unlike shopping in a regular store where they have so many sizes of the same design.

But hey, where's the fun without the challenge right? I totally embraced it, and I really enjoyed getting to know all my clients (for the day) quickly enough to understand what their style is and what they're looking for, while also being able to think on my feet and making good recommendations for them.

It was a really successful event and kudos to Goodwill for their all their great work at empowering individuals with disabilities (and other barriers to employment) to gain independence through employment!

P.s. I have no photos for this because I was straight-out busy running around all day!

Pia Bolte Street Shoot

This shoot happened so suddenly and spontaneously, but that’s part of why it was so cool.

Pia Bolte, a German designer based in Berlin, had just completed her NYFW shows in September when she decided she wanted to get some street shots with her line of jackets, which led her to reach out to me on Instagram for a quick shoot the next day.

Her jackets, by the way, are so daring, so insanely awesome, and so intricately crafted. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to check them out at PiaBolte.com!

Anyway, I took one look at her badass dope jackets and immediately agreed! Heck, I wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to wear those jackets - They be FIERCE AF!

Photographer: Tatiphon Khunon

Fellow models: El Winnie, Anna Blinchik

Anyway, the shoot was great... and then it started raining, but even then, I still had fun and I’m thankful to have had the chance to shoot for Pia!

Bucket list items checked: Grand Canyon, Backstreet Boys, and Las Vegas

It all started last year when we moved to NYC and I officially declared that we needed to visit Las Vegas ASAP, and if we’re going, I’ll HAVE to watch the Backstreet Boys perform live!! I grew up with that cheesy pop music in the 90s and I’d always wanted to watch them live at least once.

So on my birthday this year, Justin surprised me with tickets to the BSB concert! Which meant that we were totally going to Vegas!

Booking of flights and hotel was easy - I couldn’t be arsed about the flight so Justin did his usual thing (he’s good at that stuff), and from the shortlisted hotels, I decided I like Wynn/Encore, so that was settled.

Then came the planning of activities (aside from watching BSB), which was crazy because we had no idea there were SO MANY cool things to do there! Did you know there’s a park where you can pay to drive around in bulldozers and other construction vehicles all day?? You can dig at the dirt, and… I don’t know, do whatever it is construction vehicles do. I know so little about it that I can’t really even elaborate much on it. But the point is - There’s just so many random things to do there!

In the end, we decided on a helicopter ride (because I LOVE helicopter rides/seeing things from high places) which brought us to the Grand Canyon. We landed at the base of the Canyon and had a bit of a picnic before heading back to the city, and on our way back, we flew over Hoover Dam and then down the main Las Vegas strip… and it was STUNNING, especially with the glittering lights at night!

We also went for Sky Combat Ace, where we got to fly in propellor fighter jets! Justin was super gamed and performed his own stunts during his flight. I, on the other hand, can barely trust myself to drive a golf cart, so I definitely wasn’t going to fly a plane and do mid-air stunts! We were both in separate planes with professional pilots (duh) so I just let mine do all the stunts for me while I clung on for dear life.

Trying not to lose my shit as the plane was upside down and my pilot had taken his hands off the controls.

It was a REALLY intense session and there was so much adrenaline rushing through me the whole time that by the end of it, we went back to the hotel and completely crashed - We basically slept away the rest of the day and barely woke up for dinner. We totally still felt the adrenaline-crash effects the next day.

Let’s just say that after our Sky Combat Ace experience, we never have to go on another rollercoaster ever again because nothing could beat that crazy rush! Also, turbulence on commercial jets are a walk in the park compared to that little fighter jet - The ride back to Vegas was bumpy and I felt every single bump!

Strangely enough, ever since Sky Combat, turbulence on commercial flights has always rocked me to sleep. YES, NOW I FALL ASLEEP DURING TURBULENCE!! The stronger it is, the quicker I fall asleep. I am invincible!!! (I’m just joking, lol).

I couldn't believe I actually saw BSB live if not for the fact that my throat hurt like hell from all the shout-singing.

It was such a memorable trip and I often find myself wanting to go back to Vegas again. Maybe next time, we’ll go drive around in construction equipment and dig some dirt.

Celebrating my first year of marriage

Apart from my outfits and occasional beauty/lifestyle posts on Instagram, I’m pretty low key with my personal life… and I’d like to keep it that way.

Photographer: Samson Weng

Justin and I have been together for six years now, and married for one, so according to Justin, we should be celebrating six years instead of just one... I'm not fussed either way.

I just thought I’d include this milestone since I’m doing a blog post anyway, but I’m not actually intending to elaborate on this. #sorrynotsorry

Landed a new job!

I’m not going into details here, but let’s just say 2018 is already off to a great start for this pink-haired gal!

HAPPY 2018 EVERYONE!!!