Kollaboration NY Showcase: Today is the big day!!!

Today is the big day! I can't believe that it has been 3 months since we have chosen the finalists and taken their head shots for our websites. Time really does fly and tonight all of these guys are going to be showing off their amazing talent in front of a big audience at NYU Skirball!

Hopefully you have bought your ticket already but if you haven't, be sure to check out my blog as well as Kollaboration New York's blog for recap photos and videos. Wishing good luck to all of these guys because they are all very humble and will do big things one day!

Red Oak Lane - Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ROLOfficial

Grace Shay - Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/user/gshay8532

Yut Chia - Yut and the Hot Four - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YutandTheHotFour

Ivan Polanco - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ivanPmusic27

Lionel Yu aka MusicalBasics - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/musicalbasics

Sung Lee - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sungbeats

Throwback Thursday: Alaskan Cruise from Seattle, Washington

This weeks throwback is to 2011 when I went on my first ever cruise with some awesome people. The reason why? Well next week, I am going on another cruise but this time with my mom and aunt! Normally, my vacations are centered around hiking, moving, walking around, exploring but I absolutely love cruises which are the complete opposite.

For several days, I get to sit back, get fat, and still see some new places! For the Alaskan cruise 3 years ago, we flew out to Seattle which I have written about before and set out for some beautiful sights of glaciers and cold waters. We were on the Holland America 'Oosterdam' ship which isn't that large but still had things for us to see when we were on the ship.

Unfortunately for us, we booked our cruise near the end of the season and we had hit hurricane force winds which cancelled a lot of our excursions but we made the most out of it.

Totto Ramen: Hell's Kitchen, NYC

This is actually their second location and it was a lot emptier, maybe because people did not know that it existed? I'm not sure. It only took us 5 minutes to get seated at around 6:30 pm on a weekday.


This was my first time eating at Totto Ramen and I still have to say that I still like Jin Ramen a lot more! The soup based was not as salty as Ippudo but I felt that it was not salty enough. I did have the spicy oil on the side and it did taste better after putting it into the broth, but if you can't handle the spice, I wouldn't try doing that!

Their fried chicken on the other hand was super salty and it was really hard to finish it. It was either the sauce or breading on the chicken that was the problem. I don't recommend this! I don't know if it was just a fluke but I wouldn't give it a try again at this location. It was as if I had put in a whole spoonful of salt in my mouth.

Kollaboration New York Spotlight at Toshi's living room! 7/31/2014

(Our lovely host for the night : Qurrat Ann Kadwani from qkadwani.com/theycallmeq/)

In just 4 days, Kollaboration NY will be having our annual showcase at NYU skirball, after months of preparation! Before that happens though, we had two spotlights and a couple of open mics for our contestants this year to show off their skills to their friends as well as new fans. To buy tickets to this years show, visit : bit.ly/kny9tix!

Last month, we had our second live show at Toshi's living room where we had another three finalists come and perform.

Lionel Yu aka MusicalBasics - Lionel is a pianist who happens to have the same name as my little brother! He started his youtube page in 2008 and he currently has 17k subscribers with 4.7million views! He writes his own music and watching him perform is a show in itself.  

Grace Shay - The only female finalist this year, Grace had wowed me during her audition earlier this year. I remember her singing a song that she had written for a friend and it showcased her powerful voice as well a as powerful message. After seeing her audition, I seriously went and looked her up on youtube for more videos!

Sung Lee - Sung is a beat boxer who has won several competitions in the last few months including at the Apollo (TWICE!). He uses a looper to record sounds and plays them back to create music and you wouldn't even know the difference! He does a variety of genres including hip hop and even EDM!

Crafting Days: Happy birthday cards

Last Thursday, I made two birthday cards for two special people who had birthdays within days of each other. Both cards were inspired by others on pinterest but for the most part it was my own design.

The first card belongs to my lovely cousin who is very talented in baking and cooking in general. I made her this cake card which was cut out all using the silhouette cameo and then hand glued on.

The second card I went for something bolder and more colorful. It now belongs to my aunt who is very thoughtful and always willing to help. The card that inspired this one was "busier" with more colors but having just the bold pennant banners and washi tape does it for me.

Which one do you like more?

Throwback Thursday: Hobbiton, New Zealand

You can't visit New Zealand and miss out on Hobbiton which is in a little town called Matamata. We joined a tour which picked us up from Rotorua which was our second day into the New Zealand part of the trip. The drive from Rotorua was about two hours but our bus driver was really friendly and got us to our destination while giving us a little history of the area and Hobbiton itself.

When we reached the movie set, it was unlike any other. All of the houses were different sizes and precisely placed so that they would look normal through a camera lens. We walked around with a tour guide and it was a little hard to get pictures without people in it but we managed as much as we can.

If you ever have the chance and you are travelling to the North Island, definitely stop by! Just remember, you are not allowed to go into the movie set without one of the tour guides so I would buy in advance.

Crafting Days: Butterfly Birthday Card

This card was a little last minute since I made the card a day before giving it to my aunt. I went with a red scheme since you can't go wrong with that color when the recipient is Asian! I searched around on pinterest for some ideas and I combined several to get a similar card.

I absolutely love the fact that I am using up scrap paper, so now I don't feel so wasteful! The pearls on the cards were given to me several years ago and are meant for stringing but anything will stick with a glue gun!

Throwback Thursday: Washington DC, October 2008

In 2008, I bought my first DSLR and the whole year was spent playing with different types of photography. In October of that year, I had gone to Washington DC and around that time I was really into night photography and long exposures.

The first long exposure that I remember being satisfied with was the picture above. I remember falling in love with the lights and how the long exposure pulled the purple tones out of the sky during the blue hour. From that weekend onward, I practiced and tried to replicate all the beautiful photos I found on flickr. 

Renaissance Faire: Tuxedo Park, NY

I originally heard about the Renaissance Faire two years ago and I finally had a chance to go this year. One of my good friends from work moved to Phoenix, Arizona and as a going away, he invited friends and family to spend a day there.

We spent most of the day there and I honestly wish I would have dressed up. Walking around the fair there were plenty of people who were in character which was very fun to watch. Some of them even had elaborate costumes that took a lot of time to make. Speaking of costumes that take a long time to make, if you have been to the fair before you would have see this character. He is actually one of my coworkers and he works the fair every year, every weekend. His hat took him several hours to plan and to make!

The day started off with watching a show called the "Birds of Prey" and I actually learned a lot about the birds that they had. If you have any kids (or adults too) who are very interested in this sort of thing, it is definitely a must see.

We saw one more show and for the rest of the day we walked around the whole fair because we didn't want to miss one thing. So we walked around looking at all the different things that were being sold and I swear I had to fight myself from buying a lot of things, including the silicon elf ears!

The day ended with a joust which was pretty entertaining. Definitely a good show for adults and kids alike. We somehow ended up on the "evil" side of the house so we knew our knight was going to lose, but it was fun shouting the different chats at the top of our lungs.

More pictures below!