Thursday 11 December 2014

Blog revelations and renovation plans

Hello everyone.

Before I start, let me ask you the following:

Do you ever have one of those revelations where things are just not going right for you in general, or that the goals you had achieved so far is a far-cry from the goals you had in mind when you started?  Do you ever feel that you are not motivated enough to bring your goals to life?

Congratulations! You had just discovered what I have been going through for the past months (no sarcasm intended, I swear)!

While it disheartens me to say this, I feel that ever since the transition in styles from Hime to Lolita, I have been having a difficult time keeping up with what used to be my weekly blog schedule and acquiring as well as maintaining the motivation to keep the blog going. Could it be that I am not trying hard enough or is it that I had lost the flame that keeps me blogging from day one? I suppose another possible cause would be that I had been very lazy with maintaining the blog, and that I had been dreading the idea of coming on here or *gasp* fathom the idea of coming on here.

While I could rant more on the subject, I feel that you guys had already read enough on that as it is, so I'm going to spare you further details on that topic and give you more information on my current state of affairs. I feel that I owe it to you for that part at least.

As of right now, I am currently job hunting and trying to find work in the field that I had studied in (accounting). So far I am having no luck due to a lack of jobs that require little-to-no related work experience, which I am trying to obtain. Apparently just only having a degree doesn't cut it in the current job market. On the side, I am trying to work through a ton of craft ideas and trying to bring my ideas to life with limited success, either due to work or family commitments/errands. In addition, I am trying to improve my Lolita coordinates. I feel that I am doing a good job so far in terms of colour and theme matching, but just like with the Hime style I feel that I could definitely improve, especially in the makeup/hair/being elaborate categories. It seems that my heart and goals are in the right place. Yet my motivation and drive are not there.

With that being said, I am going to renovate my blog to have a fresh start and possible have a fresh perspective on my current outlook in the blogosphere. This would mean that it would take me a while to come up with a new theme (hopefully not too long), and as a result I will be on a long hiatus. I only wish that you would all bear with me in the meantime and I wish you all luck with your goals! 



   

Saturday 20 September 2014

CD Japan review and some outfit shots

Hello everyone!

As promised, here is a review that was based off of an online shopping excursion that I had done back in July (with the exact date being July 16, 2014). What prompted me to make the order was my obsessive urge to get into owning a copy of the latest issue of the Gothic and Lolita Bible, which will have the images shown below for more detail. In addition, ever since I had started sewing, I had been heavily interested into learning how to sew Lolita clothes, and as a result had decided to buy the latest Otome no Sewing edition as well (which I believe at this rate is the fifth edition). So without further ado, listed below are the details on the order process as well as CDJapan as a whole.

Website Link: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/

Books Ordered and Prices
  • Boutique sha / Otome no Sewing BOOK Tezukuri Lolita Fashion (Handmade Lolita Fashion Clothes) 5 (Lady Boutique Sha) - 1,111 yen or 10 USD 
  • Jack Media / Gothic & Lolita Bible Vol.52 [Cover] Nakamura Asumiko (Jack Media MOOK) - 12 USD  
  • Total amount = 3,817 yen or around $40 (including shipping)
NOTE: The names are exactly as shown on the website. 

Shipping
After some tumultuous decision making at hand, I eventually decided on using SAL shipping over EMS or Registered Mail, primarily because 1) I have a lot of confidence in my postal carrier, 2) It is the most cheapest shipping option available, and 3) I did not feel like spending a lot of my funds on shipping at this point in time. 

If I were to give an opinion on transit time, I definitely agree with what the staff at CDJapan listed on their website in terms of transit times. In this case, orders shipped by SAL takes about 7-14 business days, which I agree with.

In addition to shipping times, you will need to take into consideration availability times, which can sometimes vary depending on how fast the staff can get it shipped to what I presume is their warehouse of sorts from the suppliers. In this case, the Otome no Sewing book took longer to be "ready to ship" compared to the GLB, with the availability time being 5-7 days in comparison to GLB's 1-2 days. However, I felt that both books had gotten shipped out in a short period of time, and therefore did not really disturb the process much.

Delivery and Packaging  


As expected from any package sent by SAL, no signature was needed and as a result you may find the package lying on your doorstep. With that being said, the package was nicely taped on both sides of the flat box as well as taped on the inside to secure the contents. The box itself was just large enough to fit around the books, which was a pleasant surprise considering that most boxes tend to be on the bulky side.


The amount of detail (and the high quality pictures) are amazing, which made me think that the purchase was worthwhile. Ever since the items arrival, I have had the chance and opportunity to take a look at both of them further. While not a self-proclaimed Japanese language expert, I can safely say that for those who are planning on getting the books that they are wonderful to just even look at without having to understand the contents. I will say however that you may have a tough time with understanding the Otome no Sewing book at first, since the instructions are kind of hard (to me anyway) to understand without reading the Japanese aspect. Of course when looking at the pictures long enough, it makes the whole process easier. Patterns are incorporated into both books, with more in the Otome no Sewing book compared to the GLB as expected. 

Conclusion: Overall the order process went smoothly. Am I willing to order from CDJapan again? Probably will if not for more chances to get the GLBs! 

Just to close off the post, here are some outfit shots that I had taken on occasions. I am aware that it has been quite some time since I had posted any outfits, but I had been busy with job hunting lately! 

Monday 25 August 2014

An Overdue Post - A Compilation of the Past Months Part 3

Hello everyone,

It has officially been about roughly two months since my last update. While suppose to be a semi-continuation to the previous post, the update was a bit late in being posted. I am aware that my updates has been severely slowing down as of late and I honestly do not know what to do in regards to this issue. Ever since summer started and after I had finished an international financing course that I had taken back in May, I had been severely lacking in terms of motivating myself. Now I am aware that this particular situation has been going on for some time, so I am going to try and resolve it to the best of my abilities and see if my motivational drive will come back. The reason why I think that this is purely motivational-based is because my activity level had remained purely the same (if not a little lower) compared to before, and I greatly want to share that with you. So with that being said, I greatly appreciate the support that you had all showed and would like to thank you for bearing with me despite my lack of posting. Without further ado, here are the activities that I had done during the time in-between.

During one of my excursions to H&M, I had gotten this adorable shiny heart earring set that was on sale. I realized that I did not have a set like this before so I figured why not? The pair that was missing from the set were green hearts that I know I will never wear in the future, and so decided to give them to my friend.


Thursday 26 June 2014

An Overdue Post - A Compilation of the Past Months Part 2

Hello everyone,

After another long while again I had came up with the second part to my previous post here.

To start off, back in probably the beginning of this current year in March-April I had attended my first Lolita meet at Chinook Mall, which was quite exciting for self-explanatory reasons. Suffice to say, I had a great time with my new loli buddies, walking around the mall as well as doing some good old fashion shopping! While I was at Forever21, I had managed to take some photos of my coordinate. I apologize for the photo looking a bit blurry. 

Friday 16 May 2014

An Overdue Post - A Compilation of the Past Months Part 1

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since I had updated the blog. I will not lie, I find myself drained and completely lacking in motivation to post up content, despite the fact that I have numerous photos that I had taken in the last several months and had been very eager to share them. I am not entirely certain if I am completely out of this unmotivated stated that I had found myself in, so I am going to take it easy and post a compilation or summary of all of the activities that I have done. In the time that I had gone as well as ever since realizing my love for the Lolita fashion, I had already purchased some more acquisitions, particularly pertaining to Angelic Pretty, which I find is quickly becoming my favourite Lolita brand.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...