#TBT=My #ThrowbackTravels #30: Purple Cloud Temple, Wudang Mountains, China

On set shooting a documentary called "The Way of Tai Chi" ...

When you're thankful, you're happy!

I'm thankful for my close family (papa, mama and both sisters) still being on this planet with me today, despite living in different parts of the World. I'm thankful I got to visit my parents in Taiwan last month and I'm thankful I got to touch base with most of my friends in Montreal this past month. I'm thankful for my life in New York. I'm thankful that I can eat good food. I'm thankful I can't overdrink and save a lot of money on alcohol when I go out. I'm thankful all my socks match. I'm thankful that I have so many things to be thankful for that I can't fathom finishing this list right now.

But I can't go without mentioning this...I'm thankful for my husband every day (awww). He's my family now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

At Marche Jean Talon in Montreal

nykeiko shops: Veronica Beard sample sale [November 2014 NYC Sample Sale]

Totally diggin' these Veronica Beard sample pants ($65)

I was asked last minute last night to cover the Veronica Beard sample sale early this morning. Here's my review for RackedNY. I never really shopped this brand before and didn't know what to expect. I blindly agreed to cover it since I told I could preview the sale at 7:30 a.m. and still make it for a 9 a.m. meeting today (Barely! Stupid train delays!) I also like what I saw on their website. Classically cool clothes for women with some sophisticated taste.

The showroom was small and it looked like a well-curated sale. I liked most of the sample pieces but prices were still a bit too high for my budget. I mean, I really liked the pants above but $65 is not cheap especially when I was able to score $30 lambskin skirts a few weeks ago at the Rebecca Taylor sample sale. I came out empty handed but the savings were steep compared to retail price so I am sure die-hard Veronica Beard fans could appreciate this.

In pictures: The American Fine Art Craft Show at the Brooklyn Museum +Killer Heels exhibition [NYC]

Vase by Leonoff Art Glass of NY

Dave and I ventured back into Brooklyn this weekend as we were invited to the American Fine Craft Show at the Brooklyn Museum. The word 'fine' intimidated me since we're not fancy people who like fancy art pieces (i.e. expensive) in the house but the word craft is what got my attention. I was looking forward to seeing the craft but especially about meeting the talented artists and designers at the show. Almost all the artists were on hand and it was a pleasure chatting with a few that were present. Of course I couldn't meet them all nor love all of their creations (some of the clothes were just too wacky for me and some of the jewelry were not fit for my age no matter how much I tried) but for the pieces that I did love, I took pictures to share on the blog.

#TBT=My #ThrowbackTravels #29: Torres Del Paine, Chile

Walking towards Glacier Grey...

nykeiko eats: Aquatic Addiction Development [Taipei, Taiwan]

If you are craving some nigiri and sashimi then keep scrolling down. My pictures are making me all drooly inside my mouth (not sure why I had to specify that. Where else can i drool?) I crave sushi all the time. Except maybe right after finishing a big sushi meal. And maybe for a couple days after a meal like we had from Aquatic Addiction Development. 

All those snow crabs...

nykeiko travels and eats: A trip to Montreal does my body good...

A trip to Montreal does my body good (Or bad? Because the result of eating large poutines, cakes, multiple bagels, popping cheese curds straight up ...) We drove up with a couple of friends (another couple!) and met up with a friend who flew in from Boston and spent a long weekend in Montreal. We spent 4 days and 3 nights in a super large house in the heart of the Plateau that Dave found for a super good deal. It was $200 per night for the entire house which has four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, two living rooms, a solarium, garden, huge kitchen- basically two houses that merged into one big unit. I very much enjoyed going up and down the stairs.

Our first meal was at Maison Publique. Always a pleasure for a tasty homey meal. Since it's the first time to Montreal for two of our friends, we did some sightseeing. Top of Mont Royal was one stop and Old Montreal was another. We then visited Fairmount Bagel,  St-Viateur bagel (and a St-Viateur Bagel et Café), Poutine La Banquise, Schwartz's deli, Café Olimpico, Marché Jean-Talon...and other well-established foodie haven. Eating was on our itinerary for sure...

#TBT=My #ThrowbackTravels #28: Kauai, Hawaii

Overlooking Kalalau trail

Our Kauai travelogue. Click here.

nykeiko shops: Lafayette 148 New York warehouse sale [November 2014 NYC Sample Sale]

Something new I picked out at the Lafayette 148 New York warehouse sale which starts tomorrow at 9.a.m. at 148 Lafayette Street, 2nd floor. Two days only!

 I was delighted to be invited to preview the sale and shop! My first reaction? Overwhelmed but in a good way. There are racks upon racks of clothes. Styles were organized by style and color. Looking for something red or blue? Just scan the room and go. It is after all, a warehouse sale and you'll find samples and tons of pieces from past as well as current collections. 

Keep reading to see my haul..

nykeiko shops: Rebecca Taylor sample sale #haul [November 2014 NYC Sample Sale]

this Rebecca Taylor sample dress. $75.

At last year's Rebecca Taylor sample sale, I scored these. So, when I got the VIP event for the sale this year, I was eagerly looking forward to shop it. Here's my review on Racked NY.

I was emphasizing on the samples section because that's where I spent most of my time. I got this dark blue (moss?) color lambskin skirt for $22.50 (with the additional 25% we receive on VIP night), a tweed leather jacket that can be a closet staple if I gave it a chance ($56.25) and a cute white knit top for $22.50. The top is actually my favorite piece. It's really girly (for me) which is what is lacking in my closet.

Pictures after jump..

nykeiko plays: A week in pics...

Here are some pictures from my iPhone and stuff I already shared on my instagram.

As we walked around Harlem and Williamsburg last weekend and Dave blurted out "I love this city" out of nowhere, I couldn't help but feel the same way about New York. We love this city. This city is truly great and for Dave (born and bred in the city) to keep feeling the same way about his city after so long makes me truly happy that I've decided to make it my home as well.

Last week was a busy one for me. Covering the Alexander Wang for H&M launch, three Vixen Workout classes in a week (one with no other than founder Janet Jones) and deciding to see Alex Winston play at a popup shop in Soho, I made no excuse to stay home (I'm kind of lazy sometimes).  

I also started walking to work or should I say, walking towards work while waiting for the bus to pass but is always late so I end up walking to work anyway. Never having walked to work before, I discover beautiful buildings and different facades of Harlem. Now that my jet lag is totally gone, I don't know if I'll be waking up early enough to do this more often (takes about 45 minutes to walk to work) but I'm glad to know that it's totally do-able to walk 40 blocks and loving every moment (Well, the crispy Autumn air helps a lot. Not sure about loving winter freezer weather or sweltering hot summer days...)

Beautiful church on a cloudy morning

nykeiko plays: We went to the MoMa the other day...[NYC]

...and Dave came home, downloaded Sim City 2000 and played for hoursssss (the number of 's' I write, the more hours he played which was more than 5+ hours).  He might have skipped dinner. There was an exhibit called 'A Collection of Ideas' featuring inventions from the last few decades and Sim City 2000 was on display. That gave Dave an itch to play the game and he took care of that itch right away probably forgetting about everything else we saw at the MoMa that day.

We haven't been back to the MoMa since May of last year when we checked out The Rain Room. Dave was able to get corporate tickets for the Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs exhibit which is still on display now. We didn't enjoy it very much but very much enjoyed Robert Gober's 'The Heart is Not A Metaphor'. It was super unique and awesome. Totally recommend it for something weird. Definitely not one for the kids unless your kids like some nudity.

More pics after the jump...

Aziz Ansari - Modern Romancing New York peeps... [NYC]

Just before heading to the airport for Taiwan last month, we went to see Aziz Ansari live on tour (for Modern Romance) and this was his first show ever at Madison Square Garden. Here are some pictures I forgot to post! Hoping Aziz will find these when he Googles himself one day!

At the beginning of the show, as he has done so in the past, he lets people take pictures of him so that the audience is not tempted to take pictures in the middle of the show and distract others. He poses in front of different pictures and hundreds of flashes go off...

More pictures and video after the jump...

nykeiko shops: The Alexander Wang for H&M collab [What went down and my haul]

Alexander Wang for H&M keychain

This morning, I got up at around 5:40 a.m. to leave the door by 6 a.m. With a bit of jetlag left in me, daylight saving and urgency to pee, 5:40 a.m. was not as bad as I thought it would be. Dave does not support my shopping but he came out with me. Not to wait in line though. He insisted on coming out with me so that I would be safe leaving the door in the dark (aw!). It also makes him look really good showing up at work so early in the morning :) I got to H&M (on 86th street) at around 6:40 a.m. and was ready to report for Racked. Here's my line blog bit. The wait compared to last year's Isabel Marant wait, was a piece of cake (actually, last year I actually got a piece of cake!) The rain had today was tolerable. Windy freezing temperature is not. A little before 8 a.m., they started letting the first three groups of 30 inside the store. I was in the third group which is the 8:45-9:00 a.m. time slot. The next 45 minutes was enjoyable. Chatting up with new line friends about what they were going to buy and if the Wang outfit on Rihanna was hot or not.

Since I was there reporting, I might as well shop which is what I did. I finished shopping a bit before 9 a.m., tried on some of the clothes I snatched up like; the strappy yellow sports top (small around the torso, loose where my fake boobs are not present) and the strappy fitted dress (couldn't even pull it pass by hip). I left those behind and checked out with the boxing gloves keychain ($12.95), a water bottle ($12.95) maybe for someone's holiday gift?; a sports bra medium support ($39.95) for a friend in Montreal (She was in line early in the morning too for launch in Montreal but there's only one H&M in the whole city that stocked the collection and hundreds of people already lined up. I offered to pick up her top item because the chance of me getting it was higher.) and the gray cropped scuba sweater ($59.95) that looked ridiculous on me but since it's a highly-coveted item, I snatched it up. It's better to grab it then to regret later. So in all, I basically got nothing worthy! I didn't even miss work for this and actually got to work before most of my coworkers. Win!

More pics after the jump...

#TBT=My #ThrowbackTravels #27: Viva Las Vegas, 2010

This was the first of two trips we took to Vegas when we got an 'All You Can Jet' Jet blue pass (unlimited flights for one whole month). We had forgotten our camera at home for this particular trip and we were bummed because I of course, absolutely wanted to take a nice picture of the infamous Vegas sign. Luckily, the taxi driver that took us from the airport to the hotel let us use his digital camera and even took multiple pictures of us to get this shot of us. I downloaded the pictures from his camera onto my laptop before we arrived to our hotel. Don't remember if we gave him a big tip but he sure deserved one!

In pictures: Cheering on at the New York City Marathon 2014 [NYC]

This would be the first time we made an effort to go out and cheer on the runners of the New York marathon since moving to New York. I'm not going to lie. I didn't think I'd give a darn about watching a marathon. I've seen enough pictures of Facebook friends running marathons that I thought I would be just as uninterested in watching the thing live as I am looking at pictures of runners in their bright tight outfits. But, it's the New York city marathon and this year, we had a couple of people to cheer for. Our avid marathon runner friend, Kino and Desperate Housewives actress, Teri Hatcher (We met the day before and I decided that we needed to support her too.) A guy from our building was also running the marathon and had the support of our building's community. It was great to see everyone out there. This year, the course cut right into Harlem and right down the block from our building. The Madison Avenue bridge marked mile 21 of the race. There was no excuse for us not to watch it. It was right there when we step out of our building so I'd have to blindfold myself if I really didn't want to see anything.

The weather on Sunday was beautiful albeit windy and chilly but the crowd was in high spirits and cheering non-stop. After seeing the women's leaders pass by our corner around 11 a.m. ish, I was hooked. What a high it was to see these awesome athletes running for the win. I am definitely not a runner but seeing all these runners was inspirational and those rare thoughts of "maybe one day I can too run a marathon" clouded my mind. But these came as quickly as Wilson Kipsang came and went (Winner of the men's race! Clocking in at 2hrs10mins59secs). I blame my knee and lack of discipline but blaming my left knee sounds less lazy of me.

Here are a couple of pictures I captured yesterday. My fingers were frozen from taking pictures but I didn't care. These people were running out there in the cold for hours in their skimpy outfits so I have nothing to complain about.

Top three winners of the men's race of the TCS NYC marathon 2014. Left to right: Gebre Gegremariam, Lelisa Desisa and Wilson Kipsang