Saturday, December 28, 2013

Happy Birthday, Self!

Hello once again~

As I promised, I have come back after a bit of a break, not just from here but from work too.  I've been getting so many hours at such random times that I had to ask if I could get an extra day off.  I ended up getting pretty much 4 (they sent me home really early on one day because it was so quiet).

After that sort of vacation, I feel a lot more energized.  It's great to have money and all, but it's even better to have my sanity!

So I guess I'll talk about the few things that have happened over the past few months~! (besides all the working and sleeping, lol)


First, I've made a new friend!   Or rather, I've gotten closer to a previously casual friend.  Turns out she was just as much into fashion as I am!   I introduced her to the Pastel Goth style, and she totally fell in love with it.  I now have someone I can be Gyaru with, which now means I need to practice my Gyaru style again, lol.   I never like going all out with my other friends, because it feels like I'm overshadowing them since they like more subdued styles.  I mean, I don't want to steal the spotlight from them just because my clothing is flashier.  They're pretty too!

And how is this for a great New Year beginning:  I bought not one, but two fukubukuro!   The yen to dollar rate is amazing right now, so if there's anything in Japan you want to get, jump on it!

The first one is a Liz Lisa one.   This year, I decided to go for the tote and boston pack, as at the time I didn't have the money or space for the trunk (which probably works out a little better anyway).  Since I already had experience with their fukubukuro, I pretty much just let the rush pass me and bought it an hour after it went on sale, lol.  I probably could have waited even longer, since I think I read that they're selling these packs until the 31st?  I guess they've got a lot of inventory they want to get rid of, lol.

Now the second one is the Axes Femme pack!   I've been looking at Axes Femme since I found out about them while looking up Classic Lolita coordinates (a style I'm heavily influenced by).  I went to the website and discovered that they were not, in fact, a Lolita store, but probably more of an Otome-kei store.  Their clothing is categorized as feminine and elegant, with lots of little details of lace and ribbons and pearls.  I did my research and found out that 2013's fukubukuro sold within an hour, so I knew this time I really had to be vigilant.   But everything just kind of... flowed effortlessly.  It sold out in around 25 minutes after release, but I got mine within 5 minutes.  It's a story of serendipity that I'll be replaying in my head for a long time to come, but I'm sure none of you are interested in that, lol.  Just that I was very thankful.

Fashion is really important to me.   I'm not very good at talking to people, so I use my clothing to tell people who I am instead.  That's why working on my style makes me so happy~

I've gotten into nail polish!   I used to avoid it due to the bad experiences I've had with nail polish either not showing up or chipping or forming bubbles after just two layers.  But randomly, I headed to the store and decided to get myself a retro red nail color.  I found OPI's Big Apple Red, and tried it out.  I was instantly hooked!   Not only is it fun to try out designs, but I like that for once I can grow my nails out without fear that they're going to shatter at the thought of tapping them against something.  My nails were pretty brittle....  I'm now doing something about that, but in the meantime, the nail polish gives them that extra layer of protection, and I get to go back to having long, feminine nails that I used to have back when I was 10, lol.   I'm still in "winter mode", so I'm always looking at dark colors and metallics/glitters.  Come spring though, I'll start looking at dusty pastels.  I should get myself a nail polish shelf soon, because I envision myself having quite the selection.

I've recently discovered a magazine called Larme.   It's not a Gyaru magazine, but actually just a girly magazine in general.  So far, they've covered all sorts of styles from Fairy-kei to Retro-kei, and even some styles that I don't know the name of, so I just think of it as feminine.   After looking at a bunch of random scans, I ended up buying the entire collection, lol.  In fact, I have issue 7 headed my way, and I'm thinking of getting a subscription.  It's really inspired me fashion-wise, and I definitely want to strive for this sort of style on regular days.   I was really fortunate in that I found issues 3-5 for $9 each on YesAsia and issues 1 and 2 on animebooks.com for $10, so I didn't have to pay those astronomical prices they're asking for on Amazon and Ebay.  So far, I really like all of them, especially issues 2 and 3.

And I liked my magazines so much that it inspired me to get back into learning Japanese.   After a bit of a hiatus, I flew through pretty much most of the book, and am currently I'm on the last chapter.  I actually learned quite a bit, and though my vocabulary is lacking, I do understand some simple sentence structures and have learned most of the hiragana (there's some I keep forgetting, since they don't come up as often).  I'll be picking up the other three books later so I can continue my studies.  I can definitely recommend getting Japanese From Zero for those who want to learn the language but are having a hard time.   I ended up buying a few manga with furigana in them, so I can practice my reading.  I'm still not too good....  I still have to mentally translate each kana before I can even put them together to form a word....  It's mentally tiring to do it for too long.  But I'm getting better, and sometimes, I can actually understand what I'm reading!

Yesterday my 28th birthday.   I've grown a lot in the past few years.  Heck, I've grown a lot in the past 6 months!  I always was a late bloomer in life, so I can't help but feel that my life is about to get a lot... fuller in the next few years.  Don't ask me why, it's just a feeling I have.


That's really it for now.  I'll be posting my New Year's resolutions in a few days, so I'll see you all then!

Friday, October 25, 2013

Be Back Soon!

Hello all~

I am so so sorry that I haven't been on here in the past few months.

I haven't abandoned my blog, and I haven't left my fashion, I promise.  But my schedule has definitely been overstepping my body's limits for these last months.  Sometimes I have to stay until after midnight, and sometimes I have to be up for work around 5a, so my body doesn't know when sleep time is anymore (and I guess I'm just getting to that age where I can't just go to sleep whenever I want anymore, lol).  Any free time I have is spent catching up on the sleep I couldn't get throughout the week, and once I get up, it's spent running errands or hanging out with friends who work as much as I do....  I haven't done much in the way of 'fun' or done much of anything for myself, so a lot of my summer clothing never even got to see sunlight this year.  And all of this while I'm going through my last bit of puberty (did you know it happens one last time between age 25 and 28??  I thought I was done with this years ago!).  I'm so tired all the time, that sometimes I have to drink a 5-hour Energy just to keep up....  I guess such is the life of a full-time  professional time slot filler, lol.

So what's been up in these months I've been gone besides work?  My skin's a bit of a mess due to using an electronic face brush for the past few days (but I can say my cystic acne is finally gone!), and a lot of things I used to do in regards to makeup have recently been thrown out the window, so I'll have to completely start over from scratch.  Also, I cut my hair again, and this time, I'll be staying at the shorter-medium length from now on (just got tired of my long hair for the last time).  Been reading up a lot on vintage styling as I try to figure out how to combine it with a bit of princess flair.  So all in all, I've still been working on my style, if at least, a little.  Not as much as I wish, but I haven't been stagnant, so I'm glad.

I'll be gone a bit longer.  My schedule hasn't changed much, and my body isn't very happy about it, lol, but I really want to get back to blogging, since I really love interacting with people who share my interests.  However, with the way things are with my body, I think I'll continue to work behind the scenes a little longer.


I'll be returning either December 27th or 28th, so until then, I will see you all later!


And a very, very sincere thank you to those who have been following me, even when I wasn't around.  I know it doesn't take much to stick around, but it also doesn't take much to unsubscribe, so I'm very glad you've decided to stay.  I truly appreciate it.


See you in a few months!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Shopping Spree! (Part 2 - Even More Stuff!) (PIC HEAVY)

Hello all~

I've recently come to a realization.
I really like to shop, lol.

I know, that's so typical, right?  Girls liking to shop?  Well, I never used to like shopping.  Actually, I used to find it pretty pointless.

Anyway, why am I saying this?  Well, since my last post, I've added a ton of pieces to my wardrobe.  Seriously, as I was originally finishing this, a bunch of items I ordered on Ebay came in, and then when I finally finished adding those to this post, even *more* things arrived.   And then I bought a lot of things....  Well finally, everything I've ordered has arrived, I've tried everything on, and I can finally talk about them.


So, let's continue, shall we?


Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Shopping Spree! (Part 1 - The Clothes *Pic Heavy*)

Hello all~


I've gone away again, lol.  I've been distracted~!  I really only kept up with my main blogs (though I never commented, and I totally should have) and read my comments (I read them all!).  I'm getting back into ball joint dolls, and I just bought one with the intention of buying another, so I've been hanging out on Den of Angels, lol.  The plan is to make a pair of my own Gyaru dolls!   But I've managed to pull myself away from my excitement to finally finish this post I've been wanting to finish since... last month?


Anyway, I've been shopping!

I got my tax refund~  It was quite a bit!  Immediately, I used it to pay off the shipping for my Liz Lisa trunk.

But something happened when I got it.  It ended up changing my priorities.  See, I was thinking about saving up to go to Japan for next year, but getting my new clothing and making so much progress in my fashion really made me happy.   I started thinking, why was I originally going to Japan?  To get more clothing, mostly.  Yeah, I wanted to check out the sights and whatnot, but more than anything, I was going at that specific time because I wanted to get a bunch of fukubukuro from the source.

In the end, I decided I would postpone the trip (and maybe I could go with someone else then), and I would focus on expanding my wardrobe as well as defining my new fashion direction (which I've done a lot of work on both!) and working on my hobbies. 

 So no Japan for me too soon, but I'm not sad at all.  Like I said, I made a lot of progress!


And speaking of that progress, I ended up buying A LOT of things.  Not only did I get my trunk, I finally found a pair of low heeled oxfords in dark brown, I bought a ton of leggings, lots of accessories, and a few extra pieces of clothing, including some lovely casual dresses~

I've got a lot of photos to show you, so I'm going to divide the posts into two.  This one is for the clothing.  If you want to see my accessories, check out my next post (I wrote these at the same time, so you won't even have to wait long!)


First things first, I bought a new phone!   I really needed to upgrade from my little flip phone of decades past, as not only was it really difficult to text with, the battery life was pretty low from being recharged so often, and the back had broken, so it wouldn't close completely.  This new one looks so fancy and 2011-ish, lol.  It also has a pretty nice camera, so it'll be easier to take pictures.   In fact, I took all of these pictures using my phone!  Unfortunately, they don't make hard cases for it yet, so I can't deco it yet.  I can come up with ideas in the meantime, and hopefully they'll make something.

Anyway, let's start with my Liz Lisa trunk!


Sunday, February 3, 2013

2013!

Hello everyone~!


It's been a while!  I've been working/sleeping lately....  I'm so exhausted these days.   I think it's because I haven't been active like I've been.  But, I've got 2 days off, so I guess now's as good a time as ever to talk about what's been going on in the past couple of months with me!


Christmas!
First off, a very belated happy holidays to everyone, lol.   As usual, I celebrated on Christmas Eve, and I got a fur hat, a gas card, a homemade sweater, and some money.  The next day, I got my "special occasion" dress for my wishlist: