I sold my DSLR on Wednesday on Ebay and I shipped it on Friday. It'e been a good camera and I have had for over two years. I went to my first job inorder to buy it but I think it's time for an upgrade. Normally I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new camera but I have to wait a little while at least in order to plan my budget. So I guess I have to live without a good camera for a little while. And by the way, when I was trying to sell two people trued to scam me with the same scam. I really think that these scammers think that everybody is stupid. And I've finally gone back to college. I'll still try to post as often as I can. For now here are some photos of my old camera to honor its deportation.


My Coolest Shoes

I have to confess, I'm sort of a shoe addict. I honestly don't know why but I find it okay to spend a good amount of money on a pair of shoe. But I do prefer quality over quantity so I don't have a ton of shoes. Anyways I have been trying to buy less shoes lately especially if they looks similar to something I already have. So here are some my "coolest" and most loved pair of shoes:


This is Delilah in grey slashed nubuck by Senso Diffusion. They have very geometrical inspired design and they look super funky. They're not really that hard to walk but this pair is a little bit too small for me so they hurt my feel when I wear them for a while. I guess a size 35 is not the exact equivalent of a US size 5. I should try to make them stretch but I'm afraid of ruining the material. 


You've probably seen these shoes before. They're the Jeffrey Campbell Lita Spikes. I got these when they first came out and they were so hard to find. I looked everywhere and I was lucky to find a website where they had one pair left and it was in a size 5 yay. I have worn these out a couple of times and I always get so many compliments. When I wore them to school, people I never met/talked to would stop me and tell me they loved my shoes. Oh and the spikes are super sharp so they could literally be used as weapons >=P.



These are Jeffrey Campbell's Darian-Neons. These shoes are the only thing neon I own ( I'm not really into the trend).But the color on this shoe is absolutely gorgeous and so eye catching. They're even more vibrant in real life and they make for a perfect addition of color to an outfit. And they're made of leather so they don't look cheap or tacky in real life. 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been feeling down because of the situation I described in my last post and it has gotten me into a slump. I'll probably do another post about my most worn shoes and maybe more outfit posts. So which one is your favorite pair?  
So I know that this is not fashion or photography related at all but I have been feeling really bottled up and frustrated about this issue and I just feel the need to express it somewhere. .

So in order to explain myself properly, I need to clarify the situation I am in. It all started in the February of 2013.  February/March is the time that most returning university students start to think about where they are gonna live in next year. They then proceed to apply or sign a lease for the place they want to live in next year. After some thought, I decided that I wanted to apply to a dorm that was supposed to be for students in the school of engineering. This dorm was going to be be in a brand new building and it just sounded oh so appealing. So I went online and filed my application which even included an essay. I remember talking to my mom and being nervous about getting accepted. But I did get accepted and at first I was really happy. Then I realized that all the room types that I wanted had been filed up. All I wanted was a single room( a room for myself) but they were all already filled up. At this point I was really hesitant. I had a pretty bad experience with my roommate last year who would stay up until 5 am every night and started completely ignoring me towards the end of the year because I did not express enough interest in her and her friends ( I guess =.=). But I somehow convinced myself after a while that this was the best option for me. I figured that since my roommate was gonna have a similar major, it would be easier to get along with her. It took me over a month to reply to the director of the dorm so she obviously knew I was hesitant. But I proceeded and although I was nervous and worried about my decision, I simply tried to get it out of my mind. When I informed my parents about my worries, they told me I shouldn't stress about it now since it was so far away.
I have been loving maxi skirts the past few months because I think they are so versatile and practical. They make an outfit look dressed up and sophisticated without much effort. And they're really easy to wear. I personally like them more than maxi dresses because I think they transition well into the winter since they are not considered solely a "summer trend" like maxi dresses usually are. Here are some outfits:


 (skirt: Ann Taylor,shirt: Urban Outfitters, shoes: Jeffery Campbell Ad-Long)
I think that this skirt is really elegant and simple but it's a little too formal looking. So I added a t-shirt to make it more casual. I'm wearing platform shoes underneath the skirt because it's a little too long to wear with flats but I still want comfort( Ad-Longs are super comfy).



(skirt: hand me down, shirt/dress: forever 21, shoes: Yesstyle)
 This red velvet maxi skirts is perfect for the fall and winter. It's warm enough to wear outside with a pair of tights.
I'm just gonna do a mini review of some stuff I bought recently in hopes that it might help someone. The first one is Urban Decay's Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in the color Glam Rock:
I bought this to put in the corner of my eyes to get the "tear drop" effect. The liner actually comes in several collars such as gold, pink, blue,etc. I bought the silver one because it seemed the most practical though I was tempted to buy the pink one because it looked so darn pretty. It comes in a pretty good size (7.5 ml)  and does its job pretty well by packing a lot of glitter in a sweep. The only complain I have is the fact that it comes of a little bit too easily. The corner of the eye is pretty sensitive and if I find myself rubbing it a lot, most of the glitter will come off. It's also a little bit on the pricier side at 18 dollars but overall I find it worth the price.

The next two items I bought at Yesstyle. I don't frequently shop at Yesstyle but they were/are having free shipping for the month and I found a couple of items on big sale after waiting a while and I thought they were worth it.
The first one is Etude House Precious Mineral Bright Fit BB Cream:

I originally wasn't planning on buying this BB Cream but I found out that the site was having it on sale for 14 dollars and I thought it was worth it especially because of the free shipping. It is supposed to be whitening, anti wrinkle, and anti-darkening and it also has SPF 30 added. It comes in four shades and I chose the lightest one ( Light Beige) because I'm really fair skinned. I think it matches my skin tone pretty well and I see no apparent signs of whitening but maybe it's because I am so pale lol. I am a little too young to be using anti-wrinkle products but one of the benefits of wearing BB Cream is that it possesses multiple effects that are good for the skin and I guess it's always good to start early. It doesn't smell like sunscreen at all but rather has a pretty good scent. I think that it also offers a good amount of coverage without being heavy or cakey. One of the best aspects is the fact that it comes in 60 g or 2 oz which is twice the amount of normal foundations here in the US. Overall, I would definitely recommend this.  

The next item I got is a pair of nude/beige colored boots:

I have purchased shoes from Yesstyle before and their quality is not the best ( but not cheap either). So I was surprised to find that these shoes seemed to have a pretty good quality. They also have a very soft and warm lining which I was not expecting. I have not worn them out yet so I can't tell you anything about the comfort bit they seem comfortable. I also think that their color and style are simple but very practical and beautiful. I am about a size 5.5  in the US and these are a size 36 which according to Yesstyle converts to a size 6. In most brands a size 6 is too big for me but these shoes fit pretty well.

It took almost two weeks for the items that I got from Yesstyle to arrive although they were shipped on the same day that I ordered. The previous time I had ordered from them, I had selected express shipping and it took only about 3 days to arrive after it was shipped. This time I had standard shipping and it took 9 business days for my shipment to arrive. But I guess that's what you get for ordering with free shipping and thankfully all  the items arrived in pretty good condition.

Anyways, I hope that the reviews were helpful!  

Christmas Break Trip

So a couple of months ago during winter break my mom and I took a trip to Iran. Just to clarify, I was born in Iran and lived there until the beginning of fourth grade when we came to the U.S. I'm actually 3/4 Azerbaijani Iranian and 1/4 Iranian. I have returned to Iran only two times since we came to the U.S.; the last time being when I was ten.
Anyways after years of pleading with my mom, she finally agreed to take me with her. She originally told me during thanksgiving break that she was thinking of going but a couple weeks later she called me saying that she though we didn't have enough time to get our stuff together. But I told her to try anyways because I would prefer going in the winter since it's so hot in the summer. I actually had to walk to the post office of my college town all by myself to get my passport renewed.
We visited four cities. The first one was Tehran where we spent most of our time visiting friends and family. I was actually really lucky because my cousin who is a couple of years older than me came back around the same time as us ( she goes to college in Sydney). So when my mom was away running errands, I had her to keep me company and she's actually pretty nice. I don't have a lot of pictures from Tehran because we didn't really visit anywhere interesting while we were over there.
The first trip we took was to Mashhad. Mashhad is mostly known for holding the site of Imam Reza's grave which is in fact a very big masque where many people go for pilgrimage and prayers. We didn't actually spend that much time in Imam Reza. Instead my mom decided to spend most of her time shopping in the bazaar. That being said this was probably my favorite place to visit because of one reason: SNOW. I know this is probably not that exciting for most people but keep in mind that I live in the south where it barley ever snows and even if it does it's never enough to cover the ground. It snowed for almost 48 hours straight so everything was covered in snow.
note: most of the photos I took in Mashhad were with my iphone so they are not the best quality
  









Our train actually got delayed for 12 hours because of the snow but we did make it in time or our next trip to Esfahan and Shiraz. For this trip we traveled with two of my mom's friends and they were both really friendly and fun ( who knew people in their 50's could be so fun to travel with lol). I definitely liked Esfahan better than Shiraz although Persepolis was really amazing.  














 This is actually a tomb carved on a side of the mountain and it's a lot bigger than it appears in this photo





The animals in the last two photos are all real and they were not even caged. It was at some hotel near Persepolis


 Here is a photo of me just to prove that I existed in all these amazing places =P

Overall, this trip was more than I could ever hope for. I never realized that Iran had so many beautiful places to visit and I was surprised that I saw so many tourists there ( most of them seemed to be European or Chinese).

So since this is the first post on this blog, I guess I feel the need to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Esmat! Well at least  that's my name on the internet  but I’ll get to that later.

I turned eighteen recently at the end of June and I’m going to be starting my second year in college soon ( for those wondering I've actually skipped a grade). I’m an electrical and computer engineering major which sounds very intimidating but I really love physics so I am up for the challenge and I've done pretty well in my first year in college. Even though I am majoring in a technical field, I really love art and fashion. My biggest passion/ hobby is photography because I find all the perspectives/possibilities in photography endless and beautiful. But I also really love art (especially watercolor) and fashion. I started this blog just to post and share my pictures and talk about things that I am interested in or curious about. So anything goes!

For those curious, the title esmatrez is one that I came up with when I was thirteen or fourteen when I realized that the username that was my first name was taken already. I didn't want to put my full name on the internet so I came up with esmatrez because it included the name Esmat which I think is really pretty and unique. It is actually the name of my great aunt who passed away before I was even born. Please try to overlook any grammar mistake I make the best that you can. Admittedly, English is not my strongest subject but I’m hoping that writing this blog will help me improve. 

p.s. I've added some photos I've taken that I like to make the post more interesting =P