I made 10 dresses for 10 chapters in 10 minutes.
Damn, maybe the main character has some competition.
[Music]
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Now let's start with the vlog.
[Music: Don't trust me - The Booyah! kids]
Welcome to another vlog where I let a book
decide what I would do for the weekend.
This time I picked up an Asian YA fantasy called
"Spin The Dawn" by Elizabeth Lim,
which is described as Mulan meets Project Runway.
The story is about a girl who disguises herself as a boy
and competes to be a tailor for the Imperial Palace.
So here is how I attempted to live her life.
I read the first chapter and I already have a bunch of ideas
for what I'm gonna do over the weekend that mostly involve food.
But first let's do an obligatory Airbnb tour.
This is a fantasy novel that is obviously a Chinese mythology.
So I wanted to rent out a place that would match
the environment of the book without actually going to China
because of travel restrictions we got to be responsible.
So I hopped on a train to a nearby city in California
and I found an Airbnb that is so perfect for the book.
It's literally like I got the book cover
and I just pulled it out and threw it all over the interior design.
So let me do a bougie montage and show you what I have.
[Music: So fine - Trees and Lucy]
This is a two bedroom apartment in Oakland
that has hand painted murals and Chinese inspired design throughout the space
which is perfect for this type of story.
So here we have the living room space which is definitely elegant enough
to match the palace that she's gonna sneak into the book.
It has a super sized French couch,
a peony flower arrangement, a restoration 19th century chandelier
and original cast iron fireplace and a beautiful chinoiserie blue chest.
[Music: So fine - Trees and Lucy]
The kitchen has a fine dining table with chinoiserie windows,
and a lot of nice decorative touches that go along with the theme.
These tea sets are porcelain,
and even the utensils are a special flatware set that was made in East Asia.
I love the blues and the golds around the apartment.
I think it matches the cover so well.
Like even in the first chapter,
the main character emphasizes that her favorite color is blue
because there's this story in history that she had with her brother
where they both really like the color because it reminds them of the sea.
So I'm pretty sure the color and the story will be relevant later on in the book.
The master bedroom is inspired by the luxury of 1930 French Riviera.
So it showcases the coastal palette in blue, white, with bursts of gold.
There's a hand painted mural on the wall
and there are bright blue chests of drawers that were made in England.
[Music: So fine - Trees and Lucy]
And if you're wondering, why did I pick a two bedroom?
Because isn't there just only one of me?
Well, I found out from reading the first chapter
that the main character has three brothers.
Well, past tense because two of them are dead.
So now technically she only has one but that's actually perfect for me
because I'm not going to like invite three guys into an apartment,
we got to actually social distance and be responsible during this pandemic.
I don't have any brothers of my own.
But I do have a one of my best friends from college who is in the area.
He's like a brother to me.
So I invited him over for the night and he's gonna stay over in the second bedroom.
The second bedroom which I'm gonna use to represent the dead brothers
also has a bunch of murals of all these trees
and birds with a Venetian mirror to reflect the weeping willows.
I think this is great because now we can say RIP to all the dead brothers
the main character has.
Now that they're one with the ground and part of nature.
So he is coming over and about 20-ish minutes to play the role,
and that's all I have so far because I've only read the first chapter
and this is my first night at this place. So let's just get this weekend started.
Oh, you beat me to it.
- Hewwo. - Hewwo.
Wow, it's so nice in here. I'm so excited.
Me too.
[Giggling]
We started off our first night immersing ourselves into Chinese culture
by watching 'Over The Moon' on Netflix.
I came into the movie knowing nothing about it.
And if you look closely at this clip,
you can see me crying my eyes out at this animated kid's movie.
Which is actually very fitting because in the prologue
the main character talks about how she's been crying
and that her eyes are red and raw.
[Music: Up to you - kikos Dream World]
On Saturday morning,
we had to make an action plan to eat Chinese food and Dim Sum all day.
This was inspired by how the main character
and her family live across from a bakery that sold steamed buns and milk bread.
She goes into detail about the smell of yeast,
sesame seeds and red bean paste,
so we had to make sure to incorporate those ingredients in our orders.
[Music: Up to you - kikos Dream World]
We hopped into Brandon's car to head to Chinatown
and found a hole in the wall place where we knew we could get authentic
Dim Sum and buy enough for the entire day.
[Music: Up to you - kikos Dream World]
I have to tell you why you're the perfect fit to be my brother.
Why?
Okay, so here's the story. This is a Mulan retelling.
The main character had three brothers.
Ideally, I would invite three guys to be like my brothers but here's the thing...
I'm waiting for the big reveal.
In this story, two of the brothers die.
She has only one left and that's you.
Why is that funny?!
Hmm, now I forgot what we were talking about.
The three brothers.
Oh, okay. The main character had three brothers, but then two of them died.
Yes, I know that part.
She has three brothers,
but I only invited you but it turned out to be perfect because her two brothers died.
Ohhhhh okay...
And now there is only one left.
So you are the surviving brother.
In the first chapter like she talks about her brothers.
And she describes each of them.
What's funny is the description of the brother who survived.
"What did he know about fighting?"
"Like me, he was lean as a reed."
"Barely strong enough to hold up
against the wind."
"He couldn't buy rice at the market without being swindled
and he always tried to talk his way out of a fight."
Do you think that's accurate?
I'll fight you! I'd probably lose in my twiggly stature.
[Music: Danish Girl - Marlin's dreaming]
So the downside of trying to film a reading vlog
where I re-enact whatever the characters are doing,
and also read the book for the first time, at the same time,
is that if I'm busy re-enacting what the characters are doing,
that doesn't give me much time to read the book to figure out what to do next.
And that's kind of the dilemma that I'm in right now.
Brandon has gone home and I guess that's kind of fitting with the timing
because the way that I'm reading it,
she's with her brother in the beginning,
but then there's an order for her family to send over a tailor to the Royal Palace
so that they can compete to be the next best tailor.
Her father is not in good condition so she decides to disguise herself
as her brother instead and go in his place.
So that means bye bye to the family, she is flying solo.
The last thing that I left off was just her finally arriving to the palace
and finding out that she has a bunch of trials to complete.
So what I want to do is continue reading
and I'll decide what I will do for the rest of my day.
I spent my Sunday afternoon reading several chapters for
"Spin The Dawn" to decide what I would do for the day.
Since the main character arrives at the Imperial Palace,
she gets to roam around the area including a garden full of winding paths
and plum and pine trees.
I'm a bit limited with outside activities due to it being a pandemic
but conveniently there was a garden outside my Airbnb.
So I got to hang out there while staying socially distance
in my own little corner of the garden.
[Music: Danish Girl - Marlin's dreaming]
It's now Sunday night, the last night of my trip.
I read the first 10 chapters of this book already
and I don't know why I didn't expect the book to literally just be about
sewing the entire time.
Like some part of me was hoping that she would go outside
and do some kind of adventure
so I could do an adventure but really once the trial start,
she is tasked with making a whole bunch of different clothing
for the high lady who's like a really picky fickle bitch.
It's literally contest after contest after contest
where people get eliminated with each round.
The main character, the barely even sleeping
and barely keeping her shit together actually is trying to make
like a shawl or slippers or a dress or whatever.
It goes really in depth into the techniques like having to color the fabric
and having to sew and tailor it all together.
But here's the thing, I know nothing about sewing.
I don't know anything about making clothes.
Even if I was good at it, I don't have the actual materials with me.
So we're gonna have to be a little bit creative here.
And I figured, while I am not good at sewing, actual sewing with my hands,
and I don't have the materials,
what I do have is my laptop and a little bit of graphic design skills.
I think what I'm gonna do is Photoshop a bunch of designs
for what a dress could look like.
And I thought it might be fun to actually take some of the visuals
around the Airbnb that I'm staying at and use them as the patterns
and the colors for the dresses that I'm gonna make.
So I am gonna quickly just take pictures around the apartment,
and hopefully try to make something out of it.
So here's my very scrappy last minute creative getaway.
[Music: Retail at the Mall - Maxwell Landry]
I spent my Sunday night in my Minnie Mouse pajamas
going around the apartment and taking pictures of spots
that I could use as textures for designing my dress.
I used all sorts of things like the patterns on the wall,
the blankets, the posters, the pillows and even the plates.
Because you got to work with what you got.
[Music: Retail at the Mall - Maxwell Landry]
Okay, that took me like a minute.
And now time to upload the photos and see what we can bullshit out of our asses.
[Music: Retail at the Mall - Maxwell Landry]
I made 10 dresses for 10 chapters in 10 minutes.
Damn, maybe the main character has some competition.
I mean, she kind of cheats in the book by having these magical scissors.
I am cheating as well by having Photoshop scissors.
Plus the time limit is kind of fitting because in the book,
she has to make these outfits last minute
because the other guys are like total assholes and they sabotage her boss.
So that concludes my activities for the weekend based on "Spin The Dawn."
I'm excited to go to bed and then I will head out for tomorrow.
And so on Monday morning,
I rolled my suitcase out and got on a train to go back home.
I got extra reading done on my way back
and that was pretty much the end of my weekend.
So if you made it this far, thanks for watching.
And I will also be doing a giveaway for the "Spin The Dawn" book.
I did have to buy the book for this video but as some of you know,
I'm not really a fan of keeping a whole bunch of books.
So I'm gonna be giving away to one lucky viewer.
I'll have the form that you can sign out in the description below.
I'll choose a random person.
So if you were interested in this book, you can go ahead and sign the form.
And yeah, that's pretty much it.
Go ahead and unsubscribe from my channel.
Goodbye.
[Music: Retail at the mall - Maxwell Landry]