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Amber Renee

Event Features Visual Splendor

Sweet Streets LA Brings Kawaii Home to Play

09/25/2010
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I’m happy to show you a little glimpse of the amazing exhibition of Sweet Streets (a Harajuku Kawaii Experience!) in Los Angeles at Gallery Nucleus by my sweet friend, Caro. (Yes, I designed that shockingly bright logo.)

Sweet Streets features an array of magnificent artists inspired by Japanese street fashion. The event featured a fashion show with our favorite sensational shop, 6%DOKIDOKI.

Caro wants to bring the magic of Japan to the States and I’m absolutely thrilled about it. It’s one of my own missions in life and I’m so excited to join her in the inspiration melt-down.

I wish I could buy each and every Miseducated visitor a ticket to Tokyo so you could revel in the inspiration found in every corner and under every stone. Maybe someday? Thanks to Caro you can experience Japan and Harajuku style right here in the States!

All photos of Sweet Streets were taken by BigWhiteBazooka, Tadatime and LA Weekly. Do to my little pregnancy circumstance I could not tear myself away long enough to enjoy the exhibition but I’ll be better prepared next time.

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The photos below are by LA Weekly.

Sweet Streets II @ Gallery Nucleus
Lookie who it is! — our good friend, Maria of Locketship donning unicorns as cutely as possible~
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Some more cute friends you might recognize, the 6%DOKIDOKI shop girls!

DIY

Let’s Do It Ourselves: What do you want to learn/make?

09/22/2010


Remember in the past when I had spoke of tutorials lasting several articles, learning to do things together and tackling more wonderful worlds of expression?

Well..
that time is now and I need *you* to suggest your absolute best and worst ideas for things you’d like us to learn to do together.

Please make suggestions here, by email or on Facebook.

I’ll keep all of your ideas, add my own and soon we’ll be sucking up a whole new rainbow of creativity!

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Adopt a Deericorn: Blog Widgets of Color & Whimsy

09/21/2010
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Deericorns live in a land in the clouds, protected by starlight.

Adoptable ‘cyber’ pets.. what are those? The largest agencies took a delight in hightening the imagination and fantasy. They spoke of their pets and the history surrounding them, carfully woven together to produce a cute, pixelated web dream escapeland.

So what do you do with these little images? You add them to your website generally, sometimes even devoting whole pages and areas specifically to them. That’s what we did then. I suppose now you add them to your blog’s sidebar or somewhere on your online profile?

Sometimes adoptables are limited, only one of each kritter to be adopted. When you adopt the website may give you a silly certificate to place with it and a link back from their website — if they’re a big artist, this can even bring similar funloving visitors.

My favorite adoption agency was Starluck’s Sweetwater Valley. The combination of Erika’s art, imagination, fantasy tales and passion for creating fantasy worlds created a very sweet and fun site to explore. I remember I was always so excited when there were new areas updated with new images inside — pixel art was a bigger deal then. haha.

I believe it’s common to trade or sell adoptables now on Gaia, artists create adorable pixelated creatures and goodies for others to buy and place on their signatures. Starluck even created a few! 😉

HERE’S YOUR VERY OWN MISEDUCATED ADOPTABLE to shoddily place somewhere on your little web presence for both protection from webasaurs and to proudly display your support for pointlessly cute things. If you appreciate the love for cute things (no matter what your age!) show it, always. Also remember that these were inspired by one of my favorite artists Ayumi Uyama.

How to Adopt

1. Upload the image to your server.
2. Link it here.
3. Enjoy Deericorn protection.

Dainty Deericorns

Spread whimsy and the love of Miseducated with your own Deericorn!

pink: love & friendship
purple: status & power
blue: happiness

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Because you know there are other dorky artists like me, right? These adoptions are simply one of the cutest, most magical and most nonsensical ways to express yourself online. <3


Magazine Clips Visual Splendor

French Magazine Clippings: MiLK Home Decor

08/29/2010

You’ll be noticing some changes around here.. mostly just cleaning things up and preparing for more change.. there are so many things I’ve wanted to get done but have continually put off!

Don’t throw tomatoes yet! .. remember, I’m a new mother!

I’ve decided that when you’ve figured out how to work with a baby on your lap you must be really driven. Ha!

So here I am preparing a move, trying to work and giving Colette every free moment and busy moment I have. I want to build her a world of dreams and wonderment — color and whimsy. I cannot WAIT to move and finally unpack. I’m starting to forget what my real office even looks like anymore..!

So in the middle of all of this I’ve been feeling the insatiable need to travel again.. and so I’m planning a couple of trips to cities in the USA but I’m having urges for more international travel. I miss my friends and family in Japan and I would love to go on a shopping spree for our new place. A trip back to Paris wouldn’t be so bad either, have you seen MiLK Decor in France? I’ve been EATING home decor magazines lately.

Do you want more??

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Magazine Clips Visual Splendor

Japanese Magazine Clippings: Decorate Everything

08/27/2010

I’ve been meaning to update things here for quite awhile! I had an extremely long checklist and had to actually go through each and every one of our old entries.

Whew!

As you know the thing I love about Japan and modern Japanese design is that absolutely anything can be decorated and that even the most minute task is done with the utmost care.

After scanning through a collection of Japanese deco books I decided I would clip out my favorite ideas.

Are you inspired?

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Visual Splendor

What’s Inside My Cigar Box?

08/16/2010

Why would you want to know WHAT’S IN MY CIGAR BOX?

You know how many ladies magazines feature what’s in “their” handbag? I decided it was time to go through some goodies of mine from childhood and feature what might be hiding inside. As you can see, 80s toys, accessories (my necklace collection!), scented-erasers and rainbows. I also had a major obsession with Minnie Mouse and her cat Figaro.

Same song, different verse. As much as I’ve changed in some ways, I’m still the same in others.

See my collection of twist-up necklaces? My favorite one is missing, not sure where or if I can find it! I loved to switch these up with different colors and styles of dresses as a little girl. The one that’s missing had popsicles and beads.

Does anyone remember toting around ‘Pocket Pretties’ ?

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Mise en Snap Visual Splendor

Mise en Snap: I Love You Alice B. Toklas!

08/10/2010

It’s about time I did another mise-en-snap!

I Love You, Alice B. Toklas is a deliciously tacky film from 1968 that parodies the 1960s counterculture. I watched it once and didn’t really pay attention.. the next time I saw everything and couldn’t stop laughing. (I always get a little mesmerized by 60s decor, trying to find ways to incorporate the hippie’s lounge pad into a family home.) The film is directed by Hy Averback and stars Peter Sellers and Leigh Taylor-Young (in her film debut). It features music by Harpers Bizarre, including the theme song that I still cannot stop singing — haha!

The title is a reference to writer Alice B. Toklas, who wrote a recipe for making cannabis Brownies released in 1954. I had the pleasure of learning about Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein during a college Hemmingway class and trip to Paris — they were both pretty cool cats.

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everything = black&amp;white
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nancy's castle
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Magazine Clips Visual Splendor

Japanese Magazine Clippings: Happy and Free

08/04/2010

I’m starting off Wednesday with another Japanese Magazine Clipping Inspiration Board. I’m really loving the 80s-kiddie style they’re bringing back in Japan (as well as Fairy-Kei!) — it’s really exciting for a candy girl like me.

I used to only want to have had kids if I could have them in the late 70s/80s (haha) because everything is so magical then. Don’t you agree?

I’m also so glad they’re re-releasing all the 80s character designs in Japan again, too! It’s like they took a page from the 90s-Miseducated book.. 80s nostalgia & rainbows obsession.

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Design Your Life Thankful for Monday

Thankful for Monday: Feeling Wonky

08/01/2010

Hello, candylanders! Fear not for I did not and could not forget you. *majorsensoryoverload* My time is much more precious with baby girl around, I feel she deserves every waking moment and I seem to have no problem at all giving them to her!

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I’ve started a new artist project and have been scanning my old sketch/inspiration book.

Changes

Life always changes.. and the past sometimes seems amazing when you try to reminiscence about it.. but in reality you had problems then too. When you’re thinking about how wonderful things used to be you’re probably only focusing on the negatives now.. what what about the positives? I have to say I love changes because although I think I hate them and would want to be a child of the 80s forever — they’re amazing. Life changes all the time and you just have to enjoy each and every part… You only live them once!

You're my Candy Bunny
A print I made for Colette before she was born.

Japanese Fashion Magazines

So I’ve been away from all of my goodies (aka: loot) for quite awhile now.. it’s all still boxed and labeled nicely in storage until we move. I miss it so much! I’m probably going to do an *obsessedwithjunk* post when we move and photo-shoot everything I always took for granted!

I again remember why I miss Japan and the life I had there.. so amazing and filled with health, good food and happiness. The magazines take me back to a time when I surrounded myself with everything adorable, bright and colorful so that I wouldn’t focus on the bad. I tried to focus on cute things that made me feel happy (my Hello Kitty and Sanrio goodies go back to 1981!) and squeal. Japan makes that world of cute lifestyle real to me, I feel so at peace and home when I’m sleeping there.

On a really materialistic note I miss the stores, clothes, magazines and food a lot, too. These magazines are like rainbow soup for my candy-lovers soul.

Sketching

I love sketching once more. When I started painting again recently for a show I found my sketching skills as shaky as ever and I decided to start perfecting them again for this artist feature I’m participating in. I cannot WAIT to show you because I have some great ideas!
😉 I’m doing a sort of a scrapbook in my notebooks as well.

Cotton Candy

I think that with a name like fairy floss this candy pretty much speaks for itself. It’s sweet and flavored (if you’re lucky) sugar melted and dried by a cooling fan. Usually it’s melt-on-your-fingers pink and lick-your-lips blue. I had to go to the local fair recently to snag a monster-sized bag, no questions asked!

FAMILY

The little family I have makes me happiest of all. If I didn’t have them I would be a lot crazier than I am now! 😉 Ben has always been amazing to me and Colette makes me smile more than I ever thought I could! Everyday with them is the best day.

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Old inspiration sketch.
Magazine Clips Visual Splendor

Japanese Magazine Clippings: Cute and Collected

07/28/2010

I went on another Japanese magazine rampage.. I do this once a year usually during the summer when I start to really miss summer in Japan.

I’ve decided that while looking at the magazines, when I see something especially Miseducated I’ll clip it out for you to see.

The magazines I collect from are CUTiE, Kera, Zipper, Spoon and assorted fashion features.

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Did you know there’s a new Japanese magazine called I LOVE MAMA? I’m in love!

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