This is not my image.

This past long weekend I visited my friends in New York City, and we spent the weekend alternating between exploring (read: shopping) the city and hiding out in her apartment from the cold. As expected of being in NYC, I spent quite a bit of money. After all, is there anything else to do there?

Friday, February 12:

$22.50 Bus to New York City (purchased in January)
It was a long ride and the girl that sat next to me was Korean and had very long bleached hair. It was brassy. Brassy blonde is a pretty gross color, in my opinion. Also, it looked really unhealthy, as to be expected when you try to bleach black hair to blonde.

I took the BoltBus, which let me off on 1st Ave. "Basically on the moon", as Alyssa, my lovely friend who came to pick me up, said.

$20 MTA ticket refill
This money was spent much more quickly than I expected. The MTA is very expensive.

$30 Dinner at Schiller's Liquor Bar

Amazing burger with amazing fries and a very bizarre pickle

Schiller's was recommended by Caitlin's Spotify coworkers, who I'm guessing are quite young and hipster because Schiller's was quite a lively hipster place. They said we wouldn't have to wait for a table.

We waited for an hour, so, apparently the Spotify workers are liars. Thanks, Spotify.

I ended up ordering the cheeseburger (medium rare, cheddar) with fries. It was very good and juicy, and the mustard was not Heinz mustard even though it was deceptively held in one of those cheap mustard squeeze bottles. It was spicy and very tasty and probably homemade, gauging the hipsterness of the bar.

The pickle, however, was not a pickle. Do not eat the pickle. It was bizarre.

We also got a sticky toffee pudding to share, which was very amazing, and thank you Foursquare people for recommending it. If I hadn't been so full from the burger and fries I probably would've ordered a second one for myself because it was that good.

Saturday, February 13:

$15.13 Brunch at The Grey Dog in Union Square

French Toast at The Grey Dog

We're silly.

Caitlin and I had very early brunch at 9:30am on Saturday (Alyssa stayed in bed like every other normal person on a Saturday morning). The Grey Dog is also very hipster and adorable. I got French Toast (it was huge and amazing) and a warm cider.

Caitlin opened up her care package and she got very excited about the owl washi tape I brought her. It's very cute.

$3 (probably) for Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows at Vineapple Cafe

Hot chocolate with giant marshmallows!

Alyssa had squash with one of her friends so I chilled in a coffeeshop on Pineapple Street. Brooklyn is weird. There's a Pineapple Street and Orange Street and Cranberry Street.

The marshmallows were huge except they got stuck to the cup and I had a hard time getting them out. I eventually asked for a spoon.

I didn't spend any more money on Saturday because Alyssa made me dinner. She made risotto and homemade bread and I ate my face off and then couldn't move for the rest of the day. My tummy was still hurting when we went to bed at midnight.

Alyssa's homemade bread is the best thing.

Sunday, February 14:

$6.52 at Paper Presentation
Caitlin told me about this paper store which Alyssa then told me her friend is in love with. I was very adamant about going and then I had a hard time convincing myself to not buy out the store. It's very probably my new favorite place in New York.

I love paper.

I ended up buying a set of magnet bookmarks so that I would stop using paper clips, because warping the pages on my notebooks with paper clips is annoying to me. Plus, the magnets are very cute.

We went to Sephora where Alyssa used her gift cards and I vicariously lived through her makeup shopping.

We also went to MUJI where I convinced myself to not buy more pens because I need to use up the ones I already have, and then we went to Nordstrom Rack, Burlington Coat Factory, Forever 21 (where Alyssa scored two sweaters for less than 8 dollars - she's very proud) and DSW in search for a hat for my sad little cold ears. We didn't find anything and my ears continued to be sad and cold.

$5.80 at Whole Foods
Alyssa and I got hungry at some point so we decided to pop into the Whole Foods cafe to grab a snack - I got a chocolate croissant and a chai latte. When I asked how much switching to soy would be, the guy gave me a weird look and was like, it's free. The duh was implied.

Soy is never free anywhere else. I was very excited about my free soy upgrade. Usually I just get the milk because I'm too cheap to pay for the upgrade and deal with the tummy pains later.

We watched a couple get into a very loud argument, which was fairly entertaining and also probably very awkward for them because they were being very loud and it was Valentine's Day.

$14.95 at The Strand
The Strand is one of my favorite places in New York. There's nothing better than books on books on books - literally.

I finally found a hat at the Strand. It's grey and has a giant pom pom on the top and I feel like a total nerd when I wear it because it says Strand Books on it. I love it.

I also found a bunch of books which I photographed in order to find on Amazon Kindle later, because I didn't want to bring a bunch of books back to Boston with me. Also, because I already have too many books and moving out will be a pain. I've decided I want to try reading more instead of wasting all of my time on Youtube (not that there's anything wrong with that).

$11.25 at Bravo Pizza


A New York trip is never complete without pizza. I had a pepperoni and sausage slice, a tomato and broccoli slice, and a peach tea.

I love pizza. I love peach tea. What more could a girl want.

$15.60 at Regal Cinemas for SkullPoopL
Alyssa and I finished off our Valentine's day with Deadpool at Regal Cinemas. I thought the movie was very well done and hilarious - a lot of fourth-wall-breaking, a lot of crude humor, a lot of making fun of Marvel Studios and of MCU fans. It was great.

Although, we saw someone bring their 7-ish year old kid?? The movie is rated R. It is well deserving of its R rating. Someone is a very irresponsible parent. VERY irresponsible.

$10 MTA ticket refill
My MTA ticket ran out of money and it was sad. I consoled myself by making Alyssa take a selfie with me.

Subway selfie!

Monday, February 15:

I didn't spend any further money in the city itself on Monday. Alyssa bought me breakfast bagels and then I felt sick from too much cream cheese, and I visited The STUDIO which is a visual communications firm in Manhattan.

$30.50 Bus to Boston (purchased in January)
I took the 7pm Greyhound back to Boston and we got caught in the snow, so I didn't get in until 12:45. When the T had already shut down. Which means I had to take an uber home.

I was not pleased with having to take an uber home.

$29.80 Uber
The Uber was the same price as my bus ticket. I feel somewhat cheated out of my money. If the Greyhound had arrived on time I wouldn't have had to spend this money. Sadface.

All in all, despite the rather horrid trip back to Boston because the weather sucked, the New York trip was very fun and a good break from.. well, from not very much considering the semester has barely started.

What's your favorite place to visit in NYC?

When I watched Big Hero 6 over Thanksgiving in 2014, I fell in love. It was a movie about design and engineering and robots and siblings, and there was great representation for Asians in Gogo Tamago - what was there not to love? The movie so clearly (to me) referenced MIT and the Media Lab, and all the total nerds that worked and studied there were so reminiscent to all of my nerd friends, except obviously we don't have crazy professors.

Well, that's actually pretty debatable.

We don't have any murderous professors set out to destroy fraudulent corporate businessmen, at least.

Plus, all the feels. I sobbed in the theater so many times when I watched it, and I sobbed again the second time I watched it at home. All the sobbing. All the feelings about Tadashi and Baymax and Hiro and my heart still can't handle it.

I've been pretty set on making a Big Hero 6 inspired something for a while now, but I never got around to it. I had it all imagined in my head - a Baymax onesie that was huge and cozy and warm.

The Baymax onesie never happened, and I kind of forgot about the project as I got caught up in the craziness of MIT and stress and work and life... until I came across Angela Clayton's videos on Youtube.

She's amazing and I'm constantly astounded at what she's able to make. I love watching her videos and her explanations of her creations, and she's got a really nice and soothing voice which makes her videos great for unwinding. A few months ago she made a How to Train Your Dragon inspired pyjama set - an elaborate hoodie complete with the spikes and patterns of Toothless, and a pair of shorts to go with it. It was one of her simpler projects - no boning and corsetry involved - and when I watched her vlogs about it, I remembered how I wanted to make a Baymax inspired project a while ago.

So, using her videos and blog posts as a sort of guide for how the pattern pieces should look like and a hoodie that I long-term borrowed (read: stole) from a friend, I drafted up a quick pattern for the base of the hoodie. I used a pair of Forever 21 shorts to draft the pattern for the pyjama shorts, leaving ample space around the sides so the shorts could be loose instead of form fitting.

This is a quick sketch of what the pattern pieces looked like. The hoodie itself is a raglan sleeve, so when the body and sleeve pieces were attached and the side seams hadn't been sewn up yet, it looked like a big cross with a hole in it for the neck!

I cut the pattern pieces out of white fleece that I had picked up at my nearby fabric store earlier this week. The seams were really simple to do up - the four seams to attach the arm pieces to the body pieces, the two seams to sew up the sides, the hems, and the hood attachment.

Unfortunately, since I eyeballed everything and didn't think to measure anything out - I know, I'm so smart - the hood doesn't actually match up to the neckline, so I improv-fixed it by taking in the seams around the neckline and, after attaching the hood, hemmed the rest of the open neckline. I thought it would bother me that it's not like a real hoodie where the ends of the hood meet at the center neckline, but I actually think I like it better - regular hoodies tend to be a bit constricting on my neck, and leaving the neckline open like this counteracts that problem.

So I guess my mishap ended up working in my favor?

The shorts were also really simple. I sewed up the pieces and inserted an elastic into the waistband, and that was that.

For Baymax's actual features, I cut the pieces out of black and gray felt that I had on hand. His face was two black circles and a rectangle for the mouth, and his crest (memory card inserting thing) was a gray circle that I cut apart. I was going to sew the appliques on with my machine, but I didn't have any corresponding bobbin colors and I didn't trust my minimal sewing machine abilities to be able to sew along all the pieces in perfect lines.

I hand stitched all of appliques on. It didn't take as long as I thought, or it didn't feel really long because I was also marathoning Pirates of the Caribbean at the same time. Jack Sparrow can get you through anything.

The shorts were going to stay white, but I decided last minute to cut out Baymax's helmet design out of some red felt and attach it to the corner of the shorts. The pop of red looks really cute, and I had some red thread to hand stitch it on.

Here's the final ensemble! The face is so cute and I'm really happy with the helmet applique on the shorts - they turned out a lot better than I expected they would!

Since the project is made out of fleece, the entire ensemble is ridiculously soft and warm. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful project!

Here's a selfie of me wearing it! I look so tired because it's past midnight, but I feel like I'm wearing a cloud. It's great.

Have you ever tried to make a character hoodie? I've had a love affair with hoodies for pretty much forever even though I barely wear them, and now I think I want to make more. If I do, which character should I try next?