Meet Inn: Sapa, Vietnam

Inn (pronounced like "ing" but without the -g) is a rambunctious girl who I met while touring around her village.  She is part of a minority tribe called Black Hmong and lives near Sapa, a town in the northern mountains of Vietnam.  Inn has 1 sister, 2 brothers, a dog, a cat, 5 pigs, 20 chickens and a buffalo (because everyone has to have at least 1 buffalo).

In Inn's village, everyone gets married when they're around 18 years old.  She doesn't want to get married until she's 25.  Instead, Inn wants to be a policewoman and work in Hanoi or Ha Long Bay.

Back in the day, marriages were arranged.  If you didn't want to marry, your only other alternative is to voluntarily commit suicide by eating poisonous leaves.  If you eat 3-4 leaves, you'll die within 30 minutes.  The upside to arranged marriages is that you can marry 1-2 other people of your choice.  These days, as encouraged by the government to prevent suicide by leaves, marriages are no longer arranged.  You can chose who you want to marry, but you can only marry once.  Big decision eh?

Inn is 12, but she says she doesn't have a birthday.  Nobody in her village has birthdays.  They all turn another year older at new years.  So if you were born in December, come February (lunar new year) you turn 1 year old.  

The women in the village speaks amazing English (men are too shy to try, so they stay on the farm, away from tourists).  They are taught English, Vietnamese and their local dialect at an early age.  I bet this is to help them sell their goods.  The minute I got off of the van in Sapa, I was greeted by about 10 girls, all with the same speal:

Girls:  "Hi! Where. are. you fro?"

Me:  "America"

Girls: (confused) "oh.... but. you. look. like. me..."

Girls:  (enough small talk) "Are. you. marry?"

Me:  "No, not yet"

Girls:  "How. ode. are. you?"

Me:  "32"

Girls: "oh... well may.be. one day. you. marry.  You're. so. young!"

Me: "really?? I'm 10 years older than your mother.  To you, I'm not young"

Girls: "Want. to. buy. from. meeeee?"

 Inn's walk home everyday.

 

Inn and her friends playing.

 

Random buffalo

Beautiful necklaces they all wear, passed down from their grandparents (though everything is for sale!)

Weaving the thread that's used to make fabric for clothing like the outfit she's wearing.  Later, the fabric is dyed blue with leaves.

Pressing Play

I know I haven't been such a good blogger lately.  I've been busy brainstorming and conjuring up the best, biggest, brightest, most beautiful, perfect, loving, joyous, adventurous life.  Yes, I've been dreaming.  All day, everyday, dreaming.  dream Dream dReam dreaM drEAm DREAM  

I've been dreaming so much that I started attracting people that are living the life I want.  (I know it sounds like witch craft but it's true.)  Apparently, you can find these people on airplanes.  Like the theater production woman who has a 2nd home on Big Island that she retreats to a few months a year.  Like my coworker's parents who move to a different country together every few years.  Like the Indian architect girl who grew up in Australia that has lived in 5 different countries.  When her mother asked "Why do you want to be gypsy?"  She responded, "Everyone I know is settled with a house, spouse, kids, etc...  

Why should I want what everyone else has?"

If there are people out there living MY dream, then that means it's possible for me too!  So I've decided to test this theory out.  To start living the life I want NOW.  Not waiting for it to come, but accepting that it's already here.  Enough with the buffering, it's time I press play.  With 110,000 miles (thank you Capital One no hassle rewards card!), I'm moving out of my apartment, putting my things in storage, subletting my studio space and taking a little 3.5 month trip through SE Asia.  No, I'm not trying to be Eat, Love, Pray.  I'm doing this to test out my theory.  To close my eyes, cross my fingers, and press play.  New York, work, jewelry, my stuff, my studio, my friends, my life will all be here when I get back (I hope. Right?!)  

So bye bye winter, and see you all in the spring!  Keep checking in because I may put little travel treats in this blog.

Mark it

A dear friend of mine quit his job and is going on a new journey.  So I made him this gift to take along with him - it's a "fly" bookmark (had to spell it out in case you couldn't tell).

You're going to see this word pop up quite often b/c I'm really into it, I don't know why.  Some think I was once a bird.

Nature Wins

Is this a subway garden?

As I was taking this photo, a man walked by and said "This is perfect.  Nature wins every time"

Nature's Surprises

Summertime's general rule: Sun = Beach.

EXCEPT in NY, Beach does not always = Sun.  It's like that rule we learned in 3rd grade: a square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn't a square (never made sense to me either, don't worry).  One weekend, my consortium of jewelry design friends decided to take our weekly meeting to the beach.  This meant I can work on my tan and expense my bag full of sunblock, magazines, and new itune purchases, right?  

Wrong!  As Janet & I approached Long Island on the train, with Mara Metals waiting to pick us up, nature laughed at us: "muhahaha silly humans.  Just because it was 90 degrees all week doesn't mean it's going to be sunny for you today.  I'm more powerful than weather.com's hour by hour. So there."

I'm happy I went regardless, because nature sent us a surprise...

Mind over matter

Thanks, nature, for the most beautiful sunset I've seen since moving to New York, and thanks for letting me experience it with some of my close friends.  (While we're at it, thanks for the avocado and coconut - looks horribly ugly on the outside but surprisingly awesome on the inside)

For more photos of our trip, check out Janet Mazorie's blog and her beautiful jewelry!

A Preview for You

How were your winters?  When I lived in Santa Monica, winters never bothered me that much (an El Nino here and there, big woop), but now that I'm in NY, it's turned turned my world around.  I had a creatively - emotionally - physically rough winter and now that it's Spring I'm on the up and up!  Apart from trying to eat 100 BBQ's over the summer (yes, 3 months in a season = 91 days = I'm crazy), I've been working on a new ring.  To my 6 followers: thanks for supporting me.  Here's a preview for you:

Listen to: Family Tree by TV on the Radio

Stay tuned...

Dream Catcher Bracelet

Who here dreams?  (Raise your hands)

I don't mean dreams like the ones you have while you're sleeping (e.g. flying through the air, trying to get away from the monster that lives in your toilet).  Nor do I mean dreams you doze off to while at your desk around 2:45pm of the cute boy you saw on the subway (yeah I caught you, stop blushing).  And no, not the scheming dreams like going through your closet in your mind, putting together the best combination worthy of debuting the new shoes you're carrying in your hand.

I'm talking about the dreams you had when you were 5 or 10 years old - of your grown-up job, your family, if you were in a mansion or a shack - porsche or a volvo - had 1 or 5 kids (wait... that's MASH).

After my first semester at FIT, I was confused.  I didn't understand what my path was.  What are my steps?  What do I do with this trade I'm learning?  How do I make money?  What does being an artist mean?  Does a degree make me an artist?  Was making jewelry an art?  Ahhhh!!

I turned to my teacher for advice (you remember the teacher that had me saw out a dozen circles by hand).  Sweet Japanese man - think Mr. Miyagi, but not as athletic.  Chie grinned:  "Your past is your past.  You have to forget it.  Art is very different.  There are no answer to your questions"

Waaa?!?!  What do you mean no answers?

"Colleen, Just dream big.  

Dream really really big because this dream will find you."

What does that mean?  To dream.  I can't remember how to do that.  At what point during the course of my life did I stop dreaming?  WHY did I stop dreaming?  Do other people do it?!  

I think I stopped dreaming when I was told to start making goals.  Essentially it's the same, but "goals" feel restricting and concrete.  Making goals stripped the fun out of dreaming.  It was easy for me to say "In 5 years, I will be a CPA".  But it didn't even dawn on me to try and imagine what my life would look like in 20 years.   What will the environment around me look like?  What kinds of people do I want in my life?  What will I be feeling?  What will make me happy?  I was taught that to be successful in life, you have to make goals.  Here I am, 30 years old, and finally someone is teaching me that to be successful, in how we measure success for ourselves, we just have to dream.

        

(Click here to see the final piece)

So go ahead and make your goals.  But never stop playing MASH.

Wood and Screws

A few weeks ago I went to the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) exhibit at the Park Ave Armory.  It comes every year and is my favorite exhibit to go to.  I was obsessed with the sculptures by Jeahyo Lee, from Korea.  His pieces look blobby from afar, but as you get closer, the materials become more apparent.

Made with a bunch of screws

When I'm rich and have a huge house, I'm buying this.

I asked to lay on this and they let me!

What if our sun looked like this?

Thanks, Jeahyo for doing what you do.  It's incredible.

My Sunny Saturday

Directions:
1.  Click this and open in new tab/window
2.  Sit back, relax and slowly scroll through

Welcome to my sunny Saturday...

Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge

Caught in the middle of the NYC 5 Borough Bike Tour

Birds in place of an A/C unit

Someone tell Jem and the Holograms I found their plush guitar

Picnic at Prospect Park

Modern day ant farm?

Stumbled on a BBQ and jam session

We work so hard during the week, it's important for us to take at least 1 day off to appreciate the world around us.  As my friend said "Thank you universe for our sunny day!"  (Can someone please pass the aloe?)

Collecting Inspirations

Over the years I've been taking photos of things that inspire me.  I'm excited that with this blog, I can start archiving them here.  For now, here are some fun ones I have in my bank.  I'd love to see what inspires you - please share!

Black and White Gallery in Williamsburg, BK - made out of grass

On the street during Fashion's Night Out (aka Fashion Road Kill)

At Spike Lee's Michael Jackson tribute in Prospect Park.

Sunset just before the storm in Firenze, Italy

Found this on the floor of a subway station

Last sunset of 2008 in La Jolla, CA

© Tony Candelaria

Cartoon clouds, June 2009

Poor kid.

Note: Our apartment complex doesn't have washing machines

I don't think explanation is necessary here.  NFWR

Storm King