Vegas: DMV OOTD

What do you do when you're bored at the DMV with ample time to kill? Well, if you're Antho and me, you step outside intending to vape and coincidentally take some photos due to the snazzy lighting. We found a cozy spot in the shade and relaxed long enough to take a couple snaps before a security guard told us off for vaping near the buildings. Whoops! Now we know. Of course, we aren't exactly hanging around the Vegas DMV scene these days, but better we know. Knowledge is power and all. As for our trip to the DMV, it went well enough and we managed our intended mission with relatively minimal trouble. I tend to dress in a lot of neutrals and monotone, anyway, but I was specifically dressed all in black just in case I had to go straight from the DMV to my work, which had an all-black uniform. I guess it's chic, right? Slimming? Something? I don't mind it, really. You might think that as someone who makes tie-dye I'd be a walking rainbow dropping glitter and sparkles with each step, but like I said above, I'm really into neutrals. A neutral outfit lets whatever color of the week my hair is shine, after all, and it's easy to match when all your clothes are within a certain palette to begin with. While I'm not as defiantly minimalist in my closet as I would like to be, it's getting better in time. I'm more focused on using what I have now before I buy anything new, and so far so good. I've still got Heat-tech tees and tanks from Uniqlo from many moons ago, and while they still retain heat they're starting to go a little threadbare. When this winter is over, or the shirts give up the ghost, I'll gladly retire them to either rat-cage liners or another use and feel good about that.  

Anyway, if you don't smoke, don't pick up vaping. If you smoke, maybe try vaping. Don't vape in places where they don't want people vaping, like next to the DMV doors or something. Be conscious and courteous of where your clouds are going. Don't be that guy. 

Peace!

💖

XOXO,

NAU

Art: Downtown Location Scouting

Unfortunately for the two of us, this year got off on a bit of a rough start. Both Antho and I have fallen sick with different ailments affecting different bodily functions or areas at different times throughout the first few weeks of January, meaning one of us has generally been under the weather for the majority of this year so far... whether that means projectile vomiting from the stomach flu or wheezing and gasping for air with a chest cold, it's been an arduous chunk of time. Even so, we've still managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get out on the town and squeeze in some scouting for locations that we could potentially use as a background to photograph our tie-dye because I'm a relentless perfectionist. It can be rather tricky doing product photography like this as you want to highlight the item itself that's up for bid while also creating an interesting and visually striking image, one that stands out from the competition and communicates the vision and personality of your brand. It's been a long, curvaceous and informative road since we started our Etsy shop back in late 2015 but even with all that we've learned and improved over  time there's always ample of room for growth and improvement left yet. On this trip we spent our time downtown looking for locations with decent lighting and interesting features that photographs well. These were some of the winners this round through. Vegas is quite fortunate in that the last few years has seen a wide-scale embracing of murals and public art throughout downtown and the arts corridor along with some surprising spots in the city, leading to some incredible usages of architectural space to create beautiful designs. There's no shortage of stunning murals to choose from, along with all the intensively designed exteriors (and interiors) of the casinos abundant throughout the city. On this particular outing we also happened upon a demolition in progress, so those photos will be included as well because I don't know about you but I personally find the construction and deconstruction of buildings fascinating, especially the megalithic casinos that perpetuate and profligate throughout Las Vegas like an incurable form of herpes that brings in buttloads of money. 

Birthday Shenanigans & Smok Alien mod

To round out the birthday celebrations, Antho took me to see the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino. I've spent a lot of time inside the Excalibur over the years, though most of it was a long long time ago (but not in a galaxy far away) when I was still just barely learning how to do caricatures. It's changed a lot since then, as all things in Vegas have a tendency to do, but the Tournament of Kings has remained their signature show throughout. It's an exciting live show with brave Knights, sword fights, jousting, an entire bird for you to eat with your bare hands and plenty of crowd involvement. It was a lot of fun and I've always wanted to go, though I'd never gotten the chance, so I was pretty stoked for this to be happening. Unfortunately (or not?) there's no photography permitted inside the venue, at least not of the actors or the show itself. I did snag a quick photo of my meal:

But beyond that I put my camera away and focused on enjoying the show. It was a lot of fun and I'd definitely recommend it, especially for families with small children as it will definitely excite their imaginations! There's even real horses, guys. Inside a casino! 

Lips are Jeffree Star cosmetics in "I'm Shook", which I bought as a birthday present for myself. 

And speaking of presents, Antho got me the Alien mod by Smok. We both took to vaping as an alternative to smoking...while I never particularly took to the habit of smoking cigarettes too seriously I've enjoyed hookah on special occasions and enjoy the experience, while Antho was a long term heavy smoker. We'd reached a point where I'd been vaping for over a year and Antho got sick of having to step outside for a smoke break and finally decided to take the leap himself. He's been cigarette free for months now! Personally, I find vaping to be a lot of fun and love that it comes in such a wide array of flavors with so much different hardware and techniques, from squonking to sub-oHm, rebuildable mods to disposable, there's a lot of different options to choose from for any level of vape enthusiast. I started simple with a single battery mod that my friend gave me when she graduated to a nicer model. I used that for almost the entire duration of my time in Korea, though I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the juices were far more expensive in Seoul... would have been far cheaper to smoke cigarettes, but man, they just taste so vulgar! I have zero interest in them when I could instead be filling my mouth with sweet fruity custard flavors. When my first mod broke down, I picked up the Aspire Pegasus box mod at a shop  I know there's a lot of warnings and fear mongering out there (and many of my coworkers gave me their own horror stories about exploding mods), so of course vape at your own discretion. It's a hobby we both enjoy, so for my birthday Antho got me this big boy. It originally had a cherry red exterior to match the tank, but I found this skin online and knew I wanted it in my hands. 

As with any shiny new toy, we needed the right accessories! We went with Crepe brand's Banana Toast Crunch, a sweet and smooth banana cereal flavor that we've gotten again since. It's actually one of Antho's favorites even though he normally hates anything with artificial banana flavor. Hits smooth with decent clouds. The Strawberry is good, too, and one I'd like to pick up again. Dinner Lady was a lemon meringue pie that Antho really enjoyed, though I didn't use it as much because it's harder to fill my tank with drop tip applicator it came with. The Circus Cookie was good, and often got added to the tanks with the fruity cereal flavors to add more of that baked goods flavor. 

The Smok Alien mod takes two batteries, so it delivers a strong hit with dense clouds. The menu is clear and easy to read and there's so many options for customisation on wattage, oHm, pufffs, display settings, etc. You can easily pop out the batteries to charge separately or use the micro USB input. Antho's currently using this mod for his RDA set up with a Druga tank by Augvape. I liked the Alien a lot but it's a big mod, whereas I've typically been using slimmer single battery styles so it definitely feels bigger in my hand, too. I've since switched to a Smok Priv V8 which does a pretty good job of bringing the dense milky clouds of more powerful mods to the smaller size of a single battery mod. The Priv V8 is unregulated, which means that it hits strong with a fully charged battery then gradually tapers off until it runs out of power, and the battery pops out easily so you can swap a dead one for a freshly charged one in seconds- though it also has a micro USB port for charging, too, but I'm getting sidetracked here...There was a glitch that would pop up every so often when switching tanks  on the Alien and I'd find it jumping to high oHms on me and frying coils if i wasn't paying attention. Overall, though, I enjoyed the Alien while I was using it (and it was working appropriately) and Antho's especially happy with it for his RDA (which he's dubbed Rita). He's better with handling the menus and technical side, too, which is why i've switched to a simpler mod style.

Overall I had a great birthday and I'm so grateful I was able to spend it with my love, taking in beautiful sights and cute animals at the Springs Preserve along with an epic show at the Excalibur and big tasty clouds with our Smok Alien. 

Thanks for being here, along for the ride. 💗

More photos after the cut!