The BLAZics. Grunge is me. (Part 3)

Finally! The last part of the BLAZics series (see Part 1 and Part 2 here)! Obviously, I've saved the best for the last, and this post contains some possible secrets...

I've blogged about Grunge Styles before (click link if you haven't read), and it currently stands as my favorite style AND my personal dressing style. Blazers always look so formal and clean cut, but blazers are one of the key elements you should have to pull off the grunge look perfectly!

Remember this look from Sugarplummed (The BLAZics Part 2)?

By changing up the bottom and the accessories, you can get a grunge look with a Rockstar vibe!

Navy Blazer from Forever 21
Back spaghetti strap from Forever 21
Red ripped shorts from Forever 21
Silver chain earrings from Forever 21
Silver rings from Mphasis
Black shades from ASOS

Top the above with some boots and you're good to go! (PS. The boots I had in mind are something as shown below!)

Tip #1:  Boots can add spice into any outfit! Just remember, boots are a statement piece. Try to avoid over accessorizing when wearing boots.

The next few sets I'm a little skeptical about posting. Why? Because the blazer is going on my Chinese New Year 'TO WEAR' list. Which means, some of the coordinates below MAY BE what I'd end up wearing on CNY. Which means, all of you know the secret to my CNY clothes... (and that's something sacred that I avoid telling anyone every year! So it's a big deal!)
CNY is my competitive streak in fashion. I put on something I believe showcases ME the best. I want to look good. The best in fact. Thus the high secrecy of clothes. But anyway, back to GRUNGE.

Grunge goes back when matched with clothes with lots of prints. big prints or printed all over works. When working with a plain black blazer, it's good to utilize this knowledge and bring on the prints! (Don't go overboard though!)

Black Long Blazer from Forever 21
Black ripped denim shorts from Cotton On
Leopard print tank top from Supre
Winged necklace from The Editors' Market
Spiked hoop earrings from Forever 21
Skull gold ring from Lovisa
Winged gold ring from The Editors' Market
Black shades from ASOS

Tip #2:The grunge look is best worn with printed tops. Leopard prints, cartoon prints, anything. As long as it's big and it takes up most of the space on your top. (But remember to tone down the rest of your outfit!)

Tees are not boring. Especially true when you wear them grunge!

XMEN tee from Universal Studios Hollywood
Studded denim shorts from New Look
Black shades from ASOS
Gold winged earrings from Lovisa
Gold eagle wristlet from Diva
Gold crucifix ring from Lovisa
Jade green gem ring from Diva

 Of course, if you're more daring and love colors...

Colorful beaded necklaces from China
Tribal print iPhone case from Qoo10.sg

Of course, these are just some coordinates that I put together for The BLAZics series! Feel free to recreate any outfits to suit your own personal style!
This may be the end of this series, but do stay on to read my blog for more upcoming series, reviews and tiny tidbits of my life!

Aside from this, follow me on Twitter @PamelaAvery_ and on Instagram @pamelaavery_ for the latest bits of my life and my latest coordinates!

Want me to advertise your brand in a series?
Drop me an email at pamela.averylim@gmail.com and I'll get back to you!

 'the making of' The BLAZics series:

Till next time!
xoxo pamela

New York Spring 2013: Minimalist (Part 3)

When accessories are in, all us fashion lovers run up to boutiques and stores to grab our dose of them, and this can be dangerous and harmful to the wallets of those of us with limited spending power.

One thing I especially like about the looks on New York Fashion Week featuring Spring 2013 designs are the clean looks that dominate the runway. Gone are the heavy accessories and multitude of colors. This Spring, designers have put together clean looks of single colors with minimal accessories.

Alexander Wang

Alexander Wang

Alexander Wang

Alexander Wang

Carolina Herrara

DKNY

DKNY

Donna Karan

Donna Karan

Donna Karan

Narcisco Rodriguez

Oscar De La Renta

Prabal Gurung

Michael Kors

Michael Kors

Tommy Hilfiger

Vera Wang

BCBG

DVF

While most have shown clean designs in white, other brands like Michael Kors and Narcisco Rodriguez have proven that it is still possible to attain sophistication with the brighter colors of spring and summer with tones of green and orange.

I think that the brands have once again shown us that you don't need diamonds to look sophisticated and chic. You simply need one color to pull that off. Of course, another point to note would definitely be the shades of colors chosen in each coordinate and how each are of similar tones. (PS. matching lime green and army green does NOT make it a clean look with respect to this season)

Another thing I've noticed is how some brands have forgone the usual bold patterns and gone for single colors with the maxi dresses. I'd have to say I'm loving this side of maxi dresses as opposed to those that come in a multitude of colors and patterns.

Well, it seems like I'll be saving the money in accessories and putting them into getting a few more pieces of clothing to pull off this look for Spring. It'll probably be more black pieces for myself. What colors are you going to don on this Spring?

xoxo pamela

Music Review: The Icarus Account

When I see a band following me on Twitter, my mind goes 'YAY! More music!"
When I see that it's a verified account, my nerves start tingling... It probably means good music is coming my way.

That's exactly how I felt when I woke up this morning to find a follow from The Icarus Account. In all honesty, the first thing that caught my attention wasn't the fact that they were a band, but this:

Gave me a good laugh when I first saw it. From that moment on, I realized I HAD TO check The Icarus Account out!

Funny pictures aside, I was treated to this lovely acoustic band in the morning when I gave their song 'Favorite Girl' a listen.



It wasn't noisy or too upbeat that would usually piss me off in the morning (I'm usually in need for softer music when I wake up), but also, I really loved the soothing quality of the voice and music in Favorite Girl. Of course, The Icarus Account does have some other songs you should check out:







Then, when I checked out their YouTube page, I found myself pleasantly treated to the numerous covers they've made out of various hit songs by popular artistes. Some of my favorites would definitely include:









Fine, so maybe I put Payphone there because Maroon 5 stays at one of my favorite pop rock bands since FOREVER, but The Icarus Account did make a really great cover out of Payphone. I love Adam Levine's version, but The Icarus Account managed to cover it and make the song theirs. (Praise for it not being a mere copy!)
My personal favorite would definitely be their cover of The Wanted's 'Glad You Came', but nonetheless, I love how they're able to make a song their own whenever they do a cover! Covers of popular songs are usually subject to more criticism, but from the way they managed to pull it off, I'd say they're sounding as good as the actual songs in most of their covers.

If you love acoustic music and bands like Secondhand Serenade, The Icarus Account would be a band you should definitely check out.
That being said, here's what I think about them:

They probably didn't get a 5 because as much as I love what they're doing right now, I feel that they could be better if they tried branching out beyond acoustic and probably into more upbeat music? I guess I didn't give them a 5 because I would really love to hear The Icarus Account go beyond their comfort zone and try out different kinds and genres of music (because I feel that they really are talented enough to do that).
I love acoustic songs, but I know of people who prefer upbeat songs too, so maybe they'll get a bigger fanbase if they try something of that sort? (Think All Time Low or McFly?)

Either way, I still feel that The Icarus Account is a band you should and will love once you give them a shot. They have really great vocals, they're talented with the guitar... What's not to love? I'm definitely a fan of theirs. No questions asked.

PS. They have that many videos because I'm having a hard time deciding which songs I should put up here. BUT, this is merely the tip of the iceberg! Check out their YouTube for more songs!

Love The Icarus Account? Here's what you can do:
Follow them on Twitter
Like them on Facebook
Subscribe to them on YouTube
Get a FREE sampler of their songs on NoiseTrade
Buy their songs on iTunes

Want me to review your band, any other band, an album or any song?
Send me an email request at pamela.averylim@gmail.com , tweet me @PamelaAvery_ or simply follow me on Twitter @PamelaAvery_ and I'll do up a review for your band right here on my blog!
I may be starting out here on my blog, but I'd love to give any band/album/song/music the credit they deserve!

xoxo pamela

Short Story: A Reunion of Sorts

I've started taking a course on creative writing. While I may have only attended one session at the point of this post, I DID make an effort to compose my short story even though it wasn't compulsory.

This piece is now open to everyone who reads my blog for constructive feedback and criticism. I'm not going to make up excuses to defend myself from any criticism, but I would definitely like to know how you readers feel about it.

Disclaimer: The story below is purely fictional and is entirely written by me.

xoxo pamela

A Reunion of Sorts

The garden looked familiar. Yet, Alison could sense that this was no longer the same garden as the one in her own backyard. The apple trees that lined the gardens no longer bore any fruit, their apples now littered below the canopies, black with rot. The red roses that she admired everyday were gone too. In their place were roses with petals onyx black. Her beloved rose bushes now held an air of danger with their vines out of control, their thorns sharper than she’d ever seen them. 

Gone was the cool breeze that tickled her skin every time she stood in her garden. Instead, Alison was now greeted with stale, humid air that clung to her skin at every opportunity. The sweet aroma of her roses was now interlaced with those of the rotting apples, the smell making her stomach hurl. 

Where is this place? She thought, a frown marring her pale, flawless skin as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. 
 
‘She’s here!’ A whisper sounded in the bushes. 

‘Who’s there?’ Alison called out, her voice now laced with fear. It was one thing to be alone in this garden – if she could still call it that – but another to hear the voice of another in it with her. 

Instead of a reply, Alison found herself treated to the sound of music playing just behind the rose bushes. The sounds of a string quartet playing the most beautiful music filled the air, and yet, Alison could see no further than the rose bushes. 

Should I check it out? Alison questioned herself. Her growing curiosity of what she would find and the eerily beautiful tune of the violins made her shiver. She tried looking beyond the bushes once more, but all she met was the same pitch-black darkness. 

‘Come on Ali, you travelled through the portal. You’re afraid of nothing, remember?’ Alison murmured to herself, hoping this would bring her the courage she needed to step forth. After a few moments of hesitation, Alison started towards the darkness beyond the bushes. 

Just as she reached the gap between the black rose bushes, she found herself distracted by the sound of wings flapping, a sound that seemed to add to the beauty of the music the quartet still played.
‘Is that an eagle? Eagles aren’t supposed to be out at night...”Alison wondered, speaking more to herself than anybody else. 

‘That’s not an eagle, you foolish girl. That’s Master Luc.’ A snarky voice sounded beside her. 

Surprised that there was truly another with her, Alison looked to both sides, trying to find the owner of that voice. When she found no one, she decided to call out, ‘Who’s there?’ she asked, no longer caring if that person heard her fear. 

‘Down here girlie.’ The voice sounded, this time irritated.

When Alison looked down, she found herself staring eye to eye with the most bizarre creature she had ever seen. His eyes were like that of a cat’s, yellow with black irises, his skin scaly like those of an alligator’s, and he possessed the body of a falcon with nostrils that breathed smoke. 

‘What are you?’ Alison questioned the creature. 

‘What am I? What AM I? I’m a dragon you fool! Don’t you learn about my kind in school anymore?’ 

‘You don’t have the right to speak to her in that tone, Draca.’ Came a voice from behind her. Turning her body to see what other otherworldly creature this voice belonged to, she found herself now facing the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. 

His wings furled as she stared, giving here mere seconds to admire his large wingspan. His wings were onyx, like that of the roses that lay in the bushes on both sides of her. With nothing but a pair of body-hugging leather pants that hung low on his waist, Alison took the time to admire his olive skin, a stark contrast against his platinum blond hair and pale, icy blue eyes that seemed to burn as they connected with hers.
For a moment, Alison could have sworn she felt a breeze kick up in the stale air, but that was quickly forgotten when she recognized the incessant flutter of her heart since she locked eyes with this blond stranger. As their eyes stayed connected, Alison found herself at a loss for words, her previous fears forgotten amidst the emergence of a new one.

Love will come. It will come dangerous and overpowering. The fortune-teller had warned. 

Back at the carnival booth, she had scoffed at the lady who she thought made her earnings through lies and tales. Alison did not believe in love. Love was for the hare-brained cheerleaders in her high school. She knew better. Her mother’s four ex-husbands were enough proof of it. 

This is can’t be love. It doesn’t exist. Alison chanted to herself. 

Not that it helped. Overpowered with this foreign feeling, Alison’s body decided to take its own course and she found herself walking towards the blond stranger, noticing that he was doing the same. It was as if they were being pulled towards each other, not wanting any separation between the two of them. 

The music, air and stench were long forgotten, and all she could think of was the blue of his eyes and the crooked, yet incredibly charming smile he now wore as they met in between. 

I need to feel him. 

Not long after, she felt his hand upon her cheek – as if she willed it – and was surprised that she managed to catch his whisper even as her strong feelings for this strange man seemed to possess her entire being.

‘I’ve missed you, my queen.’

New York Spring 2013: Lace up, girls. (Part 2)

Spring is the season for romance.
That's one sentence I often hear. Well, with Spring being the season for romance, then it's no wonder that lace is found lurking around the runways of New York Fashion Week when they presented Spring 2013's styles, because lace has to be the material for seduction.

Marchesa

Marchesa

Marchesa

Vera Wang

Vera Wang

Vera Wang

BCBG

Clearly, with Marchesa being one of the brands who definitely knows how to pull off lace and elaborate designs, it's no surprise that they strutted their models down the runway in lace. In addition, Vera Wang and BCBG also strutted some stunning lace pieces that caught my eye the moment I saw them.

While Marchesa shows us the classy and girly side of lace and BCBG shows us the seductive aspects of that same material, Vera Wang seems to show a whole different side of lace. With the earth tones of gold and various shades of green, I think I see an amazon/adventurous and yet chic and downright seductive side to lace.

With lace coming to us in various designs, colors and styles, it appears that Spring has made allowances for all kinds of girls to wear lace. So this Spring, I guess romance will truly be in the air with all us girls having the essentials for seduction.

xoxo pamela

Music Review: Enjoy the ART OF DYING

I'm feeling a bit conflicted. How am I supposed to look like a music critic if I get all these FUCKING AWESOME BANDS?!!!
And that's exactly what I was thinking when I heard today's band.

This is probably the first band review where I actually have a band with a verified Twitter account and is signed to a label. I have no idea how they managed to go under my music hunting radar all this time but I'm so freakin glad I got the chance to know about them cos they're so crazy good!

Of course, I expected a band under a record label to be good, but I thought since I've never heard of them, they couldn't be THAT good, and God, did they prove me wrong. Here are some of Art of Dying's music you should check out if you haven't heard of them:







I'm not repeating how much I love Rock music once again, because it's pretty self explanatory from my reviews and dressing. I love the gruffness in Jonny's voice... It's blends so beautifully into the music and its so necessary for someone singing Hard Rock. Not to mention how Jonny managed to transcend from a soft, mellow tone in 'Sorry' into his gruff rocker voice for the chorus and still sound so completely perfect. (Believe me, it's not easy. Took me ages to get a growl out.)

Personally I'd prefer something more upbeat (at least as of now), so I'd say my favorite out of the above 3 will definitely be 'Die Trying'. It's so easy to relate to the lyrics, the obvious line and the one I relate to the most being 'If it takes forever, I will die trying'. Not to mention how I love Jonny's voice and the entire melody and beat of the song. It's probably one of their best songs in my book.

If you haven't pressed play on any of the above video, I'd say if you love Hard Rock and music from people like Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown or Breaking Benjamin, this is one band you'll HAVE TO check out!

Here's some background on Art of Dying. The band was formed in 2004 by lead singer, Jonny Hetherington, and guitarist, Greg Bradley. Art of Dying was signed to Reprise/Intoxication Records founded by Disturbed members in the end of 2009.

Besides being signed, Art of Dying has performed in numerous tours, such as 2011 and 2012 Avalanche tours fronted by Stone Sour and Shinedown, and also toured Rockstars' 2011 Uproar Festival fronted by (one of my favorite bands) Avenged Sevenfold.

So you see, these guys have been around for awhile... How they stayed under my radar, I'll never know, but I'm surprised that they haven't moved up the ranks to join Shinedown and Avenged Sevenfold by now. I mean, they're that FUCKING GOOD! And I'm definitely a fan. No questions there. (In fact, I got all their music!)

The band has released 3 albums as of date, among which one is an acoustical compilation of their songs. So, whatever music is up on this post is barely scratching the surface of the crazy amount of talent this band has! With this said, there's no doubt where my heart lies with this band:

They're good. In fact good isn't doing their music enough justice! They're FUCKING AWESOME!!! (and I only swear when something's THAT good!) They're seriously underrated and deserve more than what they have right now. (I'm not even sure 5 Crowns do them justice... They probably deserve 100 of it!)


Love Art Of Dying? Here's what you HAVE TO DO!
Follow them on Twitter
Like them on Facebook
Subscribe to their YouTube Page
Go check out their Website
Buy Art Of Dying's music on iTunes!!

Want me to review your band, any other band, an album or any song?
Send me an email request at pamela.averylim@gmail.com , tweet me @PamelaAvery_ or simply follow me on Twitter @PamelaAvery_ and I'll do up a review for your band right here on my blog!
I may be starting out here on my blog, but I'd love to give any band/album/song/music the credit they deserve!

xoxo pamela

USA2012: Yosemite National Park - First Sight (Part 10)

Second last post of my US trip! This has been rotting in my draft inbox since forever so I guess it's time to get it up on my blog! HEHE.

I've lived a charmed life. I've been to places like The Gold Coast, Paris, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong... and if you count 11 years ago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sequoia National Park.
BUT, I've never seen snow. Never seen snow on the ground, patches of white, never.

So, I can only be THAT excited when I found out that I was finally going to see snow and I was going to see it in the US. When I actually started seeing snow that had accumulated, I told myself,"I'm glad that the first time I see snow, it's somewhere full of nature."

Traveling up the mountain to Yosemite itself already seemed like there was a magical force of nature at work that morning...

Until, we started to see the first signs of snow..

The forest floors littered with snow just made it seem so magical. Like frosting on a Christmas Cake! (Best analogy I can think of...)

Then, we stopped for pictures...

Then we went a little higher up where we could get a close up of the waterfall... and took more pictures! How can you take enough pictures with snow! It's the perfect background!

Don't ask. I don't recall what I stuffed in my pockets. LOL.

After that, it was a LONNGGGG drive back to Orange County, but nature showed me one last beauty on the way back.

Rays of sunlight! Looks so pretty right? I doubt we see it in Singapore with all the skyscrapers around, but isn't it nice to see a scene like this once in a while?

And that rounds up all the places I've traveled! I think I'm going to do one more post on all the things I've done as we traveled to all the various locations! HEHE!

Till next time!

xoxo
pamela